Rupegia Ch. 06: Expedition

Alissa immediately fires two fast arrows, and it isn't even capable of dodging, so one penetrates an eye while the other enters the mouth. Meanwhile, Roxanne is charging another strong spell.

Before the girls can attack again, the Tarantula reaches me and leaps forward.

I receive its attack with my shield, but it's weaker than the previous spider. I easily push it back, and Roxanne lets out her spell.

She swings her arm vigorously as a fire whip flares in her hand, and its tip whistles past me in the blink of an eye like an arrow.

The fire whip wraps around the body of the spider, and the sizzling sound of burning reaches our ears as the spider desperately struggles to free itself from it.

I take the opportunity and slash at its body. I miss the head, but I sever three legs on the right at the base, and now it can barely muster the strength to resist anymore.

I slash again and the last leg on the right side is gone, so it turns upside-down and struggles to right itself.

I pierce the soft head from below, then it goes limp and dies.

I sigh and start winding down, then Roxanne approaches and inspects her work as she casually comments, "That was interesting. I rarely have the opportunity to use [Fire Whip], but it's always extremely useful when the opportunity for it arrives. It's like your [Constricting Vines]: it needs to a distraction to make it work, otherwise, they can dodge it, and these Tarantulas aren't very strong, so I can hold them all by myself."

"I prefer that you save your mana for a strong [Torrent], but let's try [Fire Wall] next. I really want to see it suicide jump into that spell," I confess with a sadistic tone.

Fuck these spiders.

[Constricting Vines] is good as a follow up for a stunned Tarantula, but we lack strong openers. [Fireball] is too slow, while [Fire Arrow] doesn't do much damage and Roxanne needs Alissa-level accuracy to be effective with it.

"Perhaps [Water Blade] could work?" Roxanne suggests.

I nod in agreement and add, "Let's try it after [Fire Wall]."

As we get near the fork, I notice the symbols on each of the tunnels. It's the system explorers developed so someone could locate themselves inside this maze of featureless tunnels. Each fork has a unique symbol, so if we get lost, we can just move to the next fork and then search for the symbol on our map.

* * * * *

After a while, we reach another fork, a circular room with six exit tunnels.

"Wait, master," Alissa stops me.

"What is it?"

She scans the tunnels ahead, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "There's a strong smell of spiders around here, but they're too far for my [Sense Presence], so let me investigate a little."

"Sure," I whisper.

She stops before each tunnel and sniffs the air with cute movements that really do remind me of a fox, making me get so distracted I almost drop my guard.

"The smell is stronger on these tunnels and lower on these others," she reports and points as she points at the respective tunnels.

"Let's take a detour and go through that one, then. Less spiders on the way," I order.

As we walk towards the tunnel, I notice something odd at the entrance. The tunnels are all half-circles and the floor is normally rough and slightly curved, but on this tunnel, the ground is completely level for about ten meters, then it becomes round again.

My spidey senses are tingling.

"What's wrong?" Roxanne when we both suddenly stop.

"The ground is suspicious," Alissa answers, reliable as ever.

"Indeed," I agree.

I crouch in front of the tunnel and hit it with my hand, and it makes a hollow sound.

I pull out a small broom from my "Items" and bush the dust away, revealing right in the middle of the tunnel a small channel. The floor is actually two slabs covering a hole almost perfectly made to look seamless.

"Oh, wait, the ground changed," Roxanne comments confusedly.

I turn around and frown at her. "What do you mean? All I did was dust it a little."

"Perhaps it was an illusion?" Alissa suggests.

I snap my finger and exclaim, "Oh! An Arachne trap."

"But it isn't their territory yet," Roxanne replies.

I shrug and point out, "They're known to be cunning."

Roxanne crosses her arms and thinks. "This tunnel is the one with the faintest smell of spiders? Perhaps the smell itself is a trap."

Goddamn mind games.

I tap my temple in thought as I consider, "We have a few options here: trigger the trap then find a way to cross it, though that could alert the monsters that we are here; try not to trigger the trap and cross, but I don't really know how to do that; go towards the next tunnel with the faintest smell, but the smell might also be a trap; or go to our original tunnel with the strongest smell of spider. Any opinions?"

"Well, aren't you the leader? Do you really need our opinion?" Roxanne asks with a teasing tone as she smirks.

