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The Broodguard reached Arwin first. It lashed out for him, fangs extending to bite down on his neck. Verdant Blaze whistled down and collided with its head in a burst of [Soul Flame] and a loud crack.

The spider’s head slammed into the ground, its legs flying up all around it from the force of the strike. Fire poured up from the strike as Arwin dismissed the hammer and jumped back to avoid several of the smaller spiders as they lunged at him.

Glowing words tried to take form in the air as the Mesh attempted to identify the small monsters but Arwin dismissed it. He didn’t care what the little buggers’ names were. He was more concerned with making sure they didn’t catch him.

His hand shot out and grabbed onto the back legs of one of the small creatures as it passed him. It hissed in surprise as he swung it through the air and pelted it into the ground. It splattered, sending green ichor all across his greaves and feet. His helmet erupted with energy, its eyes lighting like burning coals.

Nasty. I really need to make myself some boots.

The Broodguard staggered upright with a screech and snapped out at him. At the same time, two of the smaller spiders jumped at him as well. Rodrick’s sword flicked through the air and speared one of the creatures mid-flight.

Arwin ducked the other one, then twisted his body to avoid the Broodguard’s attack. In the same motion, he summoned Verdant Blaze back to his hands and brought it whipping around into the Broodguard’s face for the second time.

A burst of [Soul Flame] roared out of the hammer’s head and the Broodguard staggered back with a pained hiss. Its feet scrabbled on the ground and fire licked across its body. Green ichor leaked from its skull and cracked carapace as it turned in circles, severely disoriented.

Tiny legs clattered against the stone. Arwin dismissed Verdant Blaze again and leaned back. A small spider hurtled past his head and landed on the ground, only to be squished as he summoned the hammer back and brought it down on the monster’s abdomen. His helm burned even brighter and power churned around his body like smoldering embers rising off his skin.

Rodrick finished the other creature off before it could try to attack again, and Arwin nodded to the stunned Broodguard. “Anna, you want to try and handle that one? It’s a big bugger – literally – but I don’t think it’s going to be able to put up all that much of a fight at this point.”

She swallowed and gave him a nod. Rodrick handed her his sword as she approached alongside Arwin. Despite his words of assurance, Arwin kept Verdant Blaze in his hands, ready to kill the creature if it made so much as a move toward the healer.

She brought the blade down toward its already cracked skull. It pierced through an eye and dug deep into the Broodguard’s head. The monster crumped to the ground, its legs curling in on its body, and fell still. Anna ripped Rodrick’s sword free with a sharp tug. Green liquid dripped down its edge and fell to the floor.

“Thanks,” Anna said, shaking the sword off before handing it back to Rodrick. Arwin dismissed his helm, removing the oppressive aura. Anna let out a relieved breath and gave him an appreciative nod.

“I didn’t even get a chance to do anything,” Reya grumbled. “Can you kill them slower next time? I was holding off to make sure I didn’t use the spell and then have nothing I could do at an important moment.”

“Sorry,” Arwin said with a chuckle. He caught Olive staring at them with open-mouthed disbelief and raised an eyebrow. “Is everything okay? You’re going to catch a fly if you stand around like that.”

Olive closed her mouth and shook her head. “I don’t think there are any flies left in this dungeon, considering the monsters we’re up against. What kind of smith are you meant to be? Actually wait – I see it. You can put fire into your strikes to heat the metal while you work it. I guess that works pretty well for hitting enemies as well, doesn’t it? That’s convenient.”

Hey, I didn’t even have to lie. She came to a conclusion entirely on her own. It’s a pretty logical one too. She’s technically not even wrong. It’s just that the ability isn’t mine. It belongs to Verdant Blaze – but who in Milten would assume anyone’s walking around with a magical weapon?

“It is indeed,” Arwin agreed. “And, as I said, this was hardly even a threat. Sorry, Lillia. I didn’t leave much of the small ones behind.”

“I did,” Rodrick said. “But, with all due respect, I’m not eating these things.”

Lillia walked up to one of the spiders that Rodrick had run through and picked it up by a leg, squinting at it. She sniffed at its body, then touched it to her tongue. Olive watched in horror as she stuck her tongue out again and licked the spider.

“I think it would be good with some lemon butter,” Lillia proclaimed. “This one might be a bit small, though. Too much effort to eat. The bigger one could be better.”

“You want to eat the spider?” Olive asked, her voice weak. “What was in the food you gave me? Was it…”

“Just normal food,” Lillia replied. “What’s wrong with eating spiders? It’s not like their meat is poison. Just don’t eat their venom glands.”

Olive’s mouth worked for a second as she tried to find an answer for that. She gave up and shook her head. “Never mind.”

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“So, did you get a decent grasp on how we fight?” Arwin asked. “That wasn’t really a very long one, so I’m not sure how much you’d be able to get out of it. It’s probably best to start working together now before we make it to a monster where we don’t have a choice.”

“I – yeah,” Olive said, trying and failing to keep the befuddlement from her features. “I think I’ve picked up on it. I’ll just do what Rodrick did and hold your flank.”

“Perfect,” Arwin said. He paused as Lillia ripped off the abdomen of the large spider and started stuffing its meat into the bag she had with her. Olive glanced over at her, then jerked her eyes back to Arwin and very pointedly did not turn around again.

“Done,” Lillia said a few seconds later. She straightened up and slung the bag over her shoulder. “Ready when you all are.”

“No time like the present,” Arwin said, nodding to the exit in the corner of the room that was partially covered by webbing. “Let’s get moving.”

