I was about to ask Seralyn if she had any idea what was coming. I was standing ready, together with Velariah and Draco, to face whatever was coming our way.

From Seralyn’s tone of voice, I was expecting something large and dangerous. I could feel the ground vibrate but not as much as with the trolls. If I were to guess, it was smaller than a troll.

“Are you just going by sound there, Seralyn? Because I can feel something coming, and it doesn’t feel large.”

“Then it’s most likely Hobs,” Draco said.

“Hobgoblins?” Velariah asked.

Draco nodded. “The evolved subspecies.”

“They dangerous?” I asked.

“Not more dangerous than trolls. Not nearly as powerful, just quicker.”

“Shouldn’t be much of an issue then,” Seralyn said, with an arrow aimed at the darkness behind the torch.

Soon enough, a greenish figure started to make its way into the light with a large spear. Without hesitation, Seralyn fired her arrow. The figure roared in pain before charging our way. Draco and I were ready to block, but Seralyn had already fired another arrow, this time hitting its head, instantly killing it just after it had passed by the torch.

What lay dead before us, looked to be a larger, more muscled, version of a goblin. It also carried a weapon that was of notably higher quality and a full set of leather armor.

If only it had had a helmet…

“That...” I started. “Looked awfully simple.”

Just like that, I had jinxed it. I could feel more vibrations in the ground beneath me, and this time, it didn’t feel like just one of them was coming our way.

“Fuck, I jinxed it. There’s more coming. No idea how many.”

Draco and I were able to block off the entire entrance with just the two of us. Velariah stood between us with her sword at the ready.

With four shields blocking the way and a greatsword, spear, and arrows behind them, it started to feel like I’d found myself at Thermopylae. The only difference was that we didn’t have an all too clear view of what was coming.

A sound came from around a corner and Seralyn fired an arrow, which apparently caught fire, revealing several more hobgoblins were coming our way. With the fire burning, Seralyn got a much better view of what was going on beyond the torch, and started firing arrow after arrow at the approaching pack of enemies.

I wasn’t going to imitate the Spartans and see how long we could hold, though. They were neatly clustered. I raised my fangs and sprayed my venom all over them when they were in range.

Accuracy be damned.

Wild venom spray is where it’s at!

I didn’t stop soaking the group of approaching hobgoblins, and I believe I saw a couple of normal goblins among them, until I’d run completely dry.

It seemed to do its job well. Unlike the trolls, their skin started to melt almost immediately after contact.

That stuff was nasty.

The goblins that weren’t too busy screaming and rolling around in pain were either partially or fully blinded while running at us and easily finished off by Velariah’s sword, my spear, or Seralyn’s arrows.

“Holy crap, Elania. You have no chill.” Seralyn commented on the gore in front of us.

“I didn’t expect it to work this well!” I said.

The sight was gruesome, and I had to put effort into not vomiting over it. Draco and I held the line while my venom and Seralyn’s arrows did their job. We were safe at this distance and there was no rational reason for us to get any closer.

Sure, we could have put them out of their misery, but that would be an unnecessary risk.

As gruesome as the sight before us was, we remained steady. Velariah moved away from between us to the outside of the cave, where I saw her looking around for more enemies.

The screams ahead of us started to die out, as did their movements. When none were left standing, I decided I’d seen enough. I moved in and delivered the mercy blow to the still living adversaries.

I looked back to my party members and saw Nira walk away with a face that was as green as it could get.

Yup, couldn’t blame her.

Yet one more advantage of this body - my stomach seemed to be made of iron. Well, vegetables without meat seemed to be an issue, but that was another story entirely.

I picked up the torch, which was tainted by blood and venom, and moved forward slowly, examining the surroundings while holding my spear ready in case of an attack. Seralyn recovered her arrows behind me and cleaned them on the moss on the walls.

Velariah joined up with me.

“You feeling any more coming?”

I shook my head. “I think that’s all, unless there are more that are not moving.”

“Let’s find out how big this place is, shall we?” She asked.

I nodded.

I traced my torch along the walls and found several small white mushrooms. They almost looked like the edible kind from Earth. I could probably eat those now, even if they were poisonous… an interesting thought.