I categorically state with a snobbish tone, "I take it upon myself to make the decision, but I want to hear the opinions of both of you before I act." Then I smirk at her.

She smiles and coos, "Ohh, I like that."

Alissa clears her throat and follows up in the same tone as me while smiling faintly, "Well then, Master, I prefer to risk fighting the spiders on our original path, that's where our strength lies."

Roxanne nods repeatedly. "I also prefer that. I really don't like arachnes and I don't wanna play their games. I prefer when my enemies charge into my spells," she speaks her mind.

I nod and grunt in acknowledgment. "Then it's unanimous, let's go," I order.

We enter our original tunnel and walk for ten, silent minutes before Alissa notices something.

"There's something ahead; a single monster," she reports.

"Okay, I'll try to attract it," I reply and lower the flaming spear, then I release a [Fireball] forward.

No response...

So annoying.

"COME HERE YA DICKHEAD!" I suddenly shout.

"It's coming," Alissa warns.

Do they really understand our language?

A single Giant Tarantula appears. This is going to be easy.

The Tarantula charges forward madly. It receives an arrow on one of its eyes and a [Fireball] on one of its fangs before it even reaches me.

The Tarantula loses some of its momentum, weakening the charge, and only a single fang hits my shield. The attack is solid but weak enough that it's bearable, and I even manage to cut a leg during the counter.

"SHAAA," It shouts angrily.

As it retreats a short distance, an arrow pokes another eye, then it decides that Alissa is the bigger threat and tries to go around me, but I cut another leg and it backs away.

With one way closed, it tries to charge past me towards Roxanne.

"[Fire Wall]!"

And the spider jumps through the wall without hesitation.

"HIIIIII!"

"Oh shit," I mutter.

Somehow, the spider has turned into a bonfire.

That's dangerous.

"Back off!" I yell to Roxanne.

The spider almost tramples me as it hisses and thrashes about from the pain, and I have to bash my shield onto it to keep it away.

Roxanne releases a [Torrent] and it flies away as it's partially extinguished.

The spell was hastily cast, so it isn't as too strong as the previous time. Add that to the monster's tenacity, and the spider manages to quickly get up again. This time, it charges directly at me while half of its body is still burning.

"Try the blade," I order Roxanne, and I start to feel a lot of mana gathering behind me.

Rage fuels the Tarantula's charge, allowing it to reach a higher speed, and even after losing another eye to Alissa it still doesn't slow down.

I just defend from its attack, focusing on keeping my feet on the ground, then I slashing to force it back, but it charges again immediately.

"[Water Blade]!"

An incredibly thin blade of water shoots towards the face of the spider. In it's rage, the Tarantula doesn't even notice the spell and takes the hit head-on.

The blade disappears inside its face, then its body goes limp, and it rolls on the floor. It's dead.

Through an imperceptible small slit, blood pours out of its exoskeleton, and a few twinkles of moisture in the air show where the blade passed through.

"Wow, that spell is deadly," I remark in amazement.

"I think we were just lucky because it was completely enraged, so it didn't even try to dodge," Roxanne rebuts with a face full of skepticism.

I rub my chin in thought, the rough texture of my gloves making this act not very pleasant. "Hmm... then let's try one more time. At least we know it pierces without a problem."

Alissa suddenly voices her doubt, "Master, one thing: are my arrows helpful? I keep hitting their eyes, but I'm not sure if that's a very effective target."

"Yes, they are. The ones in the mouth make them hesitate when they charge. The ones in the eyes make them slower to react, it's subtle but I can notice the difference."

"Oh, I see..." She hums, a little content, but I can't see her tail right now.

Then I turn to the half-burnt corpse that smells rather awful. "But now I want to know why it burned so much like this. Was its hair so flammable?"

Alissa tilts her head cutely and asks, "Flammable?"

I hold myself from gushing and nod. "Yeah, it means something that catches fire easily."

"We'll have to examine the corpse," Roxanne points out.

I shudder. I don't want to touch the spider.

"Any volunteers?" I ask with a guilty smile.

"I'll do it," Alissa immediately responds without hesitation.

No, you're too pure. I have to do it myself...

"But this corpse is all charred, let's find another one," Roxanne suggests, looking like she's pitying her a bit, and I agree with her.

