Devonte was fast, in fact it almost seemed as if he was just teleporting through the forest, and Alex knew that even for cultivators in the Heaven"s gate, spatial manipulation and control was very hard if not out rightly impossible. Not unless you were on of those very few, very talented people that were born with the spatial elements of s.p.a.ce, gravity and time. It might not seem like it, but all three were separate elements, and one can not exist without the other when it comes to traveling through s.p.a.ce. Either way, Devonte seemed to be traveling through the shadows of the trees, or maybe even the tree themselves as Alex would see him on the branches of a tree 20.meters away, seconds after being on the root of one 2 meters closer.
This was very much unlike his movements when they were fighting, this was just strictly for traveling, hence he seemed to have a much better speed than when they fought. Khan didn"t have a problem keeping up, he was basically a wind spirit, so when it came to speed and movement, the Kamaitachi had most cultivators beat in that regard.
Devonte led them for the better part of three hours before they came up into a cl.u.s.ter of trees. The trees here were taller than normal, and they were arranged in a neat circle tightly grouped together that there was only one way in or out.
There were almost invisible fine threads of webbing wove in-between the trees, and it would have been impossible for Alex to notice it if he did not have an above average perception due to his spirit energy. The trees encircled a three meter tall and two meter tall rock, but it wasn"t the rock that mattered, but rather the hole at the front of it that led into the ground. This was the entrance into the Arachnids nest, and there were already Arachnids waiting for them there.....or at least trying to guard the entrance.
Devonte stopped them about ten meters away as he hunkered down behind a tree and beckoned Alex and Khan closer. "There are threads all-over the entrance, they serve as a sort of warning system for the arachnids. Should we break any of those threads they"ll feel the vibrations and come out in droves. They"re not too strong, but there"s a lot of them."
"It doesn"t really matter how many of them there are, it"s not as if we"re here with a specific target in mind, we just came here to slaughter them. So in retrospect them noticing us is not too bad, besides look at how narrow the entrance to their next is? It"s the only entrance so we would be able to create a choke point, we can kill them as they come out, it would be a tight fit for them." Alex suggested as he retrieved his spear from his storage ring.
It was the best plan they had, so rather than having to deal with a floor of Arachnids, they could handle them in smaller bursts. It would take a much longer time for them to kill them, but at least it would be IN a controlled environment and scenario. Khan as usual made the first move, the Arachnids he had to deal with were as big as he was, practically the size of a full grown wolf. Of course no matter how you looked at it, a spider that big was bound to be dangerous, but Khan wasn"t exactly normal. In no time at all he had torn the Arachnids to shreds as Devonte and Alex came close and took up positions in front of the open hole.
For a second, it didn"t seem as if anything was going to happen or that any of the arachnids would come out, but soon enough there was a deep vibration underground, and with each second that pa.s.sed it became more and more, and more. It was at that point Alex realized something, these things weren"t just a lot there were also quite fast, it would be too hard for them to fight if they couldn"t kill them as fast as they came out. So making a decision Alex summoned the fire mask and took his spot a little closer to the hole. He spread his awareness as wide as he could, this time focusing it under ground and at the border of approaching Arachnids.
There was system of tunnels underground, the tunnel themselves branched and fries crossed amongst themselves and there were hundreds of them. It would be hard for anyone other than the spiders that lived in it to navigate as it was quite easy for someone to get lost in there. Either way Alex could see the Arachnids coming from different directions, all of them funneling from different tunnels and heading towards the entrance, an they were close, Alex reckoned they would be here within the next seconds, more than enough time to prepare.
He spun the spear in his hands, and the flames on it"s blazed higher. Alex realized he had a lot more control over his flames now, they were cl.u.s.tered around his hands and coated the spear rather than being a blazing inferno that swallowed his clothes. Alex was grumpy happy for that, he could not begin to emphasize on the amount of clothes he"s burned through during the process of mastering and using his fire mask. But now with more control he realized he could determine and control the intensity of his flames, but there was always a build up to greater power.
And so when the ten seconds elapsed and the first red eyed Arachnids with eight let"s all ending in sharpened points showed up, Alex released his hold on the flames and stabbed his spear into the hole.
(Dragon Fall!)
