Ash looked up at the hole in the middle of the cave wall and cursed, "Great. And sh*t. Why are your quests never easy?"
Maya turned to him and answered with an annoyed look. "How should I know? I didn't make the quests."
While bickering, the two of them walked toward one of the walled platforms. The place was empty, nothing was there.
"We better set up beds and other stuff here. It looks like it will take a while before we can climb up to that hole," Ash said, looking at the platform.
"Agreed," Maya said. She was already sitting on the wooden platform floor, clicking the options on her Inventory.
"Let's have a little party here, shall we?" she said, pulling out various types of food and drinks.
Ash was stunned. "Where did you get all this?" he asked, grabbing a can of soda, opening it, and taking a sip.
"I bought them from the innkeeper. She has a lot of supplies. She said there's a source of items in one of the rooms at the inn," Maya replied, now taking out some cans of beer and cooking equipment.
"Seriously, you even brought beer," Ash said.
"So what?" Maya laughed. "There are no parents here to stop us, so why not enjoy it?"
Ash shook his head and said, "Kids these days."
Maya immediately pouted and said, "You're also seventeen years old, I'm just one year younger than you."
Sigh...
Not knowing what else to say, Ash finally decided to go along with Maya's plan. They both sat around the stove and started cooking their food.
'With Maya, it feels more like camping, but with Sassi Hunter like yesterday, it's more tense,' Ash admitted to himself.
While cooking and eating, they both were planning how to get to that cave hole.
The hole was about fifty meters above the lake's surface. And they didn't have enough ropes or safety equipment to climb.
So they decided to look for something they could use. Since the platforms seemed to be used for mining, they had no trouble finding ropes and climbing gear.
Now, the problem was how to connect the platform to the wall where the hole was located.
As they lay on their mattresses to rest after eating—whether it was lunch, an afternoon snack, or dinner, Ash wasn't sure—he lay back, staring at the hole in the cave wall.
Maya was softly snoring on her mattress to Ash's right side. And Jagu was somewhere, sniffing around. Occasionally, a sneeze from him could be heard, perhaps from sniffing dust or sand, Ash didn't know.
The cave was enormous, with lights only illuminating the lower parts of the cave, from the platforms to the edge of the small lake touching the cave walls. The same goes for the lights on the stairs and the lift.
The shape of the cave was like an uneven cone. Two holes adorned the cave wall, one high up that they couldn't reach, and another about two meters above the lake's surface.
The surface of the cave wall was also uneven, with many bumps and protrusions.
Ash stared at those protrusions with a blank expression for some time.
Then he took binoculars from his inventory and examined each of the protrusions around the hole.
The protrusions could be stepped on with one foot, but they weren't big enough to use both feet.
Suddenly, Ash sat up and got off his mattress. He approached the side of the platform closest to the cave hole and examined the protruded area around it.
Ash furrowed his brows.
"Maybe this will work," he thought.
He turned around and chanted the spell to summon Spidy from his Supreme Magus' Grimoire.
A blue circle appeared on his forehead, and blue smoke emerged from it, transforming into Spidy.
Spidy's large body filled almost the entire platform, and its eight long legs looked intimidating.
His eight black eyes moved, looking at Ash.
Ash shuddered a bit, so he closed his eyes, and mentally commanded Spidy to create a bridge with his spider web from the platform to the hole in the cave wall. Then he opened his eyes.
Spidy tilted his head as if listening to Ash's command, then quickly moved past Ash who was below him.
He jumped to the cave wall in front of the platform, easily crossing the lake. Then he climbed up until he reached the edge of the hole.
Spidy quickly and efficiently began creating a bridge, connecting the platform to the cave wall. Within minutes, he finished the job and returned to where Ash was.
Ash looked at the completed bridge in amazement. "That was fast," he muttered.
He looked into Spidy's moving eyes, which seemed to be asking for praise.
Ash was taken aback; he really didn't want to pet Spidy, even though he wanted to praise him.
The awkward moment was saved by Jagu, who ran towards Spidy, then ran around between his legs.
Spidy seemed happy to see Jagu. They appeared to be chatting with each other.
Ash watched as Jagu played around Spidy's legs, he felt a sense of relief to be free from the situation. And it was nice to see them getting along.
Finally, Ash let Spidy play with Jagu. He had already tried giving a mental command to Spidy to shrink to Jagu's size, but it didn't work.
As a result, the platforms trembled slightly from the movements of both creatures.
Maya woke up, feeling the ground shaking beneath her.
Confused, she looked around, and immediately screamed when she saw Spidy.
Ash turned to Maya in surprise, then laughed. "Hahaha, sleeping beauty is awake. She forgot that we now have Spidy to help us."
He approached Maya and pulled her hand to help her up.
"Get up, lazy. Look, now we can easily climb to that hole," he said, pointing with his other hand to the spider web bridge.
Maya blinked her eyes and grabbed Ash's hand, looking in the direction he pointed.
"No way. This is amazing. Ash, you're a genius!" she exclaimed in awe.