Chapter 70: Aria’s Fear of Bugs

Aria walked beside him for a few more steps before speaking again.

"Hey, Ethan."

"What?"

"Take me leveling with you again."

Ethan turned toward her.

"You’re still Level 7?"

"Yep."

Aria sighed.

"I’ve been stuck there for ages. I really don’t feel like going out and killing monsters all day just to gain a few levels."

She looked at him.

"You’re much faster at that stuff anyway."

Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"You just want me to do all the work while you collect half of the experience."

Aria didn’t even bother pretending otherwise.

"Isn’t that what happened last time?"

She spread her hands.

"You were the one who took me leveling in the first place. I didn’t ask you to do everything for me back then."

"That was before I knew you’d get used to it."

"Too late."

Aria grinned.

"Now that I know how much faster I can level when I’m with you, why would I go back to struggling on my own?"

Ethan shook his head.

"You’re getting more shameless."

"I prefer efficient."

She paused, then added with complete seriousness, "Besides, you already have hundreds of summons. It’s not like helping me is going to make much difference to you."

Ethan considered her words.

"Now that you mention it..."

Something he’d forgotten suddenly came back to mind.

"Fine. I was planning to enter a dungeon anyway."

Aria immediately perked up.

"A dungeon? Then I’m definitely coming."

Ethan nodded.

"Then we’ll need to find one with plenty of monsters. I don’t want us wasting time fighting a few monsters here and there when we’re splitting the experience."

"Sounds good to me." Aria smiled. "As long as I can level up, I’m not picky. Which dungeon do you have in mind then?"

Ethan thought for a moment.

"There are several that could work. Ant Colony, Spider Nest, Locust Swarm, Bat Cave..."

He paused.

"Most of them have one thing in common. The monsters appear in large numbers, so we wouldn’t have to waste time searching for them."

"But I think we should go with Wasp Nest."

Ethan turned toward her.

"What do you think?"

Aria didn’t answer right away. Her steps had slowed considerably, and the excitement she had shown earlier had almost completely disappeared.

"What happened?"

Aria looked at him.

"Wasp Nest?"

"Yeah. If we’re going to level up quickly, we need a dungeon with enough monsters. Wasp Nest is one of the better choices."

Aria hesitated.

"Can’t we go to a dungeon with... normal monsters?"

"What’s wrong with wasps?"

"Everything!"

Aria rubbed her arms as if she could already feel something crawling on them.

"I hate bugs. Spiders, beetles, centipedes, anything like that. And flying ones are even worse. At least the ones on the ground can’t suddenly land on your face."

Ethan couldn’t help but find the situation a little amusing.

"You’re a treasure hunter, and you’re afraid of bugs?"

"It’s not funny."

Aria frowned.

"Bugs are creepy, you know? You never know where they’re going to crawl out from."

Ethan shook his head.

"I’m still going to Wasp Nest."

"Even if you weren’t coming with me, I’d have gone there sooner or later."

Aria’s expression changed.

Ethan turned around and began walking.

"You don’t have to follow me if you don’t want to. Go find a party. I’m sure someone will be willing to take a treasure hunter along."

He left the choice to her and kept walking.

"Wait!"

Aria quickly caught up with him. "Fine, I’ll go. I just have to deal with it." She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself. "It’s only a bunch of bugs."

"Exactly."

"Don’t sound so confident. If one of them flies into my face, I’m blaming you."

Ethan shook his head.

"You were the one who wanted to come so badly."

"I know." Aria sighed. "But I’m already regretting it."

Not long after, Ethan and Aria arrived at Wasp Nest.

The area around the entrance was more crowded than usual, with parties preparing to enter while others returned from the dungeon, dirt and fresh marks covering their armor.

Aria looked around.

"What’s going on? Why are there so many people here?"

She had expected the dungeon to be busy, but not this busy.

"Don’t tell me this many people actually enjoy fighting bugs."

Ethan was about to answer when a portal suddenly appeared near the dungeon entrance.

A party stepped out.

They were equipped from head to toe in shining equipment, from their armor and weapons to the accessories hanging from their bodies.

The quality of their equipment was obvious even from a distance, but the party looked completely exhausted. Their armor was covered in dirt and scratches, several of them were breathing heavily, and even their movements had become sluggish from the battle.

The party leader immediately looked toward the large ranking board near the entrance. His expression changed.

"Damn it! We were only one minute short of third place!"

"Fifty-two minutes and forty seconds," one of his teammates said after checking the ranking again. "The Iron Fangs cleared it in fifty-one minutes and forty seconds."

"Only one minute..." The party leader clenched his fist. "We were that close."

He turned toward the dungeon entrance.

"We’re going back in."

Another member pulled out a small watch.

"Good thing we brought the Dungeon Reset Watch."

Before activating it, each member took out a Stamina Recovery Potion and drank it. Their exhausted expressions quickly disappeared as their strength returned, leaving them ready to fight again.

The party leader activated the watch, and a moment later, the entire party disappeared into the dungeon.

Aria’s attention shifted to the ranking board the party had been looking at earlier.

"Swarm Dungeon Challenge?"

She moved closer to get a better look.

[Swarm Dungeon Challenge]

[Wasp Nest]

[Final Day]

[Current Ranking]

[1. Stormbreak — 43:21]

[2. Ironwall — 47:08]

[3. Iron Fangs — 51:40]

[...]

Aria looked at Ethan.

"What is this?"

"It’s a challenge that has been running for the past week."

Ethan pointed toward the ranking board.

"It covers dungeons where monsters appear in huge numbers. Spider Nest, Ant Colony, Wasp Nest... places like that."

"Each party clears them separately, and their times are added together. The party with the fastest total time takes first place."

Aria looked back at the board.

"And today is the last day?"

"Yeah."

"So everyone is trying to beat those times before the challenge ends."

Ethan nodded.

"That explains the crowd."

He turned and started walking toward the ranking board.

Aria followed for a few steps before realizing where he was going.

"Eh? Where are you going?"

"To sign us up."

Aria stopped.

"Wait. Us?!"