Artificial Gate Massacre II

The Gate clearing proceeded smoothly. We had already passed an armed staff member who was standing guard part way through the Gate. They only nodded towards us when we passed.

Since the original novel described the artificial Gate, I already knew roughly what to expect.

Thankfully, the butterfly effects that I had caused had not changed where the Gate was going to lead. However, details such as the exact landscape of the Gate varied so I could never be exactly certain.

My mana-enhanced eyes scanned the darkness with ease, seeing the monsters that were hiding in the darkness long before they had detected us.

Like most spiders, the giant spiders (which I had named very creatively) had poor vision and relied mainly on the vibrations from their webs to detect their prey.

My blade plunged through the thick carapace of the monstrously large arachnids, before swinging my longsword and throwing the corpse aside.

I turned around in time to see Saffron cleave one of the spiders hanging from the ceiling in half.

Just before the disgusting fluids splattered onto me, I managed to step out of the way.

"Be careful, there," I said, distaste very evident in my tone. "We don't want to find out whether the spiders are poisonous the hard way."

Perseus said, "I d-doubt that the m-monsters that the s-staff left alive would be that d-dangerous…"

"True," I acquiesced. "But you never know. And I also don't want spider guts on my clothes."

Saffron just stuck her tongue out at me.

"The quicker we clear this Gate, the sooner I can change," she said, significantly less cheerful than before. "I'm tired of hearing my boots squelch when I walk."

Everyone else made vague noises of agreement. After momentarily catching our breaths, we began to dismantle the giant spiders and extract the demonic cores.

Judging from the luster, they're only F rank. I should ask them for their share…

We quickly proceeded through the cave network. Meanwhile, I checked my watch.

[09:19]

We need to move faster…

As we proceeded deeper into the cave, we passed another staff member stationed halfway.

The webs became thicker the further we walked. After another minute, the webs were so dense that the whole ground was white with spider silk.

"We have to move quicker," I told the group. "This means stepping through the webs and notifying the monsters; we'll just have to deal with the spiders."

"O-okay," agreed Perseus. The others looked down at the ground and also agreed.

"Just make sure to alert us when an enemy approaches," Lucas said.

"Alright."

Roughly thirty minutes and several fights later, we reached the area that I was looking for: the spider nest.

The tunnel widened out into an extremely large cavern. Every surface was covered with pure white spiderwebs that hung from the ceiling like lavish drapes. Large, silk-wrapped egg clutches as large as basketballs were piled against the walls.

In the middle of the nest was an extremely dense sphere of mana that glowed brightly. 

Mana was normally clean and blue, such as when fighters used mana enhancement. However, the mana that was concentrated in the center of the spider nest was blood red and filled with swirling black impurities.

The mana sphere looked like an oversized demonic core.

"The Gate core…"

Gates formed due to demonic corruption, but the seed of corruption was the Gate core.

Clearing Gates required that the Gate core be removed.

Humanity learned to refine demonic cores and Gate cores for energy.

Unfortunately, F rank Gate cores used more energy to refine than they were worth.

I had to make sure that humanity didn't have infinite energy, since they have S rank demonic cores that can manipulate the creation of F ranked Gates, I remembered.

That didn't mean that Heroes did not clear F ranked Gates-- even low ranked Gates were incredibly dangerous for average civilians.

In the case of F rank Gates, retrieving the core was worthless so destroying it was the normal practice.

"Guess we just need to break that," Saffron muttered. However, she didn't recklessly charge into the spider nest like she had with every other fight. Even for her, the cavern looked very dangerous.

Nobody wanted to step into the cave.

"Perseus, can you cast enhancement magic on Lucas' arrow?"

Since the target wasn't human, Perseus didn't have to worry about destroying the target. He shakily nodded and began chanting in an awe-inspiring, rumbling voice. Magic began gathering around the arrow that Lucas grabbed, turning the arrowhead into pure, crackling energy.

Lucas quickly nocked the arrow, took aim, and fired.

The arrow pierced straight through the core, despite the Gate core being made from pure mana, which was incredibly hard to break. White sparks danced across the sphere, before the core stopped glowing.

"Well, that wasn't that hard," Saffron grinned.

Suddenly, the whole cave shook. Dust showered down on our heads.

The orange-haired girl's smile faltered. "That doesn't sound good."

"Normally, the Gate doesn't start closing until an hour after the core is removed," worried Lucas.

"Lucas. Saffron. Perseus," I said their names seriously. "Please listen to me when things get dangerous."

They stiffened in the dark, turning towards me.

"What are you suggesting…?" asked Lucas. "Do you think the Academy has made a mistake?"

Saffron nervously chuckled. "That's never happened before…"

"Th-that doesn't m-mean that it can't happen," Perseus said.

I was surprised that the normally reticent and neutral boy had spoken up for me. His worried, yet supportive expression made me feel warm despite the dangerous situation.

"Yes," I said without pausing. "Perseus is right. We must prepare for the worst case scenario."

Lucas snapped, "What do you plan on doing, then? How can we even prepare against an unknown?"

"Let's go get the staff member we passed earlier," I suggested. Though, I already knew what happened.

They won't believe me if I make claims without evidence.

The others tentatively agreed. My plan made sense; the staff should know what was going on.

When we found the cooling corpse, Saffron and Lucas gasped. Perseus leaned against the cave wall and clutched his stomach like he was going to be sick.

The smell of blood overpowered the smell of wet stone.

I did not react.

This doesn't feel real, I thought to myself. I've never seen a dead body before.

Just another background character, like me.

I can die the same way, I shivered.