Chapter 73: Your Turn—Infiltrating the Spider’s Lair

“From here on, it’s up to you.”

After drinking the potion, Wang Chen felt his mind clear and spoke to Lin Lehan. Gripping Forest’s Gale, he retrieved a headlamp from his storage space and headed toward the Sky Silkworm Spider’s lair.

This was the strategy they’d agreed upon: Wang Chen would cast a round of spells first to weaken the spider, then Lin Lehan would stay behind to keep it occupied, while Wang Chen ventured deeper into the cave to retrieve the egg-protecting silk.

By rights, this kind of infiltration task should have fallen to Lin Lehan, but after careful consideration, Wang Chen decided to go himself. Firstly, after questioning Lin Lehan, he discovered that despite being a Shadow Thief at level ten, Lin’s speed wasn’t significantly greater than his own. In other words, swapping Lin in for the silk retrieval wouldn’t make things much faster.

Secondly, while the infiltration speed wouldn’t differ greatly, Lin’s agility, honed by her specialized profession, made her better suited to distracting and restraining the Sky Silkworm Spider.

Thirdly, Wang Chen needed to store the spider eggs in his Ring of Life, which meant no one else could be present.

Fourth, his skills and equipment were more versatile, allowing him to handle any unforeseen complications within the cave.

Still, he didn’t expect much trouble. The Sky Silkworm Spider was a solitary creature. It lived with its mate only during the breeding period, but once the female laid her eggs, she would devour the male to replenish her strength. Since Lin’s task was to retrieve egg-protecting silk, the indicated spider should be alone; he only needed to watch out for web traps inside the cave.

Sure enough, not long after Wang Chen entered the spider’s lair, he encountered a trap.

He felt something snag his foot, accompanied by the sound of taut silk snapping beneath him. Then a gust of wind swept toward him from ahead. He bent low, performing a bridge maneuver, narrowly evading the attack.

Straightening against the rock wall and looking back, he saw a large mass of web spread across the wall behind him.

“The Sky Silkworm Spider sets triggered traps in its lair? Is its intelligence really this high?” Wang Chen was puzzled.

He recalled the descriptions in Beast Eye regarding the spider’s abilities—while it mentioned web traps, he’d expected nothing more elaborate than a pit lined with sticky threads to immobilize prey.

Yet there was clear design to these triggered traps, which undeniably suggested the spider possessed rudimentary intelligence.

Wang Chen’s sense of caution heightened; he realized these beasts shouldn’t be underestimated.

After a moment’s hesitation, he tightened his grip on Forest’s Gale. “The battle has begun; the arrow is nocked and must be loosed.”

He spun Forest’s Gale, lightning crackling at the staff’s tip.

“Lightning Barrier!”

Three shimmering shields of thunder hovered around him, their glow brightening the cave.

“That’s better.” Wang Chen resumed his advance.

He hadn’t shielded himself before entering because he thought it might hinder his movements; avoiding traps was mainly a matter of sharp eyes and quick reflexes. If he could dodge a trap but his layered armor increased his contact area and got him tangled in webs, he’d waste precious time extricating himself.

Besides, he already wore inner armor; fatal strikes would be blocked.

But the complexity of these traps made him reconsider. Better to be cautious, even if it slowed him down.

Suddenly, a sharp, tearing pain shot through his waist and back, making him grimace. He must have strained a muscle during that bridge maneuver. Clearly, he needed to condition his body more, even if he was in a support role.

He hadn’t intended to show off his flexibility; his usual avoidance techniques involved dodging sideways or diving forward or back. However, the skill “Rockbreaker’s Stand” in his boots made him so stable that his body instinctively bent backward.

Fortunately, after kneading his waist for a moment, the pain faded.

“Seems my back is still sturdy,” Wang Chen mused, surprised at how quickly the pain came and went.

He pressed on, the headlamp illuminating the path ahead.

In the next stretch, he encountered four more triggered traps, each with threads set in different locations—some on the ground, some suspended, some disguised as floor threads that, once bypassed, led to another at shoulder height.

He absorbed the impact from these threads, then summoned a water column with Forest’s Gale to twist and shred the webs wrapped around him, forging ahead.

He was cautious, moving slowly, but even the slowest journey must reach its end.

After traversing a corridor with no branches, he arrived at a cavern—nearly circular, spacious, perhaps seventy square meters.

In the corners of the cavern, several oval-shaped cocoons were arrayed.

“Are these the Sky Silkworm Spider’s eggs?” Wang Chen advanced to investigate, wielding the water column. The spinning water blade tore open part of a cocoon, dragging fragments into its vortex.

“This isn’t egg-protecting silk, nor does it look like eggs,” Wang Chen observed, curious. “So what are these?”

He used the water column to probe more cocoons. The dense silk was quickly cleared, revealing their contents.

Inside was a young deer, stuffed whole into the cocoon. It was already dead, but its terrified, agonized expression was lifelike on its head.

A pungent odor assaulted Wang Chen’s nose.

“This is the Sky Silkworm Spider’s food cache?” He pinched his nose. “It seems it prefers to stuff its prey alive into cocoons.”

“I don’t get it—by now it must stink, how can it taste good?” he grumbled inwardly.

Having figured out the cocoons’ purpose, he resumed searching the cavern for the spider eggs.

Even with his high-powered headlamp, he found nothing after a long search.

“To store food, it dug out a separate storeroom—this spider lives with surprising attention to detail.”

“So I’ll have to go further.”

Wang Chen looked at the two corridors on the other side of the cave.

One passage was larger—big enough for the car-sized Sky Silkworm Spider to pass comfortably. But it was now densely packed with silk, resembling a white wall.

If Wang Chen tried to clear it with a water column, it would take a long time; Lin Lehan might not be able to hold out that long.

The other passage was free of silk, though its entrance was smaller; the spider would have to squeeze through.

“This trap is so blatant, it’s almost insulting,” he thought.