Chapter 38
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Unconditional Reflex
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A bead of sweat formed on the tip of Rireu's chin and slowly fell toward the spiderweb stretched between her jaw and chest.
Trian nocked an arrow on the string of his longbow, a weapon far larger than his own torso. Rex bent his knees, ready to dash into the room and protect Rireu at a moment's notice.
I focused on the foreign sensation taking root in my heart, preparing for the battle to come.
Soon, the small yet momentous bead of sweat touched the thin spiderweb.
The droplet met the fine, strong thread, shattering into dozens of smaller drops and creating a vibration.
The subtle tremor traveled up the intricately woven web, reaching the giant spider hanging upside down from the ceiling.
Rex straightened his legs and lunged forward, intending to secure Rireu's safety before the situation became irreversible.
In that instant, Trian's hand shot out, blocking Rex's path.
“…”
Rex gave the elf blocking his way a puzzled look.
Trian said nothing, merely watching the movements of the giant spider on the ceiling.
*Crrreak… Crunch…*
The spider, awakened from its slumber, began to stir. The sound of spiderwebs snapping and tearing filled the air.
Its enormous, long legs, which had been curled inward, slowly unfurled.
Rireu squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't even swallow her dry saliva, afraid the sound might draw the spider's attention.
I held my breath, watching the giant spider that could awaken at any moment and pounce on Rireu.
…In the worst-case scenario, I might have to use Blooming right here.
Without opening its eyes, the spider quietly moved its legs, fumbling with the web. The strand beneath Rireu's chin vibrated. She carefully timed her movements with it, lifting and lowering her chin in a slow, repeated motion.
“…”
The spider seemed to have judged that whatever shook its web was not prey.
Perhaps thinking it was just dust or a small fragment falling from the ceiling, it began to slowly curl its legs back under its body.
With a face that showed she was forcibly suppressing a sigh of relief, Rireu waited for the spider to fall back into a deep sleep.
We were lucky.
There was no other way to explain it.
If the spider had bothered to open its many pairs of eyes and scan the room, things would have become irredeemably complicated.
Rireu stood still as a statue for a while longer before starting to move toward the center of the room again. With a dexterity I had never seen from her before, she disabled the landmine's circuit, then precisely retraced her steps back to us.
The moment she was back inside, Trian quietly closed the door.
*Click.*
As soon as the door shut, sighs of relief escaped our lips…
“Uwaaaaaah…!”
And Rireu’s legs gave way.
She looked at me, her large eyes turning red.
I wasn't sure why she was looking at me like that. It was a plan we all agreed on, wasn't it?
…Though one of the four of us had merely remained silent… well, doesn't silence imply consent?
Don't just stare at me. You should be blaming yourself for not actively voicing your objection…
“You're so mean… really! That was too much!”
“Sorry! I'm sorry! When we get back after the mission, I'll get you that choco pizza bread thing again…”
“I don't really want to go there! I just want to eat something normal and delicious.”
Yeah, I guess this one was on me.
I was the only one here who knew Rireu had trouble saying no. I should have pulled her aside and asked if she was really up for it.
From her perspective, the situation could feel like a betrayal.
“…Seriously. You didn't even come to save me.”
“I was ready to run in if anything happened.”
“You were just watching.”
“Doing nothing was the safest option in that situation.”
“…W-well, that's true, but! Still! I felt like I was abandoned. It was really, really scary just now!”
The elf who had navigated the spiderwebs with superhuman concentration was gone. In her place, Rireu was whining like a child.
“Calm down. I'll treat you to an expensive meal later.”
“Then you find a good place this time, Bin!”
*…That's a pain.*
I kept the thought to myself, not daring to say it out loud.
Voicing my inner thoughts carelessly could lead to an unimaginable disaster.
“Really, I'm never doing anything like this again. Absolutely never.”
Rireu, surprisingly, calmed down quickly.
I couldn't tell if it was because she was naturally good-natured or if the promise of a free meal had won her over.
…How is she so simple?
“Strange.”
While we were sighing in relief and waiting for strength to return to Rireu's legs, Trian was the only one who hadn't relaxed his serious expression.
