9 9

After everybody was rested and freshened up in different areas we came together for a final weapons check before once more setting out.

Even though the basic radar scan could not account for the collapsed tunnel or the exact body count, the radar had projected a long stretch of large tunnel with several 'bubble' areas where bodies were found. Despite the incredible activity we had caused in other parts of the cave system, the mobs further down the main tunnel did not show any signs of coming down. They probably had strict orders of some sort or low detection abilities.

Considering the first 'bubble' of enlarged tunnel we came across was over a hundred yards down the way, probably only vibrations could actually make it this far through the dense rock from either distant explosion site. Regardless, there were five or six slimes not much smaller than the sedan-sized spiders. There were also more than twice as many spiders.

No matter how tired I was from swinging this big behemoth around I had little choice but to draw my my big sword for the sake of efficiency. Since the spiders were faster than the slimes were big, I moved to the front to support the right side of the tankers. Ms. Gwyn quickly positioned both Emile and Carlos on the opposing side with Emilia for damage support.

Leo was placed to support me for coverage as I rushed in and cleaves my sword down through the side of one spider's front, only barely managing to destroy some of its head and cripple it. It body did little to stop the flow of spiders, but it did help make the spider behind it present a better target on a chopping block when it tried to climb over. The second swiftly hewing chop cleaved down closer to the middle of their body and bisected their crunched head.

A brief spray of almost liquid-like fire burning at over a thousand degrees brushed by me like a jet of water, coating the two bodies to burn like napalm and fuse the keratin exoskeletons together. Two bodies made a larger obstacle and already caused division in the spider's ranks. This division distributed spiders away from the tankers and right to me.

Ignoring the first spider that was still a second or two away, I hop around my obstacle and slash through the firelight to carve away the back of a spider's body and legs. Then I turned into a sideways sweep of my sword that caught the incoming spider from outside its legs. The body was more than half of my sword and arm length away so I could not cut through to reach its head, but the sheer strength of the blow caused the spider's body to leave the ground, hit the ground, and then roll awkwardly to the side of the tunnel.

No sooner was that spider out of the way when Leo stepped in with another entrapping stream of fire that fused the third spider into place. I could tell these guys were experienced in dealing with both spiders and fast moving bodies just from the mage's ability to provide good defensive support. Even if a spider was still alive, once it was fused to other bodies it was more or less stuck in place.

A blockage of three bodies soon became four and then five when I managed to kill my sixth spider in a good position. By then, the slimes were catching up and most of the spiders had been funneled into a shooting gallery on the other side. Even though their bodies were not melted together into a grotesque sculpture, their pile was higher by the time I leaped up and down into a tearing slash angling through a slime's upper body.

These slimes were not shrunken and weakened from intense flames like the others, so just coming within range of the attack was enough to earn me several flailing lashes of tentacles about my body. However, my coat was thick and my proto-suit was the most recent model. Blunt impacts on these levels could not even reach my body.

The others had also turned their attention to the few remaining slimes by the time I retreated and returned with another leaping slash at my second target. Now, I only had to worry about bleeding out these two slimes to preserve their cores. Because I was still new to E grade dungeons I had underestimated the numbers involved.

Just after this 'skirmish' I was grateful for the fact that Ms. Gwyn called for a break. Many team leaders would probably call for a big push now or next, but I was confident she would make a wiser decision. While I was down to my current speed loaders, Emile and Carlos were both carrying spare ammo for their sister and had even offered some to me.

I personally intended to save my last few personal rounds for the final fight since there were confirming signs of a boss, so I only accepted a single reload set from them. As it turned out, their bullets were a higher grade than mine. Tactfully accepting a single loadout was a smart move on my part.

The next bubble we reached a few minutes of walking later contained roughly equal numbers of roughly ten slimes and spiders. The spiders unanimously went down under a hail of gunfire from three triple barreled revolvers on either side of the closely huddled tankers. When both Emilia and I stopped to reload, Carlos and Emile both walked forward to group the slimes together with light traveling sweeps of their larger swords.

