Chapter 59 – Empyrean Arachne

Adam arrived at the cave entrance where he had previously let lose the Black Goblins and Two Horned rabbits.

Burrows could be seen dug out on the outskirts of the entrance. Squeaks would echo out from these burrows from time to time.

The girls were ecstatic to find out the rabbits were doing well. Elaine even went up to a few of the burrows and stuck a stick inside to provoke the rabbits out but to no avail.

The rabbits had grown extremely timid as compared to their ferocious nature in the dungeon.

"This is not a good sign. If they grow timid in the outside world. then they become useless to our farm. We need them to stay aggressive." Adam racked his brain for scenarios that could bring back these timid rabbits back on track.

"Somethings wrong. Be on alert you two." Luna tapped the shoulder of the distracted Elaine and got behind her in their usual defensive formation.

Hearing her give this sort of warning brought Adam back from his contemplation. As soon as he focused, the stench of fresh blood wafted into his nostrils.

He pulled out his daggers as he hunched over slightly and controlled his footsteps to make the least amount of noise as possible.

He entered the dark cave and heightened his senses to immediately accustom his eyes to the dark. As soon as he was able to see again, a shock covered his face.

"what's going on here?" He was perplexed. In front of him lay the skeletons and two new half-eaten corpses of Black Goblins. Of the original number that he had released into the cave, only 3 remained alive. They sat huddled up in a corner of the cave. Too scared of even Adam and his group to make a move. Their bodies were riddled with injuries. One of them even had a weird bite mark on its shoulders were fangs had obviously sunken in.

"What could have happened?" Luna asked as well. Only questions flew around with no one able to answer.

"I smell another poison. This one is different from the one on the Black Goblins. There seems to be another poisonous creature in the depths of the tunnels." Elaine had become very sensitive towards poisons since she began practising her body refinement manual.

"Another creature? That's not possible… these mountain ranges should be a desolate wasteland with no living creatures." Luna had gotten most of the information about this place and she was the surest of its legitimacy.

"Well someone obviously missed something. My senses are not wrong." Elaine said with a serious face.

"Another creature… We stayed in the range for a few days as well. Why did we never notice them?" Adam would never doubt the girls and immediately took Elaine's information as the truth. They had built a level of understanding and trust over the years, it was easy for them to understand the seriousness of each other's words by now.

"This is very very bad! For a creature to remain undetected from even experienced scouts does not bode well." Most of Luna's knowledge about the place came from the guild. The guild could be considered very meticulous about its information as it would decide the fates of its adventures on more occasions than not. "The only reason we did not notice or encounter this creature or creatures must be because they live deep in the mining tunnels." She continued to say.

"That's the only possibility. Time to get out of here. It does us no good to be standing here and talking carefreely. This is the turf of this creature and we could be ambushed at any time." Adam swept his gaze deep into the tunnel in this cave as he said so. The tunnels were winding and as such no matter how much he strained his eyes he would not be able to look too far.

The two girls looked at the huddled up injured goblins one last time and then left. These monsters fate had been sealed. It was truly a world of 'eat or be eaten'.

Adam who was trailing behind the girls had his expression light up.

"You guys go on home without me. I'll come over later tonight." He stopped and turned around to face the inside of the tunnels again.

"No!" Luna immediately declined.

"It is too dangerous to stay here alone with an unknown creature lurking." Elaine was just as stern.

"Hear me out first before you refuse. I am the fastest out of all of us. I am confident in my ability to run away if I am alone. Also, this might be our last chance in a long while to see these monsters true appearance." He said as he pointed at the goblins. The girls understood that he was going to be using the goblins as bait. The goblins were injured to the extent where they would die regardless if they were attacked tonight or not.

"Are you sure that you will not do anything other than watch from the sideline and run if you are noticed?" Luna looked at him doubtfully. She knew exactly what his personality was like.

"Ugh.." He did have plans to push his luck slightly if he got the opportunity and when he heard the girl figure out his intentions so accurately, he couldn't help but be stunned.

"I will try my best." He gave a vague approval.

