Having come up with the brilliant plan of collapsing the ceiling by destroying one of the already hollowed up support pillars, Scaly wasted no time as she picked out the most suitable and weakest looking one among the pillars that had been hollowed out by the spiderlings over an unknown length of time.
Whoosh-!
BANG!
And without the slightest bit of hesitation, she used her lightning magic to strike the support pillar with all her might. Holding nothing back as she went all out trying to destroy the towering stone pillar that was more than a dozen meters wide-
BOOOOOOM-!
The lightning instantly tore through the already weakened pillar before exploding violently, causing a chain reaction to take place, as the towering pillar began collapsing in on itself.
RUUUUUUUUMBLE-!
[Gained 6 Exp]
[Gained 4 Exp]
[Gained 7 Exp]
[Gained 10 Exp]
[Gained...]
Even better, as the towering pillar began collapsing, Scaly clearly saw part of the ceiling starting to collapse alongside it, as floods of experience notifications began popping up. Hundreds of spiderlings already being crushed beneath the collapsing pillar, as they had no time to escape with their weak strength and found themselves dying before they could even realize what was happening.
Splash!
Of course, she didn’t dare to stay around to see the rest of the collapse taking place, as she understood that she would likely join the spiderlings who had already been crushed if she stayed around for any longer. Not just because of the collapsing ceiling, but also because she could clearly see that over two dozen royal cave spider guards were already rushing directly towards her after she had used lightning magic to collapse the pillar.
Although these spiders weren’t exactly adept when it came to swimming, she understood very well that the commotion she had just caused would alert the entire cave spider lair and she would soon find tens of thousands of spiders swarming towards her location along with the ruler of this lair that she hadn’t yet had the chance to see in person... And that was considering she could even survive the ceiling collapsing on top of her.
No matter what, there was absolutely no benefit to her staying behind, as she made a beeline for the underwater escape path she had found beforehand. Understanding that outside of the ones chasing her above the water, she would likely also have to deal with one or more hidden below the surface who would now know about her location after she had used her lightning magic...
[Lake Water Spider, lvl 64]
[Description: The evolution of the deadly water spider that can live underwater, the lake water spider is a far larger variant that can be found lurking in lakes. Having developed a proficiency in water magic that allows it to propel itself through the water at terrifying speed and having a potent poison stored in its fangs, the lake water spider is nothing short of a nightmare to deal with even for seasoned B Rank Adventures.
Even then... The delectable soft and squishy legs of the lake water spider is a well-known delicacy rumored to soften skin and make wrinkles disappear. Making it highly sought after by not just the noble ladies among human aristocrats, but even more so the elves who pride themselves on their beauty. Because of this, a lake water spider leg can be considered one of the finest gifts one could present to the elves.]
And sure enough, she soon managed to spot a large spider rapidly moving through the water directly towards her, though she did notice that the description of this spider was a bit odd towards the latter half. Not that she had any time to think about any of this, as she made her way towards the small underwater tunnel with the strong current. Not intending to stay and try to fight this underwater spider, as she could already tell from its size alone that it wouldn’t be able to chase after her-
Whoosh-!
So, with a quick motion before the underwater spider that had been the biggest worry in her escape plan had the chance to catch up to her, she felt herself being pulled along by a familiar strong current and soon disappeared into the small underwater tunnel as the spider chasing her from behind slammed into the rocks before getting up and rushing towards another opening not too far away.
The reason for this didn’t just have to do with trying to chase after Scaly, but also the fact that large rocks were already beginning to crash into the water from above, as the ceiling caved in on itself following the destruction Scaly had caused a few seconds earlier. The only real escape path was through the underwater tunnels connected to the lake.
Unfortunately for the spiderlings and the royal cave spider guards above, there was no way for them to get to these underwater escape paths, as they were all trapped and could only watch as large stones collapsed on top of them.
Jumping into the water could buy some among them a chance to survive for a bit longer, but this didn’t last for long, as the lake itself was soon filled with rocks and most of the spiders and spiderlings that escaped into the water found themselves crushed or drowning underwater trapped amidst the large rocks.
In the end, most of the royal cave spider guards and the spiderlings ended up dying as the ceiling collapsed on top of them, with only a few surviving through sheer luck alone. Not that Scaly cared that much about a few managing to somehow stay alive, as she was far too busy searching for a way out.
After all, even though she had determined that the underwater tunnel would be her escape path, she couldn’t exactly be sure about that and had to put her full focus on finding a way out of the water before she ran out of air, something that became a far more pressing matter, as Scaly found herself swimming through the underground tunnel for more than five minutes without any air pockets or any real change to her surroundings outside of the tunnel becoming slightly wider, while the pull from the current had grown a bit stronger.
Don’t tell me this is another looooong stream...
Feeling a shiver run all the way down her tail, Scaly could not help feeling a sense of unease washing over her as she realized that there was a very real chance that the underground tunnel wouldn’t be that different from the stream she had first followed into the cave spider lair. Only this time around, there weren’t any spiders around and she couldn’t poke her head out for air even if she wanted to.
Whoosh~
Whaaa-!?
As she felt herself going down a rather negative train of thought, she suddenly felt the power of the current increase by several magnitudes, as she was uncontrollably dragged forward and out of the tunnel into a much larger underground river before she even had the time to try and resist.
Splash!
And to her luck, she found herself able to poke her small head above the surface of the water and take a deep breath of air. Filling up her small lungs completely in the process, a feeling that she had found herself missing ever since she had decided to go explore the cave spider lair.
Of course, there was one thing that kept her mood uplifted...
[Gained 3 Exp]
[Gained 7 Exp]
[Gained 2480 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 27]
[Gained 5 Exp]
[Gained...]
And that was the constant stream of notifications that continued even after five minutes had passed, as she even noticed one that should have belonged to a royal cave spider guard, who had directly allowed her level to break through to level 27.
This also meant that her vitality had already broken past the one thousand point mark. Actually, it had already done so when she had reached level 25, but she hadn’t had the time to check on it yet, as she was still fully focused on first surviving her current precarious situation before even thinking about going over her status.
Even then, she could still clearly feel that something had changed inside of her after her vitality had broken through one thousand, her body growing stronger and her swimming becoming easier- No... That should just be her swimming skill leveling up under the recent stress...
Shaking her small head from side to side in the rushing underground river, scaly focused on the matter at hand and began eagerly searching through her surroundings for a way out of her current situation, as she really wanted to get out of the water after having spent such a long time in the water. Almost drowning on several occasions in the process.
Ruuumble~
Unfortunately, what she saw as she looked around herself with limited visibility wasn’t a path out. Instead, it was a large swirling whirlpool that she had already been caught by...