Cave Monster

It moved quickly on the silk, appearing suddenly and startling Zhou Xu, making his heart clench.

At that very moment, what appeared within his field of vision was a giant, purplish-red spider whose size was comparable to an off-road vehicle!

Its eight massive legs were covered in chillingly fine hairs.

On its prominent head, eight jet-black eyes were clustered together. Just looking at them was enough to make someone with trypophobia uncomfortable.

Below the eyes, its terrifying mouthparts, which opened and closed with a specific rhythm, made one's scalp tingle.

For Zhou Xu, a modern man, this was unequivocally a monster.

A powerful wave of fear surged out of him like a volcanic eruption, causing his whole body to tremble uncontrollably.

"Damn it! Run, run fast!!"

With no time to think, Zhou Xu took the lead and bolted. Although Dashan and the others didn't know what had happened, they immediately followed, not daring to linger for a moment.

Zhou Xu didn't know how long he ran. It wasn't until his head felt heavy and his vision went black that he quickly reached out to steady himself against a nearby Black Forest tree, sliding down to sit against its trunk.

Damn it, I'm getting low blood sugar...

He took a good while to recover before looking up at Dashan and the others gathered around him.

Dashan and the others were looking at him with tense expressions.

"I'm fine."

Hearing Zhou Xu speak, Dashan and the others visibly relaxed, then couldn't help but press him for details...

"Chief, what exactly did you see in there?"

Dashan's question made the image of that figure reappear in Zhou Xu's mind, his emotions still not fully settled.

After taking a deep breath and composing himself, Zhou Xu told Dashan and the others what he had seen in the giant crevice cave.

After listening, Dashan and the others' faces, just like his, couldn't help but reveal expressions of fear.

Clearly, he wasn't the only one, not just the modern man Zhou Xu, who was terrified of such a giant monster.

He never imagined that the depths of this Black Forest were home to such a colossal creature!

Damn it, are there really monsters like this in the primitive world?

As soon as this thought arose, Zhou Xu quickly realized he was wrong.

He shouldn't forget that this world had Old Gods and Summoning rituals, so it wasn't a normal world.

Following this line of thought, it was his mistake to be so surprised by the appearance of just one giant spider.

"Which way did we run from?"

"This way."

Following the direction Dashan pointed, Zhou Xu activated his 'Eye of Insight' again and looked.

If that giant spider had chased them, its massive size would have been impossible for his 'Eye of Insight' to miss.

After confirming that the creature hadn't pursued them, Zhou Xu breathed a sigh of relief.

Come to think of it, at the time, he had only discovered the creature unilaterally with his 'Eye of Insight.' The giant spider might not have even detected his presence.

He had been so terrified by the monstrous spider, which was completely beyond the realm of normalcy, that he had momentarily lost the ability to think.

Now, having calmed down a bit, his thoughts quickly opened up...

If this giant spider's habits are similar to the spiders I know, then its hunting method should be primarily ambush predation. In other words, it's unlikely to attack proactively.

Does that mean as long as I don't go deep into this Black Forest, we can coexist peacefully?

He certainly didn't want to live next door to such a terrifying monster.

His first thought after calming down was whether he could find a way to kill the giant spider.

For example, standing outside the crevice cave and throwing torches inside to burn it to death!

But Zhou Xu quickly discarded this idea.

Setting aside the lack of flammable material inside the cave, even if he threw a bonfire in, it might not even catch fire.

Even if it did catch fire, the giant spider probably wasn't stupid. Even if it were, wouldn't it have the survival instincts of an animal?

If a fire started, wouldn't it run out?

Directly burning it to death was unrealistic.

Under this premise, Zhou Xu was left with only two options.

One was to prepare quickly and lead the entire tribe to migrate, leaving this place.

The other was also to prepare quickly, but to prepare to find a way to kill this giant spider!

In the short term, migration seemed like a relatively safe option, at least they could effectively avoid the threat from the giant spider.

But their tribe's food and Freshwater problems had not yet been solved.

Furthermore, apart from this Black Forest, they had almost zero knowledge of other areas.

In other words, they had no idea where to go.

If they migrated in this state, it would be easy for them to run out of food and Freshwater, and then die on the road.

Conversely, if they chose the other path, they would have to endure the threat from the giant spider. However, the advantage was that this area could still provide them with relatively stable Freshwater and food resources, allowing them to survive.

Zhou Xu didn't object to running away; after all, the saying goes that the best strategy is to retreat.

But he couldn't keep running forever...

Thinking this, Zhou Xu hardened his resolve.

"Damn it, I'll kill it!"

As Zhou Xu spoke, he stood up.

"Dashan, mark the surrounding trees with markings like this."

As he spoke, he casually picked up a stone and drew a cross on the tree behind him.

"From today on, assign someone to watch this cave every day. As soon as the giant spider makes a move, report back to me immediately!"

"Also, send someone to notify Fei Que and the others. Although they are on the periphery, it's best for them to be vigilant too. I need to go back to the tribe first."

After arranging things here, Zhou Xu hurried back to the tribe.

Facing a spider monster of that size, fighting head-on made people lack confidence; they could only rely on strategy.

Along the way, he already had a general idea in his mind.

It just needed a little more time to make this idea more detailed and clear.

In the meantime, Zhou Xu didn't let himself be idle; he was currently inspecting the air-dried clay bowls.

He did intend to kill the giant spider, but what if he couldn't?

One always needed to prepare a fallback plan, not just keep going down one path.

And this pottery could allow them to effectively store Freshwater.

If they couldn't kill the giant spider and needed to flee, the Freshwater stored in the pottery would allow them to travel further, greatly increasing their chances of finding a new habitable location!

Update delivered. Thank you to readers 'Gentle Breeze' and 'Casual and Simple' for their rewards!