Chapter 7: Spider's Egg
[Spider's Egg]
[Requirements: Basic combat abilities.]
[Mission: Explore the spider's nest to gather information about the nest itself, the spiders inside, and the cause of the infestation. This is a basic scouting mission, so you aren't expected to solve the issue, just gain as much information about it as you can.]
[Details: No one is entirely sure of when the spider's nest appeared or what caused it. There was a previously a town where the nest is located, but it has been confirmed to be entirely wiped out. Since the discover of the nest, several advancements have been made by nearby lords and mercenaries in attempts to rid the land of the infestation of the spiders. Each attack against the spider's nest resulted in a total wipeout. Thus far, only one way into the spider's nest has been created, a result of an attack of a massive party of people.. The spider's do not seem to know how to repair or guard the opening, and only attack people who enter the radius of their nest. Stealth is possible, but contact with spider webs are likely to alert nearby spiders. So far, no one has left the inside of the nest alive.]
[Gifts:
Detailed Information on Spiders: See attached.
Emergency Escape: If you're in a situation above the level you can handle, Trivrium will expend her own power to teleport you back to her. Should she fail to save your life, she will fulfill the wishes left in your will to the fullest extent. (Single Use, Temporary)
Protective Blessing of Trivrium: A layer of defense will coat your body, granting you minor defense. (Passive, Temporary)]
The alchemy world lacked the gifts category entirely, meaning he would be going in the way he is now.
The guarantee to save his life, and the massive defense raise for himself, and the more thorough information made a huge difference, especially considering this was his first mission.
He really didn't know what he should expect in terms of difficulty, so any benefit was welcome. It also helped that the spider nest had a clearer mission, exploring the nest, than the alchemy world did.
Although he knew what to do in the alchemy world, it would be harder to find where to start in comparison.
As long as 6 could find the spider's nest, he could basically guarantee the mission completion.
On the downside, there was a much more direct threat in the spider's nest. The spiders themselves were guaranteed to attack him. If the defense buff from Trivrium wasn't enough, he may be in much more danger there. Still, Trivrium probably knew better than he did.
If she provided minor defense, then it was likely that the spiders couldn't break it.
It made sense, if they appear in large quantities they are less likely to be stronger individually.
He should be safe, at the very least until he gets inside the nest and reaches a more dangerous area.
Eventually he came to the conclusion that the spider nest was the more beginner friendly option, and thus better for him to start with.
Immediately after he accepted the mission, Trivrium told him to begin preparing to leave. The teleportation would be ready in 4 hours, so he still had time to do a little bit of research before he headed out.
He headed for the library, intending to do some extra research on spider type monsters.
Although Trivrium provided info on the spiders, that was only on the spiders discovered on the outside of the nest.
If he could identify the spiders he found inside, what they did, and what their weaknesses were, it would be a massive help for him.
Especially if he could identify the spiders and what caused them to appear on the world.
Trivrium would reward based on how much information he could gather about the spider's nest, so discovering the origin or even finding a clear weakness would be worth much more than just finding out how strong the spiders on the inside are.
If the library could have a little bit of regal dignity, as an otherworldly library full of mystical information should, it'd be much more fun to visit.
The dull gray of the building seemed to sap away the little remaining joy from the already grim prospect of reading in a library.
Despite the sections full of titles that practically screamed 'I'm full of crazy fun stuff to learn about!', the drab walls sapped all the energy seeing those titles gave him.
It was clear that the outside of the building could not possibly match the inside, as the building looked like it was about the size of your average house, but the inside had shelves upon shelves, stacked hundred of feet high, and reaching out further than 6 could see. Perhaps he could find anything, and everything, he wanted to know here, but it might take him a few centuries to find the right book, or even the right section.
"Hey Trivrium, is the library another place connected to other Domus planets?"
[No.]
"Great! How many fucking books do they have then? This is insane. How am I supposed to find anything?" 6 said.
[You merely have to make a query.]
"Uhh. To you? Is there a librarian or a computer I should be speaking to?" he said
[To Trivrium.]
"I'd like to some books about spiders, then"
[Displaying all books regarding spiders that you have access to.]
In front of his eyes, the tens of thousands of shelves that 6 could see rapidly shrunk. It was like they were being packed away, some of them folding themselves into nothingness, some of them merely disappearing. A huge number of the shelves merely slid into the surrounding walls or floor, even into the ceiling, like they were some fancy deployable tv in a wealthy man's home. He even saw a few shelves hop away, carrying the entire stack of shelves on top of their heads with astonishing balance.
