Hazel, Astrid, and Nycteris flew over the city of Portland/Port Town of Mossley. Despite the entire area being completely blacked out with no lights whatsoever aside from the stars and Moon above, they could somewhat tell that the two locations were merged thanks to the sky view they had.

  Several buildings from Mossley town and Portland city were bunched together like sardines in a can. While flying around in the sky, Hazel scanned the city, trying to find a good place to land.

  “Where do you think we should land?” Hazel asked Astrid.

  “Anywhere away from the spider queen nest,” The dark elf said with a grim expression.

  “Yeah...that we can do.”

  Since they were currently under the curse of the spider queen, they needed to be careful where they flew around in the city. If they were careless, they could end up on the queen’s radar and end up getting swarmed with more spiders again.

  Speaking of the curse, Hazel and Astrid needed to start coming up with a plan on how to get rid of the mark. At least before they enter the last stage and end up getting chased by the spider queen herself.

  Those spider sentinels were over level thirty, so how powerful was the Spider Queen, then? Hazel was sickeningly curious but also hesitant to find out because of the morbid possibilities of their chances of surviving against it.

  For now, though, they should try and focus on their main task, which was exploring the city a little more to get their bearings. And once they had all the information regarding their location, the two players could form a plan to get Astrid back to her village.

  Scanning the city below them, Hazel spotted a building to land in the north-western district of Portland. If her guess was right, it was the Highlands area of Portland, practically dead center into the city.

  Hazel pointed down at one of the buildings. “Nycteris, land over there so we could walk around a bit.”

  The Nightwing followed his master’s command and rapidly descended from the sky. Hazel and Astrid tightly held onto the familiar, making sure that they weren't thrown off him from the sudden dive into the city.

  It only took a few mere seconds before the Nightwing closed in on the building that Hazel instructed him to land on. Getting closer, he spread his wings out, allowing them to slow down his descent.

  Thanks to this, the trio landed on the building without crashing into it. Once Nycteris planted his feet on the rooftop, Hazel and Astrid hopped off and walked over to the edge to check out their current location.

  Much like the east side of Portland, the Highlands district looked just as jumbled and messy with the additional buildings from Astrid’s world mixing in. If it weren’t for the fact that they had a view from the sky, Hazel likely couldn’t tell where they were from a single glance.

  Putting that aside, the two players looked at the neighborhood they landed on. Normally, the streets would be bustling with life and lights, but it was completely dark as if the neighborhood was experiencing a blackout. Or in this case, the entire city of Portland was experiencing a blackout.

  It wasn’t completely dark, thanks to the night sky with the countless stars and three moons hovering above them. That and the fires occurring in various buildings and streets within the area. Seeing something like that, solidified Hazel’s reality that she was, in fact, experiencing a genuine apocalypse.

  And she knew it would only get worse when the remaining survivors of the Tutorial Dungeons finally returned. Hazel could imagine the amount of chaos that was about to ensue once the Tutorials were over and the System truly began.

  The witch continued to gaze at the Highlands neighborhood, taking note of all of the changes from the Planetary fusion at the hands of the System. There were many houses destroyed and turned to rubble while others were intact but were grouped together with medieval-style buildings like what appeared to be a Tavern, a stable house, and possibly even an adventurers guild.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Hazel didn’t know much about the Port Town called Mossley but knew a little from what Astrid told her. It was a popular town in the Briarhart kingdom due to it being near the ocean. It is also known for its seafood delicacy, but Hazel figured that she’d never know personally considering the current state of the town.

  Pushing aside her desire for seafood, Hazel and the other two soon jumped down the building they were on and proceeded to roam through another part of Portland. Hopefully, their journey within the area wouldn’t end up as chaotic as before with the spider swarm.

  Hazel held some doubt that it wasn’t possible for a peaceful trek through her hometown after what happened previously, but that didn’t stop her from hoping that things were different at the moment. And if not, then that was simply how it was for her at the moment.

