Time passed minute by minute.
After an hour, Morintis still hadn't come out.
The people outside were somewhat disappointed.
Many felt this was more normal.
Previously, Morintis had managed to set a new record because he found a new method.
His current performance in the Spider Lair was probably his normal performance.
"Even if he can't set a new record, being able to solo a Nightmare difficulty dungeon is already very impressive."
"True.
But then again, the Spider Lair dungeon is a bit special.
The difference between Normal and Nightmare difficulty isn't as big as in other dungeons."
"Right.
At least the strength of the Lesser Spiders is the same, just the quantity is greater."
"Alright, let's disperse.
No new record this time."
Hannah looked at the dungeon entrance, listening to their discussion, but held a different view.
She felt it shouldn't be like this.
Even without a concrete reason, that's just what she felt.
Inside the dungeon, Morintis finally finished clearing the entire dungeon.
"Total of 108 caves.
Among them, 60 contained Lesser Spiders."
"Not sure if it's fixed or random."
"I'll find out next time I enter."
He glanced at his experience.
It had reached Level 18 (70%).
A single dungeon run had increased his experience by 70%.
And this was only the first time, done while being relatively unfamiliar with it.
The efficiency was truly very high.
Morintis believed that next time he entered, the experience gain would be similar, and the time spent would be less.
"Time to go see the Boss."
He passed through one cave after another, heading towards the deepest part of the dungeon.
The Spider Lair dungeon was very large, with 155308 caves forming a maze-like map.
If Morintis hadn't formed a complete map in his mind, just finding the way would have taken a long time.
Even so, it took him another 10-plus minutes to reach the correct path leading deeper in.
There was an entrance here, sealed by thick, dense spider webs.
The Skeleton Warriors swung their greatswords, chopping at the webs.
The spider webs were tenacious and elastic, very difficult to cut through.
It wasn't that the Skeleton Warriors weren't trying hard; this task just wasn't suited for them.
If a Mage were here, these webs would be easily cleared under magical attacks.
After a full five minutes of chopping, the Skeleton Warriors finally cleared a path.
Crack, crack.
The Skeleton Warriors walked ahead, Morintis following behind.
After passing through the passage, they finally reached the end of the dungeon.
In a massive cave, they saw the dungeon Boss.
It was a giant spider with a body diameter of a full 7-8 meters.
Its eight spider legs splayed out like giant pillars.
Each leg was about 15 meters long, roughly twice the length of its body.
The spider legs were covered in barbs, gleaming with a steely light.
One could imagine that being scraped by them would mean certain death or severe injury.
The moment Morintis entered, the Boss had already detected him.
Morintis focused his will, and the Skeleton Warriors responded instantly.
A full 112 Skeleton Warriors charged forward, swinging their greatswords.
His Detection Skill landed on the Boss simultaneously.
[Spider King (Leader-tier Monster)]
[Level: 21]
[Strength: 5000]
[Agility: 3500]
[Spirit: 500]
[Constitution: 4000]
[Skills: Web Spit, Acid Spray, Wind Cutter.]
Its Strength was higher than the Mutated Dragon-Turtle's, and its Agility was also greater.
However, correspondingly, its Constitution was weaker.
It possessed three skills.
Morintis could understand the first two, but what was the last one, Wind Cutter?
The Spider King reacted, immediately spewing a huge spider web from its mouth.
Skill: Web Spit!
The Skeleton Warriors swiftly dodged, but a few still failed to avoid it and were caught by the descending web.
Trapped by the spider web, they raised their greatswords, trying to slash their way out.
The webs were unexpectedly sturdy, difficult to cut through quickly.
The Spider King used its Web Spit skill several times in succession, trapping over a dozen Skeleton Warriors.
By now, the remaining Skeleton Warriors had reached its feet and began hacking at them.
Some Skeleton Warriors leaped high, jumping ten meters into the air, aiming for its body.
The Spider King rapidly retreated, trying to avoid the leaping Skeleton Warriors.
Suddenly, a red flame flashed above its head and sank into its body.
The Spider King instantly let out a shrill cry.
Then, a red glow enveloped its head, and a shackle pattern appeared.
Its movement speed instantly halved.
Skill: Soul Flame!
Skill: Slow Curse!
Morintis joined the fray, disrupting the Spider King's actions while cursing it.
The Skeleton Warriors successfully landed on the Spider King's body and activated their skill simultaneously.
