-|||-

  Seven days. A full week had passed. Yet this second time of doing this same quest, indeed, nevertheless felt as though it was going by faster—to a degree—than the first time around; the improvements were evident, the foreigner having applied her…relatively recent yet nevertheless prior…experiences.

  For one, no longer was she going back and forth by foot between Coastfield and the necessary locations throughout its immediate periphery. Following along with what many tended to do, she utilized the plenty of disposable coins that she now had to enlist the assistance of a ‘wagoneer’ of sorts and his equine-driven wagon.

  Initially, this was a momentary affair for she had spotted him in the streets, asked him if he could transport her, and agreed to pay for the transportation for both the journey to and from. After spotting him again, however, she hired him again… And again… And again—sometimes twice on the same day.

  While this wagoneer was by no means bothered by this up-start adventurer constantly soliciting his services despite the abundancy of willing others, it became clear to the foreigner that constantly soliciting transportation services was going to eat her coin-pouch far faster than she would prefer.

  Thus, after abruptly showing him her quest sheet and its stipulated reward, she eventually settled on a rather straightforward arrangement with him: the wagoneer would transport her to the relevant locations to fulfill this quest, and, upon completion, she would provide him a portion of the total reward… In other words, he agreed to essentially take her wherever she needed to go so as long as she paid him back in full afterwards.

  Nevertheless, utilizing this wagoneer had saved her considerable time and especially energy. His wagon in particular was rather well-sized too, being large enough to transport not only her herself and one fully stuffed sack of collected items, but she also surmised that it had the capacity to handle multiples of them—several fully stuffed sacks—, even when considering the wagoneer’s own goods and belongings.

  As for the collection process itself, the first four and a half days were consumed wholly by, unsurprisingly, searching for those…ever-forsaken ‘Clamfield sea shrubs’. The specificity of these slimy so-called ‘sea shrubs’ being more than or equal to five months old certainly did not help, for it was not that long ago since her collecting of the last seventy; the natural supply had yet to replenish. Though, she felt she was getting better at finding them.

  The glow-crystals, on the other hand, required only two days—one day for the turquoise; one day for the magenta. Indeed, she would have been finished with this quest at day six—yesterday—, were she not left with that one last object… That single wild glow-crystal, which she was unable to find whatsoever during the previous two ‘collection sessions’.

  And, thus, there the foreigner was, condemned to wander through this sunny-cave for an extra seventh day, having been rummaging throughout and about for that last thing needing to be found…yet to no avail. Truly… It was always the last item that was the hardest to find.

  The foreigner sighed as she continued to cautiously stroll through this glimmery pass barely dark, a small and empty sack in her hand; her attention sharp and attentive despite being calm. It was silent, besides the sounds of her own breaths and bootsteps. Reverberating throughout this cavern were the far and distant wheezes of chimeric arachnids…

  By now, it was very clear to her that there was a definitive connection between these glow-stones and those glow-spiders, both in luminance and quantity, and a definitive correlation.

  Indeed, the most common clusters of the crystalline masses distributed about were small and dim, glowing orange and yellowish; conversely, the most common crystalline arachnid distributed about had growths that also glowed orange or yellowish. Turquoise glow-crystals were larger and rarer; turquoise glow-spiders were also larger and rarer. Magenta glow-crystals were even heavier and even rarer, magenta glow-spiders being even larger and considerably meaner.

  Nevertheless, despite the clear connection between the crystalline glow of those arachnids and the glow-stones demanded, she was nevertheless still actively avoiding them. Fighting those arachnids and ripping the glow-stones straight out from them was not specified as a requirement by the quest sheet, therefore implying optionality.

  Indeed, both yesterday and the day before yesterday, she had managed to successfully collect all of the required glow-stones without direct combat; even if it took longer, it was possible to do this quest without engaging them and murdering them. Ultimately, she preferred to simply let the local adventurers passing through deal with them; it saved her ammunition, and she was able to scavenge from the corpses since not every adventurer seemed interested in their glow-stones.

