Chapter 36: Spider's Whisper p5

Lyrica eventually snapped out of it and helped her set up the tent.

[You set up beds. Jonas seems to want to talk to me.] Shiro pointing at Jonas who was waiting by the side.

Lyrica nodded as she went inside the tent.

[Can I help you?] Shiro asked.

"Yeah. Can we have a short walk? I just want to talk for a little bit." Jonas smiled

[Sure.]

Walking to the edge of the boss room, Shiro waited for Jonas to open his mouth.

"Thank you for helping us. Honestly, if you didn't tank the boss, there was a good chance for us to lose a few members." Jonas sighed.

Shiro only shrugged at this as he knew what he was going to ask.

[If you're wondering, I just used normal martial arts to tank the boss. If it had hit me once, I would have been in danger.]

"I've seen the martial art's taught around this area. And yours is definitely one of the most advanced ones I've seen. Which martial arts allows a 13 year old to slam a 3 meter tall boss into the ground?" Jonas asked rhetorically.

[True.] Shiro shrugged. Honestly, she doesn't know where the Yin Style Phantom Arts lie in terms of quality in the martial arts world. But she did know that this martial arts suited her a lot. More so than her old mish mash of combat arts.

"But what I wanted to ask was not info about your martial arts but rather, will you join my party?" Jonas asked.

[What?]

"I wish to recruit you into my party."

[No.]

"… Ha…. I thought as much. Care to explain?" Jonas sighed.

[I'm planning on making my own party. This stop in New York is only temporary. I aim for the bigger world. Which is why I wanted to recruit Silvia. A grand healer like her is not often seen, one with buffs as well.]

"I know. Honestly, Silvia is too good for our party. She saved us a lot in the past." Jonas smiled slightly as he leaned against the wall.

[Want to tell me why she's in your party then?]

"Her father. That's why. Her father was a good friend of ours and Silvia knew it. However, we couldn't find a support so every Dungeon Run was dangerous. One day, we just couldn't handle it and he died. Silvia was determined to become a healer and the best one at that so she can help as many people as she can. The only reason why she stays here is because she wanted to look after us in place of her father." Jonas said with nostalgia.

[So she is staying in your party in place of her father. If that is what she wants then I'll give up. I don't like to force people against their wills in situations like this. Since she likes to stay in your party, wasted talent or not, it's her choice.] Shiro typed out.

"…Honestly, you don't feel the age you look." Jonas replied honestly.

[This miss is only 13. If you need anything else just ask.] Shiro typed as she walked away.

Jonas only shrugged as he returned to his tent.

Opening the tent, Shiro found the inside to be completely set up. Beds were in place, and so was some food.

"Hey Shiro. What did he ask you about?" Lyrica asked.

[He just asked me to join his party. I rejected though.] Shiro shrugged.

"Heh~ So he recruited you…. Well I suppose since Shiro is strong. A lot of parties would want you." Lyrica nodded.

[Yes, but I don't want them. I'd rather make my own party and explore the wide world.] Shiro smiled as she sat down on the makeshift bed.

"Is that so…" Lyrica muttered sadly as this meant that Shiro was going to leave. She didn't think she would be recruited since she was weak, much weaker and anyone she's seen especially Shiro.

[Che, look at your expression. Ai so dense.] Shiro shook her head.

"Dense? What do you mean." Lyrica asked.

[Think about it. What have I done for you?]

"You took me to Dungeons, levelled me up, got me a weapon, taught me to fight and brought me to this raid." Lyrica replied.

[Yep. And in the end, you still think I'm not recruiting you?] Shiro raised an eyebrow.

"Ah! You're right!" Lyrica muttered in realisation.

[Right now I'm nurturing your talent. I'm helping you get stronger.] Shiro typed out.

"But I thought you wanted to me to join a faction?" Lyrica asked.

[Just because you joined a faction doesn't mean you can't be in a party does it?] Shiro shrugged.

Naturally, there were factions who force the adventurers to not join other parties. But if that was the case then Lyrica can just leave that faction.

"That is true…" Lyrica nodded as she sat down on her bed.

They talked for a little bit more until it was time for them to eat.

Dinner was bland for Shiro since she couldn't taste the flavours at all. She could only hide 3 D ranked mana stones in her food.

After giving Yin his part of the D ranked stones, Shiro could only sigh at her remaining stock.

'I should probably go solo a few more D ranked dungeons to get my stock refilled.' Shiro thought.

This time she'll be more careful as having a 10-day break with decreased stats wasn't fun at all. Not to mention, she had to be careful every time she exerted her body.

However, by the time they finished this Dungeon, her status debuff should wear off.

Finishing the meal, they returned to their respective tents for the night.

Shiro kept herself in a shallow sleep state to make sure they weren't backstabbed.

Thankfully, the night passed safely.

"The next challenge is a parkour challenge. Everyone needs to work together since we can't use mana in this area." Jonas said as the party nodded.

The next section of the Spider's Whisper raid involved them jumping and climbing through obstacles. One misstep and you'll fall to the bottom. The higher you go, the more dangerous it gets.

Naturally, with a healer on the team, no one will die on this part.

