Traps and Coordination

The second floor was much colder than the first.

I crouched on the ground, pressed both hands against the stone slabs, and spread my mana out in every direction like water. The range of earth magic's sensing ability was especially convenient in an environment like this. The desert geology of the Begaritt Continent was already quite compatible with my mana, and the same was true inside the labyrinth. I could tell exactly what was flowing beneath the slabs, whether it was mana or the patterns of a trap.

"The transfer traps on the second floor are several times as densely packed as those on the first. There are seventeen just within my sensing range. Master Roxy was right."

"Walk forward twelve steps, then turn left." I stood up and brushed the dust off my hands.

Eris walked at the front. She nodded and stepped steadily through the safe areas I had marked. Paul followed Eris with his swords already drawn. Paul practiced the North God Style, so he had always used two swords. Master Roxy walked fourth, her staff raised before her chest, the light at its tip casting a blue glow over her face. Elinalise and Talhand brought up the rear.

Geese had vanished off somewhere again. The way he moved around in the labyrinth was practically ghostlike: he would disappear one moment and pop up again the next.

We followed the safe route I sensed for about ten minutes. The passage twisted and turned, with a fork every few meters. The blue light on the stone walls flickered, sometimes bright enough to hurt the eyes, sometimes so dim that we could barely see. There was a strange smell in the air that I couldn't quite place, a little like rust and a little like the sour smell left behind by something rotting.

I stopped when we reached the third fork.

"What is it?" Paul leaned forward from behind me.

"There's a stone spike trap ahead." I crouched and pressed my palm against a stone slab. I sensed a row of sharp stone spikes buried beneath the ground, between five and twelve meters ahead. Its trigger mechanism was different from the transfer traps. This one was physical and would only activate if someone stepped on it.

A stone spike trap. Its trigger works differently from a transfer trap. The moment someone steps on it, the stone slab breaks, revealing an array of thirty-centimeter spikes underneath. If someone accidentally steps on it, it'll at least put them out of action.

"What do we do? Can we go around it?" Paul asked.

I took a deep breath and activated my Demon Eye of Foresight.

The future two seconds ahead flashed before my left eye. I saw two images: in one, Eris stepped on the fourth stone slab, and it broke beneath his feet, sending him falling. In the other, she stepped on the third slab and was safe.

"Eris, step on the third slab, skip the fourth and fifth, then jump straight to the sixth."

She didn't hesitate for a moment. She stepped onto the third slab, sprang lightly over the fourth and fifth, and landed firmly on the sixth.

"It's safe," she said, looking back.

I had the others cross the same way. Paul didn't jump as lightly, but given his physical abilities, he had no trouble crossing in two strides. Master Roxy was short and couldn't quite make the jump, so Talhand carried her across on his shoulder.

"Um... thank you." Master Roxy blushed as she jumped down from Talhand's shoulder.

"Don't mention it," Talhand replied in a muffled voice.

Elinalise chuckled as she passed me, her curls swaying in the blue light. "Oh my, Roxy looked so cute being carried like that... oh~"

"Elinalise, shut up," Master Roxy said without looking back.

"Master Roxy is so cute even when she's angry!"

We continued forward. We wound our way around for another twenty minutes or so and took at least six forks, going the wrong way three times and having to double back. The passages on the second floor were much more complicated than those on the first. You could say they were far more difficult than the hardest labyrinth game I'd ever played.

When we reached our fourth dead end, I stopped and spread my mana farther out.

I can sense it. There's a huge space about eighty meters ahead, and the flow of mana is converging in that direction. It's a stairwell. The stairwell leading to the third floor should be in that direction.

"There's a big downward passage ahead. It's probably the entrance to the third floor," I said. "About eighty meters away. But between here and there..."

I frowned.

Something was off about the information my mana sensing sent back. Near the entrance to the stairwell was an extremely dense mana signature. It was large and lying there motionless. It was alive, and its mana density far exceeded that of any monster I had sensed on the first floor.

A-rank. That mana density belongs to an A-rank monster. I didn't sense anything like it on the first floor.

"There's something alive up ahead. It's huge, probably an A-rank monster," I said, lowering my voice.

Paul tightened his grip on his sword hilts. "How big?"

"Judging by what I can sense, about two meters."

We went another thirty meters or so. The passage grew wider, and the blue light on the stone walls grew brighter.

Then I saw it.

The entrance to the stairwell was a circular opening about five meters across, surrounded by intricate magic circle patterns. And in front of it crouched a giant spider.

