Chapter 780: The Spider Mother Snapped (Patreon)

The village around the castle was in chaos. People were arriving from every direction, by wagon, on horseback, or simply stumbling down the dirt road. Some were wounded. Others had fear written all over their faces. Everyone was talking at once, trying to explain what they had seen, and every new account only made things worse.

Luke got there as fast as he could.

“They came on horseback,” Otto said hurriedly, pushing his way through the villagers. “They were terrified. Nyvma was too far away to ask for help, so they came to us.”

Otto’s village had taken in refugees from several directions, all of them desperate, all repeating the same story: orc attacks. But it wasn’t just orcs.

“I saw them,” Pip the goblin said, his thin voice trembling. “Ratmen were attacking a village. And not just one. I passed another village, and it was the same.”

Multiple attacks across several villages. Joseph stood nearby, surrounded by other blacksmiths and distressed villagers. People were crying. Others were arguing. Then a voice came from the forest.

“Boss! Boss!”

Norn burst through the trees, enormous, her legs moving far too quickly for something that size. The giant spider stopped in front of Luke and lowered herself.

“Norn, what happened?”

“Many orcs, boss. Norn saw lots near Great Tree.”

The Great Tree? I just came from there.

Luke focused on [Sovereign’s Gaze]. His awareness spread across his territory like an invisible hand reaching into every corner of his domain, and then he felt them: unfamiliar shapes. Not just near the Great Tree. There was movement near the rivers, along the edges of his territory, in places where nothing should have been. More orcs were still pouring in, not a handful but groups of them everywhere.

An invasion.

This wasn’t an isolated attack. It was a large-scale invasion, and if this many had already entered his territory, there had to be even more in the villages under attack. Luke took one deep breath. Just one. Then the plan came together.

“Norn, go back and protect the Great Tree,” he said, already moving. “Charlie, stay here and defend the village and the castle.”

“What about me, my lord?” Angie asked.

“You’re coming with me.”

With Angie in the air, she’d have a much better view than anyone on the ground. That alone was reason enough to bring her.

“We want to help, Lord Luke,” Joseph said, stepping forward. “The other blacksmiths and I gained a lot of attribute points from leveling up.”

Luke studied them for a moment.

They’re still nowhere near strong enough to fight real orcs. But they can help evacuate people.

“I’ll handle the ratmen and the orcs,” he said. “You help the wounded and get people out of the villages.”

“Wait, Lord Luke,” said Boggy, the goblin chief.

Luke turned toward him.

“The ratmen have always been peaceful,” Boggy said seriously. “They would never do something like this willingly. They’ve always respected humans. They stay hidden so humans don’t hunt them.”

“And now they’ve shown their claws and started attacking people,” Luke replied coldly. “You’re coming with me, Boggy. After I stop the attacks, you’re taking me to where they live. You’ll be there when I judge them.”

Joseph and the other blacksmiths immediately headed toward Otto’s village, probably to gather more horses, wagons, and anyone willing to help with the evacuation.

One problem at a time.

Then something heavy came crashing through the forest. Luke looked that way. He already knew what was coming. He could feel the shapes approaching. What he didn’t know was why. It was Nara. When the giant spider emerged from the tree line, even larger than Norn, the villagers screamed. Goblins backed away. Several humans stumbled over themselves trying to run.

And Nara wasn’t alone. Her children followed behind her, more than a hundred spiders advancing like a small black army.

“My baby! My baby!” Nara shrieked, her voice high and warped by panic.

“He hurt our sister!”

“Where is our sister?”

“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted him!”

The smaller spiders shouted over one another, their restless legs crowding the area as hundreds of hostile eyes locked onto Luke.

“Nara, what happened?” he asked, walking toward the enormous spider.

A sinister aura rolled off her.

“Where is my baby?!” Nara screamed.

Her eight eyes lowered toward Luke. For a moment, the aura faltered. Sanity, or something close to it, slowly returned.

“Explain,” Luke said. “What happened? I can only sense 112 spiderlings.”

Nara started speaking so quickly that Luke had to strain to keep up.

“Pain! Big pain! She called me, then disappeared!”