"We'll do it in a buddy system. Everyone pairs up and help each other out. You'll be giving each other a boost to reach the next platform." Jonas called out.

Shiro and Lyrica paired up.

[We can do this easily.] Shiro smiled. Her mobility was top tier for her class and level. This was because her stats were focused around being a glass cannon. Therefore, she had to have the AGI to dodge.

"Yeah. Want to race up there?" Lyrica joked.

[You sure about that?] Shiro replied raising an eyebrow.

"Shiro, Lyrica, do you two want to be first?" Jonas asked seeing them joke about this section.

[Sure.] Shiro nodded as she gave her body a stretch.

[Lyrica, I'll give you a 5 to 10 second head start.] Shiro offered as Lyrica nodded.

"Alright don't regret it." Lyrica said.

Stepping back slightly, she crouched down and held her blade.

Stepping down hard, Lyrica dashed forwards as she stabbed her blade into the ground and vaulted upwards. Twisting her body, she stabbed it to the side of the walls and landed on the blade.

Grabbing the blade with one hand, she spun herself before launching herself upwards, storing the blade into her inventory in the process.

While the process wasn't perfect, it wasn't clumsy either. The raid party watched with a slacking jaw as they knew they couldn't do the same. They had high AGI but they doubt they could pull off what Lyrica did.

Shiro only smiled seeing Lyrica made use of her hidden proficiency. Her hidden proficiency would give hints and sometimes act on instinct. By adjusting herself at the last moment, she can force her hidden proficiency to act on her instincts and propel her upwards.

"I may have my work cut out for me, right little Yin?" Shiro said tapping Yin's head.

However, her smile never faded as she stretched her body.

The entire area was several tens of meters high as Lyrica was only around 10% of the way up.

Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom – Speed Phantom.

Her figure blurred for a moment as Shiro was already tapping on the walls.

Making sure to step on the gaps, she launched herself with minimal contact.

Flipping off the walls, Shiro leapt over Lyrica's head and gave her a wave.

"Shiro!" Lyrica called out in surprise. She thought she had managed to outsmart Shiro through her hidden proficiency but it seems like she was wrong.

Shiro figure blurred constantly as it made her seem like a ghost.

In a short 2 minutes, she landed softly at the top on the floor.

Lyrica only arrived after 10 minutes.

"Are we doing the same?" Someone asked Jonas.

"Yes we are." He nodded.

"Wait what?!"

"Of course I'm f*cking joking! Do I look like I can do a flip!" Jonas retorted as they had something else of this.

"Carry this." Jonas said throwing over a ladder.

They had to resort to using ladders and climb up pair by pair.

The entire area took them an hour and a half as Shiro waited bored at the top.

Coughing awkwardly at the fact that they took so long to arrive at the top, Jonas led them to the next boss.

"The next boss is the second to last boss. The worst part about this is the time limit. We have 30 minutes to kill the Spider King and after 30 minutes, the Spider Queen comes out.

Individually, they're not bad. But together they're a pain in anyone's asses." Jonas said as Shiro perked up hearing asses.

She wasn't really focused on Jonas as she was looking into the boss room.

"Shiro, he means they are annoying." Lyrica whispered over as she knew what the girl was thinking.

[Oh.] Was all Shiro typed as she decided to listen in on the strategy.

"The key to this boss is timing. When the boss fight starts, several waves of enemies will be attacking us with the boss. Within the wave of enemies, there will be a few spiders that are glowing bright red. We need to avoid them at all cost while the main damage team will be fighting the boss. For every 20% of the health lost, the boss will open his giant maws to eat minions. When he does that, we need to throw the bomb spiders inside instead to stop this. This will increase the aggro of whoever threw the bomb but will stop his healing. Do this correctly and we should be able to kill him before the queen comes." Jonas explained.

"What about If we don't do manage to kill him before the queen?" Someone asked.

"Well sh*t get's annoying. Because the queen will kill any bomb spiders on sigh so we must draw her away. If she manages to kill a bomb spider, the spider king will regenerate the 20% lost health.

If we can't successfully draw her away, the fight will never end. As for the strategy for her, her back opens up every 30% health loss and that's when she's in a weakened state. Outside of that, her armour is abnormally tough. She's a tank that can definitely take a beating. Therefore, we need to kill the king before we focus on her. Be careful though, she has fear skills and causes confusion." Jonas said.

"Therefore, when a member is feared or confused, the nearest partner or buddy needs to force feed the fear resistance potion since it has a low duration. If both are feared or confused, the surrounding people need to force feed them. People need to call out quickly to reduce the chances of casualties." Jonas said as they nodded.

Shiro only sighed as the best thing for this was the dispel skill.

The worst part of this was that she could be feared or confused as well. She'll need to be careful in case she accidentally killed someone in one go.

After discussing the basic strategies, the raid party got ready to fight the Spider King.

It was a half man with a spider body anywhere under the abs. The spider had dark purple armour while the man's skin was pure white.

His total height measured to about 6 meters.

[Spider King LVL 20 – Raid Boss]

HP: 600,000/600,000

MP: 750,000/750,000