Chapter 22-

I woke up the next day to the cold breeze that was coming from outside the cave.

I woke up feeling a little bit tired. Not because of the cold, but because of the fact that I was still in the dungeon.

"I wish one day I could just sleep in and not have to worry about the hunters in this dungeon?”

I then looked at my left arm, which was starting to grow little obsidian spikes on it.

“I guess the only way that’ll happen is if I beat the dungeon, or if I die?”

The moment I said that, the word echoed around in my head.

“... die… If I...die.”

I then immediately shook my head and slapped both sides of my face.

“I don’t have time for that. I need to prepare for the day.” I said as I gathered my stuff and left the cave.

As I was hopping around from tree to tree, my mind was still thinking about what I just said.

This wasn't the first time where I had that thought. This had been happening for a few weeks now.

Whenever I even say or think the word 'die', my mind gets filled with the thought of giving up or how easy it would be if I didn't struggle. Even when I'm busy doing other stuff, the word echoes in my head for a while.

In order to make it not bother me, I've been putting the idea aside, distracting myself, and coming up with excuses to not go through with it. Excuses like 'not today, I have to gather resources', 'I'd rather try killing the hunter, first', 'don't wanna, since I don't like pain', and sometimes 'nope, I wanna know what the meat on that glowing animal tastes like, first'.

So far I've been doing good, but I sometimes worry about what I'm going to do in the future.

After a while of searching around the floor and gathering firewood, I sat down on a tree branch and yawned.

"Maybe I should've brought those wolves? I think being by myself for so long is making me depressed?”

I looked around and admired how this floor was different from the others.

"If I didn't know that I was inside a dungeon, I might believe that I'm outside in a snowy forest?"

I then spotted something in the distance that caught my eye. It looked like a large white sphere.

"That's probably important?" I said as I started making my way there from tree to tree.

I soon made my way close enough to where I could have a better view of the structure.

It was indeed massive and looked like it was made of spider web.

"Guess this must be the hunter's nest?... Why do I keep speaking out loud to myself?"

I started to scout the area around the nest and check to see if I could see any sign of the hunter.

****

After an hour of scouting, I didn't see any sign of the hunter. But what I got from my search is that there's four entrances to the nest and there's multiple threads of web coming out from each entrance. They all sink under the snow and look like they act as alarms for the hunter, letting it know if an animal steps on them.

"I don't know if the threads cover the entire forest floor, but I should still do my best to avoid them?"

I then started making my way back to the cave that I'm staying at. While I was making my way back, I looked around for any more of those caves or hidden areas.

During my search, I only saw that there was just wildlife. This made me wonder if the cave that I was staying at had some type of importance.

When I was at the cave entrance, I heard something call out from the distance.

It sounded like someone or something was singing, almost like it was a woman singing.

The voice sounded like a lonely young woman calling out to someone and trying to reach out with her voice.

(Day night, oh how you shine bright, on this lovely Kingdom of white.

Follow the sound of my tone, come to my cozy dome, come and you won't be alone.

I could sense your sadness and pain, so let me shelter you from the storm's rain. shelter you from the storm’s rain, and you could live forever in my domain.

Live with the maiden whose heart froze, where I’ll give you a love that overflows, our love would be like a winter rose.

So follow the sound of my melody, come for my everlasting remedy, then you’ll be embraced with longevity.)

The song could be heard around the forest. I then saw that it had a strange affect on the local wildlife.

There was a family of deers passing by on the ground below. The moment the song started, each of them turned their heads towards the sound with their ears raised.

They started walking towards where the sound was coming from, almost like they were being drawn to it.

I then started to feel as if the sound of the song was sinking into my body. Then my vision started getting blurry, as if a fog was covering my eyes.

Knowing that something was off, I covered my ears and I hid inside the cave and tried my best to avoid hearing the sound by humming to myself.

I managed to drown out most of the sound, but I knew that the song was still going on outside. I couldn’t hear what the rest of the words were, but I knew that hearing them would probably make me fall under some type of spell.

I then glanced outside, wondering who or what was singing.

I only saw that most of the animals were following the direction where the song was coming from.

I then noticed that one deer was walking through the snow and I remembered what was hidden under the snow.

