The beads of sweat on Lir’s chin slowly fell toward the spider web between her chin and chest.
Trian loaded an arrow on the bowstring of his longbow, which was much larger than his upper body, and Rex bent his knees in preparation to run into the room and protect Lir at any moment.
I focused my attention on the foreign body that had settled in my heart and prepared for the battle that was about to begin.
Immediately, the small but huge beads of sweat she had shed touched the thin spider web.
The droplets met the thin and strong spider web and split into dozens of drops, creating vibrations.
The subtle tremors traveled up the intricate web and were transmitted to the giant spider hanging upside down from the ceiling.
Rex quickly straightened his bent knees and ran forward to secure Lir’s safety before the situation became irreversible.
At that moment, Trian’s hand quickly blocked Rex’s path.
“... ... .”
Rex looked at the elf blocking his path with a puzzled expression.
Trian just watched the movements of the giant spider hanging from the ceiling without saying a word.
Crunch... ... Crunch... ... .
The spider that had woken up stirred. The sound of the web breaking and tearing could be heard.
The large, long legs that had been wrapped inside the body slowly crawled out.
Lir closed both eyes. She couldn’t even swallow her saliva, afraid that the sound of her throat swallowing would attract the spider’s attention.
I held my breath, looking at the giant spider that might wake up at any moment and pounce on Lir.
... ... In the worst case scenario, I might have to use the bloom here.
The spider quietly moved its legs without opening its closed eyes, feeling the web. The web stretched out under Lir’s chin vibrated. Lir carefully raised and lowered her chin in time with the movement.
“... ... .”
The spider seemed to have decided that the thing shaking its web was not prey.
Perhaps thinking that it was dust or small debris that had fallen from the ceiling, it slowly began to roll its legs under its body.
Lir waited for the spider to fall into a deep sleep again, forcing itself to hold back a sigh of relief.
It was lucky.
There was no other way to explain the situation.
If the spider had opened its multiple pairs of eyes and started to look around the room, things would have gotten out of control.
Lir stood there like a statue for a while before moving back to the center of the room. With a quick hand movement that I had never seen before, she disrupted the circuitry of the mine and soon retrace her steps back to where we were.
As soon as she entered the room, Trian quietly closed the door.
Click.
As soon as the door closed, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) a sigh of relief burst out of our mouths... ... .
“Ewww... ... !”
Lir’s legs gave out.
She looked at me with her big red eyes.
I don’t know why she’s looking at me like that. It was a plan we all agreed on, right?
... ... One of the four of us just stayed silent... ... Well, doesn’t silence imply agreement?
Don’t stare at me too much, and you who didn’t actively show your refusal... ... .
“It was bad, really... ... really! This was too much!”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, when we get back after the plan, I’ll have that chocolate pizza bread or something... ... .”
“I don’t really want to go there! I just want to eat something delicious.”
Yeah, I guess I was a bit wrong about this.
Here, I am the only one who knows that Lir can’t refuse, so I should have called him separately and checked if he really could do it.
From Lir’s perspective, it was a situation where he might have felt a bit betrayed.
“... ... Seriously, what is it? You didn’t come to save me.”
“If something happened, I was going to run right away.”
“I just watched.”
“In that situation, the safest thing to do was to do nothing.”
“... ... Well, that’s true! Anyway! I felt like I was abandoned. Just now, I was really scared!”
The elf who had been showing superhuman concentration while pushing through the spider webs was nowhere to be found, and Lir, who was right in front of me, was throwing a tantrum like a child.
“Calm down. I’ll buy you an expensive meal later.”
“Then, Bin, come find a good restaurant this time!”
‘... ... It’s annoying.’
I thought that to myself and didn’t say it out loud.
If I brought up what was on my mind uselessly, something unimaginable might happen.
“Seriously, I will never do something like this again. Seriously, never.”
Surprisingly, Lir calmed down quickly.
I couldn’t tell if it was because he was so kind-hearted, or if he was fooled by the promise of food.
... ... What is so simple?
“That’s strange.”
While I was sighing in relief and waiting for Lir’s loosened legs to regain strength, Trian was the only one among us who didn’t lose his serious expression.
