Chapter 53

The legs of the spiders that fell down when their webs were removed shrank. Because of the fire that suddenly bloomed in the Lightless Forest, they would not be able to see for a while.

“Uh… I can’t say it’s pretty.”

They were about 3m above Leeha’s head.

Their bodies were about the size of a basketball.

Their basketball-sized bodies had eight legs attached to them. They looked terrible, however, Leeha stayed calm.

To be more accurate, Leeha’s fingers were calm.

Taaang—!

It was almost impossible to miss even if he closed his eyes. Even though he was looking upwards, Leeha’s posture which firmly supported his musket did not waver.

Chwaah, the body exploded with the mucus pouring on  Leeha.

“Uh… Raising the assimilation rate is not good.”

It was juicy and viscous like gravy, and the basketball-sized body was a spider!

After putting up with nausea he felt, Leeha pulled out a bag of gunpowder. What was the condition of the other one?

‘It shouldn’t have recovered its vision yet’

eight ping-pong balls in front of a basketball.

‘Are those eyeballs?’

Seeing it rub its big, dirty eyes with its legs, it won’t make it easy for him to recover its vision.

‘Reload!’

Even if the torch was thrown to the floor, it was still burning. He took out another gunpowder bag and started reloading while counting at the same time.

1, 3, 8, 11, 25… Tab!

“52 seconds!”

He raised his musket with a cry. It took less than 0.1 second to pull the trigger at the ghastly monster dangling in the air.

Taaang—!

The spider’s body exploded again, terrifyingly, with sparks on the gunpowder plate.

One shot, one kill.

“Huu…”

‘Let alone level 50, there aren’t  many people under level 100 that can compare to my one-shot damage.’

It would have been weirder if he couldn’t one-shot the spider.

It was the first time since starting Middle Earth that  Leeha was truly comfortable in a hunting ground.

“Alright.”

The body exploded and two balls fell on the floor. Leeha approached and tried to pick up the loot but to no avail.

First of all, the drop rate of the quest item was less than 50%.

‘What?   Is it stuck here? I still have 10 hours 30 minutes remaining.’

Even considering the time left to return, there was still plenty of time left. Leeha took out another bag of gunpowder.

“Now, let’s have a little fun.”

Of course, if he could afford to hunt, he should also pay attention to skill level-up. From bayonet charge to the calm mind.

Leeha’s musket started to run wild.

“Kek, guys. Shall we go check if that person is dead or not? It’s been about two hours now.”

The Elementalist Oriental Bird suggested.

“It’s been that long already? Ah, I lost 1 silver.”

“No, not yet! Let’s take a look. He might have died and become a corpse, that might be the reason he did not come out.”

“Ah, right, right. Why don’t we go and see?”

“Let’s go then!”

Oriental Bird got up, but the other members seemed unwilling.

The 1 silver bet was fun and all, but going into the forest and checking it?

“What about when the spiders and bats appear?”

“We’re not going to hunt, we’re just going to check and see. We’ll be fine as long as we light up a torch and carry it.”

“Hmm…”

“If we can find the body, we can get more than 1 silver! Hehe, isn’t that right?”

“Still… We only have archers with one longbow and one composite bow.“

They were a party of three, with two archers and one wizard. It was certainly dangerous to wander around the forest at night, but Oriental Bird was greedy.

The bet of 1 silver was only an excuse to check the body. The reason why Oriental Bird wanted to check was that he remembered the clothes Leeha wore.

‘That guy from before, did he pay for it? Even if he was level 25, he would not be able to solo the Lightless Forest at night. Because if he was dead, his items might have dropped. I liked the coat the most, but the cap and boots looked good too.’

The color of the leather was not normal.

He did not know what it was, but it was clear

that it was a very good item to wear around level 20.

‘If I have these idiots with me, I’ll need to share the items. Once I find the body, I will quickly pick the items for myself.’

He was certain that Leeha was dead, but it was also dangerous, so he was not able to go there without hesitating.

“Let’s go quickly. We don’t know if there’s a body or not. If there’s a body, we can determine the time of death using that, so we have to go quickly.”

In fact, it was hard to determine the exact time he died or who won the bet just by looking at the body. There might be a fight over when he died.

But what if that happens?

Oriental Bird could have let them win any time. It was only if he could take all the items for himself.

‘The items might cost as much as 2 to 3 silver.’

If the color was that much, its value might even exceed that. He’ll even 2 or 3 silver as much as they want. If only I could get the items.

“Hmm… Then shall we go? How about you?”

“Call. If that person is still alive, will you give us one silver each? Has it been 2 hours? Kek.”

Everyone had their own plans, and Oriental Bird and his party members headed to the Lightless Forest.

