We wake up feeling a bit stiff, then we eat breakfast, and prepare to leave.
Roxanne spends a long moment looking out of our secluded room, staring at the distant glint of more Moonlight Moss. If she wants to go, she'll do it alone because I just want to go home.
Eventually, she snaps out of it and we move out.
Once we get to the stairs, we see that the rope we used is still there. Being able to reuse it makes it worth having spent so much money on a whole spool.
Then we move through the rooms at a hurried pace. We know where the traps are, and not only do the Spriggans take a long time to change the trap layout, they're also far too scared of us now to attack again.
We blaze through the floors and leave the dungeon before it's even noon, I think.
After a light snack, we wait a short while for digestion to do its thing, then we start to stretch. We're going to run, fuck sneaking about again. The moles won't chase us into the Arachne territory, so we can just run past them because they are way too dumb and slow to react fast enough to block us.
I'll keep Roxanne in front of me because I can't let her sexy slow ass fall behind like last time.
Then I have Alissa memorize the order of the markings on the tunnels to guide us through the path that takes us outside, and now we're ready.
"RUN!"
--
We simply run past four Moles. We throw a few arrows and spells at them the moment we meet, scaring them off and clearing the path for us.
"Five more markings," Alissa reports, not even out of breath, but we still have about ten more minutes of running, then she suddenly stops. "Wait, someone's coming."
I get in front of her and pull up my shield. "What is it?" I warily ask.
"Three humanoids are coming towards us. They're likely just adventurers, but… they're running from something?" She questions, unsure herself.
"Running from what? Actually, it's pretty obvious, get ready to fight an Arachne," I order as I glance at the girls, and they nod solemnly.
Just our luck. This expedition didn't have any real incident so far, so it was about time something unusual happened.
We wait for a few seconds, then we start to hear footsteps. I quickly become anxious, thinking that the Moles are going to come running from behind now that we've stopped, so I warn Alissa to keep an eye on our backs.
Sorry you have to work so much.
Then a line of adventurers comes from the tunnel ahead. The first one is a black man in a hauberk and chausses with a large kite shield and a sword sheathed on his waist; the second is a blonde bearded archer with black leather armor and a red feather cap that looks kind of tacky, and I see a white, thin, furry tail coming out of his back; and the last is a short-haired redhead woman with a black robe, a wand in one hand and a small, round, iron shield on the other.
They all look deathly pale, their faces blank with fear, and their bodies glistening with sweat.
"SYMBOL OF HATE!" The man in chain mail bellows and we all shudder in fear at the name.
We're fucked, that's a threat level 7 monster.
The Symbol of Hate is an aberrant legendary monster that appeared about two hundred years ago. She's a five meters tall Arachne with twelve spider legs, black human torso, and blood-red eyes. The hairs of her spider body are so stiff that they can puncture the skin with their sharpness; her spider exoskeleton is almost as hard as metal, making sword and spears nearly useless; her black human torso is her weakest spot, but it's still as tough as an ogre's, making my sword almost useless; her frightening large mouth has hundreds of sharp teeth that shred anything she eats; and her nails are as large and sharp as a dagger. Her appearance isn't exactly frightening, but what makes this monster so horrifying is that she has an incessant thirst for inflicting pain and misery.
She
literally
feeds on pain. She captures any living being, brutalizes them, nurses them back to health, and brutalizes them again until their mind breaks apart, then she eats her prey alive. There's only one report of her nest and the only words to describe her are "a hell where the only sound is the cry of pain of tortured souls".
She's the embodiment of misery. She's a berserking, cunning monster that eludes extermination task forces as long as she has lived. Her aberrant nature means not even the Monster King controls her as she's grown too powerful and too twisted to be considered the same as a normal monster.
It's that fucking nightmare that's coming towards us.
But we can't run or we're going to get sandwiched. We're still at the edge of Mole territory, so they might still be chasing after us, and we don't have the firepower to break through their horde if we fight them head-on.
We can either fight one enemy right now, or we can run and most likely get sandwiched between more than one, so, to me, there's only one choice: we have to fight the Symbol head-on.
"YOU THREE, STOP RIGHT NOW, THE MOLES ARE COMING AFTER US!" I scream back.
