These creatures, familiar from several games, delighted in terrifying their victims. Soon after entering the cave, a face-spider descended from a web, aiming to bite Aflra. The face-spider had two heads: one with sharp fangs and another, a human-like face on its abdomen, capable of emitting a pier
The face-spider opened its fangs, aiming for Aflra's neck. As it got close, its compound eyes reflected Aflra's image, venom dripping. But the face-spider passed through Aflra's body, its fangs
The face-spider missed. Now, the human face on its abdomen watched in horror as Aflra's hand sliced through it with lightning speed. Green fluid spurted out, and the face-spider, no
In a game, Aflra would have been paralyzed with fear. But in reality, she was highly resistant to fear. The face-spider was no match for the players she had encountered. Before the scream could finish, Aflra clamped her hand over the spider's face, igniting a flame in her palm, filling the air with a strange smell and black smoke.
Aflra looked up, revealing a sinister smile hidden beneath her dark hair.
A commotion erupted from the cave's ceiling as face-spiders screeched in anger. Aflra smiled, tearing off the human-like face embedded in the abdomen of the face-spider. The scream abruptly stopped, and the other face-spiders' human faces twisted in fear.
Aflra pulled a wisp of flame from the face-spider's body, which looked like a struggling miniature face-spider, and then sucked it into her mouth.
"Damn! What was that? I've never seen it before, but it must be a soul!" Aflra thought to herself.
The difference between monsters and beasts lay in their abilities and intelligence. Monsters were smarter and more human-like than beasts. Advanced monsters like the face-spiders could almost be considered an intelligent species. Because of this, although they often instilled fear in others, they were even more easily frightened themselves.
All the face-spiders quietly backed away from Aflra. The fear from dozens of face-spiders flooded into her, converting into mana and rapidly filling her mana bar. She hadn't expected that a simple [Flame Jet] would bring so many benefits.
Aflra wore a sinister smile, tearing off one of the spider's legs. She recalled the description in the records: "Remove the head, and you can eat it." This must mean that the head was inedible, but the rest was safe to consume.
She put the spider leg in her mouth and gently sucked out the meat, which came out as if it had been roasted. Suddenly, Aflra's eyes lit up. The taste and texture were completely different from roasted meat, with a slight charred flavor, just the right amount of salt, and a bit dry. The silk-like texture burst in her mouth, making it a naturally delicious ingredient.
She finally understood why Bear Grylls in the records enjoyed eating insects so much—chicken-flavored, crunchy. Although she didn't know what chicken tasted like, it didn't stop her imagination.
Aflra greedily surveyed the ugly face-spiders around her. At this moment, their grotesque faces no longer provided protection; she saw through their exteriors to the tender meat beneath. The face-spiders trembled, as if she were a predator at the top of the food chain, and they were the prey.
Some face-spiders weakly fell from the ceiling, some bounced and leaped several meters away, and others foamed at the mouth and convulsed.
After a rustling sound, a group of larger face-spiders emerged, surrounding an enormous one. While ordinary face-spiders were the size of a washbasin, the larger ones were the size of a footbath, and this one was as big as a small car. It reared up, revealing a woman's face on its abdomen. This face was not ugly; it was rather beautiful.
She looked at Aflra, her pupils filled with dread. As a former pet of a wizard, she knew how terrifying wizards could be: powerful and mad. Sometimes calm as ice, sometimes wild as fire. And she had grown so large, able to speak and become the leader, all because of those painful experiments.
"Honorable witch, I am the leader here. Please forgive me for the earlier offense. What brings you to our lair at this hour?" the face-spider leader's voice trembled.
Aflra understood her words, continued eating the spider leg, licked the grease off her fingers, and calmly said, "I am no witch, just a gourmet lost on a journey. I only wish to rest here for the night. You may go about your business and ignore me."
The face-spider leader shuddered, remembering a time when a curious wizard nearly cooked her. She quickly said, "If the honorable guest deems my lair worthy, I am willing to cede it to you."
With that, she led a group of face-spiders out of the cave. Aflra called after them, "Hey, you don't have to leave. Stay and chat with me."
The face-spider leader ran faster, leading the swarm out of the cave, scaring Phoebe, who scampered up a tree.
Phoebe, looking down at the fleeing face-spiders, shivered. How terrifying must this witch be to scare the dominant creatures like this?
"Hey, Phoebe, what are you doing outside? Come in!" Aflra waved from the cave entrance.
Phoebe hesitated but entered. Though the witch was frightening, being near Aflra was safer, and...
Thinking of Aflra's hands grooming her fur and scratching her chin, Phoebe walked in without further hesitation.
Some unfortunate face-spiders had been scared to death, providing a meal for tonight and perhaps breakfast tomorrow.
Phoebe looked at the dead face-spiders on the ground, feeling conflicted. Even the dominant monsters were no match for this witch, not only killed but also forced to give up their lair.
Aflra was pleased with the face-spiders' lair. Apart from the storage room, the entire cave was clean. There were several bedrooms, and the leader's room was the most comfortable, cool, and equipped with a hammock made of webbing, soft and bouncy.
However, the storage room was filled with cocooned corpses, which the spiders would need to clean up tomorrow.
Phoebe was sent to gather firewood, and Aflra found a clean spot to sit, pondering her future. She couldn't stay in the forest forever and decided to set out the day after tomorrow to find a human road and make further plans.