Chapter 213: The Hive

"Where am I?" Ned cried even though he felt the heavy pressure weighing down his head. 

Forgetting the radical surgery Khiccaal hand made on his right side gut, he bent as the wound rived some part of his skin. Although the wound was dry, Ned could still see a part of flesh accumulated a white puss. 

Looking down, Ned saw his manhood. He freshened a bit seeing it all intact. 

Ned leaned forward only to let out an involuntary grunt as chains wrapped around his wrist grating between his flesh and iron. This time, his hands were tied, unable to stretch or form a fist. They needn't do so, upon remembering what had happened, a few hours, perhaps a day or two, Ned checked his status only to be presented with 4, 000 mana points and a meager 10 mana. Ned felt the coldness his body produces, not because he was naked but because he couldn't feel mana running through his veins. He was dry. He looked down and smiled, that must be the reason he was dangling. Ned was dry. 

Ned groaned as he lifts his head to scan the surroundings. The room was symmetrically cut in right angles. The ceiling was sleek just like the floor. Was he dreaming? The cave before. The crystals falling and shattering. The eye. Yes!

Swamp eyes were Grade E beast. But given time and preparations, its eye could turn someone's mind against their will. Creating illusions in various forms, depending on the prey's mental state of mind. They were easy to kill upon breaking the illusion. Swamp Eyes were rare for a Grade E grade. 

"Swamp eye," Ned muttered, remembering the globe of eye half-burned in front of him. Ned shook his head, unison with the chains rattling. "I am not," he said and went back to check the room. Farside to his right, an empty cabinet stacked with empty bottles. At the front edge was a door of wood, decorated with, scratches? Too many scratches they looked like scars from countless battles. The room was sleek but a trace of prints in liquid form patted the floor. The prints weren't human: it moved sideways like that of a snake, the other prints were dotted, like crab legs. Looking up, Ned could see the different stones affixed against the wall and connected to—nothing. 

The stones were cut in perfect spheres that exude light blue, and moderate blue, and bright blue. The bright blue ones were bigger, almost a fist in size, and was smoother from the one Ned has. "Mana stones," he muttered. 

Mana stones were used to light a room, and some sizes were bigger than his medium mana stone. 

"Mana," he said. With a thought, he flicked his wrist and nothing appeared. Another thought, nothing appeared, another flick, nothing appeared. 

"It wasn't there."

"The ring."

"It was gone."

Ned pulled the chains attached to the wall behind him. He cried: "Hey!"

"Anyone!"

[Ned.]

[The ring wasn't there anymore.]

[Someone took it.]

"Do you know who?" Ned said after ICE's voice rang. 

[No.]

ICE responded. Of course, you don't. Ned thought. No prompt was made as the door across Ned swung open. 

The figure that entered was humanoid in figure with spider limbs retracted behind his—her back? It was a she. She got breast in green and black silk skin, with hips that of a grown woman. Her eyes, and lips, and skin were dark. Hair waved like silk as she approached Ned. 

"I believe you understand me, human?" The arachnid talked. 

Ned nodded, he could make out perfect words. Suddenly, as if a coincidence, Ned's back tingled with something. The parasite lying dormant behind his back. He's got no mana left to absorb, and the parasite leeching behind him stayed still waiting for its prey to replenish mana. 

"Moloatiss is right!" She cried, and leaned forward, examining Ned with her unpredictable eyes. "A human like you defeated Gogmurch?" 

The humanoid arachnid retracted and flicked her silk hair as if a real human losing patience. 

"Where am I?"

"What are you?"

"Why am I here?"

"Easy, Ned," a voice echoed behind the arachnid. 

The lady arachnid stepped to her side and let the deformed Moloatiss passed alone. Surprisingly, she bowed upon the caterpillar's passing and said, "Moloatiss."

"You are dismissed, Arataka-karatakiya," Moloatiss waved his functioning limb. The lump of crawling meat waited for the arachnid to leave as he stared Ned with his eyes. Now that he was close, Ned could make up Moloatiss's brown eyes, indicating he was once a human. 

"You are a tough one to kill, Ned," Moloatiss said as the door behind him closed. Wood against stone grated. 

"Why am I here, Moloatiss?" Ned asked. Ned could barely let out a sweat with the coldness of the room. "What did you do to me?"

Moloatiss said, "You're asking wrong questions, Ned."

Ned said, "Then why am I alive?"

Moloatiss said, "Now that is a question with sense. You are here because you are spared."

Ned said, "Spared? By whom?"

Moloatiss said, "Kon Sas Koron."

Ned said  "The Queen."

Moloatiss nodded or wiggled without his neck. Without his eyes and mouth, one would have a hard time distinguishing where was his head or butt. 

"Where are my things?" Ned asked, smelling the room's unusual old wood aroma. 

"Your clothes were thrown," Moloatiss said. "Boots were traded and the rest, well. Gone." 

