Chapter 183: From Repelling Attack to Infiltrating (1/2)

Loren’s group left that area, leaving the motionless spiders behind.

The ones being carried decided to walk on their feet, worrying that they might tire the members carrying them off. They proceeded to walk to the end of the tunnel.

Jack and others wanted to burn the spiders, but Loren and Nim objected:

“Making such a big fire in an enclosed space like this, we’ll all die choking, won’t we?”

“Spiders are also part of the world. Let’s not kill them. We can’t eat them, even if we do so anyway.”

After being chased around that bad, everyone was feeling lighthearted now. It wasn’t like Loren didn’t understand their feeling, but it was stupid to get carried away and got themselves into another predicament.

Having been so calmly admonished, Jack came to understand the meaninglessness of burning the spiders. He gave up immediately and continued on while saying bitterly:

“So, it just ends here?”

Nim quickly disagreed:

“No, it doesn’t. The next will come soon.”

“The next…”

“Those are probably the children of a Huge Spider. The parent is still somewhere in here.”

Elves generally lived in forests, so they were naturally deeply knowledgeable. Everyone’s mouths hung half open at the piece of knowledge Nim had just shared.

The spiders chasing them had been as tall as Lapis. It was not unreasonable for them to think that those spiders were adults. If those were just children, they didn’t even want to imagine how big an adult one would be.

“The parent is several times bigger than the children. Its thread is also bigger. It’s very dangerous.”

“For such a big spider to move around in a tunnel… Nah, this one is big enough.”

The size of the spider Nim had mentioned was ridiculous just to hear, but the size of the tunnel they were walking in was also not average at all. Such a spider would still be able to easily move in here.

“Why did you dwarves dig such a stupidly big tunnel like this?”

“If there’s a vein of ore, we’ll dig.”

Jack complained, but Dig answered full of pride and with not a single shred of shame. His attitude would be nothing in normal times, but it was strangely irritating in the current situation. They all secretly turned their eyes away from him.

“If there’s a parent, that means we’ll have to run again.”

Jack said, seemingly fed up when recalling the series of escape dramas, they had engaged in since coming here. Ritz nodded multiple times – he obviously felt the same. Nim was still calm, but Quartz was gloomy, for he knew that if they had to run again, he would become a burden.

“Nah, we won’t have to run again, right?”

“That’s right. That’s how it is with huge spiders.”

Hearing Gula’s and Lapis’ conversation, Nim suddenly clapped.

“Ah… Right, that’s how it is…”

Loren had a feeling that it wasn’t a very satisfactory story, but he still wanted to know what they were talking about. So he asked Lapis, the one most easily talked to between the three of them:

“What does it mean?”

“Young Huge Spiders chase after preys and shoot threads to catch them like the ones before. But adult ones just weave webs like normal spiders.”

The passage they were walking in suddenly expanded. Feeling an unpleasant premonition, Loren continued towards a space as large as a hall. But just before he actually set foot into the hall, he stopped and stared at the thing inside.

“Ah, so this is it…”

This space was probably the dwarves’ mine, and was much larger in both width and height compared to the passage. A pure white object illuminated by the lantern’s light stood towering over everything in the space, almost filling it up entirely.

“Is this it?”

Loren asked, still holding a sliver of hope that it wasn’t, and Lapis gave him a blunt answer:

“Yes, this is probably the web.”

Even though a gentler answer wouldn’t change anything, that straightforward affirmation still gave Loren some intense mental damage.

“Isn’t it a bit like a mountain?”

Ritz looked up and said. The round web made from woven thread was wide in perimeter, and the ground was covered in spider threads.

“What do we do now?”

“Just charging at this thing is kinda disgusting, isn’t it? Can we burn it down?”

Lapis frowned at Jack’s suggestion, while Nim gave him an exasperated look. Jack retreated a little – it looked like he didn’t understand why they looked at him like that. Loren clapped at his shoulder:

“Spiders’ threads don’t burn, you know?”