I asked him what was so strange. Lir was sobbing and wiping tears on my robe, but he had disarmed the mine and didn’t attract the monster’s attention, so it must be okay.
“That monster has a habit of throwing itself at something that touches its web. So at first, I was ready to run with my bow drawn... ... .”
“Wasn’t it just luck? Or maybe you were really sleepy.”
“When you’re sleepy, your knee jerk doesn’t seem to work properly?”
“Huh?”
“That spider’s ‘jumping toward vibrations’ is an unconditional reflex that comes from the spinal cord, not the brain. It’s not something you can do without being sleepy or bothered.”
“... ... Didn’t you say that it’s better not to think too deeply about strange things that happen in dungeons?”
“You need to learn to distinguish between things that are simply bad luck and things that don’t make sense, you brat. What happened just now was clearly ‘unreasonable.’”
... ... This brat is now calling a general of an army a brat.
“The monster’s reaction just now was definitely too lukewarm.”
Rex also seemed to sense the discomfort that Trian had sensed, and expressed his opinion in agreement with what he said.
“... ... I guess I’ll have to check it out properly.”
“I agree.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone, prepare for a possible battle. It might end with one arrow... ... Lir, can you get up now?”
Battle? Suddenly?
Wasn’t moving as stealthily and quietly as possible the most important thing for this expedition? Why on earth would you fight that giant spider that’s soundly asleep?
Lir also sat down and looked at me, as if he couldn’t keep up with the flow of conversation between Trian and Rex.
I don’t know why he keeps looking at me like this. I also don’t understand what they’re talking about.
“... ... Could you explain it to me?”
“Unconditional reflexes are called unconditional reflexes because they happen unconditionally. No matter how bizarre a creature is, it can’t control the unconscious reactions that occur in the spinal cord. It’s a clear abnormality.”
“... ... .”
“If you ignore the abnormal phenomenon on the battlefield without properly investigating it, it will come back as an irreversible disaster. If you want to live long, remember this.”
In a medieval fantasy world where strange phenomena are rampant, an elf who has lived for over 1200 years said that, so I couldn’t help but listen carefully.
In this barbaric era, surviving for over 1200 years meant that he had keen senses and excellent judgment.
“... ... .”
Trian took out the sharp dagger that was stuck in his waist and approached the door carefully.
After confirming that Lir was up and taking a stance, he opened the door without hesitation. Unlike the first time when he had been careful not to hear the sound of the door opening, his actions had lost their cautiousness.
Despite the rattling sound, the spider did not open its eyes.
Trian swung the dagger at the spider web attached to the wall as if there was nothing more to see. Soon after, the mass of spider webs attached to the wall fell off.
If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.
The level of the spider monsters living in this dungeon was at least in the early 40s. Even if Trian was an excellent archer, it was strange that the spider webs fell off so easily with a careless swing of the sword.
With a single gesture from Trian, the spider webs fell off weakly, revealing corroded bricks behind them.
They looked just like bricks that had melted as the blood of the demons was scattered.
The spider, feeling the webs shaking violently, stretched out its legs and slowly began to descend to the floor.
It was definitely not moving normally.
The spider monsters that appear in this dungeon are characterized by agile movements that do not match their size.
“... ... What a tough life.”
Trian put away his dagger and muttered as he put his hand on the longbow and arrows hanging behind him.
Soon after, the spider placed its eight legs on the ground and opened its eyes.
... ... It was a strange sight.
Spiders are usually said to have strange faces, but the face of the spider I was seeing now... ... How should I put it, it felt beyond strangeness.
In the holes where the eyes should have been, there was only pitch-black darkness left.
That wasn’t the only thing strange about the spider. On its back, there was something that looked like the head of another spider half-mixed.
On the head of the other spider hanging on its back, the eyes were still functioning properly.
I instinctively realized that it was the head taken from the corpse of the spider we had first seen.
And I had seen this kind of creature many times before.
So the spider-shaped monster in front of us now was no longer a monster that moved according to instinct.
It was just a slave that moved according to the orders of the demon tribe.
This giant monster that we thought was a spider monster was actually a mutant that was a mixture of two spider monsters.
"Wait La, I’ll go kill you soon.”
