Eldritch Creature's Guide

Somewhere on the 3rd Floor, unknown time.

Several hundreds of kilometers away from Zephystrand City, one could see tens of thousands of Monstrous Spiders of various subspecies marching in the direction of the grand elven City. There was an immeasurable number of the Monstrous Spiders, ranging from Iron-Tier to Steel-Tier, and even a good few thousands of Bronze-Tiers.

Among them all, there were thousands of weird, humanoid spider-like creatures which were controlling this enormous horde of Magical Beasts, as most of the Ettercaps were Steel-Tiers, while the rest of them was at the Bronze-Tier. And contrary to the majority of Monstrous SPiders, there were even a few Ettercaps on the peak of the Bronze-Tiers, as they were bigger and more menacing than other Ettercaps.

On the top of the cliff, one could see the spider-drow abomination of Drider as he was standing on the cliff and watching the marching army of Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps, together with his Drow subordinates. Altogether, there were a few tens, not more than hundreds of Drows, but all of them were very powerful; even weakest was peak Steel-Tier.

"How many have we managed to breed?"

Asked the Drider menacingly while looking at the marching Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps as one of his Drow subordinates stepped forward to report. All of the Drows who were participating in this glorious mission was, in fact, criminals of the Underdark City, banished or sentenced to death, so this was for them the only way to redeem themselves.

"More than 400,000 Monstrous Spiders, and we have around 20,000 Ettercaps."

Reported the Drow Warrior, deep inside wondering if it was truly enough to achieve their mission, as these numbers were for sure not enough even to breach the walls of the City, not to kidnap the Silvermoon Princess as their mission distracted.

The smarter ones from the group have long noticed that something was fishy here and decided to desert amid the chaos that would soon erupt and go to some other Floors or perhaps even Cosmos.

This place was huge, so they could hide somewhere until they were completely forgotten; unfortunately, right now, it was not possible, as the Drider, who was Silver-Tier Professional, was watching their every step.

"Excellent! Then we march at that elven filth!"

Roared the Drider madly, while the Drows showed various levels of enthusiasm over the matter, as some of them felt that this was already a lost cast, while some were thinking when it would be the best opportunity to escape.

In the end, all of them marched on the way to Zephystrand City.

***

In the Zephystrand City, at the present time.

As Samiel and Yvraine were relaxing in the Moon Pond, suddenly alarms sounded through the entire City, just like the last time when the Magical Beast Invasion occurred in Zephystrand City. Both of them immediately woke up from their half-sleep as the time of the attack finally came.

When Samiel opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was kneeling Ashimer, who was guarding the entrance to the Moon Pond, as he was technically one of the strongest entities in the Zephystrand due to him being Level 51 Frost Death Knight, not talking about his combat prowess which was higher than his actual Level.

"My Lord, the horde of Magical Beasts, is heading towards the Zephystrand City; they are attempting to surround the City and attack from all sides."

Sounded the cold voice of Ashimer, as it seemed, that this time they were even implementing a more sophisticated approach than just rushing at two places across the defenses. However, this also meant they divided their forces too much. The defenses of the Zephystrand have been bolstered tremendously since the last attempt.

"Prepare your Knight Brigade; we are going to the battle."

Samiel ordered as Ashimer went to organize his own Undead Knight Brigade made from the Skeleton Knights, which were all armed with the dwarven armor and weapons, which Samiel ordered from the Goldstone Manufacturing Armory.

Even though they were mass-produced, Samiel marveled a bit at their quality because it was superb, even compared to custom-made by the majority of human blacksmiths. Indeed, when it came to smithing and manufacturing weapons and armor, then dwarves were the best in the business.

"But their number is still huge... after this is done, we need to find their breeding lairs, or sooner or later, the entire 3rd Floor would be infested with the Monstrous Spiders."

Yvraine stated as she stood up, and together with Samiel, they went towards the main strategic room, where the meeting about the current strategy over the defense of the City was taking place.

"Indeed, they are multiplying as pests."

Monstrous Spiders bred with tremendous speed, especially if they had enough resources. Though on the 3rd Floor, there wasn't enough prey for them to infest it in the short time, they were patient, and as any good hunter, they could prey in the shadows, slowly gathering their number and power until there was enough of them to cause real trouble.

"If not for the Underdark bringing them food, they wouldn't have reached such a high number just in a year and a few months or whatever."

Yvraine said to Samiel's agreement as they entered the meeting room, where already a few people were discussing their next strategy.

"They still didn't attack?"

She asked the people in charge of the defenses, as everyone gave her a low bow as a form of greeting, immediately afterward returning to the discussion.

