Chapter 186: Cave Filled With Spiders
As Alros was having fun inside the system space, in the caverns, his clones and monsters are busy searching for their target. Thankfully for them, there are no adventurers during the night, nobody crazy enough to remain inside when the monsters become more active.
So, they are allowed a free reign to travel through the entire area. Of course, the monsters that reside in each area will come and block them, but a mere sight of the wings behind the clones, along with the growling of the Demonic Goblins and Demonic Lizardmen cause the other monsters to retreat, knowing they would not stood a chance against the current foe.
However, as they get deeper and deeper, less monsters and clones remained in the group. No one had died yet, but the numerous intersection caused the number to dwindled as they split up to cover more ground.
When the sun rises, the monsters and clones stopped and returned, walking back to where they came from. While the numerous turns and intersections would have make anyone lose, they have the Phantom Wasps to guide them, telling them where they should go.
And with that, the first scouting mission ended.
-x-
"There is no casualties. The monsters did not attack you?" he asked, puzzled by how intact the scouting group is. He did not want to imply his force is weak, it just with the number of intersections, the number of people in each group will get smaller and smaller.
So, there should be a point where there are only 4 monsters, and that is because he ordered them to not split up when they are only four beings left.
The leader of the scouting mission, one of the battle-clones nodded, telling him of what occur, at least from his part of the journey.
Alros merely nodded before he quickly donned in a different garb. While his clone would return soon, or so he hope, he would dress up like another adventurers, though he would only emerge from the cave when it is much later.
-x-
"You came early," Alros commented, sensing one of his clones coming it.. He wore similar clothing to his adventurer self, his brown hair the product of both Illusion and hair dye, for extra assurance.
The clone nodded before pointing at the crystal. Understanding what he is asking for, Alros opened the system space, letting him enter. After the clone entered he closed the system space before applying illusion to himself, appearing as his adventurer form.
"Let's take a look, shall we?"
-x-
Thanks to his clones, Alros did not have to scour the caverns. He only need to go where his clones did not explore just yet. His clones left the Phantom Wasps in the places where they did not check yet, allowing him to bypass those that have been fully explored by his force.
On his way to the sections not explored by his clones, he spot several adventurers wandering about. He gave them a glance and a greeting before going his way, the other party doing the same.
While it may seem like he was exploring every place until he find the right one, it is far from the truth. He had his cooked reported him any sightings of Giant Cave Spiders and Rock Serpents, the two monsters associated with respectively Arachne and Lamia.
While none of his clones had found any Rock Serpents so far, likely because this part of the cavern is not their territory, they did spot several spiders running around. While Giant Cave Spiders is not an assurance there will be Arachne in the near vicinity, it is the best bet he had.
And with no other lead, he could only check on everything he find in hopes of finding the female monster.
-x-
"This seem promising," his eyes wander about, looking at the numerous webs that decorated the entire cavern. If there is any lighting, white would be the first thing they saw.
He covered his torch, no longer needing it due to now having the ability to see in the dark, courtesy of learning Darkness magic. He looked around, transforming into his demon form, ready for any attack as cut a string of the web.
Sure enough, swarm of spider rushed towards him like a stampade of herd animals, ready to turn him in to their next meal. Alros remained undaunted as he created a Demonic Firewall, acting as an effective temporary barrier.
The spiders stopped, not wanting to get burned. However, when he think he is safe, some of the spiders at the back began shooting something at him. He dodge it, though one manage to hit him.
While the projectile did not do any physical harm, it did give him the sense of being poison, one he purged using his magic.
"Poison spit, no, poison plus silk spit," he said, before engulfing the swarm with his Demonic Fire, turning them to cinder. As he walked, passing the corpses of the spiders, he heard skittering above him.
He did not need to look up to tell him there are spiders at the cave ceiling, using the height to not get turned into charcoal.
He applaud their resourcefulness and intelligent, but it will not save them now. With another swipe of his hands, the one at the top soon get burnt, Demonic Flame making short work of them.
After he was done with the first wave, he head deeper, ready to explore what the depth hide.
-x-
"I do hope there is an Arachne here, or I will destroy this entire swarm until there is nothing left," he muttered as he doused several spiders with Water magic before electrocuting them, killing them and creating a field of electrified water, preventing the other spider from going towards him without getting zapped.
He bad fought close to 400 spiders at this point. While he wanted to summon some of his monsters to aid him, in the end, he decided against it, as the monstrous spiders make an excellent training dummies as well as allowing him to practice his magic and see the effect of it.
After he was done with the latest swarm, he took a breather, sitting on a smooth rock. 10 seconds when he just start resting, spiders began to swarm in once more, much to his chagrin.
"If you want to fight, then deal with them!" he yelled, calling upon his Demonic Flame Slime and Demonic Electro Slime, the two most effective monsters against the spiders.
Their burning and electrifying bodies easily stopped the spiders, with the Demonic Lizardmen he called out helping deal with some at the back, acting as support.
As his force battled against the spider swarm, Alros scrunched his brows as a thought formed in his mind.
'I must be getting close to main best,'