After the fight with the death knight, they decided to take another break before heading to the 10th floor and meeting the spider queen.

This was because John had completely exhausted himself while using a healing spell to purify a death knight.

“Hey, John” Said Ariel.

“Yeah?”

The three of them began to talk as they laid down inside of the ice sphere he had created using the little remaining magical power he had.

“When did you create the healing spell?” She asked.

“I’d also like to know, and how did you do it? The holy element is exclusive to those who have undergone a special training by the church.” Said Serena.

“Well… After our recent fight with the queen, I realised the weakness our party had. We’re not that strong, so if we’re going to be going to dungeons, then I’m going to have to do as much as I can to cover what we’re missing.” John said.

“Even if you say that…” Serena muttered.

“I should go to a church, though. Especially since I have this ability. About how I thought of it… There are 4 In short when you think about healing something. I learnt this in biology.” John said.

“Bio-logy?” Said Ariel.

‘Oh crap, I accidentally said it out loud.’ John cursed himself.

“Y-Yeah, I-I recently gained a memory of being taught something called biology. Biology is the study of living organisms.” John said.

“You’ve been taught a lot of things… I’m glad your memories are returning. You’ll be able to find out more about yourself.” Said Serena.

It was an excuse, but they seem convinced.

“Y-Yeah, as I was saying, It’s the study of living organisms. When you gain a wound like a cut and it starts to bleed. Within minutes or seconds, blood cells start to clump together and clot, protecting the wound and preventing further blood loss. This is called hemostasis, the first process which is to stop the bleeding,” John said.

Ariel looked slightly confused and Serena… John was not sure.

“I knew it was going to be complex, but seriously? Are you sure you’re 12 years old? Who teaches all of this to a kid?! I’d like to meet your master one day.” Said Serena as she placed her hands on her face.

“Y-Yeah…” John nervously let out.

“John, you said blood cells start to clump together and clot, what are blood cells?” Ariel asked.

‘Looks like she’s paying very close attention.’ John observed.

“It’s a cell produced when you gain a wound, It’s mainly found in the blood. And a cell is the smallest unit of life,” John said.

“Hm… I sort of get it, but at the same time I don’t…” Said Ariel.

“It’s fine, The concept of healing is hard, I practised it every day during the 7 days but I’ve only been able to make it strong enough to close cuts. Although that’s probably because I haven’t tried it on anything other than cuts. If I add enough magic, I should be able to heal severe wounds.” John said.

“I sort of get it too, In other words, they’re small beings produced in your body to help close your wound, right?” Serena asked.

“Y-Yeah, sort of, That’s one way to look at it,” John said.

“Mhm… What are the other 3 processes?” Ariel asked.

“Well, we have inflammation… Then growth and rebuilding… and lastly strengthening. And of course each of them has its own process.” John said.

As he named each process, the fear on the faces of the two girls became more apparent.

“John.” Serena.

“Yes?” John asked.

“Could you actually be a smart person?” She asked.

‘Not really, any kid my age from my previous world knows this. Although the ‘me’ from the past might not have been able to remember the details as much as I can now… Did my memory get stronger after I reincarnated?’ John wondered.

“Not really, What did you think I was?” John replied with an annoyed expression.

“Nothing much.” Said Serena as she looked away.

“Oi, why did you turn your head? If you have something to say, By all means, go ahead.” John said.

“John… Healing is a lot more complicated than I imagined… Do all people who have undergone training in the church know this?” Ariel asked.

“I think not, They probably use chants like any other magician. My magic is a concept, after all, it requires knowledge in exchange for power. The more you know, the stronger the imagination. The stronger the spell.” John replied.

“I see… I… I want to become stronger… Strong enough to be able to help you, so that what happened today, never happens again… So I’ll focus on improving my control and understanding over the wind and fire element…” Ariel said.

“Me too… I hate to admit it, but I wasn’t of much help in this fight… And you nearly died…” Said Serena.

When John heard what these two had to say, he couldn’t help but smile.

“But I didn’t, and it was thanks to your magic combo that we were able to win. I’m looking forward to it, I’ll do my best to help you two become stronger.” John said with a smile.

