Chapter 22: Parent Spider

Once inside the house, Erna begins to wander around the room.

“Nobody…”

I also explore the house but none of the rooms have any human presence. The disordered futon on the bed suggests that someone ran away in a hurry.

“Kyaaaa!”

As soon as I heard Erna’s screams, I rushed towards her and three people had been consequently wrapped in a thread, this should have been a child’s room. The corpses were carefully wrapped from the tip of their foot till their heads and tied with a knot like a ribbon.

Perhaps surprised to see the corpses, Erna slumped on the floor.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-Yes, just a little surprised…”

When she got up, she took a deep breath. Although I was prepared, I still feel creeped out seeing corpses like this. Perhaps they only viewed humans as food.

“Ah, I can hear voices again.”

Erna starts walking around the living room. She puts her ear on the floor and starts hitting the floor with her cane like some ritual.

“Maybe there is someone underneath?”

“Look for it Shinichi. There should be a hidden door somewhere.”

I also start observing the floor. I found a place where some of the floors had different colors. When I hit it, a hollow sound echoed out, so I decided to insert the knife and pry it open.

“We got it!”

From the out of place basement, stairs emerged. Cautiously, we went down the stairs and we suddenly hear many screams from the dark.

“Erna, light please.”

“I understand!”

When she used magic, the basement room was illuminated brightly, revealing the faces of about sixty people. The room measures about 10 square meters, it is a small space. Men, women and children who were obviously terrified huddled together.

“We are adventurer party called Homeless. We received a request. It’s here correct?”

Then an old man stood up.

“Oh! You accepted the nomination request! Thank you! Please get rid of those spiders as soon as possible!”

“That’s fine but, are these all the people who escaped?”

When I asked, the old man had a dark expression.

“Unfortunately all the villagers here are the only ones who survived. The men who fought the spiders were dead and the only thing we could do was ask help from town.”

“Is that so….. You had it hard. However, you should now be safe since we are now here. We’ll definitely get the village back from those spiders.”

“Ooooh! Those are some words of encouragement! Thank you!”

I then shook hands with the old man and we decided to go to the ground for the time being.

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“What should we do then? For sure there’s a swarm of it in the forest right?”

“That old man, uhm… the village chief told me that if we go to the west of this village, there is a cave where the spiders nest is. If we destroy that, we’ll be safe for now.”

“But… not all would be in the nest right? What about the other spiders?”

“For that, we’ll use this”

I pointed to the three corpses at my feet. I feel bad for these corpses but I will use them because it is for their village. With thread generation skill, one thread pops out from my fingertips. It is a durable and stretchable thread.

The three corpses were tied up with the thread and I carried it on my back.

“He~h, magical beast’s skill is surely convenient.”

“I never thought I could pick up the skills of monsters but yeah, it’s surprisingly convenient to use. Now I can be spi⍟man.”

“Spi⍟man?”

Erna has a curious expression. Ahem, that is a sort of hero thing men long for. Particularly, that popular hero who flies through groups of buildings in every direction. I haven’t forgotten that my son copied him as he watched TV.

Me and Erna step into the forest, slaughtering all the spiders that appear while searching for the western cave where the nest may be.

“Is that the western cave…?”

We walked for about two hours and we finally came across a gaping wide opening in a huge boulder. Spiders sometimes crawls out from inside, I can see how the preys wrapped into a thread were carried inside. They look like a spider but they may be living like an ant.

“We’ve come this far but what should we do about those corpses?”

“We’ll do this.”

I threw the corpses in front of the cave. Then, a few of them noticed it and approached the corpses.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“Erna, Flame Bomb!”

“Eh!? F-Flame Bomb!”

The spiders that gathered on the corpse made screeching sounds and died. I quickly used my Stealth Skill and hugged Erna from behind.

“W-Wait….. in a place like this…”

“Be quiet. After hearing those cries the others will surely come.”

As expected, spiders began to crawl out and gather after hearing the cries of their friends. The spiders that emerged from the forest seem to be unaware of us. The power of this stealth is immeasurable because there are even spiders that go right beside us.

