Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Tunnels

Adam stretched his body. He felt refreshed after the nap. He looked around and Echigoya was nowhere to be seen. Most of the men who were resting here were gone as well. He ate a few pickled plums to fill his stomach before heading for the main cavern.

Once there, he looked through the crates and barrels to see if there was anything useful. Unfortunately, he only found food and water. He grabbed one of the torches and walked toward the tunnel the Jorōgumo went.

As he was about to enter the passage, he heard footsteps coming from behind. He turned around and saw one of the enthralled attempting to sneak up on him with a rock in his hand.

"Back off, I don't want any trouble," Adam said.

Having lost the element of surprise, the enthralled rushed forward with the rock raised in the air.

Adam waited for the man to get closer before he took out the severed arm and swung at him. The arm connected with the man's head and made him drop the rock. While the man was still reeling from the blow, Adam took a step forward and drove his foot into the man's crotch. The man cried out in pain and fell over to the ground. Fearing his cry would attract the other enthralled, Adam picked up the piece of rock and quickly ran into the passage.

***

Adam held the torch in front of him. The passages were narrow and dark. He tried to recall the way back to the entrance of the den but the place was a labyrinth. The tunnels seemed to go on forever. Whenever he entered a new passage at an intersection, he would leave a marking on the wall with the piece of rock. He occasionally ran into dead ends and had to turn around. There were even times when he looped back to an intersection.

While exploring the tunnels, he completed his second side objective.

***

Main Objective: Survive 3 days (1 day 23 hours 54 minutes left)

Side Objective 1: Kill 10 yōkai (6/10)

Side Objective 2: Explore the island (101%)

***

After a few hours of wandering through the tunnels, Adam found someone lying face down on the ground with a spear by his side. He cautiously approached the person, only to realize the man was already dead. He examined the corpse and noticed two large holes on his back. Pus was seeping out from them and his flesh in that area had turned black.

He picked up the spear and examined its condition. The spearhead was rusted and there were several nicks on its edges. It was in a worse shape than the one he previously had but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He brought the spear along with him and kept walking.

Adam continued moving down the tunnel and discovered more corpses. This time, he found a man and a spider as large as a dog. Half of the man's head had melted away while the spider was pinned to the wall by a spear. Its legs twitched in response to his presence but it didn't appear to be long for this world.

He stopped for a moment in front of the dying spider. There was something he wanted to test. He pointed his spear at the spider's head and ended its life. He immediately checked his status.

***

Side Objective 1: Kill 10 yōkai (7/10)

***

Like he had guessed, the spiders were also considered yōkai. The only problem was they were far more dangerous than the short creatures he killed previously. However, he might be able to work something out if the smaller spiders counted as well.

As Adam continued further, he started encountering spiderwebs in the tunnel. At first, it was just small webs here and there but they got larger and thicker as he kept going. The floor, ceiling, and walls of the passage were covered in webs.

Unexpectedly, he didn't see any spiders but it didn't take long before he found out the reason. He discovered the charred corpses of a man and spiders the size of his palm. The area around them had been scorched.

Adam's eyes narrowed at the corpses. Judging from the burning smell lingering in the air, whoever was responsible for this was probably not that far away. He perked his ears to listen for any sound but he couldn't hear anything. He held his breath to avoid inhaling the nauseating stench and tried to move past the corpses quietly and as quickly as possible.

After a while, he reached a fork in the tunnel. He slowed down when he heard sounds coming from the passage on the right. He crept closer and peeked out from the corner of the turn.

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He saw Echigoya and three other men, facing off against giant spiders the size of large dogs. Adam hastily dropped his torch and stamped on the fire to put it out. Fortunately, they were too preoccupied with the spiders to notice him. He stayed behind cover and carried on watching them. The men kept the spiders back with spears and torches while Echigoya stayed in the back.

"Move!" Echigoya said.

The men hastily moved out of the way as bright orange flames filled the tunnel. The spiders screeched in panic before being engulfed by the fire. The burning spiders tried to rush forward but the men formed a spear wall and kept them from approaching. The spiders made a horrible wailing sound as they burned to death.

Echigoya and his men rested for a while before continuing while Adam followed them from a distance. After a while, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. It was pitch black and the room was covered in spiderwebs.

"Burn the webs," Echigoya said.

The men held their torches to the webs to set them aflame. However, while the webs quickly melted when the flame of the torches was next to them, they didn't catch fire. As the men spread apart to burn the rest of the webs, Echigoya suddenly looked up.

"Above us!" Echigoya said.

The men looked up and saw a massive spider drop from above. It was almost as large as the Jorōgumo. The man standing below gaped in horror as the spider landed on him. The spider threw the mangled corpse of the man onto its webs and turned its attention to the other men.

The two men tried to run for the exit but one of the men was too slow and was caught. He screamed in pain as the spider injected venom into his body. The second man ran into the spiderwebs in panic and became entangled in them.

Meanwhile, Echigoya stood calmly in place despite the impending danger. Adam couldn't tell what Echigoya was doing from his position. However, the mystery was soon revealed as a torrent of flames burst forth from Echigoya. The spider frantically tried to escape by climbing its webs. However, the stream of fire followed after it and incinerated the webs in the process, causing the spider to fall back to the ground.

The burning spider desperately ran around in an attempt to avoid the fire. During its flight, it ran past the man trapped in the spiderwebs and he was swallowed up by the roaring flames. He perished before he could even make a sound. When Echigoya turned to follow the spider's movements, Adam finally realized he was spewing the flames from his mouth.

Unable to escape, the spider eventually burned to death. Echigoya fell on his butt in exhaustion. He panted heavily as he stared at the burning corpse of the spider. After a while, he got back to his feet and picked up a torch dropped by one of the men.

Echigoya headed for the end of the cavern and Adam followed after him.

They reached the other side and came out into a small cavern. It was a treasure vault. All sorts of valuable objects filled the cavern: porcelain vases, bolts of silk, rugs, ornate furnitures, etc. Rice sacks woven from straw were stacked from floor to ceiling.

"Hahaha! With these, I, Abe no Seiji, shall become the next head of the Abe clan!"

Adam was overwhelmed by the sight of the treasures as well. Both of them were so preoccupied that they didn't notice the giant spider descending on a strand of web. When Adam finally saw it, the spider was dangling right above Echigoya. The spider quickly wrapped its legs around him and sank its fangs into his neck.

"Gahhhhh!"

Echigoya fell forward while screaming in agony. He tried to get the spider off his back but it was futile. It was much stronger than him.

Adam rushed forward to help Echigoya. While he didn't trust him, the latter had helped him earlier. He held his spear with the head pointing down and stabbed the spider's abdomen. He continued stabbing the spider over and over again until it stopped moving.

By the time Adam dragged the dead spider off, Echigoya was already dead.

***

Side Objective 1: Kill 10 yōkai (8/10)

***

Author's note: It might seem strange for rice to be found in the treasure vault but the Koban was only minted a few hundred years after this. Yes, the Japanese already had copper coins but the value dropped with each new minting and eventually fell into disuse. Consequently, rice, silk, and clothes were used as substitutes for trading at that particular point in time.

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