The Matriarch was caught completely off guard as the entire cave hall fell into darkness. Not just that, all sound, all senses seemed to be swallowed by this all-encompassing nothing. She even felt her energy being sapped away, though the amount was so little that it really didn't matter to her.
Before she could ascertain what to do, though, she felt an impact on her back, noting that it was most likely one of the weapons her enemy had been using. But she did not hear a sound of the clash; she never noticed how the attack approached.
And after the first came the second, then the third. Within moments, hundreds of hits pounced on the Matriarch's exoskeleton.
Each time, she could feel small cracks forming.
She panicked.
Flailing wildly, trying to defend herself against this attack. Spraying acid everywhere, swirling her threads in every direction to block as much as she could. But it was of no use. Though on some occasions, some of the claws were blocked. Most hit the target.
The Matriarch tried to scream. To plead for mercy that she knew she would not get. But no sound escaped her maw. And so, silent and unseen, the Matriarch slowly crumbled under the pressure as one of the claws finally broke through her hard exterior.
It didn't take long after that before she died. Afraid and regretful.
She could have fled even after the favor she had received from the God, yet she stayed. She thought herself superior. Thought herself unbeatable with her massive strength increase.
Yet she was sorely mistaken.
Maybe in her next life, she would be more cautious.
The light left the Spider Matriarch's eyes shortly before the darkness that filled the surroundings lifted.
The room was filled with dried husks of the hundreds of other spiders that had still not entered the fight, and in the center lay the huge corpse of the Spider Matriarch. Cracks filled the entirety of its shell, with 3 large holes punched through its torso.
Cely lay on her back next to the corpse, panting.
"Converting Qi into Immortal Qi while still at the Foundation Establishment Realm is truly draining. Luckily, that new ability is worth the drain."
The ability she was talking about was the darkness domain of the Shadow Unicorn, but instead of using her normal Qi to activate it, just achieving sight-blocking, she wanted to use Immortal Qi to massively boost the effect.
But, right before she did, she noticed how her devouring seemed to respond to Immortal Qi, and, on a whim, she infused that into the darkness domain. Results were obviously immensely useful.
For weaker enemies, the domain will start to drain their stamina at a quick pace, while completely disrupting every sense they have.
The only reason Cely could properly act in such a domain was that she was the one using it. Since her devouring worked by practically eating the sound, light, and remnant energy in the air, all that was fed back to her.
Meaning, she saw by eating the light; she heard through eating the sound; and felt the energy by eating it. Even by her standards, that was slightly surreal.
By that description, an obvious advantage becomes clear. The domain feeds itself!
Since the domain absorbs energy at all times, it uses this energy to sustain itself. It is unable to absorb enough for a perpetual existence, though. The initial creation of the domain is the most taxing, with keeping it up afterward being a minor concern, even when the consumption required for upkeep is still substantial.
Now, an obvious question: Where did Cely get Immortal Qi from?
She used her finger claws! When she had requested these weapons, she had asked for some runes that allowed for energy conversion. This way, even without reaching Tier 6, she could use Immortal Qi.
Now, why is that so important? After all, shouldn't the same amount of energy have the same effect?
Not exactly. The reason Immortal Qi is important is that it can touch upon higher concepts. That is the reason Cely was able to use her devouring in combination with her domain. If she used her normal energy, that wouldn't be possible.
Going back to the situation at hand, Cely had finally recovered enough to stand up. She couldn't help but smile as she looked at the carnage around her. It had not been an easy fight.
Don't get fooled by how easy it seemed once her darkness domain had expanded. She still needed to defend against the thrashing Spider Matriarch, while keeping up 10 individual weapons, the domain itself, and keeping tabs on any potential attacks from the smaller spiders.
It was exhausting. But she had done it.
With a swipe of her hand, she stored the large corpse of the Spider Matriarch in her storage ring. She left the corpses of the small ones behind since they were already drained of energy and their bodies really weren't rich in materials.
'I will definitely make that Chaos Hydra suffer in due time, though.'
Cely's red eyes shone with determination as she began the long trek back. The road back was still empty of any enemies and, honestly, she kinda appreciated it this time, considering she was low on energy and needed to recover from the injuries she had sustained.
Due to how much her lack of energy and her injuries were affecting her, it took Cely over a day to reach Grimm.
"Halt! Show us your identification!" A Lizardman guard in light armor stopped her at the gate, making her hand over her adventurer's identification. After making sure of the authenticity, the guard handed the identification back and welcomed her in.
