Continuing from the old man's perspective.
Thirteen days since entering the dungeon.
We'd arrived at our target area and were now culling Monsters while investigating the cause.
But we ended up scratching our heads.
"There are no Monsters."
"Mm. The reports said there were abnormally high numbers, but I'm not getting that feeling at all."
"Yeah. On the road here, there were way more than this."
The number of Monsters on the way here had certainly been high.
Normally, we'd move to avoid combat as much as possible, but this time, culling Monsters was one of our key tasks.
Every time we spotted a Monster, the knights had to fight.
Thanks to that, what was originally planned as a ten-day journey stretched to twelve.
Factor in the return trip, and we needed to push the investigation along as fast as possible.
"Well, it's only the first day of the investigation. No need to rush. Besides, if the Monsters have disappeared, that's actually convenient, isn't it? The anomaly calms down, everything wraps up nice and tidy."
"If only it were that easy."
I tossed that out lightly to the captain, but I wasn't exactly convinced myself.
The bad feeling I'd had since entering the dungeon was only growing stronger.
Whenever this sensation showed up, things rarely ended well.
Better stay on guard.
Day fifteen.
"As expected, there are no Monsters here. Should we take the plunge and check the main corridor we've been avoiding so far?"
"Hmm. The main corridor, huh."
The investigation hadn't turned up a single useful thing.
Of course it hadn't—the Monsters we'd been told were here simply weren't.
The captain's suggestion gave me pause.
It was unlikely a Queen would happen to be there, but the main corridor harbored Monsters at a level incomparable to the passages we'd been traversing so far.
Earth Dragons in particular were troublesome creatures with overwhelming physical abilities.
I really didn't want to venture into the main corridor, but given our objective, we couldn't exactly skip it.
"Fine. Captain, the moment things look dangerous, we pull back immediately."
"Agreed. Everyone, listen up! We're heading into the main corridor! If we judge the situation to be dangerous, we retreat at once—act accordingly!"
At the captain's command, the unit moved out.
"This is it."
"Mm. Let's proceed carefully from here."
We emerged into the main corridor.
Scanning our surroundings closely.
No Monsters in sight.
"No Monsters here either?"
"Mm. Based on what we've heard, shouldn't this corridor have some of the highest Monster populations?"
"Yeah. I've never seen a main corridor this quiet. It's unnerving."
"We should move forward with even more caution."
The bad feeling I'd been sensing intensified.
My instincts were screaming that pressing ahead was dangerous.
"This is bad. The bad feeling won't let up."
"I feel it too."
The captain was breaking into a cold sweat.
A similar sheen of moisture crept down my cheek.
Slowly, we advanced.
That was when something caught my eye.
"Is that... a spider's web?"
"A Taratect-type Monster?"
It was an enormous spider's web.
The web alone was massive, but its owner was nowhere in sight. At this size, whatever built it had definitely matured into an adult.
"Could this web's owner be the cause of the anomaly?"
"Looks like it. Take a look."
I pointed ahead. There, tangled in the web, was the half-eaten carcass of an Earth Dragon.
"Even an Earth Dragon ended up like this? This thing might have evolved all the way to Greater class."
The Taratect species was one whose strength exploded exponentially with each Evolution.
At the top sat the Queen—mythical-grade.
At the bottom, newly born spiderlings ranked lowest, at F-rank.
Needless to say, the transformation wrought by Evolution was immense.
Greater Taratects were Evolution variants that appeared only in extremely rare cases.
Their strength hovered near A-rank, within the B-rank classification.
Given that even an Earth Dragon had been taken down, reaching A-rank wasn't out of the question.
"You think we could handle an A-rank Monster?"
"Not a chance. If we went in fully prepared to die, maybe we could bring one down—but that's not exactly an option to discuss calmly."
"Right. We should head back. This is beyond our pay grade."
"Agreed. The sooner we get out, the better."
My opinion and the captain's were in perfect alignment.
We exchanged a nod and were about to leave the spot when— A wave of bone-chilling dread washed over me.
I held my breath.
Behind us, where the spider's web hung.
Something had appeared.
I locked eyes with the captain beside me.
We nodded. Slowly, we turned around.
And met its gaze.
A spider.
It resembled the Taratect species I knew well, but something was slightly off.
A smallish spider Monster with scythe-like black legs.
In an instant, I understood.
This thing was bad news.
I had no idea how it had appeared out of nowhere, but one thing was certain—it was terrifying.
Fear locked my body rigid.
Greater Taratect?
No, nothing so simple.
This was something else entirely.
"Retreat!"
The captain's shout snapped me back to my senses.
I ran for my life.
Formation? Forget about it.
I just poured everything into putting distance between myself and that thing, my legs trembling so badly I almost laughed.
I don't know how far we ran, but we burst out of the main corridor.
I looked back. It wasn't pursuing us.
Relieved exhales rose from every direction.
The captain let out a breath, then immediately began a headcount.
No missing members.
"Let's get out of the dungeon. Now."
"Yeah. We need to contact the homeland. That kind of monster is beyond anything we can handle."
We hadn't actually fought it.
But one glance told me everything.
That thing was a nightmare beyond reason.
The reason Monsters had been so numerous on the way here was that they'd been fleeing from it, spilling out from their territories into the surrounding areas.
The reason there were no Monsters in this area was that they'd all run from that thing.
By any measure, that creature far exceeded A-rank.
It could have been pushing into S-rank territory.
That kind of thing was for Heroes and the elite forces of every nation to deal with.
Ordinary people like us had absolutely no business picking a fight with something like that.
"Zoa Ele."
Someone muttered.
"What's that?"
"That Monster. A spider species that portends misfortune. But it wasn't supposed to look like that."
Apparently, that Monster belonged to a race called Zoa Ele.
But I'd never heard of one appearing in the Great Ello Dungeon.
Had it suddenly mutated from a Taratect?
It was clearly different from a normal Zoa Ele, so a sudden mutation seemed almost certain.
Either way, there was nothing more we could do.
We evacuated from the dungeon shortly after.