## Chapter 33 – Arachne
What I found when I dug a tunnel into the wall of some large space and poked my head out was an incomprehensible, extraordinary sight.
“Hey!! Walk over here!! Can’t you hear me?!”
“Ah… It hurts… My wounds…”
A girl’s voice, filled with painful moans, echoed through the cavern.
The girl was barefoot, and it seemed her soles were injured. She trembled, her legs unsteady, and eventually collapsed to the ground.
But a bandit-like man, looking at her with indifference, no, rather with anger, walked up to her and slapped her across the face.
“Aaaah!!”
However, the two of them weren’t the only humans in that cavern.
On the contrary, nearly a hundred people were gathered, moving according to instructions.
There were dozens of men dressed like bandits, of course, but also a group of people who seemed to be controlled by them, just like the girl, almost equal in number. Yet, no one stepped forward, even after witnessing the scene.
“Have you forgotten why you’re here? Huh? Stop whining and do it right!”
“Ugh!! Ack!! I’m sorry…!!”
“Hey!! That’s too much…!!”
Finally, unable to watch any longer, a man and a woman each stepped forward, embracing the girl and blocking the bandit-like man’s path.
“Why you guys are here… Haa… Never mind…”
The man glared at the two, looking furious, but then sighed and turned away.
Seeing this, the people’s expressions brightened slightly, but only for a moment.
The man quickly turned back, stopping in a concise stance with a powerful gust of wind.
“Uh…”
The man was taken aback by the bandit’s speed, but only for a moment. Soon, he collapsed weakly to the ground.
“Kyaaak!!”
“Ugh… Ugh…!!”
What revealed what had happened to him was the red blood spreading from beneath his writhing body on the floor.
Panicked by the sight, people were quickly subdued, beaten by the surrounding bandits and those who seemed to be in league with them.
‘That’s… really inhumane…’
This place was also inside the Academy.
While a peaceful learning environment was being cultivated on one side for the students, such things were happening in this model forest on the other side.
People were showing a wide range of reactions.
Some were calmly observing their surroundings, some were terrified by the situation before them, and some were gritting their teeth, seemingly suppressing their anger.
But there was one thing all their different reactions had in common: subtle physical features that hadn’t been noticeable at first.
“It’s been a while since these demi-human bastards have been such a pain in the ass while I’m working as a mercenary!!
I really like it!! I feel like I could just kill them all right now!!”
“Hey, keep it moderate. They’re Academy assets, after all.
I don’t want to end up paying for damages.”
“That’s why these bitches don’t understand what we’re saying, because you’re so soft on them.
You gotta set the mood properly at the beginning when you’re working. Don’t you think so, bitch?”
“Ugh… Ah… Aaaah…!!”
The mercenary was approaching the woman who was embracing the girl protectively.
I had been wondering if the wind was blowing through her hair, making something twitch above her head.
But when the mercenary reached out, grabbed it, and pulled it upwards, I immediately understood what it was.
The woman screamed, a cry mixed with tears, as if her flesh was being torn apart, echoing through the cavern.
‘That’s… an ear…?’
The demi-human that mercenary had mentioned earlier.
It meant a quasi-human, or a subspecies of human, and it was the most common symbol that came to mind when thinking of fantasy.
The woman’s long, rabbit-like ears, emitting a sorrowful scream.
The ends of the ears were flapping and twitching wildly, as if reacting to the pain, and that allowed me to understand the scene before my eyes to some extent.
The Academy was planning to use the demi-humans, who had been brought here as slaves or in a similar status, to conduct evaluations that would improve the students’ skills.
‘Vivian said that demi-humans appeared in last year’s special evaluation…
So those demi-humans are probably the opponents for this special evaluation.’
But one thing that didn’t make sense was that there seemed to be a mix of demi-humans with various roles, not just combat opponents.
The woman screaming with her ear grabbed, and the girl who seemed to feel guilty watching her, unable to do anything but reach out with a pitiful hand, clearly looked like they had never fought before.
‘It’s not like there’s only one or two of them…’
Some other types of demi-humans, who were showing hostility but couldn’t bring themselves to attack the mercenaries, seemed like they could fight right away, but it seemed they thought they had to endure this situation because there was an unavoidable difference in skill level compared to the mercenaries.
“They’re just making the test unnecessarily complicated.
I only need to solve that one over there.”
“They probably want to give us some achievement objectives.
I don’t think it’s completely incomprehensible.”
‘That one…?’
A strange curiosity began to form in my mind as I listened to the mercenaries talking as if they were the only ones who knew what was going on, but my attention was drawn back to the situation that followed.
“Ha!! Do you think those pampered young masters and ladies can handle something like that?
You have to be as messed up as we are to make the task meaningful…
Come to think of it, this bitch’s face is red? Is she in heat?”
At the mercenary’s mumbling, the woman, who had been screaming, startled and began to cover her reddened face.
“Aaaah? So you were trying to get my attention by acting up?
If that’s the case, I can definitely give you unlimited attention. Come here!!”
