What I discovered was a ring stuck on the right index finger of a completely dried-up corpse.
Overall, it was a grayish silver with complex patterns carved on the top. Despite the considerable time that had passed, it had not lost its original luster at all.
This is exactly the item required to progress the main story. That’s why Arachnae is the boss that needs to be defeated for the story to move forward.
I forced myself to ignore the horrendous sensation touching the finger as I grasped the dried-up hand. If I just took this, I wouldn’t have to come back here.
‘Taking the whole corpse isn’t an option.’
In-game, when you press the interaction key here, the character only takes the ring. After all, the story progresses just fine.
Besides, it was firmly secured to the wall with spider silk. It’s not that I couldn’t pull it off with my strength, but the commanders might be able to, yet there was a huge risk of the corpse getting damaged in the process.
Instead of breaking off a piece to bring it back, it was better not to take anything at all.
‘……But why isn’t it coming off?’
I struggled for quite a while to pull the ring off the finger. I thought it would be easy since it was stuck on the dried-up corpse, but it felt as if it were glued on, refusing to budge even slightly.
I added more strength. Then, I felt the ring starting to come off slowly. My arm began to tremble. As the ring inched out, I thought if I just added a little more force—
Snap.
‘Huh?’
The ring came off.
The problem was that the corpse’s finger came off with it.
“……”
I stared blankly at the broken finger, then carefully placed it back between the strands of spider silk. I decided to just act as if I hadn’t seen it.
After a struggle, I tucked the ring I had pulled from the finger into my potion pouch and headed outside the cave. From a distance, I could see the commanders waiting after taking care of Arachnae.
Lize waved at me with a bright smile.
“You’re quite late. What were you up to?”
Claudia held the severed head of Arachnae in her hand, as if she had decided to bring proof of the hunt in the most traditional way after pondering what to take.
I pulled out the ring from my potion pouch and placed it on my palm. Three pairs of different eyes turned towards my hand.
“For this.”
“This is…….”
Erica seemed to recognize something. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“Do you know something, Erica?”
“Yes. This is the emblem of a noble house. Just a moment. Which house was it again….”
The commanders fell deep into thought.
Originally, I was supposed to return to the knights and show them the ring to trigger an event, but since we all came together to hunt Arachnae, it seemed to begin right here.
Of course, I knew which house it belonged to too. However, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that the name might have changed, so I chose to wait silently for Erica’s answer.
No, in retrospect, it would be more accurate to think that it definitely had changed. It was faster to find out what hadn’t changed than what had at that point.
“I remember! It’s from the Pratroid house. This is definitely the emblem of the Pratroid family!”
‘As expected.’
It was a name I had never heard before.
“But… why was the ring that symbolizes that family found here?”
“Why do you think?”
I pointed towards the numerous corpses sprawled along the walls. Each one had been completely drained of blood and was tightly bound in webs. Some had parts of their bodies swollen.
The expressions of the commanders quickly hardened as they grasped the meaning.
“……I understand now. Let’s take this ring. I will send a letter to the Pratroid house later.”
Erica spoke in a slightly subdued voice. Claudia gripped the head of Arachnae tightly, and Lize bit her lip slightly.
“Alright. Understood.”
One of the commanders would send a letter to the Pratroid house, and the player would have to personally visit to deliver this ring, progressing the main story.
It’s worth noting that if the ring wasn’t obtained, the exit path wouldn’t open, so it’s safe to say players wouldn’t overlook its existence.
Even if a player failed to find a hidden path, they’d likely end up circling the boss room without seeing the exit, eventually stumbling into the cave and wondering if that was the way out.
“Ah, finally going back to the castle—?!”
In an instant, Claudia almost blurted out but covered her mouth with her hand. All our gazes focused on her. Claudia abruptly let out a harsh cough, as if she were about to spill her guts.
Hack! Cough, cough!
As soon as I heard that cough, a chill of sweat rolled down my back. It crossed my mind with a sense of dread.
“Claudia. Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“……No. Just a sudden cough. The air here isn’t very good. I’ll be fine once I get outside.”
“You really don’t seem fine at all. You look serious!”
Lize and Erica both spoke with worried expressions on their faces. They were right to be concerned. If my thoughts were correct, Claudia was definitely not okay.
“Why is everyone so worried? I’m really fine! I just need some fresh air.”
Claudia forced a smile and made excuses, but the beads of sweat forming on her face showed that she was far from fine.
“Not okay, so hand that over first.”
“Uh? Delta, you….”
I snatched the head of the spider queen from her hand.
As soon as I took the head, Claudia didn’t even finish her sentence and collapsed helplessly to the ground. She seemed to have lost the strength to hide it, her breathing noticeably quickening.
“Lize. Hold this for me, will you?”
“What on earth is happening? Why is Claudia acting like this all of a sudden?”
“I told you, right? Their bodily fluids are coated in deadly poison? So I warned you not to come into contact if you didn’t want to get poisoned.”
“……No way?”
I nodded firmly.
“Yep. It’s poisoning.”
Poisoning is one of the status ailments inflicted by regular and deadly poison in Brightest Darkness 4.
