Clatter! Clatter!
The sound of Durin descending the stone steps echoed in the dark cellar.
In this damp and gloomy cellar, Durin could clearly hear his heart beating like a muffled drum in his left chest.
Thump! Thump!
The dull, rapid heartbeat propelled the blood in Durin's body to flow into his limbs. This intense, pounding heart rate was not due to fear, but rather an inexplicable excitement born from the unknown situation ahead.
Durin was very cautious. He constantly surveyed the vicinity of the cave, his left palm filled with magic power. He first cast an Arcane Wisdom spell on himself, putting him in a state of sudden enlightenment and clarity.
Under the spell's enhancement, Durin's mind wouldn't go blank due to excessive tension, preventing him from stably depicting and outlining the spell's rune model.
Durin first quickly chanted the incantation for summoning skeletons: "Lebata, Sorbinayafe, Omuralin Sisso… Kutmasis, Sanonxi Kate."
With the calm provided by Arcane Wisdom, this incantation was completed in less than 30 seconds.
When the last Ochnun word was uttered, a faint sound immediately responded to Durin.
"Buzz!"
A low, faint resonance echoed through the cave.
This sound sent shivers down Durin's spine. After a moment, strange sounds echoed in his brain, growing in number.
The air tore open, forming a swirling portal, from which two skeletons shakily crawled out.
As the portal closed, a piercing ringing sound filled Durin's ears, and an overwhelming chorus of whispers immediately surged forth.
The cellar entrance was very wide. He let one skeleton walk ahead to clear the path, maintaining a distance of about five meters from Durin, while the remaining skeleton stayed behind Durin to guard the rear, making his entry very easy.
"Drip, drip."
Upon truly entering this narrow passage, which only allowed one person to walk through, Durin felt an oppressive sense of confined space wash over him.
From the layer of dirt overhead, occasional protrusions of dirt and stones appeared, and water droplets gradually gathered at the tips of these protruding stones, finally teetering and falling to the ground with a crisp sound.
The sound of dripping water and the crunching of bones as the two skeletons walked echoed incessantly through the cellar passage, the only sounds present.
Hmm?
Durin paused. He smelled a stench drifting from afar.
And this stench reminded Durin of his trip to the graveyard. It was the smell of rotting, spoiled flesh, lingering at his nostrils, a strong sense of nausea rushing straight to his head.
Durin squatted down and began to examine it carefully.
Small pieces of flesh showed clear signs of being gnawed by fine, sharp mandibles, and green corrosive liquid even seeped out from the crevices of the flesh.
If one looked closely, they would find a small tuft of short, black hair on this tiny piece of flesh.
Hair?
Green corrosive liquid... and signs of being gnawed by fine, sharp mandibles?
Could it be an insect-type monster?
Looking at the rotting flesh residue on the ground, Durin immediately concluded that a group of monsters of unknown strength were entrenched deeper within the cellar.
—Could it be the man-eating monster rumored to be roaming Piltover?!
A thought suddenly flashed through Durin's mind: the rumor he overheard the two workers discussing in the cable car area, about a man-eating monster possibly hiding in Piltover.
After reaching this conclusion, Durin wanted to turn around and leave immediately, but he hesitated.
Because the request for the commission was very clear: even if the child died, you must bring back the remains. Otherwise, you won't get a single silver lun coin, and that's 10 silver lun coins!
If he didn't take it, someone else would.
After paying rent in four days and deducting living expenses, how many months would his remaining money last?
Durin even planned to go outside the city to gather herbs soon, then rent a public alchemy laboratory to recreate the Composite Recovery Potion formula from his dream in reality.
That would be another huge expense, so Durin couldn't give up any opportunity to earn money!
Anyway, the skeletons were scouting ahead. Even if there truly was some kind of insect monster with corrosive venom in the cellar, it would be useless against the undead.
Firstly, the undead have no pain receptors, no muscles, and no nerves. Secondly, Durin's own physique was superior, giving him a certain resistance to toxins.
After a mental struggle, Durin mustered his courage again. He first ensured that the shield in his hand would not slip off his arm, then took out bandages from his storage ring and tightly wrapped his right hand around the hilt of the enchanted scimitar.
Next, Durin continued along the path. Before long, he saw the skeleton scouting ahead stop, as if it were a robot encountering an obstacle and unable to proceed.
Durin went to investigate and found that a iron door was blocking the path. Its surface had obvious dents and scratches, and there was even a small iron lock on the bolt.
"Clang— Clang—"
As Durin pulled, the iron lock, chains, and iron door rubbed against each other, making a loud noise that made Durin stop, cautiously looking around to ensure he wouldn't be ambushed by monsters.