I asked him what was so strange. Rireu was currently smearing tears on my robe, but we'd disarmed the mine and avoided the monster's attention. Wasn't everything fine?
“That monster has a habit of lunging the moment something touches its web. That's why I had my bow drawn and was ready to charge in at first…”
“Weren't we just lucky? Or maybe it was really sleepy.”
“So when you're sleepy, your knee-jerk reflex stops working?”
“Excuse me?”
“For that spider, the act of ‘leaping toward a vibration’ is an unconditional reflex that originates in the spinal cord, not the brain. It's not something it can choose not to do just because it's sleepy or can't be bothered.”
“…Didn't you once say it's better not to overthink the strange things that happen in dungeons?”
“You'll need to learn to distinguish between something that happens out of simple bad luck and something that defies logic, kid. What just happened was clearly an event that ‘defies logic.’”
…This bastard is now calling a general of an army a kid.
“Indeed, the monster's reaction just now was far too sluggish.”
Rex, who seemed to have felt the same sense of unease as Trian, voiced his agreement.
“…It seems we'll have to check it out properly.”
“I agree.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Everyone, prepare for a possible fight. Though it'll probably be over in one shot… Rireu, can you stand now?”
A fight? Suddenly?
Wasn't moving as stealthily and quietly as possible the most important part of this expedition? Why on earth were they thinking of fighting that giant, soundly sleeping spider?
Rireu, also unable to follow the flow of Trian and Rex's conversation, looked at me from where she sat on the floor.
I have no idea why she always looks at me in these situations. I was just as clueless as she was about what they were talking about.
“…An explanation would be nice.”
“An unconditional reflex is called that because it happens unconditionally. No matter how bizarre a creature is, it can't control an unconscious reaction that occurs in the spinal cord. This is a clear anomaly.”
“…”
“In battle, failing to properly investigate an anomaly and just glossing it over can lead to irreversible disaster. Remember that if you want to live a long life.”
Coming from an elf who had lived for over 1200 years in this medieval fantasy world where bizarre phenomena were rampant, I had no choice but to take his words seriously.
Surviving for over 1200 years in this barbaric age was proof of his keen senses and excellent judgment.
“…”
Trian drew a sharp dagger from his belt and carefully approached the door.
After confirming that Rireu had gotten up and into position, he opened the door without delay. Unlike the first time, when he had been meticulous about not making a sound, all caution was gone from his movements.
Even with the rattling noise, the spider didn't open its eyes.
As if there was nothing more to see, Trian swung his dagger at the web attached to the wall. A chunk of the webbing was immediately sliced away.
The spider monsters inhabiting this dungeon were at least in their early 40s in level. For the webbing to be cut so easily by a casual swing, even from a skilled archer like Trian, was strange.
Behind the web that fell away so powerlessly at Trian’s single gesture, corroded bricks were revealed.
They looked similar to bricks that had been melted by splattered Mazoku blood.
Feeling the large vibration in its web, the spider finally extended its legs and began to slowly descend to the floor.
Its movements were definitely not normal.
The spider monsters in this dungeon were typically known for their agile movements, which belied their massive size.
“…Damn thing has a tenacious hold on life.”
Trian muttered as he sheathed his dagger and reached for the longbow and arrow slung across his back.
Soon, the spider placed its eight legs on the floor and opened its eyes.
…It was a grotesque sight.
A spider's face is inherently grotesque, but the face of the spider I was looking at now… how should I put it? It felt like it had surpassed the very definition of grotesque.
Where its eyes should have been, only black pits of darkness remained.
That wasn't the only strange thing about it. On its back, what looked like the head of another spider was half-fused into its body.
The eyes on the other spider's head, the one on its back, were still functional.
I instinctively realized it was the head taken from the first spider corpse we had seen.
And I had seen creatures like this several times before.
This meant the spider-shaped monster before us was no longer a beast moving on instinct.
It was merely a slave moving on a Mazoku's command.
The massive creature we had thought was a spider monster was, in fact, a Mutant, a fusion of two spider monsters.
“Just wait. I'm coming to kill you.”
