11 – Accidentally Infiltrating the Nest

The rift transported us right into the middle of a nest of lava-spitting spiders.

There was nowhere to run.

Bagavash headed the assault with a [Lightning Cannon] that lit up the infested underground cavern and electrocuted half a dozen spiders in the process. They were the size of a rottweiler, and little globs of glowing lava dripped from their mouths as they hissed at us.

Erl was quick to cast a [Fireball], his vastly overleveled spell wiping out a swath of the lava-spewing arachnids despite their apparent resistance to fire magic.

Myrl was wielding something called [Chitinbane Vapor], an aerosol-type spell that sprayed some kind of toxic gas out of the spell circle. The spiders in front of him would shrivel up if they came into contact with the poison cloud.

Linli cast [Greater Enlarge], this time stepping into the spell circle himself. The little wizard grew nearly five times his previous size, muscles ripping through his clothes and towering over even Erl. The now hulking gnome quickly engaged the spiders in close-range combat, punting them into walls and smashing them into the ground.

Gorey ichor spewed everywhere.

I was too busy cowering in the center of the four wizards to be much use. The flashing light from spell circles lit the cavern like a rave, but instead of girls in neon fishnets, we were facing black widows from hell.

After the initial surprise of our appearance in their lair, the spiders recovered and began spitting lava in earnest.

Globs of the molten rock would hit the wizards, sizzling through their robes and burning their flesh. The smell was horrendous. I dodged out of the way just as a rather significant stream of lava came arcing my way.

I gathered my wits and decided to help in whatever way I could. I still hadn’t figured out how to cast with my wand, so I traced a spell circle with my fingers and called out, “[Void Thread]!”

I wasn’t sure what it would do, considering the width of the spell was so small, but I figured it was better than standing around doing nothing while my wizard brethren fought for me.

The thin beam of black and purple mana shot forward, hitting two spiders that were ganging up on Erl. To my surprise, the spots where the spell pierced their exoskeleton started spewing that black ichor in thin jets. As more of their blood drained out, the spiders slowed down, eventually collapsing from their own weight. It was almost as if they operated from some internal pressure, and any puncture, however small, was enough to debilitate them.

I cast another [Void Thread], catching a spider in midair as it leapt toward Bagavash. It didn’t do much to change its trajectory, but when it landed on the wizard, it struggled to make purchase, scrabbling at his side as its inner juices drained. Bagavash swiped it easily off his shoulder, gave me a nod of approval, then charged at a new group of spiders, his fists crackling with lightning magic.

We managed to cull a significant portion of the spiders in this fashion. As their bodies shriveled up, mana orbs of various sizes would rise out of their corpses. The wizards were quick to scoop these up into their inventories.

However, before we managed to clear the cavern, a new wave of lava spiders descended upon us, these ones even bigger and nastier than the last.

Fountains of lava lit up the room as these arachnids unleashed the full fury of their wrath. This time, I wasn’t so lucky. A jet of lava hit me in the shoulder, immediately burning away my cloak and searing into my flesh.

I let out a wail of agony.

Linli cut off the spider as it charged at me, pounding it into sticky pulp with his oversized fists. Luckily it didn’t seem that the spiders were made of lava. They simply produced it from their mandibles, somehow heating stored rock material to the melting point.

Linli himself was covered in burn marks, but his bodily mana augmentation seemed to prevent the worst of the damage. My wound looked much worse. “You alright?” he asked, traps bulging like steel cables on either side of his neck.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, scrambling to my feet. I knew I had those health potions in my inventory, but I wasn’t going to use them until it was absolutely necessary.

Linli turned back to the horde of spiders, taking out swaths of them with a swing of his forearm.

I tried to trace out another spell circle with my uninjured arm, but a particularly large spider spotted me before I could finish it. Its eight gleaming eyes locked with mine, and it charged.

I didn’t know what to do.

I ran.

There was a clearing where a [Lightning Cannon] had left a trail of corpses. I stumbled over their carapaces as I tried to put as much distance between me and this goliath spider as I could.

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I kept having to look back over my shoulder to dodge the incoming streams of lava that the creature was spewing out of its mouth. Before I knew it, I kind of lost track of where I was going and ended up in a side tunnel coated with spider webs.

Fuck.

This was not good.

The silhouette of the giant spider filled the entrance to the tunnel, lit from behind by the flashes of magic going on in the cavern beyond. It was nearly as tall as me. I didn’t stand a chance against this thing.

I turned tail and sprinted further down the tunnel. The spiderwebs pulled at my clothes and feet, but luckily didn’t slow me down too much. I channeled a bit of mana out of my fingers to help me see. The tunnel was winding, which prevented the spider from having a clear line of sight at me to launch those lava streams. All I had to do was outrun it.

The problem was, it was gaining on me.

The burn on my shoulder screamed out in pain with each step. When I transmigrated to this world, I imagined lazy days fishing and smoking my pipe. Not running for my life from a giant molten rock spewing monster. But if this was the price for learning magic, then so be it. The wizards had implanted in my mind that a good life comes with the cost of protecting it. There will always be those who want to take your peace. You just have to be strong enough to fend them off.

Right now, this huge spider wanted to take my peace.