Stealth Skill is not only interesting, it also excellently erases the presence of the person who I’m touching. At first to test how the skill works, while were in town I tried it on Erna and everyone began to ignore us. That’s how I get to know this.

While thinking about such things, spiders gather and form a mountain. The total number already exceeded 400, and they were writhing in a nasty way.

“Erna, Flame Burst”

“Y-Yeah”

With her ears red, she holds her cane and releases advance magic towards the spiders. A bright red flame rose with the explosion and the spiders instantly turned into ashes. In the place where the crater was created, the brightly glowing charcoals and the rising black smoke tells the power of an advance magic.

“I-It’s about time…”

“Hn? Oh- Sorry, sorry.”

Cancelling stealth, I released Erna from my embrace and her face turns red. I should refrain from hugging woman of marriageable age after all. She must have thought that it was a sexual harassment.

“Uhm. With this, we probably killed most of the spiders right?”

“I want to think so too, but…”

At this time, something like an electric current ran through my spine. It’s the Danger Detection skill.

I immediately hold Erna and leave the area. In an instant, the place we were at previously is now filled with threads. It feels like something exploded and a lot of threads appeared suddenly.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“Kugyiiiiiiiiiii!”

A huge spider about three meters appeared from the cave.

“Kuh, a parent spider? I just thought that there is a possibility for it… it seems that we can’t easily end this.”

The parent spider points it butt towards us and a white sphere was shoot out. I escaped immediately by moving to the side while holding Erna. Immediately afterwards, the white sphere explodes, spreading large amount of thread. Apparently, that is a special thread that can only be used by a parent spider.

When I ran into the forest, the parent spider quickly kited into the trees as if it teleported. I knew that spider’s jumping power is incredible but even in the state where my super sensation is active, I can barely follow it.

“Shinichi, I will use magic!”

Erna, who I’m holding under my arm, raises her cane and fires flame bombs. However, the parent spider neatly avoided Erna’s attack. On the contrary, it is already behind me.

“There is no other way, this is a direct showdown!”

After I lowered Erna to the ground, I pull out my sword and face the parent spider. It is threatening me by issuing loud rattling of its fangs.

“Kugyiiiiiiiiiii!”

With its nimble movement, our distance was thinned out and its fangs were raised against my body. The big fangs pierced my upper arm deeply.

“Guguaaaaaaa!”

Poison pours in from the tip of the fangs and its deadly poison spreads throughout my body. I forgot that wrapping spiders are poisonous spider.

“Shinichi!?”

Hearing Erna’s voice, I think I’m done for, I should prepare for death. However, even if there is pain, numbness does not occur. Rather, I felt like I was awakened due to the pain.

“How long are you gonna bit me you darn spider!”

Grabbing the parent spider that is biting me, I lift it all at once and make a backdrop move.

“Pigyiiiiiiiii!?”

The huge spider is flailing as its belly was displayed in the open. I activate my pressure point skill and thrust my sword into the red dot that appears at the base of its legs.

“This is your end!”

I touched the magic square on the handle of the sword and with a buzz, a unique sound rung and electric shock transmitted out from the blade. The spider’s body convulsed and when it spits a lot of bubbles from its mouth, its whole body turns rigid. It’s dead!

“Whew, somehow I won…”

“Shinichi! Are you alright!?”

When Erna rushed to me, with a tearful and confused look she stared at the wounds on my arm.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“This much is nothing. More than that, I made a big discovery.”

“Eh? Big discovery?”

“Yeah, apparently the race Homeless variant is immune to poison. And look, the wounds are beginning to close up. It’s evident that my regenerative ability has improved dramatically.”

The bleeding already stopped. In fact, it seems to be gradually regenerating. Of course, self recovery skill may be beneficial to it but even so, this regenerative ability is abnormal.

“I’m still worried. Eat this cure mushroom.”

After I ate the cure mushroom handed by Erna, the regeneration speed increases rapidly and the wound disappears in no time. I still feel like I can’t let go of cure mushrooms just yet.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

When I appraised the killed parent spider, I found an interesting information.

