Chapter 41: An Unequal Negotiation
Arthur, wrapped in the cocoon, fell hard to the ground, rolled several times, and in the end stopped upside down.
’Ah.’ He let out a muffled groan, and felt intense dizziness. The fall was not that harmful, but his shattered body could no longer endure more damage, even if it was minor.
He was in a very terrible state. Only a sliver remained before his HP reached zero. The fact that he was still conscious, no, the fact that he was still alive, was a miracle.
As usual, he did what he did best, endured the pain and dizziness, then with great difficulty moved his body, and adjusted his position, which made him face the Calamity Spider.
He looked at her, and found her frozen in place, staring at the pile of carcasses with a very strange expression. She appeared shocked, suspicious, and at the same time showed a little excitement.
’Well, it seems I succeeded in getting her attention, but, what next? I do not think she will be generous and simply let me go, and also, I am unable to communicate with her, it seems our languages are different, tsk, this is a difficult problem, I only hope my actions are not merely postponing the inevitable.
I do not want to die, especially not by being eaten’
He let out a long sigh, and hoped the spider would eat the meat quickly, for his entire plan was built on that, or more precisely, built on the type of response she would show.
If she ate the meat, and reduced her aggression, that would mean he had succeeded in the first step, and had to move to the second step, which was attempting to communicate with her. His goal was very simple, which was to trade his life for the monster carcasses he had in his possession.
This might seem foolish or insane, but it was in truth very logical, he was not blind enough to not notice that high Rank monsters had a high intelligence level, comparable to humans.
As long as it appeared he had something valuable, it was possible to negotiate with her. Yes, this was a big gamble, but truly, what other options did he have?
...
On the other side, the Calamity Spider stared at the pile of carcasses for a short while, and when she finally comprehended that she was not hallucinating, she directed her gaze toward the thin wolf, and found it in turn looking at her with tension.
Her red eyes met his blue eyes which had a hint of gold in them, and she noticed they were completely different from the eyes of ordinary monsters. Besides appearing mysterious and full of intelligence, looking into them for too long made her feel uneasy.
This was not just her intuition. Even her bloodline displayed some strange and unfamiliar activity, she did not understand exactly what it meant, but she was certain of one thing, this wolf before her was not ordinary.
In addition to that, it was clear that it was the one responsible for those carcasses appearing, as for the method, she had not the slightest idea.
’I truly do not understand, how did it do it? Where did the carcasses come from?’ She felt greatly confused, and her already heavily burdened head filled with more questions.
’Wait a moment, is it possible that it possesses the rare Storage skill I have heard about? That is impossible, it is a high Rank skill, and it is a weak pup, and also, what is its purpose in presenting me the meat?’
She faced difficulty comprehending what was happening, which was understandable given that her mental strength was severely depleted.
After thinking about the matter a little, she decided to go along with it, not only because of her curiosity, but because she was in dire need of meat, and hunting in her current condition was difficult.
Without further hesitation, she headed toward the pile of carcasses, and began eating greedily. She was not afraid that the meat might be poisoned, for she had immunity against poisons.
The moment she finished, she sighed in relief, for she felt somewhat refreshed, and regained a little of her energy, which made her less impulsive and anxious, and calmer and more stable.
She turned toward him, and fixed her gaze on him again, her lips twisted into a small wicked smile, and she released her overwhelming aura filled with killing intent, yet she did not do anything bad, and did not utter a word, she was content to stand in her place staring at him, and that alone was enough to make her intention clear.
Arthur swallowed hard, and resisted the urge to faint. The little energy he had gotten from burning his bloodline was nearly depleted, and burning more would not help him much.
’The decisive moment has come.’ Despite his hazy mind, he understood what she was implying, he felt a little relief, and his hopes rose, for she had responded positively as he had hoped.
Without any hesitation, he opened the Dimensional Storage wide, and took out five E-Rank wolf carcasses beside him. Deep inside he was praying this would end quickly.
