Chapter 374: Dance Baby~ (1/2)

Through the open section of the hollow tube, transparent mist seeped out. The mist dispersed like the wind, spreading in the direction Jyorta pointed the open section towards. He aimed it at the ceiling of the path, having noticed the nests of the Floating Spiders when the Two-Faced Firefly lit up the area.

The mist spread towards the ceiling, getting inhaled by the residents within the nests. Jyorta calmly stood in patience, using his stronger psychic arm to create a sphere around it. The two-layered defensive front was to resist the ensuing chaos.

'Five…four…three…two…one…and bam!' Jyorta immediately crouched to the ground, filling the volume under his domain with his aura personification of hallucination, creating a scene where a large rock existed in the area. This was to prevent the Floating Spiders from bumping into him.

Screech!

Numerous screeches resounded from the ceiling, alerting every other Frenzy Beast in the path. The Two-Faced Fireflies were startled awake, escaping from their hiding spots as they unleashed their light in a flurry. The entire path was immediately brightened up as Jyorta adjusted his barriers to remain invisible under the changing ambience.

He gazed above, watching numerous bumps form on the silk layer above him, a sign of infighting. Some Floating Spiders drilled out of their homes, trying to escape as numerous mandibles clamped on their abdomens, dragging them inside.

Helpless screeches resounded from all directions; the ensuing scuttling sounds made his skin crawl. Jyorta craned his head upward, noticing that the Floating Spiders battled only within their nests. Without any hesitation, he dashed forward with all his might, trying his best to minimise the sounds of his sprint.

The Two-Faced Fireflies lit up the entire path as they flew around in panic, allowing him to dodge all the webbed traps the Floating Spiders had laid. When he came across places where the entire breadth of the path was covered by the traps, his stronger psychic arm turned jet black as he corroded a way through. Thanks to their infighting, they were unable to react to the breach.

The scuttling sounds and the vivacious screeches were starting to die down. After all, Jyorta had only activated the Tier 3 Relic for less than a second. Moreover, his objective was only to create some disturbance to pass through layer 1. And, activating it even once consumed more than twenty percent of his psychic energy. The drain was so massive he dared not use it unless necessary.

”Huff…puff…the gap between Tier 2 and Tier 3 is even wider than between Tier 1 and Tier 2.” Jyorta panted, gasping for breath as he arrived at the end of layer 1. Running for almost 300 metres in an uneven terrain with a strained mental condition—trying his best to avoid bumping into any Frenzy Beast—was exhausting.

He used his psychic arm to push forth a triangular corner of the web wall, sliding through the gap. It was what he had been using all along to exit layer 1. After the first time he corroded their ends, the Floating Spiders had patched it up.

But, in his successive explorations, he opened up the place again, ensuring the dimensions were the same as the first time. The Floating Spiders mended the gap four times before they gave up on fixing it. After all, the gap didn't pose them any troubles or weakened the web wall's structural integrity.

Moreover, any Frenzy Beast that tried to pass through would have to first touch it, which would cause it to get stuck. On seeing that it too served as a fairly effective trap, the Floating Spiders left it as is. That was brought about by Jyorta's understanding of them.

As Jyorta had a sound knowledge of them and was careful in passing through, he managed to use the route each time without alerting them. Once he stepped foot on the flight of stairs, Jyorta heaved a sigh of relief.

Layer 1 was the most mentally straining as he couldn't use his eyes while the traps of the Floating Spiders couldn't be perceived through his Esper senses. Now that he was past it, he was a bit relieved.

'Now, I'll head to the third layer as soon as possible.' Jyorta placed a hand on his stomach, sensing the healing salve he had ingested slowly digest, creating an influx of psychic energy that filled his Brain Crystal.

It slowly, but steadily replenished his expended reserves. Jyorta scooped out another tiny portion using his psychic arm and gulped it. That was a method he thought up to have a consistent replenishment of psychic energy.

After all, this was his last exploration. He didn't wish to encounter a situation where his psychic energy reserves would run dry. Jyorta descended the flight of stairs, soon noticing the last couple of steps covered by sand.

Hot air blew past while the entire layer was bright, as if the sun shone directly on them. 'How much energy and resources are they expending to maintain this elaborate setup?'

Jyorta wondered as he crouched before the sand, gazing at it while inspecting it through his domain. With his increased range, he could scout farther. With a radius of 388 centimetres, almost bordering 4 metres, the range and depth he could perceive allowed him to notice all the traps in the sand before him.