The way forward didn’t lead down which led me to believe this cave wasn’t that large. The others followed us and it seemed Nira regained some color on her face.

Not much later, we walked into a wide-open, circular cave room that was dimly lit by small torches on the walls. At the edges of the room were smaller rooms that seemed to be carved out. In these rooms were shabby beds, which were not much more than simple sleeping bags and sheets.

There were no enemies in the area and Draco pulled out a second torch, ignited it, and started sweeping the smaller rooms to search for items of value. There was a fair deal of smaller potions and pouches spread out all over the place which we gathered and deposited in the center of the central chamber.

When I held my torch closer to the ceiling, I could make out several colors of moss and more mushrooms growing on the ceiling, including what I believed were the same yellow mushrooms that we got from the witch, although these were much smaller.

“What do we do with this place?” I asked. “Do we torch it, or...?”

“First, we take several of those mushrooms to prove we conquered this place,” Draco said. “I assume you are able to reach them?”

The ceiling was quite far up, but if I extended my legs, I had no trouble reaching them.

“Not a problem. Velariah, do you have a small bag for me?”

The elf reached into her pack of supplies, pulled out a cloth pouch, and handed it to me.

“Thanks,” I said as I raised myself to the ceiling.

I started gathering some of the white and yellow mushrooms. I also added some moss, just in case. I then walked around the room to see if I could find any other different types of mushrooms.

Above one of the doorways leading to one of the outer rooms, I found a cluster of mushrooms with green caps and white stems. I decided to gather several of those as well and added them to the pouch.

I imagined this pouch contained quite the deadly cocktail.

“Draco, do you have some water I could wash my hands with?” I called out to the lizardman, who was in one of the side rooms.

He exited one of the rooms with a pouch that contained coins, judging from the sound.

“Sure, just a second, Miss Elania.” He walked over to my rear and put the pouch in one of the saddlebags before he reached into his own backpack and fished out a canteen.

He opened it and started pouring water slowly, which I used to wash the gauntlets that I used to gather the mushrooms.

I know I would be resistant to poison, but I couldn’t risk harming others with it. I may have had some kitchen accidents with chili peppers in the kitchen back on Earth. Rubbing my eyes after cutting them, by accident, of course, was a bad experience.

I thanked Draco and continued my search around this cave that seemed to have functioned as a base of operations for the goblins.

Besides a few discarded weapons and a few pouches of coins, there wasn’t a whole lot of value. We found a few knives that seemed to be of sufficient quality to sell for a couple of silvers, so we decided to take them with us. These saddlebags helped us to take more things with us, and I sure as hell was going to make use of them.

After checking all the smaller rooms, we converged in the middle of the central chamber and took a look at our stash.

Seralyn, greedy as she was, opened all the pouches and gathered the coins in one heap before she started counting. Draco took the tools and knives that were of some use and deposited those in my saddlebags.

“Not a whole lot,” Velariah mentioned.

“Not sure what you expected from goblins,” Seralyn answered while counting.

“True,” Velariah replied.

“There’s only like two gold worth of silver coins here,” Seralyn said after finishing her count. “Disappointing.”

“I don’t believe money is the number one reason we’re here,” I added. “Actually, I don’t even know how much this quest’s reward is.”

“Five gold,” Draco answered.

“That’s not a lot indeed.”

“Maybe not for us,” Velariah said. “But for killing goblins, it’s quite a lot, even with the added danger of poisons. Any decent armor reduces the risk significantly.”

“That I noticed, they do seem to rely on their poisons a whole lot, and if they run into a certain half spider lady, they are in a lot of trouble,” I replied.

“Well, gold is gold,” Velariah said. “Hopefully they made us progress our inherities somewhat, that would be a decent reward in itself.”

“Still waiting for my evolution,” Seralyn added. “I’d love to know what my evolutions look like.”

“Don’t we all?” I added.

“Good point.” Seralyn agreed with me for once.

“We should really look into dungeons for that,” Draco said. “And for that, we may have to travel a bit.”

