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"F*ck..."
The curse that had been stuck in Leon's throat finally burst out.
It was a kind of physiological nausea and mental fatigue produced when absurdity and disgust broke through the limits of imagination.
Noah did not speak.
A soft "click" sounded.
The beretta pistol in his right hand was quickly returned to its holster.
In its place was a behemoth radiating a terrifying metallic texture.
The desert eagle.
A massive frame, heavy weight, and a terrifying caliber enough to knock over a bear.
At the same time, with a flip of his left wrist, a pitch-black tactical dagger was already held in a reverse grip.
Leon glanced at the two killing tools in Noah's hands, which could be called works of art, and instantly understood his intention.
The tacit understanding between the two had long been forged into instinct through repeated brushes with death.
He silently pulled a cylindrical metal object from a pocket in his tactical vest.
An M84 flashbang.
His thumb was hooked on the safety pin, ready to throw at any moment.
Their communication had been fully completed through these silent actions in less than three seconds.
On the dome above, that giant Mutated Spider finally seemed to notice the presence of these two uninvited guests on the ground.
It stopped its patrol among the cocoons.
Its compound eyes, composed of countless tiny blood-red ocelli, turned downward.
"Rustle, rustle..."
Its eight appendages, like steel spears, began to move rapidly across the web, adjusting its body's orientation and making a scalp-numbing friction sound.
It was looking for the best angle to attack from above.
Noah didn't give it the chance.
He raised his right hand holding the desert eagle.
The sights locked onto the thickest load-bearing silk strand connecting the monster's side to the cave ceiling.
"Bang!!!"
A dull and violent roar, completely different from the crisp shots of the beretta, exploded throughout the cavern!
The.50 AE bullet, carrying unmatched kinetic energy, roared out.
That tough silk strand, thicker than an adult's wrist, snapped instantly before the bullet like a fragile hemp rope!
"Screech—!!!"
The giant Mutated Spider, having lost a key support point, its entire massive body plummeted downward!
It let out a sharp, ear-piercing hiss filled with rage and shock.
"A gift for you!"
Leon shouted, throwing the already prepared flashbang with all his might toward the falling monster!
The flashbang traced an arc through the air, landing precisely beneath the giant spider's ugly compound eyes.
The next second.
A blinding white light, bright enough to cause instant blindness, exploded!
Following closely was a terrifying noise exceeding 170 decibels, capable of tearing eardrums!
"Boom—!!!"
The entire cavern was completely submerged by this sudden burst of light and sound.
"Screech—ya—!!!"
The giant Mutated Spider let out a mournful howl so shrill it didn't seem like it could be made by a living creature.
Its compound eyes, made of countless ocelli, burst instantly under the intense light, spraying out endless dark green fluid.
The massive noise sent its sensory System into complete chaos.
Severe pain and dizziness caused its massive body to lose all balance in mid-air.
It fell like a giant rock dropped from a height, crashing heavily toward the ground.
"Rumble!!!"
The entire cavern trembled slightly from the violent impact.
Dust rose everywhere.
The monster curled up in pain on the ground, its eight appendages twitching and flailing wildly.
It had temporarily become a blind and deaf sitting duck.
Leon did not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He lunged forward, his shotgun almost pressed against the base joint of the monster's third left appendage, which was raised due to twitching.
"Die, you ugly freak!"
"Bang! Bang!"
He pulled the trigger twice without hesitation!
Two rounds of buckshot unleashed their terrifying power in full at point-blank range.
"Crack!!!"
A tooth-gritting sound of bone and carapace shattering simultaneously echoed.
That hideous appendage, thicker than Leon's thigh, was blown clean off at the base! Foul-smelling black-green fluid shot out like a fountain.
The severed limb flew out twitching, crashing heavily against the distant rock wall.
The intense pain of the severed limb caused the giant spider to burst into an even more frantic roar.
At that moment.
Noah stepped across the slippery ground and rushed in front of the frantically twisting and struggling monster in a few strides.
Without the slightest pause, his toe tapped lightly on the monster's bloated abdomen, using the momentum to leap into the air.
He landed steadily on the monster's broad, ugly back, which was covered in twisted patterns.
Beneath his feet was the carapace vibrating wildly from the monster's pain.
Time was of the essence.
Noah's tactical dagger in his left hand, without any flourish, stabbed fiercely into a gap in the carapace where the key was fixed at a tricky angle.
"Pfft!"
The blade sank in without resistance.
He applied sudden force to his wrist and flicked upward!