  Hm. The foreigner scanned around this narrow pass of rock glimmering with bioluminescence and crystalline glow. Although for most it would feel that this space looked no different than the rest of this cave, she could tell… She had been here before.

  Indeed. It was familiar by now. Although in the lens of many she would be seen as having been walking in circles, to her she was simply following the same path she had before and…before that before…

  She was walking in circles, and she knew it. Her following only the most predicable and familiar routes without any deviation whatsoever was probably why she was struggling to find that one last thing.

  Yet, in her mind, it really should not be taking this long to find one type of glowing crystalline hyper-condensed exotic composites no matter the path. Seriously… Magenta, she could find despite the rarity; she had even found seemingly rarer colors such as white and even green; but neither a wild glow-crystal nor even an associated wild-glowing arachnid. Indeed, the wild types seemed not even to be the rarest as much as…completely absent.

  Hmm… The foreigner paused in her walk, seeing that there was a branching deviation that led down an…alternative path. Normally, she would skip passed it, yet… It was…very likely that the wild glow-crystal was located in a different subsection of this cavern, otherwise she would have found it by now…

  She sighed yet again. Fine… So as long as she kept clear track of her proximity and the steps taken, she might as well get herself ‘lost’ again by deviating from her familiarized routes… Such was, after all, how she had stumbled into that wild-glowing arachnid the last time.

  Thus, with a turn, she began to head down this…different way; this different route; this different path. And as she traversed down this way, it gradually became darker and more…bleak; the bioluminescence became scarcer, the rock felt glassier and more crystalline yet without any glow.

  Hmm… This was similar to the last time… Thus, was this right way, perhaps? She did not know, but she continued to go.

  -||-

  The foreigner was utterly silent with not even an audible breath; her primitive revolver was in hand, cocked, primed, and readied. Kneeling down, her mask-obscured eyes so peered from the edges of an entry crevice of sorts, one she could easily fit through.

  A wide and open space, a large chamber in effect; that was what was before her sight. Unlike the proceeding darkness, it glimmered with crystalline masses and rocks of varied glowing colors; some luminescent flora was present, nothing complex, largely concentrated around a small body of water to the right of her viewpoint of this chamber, the source of which was a stream flowing out from a hole slightly above and to the side.

  Interesting… So, the open spaces of this sunny-cavern system could, in fact, house a tiny ecosystem. However, the foreigner had not merely stumbled upon this peculiar area by random; no, no, she had been directly attracted here, her sensitive ears having picked up an array of such…noises emanating from here. And now that she was, indeed, here… Those noises dominated almost every sense.

  Indeed. This chamber was infested with those crystalline arachnids. She counted upwards to fifty… No, sixty, probably more… Considering this sheer concentration, this must be some kind of ‘nesting den’ of sorts.

  And, to her surprise, they had yet to notice her intrusive presence, even though… Indeed, it had always felt that these hyper-aggressive chimeras were trying to avoid her as much as she avoided them, suggesting that they could not only make out her presence but also her threat—being chimeras, they could likely sense her aura. Yet this cluster was so utterly enthralled with their doings…

  Though...

  What…

  What even were they doing?

  Hmm… Deafly silent and deathly still as if she had shifted cold-blooded, her analytical eyes began to…simply observe.

  The types of crystalline arachnids were remarkably diverse within this chamber… The large turquoise and the larger magenta; the small orange and the smaller yellow, with even a few arachnids with red glowing crystalline growths… They all seemed almost equally abundant.

  Many were fighting, it seemed… Others were…

  Wait. She observed. The smaller crystalline arachnids, they were… Some of them were mounting themselves onto the larger more…meaner ones, and… A pore of sort seemingly then opened from the…bottom of the larger arachnids being mounted as a strange squishy…very flexible…tentacle-like appendage protruded out of the smaller ones, which proceeded to…

  Wait… Were these things mating? They could reproduce? That was…

  Indeed. Owing to their nature, chimeras—especially complex categories thereof—tended to be completely sterile; in fact, they were not typically capable of any…form of natural reproduction at all.

  Interesting… These arachnids were incredibly advanced chimeras, then—maybe perhaps…too advanced.

