"Come on, spidey... If you don't attack me, how am I going to collect the Ruby Spider Silk from you?" Technos lured the Ruby Spider on purpose. From the moment he came into this Zone 4 forest for the second time, only six Ruby Spiders took the initiative to attack him without any caution.
But the longer the students hunt the spiders, the more sensitive they're against the human. With an average of 20gm Ruby Spider Silk is obtainable from their body, each student will need to hunt over 500 Ruby Spiders to pass this test.
Although the report says that estimated 2 Ruby Broodmother and 600 Ruby Spiders roams around this zone, it doesn't mean they're only this much inside the forest. With each hunter the caught, at least four hundred to a thousand eggs of the Ruby Spiders can hatch from using their body as the living egg sac.
Worst of all, the Ruby Spider Eggs possess an unusual characteristic to preserve their numbers, where they don't need to be incubated before hatching. Which means, for the sake of obtaining more resources such as the Ruby Spider Silk, they sacrifice some people that were useless to them.
The deeper he went, the worst the situation become. On his way from outside until now, Technos walked past three human corpses, with the holes throughout their body due to the aggressive outsiders crawling out from inside the body.
Based on how terrible is the condition of their corpses, at least three thousand Ruby Spiders is hatched from this three bodies, and it's three thousand more Ruby Spiders inside of this forest. The more he thinks about this matter, the more he felt nauseous from the cruelty came from both sides.
"Shua!" one of the Ruby Spiders cannot hold itself any longer. Attacking like how the humongous Ruby Broodmother does, the small Ruby Spider tried its luck. But facing against a weapon that able to cut through the Ruby Broodmother's carapace, the little spider is fated to meet its end.
A slash from Technos cut the Ruby Spider into two. Incites by the dying cry from the spider, all of the spiders went berserk. Fangs are everywhere as they lunged themselves into the fight. But with a set of Old World Steel armor on his body, it was nothing to be worried about.
All he needs is to protect the joints from getting attacked.
As their number begins to grow much more, Technos know it was time to leave. He won't feel overwhelmed even if fifty Ruby Spiders attacking him at the same time, but he will feel threatened and exhaustion if a swarm of spiders attacks him without a break in between.
Even the most fearless hunter will yield to the enemies in a battle of numbers. Retreating in a moderate speed, Technos utilize most of his fighting skills in protecting his body from being attacked by the spider's fangs. But no matter how careful is one when fighting against a group, a wrong move will still happen.
Two strands from the Ruby Spider's webspinner attached themselves on his sword and pulled it with the force of two spiders, but luckily Technos cleared most of the closer opponents before he paid attention against the two spiders in a tug-of-war battle.
"Shua!" another Ruby Spider strikes from the top. Failure to utilize his sword in the fight, Technos heavily swings this fist to deliver the spider aside. But without any expectation from both side, the Pulse appeared a little differently this time.
When his Elon Bracer hits the Ruby Spider, a pulse of vibration struck the body as he delivered it far away from where he stands. The Ruby Spider did not turn furious from the throw, but instead, fall dead from that mere strike.
"That pulse is so deadly?" it shocks him for a moment before the Tug-of-War against the two Ruby Spiders took his attention away. The Flying Knife came out from his waist and cut off the two strings. The sudden loss of stability overturned the two, but Technos that prepared earlier did not face this kind of disruption.
"Too bad I'm not strong enough, or else, I can milk them by force." Technos jokes all by himself and lands his killing strike at the two spiders. With two more dead in this location alone, no Ruby Spiders dare to approach him anymore.
It was an opportunity to catch his breath. They may have retreated, but that doesn't mean there will be no attack as long he stays here. When the Ruby Spiders eventually caught the fact he's exhausted, their next attack will be fiercer than he can expect.
With the confirmation of 400gm Ruby Spider Silk in his Right Elon Bracer, Technos left the spot and returned closer to the exit of the forest. The pulse that found nothing except a few random Green Crystal Grasses and Ruby Spiders released two pulses without notification.
"What the!" Technos retreated. Over a hundred spider silk threads are fired on the ground he stands earlier. Looking at the crowd of over two to three hundred Ruby Spiders just before the exit of the forest, Technos understood the fact he was trapped inside this Zone 4 Forest.
Without further ado, he considered his option at this moment, but frantic footsteps came into his sensitive hearing and revealed a student escaping from three Ruby Spider's pursuit. From how he trapped the sword in his underarm, the possibility of him poisoned by the spider is high.
"Stop running toward the exit! There's... SHUA!!!" he tried to finish his words, but the cries from a hundred spiders drown his voice from reaching the student. Without hearing any warning from Technos, the student headed right into the spot Technos stands earlier and caught by the spider threads.
Without any difficulties, the spiders wrapped him into a human cocoon before the Ruby Spiders with the bigger thorax came to lay their eggs inside his body. Minutes pass like hours. When their objection is completed, the student started to struggle. A traumatizing voice came out from his mouth to share his pain to the world.
Soon, the recently born Ruby Spiders started to crawl out from his skin and flesh. This left his blood flow through the spider thread and dripped on the ground. It takes less than twenty minutes for at least nine hundred Ruby Spiders to come born from his body.
