The Spider's Bargain
The spider. That was what the human had called her too.
Mina glanced around, wondering if someone else might be controlling it, but no matter how she looked, the only thing there was that spider—barely half her height. She had never heard of monsters that could speak like people, but she already had a hunch.
Could it be the same kind as the Frost King's Tyrant?
After all, during the request she had taken with Seok-jun, the King of Beasts they had defeated had spoken as well.
“Whoa~ whoa~ easy there. I knew you humans got aggressive the moment you saw us, but it really is a pain in the ass.”
When Mina quietly leveled the tip of her rapier at it, the spider waved two of its legs as if to say it meant no harm.
“It’s not like we can’t understand each other. Let’s settle this with words. Words.”
“You want to… talk?”
What came next was something she could hardly believe. Speaking was one thing, but holding a conversation?
“That’s right. Fighting is a hassle for you too, and you lose more than you gain. Don’t you think?”
The spider rubbed its front legs together gently as it spoke.
“You say that after you controlled someone else and made them attack us first?”
It was clearly strange to talk about peaceful resolution after puppeteering another person into attacking them.
“I can’t exactly deny that, but we were in a bit of a hurry. Couldn’t be helped.”
“Couldn’t be helped?”
“Besides, you lot attacked first without even saying hello.”
“What are you—”
When she asked again, it shook its front legs.
“Haven’t you ever thought this place was strange?”
It was an obvious question. Countless people and scientists had tried to uncover the principle behind how gates appeared, but no one had succeeded. They simply occurred like some ancient natural phenomenon, and humanity had grown used to them first.
“This is our nest.”
“Your nest?”
“Yes, like our home. You barged in without permission, made a mess, and attacked me. You’re the intruders here.”
“Ugh, that’s…”
If that was true, Mina had nothing to say. In human terms, it was like breaking into someone else’s house, trashing the place, and then assaulting the owner.
“I couldn’t just sit still, could I? I only used that guy because you attacked me first.”
Still, one lingering doubt remained unresolved.
“Then why do gates appear in our world?”
Not only that, but if left alone, monsters poured out in droves. Even if the spider was telling the truth, how was leaving behind a dangerous place that could suddenly appear and devastate the surroundings any different?
“If you didn’t want to be attacked, shouldn’t you have avoided causing harm to us in the first place?”
At Mina’s words, the creature scratched its head with a front leg.
“Unfortunately, this isn’t something we intended either. We get dragged into these places out of nowhere too. It’s a real pain.”
“Dragged in?”
“Unless we’re an exceptionally powerful king, we can’t escape this place on our own.”
Suddenly summoned, trapped in a limited space, and then attacked by you people. Why would we willingly come to a place like this?
As the spider spread and then lowered its two front legs while saying that, Mina closed her mouth.
It’s not entirely unreasonable…
After all, this spider seemed connected to the Frost King’s Tyrant.
“If the gate disappears like this, what happens to you?”
“Hyaha! Good question!”
When Mina asked cautiously, the spider clapped its two front legs together as if it had been waiting for that.
“If this place vanishes, I’ll be annihilated on the spot. That’s why I’ve been looking for a vessel to form a contract with.”
“Contract? What do you mean by vessel?”
“A vessel? Plenty of beings like you could serve as one. Even that guy over there.”
The spider pointed at Seong-gyu, who was still collapsed on the ground.
“By forming a contract with you, we gain the chance to leave this place without being destroyed.”
The spider spread its legs wide.
“So here’s my offer. How about you contract with me?”
“What benefit do I get from making this contract?”
A contract should normally involve mutual benefit. If the condition was allowing beings like this to leave the gate, then what did the contracted human receive in return?
“From what I hear, you call our power mana. And you’re very limited in how you can use it. Am I right?”
The spider answered her question without difficulty.
“We can strengthen your power.”
“Strengthen mana?!”
Even at a glance, that was an incredibly tempting offer for any awakened hunter.
“Just by forming a contract?”
“That’s right. After all, that power is very similar to ours.”
It would be even more attractive to B-grade hunters or awakened who couldn’t reach A-grade.
“That guy didn’t even form a direct contract, but just by being controlled by me he became incredibly strong, didn’t he? I can make you far stronger than that.”
Even Mina had gone through bone-grinding effort to become an A-grade hunter, so she knew exactly how grueling that process was. If what it said was true, no one would be able to refuse the contract.
But after a moment of hesitation, she spoke.
“I think you should look for someone else.”
“What? Why? This is an incredible opportunity for you.”
