Chapter 93 – Inside the Cave Chamber

Unaware of the brewing storm in the small town, Punk had already ventured deep into the Spider Cave.

Here, the forest of stalactites was gone, and the wriggling purple moss on the ground was nowhere to be seen—not because they hadn’t formed naturally, but because they had been deliberately shaved away and wiped clean!

Punk, cautiously hiding behind a protruding rock with his golem, moved without making a sound thanks to the Muffle Sound spell. This gave him the opportunity to observe, without alerting anyone, the scene inside this clearly expanded and leveled cave chamber.

An invisible Arcane Eye drifted out from behind the rock. With the System’s assistance in control and analysis, the Arcane Eye deftly avoided the surveillance areas of three alert magic arrays, slipping in through a blind spot in the arrays.

The inner chamber was about the size of a basketball court, illuminated by dozens of magical light orbs floating in mid-air.

At the center of the chamber, a thick carpet lay on the ground. Judging by its intricate patterns and weaving, this rug could undoubtedly be considered a work of art, and the materials used were certainly of great value. Unfortunately, having served as a “carpet” for who knows how long, the “artwork” was now filthy, even moldy and foul-smelling.

What was most shocking, however, were the group of “people” standing motionless on the carpet, clad in gray-red robes. Strictly speaking, it was hard to say whether these beings could still be considered human. There were both men and women, numbering around fifty, and most of them clearly possessed Apprentice-Level professional ranks. Most importantly—while their upper bodies were normally robed, their lower bodies had transformed into spider-like torsos.

A spider’s carapace-covered abdomen replaced their hips, and eight sharp, segmented limbs took the place of their legs.

These individuals looked like monsters stitched together from giant spiders and humans. Even from a distance, Punk could sense the chaotic, conflicting life energies mingling turbulently within their bodies.

Clearly, these people had undergone some unusual biological modification, transformed into this half-human, half-spider form for some purpose.

These half-spider monsters were praying and chanting before a statue carved in the shape of a spider. All the monsters stood in neat rows, their low, murmured prayers sounding like a bizarre, hoarse cacophony.

However… the deity they worshipped was somewhat peculiar. Even after searching through all the knowledge in his memory, Punk could find no clue about this “deity” that looked exactly like a spider from head to toe.

“Perhaps it’s just another evil god from an outer plane who accidentally obtained divinity,” he thought.

Without indulging in baseless speculation, Punk calmly dismissed this unknown deity.

In the Multiverse, unless one encountered beings that disrupted the “rules” of the cosmos, it was nearly impossible for any deity to descend upon the Faerûn Plane. A deity’s followers could only be protected by their Church! Even if he destroyed a deity’s Church, as long as he didn’t act too arrogantly and provoke other Churches, the deity could do nothing but watch helplessly from afar.Not to mention these universally despised evil gods… They dare not even show their faces, let alone retaliate. When faced with the destruction of their Church, they have no choice but to swallow their losses and accept defeat! Such is the sorrow of deities trapped like prisoners.

Punk didn’t disturb these half-spider monsters suspected of being religious followers. He continued controlling the “Arcane Eye” to survey the surroundings of the inner chamber.

At the innermost part of the chamber stood a heavy iron door tightly sealed with chains. Punk estimated this door likely led to the core area deeper inside.

Besides the iron door, there were two or three smaller doors on the surrounding walls, probably leading to living areas like toilets. The randomly placed pots, pans, and piles of tattered clothing in the corners also indicated these followers normally lived here.

Upon reflection, this made perfect sense. These creatures had been transformed into such grotesque forms, and their expressions and demeanor clearly showed abnormal mental states. They couldn’t possibly strut through streets to buy groceries, could they? Hiding away from sunlight here was quite understandable.

What puzzled Punk most was that the strange “half-spider” transformation on these followers didn’t seem to possess any special power. Through the Arcane Eye’s observation, Punk discovered this modification appeared to merely add burdens to these followers. Their lower spider bodies didn’t possess extraordinary speed or strength either, and even the seemingly hard, flexible carapaces were just for show – their actual durability couldn’t even match ordinary steel plates.

Punk found these creatures increasingly bizarre and suspicious. They couldn’t have all collectively lost their minds to replace their lower bodies with spider forms just because they grew tired of walking on two legs and suddenly wanted to try moving on eight legs, could they?

However, since the cave was enchanted with anti-divination spell arrays, Punk couldn’t use Divination Spells to gather information about these followers. He could only speculate that these people were “lab rats” for some transformation experiment, placed here for convenient observation and research.

Just as Punk was pondering, the half-spider followers seemed to be concluding their prayers. They rose one after another, using their eight clumsy spider legs to support their bloated spider abdomens, staggering about like a group of drunken men.

Having decided to eliminate these followers without alerting any potential “boss” deeper inside, Punk took advantage of them not yet dispersing for “free activities” to make one final careful sweep of corners and crevices with the Arcane Eye. Only after confirming no unusual clues were hidden anywhere did Punk dismiss the Arcane Eye.

Since he couldn’t obtain clues from objects, he would simply interrogate the “living people” here. After all, such a group of Apprentice-Level creatures posed no threat to him!

Although these followers appeared quite devout in their faith, which might complicate interrogation, Punk believed there would surely be one or two among them who feared death and pain. He could extract some useful information from them, enough to gain at least some understanding of what lay deeper inside.After carefully checking his fully-charged Advanced Mage Armor and Deflection Field, Punk quietly prepared a Silence Field in his hand. Golem Number One also tensed its muscles, ready to leap into action. At Punk’s command, it would jump to the iron door in the inner chamber and firmly block the passage, preventing any followers from escaping or sending warnings amidst the chaos.

“Faith is a wonderful thing—it brings people together… Perfect for rounding them all up in one go!”

After this final muttered remark, Punk calmly stepped out from behind the rock!

(End of Chapter)