The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Loren’s group left that area, leaving the motionless spiders behind.

The ones being carried decided to walk on their feet, worrying that they might tire the members carrying them off. They proceeded to walk to the end of the tunnel.

Jack and others wanted to burn the spiders, but Loren and Nim objected:

“Making such a big fire in an enclosed space like this, we’ll all die choking, won’t we?”

“Spiders are also part of the world. Let’s not kill them. We can’t eat them, even if we do so anyway.”

After being chased around that bad, everyone was feeling lighthearted now. It wasn’t like Loren didn’t understand their feeling, but it was stupid to get carried away and got themselves into another predicament.

Having been so calmly admonished, Jack came to understand the meaninglessness of burning the spiders. He gave up immediately and continued on while saying bitterly:

“So, it just ends here?”

Nim quickly disagreed:

“No, it doesn’t. The next will come soon.”

“The next…”

“Those are probably the children of a Huge Spider. The parent is still somewhere in here.”

Elves generally lived in forests, so they were naturally deeply knowledgeable. Everyone’s mouths hung half open at the piece of knowledge Nim had just shared.

The spiders chasing them had been as tall as Lapis. It was not unreasonable for them to think that those spiders were adults. If those were just children, they didn’t even want to imagine how big an adult one would be.

“The parent is several times bigger than the children. Its thread is also bigger. It’s very dangerous.”

“For such a big spider to move around in a tunnel… Nah, this one is big enough.”

The size of the spider Nim had mentioned was ridiculous just to hear, but the size of the tunnel they were walking in was also not average at all. Such a spider would still be able to easily move in here.

“Why did you dwarves dig such a stupidly big tunnel like this?”

“If there’s a vein of ore, we’ll dig.”

Jack complained, but Dig answered full of pride and with not a single shred of shame. His attitude would be nothing in normal times, but it was strangely irritating in the current situation. They all secretly turned their eyes away from him.

“If there’s a parent, that means we’ll have to run again.”

Jack said, seemingly fed up when recalling the series of escape dramas, they had engaged in since coming here. Ritz nodded multiple times – he obviously felt the same. Nim was still calm, but Quartz was gloomy, for he knew that if they had to run again, he would become a burden.

“Nah, we won’t have to run again, right?”

“That’s right. That’s how it is with huge spiders.”

Hearing Gula’s and Lapis’ conversation, Nim suddenly clapped.

“Ah… Right, that’s how it is…”

Loren had a feeling that it wasn’t a very satisfactory story, but he still wanted to know what they were talking about. So he asked Lapis, the one most easily talked to between the three of them:

“What does it mean?”

“Young Huge Spiders chase after preys and shoot threads to catch them like the ones before. But adult ones just weave webs like normal spiders.”

The passage they were walking in suddenly expanded. Feeling an unpleasant premonition, Loren continued towards a space as large as a hall. But just before he actually set foot into the hall, he stopped and stared at the thing inside.

“Ah, so this is it…”

This space was probably the dwarves’ mine, and was much larger in both width and height compared to the passage. A pure white object illuminated by the lantern’s light stood towering over everything in the space, almost filling it up entirely.

“Is this it?”

Loren asked, still holding a sliver of hope that it wasn’t, and Lapis gave him a blunt answer:

“Yes, this is probably the web.”

Even though a gentler answer wouldn’t change anything, that straightforward affirmation still gave Loren some intense mental damage.

“Isn’t it a bit like a mountain?”

Ritz looked up and said. The round web made from woven thread was wide in perimeter, and the ground was covered in spider threads.

“What do we do now?”

“Just charging at this thing is kinda disgusting, isn’t it? Can we burn it down?”

Lapis frowned at Jack’s suggestion, while Nim gave him an exasperated look. Jack retreated a little – it looked like he didn’t understand why they looked at him like that. Loren clapped at his shoulder:

“Spiders’ threads don’t burn, you know?”

“Eh?”

