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The great forest of Waldestein appeared like any other typical rainforest at the first glance. But the creatures that live here have nothing typical about them. From carnivorous plants that could swallow a person whole, to insects which were built like mini tanks and beasts which were so deadly that T-Rex would look like a chicken before them. There were hidden dangers too, such as creatures having poison so potent, one sniff of it would send a rihno to king Yama. There were fungi whose spores floated about, in search of any warm bodied creatures that lacked protection and once landing on their bodies, immediately began growing into them, sucking their bodies to death within hours. The magical beasts which could destroy entire towns were also seen roaming around every now and then. The terrain itself also had natural traps such as sinkholes which could pop up anywhere. It was no surprise then, that only the exceptionally brave and the ridiculously stupid ventured into these woods.
Add, had realized on the first few days, just how deadly and difficult this place was. So instead of continuing on foot he chose to stay inside the Crusader, to ensure he was not caught unprepared. This Mech was the best defence he currently had. The Crusader itself had to be modified slightly to enable it to move through the dense forest more easily. The rotary cannon on the right arm was replaced by a power fist, which was basically a large mechanical hand, designed to punch with a two ton force behind it. It could also grab things which did not require delicate handling. The missile pod above its right shoulder had been replaced with a 50mm plasma cannon, for ranged attacks. All of these modifications were done by Add himself, which was quite the effort as the weapons weighed in the tons. The lumbering machine moved steadily through the forest, its chain-sword cutting down trees and beasts alike, while the power fist crushed anything that got too close for comfort.
But if one looked closely, they could see that there was a figure sitting on top of the mech. It was a girl, who appeared to be in her twenties. She was dressed in white clothes which along with her white hair and skin made her look like a sculpture. Only her occasional movements, made to keep herself steady as the mech shook, revealed that she was not a statue, but rather a living being. The said girl in question was frowning as she lamented her fate, her otherwise beautiful face twisted in helplessness and self pity. Her two slender hands occasionally reached for the metallic collar like object placed around her neck, but would stop right before touching it, every time. And for those who have not recognised her yet, this was the Arachne that had tried to kill Add, and then had herself been almost killed by another magical beast.
"Sigh… How did this queen end up in such a pathetic state…", she lamented.
The answer to her question comes from what happened after Add had killed the Laika Stone serpent.
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"What do you want human ?"
The Arachne asked, her tone one of resignation.
"Do you want to kill me and have revenge on me for trying to kill you?"
The human stayed quiet for some time, she did not have any clue what he was thinking. Suddenly, he placed this rifle on her forehead, finger on the trigger. She had seen him using this thing to kill the spiders, and although she did not know what it was, what she did know was that it was a fearsome weapon. Though something even more deadly stood behind him.
"You want to know what I want? Right now, what I really want is to crush you like a bug under the feet of my Crusader. You and your spider buddies have been trying to kill me for a while now and because of that I am really, really tempted to blow off your head, and burn all of your buddies to cinders and be done with it."
His detached voice which did not have any anger or rage in it, shook her to the core for some reason.
"The only thing that is stopping me from doing that and turning you and your friends into dead bugs is the fact I see some use in keeping you alive; for now. Do you understand me?"
She glared at him hatefully and stayed silent. It was true that she was completely helpless now, badly wounded and in no shape to resist; completely at his mercy. This was the law of the jungle; the weak could only bow before the strong. When she had first seen this human she thought that he was the prey and she was the predator, but now the roles had completely reversed! She had tried to kill him first but now it was her life that was on the balance.
"I will take your silence as a yes then. I will give you two choices. First, become my servant and you can live. Second, refuse to submit and die. If you choose the second option however, I will make sure you suffer before you die. The choice is up to you, think over it carefully."
"Impossible! This queen shall never bow before you filthy human!"
She roared in rage. How could a proud and mighty queen like her become the servant of a human? She really wanted to rip his throat out and feast on his blood at this moment, yet she was completely unable to.
"Really now? Is that your answer?"
He asked again, his tone now brimming with killing intent that really scared the Arachne. She felt that this human before her had no care for life, and killing was as simple as breathing for him. Even many other monsters and magical beasts she had seen, did not give her this feeling, his words sent chilled her down to her core. The last bits of pride began falling part inside her mind, as the basic instinct to survive took over. A part of her still wanted to resist, but she had no strength left to even stand or defend herself, much less try and fight with him. The Arachne knew very well that although the human appeared weak and unremarkable, his mysterious methods and the creature that could kill the Laika Stone Serpent without taking any damage were not something she could hope to win against even at her prime. She herself stood no chance if the same things were used against her. The Arachne was struggling with herself. She did not want to die, and she also did not want to become the servant of a human. But life was not easy and she could only choose one option.
