As the three sat down on the floor for a little break, an idea popped up in Alex's head as he looked back in Katherine's direction.
"Wait, let's try going back instead. It's the only direction we didn't go yet."
The other two seemed a little confused by Alex's suggestion, but they followed through with it.
"You guys gave up?"
Seeing Alex shaking his head, Katherine was a little confused until he said his choice.
"The exit to this maze is just walking back, right?"
After a short silence, Katherine suddenly started clapping.
"You guys finally figured it out. There is no exit no matter how many times you keep trying."
"I knew it——"
"How, though? It doesn't make sense for us to end up in the same place if we keep walking right, no?"
Mary was still a little confused as the four of them began to walk down the path where they came from.
"You're right. It doesn't make sense if you just think it normally... But it's a dungeon.
If you guys had been more careful, you could have simply shot a spell down the hall.
Then the spell would have teleported right into your faces... You get how it works now?"
All three of them were still a little confused, until they realized what she was implying was a hidden teleporter at the end of the crossroad.
"But how come we didn't notice any mana being cast? Wouldn't teleportation cause the mana to become unstable?"
Sophia raised a question that had been bothering her mind as they had arrived back in the giant room.
"Not all teleportation requires mana, just like how scrolls can work without mana.
The spell is carved underneath the ground, only absorbing the nearby dark element to create the teleportation effect."
As Katherine finished explaining, the four of them arrived in the middle of the giant room.
There was a staircase upward that wasn't there previously, with a hole in the ceiling just big enough for someone to walk through.
The three of them quickly followed Katherine up to the second floor, which turned out to be a small little room.
It was so small that it was just wide enough for them to stretch out their arms side by side.
"Where are we now?" Mary asked in confusion, as the room did not have an exit or any sort of door.
Katherine didn't answer, making the three wait as everywhere around them suddenly started to shake.
After a few seconds, the shaking finally stopped, revealing another small hole in front of them, just big enough for one person to crawl into.
"Down this hole will be the final boss of this dungeon. Inside, there will be a level-two monster. It's up to you if you guys want to fight it or leave now——"
"We're fighting it!"
All three of them interrupted at the same time, their face full of excitement as they had been waiting for this moment.
"Very well. Remember, just because I'm here doesn't mean you can just take risks.
I'll block the attack if your guy's lives are in danger, but it will also end the challenge and the trip."
All three nodded in agreement, allowing Katherine to crawl into the small hole first.
---
As Alex followed right behind Katherine, he tried his best to look away, but her thighs were right before his eyes.
Soon, he could feel his body starting to act up, making it extremely awkward for him as the leggings tightly pressed downward.
Fortunately, his knee skirt covered most of it, preventing Sophia and Mary from seeing it from the back.
After crawling for who knows how long, the four of them finally reached the end of the tunnel.
As soon as Katherine jumped down to the floor, she instantly chanted something out loud.
"Shadowbind!"
To all three kids' shock, the giant room in front of them was immediately surrounded by dark clouds.
The giant monsters ahead were completely frozen in place, almost as if something was holding them back.
"Come on, jump down. Don't be scared. It's not that high."
Katherine's voice snapped Alex back to reality. Looking down, he saw it was only a one-meter jump.
After landing on his feet, he quickly moved to the side to let his sister jump down as well.
"You three ready?"
The moment the three of them nodded, Katherine and all of the dark cloud in the room vanished simultaneously.
Right before their eyes was a giant spider ahead, almost triple their size, but still smaller than the slime that they fought earlier.
Alex immediately rushed forward with his shield raised, with Sophia and Mary already casting their spell.
Despite having created enough space, he decided to continue charging forward even more, reaching almost to the spider's feet.
This time, however, Alex didn't take out his sword. Instead, he focused all of his attention on his shield.
The giant spider immediately raised one of its legs and stepped right on top of Alex, only for him to block it.
The shield Katherine created was able to block it without even making a dent. Still, he could feel his arm feeling a little sore just from a second of contact.
"God damn, this thing hurts," Alex murmured as he ran back to the middle before taking out his sword.
