POV: Silvia
We've been traveling underground for what felt like 2 weeks!!! But There were no signs of the collector during this time, I guess he was just bluffing about having the ability to track us all down to scare us from trying to leave, though with the abilities we've seen him have, I wouldn't want to stick around to see what he would do! Ever since our deadline had passed, I've been stressing about it every night, what if the collector shows up all of a sudden!?!? I mean he COULD teleport whenever he wanted, that's how he always got to our village so fast and on top of that we've got reports of 3 other nearby villages destroyed, and my money is on the fact that the collector was to blame! I feel like being trapped in the caves is probably the LAST place I would want to find the collector, if I want to be at ease again, we HAVE to find that village!!!
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Our progress in the caves has been going pretty smoothly though! We built Mineshafts to act as a marker to come back to, we even got minecart systems put up in the Minshafts we built and found a nice abundance of ores. Though, despite all our work, we never had as many ores as the collector required in the end, however, we still have no signs of his arrival lately, so we can finally just keep all the resources for ourselves!
That wasn't the only good news lately, after the third week of traveling in the mines, we got a new announcement at night when we all gathered together. The Mayor finally found what we were looking for and went to tell us what happened!
"Listen up everyone! Our problems will soon come to a close!" Mayor said
Everyone was a bit confused
"The village that we've been trying to find, I sent 2 scouts to dig up and see our location, and the village is only a couple miles away from here!"
Upon hearing this, all the villagers including my family cheered!
"Finally this horrific journey is almost over!" My father joyfully told us
"Tomorrow I will go over to the village in person to see if we could get it, I could warn them about the collector, and they could join us in the fight against the- WOAH!"
The mayor was instantly interrupted when a strong shadowy aura appeared around us, there was only one being we knew who was capable of doing so, it was the collector!!! We all ran towards the other side of the cave room in order to give him some kind of distance, trust me you would NOT want to be close to that guy!
"So, how have the new cave systems been going?" The collector asks while floating in mid-air, it seemed like he had a glass of wine in his hand that he was drinking.
"w-wha?!?!? How did you-"
"What? Did you really think I wouldn't be able to find you guys?" The collector mocked as he waterfalled his drink into his mouth, we still couldn't see his face besides his red eyes.
"I have to hand it to you, hiding your tracks, abandoning ship right before the first week? You have a pretty strong community!" The collector said as he finished his drink.
The mayor was in a panicked sweat, I knew everyone around me was also terrified.
"Now then, where are my materials???" The collector said as he instantly teleported at the mayor.
"We... we don't...."
"I knew it!!! I knew you villagers wouldn't be able to accomplish this!"
"What? Then why-"
"I might as well just wait and see what I could get in the end, I knew the load was getting thin after the past few months, so I decided to let you suffer until it was time to execute this town!" The collector said while laughing
Everyone was truly in a state of panic now
"Unbelievable..."
"I don't want to die!!!"
"This plan was the worst!"
"Not how I want to go out..."
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
"Why? Why must you do this!?!?" The mayor said
The collector turned his head back to the mayor and said: "My goals are beyond your understanding..." he seemed a bit distraught while saying that. This man, if you can even still call him human, is really hard to read!
He then turned back to us and started to float in the air, small fire particles started to flow from his hands
"You people aren't any use to me anymore!"
"No PLEASE!!!"
"I noticed you guys have made yourselves a new home in this cave... so how about a nice housewarming gift from me to you?"
"What???"
"You're not making it to the village!!!" The collector mocked
He then created multiple blocks and spread them throughout the ground. Everyone was confused about what these things were, these blocks looked like cages, but they have FIRE inside of them! What were they!?!?
"I'm feeling generous today, you see the last village I went to was RICH with resources, so I'm in a good mood, so I will give you guys a fighting chance here! The only thing you need to do? DON'T GET INFECTED!!!!" The collector let out one last laugh and disappeared with whatever extra material we had.
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Everyone knew they needed to escape the large cave room, we got tried to dig out as fast as we could, but while doing so, the blocks started getting bright, and it spat out monsters!!!
The monsters from the cage blocks looked like spiders, a monster that is most commonly found in the caves, but these weren't ordinary spiders, they weren't Cave spiders either, it was MUCH worse! They were slightly larger than ordinary spiders, and they were dark green while having purple eyes! We had no idea what these things were capable of, but we knew we had to get away!
Some tried to stay behind to keep these new spiders back while we dug away, but they weren't so successful. They fought as hard as they could, however, iron tools could only take you so far! I saw those who got killed by the green spiders, once defeated, the green spiders wrapped their entire body in a web cacoon, and shortly after the villagers that were wrapped broke out of the webs, but no longer as the humans they once were, but mutated into becoming a normal black-skinned red-eyed spider. The villagers who were turned into spiders instantly became hostile and proceeded to attack us just like any other hostile mob.
