Divine-Class Awakening: I Can Steal From Gods!-Chapter 31: Webbed Ruin
Neo moved through the jungle with the distant tower fixed in his mind like a point he could not afford to lose.
This place felt different from the ruins before. The heat pressed against him without mercy, thick and damp, clinging to his clothes and skin until every step carried a thin layer of discomfort with it. Green swallowed almost everything. Trees rose high enough to choke the sky, vines hung between trunks like old ropes, and the ground shifted under roots, wet soil, and stretches of broken stone half-eaten by moss. Here and there, he caught sight of man-made structures in the distance, but there were very few of them, and each one stood far from the next. What filled this place was not ruin. It was jungle. Endless jungle.
He did not have his sword invoked.
That was intentional. Keeping a Soul Relic active for no reason was stupid, especially in a place like this where he had no idea how long he would need to keep moving. Soul Essence mattered. If danger came, he could summon the blade in an instant. Until then, there was no reason to waste energy carrying steel in his hand just because the silence was making him uneasy.
His pale yellow eyes stayed on the tower whenever the trees allowed it.
’I have no idea how long it’ll take to reach that thing on foot. Days, probably.’
The thought sat badly in him.
’Good thing I brought food and water. No idea how long that’ll be enough, though.’
He kept walking.
The deeper he went, the stronger the feeling became. Nothing obvious moved between the trees, yet the place had started pressing back in that quiet way certain places did when something alive was near and not bothering to hide it properly. He had learned to read that kind of tension long before today.
When he finally came across one of the structures, he slowed.
Dark stone rose from the vegetation like something dragged halfway out of the earth and abandoned there. Vines had wrapped themselves around the walls, roots split the lower edges, and much of the surface had disappeared beneath moss and hanging leaves. It was not large, more like a small ruin left to rot in place, but one thing stood out at once.
Webbing.
It stretched across the entrance, clung to the corners, and ran through the gaps in the broken stone like pale ropes pulled tight through the dark. Fresh enough to matter. Thick enough to be recent.
Neo extended a hand, and light flickered across his fingers before the Sword formed in his grip.
He approached the entrance with the blade low and his weight ready to shift in any direction. Once he reached the opening, he leaned slightly and peered into the shadowed interior.
Red points stared back at him from the ceiling.
Eight of them.
’Shit.’
The web came at him almost immediately.
It shot out fast enough to make the air hiss, and Neo threw himself sideways without thinking, dirt and leaves grinding against his shoulder as he rolled out of the way. The web struck the ground where he had been standing a heartbeat earlier and spread across the stone in a sticky white mass.
He pushed himself up at once.
The spider was already dropping from the ceiling.
Its body came down in a blur of black and brown, legs unfolding around it in a shape that made his skin crawl the instant he registered it. Hair covered the thin, lengthy legs. Its abdomen was swollen and heavy, and its mouth opened wider than it had any right to, wet and dark and wrong in a way that felt worse because of the size.
It was as large as he was.
Neo felt the chill of it in his spine and hated the thing on sight.
He called on Beast Strength.
Power surged through him immediately, hot and violent, flowing into his limbs until his body felt packed with more force than it should have held. His grip tightened around the sword. The spider rushed him, and Neo met it head-on, jamming the blade against its mouth before those fangs could reach him. The impact drove through his arms, but Beast Strength held. He planted his feet and forced the creature backward, its legs scraping against the ground as he shoved.
That was when the bastard spat web again.
The strand struck low and wrapped around his foot before he could get clear. Neo felt the pull at once, the sticky mass fastening him to the ground, and cursed under his breath as he slashed down and severed it before the spider could make anything of it.
It came again.
This time it rushed while firing more webbing, trying to lock him down as it closed the gap. Neo twisted away from one shot, stepped around another, and drew the strength lower in his body. The change happened fast. Power gathered into his legs, coiling there until they felt ready to explode.
The spider launched itself at him.
Neo jumped.
He shot upward hard enough to clear the whole attack, the spider passing beneath him where it had expected flesh. For one instant the thing faltered, confused by the angle. Neo used that moment and drove his sword down into the rear of its swollen body.
The blade sank in deep.
Green blood burst out around the wound and splashed across the stone below. The spider let out a shriek that scraped through the ruin, twisting hard enough that Neo had barely enough time to wrench the sword halfway free before another mass of webbing slammed into him.
This one caught his legs.
Neo hit the ground badly, breath forced from his chest as the sticky strands locked his lower body together. He tried to move and felt resistance immediately. Strong. Sticky. Annoying as hell.
The spider spun with startling speed despite the wound in its back, green blood running down its body as it charged straight at him.
Neo brought the sword up with one hand just before it crashed down, and the blade caught in its mouth instead of letting those fangs sink into his face. The impact shoved him hard against the ground. Dirt pressed into his back. The spider’s weight bore down on him while thick drops of green fluid slid from its mouth and hit the stone beside his head.
Venom.
Neo saw it and understood right away that he did not have time to drag this out.
Its mouth kept pushing closer. His arm shook under the pressure. His legs were still trapped. If the sword slipped, that was the end of it.
One of the spider’s front legs had come close enough to grab.
Neo let go of the sword with his free hand and caught it.
The creature jerked at once, trying to pull away, but Beast Strength still flooded his body. Neo clenched his teeth and hauled with everything he had, dragging force out of himself so hard it felt like he was trying to rip the whole fight apart through will alone.
The leg tore free.
The spider shrieked and convulsed, green blood spraying across Neo’s arm and chest. He did not waste the opening. The moment the limb came loose in his hand, he drove it upward with every bit of strength he had left and rammed the severed leg into the spider’s head.
It punched through.
The body locked for an instant, twitched violently, and collapsed on top of him in a disgusting, heavy heap.
[You have slained Stoneweb Spider - Ember]
Neo lay there under it, breathing hard, sweat and green blood sticking to his skin while the weight pressed into his chest and shoulders. He stayed like that for a few seconds, not because he wanted to, but because hauling a giant dead spider off himself felt like something worth delaying.
Eventually he shoved the corpse aside and got to his feet.
The thing’s Soul Core had already surfaced.
It rested near the body like a yellowed crystal orb with faint light trapped inside, cloudy and dull at the edges, as if the glow were being eaten from within. Neo picked it up and watched that weak shimmer fade while his soul consumed it.
A familiar panel unfolded before him.
[Soul-Window]
[You have absorbed the Soul Core of Stoneweb Spider - Ember]
[+1 Souls] [392/1000 Ember]
[You have obtained a new class. Do you wish to use it?]
[Stoneweb Spider - Ember
Abilities:
Low Poison Resistance]
Neo read the class once and weighed it quickly.
Nothing amazing. Nothing strong enough to make him grin on its own. But if there was one spider here, there could be more, and getting poisoned because he had acted proud about an Ember class would be an idiotic way to die.
’I accept. A little poison resistance can still save my ass.’
The panel shifted.
[Soul-Window updated.]
[Soul-Window]
Name: Neo
Age: 16
Soul Core: Ember
[392/1000 Ember]
[Primary Class: Soul Reaver
Rank: Divine
Secondary Classes:
Duskmane Beast - Ascendant
Soul Reader - Legendary
Stoneweb Spider - Common
Abilities:
Beast Regeneration
Beast Strength
Low Poison Resistance
Through physical contact, you can view the Soul Window of an individual.]
Neo looked over the window and let a small smile pull at his mouth.
’This is starting to take shape.’
