Chapter 14 Know Thy Enemy

By the end of upgrading my attributes and creating my new unique skill, Damian was able to gather all his belongings and move them to his new house inside of Rinascita. The two of us spent the night inside of our homes for the first time that night. The next day the two of us met up and returned to Marbelium and made our way back to the adventurer's guild for the briefing at noon.

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Damian and I made it to the guild hall ten minutes before the briefing began and got ourselves something to eat and drink so we can enjoy ourselves as we learn about what monsters we're going to end up hunting tomorrow with the rest of the expedition members.

At noon the guild master came out of his office and stood before the entire group of twenty-nine expedition members, everyone immediately quieted down as he stood before them, giving him their undivided attention.

This surprised Damian and I, because of all the times we've seen the members of this guild they were rowdy and seemed like a band of ruffians. So, it was quite the surprise when everyone stopped talking and turned towards the guild master silently waiting for him to start speaking.

"Good afternoon, thank you all for showing up on time to this important briefing, as I'm sure you all have noticed we have two individuals here that don't belong to our guild and one of them isn't even a dwarf but a goblin. I am personally vouching for them to join us so be at ease and leave them to me. If they endanger the expedition, I'll personally kill the both of them," the guild master said with conviction. All of the guild members cheered loudly showing their agreement with their guild masters decision.

"Alright then down to business, as you all know there has been a threat growing in the past few years near the entrance to the third floor of the crypt. This threat is in fact a monster nest that has grown to the point that it endangers the safety of this city. The monsters that come from this nest are in fact "Scarlet Death Spiders." There was an audible gasp from the gathered guild members. Damian and I however didn't react like the others, instead we looked at each other in confusion.

"Excuse me sir, I say raising my hand, but what are Scarlet Death Spiders?"

"Ah yes, you're not from this place and don't hunt monsters here so you're not familiar with them. Scarlet Death Spiders are a rare variant of a common breed of monster known as Death Spiders. The key difference is the mutation that makes a Death Spider into a Scarlet Death Spider, this mutation makes the Death Spider larger by two times the normal size of a Death Spider. Also, their exoskeleton turns a scarlet red color because they are born with a fire affinity that allows them to heat up their surroundings along with the webs they produce," he explains.

"Their webs don't appear to be visibly hot, but they are in fact hot enough to cut right through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter.

This is why they're so dangerous, because if you're not careful and run into a tread from this particular monster, you can cut your head clean off your shoulders. Many of our guild have died in the past due to these monsters, but in all our records we have never had a nest of them before. It in fact wasn't until recently that we learned that it wasn't a normal Death Spider nest like it's been thought for the past several years.

Our best guess is that a female Scarlet Death Spider was born and ended up killing the old queen and becoming the new queen of the nest and began to birth scarlet death spiders that then began to eat the normal Death Spiders," the guild master tells everyone.

"It isn't known exactly how many spiders there are in the nest because it's inside of a mountain like our city is. The nest is in our original city from millennia ago, "Murcrilium", although the nest is only a few centuries old it's not known to what extent the nest has occupied our ancestral city. So, when we are out there clearing the nest, our secondary adjective is to map out the city, so we have an up-to-date map of the city," he says outlining our objectives.

"So, are we going to completely wipe out all of the Scarlet Death Spiders? If so, how long are we planning to take for this expedition? Also are there any rewards for participating in this expedition," I asks curiously.

"Yes, we are planning to completely eradicate all of the Scarlet Death Spiders since they pose a very significant and dangerous threat to this city. As for the length of the expedition, we don't have a set time to complete it since we don't know the full extent of the nest but the sooner, we finish it the better. We would like to complete the expedition with little to no casualties if at all possible, so if we have to use more time to accomplish this goal then so be it. There is a monetary reward for this expedition and also you can keep any items you happen to find in the nest while participating in the expedition," explains the guild master to all those present.

"How much is the monetary reward," one of the members calls out.

"It will be five hundred gold a person," replies the guild master.

Everyone is stunned, that's a lot of gold, and everyone starts murmuring. With the amount of gold from this expedition a person could live a modest life and not have to ever work again. Although that just goes to show how dangerous this expedition truly is, for the amount of money being offered the mortality rate is also going to be very high.

"Is it known how high of a rank these Scarlet Death Spiders are? Also, what are their known weaknesses that we can exploit to kill them quicker," I ask while everyone is still thinking about the reward money.

"From past records a Scarlet Death Spider has a Rank range of E - D, although these records are decades old so we can't be sure how accurate they are. As for their weaknesses they're the same as a normal Death Spiders, which are as follows, their eyes, abdomen and their joints. What you have to watch out for are their front mandibles and their spinneret glands," he explains to me.

After hearing this information I become deep in thought about how best to fight the spiders since they are going to be four to five times stronger than me. The best course of action would be to use my clone to assist me in fighting, that way I will have a lot more options during a fight than if it is just myself and Damian. Although we will also have the guild masters with us, since he stated that he will be keeping a close eye on us in case we are planning on sabotaging the mission in some way shape or form. That would bring their party to four people essentially instead of just the three, also the clone is able to use every skill, and will also be generated with all my gear so I won't have to worry about finding equipment for him.

"Alright everyone, this concludes our mission briefing, we will meet tomorrow at the main gate at noon and set out for the Murcrilium," the guild master states dismissing everyone.

Damian and I head to the inn where I am currently renting a room in order to discuss the information we just learned from the briefing. Upon arriving at the inn, we ordered some food to be brought up to the room, so we won't have to come down to eat and disrupt our strategy planning.

"Alright so for me it will be pretty difficult to kill the spiders by myself since there is potentially an entire rank gap between them and I. Although for you it shouldn't be as difficult since it will only be about half a rank since you're a peak E Rank blacksmith. What we might have to do in order for me to quickly gain rank is have you and the guild master weaken them and either myself or my clone kill it to gain the monster core. It will be pretty difficult in the beginning but as my stats increases it'll get easier and easier since my clone will share my stats," I say out loud thinking about all the different factors that'll come into play on this expedition.

"That does sound like the best option that we have, I know that you'll still be a great assets in killing them even being out leveled by so much. However, the sooner we can get your stats up the better just in case there are some unforeseen events," Damian says agreeing with the assessment.

Status:

Race - Goblin

Title - Nephelium's Successor

Soul Rank - Mortal (progressive)

E Rank

Strength - 95 (20)

Intelligence - 200

Stamina - 95 (25)

Dexterity - 95 (15)

Vitality - 95 (20)

Agility - 95 (25)

Magic - Infinite

Luck - Blessing of Fortuna

Available Attribute Points - 4

Skills:

Awareness Rank E

Slash Rank E

Appraisal Rank E

Sneak Rank E

Craftsman Rank E

Aegis Rank E

Hallowed Ground Rank E

Magic Bullet Rank E

Innate Skills:

Creation (Active) Divine Rank

Blessing of Fortuna (Passive) Divine Rank

Genesis (Active) Divine Rank

Unique Skill:

Lux Artis (Passive

I wonder if I should make a few more skills, or if I should wait until I gain more stats in the expedition. "What do you think Neph?" I say in my head.

(At the present time I think it would be more beneficial to wait until you increase your stats more before making another skill. Also, if you wait until you evolve again, I'm confident you'll have better options skill wise and also more options with your system).

I understand, thank you for your advice, Neph.

(You're welcome)