Just one day after Belian and Lisa completed their quest, it was the turn of Ophelia’s team to do theirs.

After arriving in the north of Rostanta, she, Harik and Rachel headed to the cave that the quest described. There, it was their job to deal with the spider monsters.

While Ophelia just served her purpose of observing them, Harik and Rachel dealt with the mobs with no real problems. Their stamina was obviously drained from killing so many of those spiders who had the sizes of a child but aside from their stamina, they were completely fine.

Harik used his strength to squash the spiders. In the past years, he focused more on physical training and martial arts which he would then combine with magic.

On the other hand, Rachel trained her magic skills even further, making her a specialist in magic.

Using their skills, they wiped the floor with the monsters. And without them realizing it, they went deeper into the cave which was located in a forest.

"..."

With her arms crossed, Ophelia strolled behind them. She looked at the spider corpses and showed a faint and satisfied smirk.

However, that smirk of hers vanished when she sensed an ominous aura from deep within the cave.

"...!"

Even Harik and Rachel, who went ahead, jumped back with their guards up.

The three stared deep into the darkness until multiple red eyes were glowing from there. Slowly, those eyes came closer. Soon, hairy legs emerged from that darkness.

From that point on, it did not take them long to realize what was coming from there.

"He’s bigger than expected..." Harik stated with a wry smile.

Revealing its whole body was a big spider whose size, which was twice that of an average man, completely filled out the cave.

Rachel summoned thin but strong veins from beneath her and shot them at the spider but even though the ends of those veins were spiky, the veins were snapped upon contact with the spider’s body.

"The body is tough, too." she remarked sternly.

Then, the spider let out a deafening screech before it picked up its pace and dashed forward.

Whereas Rachel tried to block it by creating a wall with multiple layers of thick roots, Ophelia and Harik instinctively headed to the exit.

"!"

However, the wall did not last long against the spider and broke down.

Ophelia and the other two were forcefully thrown outside by the spider’s headbutt.

Tensed up and ready to fight, Harik and Rachel stared at the spider who was also observing them now when they were outside the cave.

Ophelia was about to join the two’s side but was then reminded that her mission was to observe them as the guide of this quest. Only when she deemed them to be in a life-threatening situation she would step in.

Therefore, she stepped back into the woods and watched them.

The big spider was stronger than those spiders they had previously defeated but Ophelia was confident in her students.

Harik and Rachel may have been labeled as the weakest in their class by other students but said students failed to understand that they only appear weak in comparison to their peers like Belian and Lily who were abnormalities.

"Are you fine?" Harik asked.

"Yes, don’t underestimate me now." Rachel replied with a smirk.

In the end, those two were still white-class students. It was a title they had earned themselves the moment they enrolled at the academy. And since then, they have grown alongside their comrades and survived battles that an average student could not dream of surviving.

"I will hold it off for now." he declared confidently, clenching his fists.

"Got it." Rachel responded, outputting her magic.

People say that a person’s strength depends on the motivation to get that strength.

If one’s goal was to gain strength in order to protect everyone then that person would surely become strong as long as the person did not give up. Such a person would be most likely stronger than a person who had no such ambitions.

Belian and Lily both reached new heights just because of their determination to obtain strength in order to fulfill their goals.

However, Harik and Rachel also had a goal. That goal may be less ambitious than those of Belian and Lily but nonetheless, that goal of them drove them to new heights as well.

"Keh...!"

The spider dashed at Harik first but this time, Harik put his all into it and fought against it. He planted his feet on the ground and used his hands to push back on the spider’s head.

Rachel, in the meantime, raised multiple roots from the soil and let them grow larger and larger.

"Heh, would you look at them..." Ophelia muttered proudly from afar.

When they started, they entered the academy with curses on them.

Harik was plagued with an appearance that resembled a demon’s which led to him being conscious of other people’s gazes and having experienced hatred and discrimination.

Rachel suffered from constant fatigue as she used up more energy than a normal person, no matter what activity.

They started to accept the sadness which was called reality but after meeting Mika, their lives took a turn again and they were freed from their curses.

Following that, they opened up to not only Mika but the others, too, enabling them to return to society with nothing chaining them down anymore.

Mika was their hero and someone to whom they both swore their loyalty, albeit just in their minds. They wanted to repay that grand favor by serving him with everything they had and always being by his side. Mika granted them a new life which the two wanted to use for Mika, a person who was worthy of their eternal respect and gratitude.

"Haaa...!" Harik shouted as he tensed up more.

The spider was pushed back by him.

But he did not stop there. Instead, he dug his fingers in its face and attempted to throw it over.

Of course, even for someone as strong as him, it was not possible yet to move such a big and heavy creature, therefore, he simultaneously used his magic to create a water pond beneath the spider where a water stream was shot off upwards.

Thanks to that water stream, which levitated the spider from the ground, Harik could throw it over his shoulders.

"Rachel!" Harik shouted, looking over to her.

After the disappearance of Mika and the loss of Sylvia, the two spent their time mourning and drowning in their despair and helplessness but soon, they resolved themselves after understanding that mopping around would be disrespectful towards Mika who granted them the chance to live life normally again.

So instead of being depressed, they trained hard every day in order not to be hindrances to their comrades anymore. Whenever Mika would return, they wanted to show him how strong they had gotten and that they were worthy of following him without the need to be protected.

"I’m on it!" Rachel shouted back.

She gathered enough roots now and combined them into one gigantic root that resembled a spearhead.

Fully concentrated, she controlled that root and made it rise to the sky before steering it down, aiming at the exposed belly of the spider that had just been thrown on its back by Harik.

The root’s peak drilled inside its belly, splattering its blood around and making the spider screech in agony.

"!"

The spider wildly kicked around with its legs, trying to pull out or break the root but its efforts were in vain.

It even began to shoot off spiderwebs aimlessly.

Harik was hit by those webs and could not move at first due to his body sticking together, however, that was also irrelevant now.

"..."

Rachel stared unfazed at the spider which tried to crawl on its back to Rachel. It bared its fangs at her, letting out a small poisonous-looking breath.

But Rachel controlled with her magic the grass beneath them and made the grass near the spider’s head grow largely.

She used those to make them wrap themselves around its face, especially its mouth to stop it from letting out any more of its poison.

Meanwhile, the large root finally managed to pierce through its tough body.

The root pulled out and switched to the next area.

Its head.

This time, it did not stab the body part but instead smacked it, squishing the head instantly due to the force of the swing and the weight of the thick root.

After that, the legs stopped kicking around wildly and the whole body stopped moving altogether.

"I guess we’re done now." Harik said, trying to get the spiderweb off him.

"..."

Rachel turned to Ophelia.

"You did a good job, guys." Ophelia complimented them as she walked over to them.

"Let’s check the cave one last time and rest for the night. We will head back to Fuera tomorrow morning."

"Yes." Harik and Rachel said simultaneously.

Thus, the two headed to the cave before her.

"..."

Ophelia stared in a certain direction.

"Jeez, what am I thinking? There’s no need to worry about the others." she huffed while shaking her head.