The second group was far less ominous.
They were in the light both metaphorically and physically, sitting near the middle of the cave and only around ten feet away from Damien and the rest.
They were also a group of two men and three women, however, the main group was only two men and two women, with the last being their guide.
They chatted and laughed together more closely than most other groups, and the one who clearly led them was a man with bright blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a crown-like head garment made of silver and sapphire colors.
He glanced not at the girls or Damien, but at Bertram with interest.
His eyes glimmered with interest, causing his party members to gain interest as well.
"Virgil, did you find something good again?" One of the women asked.
The man, Virgil, smiled in response.
"You could say so…"
"Sheesh, you always have to act mysterious," the other man said with a snort.
"Haha, what can you do? There's no such thing as certainty in these things."
"Hmph."
Their conversation continued, the topic dropped not long after it was brought up, but Virgil's attention never left Bertram for too long.
In the end, he couldn't bear it anymore. He stood up, intent on walking over and getting an answer to the question in his mind, but at that moment…
RUMBLE!
A tremor spread through the cave.
"W-wha—"
BANG!
A mana barrier in the corner of the cave was blasted open.
The four men inside couldn't even be seen within the mound of Human-Faced Spiders present there.
But those spiders were mad, extremely furious that they couldn't kill the prey they'd set their eyes on.
And the only way to appease this anger…was to kill!
SKREEEEEEEE!
A cacophonous melody of high-pitched screeches filled the cave, shaking its very foundation.
The adventurers in the cave instantly stood up and backed away, covering their ears.
In their eyes, the human faces on those spiders' abdomens began to writhe in horror and suffering, silently transmitting the message that they would be the next souls to add to these writhing faces.
Thud!
It was instant.
A single spider fell on the head of a practitioner in the 25-man expedition group and bit him. The venom instantly dropped him dead on the ground, starting a chain reaction of newly dead bodies decorating the cave floor.
"Dammit! This fucking mountain!" A man shouted in frustration, cutting through the spiders around him and backing away.
He soon realized that he was at the mouth of the cave, along with most of the rest of the cave's inhabitants.
Outside, the Netherworld Fog bloomed and an endless army of undead sat in wait to kill them, but inside, an army of insta-kill spiders was doing the exact same!
What was one to do in this death trap?!
"Fuck it, I'm done with this!" The man finally decided.
He looked to his group mates and gritted his teeth, bolting out of the cave and running back the way Damien and his group came.
Four others followed him out, their footsteps echoing out of focus as the remaining experts focused on the spider attack.
Damien and his group stood near the edge of the crowd, occupying an advantageous position where they didn't face the brunt of the spiders nor the absolute threat of the undead.
They observed and plotted, trying to figure out their next move, when suddenly Damien swung his body sideways.
Xiu!
A shot of purple liquid splashed onto the ground beside him, melting a deep hole into its surface.
'Poison?' Damien thought as he traced its source.
'There are…people back there?'
Damien once again dodged, this time taking a container out of storage and swiping up the poison that was shot at him.
The girls and Bertram were also alerted to the attack at this time.
Together, they watched as the poison melted through the container made to hold far, far more powerful materials!
'We can't face that right now.' Damien realized with a frown.
It was a physical poison so the Void Physique couldn't handle it and he didn't trust Transcendent Regeneration in its current state. [Heal] was also unavailable so he couldn't be sure of the girls' safety if they were hit.
'Damn! What now?!'
Either they stayed in the cave and attempted to fight the unknown enemy and the spiders, or they risked it and challenged the undead horde!
"Bertram, how sure are you of your skills?!" He asked hurriedly.
"100%!" The old man responded without missing a beat.
"Good, then we'll go!"
Could the timing have been more perfect?
At the exact moment Damien spoke, five new undead made their way out of the Netherworld Fog and waited outside the cave for helpless fleeing adventurers.
They were none other than the five who escaped a few seconds ago.
Damien gritted his teeth.
Their fates seemed obviously doomed in that horde, but he didn't change his decision.
He would take unending enemies over deadly poison any day!
Damien's eyes were extremely solemn. His pupils swirled as the All-Seeing Eyes activated. He waited for the perfect moment, setting up Vector Walls to deflect any incoming poison.
Two things happened to prompt his next word.
The first: the unknown poison began to melt through the Vector Walls like they were material objects.
And the second…
Well, the timing was perfect!
"Go!"
An opening appeared and he capitalized on it without wasting a second.
He ran out of the cave and back into the undead wave, Bertram and the girls not far from him.
"Hey! Let's not die!" He yelled.
"Don't worry about it!" Bertram yelled back.
The little old man increased his pace, taking the lead and running through the undead without a care for his life.
Or rather, he trusted Damien's group to have his back so they could all live.
'The path…the path…'
The truth was, Bertram never had a path, he had an instinct.
He knew where the best route to survive was, but this route was usually also the most dangerous if there was even a single misstep.
Bertram focused on this instinct right now in his moment of life and death and found that path, finally running into Ghost King's Valley, the name given to the flat ground at the bottom of Ghost King's Crevice.
"Follow them!"
As Damien left, another group also followed his footsteps, Virgil and his companions.
They even left their guide behind, as she didn't believe leaving the cave was the right option.
But Virgil's choice was to follow Bertram, because he knew that there was no better option than him!
These two groups soon disappeared into the opacity of the Netherworld Fog.
They were assaulted by the fog's properties at an exponential level compared to what they experienced at the edge, but they pushed forward.
Explosions filled the air around Bertram, clearing the undead away from him.
Those who couldn't see him could only follow the explosions and hope they were going in the right direction.
But Ghost King's Crevice was that type of place.
The second one left the protection of the edge, one's perception could no longer be trusted.
Because of this, these two groups didn't know at all.
The path to survival Bertram had found…
…directly came in contact with the Ghost King!
