บท 121: Spider Queen

Gerald was once again flying above the forest on his way back to Freka.

Or maybe flying is not the right word… He was falling in style towards his quickly-approaching destination.

He had already gone and collected the 'bullets' in the morning and with a bag of gunpowder in his pocket, all that was missing was his new weapon.

The guy in Freka truly outdid himself in making his order. It was neat and strong, forged from high-quality steel, and it was even nicely polished.

"Money sure works wonders!" Gerald laughed after leaving the smithy. It was apparent that the blacksmith put a lot of work and care into making this thing.

What Gerald ordered was a miniature cannon. It was simple but effective.

The bullet, better called, the small cannonball, was an almost perfect fit for the barrel, which was quite amazing, considering there were no standards for production quality in this world.

He left the town with leisurely steps as he was in no hurry.

While walking he casually discarded a part of his metal arm and fixed the cannon where his iron forearm used to be.

Thinking of the future, he purposely designed the cannon that way so it could be used as a part of his missing limb, with the metal palm attaching to the mouth of the barrel.

This way he would always carry around an extremely deadly weapon, and nobody would ever know.

Now that he had some free time, he suddenly remembered why he went to the Spider Cave in the first place. He completely forgot to check if his Mana regeneration increased.

"Hm, let's see… After killing almost a thousand small spiders it is… 6.2 MP/h !? It only increased so little?" After double-checking he was stupefied. He wasn't expecting much in the first place, but… 0.2? That's way too little!

"Maybe my hypothesis was wrong?" Gerald scratched his head and frowned. "Is there something else I have done?" He closed his eyes and dove into his memories.

"Oh!" He soon opened his eyes wide in realization, "That bandit group! Was the bulk of my gains from them?!"

But then his brows furrowed again as he murmured under his breath, "Does that mean I have to kill people to grow stronger fast? I'm not exactly against it… But I'm not for it either. Killing someone for no reason seems barbaric."

Since thinking further about the problem would do him no good, Gerald decided to finish the job with the spider, and then later find answers to his questions.

As he arrived at the mouth of the Spider Cave, he noticed a few fresh skeletons wrapped in webs. A mass of something that looked like a husk of a bear was inside one of them.

It appeared like someone drank the insides and left only the damaged fur and bones. Ants and flies already came to feast on the remains.

"Yuck! At least take care of your food, don't leave trash lying around your home!" Gerald lectured towards the cavern, but no response was received.

Clack!

With a loud sound, the hand separated from the rest of the metal arm, and the end of the barrel was completely exposed.

Gerald took out the gunpowder pouch and emptied a small portion of it down the barrel. Then, stuffing the iron ball inside he finished it off with a piece of cotton to hold it all in place.

It was time to slay the Broodmother!

***

In the cave, it was pitch-black darkness as usual.

Gerald slowly advanced with his cannon extended at the front. Observing with his Magic Eyes he was able to see every living being in the range under thirty meters. His detection radius slowly expanded in recent days.

He soon noticed the Broodmother on the ceiling and around her were many small spheres, which were probably the fresh eggs.

It appeared the spider also detected his presence, quickly climbing down on the silky thread. Her many green eyes shined at him in the darkness like small stars, and her fangs rubbed against each other, producing eerie scraping sounds.

If the Broodmother was capable of changing her facial expressions, she would probably have an extremely furious appearance. After all, in her eyes, Gerald was a mass-murdered of her family.

It took her a lot of effort to move further north to escape to more peaceful lands, hoping to find a safe haven to raise her brood. How could she know that some crazy bald monkeys would keep destroying her home?

If she knew that, she would just stay in the middle of the beast-infested jungle where it was safer.

She immediately recognized Gerald after he entered the cavern hall and she was determined to kill him this time.

"Don't move! Just let me end your suffering and I'll be on my way!" Gerald shouted and aimed at the spider.

But the Broodmother wasn't going to play nice and immediately showered him with her spider webs.

Fwoosh!

A flame ignited on his body momentarily and the web was gone in a flash of light.

Skreee!

The Broodmother screeched and launched herself at him with the greatest speed, her sharp front legs stretched out, ready to strike.

Bam! Crack!

Gerald barely got out of the way of the enraged spider, her body striking the ground and breaking the rock apart.

"Oh, shit! She's serious this time!" Gerald quickly cast his Wind Body and avoided her furious strikes. Putting a few meters distance between them he turned around and aimed his mini-cannon.

"Say goodnight!" He snapped his fingers and a small flame jumped in the small opening on the side of the cannon.

Boom!

The gunpowder inside violently ignited and blasted the cannonball, with just below supersonic speed, towards the Broodmother.

The beast had no time to react, and after the initial flash of light, a hole appeared on the spider's massive body.

Splurt!

Dark-colored bodily fluids squirted out from behind the broken exoskeleton as the spider was stopped in its tracks from the force of impact.

"Damn… It's so inaccurate!" Gerald complained after seeing his shot almost miss at the short distance of a few dozen meters.

It was only a roughly made cannon after all.

The recoil from the shot was quite substantial, but nothing his Stone Body couldn't handle.

He did not waste any time admiring his work and quickly left the cave at the fastest speed. The Broodmother was wounded, but obviously not dead and he couldn't reload under those dangerous conditions.

The giant spider, despite its many long legs, was quite slow. Gerald made use of that fact and soon returned with a loaded weapon.

Boom!

Another flash of light and another explosion reverberated through the cave. Similarly, another hole was created on that thick black exoskeleton that cracked like glass.

Just as the Broodmother used its last remaining energy to jump on Gerald, the latter ran away once more, only to return with a loaded cannon a minute later.

He gave the giant spider laying on the floor one last look before…

Boom!

The third and the last shot blasted the Broodmother's chest wide open, as the internal organs turned to mush.

Clank!

Gerald connected the hand to the rest of the metal arm and covered the opening of the cannon.

He took a vial and knelled near the dead Broodmother. With a few precise moves, he extracted most of the poison out of her fangs and stored it in his pouch.

'Who knows? Maybe it would come in handy later.'

Then, with a few swift strikes of a knife, he separated the head from the body and stored it in a cloth sack.

He let the juices drain before doing that, of course.

"I wonder if this meat is any good…" He picked up a leg and examined the white meat inside. It somehow reminded him of a certain marine animal.

"It looks like crab… But, does it taste like it?"

Incapable of getting an answer by just thinking, there was only one way to find out. By cooking and eating it, of course!

Gerald left the cave and made a small campfire outside, where he roasted the segments of the spider's legs on the flames. He left the meat inside the exoskeleton, so it could cook in its own juices.

A faint aroma soon covered the area and the pleasant smell made Gerald's mouth water.

He took a piece off the fire and let it cool down for a bit, before breaking the black shell apart and gently biting the soft juicy meat.

"Mmm! Holy hell, this is so good! Wow…" He commented with a mouth full of delicious flesh.

It had to be said that the taste was out of this world. Gerald thought at first that it would maybe taste like crab, but he never had crab before so he couldn't actually compare.

"It just needs a pinch of salt and a few grains of black pepper… And some garlic would also be nice…and some onions…maybe a glass of white wine… Hmm, yes, that would be nice. I differently need to get my hands on a few spices when I get back!"

He spoke his thoughts out loud while devouring the entire leg of the spider. The deliciousness could probably be lifted up another notch with a few good spices. Then again, it didn't really matter as the food was good enough by itself.