Chapter 55
#55. Hidden Boss
Deep inside the Twilight Spider nest, the tunnels twisted and branched in every direction, making it a perfect place to get lost.
"I keep telling you not to go so far ahead! If I don't mark the path properly, we'll end up lost for sure!"
As a countermeasure, Rizmel was using some special tool to leave marks wherever we'd passed.
"That won't happen, so just follow me."
But I strode ahead, leaving Rizmel behind. Of course, the Open Community strategy guide had a map of the nest.
Unlike the Lizardman Ruins, which were full of traps, the Twilight Spider nest matched the guide's map exactly.
I already knew where the large open area where the boss was likely to be was, so all I had to do was keep moving forward while taking down the spiders that popped out here and there.
"This is why I hate rookies. At least don't go off too far ahead, okay? If we get separated, it'll be hard to find you!"
Even while saying that, Rizmel kept right on following me.
After striding along like that for a while, we soon came upon a space with a completely different atmosphere from the guide.
Up until then, the inside of the Twilight Spider nest had looked like a normal stalactite cave, aside from all the webs.
But here, unidentified glowing minerals were packed tight into the walls like barnacles.
"What is this?"
When I tapped the glowing mineral with my hand, I could feel that it was far harder than ordinary rock.
It looked like one of those glowing crystals you often see in fantasy stories.
Maybe it was a rare material item used for mage-type equipment.
"This is... Light Mithril, isn't it?"
Rizmel spoke as if she recognized the crystal. I was startled and immediately asked back.
"This is Mithril?"
If it was Mithril, then along with Adamantite and Orichalcum, it was one of the rarest and most powerful materials in the Tower of Trials.
Among the items I owned, only the wand I got from the large chest on Floor 1 was made of Mithril.
If all of this was Mithril, then this wasn't just good luck—it meant something was seriously off.
"It's not Mithril. It's Light Mithril. The name is similar, but it's a completely different material. Don't humans know that?"
"Uh, what's that?"
"It's a crystal that's rarely seen, but it's called that because its color and hardness are reminiscent of Mithril."
Rizmel said it was like the relationship between gold and pyrite—but how was I supposed to know what that meant?
I decided to just think of it as a mineral that was vaguely similar but far inferior, and let it go for now.
"It's not as valuable as real Mithril, but it's still not something you'd expect to find embedded in a spider nest."
I thought the same. Mithril was a truly ridiculous metal, and yet something likened to it was scattered all over a place like this.
What's more, the existence of something like this wasn't mentioned at all in the info posts on the Open Community.
There was clearly a substantial amount of it, so even challengers from the second-generation era should have found it and put it to use at least once.
That meant it was likely lost for some reason connected to the boss room ahead.
"Let's keep moving for now."
I set the matter of Light Mithril aside for the moment and kept moving forward.
The farther in we went, the more Light Mithril there was.
And at the same time, the deeper we went, the weaker the Light Mithril's glow became.
The pieces embedded in the walls weren't in their usual sharp shape either—only broken, crushed, and deformed fragments.
Broken pieces aside, what on earth would you have to do to crush them like that?
While I mulled over that small question, we finally reached the boss room.
-Crrk, crrk.
A gigantic spider answered the question I'd been wondering about in an instant.
**
A sound like stone being carved away came from deep in the darkness.
Thanks to the [Hint] skill I got after clearing Floor 6, it wasn't hard to make out its shape with a little light.
A giant spider, towering even over the other Twilight Spiders, was chewing on crystal.
"Hah, what a weird sight."
"Shh, keep quiet!"
When I let out a dumbfounded sound at the absurd sight, Rizmel clamped a hand over my mouth.
And as shadows slowly crept up, it looked like some kind of stealth magic—but in my view, it was already too late.
The prickling warning from my [Instinct] skill was pointing at that spider. Which meant we'd already been spotted.
Even if we hadn't been spotted, hiding quietly was never an option in my dictionary.
-Crunch, crunch.
A strangely deformed lump dropped from the spider's rear after it gnawed on the crystal with its grotesque teeth.
That spider was chewing on glowing crystal and excreting crystals that had lost their light.
It was easy enough to guess why it was doing that just by looking at its appearance.
Because it wasn't just huge; its entire body was made of glowing crystal.