Jack exclaimed in a strange voice with widened eyes. He seemed to be greatly surprised by Loren’s words. The others seemed to know already, they didn’t look surprised at all and just nodded.

“You’re probably confused because it’s called ‘thread’, but spider threads are made from solidified body fluid. They can be burned, but they don’t catch fire.”

“Eh? Eh?”

“Dust and insects caught in a spider web can catch fire, but the thread itself doesn’t.”

Loren patted Jack’s shoulder as if telling him ‘You’ve learned something new’. Nim spared him a sideway glance and continue:

“Our path is a straight path. There’s no detour.”

“We have to get rid of it somehow.”

Ritz looked at Dig as if asking for a confirmation, and Dig nodded solemnly.

“Miss Gula, can you use your secret skill again?”

Quartz placed his hope on the secret skill Gula had used to incapacitate all the spiders chasing them, but Gula shook her head:

“Once spit out, it takes some time to gather again.”

Loren could only think of one kind of gas to be emitted after eating, but he kept his mouth shut because he didn’t know what Gula would do to him if he spoke it out. But if the gas was really what he thought it was, it definitely took some time to be gathered again once released.

“Can we go stealthily?”

Nim suggested.

The passage beyond this space was almost filled with the threads that made up the web. Even if they wanted to go in stealth, they wouldn’t be able to avoid stepping on them.

“Spiders determine prey’s location by the vibration of their threads. If we can avoid disturbing the threads, it won’t notice us.”

“Hey, your elf is talking about the impossible.”

Loren turned to Ritz and said, but Ritz just shrugged. Elves had lighter body weights and nimbler movements. Nim probably could go through without touching the threads, but Loren and Ritz had the well-trained bodies of swordsman, and they weighed considerably more due to all the muscles. And Quartz, being an eldery magician, had weak legs and joints, by no means could he move like an elf. Dig, as a dwarf, was out of the question, so no one was keen to listen to Nim’s proposal.

“With a web this big, I think it won’t shake if we walk carefully.”

Nim said easily.

“Because the web is large, the load of each individual thread is also higher. Even if we step on a taut thread, it won’t shake.”

“Is that so?”

Ritz asked with doubt. But the route back was also a straight path. If they turned around, they would definitely run again into the spiders Gula had somehow immobilized.

Ahead was a spider web, and behind was a horde of spiders. In the current situation, it was dangerous no matter which path they chose.

Ritz considered it for a while, then chose to move forward.

“If both front and back are as dangerous as one another, we should go forward.”

“That’s right. If it goes well, we might not be in any danger.”

Even though the hope was thin, if walking stealthily could keep them from confronting a spider like Nim had said, they wouldn’t be in any danger.

“Weft threads are used to capture preys, so they’re sticky. Warp threads are not sticky. Step on the warps.”

Nim said with a deadly serious face. But Loren and the others looked at the towering web and couldn’t tell which were weft and which were warp at all. Everyone’s eyes focused on Nim, thinking that she must know, but she just carelessly said:

“If it doesn’t stick to your feet, it’s a warp.”

“If it sticks, then we’re finished though?!”

Ritz quipped with an obvious fact, but Nim clicked her tongue and wagged her finger:

“Pull your foot back before it sticks.”

One could say that this was a method unique to the lightly-weighted elves only. It was difficult for heavily-weighted dwarves or armed humans to imitate.

“I’m wondering if you can tell us something possible for dwarves and humans.”

Loren smiled wryly and begged, but Nim just said after thinking a while:

“These threads are not on the web… so maybe we don’t need to be too careful. The threads supporting a web won’t be sticky, I think.”

Only

“In short, we have no choice but to walk stealthily without touching the web?”

Loren summarized, and Nim nodded. Ritz looked up at the ceiling and sighed, while Dig and Quartz held each other’s hand and stared at the web they were about to walk through with pale faces. Loren glanced at Lapis and Gula, who looked no different from how they were usually, and wondered if he could just let them blow off the web in the worst-case scenario. He let out a resigned sigh.