“I’ll have a small army to take down the more difficult opponents soon enough at this rate,” I said before I chuckled. “Might even have to cancel the request at the guild.”

“I’m… not sure if you’re joking right now.”

“I am, but now we’ll have to have an even greater emphasis on the fact that they can’t be arachnophobic.”

“Elle will make sure they like spiders soon enough. No need to worry about that.”

“Heh,” I let out. “That’s a good point.” I then shook my head with a smile. “No, I’d still like the extra party members. As much as my minions are good at listening, they don’t really talk back. Still, their coordination is on point, and I have no doubt they will work well with whoever decides to join us.”

“Big goals,” Cellestra said. “But there’s still a while before that’s going to be realized.”

“Yeah. I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have them hunt some more lionesses for the time being. They love me complimenting them, and it seems they are eager to continue earning it.” I turned to the spiders. “Right?”

All five of them nodded, ready to take down more dungeon creatures, and without waiting for me to talk again, they skittered off in their far-too-effective circle formation, looking for prey.

Over the next two hours or so, they managed to find and kill several more predatory felines. Near the end, it had become harder to find any, and with the last one’s death, a new message showed up for me.

I took in the words and relayed the message to Cellestra who was more than happy for me. Taking the spiderling skill and the complimentary upgrades for them had cost me many evolution points and I was happy to see some of them returned through achievements.

“Great job, all,” I said as I approached them. “You were amazing. Great job on leading them Amarys.”

I petted her head, earning the affection of the ever-so-serious spider. I was overjoyed to see that even she could show such a positive emotion in the form of a small hug from her slightly bloodied pedipalps.

“But I think we’ll have to call it a day here. There is hardly anything left to hunt.”

They nodded again, and I turned around to exit the grasslands, but after a few yards, I noticed Shayla skitter off to the side. I was about to ask what she was doing, but she appeared to be focused on something, taking small steps through the grass, before halting and repeating the process.

After like half a minute of watching, I decided to ask anyway.

“What is it, Shayla?”

She ignored my words and continued on. Eventually, she came to a halt and raised her pedipalps, beckoning me over.

I was confused as to what was going on, but it was clear she wanted to show me something. Then, I saw it.

Hidden in the grass lay the lower part of an arm, cut off at the elbow. The bone was undamaged, indicating it had been ripped off, rather than cut, and judging from the darkened blood and skin, it had been here for a while already.

“By the goddess,” Cellestra let out, peeking over my shoulder. “What happened here?”

“I have no idea,” I replied. “And I don’t know if I want to know. The question is, what do we do?”

“Leave it?” She suggested with a question, quite possibly grossed out by it.

“Not gonna happen,” I said, shaking my head, before skittering around, pushing away the grass with my halberd, trying to see if there were any other body parts around somewhere. I had the spiderlings help me, but after half an hour of searching, we came up dry and gathered back where we found the arm.

“This is odd,” I mentioned. “There’s no body. Did this person lose half an arm and run away?”

“But there’s no trail of blood,” Cellestra spoke my thoughts.

“Exactly.”

I reached out and took the arm, turning it around to see if there was perhaps a ring or anything else that could tell me more about who it had belonged to, but there was nothing.

Nothing, except for a blackened scar that ran across the palm. My first instinct was that it was a result of whatever had caused his arm to come off in the first place, but upon closer inspection, I could clearly tell that this was a cutting wound, likely caused by a sword or knife. And because it hadn’t healed and the sides of the incision were stained with dark blood, it must have been recent, as in, right before the arm was severed.

“You see what I see?” I asked.

“I learned to recognize wounds. That’s unlikely to be caused by what tore off the arm, and it’s fresh.”

I nodded, happy that my conclusion seemed to be the right one.

“So,” I continued. “We have a bit of a mystery here as to who, why, and how. I think it would be wise to report this to the guards outside… and probably take this with us.”

Shayla still stood in front of me with expectant eyes. I smiled and petted her with a pedipalp.

“Good job, Shayla.”

She happily accepted the pats before we moved forward again, the severed arm in hand. I was thinking about what we could tell the guards, but there was just so little information. Perhaps they knew more, a missing person or something, anything.

We stepped through the portal to the surface, and before stepping forward to the chattering men in armor, I told my minions to stay behind. I didn’t want them to be seen as a threat.

“Hey,” I said, interrupting their conversation as I approached, presenting the limb. I thanked Elysa that they weren’t eating. The gruesome sight of this might have done their hunger in. “I found something in the dungeon that I figured you’d want to know about.”

The closest guardsman shook his head wildly before I saw his eyes narrow behind his helmet.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“I fear so. We found this in the grassy area, hidden, and several things about it don’t make sense. Could I ask if there is any person missing or something?”

“None of your business!” One of the other soldiers shouted, which caused the first to raise a gloves hand to shut him up.

“Pretty sure it is her business now, and I’m afraid there are no such reports, nor do we have our own information on it.”

I cocked my head as I was unsure what he meant.

“You see,” He continued. “We keep track of whoever goes into the dungeon, and whether they come out. No person has disappeared in quite some time. Mind if I have a look?”

“Sure,” I said, stepping forward and placing the half-arm on the ground. “One thing Cellestra and I both noticed is a distinct wound on the palm. We feel that must have occurred shortly before the limb was severed, or rather, the damage makes us think it was ripped off.”

He turned the arm so the hand was facing upward and scratched his head.

“And here I thought nothing ever happened around here. Halan, get the guild clerk. We have a situation here.”

The soldier who’d been condescending to me stood up and left.

“I’d be happy to provide any additional information,” I said. “But there’s very little I know. We searched the area for about half an hour and found nothing. There was no body, no trail of blood that could indicate someone running off, nothing.”

“That’s not nothing,” He said. “It might be a vital clue.” He seemed to think for a few moments before speaking again. “Thank you for this. I don’t think there is much else you could have done. We’ll file a report with the guild and note your witness statement. If anything comes of it, we’ll let you know. You pass through here often enough.”

I nodded.

“If that is all, we’ll be on our way again. Good luck with this all.”

He nodded as well, as I beckoned the spiderlings over to continue our journey home, earning the stares of the nearby soldiers as we left. The sight had Cellestra giggling softly while I used some warm water to wash my hands, wanting to get rid of the awkward feeling that holding a lost arm had given me.

The way to the farm was quiet, which allowed me to think about what this could mean, and how this came to be. When my parents’ residence came into view, however, I pushed everything away as my eyes fell on my little sister. I wouldn’t let anything ruin my quality time with her or my parents. She was waiting for us and waved excitedly.

Elle saw her too, and she immediately ran towards the elven girl.