The Queen Demon Spider

It had been a few weeks after my potion-selling business started. I was out in the forest exploring with Yoru, picking up any whiteberries that we found, until I stumbled upon the entrance of a cave.

'I heard from Jackson that caves are extremely dangerous during winter since a lot of monsters go into hiding… But, if this is the cave where those goblins are hiding, then…'

After that time that Jackson told me that goblins were trying to raid End Village before winter started, I had actually been hunting them down in the forest. However, I only ever found them in small groups of 3-5.

Jackson said that goblins would still send scouts outside their caves to look for food or people during the winter season, so that was the only reason I actually even saw some of them.

"Hey Yoru… Is this the goblins cave?" I asked.

He absolutely hated goblins, which made sense considering they were the ones that finished off his parents, so he had their scent memorized.

Yoru sniffed the entrance of the cave but didn't growl, so I could tell that this was not their cave. I was still curious since I hadn't seen that cave before, so we went in anyway.

The entirety of the cave was filled with spiderwebs, and after the light that came in from the entrance wasn't enough for me to see, I used light magic to create a small mote of light above my head. However, as soon as the cave lit up, I saw hundreds of spiders crawling from the ceiling into the walls.

'Man, I'm lucky I don't have a phobia for those things…'

The spiders were pretty big too. If one of them jumped on my face, they would pretty much cover it all. Fortunately, they weren't looking for a fight and just completely avoided us.

After a bit more walking inside the cave, we were stopped by a giant spider. This one was actually three times my size, and it was definitely targeting us. I stopped for a second to inspect it.

<Demon Spider:

Rank C

Minion of the Queen Demon Spider.

Strongest spider web out of all arachnids.

Can use paralyze poison.>

"Hmm, seems dangerous… Maybe it will let us through without a fight-" As soon as I muttered that to myself, I felt something coming at me at a very high speed.

Thankfully, my reflexes moved my body to the side, and I was able to dodge it. When I turned around, I saw a splat of spider web behind me.

'If that hit me, I would have been knocked out against the wall…'

I raised my palm and pointed at the spider. "Ice Lance…" I muttered as a spike of solid ice materialized in front of my hand, then shot straight to the spider.

Just when I thought it would be over, the spider quickly hung itself from the ceiling and avoided it. 'Alright, so it's a bit smart…'

"Avoid this… Freeze!" I yelled, and a cold mist enveloped my arm, then expanded itself around the cave, freezing everything around me except for Yoru, who hid in my shadow for the attack.

I added just enough MP to that spell so that it would freeze the room we were in and not the entire cave.

I managed to get a bunch of the small ones too, which honestly made me feel bad since they weren't attacking us.

Diving deeper into the cave, we got ambushed a few more times by the demon spiders, so me and Yoru used them as training practice while exploring. A few hours later, we reached the final room of the cave.

It was a pretty big room compared to the others we passed by. The ceiling was tall enough that it was hard to see the stalactites, even with my light mote lighting the way.

What I could clearly see was the incredible amount of spider webs that enveloped the walls of the room. Somehow, they seemed even more refined than the ones shot by the demon spiders.

"Oh my… a visitor!? In my dungeon!?"

"Huh?" I could hear the voice of a woman echoing throughout the room of the cave.

"A child with his wolf!? Oh, but look at you… Oozing with power…" said the mysterious woman's voice again.

Yoru and I looked at each other in confusion. Even with the light mote and with the woman talking to us, we couldn't find where it actually came from.

"Umm, sorry, we didn't know someone lived here…" I said while still looking for the source of the voice.

"Ohh, and you are quite polite too… Hehe, let me get a closer look…" she responded, and just a second later, a beautiful woman with short jet-black hair and red eyes appeared from the darkness and walked towards us.

She seemed to be in her 20s and had an amazing body figure that was accentuated by the black dress that she was wearing.

I didn't feel any bloodlust coming from her, so I thought it would be fine.

"Hey boy… turn off that Inspect Block… I don't feel like doing a magic power competition with you right now." She said with a smile.

'Wow, she really is beautiful…' I thought.

"Sure, I'll turn it off, but can you promise to keep the information secret?" I said.

She giggled. "Of course! Who would I tell about it anyway?"

I turned off my Inspect Block spell and instantly inspected her too.

<Queen Demon Spider:

Legendary Beast

Extremely dangerous.

Extremely poisonous.

Source of all demon spiders.>

'Uhhh… Uhhh… A Legendary Beast!? Extremely dangerous!? The source of all demon spiders!?'

"Oh, a demigod, huh? What is someone like you doing in my dungeon?" She asked again with a smile.

'I suppose she is done inspecting me…' I thought.

"I, uhh… We were just exploring. I'm actually looking for the goblins' cave, but found this one first and decided to check it out. Again, I'm sorry, we weren't trying to bother you or anything…" I said a bit nervously.

Honestly, it wasn't the fact that she was a legendary beast or that she looked like a beautiful model. I was genuinely embarrassed about barging into someone else's home.

She giggled again. "Don't worry about it, boy. I haven't talked to anyone in like 60 years, so a small visit does me good."

"I see… But why are you here, though? There is a village about 2 days away from here. You could talk to people if you really wanted to, no?"

She explained to me that all Legendary Beasts had a mission given to them by Garon, the god of beasts, and her mission was to keep producing demon spiders inside a dungeon of the forest.

Her demon spiders actually helped the forest by taking out unwanted monsters that could potentially destroy the environment. For example, if a monster suddenly started spewing fire in the forest, the demon spiders would track them down and kill them.

"I'm so sorry, we killed a few of those spiders while coming here…" I said, waiting for the worst. If she considered those spiders her children, then we might have been in trouble.

