Kanos kicked the remaining rocks covering his cave until they shattered.
The hot, sulfur-smelling air immediately hit his face. Kanos took a deep breath, greedily sucking in the dirty air. His filthy hands crawled up, looking for a grip on the edge of the last stone cliff, then pulled his entire body up onto the flat surface.
Kanos collapsed on his back onto the stone floor.
His muscles didn't even hurt anymore, they were completely numb. He had been climbing a vertical cliff for God knows how many hours. Sleeping only in short bursts inside tiny caves. Eating by just chewing leftover hyena meat that tasted like roasted flip-flops.
But he made it. His tired eyes looked around. Pitch-black stone walls filled with chunks of red crystals.
This was floor six.
The secret corridor where Garrick brought him and Belida before finally trapping them.
'I'm back,' Kanos thought. The corner of his lips twitched into a faint smile. 'I actually managed to climb out of hell.'
Kanos tried to sit up. But something was weird. This corridor wasn't exactly the same as when he went down with Garrick. A lot of the red crystal walls around him were shattered and scorched. The stone floor was full of massive cracks and dried puddles of black blood. The aftermath of Garrick's gunpowder bombs and the Goliath Boss's rampage a few days ago was still clearly visible.
Just as he was about to close his eyes to rest for five minutes, a sharp screeching sound made his ears hurt.
Kanos opened his eyes. From the crystal ceiling above him, a thick gray web shot down. Kanos reflexively rolled his body to the side. The web hit the stone floor right where his head had been resting. The web wasn't just sticky, it hissed, releasing a thin acidic smoke that melted the stone floor.
From up there, eight hairy legs crawled down.
Not just one. Two. Five. Seven spiders the size of minivans crawled down, surrounding Kanos who was still sitting on the floor. Their fur wasn't bright red like normal Red Spiders. Their color was a dark, blackish red, and on their leg joints, there were shiny black rocks growing like parasites.
The stone floor in front of Kanos trembled.
From the shadows of the crystal corridor, one more spider emerged, twice the size of its pack. This creature looked like a nightmare. Its entire back was covered in black obsidian stone plates exactly like the Goliath Boss's armor. It had eight eyes glowing bright yellow, and its jaws dripped venom that burned holes into the cave floor.
Red screens blinked wildly in Kanos's eyes.
[ IRON SPIDER SWARM (LEVEL 35) ]
[ OBSIDIAN MUTANT ARACHNID (LEVEL 60) ]
Kanos leaned casually against the crystal wall behind him. He didn't try to get up. His legs were honestly too gone to be used for standing. But his brain instantly pieced together the facts in front of him.
'Level sixty? On floor six?' Kanos stared at the obsidian stone plates on the elite monster's back. 'Ah, I get it. They ate the remains of the Goliath's corpse that got destroyed by Garrick's bomb. These grunts forcefully evolved by sucking the energy of the lower floor boss.'
The Mutant Arachnid hissed loudly. The creature looked at Kanos exactly like looking at leftover meat that had no energy left to run.
'Back then, just seeing a level in the teens made me immediately think of how to write my will,' Kanos thought.
Kanos raised his left hand slowly.
The Mutant Arachnid readied its stance. The other seven Iron Spiders also lowered their bodies, ready to jump all at once to tear Kanos's body apart.
Kanos reached into his cargo pants pocket. He pulled out the fist-sized purple crystal, the leftover core from the Bone Amalgam boss. He tossed the object gently onto the stone floor, right in the middle of the monsters surrounding him.
The seven spiders leaped simultaneously from all directions.
Kanos merely tapped the air with his left index finger.
'Wake up.'
The purple crystal on the floor exploded, releasing thick black smoke in a fraction of a second. The smoke instantly solidified, forming hundreds of shadow bones that immediately connected into one giant wild wolf skeleton.
Kanos's index finger glowed bright blue. An invisible mana thread hooked straight from his fingertip to the purple crystal heart inside the shadow body.
The air in the corridor screamed.
Two neon blue eyes lit up brightly from inside the thick smoke cloud. The giant Shadow Wolf roared. The sound wasn't just an animal growl, it sounded more like heavy iron being scraped violently.
The seven spiders that were suspended in mid-air immediately crashed into an incredibly solid wall of smoke.
