Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 130: Going In (Beast Den 2)

After gathering up everything they would need, at least as far as they knew, Laz and Vivi headed out once night fell. They both felt that operating at night would be safer since they didn't want to be seen.

Vivi had been watching the well off and on for the past two weeks and she had not seen anything come outside, so they still had no idea what they were going up against.

After making their way to the well, Laz put down the two duffel bags worth of items and began to pull stuff out of them. Normally Laz wouldn't wear boots since they interfered with his movement too much, but for this endeavor, he made an exception. Other than that, he had packed an armored motorcycle jacket, studded finger less gloves, and semi-thick, Kevlar-laced, leather pants. Strangely enough, riding equipment was the most economical thing he could find. The goal was to have some sort of armor that he could use, but it wasn't like armor was something that was easily obtainable. Even if you wanted to get body armor, such as a bullet proof vest, you needed to work for law enforcement or have the proper connections, neither of which applied to Laz. Laz quickly slipped on his holster and checked to make sure Last Rites was loaded before changing his clothes.

Besides the clothing, he had also packed several lengths of rope, two climbing pickaxes, a couple flashlights including head band ones, the two oxygen tanks and the oxygen monitoring device along with a couple of rolled up sacks in case there was something to bring out like demon beast meat. After thinking things through, these were the best few things he could afford to take with him to account for the most issues. If something popped up that they couldn't deal with, the last thing left they could do would be to get out and block up the tunnel and the well and inform the government about the issue. Although Laz didn't want it to get to that point, he wasn't going to let whatever was in there to run free either.

After conforming that Vivi was ready, not that she was packing anything, he tied a rope to a nearby tree and with Vivi curled over his shoulders, proceeded to climb down the well. Laz didn't have a problem with claustrophobia, but even he felt a little cramped in the well that was barely five feet in diameter. Using his sense and Vivi's guiding, he quickly made it to the cave opening that had opened up above the water line. Leaving the rope to hang free as it was the only way they were getting back up later, Vivi sniffed the strange white fog that was rolling around the opening before Laz tried to breath it. If the fog appeared to be dangerous, they would immediately cancel the whole thing since the small tanks Laz bought were only good for about 110 breaths worth of air. That was hardly enough time to do anything as they were suppose to be for emergency use.

The strange thing was, the more Vivi sniffed the fog, the more excited she seemed to become.

"What's wrong?" Laz asked.

*Come sniff this.* Vivi said, jumping down and standing just inside the opening.

Laz brought his face closer and closer until he was able to sniff in just a little. Once the milky white fog came into his body, Laz felt a cooling sensation rush all throughout his body. Breathing in a couple more times felt almost like he was sucking in an almost liquid like form of energy. It wasn't nearly as concentrated as the strange pond or weird flower form where he used to live, but it was much more gentle and easy to circulate throughout his body.

Laz felt like if he could breath this stuff everyday, he would progress at an astounding rate.

"What is this?" Laz asked, feeling excited but confused.

*I don't know. But at least we know it's safe to go in.* Vivi said as she turned around and started walking. Laz was just a few steps behind her. Due to the narrowness of the well and the cave opening, she was still in her tiny form, making it much easier for her to move around.

Walking in, Laz attached a light to his head, illuminating the dark corridor. Although he and Vivi both had their spirit sense spreading out, with the dense energy fog in the air, it was almost impossible to grasp the layout ahead for more than a few feet.

As they walked father on, the cramped passageway started expanding till it was almost ten feet in diameter, allowing for them to walk side by side as they made their way in. They both seemed to think of something at the same time but Vivi voiced her thoughts first.

*Where did those creatures go?*

Laz didn't know how to respond and stayed quiet. After walking for almost 10 minutes, they found a rather large rock that seemed to block the tunnel. The strange thing was that there appeared to be a glow coming from the other side of the rock. There was very little clearance between the rock and the cave walls, so for the moment, they were stuck. After a brief mental chat, they decided to try to push the rock out of the way.

