Episode 5 – Plague Spider (4)

Pages began turning one by one inside my head.

[The attack patterns of the plague spider was very simple.

Firstly, the spider attacks with its two front legs as its main weapon. Although it was fast, the trajectory of spider's attacks can be predicted.

Secondly, the spider can attack using its webs but considering it was weakened, there was no need to worry about a sudden web attack.

And finally, when the spider entered a critical condition, it opens its mouth and spew out its acid-like digestive gland as a last resort.]

It sounded simple when reading but in reality, it was far from easy.

"Left."

Slam!

"Right."

Kwang!

"Left, right, left, right."

Slam! Kwang! Slam! Kaboom!

The spider's legs rained down as if to completely crush me and holes continued to appear on the poor, blameless ground.

Somehow, I managed to dodge all the stabs and swung the sword in an arc.

Puuuookk!!

Another one of the spider's legs was severed and it screamed in pain.

Normally, fighting against a grade 7 monster at this stage would have been impossible. But since I was prepared, such an impossible thing was now possible.

"?!"

Seeing me getting closer and closer, the plague spider panicked and spew out its disgusting fluid. However, since I already predicted its next move, I evaded and pounced on top its head.

A sword stabbed into its eyes.

Stab!

Rooooaaaar!!!

The spider rampaged around as if trying to shake me off from its head. I gripped the sword and managed to stay on its head somehow.

"Keu-ru-ruk—"

Now the spider moved very dangerously and slammed its body against the walls over and over. Was it trying to bring down the whole place?

I hurriedly moved the sword and stabbed the its eyes in a repeated manner.

Stab! Stab! Stab!!

Eventually...

Thud!!!

The plague spider crumbled on the ground with a heavy sound. At the same time, multiple messages arrived.

[The grade 7 'Plague Spider' has been killed.]

[A grade 7 monster has been hunted for the first time!]

[An impossible feat has been accomplished.]

[10,000 coins will be given as compensation.]

[You killed the 'Plague Spider' without a party.]

[500 coins will be given as additional compensation.]

A steam of notifications.

Because I killed the grade 7 Plague spider without a team, I received a total of 15,000 coins. In the end, I received a great reward, didn't I?

[A few constellations are doubting their eyes.]

[A few constellations question the fairness of the scenario.]

Why are you unhappy? Didn't I give you a great show?

[A few constellations asks how you obtained a superior sword energy.]

I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders and answered.

"It's nothing special. I just bought it from the shop. I went through a great ordeal, you know. So I have alot of coins to spare."

[A few constellations nods their heads in understanding.]

[A few constellations wonder how you gained that much coins without a supporting constellation.]

[The constellation 'Primordial Evil Dragon' says she enjoyed the violence.]

[The constellation 'Owl that Pierces the Twilight' admires your readiness.]

[1000 coins has been sponsored.]

I received money from the sub scenario completion and the constellations at the same time. If I continued receiving rewards at this rate, I would be able to gather a large amount of coins.

[You have cleared the sub scenario.]

[You have received 500 coins.]

[A handful of constellations admire your story.]

While receiving the messages, I cut open the plague spider and pulled out out a huge blue orb out of its body.

The core of a grade 7 beast. It's much valuable than the cores of Nightmare creatures between grade 8 and grade 9. If I sold it in the shop, I will be fetch a nice price.

I put it inside my personal storage ring. It was not needed for the scenario so I will keep with me in the meantime.

"Jakga-ssi, I need a hand here."

I swept my gaze towards the side and saw Yunhee trying to free Jongho with the swiss. She must have gone there while I was fighting the plague spider.

I approached with the Iron-cutting sword and spoke.

"Step back."

"Huh? What are you..."

In an instant, I swung the sword and cut the strong webs holding Jongho. Then I freed Angelica as well

They fell down but were immediately caught by Yunhee and me.

"Urgh... My head hurts... What happened..."

"Where are we...?"

Jong-ho and Angelica slowly began to regain consciousness and looked around, confused.

"Long story short, you guys got captured by the crawling spiders. But it's okay now, I just killed that 'guy' over there."

They looked behind where I was pointing and opened their eyes wide. Wouldn't that face belong to someone who just saw something unbelievable.

"Oh lord..."

"A giant spider? Did you really kill that on your own?"

"I was lucky."

"Bullshit, how can you kill that thing and say it's just luck."

Ignoring Yunhee, I approached the next person trapped on the wall.

Lee Gyeong. Unlike the rest, I didn't free her from the wall and just stared at her with a solemn expression.

"Hey."

She did not answer. Was she unconscious? No, that was not the case.

"I know you are awake. If you don't answer, I'm going to leave you there."

I turned around to leave then I heard a voice behind me.

"Wait! Please wait! Don't leave me here!"

I turned back to her and smiled. Would you look at that? She was awake after all.

"Why were you pretending to be asleep?"

