CHAPTER 430: ONCE WE GET OUT OF HERE

"Argh! Lane!" Ethan yelled once again. "Come here right now!"

Lane couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

What a drama queen! Although he couldn’t see the Guide from where he was because of all the rocks blocking the view, he could more or less tell what was happening just from listening. Ethan wasn’t even being eaten by the monsters just yet, so what was he screaming so much for?

"Lane, for fuck’s sake! Once we get out of here..."

Lane let out a sigh. He didn’t want to go, but now that he was personally called out, he couldn’t just ignore it, could he? It could make him look suspicious afterwards...

"Wait, I’ll go," Jasper said, as Lane was about to walk away. "You’re injured. I’ll help Wagner, and you keep searching for Adrian..."

Lane hesitated briefly, but in the end, he waved his hand dismissively.

"No need. You’re injured as well."

Of course, it wouldn’t really matter if Jasper were to go help Ethan. He was just a single A-rank Esper, after all. Against multiple high-ranking monsters, he wouldn’t be able to save Ethan anyway.

Only Lane could ’fail’ to save Ethan and survive, though. Plus, with his superior hearing, he could already hear the rescue efforts happening above them. It would take a while longer before the rest of the team got to them, but not too long... Thus, just to be safe, it was better to sabotage Ethan a bit more.

That’s why he had to go.

"Yes, but..." Jasper still wanted to protest. Although he couldn’t see well in the dark, he had touched Lane’s body earlier, so he knew that he was covered in multiple injuries, worse than he had...

But Lane was insistent. "You take care of Adrian. I’m your elder, let me handle the monsters."

"...What?" Jasper blinked.

His elder? Really? He could have sworn that Lane didn’t look older than 22!

It wasn’t the time to argue about age, though. And Lane already limped along the rockfall, looking for a way to get to the other side. He wasn’t rushing in to help Ethan, but he wasn’t so slow as to look suspicious either. He had to keep up with the appearances, after all...

It didn’t take him long to find the passage (if it could even be called ’finding’ it, considering that Lane had already gone through it a few minutes earlier!). He stepped out of the darkness into the part of the tunnels brightened by Ethan’s phone’s flashlight...

The scene that was in front of him could probably make a lot of people faint. At least those with arachnophobia. Because in the previously empty cave, there were now several massive spider-like monsters, two or three times taller than an adult male human, and even more of them hiding in the dark, observing the situation. They had no eyes, but instead, their heads resembled a starfish flower, with a massive hole in the middle, and the ’petals’ covered in countless teeth, waving around, sometimes closing into a bud-like shape, only to snap open a moment later...

And in the middle of the encirclement, there was Ethan, waving his phone and spear around. There were several thick, pale blue threads covering him already, which he hadn’t been able to avoid, but he was still holding on, even if barely...

That was the spiders’ hunting method. Capture the prey in the web first, then devour.

Now that Lane had stepped out, though, two of the nearest spiders turned their attention to him.

The spiders were relying on their sense of smell and touch, after all. No matter how quiet Lane’s footsteps were, they could still hear him. They weren’t about to lose on an extra prey just because Ethan was louder.

"Finally!" Ethan exclaimed, breathing heavily, as he tried to cut some of the webbing off with his spear. "What took you so..."

He suddenly paused, as his eyes fell on Lane.

"What happened to you?" he couldn’t help but ask, as he forgot about the monsters for a second.

Just for a second, though, because a moment later, one of the spiders spouted more of their webbing, and he had to rush to dodge.

"Stupid question!" Lane scoffed in response, as he also dodged the web launched at him. He avoided the first, but he ’failed’ to dodge the second ’due to his injuries’.

He had to make it believable, after all.

And his condition helped a lot. He was clearly severely injured, and it was visible at a glance, especially since he was still shirtless. With the state he was in, no one could possibly complain that he wasn’t trying hard enough to help...

Ethan didn’t say anything for a while, trying to focus on the spiders. There were too many surrounding him, and it was hard to predict whether any of them might spew more web... And the burning sensation aside, if he allowed himself to get too entangled in it, it would be the death of him.

But he still couldn’t help but to throw occasional glances Lane’s way. Lane was trying to get past the two spiders in his way, dodging and slashing the webs with his dagger... But his torso was completely bloodied up, especially the right side of his waist, and his left shoulder near his neck. He was also limping, and his right hand was dangling at his side, too injured to use...

Could it be that he had truly been unconscious until now, and not just staying silent because he didn’t want to help? Although Ethan suspected that Lane was stronger than an A-rank, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t have been knocked out...

"Ah!"

All of a sudden, Ethan felt a strong force pull him back. Because he had been glancing at Lane so much, his focus was all over the place, and he didn’t pay enough attention to the monsters...

And he didn’t notice that the spiders had set a trap with their web. In which he now had fallen.

That was the strength of the apex predators in this dungeon. Their attacks might have seemed relatively mild, but they were actually smart. Cornering their prey until there was no escape...

And then,

CHOMP!

Ethan’s eyes went wide.