A woman’s upper body protruded from the spider’s stomach and was attached to the wall. Spider hair covered her thickly all over her body, and the hair atop it gave the shape of a beautiful woman. It was a mutant monster with strong magic that could not be born. Perhaps that sprouting female body is one of the many adventurers that damn bitch has eaten.
‘… Arachne.’
I knew what I was up against. Only because it was one of the monsters that Arjen faced in the original work. It was the boss monster who lurked in the deepest part of the anthill. Even worse, it had a ‘name.’ There are two cases in which a monster has a name. Either they survived long enough to gain notoriety or have the ego and intelligence to give themselves a name.
“Hello? I am Arachne. I live in the deepest part of this burrow.”
Unfortunately, that bitch checks both those boxes.
“A delicious smell wafted all the way to the bottom.”
The spider spoke to us with a voice that sounded like rolling marbles carved out of ice. There was a clicking sound like a bird at every word.
“Especially you over there; you smell very pungent.”
“You, in particular, have a very pungent odor.”
In the light of my torch and Harvey’s lantern, the whiteless eyes embedded in Aragrid’s skull glittered. And those eyes were pointed squarely in my direction. ‘Do I smell like pork belly right now?’
“…We should run. A talking spider monster, I’ve heard of it in the Guild. Maybe we should go deeper into the burrow.”
Harvey, realizing that we were in trouble, whispered to me.
“This whole burrow is my nest, and I’d be grateful if you came in.”
Arachne giggled at Harvey’s whisper. The spider scuttled down the wall on its web, clicking its six feet. I was confused why a spider had six feet, but I realized that the other two were on the woman’s half of the body, clawing at its own face. The sound of the spider crawling and moving on the stone floor pierced my ears and rattled my brain.
“You’ll make a good meal for my children.”
‘Children?’
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of nails scraping on eggshells began to emanate from behind us. Harvey’s face went stiff, Robin’s eyes shook, and Leah glanced back. I wanted to see what was happening behind me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off that monster. I gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to look behind me.
“The spiders… spiders….”
I heard Robin’s voice, a lone whisper among the tapping. The sound was coming from deep inside the cave. It seems Arachne’s hatchlings were crawling out from the cave’s depths.
“We must fight.”
Rhea said and unsheathed her axe. Even in this situation, the Holy Sword showed no sign of awakening. I guess there is no helping it. If I tried to rely on such a miracle every time, how would I cope with the many dangers ahead? I emptied my mind and readied myself.
Spiderlings crawled out of the depths and surrounded us. Like their mother, the young spiders were frighteningly giant. There were at least a hundred of them, each the size of a man. They may be hatchlings, but each one still packs a punch.
“Humans….”
The non-combatants, Robin and Harvey, looked at me with pleading eyes. Spider eyes, human eyes. Their gazes were heavy. Dozens, maybe hundreds of pairs of eyes, all focused on me. It was as if all these pupils had merged into one giant eye, intent on crushing and killing me.
The silence of the battlefield was a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment. The clicking of the spiders’ feet filled my ears as they crawled ever closer. As the last click resounds through the cave, Arachne then speaks.
“You know what?”
Arachne slowly walked toward me on all six legs. The baby spiders crowded around her, stepping aside to make way for their mother.
“If it weren’t for the man standing before me, I wouldn’t have come up here, but he smells so rich and delicious, even I, who sleep in the innermost recesses of my burrow, can’t stand it.”
The human-shaped upper body slowly leaned forward. The spider smiled grimly as its eyes met each member of the adventuring party, one by one, with certainty.
“You will be sacrificed because of this man who came with you, and while he is quite strong, he stands no chance against me.”
Robin’s and Harvey’s gazes trembled as they stared at me. Leah’s expression remained unchanged, but she eyed our companions uneasily.
“Aren’t you angry? I would most definitely be angry. It’s unfair, isn’t it? You don’t have to die here, and I don’t have to have you tied up head to toe in cobwebs and slowly melting away.”
Arachne’s smile imprints fear on Robin and Harvey. She watches us, seemingly savoring our reactions, and her mouth smiles even more grotesquely.
“You want to survive, don’t you?”
