Magic Warrior Chapter 50 (Patreon)

Shadows of the Queen

Leda-san returned when she finished reporting to the guild.

"I've had the knights contact the guild, you know. Even though the East Road isn't used much by the public, it's not completely unused."

"There are only mines over there, and it's closer to the royal capital."

Mini-Arena is more crowded than it used to be, isn't it?

"Well, when we were there, it was more like a village.

The town of Miniaina is apparently a mining town at the easternmost tip of the misty mountain range Nevia Montagna, which rises in the north. We continued east on the road we had taken today, which gradually veered off to the north. At the end of the road is the town of Miniaina.

The town's mines produce a lot of copper and iron, and even a little silver. Mythril, a classic fantasy metal, is not to be found until further north.

"Is there anything else you're interested in?"

"Are Demon Spiders found on the roads?"

"I've heard that they are usually found deep in the forests, and I've even seen them in the mountains farther north, but they are not usually seen that often. If found unprepared, this monster is more likely to kill an adventurer than an adventurer."

I feel that the "rare monsters" have not changed since SeveChro.

Even a monster of level 50 or so is judged to be deadly here. In the latter half of the game, there are towns full of high-level monsters where people live without a care in the world.

"There's a good chance that the southern forests have numerous poison spiders, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Is there anything you can think of that would cause a mass outbreak of spiders?"

I remember one event in SeveChro that was similar to that, spider-related.

But in this world, events don't always occur. The game-like events are too sudden and unrealistic.

"It could have been a simple outbreak of poison spider poison spiders, or possibly the birth of a Queen Spider."

The Queen Spider itself, involved in the events I remember, seems to exist.

"But if a queen was born, the poison spider poisons didn't seem to be moving in a very coordinated manner."

"It's still a candidate, not a queen. ... or not yet established the nest?"

Queen Spider Defeat Event.

This is a random event quest that occurs when two or more players are in forests around the world and many spider monsters and one Queen Spider are generated. The surrounding spiders are assigned the roles of Soldier, Guardian, and Gatherer, and the spiders that work together are very formidable.

The Soldier patrols the area, while the Guardian guards the queen. The Gatherer gathers food and materials for the nest. They are also like scavengers.

They may resemble ants, except that few spiders slack off.

"We can't be sure yet, but we should certainly consider the worst case scenario. If there is a queen, we'll know it when we see it."

The Queen Spider is a species of Arachne, a monster that looks like a spider's lower body attached to a woman's upper body. They do not speak and are just a normal type of monster. Once they establish a web, they do not move from it, but live off the surrounding spiders.

In the game, events occur when the nest is established, but in the real world, monsters live their own lives, so it is not strange that events occur even before the nest is established.

The level of the queen depends on the place where the event occurs, but it is usually around 70, although in SeveChro it never occurred in the forest near the town in the early stages of the game.

How can a few adventurers handle such a situation when even level 40 monsters are surprised when they are defeated?

The Demon Spider we encountered seemed too far away to be within the range of the event, and the occurrence of the event was not confirmed. But somehow, I have a sixth sense of certainty that it might be so.

"For now, it's too dangerous with this many people, so we'll stop searching tomorrow. I've asked them to bring some medicines, and Marc, even though Claire-chan's magic has healed him, he hasn't regained his strength, so he should rest."

"Yeah, it's been a long time since I fought all day, and I'm tired, so I'll rest early. I guess I'm getting old indeed..."

"I'm not much older than Alphos and the others. I'm just a bit slow."

"I guess you've been slacking off since you don't have anything to teach Mina anymore."

Dad seemed a little dazed, perhaps from the effects of his injuries or simply tired from his grand tour.

There are stone towers in the village that generate the same effect as the stone pillars that ward off monsters, which means that the village is unlikely to be attacked directly at this point.

"In that case, I will make an antidote with the medicinal herbs I have gathered."

"I'll help you, Rilfana-chan."

"I'll look up spider monsters in my illustrated book."

At any rate, let's do what we can do before Alphos-san and the others arrive.

◇

The next day, as we had agreed, we decided to cancel our search and stay in the village.

Alphos-San and the others would arrive in the evening.

I only helped in watering the fields and looked up all the spider-type monsters in [Monster Encyclopedia]. I wrote down the parts that caught my attention in my usual notepad.

Dad was unusually serious in his sword practice, perhaps shocked that Leda-san had told him that his arm was dull.

Claire and Rilfana had been setting up a table in front of the house since the morning to dry the medicinal herbs.

"I'd really like to let them dry for about three days, but I'm in a hurry, so I'll produce them in about half a day."

"Is it still okay?"

"Yes, it will leave a slightly bitter taste, but the effect will not change much."

"It's bitter."

Claire looked at me with a scowl, as if she had imagined it.

Back in my room, I looked up spider monsters, but there wasn't much in the book about them.

Most of the information is about their habitat, whether they are poisonous, or if they were using threads, and what attributes they seem to be vulnerable to. And the attributes of their weak points.

The most dangerous spider in Soljeplante is the Demon Spider, which I encountered yesterday.

Other spider-type monsters seem to be only small fry of 20 level or below, so there seems to be no problem except for the number of spiders.

As for Queen Spider and Arachne, the only information I could find about them was that there are monsters with these characteristics. Perhaps this is because they are monsters that are rarely seen in our world.

I took out the documents I had been working on and took a quick look at them to see if there were any notes.

Spider, spider....

I have confirmed that there was a blue-purple sea spider, Sea Spider, and a yellowish spider, Desert Spider, but I don't think I will see any of them around here.

"Mina-sama, I would like to use Demon Spider Eyes for medicine.... Oh, you have dropped a sheet."

Rilfana and Claire seemed to have entered the room before I knew it.

I remember Rilfana telling me that the Demon Spider's eyeballs could be used to make medicine.

Rilfana picked up my note, looked down at the paper, and gasped.

Did she think I was playing ciphers at an old age? I was a little embarrassed.

"Big Sister, you are always writing something in code, saying it's a secret."

"[I'm following your steps, lost under this blue sky]..."

"Gyaaah, stop it!"

I remembered that I had written a few unfinished poems I came up with at random on the edge, thinking that no one would be able to read them because they were in Japanese anyway.

Not something to get into the groove of something that's not a hobby...

"Oh, Rilfana-chan, you can read? Or rather, what are you writing, Big Sister...?"

"Oh, I haven't seen those letters in a while, so I just said them out loud."

Rilfana replied with a look that made me smile. Definitely on purpose!

And being able to read Japanese means that Rilfana was a reincarnated person.

It was a moment that convinced me of many things: knowledge, strength, and so on.