strictlysupreme Leftovers from Chapter 5
Leftovers from Chapter 5
Beyond the ruins of the broken bridge, the terrain of the cave suddenly sinks.
The humidity was almost viscous, and with each breath, one had to swallow a mouthful of foul air carrying a musty smell.
The rough rock face was covered with thick, white, fluffy material, like the scabs left after the mucus secreted by some giant creature had dried.
The ground beneath my feet had a sickly softness; as my shoes rolled over it, a milky white, murky liquid seeped out from the cracks.
"Cheer up, everyone." Kyle's voice echoed in the empty tunnel, his tone slightly tense. "The intelligence was correct, that thing is just ahead."
At the end of the tunnel lies a large karst cave hall that has been dormant here for thousands of years.
In the center of the hall, on a throne made of bones and old spider silk, sat a colossal creature the size of a cargo wagon.
Black-toothed Spider Queen.
It is a living fortress, covered entirely in black armor, with eight barbed limbs that are like eight iron spears driven into the ground.
What's most disgusting is its abdomen, where countless compound eyes are crammed together, most of which have degenerated into grayish-white blind spots, with only a few reflecting a dirty red light under the torchlight.
This thing looks like a microcosm of this messed-up world—black, poisonous, covered in thorns, and it makes you lose sanity like crazy.
Rhodes immediately dodged behind several raised rocks.
He unloaded his heavy supply pack, held it horizontally in front of him as cover, and then quickly pulled a boning knife from his boot, slid it into his sleeve, and held it close to his wrist, ready to cut the backpack straps and escape at any moment.
In the blink of an eye, [Analysis Vision] is activated.
Black-toothed Spider Queen (Mutant)
Status: Egg-laying period (irritable)
Entry:
[Chitinous Carapace (White Common)]: Thick as heavy plate armor, difficult to penetrate with ordinary swords.
[Paralyzing Venom Gland (Blue, Excellent)]: Injected through fangs, it can instantly paralyze the prey's nervous system.
[Strong Spider Silk (Blue Fine)]: Sprayed from the abdominal spinneret, it has extremely strong adhesion and a tensile strength approximately three times that of a steel cable of the same diameter.
[Weakness - External female organ (grayish inferior quality)]: Extremely expanded oviposition soft tissue, without shell coverage.
……
"The weakness is in the butt," Rhodes thought to himself, gripping the hilt of his knife tightly without uttering a sound.
He wouldn't bother reminding Kyle; in fact, he'd love for the guy to die here.
"Griffin, go! Draw its attention!"
Kyle drew his sword, Knight's Oath, the jewel on its hilt gleaming in the darkness.
Avira didn't waste any words.
She inhaled a breath of stale air, lifted the tower shield that was half her height, and transformed into a humanoid chariot as she charged out.
"drink!"
The sword's spine struck the edge of the shield heavily, the metallic clang tearing through the heavy air.
The spider queen, who was in the midst of her egg-laying anxiety, was instantly enraged.
It let out a shriek that sounded exactly like a baby crying, and its massive body shot out at a speed that defied the logic of its size.
Two scythe-like forelimbs sliced through the air, crashing down on Avira with a piercing whistling sound.
"clang--!"
The Mars exploded.
Avira's feet dug two deep furrows in the ground, and her tattered, scratched shield withstood the thunderous blow.
"A great opportunity!"
Kyle's greed overwhelmed his tactical awareness.
Normally, we should wait until the heavy infantry completely stabilizes the monster's aggro.
But he set his sights on the Spider Queen's pulsating magical venom gland atop her head—a valuable commodity that could be exchanged for real money.
"Go to hell, you ugly monster!"
Kyle channeled his magic, transforming himself into a silver blade. However, he disregarded the original tactical plan and instead of attacking the Spider Queen's weak points from behind, he directly stabbed at her face.
What an idiot! Even I, a logistics staff member who has never experienced combat, know how to attack at this point.
Rhodes rolled his eyes behind the rock.
The longsword pierced the spider's back door, leaving only a pale scratch on its thick carapace.
It didn't even break through the defenses.
The excruciating pain ironically became the best stimulant.
The Spider Queen suddenly turned her head, her eight scarlet eyes locking onto Kyle.