The girls shook their heads. They knew it was impossible to convince him otherwise so they could only trust that he would remain safe. He wasn't a reckless person, to begin with anyway.

"Alright, we are off. Stay safe young master." The girls bid their farewells as they left. They had to go back and report to the lodge, it was best if they didn't dawdle.

Adam was at the mouth of the cave when the girls left. He stepped to the inside and sat in an inconspicuous corner out of the eyes of the goblins but where he could watch them.

It was easy for Adam to make a few conjectures as to the general strength of the unknown monster that dwelled in the depths of the mining tunnels.

They had to be above level 5 but not above level 10 or they would have decimated the whole batch of goblins in their first day of attacks.

The second point that he could confirm was that these monsters were poisonous critters. Elaine's senses were the best proof of this.

The third and final guess was that these monsters were naturally predatorial. They must be a vicious species of monster that attacks in close quarters. This was easy to see from the cuts, gashes and teeth marks that were all over the surviving goblins.

"these monsters shouldn't be too big though. The bite marks indicate an average sized monster. Something a little smaller than the Purple Copper Armadillos." He bided his time this way as he waited for a sign of the arrival of the monsters.

The sun on the horizon set and the cave got darker. Seconds and minutes flew by. Minutes turned into hours of silence.

The stars in the sky outside grew brilliant and just as Adam was about to give up and leave, scuttling sounds came from within the tunnel.

The sound was like a pickaxe striking the stone floor of the tunnel.

When the goblins heard this sound, a panic broke out as they only huddled up tighter.

"Why don't they just leave?" He could not figure out why these goblins who were scared out of their minds, did not make a run for it. No matter how unintelligent they were, it was a natural instinct to run away from danger.

The scuttling sound of sharp feet rang louder through the corridor.

"1, 2, 3, 4…. 18. 18 feet. 9 bipedal monsters?" He calculated as he did not dare to blink and watched the tunnel that the sounds originated from. He controlled his breathing to make as little sound as possible.

3 shadows made their way through the tunnel and appeared in the cave.

Adams enhanced sensory kicked in the second the shadows came into view.

'Species: Empyrean Arachne

Level: 8'

Adam had really not spent his time in vain in reading up on the knowledge of this continent. He could easily name this monster even without the help of enhanced sensory. At this point, the skill only acted as a buffer that confirmed his thoughts.

Hissing sounds escaped the malicious mouths of the three spiders. The sound was like but unlike that of a snake. It was horrifyingly unique.

Their entire bodies and legs were black. Purple luminescent spots dotted their furry backs and feet.

Their numerous glossy eyes shone a grey in the dark cave as their long and pointed legs stabbed into the rock and propelled them forward.

The goblins had completely gone into a frenzy at the site of the spiders and were screeching in despair but none of them moved.

Adam watched all of this quietly from his spot.

When the spiders were only a hands length away from the goblins, they stopped and hissed.

The spiders surrounded their soon to be dinner.

The one in the middle raised its foremost spike of a foot and brought it down at the goblins.

Adam was sure that a goblin would end up pierced through with that strike.

Kacha.

The foot struck the ground right in front of the goblins.

Adam was unsure of the purpose of this attack. He watched on puzzled and as he did his eyes grew wider and wider.

In the dim light that existed in this cave, Adam saw fine threads slowly fall down. One after another as if they were streamers that had just been let loose from the walls.

"A deadly trap…" No wonder the goblins did not move an inch. They were surrounded by those fine webs that were impossible to see with the naked eye.

The spider did not rest after getting rid of the barrier of webs and another long leg swept forward and pulled toward it.

A goblin that was holding onto it compatriots was jolted toward the Empyrean Arachne. A fine silken web had been tied on its leg and this was used to pull it.

The thread cut through 3/4th of the leg of that goblin with just that simple pull, almost dismembering it.

"Sharp! Thank the gods that we did not venture in towards the goblins." Adam sighed in relief. He could only imagine what would have happened if they had done so.

As his thoughts wandered the three spiders began devouring their prey.