Hearing the sound of a human trapped somewhere amongst the remnants of the deceased, Alex moved, rushing over to the corner of the room where a large Arachnae corpse seemed to be nestled unnoticed and hidden amongst the surrounding rocks.
It was about the size of a small bus, and its carapace strangely resembled the surrounding moss and cave rock. At first, Alex had mistaken it for a boulder.
Hold on… Alex thought, it just moved; it's alive.
The large creature lay resting above a mass of wrapped webbing in the shape of an adult human, complete with limbs, arms, and a completely wrapped head. As Alex approached, the creature seemed to rouse and rose to its feet as its eyes swivelled toward him.
That must be the victor of the battle royale, Alex determined.
He was devoid of any weapon, having lost his sword at some point during his capture. So he simply reached forward, grabbed the large arachnid's head, and pulled, while being careful to avoid its large fangs.
He tore its head clean off.
Huh, that really worked. I mean, I thought it would, judging by the level difference between me and a newborn. But I'll be damned if that isn't the grossest thing I've ever done. He shook the ichor off his hands and heaved the massive Arachnae corpse off the writhing and waking human wrapped in spider webbing.
[You have defeated level 4 Arachnae Spiderling]
That's a bit low of a level for all of the corpses here… I was expecting more. Alex rubbed his chin curiously as the mummified human wriggled before him.
"Come here, kid. Help him," Alex called back at the girl, nodding towards the guard. Still clutching a piece of arachnid carapace, she moved towards the struggling webbed figure.
“O… Oh… Oh k-kay?”
She worked methodically, her fingers deftly pulling at the strands of web. Alex watched the girl's precise movements, his own body rejuvenated from the potion. He had initially been suspicious of her survival, but the small glimpse of soft and obviously human flesh he'd caught under her wraps each time she spoke had alleviated most of his suspicions. So for now he continued to observe, wondering as to the identity of the person trapped beneath the wrapping. Each pull from her fingers freed the bound male in guards uniform further, her delicate digits working with unnatural precision, unravelling the sticky strands effortlessly. The guard’s eyes, clouded with confusion and fear, fluttered open.
"Who are you?" the guard croaked once his head was freed, his voice hoarse. The girl didn't respond, her focus solely on her task as she moved to free his bound hands and feet. Her hands never paused."Where am I?" The bound man's voice echoed and bounced off the walls, his face laced with confusion.
“Calm down, and try not to be too loud. It'll come back to you eventually.” Alex wanted to tell him where he was, but most people didn't take well to finding out they were in the heart of an undiscovered colony of giant man-eating monsters. He didn't want the guy to cause a scene or attract attention. None of them could afford it at the moment. Better to let him realize how messed up things are slowly. Alex decided. “We’re in the same situation as you. What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked cautiously.
The man rubbed his head, trying to piece together fragmented memories. "I remember the battle... Arachnae swarming… and I… lost myself in my skill, lost track of the others."
"I'm… John," the guard said, more to himself than anyone, as he rubbed his wrists where the webs had been. "Level 19… berserker." His voice held a hint of pride despite his evident exhaustion. His hand instinctively touched the insignia on his uniform. "Third strongest in my squad."
A grin spread across his features at the memory of his strength, before other memories returned, setting his face into a grim countenance. “Oh, I see. I was fighting the Black Mass.”
Alex nodded in confirmation. “That’s right. I’m Alex, nice to meet you. Although I wish it was under better circumstances”
“It’s nice? What’s nice about this?” John gestured innocently and offered him a quizzical look at his unfamiliar phrasing. John sat up, looking at the ground, feeling the damp sediment beneath them. He then sighed and raised his head. "Do you think anyone knows we're down here?" He looked to Alex with a hopeful yet forlorn gaze.
"Hard to say," Alex replied, squinting in the dim light. "Does your… squad have a way of tracking us ?"
The girl removed the final strands binding his feet and moved closer to Alex. She had left the rest of webbing on his limbs, torso and face unremoved, choosing to leave the uninhibiting bindings on his form. Probably as not to waste time, Alex guessed. All of them were still mostly covered in webbing.
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She moved to stand beside Alex. He noted her apparent dependence on his presence and guessed she would even go as far as holding his hand for emotional support if he allowed it. It was most likely the need for physiological stability as well as a need for physical protection. It reminded him of behaviour often seen back on Earth in people rescued from harrowing environments. Poor thing, he thought.
Once freed, John the guard leaned forward and made to brush off the remnants of thick spider silk on his face and uniform, before giving up and settling with only freeing his face. He sat there, swaying slightly and clutching his head in pain. “This stuff is tougher than the stories said.” He muttered in disgust, pulling at another strand of webbing. “And as far as my squad finding us; I doubt it. Everyone thought the disappearances were an orc tribe using scare tactics. Not the Black Mass, not these creatures.” He spat out the word with disgust. “No one was prepared for that. Without a… Wayfinder, or Pathfinder, it’s not possible.”
