Heaven or Hell

E and Bean kept watch from the entrance of the building as Mae dug a large pit. After about a half hour she finished and ran over to the group. They all dragged the dryder over to the pit and threw it down. E tossed a standing torch in and let it's cremation begin. It was slowly getting towards dusk E notes they likely only had a couple more hours til it was dark out. Mae and Bean both looked to E as if waiting order prompting E to give them directions.

" Okay. We will head back in. Stay vigilant. I think we need to clear the second floor and then look for any further rooms on the first floor."

E took point again with a knocked arrow whilst the others followed. As they stepped back into the church they felt the warm breath of it's rotten air soothe their cold hardened skin just a bit, E especially enjoyed the warmth even though he still held out strong inclinations not to. He couldn't help that he was cold. The three of them eventually made their way to the front stage of the church. Next to the stage was a coiling staircase that lead upwards. They noticed it had been covered in webbing as if the mouth of a trap door spider. Mae put a hand on E's shoulder pausing his steps. She came forward and scraped the webbing from the walls and floors and began to wrap her sword in it like a fork with noodles. She ended up getting most of it to pull down, not to long after her large sword had become a giant ball of web. She then pulled her sword from it and nodded.

The three of them slowly made way up the stairs. The stone steps eventually turned into a creaky floorboard of steps towards the top. Evidently the second floor had been an afterthought of the churches construction. The second floor held a cool air about that flowed into it from the broken glass windows. The worst thing about the second floor was the sheer amount of spider corpse's that were up here. Legs and husks of large grove spiders lay strewn about littering most of this floor, only a single passage to the front of the building was easily traversed in this attic. Bean and Mae seemed hesitant to continue walking here but E waved them on. At this point they took point and E grew ready to release an arrow at any spider that were up here. The husks around could easily still be alive so passing them became a game of do or don't. Even with all the signs of death, they didn't take anything for granted.

Eventually the trio made way to the front of the building along the way they hadn't seen much but a few eggsack of spiders. They opted not to bother them on the off chance they let loose a few thousand spiders into the building. E had grown more fond of just burning this building down by the second. The three of them eventually came to a nest of webs in a corner. Insect and skeletal remains littered it's outside like decorations made by a nefarious being. After their long silence to this point E spoke out.

" We should clear it. Never know." He said as he held his arrow ready. Mae shook her head no in a pleading way. Bean look up and shrugged in agreement.

The mouth of the nest wasn't to large, like a small door on a shed. The entire corner here seemed to have been claimed by the webbing though. Bean pulled out his javelin and held it forward. He got to the mouth of the nest and peeked inside. He turned around with a wide eyed expression and waved the other two over.

E and Mae stepped forward after they saw him drop his stance into that of at ease. When they looked inside everyone took a look at each other in surprise.

Inside the nest a small room like cavern was made. In it's center was a chest with copious amounts of religious symbols and books. The strangest part was they religious item were all crafted of what appeared to be precious metal! Some were even adorned with the occasional gem. The only issue was the entire walls of this neat were littered with large eggs. Not spider woven eggs actual shelled eggs the size of large fists. The shape of most of them were warped, larger or smaller in some areas. They backed off and whispered to one another a few steps away.

" Holy shit E! Did you see all that loot! Imagine what's in the chest." Mae whispered rather loudly.

Bean looked up to Mae, " Do you think you can twirl those eggs together like the stairs?"

E had a puzzled expression. He began to wonder if these eggs were the issue as to why combat hadn't stopped per his class menu. " It makes sense. They are alive, and likely our enemy. Would that really trip me up to this degree though? What limits does the menu have though. What qualifies as opposing enemies. Dormant eggs? I doubt it. " he questioned internally. He came up with a rough solution.

" At this point I don't know how we get in there and grab that stuff without disturbing the eggs. I have a couple ideas. We can try to smash them all. Bean can eat them or we can throw them from the window. Any way we roll it we are hands on and that's a bit concerning. I don't know what eggs these are but I assume they're the dryders. And at that I don't know if they are poisonous at birth." E explained to them as bluntly as he could.

Bean grew a frown. " Hey...Why you keep wanting me to eat gross stuff. Eggs come out of butts, and I don't want to eat stuff out a spiders butt. Why don't you eat one huh?"

Mae wanted to giggle at him but holding back her chuckle she sputted out some words of encouragement. " Bean you can do it, it's just eggs. If you think about all that loot right there you can swallow them whole. You never know they might be tasty, spider butt and all."