"Tear—"
A palm-sized piece of carapace, along with flesh and slime, was pried up by him.
The silk binding the key snapped.
He scooped with his left hand, catching the key covered in viscous fluid firmly in his grip.
At the same time as he got the key, his right hand had already fished out a pineapple-shaped fragmentation grenade from the tactical pouch at his waist.
He stuffed the grenade into the bloody hole he had just pried open with the dagger!
Doing all this took less than two seconds from start to finish.
Noah applied force with his feet again, leaping backward and jumping lightly off the monster's back.
"Leon! Run!"
He grabbed Leon, who was still firing follow-up shots, and dragged him toward the cavern entrance without looking back.
Leon hadn't even reacted to what had happened.
The moment they had run over a dozen meters away.
An extremely muffled explosion from deep inside the monster's body rang out.
"Boom—!!!"
The giant Mutated Spider's entire back, like a low-quality balloon overfilled with gunpowder, suddenly burst outward!
Countless shattered organs, carapace fragments, and green corrosive fluid, mixed with the shockwave of the explosion, formed a death storm with a radius of over ten meters.
"Screech—aaaaa!!!"
The monster let out its most shrill and desperate roar yet.
Its vitality was stubbornly persistent to an outrageous degree.
Even with half its body blown apart, it still didn't die immediately.
The remaining seven appendages supported its dilapidated body as it spun wildly in place, spraying venom aimlessly with its broken mouthparts.
It had gone completely mad.
"Send it on its way."
Noah stopped and raised the desert eagle again.
"With pleasure."
Leon also raised his shotgun.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Gunshots rang out again.
This time, it was an execution to end the suffering.
When the final bullet blew apart the monster's remaining nerve center, the massive body finally collapsed heavily to the ground, completely motionless.
The entire cavern finally fell silent.
The air was filled with the stench of gunpowder, blood, ozone, and an indescribable mix of burnt and acidic rot.
"Phew..." Leon let out a long breath. He looked at the pile of mangled meat that could no longer be called a corpse, then at Noah beside him, and finally squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying.
"Okay, I admit, this is much more exciting than Tomb Raider."
Noah smacked his lips and walked to the altar made of black metal in the center of the cavern.
He took the brass key still stained with the monster's slime, aligned it with the keyhole beneath the metal clasps, and inserted it.
Then, he gave it a gentle turn.
"Click."
The crisp sound of a mechanical release rang out.
The hideous metal clasps that held the fragment firmly locked slowly loosened.
A palm-sized fragment with extremely irregular edges, seemingly made of some bone-like material and radiating a faint light, slid out and was caught steadily by Noah.
The holy emblem fragment.
The first one.
Obtained.
"Finally... some actual progress." Leon leaned over to look at the fragment and relaxed completely.
This damn treasure hunt was finally one-quarter complete.
After a brief rest, Noah spread out the precious map provided by the mysterious Merchant on the altar again.
The two huddled together, using the light of a flashlight to re-plan their next route.
Noah's index finger pointed to the center of the map, at the tall church icon.
Then, his finger traced along the locations marked with red X's on the map.
Forest Altar.
Great Grotto Altar.
The flooded Small Grotto Altar by the lakeside.
These three target points were all distributed around the giant Lake in the center of the valley.
"If we go by land, we'll have to take a massive detour, and the situation along the way will only be worse than what we just encountered," Noah analyzed.
"So?"
Noah's finger finally stopped at a place on the south shore of the Lake marked with a blue circle by the Merchant.
Fishery.
Beside the word "Fishery," there was also a small icon of a boat.
"So, we need a boat," Noah said.
"From here back to the church, there's a secret passage next to the church that goes underground and leads directly to the Quarry on the other side. Crossing the Quarry brings us to the Fishery by the Lake."
This route avoided the most dangerous areas on the surface and was the fastest and safest way to reach the lakeside.
"Alright, let's head out then." Leon carefully tucked away the holy emblem fragment. "Demolition crew, archaeologists, and now we're going to be fishermen. The career experience of this mission is certainly diverse."
He complained, but his actions showed no hesitation.
The two took one last look at the messy cavern and turned to walk toward the entrance.
As they stepped out of the cave again, the familiar night wind, carrying the scent of earth and plants, blew across their faces once more.
The roar of the waterfall isolated everything behind them.
It was as if the thrilling battle just now was only a nightmare that occurred in another world.
Noah looked up at the silhouette of the church in the distance, standing like a silent giant beast in the night.
The second stop of their treasure hunt was about to begin.
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