In a mere 30 seconds, the enormous library was left with just a few shelves, scattered across hundreds of feet.
The transformation was not completed yet though.
The comparatively few remaining shelves rapidly flew toward each other, looking like they would crash. The speed they flew should have thrown the books on them everywhere, but not a single one dropped.
As soon as they neared each other, they came to an immediate stop, in the impossible manner that only cartoon characters should be able to do.
The 50 odd shelves then began shuffling the books on them, like 50 massive stacks of playing cards.
It was certainly a better trick than any magician on Earth could ever do, and as one of the best sleight of hand magicians from Earth, 6 was qualified to claim that even with playing cards, none of them could ever do anything nearly as massive, much less as organized.
Once the hundreds of shuffling books came to an end, 20 of the shelves packed themselves away.
6 was now pulled into the shelves, bringing him toward the center of all of them. It looked like he was merely dragged across the room, but in reality, the entire building seemed to shrink to fit the low number of shelves remaining. The giant ceiling fell, and the walls grew near as he came to a rest amongst the shelves.
[All remaining books have information regarding spiders.]
"Thank you, Trivrium."
Despite the lack of response, 6 began searching through the remaining books.
There were still more books than he would have time to search through in four hours, so he had to be picky.
"Do I have to head out to the mission as soon as the teleportation is ready?"
[No, but a penalty will be applied if you wait too long.]
"How long is too long?"
[When the teleportation is ready, you have 2 hours to accept it, or you will be penalized. If you reject the teleportation, you will also face penalties.]
"Got it. Thank you."
So he had roughly five and a half hours to look through these books.
"Could you remove any books that focus on myths about spiders, spiders that live alone, and spiders that constantly expand their territory?"
With no response from Trivrium, the books began shuffling again, leaving him with just 20 shelves.
Most of the remaining books talked about different types of spiders, different instances of spider attacks, and different traits that are shared between spiders.
The important ones told him about the different threats they could pose, and how to tell what spiders would have those traits.
The number one thing that was emphasized was their variability.
Even though a creature may look similar, absolutely any creature could have any number of different abilities. The same hand sized brown spider may have deadly poison in one area, and insanely strong web strength in a different area.
Likewise, just because you met a small spider with deadly poison, it doesn't mean that smaller spiders tend to be poisonous. Each spider, and in extension, spider nest, is different, and it's smart to discover the specific characteristics of the spider you'll be dealing with.
One book mentioned that based on the spiders in a particular nest, you can discover the reason it has appeared in the area. If all of the spiders of a nest have the exact same characteristics, even if they vary in size or shape, it's likely that they've appeared because of a parent spider in the area.
In this case, it's best to prepare to deal with this parent spider in order to get rid of the infestation.
It's also important to take care of any eggs the parent may have left behind, otherwise you may just end up facing the same infestation over again if one of the eggs hatches and the spiderling grows enough to become yet another parent spider.
The best way to tell if the cause of the infestation is a parent spider is to look closely at the characteristics.
If they all share the same appearance, it's possible for them to be from the same parent spider despite having different abilities.
It is equally possible for the reverse. If they all look different, but all share some type of special ability, the parent spider is again the most likely cause of the infestation.
Should all the spiders in the area vary in both appearance and ability, there are multiple other possibilities.
One such possibility is that there is something attracting them. Some specific treasures can bring spiders in from massive ranges, making a large nest of large assortments of different spiders.
An individual or creature could also be intentionally drawing the spiders in. The number of ways this can be done is practically endless, but the best way to tell if this is the case is if the spiders operate in ways that spiders normally wouldn't, like going out of their way to attack people or creating nests in ways that only people would design.
The number of intelligent spiders is extremely low, and it only occurs in extremely strong spiders, so the odds of spiders creating some type of intentional structures for specific purposes other than shelter and hunting is extremely low.
Beyond that, some extremely strong spiders would force spiders and spider-like creatures to defend their nest, and some very powerful spiders would breed millions of distinct spiders entirely on their own. These creatures were basically myths, so 6 entirely disregarded the possibilities of running into something like this.
Despite combing through several more books, 6 failed to find anything else that would be useful to him before the teleportation was ready.
Even though he had 2 more hours to spare, he immediately accepted the teleport.
"Fuckin books man. I just wanna fight some shit." he said as he teleported away from the drab library.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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