“I’m still afraid to go in.”

“First of all, let’s check the surroundings.”

Oriental Bird cast magic towards the air. One of the Elementalist’s basic attack magic, “Fire arrow!”

The fire arrow bloomed in the air toward the forest.

Fire arrows flew to their limits to illuminate all directions.

They secured their vision. It’s best to be careful, even if it consumed a little bit of mana.

“Fortunately, there are no spiders.”

“But watch out for the bats. They may have felt the fire arrow.”

Oriental Bird began to regret it a little.

When he came here, he felt like he did something wrong. There was no way the mana vampire bats could not have felt the sudden surge of mana…

At level 18, he had 18 points in constitution.

Because he invested most of his stat points on intelligence and mind, he had a low constitution.

His mana points are  430. Although the attack power of the bats is low, if three bats attack at the same time, he would die instantly.

‘Ah, did I do something wrong? No, I can earn 1 more magic skill if I had just 1 gold. For money…!’

The two archers slowly notched their arrows to their bows.

“I can’t hear the bats. Let’s take it slow.”

They also made a small torch.

With that level of light, even the spiders would not notice. They would also be able to deal with one or two.

10, 20 minutes passed but they hadn’t fired a single arrow yet…

Because it was night, they walked carefully and it took 20 minutes to get inside.

But what happened? There was no reaction in the forest.

“Didn’t you say they are more active at night? I heard that spiders and bats are more frantic…?”

“…That’s right. I can’t hear the bats. Shall we raise our torch slightly?”

They were worried about spiders…

Again, 10 more minutes passed.

They were walking into the forest for 30 minutes, and they haven’t heard a single bat, let alone a spider. Was that even possible?

The group felt the tension slowly dissipating.

There was obviously something odd. On the other hand, there was a growing concern.

This is because there were cases where monsters do not appear, but 10 of them spawned at the same time.

‘Ah, this is crazy. Where did that bastard from before go? Where should I look for the item? Damn it, if you die, you have to die nearby.’

The item would have been easy to find even if it was destroyed. Because there would be light shining softly on the floor.

“Guys… this is amazing.”

“What?”

Anxiety arose from Oriental Bird when one of the archers in front of him stopped walking.

Why? Did a spider appear?

“That…”

They followed where his fingers pointed. At the end of it, there was a swamp on the forest floor.

“Umm, what is that?”

“I-I don’t know. What is… that?”

They could not see it properly. Oriental Bird and his party members walked forward nervously.

“Uh, isn’t it sticky?”

One of the archers raised his foot.

Slime dripped from the sole of his foot.

“Swamp? This isn’t a jungle… I never heard that there was a swamp in the Lightless

Forest.”

“No, it’s not a swamp. This… this!”

They brought the torch closer.

The three of them may never forget the scene that unfolded before their eyes.

“Those are corpses!”

“Keu, heub.”

Oriental Bird barely held back his nausea and averted his eyes. Countless corpses of spiders and bats scattered on the floor.

The corpses of the monsters had turned grey but did not disappear yet because they had not been dead for a long time.

However, the situation was the same wherever they turned their heads. Although it was small, the area that the torch lit up was quite large…

The ground reached by the light was littered with the fluids from bats and spiders. In order to reach this kind of result, hundreds of monsters would be required.

“Baaarf,  Baaaarf-arf-arf-!”

In the end, Oriental Bird was not able to hold it

in and started vomiting. Did the devil go here?

What happened?

Paduk, Paduduk-!

They suddenly heard the sound of bat wings.

One, two, three… the sound of flapping grew louder and louder, and it began to reverberate throughout the forest like a storm.

“Oh? Ohh? What’s this?”

And they soon realized… This forest was where a huge amount of bats resided. But they never saw them when they came in. And the countless corpses on the ground, what if these corpses died at the same time?

“What? Are you crazy? What the-! Why are there so many?!”

“Ah, f-fuck. Oriental Bird! Oriental Bird-nim!

Cast your magic, quick!”

It was natural for the monsters to respawn at the same time. There were a lot of monsters.

“Spiders! Spiders are also coming down! Three above!”

The two archers shot their arrows in retaliation. But they were flustered because it didn’t even go near the monsters.

“Oriental Bird-nim!”

“Baaaarf.”

Oriental Bird was vomiting nonstop and couldn’t cast.

“Kuaak, spiders, spiders!”

“I couldn’t even hit the bats, so why are there spiders?!”

West of Aelstock, the Lightless Forest.

Three strangers, relying on a small torch, entered the depths and were swept by a huge number of bats and spiders respawning at the same time.

Hey, fucking Bird!!! Use your magic!!!!

Pop, Only an angry scream remained in place.

(To be continued…)