Once they were together another hail of sidearm fire shredded the front bodies and tenderized those behind. After having leaped almost a dozen yards away in either direction, Carlos and Emilia took their time returning to finish the few remaining slimes. Luckily for everyone, most of their cores were still intact.

After spending two of my own loads, I had two remaining after reloading my gun. I reloaded my empty speed loaders with higher quality ammo and decided to draw the limit there. Even if Ms. Gwyn suddenly called for a big push, I would tell them I would catch up. I needed time to finish reloading my guns at the very least.

Thankfully, after clearing a small cavern of only a few spiders and a dozen giant octo-slug things with the combined firepower of my remaining personal rounds and big sword directly supported by Emilia, I could volunteer to collect cores and use that as an excuse to take a break.

Only a couple of slimes were still capable of flopping this or that area if their bodies so I targeted them first. Once they were out of the way I took the time to restore my kit before tackling the job of collecting cores the sizes of small melons. A perk of the increased numbers in E rank portals was that each of these melons was worth between thirty and fifty contribution points.

Hanging from the outside of my kit under my big sword was a bag of over two dozen cores of various sizes. I only took three good cores for my own bag, though, and left the others for the 'party loot'. Everybody was given a distribution of pay and points based on the number of spiders because their cores were different but I had stipulated my own slime core collecting in my contract.

After a good fifteen minutes spent leisurely core collecting without my coat to avoid the large amount of splashing, I took my time drying off and resting after giving the team their cores. Nobody else seemed unhappy with the extended break on what should supposedly be the last leg of the race. If there turned out to be more tunnels I was going home.

The final stretch of tunnel seemed to take forever of walking in near darkness in which reached a single turn. That turn led on for another few dozen yards of darkness lit only by our lanterns and personal lights before the soft bluish white light of a distant crystal cluster entered the tunnel.

The cavern at the end of this length of tunnel was at least as wide across as the tunnel was long with a mana crystal cluster of high rank dimly illuminating the surroundings from the center. There were a few more visible sources of glowing rock from smaller grass or weed-like clusters of lower grades, but these were only what were visible from halfway down the tunnel.

The cavern itself was sure to hold a great quantity of both monetary and contribution rewards.

Likewise, my years of education and training told me this was the kind of location where a much higher tier boss would be located. However, there was little in sight from the tunnel. I could not even make out any movement in the cavern at all.

"This has got bad vibes all over it," Ms. Gwyn says to break the silence, speaking the line of thought most of us were having. "What do you guys want to do? We have not received any attention from them, yet, so there's still time."

Nobody really said anything and either looked to Leo, Emilia, or me. I was surprised to make eye contact with MS. Gwyn after checking Leo and receive and arched brow.

I decided to break the next silence by taking off my baldric and asking, "Who is the fastest runner here?" When most of the people here now only looked to Emilia and I, I say, "Without those and this coat, I'm around forty pounds lighter. Lighten up and I'll follow you to and back from the entrance to scout. If we get any attention, leave me behind on the spot."

Emilia was looking at me dubiously in only my proto-suit and weapons belt, but Carlos loudly mutters, "Don't worry about leaving him behind, he'll be back for that bag on the sword."

Looking to what I could only assume was some for of relation to her, Emilia finally shrugs and takes off her rifle kit and gun belts to give to Emile. Because of the revolvers, that alone was removing at least thirty pounds. "Ladies first," I say with a smile while lightly stretching either knee up to my chest in alternating hops.

My proto-suit was still pretty slick from both active and diluted slime mucus, so it was something I could comfortably run in. In my head, I already had a perfectly logical retreat response for almost any attention we might receive. Turn tail and run back to the previous bubble in the tunnel.

Anything big enough to dominate such a space was less likely to fit beyond the bend in the tunnel leading to the crystal cavern.

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