Infinite Trial from the Giant

After dealing with several waves of poisonous spiders, Xia Tian and his group arrived near a hill.

"Look."

Loki stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction of the hill. He saw a deep cave entrance on the side of the hill that seemed to be formed naturally. Near the cave entrance, there were dozens of smaller poisonous spiders, probably only as big as a palm, crawling back and forth.

"Are those little ones also counted in the subjugation mission?" Loki said, looking towards Kirito.

"Probably." Kirito said uncertainly, pulling the corner of his mouth.

"That would be too easy. Compared to the previous ones, I can kill one of these small ones with just one step."

"I told you not to be careless."

"Asuna is right. Although the small ones are easy to deal with, the hole in front is the nest of poisonous spiders. The task of subduing poisonous spiders is originally divided into two stages. After we complete the required number of subjugations, the commander will let us deal with the queen spider in the nest." Following Asuna's words, Kirito continued.

Queen Spider?

Xia Tian didn't expect that he would be close to the opponent required for the second stage of the life-threatening goal so quickly.

"That Queen Spider, I guess you, Kirito, have dealt with it during the closed beta period." Thinking about this, Xia Tian asked.

Nodding, Kirito responded, "Yes, if you really want to count, that thing should be considered as the strength of a territory boss. In addition, to defeat it, you basically have to go to the end of the second floor of the nest. Because of the terrain, it may be more troublesome." Kirito paused, glanced at Kizmel who was scouting ahead, and then said, "But that is only the intelligence of the closed beta era after all. Now that Kizmel is here, there may be other ways to deal with it."

In fact, Xia Tian knew this without Kirito telling her.

After going through so much, Xia Tian had already regarded the so-called intelligence from the closed beta period as reference intelligence. Only a fool would completely believe in the intelligence from the closed beta period.

Putting aside other things, one must remain skeptical about whether the queen spider will be at the end of the second floor.

Not long after, Kizmel came back from the front and said straightforwardly, "There shouldn't be any problems around here. Okay, let's go investigate that horizontal cave. Without more accurate information, we still can't report to the commander that we have found the nest of poisonous spiders."

Fulfilling his promise, Loki crushed several small spiders that were lingering at the entrance of the cave. Then, everyone raised torches and groped their way into the damp cave.

"I don't like this kind of environment." Asuna slightly turned sideways to avoid the puddle under her feet and looked around with some disgust.

If it is a regular man-made building like the maze area, there will be torches everywhere to illuminate the surrounding environment so that players can see the surrounding environment clearly. However, a wild maze like this is not so user-friendly. Except for the occasional moss attached to the corners that can emit a faint light, the rest of the cave is basically pitch black. If you don’t use a torch, you can’t see the surrounding situation at all. Moreover, the lighting range of the torch itself is not very large. Coupled with the winding terrain of the cave, the visible range is further reduced.

"I agree. This place is really terrible." Loki agreed with Asuna, not because of the dark and damp environment here, but because of the torches.

Compared to Loki and Xia Tian, ​​Asuna and Kirito are already very comfortable. After all, Asuna and Kirito use a rapier and a one-handed sword respectively. They only need to use one hand when wielding weapons or performing sword skills. Loki and Xia Tian are different. First of all, Loki needs to hold a shield. If he holds a torch, it means that Loki must free up the hand holding the shield. If he encounters an enemy, Loki must put down the torch first and re-equip the shield. The same is true for Xia Tian. Although he can wield the Lord's Blade with one hand, because the sword skills of the Lord's Blade require both hands, his situation is not much different from Loki.

"When you put down the torch, don't accidentally throw it into a puddle, or it will go out." Asuna was obviously aware of their predicament and made a rare joke.

However, the expected panic in the fight against the enemy did not occur because there was a "human radar" like Kizmel in the team.

Kizmel has a strong sense of perception and possesses the unique night vision ability of the elves. Even without a torch, he can give a warning as soon as the enemy approaches, giving everyone enough time to prepare for the response.

If there is a way to win over NPCs to become partners, Kizmel will definitely be one of the candidates for the summer.

With Kizmel there, and Xia Tian and the other three being quite strong themselves, the team explored steadily forward in the spider's nest. While eliminating many spiders, they also found quite a few reward chests and strengthening materials, which yielded a lot of rewards for everyone. Soon, the first floor of the entire spider cave had been explored, and the relevant map data had been completely recorded.

"Hey, map data, isn't this the separate space we mentioned earlier?" At this time, Asuna, who was checking the map data, suddenly realized something and asked hurriedly.

"Well, once you leave the camp, it's already a public area," Kirito responded.

"So it wouldn't be strange if other players showed up here, right?" Loki said, and he couldn't help but become more alert.

Meeting other players was not something that should be taken seriously, but everyone present had not forgotten the rumors of murder that Argo had mentioned, so no matter what time it was, as long as they were in an unsafe wilderness, in addition to monsters, everyone would remain on guard.

Not dying at the hands of monsters, but dying at the hands of other players, this was not an ending they could accept.

"Now there is only this downward passage left, but it has been confirmed that this place is the spider's nest. We can return to the camp and report to the commander. However, if you want to continue exploring downwards, that is also possible. After all, the more information the better." At this time, Kizmel walked back from the downward passage in front, and as she spoke, the poisonous spider subjugation mission accepted by Xia Tian and the other four was marked as completed and deliverable.

Seeing this, Loki, Asuna and Kirito all turned their gazes towards Xia Tian.

Should we return to deliver, or continue downward?

Obviously, all three of them left this option to the summer.

Glancing at the downward passage, Xia Tian also gave his answer.

"Keep exploring."