E put his bow on his back. He then pulled his sword from it's sheath for the first time surprising the other two. " Forget it let's just smash them. You're probably right, spider eggs can't be good for you."

Mae sighed, Bean was relieved. The three of them approached the nest. They stepped inside and carefully stepped around the small cavity at different points on its walls. E held up three finger to signal a count down. On three they all began to slash stab and cleave at the egg infested webby walls. After a couple of minutes they finished execution. They all stood in small puddles of egg greenish ooze. It was rather sticky and had a slick adhesion to them. After a few moments of double checking the nest the all took a moment to laugh about it. They were easily standing on what could possibly be hundreds on gold! The religious effigy's and symbols here were of all types of religious belief. The church must have had an ample amount of offering in it's hayday. The medium sized chest in the nest was rather ornate and looked old leaving the three of them to only guess that what lay inside must be even more wonderful. The only thing that stuck them as odd was why the dryder even decided to accumulate all the the items in a nest. What purpose would wealth matter to a dark magic creature? It didn't matter to them all now. After a few minutes of shoving everything they could into E's bag they all stood around the chest in anticipation. E felt relieved if anything this only proved the point to them that he had made a decision that would only benefit the group.

" Mae since I put you in harm's way earlier by my blunder, I think it's only right you get to open our first treasure chest."

" Yeah Mae! You deserve it." Bean chimed in.

Mae was surprised and happy to do it. She knelt down in front of the chest and went to open it's lid. As she lifted the lid just every so gently a pair of eyes popped open on top of the trunk. " Grawheghlll!" The chest sprung to life! it's lid opened wide to show a few rows of jagged teeth as it pounced forward onto Mae! E and Bean jumped in the startling freight, Mae Held the chests mouth open and off of her body just barely in time. E raised his sword to swing onto the chest but Bean pushed him aside.

Bean's skin turned crimson red and his ears pointed backwards. His eyes turned solid black as steam rised from atop his small head in a flash Bean swiped away E's sword and retrieved his javelin from his back. In a quick side hop flash Bean was right in front of the chest and began a flurry of stabs into its side! Mae hardened her grip firmly as Bean pierced at the wood, in a quick though after hearing the flurry of thunks at the side of the chest she turned it aside and wrestled the mouth of the creature open wide as Bean kept plunging away. After a flurry of angry wild strikes into the chests mouth the creature stopped resisting the hold Mae had on it. Dark black blood began to splatter outward onto Bean and all over the ground. E stood there in shock. Not only did he get complacent after smashing the eggs, he forgot to check if they were still in combat! The sudden change in Bean furthered that stymying shock of the chest turning into a beast but his wild style of attacks, speed and animosity was a frightening sight to behold. As the chest's lid flipped backwards and fell off Bean stood in a puddle of black ichor huffing. After a short pause his color faded and he fell to his knees and flew onto his stomach in a tight hug onto Mae's lap, immediately asleep.

E stepped forward and picked up the weapon's. " Mae I.. I"

" Shhh. Shut up. It's okay.. I think I better get used to the unknowns with you two." She stroked Beans head in a gentle pat. Bean was completely sound asleep.

E took a step further and looked into the box, it's fleshy mass of interior and top lid lay there separated at the spine. It's jagged teeth and dark blood looked menacing even in death. E took his sword and began to prod into the chest to see if anything actually lay beneath. As he pried away some of its jostled insides he began to see a shimmer from deep within. There was coin and other things inside! E look over at Mae in surprise. E began to clean out the meaty strands and pile it aside. Not even bothering to count or dig further he slapped the lid back on top.

Mae stood up and threw Bean over her shoulder. The dark slimy blood and egg residue had began to harden and Bean was out for the count, any gentle shove she tried to give to wake him up failed. The two of them made way back out of the churches attic.

An hour or so had passed and Bean finally came to. He was on a pew on the first floor. He sat up and looked around, only then did he notice E was just stepping back inside from the front doors.The building itself still held it's warmth but in the time of his sleep the other two had cleaned up the church by removing the remaining husks of spiders and the dead bodies and random limbs. Mae could been seen outside standing next to a large pit tossing in remains. E came over to Bean.

" Hey Bean how you feel?"

" Sore. What happened? Last thing I remember is Mae opened that chest."

" Oh well yeah, let's talk about that when we get back to the inn. First we have somethings here to finish up. Don't worry we ended up profiting quite a bit from this one quest. You in particular" E gave a wide smile.