Natasha the Halve

Elena put the ring on her middle finger and then equipped a full set of protective gear. It was a set of armored purple clothes that completely covered her body. It looked pretty high quality. The kind us Halves have.

Ah, well... No need to give her anything, I concluded. Maybe got it from Yulianna. “Nice gear,” I commented in Common, gesturing at the ensemble.

She nodded. “I had it in my storage item,” she supplied, then her face turned complicated and added, “I don't remember where, when, how, or why I got it.”

“It's alright,” I gave her a smile. “Legendary?” I inquired.

She nodded.

Bingo, I thought.

Lapia cleared her throat. “So... what now?” she asked out loud.

“Elena will control a Morthar Swarm and deal with the spiders,” Yolin replied, looking in our direction with an amused smile.

“Hmm,” Pokora hummed then chuckled. “That sounds good.”

Agreeing words were given around.

“Alright!” Pokora called out and turned around. “We'll go with that strategy for as long as it's efficient, then Lapia and me will take care of the spiders from afar.”

The rest nodded and we waited.

After around five minutes, a very loud buzz approached us.

From between the bushes, trees, plants, and undergrowth, over a thousand bugs showed up flying in our direction.

“A nice harvest,” Elena cheered and pulled out the staff she got from Perculis. “1634 Scouts, 20 Soldiers, and a single Queen... This ring is marvelous, Your Excellency!” she laughed with joy.

Her enthusiasm spread and we laughed along with her.

The Entomyst waved the staff and her eyes glowed with a violet-green light, stopping the swarm mid-air. She clicked her tongue and waved a hand.

Loud explosions came from deep into the jungle, startling us.

“Seventy two got caught in spider webs, so I made them undergo autothysis,” Elena explained, moving her hands again.

The Swarm gathered above her in a broad circle, leaving the Soldiers surrounding the Queen in the middle.

Pokora turned to Elena and gave her a nod. “You'll send out scouts to latch onto the spiders and kill them, alright?” she instructed.

The woman in question nodded. “Got it!”

I hummed in satisfaction at not having to face the eight legged horrors.

And so, we unashamedly committed war crimes on spiders through biological warfare.

Moving through the jungle, Elena sent out the scouts ahead to find spider webs and get caught, then made them explode.

It was a little underwhelming in my opinion. I initially thought the Morthar Scouts exploded like a grenade, but their abdomens ripped open and doused the spiders in their acidic entrails before they were wrapped in webs, which in turn killed the spider.

Still, it was an absolute win. Only a single Morthar Scout was needed to kill each spider, but sometimes two were needed after the first got wrapped in webs.

I watched with morbid glee as the spiders melted and died horrible deaths at the hands of the amnesic woman.

Elena commanded the Swarm efficiently and brutally, sometimes using the Soldiers to shoot their stingers at the spiders, killing them with the venom alone.

On very rare occasions, Pokora had to use her bow to shoot wandering spiders that roamed the floor, killing them with a single arrow.

Being carried is good sometimes.

Time passed as we brought terror on the unsuspecting arachnids, going in circles around the dungeon floor to maximize the killing.

Naturally, Elena wasn't the only one using skills. Lapia used lightning spells, Alyssa used her skills at set intervals to prevent curses and heal fatigue, Bromisnar was singing and playing his instruments to boost the party, Bonte used skills to confuse and daze the monsters, Thelea made sure no monster approached from behind and used auras to boost the party, Yolin had her auras active to both boost the party and prevent monster from reaching those behind us, and I used Monster Hunter to boost the party.

It was good progress.

We didn't find a Floor Guardian on the first floor, but we found the source of the local spiders.

Lapia made quick work of the eggs with her fire.

Elena attracted two more Swarms to use as kamikaze units.

We also found natural ores which I stored for Sonya to eat later.

Bonte and Pokora were also in charge of gathering any useful natural resources to gain monetary value out of the dungeon delve. They used branches to gather an unholy amount of spider silk.

In one hour, we cleared the first floor of all living creatures.

On the second floor, which was a jungle once again, we found Golems in the shape of spiders. Lapia dealt with those with space spells and I stored the cores.

We again harvested every material we could get our hands on, not leaving a single thing behind. A lot of plants were useful for alchemy, especially the glowing ones.

We continued the systematic exploitation of the dungeon at a fast pace. We realized pretty quickly that the main theme of the dungeon was that of spiders.

They were everywhere we went. Under rocks, hanging from the ceiling, waiting to ambush between trees, etc.

Fortunately, the beings ruling the universe saw fit to place Morthar Swarms as their main prey, which Elena used to cull them.

We made camp after clearing the third floor and Bonte prepared a nice meal with the vegetation we had collected so far.

I went into my tent along with Alyssa, who gave me a massage to familiarize herself with my physiology. We hadn't had the chance to do those lately and took the chance.

After that, I stood watch with Pokora.

We sat on a tree stump with our backs to each other so we could look at everything around us. I was wearing a simple shirt and shorts to maximize my glow.

I produced some almonds and snacked on them while looking around.

“Hey, Natasha,” Pokora bumped my back with hers.

“Yeah?” I turned around to look at her.

“Look ahead,” she chastised me.

“Well, fuck you too,” I chuckled and returned to looking around.

“No, that's not what I mean,” she laughed. “Can't you talk while looking around?”

“Ah,” I uttered and ate an almond. “What's up?”

She giggled. “The sky,” she cheekily replied.