It had eight legs, each as thick as a grown man's arm and covered in grayish-brown bristles, with a dark red sheen at the joints. Its body was about two meters long and over a meter wide. Its bulging abdomen was covered in black markings. Most disgusting of all were its eyes: more than a dozen of different sizes spread across the front of its head, some as large as fists, others no bigger than fingernails, all glowing a murky yellow-green.

It's about the size I sensed. An A-rank Giant Desert Spider. I read about one in a book before: eight legs, more than a dozen eyes, and an abdomen that can spray corrosive silk. Its silk can corrode steel and burn skin on contact. It's also much faster than it looks.

"I see it," Eris said from behind me. Her voice was calm, but I could hear something held beneath that calm.

"Don't move yet," I said. "Let me analyze its movement patterns."

I kept the Demon Eye of Foresight active. The future one second ahead constantly refreshed in my left eye. The giant spider lay still, but every few seconds one of its legs would twitch slightly, as though sensing vibrations around it. Its many eyes weren't all looking in the same direction: some watched the front, some the sides, and some overhead.

This thing has an almost three-hundred-and-sixty-degree field of vision. If we charge from the front, it'll spot us immediately. Circling around the side won't work either; its legs can sense vibrations in the ground. The only way is...

"It can sense vibrations through the ground, and its vision covers almost 360 degrees with no blind spots. A sneak attack would be nearly impossible," I said quietly.

"If none of that works, we go straight at it," Eris said.

I glanced at her. Her eyes were fixed on the giant spider, and her long crimson hair looked a little dark in the blue light.

"Its carapace is very hard. Can the nameless sword cut through it?"

"Only one way to find out."

I sighed. That was Eris for you, but honestly, in a situation like this, her instincts were often more useful than my analysis.

"All right, I'll support you," I said. "Its eyes are its weak point. I'll hit its eyes with a Rock Bullet, and it'll definitely turn to look at me. When it does, charge in from the side and cut its legs. That should limit its mobility to some extent."

"Got it."

"Father, keep it occupied from the other side. Master, use ice magic from the back. If it sprays silk, block it with an Ice Wall. Elinalise and Talhand, guard our escape route for now."

"Got it." Paul raised his swords to chest height.

"Understood." A blue light shone at the tip of Master Roxy's staff.

"My, it's finally our turn to take the stage." Elinalise drew her rapier. Her manner of speaking hadn't changed, but her tone was serious.

Talhand grunted and pushed his shield forward.

I took a deep breath.

"Begin."

I formed a Rock Bullet in my palm and aimed at the largest eye on the front of the giant spider's head.

The Rock Bullet flew toward it with a sharp whistle.

The giant spider reacted faster than I had expected. It raised its two front legs to shield its eyes before the Rock Bullet reached it. The projectile struck the carapace on its leg with a dull thud, leaving a crack in the surface but failing to penetrate.

It blocked it? Its reactions are that fast? Rock Bullet is an intermediate attack spell. Even though I didn't charge it up this time, it only left a crack in the carapace. Mr. Rujierd was right. I really can't underestimate any monster.

The blow had clearly enraged the giant spider. All its eyes turned toward me, and its eight legs pushed off the ground at once, sending its enormous body charging at me with incredible speed.

That was when Eris moved.

She didn't circle around the side. She charged straight at it from the front.

Eris...! She's still the same. She doesn't like taking the indirect route. Can't be helped.

"Eris! Left! In two seconds!" I shouted.

My Demon Eye of Foresight told me that in two seconds, the giant spider's third left leg would sweep across, its attack covering two meters to Eris's right.

The instant I finished speaking, her body reacted. She stepped to the right, lowered herself, and swung her sword in an upward arc.

The blade bit into the joint of the giant spider's third left leg.

That was where the carapace was thinnest. The blade sank deep, severing the tissue connecting the joint. The giant spider let out a piercing shriek. The leg went limp, scraping against the ground with a grating sound as it ran forward.

But that wasn't enough to stop it.

The giant spider turned, its abdomen facing upward, and shot a stream of grayish-white liquid from an opening in its abdomen.

"It's corrosive silk!"

"Ice Wall!" Master Roxy's chant came faster than my shout. A thick wall of ice rose in front of Eris.

The grayish-white liquid splashed against the Ice Wall with a sizzle. Pits rapidly formed across its surface as it corroded, but the liquid didn't penetrate.

Using the Ice Wall as cover, Eris circled around the side. She moved so fast that all I saw was a crimson afterimage. Her sword traced another arc, this time striking another of the giant spider's legs.

Another leg was severed.

The giant spider shrieked and backed away. Its many eyes darted wildly as it tried to track everyone's positions at once. But after losing two legs, it was noticeably slower.

"One more time," Eris said from the giant spider's side.

She charged.

But all the giant spider's eyes had already locked onto her.