I dragged the two bound humans back to the campfire where they’d first spotted me. I couldn’t be bothered to deal with the guy that I had killed. I thought about making sure the corpse would disappear someway, but even if the bandits found him, they would have no idea that it was a sapient spider that had killed him. They would likely think he’d been attacked by some kind of wild animal.

Cellestra was kneeling next to the human slave that still had the crossbow bolt in his calf. He saw me approach and shivered even more than the other bandits had when they had laid eyes on me.

I didn’t look that dangerous, did I?

The elf was currently using some salve on the human’s wound. She really had a heart of gold…

“Kealyna, I’m gonna need your help over here. The bolt pierced his artery, he’ll bleed out if we don’t heal it quickly.”

“K-K-Kealyna?” The human slave said, stuttering.

He may have been a human, but I pitied him. As if this slave collar wasn’t enough, they’d shot him like a beast.

“My friend,” Cellestra calmly said.

I approached the two of them and casually let go of the threads that I used to drag the humans behind me.

“F-Friend?”

As I got close, the slave looked into my eyes and I could see the life drain from his face. He seemed like he wanted to scream, but was frozen with fear, and couldn’t utter another word. Cellestra placed her hand around the bolt’s shaft and was ready to rip it out with force.

“Ready?” She asked.

I nodded with my pedipalps, causing the human to emit a shrill cry. It was soon replaced by a loud scream of pain and suffering as the projectile was forcefully ripped out of his calf, causing the wound to bleed profusely. I quickly cast my healing light spell on the wound and saw it close up within a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately, the slave had passed out. I didn’t know if it was because of the pain, the fear, or the blood loss that he’d suffered.

“He’s fine,” Cellestra assured me. “I should have known this could happen with you here.”

She immediately went silent before continuing softly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

I put a pedipalp on her shoulder to let her know it was fine. I should have expected as much as well. Not everyone had the liberty of having had time to get to know me. I wouldn’t be surprised to see many more run or pass out upon seeing me.

Cellestra acknowledged my appendage on her shoulder before she stood up and stared at the humans that were struggling to escape. I’d made sure nothing like that would happen.

“You brought back two? What did you do to the third? Did you…?”

I nodded, knowing exactly what she meant.

“I don’t blame you for that. Death is truly a mercy for these lowlifes.”

Not so much of an angel anymore, was she?

Cellestra was currently speaking elven, so the humans behind me had likely no idea what she was talking about. Cellestra’s next words shook even me.

“We should find out what there is to find out from those two, and then make sure they never hurt anyone else again.”

I didn’t move an inch after she said that, causing her to elaborate.

“I mean, we obviously can’t set them free and we can’t take them with us. That leaves only one option.”

She was right. Killing these humans would be a favor for the world. I turned around and skittered to my captives. Cellestra followed and knelt next to the first human as I positioned myself on his body, holding it down with my legs and baring my fangs, using this body as a persuasion method.

I removed the webs from his mouth, and watched as he stared into my eyes, shivering continually.

“So,” Cellestra started in the human language. “Tell us what you’re doing here.”

“Witch! Ingo will have your head!” He spat out, trying to act tough. His entire body was trembling beneath me, confirming that he wasn’t confident about this at all.

“Last chance,” Cellestra emphasized. “Tell us what you’re doing here and what you’re planning to do to those elves.”

The human defiantly spat in one of my eyes. I had to give it to him, he was keeping the act up until the bitter end.

With that, I decided to end his life. This human would give us nothing that we needed. Besides, I was going to kill him sooner or later anyway. Why prolong his suffering?

I stabbed my legs in his chest, penetrating his armor and creating massive wounds. I’d impaled his heart with one, killing him almost instantly.

You have killed a Human Bandit: EXP+417

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 3!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

That was another piece of trash removed from this world. It appeared I’d been right with my initial assessment that these were bandits. The message that this blessing gave me confirmed that fact, offering me some relief.

Hold on a second.

Didn’t I have to kill a higher sapient being for an achievement? Did humans not count for that, or what?

When the blessing didn’t give an answer, I shifted over to place myself on top of the other human, repeating much of the same intimidation tactics as Cellestra asked him the same question.

“Just kill me. I’m dead already anyway.”

This bandit, after his initial shivering at the sight of me, remained completely still. It appeared he had accepted his fate, but he did not seem willing to tell us anything. I looked over at Cellestra (without turning my head obviously. How she managed to know that I was awaiting an answer from her was a mystery to me) who nodded.

I struck with my bloodied legs once more, killing this bandit as well.

You have killed a Human Bandit: EXP+434

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 4!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

“Kealyna. One of these bandits has a key for that slave collar, and an orb to go with it. We should be able to use that to get information from this last guy.”

Key and an orb? Was the orb used to control the person’s actions? That seemed to be different from my old word, where the magic used to control the slave collar was bound to the key itself.

Cellestra started rummaging through one of the bandits’ belongings, checking his pockets and a small leather pack that she’d found under his clothes. She opened it and shook her head before checking the next guy.

“Got them,” She said as she held up a bronze key and a small red orb. “Let’s see what this guy knows. Hopefully, he will be able to tell us more.”

I’d always hated magic that was used on slaves. This time it was no different, but it was perhaps the best means of getting to know more.

“At least we will get to know a couple of things, due to his collar. Do you think we should head back and take him with us?”

I looked over at the unconscious slave. If we were waiting for him to wake up, we might as well start our journey back and interrogate him when he’s awake. There was no reason to kill this person who was obviously here against his will. If it were up to me, I didn’t have any problem with setting him free.

That was, after this was all over. We could get rid of his slave collar, breaking the magic, but we could not risk him informing the bandits in case he had some form of loyalty to them. I doubted it was the case, but we couldn’t risk it.

The best thing we could do was hold him captive and have him feed us information.

I nodded absent-mindedly.

I thought about it for a moment. If there was one slave, there were probably more. This would be an ideal situation for me to at last perform some knightly actions in this new world.

How many of them would there be?

I didn’t know how many bandits there were, but if they were planning to attack a caravan of some sort, they would have to have quite a few people. If that was the case, it was likely they had more than a couple of slaves as well. It appeared I’d stumbled upon an opportunity that seemed to fit me. Spider or not, I would not let anyone live like that.

I wrapped the slave in more silk, preventing any kind of movement, and Cellestra placed him on top of my abdomen where I bound him to my body with more silk. The elf then climbed back on top of me, her hands in my long, fluffy hair, and we set out on our return journey.