Now out of the misty swamp, Ray stopped in his tracks as he remembered something.
'It seems... I forgot about checking the Frog Queen.' he's been too distracted by the disappointing rewards that it had misdirected him.
Ray could have checked for the Frog Queen's corpse.
Even if he was not the one who killed it, there could be drops.
'Should I return?' Ray pondered.
The Giga frog is really large and durable, but if he just takes time to dig in its stomach, he could dig under its guts and stomach acid in an attempt to find souls or items that could have dropped.
Then Ray thought about the rewards he had received in the swamp.
Besides the souls and the ring from the Frog King, they were a bit disappointing.
'Time...'
The most important thing in the wasteland is the medium souls dropped by the bosses.
He only had six days and a few hours remaining.
And in that remaining time, he would need to hunt down as many bosses he could in the ten areas.
Returning right now just for the Schrodinger's frog... Ray thought that he shouldn't.
Still, the possibility of a mana Ring.
From the repeated fights that he had, Ray had realized the importance of mana.
So the possibility of the mana Ring is something that shouldn't be ignored.
"..."
As Ray pondered about what to do, he had decided to try something a bit different than what he normally do...
Arriving upon such thought, Ray realizes the disadvantages of being alone.
'I wonder how they're doing right now.'
...
"Anna!" A woman dressed as an office lady shouted to a girl as they saw a large spider appear from the ground and reach out towards a schoolboy.
"Protection shield!"
From the girl's shout, a bluish transparent shield then appeared in front of the schoolboy as he then dodged the spider's embrace.
"Sleeping Bullet!"
*Bang!
A bullet then penetrated one of the eyes of the spider when it failed to embrace the schoolboy.
*Pshk!
As the spider got hit by the bullet, it only destroyed one of its eyes and didn't do devastating damage, however, due to the bullet's ability, the spider started wobbling like a spider drunk on caffeine.
"Now!" Seeing such a scene, the office lady then shouted towards the surrounding people.
"Enchant Agility!" The same girl as before who had summoned the bluish transparent shield, then shouted again as some kind of light engulfed the middle-aged uncle who had already approached the spider with his short sword.
"Haaaaaaaaaaa!" With a warcry, the uncle then hacked at the spider's head.
*Hack!
The uncle's strike managed to make a cut on the spider's head but it wasn't fatal enough to kill the spider. It seems the spider's head is harder than he thought.
On the other hand, the schoolboy from before had already turned around on the spider's back as he began repeatedly stab the spider's butt with his short sword.
Unlike the head of the spider, the butt of the spider was softer.
*Stab! *Stab! *Stab!...
Seeing that stabs are more effective than hacking at the spider, the uncle then also started stabbing the spider's eyes repeatedly.
One at the back and one in front.
Two males kept on stabbing the spider.
*Stab! *Stab! *Stab! ....
With each stab, the spider's fluids would keep on squirting out, slowly weakening the spider until it was lying twitching on the ground.
*Stab! *Stab! *Stab! ... Even so, they didn't stop their stabbing and even did more so with all their strength.
They only stopped stabbing when they had received the notification of the spider's death.
Breathing heavily, the schoolboy and the uncle rested on the ground to recover their stamina.
"Haa... Damn, man, that sure made us tired"
"Yeah... for some reason, it was much stronger than the zombies."
A girl then came towards them and started shouting at Yale.
"Yale! Why did you dodge earlier? I have already used my shield on you!"
"..."
"Anna, even though we have your shield enchant, it was still better to avoid receiving attacks as much as possible. We don't know what could happen" The office lady said, arriving with an unconscious girl on her back.
"But!"
"Leader is right, Anna... And, it was really scary being confronted face to face with the large spider, I knew that I had your shield, but it still made me so scared that I wouldn't want to get attack by it, with the shield or not"
Hearing Yale's words, for some reason, Anna is now getting teary. She thought that he didn't need her help.
"H-Hey, it's not that I don't trust your shield Anna, Its just... T-that, I'm too much of a pussy... okay?" This time, it was now Yale becoming teary. Seeing the teary Anna, he could only admit his cowardice.
"You! Why is it when we argue, you're always like this?! H-have some backbone!"
"W-what?"
"Oh, Shissshh! Why are you kids so dramatic? It's our first battle, and its a victory! we should be happy! Rejoice!" Cole couldn't help but said on such a sight. He couldn't understand what they are arguing about.