They immediately brake and almost tumble, then the woman and the chain guy freeze like deers in the headlights while the archer grabs his own hair and falls on his knees, his face wracked with despair.
Now's not the time to panic!
"WE HAVE TO FIGHT!" I scream once again, and they turn their heads towards me. "You, mage! What are your spells!?"
"Hiiii..." She shivers and lets out a small scream, but my imperious tone prompts her to stutter an answer, "F-f-fire, b-ball, arrow, w-wall. W-wind bla-d-de, ha-hammer, a-armor."
I nod sternly and command, "Ignore wind! Focus only on [
Fireball
] and [
Fire Arrow
]. Don't miss, so take your time, and don't waste mana!"
She nods in understanding while shivering like a rabbit before a wolf.
I turn to the weremonkey man. "You, archer! Focus only on hitting the eyes. The skin is too thick for anything else!"
"Y-yes!" He obediently responds and stands up.
Good, he's not completely helpless.
Then I turn to the last one. "You, shield! We stand in front. Block and protect, and cut legs only if we have a chance!"
"YES!" He roars with a surprising amount of energy.
I turn around and look at the girls. "Roxanne! Same as the mage, save half your mana for an explosion!"
"Understood!" She soberly replies.
She trusts me, that's good.
And to the last one, I give an intense look that she mirrors back at me. "Alissa, same as the archer. We need those eyes popped!"
"You can count on me!" She confidently declares and clenches her fist over her chest.
Reliable as always. Marry me, please.
Then we get in formation and wait.
I think I'm actually fucking lucky
.
It was simply by chance that I saw the entry for Symbol of Hate, which spiked my curiosity, so I spent a long time searching for tales about her, and they told me the best way to deal with this fiend. Her skin is tough but it's still skin, so fire is extra effective, and if we burn her enough, she'll lose interest and run away. That's our only chance of survival.
Then I notice that the chainmail guy is shaking.
"It's okay, we'll survive," I lie, then I give him an exaggerated smile and a thumbs-up. Hopefully, this gesture means the same as on Earth.
He lets out a nervous laugh, and his shaking reduces a little.
A few seconds later, we hear a stampede coming, then a maniacal laugh fills the tunnels, and I grit my teeth
The laughter quickly becomes louder, and the mages start charging their mana.
I look around and wonder if this is the best place for this fight. We're in a large square room that's tall and long, but not very wide.
Unfortunately, there's no time to think anymore. At the entrance to the tunnel ahead, a large shadow appears.
The Symbol of Hate charges at us while grinning like a mad woman. Her twelve legs are as sharp as a spear, leaving small holes wherever they step on. Normal Arachnes have the human body replace the spider's face, but the Symbol has her naked human body on top of the thorax of the spider, so she has eyes on her human head and on the spider's face, which are quite a lot of eyes to pop.
A second after I scan her body, two [
Fireballs
] and two arrows are launched towards her. She blocks one spell with her dagger-fingers while the other grazes the right arm, leaving a small scorch mark. The left arm deflects an arrow aimed at the face but the second arrow sinks into one of the spider head's six eyes.
She easily deflects the following arrows while the mages gather mana for more [
Fireballs
], then she reaches us, the front line.
She tries to trample both of us at the same time, but we face her with determination and hold back the charge. Her front legs slam against our shields, making a small bump in mine as she tries to crush both of us, but she doesn't retreat immediately, leaving her legs exposed, so we both counter with a slash, carving grooves in them.
She pulls back and raises her two forward legs, then uses them like spears. Her arms block more [
Fireball
]s, but the spells still burn her skin. The center area between me and the shield guy is clear, giving the archers a perfect shot to her eyes, and another one on the spider's head is pierced.
I dodge, parry, and block, slowly wounding the forward legs some more, but even my sword arm is quickly tiring from having to deal with the brute force of this monster. My [
Wind Armor
] is so weak against these attacks that the spell makes no difference.
The shield guy is doing better than me, though, I just don't have enough "Strength" for this fight.
But I won't fall first!
The arrows miss and both [
Fireballs
] are blocked. The shield guy gets lucky and cuts off the pointy tip from the Symbol's leg, but it can still be used as a blunt tool.
I start to lose my breath and my arms become heavy. I won't last much longer. The fire damage is too little, and the monster is too heavy.
