Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 366 Witnessing the Spider God's Power and Encountering a New Glorious Relic
Edwin's report made Su Li frown slightly. In this dark and desperate world, danger is everywhere, and anyone who wants to survive must be extremely careful.

Although he has achieved some minor success, there are countless pioneering lords with armies of thousands like his, and even royal knights, throughout the entire border princely territory. As a result, pioneering territories are constantly disappearing and being destroyed.

He wasn't blinded by his current success or arrogant. Instead, he cautiously landed at the army's encampment, summoned the chosen knights and champion knights, and asked, "Why is there such a strong aura of death in the underground caves of the Green Spiders?"

The knights who led this expedition were primarily focused on the war against the Greenskins; preventing the undead was not among their objectives. Fortunately, the Blackwood Territory was teeming with talent, and Demst, as Mor's chosen one, was an expert in this area.

He was dressed in the rare, gilded black plate armor, Twilight Armor, which made him appear exceptionally tall and solemn, exuding an imposing aura. He said, "These underground caves are usually heavily protected by goblins. To some extent, for thousands of years, many Anaric giant spiders have been content with their luxurious lives and have relied on forest goblin settlements for survival."

"Most of them live year-round in their underground fortresses, where scraps of kitchen waste pile up like mountains in the depths of these dark and gloomy nests, serving as both carpets and curtains. The air is filled with a foul, rotten, and nauseating stench, enough to suffocate any intruder within minutes. For the forest goblins, these bottomless giant spider pits are the most sacred places. When the help of these ancient creatures is needed, the goblin shaman will perform an ancient ritual to summon the behemoth. The Alaraknarai giant spider will answer the call and crawl out of the huge pits. Carrying a fire-projection platform tailor-made for it by the forest goblins and the altar of the spider god, the colossal shadow staggers forward, once again bringing terror to the surface world."

"This resulted in the underground, decaying pit being filled with the remains of goblin sacrifices, including a large number of goblin remains themselves. Necromancers had always coveted this place, but it was difficult to get close or go deep inside. However, an earthquake caused the pit to collapse, creating a breach in the cave's defenses and opening an entrance to the outside world. It's not surprising that necromancers who coveted this place entered."

Su Li immediately understood and asked, "So it seems we're not the only force eyeing this place?"

“That’s very likely,” Demst said cautiously. “If we’re going to enter this underground lair, we might need to be prepared to deal with other threats.”

A champion knight from the Church of the Sun Goddess rubbed his steel gauntlets, slamming his fists together in front of his chest, and complained irritably, "This situation is terrible for us. In the past, we always chose our battlefield positions and fought in positions that were advantageous to us. This time, however, we have to enter a battlefield preordained by others! As a devout follower of the Sun Goddess, I really dislike this situation."

Hilde frowned slightly and said, "Then let me introduce the battlefield we're about to enter."

Durmst patiently explained, “When discussing the Anarknare Giant Spider, one cannot ignore the forest goblins. These forest goblin shamans, who live year-round in the Corruption Pit and share meals and lodging with the Anarknare Giant Spider, resemble humanoid spiders. They tend to, feed, and care for the Anarknare offspring like shepherds tending sheep, and serve the spider god's earthly incarnation—the Anarknare Giant Spider itself. Influenced by the giant spider's innate magical radiation, new glands develop inside the cloaca on the shamans' lower abdomen. With a little effort, they can shoot out spider silk, weaving it into a web, which they use to bind, lure, or even strangle their prey.”

"They also craft intricate web traps from spiderwebs, placing them around the giant spider's lair or in key defensive areas of the tribe against external enemies. When travelers and explorers trespass into the forest goblin's territory, they are secretly followed by spider-like goblin shamans. Some will run headlong into the traps or webs and perish, while others will be strangled by their silk or become food for swarms of Anariki giant spiderlings. Although they live in the jungle, they do not live in harmony with nature. Forests inhabited by large forest goblin settlements become dark places with thick spiderwebs in the canopy, where giant spiders, giant scorpions, and other terrifying predators roam. Creatures that venture deep into these forests quickly become lost in the spiderweb labyrinths littered with skeletons and relics."

