Humans have an uncanny ability to adapt, no matter the circumstances. If you think about it, in the old world, countless dangerous creatures roamed the earth, yet it was humans who ultimately stood at the top of the world's hierarchy.
How was that possible? How could humans, the weakest of mammals, conquer so many formidable creatures?
The answer likely varies depending on who you ask. Some might attribute it to instinct, while others might say it was intelligence.
All those answers were correct, but the real answer was information.
Yes, information.
Humans' intelligence gave birth to information. The person who first made fire with nothing but a twig of sticks would spread the information, and soon, others learned to create fire themselves. The person who discovered gunpowder would eventually create different types of guns. The person who first made a boat would share the knowledge, and soon, large ships were constructed.
That was the miracle of humanity!
From the information contained in the Song of Nightmares, the attack patterns of the Plague Spider were simple and straightforward.
Firstly, the spider attacks with its two front legs as its main weapon. Although fast, the trajectory of the spider's strikes could be predicted.
Secondly, the spider can attack using its webs, but considering its weakened state, there was no immediate concern about a sudden web attack.
And finally, when the spider entered a critical condition, it would open its mouth and spew out its acid-like digestive fluid as a last resort.
It sounded simple when reading about it, but in reality, facing the Plague Spider would be far from easy.
I discarded all extraneous thoughts and zeroed in on analyzing the spider's movements.
"Left."
A massive, razor-sharp leg slammed into the ground.
"Right."
The spider swung another leg from the side with frightening speed.
"Left, right, left, right."
Slam! Kwang! Slam! Kaboom!
The spider's legs rained down with relentlessly, aiming to crush me, while the ground beneath me cracked and buckled from the sheer impact.
I narrowly evaded each deadly blow, my body instinctively moving with the rhythm, like an elegant dance on a stage. With perfect timing, I swung the Iron-Cutting Sword horizontally, slicing through the gap in its armor-like exoskeleton.
Puuuookk!!
Another of the spider's legs was severed, and it shrieked in agony, stumbling back.
Under normal circumstances, defeating an Order 7 Nightmare at this stage would have been impossible. But with careful preparation and the right information, what should have been an impossibility became a possibility, and that possibility was slowly turning into a certainty.
"?!"
Realizing I was closing in, the Plague Spider panicked and spewed its vile, acidic fluid. However, I had already predicted its next move. Swiftly, I dodged and leaped onto its massive head.
With a forceful thrust, the Iron-Cutting Sword plunged into one of its exposed eyes.
Rooooaaaar!!!
The deafening roar shook the ground beneath me.
The spider thrashed wildly, attempting to shake me off. But I held on to the sword with a vice-like grip, miraculously maintaining my position atop its head.
"Keu-ru-ruk—"
The Plague Spider slammed its enormous body against the walls, shaking the very foundation of the area. Debris and dirt fell from above, threatening to bury us.
Was it trying to bring the entire structure down?
I wasted no time, moving the sword and stabbing the remaining exposed eyes with all my might.
Even as the sword tore into its eyes, the Plague Spider continued to thrash its body violently against the walls. Cracks spread across the surface like a spider's web.
This bastard... It knew it was dying, but it was determined to take us down with it.
'Like hell I'm letting you.'
With urgency, I kept driving the sword deeper, stabbing upwards, downwards, anywhere the exposed eyes were vulnerable.
Keeeeeeh!
The dark blood of the creature splattered across my hands, and I kept stabbing, ignoring the growing weight of its resistance. The Plague Spider's body bucked and twisted beneath me, its final desperate act to take us all down with it.
This would be a fight to the death. Either it would die, or we would all perish.
Eventually...
Thud!!!
The Plague Spider collapsed with a resounding crash. Its death throes echoed through the space, and at that moment, multiple messages filled my screen, signaling my victory over the monstrous terror.
[The Order 7 'Plague Spider' has been killed.]
[An Order 7 Nightmarish Terror has been slain for the first time!]
