Chapter 23-

After a while of walking, I soon arrived at the entrance of the large nest. I glanced around and saw that there wasn't any sign of any more giant spiders.

"Hmm…" I hummed to myself as I looked down the entrance of the nest.

It was a large tunnel that led down and it didn't look like there was any light down there.

I then dug under the nearby snow and brought out a pebble. I then tossed it down the tunnel and listened.

The rock bounced off the walls as it made its way down, only stopping after three seconds.

"Ok, that's three seconds. So the number of feet that this tunnel goes, should be… enough to not jump down."

I walked over to a nearby tree, then started breaking large and small branches. I used the small branches to start a fire and make charcoal, then used the charcoal with the large branches and made some makeshift torches.

I also gathered more rocks and used my knife to make more runes.

Since I didn't know what could be down there, I decided to make only fire and lightning runes.

After getting everything ready and eating one of the dried magical peaches, I was ready to head down.

"Alright! I got my knife, a club that's made from a mammoth tusk, my Toad Hook, a cloak to keep me warm, torches, and more runes ready. I believe that I'm ready for a potential boss fight?"

I lit one of the torches and tossed it down the tunnel, waiting until it hit the bottom.

Once it did, I then hopped down the tunnel and fell for a few seconds, then using the Toad Hook to grapple onto the wall and stopping myself from hitting the floor.

After swinging down and landing on the ground, I picked up the torch and checked my surroundings.

I could see that the tread of the web travels down the tunnel and that the walls had a thin layer of ice.

"Guess there's no other way but forward? ...I really gotta stop talking to myself?" I said as I continued walking down the tunnel.

As I was walking for a while, I noticed that there was a breeze down here and it felt like it was coming out of the tunnel. But before I questioned it, I saw that there was a slight blue glow in the area ahead.

'Please be a good thing? Please be a good thing? Please be a good thing?' I kept thinking to myself.

I soon arrived at a large cavern and immediately noticed three things in the room.

I noticed that there were a lot of webs on the walls and ceiling, the hole in the ground and a platform of frozen web over it, and the blue crystals that were in the ceiling.

"Guess this is the spider's nest?" I said as I saw the pile of animal bones in the bottom of the pit.

There were three other holes that led into this room, which probably were the tunnels that lead to the other entrances.

While I walked around the room, I kept an eye out for the door or monsters.

Even though I couldn't see any signs of monsters, it felt like something was watching me.

'This isn't a good sign.' I thought to myself as I tightened my grip on the club.

Then a voice spoke up.

"So. If you're here, then that means you've dealt with my pet?"

I immediately readied my club and looked around for where the voice came from. But something suddenly fell in front of me and caught me off guard.

When I held my torch over it, I saw that it was the head of a deer and this made me look up.

When I looked up, I saw one of those blue crystals falling towards me and quickly rolled out of the way.

The large crystal shattered when it hit the ground where I was at.

I then look up and see a strange figure dangling its feet on what looks like a hammock made of webs.

“I could see why the others found you interesting.”

The hammock then started lowering and helped give me a clear view of what the figure was.

But there was something odd about this one. While the other hunters were large monsters, this one looked more humanoid.

The figure on the hammock looked like an adult female with long silver hair that reached her waist. But her skin was blue, eyes were black, her teeth were sharp, and there was fresh blood on her hands.

I took a few steps back and immediately looked away. This made the woman confused.

She noticed that there was some blood on her mouth, so she just wiped it off with her arm.

“My apologies. I was in the middle of my meal and I didn’t expect company.”

“What’s wrong with you?!” I shouted while avoiding looking at her.

“Huh? Does the blood really bother you that much?”

“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?!”

“... what?”

I looked away because the woman in front of me didn’t have any clothes on. The only thing that covered her lady parts was her long silver hair, but it still revealed enough to show that she didn’t have any clothes.

“Could you please cover yourself or something?!”

“Does it really bother you that much?” She asked as she got off the hammock and walked towards me.

I started walking backwards and held the club towards her.

“Stay back.”

“What’s wrong? I just want to give you a reward.”

“Reward?”

“You managed to fight and slay every hunter that you’ve come across. But you’ve struggled through it all and suffered great wounds.”

I eventually backed against the wall of the cave and the woman stared into my eyes.

“Don’t you wish to stop suffering and stay here with me?”

My heart raced as she got closer and placed her hand on the side of my face.

"Don't you want me to reward you?"

Her face was getting closer to mine.

"I, uh… um." We're the only words that left my mouth.

Then the worst happened.

Just before it looked like she was about to kiss me, she opened her mouth and completely bit off my lips.

"Ahhh!" I screamed out as I immediately kicked her away from me.

Then without even thinking, I quickly pulled off the Divine Cloth from my arm and wrapped it around my face.

'Sh**! How could I be so stupid and let my guard down?!' I said to myself.

It all went by fast. One moment I was flustered and backed into a wall. Then the next thing I knew, she bit off my lips and now my face is in so much pain.

The woman then licked her lips and giggled to herself as she cartwheeled away.

