Miri gawked at the young, unconscious woman in front of her, not knowing what to think. Usually, scorpiders kill their prey before stuffing them in their cocoons. How was it possible that this one was still alive right now?

  Then, as the redheaded mage studied the woman’s body, she noticed that there’s a region on her white cleric robes that seemed to have a large hole in it—one that seemed to be stained with dried-up blood around the edges. Despite the supposed signs of a wound, there didn’t seem to be any injury on the woman itself.

  It was only when Miri had taken the young woman’s class into account did she realize what had happened. Since this woman was likely a cleric, judging by her white robes, she was probably able to heal her injury right as the scorpider wrapped her body in silk, forming the cocoon. Her healing magic was what must have kept her alive while she was being trapped inside.

  Being able to both heal the injury and cure the status ailment of a scorpider’s attack was no small feat. Miri was quite impressed with this cleric’s healing skills. Even so, it was unlikely that a lone cleric would wander down this deep into a dungeon. Perhaps she was part of a party? There’s only one way to find out and that was to wake her up.

  “Hey, wake up!” Miri said as she shook the young, sleeping woman by the shoulder. “Yoohoo! Come on, wake up already!”

  After a couple of shakes, the woman’s eyelids slowly started to open, revealing her aqua-blue eyes as she rose into wakefulness. While gradually coming into her senses, she looked around with a sense of timid confusion as if trying to make sense of the situation she’s in.

  “Huh…what?...I’m alive?...I’m alive!” the young woman said, feeling both panicky and elated at the same time. She spoke with a slightly higher pitched tone than most other women, almost as though she was part-mouse. “Oh, thank the Goddess of Salem, I’m alive!”

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  “Yeah, just barely,” Miri said with a slight smile of relief. “You’re lucky I came along and cut you out. A moment later and you might end up as scorpider food.”

  “Oh, thank you, wonderful stranger! You have saved me! I owe you my life!” The young, blonde cleric approached Miri with a large, hearty hug—one so strong with affection that it might have squeezed the air out of her lungs.

  “Yeah, sure…don’t mention it,” Miri replied, patting the timid woman on the back as a way to comfort her. Poor thing must have been trapped in there for hours, not knowing whether she’ll live or die. That kind of mental torment could have traumatized anyone, even the toughest badasses out there.

  “My name is Anne. What is yours, my great savior?” the cleric said with a wide, innocent grin as she broke away from the hug.

  “Oh, you can call me Miri,” Miri replied. “Say, what are you doing inside that cocoon in the first place?”

  “Oh, my guild party and I were exploring this dungeon trying to find a rune as part of one of our jobs,” Anne explained.

  “Oh, you mean this rune?” Miri said, taking out the rune that she found as part of her job as well as the job notice that showed the picture of the same rune.

  “Yeah, that’s the exact same,” Anne said, taking out a crumpled job notice from her robes that showed the exact same job as Miri's. She then took the two notices and compared them with a meticulous eye. “Huh, that’s weird. The post dates on these two job notices are two days apart.”

  “Ahh, I see. The one who posted the job must have assumed that your party died while trying to find the rune, so they posted another job notice to recruit another party to go find the rune.”

  “So I’ve been inside that cocoon for two days? No wonder I feel so famished.” Right as she said that, she appeared to feel a bit light-headed, almost about to faint.

  “Woah there, take it easy,” Miri said, holding the blonde woman by her shoulders and waist to keep her steady. “How about we get a campfire set up and I’ll share some of my rations with you?”

  “That…that would be nice. Thank you, my great savior,” Anne murmured, seemingly too weak to speak at her normal volume.

  Miri chucked. “Miri’s fine. No need for any grand titles or anything.”