Another spider eye goes away, three more to go. The eyes lost are all on my side, so its attacks slow down and I can get a small breathing room, but I don't have the luxury to rest. I counter and cut the tip of a leg.
"URAAAAAAA!" The shield guy screams. He makes the Symbol's forward leg even shorter, then a large [
Fireball
] hits her chest and one of her saggy, ugly breasts is completely carbonized.
"AAAAAAH!" This time the spider is the one who screams, but then her face warps into a scowl as she becomes enraged.
Her attacks become wilder and heavier, so we take a step back, and another spider eye goes away, leaving only two more and the pair on her human head.
The Symbol is slowly losing her sight advantage, making it difficult for her to dodge or block all these simultaneous attacks, so she changes tactics.
She jumps sideways, away from me, and she falls down nearly on top of the shield guy. With three legs, she does a sideways sweep, sending him flying towards the wall.
This is bad, she turned around the situation, I can't hold her back on my own!
I take the chance. I dash towards her and slash one leg at the joint, cutting it off completely.
Heh, easy, only eleven more to go!
She counters by doing another sweep, and there's no room for me to dodge. I receive the sweep against my shield and feel a shiver run down my spine as I fly away backward.
I crash on the floor and roll, but I spread my arms and legs out, stopping me from flying further as I land on all fours, then the Symbol turns towards Roxanne.
Oh fuck, no, no, no, and no. NO, YOU WON'T.
I dash with my all, adrenaline pumping into my veins, and forget all about my tired legs and arms. The only thing I feel is the anguish in my heart while looking at Roxanne.
A shadow appears in front of her as she merely remains standing still while muttering something, and completely defenseless. A spider leg pierces her stomach, and I can see the tip coming out of her back.
The leg stops in the air for a second, then I jump and slash down, using my body weight to sever the leg clean through.
"WAAAAAAAAAAH!" The spider screams, but not because of my attack. I look up and see an arrow coming out of the human head's right eye.
GOOD, ALISSA!
The spider thrashes about as it screams in pain, but it narrowly misses both Roxanne and I, then I see an opportunity.
Her legs are open, desperately trying to find anyone close to her, too blind with pain to see properly. Once she sweeps her legs to one side, I dash forward and get under her, then I raise my sword and open a long wound along the soft part of the underside of the spider's thorax.
Blood flows down and coats my arm, and even a piece of mangled intestine dangles out.
Suddenly, my head bursts with pain, and I lose my hearing as the spider screams so loud it makes my body shake.
I stumble and look back, only for my eyes to meet with the Symbol's last human eye, and fear fills my spine as the blood-red circle stares at me with evil intent.
Behind the Symbol, Roxanne still stands, leaning on her staff as she mutters a chant and gathers a huge amount of mana. She's going to use her last card, and the Symbol is too enraged with me to notice her.
I have to do something, I have to keep the monster still, but I only know of one way.
I run away as I change my skills in desperation, then I hear the spider start moving.
"STOOOOOP!" The shield guy screams. He reaches the spider and severs a leg, but then he immediately gets blown away again by another sweep.
A [
Fireball
] hits the Symbol's human back, making her groan in pain, and she spins in place, now staring at the mage girl.
Like I'm going to let you do that!
They bought me enough time. I turn around and dash as I charge my spell, putting as much mana as I can into it.
I'm ready. There's no other way, no second chances, this is my best bet and I'm going to see it through the end!
"RAAAAH!" I scream in desperation to grab her attention again.
The Symbol's legs are too wounded for her to be faster than me, so I catch up with her, then she stops to switch targets to me again.
I jump and use one of her legs as a stepping stone to lunge towards her head.
The spider swings her right arm at me as she turns, and the dagger-fingers slide across my shield, then I suddenly stop mid-flight and an extremely uncomfortable sensation penetrates my left flank.
I look down and see her five dagger-fingers have penetrated through the left side of my torso cleanly, skewering me completely. The pain is so overwhelming I drop my weapons, and the left side of my body stops responding.
The Symbol looks at me with a triumphant grin, and instead of throwing me away or finishing the job, she brings me closer, then she opens her disgusting mouth, and the smell of rot that wafts out makes me want to puke.
Thank you, you cunt, now get fucked.
