Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Food Storage Area
Although the sun was out, the ravine was still dark. Cobwebs stretched from wall to wall almost like bridges that prevented most sunlight from reaching the bottom of the ravine.
There were groups of spiders patrolling, some crawling on the floor while others crawled on the walls. Countless spiders could also be seen walking across the various bridges of cobweb. These bridges connected to a large cave system that the spiders had dug out.
On the floor where almost no light could be seen, Lake's figure flashed across the various obstacles and cobwebs that littered the ground, almost like a ghost. He avoided the eyes of the patrolling spiders using the darkness and his stealth skill to his advantage.
Lake had already memorized the entire layout of the spider nest. The nest was divided into a total of seven sectors. Six of the sectors had a Queen Spider occupying it along with their colony while the last sector was used by the Empress Spider.
Besides the Empress spider's sector, each sector had a nursing den where the young spiders were raised and also where the spider eggs were taken care of. The nursing den was normally kept right next to the Queen Spider's den so that the transfer of the eggs could be carried out easier and the Queen Spider could also better manage and take care of the spider eggs.
Each nest also seems to have a sort of training area that the spiders had created. These areas were usually used to teach the newborn spiders their roles and the necessary skills to fulfill those roles in the colony. This teaching process was usually conducted by the older and more experienced spiders of the colony.
Finally, each nest had a storage area where food was usually stored for that specific colony. This area was sealed off and guarded by a group of Soldier Class Spiders and a General Class Spider who led them. This was also the area where Lake was heading.
Logically, the nursing den would be the best place for Lake to go to if he wished to farm RP. However, the nursing den was heavily guarded by both the Queen Spider and a group of General Class Spiders that surrounded her. Lake may have stood a chance against the group of General Class Spiders, however, with the addition of the Queen Spider, whose strength Lake estimated to be somewhere in the High-rank of Martial Apprentice realm, it was something that he couldn't deal with using his current abilities.
With that in mind, he set his sights on the next best thing.
The storage area was a sealed off room that the spiders had dug out. It had ventilation systems in place along with an underground stream of cold water that was running through it, keeping the room at a low temperature. This kept the food inside the storage area preserved.
The reason why Lake decided to go here was due to one major factor. Instead of killing their prey upon capturing them, the spiders would instead use their strong paralytic venom to immobilize it, allowing for them to keep them inside the storage area for a longer period of time.
This had led to the build up of a large number of completely helpless creatures that had been gathered in one place and as far as Lake was concerned, gathering fate didn't have a requirement for the creature. So long as the creature was alive, even an ant would give him a minuscule amount of RP.
However the amount he got would depend on the strength of the creature as well. Using the same ant analogy, Lake could get 0.0000001 RP Points from killing a single ant so even if he were to kill a million ants at once, he would only get 0.1 RP. However, if he were to kill a stronger creature like a low tier monster he could get a far larger amount of RP Points.
Lake theorized that this was due to the effect that a creature could have on the world. The stronger they were, the more effect they could have and the greater fate that they would bear, which in turn would lead to an increase in the amount of RP Lake would gain.
However, Lake would need to kill a few more stronger creatures before he could come to a definite conclusion on this theory.
It's now been a few minutes since Lake entered the spider's nest. After moving through the bottom of the ravine for a bit, he had entered the massive cave network that the spiders had built after an opportunity had presented itself. The cave network was pitch black as no light reached inside.
However, with knowledge of the path ahead and his sixth sense skill to work as both vision and to detect any approaching spiders, he was able to navigate the cave system and reach the storage area without much trouble.
With silent steps Lake swiftly positioned himself behind a large pile of rocks as he used his sixth sense to find the position of the spiders that were guarding the area. The storage area Lake was currently in belonged to the fourth Queen's colony. Lake was currently positioned behind a pile of rocks inside a wide tunnel. In front of Lake was a group of five spiders.
One of them was a General Class Spider that stood somewhere in the middle of Mid-rank in terms of strength while the rest were Soldier Class Spiders. Originally there were supposed to be eight Soldier Class Spiders guarding here instead of four, but after Lake started hunting outside the colony they started sending Soldier Class Spiders out with the hunting parties, the numbers of Soldier Class had significantly dropped across the nest.
The five spiders stood in front of a small opening that had been blocked off by a large boulder. Behind that boulder would be the storage area where all the food of the fourth colony was kept.
Noticing that there were no more spiders within the range of his sixth sense, Lake didn't waste any more time. He had already calculated the timing and since the spiders were no longer hunting due to the lockdown, there wouldn't be any spiders coming here to deliver any prey they would have captured. The only time that the spiders would come would be when they were ready to eat, which Lake had figured out to be around every five hours. Three hours had already passed since their last feast, which meant Lake only had two hours to clean up the storage area, which was more than enough time for him.
Throwing a smoke bomb down into the tunnel, Lake pulled up his mask as he focused on using his sixth sense to navigate.
As smoke filled the tunnel, the spiders initially began to panic but under the command of the General Spider, they quickly calmed down as they got into a defensive position with the General Spider standing behind the Soldier Spiders with the entrance to the storage area facing his back. The four Soldier Spiders formed a protective formation around the General spider with two spiders defending the middle while the other two defended the right and the left.
Using his sixth sense, Lake dashed in front of the group of spiders under the cover of the smoke as he used his spear to pierce into the middle right Soldier Spider's head, instantly killing it.
Grabbing the thread of fate with one hand, Lake swung his spear with the spider's body still attached as he used it to knock away the other spider that protected the middle right. Due to the heavy swing, the spider attached to the spear had fallen off as the smoke cleared up a bit allowing for the other spiders to get a brief glimpse of Lake.
Having managed to spot Lake's position, the spiders wasted no time in launching the attack. The two soldier spiders launched a stream of webs at him from both his left and right sides while the General Class Spider attacked him from the front.
Seeing the two webs approaching, Lake used the tip of his spear to block the webs coming from his left, while he slanted his body, barely dodging the webs coming from his right.
However, due to how he slanted his body, he left his front wide open for the General Class Spider to slash its sharp claws down on him.
With a swift slash, Lake's chest armor he had been wearing all this time had been destroyed as a long slash mark appeared in the center of the armor. That slash of the spider was enough to easily pierce through the skin of a normal Mid-Rank Martial Apprentice, leaving them heavily injured if not dead. However, looking at Lake's skin that only had a slightly red scratch mark, the general class spider was extremely confused.
Seeing that the spider's attack couldn't pierce his skin, Lake was pleasantly surprised. Although he didn't expect the spider's attack to have much effect on him due to the effects of Steel Body, he didn't expect it to only leave a light scratch. Lake guessed that his flesh and bones wouldn't be inferior even to the armor and hide of Mid-rank monsters at this point. If he reached the final level of the Steel Body Martial Arts which was only one level away, Lake felt that his body would probably be as strong and resilient as a Peak Rank One monster.
With this thought in his mind, Lake flashed an unreadable smile at General Spider as he planted a heavy kick into its midriff, launching it back into the stone boulder behind it.
After kicking away the spider, Lake used the small amount of wind in the tunnel to control the smoke to cover the spiders' field of vision once more as he quickly vanished before them.
A few minutes later, most of the smoke in the area had cleared away. The entrance to the storage area was opened as the tunnel had completely transformed into a nightmarish hellscape. Blue blood covered the walls and dripped from the ceiling forming small puddles on the ground which were littered with various spider parts that had been ripped, torn, and slashed apart, painting the tunnel into a scene straight from a horror movie.
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