Following Deimos's speech, the players charged directly to the warehouse to collect the basic equipment that the system had mentioned to them, but to their surprise, they didn't find what they expected.
"What is this garbage? "
"Everything is broken or rusty"
"Well, what did you expect from something free?"
"Appearance doesn't matter, but what are its stats?"
The welcome gift that Deimos and Abaddon had prepared for the players was nothing more than the abandoned equipment that the previous owner of the fortress had left behind.
Some were excited to get their first weapon and others were disappointed, the players discussed and celebrated taking the equipment they wanted while Deimos, thanks to the help of Abaddon, could observe the players even if he was not present.
After taking the gear, the players left the fortress and except for a few who left the town area on their own, practically all the players began to gather in the square, which surprised Deimos.
"How strange, I'm not saying it's wrong but I thought that the players will behave in a less organized way"
"What were you expecting?" Replied Abaddon, who explained that all the beta testers are relatively experienced players or with connections to DawnGrape.
So as Deimos chatted with Abaddon as he watched from afar, the players soon fell silent and looked at one who stood on some rubble to stand out.
"Well folks I'll make it short, I'm AWellInformedGoblin and from what I saw, several here recognize me for my guides and information compilations and I can identify several players and content creators, so I suppose that most of us have experience in this
I want to organize the players in groups to explore the surroundings and collect information while preventing all beta testers from going to the same area, if you want to participate, please stay here, if not, you can go"
Eventually, several players left with their own groups and some approached Deimos, who began to ask him things like his age, the history of the place, his tastes, and others, by the time Deimos turned his gaze to the group of players, there was no more anyone but a couple of players lying on the floor of the plaza who had lost all their equipment
...
"Well that was better than expected, thanks for joining me Strawberry"
"No problem Goblin, but why did you have to choose the spiders?"
One of the players who followed AWellInformedGoblin complained along with 6 other players as they advanced along a road to the west of the territory
"There was no other option, I had to leave Moneybag the wolves to the south and those who took the undead from the north had with them a geology and materials engineer so it was also necessary to let them go to the mines to the east, so that-"
"I know, I know, everything to collect the most reliable information, you don't have to repeat it"
"Don't worry, Strawberry is just spiders, we've killed thousands of them in other games"
"Do not forget that in all those games they were behind a monitor"
Following similar conversations, the group continued on their way until they approached the forest that the mission had indicated.
"Well guys just a little more"
Said one of the group members who started running to be the first to arrive.
While sprinting he could clearly hear the sound of dry leaves breaking under his feet and tree branches moving slightly, causing him to start feeling a bit nervous for no reason which caused him to stop and wait for the others to arrive next to him.
As the group got closer they could hear in addition to their footsteps the cawing of some crows, this caused the feeling of unease to spread throughout the group.
"{Glup} W-well, we're here ... without a doubt, we can say that this is the spider forest"
In front of the group was a forest whose trees rose to ten meters high and their trunks were up to two meters in diameter, a light mist covered the ground and when looking into the forest they could see clear arches of cobwebs which covered the trees forming narrow corridors.
Seeing that, the group looked at each other without knowing how to respond until one of them, a little annoyed at the situation, reacted.
"Damn, they're just spiders, so what are they all getting nervous about?"
"Gron, I don't think it's a good idea to -"
Without giving him time to finish speaking, soon several rattles could be heard from the forest and a group of five half-meter spiders came out of the treetops and upon seeing the group screeched in anticipation.
"Haha I told you, there is nothing to worry about, they are not even that big" Said Gron with a laugh to calm his nerves as he prepared his rusty ax.
Knowing that they had no choice but to fight if they wanted to explore the surroundings, the group got into a formation in a double arc as they practice before with 5 on the vanguard and 3 on the rearguard...
Seeing that the spiders were anxiously walking from one side to another on the edge of the forest without wanting to leave, the group advanced slowly, and when they were 10 meters from them one of the spiders could not bear it anymore and charged against the group soon followed by the other
Surprised by the speed of the spiders, the group took a few seconds to react, but it was long enough for the first spider to get close enough to jump on the unfortunate Gron, who despite waving his ax, failed to hit the spider and was knocked down by the spider.
"Ghaa, get it off me, get it off me!"
Luckily for him, Strawberry and Baguette who were in the rear managed to impale the spider with their spears, breaking one in the process.
"My spear!"
"Now is not the time to complain Strawberry and Gron, get up quickly we need help" shouted AWellInformedGoblin, who was supporting the vanguard which had managed to resist the onslaught of the four remaining spiders.
"Damn, I could feel its hair all over my face, it will pay for it"
After complaining, Gron got up and after picking up his ax, began to crush the corpse of the spider that had knocked him down.
"By God Gron, leave that and help the rest,"
Strawberry said, who had approached to try to recover the broken tip of her spear while pointing at the group which had managed to kill one more spider thanks to the coordination of AWellInformedGoblin.
Gron turned to face the rest of the group and gave the spider corpse one last kick, charged at the three remaining spiders, unfortunately for him when he was getting closer, he tripped over a small ditch.
