The Laughing Swordsman

Apollo looked towards the chortle with his blindspot.

He saw a decrepit old man.

The old man was wearing a robe with countless tears and holes. He had a bad hunch, making him look short.

One of his eyes had a bad purple bruise. The eyelid had sunk in because the eye behind it was a small pile of mush.

Half of the old man's teeth were missing while the ones that remained were yellow and chipped.

Once Apollo looked at him with his blindspot, the old man jumped.

His chortles turned to silence as he ducked behind a tree.

The old man peeked over and saw Apollo.

"Ah, not a gardener."

Apollo raised an eyebrow.

"What is a gardener?"

The old man stepped out from behind the tree with a chortle.

"They are the things that consume the living things they find and turn them into part of the black mist. This mist is what the trees use to survive."

Apollo raised an eyebrow.

"The creatures that look tall and creepy?"

The old man nodded. His remaining eye inspected Apollo curiously.

"Anyways, what brings you here?"

Apollo shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm trying to find some eagle berries."

The old man hummed with understanding.

"I can understand why you wish to find those magical things, but I advise you to run."

Apollo smirked.

"And why is that?"

The old man's expression became solemn.

"...The weavers."

Apollo sighed.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

The old man hugged himself like he was cold.

"They make deadly webs that are only visible in the corner of your vision."

Apollo furrowed his brows.

Using what he knew, he quickly pieced together that these weavers themselves were in the third layer. However, they somehow bypassed the restrictions to create traps in the fourth layer.

...Since he was in the second layer, traps in the fourth layer shouldn't be able to affect him.

Apollo turned to the old man.

"Is there anything other than the webs I should be worried about?"

The old man chortled.

"There are countless things you should be worried about! Though, I must say those webs should be your greatest fear. I almost lost my life countless times to them!"

Apollo couldn't bring himself to care.

All he had to do was not enter the third layer and he would be fine.

The only real problem would be that the creatures of the third layer would be hard to see. However, that wasn't really a problem.

After all, if he went to the third layer to fix that, he would then have to deal with the creatures in the fourth layer.

Apollo continued retracing his steps.

The old man hurriedly stumbled over to Apollo, reaching out his hand.

"Wait! Did you hear what I just said?"

Apollo sighed.

"Yes, I did. I have a way to deal with those things."

The old man gasped.

"You do? What is it?"

Apollo shrugged his shoulders.

"It won't work for you, but it will for me."

The old man furrowed his brows.

"How can that be the case?"

Apollo sighed.

"Just take my word for it."

The old man grumbled with dissatisfaction but continued to follow Apollo.

As for Apollo, he was scanning the area with his blindspot for any eagle berry bushes.

Suddenly, the old man gasped.

"Weaver!"

The old man ducked behind a tree while Apollo followed suit.

Out of curiosity, Apollo peeked over, looking with his blind spot.

He saw an abnormally large spider. Its body was black with the pattern of a red flower on its carapace.

The spider had eight bright red eyes. They were disproportionately large compared to the rest of its body, bigger than Apollo's head.

Below its eyes were two small fangs, dripping with saliva.

As for the spider's legs, they were long and covered with slimy sweat.

It hung from the top of a tree with two legs. The legs at the bottom were rubbing against each other, causing a small stream of sweat to drip onto the ground.

Apollo ducked behind the tree.

He did not want to fight that thing.

Apollo was not afraid of its power, but its repulsive fluids.

He cringed just from the idea of fighting the weaver.

The old man used his chin to point away from the weaver. He was trying to tell Apollo to flee.

Apollo understood this but did not care.

He had seen the eagle berry bush with a few eagle berries on it.

Apollo wasn't going to run away now.

The old man believed that Apollo could not understand what he meant. As such, his signals became more exaggerated.

His eyes bulged out in his desperation to convey the message.

Apollo did not give the old man the time of day, not even bothering to look at him.

Instead, he was focusing on the eagle berry bush with his blind spot.

The bush was quite large, about seven meters wide. It consisted of dense dark grey foliage. However, despite the size, only two tiny eagle berries were on the bush.

It looked quite sparse, but that did not bother Apollo.

The weaver reached for something high up in the trees.

At that moment, Apollo bolted forward.

The old man's jaw dropped. He gawked in disbelief.

Apollo kept his blindspot on the spider by twisting his head uncomfortably. That meant he had to rely on his memory to reach the eagle berry bush.

The spider was oblivious for a few seconds but quickly realized what Apollo was doing.

It began to scurry after Apollo. The spider spat out some dark green venom.

This prompted Apollo to bash the ground with his bokken, scattering a large amount of soil.

The venom splattered against the soil, filling the air with loud sizzling sounds.

The spider shrieked, sharply grating against the ears.

Apollo stopped looking at the spider. Instead, he looked towards the eagle berries, trying to determine their exact position.

They were just a meter or so out of his reach.

After a few steps, he snatched them.

Apollo celebrated in his mind.

Then, he suddenly remembered there was a giant spider behind him.