Chương 5: Cave Maze

Yang Fan had slept well and woke earlier than usual. The morning streets were filled with steam rising from breakfast stalls. He went downstairs to a small shop and had a bowl of hot, savory noodles with pickled vegetables and shredded pork, which warmed him from the inside out. After finishing his meal, he returned to his small rented room, put on his game helmet, and logged back into Mystic Wasteland Dao Realm.

The moment he stepped into Peach Blossom Village, the old village chief was standing in his usual spot at the entrance, wearing a kindly smile and staring directly at Yang Fan. Yang Fan could not be bothered with pleasantries. He turned and walked straight out of the village, heading toward the shrublands where he had fought so fiercely the day before. His goal for today was clear: collect enough wolf hides to craft the Black Wolf Leather Armor. The drop rate for hides was extremely low.

Yesterday, after killing nine wolves and fighting an Elite wolf king, he had only obtained three hides. He still needed seven more to reach the total of ten required for crafting. With last night's forum guide fresh in his mind, Yang Fan knew the wolves' attack patterns inside and out. Cold wind howled through the woods, sending dry leaves tumbling across the ground. Distant howls echoed from time to time. Moving through the brush, his sword flashed again and again, cutting through fur and flesh.

The sharp smell of blood filled the air. After a grueling battle, he killed over twenty wolves and finally collected all the hides he needed. He hurried back to Peach Blossom Village and found the old tailor in his shop, handing over the stack of hides. The craftsman's needle flew back and forth, stitching the cured leather into a thick, sturdy coat. The Black Wolf Leather Armor was complete.

Attribute Value Name Black Wolf Leather Armor Quality Gray Physical Defense 1 Special Effect None Note Made from black wolf hide. Soft to the touch and very warm. Yang Fan put on the armor and opened his character panel. In the process of killing wolves, he had already reached level 3.

Attribute Value Name Set Sail Level 3 Title None School None Official Rank None Spirit 3 Constitution 3 Agility 3 Physical Attack 3 Magic Attack 3 HP 30 Talent 0 Charm 0 Luck 0 Experience 0/30 Yang Fan studied the panel and noticed something odd: it only displayed his base stats. The defense bonuses from his equipment were not shown. He frowned but did not dwell on it. After wandering around the village for a while, he found the flattering village chief again and accepted a new quest: kill spiders.

The materials dropped by the spiders could be used to craft armguards. Yang Fan took the quest mostly out of convenience, not expecting much from the stingy chief. The spiders were level 3 mobs, located in an underground cave south of the village. The cave entrance was dark and gaping, like the maw of some great beast, with cold, damp air constantly flowing out. Inside, the tunnels twisted and turned in countless directions, darkness swallowing everything beyond a few feet.

The spiders came in two types: common and Elite. The common ones were brown, massive in size, comparable to adult bulls, with sharp bristles covering their eight legs. The Elite Spider King was the leader of the swarm, its shell a dark reddish-brown. It was actually slightly smaller than the common spiders, but the menacing pressure it radiated was far more intense. Yang Fan arrived at the cave entrance with a clear plan. He would avoid the dangerous Spider King and focus only on the common ones.

Elite monsters gave only twice the experience of common ones but were exponentially harder to kill. For now, fast leveling was the priority. No need to waste energy on unnecessary fights. Stepping into the cave, a stench of decay and rotting flesh hit him. Thick layers of webs covered the walls, sticky and glistening in the dim light. From deep within the cave, sharp, urgent screeches echoed through the winding tunnels, sending chills down his spine. Gripping his sword tightly, Yang Fan moved forward cautiously.

As he turned a corner around a jagged rock wall, a brown common spider was busy tearing into a carcass, its sticky brown fluids dripping onto the ground and pooling in a dark stain. Yang Fan observed for a moment, confirmed it was a common spider, then lunged forward with a burst of speed, his sword cutting through the air toward the creature. The spider sensed the intruder immediately.

It raised its massive head and let out a piercing shriek, green venom dripping from its mouth and sizzling against the stone floor. Its eight thick legs slammed against the ground, and its bulky body charged straight at him with a howling wind. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Yang Fan had memorized the guide. He sidestepped swiftly, narrowly avoiding the brute force charge.

