Gradually, Kaelos managed to regain his senses. He slowly opened his eyes, and a magical forest came into his view.
For a moment, his breath hitched. How could he not? For a place ominously called an abyss, it was unexpectedly beautiful and vast.
"Boy, this is a simulated environment. Everything you see is an illusion."
The voice pulled Kaelos out of his stupor. Only then did he realize he was looking down at the forest.
He was in the sky.
Kaelos staggered and flapped his arms in terror. He gasped and his soul almost left his body.
"If you're scared already, how could you even hunt an abyssalspawn?" the voice mocked.
"W-Well, because I have acrophobia..."
"Acrophobia?"
"Fear of heights…"
A snort rang out.
When he realized that he was magically suspended in the air, Kaelos forced himself to calm down. He sighed deeply in relief.
How is this so-called immortal spirit so grumpy? For someone so old and supposedly immortal, he's pretty petty.
He shook his head.
Oh, he mentioned its essence being precious and talking consumes it? I guess that makes sense.
Now composed, Kaelos caught a glimpse of his incorporeal body, leaving him in shock again.
"What happened to my body?"
"You're currently in your incorporeal form, which allows you to observe the forest without alerting the abyssalspawn. This is a privilege only given to aspiring Fallens as it consumes a significant essence of the abyss."
It continued:
"You have an hour. Prepare well."
With that, the voice vanished like it had never been there to begin with.
Kaelos nodded and looked down at his body again.
His body which was unhealthily pale became even paler.
Stretching his body, Kaelos thought:
How do I get down?
Kaelos pondered for a moment, then an idea surfaced.
He willed himself to slowly descend, and indeed he did.
In the following moment, his feet touched the grass, but he couldn't feel anything at all.
As Kaelos could now see everything clearly, he scanned around him in a daze.
The forest around him stretched across endlessly. Everything was vibrant, gigantic and glistened with inexplicable luminescence, pulsing with vibrant vitality.
Seas of towering trees sprawled around him, their canopies soaring high and touching the sky. It would take at least twenty people wrapping arms just to cover one of their massive bases completely.
The sky was vast, with two suns hanging low. Yet, countless stars shimmered faintly, as if day and night existed at once.
Seeing all this, Kaelos momentarily forgot about why he had come down here at all.
Kaelos shook his head and forced himself to focus on the matter at hand.
Now, he hurried forward and scrutinized his surroundings in preparation.
There was a reason Kaelos had chosen the Weaver.
Based on what had been imprinted into him about it, Weavers were essentially giant spiders. They were roughly the same size as humans.
Kaelos knew spiders very well. You could even say he was obsessed with them. On Earth, he had a collection of various spiders of different species. When he was a kid, he saw this game in their neighborhood where they make spiders fight on a stick. Since then, he had taken a liking to them, partly due to this, and due to a certain superhero.
Not only that, while abyssalspawns had superior physical attributes and mystical powers, they were mindless creatures. With enough preparation and trickery, they could be fought and eventually killed.
If and only if humans had weapons…
Kaelos had this inexplicable feeling that the immortal spirit wouldn't lie at all, given everything that had transpired. If it wanted to kill him, he could have definitely done it earlier.
He stopped and crouched.
Though he felt nothing, Kaelos could discern that the soil beneath his feet was softer.
However, knowing that this was a magical forest, he realized that it would take him at least a considerable amount of time to dig a pit.
Thus, Kaelos continued moving and increased his pace.
A while ago in the chamber, he had already planned what to do.
Initially, with the Weaver being roughly the same height as a human, he had thought of climbing a tree or higher ground, then using the spear to repeatedly thrust at the creature as it climbed toward him.
But that was stupid. Though it could work, the chance of success was very small, and the chance of failure was very high. The creature could use its web, and he didn't know how fast it was.
Kaelos put the idea to the back of his head. And now seeing how high the trees were, he had long dismissed it.
At the moment, the most efficient and safest plan was, of course, to avoid head-on confrontation and exploit its physiology.
Kaelos knew their greatest weakness was their eyes, abdomen, and legs. However, with a spear, the last option was almost impossible.
For now, Kaelos wanted to check how the Weaver actually looked, so he could prepare better.
With what the immortal spirit had implied, it lay within a cave somewhere across the forest, so he increased his pace and continued pondering as he walked.
Eventually, he reached a cave that appeared like a gaping maw. Seeing such a sight, Kaelos felt goosebumps.
Despite knowing he wouldn't be heard at all, Kaelos crept in and held his breath.
Soon, Kaelos saw an indistinct large figure the size of a human.
His expression turned serious.
Narrowing his eyes, Kaelos stepped closer until his body froze.
His face paled and his heart sank.
The creature slept peacefully. It resembled a grotesque monstrous crab with humanoid features rather than a spider.
Its rough skin mimicked cracked earth, wrapped in countless scales. Six blade-like legs extended around it, gleaming with sharpness.
Instead of a spider's head, it had the upper torso of a muscular human male, but twisted and uneven. Its elongated arms ended in hands that resembled miniature spider legs.
On its head, it only had eyes and a mouth. Six human-like eyes were scattered unevenly across its face, while its vertical mouth gaped with numerous jagged fangs.
Behind it, its bloated abdomen constantly throbbed, as though close to rupturing.
"You only have thirty minutes left."
"Shit!"