[Infused Superior Dish (Kulu-Ya-Ku Hamburg Steak)]
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Alex heaves a sigh of relief as he watches his HP climb back to almost 100, enough to survive another assault.
Tereza, in her fully transformed state, flies through the air with a crazed expression. Her sharp claws rip into anything in her way, her lethal draining bite finishes off weakened enemies and strengthens and sustains herself, and her screeching voice disorients her foes. Alex watches as Tereza even lands a few light blows against the Matriarch, drawing its attention. She then quickly retreats, redirecting her focus to the weaker spiders nearby.
Using the confusion caused by Tereza, Alex and Rishi seize the opportunity. They unleash as many Fire lvl 4 spells as possible, concentrating their attacks on the Matriarch, who now lacks most of her protectors.
After three successive rounds of Fire spells, the Matriarch is engulfed in flames. Her body glows a bright red, her limbs unrecognizable as her entire form appears to bathe in molten lava.
Every remaining spider stares at the Matriarch, letting out horrifying cries, slowly succumbing to her injuries, collapsing on the ground with her crippled and burned body, and finally dying.
As the Matriarch falls, Alex notices a Blue Chest materialize alongside a massive, dark glowing crystal.
Suddenly, as the Matriarch collapses, a huge wave of corruption is unleashed, spreading outward from her body and hitting everything in the area, including the remaining spiders, Alex, Tereza, and Rishi.
The wave hits like a truck, Alex collapses onto the ground, Rishi drops to his knees, looking extremely pale, and even Tereza crashes against the wall of the ravine. She bounces back after the impact and struggles to land next to her two comrades.
Slowly, the darkness and corruption magically lift from the area. Every remaining Thornback spider in the distance, those outside the wave of corruption, quickly flees the nest. However, any spider caught in the wave instantly perished.
In just a few minutes, the entire ravine transforms into a peaceful, quiet hiding place—if not for the thousands of dead spiders and the blazing inferno still devouring the nest. Without the corruption, the area looks completely different, as if a curse had been lifted.
Alex’s HP slowly recovers thanks to the [Infused Superior Dish (Kulu-Ya-Ku Hamburg Steak)], which is still active and restores 75 HP over 10 minutes. He looks around, checks his body and finally breathes a sigh of relief.
“Good job, guys… that was closer than I expected it to be. The damn thing was mutated and corrupted. Fuck that disgusting thing,” he says while slowly walking toward the Matriarch’s remains and looting the [Chest (Blue)] and the [Corruption Crystal], a Purple-quality mission item without any text or explanation, surprising Alex.
Suddenly, Alex notices a few messages.
[Side Quest Offered:
Mission: Find out more about the [Corruption Crystal] by asking someone who can tell you more about it.
Reward: ???, Increased Mission Rating]
“You see that as well?” Alex asks.
“Yeah, it counts for us all, apparently,” Rishi replies.
Tereza transforms back into her hybrid form, spitting out a mixture of saliva and leftover spider blood before wiping her mouth clean.
“Disgusting...” she mutters.
“... No surprise there; let’s loot whatever is left that didn’t get burned and then leave. The body of the damn Matriarch is totally scorched, nothing useful is left. The other spiders either got burned or were hit by the corruption wave, which pulverized them… only a few spiders on the side have usable parts,” Alex says, rummaging through the mountain of dead spiders and picking out small Thornback spider parts that still appear valuable.
“We need to investigate the caves on the sides of the ravine; there might be more valuables left,” Rishi reminds him.
“Treasure? Let’s check it out!” Tereza exclaims with a gleeful smile.
The group gets moving and starts searching the battlefield. Each of the trio manages to pick up another White-quality chest from the mountain of spider corpses before noticing Roja and Perlah cautiously approaching the devastated ravine.
“What the hell happened here? It looks, smells, and feels like we’ve descended into hell!” Perlah exclaims, clearly disturbed by the scene.
“Indeed, you look like you went through hell as well. Your insane risk-taking will kill you one of these days,” Roja adds, frowning at the battered group.
“Oh, now that it’s safe and we’re talking about treasure, you shamelessly return!” Tereza snaps, clearly irritated. It’s obvious she’s angry that they reappear just as the group is planning to enter the caves in search of treasure.
“It’s a good thing you two are fine,” Alex says, shifting the topic. “Say, I’d really like to know—did you get rewards or maybe a quest for clearing this nest?”
Rishi’s eyes shift for a split second. Alex notices the subtle movement and assumes he might also be curious about the answer.
“Yeah, we got 500 Contribution Points each, and we also got the quest about taking the [Corruption Crystal] to someone who knows what it is. Of course, one of you surely holds the crystal, so we don’t even know what it is,” Roja replies, slightly annoyed but compelled by the contract to speak the truth.
“We also got Contribution Points and the quest… It sounds like maybe Dumbledore could appraise this crystal for us. He’s the one who tasked us with cleansing the corruption, after all,” Alex suggests.
“That’s the most obvious and straightforward answer. I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t first show it to him,” Rishi says, agreeing with Alex but also obviously doubting that the solution to this mission is really that simple.
“Enough about that! Treasure. Let’s see what the spiders were hoarding,” Tereza says, excitement flashing in her eyes, her entire body still pulsing with energy from her blood-draining ability.
“These are not friggin crows. I doubt they hoard anything of value! Heck, the only thing they’re hoarding is probably eggs, maybe not yet corrupted, that we can sell to Hagrid. I heard that guy loves to breed beasts, especially if they’re dangerous,” Alex reasons, clearly not expecting much from the search.
The group enters the cave on the left side of the ravine, with Roja and Perlah sticking to the back once again. Tereza glares at them but presses on, taking the lead as the vanguard, while Alex stays in the center to recover, his HP still too low to risk leading the group.
Alex also notices something strange about Rishi, who maintains his usual casual, friendly expression but seems slightly off.
The group cautiously explores the dark, damp cave. They soon come across clusters of massive spider eggs, some of which seem to pulse unnervingly, as though ready to hatch.
As Tereza steps closer to one of the clusters, Alex senses a sudden shift from within the eggs. Tereza notices it too, quickly leaping backward with her wings easily allowing her to fly back in under a second, clearly used to them by now.
Alex and Rishi exchange a knowing glance before unleashing Fire lvl 4 spells at the hatching egg cluster.
The cluster explodes violently under the might of the spells, and the spider brood within is immediately consumed by flames, perishing mere seconds after hatching.
Alex and Rishi press forward carefully, approaching each egg cluster with precision. Each one behaves the same, pulsing and reacting when they draw near. They destroy the clusters one by one, flames consuming the unborn spiders before they can become a threat.
Eventually, they come across a smaller group of eggs, separated from the massive clusters. These eggs stand out due to their pristine, smooth surfaces, and their unusual appearance catches Alex’s attention.
[Thornback Egg]
Alex grabs the egg and moves on, his eyes lighting up as he discovers more shiny white eggs in the distance, even forgetting his dislike for spiders.