It had either consumed Light Mithril crystals and taken on their properties, or it needed to eat them because of those properties.
Either way, it was certain to have absurdly tough durability and attack power.
And of course, the rewards for bringing it down would be generous too.
-Clink.
"Hey, stay still...!"
As I adjusted my shield and prepared to step forward, Rizmel screamed in alarm and tried to stop me.
"We're already spotted. We have to fight."
I ignored her as a matter of course, took up my stance, and pulled the iron balls from my inventory into my hand.
That spider looked like it planned to finish its meal before dealing with us, but I had no intention of sitting quietly and letting it steal the initiative.
Holding two iron balls at once, I hurled them with all my strength toward the spider's eyes.
-Boom!
The iron balls smashed into the crystal spider's head with an explosion, and a system message appeared.
[A subspecies of the Twilight Spider, an artificial lifeform created by someone, a monster born from the rotten branch of the World Tree.]
[There had been many theories about its identity, but only one thing was certain.]
[That it was the most dangerous spider under the heavens.]
[HIDDEN BOSS - Crystal Spider Aranasia]
The house-sized crystal spider heaved its heavy body up to kill us.
**
Just stretching out its body, which had been curled up, was enough to make the entire spider nest shake.
Spiderlings hidden everywhere scurried off at top speed. Were the ones swarming at the entrance driven out like this too?
The unfamiliar Hidden Boss title was a little concerning, but there was always only one thing to do.
Press forward without backing down.
"Then..."
I glanced toward Rizmel, still hidden. Rizmel shot me a tense glare.
"I'll hold it here, so you run and call for reinforcements."
So that really was it—snappy on the outside, but apparently fond of humans on the inside.
But that wasn't going to happen. What did I come all the way here for?
I had no intention of running away from a boss I'd finally come face-to-face with. If anything, the opposite.
"No way."
"Hey!"
Rizmel snapped at my curt reply. Keeping my eyes fixed on the crystal spider's movements, I said,
"I told you I came here to do this kind of thing. You decide whether to call for backup or fight alongside me, because I'm not planning to run."
Rizmel seemed about to say something, but I ignored her and charged straight at the spider.
-Whoosh!
When the spider raised its front legs, I heard the sound of wind being cut. Each leg must have weighed quite a bit.
Of course, if I got pinned by something like that, there'd be nothing left of me. But fundamentally, it shouldn't be any different from the other Twilight Spiders.
-Thoom!
I dodged the crystal spider's front-leg attack and leaped high toward its head. As expected, there was no difference after all.
The timing of its front-leg attack, and the place it stomped down—it was just an oversized Twilight Spider.
But the moment I thought that, the spider's mouth tore grotesquely open, as if to prove the difference.
And then countless crystal shards shot out from inside its mouth.
"What was that, some kind of Diamond Wave?"
I quickly raised my shield and used [Iron Wall] to protect the exposed parts.
-KWA-BANG!
"Ah, shit."
A few shards had lodged in my shield and near my legs. They hadn't gone deep, but the moment I couldn't deflect them, that was a failure.
Its attack power is way stronger than I expected.
Still, I had at least landed on the spider's head. Given its body structure, once you're on its back, you're safe for the moment.
I pulled the crystal shards out of my thigh with my hand and swung my sword before even bothering to drink a potion.
-Clang!
As expected, it was disgustingly hard. But that still left a fairly large scratch.
Well, it's not impossible to kill it.
If I keep attacking one spot to widen the scratch, then drive my sword in deep enough to trigger a critical, that should work.
-Shwoosh!
Then, suddenly, shadows surged up from beneath my feet and Rizmel popped out.
"Seriously, why do you always pick the most dangerous things to do! You're already not exactly going to live long anyway—are you trying to die even earlier?"
Rizmel, who had moved to my side in an instant with some strange movement technique, immediately started nagging.
But I didn't have time to listen to Rizmel's nagging. A tingling warning from my [Instinct] skill suddenly rang out beneath my feet.
-Kikikikik!
The crystal spider's head beneath our feet bent at a right angle. Its grotesque teeth pointed toward me.
I thought it was shards again, but Rizmel suddenly went pale and shoved me aside at the same time, and light burst out.
-KWA-BANG!
"What the fuck!"
Why the hell is that spider shooting lasers?!