After a few minutes, I recovered from my shock. It seemed these larger spiders had eaten far more humans than we had previously estimated. Either that, or they somehow did grow their skulls themselves.

Something was fishy about this whole situation. Tsuchigumo were an invasive species from the east, sure, but why had the quest not warned us about their ability to impersonate their victims? This whole quest felt like a trap, though it wasn't designed to deal with Cerion and me specifically, that was for sure. So far, we hadn't met anything that could pose a serious threat.

I had gained 20 free points by advancing 4 levels in my class, which I once again dumped into wisdom. I wanted that milestone skill as soon as possible, to prevent my affinity from acting up.

With that done, I ran in the direction that Cerion had gone. After a few minutes, I reached the clearing that he had been lured to. He was still fighting, but he didn't seem to need my help, as he danced from water spout to water spout, cutting into the larger spider in the centre of his trapping skill. Sure enough, he had had to deal with a tier 3 as well.

I stood on top of a tree branch, watching the fight. Luckily the other spiders ignored me, allowing me to enjoy the show. After a while, the big spider succumbed to Cerion's relentless assault. The small ones were quick to follow, after that.

Once all of his opponents were dead, I jumped down to greet him.

My landing made him jump in fright, sword raised.

"Fancy seeing you here, Cerion. Enjoying your bath, are you?"

Once he realised what was going on, he lowered his weapon and smiled in relief.

"Oh, it's just you, Arthur. You scared the life out of me. How long have you been here?"

"Just a few minutes. I see you managed to deal with the tier 3 cleanly as well. Fast for creatures so large, aren't they?"

"They are, though mine lost that advantage when I trapped him in my [Whirlpool]. So you had to deal with one as well, then? Mine nearly killed me when I approached her."

"Yeah, mine disguised herself as a little kid. Had me completely fooled, though I dodged its attack just in time, wasting its element of surprise. I was happy to kill it though. Their stomachs are filled with skulls. They haven't just killed a few people, Cerion. Entire villages must have been wiped out to feed these fuckers."

He turned grim at the news. Normally the disappearance of several villages' populaces would be noticed by the kingdom, yet these creatures had been given free rein, somehow. Either that, or tsuchigumo colonies grew far faster than other monsters, which would mean that their expansion into human territory might be a recent development. There was just too much we didn't know about these monsters.

Cerion responded in a serious tone.

"We'll have to report it, when we get back. Hopefully, the guild can figure out what's going on. In the meantime, let's find the brood mother and annihilate the colony."

We spent the next few days exploring the forest from the outside in. The outskirts had relatively few spiders, while the deeper you went, the more you would find. We had been ambushed several times within the last few days, though each had ended almost exactly the same way, in our victory.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Overloading Death Knight] level 12!

Reach level 50 to advance to tier 3.

Stat points allocated. 5 free stat points per level up awarded.

I had only gained a few levels from the recent fights, which Cerion assured me was normal. The system apparently rewarded less and less experience for repeated battles within a short timeframe. Why can't nobles share their understanding of the system more frequently? I would've liked to know about that earlier.

Still, overall our level gain had been incredibly quick so far. Cerion had even reached level 19, since he started this quest at level 11.

With our current levelling speed, we would reach level 30 by the end of the month. Just a shame that large colonies of monsters like this were rather rare.

Part of the reason for our quick levelling speed was that we were ambushed by more high-tier spiders every now and then, though a new development left us with some confusion. We had met more of the shape-shifting spiders, but some weren't anywhere near as big or fast as the first one. I estimated them to be tier 2. For some reason though, their strength and constitution was mostly the same as their larger variants.

All this culminated in a hypothesis that I presented to Cerion.

"None of the spiders we've fought so far were tier 3. I think they simply ballooned to such a large size because of how many people they've killed. It would make sense for them to have a skill that the more skulls they eat, the larger and faster they become. None of our opponents have been well-rounded enough stat-wise to belong in the tier 3 category."

Cerion turned pensive at my comment.

"What you say makes sense, but we can't be sure. Best not to make assumptions and stay on our guard, I think. That being said, if this brood mother is tier 3 and has a similar skill, we might have some difficulty killing her."

I nodded. We would have to be careful. We couldn't back out now, not with all the potential future victims on the line.

During our exploration of the forest, we found a cave opening large enough to fit the tier 2 giant spiders. It was located roughly in the middle of the forest we had been patrolling, which gave credit to the idea that this was the brood mother's lair.

Getting there hadn't been easy, however. The spiders had gotten more aggressive as we approached the cave, no longer bothering to set up traps and simply charging at us in waves.

Clearly, they didn't want us to bother their queen. Unfortunately for them, there wasn't much they could do to stop us. We cut our way through the bugs until the horde thinned. After a while, we felt confident enough to enter the cavern.

The entrance itself was unassuming, but the rest of the cave was quite the opposite. A few meters in, webbing started covering every inch of space available. We were going to have to cut through these webs, which would alert whatever spiders were nearby. I turned to my companion.

"Stealthy and quiet, or hard and loud?" I asked with a smile.

He grinned back. "Hard and loud."

We sprinted into the cave, cutting any webbing nearby apart. So what if the spiders were alerted by our presence? They probably knew we were coming already anyway.

Like a pair of maniacs, we tore our way down into the cavernous deep, going from tunnel to tunnel. We encountered a few more tier 2 spiders, but they posed no issue, despite our sloppy teamwork. I got splashed with water at least three separate times, while Cerion got a cut or two accidentally. We would have to work on that.

