Chapter 48: Power Apple Tree, Spirit Mutation Spider Silk

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Power Apple Tree, Spirit Mutation Spider Silk

Seraphina Sullivan wasn’t doing too well.

Every inch of her body ached, from her head to her stomach.

The stomachache? That was purely from overexertion and hunger.

She quickly pulled some compressed biscuits from her Space and stuffed them into her mouth.

She quickly cleared the battlefield, letting the system collect the corpses of the giant spiders that had killed each other.

[Ding! Successfully collected Giant Spider x24]

[Current Progress: 271/100]

Seraphina glanced at the system notification, seeing she had far exceeded the collection quota.

She realized she had already killed over a hundred giant spiders.

The haul was substantial, but she decided to hunt for other types of Insectoid Monsters to complete her collection quest.

"I wonder what the final reward for Quest Two is. I’m so excited! It’s a shame I can’t get it now—it’ll only be revealed after I get back."

However, Seraphina turned her gaze back toward the center of the garden.

"Power Apple, here I come!"

Fighting through the pain in her ribs, Seraphina also collected the precious [Insect Speaker] corpse of the Spider Queen into the system.

As she approached the hideous corpse, she suddenly recalled the emerald scythe in Cheryl Chase’s hand, which had been crafted from a mantis’s forelimb.

Seraphina pensively sized up the Spider Queen’s corpse, a shrewd glint in her eyes.

’Maybe this thing has some good materials on it, too...’

She deliberately avoided looking at the Spider Queen’s upper body, which was far too human-like.

Its pale human face and seminude female torso made her inexplicably uncomfortable.

Instead, she focused her attention on its lower half: the massive, red spider body.

’Poisonous Fangs...’ Seraphina’s eyes lit up. She instantly recalled from her Eye of Resume’s data that the Spider Queen possessed the [Poisonous Fang] Skill.

Seraphina carefully used her Silver Needle Sword to pry open the Spider Queen’s vicious mouthparts and, just as she expected, found a pair of enormous Poisonous Fangs glowing with an eerie green light.

"This is a real find!" She put on protective gloves and, with some effort, managed to extract the two nearly thirty-centimeter-long Poisonous Fangs intact.

She then used the [Item Identification] function on her Analysis Glasses to view the details.

[Spider Queen Poison Fang]

[Trait: Highly Poisonous, Corrosion]

The joy of acquiring her spoils momentarily overshadowed the pain in her body.

Seraphina carefully put the Poisonous Fangs away, then turned and hurried toward the center of the garden.

Because Seraphina had already dealt with the spider swarm, the path ahead was surprisingly safe.

After passing through the last web-covered thicket, the sight before her made Seraphina hold her breath.

A massive, pale green apple tree stood in the center of the garden. Its trunk and branches were densely wound with silvery-white spider silk, which gleamed eerily under the blood-red sky.

The silks writhed slowly as if alive, cocooning the entire tree to form a massive nest.

Even more strikingly, over a dozen apples hung from its branches, glowing with a faint green light. Each was the size of a fist, its skin covered in a web of red lines.

’Is this... the Power Apple Tree?’ Seraphina approached cautiously.

She came to stand beneath the apple tree, which shimmered with a soft green light.

The area was silent, save for the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze.

After confirming it was safe, she began to pick the precious fruits without hesitation.

"One, two, three..."

With every Power Apple Seraphina picked, she could feel a warm thrumming in her palm, as if the fruit had a life of its own.

In the end, all 17 ripe, green apples on the tree were safely stored in her Space.

She activated her Analysis Glasses’ Item Identification function.

[Power Apple]

[Effect: Permanently increases the Strength Attribute by a sliver. A very small chance to acquire a Special Ability.]

[Note: Each person may consume a maximum of five.]

She looked at the 17 precious fruits in her Space, then back at the completely bare apple tree.

A bold idea suddenly sparked in Seraphina’s mind.

’If only I could take the whole tree with me!’

However, a harsh reality quickly brought her back to earth.

Her Scavenging Backpack had limited space and already held a Decaying Flower. There was no way it could fit such a massive apple tree.

Of course, even without the Decaying Flower, she couldn’t have fit a whole five-meter-tall apple tree into the Scavenging Backpack’s space.

’Sigh... if only my Space could be upgraded.’

Seraphina sighed, hoping her wish would come true.

’If I can’t take the whole tree, I can at least take the branches...’ A shrewd glint appeared in Seraphina’s eyes. ’Maybe I can cultivate a new apple tree from cuttings when I get back?’

The idea seemed feasible. She was already growing other vegetables at home, so adding some apple tree branches to the mix wouldn’t be a big deal.

No sooner said than done.

She pulled a sharp axe from her Space and began hacking away at the thick trunk.

The axe blade struck the wood with a dull THUD, and soon, the once-lush Power Apple Tree was stripped down to its bare main trunk.

Seraphina carefully bundled the branches she had cut. Just as she was about to put them in her Space, she noticed something odd about the spider silk scattered on the ground.

These white silks, which should have been lifeless, were now writhing in the wind, stretching out in a specific direction as if they were alive.

’What’s this...?’ Seraphina crouched down and gently lifted a strand of silk with the tip of her axe.

To her surprise, the silk was incredibly tough; even the blade of her axe couldn’t sever it easily.

Even stranger, when she brought the silk closer to inspect it, faint red patterns emerged on its surface, making it different from the silk the Spider Queen had previously spewed.

’Item Identification.’

[Spirit Mutation Spider Silk]

[Effect: After binding a target, it can be controlled like a puppet.]

’This stuff... interesting...’ Seraphina’s eyes lit up, and she immediately changed her plan.

She had already collected plenty of apple branches, anyway. ℯℯ𝑙.

Now, her attention was completely captivated by this mutated Spirit Spider Silk.

She began collecting the peculiar silk instead.

’Is there only one strand of mutated silk?’

Through Item Identification, Seraphina found only one [Spirit Mutation Spider Silk].

But the ordinary silk wasn’t bad, either.

[Spider Silk]

Effect: Highly flexible.

Seraphina figured the ordinary silk could be used for Making Clothes.

So she collected it all.

As she continued her collection, she discovered that all the strands of silk pointed in the same direction.

Toward a vine-covered ruin deep within the garden.

Her intuition told her it might be hiding an even bigger secret.

Seraphina stored the last handful of silk in her Space and turned her gaze toward the gloomy ruins.

She had the Power Apples, but now, she had a new objective.

’I have time, anyway...’ Seraphina glanced at the remaining survival time displayed by the system—a little over two days. She tightened her grip on her axe and strode in the direction indicated by the silk. ’Might as well see what other goodies are inside.’

As she drew closer to the ruins.

The red mist in the air seemed to thicken, and the surrounding plants grew even more twisted and bizarre.

Just as she pushed aside the last curtain of vines, the sight before her took Seraphina by surprise.

Because an RV had appeared before her.