I let out a long sigh and ate another almond while shaking my head. “In a trolling mood?”

She sighed. “Not really. I just don't know how to bring it up,” she muttered.

I shrugged. “Be blunt, then?” I offered.

She took a deep breath and hesitated for a few seconds. “We're friends, right?”

“I would hope so,” I admitted. “You're capable, funny, sometimes annoying, but all in all you're a great person to be around. If I'm honest I admire you a little. You made it in this world with effort and perseverance.”

“Thank you,” she muttered in a quiet voice.

Another minute of silence passed. I ate almonds and looked around.

“Do you feel like a cheat character?” she inquired after a while. “I was wondering that maybe you had impostor syndrome with how strong and revered you are from the start?”

I chuckled at that. “Not at all. I deserve all that I am,” I replied.

She let out a soft snort. “Narcissist much?”

“I went through Hell,” I told her, eating another almond.

Yet another minute of silence went by.

“You mean, like...?” she didn't finish the sentence.

“Yep,” I confirmed with a nod. “Literal Hell. I was sent there to clean up some corruption as far as I understand it. I fought for a while. Hunting, butchering, and eating demons to survive. Pretty nasty stuff,” I added with a shrug.

“Whayou- howthu-,” she stuttered in disbelief. “Are you okay?” she managed to get out.

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Got a title, too. Hellwalker,” I sighed and ate another almond. “I have dreams of my time there every time I sleep.”

“Shit, Natasha,” she muttered in disbelief. “That's heavy.”

“Kind of,” I chuckled. “I went a little insane so I don't directly remember things.”

“Damn,” she sighed. “I didn't intend for this conversation to get like that.”

“Oh, nah,” I calmly waved it away. “It's good. I'm alright all things considered. I told you before that my mind works differently. Trauma doesn't last long, fortunately.”

Two minutes of silence went by.

I produced a juice bottle and drank a bit while eating a few almonds. I gave the bottle a long sip to finish it when Pokora spoke up.

“So... death, Hell, and now you're an overpowered futa?” she concluded with a light tone.

I laughed while liquid was going down my throat, so I choked like a moron.

“Also, is all that Hell thing true?” she asked, a little amused. “Like, the souls of the damned, river Styx, the nine circles, Lucy, and all that?”

I wiped my mouth and coughed a few times. “That's quite the mix of beliefs,” I managed to get out between coughs. “First of all, river Styx is a Greek mythos and it was the line dividing the world of the living from the underworld, not the hell that was widely advertised. Second, the nine circles of hell were from Dante's Inferno, a book. Third, there was no Lucy if what you mean by that is Lucifer. The souls of the damned... well,” I sighed and cleared my throat while using a napkin to clean my face and hands. “You could say the souls there were damned in a way.”

“I see,” she muttered. “To be completely honest, it's had to imagine.”

“It's alright,” I replied and drank the leftover juice. “Mere mortals shouldn't concern themselves with matter outside of their puny capabilities,” I added with a chuckle, then stored the bottle.

Pokora snorted at my comment. “You Halves and your high horses,” she retorted.

“Actually... I ride a Ratnak, not a horse,” I corrected her with an annoying tone.

She laughed at that. “Oh, fuck off!”

I join her in laughter and we joked for a few minutes.

“So, Hellwalker,” she began, fixing her seating. “That quite the impressive title. What does it say?”

“Demons fear me,” I shortly explained.

“So... the only thing they fear, is you?” she asked, then laughed.

I giggled. “That's right.”

We continued talking and joking until Lapia and Yolin came out of the tent for their turn at watch.

__

The next day we continued clearing the dungeon. Elena did most of it with the many Swarms that were around while the rest of us provided support as we had done so far.

After we got the hang of rotating the formation while we advance, along with Pokora's commands and leadership, we managed to clear fifteen floors on our third day in the dungeon.

Pokora is, much to my surprise, a ruthless commander. Her approach was unlike my own. She used her brain to form strategies for every conceivable situation, coming up with solutions that were efficient in time and effort on equal measures.

Whenever monsters were too spread out, she'd have Elena use the bugs to deal with them. When they were gathered, she told Lapia to use lightning spells to stun and then burn them with fire while keeping them from either approaching or escaping with space spells.

The woman gave orders left and right without disregarding safety.

Not that we would be overrun. Not with me around, at least.

If push came to shove, I'd just go all out.

She wasn't complacent either, considering me as a last resort for when shit hit the fan.

And shit did, indeed, hit the fan.

On the thirty second level, after three and a half days of steady progress, the mother of all nightmares fell down from the ceiling of a permanently dark dungeon floor when we approached the gate to the next level.

It was a twenty meter tall, hairy, ugly, disgusting, and worst of all, noisy spider.

The moment it touched ground, it screeched and lifted its front legs, showing massive fangs the length of my spear.

Its body was white and its eyes were red.

More importantly, it was blocking our path.

[Floor Guardian – Uv-Lanakh Lvl 620]

So far the shock therapy of seeing spiders the size of adults being easily killed had considerably numbed my fear. A spider the size of a mine haul-truck was a completely different subject. My heart almost left my mouth and I tightened my grip on my spear.

“Lapia,” Pokora began, probably with a plan already. “Thro-”

The massive spider shot towards us, leaping the distance in an instant.

My brain stopped working for the smallest fraction of a second, immediately going into a feral and violent frenzy.

The spider had targeted Alyssa.

Big mistake.