Slowly, I lost track of my original intention for entering the Hidden Jungle, which was to find a player called Ajax. An addiction to swinging my scythe had grown stronger with every passing hour and every passing encounter. It was only after I stopped to think that I realized my mistake.

I was looking for my brother, and while I would know at a glance if it was him, I still needed to ask the people I encountered for their names so as to eliminate an ‘Ajax’ if it was not my brother and go to a different region to search for him. There was one problem with this though: if a solo adventurer wielding a reaper’s scythe asked you if your name was Ajax and it was, would you really respond? The answer that repeated in my head each time I asked myself the question was: absolutely not.

There was currently someone named Ajax in the Hidden Jungle. It was only my second day and I had plenty of time to find him. That was the excuse I gave myself for grinding my Harvest Soul score, though deep down I knew I should be more focused as with every day that passed there was a chance that this Ajax – my brother? – would move on.

I regretted not forking over Zeny for a map. The Hidden Jungle was complex and the map in question was expensive. It had incredible resale value though and I should have bitten the bullet. I was wandering without direction for now.

The terrain in front of my eyes slowly changed with the appearance of something that looked like a white moss growing on the trees. The pale growth was thick and arched from branch to branch. I slowed my steps and proceeded with caution.

It was only when I was just a few feet away from a thick cluster could I really see what the substance really was. It was cobweb. The entire area in front of me was covered in so many cobwebs it looked as if the jungle had received a fresh fall of dirty snow.

I wasn’t particularly afraid of spiders, but that didn’t mean I had any intention of traveling through that region. Actually, there was zero chance I was going through there. Either there were hundreds of spiders inside or one giant spider capable of making these webs.

Deciding my best option was to go around, I turned to my right and started walking. I managed to take just three steps when I felt something below me give way. Before I could even react, the ground disappeared like a folding hatch.

Terror, that was the only thought in my mind. I was already falling when I realized what this was. All I could see was a receding little circle of light as I plummeted into the earth. Anticipating the impending impact was horrible; I understood why people screamed when they fell.

Everything felt surreal. I was in utter shock at how deep I was falling and only after the light was just a speck in my eye did I hit the ground. The air was immediately expelled from my lungs and my vision went black.

I woke an unknown time later with pain all over my body. My body was in bad shape.

Current EXP: 34500/103000 LEVEL: 32 Soul Harvester Formidable

HP: 672/1748 MP: 674/674

STR: 27

AGI: 26

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +5

INT: 55 +24

Available: 0

My HP total was regenerating slowly on its own. The little speck of light was nowhere to be seen. Either it was now nighttime up above, or the hole I fell through had already been resealed up.

My hands reached around the floor and all I felt was sticky fabric. That explained how I had survived the fall: there was this bed of cobwebs below me. Even with that cushioned landing, it must have been incredibly close. No doubt I had been on death’s door after impact.

I pulled a white potion from my inventory and gulped it down. The aching in my body subsided just a little bit. My back cracked as I pushed myself to a sitting position. Only then could I light a fireball and look around me.

There was a single pathway out of this chamber directly in front of me. The excavated tunnel was big enough for several people to move through. Above me, the hole I’d fallen through was evident but completely dark. There was no light at all coming from above.

The fact the tunnel was so big wasn’t great news. It allowed for the possibility that the spider which traveled this path could be that big, and the cobwebs suggested it preferred to take its food living. I forced myself to stand.

Only after standing did I notice that I could see my breath by the light of the fire. It was incredibly chilly down here, and I hadn’t noticed because of the sorry state my body was in. Not only was it cold, but the air was stale and moldy.

There was only one path for me to travel, and so I started moving. Every step was hard to take. I was walking with a limp and had to support myself with one hand on the tunnel wall.

There was nothing but darkness in front of me. I didn’t know how long I had walked for before I suddenly ‘felt’ something. There was a group of people nearby and I could sense their presence, albeit barely.

My feet started to shuffle faster and eventually I came to a fork in the tunnel. It was a four-way pathway and I needed to make a decision. I started to concentrate as hard as I could and confirmed the signatures I was feeling were somewhere to my left.

It was after walking for about five minutes in near darkness that I could hear voices. I wasn’t wrong… thank God. Eventually I came upon a larger than average room with seven tunnel entrances leading into it and about a dozen people sitting around inside, looking exhausted.