"Well then I have no need to waste my time any further."
Add readied his rifle and prepared to shoot. The Arachne, realised that her time was up as she felt the cold touch of death on her forehead, her final moment was here. Gathering all her will power she shouted out, her voice cracking due to her emotions,
"Very well! If that's what fate wishes, then this queen shall accept it! Human! This queen shall accept your condition!"
"Oh? You get to live then. For now."
Add was honestly surprised. Here he was sure that she would choose death over servitude, but her desire to live won over her pride at the end. He removed the rifle from her head and took out another item from the inventory. It was a round metal collar, used mainly on dangerous criminals. This collar had a built in tracker which would keep transmitting the location of the person it was on. It was made of very tough metal and, its lock was very difficult to open. In case the person wanted to break it off, it had a explosive filler strong enough which would blow if the collar was tampered with. Essentially, it was a mechanical equivalent of a slavery collar used in Iseria which use magic to keep slaves under control. He attached it around her neck and locked it with a key. He also wore a small bracelet that came with the collar, which tracked his vital signs.
"Let me make things clear for you. First, from now on you will obey all my orders no matter what they may be. If you don't, well let's just that say it won't end well for you. I have many ways of making people suffer, believe me."
"Second, if you try to take that collar off with your strength, it will blow up with enough force to kill you instantly. You are welcome to try if you doubt me."
"Third, this collar is connected to me. The moment I die, it will explode and you will die with me, so I suggest you do not try to kill me, unless you are ready to die. And on that note, you best make sure that I am not killed by any random creatures out there as well, for both of our sakes."
"Am I clear?"
The Arachne remained silent. After hearing all that, she was barely holding herself back from attacking him then and there.
"Am I clear?"
Add repeated again, his tone getting colder. The Arachne finally nodded her head.
"That's better…"
He then turned his attention to her wounds. Now that she was his sla- *cough* servant *cough*, he had to at least ensure that she was in top condition at all times. A dead servant was not a very helpful servant after all. He observed her wounds for some time and then looked around for a suitable medicine in the system shop which could heal all her wounds. He had basically no need for medicine unless it was something really serious thanks to his modified body. But the Arachne clearly did not have that benefit. Although she could also regenerate her damaged body parts like many insects could, in her current state she would probably not last another day without medical attention.
After some searching, he found a healing medicine called 'Regeneration Serum'. This was a light blue liquid with a sweet smell, and once ingested it could heal mortal wounds as well as re-grow lost limbs and body parts. But it was very very costly, at 1 million CP a bottle. He purchased 5 bottles of it, considering the Arachne's size and then also purchased some hyper saturated nutrient solutions. He had learnt from the system that all healing serums drew nutrients from the body to heal wounds. If the body was very weak, the healing serums would also lose most of their effect. So the body had to have all the necessary nutrients so that the serums could function properly.
"Drink this."
He walked over to and offered her the nutrient solution, but the Arachne was unmoving and did not respond, only looking at him hatefully. Add frowned and his expression hardened at her blatant disregard of his words.
"Either you drink this yourself or I swear I am going to shove a dozen bottles of this down your throat myself. Choose." He threatened.
"You…."
"I sincerely suggest that you do not test my patience…"
The Arachne was speechless, she felt so angry and hateful towards him, but looking at his expression she understood that he really would do what he said. Reluctantly she took the bottle from Add and began inspecting it. The glass bottle had a slightly viscous liquid which was milky white in colour, the amount was not a lot, just 200 ml, as stated by the system. She tried to smell it but the smell was faint and did not resemble anything she had known before. She turned to look at Add whose face was as deadpan as ever, waiting for her to drink it. She had no other choice but to brace herself and drink it, however the moment she took a gulp her expression scrunched up, the liquid seemed to be tasteless ye at the same time had a strange taste as well, on that her taste buds could not recognise. With some difficulty she swallowed the mouthful and then shouted at Add…
"What is this tasteless thing!? What have you made this queen drink filthy human!?"
As usual he ignored her words, and stood there, looking at her silently. Left with no other choice she forcefully drank the contents of the bottle and then threw it away. Once she had drunk it, Add passed her the other bottles and had her drink all of them as well. By the 5th bottle, the Arachne was wondering whether the human was feeding her poison or simply torturing her. When she had drunk all of those, he gave her the bottles of Regeneration Serum. However, much to the Arachne's surprise, the liquid in these bottles was rather sweet and fragrant and she even had a slight desire to drink more.
