It's so hard being a hero!

Each branch cave contains varying degrees of magical fluctuations.

Her magical perception was severely disrupted in these channels.

The spider demon's aura was chaotic and intense, like a thick fog that obscured all other auras.

She could only vaguely sense the presence of humans, but she couldn't pinpoint their exact location, let alone identify whether her father was among them.

For the next half hour, she moved quickly through the spiderweb-filled passages, stopping to sense the path at each fork in the road before continuing in the direction with the strongest aura.

Along the way, she encountered several small spider nests.

Each nest is filled with spider silk cocoons, and each cocoon contains a person.

After Sofia rescued them, she cast a life blessing on each of them to stabilize their injuries and let them walk out on their own.

She still couldn't sense any magical fluctuations from her father.

It's not that it's not there, but that it's been hidden too deeply.

The feeling of trying to save people everywhere but not being able to find a target made her increasingly frustrated.

When they were almost at the fourth nest, Sofia suddenly stopped.

She stood in the middle of a wide main passageway, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

calm.

Rushing things won't solve the problem.

She needs to change her approach.

Sofia leaned against the rock wall, arms crossed, her mind racing.

The reason her magical perception couldn't pinpoint her father's location was because the magical field of the entire Spider Kingdom was too chaotic and disorganized.

The spider monster's aura was omnipresent, like a giant net that suppressed all other auras.

But conversely, this intense magical field must have a source.

One core element.

Just like the core of human magic, the magic field of the Spider Kingdom should also have a most powerful source.

Finding the source is finding the center of the spider kingdom.

Since her father is still alive, he must have been captured and taken somewhere.

The most likely possibility is the mother nest where the Spider Queen resides.

Because low-level spider monsters usually store their prey in their nests after capturing them, but if a large number of prey are captured at the same time, such as a militia of more than thirty people, then the prey will be captured.

They will likely send their prey to the mother nest, where the queen will distribute it.

This is a characteristic of spider monsters.

She had seen it too many times in her past life at the border of the Demon Realm.

Sophia opened her eyes, and her magical perception no longer spread aimlessly in all directions as before, but began to capture the strongest magical fluctuation in the entire underground cave.

Sophia locked onto the direction of the fluctuation, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"found it."

She did not walk along the passageway.

That's too slow; the winding side roads will waste a lot of time.

She crouched down, placed her hands on the ground, closed her eyes, and let the magic seep into the rocks and soil beneath her feet.

Earth-attribute magic: Earth-burrowing.

The ground beneath her feet rippled like water, and the soil and rocks automatically parted to the sides in front of her, forming a circular passage just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Sofia jumped into it, and the soil behind her automatically closed up without leaving a trace.

The speed of burrowing underground is much faster than walking.

She moved through the darkness like a fish swimming in water, with rocks and mud around her flowing past like water.

The powerful magical energy fluctuations were getting closer and closer.

She could feel herself moving rapidly deeper underground.

The depth ranges from fifty meters to eighty meters, and then to one hundred meters.

The surrounding temperature was rising, the air was becoming increasingly stuffy, and there was a faint fishy smell mixed in.

About five minutes later, Sofia felt a huge hole above her head.

She adjusted her direction and moved upwards.

The soil and rocks parted in front of me, and a layer of grayish-white spider silk appeared overhead.

Sophia broke through the spider silk and emerged from the ground.

She stood up, shook off the dirt, glanced around, and then paused for a moment.

This is a huge underground space.

It was several times larger than any cave she had ever seen before.

The cave floor was covered with a thick carpet of spider silk, which was soft and silent underfoot.

The surrounding rock walls are covered with holes of all sizes, like the cells of a honeycomb, and white spider silk cocoons can be vaguely seen in each hole.

But what Sofia cared about most was not these things.

It was right in the center of the cave.

There was a huge spider lying there.

Her body was over three meters in diameter, and her eight legs were more than six meters wide when spread out. Her carapace was not grayish-brown, but a deep dark purple, covered with dark gold patterns, like some kind of ancient natural runes.

Its eight eyes were deep red, like eight glowing embers, radiating a scorching light in the darkness.

Her abdomen was abnormally large, round and dragging on the ground. Through her translucent carapace, one could see countless spider eggs inside.

The Crypt Spider Queen.

Silver-level monster.

This is the strongest being Sophia has encountered since entering the mine.

The Spider Queen sensed the intruder the moment she emerged from the ground.

Eight deep red eyes opened simultaneously, staring intently at the silver-haired girl who emerged from the ground.

Those eyes didn't hold the simple, instinctive aggression of a low-level spider monster; instead, they held something more complex.

Examine.

She was scrutinizing this uninvited guest.

A human girl of twelve or thirteen years old ventured alone into her lair.

This is abnormal in itself.

The Spider Queen slightly raised her eight legs, slowly straightening her body from a prone position, her dark purple carapace gleaming with a metallic sheen in the darkness.

She stared at Sophia, her head slightly tilted, as if sensing the human's presence in some way unique to spiders.

Sofia stood still, without moving.

Her hand wasn't even on the hilt of the sword at her waist; she simply looked calmly at the enormous cave spider queen before her.

Their eyes met in the darkness.

The air around him seemed to freeze.

The spider silk hanging from the dome remained motionless, and even the sound of breathing disappeared.

"interesting."

Sophia broke the silence, a slight smile curving her lips.

"A silver-level monster should be quite intelligent, right? Can it understand me?"

The Spider Queen did not answer.

But she narrowed her eight eyes slightly and turned her head a few degrees.

That's a manifestation of thinking.

Sophia knew she understood.

Silver-level monsters possess considerable intelligence; although they cannot speak like humans, they can fully understand human language.

"I'm here to find someone."

Sofia got straight to the point, without beating around the bush.

“Yesterday a militia of more than thirty men entered your territory. Among them was a middle-aged man named Surott, who is my father.”

She paused, her tone calm but undeniable.

"I want to take him with me."

The Spider Queen stared at her with her eight eyes for several seconds.

Then a low hissing sound came from her mouthparts, which was not a prelude to an attack, but more like a response.

Sofia couldn't understand the spider's language, but she could read something from its eyes and posture.

dissatisfied.

alert.

There was still a hint of confusion.

The human girl faced a silver-level monster without fear or hostility, her demeanor as calm as if she were visiting a neighbor.

This was clearly beyond the Spider Queen's expectations.

"I have no intention of fighting with you."

Sophia shrugged, her tone softening somewhat.

“Your people only capture humans for food; they don’t indiscriminately kill innocents. It’s your survival instinct, and I don’t blame you.”