The mountain above us was vary barren, mainly being rocks and a few sparse weeds and shrubs. In these caves however, it was still very much barren, but there were at least the few mushrooms and unfortunately bugs here and there. This adventure I delegated Ciel to be the main leader in that all of the Merc Summons are to respond and report to Ciel their findings first. Ciel would of course message me if anything big happened, but I told her that I have confidence in her abilities to handle this operation. 

So far the only trouble my summons have found are the few Arachnids they have found. The arachnids are on average 8ft tall, and possess venom, webs, and a hardened exoskeleton. The only other creatures in the cave so far are either the mushroom and algae, or the few bugs we have found. And by bugs I do mean normal sized ants and such. 

"My lady I have an update on team 1's new findings. Deeper into the cave it a path has been found that is entirely encased in the Arachnids webs. The floors, walls, and ceilings are entirely covered in spider silk. I believe that we have found the beginning of the path to the Spiders colony."

"Can the Merc Summons traverse the webbed floor?"

"It appears to have hindering effects on their mobility, but they are able to shrug it off. Still the fact that the whole tunnel is covered means that progress may be slowed. In addition, there is a greater danger in case the Arachnids choose to attack while their mobility is hindered."

So that means that to travel further into the mountain, we would all have to walk through web encased floors, which will stick to us and slow our movements. Spider silk should be flammable I believe, but the dangers of setting this whole underground cave on fire could have rather devastating effects. The amount of flames and smoke would make these tunnels uninhabitable for a while, if these webs run as deep as I can imagine. It could also destroy or kill items or people I may not want to harm. One of the worse case scenarios would also be the fire making these caves unstable due to the gas and pressure buildup, or if the fire may weaken these walls. 

"Ciel, for now have team 1 try to traverse the webbed tunnel, but let them travel at their own pace. Its fine if they slow down, as long as they are able to properly respond to any attacks. For your team, avoid these webbed tunnels, and instead try to map these out, outside of the webbed parts for now." Ciel has a handy ability that allows her to hold an internal map of the areas she has traveled too. She can then use her shadow magic to teleport from place to place as long as there are shadows there at that time. This is also one of the main reasons why she is the head of this operation. 

"Understood my lady, be safe. "

I want to save the fire as a last resort, especially since the whole operation would take a long time to both spread, and for the fumes to be blown out from the caves. There is a possibility of some pockets in the caves storing the fumes instead of letting them flow out so setting fire to the webs would also cause these kinds of problems. 

Back to walking these long and dark and damp and ... long tunnels. Travelling down these tunnels, our only light source is a small tier 1 light spirit I summoned. It costs 60mp/h unfortunately. I originally have 390mp/h regen, but after 10 Tier 3 Beast Summons, I lose 300mp/h and have as a result only 90mp/h. Minus 60 I have now 30mp/h. I end up using the leftover 30mp/h regen to summon another Tier 3 Bat Beast. It is travelling 150ft in front of our group so it can alert us of nearby enemies either through its echolocation, or by springing any ambushes as bait. 

I tried to get Nix to see if she could sense some of the surrounding Arachnids, but it seems that her range isn't that far nor accurate yet. Well, more than likely team 1 and Ciel's team has probably wiped out most of the Arachnids along our path since we are following in their footsteps minus the back tracking from dead ends they warn us about. 

Travelling deeper underground, I reckon that we are a good few hundred meters below ground by now. We did stumble upon a few Arachnids, one of which was even bringing back prey wrapped in a cocoon. Sigrun and Nix dispatched them easily, but this tells me that these tunnel systems are probably connected to multiple exits. That this underground system is more intricate and complex than I thought.