Cal and Bronn took the opportunity to lean against the wall, breathing heavily.
Their shields were battered and pockmarked, the enchantnt lines on them visibly dimr.
Leo crouched beside a dead Bullet Spider, pulling out his dagger to begin carving into the corpse.
"Chop, chop." He said, glancing at everybody. "The venom sacs and spinnerets aren’t going to harvest themselves. Or would you leave money just spilling on the ground? They’re worth sothing, you know."
Bronn grunted. "That’s if we live long enough to sell them."
"Complaining doesn’t make the risk go away," Leo shot back, focused on his work. "At least let’s make it worthwhile."
Noah didn’t argue. He bent down beside another carcass and began extracting the sa organs.
The bodies were still warm. His Fireballs had done their job, even if each spider took several blasts to go down.
He glanced at his hands. He still hadn’t used even a quarter of his mana.
As the harvesting continued, the team fell into a grim silence. Only the occasional squelch of a blade through flesh or the soft sound of a vial being stoppered broke the quiet.
Eventually, Leo stood, holding a sack filled with dripping, preserved parts. "We’ve got so good pieces, but this haul will break even after the bribes I paid."
Cal sat down on a stone. "Then maybe it’s ti to go back."
Bronn nodded. "Our shields are wearing out. One or two more fights like the last two, and we’ll be fighting without the enchantnts on them. I’m not dying in here for scraps."
Leo wiped his blade clean on a cloth as he glanced at Bronn. "If you want to leave, leave. But I didn’t pay good money to be snuck into a monolith only to co out empty-handed."
Galahad nodded slowly. "He’s right. We’re not even halfway through. Getting to the boss and killing it would make this worth it." Then he muttered. "Even with you blackmailing to be here."
Cal and Bronn looked unconvinced.
"I agree with the at-shields." Arlo said from the back, his voice unusually flat.
He stood with his hands tucked behind his head, his blindfold slightly askew. "I’ve been counting the ti. If we push much further, I won’t be able to help. My skill’s running on fus."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "What skill?"
Arlo smirked, but didn’t answer.
Galahad, however, spoke. "He’s not lying. He’s been using it in bursts. I noticed a few inconsistencies in the fight back there. I think he’s burning through ti compression or sothing similar."
Leo narrowed his eyes. "I didn’t even feel it..."
"You don’t need to know what my skill is, but while it is subtle, it’s also not limitless. If I overuse it again today, I’ll probably black out."
That was enough to make Cal and Bronn look at each other.
Leo looked around, weighing his options. His mana was down to half, and the risk of pushing deeper ant stronger monsters.
But that was why he had blackmailed Galahad. The fellow noble was strong. Strong enough to fight his way through even without mana.
He then glanced at Noah. The first year looked like he could keep going for another few hours without breaking a sweat.
"We keep moving forward." Leo finally said. "We’ll keep it slow and cautious. We can’t back out now."
"Even discounting the money we’d be making, I’m sure we’ve all learnt a few valuable lessons we could use in combat. That’s what this expedition is for. To test out skills against strong opponents that we can face as a team."
There was a pause.
Then, slowly, the others nodded, albeit reluctantly.
Noah finished storing the last venom sac, tied the sack shut, and stood. He said nothing.
Again, they took care to clean their tools and weapons, making sure everything was in order. They’d all heard the stories of monster hunters who died because their weapons failed them at a critical ti. Well, all of them except Noah.
After all their checks, they continued on their way. As usual, the bioluminescent walls lit up their paths, but not enough to see too far ahead or behind.
Their footsteps echoed softly as they walked. After three minutes of walking, the tunnel widened.
A few seconds later, they entered a vast chamber.
Noah’s eyes widened.
The ceiling stretched far above them, swallowed in shadow and thick with webbing that shimred faintly with moisture.
Countless clusters of spider eggs lined the floor and corners like pale white tumors, all of them translucent and pulsing softly, so twitching slightly as if reacting to their presence.
The sheer number of them made Noah’s skin crawl.
"Spirits..." Arlo muttered, lifting his blindfold slightly to take it all in. "That’s a nest."
This had to be the place where the Bullet Spiders they’d been facing had been coming from.
But it wasn’t just the eggs that caught their attention.
Embedded in the walls, woven between the gaps not overtaken by egg sacs, were stones.
Dozens of them.
Smooth, glowing blue mana stones. So small like marbles, others as large as a clenched fist. They glead like treasure under a spotlight, glowing with pure magical energy and providing most of the light in the vast chamber.
Leo took a step forward, his eyes lighting up with greed.
"This... this is it," he breathed. "This is the haul. If we gather enough of those mana stones, we’re set. Even without reaching the boss room."
"I thought this was about learning valuable things about our fighting styles?" Cal muttered.
Arlo knelt beside one of the stones near the entrance, examining it with his blindfold back in place. No one had seen his eyes directly.
"High purity." He murmured. "This isn’t the cheap stuff."
Bronn visibly brightened, the exhaustion from the previous battles montarily forgotten. This ant they wouldn’t have to spend too much ti in the tunnels with their failing shields.
As all this was happening, Galahad remained rooted to the spot, frowning deeply. His hand hovered near his weapon, his eyes scanning the ceiling.
"This doesn’t feel right."
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