There was a loud whoosh as flames surged forwards into the hole, completely unforgiving as it swallowed everything in it"s path. This would be considered a waste on his part as hundred, of Arachnids all died, completely burnt to a crisp by Alex"s flames. But it was necessary, now they wouldn"t be swarmed and they could actually make a foray into the tunnels itself to kill the stragglers. Alex could feel that there was a lot more Arachnids deeper down into the earth, but he wasn"t too worried, they weren"t exactly making any moves, and the wave of heat had rushed outwards rather than deeper. It would take time for any reinforcement to find them. With that in place Alex, Devonte went into the entrance and the tunnels below, very much prepared to spend the rest of their day hunting spider beasts.
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2 DAYS LATER.
Alex and Devonte stood in front of the mission administration secretary completely covered in blood from head to toe and with a significant enough stink that the other students were giving them a wide berth. But as if that wasn"t enough, the two Arachne corpses behind them were shocking enough that no one cared make a face that was obvious. Arachne"s were the evolved form of Arachnids, or rather they were two evolutions above an Arachnid. An Arachnid would evolve into either a spider Queen or spider king Arachnid, and usually there was only a single Queen and about nine to ten Kings in a single nest. An Arachne was a 5th circle existence, basically at the mid realms of the earth gate, not an ent.i.ty these boys could face, and they were absolutely right.
Only a spider Queen can evolve into an Arachne, however during their time hunting, another Arachne had come to claim ownership of the nest, killing multiple Kings and the Queen of the nest in the process. The Arachne was more like a Matriarch and would not have been bothered by the power struggles of lesser evolved Arachnids, except this Arachne came for her. It was a full blown war that Alex and Devonte struggled and barely manage to escape, both Arachnids kept dragging their fight towards the direction Alex and Devonte tried escaping, and then Khan did the cowardly thing and ran into the mantle, leaving Alex and Devonte behind.
Devonte could have also escaped into the mantle, he was Alex"s bonded spirit after all, but the Fairy was unlike the mischievous and cowardly nature accrued to fairies in stories, he stuck with Alex while both Arachnes dealt fatal blows and injuries to each other.
And when the time was right, they happily reaper the rewards Killing both beast when normally only a sneeze from those things would have slaughtered them. Not to mention they were dual Mana and Qi demonic magical beasts, and as smart as humans seeing as Arachnes had the upper half of a human and the power half of a giant spider. It was extremely tensioned filled for the both of them, and right now all the wanted to do was get their rewards, seem one of the Arachnes corpses and go get cleaned.
"the total sum of the money gained from your missions are 945 thousand gold, the academy would be taking 95.5 thousand gold as it"s percentage for being the middle man. Now as for the sale of the single Arachne, you can either put it up auction, or preferably we would offer you 10 million gold for it! The materials from it would make special pills useful to those in earth gate and even armor and weapons. So it"s value would be much Greater, and thankfully the Arachne is mostly intact. I would suggest you auction it out Childe Spirit Wind, you will earn more from it that way." The attendant sitting behind the counter said to them as she gave Alex a respectful bow.
However Alex felt weird, the moment she had called his t.i.tle, the atmosphere in the hall seemed to have changed, like he was feared or more respected. He didn"t know how to really react to that.
"I take it the Academy will take care of the Auction fight? How much would be your percentage then?" Alex asked as he looked at Devonte leaning on the Arachne they were taking home and watching everyone else in the hall like an executioner preparing to take heads off.
"The percentage is a bit high at 25% but we can...…"
"15%! No more no less or I"ll take it straight to the imperial faction, I"m sure they"ll buy it at a good enough price." Alex said to her with a time that left no room for argument. She nodded her head and gave Alex a bank card.
"Would you like to be present for the Auction Childe Spirit Wind, we have a VIP package for special guests that I"m sure you might like."
"There"s no need, I just want to get back to my tower. Please send someone to fetch me or better yet send the money over once you"re done with Auction. Until next time, have a good day." Alex gave her a nod and then went out with Devonte, while a grumpy Khan dragged the four meter tall and six meter wide Arachne behind them, shocking even more people about how a wolf like weasel not even a meter tall could drag a carca.s.s more than ten times his size.
In the minds of the many people watching, Alex was not simple, and it wasn"t just because of his reputation, but rather the power he seems to hold and have around him. It was at that moment that many people had to acknowledge the fact that a new major players had burst into the scene at the Academy, and he was unlike anything they had ever seen.