"Forest goblins are the nemesis of elves. They use spiderweb traps to hunt prey, usually goblins and pilkers. Sometimes they will even entangle an entire tree in their webs, attempting to capture tree spirits. The feud between elves and forest goblins dates back to before recorded history, to the time when Terragia was a single continent, the Old Gods roamed the land, and dragons ruled the skies. Driven by this ancient entanglement, some smaller elven communities would rather cooperate with dwarves to wipe out the neighboring forest goblin settlements along with the giant spiders they fed. The depth of their hatred is evident."

"Since most spirits are unable to eliminate these vicious creatures on their own, the naturally shy spirits sometimes act out of character and seek help from outsiders, asking them to solve the forest goblin invasion. Adventurers who mistake forest goblins for ordinary goblins and rashly accept the commission are one of the main sources of food that forest goblin shamans use to feed the Alaraknari giant spiders."

After listening to Demst's introduction, Su Li immediately had a very intuitive impression of the terrain and cave's situation. In general, it was full of dangers—filled with goblin traps, treacherous and huge predators, covered with wreckage (which meant that under the erosion of the purple death wind, it would turn into a large number of undead monsters), and the possibility of encountering goblin or undead armies at any time.

Su Li adjusted her mindset and said with a smile to everyone, "Are you all ready? It seems our journey ahead is going to be very exciting and thrilling. Who knows, the timid ones might have nightmares for several nights in a row after returning from the cave."

Doglin laughed heartily, raised his large-caliber musket, and shouted in a loud voice, "Stop dawdling! I can't wait to use my musket to rip a big hole in the stomach of those disgusting beasts!"

"Then let's set off!" Su Li waved his hand, his attitude resolute: "No matter what's inside, let them taste the sharpness of our swords."

With Su Li's order, the army, after a quick dinner, decisively marched toward the exposed giant spider's nest.

The advantage of having a large number of dwarven rangers in the team is that they can easily traverse various terrains. They can use ropes to hang on steep peaks and cliffs to easily cross dangerous terrains, and even hoist carriages across. They can easily cross this rugged section of road, which can pave the way for the main force behind them and open a passage.

As soon as Su Li entered the dark cave, he heard gunfire erupting ahead. The flames from the explosions and the bright muzzles of the guns illuminated the entrance to the cave.

"What happened?" Su Li asked immediately.

This battle will be the first one he has been in charge of commanding since becoming the champion knight, and even Hilde, the chosen one of the Goddess of the Sun, is only his advisor.

As a lord, he also needs to improve his ability to control the overall military situation!

Soon a dwarf ranger came running over with his short legs and reported, "My lord, we have encountered a corpse demon!"

Corpse demons are corpses corrupted by the winds of death. Especially under the shadow of the Witch Moon Morslib, if a corpse is not soothed by Mor's knights, even if it only exists in the wild, it may be corrupted by the winds of death and "naturally" transformed into a corpse demon.

Just then, another exclamation came from ahead, and at the same time, the musketeers and rangers opened fire at full speed, with rows of gunfire exploding and white mist filling the tunnel.

The next moment, a large number of humanoid monsters with twisted bodies and hideous, demonic faces burst out of the white smoke. Their fangs were exposed, and their eyes were blood red, filled with resentment and hatred towards the living. They fiercely pounced on the dwarf legion in front of them.

The butcher, wielding a battle axe, laughed excitedly: "Haha, you don't want to die, and I don't want to live! Let's have a big fight and see who can stand to the end!"

As they spoke, these butchers, with their mohawks and towering blood-red hair, suddenly rushed into the smoke, slashing with their battle axes and splitting the oncoming monsters in two!
To be fair, these undead monsters may indeed be more terrifying in appearance, but in this dark world, it's hard to say whether they are more monstrous than the dwarven butcher in terms of ferocity and savagery.

Even the dwarven rangers didn't treat the butchers as normal people. While the butchers fought fiercely, they continued to fire at full speed from the rear, aiming and shooting recklessly. Besides being confident in their marksmanship, they also didn't care if they accidentally wounded the dwarven butchers. They even hoped for a release and a death in battle. However, in most cases, even if they were accidentally hit, the muskets couldn't inflict much damage on these monstrous butchers with a single shot.

As resilient infantry, the dwarves displayed unparalleled frontal defensive capabilities. Hundreds of undead, zombies, and skeletons surged forward like a tide, only to be smashed to pieces before the dwarves' impenetrable walls. They couldn't even budge these ironclad figures by half a step.

Doglin roared excitedly, "Hahaha, that was so satisfying! Again, again!"

