Chapter - 04

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"So its the Dark Forest of Arachnera . What a name...."

A lone boy was currently standing on a narrow dirt road, gazing ahead of him. The path was barely wide enough to be called a road. This boy was of course Shiro. Dressed in his usual black cloak with the hood on he was quietly looking at a thick forest. His destination was, the Solas Dungeon located near the border of Germania and Iglasia. A seven day trip from Helmsberg. It was a very famous dungeon in the kingdom. Now Dungeons were basically huge really huge labyrinths with hundreds of floors on an average. The base of a dungeon was a dungeon core which was basically a accumulation of mana that had gained their own conscience. They grew by absorbing mana and life. That is why they spawned monsters and made traps inside them to kill people. Mostly adventurers though. It wasn't that dungeons preferred adventurers or humans only for that matter. To them any living thing which wasn't their own creation or spawn was food. It just so happened that adventurers were the most eager ones to dive in dungeons. Why? Simple. Darwin's theory of evolution had worked here as well. Over the eons of their co-existence with sentient races dungeons have learnt that to attract their prey they need to provide certain 'rewards'. These rewards varied from precious metals like copper, silver, gold, mithril etc monster materials, mana crystals, high grade ores, legendary weapons and armour etc. Basically the larger a dungeon grew and the stronger it became it would produce better rewards but those high grade rewards were always guarded on deeper floors by high level monsters. Only very few adventurers had ever made it to the depth of these dungeons. Among the hundreds of dungeons spread across Iseria, only a few could boast strength as that of Solas. It was so dangerous that only 105 of its unknown number of floors had been explored. A legend has it that ages ago a great king at the rank of a Saint Knight rallied his strongest soldiers and attempted to conquer this dungeon. He dove in along with ten thousand of his best men, the lowest of whom were great knights, never to be seen again. Killed or worse, no one knew. Yet this dungeon was frequented often by adventurers because of its attractive rewards.

Shiro had taken a quest to bring back 10 Fire salamander skins. A D-rank quest. Fire salamanders were one metre long reptile like creatures they had the ability to breathe fireballs. Their skins covered by bony plates were very durable against fire and were hence in demand to make good quality armour. They lived on the 10th floor of the dungeon so Shiro would have to clear his way through 9 floors first.

"Well anyway its good that they promoted me to D-rank, this saves me a lot of time..."

He grumbled. The reason he took this quest was because he needed money. Although he had got quite the money from slaying the goblins but he was the type who liked having full pockets. The reward was 5 silver coins per skin so it was quite worthwhile. The only point was the distance. He had already been traveling for three days and though he had been using his full speed he would need seven more days to get there.

But right now, he was in a dilemma. Before him stood a huge forest. The tree line extending to both sides of the horizon. This was the Dark forest of Arachnera. A place feared by many. Tall trees with dense canopies blocked most of the sunlight, making the forest dark and murky. The huge trees were tens of metres high on an average. This forest was here long before the first pioneers arrived in these lands, and had been a mystery since then. Over the years, countless adventurers and other people who had entered the forest had died, their bones forever lost in this deathly place. Not many dared enter these woods, where danger lurked everywhere. The route to Solas dungeon took a full turn around this forest. But Shiro didn't want to waste time treading needless paths. If he crossed through this forest, then he would make it to the dungeon in three more days. But, before coming on this quest he had gathered information from Rea. She had genuinely warned him, not to set foot in this forest. He too had heard of the horrors which resided in there. However Shiro as inherently arrogant. Although he never showed it on his face. He had a pride and arrogance which had long since seeped into his bones. How could he be afraid of a mere forest ? However he decided to be extremely careful. He was not sure of how his strength ranked as per warrior ranks but he was sure that he was at the level of a Master Knight, he had evidedce to back that up. In his travels till now, he had faced many life death situations, however relying on his own strength he had managed to survive till now. For the past five years that he spent wandering the lands, he had trained himself bitterly always putting his life on the line. All in order to get stronger. Shiro clenched his sword, and took a deep breath. Making sure the bag of supplies was secured on his back, he stepped into the forest.