She kept repeating the words. From what Luke managed to piece together, one of her daughters had left the nest to explore, as she often did. Then something happened. Right before vanishing from the colony’s connection, the spiderling had sent out some kind of telepathic call, a cry for help filled with pain, fear, and desperation.

“You said the forest was safe!” Nara screamed.

She didn’t know where her daughter was. The call hadn’t carried a location, only raw emotion, one desperate burst before the connection vanished.

“He hurt our sister!”

The 112 spiderlings kept hurling insults at Luke. Nara, meanwhile, raised herself higher and scanned every direction, her aura growing heavier by the second. Luke went still, thinking, then activated his cloak and leaped high into the air, rising above the village. While airborne, he manifested his horns.

He needed to think.

Too much is happening at once. Ratmen attack. Orc invasion. Villages under attack. Orcs at the Great Tree. And now this.

By the time he landed, the horns were gone again.

“Charlie and Norn are going to the Great Tree,” he ordered. “Angie, you’re going with Nara.”

“Where?” Angie asked.

Luke focused on [Sovereign’s Gaze] again, sweeping his territory as far as he could. Nothing. Nara knew he possessed that power. Maybe that was why she had come to him, aside from the obvious desperation of a mother looking for her child. But Luke couldn’t sense the missing spider.

[Crown Vigilance] should’ve warned me. But it only detects threats to citizens inside my kingdom.

If this had happened while he was down in the underworld, he’d been too far away. The connection hadn’t been strong enough.

“She’s not in my territory.”

“Where?” Nara nearly screamed. “Where could she be?! My little baby!”

“Is... is your missing daughter named Nana?” a small voice asked.

Pip approached timidly.

The giant spider turned all eight eyes toward him. “Yes. My Nana.”

“I... told her about a place with fruit,” Pip said.

Then he explained about a yellow fruit the spider had loved. By the time he finished, Nara was staring at the goblin in a way that promised nothing good. If Luke hadn’t been there, Pip probably would’ve already become a memory. The spiderlings were looking at him the same way.

“Pip, go with Angie and Nara to wherever Nana might have gone,” Luke said.

He touched Angie and transferred the Soul Fragment currently inside Otto to her. Then everyone moved, the groups splitting up and heading in different directions. It was going to be a long night.

Franky was ordered, very much against his will, to stay at the castle. The rest of the goblin quintet arrived shortly afterward with more reports of ratmen attacking villages. Luke ordered them to stay behind and protect the area from any threats.

I really need some scrolls with the [Message] spell.

He took Boggy with him.

When they reached one of the attacked villages, Luke found something interesting. Orcs were fighting orcs. The two factions clashed among ruined houses while ratmen searched buildings, barns, and bedrooms. They weren’t looting. They were looking for something. Luke’s eyes moved over the ratmen. No real weapons. No blood on them. That didn’t make them innocent, but it meant something.

“Stay here,” Luke told Boggy.

Then he jumped onto the roof of a house.

[Dread Aura activated]

For one brief moment, amid the clash of weapons, screams, and roars, silence fell. Everyone looked up. Too late. Luke dropped among the orcs like a shadow. He moved fast, almost dancing, his kukris slitting throats, severing tendons, taking heads. Bodies hit the ground before they even understood what had struck them. One orc tried to raise his axe and lost his arm before he could finish the motion. Another stepped back and fell headless.

Within seconds, only three remained.

“Who do you serve?” Luke asked.

All three trembled, weapons clenched in their hands.

“Are you deaf?”

“Long live the king!” one snarled.

“The lord, human scum!” another spat.

Luke tilted his head. “That’s all I needed.”

By the time they charged him, they were already dead.

Luke leaped again and landed in front of the ratmen. They stared at him in shock.

“Now it’s your turn.”

He deactivated [Dread Aura] and walked toward the best-equipped ratman. No blood on him either. Luke grabbed him by the throat anyway and lifted him off the ground.

He really did look like a humanoid rat, covered in fur, with clothes cut for his small, agile frame.

“You’re working with the orcs. Why?”

The ratman struggled, paws clawing uselessly at the air. Luke tightened his grip slightly.

“P-please... We’re being forced.”

