The Fiend's Creation System

Black Arachne

It was taking too long so Julius decided that he would go meet with the humans after he established a secondary Fiend Sanctum. First, they needed to clear out the Black Arachne Nest of monsters.

Eisha had cleared away a few of the monsters but after scouting deeper into the nest, it turns out that the cave was much larger than they had predicted. The spiders had dug around and created a network of caves and tunnels so the extermination became a lot harder.

It was also not their home grounds so Eisha had to be extra careful in dealing with the monsters. She needed to make sure that they didn’t miss a single monster or egg sac and because there was no lighting within the caves and tunnels, the monsters could easily conceal themselves in the dark tunnels.

Eisha was met with a few ambushes while traversing the tunnels and was nearly injured due to a moment of carelessness. After seeing it happen in front of him from looking at the Fiend Soldier that sacrificed itself to take the fatal blow from the monster and eventually dying from its poison, Julius immediately set out to provide reinforcements for his wife.

“I should have been more thoughtful and accompanied you here.”

“It’s alright~ it wasn’t that dangerous. Also, Eisha’s not alone, honey~” Eisha’s fiends growled and hissed, making themselves known to their king.

Julius patted Eisha’s head and smiled. He was looking down at her a little bit and finally noticed, “Oh, I grew taller than Eisha!”

“Eh? You just noticed that now, honey?” Eisha began giggling at Julius’s cute remark. She tiptoed and began patting his head in return.

For as long as she could remember, Eisha was the one always looking down at Julius and patting him on the head. Now, she had to look up to him a little bit and tiptoe just to be on eye level with him.

“Alright, let’s go and exterminate these bugs.”

“Okay~”

Julius and Eisha dived into the Black Arachne’s Nest. On his map, Julius saw the complicated tunnel network that the spider monsters had made. It wasn’t any wonder that Eisha and her friends got lost a few times yesterday.

Some of the tunnels were winding and long before eventually, they led back around in a circle. They didn’t have Julius’s map so Eisha and her fiends lost their way a few times. She didn’t lose her way out though because Eisha had left behind a mark at every branching pathway.

Now that they had Julius’s map, their extermination plan continued without too much hindrance. 

Julius and Eisha went from chamber to chamber clearing out all of the spider monsters that they found.

Eisha and her friends would rush into a chamber first and immediately attack the spiders without hesitation. Julius had been able to trade a lot of weapons and armor from the elves and the humans over the past month so every one of Eisha’s guards was equipped with armor.

They didn’t need a weapon since they could transform their arms to any kind of weapon at will. Only Eisha had a weapon and it was a large broadsword that she wielded with one hand.

Eisha’s strength as a fiend allowed her to wave around the large and cumbersome sword like she was holding a stick. Eisha had been trained in the basics of the Empire’s swordsmanship so there was some technique behind her reckless wielding. 

Of course, it would help if she had proper training but she still had the basics covered. Upon seeing her powerful albeit reckless way of handling the sword, Julius wondered if it was better if the third hero unit that he spawned was a swordmaster.

He could probably search for a high-ranked consciousness of a swordmaster within the Fiend’s collective mind and merge it with Eisha so that she could gain the abilities of a swordmaster but he was worried about the potential side effects.

Julius himself knew what it was like to merge himself with one of the fiend’s consciousnesses. It wasn’t something easy to do and it felt like he was slowly losing something every time he successfully merged his mind with one of the fiends.

He couldn’t find what exactly it was that he was losing but it wasn’t going to damper his motivation and drive to cultivate his mind. Whatever it was that he lost, he only got something bigger in return.

However, he felt like Eisha shouldn’t have to do that. Also, it was probably better if she was taught what to do rather than acquire the abilities through mind merging. It was fast, but it came with the complication that the understanding she gained about the way of the sword wouldn’t be hers completely and it might affect her improvements in the future.

“Mhm, I’ll spawn a swordmaster hero next. I’ll let them teach Eisha about the sword.”

Julius made his decision before he pulled on his bow and released a magic arrow. His shot pierced through a spider that was jumping down from the cave ceiling and pinned the creature into the wall.

He snapped his fingers and the arrow blew up, releasing a massive gale. The other spiders crawling on the walls and ceiling nearby screeched in surprise as they were forced to fall onto the cavern floor. 

Eisha and her fiends didn’t miss this opportunity and began hacking at the defenseless spiders who fell on their backs.

The monsters tried to quickly recover but Julius’s fiends that were waiting behind him immediately rushed forwards and began ripping their bodies apart. The tunnel wasn’t too large but like the spiders, Julius’s fiends could move on the walls and ceilings.

After shooting a single arrow, Julius just remained in place as he watched his fiends pour into the cavern chamber, ripping apart any spider monster they encountered.

Julius was paying attention to his map, making sure that the red dots were slowly disappearing.

If his fiends missed one, he would immediately let them know and they would start searching for the monster. Julius was amused by the monsters’ cunning and will to survive that some of them burrowed themselves into the cave walls to try and hide.