When some of us managed to break out of the room, we were only delaying the inevitable, The collector not only placed the spider spawners in that room alone but all over the mineshaft that we had built, I watched as many people struggled for survival, my family? Gone! This whole situation was a horrific display, the giant spiders crawling all over the place, you being their only target just to become one of them, and people screaming in terror as they felt like there was no chance of survival!
We were overwhelmed by the green spiders that were spawned! Unfortunately, I wasn't one of the lucky ones, I didn't last long and soon got transformed into a spider myself! I'm not even sure if there were any survivors from Orelittle village, we were so close to being free, but if we knew the collector had powers like this, then it probably wouldn't be the best to bring this upon the other villages...
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A week has passed since the collector turned us all into spiders, I had lost everything since the day I got infected and turned into a spider, I lost my family, my community, my possessions, and all of my morals. I got separated from all the other spiders, crawling from cave to cave, only coming out into the plains at night, just to go back into a different cave, this cycle of mine has been going on for straight months!
My survivability has never been too successful either, it was nearly impossible for me to get food for myself, I never got the jump on other humans who ventured into the caves, and I even had no dice with trying to hunt the other monsters that roamed in the caves. Due to the lack of nutrients, I've been receiving from lack of food and sunlight, this sort of thing put me into a vicious circle, and I was just getting weaker as the days go by. I was scared to attack people I knew were well-equipped, so I knew I wouldn't win a battle in this state, there weren't many bugs that went about in the caves, but even the ones I DID trap in my webs weren't enough food for me because I was a giant spider, so, in the end, I was just barely surviving here, and if something doesn't change soon, I will die...
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Another week has passed, and I haven't gotten much luck in my hunt, it seems the cave I am camping in doesn't seem to have that active of a mining base, I'd probably have more chances if I went to a cave that's closer to a village. As I was getting ready to exit the cave, I was on the floor but I noticed something that made my timing very... unfortunate in my favor. I was face-to-face with a Demi-skeleton who was with a human who had half-green and red hair! What was she doing with a monster? I'd never seen a display like this before, but I know they are going to attack me since I was in plain sight, the only time you wouldn't attack a spider is during the day after all.
I try to strike the human down first since she was fighting with a sword, but I was still too weak, for she was parrying my attacks with ease, was she toying with me here? Before I knew it, the skeleton was built around me with blocks, trapping me in a box that I wasn't able to escape. A few moments after, they opened the trap a little bit and some light was showing up in my face. I felt like I was a complete goner, they can now easily attack me and I can't fight back! I've seen some crazy stuff with exploring duos before, but what this one did next astounded me the most! I thought they were just going to kill me, instead, the human started throwing bottles at me, they didn't seem like any normal potions, but potions filled with... XP!?!?
I had no idea why they were doing this, but I was in complete disbelief that they were willing to use so much xp on a random monster like me! They used more xp than I can count! I guess the skeleton told the girl that xp can transform monsters to their original state, but I'd never expect that they would pick ME out of all the spiders!
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The transformation was honestly pretty painful, but the results were completely worth the pain! After an hour, I noticed I had just 2 hands, and eyes again, and my skin was back to normal, I basically looked completely human again, I was unfortunately not wearing anything though, since I wasn't wearing any clothes when I was a spider. I also noticed I still have some spider legs coming out from my back.... I guess I will need more xp in the distant future.
They soon let me out of the case I was trapped in, they reached out to me, and I was able to remember my name and almost everything! They were calm and reassuring as I clutched onto the girl's blue jacket, and she offered to take me out of the caves for good! Though they also noticed I wasn't wearing anything, so the girl gave me her jacket and.... oh... That's a boy, that jacket really doesn't help with his gender identity.
I also know how to tuck my spider legs away to make it look as if they weren't there, to begin with! Thanks to that feature I was able to put on his jacket and exit the cave! The boy introduced himself as Takeo and he took me to his village, we tricked the guards into thinking I was human, and he brought me to his base.
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Things since then have been going great! I got a lot healthier again, Takeo even built me my own room! Which was a huge step up compared to my old house in Orelittle. I also got to meet other Demi-monsters, and I even got to start my dream again, I'm still upset that I lost the journal my brother gave me during the spider attack, but I was able to get a new one from my new friend Teles who was an endergirl! I'm still surprised that Takeo was able to befriend so many Demi-monsters, and I hope his goals continue to be successful! I will keep working hard because I know he will!
Still, wherever The Collector is right now, I hope someone puts him in his place, because having a monster like that lose spells disaster for everyone, but above all I hope that he won't cross paths with Takeo, Rei, or Teles, I don't want to lose another family to him!
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