I was looking forward to dungeons, killing anything that wasn’t a goblin would be far easier on my mind. I was, however, not looking forward to leaving Dawnleaf behind in the middle of all this. As much as I’d like to grow stronger in order to survive, I did not want to put the village at risk.

I hoped Valtheril had a solid plan.

“What do we do now?” I asked. “I don’t think we can make it back to Dawnleaf before nightfall.”

“The easiest thing would be to just stay here for the night,” Velariah said.

“Will it be safe?” Nira asked.

Velariah shrugged. “I think the pile of corpses on the way here will be a great deterrent. We should just have a guard at night near the entrance to this room, just in case.”

“Should work,” I said. “I don’t think anyone that is not a goblin would wander in here in the first place, and goblins we can handle just fine.”

“In that case,” Draco said as he flexed his axes. “Let’s get a campfire going and see if we can find some fresh meat.”

“There’s plenty of fresh meat on the way here.” Seralyn giggled.

“Yuck!” Nira commented.

“Shall we secure the perimeter, Velariah?” I asked. “I got an idea on the way here, I’m curious if I can pull it off.”

“What did you cook up this time?” The elf said with a smile.

“You’ll see.” I smiled back.

Seralyn seemed eager to comment, but a glance from Velariah in her direction made her keep her mouth shut.

Thanks, Vel.

We walked back through the tunnel, carefully avoiding the corpses that were still melting away due to the acidic properties of my venom.

I highly doubted anyone that observed that, would dare to advance further.

Velariah tried to pass without getting a mixture of blood and venom on her sabatons but failed to completely keep them clean.

I grinned at her antics and she sighed in response.

“You have an easy time, El. You don’t have to spend hours cleaning and polishing your armor.”

“Bathing isn’t exactly short for me, though,” I replied.

“Hmm, fair enough.”

Velariah unsheathed her sword and we walked through the nearby vegetation together. After we found nothing, we explored a bit further out.

Confident that nothing was nearby and watching us, I commenced part two of my plan.

I created a line of silk between two trees and then extended the line to a third tree. I put one of my legs on the line between tree number two and three.

“Vel, do you mind touching the line between those trees?” I pointed to the first part of the line between tree number one and two.

“Interesting idea,” Velariah commented as she walked over to the line.

The elf then took her sword and started poking the line with the blunt side of her weapon. The vibrations were easily registered by my leg. It seemed losing the hairs had not impeded its ability to register senses.

When I thought about it, it seemed my body had created a more efficient version of itself. It still possessed the same properties, but in a more compact ‘package’ so to say.

“You feeling this?” Velariah called out as she poked the thread some more.

“Very clearly,” I replied.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” The elf said as she walked back to me.

“Honestly, you’re amazing at being a spider.” She giggled.

“Hm? Was that a compliment?” I chuckled. “Or an insult?”

“A compliment, actually. I love how you’re working hard to learn and experiment with what you can do.”

“Yeah, well, I figured I might as well. I’m starting to accept this body more and more. I don’t mind it at all, anymore. Actually, I’m starting to enjoy this, as weird as it may sound.”

“Nah, that doesn’t sound weird at all. You’re working with what you’ve been given. And quite honestly, a lot of the stuff you can do is really, really cool.” Velariah said as she stood in front of me.

“Hmm, you’re right. This is pretty cool.”

I had my back turned towards the cave entrance, so I doubt any peepers would see much. I took the opportunity to give Velariah a quick kiss on her hair.

“And you give the best hugs.” She said excitedly as she took my pedipalps in her hands and put them around her back.

I grinned. “Yeah, if you’re not scared by the extra limbs, I guess that’s true.”

“You couldn’t ever scare me, Elania.”

“Is that so? Our first meeting told me something different, entirely.”

“That was before I knew you were such a lovable person.”

I grinned and patted her back with my normal-gloved hands after planting my spear in the dirt.

I heard a sound behind me and broke the hug. Draco walked out of the cave with one axe in hand and walked over to a tree, preparing to cut it down.

“Draco,” I called out to him. “Do you mind taking a tree outside of the first ring?”

“Not a problem.” He affirmed and walked to another tree.

I turned back to the white-haired elf.

