Chapter 17 The White Maggot

The panel's resolution function automatically activated as Klaus's gaze fell on the white maggot.

[Race: White Maggot, dwelling for long periods in dark and damp caves, hates light, and feeds on carrion.]

[Level: 2]

[Magic Element: None]

[Battle Value: 20]

[Weakness: Mouth]

The white maggot's body measured approximately 10 feet in length, and its mouth was surrounded by a scarlet hue. Perhaps due to the light, it writhed and behaved in the most irascible manner.

Witnessing this, Rand swung his axe and struck the body of the white maggot, splitting it in two the next second. Surprisingly, however, it did not die. The two severed sections of its body writhed even more vigorously. They twisted and attacked in the directions of Klaus and Rand, respectively.

Klaus drew his spear and plunged it into the mouth of the white maggot, and in the next second, it instantly ceased moving. Rand wields his axe and chops another piece of the white maggot's body into pieces. Each severed limb writhed spasmodically on the ground for several seconds before lying motionless.

Although the fight was brief, the scene was extremely repulsive to Klaus and Rand. The mucus from the chopped flesh of the maggots emitted a pungent odor worse than decomposition, and the mucus mixed with the blood on the ground was nauseating.

"We have to get out of here," Rand said, putting his hand over his nose. "It smells disgusting."

A low voice came from the depths of the cave, and Klaus immediately motioned for Rand to be quiet. Even as he listened intently to the voice, the system sent him a prompt message.

[Note: A large amount of white maggots are hidden in front of you, and smearing your whole body with the mucus of the white maggots can hide the smell.]

"Wait," Klaus said to Rand. "We can't just leave."

"Why?" Rand asked, puzzled.

"The sound coming from the front was like something gnawing on food. Maybe there are more white maggots up there."

"So what are we going to do?"

Klaus walked over to the maggot flesh and smeared the slime from it all over his body. Rand was surprised; he really did not understand why Klaus was doing this.

"Apply this slime to your body, quick," Klaus urged him. "Otherwise, it will attract more white maggots."

Rand hated the feel of maggot slime, but he did it anyway. When their bodies were covered in maggot-infested slime, they moved on.

"Look, there are a lot of white maggots up ahead," Rand said, pointing to the white maggots in the middle of the road. "What are they eating?"

Klaus saw great numbers of white maggots gnawing around the skeletons. Their fat bodies blocked their path, and not only that, but the sides of the cave walls were thickly covered with white maggots.

It can be cumbersome and time-consuming to deal with so many white maggots at once, so perhaps you should come up with an easier way. Klaus thought to himself.

The glow of the gem caught the eye of a white maggot, and just as it was about to turn its head, Klaus hurriedly alerted Rand.

"Put the glowstone away, now," he whispered.

Rand immediately hid the glowing stones in his armor, thankful that the white maggots ignored them. Klaus leaned closer to Rand and whispered.

"We have to step over them to move forward."

"Stepping over?" Rand lowered his voice. "What if they attack us?"

"Let me try it first," Klaus said.

Klaus held his breath, one hand clenched on his spear, ready to strike. Slowly he approached the group, and as his legs reached between the crowded white maggots, none of them noticed his presence.

His foot was wedged between the bodies of two white maggots, and it was with some difficulty that he managed to raise one leg. As he passed over body after body of white maggots, he finally reached the other side.

"Rand, come here," Klaus whispered to Rand. "Just step quietly over their bodies. They won't attack you."

In the darkness, Rand could only do as Klaus told him, and when he finally reached Klaus, he was on the verge of throwing up.

"Let's go," Klaus urged him.

They walked on in the darkness until the sound of the gnawing of the white maggots grew fainter and fainter, until at last they could not hear any of them. Klaus reminded Rand to bring out the glowstone for illumination.

"It's cold," Rand cowered. "It seems like the further you go, the colder it gets."

"Look, there are many holes on both sides of the cave," Klaus pointed to the hole in the wall. "What's in there?"

Klaus and Rand then leaned over to look at what looked like eggs in the hole. When Rand tried to touch the object, Klaus stopped him.

"Don't touch it. Beware of the poison."

Rand withdrew his hand, and for a moment he stared at the hole-filled wall.

"These seem to be white maggots that haven't hatched yet," Rand pointed to one of the holes, which contained the larva of a hard, dry, white maggot.

"It seems that the temperature here is not suitable for the growth of ordinary living creatures. This means that the further we go, the less likely we are to encounter white maggots."

"But what's ahead of us?" Rand asked.

"We're targeting the Grey Spider, and that's what we're really worried about. Now we just have to keep going."

"I'm afraid we can't continue," Rand took the glowstone and looked ahead. "There's no road ahead."

Klaus saw the end of the tunnel, and when he reached the edge of it, he realized that there was an endless abyss below.

Rand picked up a rock and dropped it into the abyss, and for a long time they heard no echo. No one knew how deep it lay, and the sense of darkness seemed to come from the depths of hell.

"What are we going to do?" Rand asked.

Something flew out of a hole in the wall, and in the glow of the glowstone, Klaus saw that it was a bat. The bat's body was grayish-white and its two eyes were blood-red. It still seemed to have a piece of flesh in its mouth.

The swift flight of the gray-and-white bat in the opposite direction to Klaus and Rand piqued Klaus's curiosity. So he turned his gaze to the hole through which the bat had flown, and when he put his hand to the edge of it, he found it wet and soft.

"Rand, give me your axe," Klaus said.

He then used his axe to dig up the earth around the hole, which was soon enlarged into a large cavity. Klaus took the glowstone into the hole and found that there was enough room within for him to enter.

"I'm going to go in and have a look," Klaus said to Rand. "You stay here."