Seeing one of his prey on the ground, two of the spiders pounced on Gron who, being face down, could not defend himself and was promptly impaled by the spiders' pointed legs, killing him.
While that was happening Mint mountain with Baguette finished off the third spider and together with the rest of the group they could see how the spiders had begun to drag Gron's corpse into the forest.
Luckily for him, the two little spiders didn't manage to carry him too far when the remaining seven members of the group caught up with them and promptly finished them off.
"... At least the game meets realism," Said baguette who uncomfortably saw the wounds on Gron and the spiders "How they even managed to pass the standards with this violence"
"They don't need it, it's a beta, remember? But let's leave that for later, what do we do with Gron?"
Mint mountains asked as he directed his gaze to AWellInformedGoblin which he could only deny saying he didn't know.
He told them that they only had to take his equipment and returning to the city they would give it to him, more when he approached a window appeared in front of him
*********
Downed player
Since you are out of combat it is possible to revive the player and recover his wounds for only 3 essence.
Current Essence: 7
*********
This surprised AWellInformedGoblin who told the rest of the group about the performance and promptly confirmed it.
With this, a light colorless mist came out of AWellInformedGoblin covering Grong's corpse, which after a few seconds began to move and got up without saying anything.
"Are you okay Gron?"
"No ... I can still feel the hairs from its legs on my body ..." after that Gron yelled and started kicking the spiders, which made the group laugh and the atmosphere a little light.
After that, they gathered the corpses of the 3 spiders in relatively good condition and waited while Strawberry and Mint Mountain applied first aid to the members of the group who were injured.
After a few minutes Baguette asked how long it would take to give them to disappear and give them the loot to which no one answered, seeing this AWellInformedGoblin sighed
"Although we would not want it to be like that, it is most likely with the level of realism… Does anyone have experience dissecting things?"
After hearing that, Strawberry raised her hand a little disgusted since she knew what they were about to ask her "I can do it, although in medical school they only taught us a few things"
Seeing that someone else could do it, both Mint mountains and Gron raised their hands as well.
"I can help, in the army, they taught us the anatomy of various animals that mutated in the past century"
"Unlike Mountain, I only have some knowledge since my father owns several butcher shops in the city"
"I see that it is useful, Strawberry, Gron you two are responsible to dissect the spiders since you have practical experience, Mountain can you help them in case they are similar to the mutated insects in the real world?"
"It's fine"
"In the meantime, we will be lighting a fire"
After that, following the instructions of Mint Mountain, they began to dissect the spider.
"From what Strawberry said, she does not have experience with anything other than humans or frogs I suppose, and you Gron?"
"The closest thing has been crabs"
"That will do, the first thing is to separate the extremities from the base of the cephalothorax breaking between the coxa and the trochanter leaving the femur alone"
"Eh?"
"It basically rips the legs off the chest you musclehead"
"Oh, okay thanks Berry"
"Don't get distracted, well ... this way we can separate it more easily and even if we only need from the tibia downwards, this way it will be easier to transport them, after that, it is to check if they have venom sacks and extract the silk glands"
"How do we do it?"
"We cannot tear off the injector appendages as they are connected to the sacks so the most reliable thing is to remove the eyes and from there dig carefully"
"..."
"What happens?"
"{sigh} you don't usually ask someone to scratch the meat of anything so calmly"
"I see, forgive me, they taught me that this was the most efficient way to separate the glands without damaging it"
No, it's okay, I guess it won't be as different as boning any other animal. "
"Spiders are invertebrates"
"I know ... {sigh} we better continue, how can we extract the silk gland?"
"Through the anus, start by splitting it at the bottom and following the ducts you should be able to find it easily"
"..." "..."
Meanwhile, the group lit a bonfire to ward off the fog and cold while they waited for the group to finish dissecting the spiders and in complete silence, they soon heard a dry sound and the leaves of the trees moved rapidly as a scream drifted away.
"Help!"
"Shit, guys, they got John."
Shout AWellInformedGoblin who along with Baguette and the other two members of the group observed the trail that John had left while he was dragged into the forest.
This surprised the rest of the group who left the spiders to see what had happened, seeing that they had dragged one of the members they began to discuss what to do.
"What the hell was he doing?"
"He was gathering some wood when he suddenly fell and was dragged, maybe he got caught in a web and the spiders pulled him?"
"I'm not sure but it seems to be that"
"Then what do we do"
Hearing Gron's question the members looked to AWellInformedGoblin waiting for answers which after considering a few seconds decided that they should go into the forest to look for John.
This annoyed several members of the group a bit since they did not want to die uselessly, which AWellInformedGoblin saw and reminded them that from the beginning the plan was to enter the forest to explore it and that they could not abandon John.
Reaching a consensus, the group at the suggestion of Mint Mountain prepared some simple torches by splitting some branches in four, filling them with resin from the trees, and covering them with some green herbs from the surroundings.
Prepared, the group now of seven began to advance in line through the silk corridors in the forest making their way with the fire which burned the cobwebs slightly.
This confused the group a bit since all the cobwebs in the surroundings must have been burned completely and not just a little part of it.
