All that glitters

Nah I don't trust that, I think to myself as I sit with my winglets crossed in front of me as I evaluate the situation.

While the loot goblin in my soul is practically begging me to go investigate the orb ahead of me, the rational part forces me to wait a few feet away from the entrance to the cavern, eyeing it with distrust…

I get this world is weird as hell, but a shiny glowing thing conveniently floating dead-center of a random cavern is just way too suspicious. Still It's not like I can just walk away, that orb looks magical and im not willing to pass that up, I don't care if I need to take a risk.

As I consider the situation I feel a light tap prompting me to stare down where I see one of the candy colored slug-creatures moving about near my talons, its little stalks tap against my leg as it feels its way about.

If it had visible eyes I'm certain they would be looking up at me with innocent curiosity blissfully unaware of the sinister grin that was forming on my face.

Without an ounce of mercy both of my front talons close around the little creature who lets out a brief squeak of protest before I pick him up and send him flying as best I can without having opposable thumbs, Man I miss those things.

*THUNK*

The sound resounds briefly through the cavern as the slug hits the orb and briefly sticks to it before sliding off and falling to the floor.

I almost feel some guilt seeing the creature slam into it, Afterall I didn't even mean to hit the orb just the ground near it. Oh well he basically volunteered anyways, besides it looks like he's totally fine Ill just go help him out and…

*Rumble* *WOOSH* *CRUNCH*

Just as the critter rights itself and starts its slow crawl its way out of the cavern one of the large mounds of fungus suddenly bursts into motion ripping itself out of the ground where it lay hidden and launches itself onto the defenseless critter.

Between its sudden appearance and all the masses of fungal growth on it I struggle to make out exactly what it is, ultimately I have to rely on my analysis skill to identify it while its distracted by its new prey.

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[Basic analysis Complete]

[Myr, The forgotten familiar]

Species Profile: "Spore-back Arachne "Strider"" LV.48

Vitae: 83/83

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My eyes almost bulge out of my head when I see the info, putting aside the fact this creature has almost 4 times the amount of vitae I do, its level is the highest I have seen as well as being the only creature other than myself to have a name.

As the creature finishes its unnecessary brutality it turns in my general direction as it swallows the slug whole. As this happens I get a much better look at the creature.

The creature's overall body is very similar to a spider like its name suggests but almost completely infested with numerous disgusting dark green mounds of fungus which sprout from the body of the spider covered it patches dull carapace in various states of rotting away and revealing more fungal masses inside the beast.

Its legs appear to have rotted off long ago instead dense cords of vine-like mycelium braid together forming long tendril-like replacements for them.

Half of the head appears to have been cracked open at some point exposing the creature's violet colored brain which also seems to have numerous cords of fungus rooted into it all sourcing from a single glowing crimson red shroom which sits where the left set of the creature's eyes should be, not that it even needs them anymore the eyes on the side of the head that's intact are milky white obviously having gone blind long ago.

I suddenly feel immensely glad to have checked from the safety of the tunnel which is too small for the creature to enter, not that it seems to notice me anyways as it slowly lumbers back to the hole it emerged from and quickly buries most of its body back before melding with the nearby fungus making the whole lair look like nothing happened.

I should probably leave, but these creatures got to be worth so much anima and I REALLY want that orb, it's got to be magic.

I spend the next few minutes strategizing for any possible way I can tackle this situation, I even toy with the idea of just trying to steal the orb before dismissing the idea since its larger than me and floating.

The only outstanding weakness seems to be its blindness, since it didn't pounce until the critter hit the ground. I'm guessing it uses vibrations to hunt and since I'm not going to fall for its ambush that gives me a significant advantage right away, infact if I lure it out with bait beforehand I might be able to ambush it myself.

Within a few short minutes I gather the only resource I have available to me, a small pile of slugs which I place just inside the entrance to the lair. My plan is simply lure it out and attack, in the worst case I can retreat back the way I came, heal up and try again the next day.

Confident in my plan I slowly creep just inside the cavern and grab my first round of ammunition as it furiously wiggles in protest and give it a throw toward the center of the room swiftly prompting the same explosive ambush of the spider who greedily devours the creature alive.

Not letting the disgusting scene get to me I begin flinging all of my little helpers all across the cavern prompting the spider to greedily go after each one.

To my surprise the creature doesn't rush to pounce on any after the first one and instead moves at a snail's pace to the next one, I wonder if its only fast for the ambush? If so this should be easy!

Encouraged by this thought I creep into the lair and slowly make my way closer to the spider, trying to get behind it. All in all things go shockingly well… for about a minute.

*shhhhk*

Hearing the subtle noise behind me I crane my long neck around and look back just in time to see several spike-like fungal structures clamp shut sealing the only way in or out of the cavern.

While I'm trying to think of what could have happened I hear a soft chittering, almost like a huge cat purring, softly sound in the other direction. Looking back ahead I find the spider creature standing over me with its glassy eyes, a strange expression on what's left of its face, I could almost swear it's smiling at me…