Golden Experience

Chapter 142: “The Forest of La Colinne”

“Oh, customers have arrived in La Colinne. This is… not from the direction of the capital or Erntal. Could there be a new safety area in a direction I’m not aware of?”

La Colinne was a place where various roads intersected, a key point for transportation.

I know the direction of the capital, and I’m aware of the Erntal direction where I once saw off Blanc. Along the road heading in neither direction, there is probably a newly established safety area set up by the administration.

Once I have some spare time, I should send someone to confirm the location.

I’m not sure if individual players can conquer the newly set safety area dedicated by the administration. Even if it’s not possible, surrounding the area with creatures like treants and insects might make it possible for players to hunt there.

However, if I were to do something like that suddenly, it might reveal our involvement with the players, and I might get scolded by the administration, so I won’t do it.

Since there were no posts about meeting up or similar on the recent thread on social media, these appearing players are not a hastily formed party matched up through the system, but rather members who usually act together.

“At this timing, they probably just entered the dungeon for the first time. Attacking a ?3 location immediately indicates they must be confident in their skills.”

Due to difficulty adjustments, some time has passed, but it’s still too early for them to appear after peering into other ?1 or ?2 areas. Transferring to the newly created safety area is supposed to be one-way, so it should not be possible to transfer to another location from there. If that were possible, it could lead to easy long-distance travel between countries, posing a threat to the in-game economy that the administration is concerned about. I don’t think there’s any loophole.

“Let’s have a look at their skills.”

However, if it’s a party with a certain level of confidence, they should be somewhat advertised. These players of this rank should enjoy the hunt and death respawn enough to feel it as a positive balance.

While the difficulty is higher than when dealing with beginners in the Great Liebe Forest, we have invested significantly in experience points. We should be able to handle it.

The party of five consisted of one tank warrior, one warrior with a spear, one archer, and two magic users—balanced to the extreme in terms of adaptability.

However, balance is just a label, and in actual combat, the front line feels somewhat thin. If there are two magic users, adding one more front liner would be better, perhaps reducing the archer for better survivability.

The party advances through the forest with the archer leading.

Occasionally damaging the surrounding trees, they gradually move deeper, wary of traps and ambushes.

It seems the archer is also acting as a scout, clearing bushes and small branches while being careful not to catch on the clothing of the magic users. They are quite an experienced party.

Unfortunately, there’s almost no significance here.

There are no traps set up, and the damage to the tree trunks is probably for memorizing the entry route. Most of the trees are actually treants, and their wounds will heal in a few minutes. The cut branches will also recover due to automatic regeneration. The bushes are probably ordinary plants, so they are not entirely useless, but that’s about it.

“Oops, small magical creatures. Probably mice. For a ?3, they’re quite small. I think they’re on par with the rabbits from the beginning.”

“I’ll handle it. I want to save arrows.”

The spear user, who was standing a step behind, stepped forward, quickly thrusting the spear through the mouse.

Certainly, as the archer mentioned, these are magical creatures brought in to increase the numbers, similar to the ones found at the beginning. Eventually, more advanced creatures would be released, but bringing them without using [Control] is troublesome.

“Well then, what should we do with these? Mice materials are nothing special now.”

“It’s just a regular Grey Rat. Let’s leave it. Selling it is too much trouble.”

Since there’s an inventory, there’s no problem carrying it, but dealing with it, either by dismantling or selling, would be a hassle. Both in terms of disassembly and selling.

For Rare, it’s a blessing. Those mice are just bait. If you leave the corpse lying around, ants or spiders will collect it as food later.

“There can’t be only mice… for a ?3.”

“Well, we haven’t walked much since entering. They’re probably coming… there, it seems they’ve come. I hear sounds. At least, bigger than mice.”

The archer seems to have [Enhanced Hearing].

Since most of the trees in the forest are treants, ants and spiders can move without making any noise if they want. Simply avoiding branches that are likely to make noise is enough. However, deliberately making noise means it’s probably a service from Queen Arachnea, the overseer.

“…Here they come. It’s a spider!”

“It’s so big that I couldn’t tell at first! Is it a Tarantula?”

“Be careful of the silk!”

Whether in reality or in-game, spiders of all kinds secrete silk.

Therefore, the warning from the tank-like leader is not wrong. But it’s a bit lacking.

Some hairy spiders, like the Tsuchigumo, occasionally release hairs. If you see a fluffy spider, you should be cautious about that. Those hairs are called irritant hairs, and touching them causes inflammation.

In reality, spiders kick their bellies with their legs to release hairs, but this Lesser Tarantula in the game releases them without any particular principle. It may seem unreasonable, but considering similar skills like my [Feather Gatling], we decided not to dwell on it.

And the toxicity of those hairs is not something cute like causing inflammation.

“Whoa! Something was just shot at us!”

“Ugh! Poison needles! Getting hit will induce a poisoned status!”

“Are you okay!? [Detox]!”

One of the rear magic users seemed to be a healer. Approaching the poisoned scout, they activated Detox to cure and recover.

Detox is a skill in the healing tree that “removes any poison status”. In the game, various types of poisons exist, such as nerve poison, bleeding poison, and muscle poison. However, Detox is sufficient to cure all of them.

The poison from this Lesser Tarantula is a type of muscle poison. It permeates the gaps in muscle cells, destroying them. While the symptoms may resemble muscle pain, if left untreated, it can lead to spasms, respiratory failure, and death.

In game terms, it would inflict continuous damage and eventually result in death over time. Bleeding poison could be considered a more significant form of continuous damage poison, and nerve poison could be seen as causing damage and paralysis.

