46 The Gargantuan Cave
As Ren ran full speed ahead, he shouted again, “Don’t swipe at the save crystal!”
In case someone died in his group, it was to make sure that they respawn in the village for the reason that there might be a chance that Poison Viper would still be in the area.
“Well, that was easy,” huffed Leonel when they were deeper in the cave, and no longer heard the commotion outside.
“Don’t let your guard down. There are still players inside and beast to defeat.” Ren slowed down his pace when he was sure that no one was following them.
Ren knew that there would be Arachnids roaming around near the Boss’s room so he gave out a warning. “Let’s catch our breath first and survey our surroundings.”
Arachnids were low-level beasts that could easily be defeated if all your ATP had reached two digits. But their height and webs were intimidating and scary. They weren’t ordinary spiders like in the real world.
In ARCADIA, those Arachnid spiders were the size of a toddler or bigger and nasty as hell.
They attacked in swarms, and their webs were sticky. If you get hit multiple times, there’s a high chance you’d be paralyzed inside a web cocoon for the Arachnid to feast upon you.
Leonel whistled. “Wow, talk about a celling full of cobwebs. This room is worse than our house.”
There were thick cobwebs everywhere, and only a portion of space was passable.
“Avoid as many webs as you can,” Ren said and added, “Arachnids would swarm in our direction if they noticed too much vibration from their webs.”
Isolde nodded while Ragnar pressed his lips tight. The both of them already accepted that Ren might be a beta tester from his knowledge of the game.
While Leonel didn’t even doubt Ren one bit. He just thought that Ren might have researched the cave beforehand or read the information in some secret forum that only he could find.
A couple of minutes passed, but there was still no sign of the Arachnid spiders.
“Did we enter the wrong cave?” Leonel stopped and scratched his head. “Is it just me, or there are no spiders in sight?”
“The others before us simply killed all the spiders in this area,” Ren answered confidently. “They might still be respawning as we speak.”
The rate of spawn time in the cave depended on the difficulty. The more the difficulty increase, the lesser the respawn time of the monsters. Since it was their first attempt, Gargantuan Cave was automatically set to normal difficulty. Thus the slow respawn time.
If they could clear Gargantuan Cave, then the other difficulties would become accessible like [Hard], [Nightmare], and [Sadistic] mode. The EXP gained would double as well, depending on how high the difficulty.
Though there won’t be any more firstblood rewards, the high EXP gained, the honor of your name plastered on the leaderboard, and the stone of fame outside of the cave attracted a lot of guilds.
All guilds battled each other for the high difficulty and earliest clear time to gain prestige and be well known throughout COVENANT.
It may sound insignificant, but prestige is the most important when you have a guild. If you’re known in all corners of the world, then a lot of players would want to join your guild, and your guild could even attract pro players if your name were always on the leaderboard and in the stone of fame outside of every cave and dungeons.
Operating a guild was good business. Top twenty guilds have special perks from COVENANT like 20% off all items in the shop, extra boost from rewards, and a monthly allowance worth thousands of millions in gil, among the many others depending on your guild’s standing in the leaderboards.
What’s more top guilds and players were more famous than superstars. Everyone remembered their name than their president’s name.
That was why almost all players clamored for their guilds and name to be in the top twenty. The fame and money along with it was the dream of many players.
“It’s a bad thing, right?” Isolde asked. “We couldn’t grind to level our ATP at this rate.” Especially her ATP.
Ragnar nodded. “Should we wait for the beasts to respawn first? Maybe try to destroy their cobwebs so they would come in our direction?”
Leonel rapidly shook his head. “Don’t! I’m okay with one or two spiders along the way but dozens of them . . .” He shuddered and embraced himself, rubbing away the goosebumps erupting from his body.
“I’m getting hives just from imagining it.” ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Ragnar shot a look in Leonel’s way. “You’re a grown-up man. How can you still be afraid of a bunch of spiders?”
“How can you not?” Leonel spat back.
While the two argued, Ren was thinking.
To be honest, Ren was glad that he didn’t have to waste time killing small fries like Arachnids spiders. The EXP he would get from killing them was minuscule. He would rather face the Boss now than waste his time on those creatures.
“We could wait for them to respawn, but we’re pressed for time because of the unexpected turn of events. The other players might be catching to us as we speak. It’s best that we hurry to the Boss’s lair.”
Isolde and Ragnar looked at each other. Their constipated faces told Ren that they disagreed with what they said.
“Are you worried about your low ATP?” Leonel grinned at Isolde. “Don’t worry. You have a powerful dwarf defender in your group that would take all the damages for you!”
Isolde shook her head. “My ATP is low since I’m back to square one, and I’m afraid that I won’t be much of help to you in a fight when we face the Boss. I think it’s better if I grind first in here.”
“My ATP is already in the second digit. Though I’m not against to a little bit of grinding,” seconded Ragnar.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Ren said before facing the direction deeper forward. “If we hurry, we might catch up to the other players before us and kill a bunch of Arachnid spiders ourselves.”
Isolde’s face brightened. That’s right. Why didn’t she think of that?
“I see. Then it’s really best if we hurry than waste time around here and suffer a pincer attack if the other players catch up to us from behind,” said Ragnar. The frown on his face was replaced with his usual poker face.
With everyone agreeing, they hurried onwards once more, avoiding all the cobwebs they could avoid and destroying those that were totally blocking their path.
Ren was right, Isolde thought. The Arachnid spiders were still dead and hadn’t respawn yet. Judging from the number of cobwebs they destroyed, the Arachnid spiders should have been alerted and swarmed in their direction.
Isolde’s hope of acquiring EXP through killing spiders was diminishing by the second as they traversed the straightforward path but still no sign of the enemy.
She was getting worried that she would slow the group down because she didn’t have enough STR to land critical damage to the Boss.
Her plan was to enter Gargantuan cave and grind until her ATP reached two digits. It would be difficult because the monsters in Gargantuan Cave were higher level compared to the newbie forest where she was grinding the first time.
However, with Ren and the other’s help, she would surely rack enough EXP to catapult her ATP to second digits in no time. And by the time they faced the final Boss, she could pull her own weight and wouldn’t be baggage to the others.
Who would have expected that a group of thugs would block the cave entrance and cause problems for everyone?
To her!
I’m very unlucky. Isolde thought.
But then her big eyes drawn to a slit.
Rather . . . it’s those guys who’re at fault!
Isolde recalled their face and planted them in her memory. She swore that she would put bullet holes on their heads every time they met from now on.
CLiInNgG!
CLanNg!
Leonel flinched and stopped at the frontline. “Egh? What’s that?”
“Could it be . . . ?” Isolde’s pointy ears flinched. Her hopes rekindled at the sound of swords clashing against swords, and her face lit up.
Ren threw a slight smirk in her direction. “Rejoice, Isolde. You’ll get that EXP boost after all.”
Finally! Isolde screamed in her head and drew her revolver from her holster.