"Ah..." Alice felt born-anew, having satisfied her hunger by plundering another of its essence.

She passed her long black sleeve on her mouth, wiping the drool.

Quickly, she looked around seeing the two vampires feasting on the spider corpse. They would be out of commission till they became full. Alice knew about this well, having suffered plenty from the bloodthirsty curse.

"You four, remove the spider legs and use it as weapons, they seem quite strong."

"Yes," they said while one of them shrieked, making Alice wonder if she had been too rough with her words. 

Without putting much thought into this, she headed towards the next spider. They were having trouble dealing with it: 3 of the villagers were screaming and one was crying as they were glued to the ground. The spider seemed to be enjoying itself, spinning one of them into some sort of taco roll.

It almost made her laugh but she resisted to do it as it would lower her guard.

Instead, despite yet not having much affection for the villagers in specific, she imagined they were Pandora who had been attacked by the creepy fiends.

It didn't take long for the anger to overcome the funny sight, her short legs and small steps allowed her to arrive behind the creature. Unlike the last one, this spider was busy and unaware of its blind spots. 

Thus, before it could act again and defend itself, Alice attacked it with her reinvigorated strength, piercing its back deeply.

The inflicted pain made the spider quickly rotate itself, however, thanks to the depth her body simply flew along with its movements. With the twists, it only got harder for the spider to get rid of her.

She could feel the spike absorbing one of its organs, destroying a portion of the creature from the inside. It was abnormally effective, but to be fair, it was an extremely easy attack to counter if it was looking at her in the first place.

Luckily, it hadn't, allowing her to get rid of its stomach with little cost. 

Alice felt her body swollen with strength, to the brinking point of understanding that was her current max. It also made her feel sick from how full she was. No different than eating the same sweet for hours. 

It was then that to Alice surprise the needle retracted, completely disappearing. The girl flew against the other spider causing it to collide against a nearby wall.

The vampires took the chance to suck its inwards empty, before it managed to stand up again.

In no time at all, all of the creatures died, leaving temporary peace to those who survived.

It was very fortunate that these spiders didn't have poison mixed with their blood, otherwise, the vampires would have found themselves in a deadly pinch.

They soon helped the rest, setting them free from the cocoons. Then, they saved the spiders line, perhaps there would be a way to use it as clothing.

The four corpses that had ejected from me became unusable to anything worth mentioning, leaving in the very least the essence of experience.

I told Alice what happened while she was fighting, causing her to understand why the hole vanished. It also made her look around finding six more lost souls to which she ate, leaving me to lead their way to be with the initial one.

We came to wonder together what was such a place for, why did she had to consume them, and why did I need to imprison them.

Yet, we did not reach a plausible solution. We ended up just accepting it.

Alice sight hovered at the hard working woman who had taken care of her many times before. She was helping the others placing the spider corpses together into one corner of this room. 

She got to understand that they called it the core room, for it was the place where the guardian resided. Now in its place, there was only a round ore stuck on the wall with a red vine that seemed to connect to the ones in the ceiling, the walls, and of course the ground.

It looked out of place compared to everything else, it was a weird bump.

"I've retrieved all of them," Katherine added, showing the seven tiny crystals to Alice, pouring them in her hands.

To their surprise, the crystals joined against each other, creating a bigger one.

"They had these near them. what are they, lady Alice?"

"The experience we need to grow stronger and buy levels. But, I haven't managed to find where we can do that," the girl frowned, mentally tired but physically and spiritually reinvigorated.

As Katherine was about to reply, Alice started walking.

"Tell everyone to do the best they can to get those spider legs out of the bodies."

"Yes?"

"We can use them to fend off the intruders, their sharp."

"Understood."

The blood from the spiders was quickly consumed by the seven of them. For the time being, it was a good thing we had a source of food, even if it had been temporary. 

But this meant there were more to them somewhere and apparently this mountain seemed rather unique, having five floors to it.

'There could be more floors above this one...'

To her thought, I replied, 'more than five below too, since they aren't sure.

'Right... what should I do Pandora?'

Upon her lovely question, I started pondering on a few things. Had the villagers lived in all of the floors in the past? Had these spaces been made by them or someone else? Was there a way to find out?

'I think you should start by meeting everyone that lives here and then the entire floor Theseus guarded. Only then would I explore the surroundings and find a way to protect everyone.'

Alice smiled grateful of my advice, readying herself to become the leader they enforced upon her.