  Nevertheless, she only saw the smaller arachnids with those protruding protrusions mounting onto the larger ones… Did this mean that these differences in crystalline color and size were…a form of dimorphism? With the smaller orange and yellowish arachnids being presumably ‘male’ or equivalent, and the larger turquoise and magenta arachnids being presumably ‘female’ or equivalent?

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Hm… Thus, if so, then did the two principal variations within these two presumed sexes—orange and yellow; turquoise and magenta—imply…some sense of ‘maturity’ perhaps? Since the orange-glowing males seemed larger than the yellowish ones, and the magenta-glowing females were larger than the turquoise ones… Or maybe it suggested hierarchy or maybe… Hm…

  Although it seemed that both yellow and orange crystalline arachnid alike were engaging in this mating procedure, the only larger ones with whom they seemed to be mating were…predominantly if not exclusively magenta. The turquoise ones were…not doing anything necessarily, though some of the smaller yellowish ones were trying to mount them, to which they accepted…

  Hmm… And what did those red crystalline arachnids mean? They were the smallest of any of them and did not appear to be doing anything besides waddling about… Younglings, perhaps? Or… Wait, there was also a green crystalline arachnid, she noticed within this blob… It was, like the reds, smaller than the rest, but it was larger than the reds.

  Hm… Well, going by size, maybe…that green one was…a very young and reproductively immature female, whereas the red ones were…very young and reproductively immature males?

  Oh. Wait. She just saw… That tiny green arachnid was…just devoured by one of the larger ones… Truly, maybe the tiny ones were mobile snacks for all she knew.

  The foreigner continued to observe this apparent…mass-mating that was occurring within this chamber, having become…quite curious, indeed.

  The smaller male arachnids had finished their rather…violent probing of the larger females; the tentacle-like appendages of the orange ones practically exploded, their strange crystalline glow…dimming as they tumbled off, immobile as if paralyzed. Their larger mates then turned around, staring and hissing before promptly lunging forth and…

  Ah. Of course. Truly. These things sure loved indulging in cannibalism. It was a rather bloody mess, the chimeras’ blood being a goopy yellowish green sort of fluid that glowed quite; this radiant blood suggested a direct and active involvement of their chimeric essence in their bio-physiological processes and cellular functions.

  However, she quickly noted that this…post-mating sedation seemed to only apply to the orange ones. The yellowish ones were still able to move, their tentacle-like appendages not…exploding from ejaculation, merely retracting; their yellowish glow had a more orange-tint now as well. They quickly scrammed before their mates could devour them, although some were caught—not even by their mate as much as random others.

  Likewise, she noticed…

  The large magenta crystalline arachnids who were devouring their now former mates, they seemed rather fixated on the central and largest crystalline growth—the glow-stone, the same thing she had targeted when she had fought them before. Using some kind of…special mouth-claw…or something, veiny and luminate, they punctured straight through their former mates’ glow-crystals, which began to pulse and crack as radiant exoticism spewed and bleed out. The veins of that mouth-claw glowing into radiance as if it were…extracting and metaphorically slurping, the flaring exoticism flowing into…

  Indeed, the larger magenta arachnids’ glowing eyes began to flicker alongside their own central crystals, the glow changing and mutating as it throbbed, their bodies twitching almost… They were not just devouring their mates’ bodies, she realized; they were devouring their chimeric essence too, or at least that hyper-condensed concentration of it since they skipped the head...

  Interesting… Was this an essential component to this reproduction procedure, perhaps? Such would make sense in a way given that… Though, what about those turquoise ones? Not many of them mated at all, and those that had simply scrammed…

  Hmm… Maybe those ones were not actually viable females or…

  Suddenly, screeching squeezes and abrupt flaring shrieks and hisses. The foreigner was taken out of her thoughts as she saw…

  Ah. Those arachnids had decided to answer her inquiries themselves.

  For indeed… The turquoise crystalline arachnids, having been watching and waiting, so abruptly pounced at their larger magenta peers who had successfully mated… And it was not just them, for other magenta crystalline arachnids who had had failed to mate were also pouncing at them too.

