Edward stared aghast at the small part of burned spiderwebs as the whole forest flared with activity. Clearly, the spiders had detected that somebody was attacking their webs, and were responding accordingly to the provocation. Edward shook his head, focusing back on the present. I can’t stay there. Let’s fall back for now. I have to adjust my plan.

He teleported away and ran back upward the mountain. He didn’t run all the way back to the teleportation platform, stopping before reaching it, crouching behind a large rock to observe the situation.

Scores of spiders emerge from the forest, it had been less than a minute since he burned the web, but already at least thirty spiders were there. They were hard to count since they weren’t standing still. Each spider was roughly the size of a wolf, that is if you didn’t count the legs. Their legs were roughly one and a half meters in length, and since they were on the side of their body, the spiders appeared even bigger. They were too far for him to see the details, but from his point of view, all the spiders looked to be from the same variety. They were a grey color, almost turning up to white, this made them harder to spot when they were on the webs. Their head was smaller than their abdomen, but they still displayed impressive chelicera. Edward decided to name them wolf spiders.

Look at the size of those fangs. I feel as if they are longer than the thickness of my body. Edward shuddered, removing the mental picture of a spider biting into his side. They reacted quickly, even faster than city guards hearing a commotion.

The spiders roamed in the vicinity of Edward’s pyromaniac attempt, some examining the burn area. After five more minutes, another type of spider appeared on the scene. They were slightly bigger than the wolf spiders with the same size for their head but a much bigger and rotund abdomen. However, their main difference didn’t come from their size. Their abdomen was brightly colored in black and yellow patterns just like a wasp. They moved slower than the wolf spider and even look comically clumsy while walking. That is until they rotated their abdomen and a copious amount of web shot out of their body, more than compensating for the area that Edward had burned.

They kept at it for some time, escorted by the wolf spiders, actually expanding their territory rather than simply repairing the damage. Then, one by one, they left for their domain inside the forest. The wolf spiders stayed a few more minutes before leaving as well.

Edward frowned in contemplation. They are organized monsters. They don’t content themselves with hunting prey. The wolf spiders are the first to react in case of aggression. They are fast and behave as guards for the second type of spider weaving webs. Let’s call them wasp spiders. In the end, they only have to keep the wasp spiders safe while they extend their territory. Once inside their webs, it will be difficult for a monster to struggle against them.

I can understand how they managed to conquer the whole forest. Ordinary monsters who are behaving like everyone for themselves can’t compare. But I’m still impressed at the speed at which they gain control of the forest. I’m missing something.

All of that doesn’t improve my situation. In the end, I do have to enter their web domain. If I can’t burn everything to the ground, I will have to search and destroy their nests. Edward winced at the perspective of breaking into a world covered by webs and giant spiders. It’s not like I have another choice, destroying their webs from the outside won’t work, and they will be able to repair them faster than I can damage them. What I need is to remove the wasp spiders first and then destroy the webs. However, more wasp spiders will be born inside their territory. So, I have to destroy their nests first.

He looked once more at the vast expanse of forest enshrouded by spiderwebs. With how vast their territory already is, I’m not even sure if I will be able to deal with it. They must have several nests. Worst case scenario I will have to go back to Leyla to ask for an improved version of the flame bombs. But I have to give her time first, she already has to deal with the food shortage. I have to deal with it on my own for now.

Edward walked in a circle musing on how to proceed. It was dangerous to just head into their domain, but at the same time, he had to. Waiting here wouldn’t provide him with more information nor would it deal with the problem at hand. The situation was a first for him, this time he had to deal with an organized society, and one that was too vast to be dealt with in one blow. The spiders were displaying signs of intelligence and they would react accordingly to his attempts to destroy them. He had only a limited number of attempts before they hunted specifically for him.

Edward decided he would attack their webs from another direction. If he kept attacking it at the same place, the spiders would reinforce their presence in the area and it was possible they would climb the mountain until they discovered the teleporting platform. This was unacceptable.

