Entering Apocalypse in Easy-Mode
Chapter 531: A Prelude

Chapter 531: A Prelude

Clyde winced and clutching his side as if the wound still burned. But in truth, the pain had already faded.

Within seconds of the fight ending, the laceration across his ribs had begun to close. The bleeding stopped first, then the torn flesh knit itself together with unnatural speed. His skin itched from the rapid regeneration but no scar would remain.

His stats were too high. His constitution, boosted by his soul and the remnants of his system power, let him heal from most surface wounds almost instantly.

But he didn’t let Mina know that.

Instead, he staggered slightly and hissed through his teeth, playing up the pain. She was already rushing toward him with wide and worried eyes.

"You sure you’re okay?" she asked again while scanning his side.

Clyde just gave a tight nod, panting slightly for effect. "I’ll manage."

Mina bit her lip. "So what now? What do we do next?"

He stayed quiet for a moment to think. The Selection Stage hadn’t officially started yet. There was no system interface, floating numbers, or rewards or experience points. Which meant that the creature gave him no Exp.

He turned his eyes back to the carcass.

"Wait here," he said.

Mina blinked. "Why? What happen now?"

"Just stay back for now. I want to check something."

With still pale face, she nodded and stayed near the trees.

Clyde approached the corpse again. The monstrous form of the mutated dog lay sprawled on the blood-soaked grass, steam still rising from its blackened wounds.

He nudged it with his foot, then pushed harder with his spear, rolling the massive body just enough to expose what was underneath.

His eyes narrowed.

Half-submerged in a shallow pool of oily, dark blood was something sharp.

"Just like I thought," he muttered.

He turned back to Mina. "Come here."

She hesitated for a second, then walked over slowly, her boots squelching in the mud.

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

He didn’t answer at first. Instead, he pointed with the tip of the Silvercoil Spear. "Look there."

Mina followed the direction, and she let out a gasp.

Nestled in the glistening pool beneath the corpse was a dagger. Its blade was curved, sleek, and glowing faintly red. Not just a trick of the light but she was certain that there was something alive about its surface.

"It’s a weapon," she said.

Clyde nodded. "You can take it."

Mina looked at him, startled. "What? Me?"

He didn’t flinch. "Yeah. It’s yours now."

"But you... you’re the one who killed it. You should keep it."

"I already have this," Clyde said, lifting his spear slightly. "Besides, you’ll need something too. If we’re gonna survive what’s coming you can’t just stay behind and watch forever."

She stared at the dagger again, then reached out with trembling fingers. Her hand hovered for a moment, then slowly closed around the hilt.

It felt warm in her palm and light..

"It’s mine?" she whispered.

Clyde gave a short nod. "Yeah. For now keep it close. I don’t know if it’s magical or not. Van’t confirm anything before the system activates. But something tells me it’s not ordinary dagger."

Mina held it carefully, turning it in her hand. "How can you tell?"

"I can’t be certain," he said. "But that thing died then the dagger appeared. That doesn’t happen by accident."

He watched her for a moment. She looked uncertain but something in her expression shifted like the weight of holding the dagger gave her something new. Maybe courage.

Clyde glanced back at the forest.

Then he felt another pull again.

Softer this time, but still real. His senses tingled. Like something just shifted deeper in the woods.

He looked up. The sky was still bright, but the sun had begun to dip. They had time. Maybe just enough.

"There’s more," he said.

Mina looked at him. "You feel it again?"

"Yeah. Let’s go."

She gave a firm nod and stepped up beside him, clutching her dagger tighter.

They moved again, Clyde leading through the wild narrow path deeper into the trees. Birds scattered above them. The ground sloped downward and the air grew damp.

After about two minutes, they stopped dead in their tracks.

At the base of a shallow ridge, the earth opened into a jagged hole, half-hidden behind a collapsed tree.

But what caught their attention wasn’t the entrance of the hole only. It was the web.

Thick cords of stringy and white like plastic rope web were stretched across the trees and ground like a barrier. They glistened faintly, shimmering with unnatural threads of light.

