The next hour or so also passed by rather uneventfully. We killed a couple more creatures, and I reached level 4 at some point. The creatures also got stronger the further we went. The highest was a level 7 [Spiderling] that Blake swiftly annihilated.

  Some of us had already exhausted most of their mana and stopped participating in the fighting. I still had about forty percent remaining, so I continued to pick a creature to slay every now and then. I was quite tired of simply slinging [Minor Fireball]s at them, so I changed it up by trying to fight with [Candlelight] every now and then. The skill wasn't as destructive, but it burned all the same. It was enough for the creatures at my level and, to my surprise, a lot more mana-efficient than [Minor Fireball] when compared by mana cost per kill.

  At first, when we entered the dungeon, the passage ever so slowly got smaller with increasing depth. Now, however, we reached a point where it rapidly started opening up again. Unlike before, there was basically no way to tell apart different passages and branches from each other, they were all close to the same size. Only the arrow already marking the way back was a usable indicator.

  The instructors guided us forward. At this point, I assumed that we would meet our turning point soon. Many of us were running on their last flumes of mana, especially the mages. While physical attackers reduced their mana cost through support of actual physical attacks and their weapons, mages only relied on mana. We were all also slowly starting to get tired. While it had probably only been like two hours since we entered, constantly being vigilant and fighting against creatures was extremely draining mentally.

  The oppressive nature of the dungeon didn't help in that case either. While I wasn't particularly claustrophobic, I couldn't wait to get out of here again. Just seeing the same stone surrounding us again and again got mind-numbingly boring very quickly.

  Most of my classmates were around my level, standing at a solid level 4. While one or two were still at level 3, they should be somewhere near the edge of level 4. The only outlier to all of this was Blake, the [Hero]. Unlike our level 4, along with the occasional level 5, he was already level 7.

  He didn't particularly kill more or stronger monsters, though. He was maybe a bit more active today than the rest of us, but not enough to explain the giant gap in levels. If you think about it, since we all started from level 1, him being level 7 meant that he had leveled up twice as much as I did in that time. While I didn't know how close I was to level 5 and also had no idea when exactly he achieved level 7, it's very possible for him to have gained over twice as much experience as I had. Since higher levels are probably a bit harder to achieve than lower levels, it might be even more than that.

  Pulling me out of my daydreams, instructor Austen suddenly turned to face us.

  "Great job, all of you. We're almost at our final destination for today. What lies before us is a certain section of the Great Labyrinth known as the Abyssal Descent. While the name does sound a bit scary, it's not actually that bad. The Abyssal Descent is at its core a gigantic hole in the floor, leading incredibly deep into the dungeon. It's so deep, in fact, that we don't exactly know how deep it is. No expedition has ever quite reached the bottom, if there even is one. It's far from being a straight hole, so just looking down will not make you see the elusive bottom. Every now and then it turns, twists, and also branches, which makes exploration of the entire thing almost completely impossible for us."

  While talking, we slowly continued forward. It was obvious what the Abyssal Descent was as soon as we reached it. I could hear exclamations of awe from some of my classmates as they took in the sight. The gigantic hole instructor Austen mentioned was way bigger than I ever dreamed of. In its entirety, it must easily span multiple kilometers in diameter. How could something like this even form?

  I could also see now why exploration of it all was so difficult. It really wasn't because there were tons of monsters, but because there was an uncountable number of pathways to take. The walls of the Abyssal Descent were extremely uneven, and there were millions of pathways jutting out, crossing, or in any other way existing in them.

  The whole thing was also not nearly as dreary as the pathway from the entrance to here was. While there was obviously still a lot of stone, there were tons of other things plainly visible as well. Other types of stones and minerals, some things that resembled the kinds of plants you'd expect on an alien planet, and all sorts of other stuff that I'd never seen before.

  "Yep, this is the exact reason why mapping out the Great Labyrinth is straight up impossible for anyone to pursue further than just a microscopic section of it. While we have a certain knowledge about what is around here right now, it wouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes to take a passage that no one has ever taken before."

  Actually, the enormous hole wasn't even the only breathtaking thing here. The cavern had opened up so far and high that the passage we took to get here was no more than one of the thousand other pathways you could take without even a change in elevation. The distance to the other side and the ceiling was so big, it looked like you could fit a small city in here.

  "While it might sound strange to you, the king's palace was built in this very area only because this thing is here. The area is a perfect training ground and makes it easy to reach monsters of all sorts of strength very quickly. The large, open space here also allows us to do one thing that was impossible inside of the pathway before. What I'm talking about here is having a team fight. Since space was limited before, I let you fight the incoming monsters one-on-one. This way you could get familiar with actual combat without the risks that come with fighting alongside other people. Not only do you have to hit the monster, you also have to make sure to avoid hitting you teammates. Team fights can get very chaotic very quickly, and if they do, there will almost certainly be a death of some kind."

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  "You will be part of many such fights in the future. To avoid any tragedies there, we will train fighting with allies here today. As you might have noticed, instructor Carmelia is not among us right now. She went a bit further down to fetch a hefty tier two monster for us. That is going to be the opponent you will face today."

