The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 77: Spiders’ Den

A few hours later, Victor parked the car on an abandoned dirt road and stepped down, followed by Alex who still didn't comprehend what was going on. Why did the young master suddenly decide to go to a dungeon at this hour? And where would he find one? Victor didn’t tell her anything.

Victor slowly took out a bone necklace from somewhere and wore it around his neck, then under Alex's surprised gaze, a golden spear appeared in his hand which he threw at her.

"Use this, you can't use your fists in this dungeon." He said.

Alex looked at the spear in her hand then at Victor as she noticed the unmarked ring on his finger.

"You, you have a storage ring," she shouted in shock. Even her late father didn't have one of those.

"Yeah, I got it from a recent dungeon. don't tell anyone." Victor said. This ring was one of the trophies he got from the reward room. The other two were the sword he gave Tom and an elixir.

"Do you know how to use that thing?" He asked her, waking her from her shock.

"Ah, no." She answered.

The next moment an ethereal book appeared in front of Victor and shot toward her head. It was the Spear Arts skill book. Victor was contemplating how to use it or sell it, but he can't leave Alex defenseless in this kind of dungeon that required mid to long-range weapons.

She knew exactly what this was, so she quickly closed her eyes and comprehended the skill.

It took her five minutes before she stood up again and began to test her new skill with the spear in her arm.

"We don't have time for that now," Victor said as he looked at her with a frown. As he lamented that she was now wearing a butler uniform that Hilda got her from somewhere. It was not very good in a dungeon. But family-issued servants' uniforms are very resistant usually, so this will have to do. And he did not have an additional sleeping bag to give her, as he forgot to bring one as he was in a hurry here. But they can't wait. In the morning baron is sure to have surrounded this place with a detection formation. And if he waited a few more days for things to cool down, the dungeon would have been long cleared when he reached it.

"Let's go." He said and began to head towards the gorge carefully from the woods.

"Damn it, we were too late," thought Victor as he noticed a few guards.

“Be careful, I am now using a disguise skill to hide my presence. There are sentries all around us. So stick close to me and lower your voice.” Victor warned as he grabbed Alex’s hand to guide her.

Alex was a little surprised by the mention of a disguise skill, but quickly forgot about it as a faint blush appeared on her face. This was the first time she held hands with someone like this.

After walking for a while and avoiding a few patrols, they reached the place where Tom fell. The place had only two lazy guards as they didn’t expect anyone would reach here.

Victor sighed in relief. It seems that Baron didn't have time to deploy a formation yet. He thought as he carefully approached the cliff.

“It should be here. be careful.” Whispered Victor.

“What is here?” Alex asked absentmindedly. She was busy watching the guards, who were on their patrol nearby, completely ignoring them. She was now convinced, that her young master had some kind of a strong stealth skill.

“The dungeon. Now we will have to jump in." He said as he looked down into the abyss.

“What, jump. In there?” Asked Alex with shock.

“Lower your voice. Yes. Didn’t you enter a dungeon before?” He asked.

“I did, three times. but they had a gate on the ground. Can I not go?” Alex Asked nervously as he wondered how deep was this gorge.

“The gate is hidden in midair. Don’t you want to level up? I came here specifically for you. If I knew that you were just a coward I would have brought Lily. It's my fault for thinking that you are a real man.” Said Victor,

“I... I am not a coward," she said while complaining silently that she was not a man, to begin with.

"It’s just I don’t see any gates. Can’t we just use a rope?” She Added reasonably as she looked down.

“No, First, I don’t have one. Second, the gate is a little far from the gorge’s wall, so we would still need to jump.” He said as he put his hand around her slender waist. “Don’t worry, you will not jump by yourself.” Victor who was losing patience quickly grabbed Alex in a princess carry and jumped. As he felt that staying there for a long time was dangerous.

Alex screamed, grabbing hard on Victor's clothes and closing her eyes as she felt weightless. Am I going to die like this? She wondered.

The next thing she felt was the floor hitting her butt, Because Victor, who was carrying was sent to another place by the dungeon. She slowly stood up using the spear and looked at the system announcement.

“S… s... Spiders?” Alex yelled, forgetting her injured butt as she read the words. Her pretty face slowly turned white in fright.

…

Victor slowly descended into the dungeon. After appearing in midair a few feet over the ground. He quickly activated the levitation necklace he wore and glided gracefully to the ground. This was one of the toys Lily got him.

