Part Four – Spiders

It had taken some convincing, but I’d gotten them to agree to try out a job. We’d picked one that was close by and looked reasonably doable. It paid fifty thousand upon completion of the job, with half up front.

The actual details were scant, mostly because this was slightly illegal. There wasn’t any legislation against what we were doing, but it wouldn’t look good if we were caught. And so, that was why we were wearing masks.

“This is so annoying! How much longer do we have to wait? We don’t know what exactly we’re supposed to do or how long it’ll take.”

“Calm down. There’s still five minutes left. Be patient.”

Dealing with her outbursts has become routine. I’m not sure whether I like that or not.

It wasn’t much longer before we could hear an engine approaching. A single motorcycle pulled up alongside us, the rider getting off but keeping their helmet on. He, and it was a he on closer inspection, was dressed in a standard black suit and carried a black briefcase. If he wasn’t wearing a helmet, he wouldn’t have looked out of place in an office.

“Come with me.”

Wow that’s blunt. Isn’t he going to make sure we’re here for him. For all he knows, we could be completely unrelated. Though we are out in the middle of nowhere. Anyone who actually showed up is either here to work or to sabotage.

“The interests I represent have recently come across some assets they wish to acquire.” He’s just going to explain it!

Alicia and I exchanged looks, neither of us quite sure what to make of this. Is he some sort of robot?

“However, they’re currently being held by a hostile force. We’d like you to clear the nest of the creatures, allowing us to start operations.”

Okay, this sounds simple. Now where’s the other shoe?

As we reached a crevice in the earth, he came to stop and turned around to face us. Brandishing the case, he then went on.

“Once I’ve confirmed that you’ve successfully finished, I’ll turn over the remaining compensation. Furthermore, while I would like to have you all sign NDAs, there’s little chance of our actually being able to prosecute you. So it is my duty to inform you that if word of this spreads, we will attempt to eliminate you. Understood?”

Wow. That’s to be expected, but that he actually said it out loud is… startling. Whoever he represents is being pretty ballsy about this. Or maybe it’s just him.

Once we’d consented to the terms, he went into a nearby house. Or more like a shack. It was probably here to give anyone who came through some shelter.

“Well what do you think? Do we actually do this, or do we scram?”

“Why’d you say scram? I’m not sure. It sounds okay, but can we really handle this? We don’t even know what’s down there.”

“Then I’ll take a look. I’m the best choice to scout down there. Cameron won’t be able to swing his axe and you can’t fight by yourself.”

“Alright lad.”

“Fine.”

I took a coil of rope from my bag and after tying one end around my waist and staking the other, I began the journey down into the crevice.

Damn it’s dark. Probably about three stories deep. Slightly humid. And I can hear an unsettling sound coming from up ahead. That’s definitely not a good sign.

I reached the ground soon enough and set a lantern down in order to see. Big mistake.

Kumoko

Rank: E

Description: A common spider-type monster. Physically weak, but skilled at using unconventional tactics such as poison or traps. Aggressively pursues those that invade their nests.

Oh fuck no! Giant Spiders are not on the list of things I want to fight. And this one’s already locked onto me. Great.

It’s was about the size of a large dog, maybe a German Shepherd, and was pure white except for some unusual markings on its back. The second the light came on, it locked eyes with me.

I’m not actually scared of Spiders or anything. It’s just that when something that’s usually small becomes so much bigger, it throws me off.

Just as I thought our staring contest would never end, it threw itself at me. By which I responded by sidestepping and cutting it in two.

Well that was easy. I thought for sure there would be more of them. And they’d just…keep…coming. Fuck!

I could hear more scuttling from further up the tunnel. While they were weak, I didn’t want to be attacked by swarms of spiders. By myself that is.

“Get your asses down here now! I’m a little surrounded!”

There were more than thirty spiders, all throwing themselves at me. No matter how many I cut down, more came to replace them. Obviously, entering a spider nest without knowing it was one wasn’t the smartest move.

I’d killed close to half of them when Cameron climbed down. He immediately took out the Bone-Breaker Mace I’d given him and set to work killing the spiders. Each swing shattered their carapaces, splattering spider fluids all over.

“We really kicked the beehive, didn’t we?”

“They’re spiders, not bees. Which is actually a good thing. Giant bees freak me out. Then again, so do any giant insects.”

“Lad, has anyone ever told you that your priorities are messed up?”

“Plenty of people. My sister, my parents, my best friend. I can go on, but I’d rather kill the monsters.”

