While he waited for that he took a few hours to visit the forbidden forest with Nazgul to hunt another acromantula. Much to his surprise the territory of the giant monster spiders had actually shrunk rather than grown. It should be understood that the spiders basically had no natural predators in this forest and it was only the efforts of the the centaurs and unicorns that kept their spread at bay but only just barely. Acromantulas bred three times a year in huge numbers each time so it did not take much time at all for their numbers to swell to incontrollable amounts if left without a natural predator.-
Due to the ever increasing need for food this created the spiders started to expand their territory further and further. 'That is until now it seems as Nazgul is diminishing their numbers rapidly if they have drawn back this much.' Nick thought seeing the clearly abandoned webbing that the centaurs were starting to clear out. These same centaurs obviously saw him but after seeing Nazgul with him chose to keep whatever rude thoughts they had to themselves. She was a blessing as far as they were concerned and was even friendly with the unicorns of the forest so Nick couldn't be too bad if he was with her.-
As Nick traveled deeper into the area that used to belong to the giant spiders he couldn't help but notice how lifeless it was. The webs that blocked out the sun beyond the tree tops had caused all other plants other than moss to die off. This in turn led to the herbivorous creatures and the things that hunted them to vacate the area. Nothing lived in this part of the forest which showed just how terrible the spiders were.-
Nick had no trouble seeing in the low light conditions of this area thanks to his night vision but for regular diurnal creatures it would be perfect conditions to ambush prey for the stealthy monsters that lived here. Nick and Nazgul spotted one of the acromantulas before it spotted them from it's hiding spot behind some roots of a tree. The thing had one of it's legs held flat against the ground in front of it as if mimicking a root but that trick would only work if the prey didn't have night vision like Nick and Nazgul did.-
To them it was pretty much just advertising it's position like an idiot which they were more than happy to take advantage of. Nick tapped his wand against the ground and immediately a net of chains shot out of the ground and trapped the huge spider. "HIIISSS!" the monster struggled violently against it's sudden trappings but Nick merely scoffed at it. The net he conjured was made out of tungsten and not even a dragon had any hope of escaping it much less this thing. Nazgul wasted no time at all pouncing on the struggling spider and ripping it's soul out with a sharp talons.-
She ate the thing with relish but left the still living body to Nick since it's parts were what he was in the forest for to begin with. He didn't need the legs so he ripped them off and let her eat them while working to collect the venom before it dried as well as the usable parts of the rest of it. A few other spiders showed up after likely catching the scent of the attack and coming to investigate but Nick released Nazgul on them. If he had any doubt about how dangerous she was before seeing her hunt then those doubts were gone now as she barely needed any real effort to catch or kill the spiders.-
Petrify them with her stare and harvesting at her leisure was her preferred method of hunting but pure brute force was also an option if the spiders didn't make eye contact. Nick shuddered at the memory of her collapsing a spiders carapace under her talon like it was made of dried leaves. Still he got a hefty amount of venom as well as the part he needed by following her on her hunt so he was satisfied with how it turned out.-
Once he returned to the castle Nick handed over about half the venom to Snape since he would be able to put it to good use. The man had a ghost of a smile on his face after receiving the rare and valuable liquid in such a large amount as he easily figured out how Nick had obtained it. The colony of spiders living in the woods was a sort of open secret at the school so he was very much aware of it as well as made use of the spiders as well. Thanks to this he was intimately familiar with how much venom a single spider gave and could calculate the number needed to harvest the amount he received.