Of the adventurers that live past their first week of monster encounters, the highest cause of death among them is people. When fighting criminals, most of you are going to freeze up. Fighting an intelligent person isn’t the same as fighting monsters. People just can’t handle going for the killing blows, especially when fighting people that are being controlled, such as some cultists. SOo,you need to decide before you take on a quest hunting people if you are ready to kill them. As once you start fighting, it’s either you or them.
-The Bloody Axe, Day 15 of Adventurer Training
I flew back down to the siders, ready to deliver my commands upon them, but they were gone. Nowhere to be seen! They disappeared! I flew around a little, searching for them. And I got caught again. I swear, these threads are actually invisible, I can’t see them! But, lo and behold! The spider cultists reappeared and let me out. At least they’re learning. Alright! Spiders! I have found food! It is time for us to climb!
At that statement, I felt massive resistance from every single spider there. Not a single one seemed like they were willing to climb higher, being afraid of something. Alright, c’mon what’s wrong with you stupid spiders? There’s food right above you! We just need to go get it! At that statement, the spiders started sending me new images. And they were not pretty.
It was a scene of hundreds of thousands of insects crawling all over a massive spider that spanned the length of the tree. They were biting and tearing it, opening tiny wounds they would then manage to crawl into. And then the spider collapsed, consumed by the hoard of ravenous insects.
Ah, I see. You know what? Maybe we can find another source of food. Yeah, let’s leave those bugs alone, they seem like good people, wouldn’t want to harm them for no reason. It wouldn’t make sense. Mhmm. So, where else can I get unlimited food for spiders? I wonder…
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Spiders? Can you make spiders strong enough to catch… birds? At that question, I saw some ardent refusal. Gah, birds and their stupid spider eating abilities. I’ll get them eventually. Alright! Wait! Do I even need to feed the spiders…? I mean, I could just convert some insects instead… Hmmm… Yeah no. I can’t abandon these guys, can I? I mean, as terrifying as they are, if you look past their hairiness and way too many legs, their eyes are kinda cute. Kinda like puppy dog eyes. Yeah, let’s go with that. They’re cute! And you can’t just abandon cute things, it’s a crime against nature. Against the very forces of the universe itself!
Alright, I’m going about this wrong, this is a fantasy world! I bet the fantasy spiders are weird too! So! Spiders! How would you normally get food? At that I was sent two very different images, each coming from a different half of the group. One half just showed normal spider things. Making webs and waiting for the insects to be caught in them.
And the other half showed- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?!?!?! OH GOD THAT IS NOT RIGHT! I THOUGHT THESE WERE SPIDERS! DIDN’T THE SYSTEM SAY I CONVERTED SPIDERS?
System notifications may be changed within the bounds of the user's perception.
What? I have literally no idea what that means. But anyways. The other half. It started off weird, as I expected with them being fantasy spiders and all. So, it started with them swarming a boar, climbing all over it. The boar, of course, tried to get them off, shaking. And then they… Okay, so that place where the webs normally come out of a spider. It opened up, I mean, like opened up from three sections, each with pointy rows of teeth. And then they reformed into a stinger. A scorpion stinger. And they all stung the boar, all at once. The boar went from thrashing about to dissolving right at that instant. It went from a thriving boar to a puddle of goo within an instant. And the spiders just lapped up the mess.