"Remember that no matter how realistic we are in a game, perhaps the developers made it this way with the excuse of not overloading the server, it also makes sense that it has some property that prevents the fire from spreading, if not this forest with all these cobwebs it would have burned long ago"
The further they went into the forest the group began to hear less and less noise until they only heard their footsteps and their own breathing.
Following the trail left by John, the group reached a part where the trees make a natural narrow passage causing the group to be forced to cross between the trees walking sideways, when they finally managed to cross the corridor they realized that something was wrong.
"Wait, where is Baguette and the other two?"
"Weren't they behind you?"
"Yes Mountain, that's why I ask, when I turned around there was no one" {clank} "Haa, what was that noise, Baguette, it's not fun get out of there"
"That sounded like metal..."
"Maybe other players, they must be in danger, Goblin we should-"
Shouted Strawberry while she turned to talk to AWellInformedGoblin, but when she turned around there was only Gron and a lit torch on the ground, both AWellInformedGoblin and Mint Mountain had disappeared without a trace.
This left Strawberry speechless, which caused a confused Gron to look to see that the other two had disappeared, nervous about the situation which had quickly deteriorated he approached to take the torch on the ground telling Strawberry that the best thing to do at that moment was to get out of that place to which Strawberry readily accepted.
Coming back down the same tree corridor the two remaining members hurried as they heard the treetops move more and more, soon Strawberry managed to get out but Gron who was a few meters from exiting the corridor, slip because one of the rotten rods of a hollow tree and end up falling into the hole while letting out a dry scream
Hearing the scream quickly getting away pointing to the depth of the tree hole, Strawberry knew or rather convinced herself that she could not do anything for Gron and turned around she began to run arriving after a few minutes at the outskirts of the forest where she could hear again the sounds of crows and some small insects.
Falling to her knees and trembling she regained her breath but when she tried to get up she had no strength in her legs and she began to feel a little dizzy, looking around she could see that the sun was beginning to go down leaving about 3 more hours of light and she remembered that since they entered the game, they had not eaten or drunk anything.
"It must be because I turned off sensitivity that I don't feel hungry, I should- {shkys}"
Being interrupted by several screeches which petrified her, Strawberry could only stay still while she heard multiple pairs of footsteps approaching from her back which began to surround her, she could observe from the corner of her eye several black figures of more than two meters in height approaching her.
Without strength in her legs and feeling a presence behind her, Strawberry could only curse as she looked up only to find two large fangs which extended ready to attack.
"Goblin! That's why I didn't want the spiders! "
After that, both fangs closed on her causing her consciousness to fall into darkness for a few seconds until she appeared in a translucent form next to her body where she could see four giant spiders drag her body into the forest, sighing she chose to appear in the city spending half of the essence that she had managed to accumulate.
...
Already in the city seven of the eight members had met to discuss what had happened, explaining how first they were pulled from holes in the trees in the narrow corridor or how when leaving the corridor, they stepped on some nets that drag them to the top of the trees where after being wrapped in cobwebs the game judged that they had died in combat saving them the discomfort of being trapped.
"With me, it was something similar, I managed to get out of the forest but just after I lost the strength in my legs, I suppose it was from hunger and thirst since I felt a bit dizzy, after that, a group of spiders four times larger than those we faced before caught me and I suppose you can make the rest"
"I see ... I guess those little spiders are just hatchlings ... by the way, where is Gron?"
"I don't know, when we were going down the corridor he slipped off a root and fell into a hole. I suppose he must have died and left the game, I remember he said he had things to do in real life in a couple of hours while we dissected the spiders."
"Well, I will wait for Moneybag group, those who went to the mines seem to have returned, I'll go talk to them"
After that, AWellInformedGoblin separated himself from the group that had decided to go to dig the ditch around the fortress to gain a bit of essence before disconnecting to approach the leader of the group who to his surprise had lost his equipment.
"Old knife what happened? Did the undead give you trouble? "
"Ah Goblin, it's you, no, the undead were not a problem, although we met some relatively stronger ones, it was simple, one of the boys must have sent the summary of that by mail already"
"I see, thanks, but then why did almost everyone lose their equipment?"
"Well, it was Goblin Slayer's fault."
"He wasn't the geology and materials expert? What happened?"
"Well, after hunting the Undead we reach the mines where there are goblins who were mining the minerals and taking them to the depths of the same, they are not so complicated to kill, the only thing we could really loot from them were their loincloths and some pickaxes that we could not use when we tried to use them, they slipped from our hands"
"I see, I suppose it was some monsters hidden by the development team, that or they still do not add missions for them ... but still, you said they were not a threat, so how did all of you die?"
"I already told you, the mines were infested with groups of goblins, every two hundred meters we meet at least one group and in case you don't know, Slayer takes his nickname very seriously, when we found out, he had already broken enough supports to collapse part of the mine, he was able to crush hundreds of goblins and us with them "
"..."
"..."
"Well, at least the physics works."
"That's right ... they do"
"Anyway, thanks for your help, I will put your nicknames in the guide as collaborators, now we just need Moneybag to return ..."
…