Game of the World Tree
chapter-163

▪️BLAST THE LAIR

Boxlunch’s team acted very fast.

The allure of amassing an abundance of contribution points proved irresistible, especially since the exchange store had recently stocked a fresh batch of intermediate-grade equipment.

If they were to complete tasks and accumulate contribution points in the usual manner, it is estimated that they would need probably at least a week of grinding in order to obtain a set of epic purple-grade equipment…

However, a glimmer of hope for quick and effortless riches had ignited a fire within them. Thus they acted swiftly, fearing that the developers would soon discover and fix the exploit.

They hastened along the winding and intricate paths of Rivendell, returning to the prior tunnel they had detonated earlier.

It must be acknowledged that these ancient tunnels, crafted by the elves, still stood remarkably sturdy. Despite the players’ bombardment, the structure remained relatively intact, save for a few destroyed minecart tracks.

Fortunately, the path leading to the crypt spider’s lair still remained accessible.

Boxlunch’s team planned to employ the same method as before to lure out the spiders. However, this time, they also drew a sizable offering circle in the courtyard. After completing the circle with eager anticipation, they ventured along the tunnel leading to the lair.

Surveying the area, they found the situation to be just as what they had witnessed before—the deep cavern is still teeming with a vast number of crypt spiders as these creatures formed a dense cluster alongside each other, making it impossible to count their exact numbers.

The only sound that could be heard was the metallic rustling of their legs as they moved along the rocky walls or surfaces…

It sounded… quite terrifying.

And as the players gazed around, they also beheld countless rows of crimson eyes, both large and small, an unnerving sight that could easily torment those with claustrophobic tendencies.

Even Boxlunch, renowned for his mental fortitude, couldn’t help but shudder at the ominous sight unfolding within the lair, feeling a creeping sensation upon his scalp.

The tunnel was relatively narrow, allowing small and medium-sized crypt spiders to easily pass through effortlessly. However, the larger variants measuring seven to eight meters in size could only barely enter one at a time.

Knowing they couldn’t lure out all the spiders at once, the players were left with no choice but to adopt the same strategy they used with the goblins—

Lure them out in small groups and gradually thin out their numbers little by little using guerilla tactics.

However, considering the astonishing speed at which these crypt spiders move about, it is highly likely that they will die multiple times during this whole ordeal.

“We’ll take turns luring these monsters,” Boxlunch commanded in a low voice after taking a deep breath.

Upon hearing their leader’s words, the rest nodded with all their faces showing firm determination.

“I’ll go first.”

Calabash stepped forward.

After the mage volunteered, the rest quickly retreated and took cover behind the rock formation in the courtyard.

“Bash, we’re ready.”

After finding their own hiding spots, each of them began communicating mentally via the team’s groupchat. Upon receiving the message, Calabash drew a deep breath and ran towards the lair’s entrance before he let out a resounding cry which echoed into the cave.

“Ahhhh!”

In an instant, several pairs of red eyes turned towards him.

Even though it was just a game, Calabash’s heart couldn’t help but tremble after being stared at by these ominous pairs of crimson eyes.

He shouted one more time for good measure before turning around and running whilst at his back, nearly a hundred crypt spiders followed closely behind him…

With his boots possessing the special property of ‘Acceleration’ and the skill buff ‘Lighten Body,’ casted upon himself, Calabash glided away with astonishing speed.

Leading a horde of spiders in his wake, he quickly reached the ambush spot wherein the others lay in wait.

“They are coming! Get ready guys!”

Calabash shouted while running.

The others began to kneel before the offering circle as they began to quickly recite the prayer of offering.

“Praise thy Mother of Nature, praise thy Goddess of Life, praise thy mighty Matriarch…”

As they finished their prayers, the circle once again radiated a brilliant light and as if on cue, Calabash led the spiders straight into it.

In an instant, the spiders caught inside the circle began emanating a dazzling glow and were instantaneously transported while numerous system notifications floated before each player’s eyes:

“You have gained ‘05‘ contribution points.”

“You have gained ‘05‘ contribution points.”

“You have gained ‘05‘ contribution points.”