Judging from how disheartened they seemed, they might have suffered casualties.

“Another victim, eh?” A male rogue-type said just as I walked into the room. There was a little campfire in the center of the room, illuminating everyone’s face, most of which turned to look at me.

From the way they were clustered, it looked like there four different parties present, reduced to two-to-four members in each. I found a spot that wasn’t too close to any of them and sat down, needing a rest. Although I should speak to them, first I needed to close my eyes and let go of the strain. I was so relieved. The fact I wasn’t alone in this tunnel complex kept me from losing my sanity.

I truly didn’t know how long I would be able to hold up walking through the dark paths, especially while harboring the thought that I was about to be the next meal for a giant spider.

“Hey, are you hurt?” A voice suddenly asked me.

My eyes opened and it took me a moment to find the person who had spoken. It was a female voice and I eventually attributed to a curious blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl who was staring at me intently. The resemblance to Isabelle immediately struck me like a bolt of lightning.

Although remarkably similar to my former friend and healer in appearance they were quite different in age. This woman had the youthful and innocent appearance of a high-school girl.

I nodded my head. I was hurt after all.

“Will you heal him please?” she suddenly turned to ask a party member. He reluctantly got up and cast a heal on me, and then another. The relief was immense.

“Thank you.” I said. Silence returned. It was obvious in just a few moments the mood here was dreadful. If they were gathered here, then it must mean no one knew how to get out of the tunnels.

“Hey, are you a caster?” The girl suddenly started talking to me again.

I didn’t understand why she took any interest in me at all. I was unsure how to respond. “Something like that…”

“Leave the man be. Can’t you see he came here alone?” The healer from her party who spoke up on my behalf was a life saver. I had come here alone because I was originally alone, but to these people I was the sole survivor of my party.

The girl meekly recoiled but had an expression of childish defiance on her face. I decided to close my eyes and try to get back in top condition. There was no doubt in my mind we would be on the menu. It was only a matter of how soon.

Eventually someone on the other side of the room spoke up loudly, “Who wants to try again to explore? We can’t stay down here…”

“Right, it’s important we develop a plan,” said another voice.

“Who’s been down here the longest?” I opened my eyes and asked. My hunch was the tunnel traps must be new.

Everyone started to look around curiously.

“When we got here, there was no one else. That was maybe three days ago.” This was from a man, a tank, with female caster at his side. They were both covered in dirt, as though the tunnel they had fallen down had been narrow and they had scraped the sides the whole way. He sounded totally despondent.

I stood up to see him better. “Did you find anything out? Was there a reason you picked this specific room to stay in?”

“We haven’t found anything.”

“What about the room?”

He was hesitant in his reply, “This room has plenty of possible routes to run away…”

“Well, have you seen anything that you needed to run from?”

“Nothing.”

There was something off about those two, but I looked around. “Has anyone seen something we should know about?”

“Nothing but jungle.”

“Same.”

“There was white stuff ahead of me when I fell,” said the girl who looked like a young Isabelle, “some kind of moss.”

Moss was what I thought I was looking at originally. No one else seemed to speak up and correct her. Had they not seen the webs up close? “That wasn’t white moss,” I said at last. “Those were cobwebs.”

Insects invoked a special fear in humans for some reason, and I could see from their faces that my single sentence disturbed everyone’s thoughts.

“You’re sure it was cobwebs?” someone asked.

“Absolutely sure. We’re most likely inside a spider’s chamber.” Everyone started to look at around the huge tunnel openings and I could see the realization come over them that these paths were meant for a spider to traverse.

“Have you a way of getting us out of here?” asked the girl. “It’s a maze out there and no one can find an exit tunnel.”

“A spell? No. I suppose we could look for signs of the most worn tunnels and try those?” Of course, I was only speculating. There might not be a tunnel entrance at all. The spider or spiders could easily go up and down the shafts, leaving their prey no way out. If that was the case, we would need to find some way to climb up one of the narrower tunnel traps.

“Have you eliminated some of these routes as possible ways out?”

It got confusing as people pointed and argued. I got the picture that five of the seven entrances into this room were paths that just broke off into more tunnels and eventually led nowhere.

