Since the defensive crystals were stolen from Audaznimo, they had to start placing the soldiers on guard duty seriously.
Even before the crystals were stolen, the soldiers were always placed on guard duties at the north and south gates, but they didn't really take it seriously because of their unwavering trust in the defensive crystals, and in the end, that turned out to be a huge mistake.
The soldiers on watch duty that night were punished severely, but what had already happened wasn't reversible, they were just used as examples for their mates.
Now the guards took their watch duties seriously be it daytime or nighttime.
What happened that horrible night when the crystals were stolen also caused the king to place restrictions on how people could leave or enter the kingdom, the only ones who were allowed to move freely were the adventurers but they still had to undergo thorough searches.
Anyone else had to go through a lot of processes that could be really stressful depending on the reason for leaving the city.
Devon along with Erina and the old man were now at the city gate waiting for the guards to give them the go-ahead order.
They were still inspecting a merchant trying to get into the city so they had to wait.
The expression on Devon's face clearly showed that he didn't like the idea of Erina coming with him and he had already tried to convince her to stay back, but she insisted that she was coming.
He tried to argue that she didn't have any weapon with her and how that could be dangerous if they encounter anything on the way.
He could have forced her to stay back with that if Evangeline had not pulled out a polearm out of nowhere.
That polearm was what she was holding now, it was just a basic-looking polearm with a curved long blade at the end.
The weapon she had the most knowledge of using was the polearm, so it was good that it was the weapon Evangeline had to give her.
The guards turned to the three as soon as they were done with the merchants, and after the old man told them that the two were the adventurers escorting him, they were asked for their badge, and after providing it, they were allowed to leave the city.
The only route to Sunglow village was a path through the forest so they were at more risk of encountering beasts than bandits.
There was nothing said between the three for a while as they slowly made their way down the path.
Erina was walking alongside the old man while Devon followed them closely from behind.
"You know, I've never gotten escorted by adventurers as young as you two before." The old man remarked.
"Are you worried?" Erina asked before tilting her head toward him.
"Of course, I'm worried, I don't know if brats like you will be able to handle anything we come across.
"Miss Evangeline has already told you that you will be safe with me, you just like complaining old man," Devon uttered from the back.
"That's the problem, she says that but you don't look like a reliable person."
"Looks have nothing to do with how reliable someone is, do you even realize how stupid that sounds?"
While the old man was busy trying to belittle Devon, Erina shifted her gaze away from them for a second, and that was when she noticed something really strange.
There were spider webs all over the trees around them and they weren't just ordinary spider webs or else she wouldn't be able to see them.
Huge spider webs curled around the trees, it was pretty obvious that those weren't from any ordinary spider, and after coming to that conclusion her eyes widened in shock.
She quickly turned around to inform the two that something wasn't right when she spotted a black spider just the size of Devon's head coming down on his head from above.
"Devon, watch out!" She yelled before she quickly swung her polearm toward the spider, slicing it up in the process.
Devon had to take the goo from the squashed spider, unfortunately.
"What the heck was that?"
"Look around you."
As soon he heard her say that, he slowly looked around to see that all the trees surrounding them were covered with huge spider webs.
"This is not good." He said with a horrid look on his face before quickly pulling out his sword from his back.
"What's going on?" The old man asked with a worried voice.
"We're being followed, that's what's going on, we're being followed by spiders." He expressed trying to sound as calm as possible.
"We have to get out of here quick." Erina voiced with a panicky voice.
Her gaze was constantly switching between places because she was expecting the worst at this moment.
"Looks like we'll have to make the run for it, old man."
Making a run for it would have made sense if they started doing that from the start of their journey, but right now, their path was covered with about a dozen spiders just the size of the one that came toward Devon from above.
After seeing that their path was blocked, Devon slowly turned back to see that they also had the same situation back there.
"Erina, you take the back, I'll take the front, don't let them get close to him."
"Understood." She replied before quickly turning back.