【Appraisal Result: Wrapping Spider (Mother): Mother of the wrapping spiders who lays large number of eggs once a year. Its fangs have deadly poison, and even ferocious demon beasts do not come close to the mother of wrapping spiders.】

【Status】 Name:  Wrapping Spider (Mother) Race:  Wrapping Spider Magic attribute:  Earth Magic:  Rock Arrow, Rock Wall Skills: Thread Generation (Advanced), Thread Manipulation (Advanced), Thread bomb (Advanced), Eyesight Enhancement (Advanced)

Using Skill Picking, I acquired the following skills, thread generation, thread bomb, and eyesight enhancement. I don’t know if I’ll ever use it, but it might be useful if I am to use it.

“Speaking of that, what is the maximum limit of a skill?”

“Hmm… it goes up from beginner, intermediate, advanced, and special grade but I’ve heard that it will be integrated and become a superior skill if the conditions are right. But it is rare for someone to have such skill. There are few people who raised it to a special grade though I do not know the details.”

“Hmm, superior skill huh. That’s quite interesting.”

I carried the mother wrapping spider on my shoulder and start walking towards the nest.

“Hey, the village is in the opposite direction right?”

“It’s not over yet. If we don’t burn the nest properly, another spider may come and build a nest there.”

“Oh, that’s also true.”

We went back to the cave in the west side and explored inside.

“Uweh~, aren’t all these human bones…?”

“These only show how many villagers were attacked by those spiders.”

As we proceeded through the dim cave, the cool air began to drift from the back. After reaching about 20m, we reached a dead end.

“It ends here huh…. Hn? What is this?”

Purple crystals had grown on the end of the wall. There are about thirty big things about 5cm in size, but if we combine the smaller ones about sizes of marbles, we will get about thousand of them. Pleae read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com

“Whoa! These are dark magic stones!”

“Is it rare?”

“Isn’t that obvious!? Dark and light magic stones are famous for being hard to come by!”

Ho~o, that’s good news then.

I put the spider on the ground and with cracking sounds I tried to break the dark crystals.

“Wait, wait! This is something that you properly dig right from the root! Even if you can’t see it, it’s actually a large one!”

“Is that so…? Then should I dig it with a knife?”

We shave the wall with a knife and carefully collect the magic stones. I’m unaware about this so I was grateful for Erna’s reminder. If it’s just me, I’ll be mass-producing flawed magic stones for sure. We then exit the cave after we have collected about 40 magic stones.

“Is this really fine? Maybe we can’t get dark magic stones anymore you know?”

“It’s fine so do it quickly.”

When Erna released flame burst, the cave entrance was destroyed and it was then buried in rubbles. Now there should be no demon beasts nesting here.

After we returned to the village, I informed the village chief and the villagers that we had defeated the spiders.Translated by Yume Neiji

Everyone was so glad that they hugged each other. They rejoiced as peace had returned to their village. Seeing that, I was also happy. Well not only that, being useful to others and with someone else’s satisfaction, I also feel fulfilled.

“As expected of the rumoured heroes…. This is your reward. Since this is only a small village, I couldn’t add something extra to it but please accept it.”

I received the leather bag producing a clinking sound and checked its content. There are three gold coins and twenty silver coins. It seems to be worth about 300,000 yen. I don’t know if this is cheap or expensive.

However, since this is the best they can do, I will gladly receive it.

“I certainly received it.”

“Thank you. The achievement of homeless adventurer party will surely be passed down in this village.”

“N-No…. Until that extent is…”

I’m taken aback by the village chief’s words.

To pass down our achievements… isn’t it just like those heroes? I’m so embarrassed I feel like dying!

“Isn’t it fine? Homeless will eventually become famous. It’s a party with Erna, the great mage you know!”

Erna is laughing in a relaxed manner. She doesn’t seem to understand what it means to be famous. If it comes back biting you few years later, don’t blame me!

After bidding goodbye to the village chief, we left the village.

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