Faith

The silence ensued for a few seconds before the Mother Spider that stood tall in front of them slowly fell.

Eventually, its entire body crashed and landed on the barren ground as a surge of wind spread in every direction.

Boom!

Mina and the rest had to cover their eyes to prevent them from getting injured.

After the dust in the air cleared up a little, they opened their eyes and started to scan their surroundings.

"The spiderlings are gone..." Jackson muttered in a surprised voice as he looked in front of him.

Thousands of spiderlings began disintegrating into black puddles of goo. They radiated an unbearable stench of rotting corpses that made the six covered their noses hurriedly in disgust.

Luna backed away from the goo and arrived at Mina's side, the former asked puzzledly while still covering her nose:

"Looks like whoever's up there has finished dealing with the Mother Spider. We should go and see who is this mysterious individual."

The fox girl nodded and they both disappeared from their position, dashing to where the Mother Spider's corpse was.

Yuna and Jackson noticed that the duo had left and quickly followed up, leaving behind the unconscious Ryan and Tiffany.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Is it...dead?" Achilles silently muttered as he nearly collapsed, but Sia had gotten a hold of him and let him rest on her plump bosoms.

[Good job.] The silvery white-haired elf caressed his head and said in a proud and loving tone.

Sia saw Achilles visibly sigh in relief before she sat on her knees, letting him rest on her soft thighs.

"...Why didn't you drink those pills to recover your essences?" The latter asked after closing his eyes for a moment.

[You notice huh?] Sia smiled slightly with a hint of guilt on her face.

"Would be hard not to."

[...It was faith.] The little succubus answered after a moment of silence.

"...Faith?" Achilles raised an eyebrow at what she said, he opened his eyes and gazed into her dull grey ones.

[Yes. We had faith that you would be able to kill it...and you didn't disappoint us.] Sia explained while still caressing his head.

"Quite a bold move you've made there. What would you do if I failed?" Achilles softly sighed and said in an amused voice.

[Then I would kill that thing. I'll never allow you to be dead.] Sia said in a warm voice as she touched his cheek.

Achilles was about to say something but stopped, he breathed out a little before mumbling:

"What will I do with you?..."

He moved his hand slightly to make contact with the spider's corpse, a second later, sparks of white light flew into his body as he sensed a gush of newfound power filling his body.

In order to advance through a minor rank, one only needed to absorb a certain amount of remnants and then allowed his body to initiate a breakthrough which would make it start the process.

Achilles felt his muscles scream in pain and his bones changed to become stronger, tougher, and more resilient.

His body was currently reforging itself over and over again, until he became much stronger.

The process was extremely painful but he only bit his lower lip slightly to endure the pain.

A few moments later, he had finally managed to advance and become a Higher Evolved.

'Yes...' He thought to himself while silently clenching his fist.

[Congratulations! You did it!] Sia said in a jubilant tone while she stared at him, the beauty seemed to be just as happy as he was, perhaps even happier.

Achilles was having a hard time trying to respond to the little elf's beautiful smile so he just turned his head away to not make eye contact with her.

All of the sudden, the couple noticed multiple auras approaching them. Achilles tried to sit up and prepared for a possible fight when Sia suddenly pushed him down.

[Don't worry, we recognize two of them. They're our allies.]

Achilles relaxed a little after he heard Sia's melodious voice, he laid back down again to rest as he watched the individuals coming closer.

The owners of the auras revealed themselves to be a ponytail girl with brown hair, a fox girl with a timid expression, a young woman with a bob-cut, and a middle-aged man.

They looked at Sia and Achilles for a moment before the ponytail and fox girl shouted out in a relief tone:

""Big sis!""

'Are these two part of her cohort?' Achilles wondered while alternating his gaze between Sia and the two unfamiliar ladies.

"Luna, Mina. Where's Ryan and Tiffany?" Sia's eyes returned to their original color as she questioned them.

"They fainted so we're leaving them there right now."

"...Haaa, someone goes back and takes care of the two, please. I don't want to lose valuable manpower." The slivery-white-haired succubus massaged her temples in annoyance.

"Yeah, we'll do that. But...who is this man, big sis?" Luna asked in a puzzled manner as she pointed her finger at Achilles.

The latter was going to respond to the former's question, but Sia suddenly said something that made him look at her in surprise.

"Your newest comrade." Sia paused for a second and gave Achilles a glance.

"...Achilles." The latter answered curtly.

"...Right, this is Luna and Mina. I'll hope you three get along." The little elf pointed at the ponytail girl and the fox girl respectively.

'What are you doing?' Achilles questioned her via telepathy while looking into her eyes.

'Just go along. We'll talk about this later, I promise.'

'...Fine'

"Oh...nice to meet you...Achilles." Luna said as she looked between him and the little succubus, clearly having doubts about their relationship.

'Big sis is giving a man lap pillow...This is weird, I've never seen her care this much about anyone in general, not to mention a man.'

Achilles was having an unbearable awkwardness under the girl's scrutiny when she turned her head back and spoke to Mina:

"Come on Mina, introduce yourself."

"...I...I...I'm..." The fox girl was constantly stammering, which caused Achilles' eyebrows to raise slightly.

'What's wrong with this girl?'

"I'm Mina...nice to meet you." She answered in a timid voice that was barely audible.

She seemed to have some kind of social anxiety that made it hard for her to communicate with new people.

"I see...A pleasure to meet you two as well." Achilles gave them a polite smile before turning away.

"So...big sis. Are you the one who killed the Mother Spider?"