“There was a four-way crossroads on my way here from that tunnel,” I pointed.

“Mine as well, from this one,” a ranger-type said, gesturing to the tunnel he was sitting next to.

“If there is an angled tunnel to the surface, it is most likely in the middle of this gigantic maze.” My thinking was that the spiders would distribute their traps fairly evenly around the forest floor, rather than in a line. In which case, the efficient way to access their victims would be to enter the complex in the middle. The problem was, how to find which way was towards the center? I couldn’t be sure if I had entered from a boundary to the system and had moved inwards to this room or the opposite.

There was a faint presence in the distance, moving in our direction. I was sure of it.

I cast Mana Scythe.

“What are you doing?” someone was spooked as a result. The spell truly did look ominous.

“There’s something coming.”

Everyone quickly stood in shock and the girl looked at me curiously. “Which direction?”

“One of these three entrances.” It wasn’t possible for me to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. I just knew it was coming from that general direction. These were all pathways that exploring attempts had found branched out into more tunnels without leading out.

“How can you say something is coming if you don’t even know which tunnel it is in?” The man who had been here three days raised his voice. “I’ve been a tank for several years now. My sense of danger is superb. This guy is just kidding us. He shows up and suddenly there’s supposed to be a threat?”

What was the point of those words? He was clearly trying to sow dissent amongst us, or put himself in a position of leadership. There was only a single word for this type of person, “Idiot.” I muttered.

It seemed half those present sided with him and sat down again; the other half took my warning seriously: quite rightly believing in better safe than sorry. Regardless of anyone else’s actions, I held Mana Scythe firmly in my hand and faced towards the three tunnels.

My breath was stuck in my throat for several minutes. The creature in the distance was slowly moving in our direction. It was now close enough for me to feel where it was more accurately.

The reason why it was taking so long became clear. It was moving down each tunnel and checking for lunch.

“See? Nothing is coming. Now I question your motive in frightening us…” The dirt-covered tank continued to ramble.

I decided to pay him no mind and continued watching the tunnel, but as he continued to cast doubts about me, I could see that several more people were convinced by him. Yet the creature was incredibly close now and we should all be getting ready to fight.

Even while he was rambling, moving apparently at random I noticed he was at the far side of the room. “See? Nothing is happening.”

A rogue sat back down nearby and looked at me scornfully.

The creature was just behind him and I started to shout a warning. But it was already too late. A giant spider rushed into view and stabbing the rogue with two front legs, pulled him into the tunnel and snapped the rogue’s head off with one bite of its mandibles.

I saw the look of horror on his face, but the rogue didn’t have time to even scream out as his lifeless body slumped to the floor. The room went into full panic mode. Even I was surprised at the sheer size of the spider in front of us.

Needless to say, no one was on the tank’s side anymore. And he was running out the far side, as if he had known this would happen and this was his chance to try to escape, at our expense! Everyone else rushed to the back of the chamber and farthest away from the spider as possible. Its mouth let out gurgling hiss noises as the hairy legs reached into the room.

It was such a large monster that even these tunnels were a tight fit. I didn’t hesitate to cast Inspect.

Weaver Fledgling** LEVEL: 37 INSECT EARTH

HP: 46825 MP: 50

STR: 40

AGI: 15

DEX: 45

VIT: 55

INT: 5

A recently born Weaver. It is inexperienced in the ways of the world.

Although I had become addicted to melee combat, I held no belief whatsoever that I could contend with this spider. Fortunately for me and everyone in this chamber, only its front four legs were currently in the room.

Not only that, but those legs were vulnerable to a counter-attack. Perhaps as a newborn it lacked respect for humans. If so, I felt encouraged. This could be a fatal flaw. It was almost as if it didn’t expect any of us to pose any threat. We were simply a meal to satiate its hunger.

This was a unique opportunity and I refused to miss it. I rushed forward with Mana Scythe in hand and targeted one of the front legs that it was using to dig into the wall. It was trying to pull its thick abdomen in the room and completely ignored my existence.

The scythe came down on the limb and dug about halfway in. Even though I specifically targeted the joint and delivered a good blow, I couldn’t cut all the way through. This was a first experience for me. Up until now, Mana Scythe had cut through everything it touched.