Nothing happened.
Only then did Durin begin to carefully examine the iron lock. It was clear that it required a key to open, or it had to be forced open.
So, he raised the enchanted scimitar in his hand. The magical circuits constructed on its blade surface were filled with a faint red energy, and the runes within the scimitar resonated with the magical elements in the air, cheering with delight.
Clang!
The scimitar chopped cleanly onto the surface of the iron lock, emitting a loud, prolonged tremor.
Durin even felt the entire cellar tremble. He bent down to look, and the small lock had clear cracks, detaching from the clasp and falling directly onto the dirt surface, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The iron door opened.
The floating orb of Light spell illuminated the area ahead. Durin gripped his shield and scimitar tightly, advancing slowly under the guidance of the skeleton in front.
As he continued to walk forward, he gradually realized that the cave behind this iron door was not artificially cleared.
Because there were many jagged rocks inside, and the cave structure varied in size, especially with constantly falling sand and gravel from above, it looked like it could collapse at any moment. There were no wooden supports inside, but rather several old cobwebs.
But the smell of blood grew stronger, and the fluorescent grasses, like agate pearls, studded and covered the entire winding and rugged cave ceiling.
They followed some ancient rule, never approaching each other, illuminating this blood-filled dark cave with a light that was not dazzling but exceptionally serene.
There were no discoveries in the front part of the cellar, so he could only go deeper to look for the missing child's remains.
As he delved deeper, the surrounding environment changed. Durin noticed that fine white spiderwebs began to spread among the rocks. At first, they were just scattered strands, but the further he went, the more he realized that white spiderwebs were everywhere.
He could even see small spiders crawling on the webs.
Suddenly, a drop of liquid, yellowish like pus, fell from above. Durin reacted quickly, dodging sideways. He watched as the liquid dropped onto the floor, rapidly corroding it like sulfuric acid.
If he hadn't dodged, Durin's face would probably have been ruined like that.
Durin looked up and saw a pale human face.
That human face hung from the cave ceiling, looking down at Durin, its expression twitching, like a clown smiling.
And it wasn't just this eerie human face; the entire cave ceiling was covered with elongated objects wrapped in white silk.
Some were already silent, while others were still frantically writhing...
These were clearly human cocoons wrapped in spider silk!
Inside were individuals tightly bound and injected with large amounts of digestive enzymes, waiting in despair to be corroded into a delicious, juicy nutrient solution, leaving behind only these desperate and twisted human cocoon shells.
The horrifying sight before him had completely shattered Durin's worldview. He couldn't help but gasp. What in the world was this monstrous thing?
Then, he saw four horizontal lines slowly open beside the huge human face, like eight neatly arranged car headlights.
The next moment, a colossal creature suddenly dropped from the cave ceiling.
This thing landed right where Durin was standing, less than a meter away, and Durin finally saw clearly what it was.
An impossibly large spider, completely black, with white markings on its back that, when pieced together, resembled a distorted human face.
Eight crimson eyes revealed an indifferent expression. It stared at Durin, green viscous fluid oozing from its huge mouth, letting out a terrifying hiss.
Several enormous insect legs dragged its massive body. This was a large spider, nearly three meters tall, with a hard outer shell, like a tank.
Although this Giant Spider couldn't speak and could only emit low hisses, Durin still felt anger in its eight crimson eyes.
Its sharp mandibles clicked open and closed, and deadly venom dripped from the fine, sharp teeth.
"Hiss— Ha—"
Spider?!
Durin raised an eyebrow in surprise. He hadn't expected to find spiders in the cave leading from the cellar. But upon closer thought, it seemed acceptable. The entire city of Piltover was built against cliffs, and cliffs were never short of caves.
Despite Piltover's advanced technology, spiders, being arthropods, have territorial instincts. They prefer dark, damp environments and strongly dislike direct sunlight, unable to withstand strong light exposure.
These sedentary spiders have fixed habitats, and individuals prefer to maintain a certain distance from each other, not encroaching on one another's territory. Therefore, this large spider did not break through the iron door but instead settled peacefully within the cave.
And the original designer who built this abandoned house might have intended to dig a cellar as a backup, but probably accidentally dug through into a cave during the process.
Afterward, to compensate, they later added an iron door as an obstruction, but for some unknown reason, someone managed to get in again, until it was recently discovered by the Spencer Family who then re-locked the iron door.
The Giant Spider let out a shiver-inducing hiss, its eight slender yet powerful spider legs pushed off simultaneously, and its massive body shot towards Durin with an unnatural speed!
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