“Thank you.” They replied with a happy smile.

***

They rested for 5 hours before they decided to move on. John had replenished a moderate amount of magic and they charged up their magic stones with the stone of the 3rd-floor boss. The stone broke after, but they were going to gain a better one after killing the spider queen.

Unfortunately, the Death knight didn’t drop a magic stone, but John ended up putting his sword and armour into his toolbox. John could feel that it was getting full, so the plan was to head back after killing the spider queen.

They entered the 10th floor and were greeted by an abundance of webs. There were webs all over the place, just like last time. Rose cut the webs blocking their path with her sword. They should be able to cut them with ventus.

They walked along straight to the boss’ room, encountering a few spider monsters. There were spiders of around their size and were not friendly. They managed to easily cut them with ventus so they weren’t much of a challenge, rather, the 9th floor monsters were more.

John guessed that the reason why these monsters were considered stronger was because of their agility and poison attribute. Rose told him to never let either the spider queen or these monsters bite him. But thanks to that, he brought poison antidotes in case of emergencies.

After 30 minutes, they reached the boss’ room without any difficulties. He didn’t use furtim this time because it was risky. If a spider did sense them as they walked passed and one of them got bitten, it would’ve been bad.

“Is everyone ready?” John asked as he placed his hands on the boss door.

“Yeah.” They simultaneously replied with tense expressions.

“I’ve recently realised, but you two are often in sync, are you lost sisters?” John said as a joke to ease the tension.

“I’d love it if Ariel was my sister. She’s so cute.” Said Serena as she hugged her.

“Serenaaa, not now, we’re supposed to get ready…” Said Ariel with an embarrassed expression.

‘Those two really do look like sisters. Also, that’s kind of cute.’ John thought.

“Fine… ” Said Serena with a saddened expression.

“Alright, Let’s go.” John said as he opened the door, while ignoring the cute moment that just passed.

They walked inside and there was the Spider queen in the middle of the room. The eggs from before were gone, but there was a big web which blocked the path to the next floor.

“What happened to the eggs?” Asked Serena.

“I burned them all last time, remember. The traces of our fight are gone, so the room really did reset.” John answered.

The spider noticed them after the door entrance door closed. Unlike the previous one, which acted wary all the time, this one didn’t seem afraid at all and began to charge at them. The size was the same, and even the looks.

“Oh? You’re not scared, even though we were the main reason your previous reincarnation died? Maybe that previous spider had survived many battles, which is why it was wary, this one has only recently spawned.” John said as he leapt straight at it.

‘So they don’t have memories of their previous life.’ John understood.

“John, be careful, We’ll back you up!” Shouted Serena.

“Yeah!” John replied.

The spider and John rushed at each other. After they were around 10 meters away, he cast ‘Velox’ and ‘Ignis Iecit’ and was heading straight at it like a cannon, the daggers in his hands together forming an X-Cross.

It had underestimated John and didn’t expect his sudden move. Despite it being faster, it wasn’t able to completely evade it. John ended up cutting half of its front left leg off.

After losing its leg, it finally felt threatened by John and stepped back.

“Seriously… Don’t underestimate me. I’m not the same guy as before, but I doubt you remember, anyway.” John stated.

The move he used against the spider just now was the same move he had used against the death knight. 

‘I’ll call it X Cannon.’ John decided.

The spider’s fear appeared to have turned into anger as it came rushing straight at John shortly after losing its leg. It used its front right leg to stab at John, but it missed as he dodged it by jumping back.

While John was in the air, the spider queen shot a web from its mouth to pierce him. 

‘The me 7 days ago, wouldn’t have been able to dodge it but…’ John thought.

“Velox” John muttered.

The instant he cast it, John was propelled downwards to the ground, allowing him to dodge the spider’s web.

“Double cast: Gravitas, Glacies.”

John cast Gravitas on the spider to stop it from being able to move and Glacies to be able to freeze its remaining legs. 3 bigger versions of the normal Glacies were created and John propelled them at the spider.

“From this distance, it shouldn’t be able to dodge-“

John was proven wrong as the spider barely dodged it by jumping to the side, The second it dodged it, it rushed at him again and tried piercing him with its legs.

