Chapter 18 The Taste: Lucas's team was pretty good...
However, Catherine was well aware that if she relied solely on herself, she might become food for other magical beasts the moment she left the alien spider's den. Therefore, she needed to find at least one ally to ensure her safety.
The team Lucas was on was pretty good.
In fact, this was not her subjective choice, but rather an objective fact, as these humans might be the only remaining species in the Devil's Forest.
But before that, she needs to find the human in the wolf pack and see what clues he might have "left" for her. She needs those clues to find Lucas and his group and get them to leave her behind.
The Devil's Forest had been so quiet for hundreds of years, but it had suddenly become lively in the last few months, with so many humans arriving besides the "sacrifices." She couldn't believe they weren't companions.
Now, two hundred kilometers away from Catherine, outside a vast, dense forest, Lucas is leaning on his knees, panting heavily.
He raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and carefully glanced behind him a few times before he dared to confirm that the ferocious beast that had been chasing him was gone.
He had been running for a long time before finally shaking off the terrifying little bat monkey behind him.
Since parting ways with Catherine, Lucas had been slowly making his way through the Devil's Forest, searching for the special marks left by his companions. Because besides the small bottle of beast-repelling powder he had given Catherine, he still had about half a bottle left, and he had been quite careful, so he hadn't run into any trouble after several days of walking.
It was noon, and the sun was blazing. Even in the Devil's Forest, some light filtered through the dense canopy.
Lucas straightened up, preparing to find a place to set a trap to solve his lunch problem. But he hadn't walked far when he suddenly felt a slight vibration under his feet.
Lucas's face turned pale instantly... With his current strength, if another giant predator came, he probably wouldn't be able to escape.
He glanced around quickly, then immediately hid in a large patch of dense bushes. He tried to slow his breathing and prayed in his heart that he wouldn't be discovered.
But this time, Lady Luck was not on his side. Without warning, the claws tore through the leaves, and just as they were about to reach the ground, Lucas quickly rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the claws.
He wiped his cheek, the scratches on his face reopened, and blood splattered on his hand.
Before the next attack could strike, Lucas scrambled to his feet. He stumbled backward, looking up to see a two-headed leopard approaching.
"Damn it!" he couldn't help but mutter under his breath.
The two-headed leopard was incredibly fast; even at his peak, he couldn't possibly outrun it. Besides, he had just escaped the bat monkey's grasp and his legs were still weak.
Lucas swallowed hard and reached into his trouser pocket. There lay the last remaining bit of animal-repelling powder.
Of course, he knew that this thing wouldn't do any harm to the two-headed leopard, but it was the only thing he had that could be used.
Lucas gripped the bottle tightly, his eyes fixed on the two-headed leopard in front of him.
The two-headed leopard was also watching him. Lucas's image was reflected in its enormous beastly eyes, and saliva dripped continuously from its mouth, stimulated by the food.
The fight between the two sides was about to break out, and anyone who looked at it would feel that the outcome of this fight was already decided.
The instant the two-headed leopard raised its claws, Lucas immediately popped the cork off the bottle with his fingers and hurled it at the leopard's eyes. He didn't check if the powder had hit its mark; he simply turned and ran in the opposite direction. Driven by adrenaline, he was already at his limit.
After running for a while, Lucas suddenly felt something was wrong; there was no sound coming from behind him.
Even if the medicine bottle hit the two-headed leopard, shouldn't it have made some noise?
Lucas, holding his breath, nervously turned his head, only to see the two-headed leopard's corpse lying on the ground, and that familiar face smiling at him.
"Uncle Benson!"
“You little brat! I was wondering how long it would take you to find me.” Benson grinned, his old scar across half his face wrinkling up as a result.
As Lucas raced toward him, Benson said rudely, "We all thought you were long dead in the snake pit. We never expected to see you again."
Benson's large hand slammed into Lucas's head, causing him to shrink back and his facial expression to become more animated.
Benson and Lucas exchanged information about their experiences over the past few days. Even though only a few days had passed, hearing those familiar names from Benson already stirred a long-lost feeling in Lucas. He also told Benson about his perilous "journey," emphasizing Catherine in particular. If it weren't for her, he would most likely have perished in the snake pit.
“I never imagined that there would be other living humans in the Devil’s Forest besides us… From what you’ve said, she seems to be living quite comfortably.” Benson immediately caught the detail in Lucas’s words and realized that Catherine was not like him, who had been taken to the snake pit as food.
Benson stroked his chin, lost in thought for a moment.
They came here because they accidentally killed a nobleman outside and, seeing that they couldn't survive in the slums, heard that there was a way to save their lives in the Devil's Forest, and were forced to enter.
