29 Chapter 29: Spider Ambush

Without hesitation, Lake leaped to the side, barely dodging the projectile that had been launched at him. With a splat sound, Lake saw that the unknown projectile was some kind of sticky, white, silk like material. After observing it for a bit, he could already guess the type of creature that had attacked him.

As Lake leaped out of the way, he pulled out one of the six throwing knives that was fixed to his belt. Using his sixth sense, Lake quickly found the creature that had launched the projectile at him.

It was hidden within the canopy of a tree, blending in fairly well. After seeing the creature, Lake knew that he had guessed correctly.

The creature was an extremely large spider around the size of a dog. Its sharp claws had dug itself into the tree allowing it to stay preached on a spot that allowed its thick black exoskeleton to camouflage into the tree's bark.

Staring coldly at the spider, Lake threw the knife with careful precision and a strong force, piercing the creature's head causing it to release a low screech as it fell from the tree.

After the giant spider fell, Lake slowly walked towards it using his sixth sense to keep an eye on the surroundings. When he stood before the twitching spider, he noticed that his dagger hadn't pierced fully into the spider's head as its thick exoskeleton had protected it from lethal damage.

Since the spider was still alive, Lake pulled out his spear that had been retracted into staff form behind his back.

After pressing the activation button, the spearhead swiftly extended from the inside of the staff. Looking down coldly at the spider, Lake mercilessly stabbed it in a non vital spot, pinning it to the ground to stop it from twitching or moving while he took the time to read through its fate.

During the process, the spider was screeching loudly as it flailed its legs about, but Lake didn't pay it any mind as he quickly scanned through the spider's fate.

After a few seconds, he had gotten all the information he needed as a glint flashed over his eyes. Bending down he forced the throwing knife that was stuck in the spider the rest of the way into its head before pulling it out and putting the blade back into his belt.

As Lake grabbed the thread of fate that had disconnected from the spider, he swung his spear to the side with the spider still stuck on the head, blocking another incoming web.

Glancing over his shoulder, Lake began searching through the information he gathered from the spider's fate as he pushed his sixth sense to its limit, detecting everything around him within a thirty meter radius.

The spider he had just killed was born in a nest not too far from here where a strange spider colony had formed. The spiders in this colony all had the same thick black exoskeleton, sharp claws and the ability to shoot their webs like projectiles. They usually ambush their prey by ensnaring it in their webs that had been reinforced with mana, which made them extremely tough and sticky.

On top of all that, they also possessed a strong paralyzing venom that they inject into their prey once they've caught it to stop them from struggling before dragging them back to their nest.

With the combination of their fitness index that Lake estimated to be around 1.30, these creatures would be extremely deadly to any normal Martial Apprentice that was caught off guard.

However, even with all that, Lake still hasn't touched the most troubling part about these spiders.

"Sixth, seven, eight, nine…" Lake silently counted the number of spiders that had come into range of his sixth sense.

They were perched all over with some crawling on the walls of the collapsed building, while others moved through the overgrown grass.

Observing all the spiders that had slowly surrounded him, Lake released a small sigh. These spiders were social hunters, meaning where there was one of them, there would be many more in the surrounding who would swarm you after the first one alerted the rest.

When the spider was previously releasing those screeches, Lake thought it was doing so because it was in pain. Only now did he realize that it was signaling to the others that prey had entered their hunting ground.

After Lake had confirmed that there were no more spiders approaching, he flung the spider attached to his spear to the side as he stared at the one that had just shot its web at him.

He was currently standing in the middle of a destroyed road with trees and grass growing between the cracks. There were a total of nine spiders that had responded to the first spider's cry. Three of them were crawling on the wall of a collapsed building to his right. There were another three spiders in front of him and two behind him, with the last remaining one trying to stay hidden in a patch of overgrown grass to his left.

The spider that had shot at him was one of the spiders on the wall. While Lake was looking at the spider, he could sense that the other two were preparing to shoot their webs at him.

Without hesitation he pulled out his pistol as he quickly shot each spider on the wall. Unfortunately the bullets didn't seem to do much damage to the spiders due to their thick exoskeleton, however, it did distract them for a moment and stop them from letting off their webs, which gave Lake the chance to make his move.

Rushing straight at the spiders on the wall, Lake jumped on top of an old car that had been overtaken by vines and moss before leaping towards the three spiders on the wall.

When Lake was in front of the spiders, still in midair, he swung his spear, using his inhuman strength at them, cleaving all three into two, causing their blue blood to flow wildly as they fell from the wall.

Ever since he had upgraded Steel Body Martial Arts to the first level, Lake felt that his strength had been dramatically increased, however, since he didn't have a chance to test it out before today, he didn't know exactly how much his strength had increased. After splitting three spiders in half in one swing, Lake was more than satisfied with the improvement on his current strength.

As Lake was falling he grabbed the three strands of fate before leaping off the building's wall into the sky where he flipped himself upside down,throwing two more knives at the two spiders that were behind him, sinking into their heads.

Lake would have preferred to throw the daggers at the group of three spiders but with the current level of the Weapon Master skill, Lake could only accurately throw two daggers at a time.

Looking at the two spiders that were flailing their legs about in pain, Lake knew that knives wouldn't penetrate deep enough to kill them, but that was never his plan, as if he killed them directly from a distance, he would miss the chance to get their strands of fate. The purpose of the knife was only to leave them stunned while he dealt with the others.

While Lake was falling, he flipped himself upright as he set his eyes on the next spider that was now below him. When he had kicked off the wall, he had launched himself in the direction of the spider that was hidden in the grass.

As he fell towards the spider, he pulled out his spear before landing heavily on the creature, piercing the spear straight through the spider's head, grabbing the strand of fate in one swift motion, before disappearing into the tall grass.

The remaining three spiders were extremely confused. They originally had their prey surrounded and were about to pounce on him but before they could even react, four of their friends were killed while two were screaming in pain. The prey that had done this had also disappeared from their view. When they were starting to realize that it would probably be wiser to retreat from this strange prey however, they were too late as Lake leaped back into the sky above them from the canopy of a tree.

Throwing two knives out, Lake hit two of the spiders before he slammed down on top of the remaining one with his spear.

From the time the spiders surrounded Lake to when he killed the last spider, less than a minute had passed.

Looking over at the remaining three spiders that had throwing knives stuck in them, Lake quickly went around and finished them off before collecting their fates.

Once he had collected all the fates, he set his sights on the next destination. When he had read through the first spider's fate, he had seen the location of their nest and knew that there were around a hundred spiders inside, making it an ideal grind spot for RP.

Looking over in the direction of the nest, Lake quickly left the area as he began to stealthily make his way over.