Soon enough the deer stepped in an area where there were webs under it and got it's foot stuck.

This caused it to regain its senses and it started to cry out after seeing what it stepped onto.

It wasn't only that one deer. I could see that there were multiple animals that stepped in the hidden webs under the snow and got stuck.

The song then stopped and I could then feel the vibrations of something big walking around the forest.

Trying my best to stay hidden, I glanced around for a clear view of what the hunter looked like.

But as the hunter started making it's way over to the animals, I didn't just get a good look at it. I got a good look at them.

Coming out from past some trees, was a terrifying giant spider.

It had an icy blue exoskeleton, icy blue joints, twenty large blue eyes, blue crystals sticking out of it's back, long sharp legs, and two long fangs that stuck out in front of it.

This creature looked like something that would show up in your nightmares.

“Holy sh**?” I whispered to myself after seeing it.

The giant spider made its way towards one of the trapped deers.

I watched in horror as it pinned one of the deers down and sunk its fangs into the deer's side.

The spider then yanked the dead deer out of the trap and started wrapping it in web, before placing it on its back. The spider then made its way to do the same with the other trapped animals.

The scary part of how it was doing this, was how it was able to silently move around and not make a single noise. Even as it quickly killed its prey, it managed to do it without making a single sound.

"I might be able to fight it as long as I can see it? But it's a different story if it gets the drop on me?"

As I was watching the spider gather its prey, I honestly felt bad for the animals. But something about this made me wonder.

"Why does it need this many animals? If this spider acts like a normal one, why does it need to gather this much food?" I asked myself.

I found it odd how this spider was just gathering a lot of food.

"It's almost as if… it's bringing it to feed others? Probably even the true hunter of this floor? Then that means this spider is only a minion."

As I was about to head deeper into the cave, I heard growling outside.

I then looked outside and saw a pack of green foxes surrounding the spider, similar to a pack of wolves.

But these foxes were bigger than the ones I saw earlier. They were the size of a couch and they were a little bulky.

They were growling at the spider, making it take a few steps back and raise it's front two legs in defense.

"Is it afraid of them?" I asked as I continued to watch.

One of the foxes leapt at it and bit into one of it's legs, making it screech in pain and kick it off.

Once it did that, the rest of them started attacking it.

While they were fighting, I brought out my club and started getting it ready.

"If this thing ends up being the hunter, it should be best to help these foxes take it down?"

But then an idea came to mind and I looked at my left arm.

"Wait. I don't have that bracelet. Then that means…"

I didn't waste any time. I quickly brought out my knife and the book on magic runes, then started carving some runes on some nearby pebbles.

"I really hope this works?"

****

Once I got a couple of pebbles ready, I ran outside and saw that the foxes were still fighting the spider.

The spider managed to kill a few of them, but it was starting to show signs of fatigue.

Seeing this, it confirmed that this was just a minion and there was the real hunter somewhere else.

I used the Toad Hook to grapple and pull myself up to a tree. I then took out a fire rune and glanced at the spider.

"Please work?"

I then focused on trying to channel my mana into the stone. I then tossed the pebble at the giant spider, aiming for its head.

Despite the battle that was going on, I felt excited when the pebble burst into flames on top of the spider’s head.

“Hell yeah!” I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air.

The spider then looked up at me.

“... Probably shouldn’t have done that?”

The spider then jumped over the foxes and landed on the tree that I was at.

Once this happened, I quickly jumped off the tree and onto the snow. I then ran past the foxes and got my club ready.

The foxes didn’t seem to mind me and kept their eyes on the spider.

The spider then started making weird clicking sounds and its body started to shiver. It also started to cough alot.

“What is it doing?”

Then suddenly the exoskeleton of the spider started to get covered in a thick layer of ice.

Soon it’s body became encased in a shell of ice and made it look almost like a giant crab.

“Oh, that can’t be good?”

The spider then climbed down from the tree and started making its way towards me.

The foxes around it jumped and tried biting its limbs again, but found out that they couldn't bite through the ice on its body. This allowed the spider to easily walk past them and smack a few of them aside.

