Inside a cavern, webs were pasted across the walls, covering almost every square inch of the room.

In the center of this cavern, there was a throne made from these thick silky webs.

And sitting in this throne, was a girl.

She wore a black dress which had the white pattern of spiderwebs embroidered onto it, and her long hair draped down her head, the strands resembling bandages.

She glanced before her with her four eyes, closing her leftmost one with a light smirk.

With fangs peeking out of her mouth, she laughed.

"Heh."

This was Berith, one of the head slaves of the Queen of Evil.

She was the Queen of Insectoids, and this was her lair.

The girl had the features of a spider and the form of a human, with human hands on her uppermost pair of arms.

Before her stood a man who resembled a cockroach and a woman who resembled a moth, yet their forms were also similar to humans.

"Lady Berith, as you can see, this temporary lair has been prepared for you outside the city. Is it to your liking?", the cockroach asked.

Sliding her human hand across the silky chair, the girl smiled with malice in her adorable yet ever so bloodthirsty expression.

"It is acceptable. With this..... haha..... well, I'll be having a lot of fun when our guests arrive."

The cockroach smiled, bowing further to the spiderling.

"Thank you, my Queen. Incidentally, would it be alright to ask just why we were instructed to construct this place?"

"Hm? Ah, that has to do with some orders that their excellencies gave me. I'm going to be receiving a number of dinner guests later today."

"Ah, so that is why we were ordered to build an entire area for dining and cooking? I see.... that does make sense.", the moth stated. "Is there anything else you need of us?"

"Just ensure that the chefs are on standby. After all..... as a representative of the Dictatorship, I cannot allow our guests to experience anything other than..... the best."

A line of poison drool fell from the mouth of the spider girl, to which she quickly used her own sleeve to wipe it up.

As soon as the sleeve came into contact with the acid, a sizzling sound could be heard as the cloth disintegrated.

"Ah.... and I was just getting used to wearing a dress too. Now I'll have to have a new one made.... formality really is difficult."

"Even without trying, you are able to captivate our hearts, Lady Berith. There is no need to try so hard."

"Is that so? Hahaha..... I suppose their excellencies really did know what they were doing when they put me in this position."

With this, the two bowed before leaving, and the spiderling was left alone.

"Heh heh..... it truly has been a while since I've done anything for their excellencies. At the inauguration, I was nothing more than a spectator, so the last time I've actually taken part in anything major was when they appointed me as the ruler of this city."

With a wicked grin, the girl thinned all four of her eyes, licking the poison acid which dripped from her fangs.

"Finally the time has come for me to play a role in the plans of the new demon lords."

----

A fleet of ships sailed across the Southern sea, traveling from the Alliance to the Southwest end of the monster realm.

There were 15 ships in total, one per class, each carrying 15 or 16 of Yulen Academy's students.

Of course, everyone had failed the examination.

As such, every first year student was required to go on this remedial trip, the location of which had been changed at the last moment.

'I do hope that sending them to the monster realm will prove to be a significant challenge for them.... after all, if not enough of them are culled..... we may need to come up with other measures to filter out the successes from the failures.'

The principal of Yulen Academy had these thoughts from his office, watching a screen which showed the location of each and every orb as they traveled across the sea.

'The lights will go out when they are dead. Therefore, I will immediately understand the difficulty of this trip based on how quickly the students go down. If 10% survive.... that would be ideal. Any more than that and we will need to increase our parameters.'

With a grin, he nodded.

'Well, either way the failures will be culled no matter what. Even if the monsters are only 2nd tier, it will require everything they have to take on the numbers which we have projected from our own prior investigations.'

This elven man was a man who viewed the students at his academy to be nothing more than disposable tools, ones which were expected to achieve results on their own if they wished to gain freedom and recognition.

By placing them through immense challenge, he would mold them and force them to go beyond their limits, picking out those pearls among the scum by applying as much pressure to succeed as possible.

This was Ingran Lerandi.

'Go forth, students. Show me that you are strong enough to survive.... and only then will I even consider you to be worth educating.'

----

Inside the cabin of a ship, 15 students sat side by side in silence.

Not a single person said a word, for they understood well the situation they were in.

They were about to face the unknown.

They had been told that the Alliance had previously scouted the area and determined that the monsters within this place were low leveled, however even that was no consolation.

They needed to see it for themselves.

Could they defeat these monsters, or were they still just as weak as before?

These thoughts lingered within the students, and they did not disappear.

For they understood well just how little they understood about true strength.

"We..... will be alright..... won't we?", Natalia asked softly.

Many of the students straightened themselves as she said this, yet not a single person answered.

For they truly did not know.

