novelraw Chapter 37 : Chapter 37
Chapter 37 : Chapter 37
Chapter 37.Turmoil (6)
[Lightning Spear]
A magic that shoots a spear created by condensing electricity into a long form at an opponent.
It was a lightning lineage magic much more powerful than [Electric Bullet], which fires electric projectiles.
It struck directly into the General Spider’s lower back.
Crackle!!
Hit the moment it appeared.
It was an attack that seemed to anticipate exactly where it would land.
And in reality, he did know.
Thud!
The General Spider slumped down as if collapsing.
Symptoms of muscle paralysis due to instantaneous electric shock.
Of course, there were no problems with its outward appearance.
But the electricity had already ravaged every corner of its body.
Just because it wasn’t visible didn’t mean there was no damage.
However, the Hunters couldn’t grasp the situation immediately.
So Riman had to tell them himself.
“Pre-roasting is done. Catch it.”
“……!”
Only then did the Hunters realize what had just happened.
The Hunters began to rush toward the General Spider.
Clang!
Thud-thud-thud!
Screech!!
Five Hunters surrounded one Demonic Beast and began their attack.
In fact, the General Spider was an opponent impossible to conquer with just this many Hunters.
But thanks to Riman searing it once with electricity to weaken it, it became possible to handle it with just this much.
In fact, the General Spider’s movements were much slower and clumsier than usual.
After making them fight like that.
Riman went down to the lakeside and was filling the canteen he brought with water.
Watching this from the side, Lee Jeok-seo asked.
“Excuse me… Mr. Leman, aren’t you going to fight?”
“I’m a bit tired right now.”
“Ah…….”
He was sincere.
Because the current Riman was actually quite fatigued and exhausted.
Of course, if he accepted the fatigue and joined this battle, they could have disposed of the General Spider a bit faster.
But he didn’t do that.
Because the very next stage was the Queen Spider’s room.
He needed to recover his physical condition before entering the battle with the boss.
So he was just resting while fetching water.
Crunch!!
The sound of the General Spider’s carapace shattering was heard.
It meant the timing for the battle to finish was approaching.
And a moment later.
Flop.
The General Spider collapsed onto the blood it had spilled.
And it couldn’t get up again.
“Huff, huff…….”
“Whew…….”
Finally, the Hunters also slumped down nearby.
They had succeeded in killing the General Spider.
There were no friendly casualties.
But it couldn't be helped that their energy was exhausted to the point of near collapse.
“Whew…….”
“I think we need to rest for almost 30 minutes.”
At that moment, Riman walked among them and spoke.
“Good work, everyone. Just rest here.”
Saying that, Riman walked straight through the Hunters.
As Riman continued forward without stopping, questions arose in the Hunters’ gazes.
“Excuse me, where are you going now?”
“The purpose we came here for.”
Crossing through the Hunters, passing the General Spider’s corpse, Riman stopped in front of the stone wall behind it.
Then, he began to scan the surface of the stone wall with [Detection].
A moment later.
‘Here it is.’
Thud.
Riman began to push one protruding rock on the stone wall.
A boulder that didn’t seem like it would budge with ordinary human strength.
Moreover, Riman’s body looked thin and haggard at a glance.
Because of that, everyone thought Riman was wasting his effort.
However—
Rumble—
The rock slid open smoothly.
“Huh?”
“Eh……?”
A small hole less than 2m in diameter was revealed where the rock had slid away.
The Hunters’ eyes flashed with surprise.
Though it wasn’t a positive flash.
It was because Riman had suddenly done something incomprehensible just after finishing a big battle.
Lee Jeok-seo’s brother spoke.
“Hey, what is that right now…….”
“Inside this hole is the Queen Spider’s spawning room.”
Meaning beyond this hole was the Boss Room.
Not only Lee Jeok-seo’s brother but everyone’s faces turned pale.
“How do you know tha… wait, are you crazy?! What are we supposed to do if you suddenly open the Boss Room door when everyone is exhausted?!”
“Don’t worry. You guys don’t have to go in.”
“What?”
“I’m going in here alone.”
Swish—
Riman walked into the hole.
While everyone stared at his back with dumbfounded gazes—
Thud.
Riman pushed the stone from the inside and closed the hole again.
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone shut their mouths, dumbfounded.
He’s going to deal with the Queen Spider alone?
‘Is he crazy?’
Of course, they also felt that Riman was quite strong.
Because the performances Riman had shown coming here were still vivid in their eyes.
But does that mean he’s at a level to handle the Queen Spider alone?
On this point, all the Hunters were skeptical.
“…Shouldn’t we go in too?”
“Are you crazy? We’re all drained of strength, why go in? Do you want to die together?”
There was some debate for a while, but eventually, the conclusion converged on a single path.
Let’s not go in.
And if that guy doesn’t come out for too long, let’s retreat immediately.
“Anyway, whether that guy comes out or not, we have to retreat before that ice bridge melts. If that melts, we’re all trapped here.”
“That’s true.”
They looked back at the ice path Riman had made on the lake.
Like that, their indefinite waiting began.
All this situation was as Riman had induced.
Riman deliberately didn’t participate in the battle with the General Spider to make the Hunters exhausted.
Naturally, so that they wouldn’t come into the spawning room tired.
And while at it, he recovered his stamina.
He had set the board to naturally exclude others from the boss battle.
However, not everyone moved according to Riman’s thoughts.
“Hyung, come here for a sec. Let’s talk.”
“Hm?”
Lee Jeok-seo followed his brother and secretly moved deeper into the cave.
* * *
The Boss Room, the Queen Spider’s spawning room.
