Well of Eternal Imprisonment, Exiled Land.
Dim skies, broken earth.
Purple-skinned blacksmiths, dwarf miners, and skeletal shamans migrated one after another from the Well of Eternal Imprisonment to this subordinate floor.
Following the fissures in the earth, the dwarf miners extracted mineral veins hidden within the shattered ground while simultaneously working on the basic infrastructure of this land.
The purple-skinned blacksmiths were responsible for forging the daily tools and mining equipment needed for life on this land.
A small number of monster plantborns had also moved in, tasked with cultivating various plants across the broken terrain.
Meanwhile, the indigenous residents of the subordinate floor—the man-bodied spiders—constructed spider nests in specific locations, overseeing the spatial magic spiders in the production of spider silk with spatial properties.
Spatial silk could not be produced at will; qualified spider nests had to be built first to yield even small amounts of the material.
Furthermore, the Spatial Spider Queen required a sufficiently spacious underground nest made of regular silk and spatial silk to produce other magic spiders.
Whether they were spatial spiders or man-bodied spiders, aside from breeding amongst themselves, they could all be produced by the Spatial Spider Queen.
Currently, there were still only two Spatial Spider Queens in the subordinate floor.
However, after Dalun Li used several magic crystals, the two queens had produced four eggs for new Spatial Spider Queens and had fallen into a weakened state.
“So this is a purple-skinned blacksmith. He's so ugly.”
“Why is he so purple? The eyes on his head look so strange, and those four arms... everything about him is weird.”
“Stop staring at him like that, or he'll notice.”
Several man-bodied spiders huddled within a fissure in the ground, peeking out and chattering as they sized up Purple Hammer, who had just arrived in the Exiled Land.
They wore special clothing sewn from spider silk, and their vital areas—specifically their spider halves—were covered in a layer of custom-made special armor.
With his current sensory abilities, Purple Hammer could naturally hear the man-bodied spiders' conversation.
However, he was quite dismissive of their comments.
One must remember that he, Purple Hammer, was the leader of the purple-skinned blacksmith tribe on the eleventh floor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
Among the purple-skinned blacksmiths, he was a rare handsome man.
Not only were his skills and martial prowess unsurpassed among his kin, but so was his appearance.
Only such a person could truly be called a sound leader of the purple-skinned blacksmiths.
Moreover, Purple Hammer was the very first purple-skinned blacksmith in the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, created by the Lord Himself; he was effectively a natural-born noble among his kind.
“Excuse me.”
Purple Hammer spoke toward the spot where the man-bodied spiders were hiding.
“Ah!”
“We've been spotted.”
“He didn't hear us, did he?”
The man-bodied spiders ducked back into the ground in a fright. After a while, they crawled back out of the fissure.
By then, Purple Hammer had already walked up to them.
The spiders looked at each other. Finally, one wearing purple clothes, who was slightly larger and had deep purple patterns on its spider half, stepped forward and spoke.
“Purple-skinned blacksmith, what do you want?”
Purple Hammer looked at the man-bodied spider before him.
During his journey in pursuit of the Forbidden Fire, Purple Hammer had heard about the man-bodied spider race from monster merchants returning from the Exiled Land.
Man-bodied spiders had human upper bodies and spider lower bodies; they were the intelligent race of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment's subordinate floor—the Exiled Land.
What drew the most attention, aside from their spatial attributes and great strength, was their appearance.
The human portion of a man-bodied spider, whether male or female, possessed a breathtakingly beautiful appearance.
In this regard, they were comparable to the legendary elf race.
While Purple Hammer held the aesthetic standards of the purple-skinned blacksmith tribe, it didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the beauty of other races.
Seeing the man-bodied spider before him now, he could indeed appreciate the stunning beauty of the other party's appearance.
However, beautiful women or handsome men meant nothing to him.
Purple Hammer only wanted to find the Forbidden Fire.
“Do you know where Lord Tongmu is?”
Hearing Purple Hammer's question, the man-bodied spiders chattered among themselves for a while.
“Are you talking about Lord Tongmu, the guardian?”
“If it's him, he has already completed the Lord's task and left the Exiled Land.”
“That should be it. After all, we're just ordinary man-bodied spiders; how could we know Lord Tongmu's whereabouts?”
“However, before he left, Lord Tongmu always stayed in the Spider King City.”
As the man-bodied spiders became more familiar with him, they all grew more talkative.
“Whenever the guardian lords come to the Exiled Land, they always stay in the fortress within Spider King City.”
“For ordinary man-bodied spiders like us, it's hard even to catch a glimpse of the guardian lords.”
“I did see Lady Zeno come here once to create an oasis.”
“Ah, sister, you have such good luck! Why haven't I heard you mention this before?”
“How could we talk about the guardian lords behind their backs?”
“Our man-bodied spider race is gifted with such beauty, but it's a pity the guardian lords are all female. Otherwise, if we could serve one of them, we wouldn't have to worry about our status as subordinates.”
“I wonder if the guardian lords plan to recruit any attendants. We should start considering a way out early...”
The man-bodied spiders huddled together, and as they talked, they ended up ignoring Purple Hammer entirely. They discussed their future prospects, their words hinting at a desire to find a better path for themselves within the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
“Purple-skinned blacksmith, you belong to a race created by the Lord. What do you think we man-bodied spiders should do in the future?”
Purple Hammer, who had only intended to ask for directions, was suddenly tossed a question by these spiders.
“Wait a minute, you purple-skinned blacksmith...”
The gaze of the spider who had just asked the question froze on Purple Hammer.
“The Purple Treasure Mallet, the black armor, and that unusual aura...”
“Are you from the outside? This outfit...”
“You wouldn't happen to be that fire-seeking blacksmith, would you?!”
Man-bodied spiders were not monsters personally created by Dalun Li, although they had been granted the power and aura of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment during the floor's subordination process.
Compared to the native monsters of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, the man-bodied spiders were not as sensitive to the auras of the guardians. Thus, they hadn't initially sensed the aura of the guardian's blessing on Purple Hammer.
Now, however, they had recognized his identity simply based on his attire.
“That fire-seeking purple-skinned blacksmith?”
“Why has he come to our subordinate floor?”
“I heard he received blessings from Lady Zeno and Lady Feiwan, and even met those two ladies in person!”
“It's more than just that! He's a first-generation original personally created by the Lord, and he has a true name bestowed by the Lord!”
Click, click, click.
Accompanied by a dense sound of spider legs tapping against the ground, several man-bodied spiders surrounded Purple Hammer.
“Big brother, are you really that Lord Purple Hammer?”
“Big brother, aren't you pursuing the Forbidden Fire? The Forbidden Fire isn't in the subordinate floor!”
“Blacksmith big brother, how did you get to the subordinate floor? Aside from migrating monsters, outsiders aren't allowed here.”
The man-bodied spiders' eyes sparkled with a crystalline light, and even their voices took on a high-pitched, cutesy tone.
Their fawning tone made Purple Hammer's scalp tingle.
It seemed they had found their "way out."
Rate on N.U.