With four particular students aside, the outcome of this battle was something which was completely and utterly..... undetermined.

----

"I'll be back one week from now at this spot to pick you all up. Don't die out there, kids."

The man who piloted the ship waved to the students as they unloaded onto the beach before them.

"Thank you for the ride.", Alexa stated with a smile.

"Think nothing of it. The fact that you guys are actually going to the monster realm as first years.... I don't really know what to say about that. I'm just following the orders from the higher ups, but I really do hope that you all are still here when I come to pick you up. Stay safe, alright?"

The students nodded, gathering together as they walked off.

And so, the journey into the uncharted lands begun.

----

"Can you all hear me alright? I see that you've arrived. I'll be sending you the destination of the nest which you are tasked with exterminating right now. There will be a number of other classes, and each of them will be attacking their own sector of the nest. Just focus on your part."

The voice of their instructor emitted from the communication orbs of the students, and then an arrow formed on all of their communication orbs.

"The orbs are now set on compass mode. Head towards the location which it points, and when you reach the location it will begin blinking. From there, eliminate any monsters you encounter, and once you've done that your goal will be to survive for the rest of the week before we pick you up. You have the entire week to do this, so you don't have to go right there on the first day, but use your own judgement. That's all the information I can give you. Good luck."

The voice cut off, and the students looked to one another, nodding with determination.

"So..... should we set up a home base first?", Raphael asked, turning to the others.

"Yeah. First we set up a base and find a source of food and water. If we still have time today, we'll head to the location to find out the scale of this mission. If it's simple enough to finish in a day, we do it here and now. If not, we retreat and come up with another plan. Does that sound good?"

Proposing his own strategy, Oliver turned to the rest who nodded in agreement.

"Fine with me.", Edward said.

"If that's what you think is best.", Victor stated.

The group then proceeded to walk past the beach, coming across a lush forest as they walked, which soon turned into a less tropical and more wooded forest.

Coming upon a natural spring, the group set up their camp and begun to make preparations for their own departure.

"Looks like food and water should be taken care of. There are plenty of animals to hunt around here, which is..... somewhat strange. I thought that the monster realm would be filled with monsters everywhere, but there are animals as well.", Griffen noted.

"They're actually wild monsters, but it's fine to think of em as animals.", Ashley muttered. "They're beasts all the same, after all."

As Ashley said this, many student's couldn't hide their nervous smiles, glancing to her as they proceeded.

"I.... see...."

The day passed and the students finished their preparations, ready to go.

Dressed in camouflage and donning their respective weapons, the faces of the students stiffened.

"Are we all ready?", Oliver asked, taking command.

With swift nods the others responded in the affirmative, at which the muscular boy turned around, facing towards the direction of their objective.

"Then lets go."

The students then rushed forth, each keeping an eye out for any motion as they progressed through the forest.

The Members of the 4th division took the front, while the members of the 1st division were right behind them. Behind the members of the 1st division were the members of the 2nd division who would support the attackers from behind, and finally behind everyone were the members of the 3rd division who would use ranged attacks to take out any enemies.

"Keep your guards up at all times. Make sure to watch your back and sides, because we never know when a monster may appear out of nowhere.", Oliver stated as the group proceeded.

However, no monsters appeared.

No wild animals dared to so much as attack, for they understood their own place.

There was one particular girl who emanated an aura of death, one which only the wild monsters could feel.

Because of this, none of these wild monsters dared to interfere in the operation.

The group soon entered an open field of hilly terrain, and as they entered this terrain, they saw it.

Protruding from the ground was a large cavern with cobwebs covering the entrance.

The orbs which floated beside each student begun to blink, and on realizing this, Oliver spoke as the group kept running forward.

"It seems that we've arrived. This is the place we have to clear out. Prepare yourselves for battle. Lights up."

And so, grabbing their lanterns and lighting them as they ran, the 15 students rushed forth into the cavern.

With a smile, Samantha ran by the side of the students, glancing around as she saw the determined expressions on each of their faces.

'I wonder why it is that they know so little of our world? Ah, that is right. The monster realm was something completely different before we overtook it. It used to be a place where mere humans, elves, and dwarves would at least be able to survive if they stepped foot in it, due to the pact among the hosts to not interfere with the humanoids below them. However..... with new rulers, comes new policies.'

With a smirk, Samantha held back a laugh.

'How foolish they are, both the higher ups and these students. They assumed that their previous knowledge of this place is reflective of it's current state.'

It was only for a moment, but two fangs protruded from the mouth of this succubus who had disguised herself as an elf.

'How wrong they were.'

----

"No enemies so far. There are a lot of spider webs, and they seem to be getting thicker and thicker the further into this cave we go. I have an idea."

