Chapter 414: Arachnification, but a High Elf

It was no wonder even Victoria had started to have her doubts. An Old Elf who had lived far beyond his already long lifespan, whose power was questionable yet who possessed a special technique for connecting spaces… The traces left by the Red Mould were also connected to him, and on top of that, he had previously researched the Red Mould and countermeasures for it—even if that was supposedly to save some desperate Tiger People.

“You guys think,” Delaford blurted out of nowhere, “those Tiger People who lost their minds in the end… could they be something like these crawlers?” Most of the time, no one knew what was going on in his head, but this time…

‘What if he’s right?’

‘Was the Old Elf experimenting with a parasitic form of Red Mould, and were the Strong Acid Tiger People just one part of his research?’

The three Casters—Ron, Silvia, and Jilannis—exchanged glances. As researchers, they knew that if one were trying to select a fungus that could stably parasitize a variety of organisms, then of course… one would also have to consider its tolerance in extreme environments!

Like Tiger People modified to the point that even their blood was Strong Acid!

“We must not have paid attention to those Tiger People’s heads,” Anastina said, tapping her own head in frustration. “If we had, we might have noticed something was wrong much sooner!”

“Who thinks about deliberately smashing someone’s head open during a fight!” the goblin rolled his eyes. “It’s useless to talk about that now. What should we do next? Find that Old Elf? Confront him face-to-face?”

Suddenly, in the pitch-black cave, a strange current of air carrying the stench of blood wafted from the depths toward them. The group fell silent, raising their weapons as if facing a formidable foe.

In the light of the tower shield in Aive’s hands, a massive, grotesque shadow was cast on the wall around the corner. As the shadow darted past, the sound of numerous jointed legs tapping against the stone floor echoed like a death knell, rattling everyone’s eardrums!

Ron’s expression flickered. He instinctively glanced down at his chest but saw nothing. Yet he had clearly felt it: the Gray Mist—he wasn’t even sure if it truly resided within him—had just stirred in his heart for the first time in ages!

“Is that… the queen of the giant spiders?” Jilannis frowned. She was still mulling over Victoria’s doubts and hadn’t used Magic in time to catch a clear glimpse of the figure. She had only seen the shadow’s signature eight spider legs on the wall, along with a raised, swollen abdomen.

It resembled the giant spiders they had slain, but when she estimated its size based on the width of the tunnel, it seemed far too large. Even accounting for the maximum possible distortion between the shadow and the creature itself, whatever had just flashed past was excessively big for a giant spider.

Jilannis concluded that the most plausible explanation was that it was the queen of the giant spiders, but she doubted whether it was actually still alive.

“You… didn’t get a clear look just now?” Sera asked in surprise, turning her head and pointing at the now-empty wall. “That wasn’t a giant spider at all! Its upper body was humanoid!”

“Twisted, hunched, and covered in grotesque appendages,” the Vampire Mage added. “It’s probably not a Spiderized Zor, and it’s already been infected by the Red Mould.”

“If we’re really dealing with a Spiderized Zor, then we’d better be ready to fight several dozen Dark Elves,” Anastina said, sucking in a sharp breath. “Very few of them aren’t complete lunatics—that’s a conclusion I amended after meeting our dear Seymour!”

“Ready for a fight! After it!” Ron commanded decisively. Aive, ever the most faithful executor of his orders, was the first to charge ahead. Ron followed close behind, all the while casting spells—mainly from the School of Transformation—on each of their companions.

Bolstered by Arcane Magic, the whole party seemed to fly forward. The Red Mould on the walls and the arthropods under its complete control couldn’t even track their movements. Meanwhile, the creatures that still possessed a will of their own scrambled desperately to get out of the way. The wind from their swift advance dispersed some of the bloody stench wafting from the depths, but even the one with the dullest nose could tell that the smell was rapidly growing stronger!

“There it is!”

As the party rounded another bend, the sharp-eyed Delaford was the first to cry out. After days of pursuit, they had finally found their quarry. The Goblin Hunter didn’t wait for Ron’s command, raising his shortbow and loosing an arrow. It struck the half-spider, half-human creature—which looked like an extremely frail Spiderized Zor—right in the rear!

CLANG! A sharp ring echoed through the cave. Delaford’s eyes widened in a what-the-hell expression as he watched his arrow ricochet off the creature’s exoskeleton, flying far away before tumbling into the deeper darkness.

‘That was no ordinary arrow! It was an Enchanted one, a strike carrying the Great Nature Magic of a Ranger! It didn’t even leave a scratch on the target!’

“Is your shell made of refined gold?!” the goblin cursed in his native tongue, humiliated and enraged. Whether it was because it sensed the physical attack or the verbal insult, the creature, which had been slowly moving away with its back to them, stiffly rotated its eight jointed legs to turn its humanoid upper body toward the party.

It was indeed not a Spiderized Zor, merely similar in form. If one were to ignore the clusters of Red Mould growing all over its body, its skin was the same as a High Elf’s: as white and smooth as alabaster.

However, unlike the High Elves of legend and lore, this one—whose lower body had for some reason turned into a spider—was so decrepit that even a Shadow Spirit would have pitied him. His hair was so sparse that even a tonsure would look full, making it impossible to discern its original color. He bent his upper body in an extremely contorted posture, twisting himself into the shape of a comma. Paper-thin skin was stretched taut over his slender elven frame, and in some places, one could even see the Red Mould growing beneath it.

About the only things thriving on his body were the fungi.

Ron couldn’t help but think of the little monster who scrambled for a ring in a famous story, but compared to this elf, even Gulu looked adorable.

Upon seeing the creature’s face, nearly everyone was rendered speechless. If they hadn’t all been seasoned veterans, they might have been scared to death on the spot. ‘In Delusional Land, in this world, or even in the entire Multiverse, what creature could possibly be more grotesque, terrifying, and pathetic than the one before them?’

“What, you went to all the trouble of chasing me down and tickling me with that arrow just to get a look at this old man?” The Old Elf, whose appearance was more terrifying than a Ghost Witch, seemed quite pleased with their reaction. He slowly opened his toothless mouth, but the voice that emerged didn’t seem to come from his vocal cords.

“Are you satisfied now?”

The Old Elf paused. He raised a hand and lifted the Red Mould that had all but consumed his face, revealing two dark, turbid eyes. He looked toward Jilannis. “Ah, and look who it is. What a rare guest.”

“Our dear Chief Grand Mage, shouldn’t you be calling back the souls of those hyenas in lion’s pelts for the Laine Clan? What are you doing in a backwater like Delusional Land?”

“Chief Grand… Mage?” Anastina was stunned. She looked at Jilannis, then back at the High Elf. “What nonsense is this old coot spouting? The Laine family… isn’t the Chief Grand Mage of the Hailan Empire named Jilannis Galanord?”

“You know this… creature?”

The Moon Elf with lake-blue eyes licked her dry lips. As if having finally made a decision after endless internal struggle, she spoke the former resistance warrior’s name. “Anastina…”

“There is one—no, two things I must confess to you. First, regarding the person you just mentioned, the Chief Grand Mage of the Hailan Empire, Jilannis Galanord… the person speaking to you now generally refers to her in the first person.”

“And second, when that same person refers to the High Elf across from us,” Jilannis swallowed hard, for she could already see a raging inferno in Anastina’s eyes that threatened to burn everything to ash, “she generally calls him…”

“Teacher.”