Civilization

"I'm back! I couldn't find Kingston at all, it is like he disappeared." - Gibing

Rushing back to the group, Gibing told us his unfortunate findings, as his chest heavily moves up and down with each breath. Hearing the news, immediately soured the atmosphere as Kingston was one of the vital members of the Krepost team. However, it was not like we could not function without him. Turning to Gewari, I ask her to continue with her information dump.

"Gewari, even though Kingston isn't here, why don't you tell us what you and your scouts were able to find." - Rebecca

"Like I said before, we found a location deep within the forest off to the side. We hadn't explored this direction before because it was quite far away from both HavenFall and the Krepost. Along the way, we did meet different monsters, however, it wasn't a priority, so we instead ignored them and continued our search until we discovered a cave-like structure. The cave was camouflaged with its surroundings, and with a quick glance, no one would even know it was there.

Dug into a grassy hill with several large boulders and trees surrounding it, was a damp mossy entrance into a cave. Its entrance was only large enough to fit maybe a grown adult human, but for us goblins, we were able to easily traverse this kind of terrain. Leaping off the tree tops, several scouts ventured first into the cave entrance, as we were curious if this place was of any importance.

We were right, of course, and the moment they landed they were ambushed. The large bounders came to life as numerous scarlet eyes gazed at the surprised scouts. Unable to react in time as a large gray web encases them, the scouts were bound together within seconds. Seeing this happen, I immediately ordered them to slash at the web while, getting a few archers to attack the stone spiders but to no avail.

Our stone knives were unable to cut through the web and the arrows only bounced off the hard spider skin. Screaming, and clawing at the ground, my scouts were slowly dragged into the cave by one of the spiders as we were watching unable to save them. My eyes were locked on all the spiders, watching their movements, but they only stared back at me until the scouts were unable to be seen or heard before closing their eyes and returning to their rocky state.

Now, while this doesn't conclude that Ian is in this location, I have a very high suspicion that he is, after all, Selino is the Queen of Spiders. We have also seen her call upon large spiders from the ground and from what Nina has told us, she was also able to call upon large spiders to traverse the grassland beside us. It wouldn't be too far off to say that she has spiders that can camouflage with the environment and have tough skin.

Also, this happens to be only one of the potential entrances to this spider nest." - Gewari

"There are more?" - Frank

"Yes, there are more. Scattered further passed the first, hidden in a similar manner with only the amount of 'boulders' and 'trees' to be different." - Gewari

"How many were there?" - Howard

"From what my scouts have told me, there are a total of 8 different entrances, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. At least we were able to find some of them." - Gewari

"I understand that Selino must have had a base outside the Horde's castle, but I didn't expect it to be so close. Then again, it makes sense since she has attacked Ian and the rest of you before. During that time, you saw a cluster of spiders before seeing Selino, and this was when you were moving from HavenFall to the Krepost. This must be the same base she had used before, and she either has always had this place running or she only started it again recently.

Selino has separated from Sylvia, and me a couple of times during the Tamer Village attack. I can only assume that during that time, she has been coming here to make sure her children are fed. When she found out they weren't she must have thought of the plan to take Celine's monsters as food. Now that she has gotten food, her next target was Ian, and well and behold, Ian was always going to be here." - Nina

Panicked as I listened to Nina's deduction, I hurried to suggest an option. However, I knew my option was foolish as there was no way it would be reasonable to attack an unknown base where we have too many disadvantages.

"So, do we raid the spider nest and try to save Ian?" - Rebecca

"No, that would be an idiotic idea. Not only do we have no information on the monsters, but we don't have a strong enough team to attack them. What if they all disregard defending their entrances and instead band together to attack us all at once? We would have no chance against them and would be eaten within the hour." - Yor

"Yor is right, we don't know anything about them. Besides the spider monster that guarded the cave entrance, what is inside is still a mystery. Even Ian being inside this place is a mystery because if he isn't then all the time we spent discussing how to save him and the execution, would all be a waste." - Nina

"I still have several scouts in that general location, watching for any movements, however from what I have been told the stone spiders do nothing but lay still." - Gewari

"That doesn't mean anything, unfortunately. The spiders will most likely attack the moment an intruder reaches their range, nothing further." - Nina

"Then, the next option would be to explore the portal that Kingston has mentioned." - Gibing

"Gibing and I have secured a path to the first portal already, positioning our soldiers along the pathway, for added security." - Howard

"I also arranged archers to overlook the situation from the towers." - Frank

Confused at the sudden shift in conversation, I try to bring it back to the original topic of saving Ian.

