Chapter 346

346 The Man Seeking His Identity #2

The gravekeeper, who had received one thousand gold from me, declared he would be leaving behind all his belongings in the hut.

Thus, I became the new caretaker and undertaker of this eerie shrine compound and communal graveyard.

The son of Pluto, king of the underworld, ending up as a gravekeeper—fitting, in its own strange way.

Of course, it’s only a temporary job until a magnificent shrine is built on this land.

Then, the gravekeeper shared a word of caution.

“Oh, and there’s something you should be aware of.”

“Something I should know?”

“Sometimes at night, you’ll hear sounds of coffins being scratched or digging noises from different spots. Most of the time, it’s just wild raccoons, so you can ignore them.”

I imagined wild beasts digging up corpses. Even if they’re just here due to hunger, it’s not exactly a pleasant picture to envisage.

“And occasionally, the positions of tombstones and graves seem to change. Best not to worry about that too much.”

“I see.”

I nodded, accepting it though it was starting to seem like a job that involved ignoring a lot of strange occurrences.

“And finally, if you ever hear someone calling your name from a grave in the dead of night, you need to go over there.”

The gravekeeper pointed to a narrow corner of the hut with his finger.

“Go to the corner, cover your ears, close your eyes, and do absolutely nothing until morning comes.”

What the…? Fear started to creep in.

“Why should I do that?”

“In case the Queen of the Grave tries to take you.”

“The Queen of the Grave? Who is she…?”

“You’ll find out soon enough. Just don’t provoke her. She can be docile if not angered—she doesn’t like people talking about her behind her back, so I can’t say much more.”

With that, the gravekeeper Britz, the previous owner of this land, left with his bag of gold. Time passed, and as dusk settled into night…

I was busy clearing the hut’s belongings, preparing to build my shrine office on this burial ground.

Before I knew it, darkness enveloped the world outside the window, leaving me startled.

“What, really? How does it get so dark so fast?”

Sreeek… Srrrrk… crunch.

Suddenly, a peculiar noise came from outside the hut. It sounded like claws scraping against wood, accompanied by strange animal cries from all around.

“H-Hassan-sama, this is terrifying! It’s completely pitch black outside!”

Paranoi, who was also tidying up the hut, clung to my leg, shaking uncontrollably. Why is this self-proclaimed cultist, a person of the occult, afraid of the night at a graveyard?

“Hey, Paranoi. Go check out what’s out there. If it’s a wild animal, scare it off with this stick.”

I handed her a long stick. However, Paranoi quickly ran to a corner of the hut and crouched there, trembling.

“No way! Hassan-sama, you’re the tough warrior, so you should go out there and scare off the raccoons with your cudgel!”

d*mn it, I’m scared too.

In the end, I grabbed the cudgel and stepped outside. No matter what’s out there, I’m the future owner of the shrine that will be built on this land.

Therefore, I have both the duty and right to protect the land I purchased for a thousand gold from any uninvited guests.

“Huh…”

Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the hut. The cool night mist touched my skin as I looked up at the moon high in the sky.

The graves and tombstones stretched out before me, appearing strangely different under the moonlight compared to daytime.

Though I wanted to leave this place immediately, I used my blessing, “Dark Vision,” to examine the surroundings carefully.

Moments ago, various eerie sounds were echoing, but now, upon stepping outside, the area was eerily silent. Not a single birdcall, not even a grasshopper to break the quiet.

Is this even normal?

Rather than reassured, I became increasingly vigilant. In my experiences navigating the world, the nights I’ve truly needed to be careful are not when the wild beasts cry out, but during such unnervingly silent nights.

ROAR!

The cudgel in my hand tightened reflexively.

Something is out there in the dark.

It’s undoubtedly somewhere close.

But despite my eyes accustomed to the dark, I couldn’t see anything clearly. I could sense some sort of ominous presence but…

What is it?

Just as I thought this, a rustling noise came from the hut.

“Hassan-sama! There’s something! It’s here!”

Paranoi shouted through the window, panic rising in her voice. As I turned to head back to the hut, she added something alarming.

“It’s not inside—look up!”

Looking up?

The moment I followed Paranoi’s advice and looked up, I almost screamed in sheer terror. Hanging beneath the moonlight was a grotesquely large cobweb, easily big enough to tower over me.

And resting above it was an ominous white-furred creature with haunting black eyes—enough to make anyone’s spine shiver.

“sh*t! That’s the Giant Max Spider!!”

MEOWWWWW!

