Betrayed

I entered the kingdom and went back to the library. After reading books related to magic for a while, it started to get boring. But I have to endure it, the kingdom's library has tons of books related to magic.

The little spirit has become so skilled in fire magic that it can now combine earth magic with fire magic, even though it's not its domain.

This surprised me a bit since my understanding of spirits is a type focused on the convergence of pure mana in a single domain. But what the little spirit is doing essentially breaks my perception, "This world still has tons of mysteries."

I slowly raised my head and picked up a book called "Magic Combinations." Hours later, I finished that one too and grabbed another one. Then I got up, went to the barracks for training, and came back to read books. My days revolve around this, but today it ends.

-Time to part ways- I can finally leave the kingdom and continue my research on spirits more swiftly! You thought the same, didn't you? I'm sure you did! But it seems the king has other plans.

"An assault on the dungeon?" the teacher asked, and I wished I had misheard, but unfortunately, it was true!

"Yes, you heard it right!" he waved his hand and stood up. "Get ready, you will soon be going to a B-level dungeon for an assault! Don't worry, Captain Sir Chartto will accompany you."

'This man... I think he was one of Alex's subordinates?'

Everyone started heading towards the dorms to gather their belongings.

Minutes later, everyone gathered in the barracks and went towards the dungeon with Chartto. We stood in front of it, and Chartto began briefing us.

"This dungeon is mainly spider-themed, so be cautious of stealthy attacks. And while they are generally non-venomous, be careful not to get bitten. That's all!"

And we entered the dungeon. I know the basics of this dungeon. I had heard about it in the news before; a lot of teams were sent to clear it, but most of them died, except for the hero.

"Well, that's all I know in general."

We have a total of 5 teams, one consisting of royal soldiers. The rest are divided into damage dealers, tanks, wizards, and archers.

I'm in the damage dealers team, and compared to others, many see me as weaker. I mainly use basic-level spells and some punching moves.

And it actually works quite well, considering that martial arts fundamentally focus on the basics. At first, there wasn't much to encounter inside since it's mainly populated by spider-like creatures.

After all, they are creatures that hunt with traps. A few minutes later, someone's leg was lifted into the air, taking their body along with it. Seconds later, their body became entangled in threads. Before us rookies could understand what was happening, Chartto acted swiftly and saved the novice.

"As I said, be careful. If I hadn't reacted in time, your spider friend behind me would have killed you." Chartto finished his words and sliced the spider in half with a sword swing.

My mouth was slightly agape... For some reason, that sword move reminded me of the hero. I shook my hand and snapped out of my trance.

Hours later, we encountered a monster with a name. Its upper body was human, and its lower body was that of a spider.

"I won't interfere with this one. Attack it in an organized and coordinated manner. From now on, there is a chance of dying..." Chartto said and stepped aside.

Then, to rescue the class from the monster's grasp, I was the first to attack. The spider blocked with its hands, but I managed to inflict a wound with support from the human part. "Attack!" I shouted, and it worked.

The little spirit grew tired of the fight and fell asleep, and everyone managed to escape the deadlock! They began to attack, and I stepped aside and observed what was happening. We ended this battle with three casualties and took a break.

For some reason, Chartto's gaze was on me, along with some other students. 'I wonder why?' I shrugged my shoulders and continued.

After the break, we encountered two more named monsters - the total number of casualties reached five - and reached the Queen Spider's chamber.

Chartto gathered us all together and gave his final speech, "You don't need to be too cautious. The Spider Queen is not as strong as a regular B-level due to being in the breeding phase. She's probably a little stronger than the named monsters. That's all!"

The environment was too strange to be a spider's nest. 'Why did this spider make the edge of the cliff its nest?' There must be a strange reason behind it.

We attacked and easily defeated her. Only half of the class suffered some damage due to the traps she set up.

I was inside the spider's body, and I got poisoned a bit. As I delivered the final blow, I secretly embedded my spores in the spider's body. They will probably grow in a few hours.

I tried to turn back, but my body fell forward, and the spider's body was the only thing I could see. As I tried to understand what was happening, my body was dragged and thrown down the cliff.

'What the hell is going on!'

****

"Finally... We got rid of that monster!" Rix spoke, and Chartto applauded her.

"Thank you. Even if they are a hero, things change when they become a serial killer!"

While the class whispered among themselves, Rix climbed to a height where everyone could see her and began her speech.

"At the school, there was a disappearance case nearly 5 years ago. Six students suddenly vanished," she looked at the students, but since none of them were aware of this situation, she sighed a little. "You can ask the teacher; I learned about it from her. When I examined those students, one of them resembled Aquirus. And from what I learned from the teacher, Aquirus had some past records."

"And I started to follow him. I noticed that he had killed a total of 4 people within the kingdom, and I reported this to the king..."

As she explained further, the students agreed unanimously, and they took action to 'eliminate' Aquirus, acting like judges.

When Rix finished speaking, Chartto intervened, "Heroes, I request from you. Aquirus was killed by the spiders in the dungeon. If Aquirus' actions were exposed, the reputation of you heroes would be tarnished."

Except for the teacher, they all agreed. Although the teacher felt a little remorseful for causing the death of one of her students, there was nothing she could do.

****

I tried to awaken my little spirit and transfer its essence to me, attempting a gentle descent with wind magic. Since the mana I received from the little spirit was filled with fire, the wind magic was scorching hot, enough to burn a person.

"Impudent bastards..." I tried to shout, but only a few words came out of my mouth.

"That blow to my head... It was a strike intended to cleanly break my spine." I focused on my spine and indeed realized that it was damaged.

"Little spirit, take care of my body," I said and put myself into sleep mode.

When I woke up, my whole body was in pain, and my neck was covered in a kind of mucus. I moved to the side and calmly pondered while eating the meat brought by the little spirit.

"Why did they do this?" They are hiding something from me. Where did I slip up? Did they find those corpses? Or something else?! I don't know...

I accidentally bit into the bone and broke a part of my tooth along with it. "Oh, how delightful."

"Wait a minute... Did they take the entire spider's corpse?!" The meat in my hand dropped, and I truly felt screwed.

If that fungus spreads into the world, the consequences are unpredictable. And if efforts are made to prevent it, the heroes will develop against these fungi, and in the end, I'm screwed!!

It will be a great weapon I can use in the future... I'm screwed! I tried to sense the fungus, but in vain! It's too far away. Maybe there's a distance of hundreds of meters.

Was this spider dungeon like this before? I knew that dungeons could have branches connected to another dungeon, but... What B-level dungeon can be a branch of another dungeon!

If this is a B-level branch, then it's at least S-level! I honestly don't know what I can do against an S-level dungeon.

In a normal B-level dungeon, the highest monster level is A, and the lowest is C. The dungeon level is determined by taking the average of these two. And an S-level... I might even encounter a creature at the SS level.

I stood up and scattered the spores everywhere to solve the shelter problem. The spores covered every visible area, but doing this required a tremendous amount of energy.

Within a few days, they will grow. I ate all the animals brought to me by the little spirit and regained my energy.

I prepared myself and went outside to find prey for the mushrooms. Minutes later, I saw something strange. It was a mantis about the size of a T-rex! Taking it down would be challenging. So, it's the perfect time for the little spirit to use the new spell it learned.

I gave the command, and as the spell casting began, the environment became colder. It kept getting colder, and eventually, fire started coming together and dancing, then they moved towards the mantis's body.

Each touch of the fire created explosions, and after a few bursts, the mantis fell to the ground.

I approached it and sprinkled mushroom spores. Hours later, it revived in a severely wounded state. Naturally, heavily wounded, after all, it was bombarded.