It took her a good long while until Cely finally approached the center of the city, where her abode and the Adventurer's Guild were located.
After reaching the guild, she waited in line for one of the front desks.
"Welcome! What cyan I do for you?" The black-haired Neko woman behind the counter asked as she tilted her head cutely.
"I want to confirm the completion of a task. I exterminated the Oakland Spider Nest at the border of Nimmer Forest. I would like to talk about higher compensation, though due to wrong information regarding the strength of the enemies." Cely replied, unaffected by the girl's antics.
After those words, though, the woman seemed to transform.
"Wait in private room 3 for me. I will get someone to confirm while you do."
Her entire demeanor was now stern, with her tone going from "happy-go-lucky" to serious.
Cely just nodded at the change, as she made her way to the private room.
A few minutes later, the receptionist arrived, together with Dan.
"Cely, I'm sorry, I-" Before he could go on, though, the receptionist behind him grabbed the Wolfman by the ear, making him wince and lower his posture.
"You think apologizing will make this better? You fucked up with the info! Just give her 20 times the agreed amount and get it over with. From the traces we found, that damned spider had reached the late-stage Soul Tier. You know just as well as I how easily that could have led to someone's death! It's a miracle she survived this!"
Cely just watched as the usually proud, if mischievous, Wolfman was heavily berated, saying nothing of how she had angered a Monster God to cause this.
"Yes, darling. I'm... sigh... I'm sorry for this error. We will make sure to be more careful when we compile mission information. Here are 100 high-grade Spirit Stones to make up for the trouble."
"You better be sorry, Dan! Cely was it, right? You don't have to worry about mishaps like this again; I will make sure of it! Now, husband, you have been really arrogant lately, so I feel like you need some punishment. Come, we're going home.
And with that, the Neko pulled Dan, who was looking at Cely pleadingly, as if asking for rescue, out of the room, disappearing into the crowd of the main hall.
Cely just smirked, though, and got up to make her way home to digest the gains of her trip. Not only had she finally gotten some money for some important necessities, but she had also gotten a lot of snacks she still had to consume and a lot of undigested energy to take care of.
So, an hour later, Cely had sat down in her cultivation room again, starting to refine all the energy already inside her first. It took one and a half months until she stabilized her foundation.
At the same time, her cultivation broke through to the 7th stage of Foundation Establishment, which she enjoyed for a bit before going to the next task.
"Time for the appetizers." Licking her lips, Cely poured out a mountain of spider corpses, not including the Spider Matriarch.
Her body partly dissolved into its original form, spreading out over the mountain, digging into each spider, devouring every bit of their being. Over time, most of the remaining energy in them had dissipated, but it was still something, and so, it shouldn't be wasted. The entire mountain was merely enough to push Cely into the 9th stage of Foundation Establishment before it had all been eaten.
"Now, for the main course!"
With a swipe of Cely's hand, the massive corps of the Spider Matriarch landed on the floor where the mountain of corpses had been before. The body was still filled with energy, not having deteriorated much compared to its original state.
In this way, cultivation energy was like ice. The more of it there was, the less of it, in relative terms to the amount, dissipates at a time.
Unable to hold herself back, Cely completely dissolved as she ravenously threw herself onto the body. Moans escaped her mouth as the flood of energy filled her system. Remember: This spider was at the late stage of Soul Tier while Cely was merely at the peak of the Foundation Tier, so this body contained way more energy than she had in total.
Within minutes, a change started to occur, as Cely's aura started to solidify further and further. All the streams of energy she was absorbing concentrated in her dantian (the place where cultivation is stored in the body), concentrating into a single spot. Each pulse of further energy she absorbed was gathered into this one spot.
And soon, the rest of the energy in her body started being attracted here too. Quickly, the absorption from the forming core started to increase further and further, seemingly starting to absorb every aspect of Cely's being.
In a way, it was.
It took another three minutes before it all stopped. The glistening, iridescent Golden Core in Cely's dantian shone with fervor, as her cultivation stabilized at the early stage of the Golden Core Realm, Tier 4.
It didn't stop there, though, as Cely absorbed even more energy from the corpse.
Stage 2.
Stage 3.
Finally stopping at Stage 4.
Cely basked in the pleasure of her ascension and the aftertaste of her meal. In all that followed, she was distracted for a moment too long, as a foreign instinct took over for long enough to activate an ability she had absorbed from the Spider Matriarch.
Cely coughed before gagging as a solid mass was pushed out from her mouth, falling, but being caught instinctively by her hands.
"Did I... just... make an egg?