  Attacking, tearing, and, of course, devouring… They targeted not only the central crystalline growth of their successfully mated peers, but the turquoise arachnids specifically had…their own strange…tentacle-like…appendage which began to noodle and protrude out—it was far more menacing looking than whatever the smaller orange and yellow ones had, likewise.

  While the larger magenta arachnids were larger and far stronger than their turquoise peers, the ones who had successfully mated were slightly dazed—initially vulnerable, consequently. While many were able to resist, others were mounted by the turquoise ones who, using their special mouth-claw, pierced the central crystal though not completely, metaphorically slurping away whilst their strange…tentacle-like appendage forcefully penetrated that…same pore opening; instead of thrusting, they violently began to rip and tear as if…

  Scooping? Indeed, that tentacle-like appendage was…practically scooping away at the strange…reproductive organs of their successfully mated others as if…sucking up and extracting… So, wait, were they somehow stealing the…the…

  How…? How would that even… Huh?

  Truly, this was not her domain of expertise whatsoever; not with animals, and especially not with chimeras.

  Nevertheless, the turquoise arachnids who had managed to successfully do this…whatever this even was…began to tint a more pinkish…purplish glow; they did not bother to finish off their hapless victim or cannibalize them, but instead scrammed away before they themselves were torn apart.

  But those were only the lucky ones, for many of the turquois were not even able to mount, let alone steal. Attacking, tearing, and, of course, devouring, the magenta crystalline arachnids viciously defended themselves and returned treatment to those would-be womb thieves; they devoured their bodies and glow-stones alike, as they had done to their mates. Surprisingly, none of the successfully mated magentas attacked each other…

  Interesting…

  The foreigner’s almost morbid observations simply continued on as they feasted upon themselves. All of these blood and guts and mangled bones practically confirmed what she had already suspected of these chimeras: these arachnids were not true invertebrates, being far too…mushy and meaty; they had internal organs, an internal bone structure, and a discernable vertebrate-like central nervous system and quasi-spinal column—things most evident when seeing them mangled inside-out.

  Indeed, despite just so happening to strangely resemble arachnids, they were something else entirely; completely unrelated.

  -||-

  An hour or so had passed. The foreigner remained where she was, utterly silent and utterly stationary; it was as if her metabolism had slowed down completely, hiding even in thermal.

  It was a chamber filled with corpses, bits and pieces, and once-glowing blood now long dimmed. Out of the once multiple dozens of crystalline arachnids stood merely seven in place; seven triumphant victors who had survived this crucible and were now devouring the leftovers.

  No longer were their crystalline shine and glow magenta, however. Having initially become white, their exotic glow had begun to morph, over and over, wildly and chaotically, unable to pick a color as if it picked them all.

  Indeed, before the foreigner’s eyes were…seven nascently made wild crystalline arachnids, their central glow-stones a gradient array, flickering away, their eyes a bright ignited white.

  Certainly, her prior inquiries were answered. The wild glow-spiders—the ones who had the wild glow-stone—were once-magenta females…who not only managed to successfully mate, but also survive the subsequent crucible, having devoured the bodies and chimeric essences of dozens of others.

  Of course, these nascent wild-glowing arachnids were not as large or girthy as the one she had encountered before, having not any of those protruding spikes; no doubt, such were characteristics that developed later on as they progressed through this…offspring carriage… Wait… Did they lay eggs or did they…live birth?

  Hmm… She had not spotted anything resembling an ‘egg’ so far, and… Hmm… Frankly, considering everything she had observed, she would not be surprised if a hoard of offspring just exploded out and devoured their mothers. Such would further explain the utter scarcity of these wild glow-stones and their associated wild glow-spiders… Though, this wild gradient could also be a temporary effect, and they would revert back to magenta or maybe shift to white after they gave birth, hence the scarcity…

  Though, regardless, the foreigner had perhaps spent far too long infatuated with ecology and chimeric biology.

  She had remained stationary, waiting, and now it seemed that this patience had bore fruit… For before her eyes were seven wild glow-crystals, and a chamber that had been so conveniently culled of its prior threatening population, now being of a more…manageable quantity.

