Going deeper into the mine, Lucas wasn't looking out for spiders anymore, but rather anything that moved. He couldn't tell how many monsters were left, the only reason he kept going was his contract that gave off a signal every now and then. After reaching a somewhat bigger room he heard another monster. Taking the same approach he started to mask his smell and body in a body of dark.
He couldn't move at all, but could still see everything. Normally his sight should be a bit limited, but it seems that darkness doesn't have any temperature. Standing still wasn't the greatest but that changed when the recognizable arachnid came into the room. Every time he saw that monster he was prepared to fight until death. Now things were completely different, he was observing the monster, looking with a calm mind he noticed a few things.
He had figured out how the spiders worked after a lot of interaction, there were only a few things he still wanted to check. When the spider didn't find anything out of the ordinary, it didn't go back. It was standing still, while its head moved a bit. 'Is it talking?', the spider's head seemed to move while making little noises, but there wasn't any other cave dweller around. After it stopped moving its head it started to make some webs to put around the room.
Lucas couldn't see webs normally, but the movement of the spider was obvious enough to figure out what it was doing. After it was done with its task it went back. Lucas was debating whether to kill it right then and there but held back. He wanted to see how these spiders communicated. He stopped his spell and went to follow the spider. He tried to walk very silently and made a few pauses to make sure he wouldn't be heard.
Tailing the spider was more boring and annoying than Lucas first thought. Every time the spider heard him he had to stand still and make sure he didn't breathe too loud. If the spider got closer to his location, he had to use the darkness spell to secure himself. Overall, it wasn't as exciting as one might think, his interest working as the only motivation. After a while he reached a dead end, there were three arachnids present in the room. One of them was significantly smaller, letting Lucas believe it was a young one.
An awful unbearable stench reached his nose, like a rotting corpse. Like trash that wasn't ever cleaned up to the point, it started to create its own ecosystem. 'There's no way it comes from the spiders, they don't have any dominant smell.'
'Their feces?'
'No, we went to their nest and there didn't seem to be any strong smell, perhaps it's their food.'
Thinking he might have found the equivalent of their cesspool, he looked around to see if he could find some visual reference. Colors didn't give him enough information, so he turned the spell off to see what the room had to offer, yet the darkness revealed nothing.
Only after some time adjusting to the light could he see very small glimpses of the room due to a crack in the ceiling that let some light through. On one side of the room lay the body of presumably one of the miners that worked here, or an unfortunate visitor. Yet, the body didn't look human anymore, its belly was inflated to the point of vulgarity. It was like he had multiple balls inside of him. His skin, disgusting blue and parts of his body had already started to rot. The eyes were gone and formed two streams of black liquid down the body's cheeks.
Somewhere else he found a giant pile of bones, but he couldn't tell what they were.
One of the more enormous spiders stayed near the body, almost protecting it. With the clues on hand, Lucas could only make a few conjectures. He had to kill all three spiders, fighting them head-on was probably a dumb idea.
Forging another plan, Lucas wanted to try something out, when the smaller spider got closer to him he started to create a tiny light outside of the darkness spell. He didn't let it stay active for long, barely a second, but it was enough to make the spider attracted. Dispelling his spell he walked backward, sequentially releasing little lights to keep the spider interested.
Once he reached the previous room the spider was still following him, he had to increase the size of the light because it seemed that the spider wanted to go back to the larger specimens. Lucas saw himself as a kidnapper, 'At least no one would hate me for kidnapping these creatures.'
Now that he had lured it far enough he wanted to start with his experiments. First, he wanted to see if the spider could use magic, even from a younger specimen. Then he wanted to see how the spiders communicated. Before looking into those points he needed to incapacitate it. This was a lot easier for the smaller spider, simply using the beginner's rune was more than enough.
He revealed himself and waited for the spider to rush toward him. He had enough experience to deal with these creatures. If the smaller specimen was the same species, it would run towards him and try to pierce him with its front legs. All he needed to do was create darkness the moment the legs descended.
As planned the monster rushed towards him only to lose its front legs. The pain was too great for the spider and it started to screech, or at least that's what it looked like. Lucas didn't know spider tongue, nor did he think such a thing existed. Taking advantage of the pain and confusion the arachnid was going through he rushed to disintegrate the other legs, completely incapacitating the spider.
Now that it couldn't move anymore, Lucas stood before the head looking into its eyes. "Alright little one, can you use magic? How can you communicate with your friends?". Lucas didn't expect an answer from the monster, even if that would be handy.
'The steel spider doesn't have any venom, but a strong body', so Lucas wasn't scared to approach its head.
He needed to see how they communicated, so the first thing he wanted was to see what a scream for help looked like. He drew his sword and let it come closer to the spider's eye, almost piercing it before the spider started to struggle hard and he could see its teeth moving to the side and back and forth. "What are you doing?" Lucas asked quietly, pondering about what that sign meant.
TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAP
Out of nowhere, all the spiders started to run towards his position. Lucas was dumbfounded, the spider didn't make any sound even though it could screech from pain. Nevertheless, the other spiders rushed towards his position as if they knew what was happening. 'Can they communicate through some telepathic energy?'
'No, that's ridiculous. Vibration?'
'No, it could barely move. The screech from the beginning also wasn't loud enough to reach them, and even if it did, why are they so late?'
Taking a risk he severed the head of the smaller specimen and took the head with him while he ran back to the surface. He wanted to see what would happen, 'If they follow me it would mean that they feel emotions like rage and want to take revenge for their child.'
This was Lucas' theory, but he was not on point. Once he reached the surface he placed the head of the smaller spider a bit away from the entrance of the mine and hid behind some bushes. It didn't take long before the monsters reached the surface, the two spiders got close to the head before turning around to where Lucas was hiding. 'What? How?'
The spiders looked much more aggressive and could accurately pinpoint Lucas' location. This time he didn't have Venion for protection, but that wasn't necessary anymore. Once the first spider reached him and tried to pierce him, he simply used the destructive power of darkness to destroy the first two legs before placing his hand close to the face of the spider. Normally, this was a stupid move because the spider would simply eat whatever got close to its mouth.
This time it was a bit different because the only thing it could eat was a sphere of darkness. The spider knew that it shouldn't bite that after seeing what happened to its front legs, but it didn't get a choice. A sword was inserted into its neck, making the spider's face fall into the darkness. The darkness could absorb a certain amount of things before it disappears, the legs didn't get completely destroyed, but the sharp points were gone, leaving a bloody stumb behind. Dodging the falling body of the dead spider, Lucas focused on the next one.
The screeches didn't scare him or make him uneasy. He was as steady as a rock, simply focusing on his opponent. Killing the other spider wasn't difficult. He had enough experience with its behavior and attack patterns. Now that the spiders were taken care of he didn't immediately go back to the mansion. After all the contract was still active, meaning there's something else that he must've missed.