12: Chapter 12 Kills and New Skills

Richard roared, "Val! Attack its legs together!"

Val broke free from the siege of the spider swarm. She still had a few small spiders clinging to her back that she hadn't shaken off, but she ignored them.

She rushed to the side of the Queen, leaped up, grabbed the joint of one of the Queen's hind legs with both hands, and let her entire body weight drag it down.

"—Crack!"

The joint made a crisp sound as it was directly dislocated.

The Queen's right hind leg lost its support, and its massive abdomen fell completely from the ceiling, slamming heavily onto the ground and kicking up a large cloud of debris and dust.

After landing, the Queen became even more frantic.

It supported its body with its remaining seven legs, and its front legs swept out, forcing the rushing Val back.

Then it turned its head toward Richard, opened its mouthparts, and spewed not spider silk, but venom.

Richard had already dodged in advance, but the coverage of the venom was too large, and a small part of his outer left arm was still splashed.

The hardened leather of his leather armor began to smoke the moment it touched the venom, turning black and brittle before splitting open.

The venom seeped into his skin, and a burning, excruciating pain spread from his arm to his shoulder, instantly numbing his left arm.

"Richard!" Liam's Detoxification Spell landed almost right on the venom burn.

A pale golden light enveloped the wound that had begun to turn black. The pain shifted from a burning sensation to a dull ache, then slowly subsided.

Richard gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his halberd with his still-functional right hand.

"Don't take it head-on! Dismantle all its legs first!" he roared through gritted teeth.

Val understood his intention; she no longer confronted the Queen head-on but instead clung to its side, frantically attacking its leg joints.

She stopped throwing punches and instead used grappling techniques to lock the joints with both hands, then smashed the membrane between the joints with her knees and elbows, all while remaining ready to retreat at any moment.

Cecilia cut in from the other side, hacking her longsword into the joint gap of the Queen's front left leg. With a forceful twist, the carapace cracked, and bodily fluids gushed out.

In an instant, the Queen's mobility was largely crippled.

It clumsily spun its body on the ground, trying to bite the enemies attacking its leg roots with its chelicerae, but it couldn't turn its head.

Two of its four front legs were broken, and it was struggling even to prop up its upper body.

Its final struggle was to mobilize all the remaining small spiders.

It had them swarm from all directions simultaneously, wanting to overwhelm these nearly exhausted enemies with sheer numbers.

Richard would not give it that chance again.

He charged toward the Queen, halberd in hand, crushing countless small spider corpses underfoot as his leather boots ground through viscous innards and shattered carapace.

The Queen sensed his approach, its head suddenly lowering. That fake human face twisted, mouth opening, and its chelicerae snapped toward his face!

Richard did not dodge; his left hand was still numb, but his right hand gripped tight.

The tip of the halberd was aimed at the inside of that mouth, pointed straight into the depths of the throat, which was densely packed with small, hook-like chelicerae.

Powerful Strike!

The moment the skill activated, he felt a surge of power flow from his waist and abdomen into his right arm. His muscle fibers tightened like twisted steel cables, then released.

The tip of the halberd, carrying a rotating force, stabbed into the Queen's mouthparts!

The dense sharp teeth gnawed frantically at the halberd shaft, scraping deep gouges into the wooden surface.

But the tip had already pierced deep into the throat, and Richard continued to thrust with all his might.

Dark green bodily fluids gushed from the Queen's mouthparts, drenching Richard. The stench was ten times stronger than the combined reek of all the spider corpses littering the floor.

The Queen's body convulsed violently a few times, and several legs curled up simultaneously, as if crushed in someone's palm.

Its abdomen contracted one last time, squeezing out the final two unformed eggs from its ovipositor. The eggs shattered upon hitting the ground, and the liquid inside spilled everywhere.

The eerie green phosphorescence on that fake human face slowly faded, leaving only a pair of hollow depressions.

Richard pulled out his halberd, stepped back, and panted heavily.

The system interface popped up automatically, and golden text flashed by rapidly:

[Killed Giant Spider Queen — Gained 150 EXP]

[Killed Giant Spider Guard × 2 — Gained 40 EXP]

[Assisted in killing Giant Spider Guard × 1 — Gained 10 EXP]

[Level Up!]