  It seemed that she had no other options, indeed.

  Her ignited eyes brightened slightly, as once again that cold numbing embraced began to fill her being and essence, encoded combat protocols enacting their will; taking their effect; as everything she needed to do, everything that needed to be done, became so very clear…and easy to do.

  Time slowed down, her mind speeding up, as she finally slid right down into that luminant yellow-green blood-infested crucible.

  Despite having been far too enthralled in their blood-lust, the wild crystalline arachnids finally took notice to this…sudden presence. However, owing to what they had just experienced, they were tired, their initial reactions slow and clumsy.

  Walking, the foreigner’s eyes counted, identified, and locked targets as she dropped her empty sack, before immediately dashing straight to the closest arachnid in a glittery lance of cyanic wispy glimmer. Brazenly hopping right onto it, her boots bashed into its eyes as it began to panic.

  Pop.

  She fired a single ear-piercing shot as black-powdery smoke clouded around, piercing straight into that gap between the creature’s head and body, a neck-like area where she had inferred its ‘spine’ to be. The arachnid immediately slumped down; immobile, paralyzed, dead or dying; inferences proven correct.

  The rest hissed and shrieked in an abhorrent purr, aggravated. Tumbling over the corpses around, they charged with squeals and viciously lunged at her. Yet she dodged and evaded, hopping around almost playfully as if she were toying with her victims, even if her experienced emotions were flattened.

  Indeed, her augmented agility and reflexives proved to be far sharper and faster. No matter how hard they tried, they could not catch her; they could not get her; they could not rip her apart. She was an annoying fly buzzing around them, tauntingly.

  It was convenient, indeed, that these lacked any of those spiky projectiles. However, even so, these arachnids were nonetheless relentless. Without pause or break, they lanced and charged over and over, smacking themselves, bashing themselves, it mattered not. Thus, all she could do was dodge and evade, unable to fire a clean targeted kill-shot.

  Yet she quickly remembered…what it was she was even fighting, and what she had kust witnessed them do for the last hour.

  Indeed. She knew what to do.

  Evading and dodging, over and over, she slowly but swiftly baited the shrieking crystalline arachnids until, finally, one happened to lunge right into another.

  Immediately, exactly as she had hoped, the two began to tear and rip each other apart, their aggressions being redirected against each other. Funny. She stared… Before lance-hopping right onto another, the creature panicking in a fury as it stumbled itself right into yet another, which then stumbled into another…

  She hopped off as fast as possible, her boots skidding onto the crystalline rocky ground, as almost all the chimeric arachnids so suddenly and so stupidly…ripped each other apart in a chain cascade of aggression.

  She stood there, blankly and hollowly; waiting with patient yet vigilant…indifference. Until, ultimately, one emerged victorious…battered and bloodied, fatigued and dazed, whom she casually approached and executed with a single kill-shot to that supposed ‘spine’.

  It slummed down, dead. She repeated this process with any other would-be survivors, which happened to only be one other.

  Done. She was done.

  She looked around, breathing in and out… Her cyanic brightened eyes dimmed as she saw the glowing blood spewed all around… Yuck… What a biohazardous mess.

  Reloading and repriming her revolver, she holstered it as she began to…inspect the corpses.

  Hm… Considering there were multiple copies of this one quest—which she was planning on doing—she might as well, thus, collect all seven of these wild glow-crystals in advance.

  Folding up her sleeves, she thus quickly got to work… Manually extracting—ripping out, in effect—their still radiant glow-crystals. Even though they were dead, the wild glow persisted as did the crystals themselves. However, she was in no state of being to ponder or assess the implications or causes thereof.

  For, most truly, what a terrible sight to behold. What a terrible thing she had done. She hated when things died; she hated causing things to die. Yet even so…

  You cannot help but find this all to be so very…

  Stimulating.

  Even if your affect dissociation clouds it

  Even as more and more, accumulating contradictions fester…

  Eating away the already decayed foundations of your aged mind,

  As if rot and rust.

  It is only a matter of time…

  Until it crumbles into dust.