The death didn’t come straight away, as Lucas was expecting, but it didn’t take long for the giant spider to wrap him completely from the neck down in what seemed like very thick webbing. He was carried away to a place deep in the forest. Being carried like a bag by a giant spider was very unsettling, to say the least, but he kept his eyes wide open; he wanted to know where he was going.

The spider moved swiftly through the woods despite its large size. When the trees became too densely packed, it simply jumped over them, almost giving Lucas a hard attack every time. That could probably be a sensation on Earth for thrill-seekers; there would be lines of people ready to do the “Giant Spider Jump”. Lucas, however, was afraid of what was going to happen once he arrived at the spider’s destination, so he wasn’t having such a great time.

About thirty minutes later, Lucas saw, from his compromised view—being upside down—what looked like a smaller, but still big, spider on one side. That was later confirmed by the increasing number of spiders that were popping up everywhere. He couldn’t help but feel panicked. He tried everything he could to free himself again, but he could barely move inside his cocoon.

Before being wrapped in the web, he had tried to protect himself and placed both of his hands in front of him. They were still like that inside the web. He had tried to see if he could use something from his ring to saw the web—his axe long gone, lost in the woods somewhere—but he couldn’t bring anything to the outside, probably due to the lack of space for the things to come out, being tightly trapped in the web.

It didn’t take long after that for them to reach what he imagined was the spider and its children’s lair. There were hundreds of them all around, and Lucas wasn’t the only human there. When he arrived, he saw six people wrapped in a web like himself, each one hanging from a tree’s branch. He could see their faces and he was surprised when he recognized four of them. They had pretty scared looks on their faces. Their hair was all ruffled up, but they remained silent despite their surprise at seeing him.

Lucas was placed on a tree close to them. And a few minutes later, most of the spiders left. That’s when he found the courage to break the silence.

“How long have you guys been here?” The other’s looked at him oddly after hearing his question. Some of them looked on the verge of cursing him. But he understood; they had a reason. He had killed one of them not long ago.

“Our group arrived two days ago…” it was the old man who finally replied, he had a resigned look on his face.

That was the group that tried to kill Lucas a few days ago. It ended with him killing one of them and tearing off the feet of two others. He had no way to see if their feet had grown back up, but they didn’t seem too happy to see him. However, he was way past the hatred he felt for being attacked. Right now, he had other priorities and only cared about how he could escape this place. They were there for two days, so this meant that he still had some time.

“What about you?” Lucas asked the other two. But they looked even more stressed than the old man’s group. They looked at him but didn’t say a word. Lucas noticed that one of them was crying. Probably not a good sign, Lucas thought. He wondered if they had seen something the old man’s group hadn’t.

“Do the spiders go away often?” Lucas turned again to the old man, who took a little longer to reply this time, looking distracted.

“Yes, they come back every few hours, but the tall one only comes back when someone new arrives, it seems,” the old man said. “It looks like we were mistaken to think that you were behind the disappearances,” he said apologetically.

Lucas barely heard him, his voice sounding weak and coarse. “Yes, you were. But that doesn’t matter anymore.”

The old man shook his head with sadness in his eyes. “Yes, I guess it doesn’t.”

“Have you tried using your magic?” Lucas asked.

“I have. But this web is too strong, and I can’t move enough to produce fireballs. Besides, I don't have my staff, I never learned to do it without it,” he said, helplessly. Lucas nodded. It made sense that he couldn’t use his magic, otherwise he would have already escaped.

Lucas tried to make a pendulum movement on the tree, but the web that was tied to one of the branches was strong. He could try to break the branch this way, but the only thing he could achieve doing that was falling from up there and injuring himself. He wondered if he could bite the web and tear it off, but the thought of having his mouth filled with that stuff and being unable to take it off afterward made him reject that idea.

After a few more minutes of fruitless ideas, he was beginning to feel more and more desperate. He wasn’t ready to just give up like the others who were also trapped seemed to have. That just couldn’t be the way he died.

A few hours later, the spiders returned, all but the biggest one, and they surrounded their party. One of the spiders climbed on one of the two that had arrived before the old man’s group. The man started to scream immediately, shaking the branch he was hanging from, anticipating what was to come.

What happened next was something Lucas regretted seeing: noticing the scream, the spider approached the man’s head, and bit it straight off, ripping the man’s face to shreds and munching on it afterward. The man’s scream was cut short. The other spiders nearby followed suit, climbing on top of the man and eating his body at great speed.

That scene sent chills down Lucas’s spine, and he almost threw up at the sight. The others close to him seemed to be having the same reaction, and he even noticed when one of the warriors he had fought previously threw up on his web. Five minutes later, it was over. The spiders left, leaving them alone once again.

Lucas thought about coming up with a plan with the others, but he couldn’t think of anything they could do in a situation like this; all of them had their hands tied, quite literally.

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However, the scene he had watched made his desperation go up a level. He couldn’t wait anymore. He tried everything again, using his death aura and breaking the web through force, but nothing worked. He could move his arms a little, but that was it. Lucas really began to reconsider the idea of eating the web away, when he had another, not much better, idea.

That’s going to hurt, he thought. He had no clue if it was going to work or not, but he was past that phase. It was now clear to him what would happen if he didn’t leave soon. Desperate situations call for desperate measures. Before anything else, Lucas opened his status and put his three undistributed points in Strength, bringing it up to twenty. He would need it for what he was about to do.

He had a little room for movement in his arms, and the next thing he did was move his right hand to hold his left arm. The next part was tricky. He wasn’t sure if he could apply enough pressure for what he needed to do, but he had to try.