[Congratulations, Adventurer! You have been promoted to a Level 3 Warrior!]

Class: Level 3 Warrior (0/400)

The upgrade interface then popped up a message:

[Gained 1 Attribute Point]

[Gained a new skill. Please choose one from the following skills:]

[Dual-Wield Strike] Rapid attacks with dual-wielded weapons; attack speed increases the longer the fight continues (affected by Agility attribute).

[Mortal Strike] Reduces the healing effects received by the target, with a very small chance to instantly kill the enemy (lethal chance is affected by Strength attribute).

Richard did not hesitate and continued to add points to Strength, increasing it from 7 to 8. His whole body was filled with POWER!!!

As for the skill, he chose [Mortal Strike] directly; an effect that can trigger instant death is definitely considered a rare skill!

The upgraded scroll displayed:

Class: Level 3 Warrior (0/400)

Strength: 8

Agility: 5

Constitution: 5

Intelligence: 5

Skills:

[Powerful Strike lv2 (25/100)]

[Appraisal lv1 (25/50)]

[Polearm Mastery lv1 (15/100)]

[Mortal Strike lv0 (0/50)]

Val stomped a small spider that was still crawling to death, rested her hands on her knees, and panted even harder than Richard.

Her face and arms were bitten by small spiders, leaving over a dozen small holes, each oozing blood.

But she still raised her head and grinned at Richard: "That thrust of yours… was really something."

Cecilia pulled her longsword out of the spider leg joint, wiped the bodily fluids off the blade with a relatively clean cloth, then walked to the wall and began using the sword tip to cut open the cocoons hanging on the wall.

Most of the villagers wrapped inside the cocoons were no longer breathing; their bodies had been corroded beyond recognition by digestive fluids, their skin turned a translucent grayish-white, and their features were blurred into nothing but a few dark holes.

Only after one cocoon was cut open did the person inside still twitch slightly; it was one of the villagers who had just gone missing two days ago.

He was still alive, but his breathing was already very weak, and his body was covered in wounds burned by digestive fluids.

"He's still breathing!"

Liam rushed over, knelt beside the man, pressed his hands against the man's chest, and placed his holy emblem on the man's forehead.

The light of the healing spell was very weak; for a cleric apprentice, healing injuries of this magnitude was already beyond his capabilities.

But he didn't stop. Beads of sweat trickled from his forehead onto the back of the man's hand, and he bit his lip as he recited the same prayer over and over again.

Only when the man's breathing stabilized slightly did he sit down on the ground, his entire face as white as paper.

Richard leaned against the rock wall, closed his eyes, and rested for a dozen seconds.

He was covered in slime, and the place on his left forearm burned by the venom was still throbbing with pain. The left arm section of his leather armor was completely ruined.

A palm-sized, dark red burn mark remained on his skin, the edges starting to scab over, but occasionally it would still ooze a transparent, blood-tinged liquid.

He took out the styptic herbs he carried in his bag, chewed them into a paste, applied it to the wound, and then wrapped it with a bandage a few times, pulling it tight.

"Liam, please give me another Detoxification Spell in a while," Richard said, panting.

Val sat down next to him and handed him a waterskin.

Richard took it and gulped down two mouthfuls; it was cold, clear water, but in this humid, sweltering underground cave, it tasted as good as chilled mead.

When he returned the waterskin to Val, he noticed her clothes on her back had been bitten to shreds by the spiders, and her exposed upper back was covered in dense bite marks.

Yet, the girl couldn't even be bothered to bandage them, just leaving it exposed.

"Are you okay? Shouldn't you bandage that up?" Richard asked.

Val laughed and replied: "These little wounds are nothing; I'll just apply some medicine later."

The flames on the ground had gradually died out.

The burned-away spider webs on the dome left behind patches of charred black marks, and the air was filled with the stench of burnt protein.

The remaining spider webs were still dripping unburnt mucus, and occasionally one or two broken spider silk strands drifted down from the ceiling, landing in the pool of blood and quickly being stained dark red.