"Oh come on!" I shouted as I used the Toad Hook to grapple and pull myself away from the spider.

As I did this, the foxes kept attacking the spider. Seeing that the foxes were still attacking it, the spider went back to fighting them.

But as it was doing this, I noticed something about the crystals on its back. When it first showed up, they had a slight glow to them. But now that it covered its body in ice, the glowing light in the crystals started to slowly fade.

“Guessing that shows how much mana it has? So as long as it has mana, it’ll have its ice armor. Remove that and it’ll allow the foxes to finish it off.”

With an plan in mind, I got the Toad Hook and swung down to the ground.

The spider managed to fend off the foxes and forced them to run away, leaving me to fight it.

“So much for my plan?”

Seeing that I was the only guy left, the spider turned its attention to me.

My only response was hitting my club a few times against a nearby tree.

“Come on ugly! Bet you feel real brave hiding under that shell of yours?!”

Almost as if it understood me, the spider then charged after me the moment I said that. So I quickly used the Toad Hook to swing up to a tree and threw another fire rune at the spider.

It burst into flames against the top of the spider’s head and caused it to take a few steps back. It then turned around and fired a glob of web at me.

“Woah!” I shouted as I jumped onto another branch.

When the glob of web hit the branch where I used to be at, it froze the branch and caused it to shatter.

“... Why didn’t you use that earlier?!”

The spider continued to shoot globs of web towards me, forcing me to jump from tree to tree.

“Back when I first entered this dungeon, this spider’s attacks would’ve hit me. But after everything that I’ve been through, these attacks aren’t anything new!”

I continued dodging and swinging out of the way of every web that the spider shot at me. But this also helped me realize another thing about the spider’s abilities.

The webs that’s hidden under the snow only act like traps and an alarm to the spider. But these webs have magic infused to them, giving them a ‘freeze effect' to whatever it touches.

But the more mana that it uses, the more the light in the crystals in its back fades.

“All I need to do is keep avoiding your attacks and wait until you use up your mana, then it’ll make dealing with you easy... Huh?”

The spider stopped firing it’s webs and turned around, then it opened its mouth and a blue light was shining inside.

“There’s no way that you could use a breath attack?!”

In a quick moment, the crystals on its back glowed brightly and a beam of ice shot out of the spider’s mouth.

I quickly grappled onto a distant tree and pulled myself out of the way just before the beam hit me.

It blasted the area where I was at and shot through multiple trees, turning a huge chunk of the trees into icicles.

“Oh, come on! How does that make any sense?!”

I then saw that the spider’s ice armor crumbled away and the light in the crystals faded away. Then the spider started panting puffs of fog, almost like using that ability hurts it too.

‘So it’s resistant to ice on the outside, but it’s not very resistant on the inside?’

While it was vulnerable, I started throwing a couple of the fire and lightning runes at it. It looked like they were damaging it, but it wasn’t enough to finish it off.

The spider then started charging towards me and started swiping its front legs at me. I jumped over the attack and landed on the spider's back. I then started whacking it’s exoskeleton with the club, hoping to crack it.

When I managed to break a piece of the shell off, the spider bucked me off and sent me flying. But while I was in the air, I quickly tossed the rest of the runes into the hole in the exoskeleton.

“Here’s a little goodbye gift! Hope you like it!”

The moment the runes fell into the wound, a loud explosion burst inside the spider and caused the spider to get split into two.

I then crashed into one of the frozen trees and caused it to shatter as I broke through it.

“... ow.” I said as I got up and rubbed my head.

I looked at the dead spider and saw the state it was in.

“Boom! How do you like that?!” I shouted as I ran over to it.

“Not so tough, are you?!”

I then pulled out my knife and started poking at the guts of the giant spider.

“Might as well bring the heart with me, just in case this guy is the hunter?”

As I was carving out the charred heart, I noticed that the foxes had returned and surrounded the spider’s corpse.

“Oh hey, it’s you guys? Just let me take this thing’s heart and you could have the rest.”

The moment I carved out the spider’s heart and walked away from the body, the foxes ran in and started feasting on the spider’s corpse.

“Guess I should find that nest now?” I said while tossing the heart up and down.

I then made my way towards the large nest from before.