Regarding this Lesser Tarantula’s poison, while it can induce pain and damage, the final instant death has a separate VIT check. Beginners might succumb to it, but players of their rank would likely resist it.

The poisoned scout likely identified it as poison due to unusual symptoms that couldn’t be caused by a mere needle. In any case, Detox would be effective against such mysterious symptoms, showcasing excellent situational judgment.

“Wait! This isn’t such a powerful attack! I resisted it!”

“Before that, it didn’t even pierce me.”

While Lesser Tarantulas are stronger than infantry ants, they are still comparable to low-tier ants. They are not formidable opponents for players confidently attacking a level 3 dungeon.

The poison needle seems to have pierced the spear user, but they managed to resist the poison status. As for the tank, the creature failed even to breach his skin, seemingly repelled by his natural VIT.

“Here I go!”

Moreover, the archer delivered the finishing blow with a knife. This monster, which would have easily wiped out beginners who had just come to Liebe, showcased the strength of these players.

“I haven’t seen this type of monster spider before. Should we take it with us?”

“What could it be used for? If it doesn’t shoot silk, maybe it’s for sewing materials?”

“Wait, I think you can eat tarantulas.”

“You hold on there!”

Casually chatting, they stored the Lesser Tarantula’s corpse in their inventory and continued onward.

“However, we didn’t notice it approaching until it was quite close.”

“Yeah, this forest is constantly rustling, making it hard to hear. It doesn’t feel like the wind is blowing either.”

Even as they chatted, they effortlessly dealt with occasional spider and ant attacks, displaying their confidence and experience.

Meanwhile, it seemed that other players were gathering around. Checking social media, words like “meeting in La Colinne” and many party matchings were evident.

For now, she left the monitoring of other parties to Queen Arachnea and her companions. Her focus was still on witnessing the end of this particular party.

Against lower-level enemies, even with five people, they should have earned a fair amount of experience points and materials.

This time, it seemed more like a cautious exploration, and they were thinking of pulling back soon. However, leaving without resolving this situation was out of the question.

“…This might be bad.”

“What’s wrong? Anyway, we were planning to pull back soon, and if there’s a problem, let’s leave quickly.”

The leader responded to the archer’s words. However, the archer’s expression remained grim.

“…No, sorry. This might be really bad.”

“What’s wrong? Did you hear something? Is it the heavy footsteps of a huge monster?”

“No. …I don’t know the way back.”

“Huh!? No way, didn’t we mark it somehow? Just follow that…?”

“Wait! Look closely. At this tree. The one he marked with wounds earlier. But see, there are no wounds anywhere.”

The spearman shouted, and the healer pointed at the tree. The wounds they had carved into it had completely disappeared.

It seemed the treants had moved slowly, closing the path they had taken. The corpses of creatures left on the way were also collected.

Even if they had tried to remember the path, the treants were moving alongside them, erasing every trace.

“…Clearly, the path has changed. That’s it! This is probably not a dungeon determined by monster difficulty but rather a dungeon determined by the difficulty of its gimmicks, given the level 3 designation!”

“The ‘Forest of Confusion’, maybe.”

“Hey, the grass at our feet… isn’t it growing?”

In addition to moving the treants, Elder Camphor Treants were intermittently spreading a weak [Blessing]. It could only somewhat accelerate the growth of grass at their feet.

With the dense trees, the forest felt dim even during the day. Ruins covered in moss and vegetation were barely visible. Even if used as landmarks, the Treants could move them along with the party.

Going back the way they came was made nearly impossible.

In addition, if they felt the enemies were weaker than expected for level 3, it was probably because numerous Treants were not participating in combat.

“…This is bad.”

“Damn, the only option might be to die and respawn.”

“We’ve been here for quite a while… Yeah, it was probably a mistake. Parties attacking here seem to be doing fine… but it might be too late to inform them now.”

“Maybe a bit late, but let’s issue a warning just in case.”

Issuing a warning was not an issue. It would become common knowledge soon enough. However, self-killing to respawn was not acceptable. In that case, Rare wouldn’t gain experience points.

A massive amount of silk was sprayed toward the party from all around.

“What the hell!? Silk!?”

“Spiders!? When did they appear!?”

“Unbelievable! No sound…”

“Uh-oh! We’re surrounded!”

The path changing from the treants’ movements, the occasional disruption of party members, and the spread of silk from Greater Tarantulas—all these signs went unnoticed. Constantly making such sounds was part of their strategy. In the midst of that noise, the spiders had surrounded them without being noticed.

And these spiders surrounding them were not Lesser Tarantulas; they were Greater Tarantulas. Larger in size, with a darker color.

“They’re not the same as before! Damn… silk!”

The tank attempted to defend by tearing the silk, but he was a moment too late. A poisoned needle found its way through the gaps in his armor, and he began to suffer.

While the pain might not be as intense as in reality, the poison might be accompanied by paralysis. Another round of silk spraying, but this time, he made no attempt to shake it off.

“Please, [Detox]…”

However, the healer had not even torn the silk that was first cast on the tank. Quickly entangled, they were already being dragged toward the Tarantulas.

This fate was shared by the other magic user and the archer.

Although the spearman managed to break free from the silk, like the tank, he seemed to be rendered immobile by the poison needle.

Despite being called Greater Tarantulas, if there were only one or two, the players would likely have defeated them easily. However, with numerous spiders surrounding them, disrupting their actions with surprise attacks and spreading status ailments, they could easily be overwhelmed.

The players, one by one, were ensnared in silk, met their end, and disappeared to respawn elsewhere.

After finishing blows were systematically dealt to the players entangled in the threads, and having confirmed that their bodies vanished upon death, Rare returned her vision from Ominous-kun.