A pale-skinned figure trundles out of the darkness.
Actually, let me correct that. It's a thing that was once a person.
"Grrrr...."
We've finally come face-to-face with Skyrim's most famous resident: the Draugr.
The thief who stole the claw probably woke it up when he passed through here. It must have been wandering around until it sensed our presence and came to investigate.
Draugr are certainly stronger than bandits. Fortunately, this one was empty-handed.
An unarmed opponent is easy meat. I might as well take the opportunity to test a few things out during the fight.
I immediately ordered Choi Ha-neul to aim for its arm. She swung her axe with everything she had, slamming it into the Draugr's left shoulder.
—Thwack!
The Draugr's left arm flew clean off. It realized it had been attacked a moment too late and tried to counter, but Choi Ha-neul caught the blow with the haft of her axe.
'Hmm...'
That brief exchange gave me several pieces of data.
Draugr have low defensive capabilities, their nerves have clearly rotted away to the point they feel no pain, and their reflexes and reaction speeds are incredibly sluggish.
However, judging by the heavy thud of the Draugr's fist against the wooden handle of the axe, their raw physical power is nothing to sneeze at.
'Wearthier than I expected, but still weak. I guess that's what happens when you nap for centuries.'
To put it simply, they're basically zombies that don't cause infections.
Of course, there isn't just one type of Draugr. There are various empowered versions like Restless Draugr, Wights, and Draugr Death Overlords. But at this early stage, they weren't much of a threat.
"You can finish it off now."
As soon as I gave the order, Choi Ha-neul took its head.
'This might be easier than I thought.'
I had expected this adventure to be grueling, but so far, it was smooth sailing. Still, I knew this Draugr was bottom-of-the-barrel even by undead standards, so I didn't let my guard down.
As we continued deeper, something brushed against my arm.
'Hm? Cobwebs?'
Now that I noticed, the webs had been getting thicker for a while. Now, they practically decorated the walls and ceilings.
'Right. The guy who stole the Golden Claw got himself snagged by a giant spider, didn't he?'
"Ha-neul. Do you happen to hate spiders?"
"Ptooey! What?"
Choi Ha-neul spat out a strand of web she hadn't seen in the dark and wiped her face, looking back at me.
In the game, dungeons were usually lit by convenient candles or just had enough ambient light to see. Now that it was reality, relying on a single torch made everything oppressively dark.
"Spiders? Ugh... I absolutely despise bugs..."
Technically they're arachnids, but to someone like her, that was a distinction without a difference. I broke the bad news.
"Looks like we're about to fight a big one."
Her face immediately clouded over with despair. But it couldn't be helped.
On future adventures, she'd have to face monsters ten times more horrific than this. She needed to start building up some mental resistance now.
Sure enough, we soon reached a point where the entire tunnel was blocked off by thick layers of webbing.
Since there was no other way, we took our blade and axe to the webs, hacking our way forward.
As we did, a voice echoed from deep within the cavern.
"Harknir? Bjorn? Soling? I'm so sorry I ran off with the Golden Claw! It was a mistake, please, just get me down from here!!"
'Ah, that line...'
Arvel the Swift. A petty thief who stole a claw from a general store, betrayed his comrades, tried to pocket the loot for himself, and ended up as spider food.
Setting the thief aside for a moment...
"What are we going to do about that spider..."
I stared up at the giant spider hanging from the ceiling of the wide chamber. Beside me, Choi Ha-neul's face had already gone pale.
It was roughly the size of a small truck, possessed razor-sharp mandibles, and carried lethal venom.
I figured combining our strength with the Dragonborn would make it manageable, but my protagonist happened to be a total wimp when it came to bugs.
I grew pensive. Charging in without a plan was a recipe for disaster.
"Um..."
While I was calculating the odds, Choi Ha-neul spoke up first.
"I know both spiderwebs and spiders are weak to fire. Maybe I can do something with my magic?"
A decent idea based on modern common sense. However, the problem was that her Flames spell had a pathetically short range.
The spider, on the other hand, could spit poison from quite a distance. We needed to set it on fire from as far away as possible.
"I'm worried about the range. That thing spits venom balls."