Elias cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders as the last of the lesser spiders twitched and collapsed, their bodies writhing before going still. His newfound resistance was still stabilizing, but he didn’t have time to wait for it to fully settle.

  The Broodmother clicked her mandibles again. A low, deliberate chitter that carried across the cavern like a war drum.

  “Ooookay.” He huffed, tightening his grip on the ichor-slick spear. “Let’s do this.”

  The colossal arachnid took a slow step forward, her legs sinking slightly into the ground from her own weight. Cracks spread from the impact. He could feel the reverberation in his bones.

  Then she lunged.

  He barely had time to react before one of her monstrous legs swept toward him like a battering ram.

  Agony erupted in his leg as his thigh was sliced open. His blood sprayed in wild arcs—splattering across the ground and staining the massive limb.

  TSSSS

  A sizzling sound echoed in the cave as his blood came into contact with the Broodmother’s chitin.

  The monster shrieked. A piercing, ear-splitting wail that made his skull feel like it was about to split open. The cavern walls trembled, loose stones crumbling from the ceiling as the massive creature recoiled, her colossal limb twitching violently where his blood had touched it.

  Elias staggered back, chest heaving, gripping his makeshift spear tight enough that his knuckles turned white. His leg burned, every movement sending fresh jolts of pain up his spine, but he forced himself to stay upright.

  His blood hurt her—though not as much as the smaller spiders—it was good enough.

  A slow, wicked grin spread across his face.

  The Broodmother stilled. Her beady, clustered eyes locked onto him with newfound focus, her body shifting as it adjusted its stance.

  She looked at him in a new light.

  One with more caution. Respect. Maybe even a hint of fear.

  The cavern fell into a tense silence.

  The Broodmother no longer twitched in pain. No blind rage. No frenzied assault. She was thinking now.

  Elias tightened his grip on the ichor-slick spear, his breathing still uneven. His leg throbbed, his muscles ached, and his mana reserves were nonexistent due to the trait—but none of that mattered. He needed to act.

  He glanced at the dent-ridden Primus. It was still operational, but was barely holding together. That was all that mattered.

  ‘Just one hit.’ He thought as he came up with an idea.

  The Broodmother moved first. Slow and deliberate this time.

  He tugged at his connection with the golem—sending his instructions.

  The command was simple. Distract.

  Primus twitched, its battered form barely holding together, but it obeyed. The golem lurched forward, its heavy stone limbs dragging across the cavern floor, each movement more robotic and unnatural from accumulated damage.

  The Broodmother’s clustered eyes flickered toward it, mandibles clicking in agitation as its focus shifted to the bigger target.

  ‘Good.’

  He forced his breathing to steady as he brought the spear down to his leg wound—coating it in his blood. The black ichor on the spear hissed and melted away as his blood replaced it.

  Elias glanced over at the monster and saw it shift, her massive legs clicking against the stone as she adjusted her stance. She was watching Primus, but she wasn’t committing—not yet.

  He had to give her an opening.

  Another tug at their bond and the golem stopped mid-step. Its movements jerkier and more strained than earlier—as if it was struggling to move.

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  It trembled in its place, shaking so much as if it could collapse at any second.

  The Broodmother’s mandibles twitched. A few of her eyes glanced at him—saw that he was still some distance away—then focused back on the golem.

  Without any warning—she charged.

  The moment she did, he exploded forward to close the distance.

  Primus raised its arms just in time to block the sharp legs. The impact was thunderous, shaking the entire cavern. Cracks spiderwebbed across its arms, fractures deepening from the sheer force—

  Then they shattered.

  Its arms exploded into hundreds of fragments as the monster’s massive limbs continue on to its body.

  But Elias was already close behind her.

  He didn’t hesitate.

  With every ounce of his strength left, he jumped up high with the blood-soaked spear’s tip pointing down as he descended onto its back.

  With all his weight behind it and his blood softening the chitin, the weapon punched through the chitin, sinking deep into the soft tissue beneath her armored plating.

  TSSSSSSSS

  The cavern echoed with the sickening sound of her insides burning.

  The Broodmother let out an ear-piercing wail. Her entire body seizing as his blood spread inside her.

  The reaction was instant.

  Her legs spasmed, slamming into the ground wildly, gouging deep trenches into the stone floor.