The abdominal spinnerets, originally intended to attack Avira, writhed, and a jet of ghastly green venom shot out like a high-pressure water jet.
The distance is too close.
Kyle's pupils contracted instantly.
His sword techniques were outdated; his old strength was exhausted and new strength had not yet been generated, making it impossible for him to dodge.
"Vice Commander!" Buck slumped to the ground, too afraid to approach.
Just as the deadly venom was about to corrode Kyle's handsome face into a skull, a gray-white figure forcefully cut in.
Avira abandoned her defensive stance, turned sideways and rammed into Kyle, sending him flying.
"Sizzle—"
The venom splashed onto Ivira's left shoulder and the tower shield, producing a sound like raw meat frying in hot oil.
The tattered robe instantly carbonized, and a wisp of smoke rose from the chainmail beneath.
Even with the blue attribute [Guardian Knight], the pain of having one's flesh burned directly by strong acid is enough to drive someone mad.
However, Avira only grunted and didn't even frown.
Within Rhodes's field of vision, the pale blue light emanating from her body flashed and disappeared in an instant.
The [Resilient Will] attribute is triggered.
The excruciating pain even squeezed out the last bit of strength from Avira's bone marrow.
Taking advantage of the Spider Queen's stiffness after spitting, she swung her shield and used the iron-clad edge to smash hard into one of the Spider Queen's supporting leg joints.
"Click."
The cracking sound of bones breaking was particularly loud.
"You bastard! Are you trying to kill me? Why are you so slow!"
Kyle scrambled out of the mud, his once-shiny plate armor now covered in filth.
He kicked away Buck, who was trying to help him up, and, enraged, swung his sword again.
The spider queen lost a leg, and her massive body tilted to one side.
Kyle finally learned his lesson. He moved to the side and plunged his longsword deep into the cracked joint.
A dazzling burst of magic.
"Pfft."
Dark green fluid gushed out, and the Black Tooth Spider Queen let out a final, piercing scream. Her hill-like body collapsed with a crash, twitching a few times before turning into dead flesh.
"Huff...huff..."
Kyle gasped for breath, his face once again displaying that arrogant and overbearing demeanor.
He wiped a bit of blood from his cheek with his white glove and looked around at his companions.
"Hmph, it's nothing special."
After the battle, it was time to divide the spoils.
Scattered in the corners of the nest are relics left by the ancestors.
Scattered throughout this enormous lair are many relics of adventurers who died here in the past.
On several corpses that had already turned into skeletons, one could still see some tattered leather armor and weapons.
Kyle pointed at Buck and the others and said, "Search the corpses thoroughly, don't miss anything that's glowing. As for this giant spider... cut off its fangs and skull."
Buck and the others rushed forward and stripped the dead man of all his valuable metal buckles and money pouches.
Avira silently walked to a corner, took out a pinch of herbal powder from her pouch, and sprinkled it on the corrosive wound on her shoulder.
The wound was so deep that the bone was visible, but she just gritted her teeth and hastily wrapped it twice with a strip of cloth.
"then."
Kyle casually tossed a small bottle over, which rolled twice on the ground and stopped at Ivyra's feet.
It was a bottle of the lowest quality basic healing potion, worth 5 orimes on the market, not even enough to repair her broken tower shield.
"You did terribly this time. Consider this a lesson." Kyle coldly tossed out a sentence, then turned to look at Rhodes in the corner. "Hey, trash. Come and deal with this pile of rotten flesh. If I smell anything, I'll leave you here to feed the rats."
After saying that, he led the others toward an ancient stone door deep inside the cave, which seemed to be the entrance to the next area.
Only Rhodes and Ivyra, who was bandaging herself, remained in the hall.
Rhodes remained silent, his face expressionless.
He remained as timid as ever, pulling a serrated knife from his backpack and walking towards the mountain of corpses.
He paused for a moment as he passed Avira, but did not stop.
He is still too weak; excessive sympathy is a poison that leads to suicide.
Rhodes circled around to the back of the spider queen's enormous abdomen, where the organs that had just sprayed venom and spider silk were located.
The stench, strong enough to knock a cow unconscious, hit him, but he didn't care at all.
The aroma of gold coins is present in the flavor.
A bunch of blind fools.
The most valuable thing about this beast is not its fangs or skull.
