"They might have gone too far in," Adam said without slowing his hurried steps.
Alioth felt a little confused. "Why does it matter if they went too deep? As far as I know, Lutarus Cave only contains elemental crystals way in."
"Initially, I thought so too," the young man carrying the large sword replied. "Until my master told me that ferocious monsters hide inside."
"What?!"
They had entered the part where the elemental crystals were scattered. The objects were embedded in the uneven cave walls and glowed faintly, providing a little light. Actually, even up to this point, they could complete the mission by collecting the fire core crystals, which were red, and the water core crystals, which were light blue. The number of these crystals here was even in the hundreds.
Adam pulled out the small lantern that had been hanging on the side of his large bag. He channeled a little Mana, and the lantern lit up in the dimness of the cave.
"There really is a monster inside? What monster is it?" Alioth was getting more curious.
When he played this game before, during the first main quest, he didn't intend to go too far into the cave. He wanted to get strong quickly and felt that exploring this cave too deeply was a waste of time.
Had Adam's master explored deep inside?
"It's a giant spider monster. I'm not entirely sure if we can defeat them or not, but the main priority is to save that party."
If this were in the game, the priority would certainly be collecting the crystals for the main quest. However, this was reality now, and human lives must always be the priority.
The path inside the cave became steeper and winding. The core crystals scattered here also looked bigger than the ones on the surface earlier. Alioth could guess why they went too far into the cave, it seemed they wanted to find larger elemental crystals.
After the path sloped down with many turns, the road finally leveled out again. As they moved further forward, the path became wider. Suddenly, Adam turned off his lantern and put it back in its place.
This action naturally made Alioth curious, and he immediately asked, "Why did you turn it off?"
"I'm worried the spider might see it and get aggressive when it sees this light."
Why didn't I think of that at all? Am I really stupid?
Adam and Alioth slowed their steps when they saw a large, dome-like room ahead that was brightly lit by large elemental crystals.
"Prepare yourselves," Adam whispered, having drawn his large sword.
Alioth also drew his sword.
They walked as silently as possible toward the dome-shaped room. The closer they got, the clearer the thick white spiderwebs scattered everywhere became.
When they were three steps away from reaching the edge of the dome, they saw the large spider's leg clinging to its web.
Alioth swallowed hard. His fear was more because of the disgust of seeing the thick hair on that large leg.
"There they are!" Adam whispered.
Alioth shifted his gaze. Four people were seen entangled in the spider's webs with pale faces and closed eyes, two men and two women. Alioth's eyes instantly widened when he saw one of the women.
He smiled bitterly as he thought to himself, How can it be such a coincidence?
In this world, she was still the only woman he knew, and it was the blonde-haired girl who was currently unconscious, wrapped up in the spiderwebs.
Worry immediately crept up Alioth's back, dominating his entire body.
"Do you know them?" Adam seemed to notice the change in Alioth's expression.
"I know one of them. We just parted this morning."
"In that case, it's a good thing we agreed to help." Adam tightened his grip on the sword hilt. "Let's cut the webs, the important thing is to save those people. If possible, let's not wake up the spider."
They crept stealthily toward the thick web that was wrapped around Claire and her companions.
"Why aren't they being eaten, and it chose to sleep instead?" Alioth whispered, frowning. "Strange habit."
"That is indeed the habit of the spiders inhabiting Lutarus Cave, and we should be grateful for that. My master said it likes to play with its prey first before eating it. It likes to see its prey die first, and then it will eat the corpse."
Alioth shuddered at the thought.
The location where the people were held captive was about one meter above their heads. That made Adam cluck his tongue because this would be quite difficult and might wake up the spider.
"If I cut it with my large sword, it might wake up," he said as he glanced at the large spider that was still happily exploring dreamland.
"I have a knife." Alioth immediately pulled out the hunting knife that was the surprise gift from Claire.
Adam's smile widened. "Good, can you cut these webs to save them? I'll watch your back."
Alioth nodded and immediately carried out the plan.
He approached the thick web, staring doubtfully for a moment. However, he convinced himself that he must be able to cut through this web.
He channeled Mana into the knife blade in his right hand, and a dark blue light enveloped the blade. Alioth assumed the stance for the Shadow Slash skill. Once he was sure, he immediately slashed at the web located between Claire's body and the other woman.
Craass....
If this were the game Aetherion Chronicle, there would be a cooldown time before the same skill could be used again. However, this was not a game but reality, so the skill could still be used as long as Alioth had enough Mana.
He slashed again with Shadow Slash in another direction, again and again until there were seven slashes. The four people fell one by one like cocoons.
"Good, it didn't wake up." Adam slowly retreated, approached one of the men, and used his large sword to free him from the web's entanglement. "Quickly free them, Alioth."
Without being told, Alioth quickly slashed the webs wrapped around their bodies.
It seemed that the spiderwebs contained some kind of special substance that made them unconscious. This was proven by the fact that after they were freed, they began to open their eyes one by one.
"Uh, Alioth?" Claire murmured weakly. "Am I... dreaming...?"
The young man was indeed sitting next to her, waiting for her to wake up. Seeing Claire was able to speak, Alioth sighed with relief. Smiling, he said, "No, you're not dreaming. It's really me, Alioth."
Claire's gaze was still dazed, so the young man's face only looked blurry. As her consciousness slowly became whole, she just remembered what had happened.
"I... I was caught by a spider monster...."
Alioth pointed forward, which Claire immediately followed with her gaze. The girl almost screamed, but she quickly covered her mouth, her face pale.
"T-t-that... the mo-monster...."
Alioth touched the girl's shoulder. "Calm down, as long as you're not noisy, it won't wake up."
This time, it seemed he was really out of luck. The young man whom Adam had saved first had also regained consciousness. He seemed to immediately remember the last incident and became very panicked.
Screaming, he fumbled at his waist for his sword.
"Aaaahhh... monster, monster! Save yourselves!"
"You idiot!" Adam quickly covered the man's mouth. "Don't scream, damn it!"
Too late. The spider monster had already moved and turned its head to face them.
"You jerk, if we don't make it out alive, it's all your fault!" Adam cursed the young man right next to his ear.