Time passed, and three days had gone by since the hunting expedition began. During this period, Sandro and his group faced numerous challenges caused by monsters, yet they managed to gather a substantial amount of resources. Their success had not come without cost—the relentless hunting and combat had left them exhausted.
One of the group members, a lightning mana user named Kable, suggested they rest in a cave they had discovered earlier. Everyone agreed, feeling a measure of comfort and safety as they approached it.
Upon arrival, they noticed a cluster of wolf spiders—creatures with potent venom and razor-sharp jaws. Initially, they posed little threat, and the group dealt with them with relative ease. Yet unease lingered; an instinct told them that something unnatural was watching.
As night fell and they prepared to sleep, Mik, the tall and powerful earth mana user, built a wall at the cave's entrance to provide protection and ensure a peaceful rest. But this action would prove to be their gravest mistake.
They had overlooked a critical detail about the wolf spiders: they could recognize who had killed their kind. And the matriarch spider—twice the size of a human—possessed a soporific gas that could lull its prey into a deep sleep, allowing her to feed at leisure.
As they slept, the matriarch, hiding in wait, struck. She released her sleep-inducing gas, which quickly filled the sealed cave. A light dizziness and nausea washed over the group, but by the time they realized the danger, the gas had already surrounded them completely.
Sandro shouted, his voice sharp and urgent:
"Cover your noses! Quickly!"
But it was too late. One by one, the members fell. Sandro, struggling to use his wind mana to disperse the gas, realized with a sinking heart that it was futile.
As he teetered on the brink of unconsciousness, the wall Mik had built suddenly shattered. At that very moment, a man of middle age appeared. Sandro, already weakened by the gas, could not observe him clearly, but he saw something unmistakable: with a single, mighty strike powered by wind mana, the man cleaved the matriarch spider in half.
Sandro collapsed into sleep, yet the memory of that blow lingered—the sheer force, the protection, the fleeting sense of safety—before the soporific gas claimed him completely, leaving their survival in the hands of the unknown savior who had appeared at their most desperate moment.