Chapter 1 – Prologue 1
"Huft, huft— "
Running through the seemingly endless cave, Hayui's stamina was starting to plummet, and his legs were starting to feel a bit shaky. But if he stops now, the giant spider chasing him will surely devour him until nothing remains.
Accepting the job was a mistake. If he could rewind time, he would outrightly refuse the job.
'Big sis is right! I shouldn't have accepted a job from a shady person!'
The job was easy: to investigate the Mitterens Cave for signs of Spider Monsters. Hayui accepted a job from a hooded lady, thinking it would be easy. After all, all he had to do was to investigate the cave, not to kill the spiders inside. But it was easier getting inside than exiting the cave. He's stuck inside.
After he entered the cave and advanced for a few meters ahead, the entrance was covered by a thick web; he couldn't even cut it with his katana, and to put more problem, there was no connection inside, and there were a bunch of spiders already waiting for him. He had no other choice but to run away, hoping that help would come and search for another way to escape the spiders and exit the cave.
Nevertheless, Hayui continued to run away desperately from the spiders, still searching for an exit while constantly stumbling over the rocks.
The sound of a spider, a giant spider, is slowly approaching Hayui.
Hayui did not know where the spider was since the cave was too dark for him to see it, but he could guess that the spider was—
Right above him.
THUMP!
Hayui was pinned beneath the spider, its legs pinning him; one of its sharp legs even pierced his calf, immobilizing and putting him in pain.
"AH!"
As the other spiders finally surrounded him, they started to tear his clothes using their mandibles and sharp legs.
"W-what is this?!"
Hayui was trying his best to keep the spiders away from him by swinging his katana around, but the number of the spiders overwhelmed him.
Just as he was starting to feel hopeless….
"Hang in there for a bit."
SLASH!
Hayui doesn't know what happened, but the spiders shifted their attention toward the stranger and stopped harassing him after that.
SLASH SLASH SLASH!
Hayui could hear it, the sound of the spiders being sliced.
SLASH!
No longer beneath a spider, Hayui turned around and pushed himself using his hands. And there, he saw the stranger who slew all the spiders that were previously surrounding him.
A man with short, green hair, whose eyes were constantly closed. Hayui can't help but feel a mysterious presence surrounding that man.
But the most standout thing about that man, who is slowly coming toward him, is the short sword in his left hand. It emanates a bluish aura, making the short sword feel mystical.
'An Artifact?'
"You alright?" The man crouched to get a closer look at Hayui.
The man's face was tainted with the spider's blood, but his expression remained calm, as if killing that swarm of spiders was nothing for this man.
"I-I'm fine. My leg said the otherwise though…." Hayui clutches his bleeding calf, grunting in pain.
The man only nodded at him before taking a glance at the shadow behind him.
"Sera, can you patch his leg?"
"Right away."
A woman with glasses quickly approached Hayui from the shadows, opened a book, and pulled a first aid kit from within.
As the lady named Sera worked on his injured leg, Hayui couldn't help but ask.
"Who are you guys?"
"Just a Level 6 Contractor."
'A Level 6! That explains how he's easily killed those spiders….'
"I'm Ergo, and this is Sera."
As Sera finished putting a bandage on Hayui's leg, she put the first aid kit back into her book.
"It's done."
"Good, let's send him back before he gets himself killed."
Sera raised one of her eyebrows before she shook her head.
"Did you forget already that the entrance was caved in? We can't return. We can only complete the contract and hope you get a fragment of your powers back."
Ergo sheathed his short sword and sighed.
"Seems like you're going with us till the end."
Hayui only nodded at him. With the entrance already closed and his leg injured, he can only cling to these two to survive.
"O-okay… I'll try not to be a burden."
Hayui struggled to stand up, using his katana as a support. Ergo looked at him with a concerned face. Seeing Hayui, a youngster struggling to stand up, seems to have stirred something in his heart. Noticing something in how Ergo looked at him, Hayui smiled a little.
"Let me piggyback you."
Ergo turned around to offer his back to Hayui, only to be refused.
"Don't worry, I still can walk slowly. I'll try to catch up, though."
Ergo sighed at Hayui's refusal.
"Fine then, but we're going to stick close to you. I'm worried that there's still a spider hiding around us."
"…."
==
As the three walked through the layout of the cave, they felt the ground shaking a bit. The trembling ground managed to make Hayui lose his balance. But luckily, Sera caught him.
"Seems we're getting closer to the nest." Hayui's eyes stared forward, trying to balance himself.
"Why do you two aim for the nest?" Hayui asked while trying to keep up with the two figures in front of him.
"The contract with our client is not to be discussed with a third party. Please, refrain from asking another identical question." Sera answered with a cold, almost robotic tone.
"What's the matter with telling someone just a little bit about it?" Ergo suddenly butts in.
"It's not like the kid is going to spread it, right?"
"We do not want other people besides us collecting it."
"…."
Ergo and Sera suddenly stopped and looked below. Hayui decided to stand between them and looked below as well.
"We're here."
