With the fight in the clearing finished James moved with his remaining spiders back into the dungeon. What followed was a feast, the pile of flesh saved from the acid and the man, his head covered in sticky silk laid before James. He started to eat, devouring the flesh while spawning new spiders. Finished with the pile he peeled the armor from the man’s body and ate everything except his head, rolling it towards Joker and the swarm.
While his kin are occupied he walked over to the two females, he tried to summon broodmother’s before but it didn’t work. When he waited for the ambush he activated the ability a few times, testing what it did. James could feel his energy moving but not to his abdomen but instead it focused on his fangs. He positioned himself in front of the first corpse and activated the skill. When he felt ready he thrust his dagger like fangs into the lifeless body. Black energy seeped from his fangs and slowly covered the entire body. Pulling his fangs away the body collapsed in a puddle, slowly moving towards each other and forming a black sphere. With a flash the sphere hardened and with a thud fell to the ground undamaged.
He didn’t wait and quickly did the same with the second corpse, the black energy doing the same as before until the two spheres rested next to each other, he put some spiders on guard duty and rested. It was a long night and he could use a bit of quiet.
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The next morning came faster than James expected, only a few days had passed since he got here, the evolution didn’t count, now he was surrounded by loyal soldiers, his kin and they all looked at the two spheres. The black shell was cracked and the swarm could see movement behind it. Even James got closer, towering over his soldiers as he watched.
Another crack, the egg shook once, twice before exploding outwards. The black glass-like sphere launched itself in all directions. What greeted them was a spider, the body sleek and completely black except for the red eyes. The newest member took some steps before finding her center and looking at James.
“The broodmother greets the Harbinger. Command and I shall follow. What is my name, master?” Before he could answer, the second egg shook violently before exploding like the first one, the shell even killing some spiders in the progress as it flew outwards. The new spider was also black but with purple streaks over her carapace, her eyes are also a deep purple.
“The broodmother greets the Harbinger. Command and I shall follow. What is my name, master?” James groaned in his mind, he hoped they wouldn’t talk like this every time. Still he needed names, he thought for a while and turned to the first broodmother.
“I will call you Neith.” he turned his body to the second one. “Your name is now Freya. Serve me well Broodmothers.”
They both bowed their bodies towards them and started to produce eggs. Each of them dropped around twenty spider eggs that soon hatched. Their spiders were smaller but he could control them just like his normal ones.
“We will serve you master, as will our children. The kin we bring to the swarm.”
James sent them a thankful thought and addressed his entire swarm, his thoughts filling their minds.
“We will move towards the human city, for now we defeated them but what if they send stronger foes out to hunt us? We need to gather information and prepare strategies in advance. Everybody will move into my carapace except Joker, Neith and Freya.”
The spiders sent their understanding and he felt hundreds of little legs climbing up his body. Soon everybody was secure and the small group ventured out. Without the need to hide they even managed to pick up speed, following the tracks of the humans towards their town. He wouldn’t die in this world, not without living his life to the fullest.
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Captain Harkan moved down the main road of the town. How he walked showed his discipline and purpose, he only did things he believed in after all. Reaching the town square he weaved his way through the market stall, dodging playing children with ease and soon found himself in front of the town hall.
It was currently in session but he didn’t care, he had important news after all. Without a warning he pushed the doors open, instantly feeling the stares on him. Still he walked forward and bowed, usually one needed permission to speak here but he didn’t care. He was a man believing in strength and these old men were weak and hungry for power.
“The party we sent out to the dungeon died, their crystals dimmed last night and there was no report from the mage. We need to assume they died to the dungeon boss. I would say it happened two days ago when the crystals dimmed that night.” he said in his gruff voice, his gaze wandering over the faces above him. He saw shock, amusement, fear but also greed as coins switched hands. The elders loved to bet on missions after all.
Harkan growled, hate burning in his eyes as he looked at them. “Well? Do you have an answer, a plan, a strategy? We can’t let our people die like this and the stronger members need to stay here for protection.”
A sultry voice drifted from the corner. A thin pale man walked from the shadows towards Captain Harkan. “Oh my Captain, don’t be so stressed, just a few adventurers died. You act as if we have a problem with that, everyday new people flock to our city. A frontier town is just tempting for the young folk. Just send a few more parties out.” Murmurs of agreement could be heard from the elders and Captain Harkan needed to go, before he killed that little weasel that played the council like an instrument.
Nobody knew his name or where he came from, they only called him the listener. Harkan left and banged the doors shut, the whole council chuckled from his reaction.
A small spider moved further down on his string, hanging from the ceiling of the town hall and listened to the conversation that just happened. Even now all over the town more spiders could be spotted than usual. In barracks, taverns, shops and of course at the walls where guards talked over the adventurers.
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While all of this happened in the town James sat in a large tree, a boar between his fangs and legs as he slowly refilled his biomass. It turns out the broodmothers are a blessing, he could give them orders and command over spiders and they did all the rest. He would need to teach them battle tactics but they could do one thing better than James and that was being a fucking spider.
After they reached the town it only took them an hour to get everything ready and the broodmothers moved out with their kin and invaded the city, spreading out to the different locations and sending their information to the broodmothers. He could request all information at any time. A compressed version filling his thoughts.
So they continued to gather information for a few days, guard rotations, when and which adventures left the town at what time. Lots of gossip but also some useful information like that the council wanted more adventurers sent towards the dungeon and that they only knew two days later that the adventurers died. James felt like he had the best espionage system in the world.
On the third day something important happened, a large group of adventurers left the town, his spiders counted around fifty of them and they all turned towards the dungeon. Getting a new report he heard that the walls are now only sparsely occupied. James body twitched, maybe he could now earn some experience and avoid getting killed by all those adventurers. It was finally time to act and maybe he would try to kill some of the elders, he really hated them after getting reports about their behavior for a few days. Once again it was time for action but now on his terms. He sent a twitch of excitement into his minions and they seemed eager to get their little spider legs dirty. It was time to hunt.