What the spiders had been digging up was a war hammer, likely once belonging to a human warrior. The weapon was simple yet elegant, featuring a leather-wrapped handle for a better grip and a heavy, rectangular head etched with strange markings that pulsed with a faint gold light. The shiny corner I had spotted in the dirt was one of the hammer's reinforced edges.
I wondered why on earth a group of spiders would want a war hammer. The mental image of a giant spider charging at me while swinging a blunt weapon was terrifying, but I quickly dismissed it as absurd. Spiders were predators, not blacksmiths.
Without hesitation, I focused my attention on the weapon to trigger an inspection.
[Mighty Hammer] (Rare): A formidable weapon forged for those walking the divine path of the Paladins. Enchantments: +5 Strength, +3 Constitution. Requirements: Level 5.
A strange smile spread across my face as I read the description. "Now that is what I would call plot armor," I muttered under my breath.
I looked up at the dark ceiling of the cave with a healthy dose of suspicion. It felt like too much of a coincidence. Here I was, already using a hammer as my primary weapon against the spiders, and suddenly I stumble upon a rare, enchanted hammer buried in the dirt? It was incredibly strange, and the fact that the only requirement was the exact level I had just reached made it even more suspicious.
I shook my head slightly, trying to ignore the feeling that things were going a little too perfectly in my favor. Regardless of how it got there, the hammer was perfect for me. It felt heavy in my hands, but the massive bonus to Strength more than made up for the extra weight. I knew I would eventually need to invest more points into my physical stats to swing it with real ease, but there was no doubt that this was a massive upgrade to my arsenal.
I gripped the leather handle of the hammer, eager to test its weight, but I stopped myself just before swinging it against the cave wall. While it might have looked impressive, I didn't know if I had the power to do it, but I didn't want to risk collapsing the tunnel and burying us all under tons of rock.
"Come on, let's keep moving," I ordered, gesturing for the others to follow as I continued down the dark path.
With every step we took, my hopes of finding the Origin Cave were beginning to diminish. I knew that newly born runts couldn't possibly run very far, and with spiders lurking in every shadow, it seemed impossible for even a single one of them to survive out here for long.
I glanced back at Morkish, his face illuminated by the faint light of the tunnels. "Do you think we're close?"
"It should be near, my King," he answered, his eyes glowing with that eerie green light once again as he scanned the darkness.
As we moved deeper, I noticed several smaller shafts in the ceiling and walls that led upward. These narrow tunnels were far too steep for us to climb, but they were incredibly convenient for the spiders, allowing them to drop down on us at any moment. The tension among the group was palpable, and I could hear the faint, skittering echo of spider legs clicking against the stone every few minutes.
We passed through several more forks in the path, and each time, Morkish would silently point us in the right direction. However, the number of side tunnels was increasing rapidly, and I felt like we were losing control of our surroundings. If a large group of spiders decided to ambush us now, they could attack from every side at once.
We reached yet another intersection, but this time, I didn't need Morkish to show me the way. The sharp, terrified screams of runts echoed from the tunnel ahead of us.
I hesitated for only a second before I started running, my fingers tightening around the grips of my new hammer and shield. After five minutes of sprinting through the gloom, we finally burst into a much larger, open cavern. Our objective was right in front of us.
The cavern was smaller than our main settlement, but it felt vast compared to the narrow, claustrophobic tunnels we had just crawled through. The walls were covered in a strange, bioluminescent fungus that cast a soft, watery light over the scene, mixed with clusters of large, brown mushrooms covered in bright red spots. These "Goblin Shrooms" were everywhere, ranging from the size of my palm to some that reached as high as my waist.
I didn't need to ask which ones I was looking for. We arrived just in time to see the loose soil churning near one of the largest mushrooms in sight.
For a moment, I ignored the impending birth of a new runt and scanned the area for the source of the screams I had heard. Across the cavern, my heart sank. Two black spiders were hunched over a small, green shape on the floor, their mandibles clicking as they feasted on a runt that hadn't been fast enough to escape.
We still had some distance between us and the predators, so I turned my gaze back to the movement at my feet. The new runt was almost free, digging upward with every ounce of his tiny, desperate strength. He wasn't even aware of our presence, or the spiders across the room, his entire existence was focused solely on the instinctual drive to break through the earth.
With one last, violent push, he kicked his legs free, and his small, naked body tumbled out onto the cave floor. He stood up weakly on shaky legs, tilted his head back, and let out a piercing scream that filled the chamber. I stood there, momentarily shocked, because the sound reminded me so much of the first cry of a human baby. It was raw, primal, and full of life.
A second later, his survival instincts kicked in. He lunged at his birth mushroom, the very thing he had grown beneath, and began devouring the thick, fungal stalk with frantic, hungry bites. This was his first meal, and as I watched him eat, I knew I had to act fast before the spiders finished their current snack and turned their sights on him.
