The tunnel floor changed from wet stone to something softer. Stickier.
"Webs," Rat hissed, slicing a thick white strand with his dagger. "We're in a Spider sector. I hate spiders."
"Keep moving," Vane ordered, shield raised high. "Spiders are squishy. We clear them, we level up."
Lin walked at the back, carefully stepping where Rat stepped. The webs were vibrating.
[ Monster Identified: Cave Spider (Lv. 3) ]
A spider the size of a dinner plate dropped from the ceiling, hissing.
Vane didn't even slow down. He bashed it with his shield, stunning it, then crushed it with a heavy boot stomp.
SPLAT.
"Easy," Vane grinned.
But Lin saw the shadows moving. It wasn't just one.
Three more dropped behind Silas.
"Behind you!" Lin shouted—not to save Silas, but to tag the targets.
He spun around, drawing his bow. The spiders were fast, skittering toward the Mage's unarmored legs.
Lin didn't panic. His perception had sharpened significantly since he entered the dungeon. He loosed two arrows in rapid succession.
Thwip. Thwip.
The arrows skewered the spiders, pinning them to the cavern floor. The True Damage flared red, boiling the arachnids from the inside out.
[ Target Eliminated. ]
[ Target Eliminated. ]
[ Max HP +2 ]
And then, the notification he had been waiting for.
[ Level Up! ]
[ You are now Level 3. ]
[ +51 Attribute Points Available. ]
Lin suppressed a shudder of pleasure.
He didn't wait. He didn't check if it was safe. He needed that power now.
System, allocate.
He had thought about his build. He needed to be faster. If he was going to solo this dungeon eventually, he needed to outrun what he couldn't kill.
[ Constitution: +30 ]
[ Agility: +21 ]
BOOM.
The energy hit him like a freight train. His heart muscles thickened, pumping blood with the force of a hydraulic press. His nervous system rewired itself, firing signals faster than a normal human brain could process.
[ Status Updated ]
Strength: 8
Agility: 50 (Base 29 + 21)
Constitution: 70 (Base 40 + 30)
Wisdom: 11
[ Max HP: 799 -> 1,410 ]
(Calculation: Base HP from stats + Farmed HP)
1,410 Health.
He had just nearly doubled his life force in a split second.
Lin took a deep breath. The world seemed to slow down even more. He looked at Vane, who was swinging his sword at a spider. The motion looked sluggish, amateurish.
"Clear!" Vane shouted, breathing hard. "Good call, kid."
Lin nodded, hiding the terrifying energy coursing through his veins. "Just doing my job."
"We're close to the sub-boss," Rat said, wiping green blood from his knife. "The map says there's a hollow chamber ahead. Should be the nest."
"Let's burn it," Silas said, checking his mana potion. "I have one charge of Fireball left."
They pushed forward.
The tunnel opened up into a massive, spherical cavern. The ceiling was lost in darkness. The floor was a carpet of white webbing, thick and undulating.
In the center of the room, pulsating egg sacs—hundreds of them—hung from the ceiling like grotesque chandeliers.
"Jackpot," Vane whispered. "Spider eggs fetch a good price."
"Wait," Rat froze. His ears twitched. "Too quiet."
CRACK.
It wasn't a stealth attack. It was a flood.
The "walls" of the cavern shifted. They weren't stone. They were thousands of spiders, clustered together for warmth, now waking up.
[ Warning: Monster Horde Detected ]
[ Species: Cave Spider Swarm (Lv. 2 - 4) ]
[ Count: 500+ ]
"Retreat!" Vane screamed, his voice cracking. "It's a Swarm! Back to the tunnel!"
They turned to run.
But the tunnel entrance behind them was already blocked. A massive Web Weaver (Lv. 5 Elite) had dropped down, sealing the exit with a thick wall of silk.
They were trapped.
"We're dead," Silas whimpered, backing away as the carpet of spiders surged forward like a black tide. "There's too many!"
Vane looked around frantically. His eyes landed on Lin.
There was no hesitation. No moral dilemma. Just cold, survivalist calculation.
"Rat!" Vane barked. "Use Misdirection! Dump the aggro!"
"On it!" Rat grabbed Lin's shoulder.
Lin saw it coming. With his 50 Agility, he could have dodged. He could have broken Rat's wrist.
But he didn't.
Rat slapped a glowing magical seal onto Lin's back.
