"Are you alright?" I asked Cerion.

He had the good humour to smile and joke around.

"Do I look alright? I'm covered in spider blood! Don't think I'll ever hire your sloppy workmanship again, peasant!"

From his tone, I could tell he wasn't being serious.

"My apologies, your highness. Next time your bug bath will be of a higher quality."

He actually shivered at the thought of drowning in those spiders from before.

"Ah, shut up, Arthur. I don't even want to think of these little buggers. Anyway, let me wash us off."

Cerion summoned some water and enveloped us, washing away the pungent green spider blood. I was relieved to be somewhat clean again. As clean as you could get in the middle of a spider-infested forest, anyway.

"So, did you get any levels from that wave?"

"Yeah, three. Not much for such a large horde, but the tier disparity probably made it so that I got pitifully little for each kill. You?"

"None, silly. I didn't help in killing any."

"My bad. The next pack is yours, how about that?"

"Deal."

I walked up to one of the corpses of the tsuchigumo. These were clearly still juveniles, they couldn't have been more than tier 1. With their impressive numbers, they could have easily taken down an inexperienced tier 2 party. Thankfully, Cerion and I were the exceptions to that rule.

The little spiders didn't look like I had expected them to. Their head-sized, bulbous little bodies were held up by thin, spindly legs, rather than the thicker legs that I had seen on the bird-eating spiders back home. They had no hair on their bodies. Most peculiarly, the underside of their carapace had a white-coloured marking on it, in the shape of a human face.

"Cerion, look at this."

I turned over the corpses of one of the spiders with my sword to show Cerion what I had found.

"What the hell? Is that where that little girl's voice came from?"

With a snort, I cut the body in half. What a disgusting creature. Right as I turned around to head deeper into the forest, Cerion called out.

"Arthur, come back! Look at what dropped out of the spider's corpse!"

What was he talking about? I turned around to look, and found Cerion with his hand covered in spider blood, holding half of a small...skull?

"What the hell? Why would they grow skulls inside their bodies?"

Cerion shook his head.

"I don't think they grow them themselves, Arthur."

Wait... had these spiders killed a child from the nearby villages? The rage I felt bubbling up made me tense up.

"These fuckers killed a kid to imitate her voice and create traps?"

He nodded gravely.

"I think so."

"Alright, we're destroying this entire colony, and the forest along with it if we have to." I said, with the fury in my voice barely hidden.

"Just what I was thinking."

A few minutes later, we were heading deeper into the forest. I stayed alert, but decided to invest my free stat points for good measure. I invested the 15 from the three levels I had gained into wisdom. I would need to get to the '100' stats milestone eventually.

Name: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Overloading Death Knight] LVL 4 Strength 120 Constitution 116 Dexterity 116 Intelligence 30 Wisdom 73 Affinity 336 Free stat points 0

Skills:

Passive: [Dark radiance core](9%), [Dark sight](25%), [Berserker Swordsmanship](23%),

[Growing lifespan](N/A), [Mental resistance](N/A), [Dark Form](5%), [Overload Aura](9%)

Active: [Shadow apparation](83%), [Flexible senses](N/A), [Curse mark(guide)](12%), [Overloaded orb](16%), [Overloaded sword](7%)

Increasing my wisdom always felt like a breath of fresh air after a delve in a dungeon.

With my points spent, we headed deeper into the forest.

After about 15 minutes, we heard more voices. An old man this time, asking for help. We followed the sound to its source and, sure enough, were assaulted by more tiny spiders. This time, I left the killing up to Cerion.

He activated a skill that created a large cyclone of water that spiralled around the clearing. It cut through the spiders like butter. Cerion topped even that, by actually jumping into the current and riding it upward, cutting into any stragglers with his sword.

A few still made it down to me, so I took the opportunity to practice my [Overloaded sword] on real targets. By swinging my bastard sword roughly in the direction of the nearby spiders, the elongated blade cut through them effortlessly, validating the amount of time I had spent practising the skill.

A minute or so later, they were all dead. I hadn't gained any levels because I had only killed a few, but it was still satisfying to kill these dangers to humanity.

"Did you get a level this time?"

"I did! Two, even! At this rate, we'll both be level 50 by the time we have to participate in the tournament!"

"You're excited about that, huh?"

I had conflicting feelings about the tournament. I had kind of been forced into it, but at the same time I felt it was the best option for me to gain kingdom-wide fame, and clear up whatever future misunderstandings I would otherwise be involved in. On top of that, I had to admit that I didn't dislike the idea of becoming famous. Who didn't want to be regarded as a hero from the stories?

Cerion seemed to notice my mood and toned down his excitement a little.

"Sorry. I know you didn't want to participate in the tournament. My dad doesn't think about others' feelings, sometimes."

"Don't mention it. It's not like I'm entirely against it anyway. The circumstances surrounding my participation just leave me feeling a little powerless, is all."

"I think I get what you mean. Well, let's focus on killing bugs, for now."

"Let's."

A while later, the spiders once again tried to lure us into a trap. If they were going to keep going like this, this extermination would be easily finished.

I was interrupted out of my thoughts by Cerion, who stopped dead in his tracks.