I grab the top of her head with my only working hand and release [
Shocking Touch
].
The chaotic lighting sparks crackle all over her head, and her whole body freezes, then she twitches uncontrollably as her brain is overwhelmed.
I kick her body and slide out of her dagger-fingers, then I fall heavily on the hard ground, and the Symbol's dumbfounded face is the last thing I see before her upper body explodes.
"You are now level fifteen," the comforting female voice announces inside my head.
I close my eyes as I feel a rain of hot droplets splash against my skin, which is followed by a blast of hot wind.
A splitting headache suddenly flares, then my ears start to ring, and I lose my hearing. I'm in so much pain I can't move, so I just wait on the floor for someone to come help me.
After a long, agonizing moment, something soft touches my cheek, and I open my eyes, but my vision is blurry, then I cough blood.
Something cold touches my lips and my jaw is forced open, then a warm, tasty liquid enters my mouth. I almost choke, but I try to drink it as best as I can. My throat is dry, anyway.
Someone does something to my body, but I'm in too much pain to understand what's happening, then the ringing in my ears starts to lower and my hearing slowly returns.
"Master! Can you hear me!?" I hear Alissa desperately call to me.
"Ye..." I let out a rough sound.
I focus my eyes and discern Alissa's crying face before me. The pain pulsates, but it quickly reduces, allowing me to move my right arm.
I raise my hand and cast [
Regeneration
] on myself.
After a long moment, enough of my awareness returns that I can take stock of my own situation. My leather jacket is open, my shirt has been ripped apart, and the archer guy is holding down a bundle of cloth against my left flank while Alissa pours a red, glowing liquid on it to heal me faster, but the cloth is quickly turning red with blood. I'm bleeding quite a lot.
"Rox… an?" I croak.
"She's still unconscious but… we've done all we could for her," Alissa solemnly replies, her face warped in a frown.
Shit… Roxanne might be dying.
I can't waste time with [
Regeneration
]. I hastily put my new twelve points into [Light Magic] and a sort of "internal pressure" tells me I shouldn't put any more.
Let's see if those "Piety" gains were worth something.
New spells appear inside my mind, then I cast [
Heal
] on myself.
I see a flash of light, then my vision goes dark, and pain flares again in my head. It hurts so much my whole body tenses up.
I hear a lot of muffled sounds, but I'm barely conscious due to the pain, so I don't understand what they're saying.
I feel something cold touch my lips and my mouth is opened again. A different, warm and tasty liquid enters my mouth, and I drink it eagerly.
After a long, tortuous minute, or less, pain warps the perception of time, my headache subsides, and I can hear what's going on again, but I only hear sobs.
"Alis…?" I weakly ask, my voice coming out a little better than before.
"M-Master?! You're awake!?" She cries back, her voice cracking from anguish.
"Yes… what. Happen… can't… see," I mutter.
"You overused your mana! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" She shrieks, her voice filled with rage.
"Sorry…"
"AAAH!" She screams hysterically in exasperation.
I want to laugh, but it hurts too much.
Oh shit, I can't laugh, I have to heal myself and then heal Roxanne before something bad happens!
"Will… meditate…"
"You want to meditate? Yes, please do that. You need to rest!" She exclaims, exasperated.
No, I need mana. Roxanne is in danger, and no potion is going to close a wound like that fast enough. I can't let her die, not after she killed that nightmarish being, not after we went through so much trouble to get the Moss, not after I started to like her obnoxiously happy personality.
I can't see, and I can't move, so now I'll block my ears. Meditating helps recover mana? Well, I'll meditate as hard as I can! But that might not be enough… I need something better.
I can see my system with my eyes closed, but I can't move my arms to change my skills into [Mana Recovery]. I could wait until my body recovers, but I'm suddenly struck with an idea to fill the time while I wait.
[Mana Recovery] and meditation are passive methods, so they aren't as effective as active methods, of which I know one. Dwarves can pull mana from the environment to strengthen their bodies, but unfortunately, that's a racial skill of theirs, so I can't learn it with my cheats, though maybe there's a way to replicate the skill's effects.
When a mage lacks the knowledge to properly cast a spell, their "Willpower" is used to brute-force the mana to do what they want, so I just need to visualize what I want with crystal clarity and bend the mana to my will.