"I was afraid. Did you see that giant spider?"

"I guess that's understandable."

"Now can you let me go?"

I shook my head and Gyeong had a puzzled look.

"Not yet, I have a few questions for you."

"What do you mean? Why can't you let me go? Let me go now."

"Oh, aren't you becoming noisy for someone that tried to kill us?"

At my words, Gyeong looked shocked.

"How did you know?"

"It was obvious from all the things I heard. Besides, you guys weren't smart about it either. Did you honestly think that we did not know?"

At this moment, everyone was standing besides me and glared at Lee Gyeong. In particular, Yunhee was glaring at Gyeong as if she would attack at any moment.

"Hyung, can't we kill her already?"

Gyeong trembled at Yunhee's cold words. Yunhee looked very eager to stab her with the swiss knife.

"Wait, I will tell you anything you need to know so please don't kill me. Please, please, please."

Look at this shameless woman. She was begging for forgiveness from the very people she repeatedly tried to poison. Humans were very fascinating creatures, weren't they?

"Well, that depends on you. Tell us everything you know and don't even think about leaving out any details. Or else..."

I gripped the Iron-cutting sword. The blade seem to glow coldly in the darkness.

"You are going to get it."

* * *

"I see. So that's what happened."

Everyone wore a dark expression. It was because of the story that Gyeong just told. At this point, she was already freed from the wall.

The story was simple. Before I arrived at the safe zone, Minhyuk had begun to take an active role, and started creating a group of followers. Gyeong and Manshik were among them.

All of them joined the mainframe group simply because they wanted to survive using the power of a goddess.

"Minhyuk is the apostle of the goddess Athena?"

I was visibly confused. From what I knew about Athena, it would be strange if she picked someone like Minhyuk as her apostle.

Incarnations were the faces of the gods. To pick someone like Minhyuk as her incarnation didn't really suit Athena's image as the goddess of War and Wisdom.

In any case, it was something I can find out by questioning Gyeong.

"What happened after that?"

"You know those guys that didn't make it back."

"Yes. What about them?"

"Minhyuk sacrificed them to the monsters. No, I'm sure that's what happened. It happened again and again."

"That bastard, I already knew he was a terrible person. But to sacrifice his own people as well."

Jongho clenched his fists tightly.

It seems my initial suspicions were right from the get-go.

There were several cases where certain individuals would encourage people while pretending to act like a noble hero, but when they served their purpose, they would be sacrificed.

But to what end? Why did Minhyuk sacrifice all those people? He wasn't a fool. At least, he didn't seem like one. So why did he intentionally reduce his manpower? There has to be an end game.

I suddenly remembered something and opened my mouth.

"You said something about Minhyuk having a skill that allowed him to share power. What was that about?"

"Oh, that..."

Lee Gyeong didn't answer immediately.

Athena, also known as Minerva, was the goddess of wisdom, war and justice. She's a very famous constellation in the Greek mythology and her divine rank was [Myth grade] which was above [Heroic Spirit grade].

However, Athena only possessed authorities relating to war. Meaning, the ability to command an army. She had nothing that would allow someone to transfer power. In fact, there was no power in Nightmare that allowed anyone to transfer power.

In other words, Minhyuk not only lied about being Athena's apostle, he also lied about having an ability to share power with others as well.

There was only one possibility that I could think of.

"If you don't want to answer, that's fine. But you're completely on your own."

"No... It's not that."

Lee Gyeong shook her head and slowly raised her sleeve. revealing a tattoo on her left arm. It was shaped like the Seal of an Owl.

Once I laid my eyes, my suspicions were finally confirmed.

Lee Jong-ho titled his head and asked.

"What's that? A tattoo?"

"No, its not a tattoo. It's a stigma belonging to the goddess. That bastard Minhyuk said the power of the goddess can be shared through this seal."

Angelica moved closer to Lee Gyeong and crouched infront of her, studying the seal very carefully.

"Huh? This looks wrong."

"What is it?"

"This seal looks wrong. The Seal of Athena doesn't look like this. The bird representing Athena is a tawny owl, not a true owl. Although it is similar here and there, it doesn't look like the seal I know. It looks like someone did a messy job while trying to imitate the seal."

Angelica explained while thoroughly moving her eyes here and there.

"Angelica, how did you know this?"

"Didn't I tell you before? I did alot of reading online, you know. The mythology of the gods just happened to be my favourite topic to read about."

Oh, that's right. I forget Angelica used to be a reader as well. Maybe she was more knowledge than me when it came to the gods.

Lee Gyeong seemed to have realised something. She shot a gaze to her left arm and asked while trembling.

"Wait... are you saying this is not the seal of the goddess?"

"No, it's not."

"Then what is it?"

This time, Angelica did not answer. It was me that opened my mouth and sent Gyeong into distress.

"That's the mark of a devil."