Once poisoned, health decreases by a percentage over time. With regular poison, it drains 50% of maximum health over three minutes, whereas deadly poison takes away 85% over the same duration.
Some might argue that having low HP makes it advantageous because it is proportional to maximum health, but that’s not always the case due to minimum damage.
Actually, the duration of poison is so long that it’s rare to die directly from poison damage unless you’re extraordinarily careless.
Taking regular poison as an example, losing 50% of maximum health over three minutes results in only 0.2% of maximum health lost per second. Even deadly poison deals less than 0.5% per second.
However, the true fear of poison lies in its ability to restrict a player’s movement.
Every 15 seconds, regular poison will cause a cough for one second, while deadly poison will induce a cough for two seconds, rendering the player unable to take any actions. What happens if a cough breaks out during combat? You just die.
The reason the duration of poisoning is three minutes is exactly because of that.
“……I’m sorry for this mess.”
“Stop saying sorry. It’s something you have to do. If you say it one more time, I’m telling Erica.”
Claudia weakly laughed as I carried her out of the gorge, repeating her apologies. It really seemed to weigh heavily on her mind.
There was a reason I was carrying Claudia while leaving Lize and Erica behind.
Pure strength-wise, Lize and Erica were way stronger than me, but Claudia’s height held us back. Claudia was extremely tall, while Lize and Erica were not.
Erica was about average height for a woman, and Lize was considerably shorter than Erica. Because of the height difference, if Claudia was being carried, the other two would be in an uncomfortable position.
Thus, it fell to me, as someone taller than Claudia, to take on this role. Even for me, it was certainly the case I could carry one person.
We returned to the place where the horses were tethered and leaned Claudia against a nearby tree. Her whole body was drenched in sweat, her limbs were limp, and her complexion was seriously bad.
Cough, cough!
She then would violently cough as if her lungs were being torn apart.
‘I should have at least prepared an item to cure the poisoning before starting the boss battle.’
I thought the commanders would manage with the advice I had given them for handling most emergencies, but that proved to be a misjudgment.
Of course, everything had been fine until then.
What a twist of fate to have a problem arise just when things were about to go awry. Who could have even imagined a situation like this happening at that moment?
‘The symptoms had better match the game.’
In the game, it just causes a little coughing and some health to be lost. But here? Would it just end with losing some health too?
‘I don’t know.’
I couldn’t be certain of anything.
“Riding in that condition is……”
“Absolutely impossible alone. Erica, you head back to the castle first and find a way. Delta will ride with Claudia, while I’ll guard you both.”
Lize and Erica exchanged serious glances, the atmosphere turning quite grave.
“If only I were a little shorter… If it were Lize, I could fit nicely in Delta’s arms,” cough, “but…”
“Are you joking around in this situation, Claudia? We are serious here so please be quiet.”
Claudia let out a silly laugh and made a joke. It seemed it was an attempt to lighten the mood, but it only backfired. Erica sighed deeply.
“Is there perhaps a solution, Delta?”
It looked like she was trying to hold onto her last shred of hope. The expectant gaze directed towards me contained subtle anticipation.
“There is a chance.”
Brightest Darkness 4 may be a tough game, but it’s not an unfair one, so in places where monsters that use poison and deadly poison appear, antidotes that cure poisoning usually drop.
‘The problem is Darkest Light mode.’
However, Darkest Light mode is unfair.
Normally, you could find a bunch of herbs around here that could be used as an antidote for deadly poison. In fact, they could regenerate after a while, so if time allowed, it’d be possible to stockpile them indefinitely.
But not in Darkest Light mode.
All the antidotes around Arachnae’s boss room have been completely wiped out, and it would take quite a distance before I could finally find one, and they’d not respawn either, making it a one-time deal.
If you’re weak enough to fall prey to the poison of a mere mid-boss, then you might as well just die from the poison.
‘……Just how far away could it be?’
I know the direction. The important thing is how far it is from here.
“If we go this way, we can find antidote herbs. But I have no idea how far away it is. It could be one hour, two hours, or even longer.”
“Time doesn’t matter. What matters is that there’s a way.”
As I nodded, Lize looked determined and resolute. Knowing what would follow, I prepared to go find the antidote.
“Erica, get ready. We need to find the antidote. According to Delta, the antidote must be in that direction. First, before we return to the castle—”
“Looks like you need some help?”
From somewhere, a stranger’s voice that I had never heard before came out. Lize and Erica quickly drew their weapons like the wind, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Flames engulfed Erica’s katana, and ice coated Claudia’s twin daggers.
I was on high alert too. I had never experienced someone else appearing here, so I was tense, gripping the blood-stained sword.
“Who just spoke? Show yourselves or answer. Otherwise, I’ll consider you an enemy.”
“We’re a bit short on time here, you know? If you don’t want to fight, you better show yourself quickly.”
A dreadful atmosphere loomed.
Both would probably have acted more gently if it were under normal circumstances. But with Claudia poisoned, it seemed their reactions were shaped by the urgency of the situation.
“Oh dear, how frightening. I’m only offering to help, there’s no need to get angry.”
The standoff didn’t last long. A woman stepped out from behind a tree, parting the bushes.
She had blonde hair and green eyes.
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