The world naturally produces mana as do all living beings, and right now, my [Sense Mana] is telling me that there's a highly magical corpse next to me exuding quite a lot of it, so I just need to force that mana to come to me!
I focus on my [Sense Mana] and wish really hard for that mana to be mine.
I suddenly feel something stir within me, but I wasn't expecting anything to happen, so I stop in sudden fear and surprise.
After a second of processing the feeling, I decide to resume what I was doing, but with more intensity.
The stirring comes back and it feels incredibly similar to when I "scratch" the "itch" to activate things inside my mind.
Come to me!
I focus more on the feeling inside my mind and the stirring continues to grow, as if I was kicking up a storm within me, then I start to feel a resistance, like a smooth "force-field" trying to push me back.
I don't understand what it is, but it means that
something
is happening, and it makes me too curious to stop what I'm doing.
I push against the force field and it seems to gradually give in, then I start to feel it "stretch" as if it was like rubber, and an even odder feeling strikes me.
It's like my head is expanding, ballooning out of control, yet my real body has not moved an inch since I started this madness.
I have no fucking idea what I'm doing, but it's something! And since I'm "stretching" out of my real body, I aim this growth towards the Symbol's corpse.
After a few seconds of this, my [Sense Mana] triggers as my "forehead" crosses with a thick stream of mana.
This is what I need! Come to me!
The stream stirs in a way that reminds me of a drop of paint falling in water, creating small vortexes of mana as it spins.
Come to me!
The stream stirs harder, turning into chaotic clouds that surround my ballooned head.
COME TO ME!
I open my mouth, trying to "eat" the mana, trying to force it to enter my body, then my MP suddenly ticks up, recovering ten points in one go.
YES!
Now it ticks up again, recovering twenty points in a single second, but then my body is wracked by pain, making me groan.
I WON'T STOP NOW! THIS MANA IS ALL MINE!
I "chew" the clouds of mana, and my MP skyrockets, recovering to the maximum in just a few seconds while my body burns with pain, complaining about what I'm doing, so I stop, and everything returns to normal, though the burning remains.
"Roxanne...?" I force myself to ask through gritted teeth.
"She is here. We brought her beside you. What do you need, Master?" Alissa unemotionally asks, a dash of concern in her tone.
"Let me… touch her…" I order, mustering all my strength to speak.
"What?! Master, you need to meditate to gather your mana!" Alissa explains, exasperated.
"I got it… let me touch her…" I insist and scowl from the pain.
"That's not possible, please rest, Master," Alissa tries to soothe me and lands a gentle hand on my forehead.
Anger gives me the energy to put even more weight to my words. "Alissa… that's an order…"
I can't see her because my view is blurred, but I can hear her squirm in anguish.
"Wound…" I grumble sternly.
She silently grabs my hand and moves it sideways, putting it on top of something warm, hot, and slightly sticky, which is right beside something cold, hard and prickly.
"Remove… spike…"
Someone fiddles with the cold thing, then it's pulled out with a disgusting fleshy sound followed by the dripping of a liquid.
"Done…" A male voice replies.
I press the [
Heal
] button within my mind and charge it with all my mana, then I release the spell and pass out for good.
--
The first thing I feel is that I'm laying on something soft, then I weakly open my eyes, but my vision is blurred by the intense glow of a [
Spirit Light
] floating above me.
"Hey..." I let out a weak groan.
"He's awake," a man calls out.
My view quickly regains focus , and I see the shield guy's upside-down face looking down at me with a frown, then I feel a soft hand touch my cheek, and I turn my eyes down to see Alissa's red-eyed and disheveled face staring at me.
"How are you feeling?" She tiredly asks with a hoarse voice.
"Better… my muscles are feeling heavy, but better," I answer and cough.
She smiles softly, then her thumb caresses my skin. "Stay still, the bleeding just barely stopped."
I cast [
Regeneration
] on myself, and Alissa gives me an exasperated look, but she doesn't say anything. She knows I have to do this.
A few minutes pass, and I start to regain control of my body, then I detect a strong scent of blood.
I look beside me and see that Roxanne is on a makeshift stretcher. She's unconscious, her robe is completely bloodied below the waist, and I can see a bloody bandage wrapped around her belly, but her breathing seems to be normal.
