As Alex sifted through the aftermath of his fight with the spider queen's minions, he activated his [Extraction Talent], his gaze scanning the underlings' scattered remains as the system processed his actions.
[Extraction Talent Activated: +57 Strength, +23 Spirit, +34 Vitality, +3 Skill Points, +Web Leggings (Epic)]
"Not bad," he thought, slipping the Web Leggings into his increasingly crowded backpack.
Most of these extractions were average, but even minor boosts in stats and equipment were valuable.
However, his real interest lay in the spider queen herself.
No extraction prompt appeared, meaning that there was only one item to extract from it.
Alex approached its giant body and pressed his palm against it, whispering "Extraction".
Fwish! Ding!
[You have extracted "Queen's Carapace Shield" (Legendary)]
[Description: A dense shield crafted from the Spider Queen's exoskeleton. It offers immense physical resistance as it can block up to 20,000 damage.]
"Pretty good," he stored it inside of his backpack, which was, at this point, getting pretty damn full.
But it was worth it.
There was a reason why Alex's wasn't selling any of his items: he would need them all for later.
[Equipment: Elysian Staff of the Silver Mage (Legendary), Python Backpack (250 slots), Bear King's Chest Armor (Rare), Poison Bear Dagger (Uncommon), 2x Boar Meat, Fang of the Python (Epic), x4 Ghoul Wings (Uncommon), x2 Undead Boots (Uncommon); Ghastly Reaper's Cloak (Rare); Death Knight's Cursed Blade (Rare), Rat Helmet (Common), Superior Backpack (Legendary; 100 slots), Superior Awakener's Set (Mythical), x13 Venomous Lizard Scales (Rare), Fangbeast Fur x3 (Uncommon), Poison Wolf Fur x2 (Uncommon), Whisper of Shadows (Divine), 3x High Quality Mana Potions (Epic, Restores 20,000 per potion); Dungeon Golem Core (Legendary Material), Spider Legs x6 (Rare), Poison Antidote Low-Quality x1 (Uncommon), Basilisk Claws (Epic), x7 Poison Grenades (Epic - deals high-level poison), Web Leggings x1 (Epic), Queen's Carapace Shield (Legendary)]
And yes, I took note of everything he had.
...
"S-Savior..."
A gentle, trembling voice pulled him from his inventory.
Alex glanced over to see the fox-eared princess still ensnared in the webbing.
Her breaths were shallow, her face pale.
"Oh, right." He hadn't forgotten her, but extracting was indeed the first thing he thought of.
With a flick of his staff, he cast [Meteoric Blaze], and the spell's flames illuminated the chamber before bursting against the ceiling, melting away the sticky webs.
After a few seconds, the princess fell, and Alex caught her in one swift move, as the fall was pretty big from up there.
"T-Thank... you..." she was breathing hard, her health low.
"No problem," Alex shrugged, "Alice, please give me one of your poison antidotes."
"A-Alright," Alice nodded, opening her archer inventory to retrieve one of the small flasks Alex had synthesized.
Alex helped the princess drink the antidote, and as the venom's effects began to fade, her labored breathing calmed.
She must have been poisoned for a long time, the spider queen, that sadistic maniac, probably keeping her alive to suffer.
"Take this too!" Alice pulled out another potion with green liquid inside.
Inspecting it, Alex was surprised.
[High Quality Health Potion (Legendary)]
[Heals 50,000 HP]
As she finished, she wiped away her tears, smiling shyly. "Thank you... again."
Alice felt so bad, in fact, that she went up to the naked fox girl and hugged her.
Despite having just met, she felt a strong kinship with this girl who had suffered so much.
After a few more moments, the fox girl composed herself.
"My name is Lilith, Princess of the Fox Beast Tribe. I came here to retrieve an artifact hidden on the dungeon's final floor, but... the Spider Queen ambushed my group before we could reach it."
Lilith was actually a level 250 Tier 5 fox girl, and all her tribe was pretty much the same.
A tier 5 tribe was pretty damn powerful at the beginning of the game, so it was surprising she was ambushed and captured.
"I came unprepared with dozens of companions, we got poisoned, ambushed, and captured without mercy," Lilith looked sad when she spoke about her companions, "I was the only survivor among all of us."
"..."
"..."
Alex and Alice didn't know what to say, there was nothing they could say.
It was impossible to bring back the dead to life.
"Yes there is," the Undead King intervened, but Alex ignored him, "Damn."
"No need to worry about me, though," Lilith smiled, "I'm sure the rest of my people will be happy to know I survived."
But Alex knew something was wrong.
"Why did you need that artifact, and why did you seem so desperate about coming back," Alex asked these two questions, his gaze sharpening and becoming serious.
"Ah..." Lilith was taken aback, almost as if she just remembered everything, "T-THE DEMON TRIBE!"
"Demon tribe?" Alex raised his eyebrows.
"T-They said that they would attack our clan, and as all of them are around level 300, we knew we didn't stand a single chance..."
'Level 300?' Alex's mind raced.
This must be one of the weaker demon clans then, as the ones Alex knew of were at least Tier 7 or Tier 8.
Still, level 300 demons were no minor threat. They could decimate clans, even ones as strong as Lilith's.
But this was good: this meant he actually had a chance.
"We heard rumors of an artifact here that could help us against demons, but... it's guarded by powerful monsters," Her voice fell to a whisper as she recalled the devastation her people faced.
So this was the full story: the fox tribe, comprised of only female members, was dwindling.
When they received word of the impending attack from the demons, they had tried to retrieve an artifact that could help them, only to be ambushed and massacred.
"When is the attack happening?" Alex asked, his tone turning serious.
Now that he knew, he couldn't not get involved.
Especially knowing that the demons were a race that caused havoc across humanity in his past life: destroying one of their clans would be great.
Lilith bit her lip, calculating. "We got the message two weeks ago. The attack is scheduled for a month from then, which gives us... about two weeks left."
Alex's lips curled into a faint smile. "Good. That's more than enough time."
With two weeks left, he'd make sure this demon tribe would regret threatening Lilith's people.