After drinking all those serums, the Arachne suddenly felt warmth spreading through her entire body. At first she felt threatened and was preparing to have a life or death battle with Add, but soon she was greatly surprised. He many wounds began closing at a visible rate, and the pain was vanishing as well. The many cracks in her carapace were also closing and what shocked here even more, was that her two legs which had be torn by the snake, had also began growing back! She watched in disbelief as within minutes all her wounds were healed, and she was feeling very healthy and full of energy. But she was not going to thank the human for this.
Add on his part was also appreciating the Regeneration Serum, it worked faster than he had expected. However, the price still felt a lot, although he himself had a regeneration skill, if he could find a way to produce these serums by himself, then that would be very advantageous to the Red Army. Putting those thoughts aside, he continued…
"With that out of the way, let me introduce myself. My name is Adolf Kaiser Weismann, Marshal of the Soviet Union. You shall refer to me as Add, unless I say otherwise. Do you understand?"
The Arachne was unable to understand over half of the words he said, she only really understood his name. Still, she nodded lightly not wanting to bicker with this strange human. The hate for Add in her heart had diminished by a tiny portion, since he healed her wounds and now that she thought properly about it, he had actually saved her life even if it was for his own purposes. And given that she had tied to capture him earlier and her spiders had tried to kill him, it was already very generous of him to spare her.
"Well then, you should introduce yourself as well."
At his urging, she hesitated for a while, she was a proud Arachne and liked to refer to herself as the queen. Finally she gave in and spoke lightly,
"Sylvia, that is this queen's name."
"Well then Sylvia, I will cut to the chase. Your main job will be to help me defeat my enemies and protect me at all times. You cannot reveal anything about me to anyone, unless I say so. Aside from that, you will have to obey my orders to the best of your ability. Is it clear?"
The Arachne, Sylvia, nodded in agreement. With this, he had gained a strong partner, a King class Magical Beast was a very strong force to have. Now that the contract was preventing her from harming him in any way, Add did not have to worry about her trying to kill him. He then thought of her large size which made him concerned. Her appearance was okay in the forest, but he intended to have her follow him back to Rigel and having a magical beast follow him into a town was not the wisest idea.
"Can you do something about your appearance? I have no problems with how you look, but it's just that a large body is more of a target in others' eyes."
Sylvia was dissatisfied with his words, but she did not say anything. She closed her eyes and focused her mana. A bright light covered her body, making Add unable to see what was going on. Within the light, her body greatly shrunk in size, and when the light vanished, a very different Sylvia was standing before him.
"How beautiful…"
Add subconsciously muttered. Sylvia's appearance had not changed too much, her upper body was still the same, but her lower spider body had been replaced by a pair of long and slender milky white legs. As she already had the natural look of an elf with the long ears and everything, now she completely looked like an Elf. Her one piece dress exposed a lot of her fair and plump thighs, her pure beauty complemented by her hourglass figure was enough to make the toughest of men fall in ruin. Perhaps this was what the old legends meant by a "beauty that could cause wars". If her previous appearance as an Arachne was that of a noble and proud queen, she now looked like the manifestation of a dream. Add had enough control over himself and quickly got accustomed to her new appearance. Hearing his faint complement Sylvia felt a bit proud, 'humph at least you have eyes..' she thought.
This was not too surprising, as mana was something that beyond all scientific sense. In fact, certain species of magical beasts could take a complete humanoid appearance. When in a humanoid form, a magical beast's overall strength dropped greatly, however it was much harder for others to identify them and this allowed them to blend easily within other races. As such, said magical beasts who could, took humanoid forms often, some taking the appearance of humans, others of Were beasts etc.
Afterwards, he made Sylvia dissect the Serpent's corpse, even in her humanoid form, her physical strength was not weaker than him. He stored its scales, each the size of a human palm, were very tough and could be used to make good armour. She also retrieved the mana core of the serpent and reluctantly handed it over to him. Her troop of spiders which had originally numbered in the thousands, now were left with a few hundred. She decided to let them go, as they were no longer as useful to her in these small numbers. As for her future, she could only hope that her life would not get any worse.
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It had been three days already since then, and as a result of everything that followed, the Arachne had her status reduced from being the queen of spiders to, a slave of a human. Her main job was to sit on top of the Crusader, and guide Add through an headset microphone he had given her, while he himself stayed inside the relative safety of the crusader. This was the main reason why Add had saved her, he needed a knowledgeable guide who knew this forest well. Sylvia could speak the human language, and she had spent her whole life here, which made her a good choice for a guide. Also, to a certain extent he was reluctant to watch such a beautiful creature die so miserably.
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