episode_0030

We extracted the fangs from the spider’s corpse, collecting its venom, then began a thorough exploration of the gangway.

“Let’s change formation. Keikel and I will take the front, while Wolfgang, you and Route handle any stragglers we missed.”

I positioned Wolfgang next to Route, taking his place at the forefront. Placing Wolfgang in the front would only needlessly prolong the battle, but if we were ensnared by spider silk from all sides, our movement would be severely restricted.

So, it was more efficient for Keikel and me, who could swiftly dispatch the giant spider, to take the vanguard and quickly sever two or three webs to fight.

“Alright, leave it to us!”

Perhaps my polite response to Wolfgang’s uselessness had prompted him to nod confidently as his fists collided with the torch. Oblivious.

“……”

Meanwhile, Route simply stared at me with a look that seemed to say, “Is it fair to burden me with this dead weight?”

Of course, there was no other choice. Two shielded members and two without shields. Naturally, we had to pair up those with shields and those without.

If Wolfgang and I took the rear, we’d have no way to block spider silk when it came at us, so we’d have to avoid it at all costs.

This combination was truly the best.

◆◆

We continued on like that.

After about two minutes, Keikel, glancing back, leaned in close to my ear.

“Human, no claws?”

Almost a whisper. It was a cryptic question.

“Well, I do have them… They’re thinner and flatter than a lizardman’s, though.”

“I see…”

Keikel’s eyes squinted slightly.

“But why is that?”

“That human, similar to our young ones. Without weapons, they fight with their hands.”

As Keikel explained, lizardmen don’t allow minors to wield weapons, so young members fight barehanded in the event of conflict.

“Let’s call it a fight, but it wasn’t about fighting monsters like us, killing and being killed. It was just a dispute between peers.”

“So what?”

“That human, small nails, no tail, no scales. Wrong fight. Not a human fight.”

Kikel sighed lightly as he spoke.

Wrong fight.

Since falling into this world, it was the most sensible and artistic expression he had heard.

Yes, if it were Lizardman, it would be understandable to wield bare hands.

Sharp claws that could strip tough hide like paper, a tail that seemed like a mix of whip and club, and scales akin to armor, except for being a bit short. Except for being a little shorter, Wolfgang, who lacked any of these, was nothing more than a Lizardman boy or less. From birth, he was perfectly equipped with the minimum requirements needed for one person’s share of martial arts.

In other words, not having any of those made Wolfgang, in essence, inferior to the Lizardman boy. It meant he was a flawed existence from the start.

Was his smooth head also because of that?

An existence not even on par with the Lizardman boy.

It made sense when thought of that way.

◆◆

“Kiiiiik! Kiiiiiiik!”

“Here they come again! Many of them!”

As they ventured deep into the gangway, the giant spiders began to swarm in earnest.

Waves of spiders crawling along the walls and ceiling, emitting a faint chittering sound. Each one was only slightly tougher than a goblin, but dealing with a dozen or so at once proved somewhat troublesome.

“Kishaat!”

“Route, six of them, over there!”

Piercing a spider with a dart, Kikel blocked spider silk with his shield, then drew his axe and swung it down like splitting firewood. A giant spider, the size of a person’s torso, split in half, while another was struck by Kikel’s tail and pinned to the wall, its eight legs trembling.

“Hah!”

I drew my dagger, exposing my belly, and hurled it at a convulsing spider, then wielded my longsword in a diagonal slash, leaping forward to cleave through the spider’s head.

The huge spider, pierced through its relatively fragile abdomen, sagged and spewed thick fluid mixed with dirt on the ground, its face split open.

“Six down, confirmed!”

Facing the spiders that had retreated to avoid me and Kikel, it was Laut and Wolfgang’s—no, Laut’s role.

“Haaaah!”

Laut let out a resolute shout as he charged toward the spider, covering his head and torso with a round shield.

“Kiiiyak!?”

The startled massive spider leaped into the air to evade, but before it could reach the ceiling, Laut’s shield ruthlessly struck its body.

Thud!

A heavy impact. The clash between the huge spider and Laut continued unabated as he rammed it against the tunnel wall with his shield.

Crack!

It was a sight akin to a speeding car crashing into a child against an alley wall. The enormous spider, wedged between the wall and the shield, burst out like a squashed worm.

“Kiiiiyak!!”

Following this, another spider attacked. Descending like a rope, a long-legged spider aimed its clawed foreleg at the back of Laut’s head.

“Where to!”

Laut swiftly turned his body to block the spider’s foreleg with his shield, simultaneously drawing his sword to sever the spider’s abdomen and the connecting web.