For the warlike dwarves, the exhilarating feeling of slaying monsters was no less than drinking a strong shot of barley wine. Even though these monsters were nothing more than corpses or even stones corrupted by the winds of death.

Su Li was also astonished. It's true what they say, in this world, no race is weak. Even the skeletons, considered the weakest in other worlds, are made of iron in this world. They are stones corroded by the winds of death; their bones are as hard as iron. It's not just that they're heartless; their entire bodies are as solid as iron (further strengthened by magical winds). A weak scholar from this world would have absolutely no chance of survival. Even if a weakling wields an iron sword, he'd be knocked away and bleed from his hands.

Even with the dwarves' fighting prowess and tenacity, the difficulty of this battle exceeded Su Li's expectations. It took the dwarves more than half an hour to completely cut down these relentlessly charging monsters.

So much so that after the battle, many dwarves, panting heavily, leaned on their axes and plopped down in the pile of ashes.

What angered and angered them even more was that these guys were a bunch of paupers. Most of them simply vanished with the purple wind. Only a few corpse demons, equipped with their weapons and armor from their previous lives and skilled in combat, left behind one or two magical artifacts in their ashes that did not drift away with the wind.

After picking it up, Doglin cursed angrily, "This is a huge loss! These hundreds of paupers only left behind no more than five witchcraft items, which aren't even worth enough to repair our armor and axes."

"Pah! These skeletons are just as poor as ever."

Su Li remained calm and didn't expect to gain so much so quickly after entering the cave.

However, through this battle, he was fairly certain that some monster, carrying a dense aura of death, must have entered this cave; otherwise, so many undead monsters wouldn't have appeared so soon after entering. Therefore, after the battle, he ordered, "Prepare for an encounter with the undead legion. We'll continue advancing."

After traveling for a short while, the dwarf butcher shouted, "What's going on? There are chopped-up spiders everywhere on the road! Are these monsters so weak? They don't seem as fierce as they were when they fought us."

When the army reached his position, Su Li immediately knew what he was complaining about. Good heavens, a giant Anaric spider, bigger than a windmill, lay dead on the side of the tunnel. Three of its eight giant spider claws had been cut off, and its huge abdomen was covered with claw marks and knife wounds dozens of centimeters long. It looked like it had been completely tortured to death.

Hilde stepped forward to examine the monster's injuries. She lowered her head and carefully cut open the wounds on the monster's body with her rare-grade longsword, revealing the flesh and bones that had been eroded and withered by the purple wind. Then she turned to Su Li and said, "My lord, such a strong corrosive ability must have been caused by a monster at least at the Black Knight level."

"It's normal that these monsters don't have much ability to fight back. When they fight us, the goblins ride on their backs, setting up crossbows and shrines, which greatly enhances their combat power. Now they have no protection and are surrounded by a large number of black knights. They are just wild beasts waiting to be slaughtered, relying only on their wildness and ferocity to fight."

She then sliced ​​open the monster's abdomen with her longsword, revealing the soft spider silk inside the spider's belly, and said with a faint smile, "Fortunately, the most important part of the monster wasn't taken, which saves us a lot of fighting effort."

The dwarves in the group quickly removed the spider silk; the dwarf rangers who operated in the mountains were all experts in anatomy.

The dwarves excitedly reported, "My lord, there are as many as 15 jin of spider silk here, which is two jin more than the giant spider we killed last time!"

15 pounds of spider silk!
Su Li's eyes lit up; he felt that the light in his eyes could illuminate the pitch-black environment.

It really is high risk, high reward.

Upon entering this highly dangerous underground cave, before even experiencing a fierce battle, they found a treasure of 1500 gold crowns on the remains of a monster they picked up by the roadside!
If we keep exploring, we'll surely reap tens of thousands in profits! This one trip alone could cover the entire territory's army's monthly salary.

"Keep advancing! Let's try to explore this entire area."

With Su Li's command, the entire army rapidly advanced into the lair. The bright flames were so arrogant, illuminating the darkness underground and dispelling the stench within the lair.

And everything was indeed as Su Li had predicted. They found the remains of four Anaric giant spiders by the roadside and easily obtained a fortune of more than 5000 gold crowns.

However, when they ventured deeper underground and encountered the first wave of goblins, the Blacksend army's good luck finally ran out.

As a large number of goblins perished under the guns of the dwarves, the wrath of the monsters within the cave was finally aroused, and a wave of fury erupted.

