The message that appeared for 6 after killing the spider didn't look like the normal messages Trivrium sends. It was more basic, more official looking, and was very similar in style to the one he received when he was granted the adventurer's blessing.
"What happens if I give it to her?" 6 asked out loud.
[You will lose your right to claim your loot.]
He began shaking his head, wanting to reject immediately, as he cared too much about gaining whatever loot this mini-boss would drop for him, but before he did another message appeared.
[Domus Planet Trivrium proposes trade: Larger Spider Corpse for Light Mace]
Now that was more tempting.
[Light Mace]
[Type: Blunt weapon]
[Quality: Basic]
[Damage: Minor]
[Special effects: 10% weight reduction in the perception of the owner. This does not compromise the actual weight of the item when attacking with it. When lent to another individual, the weight reduction effect does not activate.]
[Description: Designed by a weak crafter who wanted to make a strong, easy to use weapon that wasn't too heavy for him to lift. They were still too weak to use it.]
This wasn't just a good item in general for 6, it was actually perfect for his exact situation.
6 loved his knife, but he had to admit it really wasn't ideal for fighting these spiders. The crushing affect of a blunt weapon would make much quicker work of them than his knife, with less effort.
Especially considering its special effect. reducing the strength required to swing it each time without lowering its damage would have been particularly helpful for fighting as many spiders as he did today.
Even against the large spider, had he been able to simple crush its legs and break the armor on its body, he could've killed it with much greater ease.
Trivrium most likely figured these things out herself, leading her to offer a weapon like this.
Unfortunately, her efforts were in vain.
6 cared far too much about receiving his own loot for the first time, especially as he was dreaming of getting something spider themed that he could use.
Additionally the mace wasn't without downsides. If he was ever in a situation where he needed to let someone else use his weapon, to help him out in battle or whatever other reason may arise, they wouldn't gain the weight deduction effect that made the mace special. Without that effect, any heavy blunt object would do practically the same job.
Also, he needed to learn more about how loot worked.
Could items be taken away from him? Did the owner that the description referred to mean him, or did it mean the person who crafted it? How did getting his loot from killing the spider function?
Without this type of valuable information, he may end up getting taken advantage of, not that he believed Trivrium would do that.
But mostly, the idea of receiving an amazing, godly, next level item was too tempting to 6.
His delusions of receiving an amazing item he could use forever continued for several seconds before he came back to reality, choosing to decline the trade with Trivrium.
"Sorry, Trivrium. Maybe next time!" 6 said joyfully, rubbing his hands together in excitement as he ached to see what he would get.
[Trade offer from Domus Planet Trivrium rejected.]
[Loot stored. Please open your reward page to claim. Warning: it is not recommended to do so in dangerous locations.]
"So I can't even see it until I claim it?" 6 asked.
No response was given, forcing 6 to check for the answer himself.
He opened the newly provided reward page, only to find just a single line.
[Large Spider Loot]
Upon choosing the large spider loot, another prompt was given to him.
[Claim the Large Spider Loot?]
[Yes] [No]
6 selected no for now, resigning himself to the fact that he probably wouldn't be able to claim his prize until later.
Since he had yet to leave the spot where he killed the spider, he was still in the territory of the spiders.
That meant that at any given time, he could end up dealing with more spiders.
Interestingly, the corpse of the large spider disappeared.
Given that the loot was tied to the corpse, this was within his expectations, but all of the regular spider corpses remained in their locations.
Perhaps this was related to the quality of the things he killed or something of the like. He couldn't expect every ant or beetle he stepped on to give him loot.
That would surely just cause an Armageddon for any weak creatures.
"Trivrium, do you know what the criteria for receiving loot are?" 6 asked, shamelessly ignoring the fact that he just turned her down a moment before.
[It is believed to be based on the strength of what you kill, your contributions toward killing it, and your own strength.]
"Ah, ah, pretty much like video game logic. Kill weak shit, don't get shit. I'm cool with that. I just gotta kill some badass shit and we're golden." 6's inflated ego shone through his skin as he spoke.
He once again appreciated the convenience of having a portable information source everywhere he went, even if it was selective about what it deigned to answer.
On the edge of the spider's nest, behind 6, a black line began enclosing it from both directions, turning the majority of the area visible from 6's location to slowly be covered in black colors.
