Myria says "Alright, if you say so."

We split up and start emptying the shelves of books into our bags as quickly as we can. Since we have no idea if or when we might be attacked we can't really waste any time. Even if the spiders do nothing, I still don't want to put off the journey any longer than I have to.

My pouch is quickly filled up, but Myria is still going strong with the backpack. So, while she continues grabbing books I head up to the roof to take a look around. The city is still completely silent, at least this portion of it, no sign of the spiders whatsoever.

While their absence is good for our current mission, it worries me quite a bit. There is no way they have given up on finding a way out of the barrier. I find myself fighting the temptation to drop down one of their holes and take a look around.

Luckily, Myria finishes filling the backpack and comes to find me before I do something stupid. We quickly return to the pillar and climb up to Core's room, which is filled with sprites. They are working to move the piles of materials in the room through the teleporter.

Core says "Welcome back! Any problems?"

"Only the sheer number of books contained in the library! It looks like the others are doing well?"

Core says "Yes, they also have not encountered any problems. The material retrieval is going smoothly."

Myria says "Where should I pile the books?"

Core says "Over in that corner, please."

"I'm getting really curious as to what the spiders are up to."

Core says "You are thinking of doing something crazy aren't you?"

"Yeah, actually I am."

Myria says "Not without me!"

"Sorry, Myria, but you can't go with me."

Myria says "Why not?!"

"Because you don't have wings."

Myria says "Oh."

"Core, pull one guard from each group and have them watch Myria's back while she finishes clearing the library."

Core says "Alright. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go down a rabbit hole and see what happens."

Myria says "That sounds like a horrible plan!!"

"Yeah, probably. But I can't think of any other way to find out what the spiders are up to."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Myria says "In the meantime the rest of us are supposed to just collect materials?"

"Yes, as quickly as possible. Who knows if my actions will trigger the spiders to attack. So be on your guard!"

Core says "I will warn the other groups."

Myria says "You better be careful!"

On my way out of the door I give Myria a smile, then I spread my wings and jump. I circle out over the city looking for all the spider holes that I can see. Then picking the biggest one I fly down into it, fold my wings, and let gravity take me.

Luckily, the hole goes straight down without any curves, only the occasional web. Due to my falling speed I crash right through those without slowing down much. After falling for several thousand feet I see light below me so I spread my wings and start slowing down.

The tunnel lets out into a large cavern, leaving me flying up near the roof of the cavern. It is a good thing for me, because the cavern floor is covered with spiders. There are thousands of them, scurrying every which way, looking more like ants than spiders.

My eyes quickly sort out the chaos, these spiders are different from the ones I fought before. They seem simpler, like worker ants, and some of them are even carrying loads. The ones carrying the loads are all heading in the same direction, probably towards the controller.

The rest are heading in the opposite direction through multiple tunnels. Then, as I am trying to figure out what's going on, every spider freezes. Suddenly I feel like I have a million eyes staring at me, then the spiders scatter.

Within a minute there isn't a single spider left in the cavern and the only sound is the flapping of my wings. Well, it would seem the controller knows I am here, I wonder what she will do. Then again, I am also wondering where the spiders were getting the food I saw them carrying.

If the spiders have found a new food source then that is bad news for us. The only thing keeping them contained and low in numbers was a lack of food. If they have more food they can birth more spiders and possibly threaten the barrier.

After waiting around for about ten minutes with nothing happening I decide to go look around. Picking one of the tunnels the spiders without loads went into, I start moving. The tunnel is low and seems to have been dug out by the spiders, and it smells funky.

At times I have to duck down and even crawl because the tunnel is built for the spiders. After about twenty minutes I come across another cavern, one that looks like a battlefield. There are a couple of dozen of the worker spiders tearing apart bodies, both spider bodies and something else.

The spiders practicing cannibalism isn't anything new, but the other bodies are. This must be the new food source the spiders found, but what are they and where did they come from? To find out I need to get a look at those bodies before the spiders finish tearing them apart.

So I draw Blitz and charge out into the cavern cutting down as many of the workers as I can. When I launch my attack all the spiders freeze making it really easy. Then after a few seconds they abandon their loads and all scatter into various tunnels.

15 Worker Spiders killed! 1,500 Exp gained!

'What crappy exp!'

Once all the spiders are gone I clean and sheath Blitz and start taking a look at the bodies. They are beastmen, but not my beastmen, they are more humanoid beasts. Similar to Windy and her people, except not based on weasels, among the bodies I find three different types.

The most numerous among the bodies are wolves, but they are not huge like a werewolf. In fact, they aren't much bigger than a human, although from the muscle density they are much stronger. The next most common body is a cat type, maybe a leopard from the looks of them.

They are also pretty close to human sized, but their build would suggest extreme speed. The last type of body is much bigger, but there are only a few of them. From what is left of them I would guess they are a bear-type, but a smaller type.

The few bodies here are a few feet taller than a human, but a lot bulkier. Along with the bodies there is also equipment scattered about, but it is fairly low quality. The best weapon I find is actually made of bronze, so I'm guessing the beasts are fairly primitive.