"No, they are just surrounding the City. Evidently, the Drider and Drows are trying to implement some sort of strategy this time, though they have some number of heavy hitters, a lot more Bronze-Tier than we have initially anticipated."

Answered Sarun Daragan, summarizing the current situation they were in.

"I take it that the Magetech Artillery should be enough to deal with them?"

Yvraine asked, looking at the short, bulky dwarf wearing heavy runic armor.

"Yer, we gave here a few more Mana Cannons and a new type of Batteries... ther would be shed to shit!"

Laughed the dwarf, whom, Samiel recognized as Canon Master Brigric Goldengrog, who was Bronze-Tier Warrior and, most importantly, Magetech Engineer, and one of the people who was helping with the development of a new generation of Magetech Weaponry.

"Fortunately, they didn't have any Silver-Tier Spiders or Ettercaps, or any other kind of monstrosities, or we would be forced to use our own, not to mention, fights between Silver-Tier individuals are very destructive, and the entire enviroment of the Zephystrand City would be destroyed."

Commented Sarun Daragan as others agreed with him.

The only Silver-Tier that the enemies had was the Drider himself, which would be taken care by the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath, so everyone presumed the Drider to be dead, even despite Samiel was only Steel-Tier.

Silver-Tier Professionals could destroy even entire Cities or blow up entire Mountains with their strongest attacks or Magic, though that is only in terms of destructive prowess. This didn't mean that every Silver-Tier Class Bearer had this combat prowess. However, even if he lacked it, then, for example, Silver-Tier Warriors could withstand such attacks.

Of course, this was relative because the destructive prowess of Silver-Tier individuals in the Lower World would be absolutely frightening, while in the High World or first Floors of the Tower, it would be average. That was the result of the difference between the Power of the World, Mana Density, which strengthened everything from materials like wood and stone to structures built from them.

And there was something about the Laws of the World being stronger in more powerful worlds, meaning people of the same Tier, then a person from a stronger world would be several times stronger than his opponent from a weaker world, even if they had exactly the same set of Abilities, Skills and Levels.

Said easily, for example, right now, Samiel could destroy with his most powerful attacks entire large buildings like skyscrapers, but if he did the same thing in the Lower World or even probably Middle World, he could freeze entire smaller towns to icicles.

"After the battle starts, I will go and kill the Drider and possibly create a mess in their lines."

Stated Samiel with a bloodthirsty grin, as he was in expectation of a good fight. Now that he had the Ashimer, he could implement a new formation where all of his Undeads would be fitting as a sole entity, interconnecting them with each other.

For such a thing to work, he needed someone with the same Mana Level as him or higher, and this would practically increase the combat prowess of Ashimer's Knight Brigade to Bronze-Tier, so they could tear through the lines of Monstrous Spiders or Ettercaps like hot knight through the cube of butter.

"Unfortunately, we would not be able to prevent Drows gathering the information about the new generation of Magetech Artillery that the Forge Cities have developed and is tested here. Though, in the end, it doesn't really matter, sooner or later, they would obtain this kind of information one way or another."

Voiced Canon Master Brigric Goldengrog as he hit the ground with his huge double-sided battle axe, as others reluctantly agreed with his statement.

After some time of discussing the strategies, then everyone dispersed and make their way to their positions on the walls. Right now, the atmosphere of Zephystrand City wasn't gloomy or anything, but it was prepared for what was to come.

Sicne that year or so ago, it was evident that the Drows were plotting something, and now their scheme was finally cooked and was here; everybody was prepared for the outcome and for the upcoming fight.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate the spiders?"

Samiel lit up a cigarette as he inhaled the smoke and looked from the walls at the hordes of Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps, also seeing the Drows way back there.

"No?"

Yvraine also hated spiders, so they could show their disgust together, especially when they were Drows in play.

"Hahhaa!"

Abruptly, both of them heard the female laughter as Samiel almost cracked his cigarette in half, and Yvraine wanted to kill the owner of that voice.

"Have you come here just to cause mischief Estrid?"

Samiel asked dangerously, as he narrowed at the dragon girl in question, who pretended not to hear anything.

"Anyway, good thing that you are here; you are going to join the defense, directly under me... and before you find some ridiculous excuse for rejecting my command, I am ordering this as the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath."

He ordered, not leaving any room for discussion.

He knew that Estrid would join the fight anyways because she liked to destroy things and kill, but her efficiency would be increased several times over under his command. The dragon girl looked conflicted but, in the end, relented, thinking that at least he didn't put her under Yvriane's command; that would be humiliating.

And as the hordes of the Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps moved, Samiel once again inhaled smoke from his cigarette as he ran his left hand through his hair, sliding it backward.

"So it begins."

'Boom, boom, boom.'

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