Chapter 54
#54. Spider Nest
Twilight Spiders are a bit trickier and stronger than the other monsters on the 7th floor.
Their movement speed is also fairly fast, they have a special pattern where they shoot webs to bind you, and their defense is pretty high.
On top of that, their basic attacks inflict poison, so strategy guides recommend hunting them in a party of three or more.
So the fact that Twilight Spiders were swarming here in a number that was obviously absurd was, naturally, abnormal.
This wasn’t the difficulty a normal 7th-floor challenger party could handle.
Of course, there was a clue to why such a mass outbreak of Twilight Spiders might have happened.
“Don’t come forward. Stay behind me!”
And there was Dark Elf Rizmel, who’d said she wanted to see my skills but was telling me to hide behind her.
The difficulty was probably set with the assumption that you’d be accompanying an elite NPC. Like a story-mode version.
I figured the Twilight Spider nests in other towers had probably already been cleared once by NPCs and had their difficulty lowered.
Of course, that had nothing to do with me. My specs far surpassed those of a normal 7th-floor challenger.
“You stay back too.”
I pushed past Rizmel and charged at the swarm of spiders. The Twilight Spider at the front reacted quickly and spat out a web.
Since she said she wanted to see my swordsmanship, maybe I’d fight mostly with sword and shield again this time.
That web was hard to escape once it snagged you, but in exchange, its firing speed and range weren’t anything special.
-Tap!
I dodged with a light step, then leapt high and boldly landed on the spider’s head.
Twilight Spiders varied in size from one individual to the next, but even their basic size was about that of a wild boar.
And because of a spider’s body structure, once you got onto its back or head like this, it no longer had a proper way to attack you.
It was known in the strategy guides as one way to deal with Twilight Spiders, but apparently very few challengers actually tried it.
Then again, who would actually rush at a poisonous spider at least as big as a boar and try to mount it in combat?
“Holy shit, that’s fucking disgusting.”
The bristly fuzz on the spider’s body felt incredibly unpleasant. I grimaced and immediately brought my sword down.
-Thwack!
The Twilight Spider’s carapace was fairly tough, but before my strength stat it was pierced with ease.
From the spot where I struck it, a translucent green fluid sprayed out in a rush.
The Twilight Spider’s bodily fluid was mildly toxic on its own and highly corrosive.
That was why I’d heard that if you stabbed a Twilight Spider with an ordinary sword, the weapon’s durability would drop in an instant.
But equipment made of ebony steel had high resistance to corrosion, so my sword’s durability didn’t budge at all.
As expected of Dark Elf-made weapons. Their performance was top-notch.
-Whoosh!
Just as I was admiring the performance of the Dark Elf sword, a shadow suddenly fell over me.
When I looked up, a huge Twilight Spider had leapt into the air and was dropping down on top of my head. Its jumping ability was pretty impressive.
I stepped on the head of the spider I’d just killed and climbed onto another spider’s head to dodge the attack.
-Thwack!
But just before the leaping Twilight Spider smashed down on the spot I’d been standing, it was hit by something and sent flying.
“W-What the hell are you doing, so recklessly? You don’t even know how scary spiders are...!”
Rizmel shouted, holding the bow slung across her back. I’d wondered what had hit it and sent it flying—so it was an arrow.
Considering its size, a Twilight Spider had to weigh a ton, and yet it had been toppled by a single tiny arrow.
So this was what made an elite NPC different. The power behind a single arrow was absurdly strong.
No wonder there were so many spiders here. She was seriously strong.
“Come over here already! You’ll get hurt!”
“No, you said you wanted to see my skills.”
With a dry laugh, I chopped off another spider’s head and then charged straight at the next one.
**
Once she realized I had no intention of backing down, Rizmel actively joined the fight and focused on reducing the number of spiders.
Rizmel’s archery was no joke, but her sword work was even more ridiculous.
I could suppress most spiders in one or two hits too, but by the time it took me to take down one, Rizmel was cutting down two.
It wasn’t even a duel between people, just mowing down trash mobs, and I hadn’t expected the gap in skill to show this clearly.
Was this just a matter of movement? Her speed and flexibility in dealing with lunging spiders were on a completely different level from mine.
“Looks like we got them all, more or less.”
Anyway, Rizmel and I had nearly wiped out all the Twilight Spiders swarming from the entrance.
There were so many of them that a small puddle had formed on the ground, a mix of spider fluid and venom.
