Many-Eyed Spider

After passing several more forks and rounding several bends, Taylor finally reached his destination.

Spider Cave truly lived up to its name as a dwelling place for spider-type magical beasts and certain spider-like monsters.

Several nearby mountains had been hollowed out, resembling an endless stretch of hornets' nests. They looked eerie and terrifying, covered in holes of all sizes, while the passages inside were even more tangled and complex. Once inside, it was all too easy to lose one's way.

Taylor also keenly sensed that some of these densely packed, hornet's-nest-like caves were extremely hot. In particular, those slanting downward from the foot of the mountains into deeper areas were bound to house fire-attributed spider magical beasts.

That was also thanks to his Lesser Fireball.

Taylor approached what appeared to be a relatively narrow entrance. He first surveyed the surroundings, then set up several simple traps. Beneath them, he placed homemade Flame Explosion Potions to prevent people, monsters, magical beasts, or any other strange things from disturbing him.

Then Taylor took a small blue packet from his canvas bag. After crushing it, sparse blue powder drifted through the air as though it had lost all weight. Before long, a blue-stained thread appeared at the cave entrance.

This was Scout Powder recorded in Basic Knowledge for Wizard Apprentices. Its color could be adjusted at will. It was nearly weightless, could detect many minute traps, had no scent, and was exceptionally effective for capturing spider-type magical beasts.

Against spider-type magical beasts that had not yet advanced in rank, Scout Powder was practically an unbeatable nemesis. No matter how sensitive a spider was, it could not detect the almost weightless powder clinging to its silk threads.

Only ranked spider magical beasts could sense abnormalities in their webs through their keen perception.

After discovering the blue spider silk, Taylor immediately left the entrance. He caught an ordinary rabbit outside, broke its legs, and tossed it directly onto the silk.

(Note: Before advancing in rank, spider-type magical beasts have no color vision, and their eyes are somewhat defective.)

After roughly three to five minutes, a spider with sixteen eyes slowly crawled out of the cave. It looked at the rabbit, then looked around, yet did not take a bite. Instead, it retreated inside and continued waiting.

Taylor hid in the bushes, covered head to toe in leaves with only his eyes exposed. He carefully observed from the shadows and thought, This spider magical beast really is cunning.

He also recognized the species of this unusual spider, which had sixteen eyes—far more than an ordinary spider.

In the magical beast section of Basic Knowledge for Wizard Apprentices, this spider was called a Many-Eyed Spider.

Although this spider had twice as many eyes as other spider-type magical beasts, like other spider magical beasts, it only had four primary eyes.

Another four small eyes grew around the four primary eyes and served as auxiliary eyes, while the remaining eight eyes were distributed across its limbs and tail, allowing it to observe from multiple angles.

Though this type of spider magical beast had many eyes, their only special advantage was a broader field of vision, making them harder to catch. Their true trait was the remarkable strength of the silk they spat out, which was comparable to steel.

This target was somewhat crafty and was even waiting for something, but Taylor believed it would eventually take the bait.

Just as Taylor had expected, before long, several spider legs suddenly stretched out. They occasionally prodded the rabbit or sprayed some silk to test the movements around them.

Though the Many-Eyed Spider was cunning, it was ultimately not human and lacked human intelligence. Thus, lured by the rabbit at the entrance struggling nonstop with its broken legs, it finally could not resist rushing out and swallowing the rabbit whole.

After eating the rabbit, the Many-Eyed Spider looked outside for a while longer. Finding nothing unusual, it retreated back inside. Taylor was in no hurry and remained where he was, patiently waiting.

Ten minutes later, Taylor felt the time was about right. The rabbit had already been digested, and the hallucinogen and sedative placed inside its body should have taken effect.

He picked up a stone and hurled it fiercely at the blue spider silk. After that, he waited for quite some time. When the Many-Eyed Spider still did not emerge, Taylor's heart settled. He immediately stood and entered the cave.

The moment he entered the cave, a pale red barrier enveloped Taylor. This was the effect of the Flame Medal, the witchcraft item he carried. One hand was wreathed in black mist, while a Small Fireball hovered over the other.

One had to prepare for every possibility. He had to ensure that if attacked, he could strike back at once, obstruct the enemy's vision, and escape calmly.

The pale red barrier emitted a gentle crimson glow, illuminating the path around him and the uneven trail ahead. He also noticed that spider silk hung all along the cave walls, wrapped around objects of every size. Some were even bones or corpses.

When he reached the latter half of the cave, Taylor found the corpse of a relatively low-level magical beast, a Stone-Armored Boar. It had now been reduced to a large pile of bones, still draped with slime and scattered broken strands of spider silk.

Walking over to the remains, Taylor picked up a bone and probed around. He found no sign of the magical beast boar's Magic Core. It had most likely already ended up in the Many-Eyed Spider's stomach.

What a waste...

He sighed inwardly. In the eyes of wizards, Magic Cores had countless uses. They could serve as energy sources, be made into witchcraft items, or become nodes or enhancement nodes in witchcraft formations. At the very least, engraving a few witchcraft runes on one and using it as a one-use grenade would still be better than letting a magical beast eat it.

At the Many-Eyed Spider's absorption rate, it was simply impossible for it to make perfect use of this Magic Core.

After walking another dozen meters or so, Taylor finally saw the sleeping Many-Eyed Spider.

At that moment, all sixteen of the Many-Eyed Spider's eyes were half-open and half-closed, while its body twitched and struggled unconsciously. Taylor may have administered too much medicine this time, perhaps trapping the poor spider in some particularly terrifying hallucination.

Watching the Many-Eyed Spider twitch from time to time, Taylor remained expressionless. He located a spot two decimeters below the back of its head, took out a small knife, and stabbed it into the nerve center there.

Although the Many-Eyed Spider was a relatively low-level spider magical beast, its shell, Magic Core, bristles, barely useful venom, Spider Silk Sac, and eyes were all valuable materials to a wizard apprentice like Taylor.

Therefore, Taylor did not wish to completely ruin the corpse. He merely followed the book's instructions and severed the Many-Eyed Spider's nerve center, preserving the freshness of its internal organs, Spider Silk Sac, shell, bristles, and every other usable part as much as possible while it was still alive.

A new book is setting sail. I hope all readers will help spread the word and add it to your collections. I sincerely ask everyone to give a few more recommendation votes. Thank you, everyone.