Arachne’s head was now at eye level with the adventurers. The creature stuck its head between Robin and Harvey and lowered its voice to a whisper. Its words drive in a wedge.
“Shall I show you the way to live?”
Arachne’s glowing eyes met the adventurers.
“You see… you’re not very tasty, and you don’t have a lot of mana. What I really want is that man.”
She pointed at me and laughed.
“If you are willing to leave him behind, I’ll let you go. I don’t want to lose too many of my children for nothing. You can just go back and pretend it never happened, don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Again, the adventurers turned to me. I said nothing. My expression didn’t change, and I didn’t try to make eye contact with the adventurers; I just stood there in the flag ceremony, my eyes fixed on Arachne. I had no choice; Arachne was doing the same.
“… I’m leaving.”
I heard Harvey’s voice. Robin’s head hung low, unable to respond, while Rhea’s eyes widened, and she glared at Harvey as if to ask what the hell he was talking about. Gone was the playfulness of his voice, and he seemed to have gone completely still.
“What bullshit are you spouting?”
Harvey made a face at Leah’s words.
“Don’t you see? There’s no reason for me to die here, and I don’t want to die. I’m sure Robin feels the same way. You may have been with us for a while, but he’s not part of our party. Are you going to fight and kill us all here? If you aren’t gonna say anything, I’ll go first.”
Harvey’s tone was demanding, and he tugged on Robin’s hand. Robin was dragged along with him while Rhea stared at me momentarily, then jerked her head away and stomped off after him.
I didn’t glance at the adventurers once. I only kept my eyes on Arachne’s movements. In the cave, where the torches and lanterns had disappeared, my vision slowly recovered, and I caught sight of Arachne again.
“Hmph.”
Aragrid smirked as she watched the disappearing adventurers.
“You are special, aren’t you? Aren’t you mad at me for not killing them? I purposely let them escape.”
“How many did you eat like that?”
Arachne’s mouth twitched at my question. A monster that could speak the human language was dangerous. They had the power to make people listen to threats that would never work if they were told by humans, even if they were bullshit. The fact that they could speak was fear, which eats away at reason. That’s how they play with people, and then they kill them.
“You know me well.”
Arachne’s foot clicked. I put my fingers under my chin as she tilted her head. It was a grotesquely beautiful and ghastly face.
“You must have realized that if those adventurers and I resisted together, you might have actually died, so you wanted to remove the option of staying and resisting from their minds, to make the fight tip in your favor. This is how you deal with moderately strong people.”
She looked genuinely surprised.
“You even know that? Ten times out of ten, you would just attack each other.”
She narrowed her eyes questioningly.
“And, if you know so much, why didn’t you try to attack me? Those adventurers would have been forced to fight with you if you did.”
“Then I would have lost the chance to save them.”
Leaving me behind could be considered shameful, but this was the best option. The only person who could have been helpful to me would have been Rhea, who would definitely die fighting this monster.
They didn’t try to kill or blame me for putting them in such a situation.
I might not be a saint, but at least I wasn’t psychotic enough to slit someone’s throat for being a nuisance, and there was a slight chance I might still survive. I remembered the words Harvey had secretly mouthed to me before leaving the cave.
“I’ll be back with the others.”
‘If I could stall and hold her off, maybe reinforcements would come.’ I thought to myself and drew up my mana. The Holy Sword has not awakened. Daphne was not here to support me with her magic. I wonder how long I’ll be able to hold out. Death takes shape in my vision, staring at me.
“Too bad, you’ll lose points with that.”
Arachne said, letting her words hang in the air.
“Did they think I could not realize the plan they made? Idiots. If they were terrified, they should have run out of my nest, stricken with fear. He took his time to think about calling in reinforcements. It was hilarious to watch.”
Arachne burst into laughter. The monster’s laughter made my eyes narrow like razors as I remembered that this creature, in addition to hunting people, also liked to play with them.
“But do you know why I let them go?”
My grip on the Holy Sword tightened. Arachne looked down at me and smiled ecstatically. Her black eyes glittered. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. The spiderlings swarmed before Arachne, forming a barrier as if to escort their mother.
“My children must soon learn to hunt alone.”
