As the sound a got louder, Erin started to sweat and back away little.
"Hey Erin, did I ever tell you that I was scared of spiders?" Marvin said softly as he also began to back away.
"Sorry to say this Marvin, but I think you have about 10 seconds to get over that fear." Jared slowly took out his two daggers as he confronted the shadow that was getting bigger and bigger. Marvin closed his eyes as he tried to calm himself down.
"It started in 5th grade. Sally Hiddletown my crush at the time told me that she liked me and had baked a cake for me."
"Not the time Marvin." Erin said as he also brought out his dagger.
"I was so excited. My two favorite things, girls and cake but it was not a cake under her basket. It was a fricken daddy long legs!" Marvin said as his mind tried to unscare itself.
"That's great Marvin." Minnie said slowly as she brought out her bat from her school bag.
"But, honestly what is there to be scared of. Their small with lanky legs and even if they are supposedly poisonous their fangs are way too small to actually do any damage. Ahh I feel better thinking about that."
"Marvin! Look in front of you!" Jess screamed in annoyance. Marvin looked down at the ground, thinking he would see a small army of daddy long legs but, What he saw was 6 sharp spider looking legs. As he slowly looked up, the calmed nerves started to act up again. What he saw was a Daddy long leg. A 7 foot scary looking spider. Marvin shrieked as he tripped himself and fell on the ground. Luckily for the group, the spider did not seem to move after approaching them and was just staring at them curiously. William slowly got closer to the 7 foot creature with an astonished expression.
"This is a marvel to behold. They are not just creating monsters. These aliens were able to mutate monsters that come from earth! This is... an unprecedented new feet in human discovery!"
"I think I just shat my pants..." Marvin said quietly. Erin sighed and used stealth to slowly go behind the spider. William walked forward as he tried to take a closer look at the beast. Once William was within 15 feet, the spider looked straight at him and pointed its legs right towards him. Right before it reached his head, the spiders motion stopped as it began to screech.
KRIIIIIHHHHK
~Ding~
~You killed a cellar 30 exp
~ Your skill [Stealth] has been leveled up
William only felt the wind blow against him as he saw the sharp leg of the creature almost behead him. With that, the spider fell to its death and William took a big gulp.
"Marvelous." He whispered as Erin yanked his dagger from the spider's exoskeleton.
"Be careful. Their outsides are strong but inside, their very fragile. I have 10 strength and it took me about 6 quick stabs in the same spot to break through its armor. Most of you guys have more strength than me. 6 stabs guys." Erin cleaned the gooey blood off his dagger as he said that.
"That was [Stealth] right?" William asked in curiosity. Erin looked at him deeply for a second. He had almost gotten himself killed and yet he still had time to notice the skill he was using?
"Yeah. You probably also have it since you solo'd the last trial am I right?" William nodded as smile mischievously.
"I guess this trial will be easier than I thought."
"Hey what about the rest of us?" Sean reminded as he raised his hand. Erin was about to answer but was interrupted by Minnie.
"You got skills too remember? Use them." Erin smiled as he heard this. He had not wanted to sound rude but that was the essence of what he wanted them to know.
"Ok....lets kill to....scary...tall...sp-spiders." Marvin said shakily.
It did not take long for them to find some more monsters. Most were daddy long legs which were relatively weak and easy to kill as long as you attacked from the back and distracted them in the front. Erin noted that they were not very strong defensive wise but their blade like legs could probably do a number on them. Jared, Minnie, Erin and William did most of the attacking as they were the most athletic while the other 4 distracted the long legs. Other spiders were more tough. The hardest ones were armed spider which had really hard exoskeletons.
As they got more comfortable, it became easier to kill monsters but armed spiders needed everyone's participation. William and Erin attack from the shadows, Jared and Minnie had Berserker skills and so their attacks gave the spider the most damage. Mary gained a skill known as [minor healing] which helped heal injuries that come with fighting giants all day. Jess gained a skill known as [Cheer] which increased everyone's moral every once in a while. Marvin had [Scout] which allowed him to observe perfect locations to find and or hid from spiders and Sean had a interesting skill [Weak Shot] which allowed him to identify vulnerabilities on the monster.
Altogether, they were able to defeat 12 armored spiders.
After defeating their latest armored spider, Marvin leveled up since he had accumulated enough points. As he leveled up, some of his injuries started to fade. Just as Sean had guessed, leveling up helped heal them a bit. This was discovered when William willingly allowed himself to get a huge injury. Everyone was surprised by his actions until he started to slowly heal himself. He had saved up experience from their hours of killing and used them all up. He still had a small gash in his right side which Mary was able to finish healing up but, the memory of his action stayed in their hearts for a while.
Right as everyone was about to leave the area, they heard another ding.
~Ding~
~ You have reached the threshold of 100 monsters killed
~ Item drop is now available
~ Armed Spider has dropped Chitin shield
Everyone stopped and looked at the shield which replaced the armed spider which turned into dark dust. The front of the shield has the face of the spider which did more than creep Marvin out a little. Erin quickly examine the object.
Chitin shield Level F
Def: +10 Ag: -2
description: A shield made out of the exoskeleton of an armed spider. It is durable and slightly poisonous.
Erin smiled as he read the description. He quickly gave the shield to Marvin who looked at the shield hesitantly.