“Aaugh!! N-No…!! Sob…!!”
The mercenary’s eyes gleamed with malicious intent, and he began to drag the woman away. She resisted desperately, but it seemed the pain of having her rabbit ears grabbed was too great, and she was dragged away.
“Hey, can’t you just go to a brothel later?
What if something happens if you mess with the merchandise?”
“There’s not much time left until the deadline anyway.
It’s disposable, what could happen?
If it comes to it, I’ll just cum outside.
I’ll be right back, okay? You can do it next.”
“You furry bastard. Hurry up and get back.”
“Ugh… Please don’t do this…!!
Please!! Someone help… Augh!!”
The mercenary, who had been joking with his colleague, dragged the terrified rabbit-eared woman, still holding her ear, towards the door of what appeared to be a lodging. Silence began to fill the cavern once more.
‘The situation is pretty grim…’
I, who had been watching the grim situation from above the hole in the wall, grabbed hold of the inexplicably heavy feeling and began to slowly retreat back into the hole.
‘Still, I’ve grasped the situation, and I roughly know what to do.’
As I dug tunnels, now traveling around this dungeon facility, and began to understand its complex but regular structure, my heart was slowly sinking into an inexplicable rage.
.
.
.
.
.
.
‘Good. I think I’ve grasped the terrain enough.
From the dungeon entrance to the secret passages inside…’
Now, I was even mobilizing the Kernel Worm, which was digging tunnels in the very center of the Academy, to completely conquer the dungeon. I was working hard to have the two Kernel Worms diligently travel around, grasping as much of the terrain as possible.
According to the structure of this dungeon, which was quite large, enough to slap a decent soccer field, it was a common format where rooms were connected by passages, but it seemed that there was an advantage in being able to utilize such a large space.
Conversely, it meant that the passages were short and narrow, and that I might be able to use them.
‘Good. So if I dig tunnels like traps, and someone gets caught and flounders…
But the problem is… how do I deal with those people…?’
That’s where the problem started.
The idea of making a big score was good in itself, but I couldn’t transport people unless I had tentacles.
I had dispatched subordinates because I couldn’t move my main body, but the things my subordinates could do were limited.
In a way, my preparedness was lacking, but I couldn’t help it that my growth itself was lacking from the start.
I needed a way to solve the problem by mobilizing everything I could do right now.
‘Should I make it like a slide and have them slide into a newly created cavern below?’
Fortunately, I was originally human, and I could use my brain to that extent.
‘Then I need to create a cavern to gather people in first…’
I chose what seemed to be the best possible choice, and recalled that there was a suitable room on the lowest floor among the terrains I had grasped so far, and began to dig a tunnel diligently.
‘Judging from the fact that I couldn’t feel any vibrations here, it’s probably a warehouse-like place where people rarely come.
Then I’ll make all the traps in the corridors connect to this place like a spider web.
A spider web… I like that…’
The idea of dropping all the prey into the lair.
I decided to think about how to deal with the captured prey later, and made the best choice I could with what I had.
It was the moment when I broke through the wall of the lowest floor room I was aiming for and poked my head out.
Instantly, I couldn’t move an inch due to a chilling murderous intent that felt like instinct, and I was pulled out of the hole in the wall as if by some unknown force.
The powerful grip squeezed the Kernel Worm as if it would burst at any moment, and I shook my body like a trampled earthworm, expressing the pain due to the linked pain.
But at that moment, a chilling voice that echoed as if there was an echo shook my body, and my movements began to freeze again.
“Oh my? A rather cute prey has walked right into my trap?”
‘Why…!! I didn’t feel any vibrations here…!! Ah…!!’
As the voice echoed through the small room and the reverberation returned to my sensory organs, I was able to see the structure of the room as if I had scanned it, and I froze in place.
Something floating in the air of the room.
No, not in the air, but on threads so thin that they couldn’t be detected even by the delicate sensory organs that sensed reverberations, the existence wiggled its long, smooth, and glossy hard legs.
The existence was riding on a spider web that absorbed all shocks and had the effect of camouflage, so I simply couldn’t feel it.
Her passionate red hair, grown long enough to cover her waist, and her blood-red eyes, which felt like jewels, were impressive.
And, literally, the existence, whose beauty could be described as fatal, like a sweet poison that addicted men, had a lower body made of a spider’s hard black exoskeleton.
A round, smooth but moderately sized abdomen attached to the back, and a spider’s head-chest-like lower body with spider legs walking on the spider web, she smiled.
“I’ve been hungry for a long time… Now I can finally fill my belly…”
As one of her hands, with sharp nails, from the upper half of the woman slowly approached as if to cut open my belly, one of the contents of the monster encyclopedia that Carla had read to me came to mind.
A failed experiment by Chao Xing, a mutant that should never have been born.
The overall size itself was not great, but the dangerous existence, described as having the upper body of an ordinary woman and the lower body of a spider about twice the length of the upper body, was looking down at me with fascinating eyes, licking her lips.
‘Arachnella…!!’