The Shadow Wolf lunged forward. Its speed was insane. Its shadow jaws, full of jagged teeth, instantly bit two Iron Spiders at once. The sound of shells shattering rang out loud.
But this fight wasn't easy. The level 60 Mutant Arachnid shrieked in anger. The monster sprayed its venomous web right into the Shadow Wolf's face, then slammed its obsidian body into the wolf.
BAM! The collision of the two giant monsters made the cave corridor shake violently. Kanos's homemade Shadow Wolf was pushed back. The black smoke on the wolf's shoulder was burned through by the acidic venom, sucking dozens of Kanos's mana points to seal the wound back up.
Kanos winced softly. His head throbbed holding the mana thread connection.
'No good. If I just let them trade blows, this purple core will run dry first,' Kanos thought sharply. 'My wolf is level fifty five. That damn monster is level sixty with obsidian armor. I have to step in.'
Kanos opened his eyes wide. His left eye glowed blue. His Structural Analysis skill activated, scanning the body of the Mutant Arachnid that was locking jaws with his wolf.
The obsidian plates were incredibly thick on its back and head. But on its lower neck, right at the gap where it sprayed webs, there was a muscle cavity not covered by stone.
Kanos clenched his left fist, sending a command directly through the mana thread into the Shadow Wolf's brain.
'Duck. Sweep the legs.'
The Shadow Wolf suddenly released its bite. Its smoke body dropped drastically to dodge a sharp leg swipe from the mutant spider. The wolf's shadow tail swept forcefully at the spider's front legs.
The Mutant Arachnid lost its balance and was lifted slightly upward. Its lower neck gap was wide open.
'Bite!' Kanos commanded, pulling his arm back.
The Shadow Wolf leaped vertically. Its black jaws, the size of a door, instantly snapped shut dead center on the Mutant Arachnid's lower neck.
CRUNCH!
The shadow teeth pierced the soft flesh unprotected by the obsidian armor. The wolf let out a muffled roar, its bite digging deeper until it severed the spider's main nerve. The Mutant Arachnid convulsed violently. Its heavy body crashed into the crystal wall before finally collapsing to the ground and stopping moving.
The remaining five Iron Spiders panicked in fear. Even their mutant boss died getting chewed up. They turned around, wanting to run and crawl to the ceiling.
Kanos moved his index finger slightly upward.
The Shadow Wolf immediately leaped up to the ceiling, tearing the escaping spiders apart one by one without mercy.
The fight was over. The cave floor was completely wrecked into a mess.
Kanos was still sitting leaning against the stone wall. He took a deep breath to shake off the remaining dizziness in his head.
Golden panels blinked wildly covering his vision.
[ ENEMY DEFEATED: OBSIDIAN MUTANT ARACHNID (LEVEL 60) ]
[ ENEMY DEFEATED: IRON SPIDER SWARM (x7) ]
[ EXP GAINED ]
[ LEVEL: 16 -> 18 ]
[ HP & MANA FULLY RESTORED ]
The days of exhaustion in his body instantly evaporated. His stiff muscles felt light again. Kanos pushed himself up to stand. He glanced at his mana bar. The number had plummeted badly when his wolf got hit by venom earlier, but now it was full again thanks to leveling up twice at once. Mutant monsters really gave insane amounts of EXP.
Kanos walked slowly past the obsidian spider carcasses.
The Shadow Wolf turned to face Kanos. This creature was nearly as tall as Kanos's chest. Its black smoke kept billowing out, releasing a cold chill that froze the air in the corridor. If a normal adventurer saw this creature, they would have definitely run away pissing their pants.
But Kanos just smiled.
He reached out his left hand. The monster wolf that had just slaughtered the mutant spider instantly bowed, rubbing its thick smoke head against Kanos's palm. It felt incredibly cold, like touching dry ice, but the creature was completely obedient.
Kanos rubbed the shadow head gently. His eyes shifted, staring far into the end of the red crystal corridor ahead of him. The corridor that would lead him straight to the exit, the place where Garrick had left him.
"I don't need to piggyback on anyone's protection anymore," Kanos whispered softly. The corner of his lips pulled into a cold smile.
Kanos lowered his hand. The Shadow Wolf immediately walked beside him, its footsteps making absolutely no sound on the stone floor.
"Now, I have my own party."