Chapter 127 The Queen of Spiders, Lolth
That’s right. This spider demon in front of Roy was his first ‘neighbor,’ Araniya, in the upper Abyss!
At that time, Roy was merely a low-rank demon. He could not defeat Araniya and was almost eaten. But unexpectedly, fortunes had reversed. Roy had already become a top-middle-rank demon and was climbing toward becoming a high-rank demon, but Araniya had just promoted to middle-rank demon.
Through the spiritual connection, Roy learned the whole story from Fat Tiger. He looked at Araniya and was slightly dumbfounded. He did not expect that when Araniya appeared in front of him again, she actually planned to be his ‘neighbor’ again. Moreover, she was so unlucky that the location she chose for her nest was in the gold mine. Roy did not know what to say.
What an ill-fated relations.h.i.+p. The Abyss was so vast, yet he had encountered the same demon on two different levels. Roy could not even figure out how low the probability was, but as it happened, he and Araniya met again.
Roy recognized Araniya because her overall change was not too big despite advancing. But Araniya did not recognize Roy. Roy looked completely different from when he was the red-skinned little demon. Even though Araniya had a deep impression of the little demon that suddenly grew a pair of demon wings on the lava river, she was not able to connect him with Roy’s current appearance.
Roy stood up and walked toward Araniya. Araniya hurriedly lowered her body to express her surrender when she saw Roy approaching. She could already tell that this h.e.l.lhound, who had bitten her and dragged her here, was the servant of this frost demon. Judging from this, this frost demon was stronger than the h.e.l.lhound. Araniya felt that she was not his match, and she was a spider demon. The demons of her race were cunning and treacherous in nature, and they would not be as rash and reckless as those demons who only knew how to use their muscles. So seeing that the situation was not right, she immediately gave in.
Actually, Araniya was quite depressed. Although she had only been a low-rank demon in the upper Abyss, she was still an existence that stood at the top. Not many demons could defeat her, and she could get any prey she wanted as she wanted. Life had been very satisfactory. But unexpectedly, after she came to the middle Abyss and promoted with great difficulty, she was suddenly at the bottom of the food chain, and anyone could bully her.
Even though she knew that this situation was the same for many demons, the psychological difference was still huge, and it was difficult for her to adapt to this sudden change.
However, a demon’s life was hard, and she had to adapt to it no matter how difficult it was. Therefore, when Roy came to her, she not only lowered her body but also tried to please him. “Your Excellency, Araniya greets you! Pardon my ignorance, but I really can’t remember where I met you. But since you know me, please let me off this time on account of the fact that we’re acquaintances!”
While talking, she straightened her body and said bluntly, “If you need to vent, I will do my best to serve you!”
These words made Roy’s face darken. Which one of your eyes sees that I need to vent? Also, why are you so confident in your furry, black-haired covered body?
“Shut up. Say another word, and I’ll tear you into pieces!” Roy felt disgusted, so he simply shouted coldly.
Fat Tiger growled cooperatively at the side, his three heads and six eyes staring intently at Araniya’s neck.
“Yes!” Araniya trembled. She saw that Roy was unhappy and quickly lowered her head.
“When did you come to this level of the Abyss?” Roy asked coldly. “A-about two months ago!” Araniya answered honestly, completely without the arrogance that she used to have in the upper Abyss.
Two months ago was about the time that I just returned. He sized her up and asked, “That’s strange. When you were a low-rank demon, you had the form of a spider demon. Why do you still look like this after promoting to middle-rank demon?”
“Your Excellency, you probably don’t know that the spider demon bloodline has always been one of the more powerful bloodlines in the Abyss…” Araniya replied. “If there isn’t a stronger bloodline, then the demons born are usually in the form of spider demons. Even when promoting, most of them awaken the spider demon bloodline, so the demons of our race generally don’t change their appearances too much after being born…”
“The spider demon bloodline is very strong?” Roy touched his demon horns. “So, your race’s bloodline is relatively pure, and it should be easier for you to become a high-rank demon?”
“No, it’s the opposite!” Araniya was dejected. “Most spider demons will probably stop at middle-rank demon in their lifetimes because, despite the spider demon bloodline being strong and easy to refine, hunting souls is not the strength of spider demons. So it’s very difficult to match up to other demons in terms of magic power growth…”
Roy was curious, so he asked in detail and finally understood what Araniya meant.
The reason was very simple. It was because of the habits of spider demons! As a spider demon, Araniya was very good at using spiderwebs to make traps. But this hunting style of waiting for prey was a pa.s.sive hunting method. When lucky, you might be able to catch some prey in your spiderweb. But when unlucky, you often waited for a long time without harvesting anything.