That was likely the only free attack I’d get and I fucked it up royally. The weaver grew agitated and immediately turned his hundreds of eyes in my direction. I didn’t hesitate to jump back and away. A filmy, mucus-like spider web shot from its mouth and caused the ground to sizzle right where I had just been standing.

If I wanted to Harvest the soul of this elite, I needed to be the person dealing the most damage. I cast Cremation and the fires of Hell rose from the floor and engulfed the middle of its body. It screeched in agony and that sign of weakness seemed to awaken everyone from their stupor.

A tank decided to step up and rushed forward. All the ranged DPS began bombarding the spider with spells and arrows. A clear spidery goop dripped from its carapace and underbelly. I cast Cremation after Cremation.

The spider had no choice but to sit in the fire and burn to a crisp. It couldn’t go backwards in these tunnels, there was no room to turn around, and yet it couldn’t go forwards either. The tank positioned directly in front of it kept it from moving towards us.

Every time the weaver attempted to push forward, more and more spells would bombard it. Eventually it collapsed and ceased to move. The entire area smelled terrible as the body went well past burnt. It was nearly incinerated.

I didn’t care at all what the others would think at this point and stood directly next to the body. Please work! I started to cast Harvest soul and was pleased to see a huge misty cloud gravitate towards my hand.

It seemed that no one could see the substance at all. Not a single person asked what I was doing or paid any heed to my actions. That was a slight relief as the specifics of my class were unknown and I wanted them to stay that way.

Current EXP: 46600/103000 LEVEL: 32 Soul Harvester Formidable

HP: 1758/1758 MP: 354/684

STR: 27

AGI: 26

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +5

INT: 55 +24

Available: 0

Harvest Soul: 194 HP: 108 MP: 108

Not only did the weaver give me 12,600 EXP, harvesting its soul gained me 10 HP and 10 MP. That was a mind-boggling amount. I didn’t find it likely that I would get to harvest another one of these. The only reason I did the majority of damage in this case was because I took advantage of everyone’s fear and lack of action.

The fights in the future would be much more balanced than this one. Still, this was great news for me. There was something else to think about though. Mana Scythe hadn’t cut the limb as cleanly as I had been expecting.

It was possible the weaver was just that much sturdier than the other monsters I fought so far, or perhaps something else was at play. It didn’t seem to have anything to do with the monster’s MP as 50 was a pitiful amount. I decided I’d pay more attention to this issue in the future, but buried the thought for now.

With the fight behind us, the morale of those present was distinctly improved. “We should group up and try our best to escape. What do you think?” Surprisingly, the Isabelle girl asked me the question.

“I shouldn’t be the one to decide.”

“Why not? You’re the one who knew it was coming…” One of the people who had disbelieved me before was shamelessly sucking up to me now.

A part of me didn’t want to group, but at the same time, it was the safest way to get out of here. Healers could at least see my HP in a party. Not joining might set the entire body of people against me.

“Right, how did you know it was coming?” the guy who had tanked the spider asked. Everyone moved a little closer to hear my answer, it seemed like they were looking at me as a free ticket out of the tunnels.

I was actually stumped at how to even answer. “It’s a part of my class.” That’s all I could come up with but it seemed to satisfy. “Someone start a group.”

After the party was setup, there were 11 of us. We would have had 13 if the tank who had done a runner was still with us and if he hadn’t misled the rogue into getting himself killed.

“Soul Harvester? I’ve never heard of that class.” A DPS type must have been reading the raid list.

“It’s a rare class option for a necromancer,” I replied. Again, I seemed to have satisfied his curiosity, even though I was only level 32 and the lowest class change shouldn’t have been until 35. None of these people here seem to be veteran adventurers though, nor was anyone inclined to push me as sharply as they could have.

The person who took the most interest in me was the blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl, “What’s your name?” she asked.

“Joseph.”

“I’m Samantha, this is Ajax.” Well, there it was. The man she was traveling with, the person who had healed me, was named Ajax. It seemed I could mark him off the list once I got out of here. This was fortunate but it was also disappointing. My brother was a long way from here.

“Should we move?” Samantha asked. It felt odd, the way people looked to me for answers to every question, but I simply nodded my head in response. It didn’t need to be said, but my role was obviously one of alerting the party to incoming danger. The burden on me was actually more than I anticipated. I felt anxious that I might miss an incoming spider with disastrous consequences.