"They attacked you first, right? Then I don't see why you should apologize. It's not like they are my children. They are minions…"

"I… thought that might have been the case…" I said, a bit relieved to know that she wasn't taking it to heart.

The demon spiders were monsters that formed from her spider web.

She basically didn't have to do anything else other than place her webs in a safe environment for them to be born. After that, she would just give them orders to protect the forest and eliminate threats.

'That could explain why we never got attacked by a demon spider outside the cave… Maybe they didn't consider us a threat to the forest…' I thought.

"By the way…" she said as she got closer to me. *sniff sniff*

"W-what? Do I smell funny?" I asked, a bit flustered, now that she was really close sniffing me.

"What is that smell? Is that food?" she asked, looking genuinely curious.

"Food? Oh! You mean this?" I responded as I opened up my backpack. Inside, I had four bowls of redback boar stew that I cooked myself.

I crafted the bowls with wood using nature magic and even made them a lid to keep them from spilling inside my bag.

The stew I made was mostly chickpeas and redback boar meat. It was good, but honestly, I was pretty limited to the stuff I could cook with so few ingredients.

The big pot full of stew was still inside my "Void Pocket," so the bowls she was smelling were the ones I had served before entering the cave to help me save time whenever we got hungry.

I took out one of the bowls, opened the lid, heated it up a bit using fire magic, and placed a spoon inside. Then I gave it to the Queen Demon Spider so she could try it herself.

"So… this is the source of that aroma…" she said while visibly salivating.

I smiled. "It's a stew I made. It has redback boar, chickpeas, yams, and some other stuff. Try it!"

She took another glance at the bowl in her hands, and after a big gulp, she finally dared to try it.

I think she really enjoyed it because, after the first bite, she kept on eating as if she hadn't had food in days.

I giggled while watching this woman, who was supposed to be a legendary beast, gulping down that bowl of stew with ease.

"If you like it that much, you can always visit us at our place. We live in the great redwood tree that's a few hours away from here."

She stopped eating for a moment, and I felt a strange sense of sadness coming from her.

"You see… I can't leave the cave for something like that…" she said as she looked down at her almost empty bowl.

I thought that it probably had something to do with her mission of creating the spiders inside the cave, but it made me feel bad.

She said she hadn't talked to anyone in over 60 years, which sounded awful.

I mean, I did ask Phelena to send me far away, but now that I was interacting with the people at End Village, I was kind of glad.

To be fair, they did treat me super nice, so I felt like I should do the same to them. If they hadn't treated me like that, I would have probably never gone back to that place.

"You said you can't leave for something like that… So, what is something that would allow you to leave the cave?" I asked.

There had to be a way for her to leave this place by the way she worded it earlier.

She glanced at me, then her eyes widened with excitement.

"Y-You are right! Wait… there is a way!" She yelled as she got close to me again.

She smiled. "Boy… Let's do a familiar contract!"

"W-What? Would that work?"

"Yeah. Familiar contracts take precedence over our mission. That was also an order given to us by Garon. If we make a contract, I would be allowed to leave the cave in order to assist you. Of course, I would come by from time to time to tend to my webs…"

"I see… Alright then, sure."

She seemed surprised that I accepted so quickly. "W-Wait… Really?"

"Yeah! I mean, I don't see why not…"

She giggled. "Then let's do it! Boy, give me a name so we can make it official!"

"Oh? Is that how it works?" I pondered out loud.

The only familiar contract I had made before was with Yoru, and it happened right after I gave him a name.

"So, someone can just randomly give you a name, and you become their familiar?" I asked.

"No, no, that's not how it works. First, the beast and the tamer must accept each other and their feelings. That's why it's a contract… A tamer could never force a beast into a contract because it would instantly be void."

'I see… So the time I saved Yoru from those goblins, he accepted me as his master. I suppose I accepted him accidentally, but damn, I'm glad I did.'

"Alright then… Do you have any names that you like?" I asked her.

With Yoru, it was different because he couldn't clearly tell me if he wanted a certain name. But she was able to talk, and had lived for a long time, so I thought she had a name that she would prefer.

"Not particularly, no. I'll take whatever name you give me… Make it pretty." She said with a playful smile.

"Hmmm, a good name for a legendary beast… In my old world, there was the Greek myth of Arachne… But I don't know how I feel about it… I should just come up with a name myself…"

"Hmmm, how about… Vespera?" I said, pretty unconfidently again, but her eyes widened as her body began glowing for a few seconds.

She nodded and placed her palms on both her blushing cheeks with a smile. "Vespera is good."

'Is she blushing? The Legendary Beast!? Pfftt…'

"So, it's done?" I asked while containing my laughter.

"That's right, take a look!" she said as she flipped her hair back with confidence.

I inspected Vespera, and the information now looked completely different from before.

<Queen Demon Spider

Name: Vespera

Familiar Contract: Ichiro

Age: 652

Skills: All poisons control, Master Weaver, Minion Creation

MP: 35,000

Titles: Legendary Beast>

'Ohhh, that's way more detailed and less scary than before!'

"Vespera, you have a ton of MP!" I said while looking at her "inspect" information.

She smirked. "Hah, of course, I do! I am the Legendary Beast, Vespera, after all."

Before leaving the cave with Yoru and Vespera, she showed me a stone platform that was hidden in the back of the final room in the cave.

She said it was a teleportation platform connected to her so that even when she left with us, she could always come back quickly and care for her webs.

When I asked her how she was going to come back after teleporting to the cave, she giggled and said that now that she was my familiar, she could easily use the "Teleport" spell to come to me unless I was extremely far.

Honestly, with that amount of MP, I believed her.