A bit longer than normal for the weekend - hope you guys enjoy it

Chapter 17 - The queens lair

Riin's POV

Asperd Isle - Fall, Bottom of the Asperd Mountain Range.

5:30:59

You have slain a [Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience.

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [16]!

You have slain a [Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience.

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [17]!

You have slain a [Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience.

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [18]!

You have reached level 3!

[Bloodlust Aura] now affects level 2 creatures!

You have slain a [Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience.

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [19]!

You have slain a [Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience.

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [20]!

You have slain a [Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience.

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [21]!

You have slain a [Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience.

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [22]!

Checking up on my battle massage I see that I have gained a level and my [Bloodlust Aura] is beginning to look as something that can be of use. Stacking the wood in the fire and rechecking up on father, I'm set to go. Heading towards the mountain range in a light run, no more than half an hour passes before I'm met with the sight of a bunch of giant spiders staring down at me from the outcroppings of rocks scattered about the place.

More fighting, more killing, ahh what a joyful night this is becoming. Engaging in battle once again , I jump to meet my first attacker, a knife priced into the underside of its thorax, and it drops dead. Bearly do I get out from under it as two new ones jump me from each side of, falling down flat on my back I strike each of them in the head form below, as they crash into one another. I push myself out from the pile of dead insects, just in time to stare at a set of jaws aiming towards my head, that is poking out, a quick blocking with the board side of the knives, and I avoid a bite straight to my face. Twitching the knives around and pushing them up into the head of the opponent, I slice out a ‘V’ looking part of it, mostly containing its fangs and eyes. Great now my buried in dead spiders… and coverd in spider goo… just fuckig great.

4:55:59

For some reason, when I finally got myself dug out from underneath the pile of dead insects, there are no other spiders in sight… strange, I'm sure that there was a small force looking down at me, when the fighting started. Hmm, oh who cares… not me, I did not look forward to getting tons of experience… ah, who I'm trying to kit, of course I'm sad! All the killing I could have done!

Spider venom is diminishing form your body! Paralyzing affect 2%

What? Shit… as soon as the message pops up, I feel the pain coming back. Well, not like it's spider fangs I'm going to run out of considering that I just dug myself out from underneath three of them. Turning around I cut off a dang form the one closest to me, letting a drop enter my mount.

You have ingested giant spider venom! Paralyzing effect increased by 5%

Total effect on the body is now 7%

Shit, did I take too much? a quick check on my movement and reaction speed and I see that I'm still good to go. Hmm, should I just pick up as many of them as I can carry? if I can bring back more fangs I can craft poison that is not normally found around here… then again there is still the pile in front of the campsite I can use. Yes, I will not gather any here, for now I need to find water and rather fast, I'm running out of time judging by the sun light starting to show.

Orientating myself of my surroundings, I set of in a light run, heading northeast up the mountain side. Twenty minutes or so into my run I spot the signs of an animal trail heading up into the mountain forest, following the trail I will surely find water that much I learned from father with his endless talks over dinner about finding shelter and water if I should ever get lost in the forest outside our home… our home? where did that come from… Forget it, I need to get moving. Following the trail I keep getting higher up into the mountainside, the trees go from high and green, to a smaller but more security root base. Hmm, better keep an eye out for a suitable tree to cut the bow form. Yew tree… yew tree, need a yew tr-

I cut of my thoughts as a screeching sound from behind warns me in time to duck down, before getting a spider in the face. The spider more or less flies over my head just as I duck down, well timed. Drawing my knives I leap after it and strike down, slicing open its abdomen. Shit, I don't really have time for this, I need to find water, better increase my speed a bit. With knives in hand, I start to run faster, still following the trail up hill. Ten minutes, into my running I finally hear the sound of running water coming ahead of me, good thing I decided to listen to father endless blabbering, about survival in the wild. Five more minutes and I'm sure that the stream is just up ahead, the one problem I'm facing now… yeah, you guessed it, spiders and it seems that they are very unhappy about my presence here, not even when I was killing them did they hiss this loudly. Ah, come to me my sweet experience, come to me… Ups, haha, better stay on track, need to get water.

4:05:59

We have reached a still stand, no one is moving and as far as I can tell they are not blinking either… wait, do spiders eyes have eyelids? Ah! I did check on it, when I was studying my spider before… ugh, how annoying, that is going to bug me for awhile, I need a new subject to check it on.

