Chapter 450: Chapter 450: Fiery Wall of Fire

The battle had reached a stalemate orchestrated by Yang Yu, who signaled Bai Jin and Iyas to go all out.

From the staircase opening, Mother Spiders continued to pour forth, even the spiderlings that had not been born for a few months joined the battle with their stored food supplies.

But the moment they entered Bai Jin’s “Ghost Shadow Formation,” countless small ghosts sprang up from the Array, slowing down the attack pace of the Mother Spiders.

Finally able to engage in battle, Iyas appeared particularly eager, pulling arrows from her quiver and spraying them at the approaching Mother Spiders.

A few Mother Spiders managed to get close to Iyas and her group, but Iyas launched a “Sacred Ripples,” repelling the encroaching Mother Spiders and creating opportunities for attacks.

Using “Climbing” sturdily, Yang Yu anchored himself on the back of a Spider Mother while observing the battlefield and waiting for his skills to cooldown.

The only thing to be wary of now was the controlling silk spun by the Mother Spiders.

The Mother Spiders lost their minds but that didn’t stop them from throwing silk lines randomly. Should Yang Yu accidentally touch one of those misguidedly placed silk lines and get hung up like a marionette, his effort would be in vain.

Fortunately, standing atop the Mother Spider, very close to the bright starlight on the ceiling, Yang Yu could spot any small creatures approaching and thus did not require Iyas to continue releasing bright light.

Having cleared away most of the spiderlings, Iyas and Bai Jin could finally concentrate their fire on the Spider Mother,

“‘Hunter Mark,’ ‘Deadly Shot.'”

“Ice Spear Technique.”

Golden and white light merged in the air, thoroughly piercing through the body of the Mother Spider.

“Hiss—”

This time, the Mother Spider did not emit a human sound but its own original, helpless and painful voice, reminiscent of the prey it had once hunted.

—”Survival of the fittest, is this the law of life? If I had become stronger, stronger than these humans, could I have protected my tribe…”

With its supporting eight legs finally losing balance, the massive body of the Spider Mother tilted sideways and crashed down, sweeping the surrounding Knight pieces.

Standing on the back of the Mother Spider, Yang Yu opened the panel to confirm the Spider Mother’s HP had completely dropped to zero and leaped off its back to continue mopping up those who had slipped through.

Another half an hour of combat passed before Yang Yu and his group could barely clean up the remaining spiders on the third level.

After this battle, Yang Yu’s Task line filled with question marks surged by thirty-five points.

Unfortunately, aside from the Spider Mother, Yang Yu couldn’t gain any task progression by defeating other Mother Spiders, still missing sixty-five points to unlock that task filled with question marks.

His gaze returned to the body of the Spider Mother, where Yang Yu started collecting materials, carefully carving open the Mother Spider’s skull to reveal a Demon Crystal about the size of a goose egg.

Demon Crystals in this world are rare materials, seemingly only formed by powerful, large demons.

Besides being used to create various magic weapons, Demon Crystals could also be fashioned into a special magic tool—a Magic Explosion Crystal.

A Magic Explosion Crystal could store magic perfectly, allowing one to unleash the stored spell when in danger by simply smashing the crystal, achieving a surprising effect.

It was just unfortunate that storing large-scale spells in a Magic Explosion Crystal was not something ordinary people could afford.

Common Magic Explosion Crystals found in the market were generally made from substandard Demon Crystals left over from weapon production and could mount simple magic like “Ice Spear Technique” or “Flame Burst Skill”.

The size of the Demon Crystal Yang Yu held, if taken to the auction house alone, would start at no less than a million. If fitted with a major magic, it would start at least at ten million.

However…

The pale yellow Demon Crystal in Yang Yu’s hand was tainted with black magic power, which originally didn’t belong to the Mother Spider.

If a Demon Crystal crystallized mixed with other magic powers, it would lead to impurity in the magic power, making the nature extremely unstable and difficult to craft into a fine Magic Weapon or Magic Tool.

A Demon Crystal bearing two types of magic power traits would be priced only slightly higher than soap in the market, only purchased by extremely mad Alchemists for crazy experiments.

Fortunately, when he touched this Demon Crystal, Yang Yu’s task clue progress went up by five points, reaching forty.

“If we could thoroughly investigate the magic power contained within the Demon Crystal, perhaps we could boost the progress by leaps and bounds.”

Thinking thus, Yang Yu threw the Demon Crystal into the system and turned around to meet up with Bai Jin, Iyas, and Hake.

Hearing combat noises below the stairs, Qing Shi was anxious, while Hake clasped his hands and silently prayed everything would go smoothly.

Lokarl listened attentively, discerning the battle situation on the third floor from various sounds. Despite not witnessing the battle firsthand, Lokarl had a general understanding of the situation.

Thus, when Lokarl saw Yang Yu and his party had emerged unhurt from the third floor, he showed no surprise.

“Next,” Yang Yu tossed the unused antidotes to Qing Shi, “we’ve already dealt with the Mother Spider. If you think these potions are not enough, you can go back to the third floor later and take as much poison as you need.

Lotcar, lead them to follow me, I need to verify something.”

Yang Yu didn’t specify what he wanted to verify, but Lotcar obediently carried the two, following Yang Yu’s strides back to the entrance of the first floor.

Sand densely packed the entrance of the Underground Maze, but not a speck spilled inside; the maze’s barrier kept all the sand out, as neatly as a slice of bread.

Qing Shi slightly furrowed his brows, “What exactly is happening here?”

“This is the doing of the maze’s owner. From the moment we stepped in, we don’t have to worry about having enough time. Upon entering this maze, we only have one choice—to keep moving forward until the challenge is completed. Isn’t that right, Guardian of the Maze?”

Silence ensued, with no one responding.

With a helpless smile, Yang Yu shrugged and led the team back into the chaotic third floor.

The smell of Poison Liquid mixed with Spider Blood was like a rotten egg, and seeing the multitude of spider corpses on the ground, Qing Shi and Hake immediately felt nauseous.

Lokarl bared his teeth, raised his head high, and tried to minimize his breaths to avoid the pungent smell as he followed Yang Yu to the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

Cutting through the spider web at the base of the stairs, a blast of searing heat hit them.

Passing through the spider web, a fierce wall of fire blocked Yang Yu and his group’s path. Just then, the voice of the Maze Guardian rang again in Yang Yu’s ears,

“Congratulations on passing the first three levels of the trial, but the real trial is only just beginning.”