Furthermore, spider demons could not use the common elemental magic. In addition to their spiderweb technique, their forte was in curse magic and poison magic. These spells had a shortcoming—they tended to be for weakening others. They were not the kind of destructive magic that could cause large-scale damage, so spider demons could not obtain souls in large quant.i.ties.
Other than that, spider demons also had the biggest shortcoming-being lazy! They could stay motionless on their spiderwebs for a month or two, willing to wait for prey to run into their spiderwebs, but unwilling to move their feet and run a bit farther away to hunt…
Therefore, spider demons were relatively slow at acquiring souls. In the face of the ever-increasing demand for magic power, they felt that they were not able to keep up, and promoting to become high-level demons would definitely be a long and difficult path.
Take Roy for example. Although he had a cheat, his magic power had increased to five thousand. Not only did he have the help of the Magic Energy Growth Potions, but he had also probably used up more than ten thousand souls. Had it been other demons, their consumption of souls would have been at least 70% to 80% more. Spider demons did not have any other way to obtain so many souls apart from relying on the acc.u.mulation of time.
This was why demons like flame demons were famous in the Abyss. Their magic power could cause huge damage, and it was easier for them to harvest souls and promote. Compared to flame demons, the demons of the other races were slower at obtaining souls.
You might not be able to tell from Araniya’s appearance, but she was almost eighty years old. She was able to promote to middle-rank demon completely due to acc.u.mulating bit by bit over the years…
As to why she had appeared in Roy’s gold mine, it was because she had pa.s.sed by and chanced upon this gold mine a few days ago. However, she had entered from the other side of the gold mine, so Fat Tiger had not discovered her. Spider demons were all good at curse spells, so she also noticed the curse of misfortune in the gold ore. At that time, Araniya did not pay it much attention. After all, for demons, gold and what not, other than some demons that would occasionally use it to make some decorations, was useless. But after Araniya left, she suddenly thought about it and came back.
Just like what Roy had thought, Araniya suddenly wondered if she could use this gold.
In fact, as a spider demon, Araniya seldomly responded to the summons to go to other worlds because how she hunted souls in other worlds was not much different from in the Abyss… But after discovering the gold mine, Araniya planned to use the gold ore as bait.
She did not intend to use the curse of misfortune on it. This curse of misfortune was useless to her. She just planned to put the gold on her spiderweb to make it easier to beat the greedy humans.
While speaking to her, Roy found that Araniya’s thinking was indeed very clear. She had even been secretly observing Roy, but she could not recall who Roy was.
After speaking with Araniya for a while, Roy suddenly asked, “Have you heard of the Demon Bible?”
This question was very sudden, and Araniya was stunned for a moment before she nodded. “I know a little!”
Roy was merely asking casually, but he did not expect Araniya to actually know, so he quickly told her to tell him.
“This is something mentioned in my inherited memories. It’s said that it’s something in the deeper Abyss, and its contents are recorded on seven sealed steles!” Araniya said. “It’s said that the sealed steles were things left behind by the Seven Deadly Sin Demon Kings, and there are still mystical powers on them… But this is just a legend. It’s too ancient, and it has long been impossible to verify. Your Excellency, why are you asking?”
“It’s nothing. I merely heard a legend like this by chance, so I was just asking!” Roy said quietly. “Come to think of it, you even know such things. Your inherited memories seem very complete!”
Araniya puffed out her chest and said proudly, “Because the inherited memories of us spider demons come from the Queen of Spiders Lolth! She is one of the existing demon kings in the Abyss and the greatest existence of the spider demons!”
Roy was stunned when he heard this and quickly asked, “Wait! What did you say? The Queen of Spiders Lolth? Are you sure you got it right? Isn’t she… isn’t she the G.o.ddess of the dark elves? How did the Queen of Spiders become a demon?”
“Queen Lolth’s previous body was a demon!” Araniya’s voice grew louder when it came to the pride of her race. “It’s just that she used a special method to turn into a half-elf half-demon, so she can only stay in other worlds and can’t return to the Abyss. The legends of the dark elves are wrong. The original body of Queen Lolth was a demon, not a dark elf!”
“Is that so?”
Roy did not expect to hear something like this from Araniya. In fact, Roy knew that there was such a Queen of Spiders. He could not help it because she was too famous. But he had always thought that she was only the G.o.ddess of the dark elves, and he had never linked it to the spider demons of the Abyss.
It was difficult for spider demons to promote, and Araniya said this personally. However, it made sense if the Spider Queen Lolth really had a body that resembled a half-human half-demon body…