The spider's heavy body crashed into the cave wall, sending rocks and dust cascading down. The common spider had two main attacks. The first was a straight-line charge that would stun its target on impact, but the attack path was fixed. A quick sideways dodge was all it took to avoid it. With the charge having missed, the spider's abdomen swelled, and the second attack came immediately: a web shot. A thick mass of sticky white silk burst out, aiming to bind him in place. Yang Fan did not stay still.

He sprinted to the side, barely escaping the spreading web, which splattered against the wall and instantly glued rocks and debris in place. With both skills on cooldown, the spider entered a brief window of vulnerability. Yang Fan seized the moment, closing in fast and slashing his gleaming sword against the creature's hard shell. The blade bit deep, and foul green fluid sprayed everywhere. The spider writhed in pain, its legs flailing wildly.

Yang Fan dodged and weaved, avoiding the frantic strikes while landing blow after blow. After several exchanges, the spider let out a mournful screech and collapsed to the ground, motionless. Yang Fan crouched down to loot the corpse. This time, luck was on his side, and he pulled out two items. Attribute Value Name Spider Fang Quality Gray Special Effect None Note Extremely hard. A crafting material for Spider Armguards.

Attribute Value Name Spider Venom Gland Quality Gray Effect Consumes 5 HP per second for 5 seconds. Special Effect None Note The spider's venom gland. Highly toxic. Not recommended for direct consumption.

"What is this venom gland even for?" Yang Fan stared at the item description, his mouth twitching.

"Eat it and lose health for fun?" He sighed and put it away.

"Whatever, I will just sell it to the general store later." He stored both items in his backpack and continued deeper into the cave. In the dim tunnels, flashes of sword light and the screeches of spiders echoed constantly, and the ground was soon littered with broken spider bodies....... A system notification rang in his ear: "Congratulations. You have reached level 5." The level 3 common spiders gave decent experience. After killing just over twenty of them, Yang Fan's level had shot up to 5.

After looting the last spider corpse, he found a relatively open cavern and sat down to rest. But then a troubling realization struck him. With all the winding tunnels and constant fighting, he had completely lost his way. He could not remember the route back to the entrance.

"How is this even fair?" he muttered.

"Am I going to have to die just to get back to town?" Suddenly, he understood the purpose of the spider venom glands.

"This stuff is literally for suicide, is it not? The game designers really thought of everything." Yang Fan did not actually try the venom gland. He still had not finished his quest. He had only collected six spider fangs and needed four more.

"I will figure it out as I go," he told himself.

"Maybe I will stumble across the exit while I am grinding." Boom. A heavy, muffled crash came from the tunnel on the other side of the wall. Rocks and dust rained down from the ceiling. An earthquake? Yang Fan scrambled to his feet, too tired to care, and started running.

"Seriously? I do not want to die, and the game is forcing me to anyway!" After sprinting for a while, the cave did not collapse, but the pounding continued, echoing from the other side of the wall. Curiosity overpowered his unease, and he decided to investigate. He changed direction, crouched low, and crept toward the source of the noise. Peering through a crack in the rock wall, he saw the red-brown Spider King ramming its body against the stone over and over.

"Is that the Spider King?" he whispered.

"What is it doing? Has it gone crazy, bashing its head against the wall?" After a frenzy of ramming, the Spider King stopped and began rubbing its abdomen against the rough rock. What kind of move was that? Yang Fan glanced to the side and saw several dead common spiders lying nearby, all torn to pieces, none of them intact.

Had the common spiders stopped being satisfying, so could it be that the common spiders were no longer enough to satisfy it, so it poured all its pent‑up aggression onto the wall, preparing for a cross‑species, inanimate mating session? That was way too twisted. Even the wall was not safe? At that moment, the Spider King noticed the intruder. It stopped moving, its compound eyes locking onto Yang Fan. Its eight legs scraped against the ground, and its entire body radiated barely contained rage.

Yang Fan's heart clenched. He blurted out, "Brother, I was just passing by! I did not see anything! I am a single man; I do not understand all that stuff you were doing!" Even as he spoke, his feet were already moving. He turned to run. But he had underestimated the Elite Spider King. Its abdomen swelled, and a thick strand of silk shot out, weaving into a massive, dense web in midair. The speed and range far exceeded those of the common spiders. Yang Fan could not dodge in time.

The web wrapped around him, pinning him in place, his limbs completely trapped.

"Oh no," he thought.

"This spider king is not going to do something weird to me, is it?"