The next day, Esther went to the meeting point with all her gear: her sword, her shield, and a determination she didn't feel the day before, along with the potions and the little rat cage. There, Eric and Roxy were waiting for her, and a new man who, by his heavy armor and serious demeanor, could only be Claudio. He looked her up and down, his face unreadable, and said nothing about her attire. Esther knew Eric had already warned him. Claudio was dry and quiet, of an enormous size whose presence seemed to absorb noise. The other two, especially Roxy, tried to bring up the topic with complicit glances. At one point, Roxy, with her characteristic lack of filter, said: "Look what I brought!". She pulled from her backpack several objects wrapped in cloth that Esther didn't recognize. Claudio reacted instantly, his voice a low thunder. "Did we tell you not to bring bombs? Do you want to kill us all?". "It's a good emergency plan", Roxy defended herself with a mischievous smile. "In a mine, a bomb can cause a collapse", countered Claudio, his tone increasingly tense. "We could die or get trapped and die. Do you understand?". "Don't be dramatic and let me bring them", Roxy retorted. Eric, in an attempt to mediate, intervened: "How about we bring them, but I hold them?". Claudio reluctantly agreed. "I trust your judgment more for that," he told Eric.
The mine was far away. They had to walk two hours to get there, a journey that previously would have left Esther exhausted just from the walking. Now, she wasn't even tired, her endurance was that of another person. The entrance to the mine had a "Forbidden" sign and was blocked with thick, rotten planks. Roxy suggested, with enthusiasm, opening it with one of her bombs, but Claudio flatly refused. Between the four of them, they cleared the entire blockade with brute force. Once inside, Roxy took out some torches and lit them with a small spark of her magic, giving one to each. Esther carried the sword in her hand, though she didn't feel particularly skilled. Claudio glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Are you going to fight? I was told you were a better mage than a warrior". Eric defended her before Esther could speak. "She's not that bad. She's not good yet, but she's better than Roxy". Roxy complained with a huff, but Claudio, with a completely serious face, said: "That's a very low bar for comparison". Eric and Esther couldn't help but laugh.
As soon as they entered, the path split into two dark tunnels. "We're not splitting up, it's dangerous," Claudio ordered. "We'll all go everywhere together. Esther and Roxy, pay attention to the rear". At that moment, an idea occurred to Esther. She concentrated and mentally asked her brother: "When you materialize, can you see for yourself or only what I see?". He answered instantly. "I can see for myself". "Then, can you help me? Go and look behind to alert us of any danger". Her brother sighed, an ethereal and tired sound in her mind. "I'll accept your proposal. But I suggest you don't get distracted talking to me, or they'll think you're crazy".
As they advanced down the dark tunnel, they encountered the first three spiders. They were enormous, clearly monsters, with some kind of large, pulsating sphere on their rear. Since they were far away, the two men stepped aside, letting the girls use their magic to destroy them. Both cast their fire spells and destroyed each one with a single attack. Inside, Esther felt glorious. It was the first time in her life she had killed a monster. The other two, using their shields very cautiously, killed the one that remained. Upon dying from the blows, the spider exploded and launched a liquid in all directions that only splashed the shields. The liquid was a kind of acid. Curiously, for some reason, the ones that died by fire did not explode.
They continued walking, traversing the darkness. The smell was horrible, a mixture of dampness, earth, and the sweet, nauseating smell of the monsters. They kept killing spiders. Luckily, they didn't appear in groups of more than six, and since they saw them from afar, they could reduce their number quite a bit until Eric and Claudio finished them off. "I don't know if you've noticed, Esther, but fire is their weakness," Claudio commented as they walked. "Now I understand the free lessons," Esther said, joking a little. Claudio frowned. "With just the healing, we would have invited you anyway. The classes for fire magic were actually a bet... that I lost." "Against me!" said Roxy. "When we're done with this, Claudio pays for my drink." Esther asked what he meant by "the drink." "The party," Eric clarified. "Every time we finish a good job, Roxy wants to celebrate, gets drunk, and makes a scene." At that moment, her brother warned her mentally: "Several spiders are coming from behind!". "Watch out, behind!", Esther warned them out loud. They turned around and Roxy quickly moved aside, letting the boys advance.