It let out an ear-splitting cry, moving its arm-length fangs. The sound itself was absolutely terrifying, causing me to trip and fall flat on my b*tt.

A massive spider, covered in pure white fur.

It was as large as the dragons or wyverns I’d encountered before.

What the… how are these things living within the city?

I suddenly understood why the people of the slums near the western gate often went missing, and why this forsaken graveyard was avoided due to its ill-reputed rumors.

“d*mn!”

That b*stard gravekeeper sold me cursed land!

MEOWWWWW!

The gigantic white spider cried out again before springing toward me, pinning me down with its sharp front legs.

“Aaarrrghh! Get off me!”

I flailed my arms wildly, trying to throw it off. But the more my physiological fear of spiders intensified, the more my body froze up.

Even though I had been doing well handling my arachnophobia due to recent encounters with Keng Keng…

When a creature the size of a bus lunges at you, whether it’s a spider or not, freezing up is pretty much inevitable.

Swish, swish…

The spider rolled me around with its front legs.

I instantly thought of a mouse caught by a cat. Cats, because of their mischievous nature, like to torment prey they’ve caught instead of killing them immediately.

It was clear this giant spider intended to torment me before devouring me.

While it might have been fortunate that my life had been extended somewhat by its games, it also meant I could expect to be mutilated and abused by the spider.

Summoning every ounce of strength, I struggled to stand—but was immediately thwarted by the spider’s hooked front leg, leaving me nothing to do but roll around on the grave dirt pathetically.

The spider soon lifted me with two of its front legs. Horrifyingly, it began to rock me back and forth, like a baby.

“sh*t! Let me go!”

Realizing I couldn’t keep playing along with its whims, I gripped the cudgel tightly. As if reacting to my heightened aggression, the tip of my cudgel began to hum and emit a red laser blade.

MEOW….

The spider, sensing fear from my sudden outburst, emitted a surprisingly deflated sound that didn’t match its massive size.

Fwooosh!

It flung me to the ground before disappearing into the earth at an unimaginably fast speed.

“This, you sh*t! Come back here!”

I don’t know where the courage came from, but I furiously swiped my red aura-imbued laser blade across the ground, venting my fury.

“This land is mine, you brat! Get lost!”

After spending one thousand gold for this land, it’s unthinkable to have a humongous spider lurking around—I felt like screaming in frustration.

“Come back, you brat! You’re terrifying! Please, just go somewhere else!”

The spider didn’t reappear, and I ended up having to stay up all night with wide-open eyes.

As the pale morning light broke through the fog the next day…

“So this is the land where you plan to build a shrine?”

Elpride, visiting the shrine grounds, frowned disapprovingly.

“There are graves here. People will surely love having a shrine here.”

Elpride clicked her tongue, clearly unimpressed by my choice of location.

I couldn’t blame her. It was indeed questionable whether believers would gather at a shrine built on a cemetery.

But that was the least of my worries now.

“d*mn, spiders. Enormous spiders! sh*t, spiders, Giant Max-!”

As I recounted the previous night’s encounter to Elpride, who had come to inspect the land, she simply furrowed her eyebrows skeptically.

“Are you teasing me? Why are you ranting about spiders?”

“Hassan-sama encountered a truly giant spider last night…!”

“Giant spider?”

“Absolutely massive! It fought Hassan-sama and then vanished into the ground…! There’s a giant spider hiding beneath this land…!”

“So, the spider burrowed through the ground, leaving all these holes?”

Elpride took a look at the numerous holes scattered around and nodded in understanding.

That was indeed the case.

I had dug up the entire ground trying to ferret out the spider that had vanished. Yet, I couldn’t find even a single strand of its fur or any trace of its massive body.

d*mn, there’s a stalker lurking in my land! Can’t trust this place at all!

But Elpride seemed troubled upon listening to Paranoi’s detailed account.

“It doesn’t seem like it was hostile toward you. Not much I know about spiders.”

Luna had the most knowledge about spiders.

What would Luna have said if she’d seen that giant spider? Would she have tried to converse with it? Who knows.

“Hassan, you have spider webbing on your back. Something colossal.”

“sh*t! Remove it!”

I jumped up like a cat with tape on its back. The sudden shock was enough to make me perform flips I’d never be capable of otherwise.

“Stand still, will you?”

“S, Spider!”

The idea of colossal spider webbing plastered on my back was intolerable. As Elpride carefully removed it, I waited anxiously.

“Aah! He’s breaking the rules! That’s a yellow card…! A warning…!”

Paranoi suddenly shouted something bizarre as she blocked our way between Elpride and me.

“Huh?”