Vivi assumed her fighting form while Laz set down the backpack he was carrying and got into position. With a huge amount of effort, they were able to slide the rock forward a few feet, causing the entire tunnel to be bathed in the strange glow. As their eyes adjusted, what they saw took their breath away.

Glowing masses of crystals lined the walls and the ceiling, creating a soft white glow in the large, open cavern. The fog rolling around the area made it look almost like it was a playground of ghosts, drifting around in endless circles. Although the area was light up, it had a hazy feel to it as though everything was constantly shifting. Breathing in and out slowly, Laz and Vivi were finally able to stop the feeling of vertigo that threatened to overwhelm them.

Vivi took the lead and started walking forward while Laz turned off his head lamp. Before she got too far, Vivi suddenly stopped and started to violently shake her head and body as she backed up.

*What's wrong?* Laz sent the thought. Although he normally just talked to her out loud, they had previously discussed it would be best to be as quiet as possible while doing this.

*Get. This. Stupid. Thing. Off. Me....* Vivi said in between her shaking. Getting close to her, Laz could see almost invisibly thin threads that had covered her head and stuck to her. Laz quickly reached over and started removing the threads one by one. He noticed that besides being clear and nearly invisible, they were silky smooth and kind of damp, which was what caused them to stick to Vivi in the first place..

It didn't take long to get Vivi unwrapped, but looking at the threads, Laz started having a bad feeling. These threads looked almost like large spider webs. As Vivi started grooming her fur to make sure all of the webbing was out, Laz took a quick glance back at the cavern. Only this time, the focused more on the walls and less on the crystals. Once he did so, he was able to see that it looked like the entire cavern was covered in these webs, giving it that constantly shifting feeling when the light hit them.

*Well fuck me...* Laz couldn't help but swear in his head once he saw all the webbing.

*If there are this many webs here, I can't imagine how many spiders there are crawling around,* Vivi added as she too looked around the strange cavern.

*But where are they?* Laz asked.

They had both seen little signs of creatures running around the opening when they checked the place out originally. But now the entire area looked deserted. Even still, with the webbing all over the place, going through here wasn't going to be easy as they didn't bring anything to cut through it with. In a quick moment of inspiration, Laz brought out his black flame into his hands and held it to the webbing. Almost instantly, the webbing began to melt away, leaving them a way forward.

*Smart human,* Vivi praised Laz. With his flame out, they would be able to walk forward without having to worry about getting tangled up.

Laz and Vivi both looked at each other for a brief moment before moving forward at a slow pace. Laz kept both his hands out and moving, using the summoned black flame to melt away the web and they walked while both of them kept their eyes and ears peeled for signs of the webs owners.

Just as they had gotten to the center of the room, they heard a sound approaching them. The sound reminded Laz of a piece of metal being scrapped along stone. Although the sound echoed badly, they could make out a somewhat small silhouette approaching. When it finally came into view, Laz and Vivi both felt a slight feeling of fear.

The thing in front of them was a spider that almost came up to Laz's waist. It seemed to be alone at the moment, but Laz could swear he heard something like shuffling coming from all over the cave. Before either Laz or Vivi could really examine this newcomer in front of them, dozens of tiny spiders came into view, completely surrounding them. After looking around for a minute, Laz was able to determine that all the small spiders seemed to be low ranked awakening creatures while the larger on that was blocking the way forward was actually already a condensation realm spider. Or as Vivi tried to get Laz to remember, it was a level 2 spider while all the rest were level 1 spiders.

Seeing this spider block the way while the other spiders were moving in made Laz quickly determine that this wasn't going to be a peaceful experience. Just as Laz raised his hands while circulating his energy, the large spider slowly started to back away and ended up vanishing from sight moments later. Neither Vivi or Laz could understand why it would do that, but since the smaller ones were still moving in, they didn't bother to think about it and quickly got ready to fight.