“Kieeek?”

Mid-air, the spider became a broken figure with its line severed, flailing its limbs as it plummeted.

Switching the grip on his sword, Laut swiftly struck the creature’s neck, then dropped the blade to pull out a mace, smashing another spider away.

Impressive fighting.

Adapting his weapons to the situation, he continued his assault with remarkable skill, akin to water flowing effortlessly.

“Haaaah!”

While Laut fought fiercely, Wolfgang wasn’t idle.

“Receive the Dragonic Fury!”

Wolfgang swung his right leg like a whip, kicking one spider, flipping it over, then mercilessly stomping its exposed abdomen repeatedly.

Like a hiker trying to extinguish a cigarette butt stuck to fallen leaves.

Just watching was pitiful, yet somehow, they managed to bring down at least one giant spider.

“Kiiiyak!”

“Ugh?! Ambushing is cowardly!”

“Of course, the moment it became two against one, there was no chance for the enemy to escape unscathed.

I had suggested using a torch to fend off the enemy, but my advice fell on deaf ears.

What did I say? Something about that being the way of a martial artist?

It seemed Wolfgang was a devout follower of Judaism, treating the wisdom that any person should naturally possess as ‘wicked.’

After that, I gave up trying to persuade Wolfgang.

To a noble who should have been born when Adam and Eve roamed the Garden of Eden, would the words of someone who had consumed good and evil hold any weight?

I could only think of him as a dumb beast and move on.

…Anyway, we continued our advance deep into the tunnel, engaging in battles along the way.

◆◆

How much farther did we go?

About two hours after entering the tunnel, we finally reached the end of it.

“…It’s a fork in the road. Where should we start checking?”

I pointed to the divided passageway and asked for the group’s opinion.

Above the entrance to the left passage hung a sign that read ‘Storage,’ while the right side was simply open.

Before we began the mission, the village chief had explained that if we saw a storage area, we had pretty much covered everything.

He said both paths would lead to an end in roughly ten to twenty minutes.

“Click! Let’s go to the storage. It’s closer!”

“I agree. If we’re going back and forth, the closer one is better.”

As Kikel and Route insisted on checking the storage first, we headed towards the left passage.

Ten minutes later.

“It was supposed to be a supply warehouse… but this…!”

We arrived at a space that miners had been using as a supply warehouse.

Originally, it was a resting place where they stored spare pickaxes, safety helmets, sleeping bags, and emergency rations.

“…It does look like a warehouse.”

Indeed, upon closer inspection, it resembled a warehouse, filled with things like sleeping bags and rations.

“Now, it seems to have become a warehouse for spiders.”

“Good heavens…”

It was an issue that the food stored here was not for humans, but for spiders.

The warehouse was filled with spider webs, making it impossible to set foot inside.

Dozens of long, slender creatures hung from the ceiling and connected to the floor like columns, all covered in spider webs.”

Most of the cave was entangled with spider webs, making it impossible to discern what lay within. Some of the webs were wide open, and inside them…

“Ugh….” Laute turned his head slightly, a faint retching escaping him. It was a sight to behold. Inside the gaping webs, there remained the trapped miners who couldn’t escape the tunnel collapse, as well as the remains of those kidnapped by the giant spider.

Their bodies seemed to have entirely melted away, with black liquid oozing from their eyes and mouths. There were corpses, half-eaten by palm-sized baby spiders, appearing relatively intact but with swollen bellies filled with baby spiders. Disgusting.

The protruding abdomen wriggled like spider legs, a grotesque sight that made one’s stomach turn.

◆◆

Once a hatching ground for the giant spider, now turned into a food storage, we cut through the webs inside the storage, gathered the bodies in one place, and carefully lit them on fire using torches.

If it had been outdoors, we could have simply poured oil and thrown a spark to finish it, but handling fire in such a place required utmost caution. The sudden billowing smoke could cause us to suffocate or, if the fire spread to the support beams, the entire tunnel could collapse.

Therefore, we paid close attention to prevent the fire from spreading too widely as we burned the bodies.

Crackle! The spider webs and bodies blazed fiercely, serving as kindling for a small, roaring fire.

“Eek! Eeek!”

The baby spiders inside the corpses jumped out in panic due to the heat.

A horrifying and repulsive sight. The only solace was that these babies, as they emerged, were immediately engulfed by the flames and perished.

As intended.

It looked like nearly a hundred of them, but there was no way we could individually stomp each one to death. We had to take the risk and burn them all.

The smell of roasting flesh permeated the air.