I ignite the mana I have gathered, unleashing a spell. The barrier of spiders crashed down on me in a torrent, and I raised my sword, plunging the tip into the spiders without hesitation to cut off the abomination’s head.
*** Rhea’s POV ***
“Hey, Harvey, what the hell are you…!”
Harvey turned to me, his face contorted, signaling me to be quiet. This pissed me off, so I complained louder and louder until Harvey clamped his hand over my mouth.
“I’m going to call for reinforcements.”
Harvey said in a small voice. I looked at him wide-eyed. Harvey motioned for me to be quiet again and lowered his hand over my mouth.
“I don’t know why that spider creature set us free, but… we need to get out of here and back to the kingdom or ask for help from passing adventurers. We could have fought if you were on the same level as the Hero. But we are nothing but dead weight to him.
I listened to Harvey’s words, then nodded as I slowly became more determined. Robin glanced back, still uneasy about the Hero, but then quickened her pace to keep up with us.
“Asking a passing adventurer for a favor is absurd, and we shouldn’t even think about looking for one. We should head straight for the Capital and ask for help.”
Harvey’s expression was not good; he believed in the Hero’s strength but wasn’t sure how long he would hold out against the monster.
“That’s right. We can use his name as the Hero to get a quick dispatch of regular troops….”
My footsteps stopped. Before Harvey could ask me why I’d stopped, he realized why.
Tap, tap, tap.
Dozens of spiders, each the size of a man’s torso, were poking out of the rocks around us.
*** Elroy’s POV ***
What do you want?
“What a waste.”
I glared at Arachne through the wall of spiders as she grew a pair of freshly sprouted legs out of those severed.
“I’ve had to lose quite a few of my children because of you.”
Ultimately, I somehow managed to break through the swarm of baby spiders blocking Arachne. They didn’t have any intelligence yet and were following her lead. They were prioritizing Arachne’s protection rather than trying to attack me systematically. I’ve killed a lot of spiders, swinging my sword like a rowboat, but…
The fight against the swarm was tough. I pushed through the spiders and clashed with Arachne. For the first time, I’d say I performed well. I gave her a lot of wounds and cut off three legs. Of course, the attacks were piling up on my body, but the pain of the scars was dulled by the hope of defeating this monster and surviving.
“You’re more annoying than I thought, human.
Well, I had hope until Arachne devoured one spiderling. Then another. And yet another. She ate her young indiscriminately whenever she had a large wound. The young became her nourishment, growing back limbs that had been severed, sprouting new flesh in the gaping wounds of her body.
I was a tattered mess of wounds, large and small, while the spider looked as if it had just awakened from sleep.
“… It’s not enough.”
As Arachne said, her wounds slowed noticeably. Her face contorted as she indiscriminately picked up the baby spiders on the floor, dissolving them with her venom. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the grotesque sight. ‘Personally, I would not eat my babies.’
Arachned dashed toward me. I let out a string of curses and stood up, plunging my sword into the ground. ‘Not yet. I can still hold on.’
Boom
Aragrid’s foot flew out, and I was kicked into the air, failing to dodge the attack.
“Cough.”
This is dangerous. If I allowed her to attack further, the body held only with mental strength would completely collapse. As I struggled to return to my feet, Arachnegrabbed my body with her hand.
Shatter
I was sent flying across the opening, only stopping as my back slammed into the wall. I think I’ve broken a few bones. I must have broken a couple of ribs, too. My chest stings with every breath. ‘How is Rhea holding up? Probably doing better than me, at least.’ I shuddered but refused to let go of the Holy Sword.
What do you want?
‘Do people hear things as they near death?’
Someone was whispering in my ear in the same harsh tone as before
They asked me what I wanted.
‘What do I want? Of course, I want to kill this spider now, and if I’m still alive, save the adventuring party and survive. And then I want to defeat the remaining Disasters without dealing with Arjen again, and eventually, eventually…’
Protect the world.
Something inside me that didn’t seem to be me completed the last sentence of my answer.
(I understand.)
Kiiiii–iiinngggg
A brilliant light emanated from the hilt of the Holy Sword, and an unexplained power enveloped my body.