Kamma's ring, Ned thought and snapped. Uncaring of the chains wrapped around his limbs. He pushed forward. This made Moloatiss took a quick footing backward. His crab limbs tinkled against the stone floor. 

"Too aggressive," Moloatiss said, one of the cylindrical glasses was restored anew. Tubes connected to his head to the glass. The glass gurgled. "Typical of your predecessors and successors."

"You are the same," Ned said as he was forced to break the chains. His hands were coated with silk web. Unable to gesture, and connect mana. "No, you are lower. Look at you."

"I at least found freedom." Moloatiss grinned, widely. He then paused. Silence. The scarred door open once again. Two more humanoids entered and stopped behind Moloatiss. 

"Unchain him," Moloatiss said and gesture with his limbs. 

"I will kill you," Ned said. "Are you sure? Letting me free?"

"I doubt that," Moloatiss grinned and the arachnid behind him proceed to unchain Ned. 

The two guards, spiders in humanoid form walked around Moloatiss. Limbs were retracted behind their back. They were masculine and built well than their female counterpart. Dark skin, silky hair—males have short hairs, while the female has longer reaching their waist. 

With a closer look, Ned could see that their faces were hardened with an exoskeleton. Their armors were carapaces of thick scales.

As one of the guards leaned forward to unchain Ned, Kamma's ring gleamed around his neck. The guard wore Ned's ring. Ned's eyes gleamed silver and waited. 

The iron key rattled as the arachnid guard inserted it at the lock. Ned waited. With a twist, the lock snapped. Ned waited. The guard unclamped the chains. Ned waited. He waited for his limbs to be free again.

Doing so, Ned launched himself toward the guard with Kamma's ring made as his necklace. 

Ned remembered his master's words: Swift, precise, and heavy. 

The first time that he did it, he was overwhelmed by the thugs that wanted to rob him of his Picas and his Master's herbs. He was weak that time, no memory of his former self, no real experience about fights as life the prize. But he was different this time, he was determined to snatch his prized belonging. 

The guard's limbs extended behind his back, showing blade-like extremities that thrust toward Ned. The guard's attack was swift, as his limbs left afterimages, and precise as the tip of the limb scratched Ned's forearm, and heavy as his attack thwarted Ned's launch. 

After the attack, Ned's display popped up, using his current status with left to almost no mana, and energy able for him to move. 

Ned failed to snatch the ring and was pushed back as the guards held his arms and slammed him against the wall. 

"I've been there, Ned," Moloatiss said. "The eagerness to do something. The eagerness to do things for the people you loved. I've been there—we've all been there. But it seemed that you haven't reached the end."

"Give… " Ned said, pulling himself forward, and against the arachnid's strength. "Me… " he added, almost biting his lips. "My ring!" 

The guards slammed him back against the wall. 

"Ah, the ring," Moloatiss said. His hand gestured to the arachnid and for a moment the guard hesitated but pulled the necklace off his neck, giving it to Moloatiss. "So this is what you want." 

Moloatiss lifted the ring for Ned to see midair. The necklace was made of some reed knotted together. Kamma's ring glittered under the mana stone's blue light. The ring was made chipped, inside the ring, on the surface, was writing in earth's English word: 'Earth.' 

With the spinning of the ring midair, Ned gritted his teeth and tried to launch himself toward Moloatiss. He just can't. Not that the guards were strong, but Ned was dried of both mana and energy. Making his strength forgotten. 

Moloatiss opened his mouth as wide as possible, it could fit three Ned's head, and swallowed the ring along with the necklace. After a lick, Moloatiss gestured for the guards to free Ned. Which the arachnids did so.

Ned descended to the floor with a loud thud. He crawled and reached for Moloatiss's limbs. 

"Look at you, Ned," Moloatiss said looking down at Ned. "I was surprised you defeated Gogmurch." 

Moloatiss crawled sideways, gesturing Ned toward the open wooden door.

Ned didn't hesitate, he stood as he gritted his teeth, and walked outside the room. 

Ned was blinded by the light that shot from above, it felt warm. As Ned squinted his eyes, his forearm blocking the blinding light, he regained focus. There, the moment he saw caverns of different sizes with a ceiling that towered until the eyes could see nothing but darkness, chambers as living quarters. Mana stones ran the wall to lit the ground, hatchlings crawled, goblins, wargs, butrikis, arachnids, a beast in humanoid form, some with six legs to their sides, others eight behind, a beast with a tail that flamed, and beasts didn't even recognize. With all the unwanted beasts walking the place, Ned's attention was caught by a cavern lined with mana stones, railways exited the opening going to the unseen horizon, mine carts, and humans? Humans in chains, lifting rocks, pulling carts, pushing boulders, and a massive spider beast lingered from above as if watching the humans as they work. 

"Yes," Moloatiss said from behind. "They are humans, mostly hunters. You will become one of them. Not until I hear your decision." 

Ned frowned and looked at Moloatiss and said, "Where am I?"

Moltioass said, "Your inside Kon Sas Koron's Hive: 'Araneum.'"