We headed down the tunnel I originally came from. It didn’t take us a long time to reach the four-way fork, and I made the decision. It wasn’t blind but based on things I noticed before falling.

First, my view from left to right before falling had been of nothing but cobwebs. That at least suggested to me that I had fallen more towards a side than the middle of their chambers. If that was the case and if I hadn’t rolled over while unconscious, taking a left at this fork would bring us deeper in.

Deeper didn’t sound better, but I couldn’t imagine the exit being anywhere else but dead center. It would make sense if the entire complex had originated with a queen spider digging down and slowly building it outwards from an initial cavern. In any case, no one even asked for an explanation of my choice.

Other than the first weaver I hadn’t felt the presence of anything at all. People continuously asked me if there was anything to worry about. “I can’t sense anything,” was all I could tell them.

A few of those at the front started to grow bolder.

Every time we came upon a fork, they would walk a few feet in each direction, having a look along the branches.

“Careful! We shouldn’t split up,” I urged them.

And yet they didn’t listen to my warnings. My anxiety was that we could not be sure that the only danger was the weavers.

A tank who wouldn’t listen decided to keep checking the branches anyway, and she paid dearly for it. She walked down a hallway for a look and we heard a scream. We rushed towards the sound and found her in a deep manhole. It was another trap.

Worst of all was the larvae inside. They weren’t small by any means. Each was as big as a football and gripped to every bit of her flesh. The munching sound gave me goose bumps, as did the woman’s screams.

She was too deep to save and after our two healers had kept her alive several times I urged them to stop. “Don’t heal her anymore… can’t you see you’re making her last longer in that pain?” She was truly so delirious from the pain that she was just clawing randomly at the walls as the larvae devoured her.

After that, no one opted to go off on their own. In fact, no one wanted to even lead the party in front. Eventually I was left with the task. I used the bottom of my Mana Pulsing rod and tapped it along the floor in front of. Hopefully if there was a trap, I would feel it and we could avoid it.

“There are monsters ahead.” I announced. We had walked for another five minutes when I finally could feel the presence of more souls. At least this suggested we were moving more towards the center of the complex.

“How many?”

“I can’t be sure… maybe two or three?” It was difficult to differentiate them as they were incredibly close together.

“Should I take the lead?” It was the tank from before, I still didn’t know his name. Introductions seemed to be the last thing on everyone’s mind. No one wanted to end up as spider food.

“It’s fine for now.” And so I kept walking. My foot came down and instead of the normal soft and spongy earth it was something hard. Almost instinctively I stopped and recoiled back. My reaction freaked out everyone.

“What is it?” Samantha asked. I lowered my hand and allowed fireball to illuminate the floor more clearly. There was something white and smooth sticking out of the ground just a little bit. I started to rub my foot against it.

“Oh my God…” One of the DPS peeking from the side covered his mouth. It was a human skull embedded into the dirt. If anything, it indicated we were maybe getting a bit closer to the core. It was also the first sign of a body.

“It’s okay, let’s keep moving.” I did my best to reassure everyone and started moving again. We came upon another fork and I needed to make a decision. Everyone near me looked on expectantly. I really didn’t have all the answers. If they knew what I was basing my movements on I think they would change their mind about following me. I was actually moving to the area with the most monsters not away from them.

I concentrated hard and then began walking, “There’s a spider just ahead.” And the tank immediately rushed in front. It was eerie, the fact that we couldn’t see something so large and so incredibly close.

I knew it was there, but just seeing the light illuminate the spiders beady little eyes and hair-covered head scared the shit out of me. The tank braced himself and stood in its path.

Despite how scary the weaver appeared, it was actually not so frightening in combat at all. The tunnels were designed for their travel, but the room provided for a weaver to move in was tiny. It wasn’t possible for the spider to maneuver in any way.

Because of that, the monster simply took every hit and spell we could throw at it. The tank in front did a great job of minimizing damage, and made sure not a single attack could make it past him. Morale skyrocketed after another successful encounter.

It seemed from their conversation that people were starting to lose a bit of their fear. We were going to make it out of this spider complex alive. Even I thought so.