Chapter 15 Off We Go

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)

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After talking everything over Damian and I eventually get ourselves cleaned up and got some rest for tomorrow's expedition. We have spent several hours going over different scenarios as to what could happen on the expedition and what we could do to overcome some dangers. We eventually decided that we have thought of all the plausible scenarios and that we should try to get as much rest as possible because it was going to be a long and tough expedition.

The next day we both woke up and made sure all our gear was packed and that we have everything that could possibly be needed. Soon after we broke our fast and made sure to satisfy our hunger before we set out for the main gate to meet the rest of the members at noon.

Upon arriving at the main gate, we were one of the first ones to show up as we were thirty minutes early, the guild master had already been waiting at the gate when we arrived. There was no telling how long he had been waiting for the arrival of all the members, but he approved that Damian and I had shown up early proving our commitment to this expedition.

"Good morning gentlemen, I'm glad that the two of you showed up, you even showed up early on top of that. That shows me that you truly want to go on this expedition, and it shows me a lot about your character," the guild masters says walking up to Damian and I.

"Of course, sir, it's always good practice to show up early to gathering and appointments. At least that's how I feel about it, I would hate it if I was forced to wait on someone, so I choose to not make others wait on me," I reply back shaking the guild masters hand.

"Ha ha-ha, good good, that's a fine mindset to have young man," the guild master replies shaking my hand.

Over the next thirty minutes the rest of the members of the expedition finally showed up. Once everyone was present, they finally got organized and ready to head out. Finally, the expedition has begun and it's time to see just how tough these Scarlet Death Spiders really are.

The thirty members of the expedition left through the main gate heading towards the exterior gate that I used to enter the city earlier in the week. It took around an hour for the party to finally reach the gate and exit the mountain. The party journeyed to the foot of the mountain range at the edge of the plains leading to the teleport circle, upon reaching the plains they headed towards the forest that I decided to not go through when I first arrived on this floor.

Several hours later the party finally crossed the flowery plains and made it to the edge of the forest. By this time, it was already starting to get dark, so the group decided to set up camp for the day. Everyone has brought their own tent to stay in and they made a fire in the center of the camp in order to cook food for all the members.

After everyone had eaten their fill, they set up a watch rotation for the night just in case some monsters decided to attack them, even though they were a large group there's still a chance they could get attacked.

The next morning, they made a modest breakfast before packing up their camp and making their way into the forest, they were heading east through the forest to reach their destination, Murcrilium, which is located in a mountain range on the far eastern side of this forest. The forest itself is hundreds of miles long, so it will take the group a few days to traverse it in its entirety. During their travel they saw a few monsters but as expected they all stayed clear of the large group.

On the fourth day of the expedition the group has now made it to the Far East side of the forest to the foothills of the Murcrilium mountain range, just like with the Marbelium mountain range there is a path that will lead the group to the entrance of the underground area of the mountain range. As the group follows this path, they start to see giant webs lining the path up the mountain.

"Well, it looks like we're in the right place," one of the members commented.

"Stay on your guard everyone, we're now entering the Scarlet Death Spiders territory. They could attack us at any time and from anywhere, they will also have the advantage because they can utilize these webs to travel while we are limited to only using this path," the guild master instructs everyone in a serious tone.

Everyone readies their weapons and keeps a watchful eye on their surroundings. While I maintain my awareness, due to its upgrade to E Rank it now allows me to view the entire area around me in a three dimensional field. My awareness now allows me to know of everything in my surrounding up to two hundred feet in a perfect circle, I will automatically know if a monster some within that distance. This will allow me to know the second a monster approaches the group, but the one downside is it will take the group a couple seconds to react to this threat.

An hour goes by, and the group arrives at the mountain entrance, they luckily didn't encounter a single spider on their journey up to here. Looking at the gate the group sees that it is broken outward indicating that the spiders had to break through the door in the past in order to get outside. This fact worried the group from the adventurer's guild because it showed that the spiders would be able to break into Marbelium if they attacked just like they broke through the gates protecting Murcrilium. It also worried them because they're aware of how sturdy the entrance gates are to their cities are and how much force it would take to buckle the gates like they are here at Murcrilium.

"Alright everyone, from here on out we will be inside the mountain, it's going to be a lot more difficult inside because the spiders can also utilize the ceiling of the corridors to come and attack us. As we go through, I want everyone to cut down as many webs as you can in order to hinder the spiders from easily attacking or trapping us. Also, it will let us know if we are being follow or they're trying to entrap us if we end up hacking fresh webs where we've already cut other webs down," the guild master says making sure everyone understands what he just said.

"Before we go in, we will get into formation, our tanks will be in the vanguard followed by our fighters to protect the next line which will be our healers. Myself, James and Damian will be a part of the vanguard. I want everyone to be vigilant, our goal is for nobody to die you got it?" The guild leader yells out to the group.

"Yeeeaahhhh", everyone yells in acknowledgment.

The group arranged themselves according to how the guild master instructed, once everyone was in place, they slowly started making their way into the mountain corridor through the destroyed gate. With the guild master, Damian and I in the lead we start walking down the corridor, surprisingly the fire crystal torches are still on the walls illuminating the corridor, although most are covered in webs diminishing the amount of light visibly being produced.

"Clear the webs from the lanterns, it will allow more light for us to see incoming enemies," I say to everyone as I uses my dagger to cut the webs away from the lantern nearest to me.

"Good idea, you heard the man," says the guild master as he starts clearing webs also.

The expedition's progress slows as they start clearing all the shrouded lanterns, but it tripled the amount of light being produced in the corridor. Finally reaching the halfway point, being the circular room between the two corridors, walking up to the room I immediately senses spiders in the room we're about to walk into.

"Stop", I says holding up his arm to stop Damian and the guild master from going any further. "There are spiders in the room ahead of us," I informs them.

"How can, you be sure? We haven't even walked into the room yet," the guild master asked doubtfully.

"I have a skill that lets me be more aware of my surroundings, including monsters and other living beings," I explain in a quiet voice so the other members can't over hear about my skill.

The guild master looks at me skeptically before looking at Damian for confirmation, Damian nods his head to confirm that I am telling the truth. Seeing him confirm that what I said is true he looks ahead to the end of the corridor in front of them. Looking back to me he asks, "can you tell how many spiders there are and where they are currently positioned?"

"I can't tell the exact number because they're really close to each other, but I can tell that they are all on the ceiling of the room towards the center," I say as I concentrates on my awareness.

"Understood" the guild master says as he readies his axe looking at the entrance to the halfway room.