He strode over to it, summoning [Soul Flame] to his palm and tossing it forward to burn through the webs. The magic fire made short work of them and he called it back to his hand, repeating it a few times until the pathway before them was clear. Arwin nodded to the others.

“Shall we?”

They all headed into the tunnel, Arwin at the lead. The path to the next room of the dungeon was similar to the one that had led into the first. A few scattered cobwebs were strewn across the corners of the floor and hung from the ceiling.

As with the previous room, there was no door that led into the next room. It was just an archway covered with a few strands of cobweb. Beyond was a circular chamber with several passageways running out of it. Webs covered the walls and stretched up to where they presumably continued on the ceiling. Arwin couldn’t spot any spiders sitting around on the floor.

And, if there weren’t any on the floors and he couldn’t see the ceiling – well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out where the monster was lying in wait.

“I get the feeling our next opponent is somewhere above us,” Arwin said in a low tone. He didn’t think spiders were particularly well known for being very apt listeners, but that didn’t mean he wanted to take a chance at it. “No clue what it is. Olive, Rodrick, come in with me. Everyone else, stick back in the hall and come out when it’s clear it’s safe.”

The others nodded and Arwin turned back to the exit, using a small amount of [Soul Flame] to burn away the webbing before them before stepping out into the room and immediately directing his gaze upward.

His prediction had been right. The biggest spider he’d ever seen hung suspended from an enormous web around fifty feet in the air above him. It must have been around fifteen feet long and felt like it was nearly double his height. The monster stared straight down at him, jaws working silently as they took each other in.

[Spider Devourer: Journeyman 5]

Arwin didn’t even have time to completely finish reading the monster’s name before it dropped. He threw himself to the side, hitting the ground in a roll as the creature slammed down where he’d been standing and spun to follow his path with a loud hiss.

Its jaws parted and it spit out a spray of murky green liquid. Arwin lunged to the side and it splattered to the ground, melting into it with a hiss. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if it had hit him, but it probably wouldn’t have been fun.

He summoned Verdant Blaze to his hands and sprinted at the Devourer. It spat another wad of green liquid at him and he dodged out of the way, buying time for Rodrick and Olive to both make their moves.

They ran out from the passageway. Rodrick made it to the monster a second before Olive did. A wave of blue passed over it, but its tier was a little too high for Reya to do more than momentarily annoy it.

Rodrick’s sword, on the other hand, was far harder to ignore. Glowing light lit the cave as he lashed out three times in rapid succession, leaving several deep wounds on the beast’s carapace. It twitched in pain, only for Olive’s sword to carve out and sever one of its legs in its middle.

The spider hissed and spun toward them, rearing back to spit. That gave Arwin all the time he needed to close the distance between them. Sure, the monster was large – but it was also unwieldy – and presenting a huge backside was a great way to offer up a nice target.

He reared back and drew on [Scourge] before swinging his hammer with all his might. It streaked through the air and crashed into the spider with a sharp crack. The monster’s exoskeleton shattered and the hammer carried through into the meat hidden beneath it. [Soul Flame] poured out from the wound and the monster screamed in pain.

Arwin ripped Verdant Blaze free as the spider spun toward him, the others forgotten, only for it to catch another strike straight to the side of its head. One of its jaws shattered under the spiked head of the hammer and skittered across the ground as the spider reeled from the blow.

Rodrick and Olive both attacked once more, costing the creature two more of its legs. It jerked back and forth, trying to find a way to free itself from their joint attack, but it was too late. The monster may have been big, but it was nowhere near smart or strong enough to handle all three of them at once.

Arwin drove one more blow into it with Verdant Blaze, then stepped back to let the other two finish it off. He had no need to steal the experience for killing it from the others – and the Mesh wasn’t going to give him any form of significant reward for killing something like this.

“Is this how every dungeon goes for you guys?” Olive asked, lowering her sword and averting her gaze as Lillia hurried over to taste the dead monster.

“No, I’d say this one is going pretty well, but we’ve still got eight more rooms until we get to the good part.”

Olive shook her head. Arwin suspected her neck was going to start hurting if she kept doing that. “I think I could get used to working in a group.”

“Yeah?” Arwin asked with a chuckle. “We’ll see how the rest of the dungeon goes.”

“I can hold my own,” Olive said firmly, her jaw setting.

“Oh, that’s not what I meant. I can tell you know how to fight,” Arwin said. “I was more referring to if you could tolerate us for much longer. Eating spider meat is far from the weirdest thing we do.”

Olive’s expression flickered. “What do you mean?”

“Stick around for long enough and you’ll find out,” Arwin replied. “For now, I have a hammer and nothing to hit it with. That means we’ve got to move on. I’m sincerely hoping this dungeon has something a lot more interesting than just a bunch of spiders. Preferably something I can work with.”

“Only one way to find out,” Lillia said. “This thing isn’t going to be too edible, by the way. Too big.”

“Noted,” Arwin said. “At this rate, it won’t be long before you all start getting some levels. That’ll accomplish the first half of our goals here. With any luck, the second half will be waiting for us soon. I’m eager to get some new materials to work with – even if we have to take them out of the bodies of the spiders. Once they get a bit tougher, maybe they’ll have exoskeletons that are really difficult to break. That would be fantastic.”

“Are you excited about our enemies being harder to kill?” Olive squinted at Arwin.

“Absolutely. Stronger enemies means stronger rewards,” Arwin said without missing a beat. A grin pulled across his lips. “And stronger rewards means better materials. Onward. We have some creatures to crush.”