* * * * *

We walk for a short while and find another corpse. Five corpses, actually.

"What is this?" I blurt out, bewildered

The Giant Tarantula corpses are brutalized. Their legs are bent and broken, their sternum is open and dripping, their abdomen is crushed, and their fangs have been ripped and scattered about. They're all hanging in the air by thick white webs like some sick modern art display.

Roxanne wrinkles her nose in disgust and questions, "Ugh... what would do something like this?"

"Arachnes?" Alissa suggests.

I snap my fingers and exclaim, "Yes! That's it. It's part of the trap to make us not come here. Arachnes are very violent and prey upon tarantulas occasionally, so maybe this is their handiwork."

"Can we never fight an Arachne, please? This is way too brutal for me," Roxanne pleads, her pale face even paler from disgust.

I agree wholeheartedly, "Yeah, I'll try to steer us away from them. Now, let's continue for a short while and then rest a little."

* * * * *

We find a nice large room a good distance away from the massacre and sit down for some tea.

I bring out the small broom from before and clean the dust around us, then I bring out a large picnic blanket. With multiple *poofs* I pull out sandwiches and a few berries Alissa brought along with the juice. She pulls out a tea seat, the cheap cookies, and starts warming the teapot with a small [Fireball] she holds at the tip of her finger.

"This is adorable," Roxanne comments with a smile.

"Master gets grumpy when there's no tea," Alissa shyly teases.

It's kind of true, though.

Alissa seems to love making tea for me, and she took it upon herself to always carry the tea set with her. I like coffee with chocolate more, but I'll take what I can get.

Roxanne follows up with the teasing, "If you told me that you were a noble, I wouldn't be surprised."

I simply shrug. I know I can be a bit snobbish sometimes.

Roxanne pulls out a small red crystal and offers it to Alissa, "Here, use this magic stone."

"Oh, thank you, Miss Roxanne, this is more efficient," Alissa gracefully accepts.

Then we share our food with Roxanne. She only had a simple sandwich, so she enjoys our cookies quite a lot.

She finishes her tea and exhales loudly, "Ah~! This is nice..."

My heart warms up as it feels quite nice to share a nice meal with someone. "It can get even better if I find something high-quality though," I comment.

She raises her eyebrows and smirks. "Oh? Now I'm interested."

I look at my cup as I articulate, "Well, first I need to find it. I don't know where, but I know it exists. I've tasted it once, and I'll keep looking until I find it again."

I still remember the tea and cookies at the Golden Necklace, those were as good as the ones on Earth.

"Please share with me when you find it, then." And she lets out a cut giggle.

The sandwiches are our lunch. Though we don't know the time since we're underground, we can still follow our stomachs.

* * * * *

We move on and meet another lone spider.

"[Water Blade] this time," I order.

We keep walking until Alissa tells us it's moving, then we get ready for battle.

It comes straight at me like the previous fights and loses an eye to Alissa before it even reaches me. Meanwhile, Roxanne gathers her mana.

I receive the charge with practiced ease, then I counter and cut the tip of a leg. Since I didn't cast [Fireball], the spider is less cautious, and it immediately starts another charge, but Roxanne releases her spell before it hits me again.

The Tarantula immediately stops in its tracks once it senses the spell flying, then it nearly falls over as its legs scramble, desperately trying to dodge, but the spell still hits.

The blade opens its thorax and blood splashes all over the floor, but it isn't dead yet.

This is so annoying; just fucking die!

The spider stumbles, struggling to maintain itself upright, and Alissa takes the chance to pop two other eyes.

The Tarantula switches to the defensive and becomes cautious, so I charge forward and slash. It doesn't react in time, and I manage to sever a fang.

I feel Roxanne gather her mana again, so I just threaten the spider and then back off. Roxanne releases another [Water Blade], and the Tarantula's reduced vision causes it to fail to dodge in time.

The spell enters its head and its body instantly goes limp. It's dead.

I clean my sword with a piece of cloth, then I walk to the Tarantula to inspect it. "Well, I guess [Water Blade] really is the most effective way to kill these things," I note.

"[Fireball] makes them wary, so they slow down their attack, but [Water Blade] does the most damage," Roxanne elaborates further.

Without hesitation, Alissa walks to the spider's body and touches it.

I squeak in surprise and pity, "Ah! You didn't have to do this."

