Arcane Journey

Chapter 27 Mumbling in the Darkness
'Silk Trail' is a cobweb-like trail in a 500-foot-deep, 2000-foot-wide chasm stretching for five kilometers in length.

The main path of the trail can be passed stably, but when countless giant spiders inhabit, the cobwebs weaving above it make the risk of passing in the rift valley very high.

Because no one can guarantee whether a creepy spider or a sticky spider web will suddenly fall down while walking.

And there are many passages leading to different places at different heights in the Rift Valley.

As a result, there are many different choices in this path covered and covered by cobwebs. If you are not careful, you will fall into the cobweb maze and you will never be able to get out.

As Brian walks the Silk Trail, he must consider networks of oblique connections as well as various networks that connect up and down or cross to finally reach his destination.

After all, there are cobwebs everywhere, and they are becoming more and more common.

They cover everything from the normal-sized web traps of black widow spiders to the monstrous silver curtains woven of thick silk that are as huge as human skin.

Brian had only been walking for more than ten minutes, and his boots were covered with thick spider silk.

The air also became more and more turbid, irritating his throat, as if it was also full of invisible spider threads.

After another half an hour or so of an even more exhausting journey, he even felt a sticky cobweb wrapped around his body.

This made him have to constantly clean these slender spider silks from his face in order to breathe smoothly.

He had an illusion, as if as long as he kept walking, the entire Silky Path would turn into a real giant spider, and before he realized the danger, he would slowly wrap him in a cocoon, making it completely incapable. Move, can only quietly wait for the bite of the fangs.

Fortunately, he was wearing a pair of 'Rose's fangs to resist the wrist' on his wrist.

The characteristics of this piece of magic equipment made him immune to the infestation of spiders of any quality.

Even when encountering a group of small spiders crowded on the ground trying to stop him, after he approached tentatively, they seemed to see something frightening, fled in a hurry, and disappeared into the spider web or crevice of the stone.

Of course, the premise of all this is that as long as you don't take the initiative to provoke them.

In fact, he couldn't guarantee whether those big spiders with higher challenge levels were really immune to this effect, so naturally he wouldn't seem to have nothing to do to provoke them.

However, until now.

Among the huge webs hanging between boulders and tors, all Brian saw were normal-sized spiders, ranging in size from fingernails to skulls.

The narrow-legged song spiders were the largest species he had seen, though he knew there must be bigger ones somewhere.

Therefore, he didn't dare to be careless because of this, and would rather take a detour than conflict with the owner here.

Because his keen senses could make him feel that many spiders were lurking in all directions, lurking under the ground, and also lurking between every rock and every pit on the surface.

Brian speculates that the creators of the largest spider webs must be lurking in the underground tunnels, and he hopes that they will stay there obediently, at least temporarily.

After all, just looking at these little spiders was enough to stimulate and make his scalp tingle.

The difficult passage through the cobweb maze came to an end at the crossroads where Bryan reached the Rift Valley.

He stopped and took a long breath. After breathing in the fresh air with the smell of mushrooms for a while, he began to carefully look at the surrounding environment.

The location here is the widest and eye-catching cross tunnel on the only road in the Rift Valley, and it is obvious that there are many fewer spider webs.

Of course, it's not that spiders don't want to spin their webs here, it's just that there are many underground monsters that are more vicious and vicious than spiders lurking in this open cross tunnel.

Brian hid in the shadow of the stone pillar, looking around vigilantly while searching for the knowledge in his mind.

The tunnel on his left hand can reach the dark frontier, the most complex underground labyrinth in the Underdark, and the ancient Orens city of the dark elves.

On the edge of the dark frontier, there is also a fortress built by the drow, which is guarded by a large number of elves.

Its main purpose was to guard the slaves who had been brought here to do hard labor for them.

As for where the tunnel on the right leads to, Bryan is not quite clear, and there is no description on the map. It is said that it can reach the city of Shamus and Siqindalien.

This has nothing to do with the purpose of his trip, so he naturally won't pay too much attention to it.

Because the floating tomb that fell during Netheril's time is located in the tunnel leading to the dark frontier, which is very close to his current location.

This is also the fundamental reason why he chose Fansi Trail.

The tunnel opposite him leads to the lightless woodland dominated by fungi, which happens to be the direction he is going to the gray dwarf city.

Bryan stood there in thought for a moment, instead of rushing to act, he carefully searched for some nearby small tunnels or caves that he didn't know where to go.

It wasn't until he found a special symbol marked on an inconspicuous cave that he walked in cautiously.

Brian leaned into the small, cold cavern, and saw that it was full of stalagmites and stalactites and cobwebs, aided by the glowing moss around it.
Hanging on the spider webs are many shrunken corpses that have almost turned into wrinkled skins. It can only be seen through the blurred facial expressions what kind of pain and struggle they suffered during their lifetime.

Due to the small mouthparts of spiders, they cannot swallow their prey whole.