“Now I can finally catch my breath, so why did you have to do something that dangerous...!”
“You told me to show you my skills.”
“I never told you to charge in so recklessly, you stupid human!”
Rizmel let out a shrill yell, rummaged through the bag tucked under her arm, and pulled out a small handkerchief and something that looked like a potion.
Judging by the color, it was some kind of antidote potion. She soaked the handkerchief with it, then beckoned me closer.
“Spider fluid got all over you, are you trying to get sick? Gross, give me your face!”
Then she grabbed my face with the handkerchief and started scrubbing it hard. Come on, who was going to get sick over this much?
“Maybe a brat like you doesn’t know this, but if it splashes into your eyes, nose, or mouth, you’re in real trouble! If you can’t help, at least don’t be dead weight!”
“Mmph-mmph.”
“Stay still, will you? I’m cleaning you right now. Can’t you keep your lips from moving? I’ll rip them right off!”
By now I was starting to get a rough sense of this girl’s personality. She was only prickly on the outside; she was no different from the other Dark Elves.
I pried Rizmel’s hand away as she wiped my face with the antidote potion and waved her off, saying this much was fine.
“Hey, you don’t know how terrifying spider venom is, do you? When these guys’ venom mixes with their bodily fluid, it gets even stronger?”
Rizmel started with that and then went on and on about how far Twilight Spider venom could mutate.
Listening to her, I could sort of see why she was so cautious. Though it probably had a fair bit of exaggeration mixed in.
“Is it really that dangerous?”
“I’m telling you it is, why won’t you listen!”
Hmm, but when she put it that way, it became hard to resist. There was a whole cocktail of venom pooled over there in that puddle.
Half-listening to Rizmel’s warning, I cupped up a ladleful of the venom gathered in the puddle and drank it.
-Gulp.
The searing tingle unique to a corrosive venom slid down my throat.
“Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing, are you crazy? Spit that out right now! Gross, gross, ptoo!”
Rizmel was making a huge fuss, but after trying it, it really wasn’t that impressive a poison.
It was about on the same level as the 6th-floor zombies’ blood cannon. Stuff like this won’t work on me.
**
Rizmel was horrified when she saw me downing the poison, but when I said I had a poison-resistant constitution, she seemed to accept it somewhat.
“Even if you have a body that’s resistant to poison, don’t do something like that again!”
Of course, she did nag me about why I’d stuff something like that in my mouth, but she’d stopped trying to shove her fingers down my throat and make me puke, so that was fine.
“So, is the spider extermination over with this?”
I asked as I sheathed my sword. Rizmel shook her head and took out the note she’d shown me at the beginning again.
Now that I looked at it, it seemed it wasn’t just a note but some kind of instruction sheet.
“No. There were way more spiders than expected. There has to be a reason for this mass outbreak, so we need to investigate further.”
Rizmel added that a special mutated Twilight Spider might have been born.
According to the strategy guide on the Open Community, the inside of this Twilight Spider nest was treated like a dungeon, but there wasn’t a separate boss.
But based on my experience, there was a high chance this was a unique boss that would never spawn again once defeated.
“This wasn’t originally the kind of mission meant to be done with a human brat in tow... damn it.”
Rizmel muttered, glancing at me. In the end, it seemed she’d acknowledged my skill to some extent.
“Hey, human. Why did you want to join our scout unit?”
“To do stuff like this.”
“Stuff like this? Do humans like playing with poisonous spiders or something?”
Since it was hard to explain, I gave a rough answer, and she said something weird. Why would humans like poisonous spiders?
“I said I wanted to improve my skills. I needed real combat experience. And if I can help with your work along the way, even better.”
Rizmel listened to me, wore a half-lidded expression for a moment, and then let out a snort as if she understood.
“Hmph, listen to you sounding so proper. Now I get why Eleanor brought you along saying she liked you. You’re exactly the sort of brat that girl likes.”
When she said that and patted my back a couple of times, it gave me a very strange feeling.
“By the way, Eleanor isn’t doing anything weird to you, is she?”
Then she suddenly leaned her face close and whispered that. Weird things? What did she mean?
“If she asks to sleep with you or touches you somewhere inappropriate, you have to clearly say no. Got it?”
Being treated like a Dark Elf princess was a little odd, but I couldn’t be bothered to argue, so I just said I understood.
At this point, though, what mattered more was the boss in that nest.