Esther first began to launch fire at them, then Roxy joined in. There were really a lot of them. The boys went to the front of everything, fighting in close combat. Esther understood that, being two and in a wide place, the spiders could surround them. So, she decided, taking advantage of the fact that Roxy or no one was looking at her, to take an orange drug while continuing to launch some fire. The drug didn't take long to take effect, and she felt as if something had ignited inside her. She drew her sword from its sheath and readied her shield. She launched herself to fight with the other two, thus covering the entire width of the cavern and preventing them from being surrounded. After several minutes of brutal fighting, they managed to defeat all of them. However, except for Claudio, who had more protection, Eric and Esther were injured by the acid, a little on their hands and arms from the splashes. "Is it poisonous?" Esther asked. "I don't know, but that's why we brought antidote," said Claudio. "I have mine," said Esther, and both took from their vials. Esther took the cage where she kept her rats. She took two and healed her arms. Then she took two more and healed Eric. After that, she took two mana potions and drank them in one gulp. Eric looked at her, amazed. "I've never seen you fight like just now. When we were training... Were you holding back before?" She shook her head. "No. It's just that I hadn't had rest and was very fatigued." Claudio, using some leather gloves, examined the corpses of the spiders that hadn't been burned and found some small blue or violet rocks. "Concentrations of raw mana," he explained. "Some monsters have them, usually those with more capacity to grow or reproduce. They're used for mana potions and for healing ones, among other things."
"I could help at the front with you," Esther suggested. "I'll launch fire with Roxy when many come, and then I'll close the position at the front." The others immediately accepted. The new tactic worked perfectly. Esther and Roxy became mobile artillery, and when the spiders got too close, Esther joined Eric and Claudio, forming a wall of steel and magic. This made them gain much speed and efficiency in the killing. Finally, they arrived at a darker place, a vast cavern whose air was dense and heavy. Roxy stopped abruptly. "Too infested," she said, her eyes closed in concentration. "My mana detection tells me. And it seems the queen is in there." "Wouldn't it be better to use the bombs?" Eric asked. "No," said Claudio, his voice firm and definitive. "It's not a good idea. A collapse here would kill us all." As they spoke, Esther observed the place ahead. An idea occurred to her as she took a mana potion. "Can you lend me one?" she asked Roxy, pointing to a potion. "I'll pay you back later." Esther gave her the last one. "I could set the rats on fire and they'll probably run in there. That would make the spiders come out," ventured Esther. Roxy, however, had a better plan. A wicked smile spread across her face. "I could use 'that'," she told them. "But then I'd be almost useless in combat." Claudio understood instantly. "Yes," he said, nodding. "It's the moment." Roxy smiled happily, stretched her arms and fingers, and the temperature around her body began to rise. She ran towards the infested room and stopped at the threshold. Then, they all felt the chilling noise of hundreds of spiders moving in unison. They followed her, and in the center of the cavern, Roxy conjured with a few words something that resembled hell. A wave of fire spread from her hands, consuming everything in its path. Everything caught fire. Some spiders began to escape, some on fire and others not. Among them, an enormous one, partially set on fire, ran towards them: the queen. Roxy ran again, and Esther used her fire magic to set ablaze those approaching first and give her time to escape, also launching some flames towards the queen. It was then that, for the first time, Eric did something that seemed like magic. His body glowed with a golden light for an instant, and he stood in front of everyone. "Keep the fire going!" he shouted to Esther. "The attacks are coming at me!" He held with his shield, attacking with renewed force, while Claudio attacked to one side of Eric, killing whatever crashed against him. Esther began launching fire attacks, one after another, without stopping, until she felt her mana was about to run out. At that moment, she drew her sword and, together with Claudio, they lunged into close combat.
