26 A Spider Filled Cave

Starting the new day, Alice and Yumi set out to the blacksmith Lazlo to pick up Yumi's new and repaired weapon after receiving some extra funds from Arita. "I can't wait to be able to use my favorite weapon again! " Yumi said excitedly as she walked and skipped. "I bet, i want to see how you will fight using that odd weapon as well. After we finish up at Lazlo's we should go to the Guild and find a party or a group request to finish, speaking of fights what level are you? " Alice asked just realizing hse never bothered to look or find out before.

| Yumi Astala Level 18 |

"I am level 18 right now, and i am rank D at the guild, you cant hit rank C until you're level 25 and finish a few dungeons or do 10 solo requests in D rank. " Yumi said causing Alice to give a blank stare before replying, "You have a few levels on me i am only level 13 and just got D rank not long ago. "

"Well you have three elements and as far as I know you have great combat experience so it isnt a problem having you in my party, " Yumi said as they arrived at Lazlo's.

After paying Lazlo the silver and reviving both the repaired and brand new Kyoketsu-shoge, Yumi stored the repaired one and attached the new one to her wait band, the chain was made from carbon steel, the both ends of the weapon looked black with a silver glow on the blades making it look quite weird to Alice as she was looking at it.

"Now that that is settled we should head to the guild to see what party we can join! " Yumi said taking Alice's hand and rushing off towards the Guild. 'Even after knowing I know where to go she still prefers to lead me around like this, well whatever she is happy. ' Alice thought to her self.

'You can pretend all you want that you don't like it but we both know it makes you happy, ' Little Shadow said as he kept pace with the two girls.

Arriving at the Guild the two girls made their way to the dungeon board to see about finding a party when Alice heard a group of shady men talking at a table near by causing her heart to sink.

"Did you hear that a Demon is making his way to this kingdom? "

"Yeah, apparently he has some business at the Mage's Guild, I wonder what happened to cause one of those guys to come all this way? "

"Who knows, but I am probably going to hang out closer to the kings castle in case anything goes wrong.. "

"That is a good idea maybe we can find some temporary work up there. "

Hearing the conversation Alice's face went pale as Yumi was busy looking at all the party openings and different dungeons while trying to find one suitable for Alice to tag along with.

"I found a dungeon party with two openings Alice! " Yumi said turning around to see Alice pale with a worried look. "There is a Demon coming to this kingdom Yumi... " Alice said.

"If you heard people talking about that rumor I wouldn't worry to much, my father looked into it and the Demon that is on his way is just a low level one. If something happens then the Demon wont be able to leave this kingdom alive. " Yumi said hugging Alice trying to cheer her up.

"I want to level as soon as possible... Let's join whatever party you talked about... " Alice said as Yumi took the flyer down and took it to the party leader sitting at a table at the back of the Guild. The leader was a human man with blonde hair and blue eyes that looked like he could be a Angel if he had wings. He was very fit and had a large shield on his back and a sword at his side.

"Are you Eric? My name is Yumi, and this is Alice. If you still have two spots open we would like to join. " Yumi said politely. "That is me, yeah I still have two spots open. Currently we are lacking Damage dealers so we are not interested in any Mage's right now. " Eric replied with a smile seeing the two beauties wanting to join his party.

"I can use three elements but I am best with my scythe or a sword and dagger. " Alice said as she pulled the scythe out of her inventory. "Well now, you don't see that kind of weapon everyday. As long as your friend Yumi is also a Damage dealer then there should not be a problem with you two joining the rest of my party will be here shortly they will be pretty happy to have another girl or two in the party, so far I am the only male. " Eric said motioning the two to sit and join him for a drink while they wait on the rest of the party.

While talking to each other about their levels and attack styles the other members of Eric's group started to show up one after another. The first to show up was the healer, a tall and slim man by the name of Josh who instead of having a staff used a shield and mace which seemed odd to Alice. Wondering how the man would effectively heal and buff the team if he was fighting like everyone else the next member of the party showed up. She was a very voluptuous woman in her late 20's, having black long hair and eyes that seemed to drag you in, she introduced herself as Yuki. She continued by informing the two new members of the party that she was the parties mage using the Earth Element.

A short period later the last member of the team arrived, he was only slightly taller than Alice and had blue hair carrying a short staff with a large blue gem at the top wrapped up by the staffs wood. He introduced himself as Alex the parties second mage who used the Water Element.