So why did that woman enter the Devil's Forest?
The terror of Devil's Forest was common knowledge throughout the city—those eerie and terrifying legends were told to almost everyone by their elders as bedtime stories when they were young. Moreover, compared to them, she had a relatively easy life; if it weren't for saving Lucas, she might have survived without having to fight the swarm of snakes.
I just hope... her goals aren't aligned with theirs, otherwise, even if she saved Lucas's life, all I can say is sorry!
After all, there was only one "life-saving method" that person mentioned.
Lucas didn't think as much as Benson did. Age-wise, he was still just a child, and the worries he had before entering the Devil's Forest were far less significant than those of adults. Although he had been fleeing for his life in the Devil's Forest for almost a week, he hadn't matured that quickly.
He simply stood obediently to the side, waiting for Benson to figure out what was going on.
But before that, his stomach started growling.
Benson raised an eyebrow at him. Lucas, his face flushed, touched his stomach and said in a low voice, "It's been so long since I've had anything that can be considered food."
Benson chuckled, raised his hand and put it on Lucas's shoulder, the force causing Lucas to stumble forward several steps.
"Let's go! I'll take you to get some meat!"
-
Tarasco ultimately won the battle.
As he approached the spiderweb cage, the first thing Catherine smelled was an overwhelming, unmistakable stench of blood.
"Are you hurt?" Catherine immediately put aside all her thoughts, crouched down in the gap between the spider webs, and focused on her "performance".
Tarasco lowered his head and met her gaze.
He heard her question, reacted for a moment, and then shook his head. He pointed to a bloodstain on his body, then to the prey he was carrying.
"It's his... I'm not afraid!"
His Wilandar language was still not very fluent, but it was an improvement over the beginning.
Tarasco bent down and placed the spider silk cage back onto his carapace with both hands.
Catherine peered out from the spiderweb and, upon seeing the enormous prey lying on the ground, knew that Tarasco was preparing to return to its nest—this amount of food was enough for them to eat for a day. Of course, most of it would end up in the stomach of the alien spider; she didn't have the appetite to finish off all the prey.
Because carrying the carcass of the prey meant he couldn't leap and bound like he had come, the return journey was much safer.
Catherine's eyes darted around, and she asked tentatively, seemingly unintentionally, "Was the last time you encountered humans also in this area?"
Tarasco looked puzzled.
Clearly, that human was of little importance to him; it probably occupied his mind for less than a day before being coldly forgotten.
"Do you remember that dictionary you found? The one about the human species."
Tarasco then remembered.
In the Devil's Forest, the memories associated with such special items are far more intense than those of ordinary humans.
Tarasco, oblivious to Catherine's probing, shook his head, denying her guess: "That time, the other one..."
The alien spider painstakingly sifted through its mind, pulling out two words from the dictionary to form the meaning it wanted to convey, and then spoke them aloud.
What he meant was that the cave where the human species was discovered was on a different path.
This aligns with Catherine's suspicions.
Devil's Forest is a vast primeval forest, lush with vegetation and thick with fog, making it easy to lose one's way. It's virtually impossible to follow the same route every time you go hunting.
Back in the cave, Tarasco raised his sharp legs and easily split the sturdy spider silk cage in half, and Catherine crawled out.
Despite being very careful, a few strands of spider silk still got into her hair and clothes, so she had no choice but to walk to the pool to clean them off.
Of course, ordinary spider silk cannot dissolve in water, and that of alien spiders is even less likely to do so. However, applying water will slightly reduce its stickiness.
A rustling sound came from behind, and soon Tarasco approached. His massive body blocked the flow of air, making Catherine feel a little stuffy.
Tarasco had intended to pull her onto his lap, but suddenly his nose twitched... and he smelled that fishy odor again.
It wasn't so strong as to be unbearable, but rather subtle. It would quietly appear when no one was looking for it, and then disappear again when they tried to find it carefully.
Tarasco frowned, a strange sense of irritation rising within him—like the irritation of his territory being touched by something disgusting.
Catherine had her back to him at first, so she didn't notice Tarasco's unusual behavior in time. When she realized he hadn't moved for a while and tried to turn around, she was suddenly picked up by him.
Before she could even gasp, Tarasco had already begun frantically leaving marks all over her body—but he wasn't a monster who liked leaving his mark; he preferred to get straight to the point.
Catherine could sense that something was wrong with him, but she didn't know why. She just felt that the time that followed was exceptionally difficult to endure.
Catherine gritted her teeth and endured it, and finally it came to an end.
Tarasco held her in his arms and buried his head in her neck, inhaling her scent for a long time.
After confirming that the smell had been successfully masked, he hugged Catherine tighter with satisfaction, a contented smile on his face.
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