Now pissed, I chased after her with my club.

She then waved her hands and shot out four icicles towards me.

I swung my club and smashed them all in the air.

"You really are the dumbest person that I've ever met!"

The lady continued firing more icicles at me, and I continued blocking them with my club.

“That ueally hurt!” I shouted out to her.

It was difficult talking without lips and a sharp pain spreads on my face when I move my jaw.

But I couldn’t keep fighting her and risk suffering blood loss. So when the opportunity presented itself, I tossed my fur cloak at her face and kicked her away from me. I then grabbed a handful of the fire runes and tossed them all at her.

They all exploded and I could hear the woman screaming in pain.

I then created some distance between us and started tossing the fire runes at the crystals in the ceiling.

The runes exploded and the crystals started falling, shattering on the ground and making the cave go dark.

Then the lady managed to put out the flames on her and started looking around. But thanks to the low light, she couldn't see me walking around.

“Where are you?!" She shouted out.

I couldn't see well in the dark, but I could smell burnt flesh and knew that she was badly hurt.

So I got my runes ready and charged at her with my club in hand.

"Ahhhhhh!"

*****

After three whole hours of fighting, I climbed out of the nest and was covered in wounds.

I then collapsed in the snow and stared up at the sky.

I then feel around my face, remembering my now missing lips.

“Dann that uonan! Uhy did I louer hy guard, just hecause she uasn’t uaring clothes?!”

(Damn that woman! Why did I lower my guard, just because she wasn’t wearing clothes?!”

Then my face started hurting again, due to the shouting.

‘Guess I shouldn’t talk now? Really hope the Divine Cloth could regrow lips?’

I then scooped a handful of snow and pressed it on my face, before getting up and limping my way back to my base.

‘But I did find it strange that the hunter on this floor was a humanoid? Normally they all were large beasts or monsters. So why was this one a humanoid?’

I thought about it for a while and saw that I arrived at the corpse of the giant spider.

It looked like it was mostly eaten away, leaving mostly the exoskeleton there.

Surrounding the spider’s corpse were the dead foxes that it killed earlier. There was a little fox near one and poking it’s side with it’s paw.

“Uat’s uang? Is that your harents?”

(What’s wrong? Is that your parents?) I asked, squatting down near the fox pup.

This made it run aside and hide behind the spider corpse.

If I had lips, I would be smiling.

I reached into my bag and brought out a piece of dried meat, then placed it on the snow.

"It's yours ihh you want. Ain sorry hor your loss."

(It’s yours if you want. And sorry for your loss.) I said before resting against a nearby tree.

I was really tired and weak from the fight earlier. I didn’t know if I could make the walk to the cave, so I decided to rest for a bit.

“I’n going to uest here hor a quick honent. Just need… a little hreak.”

(I’m going to rest here for a quick moment.)

I then closed my eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.

*****

I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn’t in the snowy forest anymore. I was now inside some strange cave and for a moment I thought that I was back in my base.

‘Where am I?’

I stand up and look around the cave. It was larger than the cave that I was staying at and the inside of the spider nest. But there was something else that felt different.

I could hear and feel something breathing nearby. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was something huge.

I walked through the cave and followed the sound of the breathing.

“Hello? Is there anyone that doesn’t want to fight here?” I shouted out.

I then heard a low rumble nearby.

“That can’t be good?”

But I then noticed something else.

“Wait… I could talk normally again?” I said while feeling my face.

I could feel that my lips were back on my face. But I also noticed that the Divine Cloth was missing.

“Did I drop it?"

I checked to see if I misplaced it, but couldn't find it. In fact, I didn't have any of my equipment or stuff. But I then saw something move up ahead and it caught my attention.

I slowly walked closer to it and saw that it was something strange. It was a large cloud of black smoke that reached the top of the cave.

In the center of the dark cloud, I could see a red glowing orb and I could feel a powerful presence from it.

The rumbling sounded like it was coming from the black cloud, almost like the cloud itself was alive. But now that I was closer to it, the rumbling sounded more like a large beast snoring.

“Is it… alive?”

After getting curious, I started walking towards it. But as I took a few steps towards it, I suddenly couldn’t breathe and I was left gasping for air.

“What’s… going on?” I managed to say as I fell to the ground.

My mind was racing like crazy and I thought that I was dying.

“Ahhhhh!!” I screamed as I got up.

When I got up, I saw that I was back in the forest and what was responsible for my lack of air.

Apparently the fox pup was resting on my face, and I scared it when I got up screaming.

I took deep breaths and looked at the fox pup.

“Sorry ahout that... Wait?”

I then felt my face and saw that the Divine Cloth was on my face, as well as my missing lips.

“Uell that’s just gueat…”

(Well that’s just great…) I said as I ran my hands through my hair.

I then looked back at the fox and held my hand out.

It hesitated at first, but soon walked over and sniffed my hand.

“Do you uanna he huriends?”

(Do you wanna be friends?)

The fox then licked some of the blood on my fingers, making me chuckle a little.

“Guoss…”

(Gross…)