His plan was simple. He would circumvent their territory to attack the webs from another angle. This would draw the spiders out and he would wait for the wasp spiders to arrive along with the wolf spiders to deal with all of them at once. They would be easier to deal with once outside of their webs. With the local area cleared of spiders, Edward would clear a way inside their territory until he found a nest, and destroy it with one of Leyla’s flame bombs.

He immediately went into action. He ran paralleled to the webs for one hour and continued until he found a suitable place where he would be able to hide in the proximity of the webs. He took out his flamethrower artifact and poured some mana into it, aiming it at the webs coming out from the forest. A stream of flame shot out and burned the webs in the same ineffective way. Only the webs that were either exposed to the flames or nearby burned and turned to ash, the rest was unaffected.

With his deed done, Edward hid nearby and didn’t have to wait for long before scores of wolf spiders emerged from the woods. He didn’t dare to glance at them from his hideout, but he monitored them with his aura senses. The spiders didn’t react, and Edward felt a sense of relief, if the spiders were able to track his aura that would have been problematic. Being closer, he was able to sense more details. Those spiders had two big eyes in the front of their face, and a row of four smaller eyes right under them. Paying attention, Edward discovered they also had two eyes on the side of their heads which weren’t visible when facing the spider frontally.

From the way they were behaving, they seemed to rely on their eyesight to sense their surroundings. I guess all spiders don’t have bad eyesight, he mused. From this close, he was even able to see the fine hair on the spider legs.

He was actually starting to wonder if he wasn’t a bit too close as the wolf spiders were spreading out with more of them arriving by the minute. But the wasp spiders arrived at that time, it didn’t matter anymore if he was discovered. He teleported above them and flung two aura blades cutting two spiders in two. When his feet touched the ground the wolf spiders were already rushing at him. Fast. “Rèng khwāmrĕw”, Edward used his acceleration not letting anything up to chance.

With his sudden gain in speed he was able to react in time to the incoming wolf spiders, he elongated his daggers with aura, turning them to the length of a longsword, and he cut them easily. He then rushed toward the wasp spiders, which were a lot slower to react. That’s when the number of wolf spiders suddenly quadrupled in an instant.

What the heck?! Edward rotated on himself while waving his aura blades. The spiders nearest to him were cut into two, but only some of them left a corpse on the ground, the other dissipated in thin air. An illusion? Even with his aura, Edward wasn’t able to distinguish the real wolf spiders from the fakes. Even though he was outnumbered and surrounded, Edward still insisted to pursue the wasp spiders. They seemed more precious than the wolf spiders.

He cut them down without difficulties, with the speed at which he was moving they didn’t have the time to react. Only the wolf spiders were posing a small challenge, even if they were slower than him while in his accelerated state, there were just too many, especially with the additions of their mirages.

Still, with the advantage of his speed, and since he was able to cut through them in one hit Edward had the advantage. An advantage that only increased when he killed any real spider, all of its illusion disappearing with it.

In a matter of minutes, the scene was cleared with only pieces of dead spiders on the ground. Edward absorbed their blood essence, to his surprise the blood essence of the wolf spiders was not so little as to be inconsequential, as small as it was, it still represented an increase in his blood essence. The blood essence of the wasp spider was three times larger than the one of a wolf spider. How come they have so much blood essence? They were the ones representing the lesser amount of threat. Is this because of the amount of web they can produce?

Edward walked up to a thread of web and crouched near it, stretching his hand and touching it. He knew that the webs weren’t ordinary because of how they behaved against fire, the exposed area burning so fast that it prevented the whole web from burning, but he didn’t have the time to examine it closely until now. This strand of silk wasn’t sticky to the touch, it was hard and taut, remembering Edward of a steel cable. He tried to break up the strand with his strength alone but it showed a considerable amount of resistance, only extending slightly in Edward’s direction without breaking. Edward let it go and the thread returned to its initial position while vibrating emitting the same sound as a guitar cord.

If they weren’t already aware of my presence, now they are. Edward thought watching the vibration spread among the threads.