  I could see some of my classmates get visibly nervous at this piece of news. I hadn't noticed that instructor Carmelia disappeared at some point in time, but it didn't matter much to me. We were still weak tier ones and already tired from the journey to the Abyssal Descent. Being aware of the entirety of our surroundings at all times was too much to ask for, and not expected of us anyways. This was a training mission, and we were here for our first time as well.

  At this moment, I heard some exclamations and turned towards where my classmates were facing. There, instructor Carmelia was flying towards us, pulling a giant creature along with her. While I didn't know that she could fly, it was a bit overshadowed by the creature she was bringing here.

  It looked like something straight out of a nightmare. It had a body that somewhat resembled that of a spider, with eight legs that were thicker than mine and longer than even Leyvin was tall. I immediately threw an [Identify] at it and was greeted with [Goliath Weaver, Lv. ?]. A real tier two then, instructor Austen wasn't lying. Not that I thought he would, but checking couldn't hurt.

  Instructor Austen grinned at seeing the monster. "Well then, looks like your opponent has arrived. Have fun!"

  The moment the monster touched the ground, we spread out a bit. We couldn't possibly fight this thing while huddled close together after all. We mages spread out far. The standard tactic here would be to bombard it with magic while the physical fighters kept it at bay. And that's exactly what we did. Well, tried to do might have fit the whole thing a bit better.

  There were three people who acted immediately, blocking the creature from barreling through us. One of them was, once again, Blake. As it charged, the giant spider suddenly rammed into a thick shield of yellowish light that appeared in front of it. While it wasn't quite a full-power strike from a tier two creature, blocking that was probably far from easy and hinted at the amount of power that Blake already had. Besides him were Jane, the [Swordmaster], and Ms. Edelwei?, who, to my amusement when I first found out, did indeed carry a giant shield with her.

  Jane slashed at one of the legs of the spider with her sword, but the attack barely fazed the creature. The chitinous armor that wrapped around most of its body and legs was incredibly sturdy and not at all vulnerable to slashing damage. As the creature tried to skewer her with the leg she had just attacked, she only barely managed to dodge out of the way.

  This was not good. Jane, with her being level 5 and having an epic class as, was one of the strongest fighters we had, excluding Blake of course. Her not being able to really damage the spider did not speak for our chances in this fight. I saw some magic flying at the creature and also threw one or two fireballs, but the attacks just splashed harmlessly against the spider's carapace. If we wanted to damage it, we have to attack the areas where it's not protected by it's exoskeleton. Its legs were out of the picture for that, all of them were seemingly entirely covered by the hard shell.

  The only viable target we had was its underbelly. If that didn't work either, we would just have to hope that Blake had some way to deal damage with his [Hero] class or inevitably lose otherwise.

  Unexpectedly, one magic attack did deal a bit of damage. The caster of that attack was Carl, our resident lightning mage. Not too unexpected if you thought about it. He did have high firepower, and its armor couldn't entirely block the electricity that came with the bolts.

  While Carl still hadn't achieved perfect control over his lightning, he was way better now than before. While his attacks were slightly weaker than the first one he fired in his spar against Aurelia despite the level-ups he received, his control was worlds better.

  Sadly, however, his attack didn't quite have the effect we hoped for. The bolt of lightning enraged the creature more than it hurt or damaged it, and it started flailing around, just recklessly attacking whatever came close. The thing was like a ball of chaos bouncing around, and we all scrambled to get away from it's jabbing legs as it danced through our ranks. Everyone was focused on themselves, and nobody attacked anymore. I even saw some of my classmates running into each other while dodging frantically.

  This must be the chaos that instructor Austen warned us about when it came to fighting with a group of people. It was utter mayhem, the spider still bursting with energy as it jumped around, tearing through us. Why hadn't they stopped this yet? There was no coming back from this. Our formation was nonexistent, and everyone just ran around in panic.

  To my horror, it was suddenly right in front of me. I was already really close to the edge of the hole that the Abyssal Descent was, so I couldn't really dodge backward. I tried evading sideways, but it was futile.

  In abject terror, the spider suddenly tripped on something I couldn't see and tumbled over the ground, coming right towards me. With the weight of a freight train, it barreled into me, knocking the wind out of me. Before I even realized what was happening, there was no more solid ground under my feet.

  And then I was falling.

  I was falling down the Abyssal Descent, and there was nothing I could do about that. Where were the instructors? Weren't they here to ensure our safety? Why didn't they save me?

  Tears formed at the corners of my eyes. I didn't want to die yet. It hadn't even been a month since we got here. I basically just arrived here, and it was already over? It was too soon. This was supposed to be my second chance at life. It was my opportunity to get back at the asshole Blake and his stupid friends for everything they did to me. Why did everything always have to go wrong in some way? Why always me??

  The stupid spider that knocked me over the edge was falling next to me, still flailing wildly. I couldn't care less, I hope that thing dies as soon as it hits the ground. And I sure hoped that I didn't.

  Well, maybe I should have cared about the spider a bit more. Because all of a sudden, one of its flailing legs inexplicably hit me like a damn mace, knocking my light out for good this time.