After a while, the spiders became even more aggressive. They were practically crawling over one another to get to us. At this point we were well-practiced in exterminating them though, so their efforts bore no fruit. Eventually, we came across a giant cavern.

The cavern was extremely dark, causing Cerion to look around warily, afraid of an ambush.

He didn't need to be though, because I had a perfect view of who we were sharing the cavern with.

In the centre of the space, I saw another giant spider. This one, however, wasn't just big, it was comically large. So large, in fact, that it filled up the entire space. I would have been surprised if it could even move an inch from its position, because its bulbous abdomen touched the cave's walls on both sides and the roof.

This was the brood mother. It had some differences in appearance from its children, in the form of numerous human skulls that adorned its giant head in the shape of a crown. It had two front legs that were still free from being squished under its giant body, and eight purple eyes, that were observing me quietly.

Was it trying to ambush us, thinking we couldn't see in the dark?

"Cerion, wait. The brood mother's here."

He drew his sword and turned over to me in surprise.

"Where is it? Let's kill the damn thing!"

"That's the problem. It's everywhere."

"What?"

"It's literally occupying the entire other half of this cavern, wall to wall, roof to floor. Like a termite queen."

"What does a termite queen look like...wait, we don't have time for this."

He held out his spatial ring and summoned a bottle filled with a viscous green liquid from it, drinking it a moment later. A few seconds later, he looked over to the brood mother with his mouth hanging open.

"That thing's giant!"

"What, you can see it now?"

"Night-vision potion, Arthur. Very expensive, but very useful."

"There's a potion for that?"

"There is. Now shut up and prepare to summon Revan. I won't be able to summon Alia, there's not enough natural water nearby. Act like you don't see the brood mother yet, we'll attempt to counter its ambush."

That plan worked for me, so I nodded, showing my assent.

I walked into the cavern casually, Cerion at my side. The brood mother continued to stare at us, eyeing us as prey. It would be sorely disappointed.

Within a few steps, we were within range of its giant front legs, which looked as sharp as a sword and curved to form the shape of scimitars, only thirty times as long. To the creature's credit, if anything, it was patient. It let us come closer and closer, until we were right next to its giant mouth. At this point, the value in waiting to counter its surprise attack was starting to lower. There was no point in walking right into its fangs, after all.

"Cerion, I'm summoning now!"

I held out my talisman and gathered dark mana to slowly form Revan into existence. The creature realised it had been seen through and screeched in rage, bringing in its scythe-like legs at the same time.

We were actually so close to its gaping maw, that its spider-spittle nearly reached us. Thankfully, our movement skills allowed us to dodge both the legs and the spittle in time.

This was a good thing too, because when the spit landed, it started sizzling and burning into the cavern floor. Some of it hit Revan, burning some of his bones off.

"Watch out, it has acid spit!" I yelled at my teammate.

"I noticed! Can you take care of blocking its legs? I'll focus on attack!"

"On it!"

I ran forward and summoned my overloaded maelstrom to block incoming attacks. For the first time, I was actually having some issues blocking it. The giant spider swung its legs with such precision, speed and power that it felt like I was trying to block Doran.

I ordered Revan to block some of its strikes, but he wasn't having much luck. Each strike sent him tumbling through the air. His physical weight and size was the only thing keeping him in the fight at this point.

I saw Cerion coat his sword in water, spinning it faster and faster. The brood mother noticed something was up and tried to stun him out of it. She would've succeeded if I hadn't ordered Revan to block the strike and defend Cerion while he prepared his attack.

With Revan guarding Cerion, I would have to draw the big monster's attention. I ran up and cut into its side, leaving nary a scratch. Despite this, I succeeded in drawing its ire, because it retaliated by sending a storm of attacks at me, each so fast I couldn't keep up with my perception.

I managed to hold off its attacks for a few seconds, but my overloaded mana-formed winds were getting pushed back and actually dispelled by the incoming strikes.

I tried a new tactic and dodged a few attacks, but was quickly out sped by my opponent. My overloaded mana was being used up faster than my core was producing it.

"Cerion, I can't hold it back for much longer! I need to recover overloaded mana!"

He grit his teeth at my call-out.

"Block it for a few more seconds, I'm charging up my attack!"

Without mana, I could only block its strikes with my sword or dodge. Time to put [Shadow apparation] through its paces.

I kept the monster's attention as more attacks whipped through the air. A single successful strike would tear me in half. I dodged the first few strikes by apparating around the cavern, but eventually, it started to guess where I would reappear and redirect its limbs in my direction, forcing me to block with my sword. I was just barely able to block glancing blows, but a well-aimed lariat threw me through the air. I crashed into the cave wall at full force, cracking it as I made impact. Most of my bones were broken, so I got to work providing [Dark form] with some more overloaded mana.

Mercifully, Cerion managed to charge up his attack at that moment, preventing the brood mother from finishing me off.

He slashed at the giant monster, releasing a torrent of water, spinning in a cyclone so quickly it was tearing through the rocky floor of the cavern. It reminded me a little of Revan's own overloaded breath attack in that sense.

The cyclone rushed at the big spider. It tried to block with its legs, but at Cerion's command, the cyclone changed direction and flowed around its sharp blades instead, heading straight for the monster's eyes.

A moment later, the attack struck true.