[South side: There's a platinum treasure chest hidden inside the forest, but there's a Demon King Spider there with powerful magic attack abilities. Proceed with caution.]
This Demon King Spider had already appeared the day before.
But at the time, Ethan was in a rush to get to the treasure location. After all, if he didn't go, he would die, so he could only put this Demon King Spider aside for the moment. Who knows what it's done to the entire Mist Forest by now?
[Mist Forest]
When Ethan led everyone to the outer perimeter of the Mist Forest, he saw that the entire outer edge of the forest was already covered in dense, layered spider webs. And on those webs, quite a few spiders were constantly spinning silk, completely unconcerned by the presence of people.
Some of the spiders even stopped weaving altogether, staring straight at Ethan and the others with their eight reddish eyes.
As if they had already marked them as prey.
After all… compared to the Demon King Spiders inside the Mist Forest, the size difference between them and Ethan's group was indeed enormous.
From a distance, it wasn't obvious. But once they got closer, Ethan finally realized that each of these so-called Demon King Spiders was at least two meters tall. If all their legs were fully spread out, they'd probably span over three to four meters wide.
And every single one of them was a dark purplish-black. Beside their small heads grew two huge scythe-shaped mouthparts. Their eight legs were long and rigid, looking tough and more than a little terrifying.
Pfft!
However, the moment Ethan stepped a bit closer to the forest's edge, trying to get a clearer look at these Demon King Spiders, one of them suddenly lifted its abdomen and shot out a thick strand of white spider silk at him while he wasn't paying attention.
"Holy!"
Ethan was startled badly.
At first glance, that strand of silk looked as exaggerated as water blasting out of a fire hose.
And spider silk had both adhesive and binding properties. Naturally, Ethan didn't dare let it get close. He quickly pulled out his wand and launched a Great Fireball straight at the silk.
For this kind of small spider, a level-one Great Fireball was more than enough.
Boom!
In the next second, the Demon King Spider's silk was instantly ignited, and the flames even raced rapidly back along the strand toward the spider that had fired it.
The speed at which the fire spread was so fast that even the Demon King Spider seemed stunned.
Pfft!
The spider hurriedly stopped shooting silk.
The strand immediately went limp and dropped to the ground. With no path left to spread along, the flames naturally couldn't continue burning forward.
Crackle!
And the silk that fell to the ground was quickly burned into a clump of ash.
"Looks like these spiders are afraid of fire."
A thought formed instantly in Ethan's mind. He immediately waved his hand and ordered the residents, "All units, take out your bows and nock fire arrows!"
"Yes, Lord!"
At Ethan's command, the residents immediately took out their bows from their packs, and one after another, they set fire arrows onto the strings.
"Fire!"
At Ethan's order, more than a dozen flaming arrows shot out all at once!
However… just as Ethan was about to issue the next command, a series of rustling "shoo" sounds suddenly came from deep within the Mist Forest.
Pfft!
Pffft!
At the very moment those dozen fire arrows were about to strike the spider webs, Ethan saw countless strands of spider silk shoot out from the darkness at the same time. And their target wasn't him or his people, but the arrows themselves.
Pat! Pat! Pat!
In almost an instant, the dozen fire arrows were all wrapped up and dragged down to the ground by countless strands of silk.
And those Demon King Spiders were quite clever. They seemed to know that fire was their weakness, so each strand of silk they shot out was only a short segment, just enough to pull the flaming arrows to the ground. Then they let the flames burn through the silk and die out on their own.
"Fall back!"
Seeing the situation turn bad, Ethan immediately raised a hand and signaled the residents to retreat with him.
There were too many Demon King Spiders in this Mist Forest. And these spiders seemed to possess a certain level of intelligence, making them extremely troublesome. Better to put some distance between them and the spiders' nest first.
Pfft!
Pfft! Pfft!
Fortunately, Ethan retreated quickly.
At the very moment he led the residents back, countless strands of spider silk shot out from inside the Mist Forest all at once.
Ethan hurriedly swung his wand, releasing dozens of split Great Fireballs.
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
But the number of silk strands was simply outrageous.
Even relying on his own strength alone, Ethan could only manage to cover the retreat. There was no way he could completely eliminate all the silk shooting in from every direction.
Only after they had retreated several hundred meters did Ethan finally stop, once he confirmed that the spiders' silk couldn't reach that far.
The Demon King Spiders inside the Mist Forest were far more formidable than he had imagined.
And their numbers looked alarmingly high as well.
'How am I supposed to deal with them?'
"Bird One! Take a few gunpowder compressors and attack from the air."
"Yes, Lord."
Hearing this, Bird One immediately swung her arms. Feathers sprouted from them almost instantly.
As for her clothing, she was already wearing the sack-style outfit custom-made for them by Cook Four. It not only covered the essential parts, but also didn't interfere with their transformation at all.
It could definitely be called excellent craftsmanship.
Before, Ethan hadn't realized Cook Four had such a talent for clothing design. After all, that woman had always put her talent into cosplay. But it had to be said, her handiwork was indeed far better than the logistics staff.
Whoosh!
Carrying several compressors given by Ethan, Bird One quickly flew up into the sky.
However, before she could get far, Ethan suddenly heard her scream.
"Ahhh!"
"Lord, save me! I've been caught in a spider web!"
"Damn it!"
Ethan's pupils shrank. Only then did he remember, a spider's greatest ability wasn't attack, but defense.
Especially when it came to trapping prey.
He immediately rushed forward with his wand, preparing to head toward where the bird-person was trapped. But before he could even reach the edge of the Mist Forest, countless strands of spider silk shot toward him.
Whoosh!
Before coming here, Ethan had already activated his danger awareness.
So at the moment the silk shot toward him, he was able to dodge quickly. But the closer he tried to get, the denser the silk became, leaving him no way to approach at all.
And as for rescuing Bird One, who was trapped above the Mist Forest, that was even more impossible.
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