They can only use the corpse method, that is, after grabbing the prey, they first use their fangs to paralyze the prey, then bite a hole in the prey's abdomen, spit in the digestive juice, digest its meat into liquid, and then slowly suck it, a little bit Don't leak it, eat it clean, and after sucking, the skin of the prey is thrown on the net at will, hanging in mid-air, and it becomes the current terrifying scene.

Brian raised his head calmly, and stared at a strange spider curled up in a web with cold eyes.

Apart from the eight black eyes in the center of the face and the fangs poking out from under the lips, the general shape of the horrific creature reminded him of a body crossed with a spider and pulled on a torture rack Drow thin to twice its normal length.

At this moment, it curled up naked in the spider web, watching him vigilantly, its constantly opening and closing fingers and claws were half the length of his forearm.

However, the moment this weird spider met Brian, it trembled all over, as if it saw something terrible, it quickly tapped its long, short-haired legs, and disappeared into the shadow of the stalagmites and spider webs on the cave ceiling.

Seeing this scene, Brian immediately felt relieved and began to carefully examine everything in the cave.

Because he had heard that drow patrol troops would use special marks to leave messages from time to time to remind their companions of the danger around them or the distribution of monsters.

So when he saw the sign of the cave, he thought it was necessary to understand the specific situation.

After all, this is an underdark area, and any extra caution in the eyes of surface residents can often save lives.

——"Detect Magic!"

He chanted a spell, and a faint magical halo floated by, and the whole cave glowed soft red in his sight.

Brian's expression changed, and he stretched out his hand to push away a few unremarkable spider threads.

"Be careful, there are purple insects infesting nearby!"

Looking at the warning mark left by the drow patrol on the stone wall, he understood the meaning of the representative, and saw from the obscure trace that the engraved time must not exceed 24 hours.

Hearing that it was a purple worm, Brian frowned, and walked out of the cave with a heavy heart.

Just as he was thinking about how to walk to the tunnel on the left, a rapid clicking sound caught his attention.

He changed his expression, quickly hid in the shadow of the stalagmite, and turned his gaze to the source of the sound.

Soon, with the help of the light source from the moss, he saw a Dreadclaw covered in pale blue light running out of the side passage, just blocking his way.

The monster had the head of a vulture and the body of a giant beetle, with an exoskeleton adorned with spikes and bony protrusions.

These are Dreadclaws, whose name comes from their long, powerful limbs and the curled claws that grow from the ends.

They are ferocious predators of the dark, fierce monsters of the hunting grounds.

The hidden caves in which these creatures live, because they are constantly climbing back and forth on the cliffs and cave walls
Crawling, echoing with the tapping and scratching of their claws.

The way out was blocked, and Brian could only wait patiently for the time being without being sure about the dangerous factors around him.

He saw the Dreadclaw climbing the rock wall with its claws, trying to hunt a giant spider hanging from its web head-on.

Giant spiders, the most common species of creature that inhabits Silk Pass, sense the flutter of their webs as a sign that prey is approaching.

Undoubtedly, the Dreadclaw's attack did not have any intention of concealing, and naturally it was easily spotted by the spider squatting in the center of the web.

However, as a bystander, Brian knew very well that things were far from being as simple as the spider thought.

Because direclaws are pack hunters of the Underdark, they can communicate by tapping their hooks on their exoskeletons and surrounding stone surfaces.

What appears to others as random noise is actually a complex language understood only by the Dreadclaws, and its rhythms can travel miles across the Underdark.

As he guessed.

When Brian subconsciously looked above the spider, he immediately saw at least three Dreadclaws walking flat on the rocky surface at the top of the tunnel with their hooked claws.

They tried to use their climbing skills to ambush the giant spider that was squatting in the web and was successfully attracted by its companions from above.

Just then, the accident happened again.

A deep roar from the depths of the throat stunned all the predators, and even the spiders on the web were frightened. They followed the direction of the source of the sound, relying on their condescending advantage, and took the lead to look over. .

Immediately afterwards, the whole body of the giant spider turned into a lifelike gray stone sculpture at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then fell from the web to the ground and was smashed to pieces.

The growl sounded again.

A gigantic creature slowly crawled out of the deep tunnel with heavy steps, shaking its head and tail.

Its eight legs covered in dark blue scales scraped against the surrounding rocks, causing echoes in the tunnel, but it didn't care that these sounds would reveal its position, and it crawled straight towards the shattered spider statue.

This huge and terrifying lizard opened its mouth wide, revealing its teeth lined with spear-like points. It bit the sculpture of the spider, making a crunching sound like eating candy.

Petrified Lizard!

Brian recognized the third hunter at a glance.

Recalling the warning signs he saw just now, he knew that the danger at this moment was probably far from over.

However, this is a good opportunity for him to escape, allowing him to enter the blocked tunnel without any effort.

Otherwise, it will take some effort to eliminate these obstructive guys.

So he patiently watched this hunting game from the Underdark.