The surge of contribution points brought forth an exhilarating rush with their mouths curling into greedy smiles.

Within moments, they successfully offered hundreds of spiders to the goddess, and the players were delighted to find that their personal contribution points had increased by seven to eight hundred points!

“F*ck! This is like taking candy from a baby!”

The members of Boxlunch’s team were excited.

“We can do it more! Let’s continue!”

Boxlunch’s eyes lit up as he looked at the contribution points added to his account.

The other players nodded excitedly.

They were overjoyed and started luring more monsters…

In just a short amount of time, they attracted another batch of hundreds of spiders and just like before, offered them to the goddess and obtained another seven to eight hundred contribution points for a second time!

“Hahaha! Oh yeaah! Another seven to eight hundred contribution points added!”

“Holy frick! Damn if we keep doing this, then we might really accumulate more contribution points than what we’ve gained from the last main questline!”

“Come on, don’t think too smalll man! We could’ve easily rack up more hundreds of thousand points today!”

“Wow… this is definitely a game exploit for easy CP farming!”

“Shh… Let’s keep a low profile guys. It wouldn’t be good if the developers found out.”

“Enough talking, more monsters! Lure more freakin’ monsters! I can almost buy a legendary golden equipment!”

Excited and thrilled, the players continued another cycle of luring and offering crypt spiders for a third time.

However, starting from their fourth attempt, the number of spiders they attracted began to significantly dwindle.

This time, Boxlunch personally took the lead but only lured a few dozen spiders.

“There are fewer this time…”

“Did we already lure all the ones lingering near the entrance?”

“Maybe Captain Box ran too fast, leaving the crypt spiders behind?”

Boxlunch fell silent, contemplating the situation.

“Perhaps we should venture a bit further inside the lair?”

“Let me go next since I’m slower.”

After discussing for a while, the players continued to lure the spiders.

However… even fewer responded this time compared to their last attempt.

Players: “…..”

“Why can’t we lure them out anymore?”

“Could it be that we’ve already lured out all the spiders from the lair?”

“That’s impossible… considering the number of eyes we spotted earlier, there must be thousands just at the cave entrance. The spiders lurking deeper within must be even more numerous…”

They all exchanged perplexed glances.

After offering the spiders several times, the contribution points they had accumulated already reached nearly three thousand points.

This… was already close to the contribution reward given for completing a main questline at this stage!

However, these players’ appetites had grown significantly larger, and just a few thousand contribution points were no longer enough to satisfy them.

There were likely tens of thousands of spiders hiding deeper in that lair. Offering them all would undoubtedly yield enough contribution points to buy themselves a full set of golden-grade equipment!

The players refused to believe that the exploit was already fixed and decided to attempt luring them once again.

Nevertheless…once again, despite all the team members efforts of shouting multiple times at the entrance of the cave, they only received cold gazes from these crimson-eyed spiders, and not a single crypt spider chased after them…

Players: “…..”

“Aren’t these mindless spiders supposed to have low intelligence? Why aren’t they coming out anymore? How did they suddenly become smart?”

“Could they be aware that their brethrens who pursued us before have all perished?”

“Well, judging by their behavior, it seems entirely possible…I mean, they all saw us making ruckus and yet not a single one came out…”

“Maybe our actions somehow triggered the game’s built in failsafe mechanism?”

“That’s impossible. All the mechanics in ElvKing follow a certain logic. It doesn’t make sense for the system to order these mobs to stop coming out just because we lured a few.”

“Yeah, remember when we hunted those goblins from before? didn’t they also came out one by one without realizing they were being lured? According to the game’s lore, those goblins should have higher intelligence than these spiders.”

The players were scratching their heads in confusion.

Evé, who was observing everything through Calabash’s perspective, was not surprised at all.

Since there was a higher consciousness manipulating these crypt spiders from behind. Surely, that entity must have realized something was amiss, which was why these spiders ceased their mindless pursuit.

Ha! These rascals wanted to quickly gain hundreds of thousands of contribution points in a short time?

Seriously, where in the world does such an easy method exist?

“How about…we try luring some bigger fellows?”

