We extracted the venom from the spiders’ fangs after removing them from the corpses, then began to thoroughly explore the mine shaft.
“Let’s change our formation a bit. Kikel and I will take the front, while Mr. Wolfgang, please handle any we miss along with Ms. Laute.”
I moved Wolfgang, who had proven his uselessness with his body, next to Laute and stepped forward in his place.
Putting Wolfgang in front would only unnecessarily prolong the battle, and if everywhere got covered in spider webs because of that, it would become difficult for us to move as well.
Therefore, it would be more efficient for Kikel and me, who could take down giant spiders in one hit, to take the vanguard, quickly eliminating two or three at a time.
“Hmm! Leave it to me!”
Perhaps because I had phrased ‘you’re useless, so stay back’ too politely?
Wolfgang nodded proudly, bumping his torch-holding fist against his right fist. How oblivious.
“…”
On the other hand, Laute just silently stared at me. With a look that seemed to say, ‘Isn’t it too much to dump this burden on me?’
Of course, this was unavoidable.
Two people with shields and two without. Naturally, we should pair those with shields with those without, right?
If Wolfgang and I were to take the rear together, we would have no way to block spider webs thrown at us and would have to dodge no matter what.
So this combination was the best. Really.
* * *
We continued on like that.
After walking for about 2 more minutes, Kikel, who had glanced back from the corner of his eye, lowered his head slightly and spoke into my ear.
“Human, no claws?”
A voice close to a whisper. It was a question difficult to understand the meaning of.
“I do have them… Though they’re thin and flat unlike lizardmen’s.”
“I see…”
Kikel twitched his eyes slightly.
“But why do you ask?”
“That human, similar to young of our kind. No weapon, fights with hands.”
Kikel said that lizardmen don’t allow minors to wield weapons, so when fights break out, their young fight barehanded like unarmed combat warriors.
Though by fights, he didn’t mean life-and-death battles against monsters like us, but merely scuffles among peers.
“So?”
“That human, small claws. No tail. No scales. Wrong fight. Not how humans fight.”
Kikel said with a light sigh.
Wrong fight.
It was the wisest and most artistic expression I had heard since falling into this world.
Yes. If it were a lizardman swinging bare hands claiming to do unarmed combat, it would be understandable.
Sharp claws that could cut through tough leather like paper, strength several times that of humans.
A tail that seemed to combine the advantages of a whip and a mace, and scales no different from armor.
Except for being a bit short in reach, they were born with all the minimum conditions necessary for an unarmed combat warrior to pull their weight.
In other words, Wolfgang, who lacked all of these, was less than a lizardman boy. It meant he was a being wrong from birth.
Could that be why his head is so smooth and shiny?
A being less than a lizardman boy.
Because he was at a level similar to a fetus not yet born from its egg, his head was round and smooth like a lizardman egg.
Thinking about it that way, I could understand.
* * *
“Kiiiiek! Kiiiiiiek!”
“They’re coming again! Many!”
As we went deep into the mine shaft after walking for a while, giant spiders also began to swarm in earnest.
A wave of spiders crawling and rustling, clinging to the walls and ceiling.
Each of them was only about as tough as a slightly hard goblin, but with ten or more swarming in at once, it was somewhat troublesome to deal with.
“Kishaaah!”
“Ms. Laute. Six of them, over there!”
Kikel, after impaling one spider with his harpoon, blocked spider webs with his shield while drawing his axe and chopping down as if splitting firewood.
A giant spider as big as a human torso was split in half and rolled away, while another spider struck by Kikel’s tail was smashed into the wall, its eight legs trembling.
“Ha!”
I drew my dagger and threw it at a spider convulsing with its belly exposed, then swung the longsword in my right hand diagonally, cleaving the head of a spider that had leapt at me.
The giant spider that had its relatively soft underbelly pierced let out a death rattle and went limp, while the spider with its face split open crashed into the dirt floor, spewing fluid mixed with brain matter.
“Six confirmed!”
Dealing with the spiders that got past me and Kikel was the role of Laute and Wolfgang— no, just Laute’s role.
“Haaap!”
Laute charged towards the spiders with a bold battle cry, shielding her head and upper body with her round shield.
“Kiiiek?!”
The surprised giant spider tried to dodge by jumping into the air, but before it could reach the ceiling, Laute’s shield mercilessly struck its body.
Thud!
A heavy impact sound. Laute, who had collided with the giant spider, didn’t stop but continued running, ramming it into the mine shaft wall along with her shield.
Crunch!
A sight like a speeding car crushing a child against an alley wall. The giant spider caught between the wall and the shield burst like a squashed maggot.
“Kiiiiek!!”
Another spider’s attack followed. A giant spider that had descended using its extended web like a rope swung its claw-tipped foreleg at the back of Laute’s head.
“Not there!”
Laute quickly turned her body to block the spider’s foreleg with her shield, while simultaneously drawing her sword to cut the spider web connecting to its rear.
