Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?-Chapter 977 - 646: Deep Nest

Deep Nest, originating from the map of the Hollow Knight.

This is the second most detestable map according to Gong Qiying, after the Road of Suffering.

The hateful aspect of the Deep Nest is the horror. As for difficulty, it's not that high and is far less challenging than the Road of Suffering.

If anyone is afraid of the dark or has arachnophobia, they'd be scared to death in the Deep Nest. To this day, many adventurers in the Sain Dungeon's forest area have been scared into heart attacks by spiders.

"Oh, a new hidden map."

Elo's grandson and Uffie's apprentice, Abel curiously surveyed his surroundings.

Much like the first section of the Road of Suffering, it appeared as an underground tunnel, but without spikes in sight. The corners were instead covered with thick layers of dusty spider webs. With so many webs, it's possible a family of bride spiders had taken residence there.

The surroundings were even darker than the Casas Underground Tomb; the dimmest areas weakened even a dragon's vision. However, that didn't mean there were no light sources at all. Cool-toned glimmers emanated from unknown origins, intermittently slicing through the darkness.

In a classic horror film, one might expect these distant lights to gradually extinguish as evil spirits flashed intermittently, creeping toward the protagonist.

It seemed the Cangyin Dungeon actually pulled such a trick.

As Abel gazed down the tunnel ahead, vague movements appeared in the shadows. A wriggling outline was visible in the dark, but as it moved into the light, it vanished without a trace. The light suddenly cut off in that section, creating the illusion of a monster rapidly approaching.

Even if a human wasn't that afraid, they'd break out in a cold sweat. But Abel was of the Dragon Clan. Being a dragon, this posed no problem, right?

"Ugh, how disgusting..."

Abel's face twisted with a mixture of disgust and aversion. His spiritual power surged at that moment.

The monster closing in seemed to awaken some unpleasant memories in him!

"Gah!"

An indescribable screech exploded ahead as a monster resembling a half-adult-sized spider suddenly burst from the web covering the tunnel. Its face appeared to wear a pale multi-eyed mask as it howled and lunged at Abel.

Abel evaded the attack with a combat skill, Shattering Step. As the spider landed, he swiftly kicked it, ending the battle in a flash.

If it had been Fudolin, they'd likely stand still and smash it with a single punch. However, having learned from Uffie, Abel had picked up humanoid techniques to dodge attacks and mastered several combat skills. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Honestly, I hate spiders."

Looking at the huge spider carcass on the ground, Abel frowned deeply.

He routinely visited the Sain Dungeon for special training, which involved entering Gui Ao'er and battling random dragons.

With good luck, he might encounter dragons like Bomb Dragon and Horned Dragon, ones he could fight normally. However, facing combat power on an Ancient Dragon's level meant relying solely on willpower.

Encounters with the Silver Dragon, Black Erosion Dragon, or other such entities left lingering effects that required effort and will to overcome frenzy.

Elo seemed eager for Abel to meet Ancient Dragons, thinking it would promote exercise. Abel initially agreed but grew increasingly weary over time.

After all, who could be enthusiastic about going in just to get beaten up, even if their strength did gradually improve?

His distaste for spider-like creatures came from being left to die, exhausted after a beating by an Ancient Dragon. A bunch of "little creatures," specifically game hunting spiders, emerged from somewhere, dragging him into a cave for a series of inhumane actions.

Ever since then, he's had an intense aversion to spiders, even bugs. If he spotted a worm while walking, he'd chop it into eighteen pieces with a single claw swipe.

Yet, the gap between aversion and fear persisted, like people disliking feces but fearing Soul V wielding it.

"Do I really have to go forward? What an unpleasant feeling. Where did everyone go?"

Abel sighed, reluctantly proceeding into the web-filled tunnel, releasing a flame breath to burn the webs to ashes, incinerating any spiders within.

However, after a short burst, his breath suddenly faltered, and he clutched his throat, coughing for a while, muttering with a dark expression:

"Yesterday, my voice gave out after shouting back and forth with Gui Ao'er..."

Reluctantly, he continued onwards, trying to avoid the spider webs.

Yet the sheer quantity of webs inside reached an outrageous level. No matter how he maneuvered, he couldn't evade them, and tearing them with brute force would leave them stuck to his hands. This meant every choice left him utterly disgusted.

"Why in the world does something as gross as spider webs exist, damn it!"

The deeper he ventured, the stronger the presence of the webs became, to the point where they were unavoidable. No matter the route, his body would get entangled. Fortunately, Abel's human form was bald; if he had hair, getting it matted with webs might have driven him insane.