The miles tall nest looked like it was transforming, the towering structure piercing the sky becoming something entirely different.
From time to time, you could vaguely see the white of the webs underneath, flashing through for a moment before once more becoming covered.
Splotches of brown, and rarely, red, could be seen from time to time amidst the flood covering the nest.
6 turned around, done with loitering around catching his breath after his intense fight, only to be greeted by sudden changes on the spider's nest.
The massive wall of the nest in front of him, that was just one small section of the entire nest, was becoming more imposing by the second, as if it was actively attempting to scare him.
Without hesitation, he brought his eyes to the ground, seeing another tide blotting out the area from both directions, covering the hundreds of meters of ground that he could see around the nest.
As soon as he saw this, he turned on his heel and began sprinting away, not sticking around to experience this change himself.
Whatever it was, it was covering this entire section of the nest, and it wasn't something he was planning on sticking around to discover.
He didn't plan to make the mistakes of every horror movie character.
When he saw something going horrible wrong that he couldn't immediately identify, he would be the last to decide to go investigate it, especially not when he was already in a dangerous environment.
Priority number one was getting the hell out of here.
Investigation could come once he was not directly in the middle of the path of what he was trying to investigate.
Looking over his shoulder from time to time as he sprinted away, not stopping to catch his breath, he could see the dark tide covering the webs getting nearer and nearer, removing the faint desire to take a break each time.
No matter how much he ran, the tide was slowly gaining on him, ignoring and crushing the pride he had about his speed.
The edge of the webbed area was just a free hundred meters away by the time the tide was close enough for him to begin feeling movement in the ground he was walking on.
Light vibrations began under his feet, as if a stampede of elephants was running beside him, fleeing as fast as he was.
As time passed the vibrations became stronger, a telltale sign that the cause of the vibrations was getting closer and closer to him.
Last time he glanced over his shoulder, the tide was closer to him than he was to the edge of the webbed area, but at this point he could no longer afford to turn around.
Every second counted, and looking behind him would only stress him out and slow him down.
In just a few seconds, 6 would pass the webbed area, back into the grassy fields that surrounded the spider's nest.
Presumably this would mean he was in the clear, but he decided not to take any risk. If he stopped running here, and the tide was still continuing to follow after him, it would be over.
Although there should still be a good amount of space between him and whatever was behind him, with the speed he was running, if he stopped it would reach him in just seconds.
He continued running, shooting right past the webs, booking it in the direction he was running.
Once he was several meters away from the webs, he decided to take the risk to look behind him, hoping he could at least see what he was running from.
The black tide was still chasing him, but it seemed slower.
It was still gaining in him, and it had left the webbed area, but it wasn't closing the distance nearly as fast as it had initially.
"Trivrium, what direction is Folrost?" 6 shouted as he ran.
An arrow appeared to him, pointing only slightly away from the direction he was already running.
"Shit." He cursed.
He turned a little, away from the direction of Folrost.
Whatever this was, he definitely didn't want to bring it to the village, not when they were already basically defenseless.
As he ran, he continued slowly deviating from the direction of the village, until the arrow was pointed 45 degrees away from the direction he was currently running in.
He decided this was enough, and redoubled his efforts as he focused on running as fast as he possibly could, tossing away any thoughts he had about trying to look cool.
If running on all fours would've made him faster, he'd have done that was well.
At the moment he was thankful he chose not to accept the light mace, no matter how light it was, a mace was still a mace, and the added weight would've made running a much larger challenge.
This extended to claiming his loot from the large spider. He was thankful for the warning he had just spurned moments earlier.
The vibrations of the ground beneath him were no longer increasing.
It wasn't that the ground stopped shaking, but that it reached a stable point, it no longer increased nor decreased.
This was a good sign for 6.
If whatever was behind him was no longer gaining on him, then the longer he ran, the larger the distance he could put between them.
He glanced over his shoulder once more, hoping that now he could see what the hell was chasing him.
The black tide no longer lacked details, close enough to see exactly what it was.
It wasn't that the webs were being consumed by something, or that anything terrible was happening to the nest in general.
In fact, the nest was doing exactly what it should be doing.
Nesting spiders.