He drew his bowstring, his words a declaration aimed at the Mazoku who was surely watching us from beyond the Mutant.
***
The Mazoku, Ifrit, sat in the middle of a dungeon room with one leg missing, his eyes closed in quiet concentration.
He was just one of the unlucky Mazoku who, after being ordered by his superior to plant mana landmines throughout the Akilliptus Forest Zone and retreat, had been sucked into the dungeon while carrying out his task.
He had wandered the dungeon for a long time, searching for an exit.
He couldn't even remember how many days he'd been lost in this labyrinth.
The creature's mind was filled with countless ways to kill humans, elves, orcs, and dwarves, but it contained no information on how to escape a dungeon.
With all communication to the outside completely cut off, he couldn't even summon his Mutants. In this desperate situation, the Mazoku simply wandered through the dungeon's rooms, planting mana landmines as per his superior's last command.
He'd been torn apart in several battles along the way, but thankfully, his core had remained intact, allowing him to survive.
Then, while wandering through this endless maze, he detected a very strange signal.
It was the sensation of one of his mines being disarmed by someone.
He had felt his mines explode many times before. The dungeon's monsters had stepped on them repeatedly.
But the sensation of one being disarmed… that was a first.
It was strange. The Mazoku were a race that prioritized efficiency. No Mazoku would throw themselves into a dungeon just to rescue a mid-level manager.
Therefore, the intruders were not his comrades.
Once his thoughts reached that conclusion, the Mazoku hurriedly sent a Mutant made from a spider to conceal his bloodstains.
The goal was to cover the blood-filled room with webs to prevent the enemy from tracking him.
That part had been fine. It was a plausible camouflage tactic, and if he had stopped there, Bin and his party likely wouldn't have bothered entering the room where the spider slept.
But Ifrit's thoughts didn't stop there.
*‘What if their target is the spider itself?’*
Those who visit dungeons have various goals. Some aim to clear the dungeon for its massive rewards, while others focus on simply slaughtering every monster inside.
The poison from the spider monsters in this particular dungeon was of exceptionally high quality.
If he'd had the resources, he would have wanted to create a powerful Mutant using the spider monster's poison glands and fangs as its primary weapons.
That poison would likely fetch a high price if it ever reached the continent's black markets.
Ifrit judged that his tracks could be exposed if the adventurers' goal was ‘the spider itself,’ so he ordered the Mutant to plant a mana landmine he had hidden in another room.
That was a mistake.
A mana landmine planted in the middle of a room, with a large spider sleeping on top of it.
Even adventurers who entered the dungeon for the spider would likely not risk entering that room.
…At least, that's what he thought until some elf opened the door and performed an acrobatic feat.
The elf moved clumsily between the webs, then swiftly disarmed only the mine in the center of the room.
…The intruder's goal was not to clear the dungeon, nor to collect poison, but to ‘disarm the mine.’
Who could have possibly predicted this?
That the reason they had thrown themselves into this perilous dungeon was not for gold and treasure, nor for a monster's poison, but for the ‘disarmament of a landmine.’
*‘…A disposal unit? No, that makes no sense.’*
It was natural for a bomb disposal unit to be deployed in heavily trafficked alleys or at strategic chokepoints.
But this was the middle of a dungeon with no strategic value. There was no reason to deploy a professional disposal unit here.
In fact, the planted mines also offered an advantage to the enemy by ‘obstructing the movement of monsters.’
There was no reason for them to take such risks and send a disposal unit this deep into the dungeon.
Why?
Why were they doing this?
In the corner of Ifrit's confused vision, a flash of white hair passed by.
*‘Huh?’*
The spider, whose vision was linked to Ifrit's, turned its head, following the white hair that had flashed in its sight.
*‘Bin.’*
The genius mage said to have fought on par with Overlord Maltiel was at the edge of Ifrit's vision.
*‘Why is that monster here…?’*
“Just wait. I'm coming to kill you.”
A moment later, an arrow fired by the elf archer he hadn't even been paying attention to struck, and Ifrit's vision went dark.
“…Hah.”
Ifrit's brain couldn't process the situation.
Only one thing was certain: this monster didn't have much longer to live.