He started to press. It didn’t take long for him to start feeling pain in his arm. With twenty in Strength, he probably wasn’t too far off from being able to crush rocks with his bare hands, so it shouldn’t be too surprising he could do something similar to his weaker bones. The pain, however, made him pause for a while. Now he was sure he could do what he had intended; he only needed enough courage.

After five minutes, he grabbed his arm again. He was ready; his teeth were clenched, and he closed his eyes. Right after, he pressed as hard as he possibly could while at the same time pulling it to the side. Tears involuntarily started pouring from his eyes, and a muffled sound came out of his mouth when a cracking sound was heard.

“Hey, are you okay?” the old man, who was closest to him, asked.

“I’m fine,” Lucas was able to mutter. “I just have a stomachache, ignore me.”

The old man nodded in sympathy.

Lucas stopped what he was doing. His eyes still closed, and pain was written all over his face. He wanted to scream, but he was afraid he would draw the attention of the spiders. I have to keep going, he thought. If his plan worked, and it had, he now had an exposed bone coming out of his left arm. That was one of the most painful things he had ever done to himself, but he couldn’t stop now.

With his fingers, he searched for the bone and found it. Its sharp edge scratched his soft skin, producing blood just as he was expecting it. The next part would be even more painful. He started moving his injured arm in a repetitive motion, forward and back. Back when he was caught, he was almost able to free himself with the axe by sawing through the web, but was interrupted at the last moment. This time he needed to do the same, but with his bone this time around.

“Hmph!” The pain was unbearable and he let out a groan. He noticed that it was working—the sharp edge of his exposed bone was working like a saw, and little by little he was cutting the web on its path. However, Lucas soon started seeing black dots on his vision and passed out.

Lucas woke up to a horrifying scream, and when he opened his eyes, his heart almost stopped. A spider was moving on his body, but he remained still. The screaming came from the other guy who had arrived before the old man’s group. Lucas didn’t have the cold blood to turn his head and look, but he could tell by the distance the sound was coming from.

He didn’t know why that spider was on his body, perhaps because he was the last one to arrive. However, he didn’t think it would be wise to complain, so he didn’t make a sound, despite the excruciating pain that was coming from his arm. The spider stopped, its head dangerously close to his injured arm now. Does this thing know what I’ve done?

Lucas closed his eyes again. If he was going to be next, he didn’t want to have to look at the thing as it was about to eat his face. However, a few seconds later, the spider left his body and joined the others as they devoured the man a few feet away from him. Lucas let out a breath of relief. The spider had probably sensed his blood somehow and was curious, but he was saved by the bell. That served as a warning for him; he had to hurry.

After they finished their meal, Lucas started sawing again. There was no time to lose, so he fought through the pain and continued his work. The progress was slow, but it was undoubtedly working. Lucas couldn’t smile, however, because the pain was almost too great to bear. He started seeing black dots again after ten minutes and stopped. He collected himself; he couldn’t pass out again. The next time the spiders appeared, it could be him they would feed on, so he resisted.

Five minutes later, he was feeling better and started the process again.

This happened for a long time before he felt he was very close to breaking through. The spiders had left about an hour and a half ago, so this was as good a time as ever to try his escape. He started sawing with even more vigor. Ten minutes later, a tear could be seen in his cocoon. It was enough for him to slip through.

Lucas thought about making a plan, but there was no plan to be made. He was still pretty stuck on the webs on his back, so he just plunged his body through the tear. He didn’t fall immediately; the web followed him, slowing his descent until it finally broke. He fell the remaining three feet, hitting the ground.

As soon as he reached the ground, he got up and started running, ignoring the protests made by those who were watching him. He couldn’t save them, and if he tried and the spiders arrived, he would definitely be dead. He only nodded to the old man when he heard him.

“If you go to the city, tell the others to not come looking for us!”

He felt no hard feelings for them anymore because he knew their destiny was the worst possible. And he had to run if he wanted to escape the same fate. He noticed he had lost a lot of blood during this period. It was hard to run in a straight line, his mind was dizzy, but he refused to pass out; he simply couldn’t.

After he made some distance from that haunted place, he began to move more carefully. There was still the possibility of becoming trapped in another web, and he knew the spiders were still out there. If one of them saw him, it would be troublesome.

After two hours of this, when he finally felt that he had escaped, a small spider, reaching his knees in size, came out of nowhere to his left and jumped towards him. Without even thinking, his reflexes made him raise his arm to protect himself, and the spider was impaled by his exposed bone.

Lucas threw up right after hearing two notifications, he couldn’t hold it in. It was more due to the pain than anything else. Impaling the spider with his exposed bone was never in his mind; he just realized what he had done afterwards, and it was too late. After throwing up, his vision started to become blurred, he couldn’t keep himself standing anymore. He sat down with his back against a tree. If that spider wasn’t alone, he would be dead in a few seconds; so he waited, but nothing happened.

Had this spider strayed from the others? It was one of the smallest he had seen; it probably ran amok and ended up meeting him. He sighed, a little relieved after seeing he hadn’t been found. After a few more minutes, he started walking again. It took another two hours for him to feel like he had left the area where the Dark Forest was located.

He stopped in front of a mountain; he was looking at a cavern at the base of the mountain and considering wheather he should go in. After some consideration, he decided to take the risk because, honestly, he was exhausted from all that had happened and couldn’t continue much longer. The cavern was empty when he arrived, and he dropped to the ground.

He almost couldn’t believe he had escaped, and he would have yelled with joy if he had the strength in him, but he hadn’t. All he had was put on his escape, and he was burned out. He finally had time to look at his notifications, however, and what he saw surprised him greatly.

Achievement Unlocked: Survivor

Like a wolf or a fox, you are willing to gnaw your own leg to escape a trap and survive and have thus shown you will stop at nothing to live another day, even if it means using your very bones on your path to greatness. +11 all stats.