Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Mother Spider That Nurtures Its Young

After the stone wall had been built, the four of them laid several layers of wooden spike barriers on the ground as well.

As they finished setting up these defenses, a series of sharp shrieks rose from the darkness of the cavern.

It was the cry of the broodmother spider.

It was coming.

Qin Fei turned his head toward the source of the sound.

A broodmother spider of enormous size crawled out from the darkness of the cave and charged straight at Qin Fei and the others.

The moment it appeared, everyone squeezed the triggers in unison.

Countless bullets erupted from the muzzles of their guns.

In truth, when facing large creatures, weapons such as shotguns, RPG launchers, and heavy machine guns were far more effective than long rifles, sniper rifles, or pistols.

Naturally, they had no way to get their hands on RPGs or machine guns.

Even if they could, they would not have the resources to manufacture enough ammunition.

Thus, when Qin Fei’s group attacked this broodmother spider, nearly all of them used shotguns.

Four people firing their scatterguns together unleashed such dense fire that the spider was actually driven back a little.

After taking the hits, the broodmother spider crouched where it stood and let out a hiss.

In an instant, more than a dozen smaller spiders, each over two meters tall, emerged from its tail. The moment they hit the ground, they rushed straight toward Qin Fei and the others.

"Ignore the little ones. Keep focusing fire on the big one!"

Qin Fei gave his orders calmly.

At that moment, the wooden spike barriers they had set up in advance began to play their part.

As the smaller spiders reached the barriers, they were all halted in their tracks.

A few, in fact, had charged too far forward and were skewered straight through by the spikes on the ground, dying on the spot.

These spiders were not like the zombies in Seven Days to Die, able to keep crawling and attacking even after being cut in half.

Once impaled on the spikes, their bodily functions were destroyed. Even if they did not die immediately, they would be completely out of the fight.

Any stragglers that managed to break through were quickly brought down by Friday, Big Nose, and Caesar’s direwolf working together.

In the game, once all the spiderlings spawned by a broodmother spider were killed, it could quickly produce a new batch.

And when reproducing, it did not need to eat or replenish any energy at all.

But this almost blatant defiance of the laws of conservation did not appear in this broodmother spider.

After that batch of spiderlings had all been slain, the broodmother did not produce any more.

Now, in the cavern, it stood alone against Qin Fei and the others.

The broodmother spider had already been riddled with countless small wounds after several rounds of concentrated fire from the four of them.

Green fluid had begun seeping from its body.

It looked as though it could no longer hold out.

Then, just as the spider’s whole body swayed on the verge of collapse, a roar burst from its maw.

In an instant, some unknown force surged through it, and it actually forced its way forward under the barrage of the four shotguns, charging straight ahead.

As it lunged, it also spat out several streams of sticky green fluid.

This liquid was the broodmother spider’s venom, capable of paralyzing the nerves and, in severe cases, rendering a person unconscious.

More than that, when the venom struck the wall and the wooden spikes on the ground, it hissed and gave off white vapor from their surfaces.

Qin Fei’s heart tightened.

The fluid spewed by the broodmother spider was not only poisonous, but corrosive as well.

Fortunately, nearly everyone was wearing armor, so even if the liquid splashed onto them, it did not cause much damage.

After breaking through the wall of fire, the broodmother spider came right up to Qin Fei and the others.

With its eight legs, it crushed the wooden spike barriers underfoot with ease.

Then, reaching the stone wall, it sprayed venom. Once the acid had eaten away at the stone, the wall became brittle beyond measure, and the broodmother spider smashed straight through it with a single charge.

Run.

The instant the broodmother spider lunged forward, Pulsion leaped onto the mount beside him, a giant frog, and bounded to higher ground not far away.

Caesar also darted off on his direwolf.

As for Xiena, she fled on Big Nose’s back, slipping away from the broodmother spider’s attack.

Once the others had all escaped, Qin Fei stayed behind to cover their retreat.

He drew his composite crossbow and fired a grappling hook into the cavern ceiling.

Then, using the cloud-in-a-bottle item, Qin Fei leaped twice in midair and, in just a few seconds, sprang up to the cavern roof.

Qin Fei possessed strength equal to six times that of an ordinary person. Because of this, he could easily grasp the grappling hook embedded in the ceiling with one hand and hang there without falling.

What was more, he could hold a shotgun in his other hand and keep firing down at the broodmother spider below.

With his immense strength, even the recoil of the shotgun could not affect him in the slightest.

Unable to reach him, the broodmother spider chased after the others instead.

However, though its body was massive, its speed was not as great as one might have imagined.

Using their speed advantage, the others fought while retreating, drawing the broodmother spider along behind them.

Just as it was about to catch up, Qin Fei dropped back to the ground, drawing its attention toward himself once more.

With his far-superhuman physique and the aid of various items, Qin Fei could scale to the top of the cavern in the blink of an eye and evade the broodmother spider’s attacks.

Under the relentless concentrated fire of the group, the injuries on the spider’s body grew heavier and heavier.

It seemed unable to endure any longer. With one final shriek, the broodmother spider crashed to the ground with a thunderous impact.

It looked dead.

Even in death, its eight legs still twitched spasmodically.

Beneath its body, a great deal of thick dark green fluid seeped out.

[Broodmother Spider killed!]
[Sample implant upgraded!]
[Imprint skill acquired: Tek Building Mastery!]
[Tek technology acquired: Tek helmet manufacturing technique, Tek boots manufacturing technique!]
[Special item acquired: Tek energy element x100!]
[As team leader, after defeating the broodmother spider you have received a special item reward: Broodmother Spider Trophy!]

A string of rewards left Qin Fei too dazzled to take in all at once.

[Returning to the original location soon... teleport countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...]

A flash of white light passed, and Qin Fei and the others returned beneath the Blue Ark.

The piercing cold immediately swept over everyone present.

This battle against the broodmother spider had gone very smoothly. Qin Fei, Xiena, Caesar, and Pulsion had all escaped with almost no injuries at all.

Their pets, too, aside from having been splashed by the broodmother spider’s venom and suffering some skin burns, were all more or less unharmed.

After asking Xiena and the other two, Qin Fei learned that, aside from himself, everyone else had received the same rewards.

Among them were naturally the skill of Tek Building Mastery, as well as the technology to craft equipment with Tek science.

And of course, there were the one hundred units of Tek energy element.

In the world of the Ark, Tek technology could be said to be the most powerful existence of all.

And to use this technology, Tek energy elements were needed for power in almost every case.

This haul had been immense. After a brief exchange with the others, Qin Fei could hardly wait to look at the diamond-shaped crystal on his wrist.