As Doglin kicked a goblin away, the dwarf's short, stubby ears twitched. He stopped, wielding his musket, and asked those around him, "Was my gunshot too loud? Why do I hear a constant clicking sound?"

The dwarves around them also stopped what they were doing and looked in shock into the depths of the cave. In the darkness in the distance, countless green triangular eyes lit up!

"It's a swarm of spiders!"

"No, we are surrounded!"

"Damn it! Why are these bastards coming after us instead of those skeletons that have gone deep into their lair?!"

"Don't panic! Illumination!"

With a shout from the knights, a spell scroll inscribed with the Light spell was thrown out. This was a tool made by the Light Mage and was clearly an important military supply for the Black Forest Territory.

As the spell ascended, a massive light source illuminated the entire underground lair's tunnels, turning the darkness into daylight.

But what happened next sent chills down everyone's spines and made their blood run cold. Even though Su Li didn't have trypophobia, seeing so many densely packed spiders and countless green, malevolent pupils still made her gasp and goosebumps rise all over her body.

In the cave ahead, from the ground to the walls, from the left and right to the ceiling, thousands upon thousands of terrifying spiders were densely packed together. They were even piled up in layers, surging forward in a dense swarm, their sharp claws and evil eight pupils filling the entire world.

If surrounded by them, even a knight in full armor would be quickly poisoned into a puddle of liquid!
Doglin roared at the top of his lungs, "How can there be so many?"

Amber Mage, Beast Calamity Grondal, immediately recognized the divine spell and shouted, "Watch out! This is the Spider God's divine spell, [Surprise Attack]!"

This beast mage wore a tiger-head leather headgear. Although he was a mage, his imposing physique was no less than that of a knight, and the staff he wielded was an iron-tipped staff. He swiftly cast a spell, "Raven Feast," summoning a flock of magical killing ravens that swooped down into the monster wave.

These crows are veritable vengeful spirits, with steel beaks and bloodstained feathers. They can be summoned anywhere, as they can pass through any solid material—trees, rocks, metal, and so on. These crows always appear in flocks—they appear and then quickly disperse, but before that, they will attack anyone perceived as a threat, targeting the victim's head (eyes, ears, face, etc.) whenever possible.

This was the first time Su Li had observed the mysteries of magic so closely, and he saw that the monster wave had thinned out considerably at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After casting the spell, Grondar picked up his iron-headed staff and sword, wielding the staff in his left hand and the spear in his right, and charged towards the monster.

He was so ferocious that when he swung his staff, several monsters were instantly smashed to pieces, turning into a pool of green juice. Keep in mind that among them were many venomous spiders, even larger than goblins, capable of easily killing a wolf or even a lion with a single leap.

While furiously smashing the spider, which was larger than a calf, Grondal still reminded everyone, "These visible spiders are nothing to worry about; we can kill them with the tip of a knife. But be careful of the ear-crawling spider; it's a divine spell of the Spider God."

"The Giant Spider God will summon a tiny ear-crawling spider to assist them. This creature, which crawls into the target's ear canal, will chew on the brain and drain magic power. Be careful, they will drain your blood and divine energy. When you feel something in your ear, activate your Blazing Blood ability immediately and burn them to death!"

Good heavens! These densely packed spiders, when they attack, not only cause damage to the enemy's health bar, but also steal their mana!
If hundreds of soldiers have their spiritual energy depleted by the spiders, and are unable to use any bloodline skills or divine abilities, and can only rely on ordinary attacks to deal with them, how long would it take to kill all these tens of thousands of spiders?

Therefore, Su Li decisively ordered: "The dwarves' axes are sharp, but they are clearly not suitable for dealing with so many monsters. Half-griffin riders, attack! Use your burning blood and strikes to purify these disgusting monsters!"

Hilde decisively gripped her longsword, taking the lead and charging ahead of the enemy. She commanded the knights following her, "Follow me and break through the enemy lines to find the Spider God Priest among the monsters! The enemy must possess a sacred relic of glory, otherwise they could never have used so many area-of-effect divine spells in succession!"

A relic of glory?!
Upon hearing these four words, all the knights were filled with excitement; this was the glory that all knights sought!
The next moment, the half-griffin knights, clad in blazing sun armor, all charged wildly, easily leaping over the dwarven defenses, their bodies engulfed in intense flames, and charged directly into the midst of tens of thousands of monsters.

(End of this chapter)