Chapter 260 - As Long As I Don't Have To Touch Them
The massive spider webs burned instantly, leaving an invisible and miasmatic cloud free to drift through the entire area, and cause each and every insect or animal caught by it, to fall on the ground in a state of complete paralysis. If Daniel and Aeron did not have a protection against this poisonous cloud, they would have likely ended up in the same situation.
"That's not good.." muttered Daniel while looking at the reaction that a few small insects next to him had shown in responses to being poisoned. He then took a deep breath, and jumped right into the large sink hole along with Aeron.
Daniel had read about the type of spiders that populated this cave. He already knew that they were of a certain size, and that was proven by the size of the cavern's corridors, which were massive. Unfortunately, Ton Bes's environment was so dangerous, that it had forced the wildlife into a state of constant evolution. Therefore, there was a high possibility that all of the information he had gathered about his prey, was already outdated.
What he knew about these arachnids, was that they were two meters long spiders. Their shape was not unlike that of a common tarantula, which was composed of eight hairy legs divided into multiple sections, two furry palps which they used to handle their food, and sharp fangs which would inject a powerful poison which could paralyze the prey, and turn their organs into a pasty goo of which they would slowly feed on.
The massive cavern was filled with thick spider webs which Daniel and Aeron carefully avoided, as they were sure that a single touch, would leave them instantly paralyzed for who knows how long.
A few hours passed, but despite how long the two of them had walked, they had not found any sign of life. The walls had deep scratches on them, sign that the spiders had tried to dig through in hope to expand the cave, but all of these scratches were old.. Just like the thousands of bony remains strewn all over the ground.
It almost seemed as if the cave was abandoned.
Aeron was starting to doubt that there would be any spider here, but Daniel did not share that opinion. He knew that, if the quest told him that he would find the objects he needed here, then he would undoubtedly find them.
Left with no other choice, Daniel approached one of the threads, and after covering his fingers with a layer of stone, he pinched it. The vibration caused by Daniel's action extended through the entire length of the thread. It also jumped from one thread to another in the points where the two threads touched, creating loud noise that would definitely alert each and every being that lived close by, or in contact to those threads.
Unfortunately, even after five hours of wait, nothing had happened.. Or at least, nothing that they could feel from that distance.
In the far away depths of the cave, covered by an oppressive amount of darkness, a single yellow eye had opened. This eye was massive, and did not have a round pupil, but a reptile-like slit instead.
What made Daniel and Aeron understand that there was something wrong with this cave, was the fact that they had finally found remains of the spiders that they were supposed to be hunting, but were oddly big, and only carcasses mixed with the remains of their own preys.
Finally, a few changes occurred..
A piercing cry was uttered from the far depths of the cave, but powerful enough to reach all the way to where Daniel and Aeron were.
Surprised by the sudden human scream, the two dashed with their fastest speed, and after a few minutes, they arrived in a massive cave. In one of the sides of this large cave, a man and a woman were being cornered by a large amounts of gigantic spiders.
At least twenty of them were slowly pacing around this couple, with some of them that were mummifying what looked like a few fresh human corpse with their webs, and a couple more that were creeping on the stony wall right above the couple quietly.
Just like Daniel had feared, these spiders were a lot different from how they were supposed to be. They were at the very least fifteen meters in length, and had two rows of four eyes each, just above a massive pair of mandibles that ended in sharp spikes.
This couple appeared to be in their fifties, and wore expensive armor. They did not have any patch or coat, and were likely mercenaries, the only other job aside from that of the researcher in Ton Bes.
While Ton Bes's atmosphere had become poisonous due to the multitude of experiments and tests conducted by the various poison masters through the centuries, now, it was very different. Many groups had considered leaving this planet and finding another one, but things had changed to such a speed, that the planet itself had become a heaven for scholars all over the universe. The beasts kept evolving, causing new poisons and resistances to be discovered every single year.
The need to keep advancing in their research, had caused the poison masters to push themselves into the poisonous area in order to look for new species of poisonous beings.. And no place was better for that, than Ton Bes.
It didn't take long before this job was passed down to mercenaries.. A type of replaceable individual which no one would have missed.
"We kill.. And tie you.. And eat you.. So juicy.."
"So hungry.."
The thoughts that Daniel and Aeron heard coming from the minds of these spiders were much simpler than what they had expected. They were beasts at the sixth, seventh, and eight stage of cultivation, and yet, they sounded slow-minded, and focused on eating above anything else.