"Is she still bleeding?" I ask Alissa.
"The wound is almost closed but she's still bleeding," she anxiously answers.
I heal myself a little more time until I can sit, then I cast [
Regeneration
] on Roxanne until my mana runs out. Her bleeding stops, but we'll have to hope that she doesn't have any internal injuries.
I drink another mana potion and ask, "Can you bring me to the spider's body?"
The shield guy looks at me dumbfounded, but Alissa nods and asks for help.
They carry me on the sleeping bag and let me down near the Symbol, then I grab a spider leg, open my "Items," and store it. The body disappears, and only a huge pool of blood is left.
"Carry us back," I tiredly order, then I lay down and immediately fall asleep.
--
I wake up feeling a light shaking. I open my eyes and they slowly focus, then I see Alissa's back in front of me and recognize that she and the shield guy are carrying me in a makeshift stretcher through the brown tunnels.
Alissa notices me stir and looks back at me, then she gives me a warm smile, and I try to smile back, but I'm still very uncomfortable.
"Roxanne?" I softly ask.
"Stable and sleeping. She woke up once, but now she's asleep again," she calmly reports.
I move my points into [Mana Recovery] and start using [
Regeneration
] on myself again, then I notice that Alissa is wearing a dark-red cloth armband.
"What's that cloth?" I question her.
She diligently answers, "The Symbol's blood. It has a characteristic scent, and it seems to scare away the monsters, so I made one for everyone. It has worked well so far."
I nod and smile at her. "Smart." And she gives me a brief proud smile. I'm glad she's back to being confident. Her desperate and disheveled appearance was heartbreaking.
It's quite likely that the Symbol's blood is what made the Moles pull back from chasing after us. If there are no dumb monsters around, we might even be able to walk back to the entrance without a problem.
We continue our slow trek in silence for a long time.
--
I maintain [
Regeneration
] on myself and meditate twice to recover my MP until I can walk slowly again, but Alissa doesn't let me stand up yet, so I just meditate one more time and cast [
Regeneration
] on Roxanne to finish her healing.
The health and mana potions used on me are still working, but they're slow, and they heal basically at the same speed as [
Regeneration
]. Drinking more potions could fasten the healing, but there's a risk they'll poison us if we overdose.
After the last [
Regeneration
] treatment, my head starts to hurt again, and my body tires out. I must be using too much mana, so I'll need to rest a long time until I can cast magic without hurting myself again.
We stop for a break and Alissa gives me bread, which helps give my body a small surge of energy. As I eat, I look at the others and feel a bit of fear from their ghastly appearances, but then I also wonder how
I
look if they're that bad. Roxanne is looking even paler than normal, but at least she's sleeping peacefully.
After the short rest, I convince Alissa to let me walk so the others can conserve their energies.
We move forward slowly, and I quickly regret my decision as my legs whine loudly about tiredness, but I endure and move on.
All I can think about is putting one foot before the other and continuing forward in this seemingly unending tunnel, then my mind becomes hazy as I slowly become a walking zombie.
--
After an eternity, I finally see the light of the sky.
"AAAAAAH!" The mage girl and the archer guy let out a long, anguished cry, then the shield guy hugs the archer while Alissa pats the back of the mage. Roxanne suddenly wakes up, confused and scared, and Alissa scolds them for making so much noise.
I sit down to rest, but I lack the energy to stand up again, so we rest again until I manage to force my body to continue marching.
We meet a goblin duo in the small forest, but Alissa kills them before they even notice us. I use [
Regeneration
] on Roxanne just for a short time and stop before my body complains again, but it's enough to wake her up, though she still lacks the energy to say anything.
Then we reach the road.
Since there's usually a lot of traffic here, we wait for anyone to appear, and a simple wagon answers our prayers after a minute. It's a local farmer carrying a few barrels of alcohol towards the town.
He turns pale when he sees how bloody and haggard we are, then he immediately agrees to help, and Alissa gives him a few coins for his trouble.
Now the worst is over, and I doze off in the rocking wagon.
--
When I wake up, I see two unknown robed men carrying me on a proper stretcher as we quickly cross a simple corridor, then I recognize that the men are wearing the temple's priest robes.
