C58- The Caterpillar (2)

"Well, whatever. Just show us the way, Noah."

"There is only one way we can go..."

"For now, that is. We have wandered deep into this nest now, this place is probably like a labyrinth now."

"...Ugh..."

"Why were we even this willing to go inside Corvin? Even I feel like we made a mistake now..."

Corvin stared into his eyes and said with a serious tone.

"Don't say that Noah. There are people inside, you know. Do you not care about their lives?"

"Corvin!"

Clair shouted at Corvin because of what he said. Corvin didn't understand why she was the one offended, but he wasn't going to back down from his words. However Noah's answer surprized him.

"No, he is right, Clair. I can't overlook this. Then I would be no different from them...", he said while clenching his fists.

"Right... I don't know who this 'them' you are talking about, but I think you are right about something."

"Yup. Let's go."

With this, the four continued on their dangerous journey further inside the nest. While walking, Noah inspected the walls every now and then to see if there were any more scars or other traces of the people who entered the nest.

After walking for a while, they reached a room filled with mushrooms similar to the one they have been to before. After camping there for the night, and collecting some different mushrooms for Amy as ingredients, they started to follow the scars and other traces the next day.

"Hey... Why are there so much sword scars on the walls anyways? What were they fighting with? We didn't come across any monsters inside the corridors yet, right?"

"That's probably because the chaos we caused at that big room... Most probably, almost all of the nest is working on fixing that room."

"But, isn't it weird to not come across one?"

"That may be because there aren't that much monsters inside, or at least this deep inside the nest. Don't forget, they are still monsters, and the nest is located inside a bunch of mountains where no one lives. If the monsters need to eat or some other way of getting energy, they can't go too far away from the nest, or they would be in risk of disappearing since no one is around except the kidnapped people. So the number of bugs inside the nest is probably low, but they are more powerful in exchange."

"How does that even make sense? These are monsters, aren't they. How can they need food?"

"Well... That's what a colossus is. They are the ones that don't make sense, even when compared to other monsters, which don't make sense on their own anyways. Not something to tire your mind about, I would say. It just is what it is."

"I never thought I would hear that sentence from Corvin of all people...", said Noah while inspecting something on the wall.

"What? If it was something worth brooding over, I would. But this is just a single colossus. Something like this will probably never happen in the near future, so it is not worth to care about much."

"Heh, I figured you would say that...Woah."

"What happened?"

"Look at this."

Noah showed them his hand. He brought his thumb and index finger together and then seperated them. A white strand of something was stretched between his fingers.

Corvin suddenly started to clap Noah.

"Wow! I knew you were one, but I never thought you were this kind of pervert! Look at that completely amazed face while doing.... that."

"Huh?"

"Noah! What are you doing?! When did you even...um.... do that...", asked Clair.

"Huh? What is happening?"

Amy wasn't even looking at him, and instead turned back when he glanced at her.

"What did I do?"

"Noah... What is that on your hand?"

"Huh? This? Can't you see?"

"Yeah, I can. Can't you see there are girls with us?"

"What about them?"

"Wow... I am just left without words."

"Tell me! Why are you guys acting like that, while I am trying to show you guys the web I found?!"

"Web?"

"Yes? Web, look. This is kind of sticky, but it is a web. There are scars as well... So a monster with webs probably attacked the warriors., but we can't be sure since we don't know when the web was left here."

"Web...web... Oh! You mean like a spider!"

"Well, probably."

"Oh man! I thought you were holding something else!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, it looked like a liquid from here after all!"

"Right..."

'What is he talking about?', Noah acted like he understood what Corvin said.

"Well... We might be close to our targets! Let's finish this chase today."

"Ye-yeah..." "Let's go...", muttered everyone quietly.

The group continued walking while chasing the traces again. They chose where Noah pointed at when met with a crossroads, and after an hour or so, they reached a corridor that looked different than the rest.

The shining moss on the ceiling was thicker. The walls were the same dark stone, but it was covered by a silky white substance that looked cyan because of the shine of the moss. The unique scent of silk could be detected from where they stood. The silk on the walls were scarred at some places, the scars looked like the scars they were following, and the scars led to a single place.

The place they were led to, was the entrance of a room. The silk on the walls got thicker closer to the entrance, and it looked like the silk was spread from inside the room.

"Hmm... Looks like somewhere a spider would live..."

"Ugh... Why do we have to deal with spiders?"

"Well... We don't have a choice. The warriors led us to here, and that means they either defeated whatever is inside this room, or they were captured by it, and are waiting to be eaten by that thing..."

"You aren't making this any better for us by saying that Corvin..."

"Sorry, sorry. But we have to get inside no matter what, right?"

"Right... I did say that I wouldn't ignore the humans in this nest."

"Then ready your violin and follow me."

"Hey! What about us?!"

"Oh, the girls..."

"Right... They should wait near the entrance of the room but outside. I will play my violin close to them. This should be not much different from our previous fight with the rat, hopefully."

"Good idea...You heard him right? Let's get in then."

Corvin cut an opening on the thin layer of silk that covered the entrance hole to the room and entered the room together with Noah. They were both ready to fight. Also, the effects of having two girls to protect on their mentality couldn't be denied either. They tried to look more intimidating than usual. But what they saw wasn't close to what they were expecting at all.

"Hey... That's not a spider. It's a damn caterpillar! This is going to be easy!"