  The trio walked through the street of Highlands, taking note of all the changes in both worlds. Nycteris trailed behind the two players, acting as the rearguard in case someone attempted to ambush them from the back while Hazel and Astrid took the lead.

  “So, how do we plan on dealing with the spider queen curse,” Hazel asked, choosing that topic as a conversation starter.

  “Well, our best bet would be to leave Portland as soon as possible,” Astrid suggested calmly. “The farther we are, the better chance we have at escaping the Spider Queen’s wrath.”

  “Yeah, but the message panels stated that we can’t get rid of the mark unless we die or the Spider Queen. If we ran away, then that would only be delaying the inevitable.”

  The panel that displayed the Spider Queen’s curse stated that Hazel and Astrid could only remove the mark by either dying or killing the queen. Simply running away wouldn’t solve their problem, but merely prolonging it. Especially when they reach the final stage of the curse. Just the thought of witnessing the spider queen leaving its nest and attacking the two players gave Hazel the chills.

  And after seeing the Sentinels’ levels, she knew that the Queen was far stronger than them. And that deeply disturbed Hazel, since they stood no chance against her as they were now.

  “I’m assuming you have a better idea?” Astrid glanced at Hazel with an arched brow.

  “I mean...I might have one,” Hazel thumbed her fingers together nervously.

  Seeing her act like that, the dark elf let out a groaning sigh and palmed her face. “Alright, what’s the big plan, then?”

  Hazel hesitated to answer, but seeing her partner glaring at her and urging her to spit it out was enough for her to confess to what her plan was.

  “I say we use the spider swarm to our advantage.”

  As soon as Astrid heard those words come out of Hazel’s mouth, she leaned her head to the side while looking at her partner with a doubtful gaze.

  “Come again?”

  “We use the spider swarm to our advantage,” Hazel repeated. “Like what we did with the Fractured Humans at the City Island.”

  It didn’t take long before Astrid managed to understand what Hazel was trying to say. But that didn’t seem to be enough to convince her to follow along with the plan.

  “We only did that with the Fractured humans because they could barely walk toward us, much less run. You saw what happened when you disturbed that spider nest. We barely escaped if it wasn’t for the knight and her allies coming in to save our hides.”

  Astrid wasn’t wrong. Not only were the spiders faster, but they were more persistent than the shambling fractured humans from the tutorial dungeon. Even if you disturb them and they chase after you, after running a bit of way, those shuffling creatures will sooner or later give on you if you’re lucky.

  But the spiders that tried to kill Astrid and Hazel were different. They were far more dangerous because of their speed. And that posed a problem to the pair since they couldn’t run very far. Then again, now that they had Nycteris with them, there was a chance for this plan to work, but Hazel wasn’t confident to test that theory just yet.

  “Still, don’t you think this will be a good opportunity for us to get stronger? Especially after seeing Zoe and the other’s levels? Even if they were only a couple of levels higher than us, it’s the fact that they have an edge over us in that area that bothers me. Doesn’t it bother you?”

  Astrid hesitated to respond as she contemplated her words with a pensive expression. Hazel could tell that what she said was bothering her. Whether she wanted to admit it or not.

  Just as Hazel was about to say something else to further prove her point, she immediately stopped in her tracks, causing Astrid and Nycteris to stop as well. The Nightwing and dark elf stared at the witch, curious and cautious regarding her behavior.

  “What’s wrong, Hazel?” Astrid asked, growing concerned.

  Hazel took a moment before giving a response as her face turned grim. “It...looks like we got company.”

  Using her Astral Eyes, Hazel scanned the surrounding area before spotting several presences hiding among them. Some hide in trees, bushes, or even behind and inside the houses around them.

  Counting them one by one, she concluded that at least twenty enemies were spying on them. And from what she could tell...all of them were players. That could mean only one thing.

  Hazel and the others appeared to have walked into an ambush.