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44 - Capital City

We entered the city early the next day. I was in high spirits until we stepped through the massive gates and I saw webbing everywhere. The streets and nearby buildings were covered in thick webbing. None of the others seemed overly concerned however. Was I the only one that hated spiders?

I gulped while nervously looking around. We would need to cut our way through the webbing like we did the jungle which I wasn’t looking forward to. It was decided we would follow the widest street that wound its way toward the large castle in the middle of the city.

It soon became clear that hacking the webs with our swords wasn’t going to work. The webbing just stuck to everything. “Everyone step back, I’m going to try something.” I called out. The surrounding buildings looked to be made of bricks so hopefully my spell wouldn’t catch the city on fire.

I was about to let loose with my flamethrower spell when a chittering sound came from above us. I looked up to see a giant spider on top of the nearest building. Our hacking of the webs must have alerted it. My mouth dropped open in shock as I was momentarily frozen in fear at the sight of the horse sized monstrosity looming above us.

It was a good thing the rest of my party didn’t hesitate. Lin and Nix immediately fired arrows at it which stuck into its body but did little damage. Ann fired off an earth spell which knocked it to the ground where Lux and Torg hacked it to pieces.

I shook my head, a shiver going down my back as I finally got over my shock. I looked around but didn’t see anything else. Sighing in relief, I got back to work. A spout of flames erupted out from my open hand as I waved it side to side down the street. The fire quickly burned up the webbing, opening up a path for us. A building roof started smoking but Ann was ready with a water spell to put it out.

As I cleared the way past the first building we opened the door to carefully looked inside. It appeared to be a large open warehouse although it was dark and also full of webbing so hard to make anything out. Several cat sized spiders scurried toward us from out of the darkness so we swiftly shut the door. If all the buildings were full of spiders, trying to salvage anything would be a huge pain in the ass.

The next two warehouse buildings were much the same. Good thing the spiders didn’t know how to open doors. My guess was they had gotten in through windows or already open doors. Finally on our fourth try we found a warehouse that wasn’t full of webbing. Ann sent a glowing orb inside to illuminate the interior. We cautiously stepped in while Lux kept watch at the door.

The glowing orb cast eerie shadows but nothing seemed to move inside the building. Stacked along the floor were piles of cut lumber and blocks of stone. It looked to be all building supplies with nothing too interesting. With just a quick look we continued on our way down the street.

The warehouse district turned into various inns, gambling establishments, and bars but the webbing persisted. I had to be more careful now that there was more flammable material around. At an intersection we were once again set upon by spiders. Cat and dog sized arachnids came at us from out of the webbing while larger varieties appeared on the surrounding roofs. I used my flame spells to keep the smaller ones back while Ann and the other girls attacked the larger ones.

My flames made short work of the smaller spiders so I turned my attention upwards. At that moment Lin and Nix shrieked in unison as they were caught in webbing that one of the horse sized monsters shot at them. Torg went to cut them free while Lux stayed with Ann who had already finished off one of the larger spiders using earth lances and lightning.

I used my own earth spell to knock down the spider that had targeted the girls. It soon righted itself but Lux was already next to it and with a powerful slash, cut it in two. Ann finished off the last one while the girls were finally cut free of the webbing. I looked around but that seemed to be the last of them for now. Thankfully it looked like the webbing was starting to lessen.

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We made note of the fanciest looking inn that looked to be web free on the inside. It would make a good home base while we continued to explore. Plus, why not sleep in luxury whenever possible. After the inns we entered a business type district with numerous shops.

I carefully cleared us a path completely through the webbing before we stopped for a break. I was getting tired from using my spells for so long and we hadn’t looked inside any of the buildings I had uncovered yet. It was past noon so time to eat anyway.

I couldn’t help being impressed with how intact everything was. There wasn’t even any signs of looting or bodies like what was present in West Port. It did give me a sense of unease at what had caused the city to be abandoned in the first place.

We entered one of the shops that didn’t have webbing in it and after we were all inside bolted the door. Crystal lighting came on once we were inside which illuminated the contents. Lin went to the back to secure any rear entrances while Nix checked any windows. The shop appeared to be a clothing store with a large variety of clothing on racks.

Shadow had scampered off once we entered the city but must have sensed it was lunch time as she appeared out of nowhere and ran inside the shop just before we bolted the door. She jumped up on the counter and meowed, demanding to be fed.

Everything was intact and in good shape. Now that I thought about it, we could all use a change of clothes and a bath for that matter. I was too tired to look at anything and just grabbed a nearby chair. Ann cleared off the counter and started getting out the food, petting Shadow while she was at it. It was just jerky and other preserved food as we hadn’t hunted anything recently. I didn’t know if the spiders were edible but didn’t want to find out.

Lin and Nix came back after verifying the shop was safe. Lux and Torg stayed by the door. Soon the girls handed out the food and we all relaxed while eating. It was still hard to believe we had really made it to the capital. Even after being attacked by monstrous spiders we still had smiles on our faces. Or at least the girls and I did. Torg and Lux were stone faced as usual. Shadow seemed satisfied with her meal and curled up on the counter.

After eating the girls giggled as they cheerfully looked through the racks. They made me stay sitting while they put on an impromptu fashion show, trying on different dresses to get my reaction. For some reason Nix was doing it too. I didn’t mind since they were all gorgeous and it was rare to see the girls in dresses. Lux and Torg ignored the foolishness and picked out some utilitarian clothes for themselves.

Next it was my turn as they had picked out some clothes for me to try on. They were a lot fancier than I was used to wearing which made me a little uncomfortable. The girls oohing and aahing over me didn’t help and made my cheeks red. Lin and Ann seemed to be getting along much better with Nix. Before they would have never allowed her to join in on ogling me. After getting their fill, we put on new set of casual clothing under our armor and left the store. The fancy clothing they had picked out went in one of our storage bags. Shadow wasn’t done with her nap and ignored us so we just left the door open for her to follow when she was ready.

I was feeling a little better after our short rest and we were now out of the webbing so could move faster. We were still in the commoner part of town so were unlikely to find anything too valuable in the shops. The shops closer to the castle would likely have the treasures we were looking for. We still peeked into a few of the shops on the way but as expected it was pretty basic stuff. They would still be useful, we were just after the more high dollar items.

After the business district there was a residential type area with a park. The park was overgrown and as we got closer we could hear animal noises which made us slow down and take caution. Several wolves ran out of the park, growling at us. After making short work of the wolves we continued on. There were still noises coming from the park but we stuck to the street.

The houses we passed I would consider middle class and were nice enough, but it would take forever to search them all. We all had our eye on the castle and the noble district that surrounded it. By the position of the sun, I didn’t think we would make it there today. We went a few more blocks before calling it a day and started heading back to the inn. I didn’t want to be out on the streets after dark and we still needed to secure the inn.

There was no rush and we planned on exploring the city for a while. I still needed to make it to the towers to see if they held summoning circles and we all couldn’t wait to explore the grand castle looming in the distance. I was excited to uncover some of the mysteries and treasures of the capital city.