Worst, this location is at the exit of the forest! If the Ruby Spiders is launching a surprise attack at the Dominus Fortress, can they defend in this short notice? Technos understand the importance, and even by risking his life, he took out the Volatile Substance and poured on the tree beside him and lit a spark using the flint.
The fire he caused spreads quickly due to the existence of spider threads. Smoke raised up into the sky, and that gave the guards protecting the Dominus Fortress a heads up in any surprise attack. As he expected, this human-made alarm allowed the guards to be ready for an attack.
"Shua! Shua!" a swarm of over two hundred matured Ruby Spiders and five hundred newly hatched Ruby Spiders charged toward the Fortress Wall. But for the well-trained guards, this amount of enemies is too little to make their confidence falter.
Borrowing the gap to get out from the West Wall, Human soldiers aligned themselves in a row of two hundred men long, and two feet long Three-headed Spears is delivered down from the Guard Post to each of them. When all of them are equipped with the weapon, it was a wall of two hundred guards.
Each of them holds the Three-headed Spears like forming a barricade, borrowing the strength from the ground to stabilized their weapon when it hits their targets. In a flash, Six hundred spearheads aimed at the incoming Ruby Spiders.
"Strike!" the leader of guards ordered. With the spears lowered to around 35 degrees height, it skewered the Ruby Spiders together to create six hundred Spider Skewers. Only a simple collision is all they need to take out seven hundred Ruby Spiders.
"So amazing!" the sight of how a group of human slaughter the monsters is always a great sight to look at no matter at what occasion.
After a portion of his fatigue is gone, Technos went into the forest once more to collect as much silk as he could. When they sky turn dark, Technos left the forest. Returning to the Fortress once again, he noticed that the corpses piled outside of the Fortress are cleaned and processed.
Inside his house, Technos dropped another pile of 2100gm of Ruby Spider Silk, making his total amount is 3560gm now. With only 7440gm left in his total hunting target, Technos went for a rest. And as usual, the light that circled the top and bottom of the Elon Bracer appeared once again, like absorbing the moonlight which comes only at night.
In the next morning, Technos repeated his action again. With more experience in hunting the Ruby Spiders, his progress increased. By now, he collected at least over 8000gm of the Ruby Spider Silk, with only 2000gm more to go before he completed the task.
Trying to make this attempt his last before attending his class tomorrow, Technos equipped himself much proper than before. Accidentally, he remembered that he's yet to put the Ruby Spider Venom and the Ruby Scarab Shell Powder together to try crafting Blood Rejuvenation Stimulant Vial.
As he was quite wealthy at this moment, Technos face no issue to test a vial of the Blood Rejuvenation Stimulant Vial. But after he tried and nothing happened, he was quite disappointed. But understanding that this might not be the correct way to utilize the stimulant, he went into the forest once again.
He guessed that in this two day's task, at least five students sacrifice themselves to complete the mission. Heading into the Zone 4 Forest once more, Technos started his hunt again. And from so many experiences in hunting, their tricks no longer startled him.
Hunting them like usual, he increased his number of silk in collection steadily before he finally completed the 20 pounds of Ruby Spider Silk is gathered. But when he prepared to leave, something else came forward to stop him.
"Weng..." the pulse spreads. The sudden incoming information brings him to sweat.
"How... How can this be? Why so many Red Ruby Champions appeared in Zone 4 without a hint of them coming before?" their sudden appearance startled him. It might be nothing to be surrounded by a group of Ruby Spiders, but the feeling of surrounded by a group of champions is different.
"ROAR!" all of them aimed their attention on one target, Technos.
"Why am I become their target out of sudden? And where did they come from?" Technos quickly prepared himself to open an escape route. What he did not realize is his back is filled with blood. It wasn't because of injury, but because he was sweating blood!
Technos charged. His first attack aimed at the lone Red Ruby Champion closer to an exit. With the sword prepared to swing at the best moment, Technos charged with his top speed. Startled with his firm decision to attack, the Red Ruby Champion retaliates.
"ROAR!" A pair of jaw opened wide to face against Medan-Material Short Sword! When the two clashed with each another, Technos landed a deep cut on his opponent's skull but failed to make it a decisive attack. Still, it brings him the open window of opportunity to escape.
Chasing from behind, over twenty Red Ruby Champions roaring at the human. A hundred meters away from where he stands before, Technos path is blocked by another Red Ruby Champion. The pulse from Elon Bracer informed him there was sixty Red Ruby Champion encircling him.
"Why am I surrounded by so many Red Ruby Champion? The Holy Tree of Champion is very far from where we're!" Technos keep questioning himself with this question. But no matter how many time he asked, no answer pops up from his mind.
Worst, everyone is keeping themselves far from Technos to not caught into handling his problem. Chased by so many Red Ruby Champion, he doesn't even have a time of leisure to think about other stuff. Escaping from Zone 4 to Zone 2, he tries to preserve his stamina to make sure he had enough energy to continue running.
Even in his wildest dream, he will never think that what is happening is all caused by the Blood Rejuvenation Stimulant Vial. The reason for their action?
How can monsters hunger for blood not sensing the fragrance comes from a piece of bloody meat? It was all caused by his clothing that smeared with his bloody sweat!
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[Author's Note]
Oh well... I know it seems disgusting, but what this is what novel is for! How can a person undergoes blood rejuvenation moment to not appear as a piece of fresh meat?