* * * * *

The Forest of Arachnera was named after one the legendary, demigods, Arachne. She was once the most beautiful of the high elves, her beauty was said to have surpassed gods. However her weaving skills were even more fascinating than her beauty. It is said, that she could weave normal cotton into godly clothes which even the gods would be ashamed at. However, the gods jealous of Arachne's talent, sent their best weaver to have a weaving competition with her. Arachne who had become arrogant of her skills accepted and easily defeated the god of weaving. But she made a deadly mistake. She ridiculed the gods for loosing the mortals and challenged their hegemony over all creation. This gave the jealous gods a perfect chance. They condemned Arachne for her arrogance and cursed her. She was turned into an abomination. Half an elf, half a spider, she was made into. Her kin, the Hight elves loathed abominations and hunted her out of their dwellings. The gods cursed her that wherever she went, the sentient races would loath her and hunt her. Her descendants too would suffer her fate. Broken by her fate Arachne fled the mortal world and hid in the forest. That was eons ago. Arachne is no more, but her descendants who share the same form as her, still exist. Unlike the incarnation of Arachne in the fantasy, which had a humanoid torso of a human attached to the lower body of a spider, the Arachne in Iseria had the body of a high elf connected to the torso of a spider from its waist, thus having the complete form of a high elf as well as the arachnid torso and eight arachnid legs. Their race is known by her name, Arachne. They are solitary creatures, and live in secluded regions of the wild. Since most of the races loath them till this day, they very rarely show themselves.

Arachne were all female by birth. They had to rely on males of other species to copulate and birth the next generation. However they preferred eleven males above the others, due their elven descent . In this case Arachne females shared a common trait with spiders. After they kidnapped or lured males in and finished with their work they would kill them and use their bodies as nourishment raising their young. This was one of the reasons the other races hated the Arachne. Shiro recalled what he had researched back at the Library in Helmsberg and sighed. He didn't blame those poor women. They were organisms after all, it was just their way to produce the next generation. Plenty of insects did this, it was how world worked, everyone was food for someone. One had to be careful not "to be at the wrong place but at the right time". It was said that these Arachne still lived in this forest, however, no concrete proof had been found till date. Surprisingly, there were things more terrifying than the mythical Arachne here.

In this forest of Arachnera, live the most dreaded of its residents, the Giant Golden Bellied Widows. They were the size of an adult Siberian Husky, big and deadly. Their poison was said to be able to melt off the body of a grown man in an hour if not treated. These widow spiders, weren't like other normal spiders. They didn't weave webs like the small spiders nor did they spread their webs and quietly waited like the tarantula. These hunters actively stalked and hunted their prey. They actively searched for their prey, quietly moving among the thick branches of overgrowth trees within the forest. Only when they found a target, they spun an blob of sticky web, then soundlessly crept in, slowly and patiently stalked down their prey, and when they were in the right position and distance, BAM, dropped the sticky blob of web on the unaware creature, trapping it inside the sticky orb and completely sealing its fate. These hunted in groups and were extremely aggressive by nature, like African killer bees. Once you poked into one, the entire nest would come chasing after you, and though these spiders didn't leave this forest, once they started chasing someone, they would never make it out. Fortunately these spiders lived in the dead central part of the forest. Shiro had decided to avoid that region from the start, so he would likely not see these horrific creatures.

Walking through the eerie forest, Shiro carefully scanned his surroundings. He felt a sense of discomfort as soon as he entered this forest. The tall trees, had blackish barks, and the thick undergrowth made walking difficult. Shiro had to resort to using his spare knife, to chop up the plants and shrubs in his way. The atmosphere was dark and humid. This place gave off the vibe of death and desolation. Shiro felt as of something or someone was watching him, however everytime he tried to find the source, the feeling would suddenly disappear. After some time, again it would plague him. Suddenly after he had walked for over two hours, the bushes before him some tens of metres away started rustling. Shiro narrowed his eyes and readied his knife, what ever was stalking him, had it decided to show itself ?

The bushes parted and a large figure emerged from within, to his disappointment, it was just a large Tusked Boar. A two metre long and one and a half metre tall boar with large tusks and a thick hide. An E-ranked monster. It was quite aggressive and a pain for newbie adventurers, still it had low intelligence and relied on brute force. It appeared to be searching for edible roots and stems in the ground. Suddenly looking at Shiro who had appeared in its area, it was angered and charged at him. In this way the boy got a fresh source of meat.

Like this he walked the entire day, not stopping. He wanted to get out of this damned forest as fast as possible. But then the sun began to go down the horizon, and in this dense forest, night came much earlier than outside. Shiro had to give up his travel. He found a large tree and with the help of his knife climbed up. Spending night on the ground in this forest was akin to digging ones own grave. The thickest branches of this tree were over a metre in diameter, enough for him to rest the night. Shiro who had spent a majority of his days, during the past years, in the wilderness, knew very well the knick and knacks of survival. He gathered some dried moss and dry twigs from the tree and started a small fire near the base of the tree. The wild boar he had killed previously became his food. As the night grew deeper Shiro finished his meal and went up on the tree. He closed his eyes but his mind was on high alert. The feeling of being watched had never once left him and was beginning to annoy him. If not for his calm mind, he would have already began running around trying to find the source. Since whoever it was didn't yet attack him, he decided to rest, albeit, it was going to be a long sleepless night. Sitting with his back on the trunk of the large tree he thought of his future plans. He had to save up a large amount of money for now. Next he had to pay a visit to the capital. It would soon be that day. The day he hated the most. Memories once again came flooding, threatening to crumble his mind. He clenched his fists and a strong killing aura radiated from him scaring the surrounding creatures.