The spider’s smile widened, showing her sarcasm, as though saying "Is this all you have?" Then suddenly, she released a silk thread toward him.
The thread merged with the cocoon around his body, and made her regain control over it. When she had spat him from her mouth earlier, she had automatically severed her connection with the cocoon because of the shock.
"Are you mocking me? Take out everything." She said in an angry tone. Then she controlled the cocoon, lifted him high off the ground, and tightened the grip on him, causing his body to be crushed slowly.
"Shit." Arthur felt extremely intense pain, and with great difficulty suppressed the swear words in his throat, so as not to ruin these violent negotiations. Her inability to understand what he said, did not mean she would not understand his intent through the tone.
He was the weak one, and had to endure the humiliation accompanying that. He gritted his fangs, and without holding anything back, opened the Dimensional Storage wide, and took out everything inside it, literally everything.
Carcasses, bones, herbs, and various things fell like heavy rain, and within just seconds a massive pile formed before him, containing everything he had collected during the past month.
Arthur was not the type to collect things, yet, he stored everything interesting he found, and because of this there was a fair amount of uncommon herbs, rocks, and strange materials.
And most importantly, there was a large amount of fresh carcasses, most of them belonging to weak monsters, rabbits, burrow squirrels, Rankless deer, and there was also a fair number of wolf carcasses.
The spider’s eyes widened, she felt a little shock, which quickly turned into overwhelming happiness. This small feast was enough to stabilize her condition, no, even improve it a little.
She released Arthur, or rather threw him aside, then rushed toward the carcasses, and began eating with great greed. She swallowed the smaller monsters whole, while she dissolved the larger monsters using her venom, and sucked them up like soup.
Arthur fell to the ground, and like the previous time, let out a muffled groan, and felt intense dizziness. He turned his head, and with extreme coldness stared at her as she ate his spoils.
He did not feel angry, and no killing intent emanated from him, he was calm, calm in a frightening way.
’Cursed insect, if I stay alive, I will make you pay the price one day...’
Little by little, his thoughts gradually faded, and his vision became hazier. He lost the feeling of his limbs, and with a muddled mind, thought:
’What is happening to me? Am I dying? No, not now, I do not want this, I had almost succeeded...’
He tried to stay awake, but to no avail, he had reached his limit, both physically and mentally. He lost consciousness gradually, and at that moment the system screen appeared before him, and again it was empty and unstable.
[ ... ]
’Useless system.’ Even though he was on the verge of death, he was greatly bothered upon seeing the malfunctioning system screen.
His eyes slowly closed, like a curtain being drawn over the stage, announcing the end of the show, then he drifted toward death.
The screen shook, several strange letters appeared on it, then the letters began to change, forming comprehensible sentences.
[ Host’s condition is extremely critical: HP below 1% ]
[ Death risk ]
[ Emergency system activated: Rebirth from Ashes ]
[ Important alert ]
[ You can use this feature once in your lifetime ]
[ Use Yes/No ]
Arthur did not respond, he had completely lost consciousness, and what remained of his life was like a candle facing the wind, that could extinguish at any moment.
The system waited a few seconds, and when it received no response, it automatically bypassed the basic commands, and decided on its own:
[ Rebirth from Ashes feature activated ]
[ Transitioning... ]
But again, red screens began appearing one after another.
[ Error ]
[ Insufficient data ]
[ Insufficient energy ]
Chaos overwhelmed the system, then suddenly, the red screens stopped appearing, for an unknown healing energy flowed through Arthur’s body.
Starting from his chest, it revived his organs one after another. His heart, which had stopped for a few seconds, returned to beating, and his lungs hungrily drew in fresh air, and with the passing of seconds his condition began to stabilize.
[ External healing intervention detected ]
[ Host’s condition improving: Rebirth from Ashes cancelled ]
[ System failure ]
[ Restarting and recalibrating ]