He pulled back the bowstring and declared to the demon who was watching us beyond the mutant.
The demon Ifrit was sitting in the middle of the dungeon room, with one leg missing, quietly closing his eyes and concentrating.
He was one of the unlucky demons who had been ordered by his superior to set up magic mines throughout the Achilliptus Forest and retreat for a while, and had been sucked into the dungeon while setting up the mines.
He had been wandering around the dungeon for a long time, looking for an escape route.
I don’t even remember how many days I had been wandering around this labyrinth.
This monster only had countless ways to kill humans, elves, orcs, and dwarves stored in its head, and it had no way to escape the dungeon.
In this desperate situation where he couldn’t bring in the mutants because communication with the outside was completely blocked, the demons went around the rooms of the dungeon, planting magic mines as per the last order of their superiors.
In the process, their torsos were torn apart countless times in several battles, but fortunately, their cores didn’t break, so they were able to survive somehow.
While wandering around this endless labyrinth, they picked up a very strange signal.
It was the feeling of the mines they had planted being dismantled by someone.
They had felt the mines exploding many times before. The monsters in the dungeon had stepped on them repeatedly.
However, the feeling of them being dismantled... was a first.
It was strange. The demons were a race that valued efficiency. No demon would throw themselves into a dungeon just to rescue a mid-level demon.
So the one who stepped in was not a comrade.
When the incident reached that point, the demons quickly sent a mutant made of spiders to cover up the bloodstains.
It was to cover the room full of bloodstains with spider webs so that the enemies would not track them.
That was fine. It was a plausible camouflage tactic, and if it had stopped there, Bin and his party probably would not have bothered to enter the room where the spiders were sleeping.
However, Ifrit’s thoughts did not stop there.
‘What if their goal is the spider itself?’
The goals of those who visit the dungeon are diverse. Some people act with the goal of clearing the dungeon and receiving a huge reward, while others simply focus on dealing with the monsters they come across in the dungeon.
This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.
In particular, the venom of the spider monsters in this dungeon was of excellent quality.
If I had the means, I would have thought of creating a powerful mutant using the venom glands and fangs of this spider monster as their main weapon.
If this venom were released on the continent’s black market, it would probably be traded for quite a high price.
Ifrit judged that if the adventurers’ goal was ‘the spider itself’, his traces could be exposed, so he ordered the mutant to plant a magic mine hidden in another room there.
That was a mistake.
A magic mine planted in the middle of the room and a large spider sleeping on top of it.
Even if an adventurer entered the dungeon with the goal of finding the spider, he would not risk his life and enter that room.
... ... That was what he thought until an elf opened the door and performed acrobatics.
The elf moved awkwardly through the spider webs and quickly dismantled the mine located in the middle of the room.
... ... The uninvited guest’s goal was not to clear the dungeon or collect poison, but to ‘dismantle the mine.’
Who would have guessed that?
The reason they threw themselves into this dangerous dungeon was not for gold and silver treasures or the poison of monsters, but for ‘mine dismantling.’
‘... ... A dismantling team? No, that doesn’t make sense.’
It was natural for a mine dismantling team to be deployed in an alley with a lot of people or a strategically important location.
However, this is in the middle of a dungeon with no strategic meaning. There is no reason for a specialized mine dismantling team to be deployed.
No, the buried mines actually give the opponents the advantage of ‘blocking the movement of monsters.’
There was no reason to risk the danger and deploy a mine dismantling team deep into this dungeon.
Why on earth?
Why? Why would they do something like this?
In the corner of Ifrit’s confused vision, a strand of pure white hair passed by.
‘Huh.’
The spider, whose vision was linked to Ifrit’s, moved its head to follow the white hair that passed by in its vision.
‘Bin.’
The genius wizard who fought on equal terms with the Overlord Malthael was hanging at the edge of Ifrit’s vision.
‘Why on earth is that monster... ...?’
“Wait, I’ll come kill you soon.”
Then, Ifrit’s vision darkened as an arrow was fired by an elf archer who had not paid any attention to it.
“... ... Huh.”
Ifrit’s brain could not process this situation.
The only thing that was certain was that this monster did not have much time left to live.