Clyde stepped closer and narrowed his eyes.

It wasn’t normal spiderweb.

"There are maybe a nest inaide the hole," he muttered.

Mina peered over his shoulder, her eyes wide. "Of what?"

"I don’t know yet. Could be a big spider."

He crouched low, examining the edges. Strange markings surrounded the entrance. Not random scratches but intentional. A kind of circular design burned into the bark and dirt. Some kind of summoning seal. Or containment ward.

And it had been broken.

Something had come out already.

Clyde sighed. This wasn’t a normal forest anymore. This foreat migh become a test zone already. A prelude.

The World Master was already setting the stage.

Clyde wasn’t sure what was inside the hole. The thick webbing, the warped summoning circle, the unnatural hum in the air. It all pointed to something big. Something that the World Master’s brought in.

"Could this be a portal to auon monsters that would appeared in the Selection Stage?" he wondered. A summoning channel where the World Master dropped monsters like seeds into soil and letting them sprout into this world with claws and fangs. This nest was one of the entry points.

Before he never knew where they come from and that maybe not important.

Mina’s voice broke his train of thought. "So... what now?"

Clyde glanced at her, then back at the glistening web. He exhaled sharply through his nose.

"We pull back," he said. "This might be too dangerous for now. Even for me."

Mina’s shoulders visibly dropped in relief. "Yeah. Good. I was really hoping you’d say that."

He turned away from the hole. "We’re not ready for this fight yet."

"Okay, let’s go," she muttered quickly, gripping her dagger like it might start shaking in her hand.

They turned and began making their way back up the slope, picking their steps carefully through roots and underbrush. The forest seemed quieter than before. No birds. No wind. Just the sound of their boots in the mud.

Skrrrrk!

Auddenly a dry scraping noise appeared. Like legs dragging over stone.

Clyde frowmed. Mina turned her head. Then both of them looked back.

From the mouth of the burrow, the web parted. Something moved within the shadows.

Then three spiders emerged.

Each one was the size of the mutated hound from earlier. Their bodies were bulbous, swollen with black pustules. Their legs were long and chitinous, dripping with strands of glowing webbing. Their eyes glinted red, too many of them.

But it wasn’t just their size. It was their shape. One had a second set of mandibles. Another had too many legs, twitching out of rhythm. The third was missing half its face but kept walking like nothing mattered.

Mina gasped. "Oh god!"

"Run," Clyde said calmly and stepping forward. "Now."

Mina didn’t argue. She spun and bolted uphill.

Clyde raised the Silvercoil Spear and moved behind her, putting himself between her and the monsters.

The spiders let out high-pitched and hungry screeched. They rushed forward but Clyde didn’t let them close the gap all at once.

He spun the spear in his hand and slammed the butt into the ground, sending up a crackle of force.

He didn’t have to kill them. He just had to delay. Long enough for Mina to escape. Long enough to make them regret crawling out of that hole.

And as the first spider lunged toward him with a wild, jittering scream Clyde met it his spear.

Clyde’s movements were precise, almost effortless. The Silvercoil Spear danced in his hands, arcs of silver after effects trailing with each strike.

One spider lunged and he pierced its thorax clean through. Another tried to flank him but he moved and severing its legs before finishing it with a downward thrust. The last screamed as it leapt, but he caught it mid-air, driving his weapon straight into its gaping maw.

In seconds, all three were dead.

Their twitching bodies slumped into the dirt and leaking black ichor.

Clyde exhaled and turned his gaze to the corpses. He waited.

Nothing happened. No dropped item.

These monsters were like early seeds tossed in to stir the environment by that crazy World Master withiut any thought, with random dropped items and no Exp. Dangerous for humans but for someone like him they were child’s play.

Still, that thing inside the burrow was maybe something else.

He cast one last glance at the broken web, then turned away.

The forest ahead was quiet, but he could hear Mina’s footsteps somewhere uphill, fast and uneven.

He adjusted his grip on the spear and sprinted after her.

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