“Woah, 20x gravity didn’t work… I guess I should have expected that. Spiders can lift up to 50x their body weight after all.” John said as he avoided its legs by leaping around.

“Then… Should I use magnum ignis like before? No… I have a better idea…” John muttered as he thought.

John dodged its front leg again and at the same time cast and propelled a Glacies at it after it had barely missed him.

The tip of its front leg was frozen, and it stepped back to break the ice. After smashing the ground with the tip, the ice broke. But all John needed was for it to step back for a moment.

He cast ‘Levite’ and ‘Scutum Glacies’. Scutum Glacies takes time to form, so John needed a moment for the spider to step back from him so that he could properly form it. Now that it had formed, everything was ready.

“Velox” John muttered as the spider recomposed itself and began to rush at him.

It stopped and jumped to the side after it saw John propel himself at it. It then looked over at its 3 left legs and noticed that they had ice slowly spreading around them.

“Surprised?” John asked as he looked at it.

It desperately tried getting rid of the ice by hitting the ground with its leg, but it wasn’t working.

“That won’t work. Ever heard of the saying ‘The best defense is more offense’? Scutum Glacies is a defense type spell, which spreads ice around whatever touches it. Let’s see if you can dodge all of these attacks.” John taunted.

The spider let out a shriek and slowly backed up from John. He cast Velox as he floated in the Air and propelled himself at it again. Thanks to Levite, John was much faster while using velox and went further.

He missed the spider as it jumped to the right to dodge his sudden catapult at it, but it’s movements were slowly decreasing thanks to the ice. John propelled at it again and again and was only getting faster and faster thanks to velox.

It was probably like an air cannon travelling through the air from Ariel and Serena’s perspective.

“Concept Combination Magic: Verberare scutum est glacies” Translation: Barrage of the ice shield.

If John went past the spider, he would propel himself back and try to hit it. He would keep doing this over and over again. Hence the name: Ice Shield Barrage.

Eventually, thanks to the barrage, Ice had completely covered the spider. It could no longer move.

“Checkmate. Ariel, Serena now!” John shouted.

Ariel and Serena had been charging up their spell. Ariel had formed the wind spear, Serena had mixed it with Ignis and had cast fire arrows, which led to 10 being formed around the spear. Then, on John’s signal, they released it. Ariel propelled the Fire spear with 10 magic arrows around it at the frozen Spider.

On impact, the spear went straight through the spider and ice and hit the magic resistant walls. A Bump was left on the wall. Shortly after, the spider turned into a magic stone. John melted the ice, put the stone in the toolbox and went over to Serena and Ariel.

“We did it!” John said as he approached them.

“Y-Yeah, Hey Serena, did we do that?” Asked Ariel as she pointed over at the wall and where the Spider had been pierced.

“Did we..?” Asked Serena with a confused expression.

“Why are you two in denial? Yes, you did.” John replied.

Ariel and Serena’s Eyes Lit up after hearing what he said.

“We did… We’re getting stronger!” Said Ariel with an excited expression.

“Did you only realise this now?” John asked.

Ariel happily nodded at his question.

Serena was quiet, but John could tell from her eyes that she was excited.

“Hey Serena, are you sure, Oliver is stronger than that?” John asked as he pointed at the wall.

“I-I wasn’t saying he’s stronger because I wanted to… You’ll know when you challenge him…” Said Serena.

“I’m looking forward to it, I wonder what sort of spells he has…” John replied.

“That’s just like you… Aren’t you afraid of losing?” Serena asked.

“Not really, It shows you what you need to improve. It makes you stronger.” John said.

“As expected of you.” Said Serena.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” John asked.

“Hey, we had agreed to head back, but why don’t we check out the 11th floor?” He suggested.

“Sure, we’ve saved up a lot more energy than I expected in that fight.” Serena said.

“What about you Ariel?” John asked.

“E-Eh? A-Ah, Sure, I don’t mind.” She replied.

Ariel was still thinking about how she’s improving. She seems happy now that she’s realised that she’s improving.

“Then, Let’s go.”

***

Looking back, John never could have imagined how bad this decision was.