The beast quickly opened its mouth and then fired a light-blue liquid toward us, but I used the Earthen Wall to block them and check its durability. The part that was hit soon began to freeze.

  I kicked the wall and then made it fall over the frost spiders. Still, they were strong enough not to be smashed by the wall. Soon, their legs cracked the wall, but as soon as they showed up, they were hit by a barrage of arrows.

  You received 30 experience points.

  You received 30 experience points.

  “Their frost poison is used to slow down those with quick legs. I am sure that they have other uses, but I don’t know them. Anyway, we don’t have time to get the poison, right?”

  “Nah, this will be fast.”

  I was pretty sure that they would have their poison organs in the same spot as the others that I had fought and soon I confirmed that, given that their appearance was the same. Regardless, it was unnerving as ever to get the parts of the spiders when they had so many eyes pointed at me.

  “So, you are an alchemist, too?”

  “You are free to think that.”

  “Can’t you just answer the question? What is the point in denying?”

  “Before asking for answers to others, you should tell a bit about yourself.”

  “Me? I am just a boring guy that has a hobby of gathering information about all sorts of things. There is nothing else to say about me.”

  “I can say the same thing about myself.”

  “You don’t seem like the type who likes to gather intel.”

  I felt like sighing… I wondered why I couldn’t find some normal people on my travels. Maybe it was because I was not normal myself, in more ways than one. Putting that aside, the encounter rate of frost spiders was quite something. We barely crossed fifty meters before new ones emerged. Adding that to the time of gathering materials, and I could guess that I might not reach the 50th floor in three days.

  ‘I guess I will explode their heads with explosive arrows… as long as I aim well, it won’t destroy the organ.’

  The encounter rate with frost spiders was ridiculous. Considering the time spent fighting and harvesting materials, I could already tell I wasn’t making it to the 50th floor in three days.

  It would make things messier, spttered spider parts and more cleanup, but it would save me time. That trade-off was fine by me. I didn’t know when I’d get another chance to gather this type of material, so it was better to stack up for the future. A little extra effort now could mean a big payoff ter.

  “You sure are good when it comes to dismantling monsters. Nimira told me that you did most of the work when it comes to things that aren’t reted to fighting as well.”

  “I have been doing this for six years. It would be weird if I weren’t good at dismantling the monsters.”

  I took a random bolt from my magic bag and then used Poison Tipped Bolt. I soon confirmed the result… It looked like, despite his words, Roswald still had much to learn.

  Frost Poisonous Bolt.

  It has the power to damage the target and make them become thirty percent slower for a minute. When the effect stacks, it causes damage to the stamina of the target, making them lose the points of Stamina per second for ten seconds.

  It was indeed a rather potent poison. If I used this kind of bolt and stamina drain as well, I could exhaust most of my targets insanely fast. Weakening a target with that kind of combination and then decreasing their defenses with cursed arrows and then attacking freely afterwards seemed the best option to easily deal with most enemies. I made some copies of those just in case.

  I have been making the decay bolts periodically, but I had to stop since Roswald showed up. I couldn’t give him that much information about my skills, after all. He was also taking the back seat and watching me as much as possible while he could.

  “The materials that your wagon was made of, they are from areas that belong to the dwarven territory, right?”

  “What about it?”

  “If you were there, you could have visited the Kingdom of Felyndor, right?”

  “I could, but it would be too much of a hassle crossing their nd while they were at war. The people of Felyndor also had received the refugees of the Skarnash Tribends, so it would be a mess there.”

  “I heard that things are going well there despite the immigrants. Some people don’t like the changes, but they welcomed the strength of the orcs, goblins and ogres. They should be aware that the empire will soon target them and having that kind of allies would come in handy.”

  Roswald’s knack for information gathering was far more impressive than I had initially given him credit for. The intelligence he provided was not only detailed but also incredibly timely, making it nearly impossible to tell if he had even stepped out of the country to obtain it. This raised some serious questions in my mind. Did he have a network of spies operating in far-off pces? Was he relying on some magical artifact that allowed him to communicate with people in those pces?

  A long-distance communication device capable of transmitting detailed information quickly and discreetly would be an excellent tool in my hands. I already knew that they existed, after all. The only downside was that I didn’t have the people that I could trust all over the world.

  In any case, the second section still was easy for me to solo the whole thing, so we managed to cross the floors retively fast. Given the time that I was using to get the materials, I assumed that Roswald had enough time to recover, so he could keep going like this for a while longer.

  Eventually, we reached the next boss chamber when night was coming and I stopped to think about what I should do… leaving Gcien and Alissandra behind was probably the best option given that she was too young to keep getting powerful csses.

  “All right, stay here and protect Alissandra, Gcien. An accident is bound to happen if she keeps getting powerful skills.”

  “Awoo!”

  “Ughhh...”

  For some reason, Alissandra looked like she didn’t like that idea. Maybe she was just hungry, and I was imagining things. Still, just as I was about to head to the boss chamber, I confirmed what was going on.

  “WAHHHH! WAHHHH!”

  Alissandra’s cry made me feel like my eardrums were about to explode. I was forced to cover my ears for a while and return to Alissandra’s side. Given that she was a harpy, it made sense that she would have strong vocal cords, but even so.

  It looked like she could tell that I was leaving for a while and that never happened even when she was sleeping, maybe I spoiled her a bit too much, and I could only bme myself for it.

  “I will be back soon, don’t worry about it.

  “Ughhh…”

  “Oh boy… now what?”

  “I don’t think that you need to worry too much about it. At least one css of each trial will be considered a support css. You won’t be putting her in danger by taking her with us.”

  “You aren’t thinking things through as much as I am.”

  “If you aren’t pnning to adopt her, then giving her the means to defend herself in the future is the best option. I don’t know why you found her, but I would guess that she has simir family problems as you. Helping her with that will make things even easier for her than it was for you, right?”

  I couldn’t understand why Roswald was being so considerate toward Alissandra. Sure, she was just a baby, but that didn’t change the fact that she was a harpy, and the harpies had been causing no end of trouble for the half-humans in the war.

  This world was still in a stage of development where grudges and prejudices were commonpce. It wasn’t surprising that people directed their hatred toward their enemies, even when those enemies were as innocent as toddlers.

  Whether it was out of principle, strategy, or some personal reason I couldn’t understand yet, he seemed willing to look past Alissandra’s heritage in a way most people wouldn’t even consider. At least he wasn’t saying something like I should raise her… my life wasn’t easy for kids and it was better if I found someone to look after her before some troublesome people found me.

  While I was thinking about that, I saw Alissandra looking at me still looking a bit angry, she was pouting too, somehow. I couldn’t help but sigh. She was too expressive for her age. Perhaps I should only consider facing the bosses while she was sleeping… in that case, we had to cross the third section before she woke up.

  “All right… just don’t think that you will always get what you want by crying like that. I definitely won’t take you to the fights against the fourth and fifth bosses.”

  “Da-da.”

  “Everyone around me feels the need to have the st word, huh? Pain in the asses.”

  I turned around only to see a confused expression on Roswald’s face; he couldn’t understand why I was used to talking with Alissandra and Gcien. It was just a little trick to create a bond between us, in order to make sure that they would be less unruly. I was sure that this would come to bite me in the ass ter.

  WritingMachineGun