Shortly after, I'm gently put onto a comfy bed with Roxanne put onto another beside me, then Ciel suddenly rushes inside.
"S-sister!? What's wrong?" One of the priests asks in confusion.
"I know him. Please, let me treat him," Ciel requests.
"If you wish so," the priest defers and goes towards Roxanne.
Ciel rushes to my side and exclaims, "Just what happened to you?!" Then she touches my wounded flank and starts chanting [
Heal
].
"We met the Symbol of Hate," Alissa grimly responds from my other side.
Ciel stops chanting and stares at her, her jaw hanging open in surprise.
"S-sister… please continue healing him," Alissa begs worriedly.
Ciel blinks and snaps out of it. "Y-yes! But can you say that again? Explain it to me, please," she pleads and starts chanting again as she inspects my chest wounds.
While Ciel casts multiple [
Heal
]s on me, Alissa retells our encounter, starting from when we decided to run through the mole territory.
After three [
Heal
]s I don't feel any more pain, just tiredness. With the treatment done, Ciel just stares at Alissa, dumbfounded.
"Why was the Symbol there? That's way too far from its territory!" Ciel suddenly exclaims, bewildered.
Alissa shakes her head and explains, "Gunther and the others don't know. They were investigating the report of a White Arachne when they suddenly met with the Symbol. They knew they had no chance to win, so they ran towards the Moles to possibly slow the Symbol down, then maybe hide inside the small rooms of the Spiral Springs."
The White Arachne is a twisted version of the normal Arachne. It can possibly create undead, so both the temple and the monster hunters' guild pay a lot for any information on it. Also, the idea to hide in the Spiral Springs was sound until we came. If they had run towards the entrance, they'd likely get tangled in the Tarantula's webs, which would be their death.
Ciel massages her temples as she shakes her head in disbelief. "Of all things, why-…" -She sighs tiredly- "Mr. Ryder, please pray to the God of Luck because your life is just too eventful."
"Hah… I have a feeling praying won't really help, though," I wryly reply.
Ciel stares at me in confusion. "Why would that be so?"
I shrug weakly. "I'm still alive, right? For an adventurer, you could say it was only bad luck if I actually die."
Ciel expresses a mix of laughter, anger, and defeat while Alissa just sighs, but I think she agrees with me.
I hear a chuckle from the side and see Roxanne staring at us with a tired face, then the priest casts [
Heal
] one more time on her and takes his leave.
Healing magic is so powerful that our treatment is done in just a few minutes, so now we just need to rest our tired bodies because the spells didn't replenish our energy reserves. There's the spell [
Refresh
], but at most it's like taking a short rest, and our muscles need more than that to fully heal. There's also the need to let the body adapt to the healed flesh, so no more strenuous activities for today.
That doesn't mean Alissa can't use her mouth to give me some release.
After the bath, the temple gives us a rustic vegetable soup with some tasteless goblin meat and as much toast as we want. Overall, it tastes quite nice even though it's such simple food.
Then we're given a room with two beds to sleep for a night while Roxanne also gets a room for herself. Thankfully, they let Alissa sleep in the same room as me, but they don't have a double bed for patients.
The treatment and the bed cost us merely two silver since much of the cost is subsidized by the Lord, which is surprisingly nice of him. For those who can't pay, the treatment is free, and I feel like there's few people who can be shameless enough to lie in front of someone as angelic as Ciel.
With the day finally over. Alissa and I huddle up together in the small bed, and I finally get a good night's sleep with her in my arms.
--
Intermission 2 - Roxanne
--
How am I still alive? I have no idea how to deal with this situation. In a split second he made the decision to trust me even though I was wounded and half-dead. We barely know each other, yet he has the bravery to jump into the claws of the enemy and trust that I can finish the battle.
The older and experienced me tells me that the young boy is insane, but my young and impressionable side shouts that he's a hero. In the end, all I know is that he's dependable and not someone you let escape because even though he's young, he's not a boy, he's a man. Now, imagine how much he'll grow in a few years…
What I truly feel is hard to say. He acts like a newly-wed with her and yet he doesn't admit his love. What kind of relationship is that? Though, the trust and dependability that they show for each other actually made me jealous. If even after all this he's still unsure of his own feelings towards her, how am I going to be sure of mine?
All I know is that I want to stay close to him.