The spiders' target didn't seem to be Benkt and the others in the first place.
As the team began retreating under cover of the off-road vehicle, the spiders paid almost no attention to the vehicle at all. Most of them started surging toward the exit instead.
"You're just going to let them leave with the golden throne?" Mascher asked, sounding surprised.
Based on what he knew of Ronin, there was no way Ronin should be willing to just hand over a throne that clearly looked incredibly valuable to Benkt's group.
No matter how you looked at it, the most valuable thing in this cave should belong to Ronin.
What Benkt was doing now was basically stealing the fruits of Ronin's labor. Could he really tolerate that?
But Ronin only smiled faintly.
"It's fine. Let them go first."
Judging by his expression, he didn't seem to care at all that the throne was being carried away. Instead, most of his attention was focused on the giant python on the other tree.
He admitted that the python really was strong.
But if it chose to defend the giant tree to the death, Ronin didn't think it would end well.
Because from his senses and observation, the cliff behind the giant tree seemed to be hiding countless spiders.
With numbers like that, even if they had to spend their lives to do it, they could still wear the giant snake on the tree down until it died.
As for the monsters born from the eggs dropping from the giant tree, in Ronin's eyes, they were basically useless. Relying on them to stop the spiders' attack was almost impossible.
Before the Chimera Ants appeared, the key to holding back the spiders should have been the two giant snakes that lived on the giant trees at the same time, along with the large number of Chimera Ants and fire-fearing monsters that must have existed throughout the cave.
Those three forces had worked together, creating a balance with the spider swarm below the cave.
But now the Chimera Ants were dead. The fire-fearing monsters had just gone through a massive round of depletion and were still slowly recovering. Most importantly, one of the two giant snakes on the trees was gone.
The balance had been broken.
There was only one possible outcome waiting for the giant tree and the giant snake: they would be drowned by the endless spider swarm.
Should he step in and preserve these two trees?
Ronin calculated carefully. At the same time, as he looked at the giant snake on the tree, an idea suddenly formed in his mind.
The moment that idea appeared, Ronin's eyes lit up. Without hesitation, he immediately cast a ninjutsu from atop the tree toward the ground below.
In this kind of environment, the best way to fight spiders was simple.
Earth Release.
The ground began to tremble. Rock giants created by the Gōremu-style technique rose from the earth and charged into the spider swarm like bulldozers.
The enormous rock giant barreled forward, carrying countless spider corpses with it all the way to the cliff.
And even when it reached the cliff, it showed no sign of stopping. With a thunderous boom, the rock giant didn't fall into the abyss below, because its huge body jammed itself directly between the cliff and the wall.
More rock giants began appearing, all using the same tactic.
What Ronin wanted to do was block the cliff first. He knew this method wouldn't last very long.
But it didn't need to last long.
He jumped down from the tree and walked toward the giant tree where the snake was.
The rock giants had not only cleared out almost all the spiders, but also nearly wiped out the fire-fearing monsters born from the tree.
But eggs were still falling from the tree, and the ground crushed by the rock giants was now covered in huge amounts of blood and flesh from the spiders.
That blood and flesh would become nutrients for the fire-fearing monsters' growth.
Ronin stepped across the sticky ground and arrived beneath the giant tree. He raised his head and met the giant snake's vertical pupils.
"I know you can understand me," Ronin said seriously. "I want to make a deal with you. I'll help you protect this place, but you'll sign a contract with me."
Ronin didn't care whether the giant snake could truly understand him or not. He directly stated his idea in full.
Among the ninjutsu Ronin had never been able to use, there had always been one especially distinctive technique.
The Summoning Technique.
It wasn't that he couldn't perform the Summoning Technique. It was that he had never had a target he could summon.
After seeing the giant snake on the tree with its enormous aura reserve—especially after Mascher asked whether the snake possessed intelligence—a wild idea had formed in Ronin's mind.
If he could sign a contract with the giant snake, could he summon it at any time by using the Summoning Technique?
And if he reversed the ability, could he use the Reverse Summoning Technique to return to this cave whenever he wanted?
Once those ideas appeared, he could no longer suppress the urge to try.
In fact, he no longer needed the giant snake to agree voluntarily. If the snake chose to refuse, he didn't mind using force to control it, then signing a contract with it afterward.
But right now, he was still missing one important thing.
A summoning scroll.
So Ronin first needed to preserve the giant snake, then have his companions outside the cave make the summoning scroll he needed.
The giant snake looked at Ronin in confusion, as if it didn't understand what he meant.
But it did sense the aggression in Ronin's gaze, and that made it warily release a warning hiss.
Ronin didn't care at all. He turned to Vanessa and said, "Tell Kurapika for me. I need a scroll. Have one made as quickly as possible and bring it in."
Cracking sounds were already coming from the cliff.
That was the sound of the rock giants blocking the cliff being gnawed and slashed apart by the spiders.
It probably wouldn't be long before the spiders surged back into this space again.
Ronin did have one easy way to stop the spiders from invading this area.
He could release Amaterasu at the cliff.
The spiders would become perfect fuel, letting Amaterasu continue burning endlessly.
But after looking at the huge pit behind the giant tree, and the spider corpses being rapidly digested inside it, he rejected that idea.
He didn't want the giant tree to wither away like the trees in the underground city.
So the best solution was to create balance, allowing the situation here to continue long-term.
And to do that, the method was actually simple.
He just needed to spend some money and hire Myuhael.
With Golem's ability, maintaining the balance between the two species here should not be difficult.
Vanessa didn't know exactly what Ronin was planning to do, but she still nodded and headed toward the exit.
Mascher, on the other hand, chose to stay.
He wanted to know exactly what Ronin intended to do.
Ronin and the giant snake remained in a standoff. As for the cliff, after the rock giants were broken through, the Four Violet Flames Formation appeared directly there.
Only this time, it wasn't a sealed enclosure. Instead, under the control of four shadow clones, it formed a barrier.
Every spider that climbed up from below the cliff burst into flames the moment it touched the Four Violet Flames Formation.
The giant snake watched Ronin's actions, and a faintly human-like confusion gradually appeared in its snake eyes.
That confusion didn't last too long, however, because Kurapika moved quickly. Vanessa had only been gone for a few hours. When she returned, she had already brought the scroll Ronin needed.
Only now, the way she looked at Ronin had also become a little strange.