"Watch out!"
Sophia's voice made Alex immediately roll to the side as a loud swoosh traveled right past him.
When he finally had the time to look, he saw a visible cut wound on one of the spider's legs, with small drops of blood dripping down.
"That easily? Really?"
Alex immediately charged forward with his sword, aiming to slash at one of the spider's stick-like legs.
However, he was hit with the reality as the spider raised its leg and stabbed downward.
The speed was so fast that he almost couldn't dodge it, forcing him to block. But after several close encounters, he was starting to get the hang of it.
Every spider leg stab had a second of pause, allowing him to slash his sword before running back.
For a second, he could feel he was fighting a boss in a game—a swordman fighting a giant spider.
"Alex! Careful!"
As Mary's voice appeared, Alex quickly noticed the spider's leg started to move faster and faster.
It was so fast that it became impossible to dodge, forcing him to use his shield before he had to retreat.
"Alex, stall for a little longer! We're going to try to kill this thing in one shot!"
"Easy for you to say——"
As the spider suddenly lunged itself towards him, Alex quickly rolled to the side to narrowly dodge it.
"He's changing pattern!"
Just as the spider bit downward with its mouth, Alex raised his shield on top of casting a water barrier.
He could immediately feel his bone in his left arm almost snap in half as the water barrier barely did anything to block it.
With no time to waste, Alex stabbed his sword forward, piercing right through the spider's mouth.
The giant spider immediately lunges back a little, forcing Alex to let go of his sword as it shrieked in agony.
With only the shield left, he quickly started to walk back up further and further.
"Dunk down!"
Alex immediately followed Sophia's order as a loud bang echoed in the entire room.
A giant fireball had landed right onto the spider's face, causing it to shriek even louder than before
"Fuck! This thing is so high-pitched!"
As the shriek continued, Alex could feel his ear starting to ring despite him covering both of his ears.
Even Mary and Sophia in the back were forced to cover their ears as the spider continued to shriek in pain.
After ten seconds, the sound finally stopped, allowing the three of them to let go of their ears and look at the giant spider.
A massive part of its body was completely blown off, with blood pouring down all over the floor.
Its eight red eyes were filled with anger. Yet it didn't charge forward as it started to shoot the web to form a wall around itself.
Alex didn't run in this time, opting to walk all the way back to the other two as the spider didn't show any interest in advancing.
"Brother, you remember the lesson in class, right?" Sophia asked as she and Mary began casting a spell.
"Of course I do."
As Alex took a step back to stand next to Mary, he began to transfer his mana over to Sophia.
A big rock began to form above all three of them, condensing repeatedly until it became a small marble ball.
Then, rapidly, it began to expand in size as fire appeared, all the way until the rock reached into a giant flaming boulder.
"Take this!"
As Sophia directed the fireball forward, it flew through the cobweb wall like butter and continued forward towards the spider.
To their surprise, the spider itself had a massive layer of cobweb, almost like a caterpillar wrapping itself to become a butterfly.
All of the energy was absorbed as the fireball fell onto the floor, leaving only a few burnt marks on the spider's nest.
"Alex, what should we do? Should we keep throwing spells at it?"
Sophia asked, seemingly a little lost as their strongest spell combined didn't make a dent in the web.
"Let's just wait and regenerate our mana first... It has to get out of the web at some point."
After waiting for a bit, the giant spider finally revealed itself as the cobweb began peeling itself.
"What is this? Why is it so small now..."
All three of them were shocked to see that the spider had somehow gone from triple their size to almost the same size as Katherine.
More importantly, it had a humanoid body with disturbing eight eyes and eight hairy spider legs attached to it.
"You three, step back. I'll handle this."
Katherine's voice immediately made all three of the kids run to the back as she appeared right in front of them.
The spider quickly started to shoot its web into the ceiling, pulling itself up as it rapidly crawled toward them.
At the same time, the three kids could feel a surge of dark elements all traveling towards Katherine before it all vanished.
Just as the three of them blinked, the spider's body had dropped dead onto the floor, with blood spilling all over the place.