(Henry POV)

The little boy strutted towards the cave entrance, now devoid of any signs of life. The fire from earlier must have burned all the way into the cave's interior.

??

Who is this kid, really?

I don't think any Practitioner could be that strong at his age. Scratch that, I don't think anyone even is a Practitioner at his age.

Guess I'll just have to give up on taking him…

Good thing no one knows about my side job yet, or I might just end up dead when I try to do it on this kid.

Well, at least with him around we can complete this Request easily on our own, that means we don't have to share the rewards with anyone else when we complete this.

What makes it even better is the fact that we will gain extra rewards for clearing this troublesome monster nest.

I could most definitely use that bonus money for my other ventures since I won't be able to make quota this month.

Such a shame, he has just the right face that a client wanted too.

Ah, no good, I'm on a job as an Adventurer now, better stay focused.

We followed the boy into the cave, the smell of burnt flesh lingering in the air. The tunnel was wide enough for all of us to walk side by side but we opted to have him lead the way with how thingsahad been going.

Lance and the elf have been quietly staring at his back for a while now.

This kid really is not normal.

The cave got darker the deeper we went in, it was no problem for us since experienced Adventurers like us have torches prepared for such occasions.

But it seems it was an unnecessary concern since the kid just snapped his fingers and balls of light began illuminating the area around us.

Soot caked the walls around us and the outlines of spiders could be seen imprinted on them as well, no doubt all of them perishing from the fire just like the spiders outside.

The tunnel soon widened into a cavern, the size so huge that the light from the kid's light ball failed to illuminate the entire space.

The cave was eerily silent, not even the shadow of any other monsters could be seen.

Just as I was about to relax, the kid pointed upwards, "Guess the mother is angry."

All of us looked up to see the biggest spider that we've ever seen detach itself from the ceiling, the monster easily taking up a quarter the size of the entire cavern.

"I believe this one is called a Queen Armored Swarm Spider…" I informed helpfully. "Unlike the small ones that are only resistant to fire, it has complete fire immunity…"

Lance cursed, "Damn it! We need to run now! We need a whole raid party for this thing alone!"

It crawled towards us slowly, its razor sharp legs clinking on the ground menacingly. All eight of its red eyes stared at us unblinkingly, it was clear it wants revenge for its slain children.

We could still make a run for it, I don't think it can fit through the tunnel that is smaller than itself, right?

Either way, it seems like we're in trouble now.

Unless this kid can even handle this monstrosity by himself?

That can't be it, right?

No matter how good he is, this isn't a monster that can be taken down alone.

"Anything else I should know about it?" The boy asked, not at all perturbed by the giant spider looming over him.

"Ummm… Their legs are sharp enough to pierce through platemail, they spit webs from their abdomen and their mucus is acidic as well," The elf added.

Yeah, and because of all those characteristics, they require a raid party of no less than eighty people to take it down safely.

The tanks will have to rotate constantly because of its mucus and the swordsmen can only use blunt attacks to be somewhat effective against its armour. The archers will only serve as distractions while the Practitioners would provide battlefield healing and support fire.

Even then with such numbers, there is still the possibility of a raid wipe.

"Ah, nothing much then," was the boy's response.

Huh?

He can't be serious right?

Does he expect us to beat this monster on our own? No, does he expect to beat the monster himself?

From what we've seen, he should be a Fire and Space type Practitioner right? How he used them doesn't seem to be at a basic level, so that probably means he's at least on the level of an Inner Core Practitioner.

That is already an impressive feat.

Is he just being arrogant now? That must be it, right?

What a waste.

"I will cover us with my shield, let's slowly move back to the cave entrance," I suggested quietly to the rest of the party.

"Yeah, the pipsqueak is out of his mind," Lance agreed.

Arza frowned at me, "Are… Are we going to just abandon the kid?"

Lance growled at her, "What? You want to die with him? By all means go ahead."

"No… No… Just that… Nevermind."

"We can drink to his memory later, let's just get out of here first. Henry, let's move while it's distracted."

We began slowly backing away while the spider advanced towards the kid, its acidic mucus bubbling out of its mouth.

"Let's try something I've been meaning to do for awhile~" I heard the kid mutter to himself.

He settled into a half crouch, his right fist stretched behind him.

The fist was suddenly clad in some sort of black substance, the colour spreading up his wrist to cover his entire arm.

The spider screeched and spat its acid at him, the greenish liquid flying towards him in a straight line.

The kid immediately swung his other arm in an arc, causing some form white projectile to appear and deflect the acid away from him, splattering it on the cavern wall.

The spider reared on its back legs to stab at the kid with its front legs but the boy had already disappeared from where he was.

It took me a moment to realise the kid was already directly underneath the spider.

Was that his teleportation Technique?

Before I knew it, he was already punching his fist upwards towards the spider's mid-section, a dark spear exploding out from his fist.

The spear easily pierced through the spider, continuing its way towards the far corner of the cavern roof and smashing through it as well.

Azra and Lance fell on their haunches when the impact made the entire cavern shake, I barely managed to keep my footing by using my shield as a crutch.

I looked up at where the kid's attack had pierced the ceiling, finding the reddish tint of sunlight streaming in from a giant hole.

The damn kid had cracked the mountain.

A while later, the loud crash of the Queen Armored Swarm Spider hitting the ground reverberated throughout the cavern.

The boy walked towards us while dusting his hands, "Well, that's not bad I suppose. Now we'll just have to find those scales and be back before--"

The mountain shook again, this time even I lost my footing and fell down to my knees.

Something big came smashing through the hole, creating an even larger opening in the mountain to let the entire cavern be lit up by sunlight.

It crashed behind where the spider had been, throwing up a cloud of smoke.

Judging by how big the dust cloud was, it was no doubt bigger than even the Queen Spider.

That something swept around, dispersing the dust cloud in an instance with what I assume to be a limb.

Two large serpentine eyes looked down on us, both pupils glowing a bright gold colour.

The eyes were connected to a long serpentine neck that stretched towards the cavern's ceiling before curving back down to its torso, its body three times the size of the Queen Spider's.

Well… At least we found the dragon we were looking for...