A player suggested.

“Fu*k, let’s now kite the adult ones! I refuse to believe we can’t lure them out today! Dude, I still want to gain a legendary golden-grade armor for myself goddammit!”

At that moment, the tank who had died first earlier gritted his teeth.

He had instantly rushed back upon his resurrection after waiting for his death’s cooldown to disappear for a long time. Not only that, but he also brought some other items along with him.

He reached into his backpack and took out several bulging bags one by one.

Seeing those familiar bags, the other players were startled.

“What the hell! Did you bring all the explosive packs made by Captain!?”

The tank nodded.

“Yeah, I figured I might as well brought it all in case we might need them for kiting the monsters, so I took it all along with me before teleporting here.”

His teammates: “….”

“You…you’re not planning to blow up the entire lair, are you?”

Their mouths twitched with uncertainty.

“Hehe, what’s there to fear? It’s just a few explosive packs. The blast will definitely lure them out!” The tank chuckled as he patted the bags containing black powder.

His teammates: “….”

“So…you really want to blow up the whole lair!?”

“Hm…maybe?”

“Then you can just do it yourself, dude!”

“Well, since you’re the one who suggested it, then you should be the one to throw these explosive packs!”

The tank: “…???”

As the primary currency in Elven Kingdom, the allure of contribution points was immeasurable.

After a brief discussion, the players finally decided to go big for their next attempt, that is—blow up the entire crypt spiders’ lair!

Although…just a few packs of explosives wouldn’t completely eradicate all the spiders within the lair, they should at least be lured out by this massive commotion…

If their lair is destroyed, these crypt spiders surely wouldn’t tolerate them anymore, right?

For a moment, the players were filled with anticipation once again.

And soon, they began to act!

This time, through a democratic vote of four-to-one, the esteemed tank player was once again tasked with the glorious duty of luring out the monsters…

Under the admiring gazes of the rest of his teammates, the tank cautiously approached the entrance of the lair with explosive packs strapped all over his body.

He then took a deep breath before forcefully throwing all the explosive packs deep into the crypt spiders’ lair.

Then, he lit a torch and also hurled it towards the location where the explosives landed…

As the torch entered the lair, it instantly illuminated the entire cavern revealing countless crypt spiders looming in every corner with their terrifying numbers causing the tank’s whole body to shudder in fright.

And partially hidden within the deepest parts, he also caught sight of several familiar gigantic spiders…

They occupied the deepest part of the cave, encircling an even more massive set of spider legs that’s stretching tens of meters long.

Wait…

Gigantic spider legs?

As the light from the torch revealed a glimpse of it, the tank’s eyes widened instinctively, unable to stop himself from blurting out a curse.

Holy hell! Just its leg alone makes those adult spiders look like juveniles in comparison to its size!

Before he could say anything more, the torch’s flame finally ignited the explosives, and a thunderous explosion followed a mere seconds later…

“Boom—!!!”

A deafening roar shook the entire lair, causing the ground beneath to tremble.

With a dazzling light accompanied by burst of flames, the crypt spiders’ lair exploded into a colossal fireball, tearing countless spiders into fragments…

“It blew up! It all fu*king blew up!”

The players hiding in the distance were filled with excitement after seeing such a bombastic explosion.

However, after the explosion, what awaited them was not the spiders they had hoped to attract, but instead a furious, earsplitting scream…

“Hiss!!!”

The ground began to tremble, as if something terrible had been rudely awakened…

“Fu*k! We’ve gone too far this time! Run away!”

The tank’s face turned green, swiftly slipping past the others to make an escape without even waiting for any of them…

Hearing the ear piercing primal roar, Boxlunch’s expression hardened. He squinted his eyes as he focused his sight on a particular direction before uttering—

“—Run!”

After stating those words, he also turned around and ran towards the exit just like the tank.

What’s happening?

The others were momentarily stunned.

Then…the entire world began to tremble as the rocky walls above the tunnel were suddenly overturned by a mighty force.

Then the smiles upon their faces instantly froze as they instinctively raised their heads upwards before witnessing a colossal presence emerged that sent shivers down their spines…