Legends: The Emerald World

Shin opened his eyes after tracking the demonic aura in the cave. With how it looked, there was a good chance that the egg was inside the cave. The last thing he would want is for them to need to go out in the snow again, but thankfully that should not be the case.

As he looked forward, he saw something blocking his vision, a forest of black hair, the back of Ase's head. She was sitting on his lap, shaking as her eyes remained fixated on the water.

"Why sit on my lap?" He looked aside at Mary who is now sitting at his side, "Said she'd feel safer like this. Were you two close?"

"Not really. I just freed her from the solitary confinement in the fort."

"That would make people pretty close, don't you think? You saved my life as well, and I do want to be a bit closer to you as well."

"If that was the case then she should feel safer with Char than me." Shin pointed at Char who was behind them, soaking her tiny body in a small puddle of steaming warm water. Falling into the hot spring would cook her as she's too small, so that's all she could get.

"This isn't fun you know. I can't breathe." Char looked at Shin, waving her front limb.

"Is she trying to say something?" Mary notices Char moving, the only one who can understand her is Shin since her words fly straight into his mind. "Saying she can't breathe well, the water blocks her breathing airways."

"Her head is above the water."

"Spiders breathe through holes around their stomach." Shin then slowly pointed forward with his finger. "The demonic aura is coming from there. We might find the egg if we kept going deeper.

He then pointed up with his finger, igniting a small flame on it. "We'll know we're on the right path if we start to find a lot of sticky thread blocking our way, and we'll need to burn it down."

Mary gasped, she was certain Shin couldn't use magic earlier. He wouldn't have tried to ignite the fire with sticks if he could cast it.

"I bought it through the system. It'll be handy." He replied with a smile.

Mary could've used her magic to burn the webs, they could've even used the torch they brought with them. But Shin shook his head, informing her that the world spider's thread is quite special and extremely resistant to fire. His magic might be weak, but he knows her inside out and has a way to bypass the thick demonic resistance her thread had.

Shin then shifted his gaze to Ase who was still shivering over his lap, terrified of the water. "Are you okay? It's been a while."

"Can't…move…" The fear had paralyzed her legs and she couldn't move an inch. Like someone looking down a massive cliff, her head started spinning each time her eyes looked at the water.

Shin stood and carried her out of the water, putting her on the warm stones beside it. In a second, she came back to life and sat up, the shiver in her limbs finally gone. This made Shin confident that her fear was merely psychological, it should be cleared when her core evolves.

He pointed at the back of the cave, "We should find a small tunnel in that direction. I was hoping the world spider's egg wouldn't be that far away."

Mary got out of the hot water and walked around the geyser to see what was behind it. As Shin said, a long dark cave spanned behind, reeking with a dried musky smell. "There is a large cave here. We'll we go now?"

"Yeah. If you two are feeling fine then we should push further. Things will get worse if we start getting hungry or thirsty, we must finish this quickly." Hearing Shin's words the two finally realized that they had completely forgotten about food and water.

They can melt the ice and drink it, but there is nothing edible around here besides those disgusting abominations. Mary looked at Ase with a scared face and Ase immediately replied, "They taste bad, I doubt they are edible to humans." She had bit the tentacle snake when fighting it. Throughout her life eating raw and fighting with her jaws she had developed a clear understanding of what's edible and what isn't. If it was disgusting for her, it's not something that humans should try.

Shin carried Char and approached Mary with Ase, "Just be careful where you step…no, just walk behind me and step on where I did."

The world's spider's silky threads are coated in an extremely powerful adhesive that is strong enough to support her whole weight. If any of them were to get stuck, burning the threads would be the only path and would leave them with severe burns.

As they went deeper and deeper into the cave, Ase had no problem tracing Shin's steps, but Mary was starting to struggle. Sometimes he doesn't even walk straight but jumps from one stone to another, and she was already getting tired and sore after several minutes.

"Do you have to jump like that?" Mary complained and Shin looked back at her, "The cave here isn't fragile, but the demonic aura is still everywhere. One wrong step and you'll get it stuck on your feet.

"Demonic aura? That doesn't sound good, but is it really that big of a deal?" Mary stopped walking and bent down, catching her breath.

"Depends, how much people hate demons here? Won't having demonic magic on you make them want to kill you?" He looked at her, lifting an eyebrow.

"They won't. Paladins might get triggered by they won't attack out of nowhere, especially me."

Ase turned back, "I've heard paladins are vicious, one wrong word about their god and your head would fly away."

"People mocking their god is one thing, but someone worshipping another god is another." Mary instinctively reached to her chest, noticing she wasn't wearing her necklace. "I spend three years as a nun in Mira's holy church. I would've shown you my holy symbol if I had it with me."

"Wait, you're a cleric!" Ase gasped, "You can cast heal spells?"

"I need my holy symbol to cast them since I'm not a dedicated nun. But I can manage." She looked around, "The aura around here, it's similar to the demonic magic of the abyss, but it's just too faint."

"Didn't expect you to be a holy woman." Shin looked back at her, "You've been staring at me for a while I almost mistaken you for the opposite."