"Wait, wait, wait. Thank you, Howard, Gibing, and Frank for doing this but are we really abandoning Ian?" Rebecca

"Becca, you must understand that Ian is one of the strongest people here. He is our leader and our second in command, Kingston, is missing as well, which means our overall strength has been lowered to half in my opinion. We cannot even dream of rescuing Ian if he is really down there in the spider nest because before we reach him, we would have all died. Instead, we should look at the direction he was going in before he got captured. pan(da-n0vel.c)om

This, in turn, points us in the direction of the Abyss, and the portal that Kingston has mentioned at the top of the Abyss. That portal may or may not lead to somewhere even more dangerous than facing the Queen of Spiders herself, however, it was the direction that Ian and Kingston were pursuing. I believe it is better to move forward and try to grow, before committing to the task of saving Ian." - Yor

"But-but-" - Rebecca

"Rebecca, he has a point." - Nina

Turning my head to Nina who was gently, twirling the side of her hair as a small crease forms between her brows. Her eyes shift towards me, as he explains the process.

"Look at it logically. Ian is a player. Even if he dies, the worst-case scenario is that we have to deal with something drastic in the real world. So far, Sam and his medical team have been able to handle that quite fast and with little to no errors. Ian will be fine no matter what happens to him. Kingston, is most likely off with Celine, trying to either please her or seek pleasure. We don't have to worry about him either.

Instead, we should be worrying about the state of HavenFall, the Krepost, and the overall state of the game. This is the final week of the third event and a portal appears at the top of one of the portal spawning locations in the game, which means that this portal is very important. Now, I don't know if there will be any restrictions to this portal, but we did end up killing the 'boss' of the Abyss, so maybe that portal belongs to us.

If it doesn't belong to us, we need to go to it as soon as possible because we weren't the only people to reach the top. Devel will be there soon if he isn't there already. Figuring out the event and completing it to the best of our abilities in order to acquire as many benefits as possible should be our goal while Ian and Kingston are M.I.A. Do you understand?" - Nina

"I understand, but I can't just leave Ian…" - Rebecca

"We don't even know if he is in that place at all. For all we know, it could just be a place where spider monsters live and not necessarily a home for Selino. Ian might be dead by now for all we know." - Nina

"Dead? Me? Never. I'm as fit as an ox." - Ian

Following the voice, I look up to see Ian sitting on top of the main Krepost building, leaning against the giant arrow. Looking exactly the same as when he was last seen prior to entering the Abyss, Ian smiles warmly as he overlooks us. Leaping off the Krepost, he lands as softly as a feather, glancing around as everyone has a confused and surprised expression on their faces.

"What? Something on my face?" - Ian

"Ian…? What?" - Rebecca

"How?" - Frank f𝒓𝑒e𝙬𝒆𝚋𝘯૦𝘷𝐞𝑙.c𝑜𝐦

"That's impossible. None of my scouts have come back." - Gewari

"Is this a shape-shifter of some sort?" - Nina

"There is no way to tell, what do we do?" - Yor

"Fight? Defend?" - Howard

"Escape?" - Gibing

"Now, now, calm down everyone. I can assure you that, I'm the real Ian." - Ian

"I highly doubt that. After all, where are your spider legs?" - Nina

Nina was right. Where were his spider legs? As part of the curse, he had been growing spider legs from the back over time as the timer dropped but now that he has appeared before us out of nowhere, I realize things looked slightly different. Yes, the lack of spider legs was one of the reasons, but it looks like Ian had gotten slightly bulkier. His shoulders were broader, his arms and legs looked thicker, and his skin looked fairer as well.

"Spider legs? Ah, you mean these things?" - Ian

Bursting out from the leather clothing he was wearing, were 8 spider legs, each glistening in the light as their obsidian sheen mesmerizes us. Standing on two of his lower spider legs, Ian looks over us as he addresses his identity.

"Believe me now?" - Ian