[ Debuff Applied: Bait's Mark ]
[ Effect: All nearby monsters will prioritize you for 30 seconds. ]
"Sorry, kid," Rat grinned, a rictus of fear and malice. "Better you than us."
Vane kicked Lin hard in the chest.
"Silas! Blast the web wall!" Vane ordered. "The spiders will swarm the kid! Run!"
Lin let himself be kicked. He stumbled backward, falling into the center of the room, right into the thickest part of the webbing.
The effect of the Bait's Mark was instant.
Five hundred pairs of red eyes turned toward Lin.
The tide shifted. The spiders ignored the fleeing Viper Squad and surged toward the "helpless" porter.
"Explosion!" Silas fired his last fireball at the Web Weaver blocking the exit. The web burned away.
Vane, Rat, and Silas scrambled through the hole, not looking back.
"Seal it!" Vane shouted. He threw an Alchemy Fire Bomb at the tunnel entrance behind them.
BOOM.
The tunnel collapsed. Rocks fell, sealing Lin inside the cavern with the swarm.
Silence returned to the hallway outside.
Inside the cavern, the hissing was deafening.
Lin stood up. He brushed the dust off his jacket.
He looked at the sealed exit. A cold smile touched his lips. They actually did it. They saved me the trouble of finding a secluded spot.
He turned to face the swarm.
A sea of black chitin and clicking mandibles was rushing toward him. Venom dripped from their fangs.
To a normal Hunter, this was a nightmare.
To Lin, it was an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet.
[ Current HP: 1,410 / 1,410 ]
"Come on," Lin whispered.
He didn't use the bow. There were too many, and they were too close.
He drew the Rat's Fang dagger.
A spider leaped at his face. Lin didn't dodge. He headbutted it.
CRUNCH.
The spider exploded.
[ Max HP +1 ]
Three more latched onto his legs, sinking their fangs into his flesh.
[ Poisoned! -5 HP/sec ]
[ Physical Damage: -12 ]
[ Physical Damage: -14 ]
Lin looked at his health bar. It barely moved. His natural regeneration (boosted by 70 Constitution) was fighting the poison.
He grabbed a spider in his left hand and squeezed.
SQUISH.
[ Max HP +1 ]
He stabbed another with the dagger.
[ Max HP +1 ]
It was a massacre.
Lin became a whirlwind of violence. He didn't need technique. He was a tank made of meat and hate. He waded through the swarm, stomping, stabbing, crushing.
When the dagger got stuck in a spider's skull, he used his fists.
When his fists got tired, he used a dead spider as a club to beat other spiders.
[ Max HP +1 ]
[ Max HP +1 ]
[ Max HP +1 ]
The notifications scrolled so fast they became a blur of blue light.
The poison stacked up. [Poison x10: -50 HP/sec].
But Lin just laughed. He grabbed a handful of spider eggs and crushed them, counting them as kills.
[ Max HP +10 ]
He was healing faster than they could kill him.
Minutes turned into an hour. The floor was slick with green ichor and black limbs. Lin was covered in slime from head to toe, looking like a demon born from the filth.
Finally, the screeching stopped.
The last spider—a small one trying to limp away—was crushed under Lin's heel.
[ Combat Ended. ]
Lin stood in the center of the carnage. He was panting, but not from exhaustion. From the high.
He checked his status.
[ STATUS UPDATE ]
Name: Lin
Level: 3 (Max EXP Reached - Quest required for Lv 4)
HP: 1,950 / 1,950
He had entered the room with 1,410 HP.
He had slaughtered 540 spiders.
He was now pushing 2,000 Health.
He looked at the collapsed tunnel entrance where the Viper Squad had fled.
"Bait's Mark," Lin chuckled, reaching back to peel the fading magical seal off his jacket.
He looked at the seal.
"You wanted a monster," Lin said to the empty room. "Now you have one."
He walked over to the rockfall. With Strength 8, he couldn't lift the boulders.
But with 2,000 HP, he didn't need to lift them.
He drew an arrow.
He activated [Eternal Hunt].
Damage: 19.5 True Damage.
He aimed at the rocks blocking his path.
BOOM.
The rock shattered.
He fired again. And again. He was going to tunnel his way out using his life force as dynamite.
And when he got out...
Vane and Rat were going to learn that some traps shouldn't be sprung.