55. Hidden Boss
The inner depths of the Twilight Spider's den twisted and turned in every direction, a perfect maze to get lost in.
"I told you not to rush ahead like that! If we don't mark the path properly, we're gonna end up wandering forever!"
Rizmel was countering that by using some special tool to leave markers along our route.
"Won't happen. Just keep up."
But I strode forward without waiting for her. Of course I had the den's map from the community strategy posts. Unlike the lizardman ruins packed with traps, this place matched the guide description to a T. I already knew where the wide-open boss room was likely to be, so all I had to do was cut down the occasional spiders popping out and push ahead.
"This is why I hate rookies. At least don't get too far ahead— it'll be a pain to find you if we get separated!"
Rizmel griped like that but kept pace just fine. After striding along for a bit, we hit a space with a totally different vibe from the strategy notes.
Up to now, the Twilight Spider's den had looked like your standard stalactite cave aside from all the webs. But here, the walls were studded with unidentified glowing minerals clustered like barnacles everywhere.
"What the hell is this?"
I tapped one of the glowing rocks. It felt way harder than regular stone. Looked like those shiny crystals you see in fantasy stories—maybe a rare crafting material for mage gear.
"This is... light mithril, isn't it?"
Rizmel spoke up like she knew what it was. I whipped around, stunned.
"This is mithril?"
Mithril was one of the rarest, toughest materials in the Tower of Trials, right up there with adamantite and orichalcum. The only mithril item I had was a wand from a big chest on Floor 1. If all this stuff was real mithril, it wasn't just good luck—something was seriously off.
"Not mithril, light mithril. Similar name, totally different thing. You humans don't know about it?"
"Uh, what's that?"
"A rare crystal. The color and hardness remind people of mithril, so that's what they call it."
She said it was like the relation between gold and iron pyrite—whatever the hell that meant. I figured it was just something similar but way inferior and moved on.
"Not as precious as real mithril, but still not the kind of thing you'd expect embedded in a spider den."
I agreed. Mithril was absurdly rare, so something compared to it littering a place like this? Plus, the open community posts never mentioned it. There was a ton here at a glance—second-gen challengers must've found and used it at some point. Which meant it was probably tied to whatever was up ahead in the boss room, lost or hidden for some reason.
"Let's keep going."
I tabled the light mithril for now and pressed on. The deeper we went, the more there were. And the deeper we went, the dimmer their glow got.
The crystals weren't their usual sharp shape anymore either—just shattered chunks or smashed, deformed lumps. Shattered ones made sense, but how the fuck do you crumple them like that?
Pondering that trivial mystery, we finally reached the boss room.
-Crunch, crunch.
A massive spider solved my little puzzle in one go.
"Holy shit, what the fuck."
"Shh, quiet!"
I let out a dumbfounded snort at the ridiculous sight, and Rizmel's hand clamped over my mouth. Her shadow crept up—she was using some stealth spell—but it was already too late in my book.
My Instinct skill was buzzing, pointing straight at that spider. We'd been spotted.
Even if we hadn't, hiding quietly wasn't in my dictionary anyway.
-Crunch, crunch.
A mangled lump dropped from the spider's ass as it gnawed the glowing crystals with its freakish teeth. It ate the shiny crystals and shat out the lightless ones.
Why the hell it did that was obvious from its looks alone. It wasn't just huge—its entire body was made of glowing crystal.
Either it ate light mithril to gain those properties, or it needed to because of them. Either way, the bastard had insane durability and attack power.
And naturally, the rewards for taking it down would be fat.
-Clack.
"Hey, stay still...!"
I adjusted my shield and stepped forward, and Rizmel freaked, grabbing at me.
"We're already made. Time to fight."
I ignored her, of course, got into stance, and pulled iron marbles from my inventory. The spider looked ready to finish its meal and deal with us, but I wasn't planning to sit pretty and let it make the first move.
I gripped two marbles and hurled them at its eyes with everything I had.
-BOOM!
The marbles smashed into the crystal spider's head with an explosion, and a system message popped up.
[Twilight Spider subspecies, an artificial lifeform created by someone, a monster born from the World Tree's rotten branch.]
[Speculation about its true nature varied,]
[but one thing was certain.]
[It was the most dangerous spider under heaven.]
[HIDDEN BOSS - Crystal Spider Aranasia]
The house-sized crystal spider heaved its massive body up to kill us.
The "Hidden Boss" title caught my eye a bit, but what I had to do was always the same: no backing down, just charge ahead.
"Alright then..."
I glanced at Rizmel, still stealthed. She glared back, face tense.
"I'll hold it off. You run and get backup."
Never expected her to say that. Guess all her tsundere bitching hid a soft spot for humans after all.
But no dice. Why the hell did I come this far?
I had zero intention of running from a rare boss like this. The opposite? Maybe.
"Nah."
"Hey!"
Short and sweet. Rizmel yelled in frustration. I kept my eyes locked on the crystal spider and said,
"Told you, this is what I came for. Call backup or fight with me, your call. I'm not running."
She looked like she wanted to argue, but I ignored her and charged the spider.
-Whoosh!
It raised a foreleg, slicing the air. Each leg weighed a ton, no doubt. Getting smashed by that would leave nothing.
But basically, it shouldn't be much different from other Twilight Spiders.
-Thud!
I dodged the foreleg slam and leaped huge toward its head. Yeah, same old.
The timing on the leg attack, the drop point—it was just a scaled-up Twilight Spider.
But right as I thought that, its mouth split open grotesquely. Then a barrage of crystal shards fired from inside.
What the fuck, Diamond Storm or some shit?
I thrust my shield forward quick, shielding the gaps with Iron Wall.
-Krunch!
"Ah, shit."
A few shards embedded in my shield and legs. Not deep, but failing to block them at all was a fail. Attack power was no joke.
Still, I landed on its head. Spider anatomy meant the back was safe for now. I yanked the shard from my thigh, skipped the potion, and swung my sword down first.
-Clang!
Hard as fuck, like expected. But that hit had made a decent dent.
Not impossible. Focus fire on one spot, widen the dent, jam the sword deep for a crit.
-Shlick!
Suddenly, shadow surged from underfoot and Rizmel popped out.
"Seriously, why do you always pick the most dangerous shit?! You won't live long as it is—trying to die even sooner?!"
She teleported right beside me with some weird move and unloaded her nagging.
But no time for that. Instinct blared a sharp warning from right under us.
-Screee!
The crystal spider's head snapped at a right angle under our feet. Its freakish teeth aimed at me.
More shards? But Rizmel went pale, shoved me aside, and light exploded.
-BOOM!
"What the fuck!"
Why the hell was the spider firing a goddamn laser beam?!