I'm interrupted by two spider making a move, leaping from the branch they were standing on. A quick dodge to the left and I bring my knife straight down into its face, ending it, spinning around and jumping after the other one, I land behind it and strike down into its abdomen, splitting it open. Movement out of the corner of my eye warn me to jump to the right, just in time to seen a set of jaws snapping shut where my arm was, a quick sprint forward and I'm in range to strike, bringing my knives down in a double horizontal line, slicing off its fangs and cutting open the head part that holds a great number of its eyes, it drops to the ground.

I need to move! I don't have time for this… well saying it is easier said than done, the number has only dropped by four, but they are not retreating by the looks of it… okay, guess I have to lure them a bit away from the cluster fuck they are in now, or I will be in trouble if they decide to swarm me, with numbers on their side I can't hope to kill them before they get a bit in. So, run and hit it is… erm hit and run? well that won't work since they are up in the trees… yeah, run and then lure them to me, then I will strike them down! The run and hit tactic is born.

3:45:59

As I sprint through the forest with them after me, I keep thinking about father, he seemed distressed about the amount of spiders that was gathering around us, for the old man to be so lost and out of hope… My thoughts stop as I run around a rock, and come face to face with a cave filled with webs… and I'm talking massive amounts of it, more web than cave, that much webbing… webs...web? Hmm. Cave of web… cave of webbing...cave of webs? Ugh, I'm hurting my head over this. A deep hissing unlike the one I have heard so far comes from the entrance off, not that I get much time think out it as my team of pursuers catch up with me, no time to think fighting that many in the open is bad news, but the cave is a smaller point where I can focus on a single attacker at a time, creating a bottleneck using the cave. Stepping into the cave entrance, I get the feeling that something big is in here with me… the hissing sound from inside is deep and low, a creature bigger than what I have ever encountered before, ah… I'm getting too excited about this… keep it together, focus at the task at hand.

As I make a move to enter the cave, the spider that are following me goes crazy, they all rush to attack at the same time… there is it that ‘hive mentally’ they are all moving as one, scary… not, come and get it, you darn critters! I keep to the left wall as I walk sideways into the cave, in case of attacks from inside.The ones from the outside, more or less smash into the entrance getting sort of stuck in the opening… fucking insect, no brain at all.

A wave of attacks follow, as they push themselves into the opening. I spring into the first one pricing it head, a jump backwards and a vertical strike down into the head of another one, a dodge to the left and one more goes down. A hissing sound from behind, a sidestep to the right and the attacker goes down. One of them has somehow crawled onto the cave ceiling and is use that to do an attack while upside down, a quick jump straight up and a knife prices it head, it drops down just as I land and leap backwards as a new attacker joins, getting the dead spider to fall on the new arrival, a well placed strike to the head and it too drops dead. It's getting cramped in here, I need to move further in.

3:10:59

Luckily for me the sun rays brightens the cave making it easy to move around. As I move further into the cave system, I find more and more web covering the cave walls, but I do take note of the non stickiness of it… hmm, that's not the word… well, that aside I move along the left wall. A three part way is up ahead… I will stick to the left side, clearing out the areas one by one if I have too. The deep hissing is growing louder with each step into the darkness, once more I'm glad I don't fear the darkness.

I enter what seems to be… for lack of better words a food storage room, the amount of webbed up creatures in here is… truly amazing. From what I can make out, there is a bunch of deers some… wolves? memories of mother and father's attack resurface, I will kill them! But for now I need water, but this is such a nice place, looking around I spot a… is that a fucking bear? It's huge… focus… I get my act together, and just in time to dodge an attack from behind, a swipe of hand and its down, time to move. Making my way back towards the main corridor I'm attacked once again, they seem to be showing less and less regard for their little life's, not that I care it's great for me, they are easier to kill this way. Before I have walked to ten feet or so, out of the storage room I have been attacked four times, after the one that almost took my head as I was looking at the bear… two of them more or less smashed into one another trying to attack me in the narrow corridor, one came charging at me, no breaks… and the last one was just as stupid, I'm telling you, they have no regard for their life's.

