After staring at the spider corpse for a little while, Alec suddenly fired a Pebbleshot through its head. Although the pebble penetrated it all the way through, the force was still enough to destabilize the spider, somehow clinging to the walls in the corner of the room. It crumbled to the ground, its legs folded under its body.

"Just making sure," He said with a slight smile as he turned back to the others.

"It was clinging to the wall, after all." Maura nodded in agreement.

"Is what you said yesterday true?" Nia suddenly asked before they could continue through the hallway.

Alec tilted his head.

"About being able to cast all those spells," She clarified.

"It is. I wouldn't lie about something as easily verifiable as that."

Nia tilted her head in acknowledgment. That was reasonable. But she also frowned slightly.

"I know that the spells you mentioned yesterday are available in the library, but some of them, like Flamedrain, are complex. How did you manage to learn them all so quickly?" Nia's reason for asking was obvious. The more spells a mage knew, the more versatile they were. The more versatile a mage was, the easier it would be for them to deal with monsters and enemies.

"I have a good memory."

"Is that it?" Nia asked doubtfully. If he didn't want to share his tactic, it was understandable, but he could at least be honest about it.

"To be precise, I have an exceptional memory when it comes to certain things."

"Perfect recall?"

Alec nodded.

"That's…"

"...Not something I can teach, no. But I can tell you that just learning spells isn't enough. The more you use and understand one, the greater the power you can unleash with it."

"Isn't that obvious?" Ticka crossed her arms and scoffed like she was asking Alec why he thought he was good enough to give them tips.

Alec just smiled in response. Ticka might not care, but he could tell that Nia and Victoria heeded his words.

"You must have practiced Burst quite a lot, then," Victoria said.

Alec froze.

'Did I just talk myself into a hole?' He could either lie or be honest about how he had modified it. Part of him wanted to reveal his talent, and part of him wanted to stay hidden. From what he could tell, modifying spells was something that first-years couldn't do.

He already stood out, but it didn't seem like even the teachers he knew could do something like that. Telling his friends was fine, but nobles after what Benjamin had put him through…?

After taking a moment to think about it, he just nodded.

"Something like that," He said simply, clearly not wanting to go into detail.

Victoria's eyes flashed with light as she scrutinized Alec for a second before turning around to continue. The others, while some were still curious about Alec, followed suit.

After a few steps, another spider hiding in the ceiling came to light, eliciting another cry from Ticka. This one was also dead. The third spider they came across was the same.

All four spiders in the chamber of self-sacrificial creation of the Treasure Room were dead before the students found them.

No one needed to state the obvious. Something was wrong. They were the first group to enter the Treasure Room. The spiders also had no visible signs of being attacked. It was like they had fallen asleep and stayed asleep until they died.

Alec started thinking about reasons and possible causes of deaths, as well as the sources of those causes. Unfortunately, his compendium was still far from complete, and there was a lot he didn't know.

But he could narrow it down. It was likely that the spiders had been poisoned to death. He could not find any records of such a traceless poison, though, nor of any monster that used it.

However, that wasn't the only problem.

It looked like the spiders had been killed without noticing it. Whoever or whatever killed them had done so without being detected.

The cave spiders might be monsters without intelligence, but they had at least eight eyes and lived in darkness. Their senses should be sharper than those of a human.

That sounded familiar.

But this time, he had too much knowledge to sift through accurately to find what he was looking for. Still, he kept scanning all the text stored in [Reader].

"We're here."

The exit of the self-sacrificial creation chamber was before them.

"The Poem is on the other side of the exit."

The arched hallway was twice as tall as a tall man, and wide enough for a carriage to pass through with ease.

But between the group of students and the exit lay a cave spider large enough to block the exit.

"That one has to be stage two, right?" Maura asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Indeed," Nia nodded in agreement. Beside her, Ticka had already turned into a statue, her eyes glazed over. The mountainous spider was too much.

Spiders as big as dogs were at least doable. But a spider as tall as a horse with the width to match just wasn't something that her heart could handle.

"It's dead as well," Madelynn said after throwing a dagger to pierce its brain.

Instead of cheering, the expressions on the others darkened.

This spider was too big to stay on the ceiling in death, maybe even in life. That was why it was on the floor. It wasn't blocking their path. It was just lying there like it was sleeping.

The fact that it was dead with such a peaceful expression meant that it, just like the others, had died without noticing.

A stage two monster had died without being able to do anything about it.

"Should we ask the teacher?" Nia asked, glancing at Victoria.

Instead of answering, Victoria turned to Alec.

"What do you think?"

"Let's continue." His answer was immediate.

"If Maura and I return without exchanging tags, we will fail this field trip, regardless of the reason." That was his excuse, at least. In reality, he wanted to see the rest of the engraved spell formation on the floor that stretched into the room beyond and under the walls into the other chambers, as well as the Poem of Neverlasting Wisdom.

"Hmm."

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