  She wildly thrashed about—trying to throw him off—but he held firmly onto the spear.

  The Broodmother’s movements grew more frantic, more desperate. Her colossal legs slammed into the walls, sending splintering cracks racing through the cavern’s stone.

  Elias gritted his teeth, muscles screaming as he clung to the embedded spear. His blood was working. He could feel her body breaking down from the inside, the venomous reaction eating through flesh, sinew, and bone.

  But it wasn’t fast enough.

  ‘FUCK!’

  He frantically looked around—hoping to see something, anything, that would give him an idea of what to do.

  But there was noth—

  Suddenly, the monster’s massive frame lurched backward, slamming into the cavern wall with bone-rattling force—knocking the air out of his lungs, his grip faltering as he nearly lost hold of the spear.

  His vision blurred for a second, the impact sending a fresh wave of agony through his battered body.

  ‘No!’

  He tightened his grip on the spear, forcing his fingers to hold on despite the numbing pain spreading through his arms.

  The Broodmother wasn’t done.

  She lurched again, her massive weight grinding him against the stone like she was trying to smear him into the wall.

  “AGHH!”

  Elias screamed in pain as he held on for dear life.

  He could hear her insides melting and the chitin softening under the effects of his blood. But he needed more.

  His mind raced. ‘THINK!’

  Then—his eyes snapped to the spear.

  Then—to his arms.

  An idea slammed into him like a jolt of lightning.

  ‘FUCK IT!’

  Elias ripped the spear free—then drove it back in.

  The spear punched through softened chitin, stopping just before it hit the deeper flesh.

  That was all he needed.

  He repeated it two more times—making a hole as big as his fist.

  Then, with one fluid motion, he sliced his wrist open—immediately plunging it deep into the hole.

  TSSSSSSSSSSS

  The moment his blood flooded into the Broodmother’s body, the reaction was immediate.

  Her entire form spasmed violently, her legs seizing, slamming against the stone with mindless, twitching force. Cracks tore through the cavern walls as she convulsed, her massive frame jerking, writhing, breaking itself apart.

  He could feel her body liquefying from the inside out.

  Muscle fibers snapping and bones cracking under their own weight—he felt it all.

  The blood loss was getting too much for him as his vision blurred—but he forced himself to stay awake.

  The massive spider suddenly let out one last gurgling screech—a sound of rage, agony, and pure, animalistic fear.

  Then—

  Her entire body collapsed.

  The cavern floor split beneath her, stone shattering from the sheer weight of her corpse crashing down.

  Elias yanked his arm free just in time as he pushed himself off.

  He stumbled back, barely able to stay standing. His vision wavered, his breath ragged. His right arm dripped with a mix of his own blood and the steaming remains of the Broodmother’s liquefied insides.

  |Ding! You have slain [Windswept Broodmother (II) – Level 197]!|

  |Ding! You have completed the Dungeon [Windswept Nest (II++)]!|

  |Rewards ready to be claimed!|

  |Ding! Achievement! You have cleared your first Dungeon! Bonus rewards available!|

  |Ding! Achievement! You have cleared your first Anomaly! Bonus rewards available!|

  |Ding! You have absorbed 1% of the enemy’s essence!|

  |Ding! You have leveled up!|

  |Ding! You have leveled up!|

  |Ding! You have leveled up!|

  |Ding! You have leveled up!|

  |Ding! You have leveled up!|

  |Ding! You have leve—

  He ignored the flood of notifications as he focused on the massive surge of essence entering his body.

  One percent. A curse, a shackle, a burden. He could kill a hundred monsters and barely inch forward. But this… this was different. The weight of it hit him like a tidal wave.

  This was the first time he’d felt it so vividly.

  For a brief second, his vision wasn’t his own. He saw flickering images—webs, nests, eggs. A hunger that wasn’t his. And something else that felt foreign even to the Broodmother. Then—gone. Like a whisper in his mind.

  He exhaled—a breathless, shaky laugh.

  Then his legs gave out.

  He hit the cavern floor hard, his vision dimming, fading.

  The last thing he saw was the lifeless husk of the Broodmother turning transparent—then melting into the cavern floor.

  He tried to stay awake—to see what exactly was happening—but it was futile.

  Before he knew it, darkness swallowed him whole.