The spider seemed unable to comprehend the rejection. It was true that the offer was good enough to make most people jump at it, but Mina still found the spider suspicious.
Beware of contractors.
The King of Beasts had said those words.
“There’s someone I need to find first.”
Above all, the fact that Seok-jun had not intervened between them this entire time was the most suspicious. Even if it made sense that he hadn’t stepped in while she and Seong-gyu were fighting, why had he not appeared even now that the battle had stopped?
Seong-gyu’s attack had been powerful, but it hadn’t been a direct hit. She had seen Seok-jun dodge it, so he should have been nearby. She was worried. Dealing with people and monsters were two entirely different problems.
“It would be better to talk to him once Seong-gyu wakes up.”
Which meant she planned to look for Seok-jun first.
“Why? Isn’t mana incredibly important to you people?”
“It is important.”
Being able to use more mana, or stronger mana, was like suddenly becoming a rich person who could spend money freely after barely scraping by day to day. But an offer that sounded too good made her suspicious instead.
“Still, I like things the way they are right now.”
Mina glanced down at the flying knife she held lightly in her hand. The problem of long-range attacks that she had previously only been able to handle with slashes—Seok-jun had solved it in a completely different way. It wasn’t as if her growth had stopped. She thought it would be better to discuss this issue with him.
“Really? Then how about this?”
“What—?!”
In an instant, Mina spotted countless threads rushing toward her from all directions and gripped her rapier, but—
“Ugh!”
“No can do~ no can do. Put away anything dangerous like that. What we need is conversation, remember?”
The threads shot forward in the blink of an eye and wrapped around the hilt of her rapier. If her reaction had been even a little slower and she hadn’t let go, she would have been caught by the threads herself. The rapier was yanked away and left dangling in the air like a decoration.
“What the hell are you doing?”
When Mina glared at the spider, realizing it was behind this, it let out a giggle.
“You said it yourself. That you like things the way they are right now.”
“What does that have to do with anything?!”
“It means you’ll change your mind once you become dissatisfied. Right?”
Mina was stunned by the spider’s words—something she had never even imagined.
“Who would think like—!”
“This opportunity is very important to me. There’s no way I’d easily let go of a vessel as tempting as you, now is there?”
I’ll do whatever it takes to make you contract with me.
—Slice!
“Kyaa!”
A thread brushed past her shoulder. She had dodged in a hurry so the wound wasn’t severe, but it had scraped her skin along with her equipment, and blood welled up. If she had stayed still, it might have cut her clean through.
My resistance is being bypassed this easily…
At the very least, she should have felt some impact being reduced, but she felt nothing of the sort. She had thought it was the same type as the King of Beasts, but it was clearly not a monster that should exist in a D-grade gate.
When she looked around, countless threads had already sprung up from the ground. Since Mina had been standing on the body of an Infested Chimera this whole time, she was essentially trapped inside a cage.
But she immediately infused mana into her flying knife.
This should do it!
—Ting, ting, ting!
When she threw it with a swinging motion, the flying knife sliced through the threads with blades of mana just like when she used slashes. If she followed right after it, she could escape this prison, but—
“Oho~ You really are tempting. I like you much more than these common trash.”
Seong-gyu, who had been collapsed until now, stood up and charged at Mina as she tried to break free.
—Clang!
“Ugh!? How—?!”
She blocked his fist with a newly created knife, but the shock and pain transmitted to her was far greater than when she had blocked with her rapier.
“Broken threads can just be reattached, can’t they?”
Sure enough, the threads she had cut earlier were once again attached to Seong-gyu’s body. And that wasn’t all.
“Choose. Either contract with me.”
At the same time, a massive number of Infested Chimeras approached from all around them.
“Or die here.”
“Ugh.”
Those abnormally numerous chimeras must have been created by the spider as well.
“Contract with me? Hm? It’d be better for you too, wouldn’t it?”
“Don’t you think it’s even more suspicious that you’re demanding a contract while doing something like this?”
“So what? You don’t want to die, do you?”
When the spider let out a cackling laugh, Mina clutched her shoulder and bit her lip. That was when it happened.
“Huh? W-what?! Why are my threads—?!”
At the sudden bewildered voice, Mina lifted her head. What she saw was the spider struggling wildly, caught in its own threads like a spider trapped in a web.
“They say even a spider knows which threads it can step on and which it can’t. Looks like you can’t even tell that much.”
Then, from behind, the sound of steady footsteps approached.
It was Seok-jun, who had been nowhere to be seen until now.
“Ehh, Seok-jun?”
Only his expression was colder than Mina had ever seen before, and she flinched without meaning to.