As I reach the main corridor, I am unsure if I should head left further into the cave or head straight into the corridor across from the storage room… better clean out all the rooms before heading further inside. After that though, I make my way across and into the caves to the right of the entrance. The main pathway is getting more and more narrow the further in I get. After a few steps inside the new area, I come to a fork in the road, so to speak, the corridor splits into three ways again. Left is it, walking into the entrance to my left I'm met with a truly disrupting sight after I enter a small circular room.

Clusters of eggs, secured to the walls of the small room with the spiders web, are small light green eggs… and if I didn't know better I would say that they were… well, pulsing. Better get them out of the way. The moment I begin to move towards them, I'm attacked by a spider form the corridor where I just came from, as I spin around and bring my knife into its head, I notice that this spider looks different from the ones I have met so far. This one is darker in color and its front legs seems almost… like they are made from bone. It's legs are longer and thinner and its rear end - the abdomen, is long and slim, compared to the ones so far, hmm… is it a different gender? oh well, it's dead anyway. Turning back to the eggs, I squat down to get a closer look- still, having the entrance in sight - at the weird green moving eggs… yep, fucking disgusting looking. Well, moving onwards. I poke the eggs with my knife, as I do so, they bounce a tiny bit… aliens. The knife breaks the eggs surface and a slime substance sipes out… I start to poke each egg, breaking them one by one.

Three more ‘egg’ room later and three of those strange looking spiders, and I end up back at the main corridor, to my right I see the sun from the cave entrance, straight ahead of me is the ‘storage room’ and behind me the four ‘egg’ rooms. I need to hurry up, the sunlight is not lighting up the cave entrance that much anymore, meaning that it is now higher in the sky, than when I entered the cave.

2:00:59

Turning right down further into the caves deep, I start my walk, careful not to step on any loose stones that will alert unwanted enemies ahead. The further I get inside the more downhill it goes, but when I hear it! the sound of water… sweet lovely life giving water! In my haste to get to the water, I fail to notice the loose stone in my path. The stone gets kicked on to the cave wall and makes a ‘Z’ motion down the slope, plus a lot of noise. Soon after the stone has disappeared into the darkness of the caves deep, I hear the sound of hissing and screeching, growing louder by the second… ‘facepalm self’. Now I have two options, retreat back toward the egg rooms or push forward to find the source of the water, that I'm hearing. I need water, so forward it is, quickening my phase uncaring for anymore loose rocks on my way forward.

As I more or less run into the deep, the sound of both running water and spiders grow in strength, I reach a split in the road, turning left I hear the water so that where I will head to, but before that I need to take care of the five or so incoming attackers. Man, I really need to get this show moving. A sprint and I'm in between two of them as I run past them I slice up their abdomens leaving their insides to flow out, a side step to the right and a knives goes into one head, a dodge to the left and one more is down for the count. A dodge to the left then right and a knife goes into the eyes and out the side of it head as I move past it, annoying more is coming. I move to meet one that has jumped to attack cutting it up as I pass by, slicing one more spider abdomen up and a few legs in the process, as I move to strike one of those weird looking ones.

Finally I get a quiet moment, using that I move left towards the water. Two more of the wired ones go down before I reach the source of water that I have been hearing. Then I see it… running water and its forming a small pool. First things first, clean of the goo and intestines from the spiders so far, done. After that I get to work on filling up mine and fathers waterskins, as I stand there knee deep in the pool, I spot some glowing stones in the water, removing them from the pool I hold what seems to be a glowing quartz gemstone with the typical hexagonal form to it, pure white almost see thru.

You have obtained a neutral [Lightstone]! Let it guide you in the dark.

Ohh… cool a [Lightstone], - better grab as many as I can carry - not that I get to admire it for long as a new attacker find me. I walk slowly out of the pool, so not to lose my footing, the spider is hissing at me from the ‘shore’ off… ah, that's right there is only a few spider that can survive in water, and this kind done look to be one of them. A quick leap as I reach the edge of the pool and I price it's head, need to move, need to check the cave fully and then I'm heading back to father, I so hope that he is still unconscious, and don't wake up before I'm back, that would be a fucking huge disaster. Armed, with my new lightsource I move deeper into the cave, soon I'm met with a ‘V’ section, quickly taking the left as I see the ‘end’ so to speak of that corridor. Two wired spiders down and I'm looking at a very strange egg, compared to the ones I've seen so far. This one is dark green in color and it's… well, kind off glowing a bit. Better leave this for now. As I head down into the unexplored part of the main corridor, I'm greeted with a deep and rather scary hissing sound, if I must say so. Descending into the depths of the cave, I'm attacked by a couple of spiders, a few well aimed stabs to their heads and four goes down.

