Alex had come to the sudden and rash conclusion that he was going to die. Yet this wasn't derived from fear or insanity.
Instead the answer came from something much worse, logic. Alex had derived his guaranteed death from pure and conclusive logic.
Realizing that even ignoring the problem that the spider gave would still lead to Alex's demise. With one crucial ability of the spider deciding this.
It was the spider's ability to devour ruins, destroying them permanently. This one ability of the spider would be the cause of Alex's downfall.
As if Alex decided to do the most logical thing as ignore fighting the spider. Then this would lead to all of Alex's ruins slowly being destroyed.
Then without ruins, his only weapons on the forsaken continent, he would without a doubt perish by the hardships and foes it offered.
Yet there was a small loophole to this detail. It was that Alex still had weapons at the moment.
While it took the spider a relatively long time to locate a ruin. Then it probably took a bit more time to destroy the ruin.
In this time, and with the weapons Alex still had he could hunt a vast majority of abominations. Then Alex could gain ruins.
This could leave a circle of Alex constantly hunting down monsters for ruins. While the spider devoured the ruins he gained.
Except this was impossible for Alex to pull off, and this wasn't because of his strength. Instead it was because of the spider.
As of now Alex had no way to increase his strength. With him having no power that he owned, instead just the ones he borrowed from his weapons.
While the spider on the other hand seemed to have two that it derived from itself. This was its air blades and entering others dreams, or mind, or whatever that plane of existence was.
Yet Alex was almost sure of one thing, because it derived power from itself and was hunting down and eating ruins it must've been growing stronger.
While the stronger the spider grew the more efficient it'd be at finding Alex's ruins. Eventually leading to Alex being overwhelmed and losing all his weapons.
It really did seem as though fate was pushing Alex toward his death. While Alex instead sat in madness and turned insane by his fate.
As Alex's insane mind raced he suddenly realized Lyra could die tonight. This was derived from the misinformation he had given her.
Previously while sharing their experiences Alex had decided not to tell Lyra about the dangers of the spiders under belly.
As now it was only a matter of time before Lyra decided to try and attack the spider's underbelly, just like Alex had.
Alex had only barely noticed the attack in time while he was under the spider, and if Lyra was caught off guard and didn't notice the attack she would die without a doubt.
Even though Alex wanted to be stronger than Lyra he still needed her alive. As she was an extremely valuable asset to the group.
Alex could not afford to lose her immense battle strength and leadership skills. With her death undoubtedly causing the group to fall apart and get exterminated by the vile nature of the continent.
So Alex needed to warn Lyra immediately about the dangers of being under the spider. While he also needed to tell Lyra about the dangers of the spider.
Alex was going to tell Lyra about the true cause of the man's death, and hopefully she wouldn't have the same reaction as Alex.
He then got up out of seat, standing up and turned to find Lyra. Yet as soon as he moved his foot forward he almost tripped and fell down.
Alex was so extremely dizzy and confused that he could barely walk straight. He fell back down into his seat.
Once again Alex tried getting up to warn Lyra, yet he couldn't. Alex was too fatigued by his immense fear that he was unable to get up.
The more Alex tried to defy his body the more tired he got. Until Alex finally stood up, using all his strength and will to do it.
Yet the moment Alex stood up he fell right back down into his chair. Except the time he fell unconscious into his familiar slumber.
Although Alex had just woken up from sleep, and the sun had just risen he had fallen back asleep.
This wasn't due to any sinister acts of monster nor man. Instead it was due to Alex's mind. As in a mental aspect Alex had been awake for three whole days.
Yet if not for Alex's plunge into insanity he would've been fine for another two days. Yet his unrestricted madness had used up all his energy.
With his mind being awake and wandering the memory road instead of resting. This had caused extreme fatigue in his mind.
Now Alex was sent into a dreamless, imagine-less sleep. Where he would be unbothered by the grasps of the dream spider.
…
Alex suddenly felt an earthquake shaking around him. As Alex forced his eyes open, yet instead they fluttered open slowly.
Yet what Alex saw was not frantic chaos, or the plane falling out of the trees due to the earthquake. Instead it was Lyra shaking him awake.
Alex immediately flung his body up as he woke up at the memory of what had happened.
Damn how did I fell asleep.
Alex had just recalled falling asleep due to his mental fatigue. While also remembering what he needed to tell Lyra.
He looked at her and immediately tried to talk. Yet his throat was filled with mucus. Alex cleared his throat before looking at Lyra again.
"Hey, I need to tell you something."
Lyra rolled her eyes before looking straight into Alex's eyes, while at the same time she crossed her arms.
"Yea well so do I Mr sleepyhead. We have to go hunting right now, and you almost just slept through it."
Lyra didn't let off her gaze, as her piercing gaze caused Alex to shrink back. Then as he processed what she said he nodded at her.
"Well don't just sit there, all the hunters are on the ground you doofus, get up and go already."
Alex was immediately shocked, as he jumped up and ran to the plane exit. Before slowly climbing down the tree.
While Alex was left confused at the complexity of climbing down the tree. As now he was lacking the helpful ability of the monkey claws.
Yet he was still used to the outdoors as he climbed down the tree, while Lyra followed closely behind him.
…
After a bit of hunting, and just after a relatively hard fight against a mutated boar Alex found an opportunity to talk to Lyra.
As he approached her while scratching his head in embarrassment.
"I still haven't told you my important news."
Lyra glanced at Alex, suddenly recalling their previous conversation. As her eyes slightly widened in curiosity.
"Go ahead."
Alex was finally warning her, as he already felt a tinge of relief.
"Well first the spider's underbelly is one of the most dangerous places to attack it. While the spider also has wind blades that shoot out its legs. Then the most important thing is the man who died earlier was killed by the spider."
Alex felt a wave of relief flood over him, momentarily stopping the madness, instead replaced with joy.Alex felt good about doing the right thing and warning Lyra. While Lyra on the other hand was in complete shock.
Yet she didn't let it show, controlling her facial expressions to only show a tad bit of surprise. Except she was truly surprised as in her previous fight she had almost tried targeting the underbelly of the spider.
Yet luckily she had instead chosen to try and attack it from behind. While she also found the wind blades to be invaluable information.
But most of all she was shocked about the revelation of the truth of the poor man's death. Except she was a bit skeptical of it.
"How do you know he died from the spider?"
Lyra directed her question to Alex, while Alex remembered another thing he needed to tell her.
"Well I heard people close to him talking about how the previous night he dreamt of a spider, and while in his dream before death he was squirming and flinching as though he was in a nightmare. While he also died because he wasn't awakened by fear from one of the spider attacks. So if you're ever fatally wounded without realizing it you're dead dead."
Lyra was left in utter shock by Alex's sudden dumping of knowledge. Luckily unlike Alex she wasn't driven to madness, instead coming to terms with it.
Yet she was confused by one thing. She was confused on why Alex had given her the information.
"Why are you telling me this?"
Alex was surprised, as he had thought she would've broken down by the knowledge like him.
Seems as though she's stronger than me.
"Well I wanted to warn you, also aren't you afraid by what I told you, aren't you afraid you die fighting the spider."
Lyra was heart warmed by Alex's warning. While she also was laughing at his question in her mind.
"Why would I be afraid of fighting with my life on the line, isn't that what we're doing every day while hunting, what's the difference with the spider?"
Alex was immediately enlightened, as he realized his hypocrisy.
"Well you're right."
Then Alex thought to himself.
Can't believe I was that naive.