"Wait. I hear two voices."

There were two voices. An older woman and a young boy were calling for help.

"Two? They're trying to split us up then. Well, we could."

"That's not the issue, Arthur. The fact that they became smart enough to employ tactics means that they've been planning from the start, or that they're being led by a smarter spider."

"A tier two, you think?"

"Possibly tier 3."

"So what do we do? Do we stick together? I feel like if we do that the two groups will simply unite and surround us. At least we can limit the value of their numbers by splitting up. Not to mention that we're not exactly well-practiced in fighting together and comboing our skills."

I had seen Emer and Cara combo their skills. They were so good that they had turned teamwork into an art form. Cerion and I just didn't have that level of skill. We'd most certainly get in each other's way if we fought together.

After deliberating for a while, Cerion agreed.

"I get your point. If it gets too dangerous, retreat and come pick me up as you do so."

I smirked.

"Or, I could lead the spiders all to you..." I said in a joking tone.

He smiled back.

"Don't you dare."

With an unspoken agreement, we split up. I went after the voice of the young boy, while Cerion followed the voice of the older woman.

After a few minutes, I came upon a dark clearing. It was larger than the previous few, and actually had a few bushes growing nearby, which was a rare sight in this forest.

In the middle of the clearing, was something that made me pause my step. It was an actual child. A young boy, crying for his mother. Had they kidnapped him and brought him here to make their traps more realistic? Devious bastards. Forming a plan in my mind, I rushed forward.

I apparated next to the kid and grabbed him, sprinting into the treeline. I could hear the skittering around me intensify, the little bastards were hot on my tail.

"Are you okay? I'm here to save you!"

The kid didn't respond, so I looked at him to check if he was alright. I thought the kid might have passed out or something, but I was instead greeted by a gleeful, sadistic smile. It didn't suit the small face of the kid, at all.

"Crap! You're not a kid at all, are you?"

In a deep, guttural voice, he responded.

"hElP!!"

I dropped him, apparating away just in time as a sharp spike speared through the air, passing through my previous position. Where previously there had been a small child, there now stood a giant spider. When I say giant, I do mean giant. It was easily as large as the pseudo-drake had been. As it circled around me, a shrill, distorted voice kept calling for help. Hopefully, Cerion hadn't fallen for the trap as I had.

In the distance, I could hear the skittering grow louder. The horde was coming. Holding them off in conjunction with the tier 3 would be difficult. I could just put up a barrier, but that would risk the tier 3 leaving and going after Cerion instead. It had shown its intelligence, after all.

I revved my mana even further, increasing the amount of dark-aligned, overloaded mana that entered my surroundings. I would have to try some new strategies.

The small spiderlings would be on top of me any moment now, so I took advantage of the time I had left to apparate near the tier 3 spider and swung a super-charged [Overloaded sword]. It brought up two of its armoured legs to block, but only partially succeeded. While it successfully blocked my sword itself, a wave of overloaded mana still cut into its back in an arc.

The creature screeched in pain as its back bled purple blood. It retaliated in fury by jabbing its sharp legs at me, though I apparated away to avoid them.

Like that, our clash began. It would block my strikes, get wounded and fail to retaliate. I felt like I was winning, but truthfully, this was a battle against time. A battle I was losing. While I had left numerous wounds across its carapace, the spider wasn't dead yet. Even worse, the spiderlings had arrived.

They started flooding the surroundings like a wave, circling me, ready to pounce. I couldn't wait any longer, I had to put my barrier up.

I dug my sword into the ground and summoned my maelstrom of black wind. The spiders ran into it, shredding themselves.

Sadly, the tier 3 wasn't so reckless. It kept circling me as its underlings ran into my defences. While its defence and strength were pitiful for a tier 3, its agility and intelligence were far higher than I had come to expect of monsters.

After a few minutes of this stalemate, I had an idea. Smart creatures could be fooled too, after all.

I started theatrically heaving and lowering the integrity of my barrier. The winds were subsiding slightly, as I leaned on my sword to stand up. The spiderlings still couldn't quite get to me, but the larger spider was completely fooled.

Sensing weakness, it charged at me, sharp, talon-like legs pointed forward. Its speed was impressive. It seemed like it intended to spear into me with one attack.

I smirked.

"Not so smart after all, eh?"

The spider charged into my barrier. Though it was cut in numerous places, it kept going unimpeded.

Right as it got to me, I pushed my maelstrom beyond what I had previously been capable of.

The overloaded mana in my surroundings practically sung itself into existence, shredding my attacker right as it was halfway through my barrier, tearing the tier 3 in half. I dodged the incoming body, and simply let it slide past me.

Sadly, my mood turned sour when I saw the reason for the creature's size.

As it was torn open, countless skulls poured out of its stomach.

They were of all sizes, though most were destroyed because of my winds.

For the next few minutes, I just stared at the empty skulls, while the little spiders tore themselves to shreds in the background.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Overloading Death Knight] level 8!

Reach level 50 to advance to tier 3.

Stat points allocated. 5 free stat points per level up awarded.

What an achievement. I felt numb to it all.