Chapter 21 Webopolis

The expedition slowly made its way through the tunnel with their torches illuminating the web covered tunnel. Every single member is maintaining their guard in case James senses any spiders coming so they can react in an instant with lightning-fast reflexes.

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It took the party an hour to walk through the tunnel leading to the ledge overlooking the enormous web city due to their slow pace while being alert in case of a sudden attack from any spiders. When the party saw the enormous web city below them, they were stunned into silence, even the guild master who has been adventuring for over a century was at a loss for words seeing the sheer size of the spider's territory. The expedition members all had a look of utter horror and shock mixed on their faces with the underground web city presented before them.

I on the other hand knew what to expect so as they arrived at the ledge, I summoned my clone to find a suitable path for them to descend into the cavern below, after my clone set-out, he spread his awareness as far as he could to ensure that there aren't any spiders lurking in the shadows.

As my clone slowly descended along a narrow path that it discovered leading down from the ledge, I too spread my awareness to keep track of any approaching spiders.

"Alright everyone, I've sent my clone to find a way down to the cavern floor and he'll also be scouting out the monsters to give us a good idea of their positioning so we can slowly eliminate them as we go. For now, I want everyone to rest and eat something while we have this opportunity. I'll be keeping an eye out for any approaching spiders while we all rest and eat," I instruct everyone as I find a comfortable spot to get the maximum amount of coverage for my awareness.

After their initial shock everyone is eating very little and instead of resting, they are all fidgeting not being able to find and comfort in their current predicament. My clone has made it roughly halfway down the caverns wall when he sensed a mass of spiders below him, stopping as soon as he sensed the spiders, he concentrated on his awareness so he could get a count of how many spiders there are gathered at the base of the path from the ledge.

Five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, five hundred, there are roughly five hundred spiders at the base of the ledge, and this is only the beginning of the cavern, there are tens of thousands of spiders throughout this entire cavern. This is going to be a tough fight from the start and it's only going to get worse, he thought to himself.

As my clone was determining the number of spiders below them, I was also getting the count in real time, as I am getting the information, I begin to formulate a plan as to how they can kill them without any of them getting injured. After thinking about it for several minutes I go over to the group to inform them of what they'll have to expect as they make their way down to the cavern floor.

"My clone has made it roughly halfway down the wall to the floor below and he has discovered around five hundred spiders near the base of this wall where we need to go in order to progress deeper into this territory," I inform everyone and see the shock and in some cases terror on the faces of the expedition members.

"Five hundred?! You can't be serious!" Exclaimed some of the party members that weren't scared to the point of not being able to utter a single word.

The guild master listened to what I had to say as he was now deep in thought knowing that they will never be able to face five hundred spiders just to reach the base of the ledge their located on. He knows that even though I am very capable and can easily kill multiple spiders by myself while it takes several of them to kill a single spider in the same amount of time there is no way their group can make it to the floor below.

"What do you have in mind in order to kill all five hundred of these spiders and the many more that I'm sure we'll come up against from here on out"? Asks the guild master as he's going over different scenarios in his head.

"To be honest, I don't think any of this party have a chance at coming out alive, there are just way too many spiders. Even I would die facing that many spiders at one time, but what we can do is we can try to close off this tunnel and I can use my clone to slowly try and kill as many spiders as possible while the rest of us head back to Marbelium and report these findings to whoever it is that runs your society," I reply as I look back at the group.

"That seems like the best course of action at this point, we should try to do as much as we can to slow down their progress for when they decide to leave this mountain and move towards Marbelium. We need to report all of this to the king and see how he wants to handle this moving forward. We might have to create an army in order to kill all of these spiders," the guild master responds still thinking about how they can best handle the spiders.

"You have a king? I didn't know that your society was run like that, it would defiantly be easier to talk to the king and see what he decides to do in order to combat this growing threat," I say while scratching my chin.

"Yes, our king is our sole governing body, he is the one that creates our laws and makes the decisions that affect the entire dwarven race. You may have seen the castle that's at the top of the city, that's the royal castle where the king resides. Only certain non-royal members can have an audience with him, the majority of them they are the various guild masters, I naturally can request an audience with him," the guild master replies proudly.

"Well since that is the case, I suggest we leave here and make our way back to camp and inform the others about what's going on and begin to barricade the city entrances before we make our way back to Marbelium," I say standing up.

"Agreed, alright everyone, we're going to be heading back to camp and regrouping with the members we left there," the guild master states as he starts to head back to the tunnel entrance.

As the guild master waits by the tunnel entrance for everyone to gather their things and depart James's clone continues to wait on the small ledge halfway down the wall. Damian and I take the lead heading into the tunnel and making our way back into Murcrilium as the rest of the group follows behind us. Once the last member of the group enters the tunnel the guild master follows behind them taking up the rear of the group in case any spiders happen to sneak up behind them as the make their way back up.

The group made their way back to the camp at the entrance to the mountain, after almost two hours of travel they finally made it back without a single spider sighting the entire trip. Once everyone was gathered together in the center of the camp the guild master addressed the entire group.

"As most of you know we found an entire underground spider territory with thousands of spiders and their queen. Due to the absurd number of spiders, we will be heading back to Marbelium after we secure the entrance to this mountain in order to slow down the spiders should they leave the mountain in the near further. Once we get back to the city, I will be taking James to go and see the king to inform him of what we have discovered and find out what course of action he wants to take," the guild master says to everyone.

The ten members that had stayed to defend the camp were shocked to hear how many spiders there are and that they have an entire underground territory. They were all glad that they chose to stay here just in case they the spiders had discovered the group of twenty because they would have all surely perished.

In the next several hours the group packed up their camp and began the process of securing the entrance to the city. After the meeting it was decided that they would also secure the tunnel entrance leading from this room to the city as well as the entrance leading to the exterior door, that way they would have three blockades to further slow-down the spiders advances. It took the group over a day to finally finish reinforcing the three entrances to Murcrilium essentially trapping the spiders along with James's clone in the mountain.

The expedition began their journey back to Marbelium in order to inform the king whilst my clone finally began to make his move now that there isn't a chance for the group to be attacked by the possibly enraged spiders if he should be killed.