“Not bad.” He said after his legs touched the ground. After dismissing the dungeon’s introduction screen which he already knew, he began to look around him. This dungeon was like a deep ravine's floor, with steep walls going up to the sky, where what appeared to be purple miasma created a Curtin. Victor didn’t know what it was. But he could easily tell that it was nothing good. The cliff sides were full of holes big and small. The spiders probably made them.

He quickly made sure that his disguise skill was still active, then checked on Tom’s Situation. He was the reason Victor found this place.

Tom as a scion had some kind of shit luck. When he ran away from Baron and fell into the gorge, he happened to fall right into an open dungeon gate. Victor estimated that the gate was not that big, so he jumped from the exact spot where Tom fell.

Victor never heard that there was a dungeon here. So using his connection with Tom, he read the dungeon’s introduction. And checked its situation realizing that it was E ranked. A little hard for his level, but not impossible if he left the boss to Tom.

So he brought Alex to level her up and make her a little useful. But that will have to wait until the rewards stage when the dungeon is cleared.

He didn’t want to bring Lily of the twins to avoid making them meet with Tom, as that would make him raise a lot of questions.

And it is better to keep them with the girls who wouldn’t be able to enter here and would crash into the gorge’s floor because this was an open dungeon and only players can get in.

Tom was now killing some giant spiders with his flaming sword. And seemed to be excited rather than scared. However, Victor could feel his location and it was quite far from here. which was quite convenient as he didn't want to meet him.

Victor ignored Tom and began to check on Alex who he was a little worried about.

Indeed. She was running in random directions like a headless chicken. And from the look of it, she was being chased by some spiders.

“Is she an idiot or arachnophobic?” he wondered. Before he began to walk in her direction. This stupid girl can’t be left alone without bringing disaster onto herself. He thought. He could feel that he was about an hour's walk from her. But sadly he didn’t have a map this time, as he was not the first one who discovered this place. So it might take longer to reach her.

The spiders began to appear soon after he started walking as they have felt something fall here. They were small, the size of a palm. They kept scurrying around looking for prey as Victor ignored them and continued to walk. While avoiding the spiders whose numbers kept increasing.

Soon, Victor made a mistake by stepping on one of them. Although his disguise would hide him from their senses. It can’t mask the poor dead spider from its partner who was beside him at that tragic moment. Maybe discussing their working conditions, and proposing unionization.

The sound of spider screeches echoed in the valley. Those guys had a loud voice, despite their tiny bodies.

Victor quickly stepped away to only step on another one. The spiders followed the sound and began to surround him, searching for the hidden enemy that they soon found as a few spiders got on his boot by chance and began to bite on it and invited others who began to climb his pants.

“Shit.” He yelled as he kicked them away and activated his necklace, to be levitated a few feet while kicking around. Then took out a sword from his ring and began to hack at them until his clothes were a little ripped, but spider-free. With that, he slowly floated away like a ghost while cursing at the spiders.

In normal dungeons, In order to rest. a cavern with cobwebs is usually preferable, as it would usually be abandoned, and contained no monsters. But in a spider-infested dungeon, you have to search for somewhere without cobwebs, and that was a very hard job. Those spiders were everywhere.

It was half an hour later when Victor, who was a little tired, found a good place to rest. He sat down on a high ledge protruding from the gorge's wall and started inspecting his gears. Thankfully, he was still wearing the thick cloth he wore at the Goblins' dungeon, as he had no time to change, so his skin was intact.

He quickly activated his merchant skill and bought a poison antidote pill pack. He was not bit now, but just in case. This placed difficulty was beyond his expectation. He felt that he was making Tom's mistake of being overconfident with his skills after some successes. He needed to be more careful. He reminded himself.

Checking on Alex, Victor discovered that she was still running away with tears in her eyes as a horde of spiders of all sizes was chasing her. Being here might have been a mistake, and he had to hurry and get to her, or that girl would break down before long.

But before that, he had to rest. Floating using the necklace has drained all his energy. So he slowly laid on his back and observed the miasma-filled sky to be welcomed by a big surprise. His identification skill was now working on it as he was close enough.

"This is..... interesting," He said with an evil grin. Sadly, Little Alex will have to wait for a little bit. There are more important things at hand.