Seeing that the prey was being robbed, four Dreadclaws climbed down from the wall, surrounded the basilisk, and moved back and forth to disturb the prey's attention.

While slapping their hard exoskeleton armor with their hook claws, they stretched their necks and issued sharp chirping calls provocatively.

The basilisk dropped its prey and let out an angry growl from the depths of its throat.

Then it crouched down, waiting for the creature that challenged it to die and become its next meal.

These Dreadclaws were obviously very aware of the deadly petrified gaze of the basilisk, and they all avoided its ice-blue pupils, trying to launch a surprise attack from the blind corner of their field of vision.

There was even a Dreadclaw monster who took the opportunity to swing its claws and successfully hit the hard armor of the petrified lizard. The sharp claws scraped on the scales and made harsh sounds.

The pain-eating basilisk shook its heavy body and thick and powerful tail, raised its neck violently, took a deep breath, and gushed out the brewing poisonous gas, enveloping a Dreadclaw that couldn't avoid it.

at the same time.

The strong and powerful tail of the petrified lizard hit another Dreadclaw that was eager to try, causing the latter to hit the icy rock wall like a sharp arrow.

at this time.

Brian, who was hiding aside, suddenly noticed dust falling from the ceiling of the cave, and heart-throbbing tremors came from the hard rock.

He looked startled, and immediately realized what was going on.

So while the Dreadclaw and the Petrified Lizard were still probing, they rushed out from the shadow of the stone pillar without hesitation, passed the monsters at the fastest speed, and rushed towards the tunnel without looking back.

"Don't come here!!!"

A sharp voice suddenly echoed at the intersection of the tunnel.

The battling basilisks and direclaws were also frightened and froze in place. They all looked back and saw Brian who wanted to take the opportunity to leave.

Brian, who was the first to bear the brunt, was taken aback by the sudden scream.

He stopped quickly, because the screamer was a thin goblin who suddenly appeared in front of him.

This made him wish he could trample him to death.

Apparently, even he didn't notice that he was not the only one watching the play while hiding, and he didn't even know when the other party appeared.

He saw the goblin, who was obviously being funny, grinning at him, stretched out his hand to pat his butt, and blinked with a face full of embarrassment. His body shrank into a shadow and disappeared.

Shadow jump?

Could it be a goblin shadow dancer?
Brian looked at the disappearing shadow of the goblin in surprise, and was about to recall the origin of the goblin that appeared in the silky path, when he suddenly felt a violent vibration from the ground.

He looked startled, and immediately realized something, so he didn't dare to waste time, and began to concentrate on casting his teleportation spell.

——"Second Ring Spell: Dimensional Jump!"

Just when there was a ground-breaking roar from behind, accompanied by dim light particles swirling around, Brian disappeared without a trace in a cloud-like halo in time.

He walked non-stop through the pitch-black tunnel, and according to the instructions in his memory, he came to a cave with strange rocks.

Here the ground was broken into layers, the lower level covered with glowing moss through which a stream snaked, and the upper level stretched like a staircase into the deep darkness beyond the reach of his eyes. middle.

Bryan leapt, jumped onto the fault, and continued to jump toward the higher fault.

Although the fault leading to the upper cavern was high and low, and even some places were more like a cliff, he climbed up it skillfully and reached the top of the cliff.

What appeared in his sight was a grove of glowing fungi, and if he went too deep, he might encounter a group of timid mushroom people.

However, with the mentality that more things are worse than less things, Brian did not choose to do this.

Smelling the smell of mushrooms in the humid air, he rested on the spot for a while to recover his strength, and then walked straight to the edge of the cliff top.

After arriving at the destination, he jumped into a bottomless cliff without hesitation.

This is the second time he has jumped off a cliff in the Underdark.

It is said that the protagonist who jumped off the cliff has great luck, so he hopes that his luck can be as good as last time.

Feeling the whistling wind in his ears, Brian calmly recited a spell.

With the blessing of "floating", he successfully took over the control of his body, and carefully landed to the bottom of the rugged cliff.

He then trudged along the winding road at the bottom.

I don't know how long I walked in the dark.

This winding and silent tunnel began to become brighter and brighter, the road suddenly slanted downward, and a cave appeared in front of him.

Looking at the familiar scene, Brian subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

Thinking of the legendary Nether scroll hidden here, his exhaustion was also swept away.

In his impression, this place is probably more peculiar than anything he has ever seen or imagined.

Glowing fungi covered most of the stone, filling the cavern with a dim, eerie blue glow.

Stalagmites and stalactites were intertwined to form stone pillars in the cave, and huge crystals were embedded in them, emitting mottled and dazzling light, as if a pair of tiny daggers had stabbed his eyes.

"Hey? Is there anyone?...Ah, please help me! I've been stuck in this darkness for too long...too long. Please, please get me out!"

Brian stepped into the cave and was adapting to the dazzling light. A soft female voice sounded from his mind without warning, ethereal and empty.

(End of this chapter)