"Cole is right, this is the first time we are working together, and seeing such a result, we should be happy..." The office lady, Flaye, said as she lays down the unconscious girl on the ground.
Yale and Anna then kept on bickering, as Flaye then retreated to the side to recover her fatigue.
She had been carrying Elsa all this time, for she thought it was her responsibility as a leader.
As she closed her eyes trying to take a moment of peace, she then heard a man's voice calling her.
"Boss, you said that we should be happy, but you look like you aren't happy for some reason" Cole, noticing the unsatisfied expression on Flaye, commented.
"No, I'm happy, It's just, that... we really can't compare."
Hearing her words, Cole realized what she meant.
"... you mean the scene from before?"
"Right..."
What Flaye and Cole were talking about were the scenes from a while ago.
Flaye could only describe how much shock they had received earlier.
When they were still on the way towards the forest, they had already seen corpses of spiders littered on the ground.
The scene of seeing the corpses of such large creepy creatures, all dead, is something hard to describe.
Being already baptized by the terrifying scene of seeing the walking zombies. Seeing such large spiders for them isn't really a big deal besides Elsa who fainted at such sight.
But seeing them all just lying there dead made them think how terrifying was the one who had caused the scene... The man from before.
'What was his name again? was it Ray?'
The first time they had seen his capabilities were at the scene of him taking initiative at attacking the zombies.
She could still somewhat remember his name a little since someone with double her stats at the start brought her some kind of shock at first.
Flaye herself had mixed feelings about the man.
She could feel a tiny bit of gratitude for him, but at the same time, she felt annoyed by his initial rejection.
Besides feeling that his existence is a threat to their lives, she also wanted him to feel regretful for not accepting her and Yale.
Right now, Flaye wanted to lead her group towards their wishes.
Her, Anna, Elsa, and Yale, all wished for their love one's resurrection, and God only knows what they really needed to do to fulfill such miraculous wish.
She only knew that it would be a long path full of thorns.
Her thought moved back to Ray... if they are walking on a path full of thorns, then Ray must be someone who is driving an improvised road roller on such road, crushing the thorns and moving without problems.
That feeling only solidified when they saw the scene of a burnt forest and the corpse of a gargantuan spider.
It should be the boss which was called the Brood Queen, and it was already dead. Brutally killed together with its brethren.
The sight of the gargantuan spider made them weak on their knees.
It was good that Elsa was still unconscious at the time, or she would've fainted again.
Do they have to fight such beasts?
It was impossible.
Imagining themselves fighting against it.
At that time, It was good that Yale could detect danger, he had detected that the corpse of the boss was even emitting slight poison that could be lethal if inhaled for too long...
They could only turn around.
They couldn't even come near...
What's more about fighting.
The gap is too big.
How?
How did he manage to do it?
At that time, she had only one feeling at that moment.
Envy?
No.
She wasn't feeling envy, but felt anger towards God.
Why?
Why is God unfair?
Why do they have to do this?
Why did her brother have to die?
Why is she born a woman?
Why is she weak? ...
Her thoughts were getting chaotic at that time, that she had forgotten what really happened.
By then, they had then already turned around to avoid the poison and then reached the area where they are right now.
And with her trying to act as their leader, she managed to come back to her senses and took the lead again.
With a newfound thought that the creatures around here aren't so troublesome considering that at least someone manages to kill them, the group had somehow found its own way in how to interpret the scene.
With the existence of a precedent, they had grown a little bit confident about hunting.
With Yale scouting, they had then discovered that there are still spiders hidden around the surrounding area.
And then this and that happened, and we're here.
What happened earlier was the result of their first fight.
It should be a success.
Flaye then looked sideways and saw the look of concern Cole had.
"What?"
"It's just... boss, you don't need to worry about other people too much, we should just be satisfied as long as we do our best," said Cole in concern.
He didn't like the look Flaye is having right now.
He had already seen such a look a few times in his life, it was the same old look people who had a tendency to self-destruct have.
He knew.
He was the same too...
"..." Hearing such words, Flaye didn't reply.
She doubts if being optimistic was enough to revive her brother.
'brother'
The image of his recently deceased brother began to resurface on her mind, as she had then decided upon something...
Flaye then moved towards where Yale and Anna are, with Cole following her.
"Alright! everyone, after taking a rest for a few more minutes, we'll begin hunting the next one"
"Okay!"
"Alright!"
Besides Cole who remained concerned, the kids replied excitedly.
The recent success had developed their confidence.
...