“Keeek?”
The giant spider, now in a state like a bungee jumper whose cord had been cut mid-jump, flailed its limbs as it fell.
Laute, gripping her sword in a reverse hold, pierced through the spider’s neck area, then let go of the sword hilt to draw her mace and sent another spider flying with a swing.
She fights well.
The way she fluidly continued her attacks by changing weapons according to the situation looked quite experienced for an iron tag.
“Haaap!”
While Laute was fighting hard, Wolfgang wasn’t just standing still either.
“Take my Earth Dragon Fang!”
Wolfgang swung his right foot like a whip to kick and flip over a spider, then frantically stomped on its exposed abdomen again and again.
Like a hiker trying to stamp out a cigarette butt that had caught on a leaf.
It was a sight that made you feel pathetic just watching, but he could somehow manage to take down one giant spider with that.
“Kiiiiek!”
“Ugh?! Ganging up is cowardly!”
Of course, the moment there were two enemies, he was rolling on the ground without mercy.
I had tried to subtly suggest that he might be better off searing the enemy with his torch, but he just wouldn’t listen at all.
What was it he said? Something about that not being the way of unarmed combat?
It seems Wolfgang must have been a devout Jewish believer. Judging by how he treated wisdom that people should naturally have as ‘evil’.
After that, I gave up trying to persuade Wolfgang.
How could the words of someone who had eaten the fruit of knowledge get through to a man who should have been born in the days when Adam and Eve roamed the Garden of Eden?
I had no choice but to consider him a dumb beast and move on.
…Anyway, we continued deeper into the mine shaft while fighting like that.
* * *
How much further did we go?
By the time we had been in the mine shaft for well over two hours, we finally managed to reach near the end of the shaft.
“…It’s a fork in the road. Which should we check first?”
I pointed at the passages split left and right, asking for the opinions of my companions.
Above the entrance to the left passage hung a sign saying ‘Storage’, while the right was just wide open.
Before starting the request, the village chief had explained that when we see the storage, it means we’ve pretty much seen everything.
He said both sides would take about ten to twenty minutes of walking to reach the end.
“Kachak! Storage, first. Shorter!”
“I agree. If we’re going back and forth, the closer one would be better.”
Since Kikel and Laute insisted on checking the storage first, we headed towards the left passage.
Ten minutes later.
“They said it was a supply storage… but this…!”
We arrived at the space that the miners had been using as a supply storage.
Originally, it was supposed to be a resting place where they kept spare pickaxes, safety helmets, sleeping bags, and emergency rations?
“…It is a storage, alright.”
Indeed, seeing it directly, it was a space similar to a storage. It was full of things like sleeping bags and what looked like food rations all around.
“But it seems to have become a storage for spiders now.”
“Oh my…”
The problem was that it wasn’t food for people, but food for spiders.
Inside the storage, so full of spider webs that there seemed to be no space to step.
Dozens of elongated cocoon-like objects were hanging like pillars, connected to the ceiling and floor by spider webs.
Most of the cocoons were tightly wrapped in spider webs, making it impossible to tell what was inside, but some cocoons were wide open as if they had served their purpose.
And inside those…
“Urgh…”
Laute turned her head slightly and let out a faint dry heave.
It was a sight worthy of such a reaction.
Inside the split-open cocoons, the remains of miners who couldn’t escape the mine shaft or those kidnapped by giant spiders were preserved intact.
Corpses leaking black fluid from their eyes, nose, and mouth, as if all the contents of their bodies had melted away.
Corpses with half their bodies eaten by baby spiders the size of palms, leaving only the other half.
And half-corpses that looked relatively intact as if they hadn’t been used as food yet, but had their stomachs swollen enormously, full of baby spiders.
Ugh. How disgusting.
The protruding abdomens constantly wriggling in the shape of spider legs were so creepy it hurt the eyes.
* * *
The supply storage that had become a hatchery and food storage for giant spiders.
We cut down the spider webs inside the storage to gather the corpses in one place, then carefully burned them by holding torches to them.
If it were outdoors, we could have just poured oil and thrown in a spark to be done with it, but handling fire in a place like this required extreme caution.
We could all collapse from suffocation due to the smoke suddenly rising, or the fire could spread to the supports, causing the entire mine shaft to collapse.
So we burned the corpses carefully, making sure the fire didn’t spread too much.
Whoosh!
A small bonfire burning fiercely, using spider webs and corpses as firewood.
“Kiii! Kiiiiii!”
“Kiiiiiiek!”
Baby spiders inside the corpses’ bellies, startled by the heat, convulsed and burst out in droves.
A horribly creepy sight.
The only consolation, if you could call it that, was that the babies that burst out like that died immediately in the flames without being able to do anything.
Just as we had intended.
There seemed to be nearly a hundred of them at a glance, and how could we stomp them all to death one by one? Even if it meant taking some risk, we had to burn them all to death.
The smell of burning rotten meat spread thickly.