[An impossible feat has been accomplished.]
[10,000 coins will be given as compensation.]
[You killed the 'Plague Spider' without a party.]
[5000 coins will be given as additional compensation.]
A steam of notifications.
Since I defeated the Grade 7 Plague Spider solo, I was rewarded with a total of 15,000 coins. In the end, it turned out to be a significant reward.
[A few constellations are doubting their eyes.]
[A few constellations are questioning the fairness of the Fable.]
Why are you unhappy? Didn't I give you a great show?
[A few constellations asks how you obtained a superior sword energy.]
I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders and answered.
"It's nothing special. I just bought it from the shop. I went through a great ordeal, you know. So I have alot of coins to spare."
[A few constellations nods their heads in understanding.]
[A few constellations wonder how you gained that much coins without a supporting constellation.]
[The constellation 'Primordial Evil Dragon' says she enjoyed the violence.]
[The constellation 'Judge of War and Wisdom' admires your readiness.]
[1000 coins has been sponsored.]
I received money from the Sub Fable clearance reward and the Constellations at the same time. If I continued receiving rewards at this pace, I should be able to gather a large amount of coins.
[You have cleared the Hidden Fable.]
[You have received 500 coins.]
[A handful of constellations admire your story.]
While receiving the messages, I cut open the interior of the Plague Spider and pulled out out a huge blue orb out of its body.
The core of a Grade 7 Nightmare. It was much valuable than the cores of Nightmares between grade 8 and grade 9. If I sold it in the shop, I would fetch a nice price.
I put it inside my personal storage ring. It was not needed for the scenario so I will keep with me in the meantime.
"Oppa, I need a hand here."
I swept my gaze towards the side and saw Yunhee trying to free Jongho with the swiss. She must have gone there while I was fighting the plague spider.
I approached with the Iron-cutting sword and spoke.
"Step back."
I slashed the sword through the webs binding Jongho to the wall, freeing him first. Next, I released Angelica. As they collapsed, Yunhee and I swiftly caught them at once.
"Urgh... My head hurts... What happened..."
"Where are we...?"
Jong-ho and Angelica slowly began to regain consciousness and looked around, confused.
"Long story short, you guys got captured by the crawling spiders. But it's okay now, I just killed that 'guy' over there."
They looked behind where I was pointing and opened their eyes wide. Wouldn't that face belong to someone who just saw something unbelievable.
"Oh lord..."
"A giant spider? Did you really kill that on your own?"
"I was lucky."
"Bullshit, how can you kill that thing and say it's just luck."
Ignoring Yunhee, I approached the next person trapped on the wall.
Lee Gyeong. Unlike the rest, I didn't free her from the wall and just stared at her with a solemn expression.
"Hey."
She did not answer. Was she unconscious? No, that was not the case.
"I know you are awake. If you don't answer, I'm going to leave you there."
I turned around to leave, then I heard a panicked voice behind me.
"Wait! Please wait! Don't leave me here!"
I turned back to her and smiled. Would you look at that? She was awake after all.
"Why were you pretending to be asleep?"
"I was afraid. Did you see that giant spider?"
"I guess that's understandable."
"Now can you let me go?"
I shook my head and Gyeong had a puzzled look.
"Not yet, I have a few questions for you."
"What do you mean? Why can't you let me go? Let me go now."
"Oh, aren't you becoming noisy for someone that tried to kill us?"
At my words, Gyeong looked shocked.
"Wh-what? W-What are you talking about?"
"Don't try to act dumb. It was painfully obvious from the beginning. By the way, you guys weren't smart about it either. Did you honestly think that we wouldn't find out?"
At this moment, everyone standing besides me, glared at Lee Gyeong. In particular, Yunhee was glaring at Gyeong as if she would attack at any moment.
"Oppa, can't we kill her already?"
Gyeong trembled at Yunhee's cold words. Yunhee looked very eager to stab her with the swiss knife.
"Wait, I will tell you anything you need to know so please don't kill me. Please, please, please."