The battle became a chaotic slaughter. Esther, alongside Claudio, formed a wall of steel and desperation. Her sword, once clumsy, now moved with a ferocity she didn't know she possessed, guided by instinct and adrenaline. Every time Claudio's shield repelled a spider, she was there, her blade finding a weak point in the shell or in one of its articulated legs. Roxy, exhausted by her massive spell, fought with contained fury, creating small explosions of fire to unbalance enemies that came too close. Eric was a whirlwind of light and steel. His shield seemed to have a will of its own, intercepting attacks that seemed impossible to block, while his sword fell with the force of a blacksmith's hammer. The Queen, a beast the size of a pig, partially charred but still furious, lunged at Eric. He met her head-on, the shield hitting her in the chest with a metallic roar. The beast staggered back, shrieking, and Claudio took the opportunity to drive his sword deep into her abdomen. Esther, seeing an opportunity, lunged forward and pierced one of her multiple legs with her blade. The Queen stumbled, and Roxy, with a final cry of effort, launched a fireball directly at her head. The explosion was deafening, and the monster collapsed, finally still.
When the last echo of the Queen's screech faded in the cavern, only silence remained, broken by the ragged breathing of the four adventurers. They were all wounded. Eric had a deep burn on his forearm, and a spider's acid had eaten away part of his armor and the skin on his shoulder. Claudio had a deep cut on his leg, and his shield was dented and covered in a viscous substance. Roxy had several scratches on her arms and side, and Esther felt the sharp pain of acid on her own hands and the total exhaustion in her muscles. No single wound was grave, but the collective of pain and fatigue was overwhelming. They had won. "Antidote. Now," Claudio ordered, his voice hoarse. He leaned against a wall and took the vial from his backpack. Esther and Eric did the same, drinking the bitter liquid with the same urgency. As the antidote took effect, neutralizing the latent poison, they moved with difficulty toward the bodies of the monsters. "The cores," Eric said, pointing to the blue and violet rocks embedded in the remains of the spiders. They collected them carefully, their trembling hands depositing the precious gems into their bags. Then, with Claudio's help, they cut the most valuable parts of the Queen: her fangs, a pair of venom glands, and the hardened shell of her head. It was a heavy and bloody loot. They left from there, walking with difficulty, leaning on each other. As they exited the mine, the sunlight hit them like a punch. They were wounded, tired, and bruised, with torn clothes and the smell of blood and burning impregnated in their skin. But they were alive.
On the way back, as the sun began to set, the silence was only broken by their weary footsteps. "Alright, here's the plan," Eric began, raising his voice a bit to overcome his own exhaustion. "Esther and I will go to the Guild to get the reward. Claudio, Roxy, you two go buy healing and mana potions." Roxy added with a smile, though the pain was noticeable in her voice: "And the mana potions are a gift for Esther, in case she doesn't remember. So she can heal all of us." "Can you get more rats?" Esther suggested, her voice a little weak. "I ran out." "No problem," Claudio approved. "Wait for us at the Guild and we'll all go home together." He was referring to the house the three of them shared, until now Esther had never visited it.
Wounded and covered in dried blood, they entered the Adventurers' Guild. This time, no one mocked them. The other adventurers looked at them with respect, stepping aside to let them pass. It was the first time Esther felt that they respected her, not as an object, but as an equal. While the man at the counter counted out their letters of exchange, the effect of the orange drug completely faded. A wave of absolute weakness hit her, and she could barely move properly, her muscles trembling under the effort of staying upright. "Eric... I have to go to the Guild's bathroom," she whispered, once she had her money. "Right now". He nodded. In the privacy of the cramped bathroom, she injected half of one of the vitality potions and a sedative. She didn't inject more for fear of not being able to control herself. The mixture made her recover almost completely, at least enough to be able to walk, and the most striking effects of the red drug, while still felt in her body, were manageable. For now. Even so, she felt a bit dazed by the sedative. When they came out, Roxy and Claudio were already waiting for them at the door. They handed over the potions and also gave Esther the equivalent of 2 gold coins for the cores they had collected. "It had been a great haul," said Roxy, with an ear-to-ear smile. "And a great job, even though we almost got killed." Esther had mixed feelings, on one hand she felt bubbling with happiness for her progress but on the other hand she felt that doing all that for 5 coins was not worth it, she had earned much more with Eduard and Lyra had told her about a job that paid 3 gold coins a day.