Strangely, Alicia had joined us and started to fire arrows. I’d figured that she wouldn’t come down here, or she’d freak out about the spiders. I know it’s a stereotype that girls are scared of spiders, but she’d freaked out so hard about undead. I thought this would be a replay of that.

I’m actually disappointed. This is perplexing.

“You’re thinking something rude again, aren’t you?”

“Not at all. I was just wondering how they even found this place. And what’s here that’s worth fifty thousand to them.”

“It is pretty interesting. I’ve no idea how they could’ve found this little cave, but couldn’t it simply be that they want the spider’s corpses?”

“I thought that too, but Mr. Scary said that there was ‘hostile forces’ preventing them from obtaining what they wanted. So that kills that theory. I do think they’ll use what they can, but the spiders aren’t what they’re after.”

We killed the spiders while we were talking, leaving the cave rather silent. Knowing that we had a brief respite, we had to make sure we could get out. While the cave wasn’t all that deep in the ground, it would still be a difficult climb. Once we had ensured an escape route, we set off deeper into the nest.

Hoh, more spiders? How surprising, we keep finding spiders inside a spider nest. Only these are much bigger than what we’ve been seeing. Probably means we’re getting closer to the heart of the nest.

Greater Kumoko

Rank: D

Description: An evolved spider. Possesses the physical strength expected of its rank, as well as retaining its previous abilities. Even more aggressive than its younger brethren.

We were only encountering one of them for every two or three dozen regular spiders we killed. Even if they were D-Rank, with two of us having Survival Instinct, we had no problem seeing through their traps. Actually killing them though, was difficult.

“How is it still moving even with its head caved in? Is it a zombie spider?”

“Cut off the limbs! Immobilize them!”

“Kyaa!”

“Stop screaming Alicia! It’s not undead!”

“More are coming from behind us!”

“I’ll shish-kebab it!”

“That’s not a verb!”

Why do so many of our fights turn into us throwing barbs at each other? I know we’re pretty relaxed, but we should still keep an eye out. Case-in-point.

I had to quickly throw my Gleaming Dagger to kill the spider that had snuck up on Alicia. It must’ve possessed some kind of Stealth skill in order to get that close. Ohhhh shit! This is worse than I thought.

Assassin Kumoko

Rank: D

Description: A spider monster that evolved to specialize in stealth. When hidden, their presence is similar to a ghost's.

I’d only managed to kill it because I’d seen it reveal itself before it attacked. If I hadn’t, it could’ve easily hurt Alicia, or even killed her. And those weren’t the only ones. There were Kumoko Guardians and Poison Kumokos. I briefly wondered what was the difference between a regular and a poison one, until it spit a glob of poison at me.

This is freaking annoying! They aren’t much stronger than the other monsters we’ve fought, but their varied tactics are so annoying. I didn’t want to use one of these here, but I’ve got no choice.

“Alicia, Cameron, get back! I’m using one of those!”

Since they knew exactly what I was talking about, they quickly scurried back. Which was good, since soon the space in front of us burst into flame, roasting all the spiders.

The cause was an item we’d gotten as a Dungeon reward. Simply called a Combustion Bomb, it did exactly that. While I didn’t know how strong a grenade was, these were capable of completely immolating F-Rank monsters. Even D-Ranks were usually wounded pretty badly and depending on what you were fighting, it could even outright kill them.

“Burn baby burn.”

“Can you not say things that make you sound like a psycho?”

“Nope. It’s my standard MO. I’m just as incapable of not doing that, as you are of fighting the undead.”

“You!”

The Combustion Bomb had done its job well. All the spiders were dead, though you wouldn’t be getting much in the ways of materials. But since our job was to just kill them, I didn’t care all that much.

We knew we were getting close to something. The tunnel had been sloping downwards for quite awhile and the spider population kept going up. I was slightly worried we’d run into C-Ranks. I could try to handle them, but I didn’t like my chances.

“How many more bombs do we have Michael?” Alicia must’ve had the same concerns as me. She was anxiously looking around, nervous about clearing the rest of the nest.

“Thirty-two. It’s nice that we got twenty each time. It gives us plenty to work with. We could just fire-bomb the whole place, dealing with all the spiders at once.”

“No. We’re not doing that! Why do you always come up with the most atrocious ideas?”

She always has to ruin my fun. What’s wrong with doing that? It’ll deal with the vast majority of the spiders.

Because I couldn’t convince Cameron, we started back down the tunnel. No matter how much I tried to convince them, they were completely against the firebombing plan. But it’s so effective. Why can’t they try new things?

“There’s still too many spiders. Where do they keep coming from?”

