Chapter 27 Whispering in the Dark
The 'Silk Trail' is a path composed of spider webs, located in a rift valley that is 500 feet deep, 2,000 feet wide, and stretches for five kilometers from front to back.
The main road of the trail can be traversed stably, but when countless giant spiders inhabit, the spider webs woven above make it very risky to pass through the rift valley.
Because no one can guarantee whether a creepy spider or a sticky spider web will suddenly fall down while walking.
And there are many passages leading to different places at different heights in the rift valley.
As a result, there are many different choices in this path that is densely covered and obscured by cobwebs. If you are not careful, you will fall into the cobweb maze and never get out.
When Brian walks the Silk Trail, he must consider the network of oblique connections as well as the various networks connected up, down, or across to ultimately reach his destination.
Cobwebs are everywhere here, after all, and they are becoming more and more common.
They cover everything, from normal-sized web traps set by black widow spiders, all the way to monstrous silver curtains woven from thick spider silk as huge as human skin.
Brian had only been walking for ten minutes, and his boots were covered with thick spider silk.
The air became increasingly turbid, irritating his throat, as if it was filled with invisible spider threads.
After about half an hour of even more exhausting travel, he even felt that his body was wrapped in a layer of sticky cobwebs.
This made it necessary for him to constantly clean these slender spider threads from his face in order to breathe smoothly.
He had the illusion that as long as he kept walking, the entire silk trail would turn into a real giant spider, and before he realized the danger, it would slowly wrap him into a cocoon. , making it unable to move at all, and could only wait quietly for the bite of the fangs.
Fortunately, he wears a pair of 'Lolth's Fangs of Resistance Bracers' on his wrists.
The properties of this magical equipment made him immune to infestations caused by spiders of any quality.
Even if he encountered a group of small spiders crowded on the ground trying to stop him, after he tentatively approached, they seemed to have seen something scary and fled in a hurry, disappearing into the spider webs or cracks in the rocks. Disappeared.
Of course, the premise of all this is that as long as you don't actively provoke them.
In fact, he couldn't guarantee whether those large spiders with higher challenge levels were really immune to this effect, so naturally he would not appear to have any trouble provoking them.
But, until now.
Among the many huge spider webs hanging between the boulders and torrents, all Brian saw were normal-sized spiders, ranging in size from fingernail-sized to head-sized.
The song spider, with its narrow body and long legs, was the largest spider species he had ever seen, although he knew there must be larger species somewhere.
So, he didn't dare to be careless because of this, and would rather take a detour than have a conflict with the owner here.
Because his keen perception allows him to feel that many spiders are lurking in all directions, lurking under the ground, and lurking between every rock and every pit on the surface.
Brian speculated that the largest spider web creators must be lurking in the underground tunnels, and he hoped that they would stay there honestly, at least temporarily.
After all, just looking at these little spiders was enough to irritate and make his scalp tingle.
The difficult journey through the spider web maze ended at the crossroads where Brian reached the Rift Valley.
He stopped and took a deep breath. After breathing the fresh air with the smell of mushrooms for a while, he began to carefully look at the surrounding environment.
The location here is the only cross tunnel with the widest and most eye-catching roads in the Rift Valley. It can be clearly seen that there are much fewer cobwebs.
Of course, this is not because spiders are unwilling to build webs here, it is just because there are also many underground monsters that are more ferocious and vicious than spiders lurking in this open cross tunnel.
Brian hid in the shadow of the stone pillar, looking around for the knowledge in his mind while looking around warily.
The tunnel on his left can reach the Dark Frontier, the most complex underground labyrinth in the Underdark, and the ancient Orens city of the dark elves.
On the edge of the Dark Frontier, there is a fortress built by the drow elves, stationed with a large number of elven guards.
The main purpose is to guard the slaves who were arrested here and worked hard for them.
As for where the tunnel on the right leads to, Brian is not sure, and there is no description on the map. It is said that it can reach Shamas City and Schendarian City.
This has nothing to do with the purpose of his trip, so he naturally won't pay too much attention to it.
Because the floating tomb that fell during the Netheril era is located in the tunnel leading to the Dark Frontier, it is very close to his current location.
This is also the fundamental reason why he chose Fansi Trail.
The tunnel opposite him leads to a lightless woodland dominated by fungi, which is exactly the direction he is heading to the gray dwarf city.
Brian stood there and pondered for a moment. Instead of rushing into action, he carefully searched for some nearby small tunnels or caves that led to unknown places.
It wasn't until he discovered that an inconspicuous cave was marked with a special symbol that he cautiously walked in.
Brian leaned into the small, cold cave, and with the help of the glowing moss around it, he saw that it was filled with stalagmites, stalactites, and spider webs.
There were many hanging spider webs that had shrunk to the point of almost becoming They turned into wrinkled corpses, and it was only through their vague facial expressions that we could tell what kind of pain and struggle they had suffered during their lifetimes.
Because the mouthparts of spiders are very small, they cannot swallow their prey whole.