"Uhh"

He suddenly felt a searing pain in his right eye as he thought about the past. Whenever he was too emotional his eye would hurt. Shiro closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind. It was no use losing his mind over the past. The past was set in stone. No matter what he did he wont be able to change it, the best he could do was to bear with it and move on.

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The next day early morning, Shiro made his way forward, though he had barely slept last night, he didn't feel much fatigue. Practicing some breathing techniques, his body regained complete functionality. Shiro hoped that today he would be able to cover more distance. But unknown to him, today was destined to be bring bad fortune.

Since he began walking the forest had been eerily quiet. And the feeling of being watched had intensified several fold. His eyes continuously darted around, hoping to spot any kind of creature or movement, while his ears tried to find and suspicious sound. And soon he got what he wished for, he managed to spot a cluster of those fuzzy creatures moving from tree to tree, stalking after him. And these were exactly the things he had hoped to avoid at any cost. Giant Golden bellied Widow spiders ! Tens, no hundreds of them were around him on the trees and in the shrubs. These large critters had stealthily surrounded him from who knows when. Suddenly one brave spider decided to break away from its cluster and approached him with unbelievably nimble, creaking footsteps, its speed shocked Shiro.

Drawing his katana, with one single movement, he chopped the large spider into two. The half having the mouth, flew in the air, its fangs dripping with the deadly poison. Its two halves leaked gooey greenish blood. Surprisingly mouth of the spider gave out shrill shrieking and clicking noises in its mouth, suffering from the intense pain of being chopped half. These critters had amazing vitality. And although Shiro had used a little of his full strength is his previous strike, he felt the toughness of the carapaces of these spiders was by no means low. As soon as the spider was hit and died, the entire forest which was till now silent, abruptly shook, the thick branches from above erupted into thousands of rustling noises and the falling twigs and leaves. The atmosphere was drown in millions of creaking and shrieking noises. Hundreds over hundreds of shrieks filled the forest as an army of spiders rushed out from the trees and shrubbery, it looked like a flood of spiders, all hell bent on drinking the blood of the human.

Shiro gritted his teeth. He cursed himself for having too smart. He just had to enter this damned forest rather than avoiding it. His arrogance had cost him dearly this time. He didn't fear one spider. He didn't fear ten, a hundred he could manage. But there were over s thousand of these critters scurrying towards him with their stick webs and poisonous fangs.

The katana flashed in an arc and a number of spiders were cut apart. It swung again and another group was done in. Shiro slashed his katana in a full 360° arc using his legs as a pivot, killing over a dozen of them, but there was no end.

"Damned bugs, you kill one, there is ten more to take its place!"

He understood that fighting here was just suicide, so he focused on where he was heading and with his sword began cutting apart the spiders before him as he dashed forward. He ignored the ones that were behind him. He had a simple plan, cut open a path and escape this encirclement. Shiro next used his mana. He didn't have a very large mana capacity as a mage but it was pretty large among warriors. He used [Body Strengthening] a skill commonly used by warriors, to enhance the physical abilities of the body by several fold, by imbuing it with mana. His speed shot up and like a swift breeze he ran ahead slicing and spider that came up before him. Many spiders tried jumping down from trees but he avoided them with swift movements. If he maintained his current speed with his mana capacity, he would surely be able to leave this forest before nightfall. No he had too, if he was still here after nightfall, he would probably never see the daylight again.

"I can only move on!" He shouted in his mind and kept running. However the stress on him was increasing, more and more spiders were springing up before him and even more were chasing him, if he slowed down even once, they would catch up.

* * *

Within the biggest and greenest tree, surrounded by canopy of leaves and fragrant flowers, was hidden, the Lord of the Arachnera forest. She observed the situation with prudent eyes whilst her little kin incessantly chattered noisily, waiting for orders.