Look at this shameless woman. She was begging for forgiveness from the very people she repeatedly tried to poison. Humans were very fascinating creatures, weren't they?
"Well, that depends on you. Tell us everything you know and don't even think about leaving out any details. Or else..."
I gripped the Iron-cutting sword. The blade seem to glow coldly in the darkness.
"You are going to get it."
†
†
"I see. So that's what happened."
Everyone wore a dark expression. It was because of the story that Gyeong just told. At this point, she was already freed from the wall.
The story was simple. Before I arrived at the safe zone, Minhyuk had begun to take an active role, and started creating a group of followers. Gyeong and Manshik were among them.
All of them joined the mainframe group simply because they wanted to survive using the power of a goddess.
"Minhyuk is the apostle of the goddess Athena?"
I was visibly confused. From what I knew about Athena, it would be strange if she picked someone like Minhyuk as her apostle.
Incarnations were the faces of the gods. To pick someone like Minhyuk as her incarnation didn't really suit Athena's image as the goddess of War and Wisdom.
In any case, it was something I can find out by questioning Gyeong.
"What happened after that?"
"You know those guys that didn't make it back."
"Yes. What about them?"
"Minhyuk sacrificed them to the monsters. No, I'm sure that's what happened. It happened again and again."
"That bastard, I already knew he was a terrible person. But to sacrifice his own people as well."
Jongho clenched his fists tightly.
It seems my initial suspicions were right from the get-go.
There were several cases where certain individuals would encourage people while pretending to act like a noble hero, but when they served their purpose, they would be sacrificed.
But to what end? Why did Minhyuk sacrifice all those people? He wasn't a fool. At least, he didn't seem like one. So why did he intentionally reduce his manpower? There has to be an end game.
I suddenly remembered something and opened my mouth.
"You said something about Minhyuk having a skill that allowed him to share power. What was that about?"
"Oh, that..."
Lee Gyeong didn't answer immediately.
Athena, also known as Minerva, was the goddess of wisdom, war and justice. She's a very famous constellation in the Greek mythology and her divine rank was [Myth grade] which was above [Heroic Spirit grade].
However, Athena only possessed authorities relating to war. Meaning, the ability to command an army. She had nothing that would allow someone to transfer power. In fact, there was no power in Nightmare that allowed anyone to transfer power.
In other words, Minhyuk not only lied about being Athena's apostle, he also lied about having an ability to share power with others as well.
There was only one possibility that I could think of.
"If you don't want to answer, that's fine. But you're completely on your own."
"No... It's not that."
Lee Gyeong shook her head and slowly raised her sleeve. revealing a tattoo on her left arm. It was shaped like the Seal of an Owl.
Once I laid my eyes, my suspicions were finally confirmed.
Lee Jong-ho titled his head and asked.
"What's that? A tattoo?"
"No, its not a tattoo. It's a stigma belonging to the goddess. That bastard Minhyuk said the power of the goddess can be shared through this seal."
Angelica moved closer to Lee Gyeong and crouched infront of her, studying the seal very carefully.
"Huh? This looks wrong."
"What is it?"
"This seal looks wrong. The Seal of Athena doesn't look like this. The bird representing Athena is a tawny owl, not a true owl. Although it is similar here and there, it doesn't look like the seal I know. It looks like someone did a messy job while trying to imitate the seal."
Angelica explained while thoroughly moving her eyes here and there.
"Angelica, how did you know this?"
"Didn't I tell you before? I did alot of reading online, you know. The mythology of the gods just happened to be my favourite topic to read about."
Oh, that's right. I forget Angelica used to be a reader as well. Maybe she was more knowledge than me when it came to the gods.
Lee Gyeong seemed to have realised something. She shot a gaze to her left arm and asked while trembling.
"Wait, are you saying this is not the seal of the goddess?"
"It's not stigma."
"Then what is it?"
This time, Angelica did not answer. Instead, it was me that opened my mouth.
"That's the mark of a demon."