I couldn't take my eyes off the sight. It was impressive and humbling all at once, now that I finally understood how goblins were brought into this world. Seeing the birth shroom in action made everything the Neural Archive told me feel real, and it gave me a new sense of responsibility for these strange, fungal creatures.
"Kill those two spiders, now," I ordered, gesturing toward the predators at the far end of the cave.
The Alpha Team moved out immediately, but I held my position. As much as I was eager to test the weight of my new hammer, I had learned a painful lesson earlier. These spiders usually moved in groups of three, and I could only see two. I refused to make the same mistake again, especially since that lack of caution had already cost us the life of our guide.
While the warriors closed in on their targets, Morkish remained standing next to me, his gaze fixed on the pulsating red mushrooms.
"So, this is where we all began?" Morkish asked, his voice hushed with awe.
"It seems so," I replied, glancing at him. "Don't you remember your own birth?"
The old shaman shook his head slowly, his eyes reflecting the soft, bioluminescent glow of the cavern. "My first moments are foggy, my King. Most runts move entirely by instinct until they reach a tribe and their minds begin to settle. I have no memory of the dirt or the shroom."
I couldn't really argue with that, considering my own memories only started when this goblin body was already fully grown. My past life as a human was clear, but my "birth" into this world was a total blank.
"Morkish, if the spiders can just camp here and eat our runts like snacks, how do you think any of them survive to reach the tribe?" I asked. I had my own theories about the numbers game, but I had started to truly appreciate Morkish's perspective on the ecosystem of these tunnels.
"I don't think the spiders can always afford to guard this place," Morkish mused, leaning on his staff. "There are many other creatures in these deep tunnels besides goblins and spiders. If they stay in one place too long, they become the prey."
Across the cave, the Alpha Team was locked in a fierce struggle with the two spiders. At one point, one of the arachnids managed to pin a warrior to the floor, its mandibles clicking inches from his throat. Before it could bite, Trashmob roared and tackled the spider with his entire body weight, knocking it off his comrade. I watched them closely, realizing that if they were going to survive the journey back, they desperately needed the experience points from these kills to level up.
"What else can we find in these depths?" I asked him, wondering why I hadn't thought to ask about the local wildlife earlier.
"Rats of all sizes," Morkish answered, "the small ones are good for a quick meal, but the big ones are something you must watch out for. They are vicious when they're hungry. Also, in the deeper caverns, there could even be trolls."
"Trolls?" I asked, unable to hide my surprise.
"Yes, they are quite dangerous, but the humans hunt them just as much as they hunt us. They are a threat to everyone," he explained.
I sighed, looking at the layout of the cavern. "We need to secure this cave if we want to ensure a steady supply of runts. Do you think it would be possible to hold it permanently?"
He shrugged, his expression grim. "It would cost us many goblins to keep a place like this safe."
I turned my attention back to the Alpha Team. One of the goblins was backing away while clutching a limp, injured arm, but the first spider already lay dead on the ground. The rest of the team was busy finishing off the second one with a flurry of spear thrusts. Even as we spoke, I kept my eyes moving, searching the shadows for that elusive third spider. It was nowhere to be found, which only made me more anxious.
"This is going to be complicated," I muttered.
The newborn runt, having finished his first meal, waddled over and stood next to us, looking up with an expression of pure confusion. I looked down at his small, green face and spoke with a firm, resolute voice. "Follow me!"
He nodded quickly and took his place behind me, standing as firmly as his shaky legs would allow. I checked my interface, and the mission notification flashed with an update.
[Mission: Rescue the Runts]
Objective: Save the Runts (1/5)
I scanned the room and noticed several other large Birth Mushrooms that looked swollen and ready to burst. It seemed like more goblins were about to be born at any moment.
"It looks like we have to hold this position until we have all five runts," I told Morkish.
"Yes, and we surely have a challenge in front of us, provided by our mighty God," Morkish said, his voice full of praise and religious fervor.
"What do you mean? What do you know?" I asked, spinning around to face him.
I followed Morkish's gaze toward one of the elevated tunnels near the ceiling, where a massive shape was slowly emerging from the shadows. This spider was easily double the size of the others we had fought today, its thick legs gripping the jagged rock with terrifying precision.
The most noticeable difference, however, was its color. Instead of the dull, dusty black of the common spiders, its carapace was a deep, dark red that seemed to absorb and then reflect the eerie glow of the mushrooms. In its powerful mandibles, it carried the limp body of a massive rat, which looked like a mere snack compared to the size of the predator's head. I didn't hesitate to focus my intent, calling up the system's information.
[Red Spider, Lv. 8]
The level gap hit me like a physical blow. A Level 3 spider had almost killed my warriors, and now we were staring at something more than twice that strength. My grip tightened on the handle of my new hammer, but my blood ran cold as I realized the scale of the threat.
We were truly fucked.