Skill: Furious Strike!
The Spider King's defense was far inferior to the Mutated Dragon-Turtle's.
Facing the Skeleton Warriors' fierce assault, it was quickly severely wounded.
It struggled frantically, its eight spider legs sweeping back and forth like giant clubs.
Simultaneously, it spat streams of stinking green liquid from its mouth.
Skill: Acid Spray!
The green liquid was highly corrosive.
Where it landed on the Skeleton Warriors, sizzling sounds erupted, accompanied by wisps of smoke.
Morintis felt his Skeleton Warriors taking damage.
"Need to finish this quickly!"
Morintis thought.
The Skeleton Warriors' attacks intensified, and he continued using Soul Flame to attack.
The Spider King's injuries worsened.
It finally let out a sharp shriek.
Its entire body contracted, its eight giant legs coiling up like a serpent poised to strike.
The blade-like barbs on its legs faced outwards.
The Spider King began to spin violently, like a top sweeping through the cave.
Skill: Wind Cutter.
A fierce wind immediately whipped through the cave.
Skeleton Warriors caught in the sweep were sent flying.
Cracks appeared on their bones; this skill was quite powerful.
The Spider King, propelled by its skill, charged towards Morintis after sweeping away the skeletons.
One Skeleton Warrior rushed to Morintis's side, grabbed him, and leaped high into the air, avoiding the Spider King's sweep.
After three full spins, the Spider King finally stopped.
The Skeleton Warriors swarmed it again.
Although the Skeleton Warriors were all somewhat injured, their bones covered in cracks, their attack power wasn't affected.
Morintis wasn't worried.
He had seen the Level 1 Skeleton Warriors; that was what he called miserable.
They looked like they were fished out of a garbage dump.
Now, they were much better off.
The clanging sound of metal on chitin echoed in the cave again, accompanied by the Spider King's miserable cries.
The Spider King suddenly leaped high, flipping itself upside down to hang from the cave ceiling.
It continuously emitted sharp cries.
The cave shook constantly.
Holes appeared all around, and from them crawled out countless Lesser Spiders.
The number of Lesser Spiders was dense and countless, reaching into the thousands.
The Spider King dropped back to the ground, like a monarch commanding its army.
Seeing this scene, Morintis showed no panic.
Instead, he smiled.
"Delivering themselves to their deaths."
A Soul Flame flashed past, and one Lesser Spider instantly died miserably.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
...
The entire cave seemed to blossom with fireworks as explosions continuously rang out.
Over a hundred explosions occurred in a row.
Only when Morintis's Spirit was nearly depleted did the explosions finally cease.
The Spider King teetered unsteadily, its giant legs covered in wounds and mangled flesh, utterly tattered.
It didn't understand what had happened.
How had it been blown to pieces?
Subsequently, the Skeleton Warriors moved in to deliver the final blow.
[Spider King slain. Experience +190,000]
[Obtained Silver-grade weapon: Spider Dagger.]
[Obtained Low-grade Monster Crystal Core.]
[Spider Dagger: Silver-grade. Agility +40, Constitution +40. Increases power of Assassin skills by 8%. Usable after Level 20.]
"When I entered the dungeon, my experience was less than 1%.
Now it's 81%."
"A full dungeon run can increase experience by 80%."
"It just takes too much time.
It took 1 hour and 32 minutes.
Can't break the record this way."
"Looks like I need to do a run where I go straight through the dungeon.
Setting records gives Points and Contribution Points.
Can't miss out on that."
Morintis left the dungeon.
After three hours, there weren't many people left outside the dungeon.
Unlike last time when he set the record, it wasn't packed.
"Classmate, you're finally out!"
"Did you clear the dungeon?"
"Even if you didn't, it's okay.
This dungeon has a lot of monsters.
Soloing is very tiring."
The few people there were well-intentioned.
Everyone were students of the Xiajing Academy, fellow classmates.
They might team up to run dungeons together someday.
Usually, they were quite friendly when they met.
Morintis said softly, "Thank you.
I passed it."
"Really?"
"You really passed?"
Morintis nodded.
"I passed."
"Amazing, classmate!
You can actually solo the Nightmare difficulty Spider Lair!"
"Although this dungeon has lots of experience and materials, it's actually not easy to run."
"With so many monsters, only a Mage class like yours can solo it."
Hannah, seeing Morintis safe and sound, couldn't help but sigh in relief.
"I'm glad you're okay."