[ You've killed an Arachnid monster (common grade), using sneak attack. ]

[ Quest progress – 1/10 ]

Rhea spared a brief look at the system notification before focusing on the other two monsters.

Seeing one of those monstrosities pinned to the ground with just Galen's sword, she was somewhat astonished.

Since the spider was so focused on the weight on its back, it didn't even notice when Rhea came too close.

Taking advantage of it, Rhea jumped and landed on the monster just like before and stabbed her daggers, still covered in the blood of its brethren, into the monster's head.

The monster's body twitched once, before falling silent, losing all signs of life.

[ You've killed an Arachnid monster (common grade), using sneak attack. ]

[ Quest progress – 2/10 ]

Drawing her weapons out, Rhea jumped down and closed in on the final monster that was still struggling against Galen.

Webs were flying in every direction from the spider, while its eight legs that ended in sharp points were moving really fast, trying to stab through Galen.

But even after utilizing everything in its arsenal, it couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes.

Obviously, Galen was just playing with it to draw its attention to himself, giving Rhea ample time to finish her work.

Soon it met the same fate as it's other comrades and died with holes deep into it's brain, and one more notification appeared in front of Rhea's eyes.

[ You've killed an Arachnid monster (common grade), using sneak attack. ]

[ Quest progress – 3/10 ]

"Good job, teacher. At this rate, we might only need 2–3 battles like this and you'll be able to get your class." Galen spoke all of a sudden.

"Hmm... I think so too. And it seems easier than I thought, especially with your help." 

Galen smiled at her answer.

Then both of began moving towards the depths of the cave, searching for more of those disgusting spiders.

And it didn't take long for them to come across another group of arachnid monsters, but this time consisting only 2 of them.

Using their previous tactic, both of them dispatched the monsters pretty soon before moving again.

Unlike what both of them had estimated at the start, it too more than five battles for Rhea to finally complete her quest, since after the first time, the spider only appeared in groups of two, sometimes even appearing alone.

' Maybe those three were guards doing routine checks.' Galen thought.

Finished with the last monster, a series of system chimes echoed in Rhea's mind.

[ Congratulations ! ]

[ You've completed your class promotion quest and obtained the class – 'Assasssin' ]

—+—

[ Assassin Class (Basic) Perks ;

*) For every level up,

Strength +2

Vitality +1

Agility +2

Dexterity +2

Intelligence +1

Free stat points +2 

(Total –> 10 points per level up)

*) Attack power increases by 100%

*) Damage dealt increases by 300% in a successful ambush.

— —

*) Obtained Class specific skills : 

1) Backstab – level 1 

Type : Active

Skill description : teleports the user behind the target in a stabbing stance.

Skill cost : 50 mana

Range : 5 meters

Cool down : 10 minutes

—

2) Stealth – level 1 

Type : Passive

Skill description : completely conceales the user's aura in dark places.

—

3) Silent steps – level 1

Type : Passive 

Skill description : masks the sound of the user's footsteps. ]

—+—

Reading through the perks of her class, especially the skills, Rhea was overjoyed. 

After all, with them, she could make short work of these nasty spiders, without exerting much effort.

Just then, another round of notifications started echoing inside her mind.

[ You have leveled up ! ]

[ You have leveled up ! ]

[ You have leveled up ! ]

[ You have leveled up ! ]

[ You have leveled up ! ]

Since Rhea's level restriction was removed after the rank promotion, she leveled up 5 times, courtesy of the reward that was put on hold previously – from the emergency quest.

Rhea's current status ;

[ Name : Rhea Everlight

Age : 35

Race : Human

Level : 10 –> 15

Class : Assassin

Rank : D–rank

Titles : none

Traits : none

Bloodline : none

— —

Stats :

Strength : 9.8 –> 19.8

Vitality : 9.7 –> 14.7 

Agility : 10.0 –> 20.0

Dexterity : 10.8 –> 20.8

Intelligence : 10.2 –> 15.2

Free stat points : 10 { New ! }

After consulting with Galen about free stat points, she invested them into strength, agility and dexterity. (2+4+4)

Strength : 19.8 –> 21.8

Vitality : 14.7 

Agility : 20.0 –> 24.0

Dexterity : 20.8 –> 24.8

Intelligence : 15.2

Free stat points : 0

— 

Mana : 152

— —

Skills : {New ! }

1) Backstab (Active)

2) Stealth (Passive)

3) Silent steps (Passive)

—

Innate abilities :

1) Dexterous physique (passive) ]

—+—

With Rhea's newfound power, she was perfectly capable to bulldozing through the rest of monsters present inside the cave, even without Galen's help.

But since Galen also needed to kill the monsters for his class quest, he butchered nearly half of them, once again bringing his level to ten, and left the remaining monsters for Rhea to deal with.

Though unlike him, she wasn't able to level up even once, despite killing more than twenty of those spiders.

The reason?

The level difference between her and the monsters had already grown too much, and killing weaker monsters won't provide much exp.

Galen could only be considered cheatingnin this aspect, with his 5x level up speed. 

Not to mention, he could also return back to level 1, by sacrificing his levels while still retaining his strength.

*

After sometime of walking through the cave and dispatching all the spiders they encountered on the way, the two of them eventually reached a massive cavern.

At the centre of it stood a gigantic spider, it's black chitinous body lined with red stripes, and it's twelve eyes filled with potent bloodlust. 

This was biggest spider they came across so far, with a height of almost to 6 meters.

It was standing there menacingly, releasing low growls from time to time.

[ You've come into contact with Queen Arachne – Mother of Arachnids (Common grade – Peak) ]

[ The Queen is furious at the outsiders that had killed her beloved childern, and won't rest until it kills them for revenge. ]

[ Kill the Queen to proceed to the next level. ]

"This should be the boss of those cute spiders." Galen commented in light tone, casually ignoring the looming threat.

"Hmm..." Rhea responded with brief nod, keeping her eyes on the monster.

If it had been any other humans standing here, they would've collapsed from sheer terror upon witnessing the monstrous spider queen.

Even if they gathered their courage and tried to fight it, just its physical defense alone would be enough to make them despair.

But, unfortunately for the queen, the ones standing before her currently were anything but normal.

Galen was an old monster, whose stats at the moment, could even rival that of a mid-Uncommon grade monster.

While, Rhea had already become a D–ranker (equivalent to an uncommon grade monster).

So despite its ridiculous size, the spider was the one actually in trouble right now.

Without Galen having to say anything, Rhea calmly walked forward, her twin daggers dancing gracefully in her delicate hands.

The spider queen, feeling the threat, watched warily without making any movement.

When Rhea got within five meters of the monster, she activated the skill – 'Backstab' and vanished.

*

Galen's current stats ;

Strength : 41

Vitality : 41

Agility : 41

Dexterity : 41

Intelligence : 141 { Mana : 1410 }

Charm : 41

*

Currently stored levels : 18

— —

****

A/N : Since both Galen and Rhea were still inside the dark cave with their visibility reduced, Rhea wasn't affected by his sudden increase in charm, ...yet.