They can only use the corpse transformation method, that is, after catching the prey, they first use their fangs to paralyze the prey, then bite a hole in the prey's abdomen, spit out the digestive juice, digest its meat into liquid, and then Suck it slowly, without leaking anything, and eat it completely. After sucking it, the skin of the prey is casually discarded on the net and hung in the air, leading to the horrific scene now.
Brian raised his head calmly, his cold eyes looking at a strange spider curled up in its web.
In addition to the eight black eyes in the center of the face and the fangs protruding from under the lips, this terrifying creature's general appearance reminded him of a person whose body had been hybridized with a spider, and A drow stretched thin to twice its normal length on a rack.
At this time, it curled up naked in the spider silk, watching him vigilantly. Its finger claws that were constantly opening and closing were half the length of its forearm.
However, the moment this weird spider met Brian, it trembled all over, as if it had seen something terrible. It quickly tapped its long legs covered with short hairs and disappeared into the stalagmites on the roof of the cave. and the shadows of cobwebs.
Seeing this scene, Brian immediately felt relieved and began to carefully examine everything in the cave.
Because he had heard that the drow patrols would use special marks to leave messages from time to time to remind their companions of the dangers around them or the distribution of monsters.
So when he saw the mark of the cave, he thought it was necessary to understand the specific situation.
After all, this is the Dark Territory, and any caution that may seem a bit redundant to surface residents can often save lives.
——"Detect magic!"
He recited a spell, a faint magical halo floated over, and the entire cave exuded a soft red light in his sight.
Brian's expression changed, and he stretched out his hand to brush aside a few strands of inconspicuous spider silk.
“Be careful, there are purple insects nearby!”
Looking at the warning marks left by the drow patrol on the stone wall, he understood the meaning, and from the obscure It can be seen from the traces that the time engraved was definitely no more than twenty-four hours.
Hearing that it was a purple worm, Brian frowned and walked out of the cave with a heavy heart.
Just as he was thinking about how to walk to the tunnel on the left, a rapid clicking sound caught his attention.
His expression changed, and he quickly hid in the shadow of the stalagmite and turned his attention to the place where the sound came from.
Soon, with the help of the light source of the moss, he saw a Dreadclaw with a pale blue light reflected all over its body running out of the passage next to it, just blocking his way.
This monster has a head like a vulture, a body like a giant beetle, and an exoskeleton decorated with spikes and bony protrusions.
This is the Terrorclaw, and its name comes from their long and powerful limbs, and the curly hooks that grow from the ends.
They are ferocious predators in the dark, ferocious monsters in the hunting grounds.
The secret caves inhabited by these creatures echo with the tapping and scraping of their claws as they continually climb up and down the cliffs and cave walls.
The way was blocked, and with uncertainty about the surrounding danger factors, Brian could only wait patiently for the time being.
He saw the Deinonychus using its claws to climb the rock wall, trying to hunt a giant spider hanging on the web head-on.
Giant spiders are the most common species of creatures that inhabit the silk trails. When they feel the trembling of the webs, it means that prey is coming to their doorstep.
There is no doubt that the Terrorclaw's attack had no concealment intention, and it was naturally easily discovered by the spider squatting in the center of the web.
However, as a bystander, Brian knew very well that things were far from as simple as Spider thought. Because the Direclaw is a swarm hunter in the Underdark, it can communicate by tapping its exoskeleton and surrounding stone surfaces with its claws.
What may appear to others to be just random noise is actually a complex language only the Direclaws understand, and its rhythms can travel miles across the Underdark. Far.
Just as he guessed.
When Brian subconsciously looked above the spider, he immediately saw at least three Dreadclaw monsters, using their hooked claws to walk on the rock surface at the top of the tunnel.
They tried to use their climbing skills to ambush the giant spider squatting in the web from above and being successfully attracted by its companions.
At this moment, the accident happened again.
A low roar came from deep in the throat, making all the predators stunned for a moment. Even the spiders on the web were frightened, and followed the direction of the source of the sound, relying on their condescending Advantage, took the lead and looked over.
Immediately afterwards, the giant spider's whole body turned into a lifelike gray stone sculpture at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then fell from the spider web to the ground, shattering to pieces.
The low roar sounded again.
A huge creature slowly crawled out of the deep tunnel with heavy steps and a swaying head.
Its eight legs covered with dark blue scales scraped against the rocks around it, causing waves of echoes in the tunnel, but it didn't care that these sounds would reveal its position, and headed straight towards the crushed spider. The stone statue crawled away.
This huge and terrifying lizard opened its huge mouth, revealing its spear-like teeth, and bit into the spider sculpture, making a crunching sound like eating candy.
Basilisk!
Brian recognized the third hunter immediately.
Recalling the warning sign he just saw, he knew that the danger at this moment was probably far from over.
However, this is a good opportunity for him to escape, allowing him to enter the blocked tunnel without any effort.
Otherwise, it will take some effort to eliminate these troublesome guys.
So he patiently watched this hunting game from the Dark Territory.