As I walk further down, the hissing and screeching just grows in volume, until the moment that I'm starting at the source of the noise. Ever seen one of those massive egg lay ant queens?... well, let me say it this way, I'm now a tiny bit scared of the mommy spider… once again I'm reminded how scary mothers can be. Her body is more or less composed of her head and there in a set of freaking huge fangs, a set of two legs on each side of her thorax, - Yes, I know spiders have eight legs in all, but no way in hell I'm telling her that. Her front set of legs are equipped with a bony sword looking end, like the last part of her legs fortified themselves to give her a means of attack and defence at the same time, with the span of just under three feet long, they are both strong and sharp looking. Her abdomen or what was supposed to the her abdomen, is now a big and long ‘bloated’ more or less light green in color. Behind her more of those weird looking spiders are carrying eggs around. Yep… they for sure have a hive mentality, of that I'm sure, after seeing this. A few of the normal spiders are also around, guess this is like a boss room, heh!

1:30:59

You have entered [The Forest Queen's Lair]!

Forest queen… well, I guess it really is a boss room then, nice! Let's go and kill ourselves a queen, I'm glad father is not here right now… I can let loose and have some fun… heh.

[Bloodlust Aura] now active.

I just know that I'm grinning like a fool now, but I can't help it! Ahh… I don't care anymore, kill I wanna kill! Slaughter it! Rip it apart! I want to kill! I want to tear its legs off! Come, itsy bitsy spider, let's play together, it will be fun, so fun! Ups, almost lost it, focus! The queen hisses at me, guess it felt my aura, so much for a surprise attack. I move at the same time as two of the ‘normal’ spider set of in a sprint to attack me, I leap towards the closest one, cutting its abdomen down the side. The next one, gets a knife in the head, two more is already coming towards me, a side step and one is down. A dodge and a roll and one more drops, a wired one joins the fray, a double swipe and a few legs go flying off as it drops dead with a hole in the abdomen.

I jump back just in the neck of time to avoid an attack from the queen herself, one of her bony front legs smash the rock floor as it slams down in front it me, sending small rocks flying around. Ah, that was close.

“You missed me,heh.”

A hissing is all the reply I get as two of the wires ones jump me. After some jumping around to avoid the queen's claws, I finally get the two lured away from her range of attack. Two quick stabs and they go down, now time to play with the queen herself.

She is hissing loudly at me, baring her fangs. Ahh, what a sight to behold. She sweeps her one leg at me, I sprint and let myself roll under the attack, continuing to sprint towards her I ready my knifes. I kinda feel like poking a sleeping lion with a stick… my knives compared to her are, well... really small! The other leg follow in a swipe to bring me down, okay time to put my speed and balance to the test. As she sweeps down to attack me I leap onto her massive front leg, as I land I start to run up it, until I find with I'm looking for, the link between the different segments of her leg. I bring my knives down with all the force I can muster as the wired position I'm in as I stand on top of her one front leg. My aim is true, the knives price into her weak link and cut open two long line where the blood like goo starts to seep out. Not that she is taking the laying down, nope… She is full on going no crazy, the moment the knives price her legs she swings it towards the rock wall, I of course has depart that trip, no way I'm willing getting slammed into a stone wall.

Luck must be on my side, - or my aim with the knives at least - as she smashes her leg into the wall, stone flies around the place and the leg bend in a weird angle, clearly damaged beyond use. I in the meanwhile is running along her side, as I make it too her abdomen area, I ram my knife into her bloated up area, as soon as the knife makes contact with it, my arm up the my elbow gets ‘sucked’ in… Fuck! Eww! Nasty motherfucker. Well… my plan to open a ‘hole’ was a success at least so that's good, ripping my out to the point where only the knife is cutting her ‘skin’ I sprint along her side slicing up her… ass.

[The Forest Queen] has been enraged!

Huh, enraged? That sounds bad… wait, wait!