Finishing the introduction the party leader began by talking about the dungeon the party will attempt to complete. "Okay, the dungeon we will be going to today is know as the Spider Queens Burrow. Many adventures have died in this dungeon and the lowest level monster in there is level 15, Alice is only level 13 but she has good combat experience and ability so if she gets overwhelmed I have instructed her to recover near the mages until we can leave the dungeon. This dungeon has only three floors but the Queen has been known to appear on the second floor at times so I want everyone to be on guard once we enter the dungeon. " Eric said gaining nods from everyone.

"I am not sure how long the dungeon will take but this dungeon is well known for dropping worth while loot from killing the queen, if everyone is ready we should set out to the dungeon and get things started. " Eric said while standing up.

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Arriving at a large cave in one of the mountains Eric informed the party that they are in front of the dungeon entrance and to get their gear ready. Along the way to the dungeon the party helped Little Shadow reach level 11 allowing him to gain his first skill.

| Little Shadow level 11 |

HP 180/180

MP 200/200

Skill - Beast Fang tier 1 (Bites a monster or human in a critical area causing a bleed effect -10 HP per second for 10 seconds)

Felling proud that he can help more with dungeons Shadow walked ready to pounce beside Alice as the party entered the Dungeon. 'Alice please let me help when you need me so i can gain experience with you, my next skill will happen at level 20, ' Shadow pleaded eager to become more than a fierce looking house cat.

"Don't worry Shadow If you see a chance to help please do, " Alice said smiling feeling a little calmer as they go further into the cave while using her Fire Element to make a small Fireball in her hands to give the party some light as they walk and look around for mobs. The cave was dark with little to no light other than Alice's fire and dead silent with large spider webs covering the cave walls.

"Okay we should stop in the middle of this chamber I will use my 'war cry' to pull any monsters hiding to ambush us so be ready. " Eric said before his throat has a slight red glow to it like he was about to breath fire.

"HUUUAAAAAAAAAA!! "

Eric yelled out using his skill, the chamber fell silent again for a short moment before they could hear the sounds of spiders crawling out from behind the spider webs covering the cave walls. "They're coming be careful! they may not be big but they're all level 15! " Eric yelled out. "EEEEEEEKKKKK! " Yumi yelled out at the sight of the creepy spiders that had eight long legs and glowing yellow eyes. Taking her weapon and spinning the bladed end of it around her and releasing it at a group of five spiders crawling quickly towards her, the smashed through the first two spiders missing the other three. Stepping on the slack of the chain with her foot and pulling the chain to the side with her off hand the blade quickly launched itself slicing through the other three spiders. "Fuck you had to pick a spider infested dungeon! " Yumi yelled out annoyed.

Surprised by how effective Yumi's weapon is Alice took her scythe out and joined in on the fight slicing away at numerous spiders unable to land critical hits sending them flying away instead. "Nice work Alice, keep it up! " Josh said using a Buff to give Alice a boost to her strength as he continued to use his mace to smash all the spiders that came near him.

Finishing all the spiders in the chamber the group decided to take a small rest and assess their team work before moving forward. "Yumi and Alice, you two are doing a good job keeping the spiders away from Yuki and Alex. Keep up what you're currently doing Josh and I will hold the front line for now. Once we reach the second floor the spiders will get bigger and stronger, they will also fire off spider webs at us, try to avoid the webs or destroy them if you can. " Eric instructed as they decided to move forward in the cave going in deeper.

As they continued deeper into the cave the eventual came into another chamber, it looked almost identical to the first making Alice wonder if they got turned around and entered the area they were just in. Using his 'war cry' skill again the spiders once again started to quickly crawl out from behind the webs this time in a larger number. Seeing the number of spiders making their way towards her Alice used 'Shadow Zone' causing the spiders to slow down to half pace. "Nice job Alice everyone attack and take advantage of the opportunity Alice created!" Josh shouted not wanting them to rest before the battle even ends. Alice once again used all her strength to send spiders flying this time killing a few due to Josh's buff .

Seeing the spiders moving slowly Yuki gave a smile and pointed at the direction of a mob of spiders "Earth Spikes" as soon as Yuki said the name of the spell spikes shot up from the ground impaling numerous spiders taking out a quarter of the spiders in the chamber. Alex on the other hand raised his staff and swung it creating a blade of water that flew towards another group of spiders effectively cutting the legs off the bottom of the spiders causing Little Shadow to not waste the nice gift before him. Jumping on top of spider after spider Little Shadow took chunks out of each of the legless spiders giving him a massive experience boost.

Yumi and Alice teamed up, while Alice sent spiders flying Yumi would send her blade flying out at each of the spiders killing them instantly.