"Urghh! It hurts so much!" Oliver grimaced as the poison began to spread through the wound. He collapsed to the floor, struggling in pain.

Husk immediately opened the leather bag Oliver carried and pulled out a bottle of Venin Leaf Extract.

"Here, kid! Use it before the poison spreads deeper."

Oliver quickly uncapped the bottle and poured it over his arm. A sharp, stinging sensation surged through him as the extract touched the wound.

After a few minutes, the pain began to subside.

"Luckily Tamera prepared this beforehand. It’s really a lifesaver. But if she knew we were fighting mutated monsters, she would be furious," Oliver said as he checked his bag.

Only four antidotes remained.

He couldn’t afford to be careless, not before even meeting the boss.

"Did... Master... get hurt... because... of me?" Nyx suddenly asked.

"No. Of course not. This happened because I was careless. Don’t worry about it," Oliver replied.

Nyx fell silent. His master had been hurt, and he could do nothing to help. He knew Oliver was only saying that to keep him from feeling guilty.

’I... need... to... protect... Master.’

Nyx vowed to protect his master. If he could not even do that, then he had no right to call himself the strongest.

[Cannonyx (Nyx) Familiarity raised to minus 50!]

"Hmm?" Oliver was surprised. Nyx’s Familiarity had suddenly increased by 50.

"I don’t know what just happened, but as long as his Familiarity increases, that’s good news."

Oliver walked toward the front of the church and looked at the statue of a veiled woman. It was covered in webs from top to bottom.

"It’s a statue of Aries, the Deity of Peace," Oliver muttered. From what his mother had taught him, there were one hundred deities in this world. He had also noticed that all of them were named after constellations from his previous world, and Aries was one of the major deities worshipped in this region.

He then walked toward a room behind the statue and entered it. Inside was a chamber that had once been used by the priest of the church.

"What a layer of dust... and the smell is terrible. Snff!" Husk sneezed, his nose sensitive to the thick dust in the air.

Nyx hovered quietly, observing the pictures hanging on the walls. Its gaze eventually settled on one image, a man standing beside a small girl.

Meanwhile, Oliver searched through the table and found a book on top of the table. Its cover was worn, and the pages had turned yellow with age. He flipped it open and read a few lines.

"This is a diary from the former priest of this church. It seems he served here for many years."

’17 Augustus 1485

My girl... she has been missing for 6 months already. But I will never give up. There is always hope as long as someone keeps their faith in the deity. O Aries, please let me meet my daughter one last time before I leave this world.’

Oliver flipped to another page.

’21 Aprillis 1486’

’Our town is currently on high alert. The nearest dungeon has become unstable. We have sent requests to nearby towns to help clear it, but it seems no one is willing to raid the dungeon. If this continues, a dungeon break will fall upon us soon.’

Oliver then turned to the final written entry.

’6 Junius 1486’

’The judgment has arrived. The dungeon break is happening. O Aries, many of your servants have already fallen to the cruelty of monsters. Please help your servants! The other towns have abandoned us. If you do not help us, then no one else will. Please... I cannot die here before I meet my girl.’

And with that, the diary ended.

’Not everyone sees dungeons as a blessing. Some see them as a curse. I wonder if the priest here is still alive... these entries were written years ago.’

Oliver then closed the book.

"Alright, enough wasting time. Now how do we get out of this building?" Oliver asked.

Nyx was still hovering around and touching the pictures on the wall when suddenly, a sound heard from within the wall.

At the same time, the bookshelf shifted slightly, revealing a narrow gap behind it. The three of them pushed the rack aside together and uncovered a hidden passage. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"This must be an emergency exit. Let’s follow this path. It might lead outside," Oliver said as he stepped into the passage. He took out a torch from his bag and lit it.

"The passage isn’t covered in webs. That means the spiders haven’t discovered this place yet."

After a few minutes, they reached a door. It wasn’t locked. When they opened it, they found themselves beneath a massive tree, near the entrance of the town on the opposite side.

"We need to find the cave. All the spiders must be coming from there, so the boss room should be inside it."

Oliver nodded. The three of them then moved carefully toward the deeper part of the nearby forest.

Along the way, they encountered a few small groups of Arachix, but they dispatched them quickly. Now that Nyx had started to follow orders, the fights became much easier.

Finally, they found the cave. It was a massive opening at the entrance, which looked dark and ominous.

But there was a problem.

Hundreds of spiders roamed in front of it, with more constantly entering and exiting the cave. Most were lower-rank Arachix, but mixed among them were mid-tier Arachoids, and even larger ones Oliver had never seen before.

"So many spiders! How are we supposed to get in? Do we have to break through them?" Oliver whispered as he hid behind a large rock a few metres from the cave.

"There is no other way. If it comes to the worst, we might have to Synchronize here," Husk said.

"Synchronize even before meeting the boss? I don’t want to risk facing it without you," Oliver replied. He knew that using Synchronization would exhaust Husk and force him into Sleep Mode after a few hours.

"Then what other idea do you have?" Husk asked.

"I... have... an... idea," Nyx suddenly said. Both Oliver and Husk turned toward him.

"I... will... attack. You... two... enter... cave."

"Don’t tell me, you want to act as bait?!"