"Here. I think out of everyone you have taken the most hits for the team. You need some protection if you want to get out of this nightmare hole." Marvin smiled as he heard this.
"Don't worry I am slowly....but surely dulling a bit to this trauma. You stab gigantic spiders a few dozen times and it kinda dulls the fear you know?" Erin smiled as he heard this.
"Now, how is that fair?" William suddenly interjected. Erin turned around and saw William curiously looking at the shield.
"I just thought-"
"Yeah. You. Last I check this was a democracy." William stated. Erin scratched his head and turned to Marvin and than everyone else.
"Sorry I was just thinking that the Armour best suited Marvin's fighting style cause he likes to get right in front of the action recklessly." Everyone agreed at that statement. Even Marvin nodded without hesitation.
"That is true but we should decide on things like these as a group. Since Items are going to be dropping now, we will vote on who is best suited for the weapon." Minnie stated. Everyone agreed and nodded their heads.
"Items dropping.... I swear this is becoming more and more like a video game." Jared noted as they looked around to see if anything else dropped.
"It is a great time for otaku's to be alive" Sean added as he wiped the blood off his dagger happily. Erin sighed as the situation did not escalate. He looked around at the people he had gotten to know better in the last few hours. It was not just him, Marvin and Jared anymore. He thought he had realized that already but now it had really hit him.
After making sure nothing else dropped, they continued their killing spree. It did not take long for more items to drop such as chitin swords, armor and daggers. A lot of the materials had more durability and strength than what they were currently using so by the time 1 more hour passed they all looked like spider fanatics with chitin everything.
Jared went for two long swords while Minnie stuck with one. Everyone was adorned in armor and since, daggers dropped more often, that was what they all had equipped.
By this point, Marvin's fear of spiders was a thing of the past. The over exposure to so many spiders and having to kill them and face them upfront really did its number. The shield had done its job in helping Marvin reduce his anxiety faster and after that reduced, their teamwork improved infinitly.
"Marvin, help!" Jared screamed as he was being pushed down by an armed spider. Marvin quickly blocked the Spider's strike which gave room for Jared to attack from the side.
"The right area around the stomach has been weakened. One more strike should finish him" Sean said as he focused his eye on the spider. On the other hand, Erin, Minnie and William were soloing armed spiders while Jessica continued to cheer them on. They had gone from having to team up to collaborating in a more efficient way.
After they had killed the monsters, Mary came in and healed everyone. Due to using the skill so much, her [Minor Healing] was already at level 15 which was miles ahead Erin with the next biggest level of 11 in stealth. It became harder and harder to level up skills later on so, level 15 was impressive.
Sean looked through the corpses and sighed as no equipment was found. He was still hoping to find some unique 1 in a million equipment like they do in light novels. Although he had first been a little apprehensive about the new situation, he had grown to love the New World. He had already planned how his life would turn out from the moment on. He would become a white knight and save damsels in distress. He will create a guild and become the number 1 strongest person in the world with beutiful wives adoring him.
Sean's eyes started to sparkle as he thought of this. Erin luaghed once he noticed this.
"Sean's mind is wondering again." Everyone laughed as they heard this.
"He is so easy to read but he has really helped us nonotakus out." Mary said warmly. William nodded.
"If I knew that this was how the anime world was, I would have read about it before the world was taken over." Mary rolled her eyes as she heard Will.
After resting for a few moments they continued to walk. Using their phones, they knew that they had only been in the dungeons for 4 hours but it felt like years to them. The dark tunnels were never ending.
"Do you guys think this is just a trick and we have been put in a simulation. " Everyone turned to William as they heard this.
"Like virtual reality?" Sean added. William's eyes sparkled when he heard this.
"Yeah yeah. Like the story you were talking about where the people were stuck in the game and had to defeat 100 towers or something to get out of the simulation."
"Yeah but maybe its dungeons and we have to defeat 100 dungeons." Sean added.
"That would be great and all but I don't think this is a simulation" Mary retorted.
"When would they have gotten us?" Minnie inquired which made Jared curious as well.
"In our sleep with the microchips the government has been secretly implanting in us!!!" William exclaimed. Erin turned to William as he said this.
"Sure because the government is always up to no good Will." Jess exclaimed sarcastically.
As everyone began to laugh and banter on,Marvin stared at the scene in front of him.
"Um guys?"
"What" Mary asked as she was still arguing with William.
"I think I found the Dungeon's end." As he said this, everyone stopped. They slowly turned to were Marvin was pointing at and saw a huge gate.
"That... that is quite big." Erin said almost speechless.
"No shit captain obvious." Marvin mumbled. Not having the words to rebuke, Erin just stared at the gate along with everyone else. After a few minutes, Minnie was the first to walk forward.
"Well we have made it this far, lets go!" She said confidently. Erin smiled and walked forward with her.
" Lets go Gladiators."
"I'll go anywhere you go" Jared said as he stared at Minnie.
"Now this will be fun." William added with a smile.
"Dungeon boss....secret items huhuhu" Sean said excitedly.
As soon as one walked in, everyone walked forward with them. Although they were just a bunch of teenagers who mostly were not even acquaintances, now they were closer than friends. They were a party. Together, They opened the large gate and entered the final room.
~Ding~
~ You have entered the Dungeon room. Dungeon Boss Queen Arachun's nest.