Seeing the prey being robbed, four Terrorclaws climbed down from the wall, surrounded the basilisk, and moved back and forth to distract the prey.
While slapping their hard exoskeleton armor with their claws, they stretched their necks and emitted a sharp chirp in a provocative manner.
The basilisk dropped the prey in its mouth, and an angry growl rolled out from the depths of its throat.
Then he lowered his body and waited for the creature that challenged it to come and die, becoming his next meal.
These Terrorclaw monsters were obviously very aware of the basilisk's deadly petrifying gaze, and they all avoided its ice-blue pupils, trying to launch a surprise attack from the blind corner of their field of vision.
There was even a Terrorclaw monster that took the opportunity to swing its claws and successfully hit the basilisk's hard armor. The sharp claws scraped against the scales, making a harsh sound.
The painful basilisk shook its heavy body and thick and powerful tail, raised its neck suddenly, took a deep breath, and the brewing poisonous gas spurted out, covering a Terrorclaw that could not avoid it. .
At the same time.
The basilisk's strong and powerful tail hit another direclaw that was about to attack, causing the latter to hit the cold rock wall like a sharp arrow.
At this moment.
Brian, who was hiding aside, suddenly noticed dust falling continuously from the ceiling of the cave, and a heart-stopping tremor came from the inside of the hard rock ground.
He looked shocked and immediately realized something.
So while the Direclaws and the Basilisk were still testing, they rushed out from the shadow of the stone pillar without hesitation, passed the monsters as quickly as possible, and headed towards them without looking back. Tunnel rush.
“Don’t come over!!!”
A sharp voice suddenly echoed at the intersection of the tunnel.
The fighting basilisks and direclaws were also frightened and froze in place. They all looked back and happened to see Brian who wanted to take the opportunity to leave.
Brian, who was the first to bear the brunt, was startled by the sudden scream.
He stopped quickly because the screamer was a skinny goblin that suddenly appeared in front of him.
This made him want to trample him to death.
Obviously, even he didn't notice that he was not the only one watching the show, and he didn't even know when the other person appeared.
He saw the goblin, who was obviously making a fool of himself, grinning at him, reaching out to pat its butt, then winking with a stern look on its face, shrinking into a shadow and disappearing.
Shadow jumping?
Is it a goblin shadowdancer?
Brian looked at the disappearing shadow of the goblin in surprise. Just as he was about to recall the origin of this goblin that appeared on the Silk Trail, he suddenly felt a violent vibration coming from the ground.
He looked shocked and immediately realized something, so he did not dare to waste time and began to concentrate on casting his teleportation spell.
——"Second-Level Spell: Dimension Jump!"
Just when there was a roar from behind, accompanied by dim light particles swirling around him, Brian was in a cloud-like halo in time. disappeared without a trace.
He walked non-stop through the pitch-black tunnel, following the instructions in his memory, and came to a cave with rugged rocks.
The ground here is broken into many levels. The lower areas are covered with glowing moss. A small stream meanders through the moss. The higher levels are like stairs, extending as far as he can see. In the deep darkness beyond.
Brian jumped onto the fault, and continued jumping towards higher faults.
Although the fault leading to the upper cave was higher and lower, and even looked more like a cliff in some places, he still climbed up skillfully and reached the top of the cliff.
What appeared in his sight was a forest of glowing fungi. If he went too deep, he might encounter a group of timid mushroom people.
However, with the mentality that doing more is worse than doing less, Brian did not choose to do this.
Smelling the mushroom smell in the humid air, he rested for a moment to regain his strength, and then walked straight towards the edge of the cliff top.
After arriving at his destination, he jumped without hesitation and jumped into a bottomless cliff again.
This is the second time he has risked his life and jumped off a cliff in the Dark Territory.
It is said that the protagonist of cliff jumping has great luck, so he hopes his luck can be as good as last time.
Feeling the roar of the wind in his ears, Brian calmly recited a spell.
With the blessing of "Levitation Technique", he successfully took over control of his body and carefully landed at the bottom of the rugged cliff.
Then he trudged along the winding road at the bottom.
I don’t know how long I walked in the darkness.
This winding and silent tunnel began to become brighter and brighter. The road suddenly tilted downwards, and a cave appeared in front of him.
Looking at the familiar scene, Brian subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
When he thought that the legendary Nese Scroll was hidden here, all the fatigue in his body disappeared.
In his impression, this place was probably more peculiar than any scenery he had ever seen or imagined.
Glowing fungi covered most of the stone, filling the entire cave with a dim, eerie blue glow.
The stalagmites and stalactites are intertwined together to form the stone pillars of the cave. Huge crystals are embedded in them, emitting mottled and dazzling light, as if tiny daggers stung his eyes.
"Hey? Is anyone there?...Ah, please help me! I've been trapped in this darkness for too long...It's been too long. Please, please get me out!"
Brian stepped into the cave and was adjusting to the dazzling light when a soft female voice sounded from his mind without warning, ethereal and insubstantial.
(End of this chapter)