Hiding his body in a corner, Riman scanned the interior of the spawning room.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like the intrusion was detected by the Queen Spider.
‘Just like I saw in the game.’
The scale of the spawning room was considerable.
High ceiling, wide area.
And befitting that scale, the number of spiders was also quite large.
Spiders guarding the Queen Spider, baby spiders not long born, and……
‘Queen Spider.’
It was an overwhelming size when viewed on a monitor, but seeing it in person was even more so.
A gigantic physique that made the General Spider look like ‘nothing’.
The master of this spider den, and the mother of all spiders.
That was the ‘Boss’ of this spider den.
Of course, today’s key target wasn’t the Queen Spider.
Riman’s target was those eggs clustered at the deepest part of this spawning room.
To be precise, the ‘egg sacs’ encasing those eggs.
Riman didn’t come here today to kill the Queen Spider.
He was just killing it because it was in the way of obtaining the egg sacs.
‘Whew…….’
After lightly catching his breath, Riman fixed his gaze on the Queen Spider again.
A gigantic physique, an absurdly hard carapace, venom that melts flesh just by touching, and ferocity bordering on madness.
It possessed every virtue a monster should have without exception.
So, one prediction by the Hunters outside was correct.
The prediction that Riman alone wouldn’t be able to handle the Queen Spider.
In fact, the current Riman was far weaker than the Queen Spider.
He could skillfully use magic of various lineages and had incredibly excellent senses, but that was only as far as it went.
The gap in basic specs was too large to ignore.
If one had to compare, it was like the gap between a sniper rifle and a boulder.
A sniper rifle is a weapon excellent in lethality, range, precision, and tactical value.
But there is almost nothing a sniper rifle can do against a boulder rolling down.
This was the gap between Riman and the Queen Spider.
However, this was strictly a matter of physical specs.
Riman possessed one spec that no one else in this world had.
Information.
Riman could know many things in this world without experiencing them.
Because he had already experienced them more than once in the game.
And therein, neither the Queen Spider nor this spawning room was an exception.
Riman knew the structure of this place even before entering, and knew everything about the Queen Spider even before encountering it.
But the Queen Spider knew nothing about Riman.
An overwhelming gap in information.
In a way, this was the most lethal power Riman possessed.
‘I will overwhelm the gap in physical specs with the gap in information.’
Slosh—
Riman opened the cap of the canteen he was holding.
Contained inside was water from the underground lake.
Riman tilted the canteen and poured water into the air.
Gurgle—
However, the poured water didn’t touch the ground.
As if poured into a zero-gravity space, the water floated in the air.
Riman began to gather the floating water droplets using both hands.
Soon, a large water drop was created between Riman’s hands.
But it didn’t stop there.
Riman spread his arms, moving his hands further apart.
Then, the water drop between them also began to elongate.
From a sphere to an ellipsoid, from an ellipsoid to a line.
The water drop had become a shape like an arrow before he knew it.
Riman pulled the water arrow with force using both hands, as if drawing a transparent bow.
Whirrrrr—
Slowly, the arrow began to rotate.
The water arrow, rotating like a drill, became sharper and more compressed.
At the same time, the tension between water molecules raced toward the limit.
Mana and stress began to pile up tightly inside a single arrow.
‘Dream of the wilderness, the beginning of the ocean, compressed rainbow.’
[Water Fragment Arrow]
An extremely simple magic that shoots an arrow made of water.
But its activation difficulty and destructive power were by no means simple.
Rotation, compression, tension, elasticity.
Because this magic reveals its true value only when these physical elements are exquisitely combined.
Creeeak—
Riman slowly aimed the arrow at the target.
At that moment when the arrow tip and the target formed an exact straight line.
Riman let go of the bowstring.
Finally, the beginning of the battle was fired.
Ping—
Making a clear and quiet sound of piercing air, the arrow sliced through the void.
The water arrow soaring while drawing a trajectory.
However, this arrow didn’t fly toward the Queen Spider.
From the beginning, Riman’s target wasn’t the Queen Spider.
Riman’s target was located much higher than that.
The high, high ceiling, and the massive stalactite embedded in the center of it.
Riman’s arrow was aimed at the root of that stalactite from the start.
Thwack!
The arrow pierced through the junction of the stalactite and the ceiling.
That hard stone was penetrated too easily.
That wasn’t the end.
The arrow that burrowed into the stone lost its form in an instant.
The form of the arrow, which was barely maintained by compression and rotation, shattered
into pieces, instantly bursting the stress trapped inside.
Water scattered.
With the momentum to grind away everything it touched.
Boom!!
With a fierce explosion, the stalactite detached from the ceiling.
The massive stalactite, reaching meters in length alone, began to plummet.
Riman added acceleration to that fall.
[Weight]
A magic that amplifies gravity.
Whoosh!
The guidance of gravity became even more powerful.
The stalactite fell like a thunderbolt.
Right onto the Queen Spider’s torso.
Crunch!!
The stalactite pierced straight through the Queen Spider’s torso and embedded itself all the way into the ground.
With that, the Queen Spider was completely fixed to the floor.
Like an insect specimen pinned down.
“Screeeeeeeeeech!!”
The Queen Spider began to scream.
A ringing scream that echoed throughout the spawning room.
But the fact that the scream was that loud meant, paradoxically, that it was still lively.
In other words, the real battle hadn’t even started yet.
Rustle-rustle—
All the guard spiders inside the spawning room entered search mode in unison.
The warning pheromones they emitted began to fill the air acridly.
From now on, everything in this space becomes Riman’s enemy.
“Come and get it.”
Riman muttered quietly to himself, weaving new mana.
Tzzzzzz—
Little by little, the temperature around Riman began to drop.