Through the innate telepathy she shared with her kin, she kept track of the lone human male that had entered her forest a day earlier. Her kin had kept watching him under her orders for an entire day. It was she who, with the help of her kin, had taken the whole forest under her control, and no one knew it. This was the reason why Shiro met the giant Golden bellied Widows who normally were found in the depths of the forest. If not for one of her hasty kin who was to eager and hungry perhaps she could have lured him into the depths of the forest, and let her kin feast upon his tender flesh. However listening to the events that followed, she was surprised. Strange, thought the spider queen. The lowly and foolish human male that was so tiny and powerless in her eyes, suddenly displayed immense power. She instantly ordered all of her kin to chase and hunt down this foolish human, however even after so much time had passed they had failed to catch him and even lost over a hundred of their numbers. The spiders could only chase him. The queen was confused. She gave them the order to catch the human male at all costs.

Shiro, unknowing of all this was still trying to cut his way out. He had killed hundreds of spiders by now. His hands were sore, his legs were sore. His mana was more than half depleted. In such a situation, he noticed a dreadful scene. Till now he was so engrossed in killing spiders that he hadn't noticed that the sun had long set. The moon was showing itself in the sky. For the first time Shiro felt sense of dread fill him. He was reminded of that once when he had taken refuge in a cave which turned out to be the home of a Saberfang Tiger. An A-ranked beast. The him back then was barely 12 years old, he was much weaker than today. While he was sleeping in the depths of the cave the tiger returned and slept near the entrance. Luckily Shiro had hid his scent with some wild herbs or he would have become tiger feed. But he had no chance to get out while the tiger was still in there. The damn tiger slept for fifteen days before waking up and leaving, every second of those fifteen days, he had lived in pure terror. And now he felt the same way. But he couldn't give up. His spirit refused to surrender, so he kept on cutting his way trying his best to escape the forest.

The many spiders around the queen clicked and shrieked as they felt their comrades die. And the spider queen was beside herself with utter confusion. Finally she couldn't take it anymore. She crawled out of her hidden place, swung her tethered web strings and landed herself to the ground. Her powerful spider legs creaked as she walked swiftly toward s the direction of the foolish human male while giving her kin orders to stall for time.

* * *

"What the heck is an Arachne doing here ?" Shiro thought as he looked at the figure that had suddenly appeared before him. The spiders had suddenly stopped attacking him and retreated, and he, taking the chance rushed toward the edge of the forest. He could see the trees getting thinner and sparse as he moved on, however as soon as he stepped into an opening he was in for a surprise.

"Foolish-minded human! didst thee bethink thee would escape, killing mine kin? thou has't hath killed so many of mine kin, i shalt maketh thee suffer thee lowly human! thy death won't beest painless." (Foolish human! Did you think you would escape, killing my kin? You have killed so many of my kin, i shall make you suffer you lowly human! Your death won't be painless.) She roared in rage.

She spoke in the human tongue, but in an archaic accent. Shiro had cold sweat dripping from his back. It was a freaking Arachne! Lord of all spiders! An A-ranked monster. One of the most feared. In terms of human standards she would be a Holy Knight level warrior. He had read in books how groups after groups of powerful adventurers had been turned to dried corpses when they had tried to kill an Arachne. Such power and the ferocity of a monster, made her a very dangerous existence. And currently such an existence was clearly pissed. Shiro had confidence in strength, but comparing against a holy knight level monster his strength was like a pond compared to a river. Much less he was almost spent fighting the spiders. But he refused to give up. Just a little and he would be out of this forest. He forcefully steadied his trembling hands and calmed his heart. He looked closely at the Arachne trying to find an opening.

Now, in general Arachne had fair skin and golden hair and eyes thanks to their elven descent. Their spider parts were mostly, black or brown in colour. However ,this Arachne had a glossy white cascade of silky hair flowing to her waist, her skin so fair and pale, and her eyes like bright rubies lodged within and even her spider body parts were a milky white.

She had a perfectly proportioned face, as if chiseled by some expert craftsman out of pure white jade. Her womanly curves were on the larger side and gave off an extremely seductive allure. Her Elven legs were slim and tender, the plump thighs added to sexiness. Under the glow of the beautiful blue moon her figure gave a beyond heavenly charm, that would put gods to shame and make men drown in infatuation. Shiro who took pride in being aloof of the charms of beauty too felt her to be truly beautiful. Not just her looks, but Noble aura around her made her seem even more beautiful. The spider part of her also looked charming, rather than being gross or ghastly, it added to her ethereal beauty. Shiro found his heart skip a beat.

But he knew well what lay behind this beauty was more deadly than any weapon. The spiders had once again surrounded him, but kept their distance. Shiro understood that the Arachne must be their leader. As he was thinking of a plan to deal with this situation, the Arachne moved. Her eight pairs of legs pushed her at an amazing speed towards her prey. Raising her front two legs which were long and sharply pointed towards Shiro she declared.

"Foolish-minded male thee fate is sealed!" (Foolish male you fate is sealed !)

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