Chapter 12:The Actor, The Beast, and The Shy Weaver
[POV : Noir]
Noir was bored.
To a beast like him—a Level 74 Beast Lord—the world was made of wet paper. If he walked too hard, the ground cracked. If he sneezed, trees fell over.
He had spent the last fifty years ruling the Western Silent Death Forest. Nothing dared to look him in the eye.
And then, he met Him.
Noir looked at the human struggling with the wooden lever.
The Master, Kael.
To the naked eye, Kael looked like a weak human. Skinny. No claws. No fangs. But Noir knew better. He didn't know why, but every instinct in his body screamed at him whenever he was near this guy.
It was a vibe. A heavy, suffocating feeling of danger that he couldn't explain. It felt like... if he tried to attack Kael, he would just die. Instantly.
So Noir decided to just play along.
And right now, Kael was swearing like a sailor.
"Come on, you heavy piece of shit!" Kael grunted, his boots sliding on the gravel. "fuck you!, move."
Noir blinked. The Master was angry at the rock.
'He is testing me,' Noir thought, watching Kael's face turn red. 'He's pretending to be weak again. He wants to see if I'm useful.'
If Noir used his full strength, he would blow up the cliff. That would be bad.
"Noir!" Kael gasped, veins popping in his neck. "Don't just sit there! PUSH!"
Noir sighed. Fine.
He stepped forward. He put his paw on the granite. He used maybe... 0.0001% of his power.
'Gently,' Noir told himself. ' Very Gently,''
He pushed.
[POV : Kael]
"HEAVE!"
Kael felt his muscles burning. The rock was impossibly heavy. Even with his Strength stat of 26, physics was winning.
"This is fucking ridiculous," Kael spat. In his old life, he would have quit. Here? He was pissed off. "I am not letting a rock beat me."
Then, Noir joined in.
GRRR-RUMBLE.
The huge rock, which hadn't moved an inch, suddenly flew. It rolled five meters to the side like it was made of plastic.
"Whoa!" Kael stumbled back. "Good boy! That's some serious horsepower!"
Noir shook his head and sat down, looking bored.
Kael grabbed his torch. The hole was open now.
"Stay close, Noir," Kael said, walking into the dark. "Don't know what's in here."
The air smelled old and dusty. The torch flickered on the wet walls.
Kael took three steps and stopped.
In the back corner, hiding against the stone, was the creature.
It was a spider. A big one. Size of a small car. It was covered in soft, white fur. It had eight big black eyes that blinked in the light.
But it wasn't attacking. It was covering its face with its front legs, shaking like a leaf.
[System Analysis: Weaver Arachnid (Variant).]
[Level: ???]
[Status: Terror (Extreme), Starving.]
"Question marks again?" Kael muttered.
He scoffed. "Must be over Level 20 then. Probably Level 40 or 50."
He looked at the shaking spider.
"In every game I played, Level 50 is just mid-game trash," Kael thought. "Unless you are Level 80 or 90, you're basically a minion. This poor thing is probably weak as hell compared to the real monsters out there."
He didn't know the truth. He didn't know that this spider could easily kill hundreds of soldiers.
But right now, the spider wasn't looking at Kael.
Her eight eyes were locked on the shadow behind him.
Noir.
To the spider, Noir was death. She could smell the power coming off him. The King was here. And he was looking at her with cold, yellow eyes.
'Move and you die.'
The spider shook harder. Please don't eat me. I taste bad.
Kael totally misunderstood.
"Oh, you poor thing," Kael said softly. "Trapped in here, huh?"
He grabbed some jerky from his bag.
"Hungry?"
He tossed the meat.
The spider froze. She looked at the meat. Then she looked at Noir.
Noir narrowed his eyes. He let out a small huff. 'Eat it.'
The spider scrambled. She ate the jerky in two seconds.
"See?" Kael smiled. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm Kael. This grumpy guy is Noir. He looks scary, but he's chill."
Noir rolled his eyes. Chill. Yeah, right.
Kael stepped closer. The spider didn't run.
"Nice fur," Kael said. "And... are those webs?"
He saw a pile of white silk in the corner. It wasn't messy. It was a neat ball of thread.
"You're a Weaver," Kael realized.
The spider slowly pushed the silk ball toward Kael with one leg.
'Gift,' she thought. 'Please take it.'
Kael picked it up. "For me? Thanks! This is awesome."
He put the silk in his bag.
"Well, cave is open," Kael said. "You can leave. But... I have a camp nearby. If you want more food, come by."
He turned to leave. "Come on, Noir. Let's get those rocks."
Kael went back to load up the granite.
Noir paused at the entrance. He looked back at the spider. He didn't say anything, just slashed his claw against the rock wall.
Scritch. Five deep cuts in the stone.
'Be useful,' the scratches said.
The spider nodded her big head frantically.
[One Hour Later]
Sun was setting. Kael and Noir walked back to the clearing.
"That went well," Kael said. "We should name her. 'Spider' is rude."
He thought for a second.
"Tess?"
Noir grunted.
"Tess it is."
Kael stopped and looked back.
About fifty meters back, a big white shape was sneaking through the trees.
"Look, Noir!" Kael whispered. "She's following us. Must be lonely."
Noir glanced back. 'She knows where the free food is.'
They got back to the house frame.
"Welcome home," Kael said. "Tonight, we eat good. Tomorrow... we build the fireplace."
He unpacked the rocks. Then, he looked at Tess, who was scared to enter the clearing.
"It's okay, Tess!" Kael shouted. "Get your ass over here! I'll make space by the fire."
Tess looked at Noir. Noir laid down and closed his eyes.
The big spider ran into the clearing and curled up in a ball near the woodpile.
Kael smiled. A human, a panther, and a spider.
"Weird family," Kael thought. "But it is ok."
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