Rhodes crouched down, using the massive corpse as cover, and placed his palm on the soft, loose spinning machine.
With his [Analysis Vision] fully activated, the world before his eyes suddenly changed.
【Strong spider silk (unformed)】
State: Stored in the spinning glands
Quality: Excellent (Blue)
Description: An excellent alchemical stitching material, the first choice for high-level traps.
……
"Stripping".
The intention is conveyed.
As the command was given, Rhodes felt a familiar stinging pain deep in his brain, a sign of mental energy depletion.
Beneath his palm, the flesh and blood that originally belonged to an inanimate object began to twist strangely, and the space around the spinnerets on the queen spider's abdomen became displaced.
A mass of matter that only Rhodes could see was forcibly pulled out.
It emits a faint blue light, and the moment it leaves the body, it materializes into a bundle of almost transparent threads.
[Stripped: Strong Spider Silk (Blue, High Quality) x 1]
Rhodes shook his head to dispel the dizziness.
He didn't stop, his gaze shifting downwards to the cyst behind the spider queen's mouthparts that was still throbbing slightly—the gland that produced neurotoxins.
The fact that the spit just now almost melted Kyle's face is enough to prove the quality of this stuff.
"Stripping".
A sharp, intense nerve pain struck again, even more intensely than before.
Stripping away this highly active, high-quality toxic substance is a test of one's mental strength.
Rod gritted his teeth, a fine layer of cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
Finally, a translucent, purplish-black liquid sac appeared in my consciousness.
[Removed: Neurotoxin capsule (blue, premium) x 1]
Good stuff.
If this kind of attribute were applied to a specific item and sold on the black market to assassins or pharmacists who specialize in dirty work, this single attribute could fetch at least 80 hexagonal gold coins.
Based on the fact that a six-cent gold coin from Rust Harbor is roughly equivalent to a standard trade silver ingot at a 1:1 ratio, it is roughly equivalent to eight Guild Orim.
With that bundle of spider silk, the price would be even higher if sold to a master tailor who makes enchanted armor.
This wave will net at least 20 Orim.
The scrap metal that idiot Kyle just looted, apart from the money pouch, is worth at most a few dozen six-cent silver coins. At the exchange rate of 1:15 gold to silver in Russo-Port, he'd be lucky to get two or three gold coins in return.
The Basic Rune Analysis is readily available!
Once he learns magic and finds an opportunity to collect some combat-related abbreviations that can be added to himself, he will be able to fight in the dungeon and escape the Anvil Adventurer Group, especially from that bastard Kyle's exploitation.
Rhodes straightened up and used a boning knife to pretend to cut off two worthless pieces of carapace, casually digging out a compound eye—this thing looked disgusting, but it could be used as alchemy material, and handing it over to the guild would also serve as a quest token.
He pulled a tattered, oil-stained cloth from his worn-out pack and wrapped up the scraps.
"Hey."
A soft chuckle escaped his throat, sounding particularly abrupt in the empty cave.
Hearing the commotion from a distance, Avira looked up.
Rod instantly composed himself and reverted to being the hardworking laborer he always was.
He slung the still-dripping package over his shoulder, its weight bending his back.
"I've taken care of things here, Miss Griffin."
Rhodes did not address her as Sir, Lady, or any of those insincere honorifics.
Instead of showing contempt or disdain towards this woman like he would towards others, he held her in some respect.
In this cannibalistic world, there are very few "fools" like her who are consistent in word and deed and truly practice the way of chivalry.
Avira's emerald green eyes swept over his bulging backpack as she struggled to her feet, leaning on her sword.
"Let's go," she said in a hoarse voice, "Don't fall behind."
The two walked one after the other in the direction Kyle had disappeared.
The Spider Queen's corpse on the ground was a pile of worthless rotten flesh, but in Rhodes' eyes, it was the first stepping stone to becoming a strongman.
A knight's oath, and your life...
Kyle, the interest on this debt is waiting to be settled.
Rod's fingers touched the cold hilt of the knife beneath his sleeve, a sensation that brought him immense peace of mind.
The depths of this Black Tooth Cave didn't seem so scary after all.
After all, there are treasures waiting to be discovered here—as long as you have eyes that can see through the garbage.