“Let’s see if I can repeat the tripwire thing on a… larger scale.” I paused. “Actually...”

I looked around the ring of trees, then to the cave entrance. “Hmmm, I could try to lead it all the way inside the cave.”

“That would be amazing.” Velariah thought for a second. “Why not make the thread sticky, while you’re at it? If anything triggers it, they will have to free themselves, which will cause the thread to vibrate even more.”

“You’re getting pretty good at spidery things as well, Vel. That’s a great idea.”

I saw Seralyn exit the cave in the corner of my vision and turned to see her observing the line I’d created.

“Interesting...” Was all she said as she ran out, to find some game to hunt I assumed.

I looked at Velariah, who was looking back at me with an incredulous expression and starting laughing.

Yeah, Seralyn was a weird one, for sure.

I was distracted by the sound and sight of a tree falling. I walked over to Draco, who was now cutting off the branches of said tree.

“Any chance you got a couple of thick branches that we can use for a tripwire?” I asked.

“Sure,” Draco said, as he cut a few branches and removed their leaves.

He cut several Y-shaped branches and carved points at the ends so they could be placed in the ground easily.

Several minutes later I had what I needed.

“Thanks a lot, Draco.” I thanked him.

“Not a problem, Miss Elania.” He said as he continued cutting the trunk into smaller logs.

I started with a thread from the tree closest to the entrance of the cave, which I then extended all around the clearing. When I was at the last tree, I asked Velariah to poke the thread between the first two trees.

“Carefully, though. It’s sticky as hell. You might want to warn Draco about the thread too.”

“Sure,” Velariah said as she walked over to Draco.

After informing him, she went to the first part of the wire. I put my leg on the thread in preparation as I saw Velariah poke the thread with a stick.

Sure enough, I felt the vibrations clearly. I was impressed that the sensations were not diminished because of the extended range this time around.

I continued the thread to the cave entrance, where I planted one of the sticks into the ground before carefully leading the thread through it. I then walked inside the cave.

The reason why I thought this might work was because the floor was extremely flat. I doubted this would work with more height differences. I stuck a thread in a layer of moss on the wall and found that it remained. I then led the thread through it before moving to the central chamber, where I simply connected the thread to the floor somewhere near the center.

Nira was looking at me with wide eyes as I worked.

“Is that what I think it is?” She asked.

I nodded. “Elania’s tripwire alarm system.”

“Interesting...” She repeated what Seralyn said earlier.

I shrugged. I guessed it was kind of interesting.

“Don’t touch the thread, though, it’s sticky.”

Velariah entered the room. “You’ve really outdone yourself this time.” She commented as she observed the thread.

“Guess it means I’m on guard duty, doesn’t it?” I smiled. “To be fair, I believe I can last the entire night without issues. I have done it once, before we met, and it didn’t seem to impact me much.”

“Well, if you think you can manage, then, I guess?”

“I should be fine. If not, we can always rotate guards.” I found my lips curling into a smile.

“I suggest the three of us take guard duty anyway. I’ll carry both of you tomorrow, that helps, doesn’t it?”

“You’re too kind,” Velariah said with a grin.

“What can I say? I am a generous person.” I grinned back.

“I’ll be happy to help,” Nira said softly.

I felt something tug the tripwire and stopped laughing as I instantly ran out to see what had triggered it.

I was half expecting a goblin patrol but was both annoyed and pleasantly surprised when I saw Seralyn struggling to get free from the silk that was around her calves.

Velariah and Nira exited the cave and observed Seralyn’s struggles.

I started laughing and the two of them soon joined me.

“I should have known this would happen,” I said. “I’m not even surprised at this point.”

“Don’t lie. You totally intended to turn Seralyn into your prey.” Velariah was still laughing.

The harder she laughed, the more annoyed Seralyn got.

“Can I get some help here?” Seralyn asked angrily.

“Can’t we leave her like that?” Velariah suggested sarcastically with a wicked smile.

“Well, she has four rabbits, by the looks of it. I’d hate for you to miss dinner.”

“Shame,” Velariah said as she walked over to the ensnared elf.

Shame, indeed.