The spiders were quickly closing up on them but before the two were determined to keep the old man safe as they raised their weapons and began to defend against the arachnids.
For someone who hardly trained with the group, Erina was quite skilled with the polearm.
With just a swift swing, she was able to cut down five spiders but with each kill, more of them came crawling out from the woods.
"Where are they all coming from?" She snarled before stabbing one of the spiders into the floor.
Two more immediately came flying toward her from above, but just before they could get to her, her hand suddenly took a red glow as she sliced right through them.
Devon was the one pushing them forward and unlike Erina, his attacks had more aggression than style to it.
He was hoping that he would be able to get them through safely and they were doing well so far until they came to a dead end.
A dead end made out of spider webs that they had to cut through if they wanted to keep moving forward.
There were still spiders coming toward them, and after slashing them off with his blade, he went directly for the webs blocking their path but that was a big mistake.
His sword wasn't even able to slice through the web in the slightest and ended up getting stuck.
"What the heck?"
Seeing his sword get stuck like that was quite appalling and terrifying at the same time because the spiders were still coming toward them and he didn't have his sword.
"Hey come on, just pull the sword out!" The old man yelled.
That situation could have ended terribly, but before the spiders could get to them, Erina pulled up in front of them with her polearm and cut them into pieces.
"Thanks, Erina," Devon said before letting out a sigh of relief. "It looks like we're stuck here and my sword is also stuck."
They were able to catch their breath for a while because the spiders suddenly stopped coming toward them but they knew things weren't exactly over yet.
"Argh!"
Every single effort to pull his sword out was just futile, and the fact that he was being careful not to get stuck himself made it even harder.
"The webs from those spiders weren't this strong," Erina commented.
She had been trying to make sense of things since the spiders started coming toward them but now it was starting to make sense.
"Yeah, one of them shot a web at me and it was easy to clean off, this one's super strong," Devon replied before letting go of his sword.
"What are you two trying to say?" The old man inquired.
He was literally shaking in his pants at this moment, he thought he would die just a few minutes ago.
"There's a bigger..."
Before she could finish that statement, a huge shadow suddenly covered them.
Devon was the one facing toward that side so he was the first to see what it was.
A gigantic black spider with very long hands, just its presence alone was enough to make the air stuffy.
The first place his eyes went as soon as he spotted it was near its head where he spotted three white lines.
'Unique Tier? We're screwed.'
"Erina, watch out!" He screamed before quickly pushing her out of the way.
However, he failed to move out of the way himself as the spider's long claws ended up piercing right through the left side of his abdomen.
"Ugh…" He groaned in pain as a small amount of blood started to spill out from his mouth.
The spider didn't look like it was planning to pull out its claws and was rather pulling him in slowly.
His clothes slowly soaked up his blood while a lot of the liquid dropped on the floor.
"Devon, no!" Erina screamed in terror.
She felt like dropping her polearm in shock but with every bit of her will she had left, she tightened her grip on it and struck it at the spider's leg but the weapon just bounced off it without making a single scratch.
"Huh"
"Get your stupid claw out of my body, insect!" Devon screamed as he used every bit of strength he had left to push himself backward and out of the claw.
After getting off the claw, he dropped to the floor with both of his hands stretched out.
"Devon!" Erina cried before covering her mouth with her hand.
"Both of you give your hands to me."
Judging by the amount of blood he had already lost, he should have lost consciousness by now but he was still hanging in there.
"We're about to die and you're asking for our hands?"
The old man was really trying hard to keep himself from screaming out loud.
"Just give me your hands, trust me."
Erina had already stretched out her hands, her hands were really trembling, and just before the old man could do so, the spider hit its claw on the floor knocking up a large rubble that hit him on his head and knocked him out.
He fell directly beside Devon which was just good for him.
'This is my only option now.'
[ Location acquired ]
[ -40 Energy ]
The spider came toward them again this time with both of its claws, but just as it was about to hit them, it ended up hitting nothing but the wind.
It didn't take long before the three found themselves beside a river, but Devon was no longer moving.