Alissa shakes her head energetically. "I don't mind it, Master. I told you before to depend on me."

Does she mean what she told me after we killed the Young Ogre? Is this her way of taking care of my mental well being? Well, I'm just being a pussy, so I don't think she really needed to do this, but I don't have the willpower to stop her now.

She turns to the Tarantula again, then pokes and prods it as she inspects it. "Hmm... the hair is stiff and rough, and it seems oily and damp, but it doesn't seem to be something 'flammable.' What's this...? It's sticky..." -She raises her head and shows me her hand as her eyebrows rise high in surprise- "Is this the transparent web?"

I get closer to her and grab her cute hand. I can't see very well, so I grab the [Spirit Light] floating above my head and bring it closer to her hand.

After taking a very close look, I notice a slight shine. It's the ultra-thin and nearly transparent web of the Tarantulas that we have been burning up until now.

"Hmm... why is there a web on its body?" I wonder.

Alissa turns to the Tarantula again and starts to feel its body. "It's not everywhere; only some parts of it are sticky like this," she notes.

Roxanne scratches her horn in thought as she wonders, "Why did nobody know about this? It's kind of hard to believe that nobody used [Fire Wall] to stop their charge."

"Yeah, that's very odd," I mumble.

Nobody has anything more to contribute, so reach an impasse in our reasoning.

I shake my head dismissively and suggest, "Let's just go. We can still inspect more spider bodies and look for anything different."

"Let me burn this web on my hand first," Alissa says and starts to chant a [Fireball].

I forgot the web is super sticky. "Hold on," I stop her and grab her hand.

With subtle movements, I quickly remove her [Mental Resistance] and put it all on [Pain Resistance].

"It's all good," I whisper.

Alissa's ears twitch, then she turns to me and smiles. It seems she noticed what I did. And Roxanne just watches us with a confused face.

Alissa casts [Fireball], creating a flame above her finger, and moves it closer to her sticky hand until the web catches fire.

It burns for a few seconds, then I approach her and cast [Regeneration] as I return her [Mental Resistance].

Once she's fully healed, I give her hand a kiss, and she returns a sweet smile, then we move on.

* * * * *

We meet five spiders in succession, but only two had the web on their bodies. This time, I give Alissa a small piece of cloth for her to check the bodies.

"Could it be a difference between the sexes?" I propose.

Alissa tilts her head cutely. "I don't understand, Master."

I adjust my non-existent glasses and start the lecture, "The male spider coats his body in the web because it's sticky, then uses the stickiness to help hold down the female for mating. I know there are quite a lot of animal species that basically rape their partner during mating, so they use whatever they can to help tie up their mate."

Roxanne hums in wonder, "Hmm, that's interesting, but I don't know much about animals... are you perhaps a scholar?"

Alissa nods earnestly, then shares some of her knowledge, "I also don't know much about this, Master. Though it's known that the spiders reproduce, adventurer knowledge doesn't go much further than that since it doesn't help in killing them faster." Then she smiles wryly.

I just casually respond, "I'm not a scholar, just a curious person who reads a lot of books."

"To me, that's a scholar," Roxanne retorts with a cheeky grin.

I shrug, then we move again.

* * * * *

Alissa suddenly tells us to stop and reports, "This one is bigger than normal."

"Arachne?" I question.

"I don't know, I don't recognize the signature." She looks ahead with a serious look on her face and her tail hanging low. Her ears twitch from side-to-side, trying to catch any small sound, but she hears nothing.

The [Sense Presence] skill is like a radar. It tells the distance, size, and direction with a certain amount of precision depending on the level of the skill. Each type of living being has a "signature," so it's possible to differentiate the types of monsters by their signatures, but if the tracker hasn't sensed a certain signature before, then it's nearly impossible to know what it is.

I start giving out orders, "Okay, standard formation. No need to worry too much because it's either a bigger spider or an Arachne. It's certainly not a Sludge because there's no disgusting smell." And they both nod in acknowledgment.

We carefully move forward because we could still sneak past it or enrage even before we meet if we make too much noise. Most monsters are more cautious during the first meeting, but if they know there are humanoids close, they can work themselves into a bloodlusting rage just by themselves.

We keep moving while still using the flaming spear and we slowly inch closer until we see an outline being revealed by our light.