In the center, there's a large golden tree occupying the center of the nest. Around the nest was wrapped with white silk, possibly from the spiders.
"How are we going to get there?" Hayui looked at his injured leg, grimacing at the pain.
"Jump, obviously."
Ergo suddenly grabbed Hayui and carried him in a bridal style, followed by Sera, who also jumped down.
"Whoa! So sudden!"
THUD!
As they finally reached below, Ergo put Hayui down.
Despite being a spider nest, there's not a single spider in sight.
"Did we get into the wrong place? Where's the spiders?" Hayui couldn't help but ask a question upon seeing the weird scenery of the nest.
"No. We're in the right place."
A sudden, chilling sensation crept into Hayui's spine. Clearly, there is something wrong with this place.
"The spiders are invisible." Sera suddenly opened her book.
THUD!
"Whoa!" Hayui stumbled a bit, surprised by the sudden sound coming out of nowhere.
A spider suddenly appeared out of nowhere after hitting an invisible barrier.
"Good job, Sera." Ergo gave Sera a thumbs-up before he killed the spider.
"Not even I can sense that thing with my Heightened Sense."
"What happened? Why did a spider suddenly appear?"
Hayui touched the invisible barrier; the surface is solid and hard, just like a wall, but transparent like glass.
"The spiders are invisible. There are actually more than a thousand of them here." Ergo spoke so casually as if he didn't know the weight behind those numbers.
"They must've used my power…" Ergo murmured.
"T-thousand?!"
A single hissing sound suddenly appeared.
Now two, three… five… ten…
A thousand.
"Sera. I'm going to be a bit serious now."
Ergo took a step forward.
"Protect him."
-BLITZ!
In an instant, Ergo vanished like a gust of wind and charged at the swarm of spiders.
-BOOM!
Ergo unleashed a powerful ice attack from his sword, turning the spiders into an ice sculpture.
HISS!
Ergo grabbed a handful of pebbles-
BOOM!
And spread the pebbles at the spiders that tried to ambush him from above, crushing them all.
Not stopping there, Ergo blitzed again. As his sword emanates a blue aura, the temperature in the cave suddenly drops.
With ease, Ergo killed all of the spiders in his surroundings, turning them into an ice sculpture and turning them into minced meat using his sword.
"Easy." Ergo wiped the spider's blood that got on his face.
"Wow… he's really strong…."
Hayui could only feel amazed at Ergo's action of slaughtering the spider from behind the barrier.
"There's still more." Sera casually spoke from behind the invisible barrier she had made.
"The big one." Ergo tightened his grip on his sword.
The earth trembled as another spider came out of its hiding….
BOOM!
Another spider, but this time, it's a lot bigger than the previous one.
HISS!!!
The size difference between Ergo and this spider was incredibly vast. It's like measuring an infant with an adult. But there are other things than size between Ergo and this spider.
It was their strength.
"It's done."
Sera opened the barrier and stood up, approaching Ergo.
Hayui could only blink at the outcome of the battle.
It ended in under a second. Just before this, he saw Ergo standing face-to-face with the colossal spider. But now, he saw Ergo standing atop the colossal spider corpse, and not even a hint of exhaustion appeared in Ergo's face.
Hayui began to approach the duo slowly due to his injured leg. As he finally approached them, he noticed the large hole that had been there since the colossal spider appeared. Below, he saw a glimpse of something radiant.
Ergo jumped off the spider's corpse and made his way to observe the hole.
Sera grabbed Hayui's collar and pulled him over before covering his eyes.
"Eh?"
"This is a part of the contract we made with our client; you are not allowed to observe the object."
Ergo looked at Sera's action and seemed to disapprove of it, but he ignored it before he jumped into the hole.
Quickly after, Ergo returned from the hole. A mysterious, golden seed hovered above his palm.
"Hah… I can feel it coming back to me."
"Delightful. Let us return quickly."
"Let the kid see it."
"…."
Sera finally removed her hands from Hayui's face, allowing Hayui to see once again to see a golden seed in front of him.
"What is that?"
"Just a really magical and ancient seed."
Ergo puts the seed away into his pocket.
"Oh yeah. I haven't asked for your name."
Hayui put a surprised face before being embarrassed. He smiled awkwardly and put his hand behind his head.
"I can't believe I forgot to mention my name."
Hayui bowed down.
"My name is Hayui. A Level 1 Contractor."
Ergo smiled softly, whereas Sera remained passive. Ergo turned around and started walking; the others followed shortly.
"Hayui, are you interested in making a group together with Sera and me?"
"Ah… I was actually trying to find a group before. Let me consider it." Hayui tried his best to keep up with both of them.
"So that's why I had this assumption from the start. You were trying to recruit him in the first place." Sera interjected with a stoic face.
"I just think he was-"
"Watch out!"
Hayui stepped behind Ergo right before a large blade suddenly pierced Hayui's chest, creating a hole in his abdomen.
Time felt slower for Hayui. He saw his own torso being pierced by a large blade.
For a moment, Hayui felt an overwhelming fear.
Chapter 1
End.