Chapter 115: Weaving the Web
In the clearing at the bottom of the stairs, a sizable mound of corpses had been piled up again.
At the very top lay the giant spider they had killed today, along with many smaller spiders.
These "small" spiders were only small in comparison to the giant spider; in reality, they were the size of a basketball or a washbasin.
Besides the spider corpses, there were also zombies killed by the "Big-Head Skeleton" and his skeletons nearby, as well as the corpses from the cocoons.
Wu Heng's gaze fell on the spider's corpse.
Just as he was about to cast [Raise Skeleton], he suddenly paused.
He remembered something and quickly took out the "Book of the Dead" from his space ring, flipping through it rapidly.
It seemed like he had seen some descriptions about spider transformations in the book.
After turning a few pages, he found the entry.
It even included illustrations.
The book described two types.
One type consisted of spiders, including giant spiders, wolf spiders, and venomous spiders, which retained their spider form.
These spiders, being invertebrates, could not be transformed into skeleton soldiers.
This meant that [Raise Skeleton] wouldn't work on them; even if cast, their bodies would completely dissolve, unable to transform into a minion.
Such spiders could only be transformed into "Rotten Corpses."
The second type included "Driders" and "Spider Elves," races that had humanoid forms with spider characteristics.
Driders could switch between human and spider forms.
Spider Elves had human upper bodies and spider lower bodies.
These creatures had internal skeletons, making them eligible for transformation through [Raise Skeleton].
The illustrations even showed dissected internal diagrams.
Of course, these were hand-drawn.
Wu Heng only glanced at the second type since these rare and strange races were not something he would encounter. His focus was on the spiders in front of him.
Spiders have no skeletons?
He hadn't really considered that before.
"Drag that spider out," Wu Heng instructed, pointing to one of the spiders.
Barson grabbed one of its legs and dragged it out, tossing it aside.
Wu Heng cast [Raise Skeleton], wrapping the corpse in necromantic magic.
The flesh began to fall away, and under his gaze, the entire body gradually dissolved.
Only eight exoskeletal legs were left standing on the ground.
The transformation had failed.
"Damn, it really doesn't work."
It seemed these spiders could only be turned into Rotten Corpses.
Rotten Corpses and Skeletons were both types of undead minions, but they had different characteristics.
Wu Heng wasn't too keen on transforming them into Rotten Corpses.
After all, being surrounded by rotting bodies would affect both the environment and his mood.
They also posed a risk of spreading disease.
He was still human, after all.
But since they couldn't be turned into skeletons, he had no other choice.
He couldn't just discard them, so he decided to go ahead and transform them to see how they turned out.
He had the skeletons drag out all the spiders.
Wu Heng first cast [Raise Corpse] on the giant spider, wrapping it in necromantic magic.
[Summon exceeds caster's capacity; instability factors increased…]
The unstable prompt appeared, indicating that the corpse was at least level 5.
Considering how it had fought against Squad 8, it couldn't have been a low-level creature.
Soon, the body began to change.
The fatal wounds started to scar over, though many gashes remained open.
Then the body wobbled to its feet, and its six eyes opened simultaneously, scanning the surroundings.
[Rotten Giant Broodmother (Level 11)]
Level 11 wasn't too shabby.
Wu Heng checked its attributes.
[Level: 11]
[Attributes: Constitution 26, Strength 24, Agility 29, Intelligence 8, Perception 15, Charisma 5]
[Traits: Rotten Servant, Intermediate Soul, Web Sense, Spider Climb]
[Abilities: Bite, Razor-Sharp Legs, Web Shot, Web Weaving]
[Web Sense]: When in contact with a web, the spider can pinpoint the exact location of a target.
[Spider Climb]: This unit can climb difficult surfaces, including vertical walls and ceilings.
[Web Traverse]: Can move normally on webs, ignoring the restrictive effects of the web.
[Bite]: Bites the target, dealing damage and applying a poison effect.
[Razor-Sharp Legs]: The exoskeleton of the legs is sturdy, dealing piercing damage to the target.
[Web Shot]: Shoots a web at a single target within a range of 150 units, restraining them and limiting their movement.
[Web Weaving]: Produces webbing to weave a large web within a certain area for ambushes.
After transforming into a Rotten Corpse.
It seemed most of its abilities had been retained.
The [Web Sense] trait likely explained how it had detected their position.
By sensing the contact points on the web, it could locate enemies.
This was a useful defensive ability.
Among its abilities, [Bite] and [Razor-Sharp Legs] were its primary attack methods, while [Web Shot] was a form of long-range control.
It could shoot webs to trap enemies and hinder their movements.
[Web Weaving] allowed it to produce webbing and set up ambushes.
It made sense for a spider to have this ability.
But since it was now a Rotten Corpse, meaning the spider was already dead and only animated by necromantic magic, how was it still producing webbing?
He couldn't figure that out.
"From now on, you'll be called Broodmother," Wu Heng said.
Then Wu Heng cast the skill to transform the remaining spider corpses into Rotten Corpses.
A massive swarm of over two hundred small spiders was raised.
The attributes of the small spiders were lower.
[Rotten Giant Spider (Level 3)]
[Attributes: Constitution 12, Strength 14, Agility 16, Intelligence 2, Perception 11, Charisma 2]
[Traits: Rotten Servant, Basic Soul, Spider Climb]
[Abilities: Bite, Web Weaving]
Once the small spiders stood up, they quickly gathered around the "Broodmother," all clinging to her back.
When they closed their eyes, they blended into the dark mass, making it hard to count their numbers.
"Stand by over there," Wu Heng commanded.
The Broodmother, carrying the mass of small spiders, moved to a nearby flower bed.
Its body lowered and began burrowing into the soil.
With the surrounding untrimmed weeds, it created a decent camouflage.
After dealing with the spiders, Wu Heng had the skeletons open all the cocoons.
Inside the cocoons were both human and orc corpses.
It was like opening a blind box.
He then cast [Battlefield of the Dead], raising both the zombies and the corpses from the cocoons as skeletons.
Among them were a few orc warriors, large in stature but not high in level.
They were all level 3 to 4, without even a basic soul.
However, their strength and constitution were higher than those of human skeletons.
That was a racial trait.
...
After finishing the transformations.
Wu Heng left the area and contacted Li Yanhong via the intercom.
Soon, Li Yanhong emerged from the auto repair shop.
"Any news lately?" Wu Heng asked.
Since he couldn't stay in this world for long periods, he relied on Li Yanhong to keep an eye on things.
"The radio hasn't picked up anything new, and the prison has stopped responding. They've gone silent," Li Yanhong thought for a moment and added, "Oh, and there's been news of a mutated zombie, a Level 2 Mutated zombie."