The guard then tried to stand and stumbled, his legs wobbling. Seated once more, he checked his pockets, only to find the hilts at his waist drew broken daggers and missing sheathes. Relief finally washed over Guard John's face as he discovered a single weapon still attached to his belt. He pulled out a pristine and unused long sword, Inspecting it for damage. "Still sharp," he muttered.
“Can I use that?” Alex asked, eyeing the blade. “It's better for all of us. I’m good with a blade, and I'm level 36.”
“Sorry, can’t give up my main weapon,” John replied, a bit too eagerly. Then, looking at Alex with an apologetic expression, John straightened up. His chest puffed out slightly, his youthful face set in a determined, albeit naive, expression. “But don’t worry. I’ll keep us all safe, just stay behind me.”
Alex exchanged a glance with the girl, who giggled softly, a dainty wheezing sound beneath her wrappings. As they talked further, the girl moved to rummage through the corpses, both Arachnae and human, with an unsettling curiosity. She returned to Alex, and approached him, her arms extended, presenting several chipped claymores and a fresh and undamaged one.
“Where’d you find these?” Alex asked, taking a chipped sword and storing the rest away in his Inventory with a touch of his finger on each blade, four in total. The girl merely shrugged, her expression hidden behind the webbing. Alex met her obscured gaze, “Well thanks again, kid.”
She beamed, a smile clear beneath her coverings.
The girl’s curiosity seemed boundless. As they spoke she moved from corpse to corpse with ease, her actions meticulous and silent. She soon approached Alex again, this time with a handful of small marbles glowing faintly with a swirling purple light in his Outer Sense-enhanced vision.
Alex turned one of the marbles in his hand, its light still pulsing weakly. “What are these?” He ask, intrigued.
“P-power,” she replied, rolling the words on her tongue as if tasting them for the first time.
John, overhearing the conversation, explained the nature of magical cores. "It’s a core, I think. The memory is hazy, but I’m pretty sure of it.”
“Magical creatures develop them at some point, although human mages and some other living races have their hearts become mana organs instead.” He paused in consideration, and stared at his hands as if mesmerized, “Although… I guess we’re all magical creatures now, in a sense.”
His expression dimmed as he raised his head “Core's brightness indicates their power. These, though,” he gestured to the dull cores in the girl's hand, "see that? They have no glow, so they’re pretty much useless.”
Alex turned to look at the cores in the girl's palm, each soft and swirling purple light made visible by his passive skill. “So they have no power? Are you sure?”
John shrugged. “I mean, they don't amount to much. Dozens would be needed to even gain any simple effect, and only master blacksmiths found in the greatest cities can combine multiple magical cores, and they only combine the greatest of cores for the highest prices.” He waved a hand dismissively and groaned, no doubt distracted by venom-induced nausea. “So no. They have no power, no more than a Child's toy. They're worthless.”
Alex eyed the glowing cores. He wasn't convinced.
John closed his eyes and rubbed his temples as he rose to his feet as if trying to summon more memories. His eyes brightened as something seemed to return to him. “But higher beasts, the evolved Arachnae cores, those are valuable."
John stood and sighed heavily. "Great, no way to call for help." he stopped moving and stood still, breathing heavily.
“Eya save us.” He muttered under his breath. He was staring into space as if reading an invisible panel. “Have you seen this quest? Oh gods.”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. I know. I don’t know much about caves, but I figure as long as we keep heading up or find a running stream we should be able to make it out of here. We should get moving.”
At his words, John hesitated before nodding despite his fear, and all three of them made to move to the spaces exit, before a sight caused them to slow to a stop.
Four Arachnae had appeared at the cave entrance moving slowly on a multitude of legs. Arachnae slowed and stopped in apparent jerky shock as they noticed Alex, John, and the girl some distance ahead of their path.
These Arachnae are large, about twice as tall as Alex, but they were different. Vastly different. While they all had 8 wickedly sharp limbs, each as long as he was, none of them had the spider's head and fangs he’d come to expect.
Instead, above the eight muscular segmented legs the base of their bodies rose to a mound where a muscular segmented human-looking torsos sprouted, each as large as Alex was tall, and with arms as thick and long as he was. But their similarities to humans ended at their basic shape, their skin was smooth chitin with the hard jagged contours of a spider's exoskeleton, and their faces were a featureless mask, as if undeveloped. On their torsos where a collection of eyes, spread in the same way all arachnid's eyes were. Their long fingers were unnaturally sharp as daggers, all four, and each digit dripped with a strange liquid that flared in Alex’s Outer Vision.
They weren't fingers he realised. They were fangs.
The three humans stood there in shock, frozen, as a much larger Arachnae approached from behind the four entrants, looming behind its brethren with an air of scrutiny. Its face was slightly more defined, with some semblance of a nose protruding from the smoothness and even had the beginnings of a mouth. Yet its featureless segmented body was still smooth with unnatural contours of chitin plates, like a crash dummy from Earth, but monstrously large and insectile.
It stood with authority behind its four lesser kin and observed the surrounding corpses, the girl, John, and then Alex.
Then it spoke.
“Kill them.”