“The tunnel is completely straight, but there could be some sort of large chamber up ahead. It would probably be the center of the nest."

“You mean like that?”

“Oh fuck. Why does this keep happening?”

We’d come to the chamber we’d expected, only to find a swarm of spiders. And I mean a swarm, there were at least a few hundred, though since they were crawling all over each other, it was hard to get an accurate count. I quickly threw a handful of bombs at them, before pushing the others back into the tunnel.

“Go, go, go! We’ll have to whittle their numbers.”

Even with the wall of fire pushing them back, they still came after us. As we ran through the tunnel, I occasionally threw another firebomb back at them, keeping us from being overrun. But they just crawled over the scorched remains of their kin and kept up the pursuit.

At this rate, we wouldn’t be able to climb out of the cave. While most of them were E-Rank, their numbers made them a bigger threat then they otherwise would be. If they caught up to us before we could climb out, then we’d get killed. So I did the only thing I could do.

“Michael!?”

“Keep going. I’ll catch up after you’ve climbed out.”

I wasn’t sacrificing myself. There was no need. I was the fastest out of the three of us and also the strongest. If I was careful, I’d be able to hold the spiders off long enough for them to escape. But there was another reason I was confident.

I could now cloak both of my swords in Aura. With my increased mastery of the skill, the number of things I could do with it increased. I’d been holding off on using it til now, because I didn’t know what we might end up fighting. But there wasn’t a reason to hold back now.

*Swish swish*

These E-Rank monsters were completely helpless against the improved skill. Each swing cleaved through multiple spiders. Even the occasional D-Rank that came after me was killed with a few swings. It’s these moments that really let me see just how far I’ve come. And just how far I still have to go.

“We’re clear!”

Took you long enough!

I immediately spun around, unleashing multiple slashes against everything around me. Then, triggering Beast of the Nightmare, I ran back down the tunnel. With this skill active, I could easily outrun any Beast-type monster, which were usually the fastest, not to mention spiders. But that wasn’t the only reason I was running.

*Boom boom boom boooooooom*

I’d set twelve Combustion Bombs off at the same time and the resulting explosions combined to create a wall of fire. Every nearby spider was completely incinerated.

“This suuuuuuucks!”

I quickly arrived at the cave opening and grabbed onto the rope we’d anchored and climbed out. Beast of the Nightmare wore off just before I crested the opening. I collapsed onto my side, panting for breath.

“Haaa…haaa…haaa…that was fun.”

“How do you still have breath for a sarcastic quip?”

“Because it’s my reason to exist. If I don’t make a sarcastic comment at least once a day, I’ll die.”

Before she could respond, we heard that damn scuttling again. We scrambled to cover the opening before the spiders reached us.

“Why are there still so many of them? The Combustion Bombs should’ve hurt their numbers. But they just keep coming!”

“Stop complaining and just kill the spiders!”

The stars are so nice right now. They’re so clear. I’m not usually one for stargazing, but this is amazing. I’m certainly not ignoring the massive pile of spiders corpses.

It was like they were endless. Even killing them and pushing the corpses into the hole didn’t do much to stem the tide. We’d probably killed most of the spiders with that strategy.

::Individual has met requirements. Special Skill: Bloodthirst Rank F acquired.::

Uhhhh, that seems a bit late System. I’m thinking it was using the Combustion Bombs that triggered that, but it seems a little late. Maybe it’s because I was in the middle of a fight. I’ll have to check that later.

“Are we done now? I think they’re all dead.”

“No, we should check the nest. That guy said he had to make sure it was clear. If we left any spiders, we might not get paid.”

I hated it, but they’re right. We descended back into the nest. On our way back to the chamber, we came across the crushed remains of the spiders. They had trampled each other in their hurry to attack us and to avoid a fiery death.

“What did you do!? There’s ashes everywhere! Even the walls are scorched.”

“This is what happens when you set off a dozen Combustion Bombs. You end up with scorched everything. Try not to breathe in the smoke, the spiders' poison should have evaporated, but we don’t know for sure. These are monsters.”

Poisonous smoke clouds weren’t something I wanted to deal with. While Survival Instinct would warn us about the poison, it was better to avoid it altogether.

Hmm, I should check out Bloodthirst while we walk.

Bloodthirst – Special Skill. Release a burst of killing intent. The weaker the target is compared to the user, the more effective. Cooldown: Fifteen minutes.

Well that isn’t anything I didn’t expect. Like every other Skill I’ve gotten, I know how to instinctively use this one. I need to make some kind of noise? Like a growl? Guess I’ll actually have to try it out.

But that would have to wait.