The group had stopped to take in their surroundings, and Edward stepped forward with furrowed brows.

"This stuff looks like it will burn real well. So why don't we just torch the entire place and get out of here?"

Looking over to the thick webbing before him, which formed what looked almost like a building, Edward proposed this idea.

The others looked around, wondering if that would be alright, however Oliver quickly nodded.

"That's actually a good idea, Edward. Our goal isn't to fight monsters one on one. This may be a remedial trip, but our goal here isn't to train ourselves. Our goal is to complete the mission and eliminate the monsters."

"Using any method possible?", Serina questioned. "Hmm.... I see. So this is what it means to work in a unit to complete a task."

The others quickly nodded, and none were in opposition to the idea.

After all, their opponents were monsters.

Horrid creatures who couldn't possibly hold even a shred of humanity.

Whatever lie within this nest, it was nothing more than a creature of chaos.

Therefore, thoughts of remorse or guilt didn't so much as even approach the students.

The fact that they were doing something wrong never even crossed their minds.

Of course, this was because, in their minds, their opponents were nothing more than monsters.

They were exterminators of pests.

Does an exterminator feel bad for the insects he poisons?

Never.

Therefore, the students all nodded in agreement, lighting matches and throwing them into the silky mess.

"We will come back when the fires have died down to take care of the remaining ones. For now, let's get out of here before it becomes too hard to breathe."

With the suggestion of Oliver, the group immediately turned around to run away as the flames begun to spread across the silk, engulfing the nest in flames.

Soon it would be destroyed, and it's inhabitants would burn to death.

However, as they rushed through the cave towards the exit, something shot out.

Before them, blocking their only path of escape, a web attached to the walls.

"Wha- our path has been blocked!! This webbing looks sticky, so don't touch it! We need to burn it quickly so we can escape!", Edward shouted. "And watch our backs! Somebody take care of the enemies behind us while we destroy this!"

The students in front quickly took out another set of matches, lighting them while the ones in the back looked around on guard, attempting to locate the opponent.

It was then that a crackling voice vibrated within each of the ears of the students.

"How rude..... I go through all the effort to prepare a nice reception for my esteemed guests, and yet they go and set my home on fire? Do you understand how much silk it took to actually build this?"

The horrid voice was displeasing to the ears, and it came from the ceiling, causing many of the students to look upwards.

However, in the darkness of the cavern, they saw nothing.

Standing ready to fight, the students took postures for battle, some preparing spells and others cocking their weapons.

It was then that from a different location, the voice spoke again.

"And what if I had babies in here? You all didn't even bother to enter my nest, yet you set fire to it? What the hell is wrong with you? Can you even call yourselves..... people?"

It was then that crooked laughter echoed throughout the cavern.

"Keh heh heh..... although, I suppose I could say the same about myself? After all..... heh.... heh..... I do take after my mother."

The voice seemed to be zipping around above the students, to the point where they couldn't get a read on the location of the creature.

"Have you all finished yet!?", Charles shouted as he tried to pinpoint a good location to fire his acid infused arrow.

"We're going as fast as we can!!", Vivian shouted as she used her own magic to pump mana into the flames, increasing their strength.

"I even took all the effort to dress up nicely..... so I guess I'd better show myself, right?"

It was at that moment, that in front of the group, a monster dropped to the ground with enough force to shake the very earth.

The cave rumbled, and many students had trouble keeping their balance, however as the rumbling came to a stop, they looked before them with utter shock.

Wearing a fancy dress, perked up like a human who was going to attend a dinner party, was a humanoid figure who had the features of a spider.

She had four eyes, and fangs poked out of her wicked smile.

Connected to her hands were threads, which she appeared to be controlling as if she were a puppetmaster.

In that moment, Charles let his arrow fly.

"Die, fiend!"

A green arrow laced with acidic magic shot through the air, piercing through it with a whistle.

And then, raising her human hand, the spider caught it by the sharpened tip without flinching.

Her smile became even more demented, and her eyes thinned with enjoyment.

"You thought you could use poison on me? How..... adorable. Heh heh....."

Holding the arrow to her mouth, the girl licked the poisoned tool, wrapping her slithering tongue around it as if it were a popsicle.

The eyes of the students widened as they watched this scene, however a shout was then heard.

"We broke through! Let's get out of here, everyone!!"

Looking back, the students saw that a hole had been opened in the web, and they begun rushing towards it to file through.

However, before anyone could even so much as make it through the hole, the spider stuck out her hand, shooting a layer of thick webs to completely remove any progress that had been made.

"Ah. I can't have that. You are guests, after all. If you were to leave early..... then that would only show my masters that I have been an unwelcoming host."