Chapter 261: Spine-chilling Discovery
Hal returned to the eerie den-cave.
But this time, he had two disposable spirit wolves to his far left and right, ensuring it would be the summons who would be attacked first.
He didn’t dare put too much trust in [Shadow Walk] again after what just happened.
Hal knew he had only lucked out this time, since the one ambushing him was a B-ranked monster.
If it were something a bit faster or sneakier, he would’ve undoubtedly lost his life.
Still, he was a combat wizard. He couldn’t cower away.
Not without investigating what was inside that cave, at least, as there was a chance Liora and Loki were already inside.
His blood ran cold at the thought.
Earlier, he was slightly disoriented at suddenly finding himself in the middle of the Shadow Marsh, plus he was attacked.
Only now did he have the mental capacity to worry about his companions.
Arriving near the entrance, Hal shifted his focus back to the [Spirit Sparrow] that was already quite deep inside.
He ordered it to return to the entrance and survey the area.
After confirming it was safe, Hal entered.
The tiny avian summon scouted ahead, ensuring that its caster would be ready for whatever hostile creatures resided inside.
The cave was extremely deep.
Yet, Hal hadn’t detected any enemies, as if the location was abandoned.
But he was certain it wasn’t.
Deeper and deeper he explored, his heart pounding as he desperately shook off grim thoughts.
There were lots of high-tier crafting materials and flora inside, yet none were able to capture his attention.
All Hal wanted was to ensure his comrades weren’t here. He would leave the moment he confirmed this.
’D-Damn it...’ Hal cursed inwardly at the sight of a cave fork through the eyes of the sparrow.
He gulped, slightly nervous, but he still chose one.
He made the sparrow enter the right path, Hal himself trailing a few dozen meters behind.
Unlike earlier, the path was beginning to narrow once more, and while it wouldn’t be a struggle for Hal to continue, he couldn’t help but think about the possibility of fighting in such a cramped space.
If he met the accursed Midnight Pixie here...
Hal took a deep breath, steeling his heart as he continued, ignoring the crystal growths and strange yet valuable flora, along with a few mana stones embedded on the walls.
Inevitably, the sparrow arrived at the end of the den-cave’s right path.
What Hal saw made his skin crawl.
Cocoons...
There were hundreds of silk cocoons hanging from the rocky ceiling, some of which were still moving, though not with the intensity that could be called "resisting".
It was more like they were adjusting their positions while asleep.
’F*ck! F*ck!!’ Hal cursed, his heart racing.
Earlier, he had a hunch that this was the Midnight Pixie’s lair, but now, he had confirmed it.
These were probably the people who had gone missing for simply wandering close to the Shadow Marsh for the past eight years!
Hal didn’t know what to do.
It would be safer to report this to the empire and have them raid the crap out of this lair, but he wasn’t sure if his comrades were among those in the silk cocoons, and Hal didn’t dare risk leaving them here for too long.
There was a chance they would be dead by the time he returned with reinforcements.
Hal desperately hoped they weren’t here...
Stuck in a grim dilemma for a few dozen seconds, he scanned his eyes over the cocoons, then willed the sparrow to return to keep watch of the entrance while he himself headed over.
He was already here, and there was only one thing he could do if he wanted to maximize the chances of his companions surviving.
He had to check the cocoons one by one.
Once the [Spirit Sparrow] was perched in a nice location close to the ceiling at the cave fork, Hal began the spine-chilling work he wished he never had to do again.
He started by cutting off the silken tethers suspending the cocoons to the ceiling using [Wind Cutters], causing them to fall in an almost simultaneous threes or fours to the ground.
Hal felt nauseated with every thud.
However, he must do this, both for the peace of his heart and his potentially dying companions.
He successfully detached around fifty cocoons in less than ten seconds.
Retrieving the scalpel he usually used to craft his artifacts, Hal walked over to the silk cocoon closest to him, carefully tearing it open with his tiny blade.
A burst of putrid smell assaulted his olfactory senses, and he almost threw up.
The sight of the empty, half-moist, half-rotting eyes of the corpse inside the cocoon only intensified his urge to puke.
Fortunately, Hal was quite the quick-witted youngster, immediately casting the unique-tier [Breathing Room] on himself.
This allowed him to continue his unpleasant task with reduced difficulty.
Now, he only had to resist the nauseating appearances of whatever surprise awaited him inside each cocoon.
Hal knew he had no time to lose, as he could very well end up among these half-rotting corpses, which he naturally didn’t want to happen.
He just wanted to finish his damned job here and leave as early as possible, praying that he either opened Liora and Loki’s cocoons quickly or not at all.
Hal checked all of the fifty cocoons one by one, taking up less than fifteen minutes by checking only the face area, but his being careful not to scar the face, just in case it was Liora or Loki, added to the time it took to check each one.
’Good...’ he thought inwardly.
These ones seemed to be among the most recent, so the chances of Liora and Loki being among the more than fifty that remained should be lower.
Unfortunately, even the ones seemingly wiggling earlier were already dead, their skin turning a pale purple, though their bodies weren’t rotting yet.
Hal didn’t know that there was already an overwhelmingly pungent smell leaving the area he was in and was permeating the entire cave because he was being protected by [Breathing Room].
He simply continued checking the rest of the cocoons with a wildly beating heart.
Meanwhile, at a different location inside the same cave, a horned, monstrous hag with mystical, black and purple butterfly wings, froze, smelling the sweet scent of her victims
Her head convulsed in an eerie and irregular pattern as it turned a slow one-eighty.
In the next moment, her eight legs resembling those of spiders made contact with the ground, and she crawled up the rocky walls of the cave like a creature straight out of a nightmare, entering a lightless tunnel shortcut she had long created to easily navigate her way around her lair.