Chapter 35. Will.
The monster's roar echoed everywhere, as if we were in a cave, and its roar reverberated off the walls. Due to this effect, it was unclear from which direction the monster's attack should be expected. Therefore, Arman shouted, asking the leader of the defeated group:
" What did the dungeon boss look like?"
" Uh... " the guy with a disheveled appearance hesitated. His hair was tousled, and a gaping wound was visible on his armor. Thanks to my joint work with Adel, his wound began to heal.
" Don't dawdle, speak faster, or we might get stuck here together! " Arman shouted.
" It's... " the leader of the defeated group continued to stutter.
" It's a big Arachna. But she's strange. I saw something like her for the first time, as if a new stage of evolution. She grew a human part of her body in the form of a girl. We fell into her trap; she called for help, and I don't know why we rushed, knowing that no one should be here. " suddenly exclaimed the awakened adult man. He was lying down.
When I heard his words, a nauseating feeling crept over me. It was not just that the monster grew a human part of the body, but it felt like someone helped her with it. Considering the dungeon I cleared, a sense of inconsistency and strangeness crept over me.
" Understood. " Arman said briefly, adding after a pause. " Given that we are up against a spider-like monster, we may be surrounded by its web. Be careful, considering that I have no idea where she's attacking us from."
" Let's quickly introduce ourselves. My name is Temir. I came with Arman for company to help you. " I said quickly to the injured group of people. They looked at me with almost bulging eyes; I don't know what surprised them, but I can only guess.
After my words, the situation became more lively; the injured began to whisper among themselves while I tried to stay focused. I constantly checked my mana because I didn't know when I would have to fight against Arachna. So, I opened the information panel.
"Although I was restoring 2 mana per second, the rate at which it was depleting was too high. Therefore, I decided to heal them while I had more than 100 mana in reserve and would restore it to its maximum value."
After some time, as planned, I turned off the passive restoration skill. Most of the heavily injured members of the previous squad, while not fully recovered, were now in stable condition. Many of them regained consciousness, indicating significant progress. Now I needed to quickly restore mana; it would take just over two minutes to reach full recovery.
While restoring mana, I decided to inspect the surroundings more carefully. We were mostly surrounded by trees and swamps, to be more precise, something resembling puddles – these puddles were the swamps. These swampy puddles were located at a short distance from each other, filling the surroundings with swampy masses. The ground around the trees was soil, or more precisely, dead soil. Immediately after exiting the portal, we encountered a fairly large patch of dead soil, where the group we came for settled.
There were few safe places in my opinion, mostly trees clustered in groups of 10-12 trunks, then swampy puddles, and then again trees clustered together. It's as if someone artificially created this territory, deliberately creating such conditions. Among these trees, there were often several trunks reaching a height of more than fifteen meters; possibly, some were even twenty meters high. If you look at the whole picture, it seems like the landscape resembles a chessboard.
"Swamp, trees, and again swamps. As if these were cells on someone's chessboard. During my contemplation, an idea matured in my mind. Perhaps the tops of these trees represent a connecting base for Arachna's web. I assumed that through them, she monitors the entire dungeon territory, transmitting impulses through the web, and the trees themselves produce the roar we hear. Although my assumption may be logical, confirmation would require climbing to the top of one of these trees."
Already prepared to implement my plan using the shadow jump, Ever addressed me:
"Wouldn't it be better to summon birds?" she asked me.
"Uh..." I uttered aloud, giving myself a slap on the face. Because of the looks of the people around me, I felt embarrassed, realizing that I had completely forgotten that I was communicating with her mentally.
"Yes, how could I forget about them," I said in my mind, adding, "What would I do without you, Ever? Thanks for reminding me."
"It's my job to help you," she said as if facepalming at my foolishness.
I approached Arman to inform him that I could summon illusory birds to inspect the territory. As I approached him, I noticed concern on his face, as our biggest worry was the uncertainty of where Arachna's attack might come from.
"Arman," I said as I got closer.
"Temir," he said, turning to me and adding, "Why aren't you with them? Stay there."
"Wait, I came to say that I can summon birds that can warn us of an attack," I said.
"What?! Why didn't you say earlier that you have such an ability?" Arman exclaimed almost yelling. His face showed a slight brightening from this news.
"Let's summon them quickly," Arman urged me with a smile on his face. It was understandable, as my ability would allow us to calmly await the enemy's attack instead of slowly marinating in the situation.
I summoned the birds as I had done before. This time, in response to my summons, 2 red birds and 1 blue bird appeared. Perhaps, it was a good selection for this situation. I sent the birds in three different directions to thoroughly explore the surroundings. After some time, I opened the panel through which I observed the terrain explored by the birds I summoned. My hunch was correct; we were in an area that resembled a game field. We stood before the monster completely exposed, and even the place where we currently were could be easily seen.
"We have big problems," I accidentally said aloud.