Chapter 299: Missions
As soon as Rhydian dove into the chasm with Mira on her back, Mira started ordering her around.
"Just head to any of the nearby caves. We don't know where our targets are located so we'll basically have to make our way through this entire chasm. What a pain..." Mira muttered that last part. She wished that the Mercenary Association had information on where the ores, beasts, and herbs are, but unfortunately they don't.
No, that's not exactly right, it's not that they don't have knowledge on the chasms, but that any information they have is pretty much useless. The chasm ecosystem is constantly shifting due to the massive amount of beasts. One day, a beast might be in a specific cavern, but the next day it might be in a completely different one or even dead.
Mira understood this as soon as she started examining the chasm, but she was still a bit frustrated. It might take them days just to find the right place! She doesn't have that kind of time to waste.
Anyways, now's not the time to be complaining when she has a job to do.
Rhydian dove into the first cavern and as soon as she landed, Mira noticed that the entire cave was covered in spider webs. Normally, she would be a bit annoyed, but she actually cracked a little smile.
"It seems we might be in luck, Rhydian. One of our targets is a Mid-Stage Rank 6 Earthen Venom Spider Mother. I don't know if this is where it's located, but there is a good chance of it being here. We might be able to knock out one of our missions on the first day!" Mira said with a hint of excitement.
"Alright, Rhydian. First, let's deal with these spider webs and see if we can draw out the hatchlings. With our power, we shouldn't have to work too hard until we eventually face the mother."
*Woof!*
Rhydian flapped her wings and in an instant, the spider webs started freezing. This is exactly what Mira wanted. Although ice might be the best counter to webs, it is one of the cleanest methods.
Fire is more suited to fighting spiders and destroying their webs, but it can become a huge mess. The hatchlings will burn to a crisp, the eggs will be destroyed, the silk will turn to ash, and it might reduce the mother to nothing before they can even get there.
This would be great if their only objective is to kill it, but they need to bring back its corpse intact. Everything else can also either be sold or traded for Contribution Points if there is a mission up for them, which there most likely is.
However, ice, if used properly can preserve the silk and kill the spiders while leaving their corpses perfectly intact.
Not only that, but they don't have to worry about destroying any precious herbs or treasures while using their ice abilities.
There's one more boon to using ice instead of fire which Mira's about to see first-hand right now.
Just like Mira expected, the spiders who created these webs sensed the disturbance and came charging, but when they reached the area where Rhydian froze the webs, they slipped off. Now, they were forced to approach them on the ground instead of in many directions if they could still use their webs.
This made wiping them out extremely easy. Mira didn't even need to lift a finger to deal with these small fries.
Rhydian just flapped her wings creating a gust of icy wind and all the hatchlings in front of her turned into statues.
The wolf looked toward Mira with eyes that were asking for praise. Mira relented and gave her a small pat on the head before collecting all the loot and making her way further into the cave.
Mira and Rhydian continued doing this exact thing until they reached the end of the cavern where the brood mother was and her guards.
Mira grew ecstatic when she saw the giant Mid-Stage Rank 6 Spider mother. It was dark brown in color with dark green markings all over its body and a greenish-brown substance leaking from her mouth. Mira knew from these signs that this was one of her targets; an Earthen Venom Spider Mother.
She looked around the cave and spotted 8 other large spiders that looked similar in color and height, but had fiercer auras than the mother. These 8 spiders were clearly her guards and were Low-Stage Rank 6 Beasts.
She also spotted hundreds of eggs behind the Earthen Venom Spider Mother and grinned. She loved fighting spider mothers because they gave the most bang for their buck and were always the easiest to defeat.
Spider mothers generally care a lot about their children because not only are they the future of their species, but they will also become her protection when they hatch. Spider mothers don't have much combat power individually and are forced to rely on their children to protect them, but this is also what makes them so easy to defeat.
The most troublesome part of fighting a spider nest is the process of getting to the mother, everything after that is easy.
"You deal with the 8 guards. I'm going to finish off the target real quick and then come back to help you out. Go!" Mira ordered and then ran off to deal with the mother.
Rhydian let out a bark in acceptance and charged at the guards. She could probably kill these guards without much trouble by just using her ice powers, but it's been a while since she's been in a physical altercation and now's the perfect time to do so.
Mira took out her scythe while running towards the mother and while she was making her way towards her, she formed a few dozen ice swords and aimed them toward the eggs.
The Earthen Venom Spider Mother saw this and screamed in sorrow and rage knowing that she can't save all the eggs.
*SCREE*
The spider mother moved to protect what eggs it could, but that's exactly what Mira wanted and it's why spider mothers are so easy.
The spider mother stopped paying attention to Mira for a split second, but that's all the time Mira needed to deal with the weakling in front of her.
With a swift slash of her scythe, the Mid-Stage Rank 6 Earthen Venom Spider Mother lost its head and died on the spot. Mira collected its head and body before making her way towards the guards.
She didn't feel any sort of pride or happiness in defeating such a beast and why would she? Her training dummies are tougher opponents than this trash in front of her.
The guards, seeing their mother and queen die so miserably by a lowly human, screeched in rage but unfortunately that's all they could do. As soon as their tiny brains stopped paying attention to Rhydian, it was already too late.
Their heads were smashed into meat paste by the wolf's powerful body before they could even realize what happened.
Mira walked over nonchalantly and collected their corpses as well before giving Rhydian a few pats.
Normally, completing a mission like this would be cause for celebration or at least a few congratulatory words, but both Mira and Rhydian were frowning.
They were disappointed. Very disappointed.
This mission was too easy. In fact, it was so easy that Mira only swung her scythe a single time and Rhydian barely had to do anything at all.
This mission was more like a walk in a park than it was a deadly battle between them and a beast several stages above them.
Of course, Mira was happy the mission ended so quickly and without any problems, but as someone who wants to use her time as efficiently as possible Mira also wants to improve her battle prowess through these missions as well.
Rhydian, on the other hand, thought nothing of the sort. She's completely fine with lazing around and wasting her time, but when she does fight she wants it to at least be enjoyable.
Fighting against these spiders was not enjoyable in the slightest.
"Alright, let's get onto the next mission. Maybe our next target will be a bit tougher than this one."
*Woof!*
The two quickly made their way out of the cave. Right after they exited the cave, they immediately began searching for another one before choosing the closest one and entering it.
The two were already in a sour mood so they ended up storming through the next cave, but not only did they not find their next target, it was even easier than the first cave!
So, without stopping their conquest, the two of them began searching every cave in this chasm and slaughtering everything in their path without rest.
What Mira didn't expect was for her luck to be so terrible that they were forced to stay in this chasm for another week past her original deadline.