Unfortunately, with Julius there, those monsters wouldn’t be able to escape. They were dug out and promptly taken care of in the next moment. The homunculi who ate the spider corpses didn’t experience any change or evolution.

Julius figured that he needed a more powerful monster that could catalyze the homunculi’s evolution.

“Let’s go visit the spider queen. If we kill it, one of our homunculi or fiend soldiers may be able to evolve.”

“Okay, honey~”

Julius and Eisha continued making their way into the complicated cavern nest, with the system map, Julius didn’t lose his way as he systematically began to clear out the spiders. 

Not a monster or egg sac was left alive or intact. The fiends were like a plague as they destroyed and devoured everything in their path. Julius would lose some of his fiends from time to time but there were already more waiting outside the cave.

He had brought nearly all of his fighting force to uproot the monsters after he heard that Eisha was nearly hurt by them. 

It took them a few days to completely clear out all of the spider nest chambers before finally arriving at the spider queen’s nest. The nest was located at the cave’s lowest depth which Julius predicted was about 3 more floors deeper than his dungeon.

The entire chamber was filled with webs like most parts of the lower area of the nest. Julius had the fire-type homunculi burn away the webs before entering the room. 

Upon entering, a large spider slowly lowered herself from a web and onto the floor. That’s right, the monster was a female. The area where the head of a normal monster spider should be was instead the upper body of a woman with dark purple skin.

It was no wonder why the system named the spider nest, Black Arachne Nest. A high-ranked and intelligent monster, an Arachne, was the mother of all the spiders inside the cave.

The Arachne eyed Julius carefully like she was sizing him up before turning to Eisha and hissing at her.

She then turned her attention back to Julius and asked pitifully, “You...why have you come and disturbed the peace of my nest?”

Julius was expecting it since the Arachne had a humanoid body and was supposed to be intelligent but he was still a bit surprised hearing the monster talk.

The Arachne had a rather beautiful face and body, minus the part below her abdomen, of course, so Julius would rather not have to kill such a beautiful woman.

“I just want this cave, that’s all. You’re free to leave.”

“You want my nest~?” The Arachne melodically said.

Julius sighed before growling, “I hate repeating myself.”

The Arachne frowned before saying, “...You killed all my sons and daughters…now you want to drive me out of my home?”

“And your children killed a few of mine as well.”

Julius’s counter wasn’t well-received by the Arachne. She hissed and glared at Julius angrily. He only chuckled at her response because he thought that it looked rather cute.

“Listen here lady, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. I’m not attacking you even though I have the advantage in numbers. You can just simply leave. If you want it the hard way...well…”

Julius gestured at the fiends behind him who were crawling on the ground, walls, and ceiling of the cave. They hissed, screeched, and growled back at the Arachne.

The Arachne acted shocked. She reeled back her body a little and it caused her long purple hair to shift to the side, revealing her large, perky breasts. Even after seeing her exposed parts, Julius’s face didn’t even change. He did, however, admire the monster’s beauty but with the rather creepy area past the woman’s abdominal area, she wasn’t exactly the prettiest of belles. 

The Arachne frowned when she saw that she didn’t evoke even a shred of emotion from Julius. Normally, a creature who was opposite her gender would be bewitched at this point but upon remembering the beautiful woman next to Julius who was practically covered in his scent, the Arachne clicked her tongue knowing that her charms wouldn’t work because the young man already had a beautiful mate.

“Young man, won’t you tell this sister your name?”

“It’s Julius. So, are you going to leave, or not?”

The Arachne smiled, but unfortunately, that smile wasn’t the smile of acceptance. It was the smile of someone who had resorted to the most primitive way of negotiating, “YOu killED, my FAMily…” 

He was hoping to hear a ‘yes’ so Julius couldn’t help but frown at the distorted voice coming out of the Arachne's mouth. 

“Those aren’t the words I’m looking...for…” 

Julius’s words got stuck in his throat when he noticed that the sides of the Arachne's mouth began cracking apart as two mandibles pierced out in the next instant before slits began appearing on the woman’s forehead and they opened to reveal 4 pairs of eyes of green, glowing eyes. 

Now the woman’s beautiful visage was ruined by the grotesque transformation of her face which was then followed by her body transforming. The smooth dark purplish skin on her arms began peeling off as bristles replaced it and her hands became claws that dripped with a transparent liquid.

When the liquid oozed onto the ground, the floor began to sizzle as smoke rose into the air. Julius looked to see if there was anything else he had to be wary of after the Arachne's transformation.

Seeing that there wasn’t any more to the monster’s change, Julius and Eisha both stepped forward and used Metamorphosis.

Julius wasn't appalled by the Arachne's transformation. He and Eisha both had a similar transformation skill and their appearance post-transformation was much more grotesque than the Arachne.

“!”

“You’re not the only one with a transformation ability, lady,” Julius chuckled and said.

Eisha stepped forward before she brandished her claws and said, “You were eyeing my man like you wanted to mate with him earlier... I’m going to gouge out all 5 pairs of your eyes and rend your womb apart!”

The Arachne was immediately offended and it screeched out, “KiiiiiEEEEKKKK, coME AT me yOU, b***h!”