Daniel did not want to meddle with this, as he couldn't see these people's karma due to the darkness of the cave, but then, he heard the voice of the lady say "Leave me here.. They bit me already!.. I'll distract them for you.." she then turned towards Daniel and Aeron, which had just appeared to the entrance of this cave, and added with a begging tone "Please.. Take my husband and.. Run.."
Before Daniel could even react, a massive green giant had appeared behind Aeron, and started to slash down at the closest of these spiders, causing the attention of these large group of arachnids to focus on him.
What Daniel felt in this moment, was deep respect for Aeron. He was a reserved and intrusive individual at times, but he had developed a indomitable decisiveness to aid anyone who he deemed worthy of being helped. He did not have a karmic system which could suggest to him what to think of people, so, he could only listen to his instincts.
This was a turning point for Daniel. He had already thought about the fact that he gave too much weight to what the system told him, and he had tried to do something about it, but unfortunately, some matters did not allow him the time to take his instincts into consideration.. Or at the very least, not as fast as it would be for him to simply look at a number.
He had never developed an instinct for people's character, and that was his system's fault.
But of course, that was a thought for another day.. As now two swords that looked like molten lava had appeared on his hands, and he was shaking the shiver off of his back while preparing to swing them at the many crazed spiders.
These spiders did not have many predators, as they lived deep into these caves, and only moved out at night to hunt for other beasts. Their sight was almost non existent, and focused more on touching, as six of the eight eyes they had were blind. This had caused their bodies to be covered by white, and thick fur, which they used to feel the presence of people around them.
Of course, that did not affect their speed, as after detecting Daniel's and Aeron's movements, they turned towards them, and started marching in their direction at high speeds.
As soon as the sword of Aeron's avatar landed on the back of one of these massive spiders, he understood something. Their carapace was not something that he could break.. So he let the sword of the avatar disappear, and instead, used the giant's enormous hands to grab the spider's body, and pull it apart limb by limb.
Even during their deaths, all that these spiders could think of, was to eat.
Seeing that physical attacks were unlikely to work on them, Daniel looked at his swords, and unwillingly made them disappear. He then let out massive amounts of immortal essence fed by his system's skill 'Time is Precious' and covered a few spiders with it.
His first instinct was to turn these spiders into dust with fire, but then, after he remembered what effect burning the spider webs had on the surroundings when they had burned the entrance of the cave, he suddenly stopped.
They were in a closed area tens of kilometers below the surface, and if the air of this cave got saturated with that poisonous miasma, while he would be able to avoid being affected by it, he would have difficulties in fighting at the same time. So, instead of fire, he turned the massive immortal essence into water.
The constructed water engulfed the spider completely, and left it waving its legs in hope to grab something solid to use to step out of this dome of constructed water, but unfortunately, the water followed it.
Reassured that he could fight these massive spiders without having to touch them, Daniel kept attacking one after the other with many other methods, like turning the stone underneath them into quicksand, and after they sunk their legs into it, back into hard stone, forming wet metallic spikes that would lift them from the ground, and impede their movements, and even creating gravitational traps which would break the flow of their movements, and allow Aeron to finish them off.
At the same time, Aeron was covered by his massive avatar which, in turn, was assaulted by a dozen spiders, which walked around the green surface of its body and bit mercilessly, but also pointlessly at its hard skin.
For these crazed spiders, this massive green golem was also food.
About an hour later, the many spiders had died, and only Daniel, Aeron, and the middle aged couple were still alive. The woman was lying on the ground, completely paralyzed, and with blood gushing out of her mouth.
"No no no no Hanna.. Please stay with me.." Said the scarred middle aged man after dropping his chipped greatsword on the ground, and falling on his knees next to his wife. They were both warriors at the sixth stage of immortal cultivation, and only survivors of their group.
Daniel and Aeron directly teleported next to the middle aged couple, and observed the infected injury on the woman's body. Two fist sized holes were present on her thigh, and from it, thick black veins were crawling up her leg, and toward her chest.
Danie was still not able to see the karma of the two, so, without thinking twice about it, he took one of the last couple pills he had, and put it into the woman's mouth. He knew that it was impossible that his low level pill could ever cure the woman from a poison which was one of the ingredients for a mid-level poison immunity, but he knew that the pill would certainly fight the poison.. And that was what he needed.
He then placed both of his hands on the woman's chest, and pushed his immortal essence into the woman's body. Unfortunately, this was extremely painful, and while the woman was paralyzed, she was still conscious, and could feel the pain fully.
The moment he felt the pill fight against the spider's poison, he immediately aided the pill in purging the body from it, by pushing it out of the wound.
Large amounts of green gelatinous liquid came out of the woman's leg, until finally, her leg went back into a normal color, and the injury closed.. At that point, she had already passed out from the pain.