Luke threw him to the ground. “Talk.”

“L-Lord Luke!” Boggy hurried over, perhaps afraid Luke was about to kill the ratman on the spot.

“They have our king,” the ratman gasped.

Luke looked back at the houses they had been searching. “What were you doing here?”

The ratman hesitated.

“I’m pretty sure the orcs don’t need your muscle.”

“They told us to search for something.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what you’re looking for?”

The ratman shook his head.

Luke looked at all of them. “If any of you leave, I’ll kill you.”

Then he grabbed Boggy, pulled the goblin close, and jumped. In midair, he activated [Spell Grimoire].

“Spell [Message].” He focused. “Charlotte Vespertilio.”

The connection formed. Charlie, sorry to dump this on you, but I need you to go to the villages under attack. I’m heading to the ratmen tribe.

Luke activated the power of the [Cloak of the Arcane Witch] and accelerated. Boggy guided him toward caves near the base of the mountains. Luke moved fast, but kept his speed just low enough to keep the wind from injuring Boggy. He also carried a shield Joseph had made for him, designed to cut through the wind and make carrying a passenger easier.

By the time they reached the foot of the mountain, Boggy probably would’ve been pale if he weren’t green. The moment Luke set him down, the goblin vomited.

“S-sorry.”

Luke didn’t even answer. His eyes were on the cave entrance, where orcs stood guard outside.

“Stay here.”

Luke surged forward. The guards died before either could raise an alarm. He shot into the cave without a sound, killing the orcs one by one as he went. Some had their backs turned. Others were talking. None of them saw him coming.

Farther in, he found ratmen in chains, working under guard. One had old whip marks across his back. Another was so thin Luke could count his ribs beneath the fur. So Boggy had been right about one thing: these people weren’t here willingly. That didn’t mean Luke trusted them. Victims could still lie.

He kept moving. Only when he passed close to a few ratmen did he hear their nervous sniffing. Then he reached the throne room, where two orcs guarded the entrance.

“Who are you?”

Luke didn’t slow down.

“Death.”

He lunged. Each kukri buried itself in an orc’s face, and both dropped at the same time. The double doors swung open. Inside were two simple thrones. A ratman and a ratwoman were tied to them, while other ratmen knelt in front of the pair. The moment they saw Luke, they rose with spears in hand.

Interesting.

“Who are you?” one demanded.

The ratman raised his spear. Before he could thrust, Luke was already standing in front of him. The ratman froze. Luke slapped the spear downward. It smashed against the floor and shattered. Then he placed a finger against the ratman’s forehead and flicked him. The ratman flew across the room and crashed to the floor several yards away. Without wasting time, Luke cut the restraints binding the couple to the thrones. The other ratmen rose again, clutching their spears.

“Please, don’t!” the king shouted.

Luke looked at him. “They’re traitors?”

“No!”

“I see.”

He had already seen enough to know these people were being used. Luke put his kukri against the queen’s throat.

“I’ve had a long day.”

Everyone froze.

“You attacked villages while working for the orcs. People died.”

“Kill humans? Never,” the rat king said, his voice rough with fear and outrage. “I’m certain none of my soldiers hurt any humans. They wouldn’t. They only drove them away.”

Luke pressed the blade a little harder against the queen’s throat.

“Please don’t hurt my wife,” the king begged. “Is this revenge? Is that what you want?”

Another figure entered the hall. It was Boggy. Luke had used [Message] to tell him it was safe to come inside.

“King Tarvik. Queen Vesha,” said the goblin chief.

“Chief Boggy?” the king murmured.

“I’m with Lord Moon.”

Luke kept the blade where it was.

“Start talking. How long have you been working for the orcs, and why?”

“You’ll have to kill me,” Queen Vesha said. “I’m not telling you anything.”

“Wish you’d shown the orcs that kind of attitude when you started working for them,” Luke said, pressing the kukri closer. “Someone else will talk.”

“No, wait! Please!” King Tarvik shouted. “They have our children.”

Luke’s eyes shifted to him.

“We had no choice,” Tarvik continued. “They made us search for something called the Orc Treasure.”

Orc Treasure?

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