Chapter 335:Moving on.

Chapter 335: 335:Moving on.

Silver stood perfectly still as the tiny spider disappeared into the crack between two rocks.

He had encountered enough mutated creatures since becoming a Contractor that an ordinary spider shouldn’t have bothered him.

Yet the moment he noticed another spider crawling along the stone pillar to his left, an unpleasant shiver ran across his shoulders. He couldn’t even feel goosebumps growing on his body at the sight.

The creature was barely bigger than his palm but how it looked was unpleasant enough.

Its pale body almost blended into the stone, while its thin legs moved slowly across the surface before stopping whenever the beam from Silver’s headlamp passed over it.

Silver stared at it and the spider stared back, at least, he assumed it did. He couldn’t actually see its eyes from this distance and he didn’t want to.

"Don’t come any closer."

The spider moved.

Silver’s handgun immediately followed it.

He stopped himself before pulling the trigger. For several seconds, he remained there with his weapon pointed at something that probably wasn’t even Tier One.

Silver slowly lowered the gun.

"That would’ve been embarrassing."

He continued across the cavern.

The open floor still looked promising enough that he didn’t want to abandon it because of a few spiders. If even one of them offered a straighter route upward, Silver could save hours.

He carefully stepped over the first strand of webbing, then another. The webs weren’t particularly thick yet. Most stretched between stones or covered small cracks in the cavern walls.

Silver kept walking.

He passed another stone pillar. Three spiders scattered from beneath his headlamp.

His jaw tightened.

"It’s still fine."

Another twenty meters.

The amount of webbing increased. Thin strands became sheets covering sections of rock.

He stopped before one that stretched across part of the floor. Something was trapped inside it; a dead small cave creature.

Its body had been drained enough that the skin had shrivelled around its skeleton.

Silver grimaced.

"Less fine."

He stepped around it.

[Spatial Sense Lv2 Activated.]

His awareness expanded through the cavern. The larger passages remained visible,nothing large appeared immediately nearby.

But there was a lot of movement. Small disturbances covered sections of the cavern walls.

He frowned. He concentrated and found dozens, perhaps hundreds moving spiders.

Most were tiny but some were larger than the ones he’d already seen, but still nowhere near large enough to threaten him individually.

Silver’s expression didn’t improve. He continued forward.

The tunnel he’d been interested in was somewhere ahead and slightly to the right. Spatial Sense showed that it extended farther than his current range, and the first portion seemed to gradually rise.

That was enough to make him tolerate the spiders.

For now.

He walked another thirty meters. A web brushed against his shoulder. He reacted so quickly that his injured shoulder screamed.

Silver slapped it away.

He looked down,finding nothing was on him. He checked again, still nothing.

"Now you’re scared of little spiders."

His pace increased slightly. The headlamp moved across the cavern and more webs were revealed. Several small spiders crawled overhead.

He refused to look at them for long.

He reached the entrance of the promising passage, then stopped. The entire opening was covered in webbing. These were not the thin strands he’d been stepping over, they were thick.

Layers upon layers of pale material stretched from floor to ceiling, creating something resembling a curtain.

Silver’s eyes narrowed.

His headlamp moved upward only to find more webs covered the ceiling beyond it. He couldn’t see very far into the passage.

Something small crawled across the web, then another, then five more.

Silver’s skin crawled.

He considered burning through it. Unfortunately, Ravenna was the fire user.

Nothing that he had was particularly convenient for removing several meters of spiderweb.

He looked toward another passage. That one wasn’t as heavily covered.

He approached. Three meters from the entrance, his boot touched something.

Silver looked down.

A spider the size of his hand was sitting beside his shoe. He froze, his eyes widening. The spider moved to climb him. Silver jumped backward in both shock and horror.

His gun rose.

Pfft!

The bullet destroyed it. Silver stared at the remains, then slowly looked around.

"Nobody saw that."

The cavern offered no response.

Silver holstered the handgun. He was beginning to reconsider the entire exploration, still, he forced himself forward.

He hadn’t survived everything beneath Death Row Valley just to run away from small spiders. He approached the second passage.

The webbing here was thinner. He stepped inside to find that the tunnel rose which was even better.

Silver continued for about thirty meters,noticed that the webbing increased.

He frowned.

His headlamp swept across the wall. Several spiders scattered. One was noticeably larger, about the size of a small dog.

He stopped.

The creature remained against the wall. He activated Insight.

[Insight Activated.]

[Pale Cave Weaver]

[Tier: One]

[Type: Subterranean / Arachnid]

[Primary Traits: Web Production, Vibration Sensitivity, Mild Paralytic Venom.]

[Threat Assessment: Low.]

Silver relaxed slightly. It was a tier One, annoying but not dangerous. Then another Pale Cave Weaver crawled from a crack, and another followed.

Silver’s headlamp moved toward the ceiling.

There were seven.

He slowly backed away.

"Low threat individually. I’m sure that’s the important word."

The system didn’t respond.

Silver returned to the chamber. He looked toward the third route, that one appeared relatively clear.

He started toward it. Halfway there, he noticed something hanging between two stone pillars.

He stopped.

At first, he couldn’t identify it. The object was almost completely covered in webbing. It was long and thick, suspended several feet above the ground.

His headlamp illuminated one end. Something resembling a hoof protruded from the cocoon.

Silver’s expression changed.

Whatever had been wrapped inside wasn’t small. He moved the light to find another cocoon hanging farther away, then another; that one was significantly larger.

He didn’t move.

The cavern suddenly felt much less empty. He activated Spatial Sense again.

[Spatial Sense Lv2 Activated.]

Silver deliberately expanded his awareness farther this time.