Chapter 152: Reclaiming Mirkwood

Seeing those yellow vertical pupils, Spider Queen Shelob's face showed despair. "No!" Along with a piercing screech. The Spider Queen fell to the ground with a thunderous crash, filled with unwillingness. Her countless eyes seemed covered with dust, becoming incredibly dim. Her aura also plummeted drastically, becoming extremely weak. "Hmm? Not dead yet!" Kael raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. This Spider Queen hadn't died even after making eye contact with the basilisk! Could it be because the basilisk Herpo was still young? So the power of its death gaze wasn't strong enough? Kael could only speculate thus. But this also demonstrated the Spider Queen's power. After all, other spiders died directly when stared at by the basilisk. Seeing the Spider Queen wasn't dead, Kael had no intention of sparing her life. He directly summoned the divine spear Aeglos and thrust it forcefully into the Spider Queen's head. The sharp spearhead instantly pierced through the Spider Queen's defenses, then erupted with destructive force, directly crushing the Spider Queen's internal body into mush. The Spider Queen died instantly, completely losing all breath of life. Thranduil looked at the spear in Kael's hands, a flash of envy in his eyes. "They say none can withstand Gil-galad's spear and Elendil's sword, Aeglos and Narsil. Seeing it today, it truly lives up to its reputation!" The divine spear Aeglos held a position among Elves equivalent to the holy sword Narsil among humans. Such a divine weapon embodying the craftsmanship of Noldorin Elven smiths, no wonder even Thranduil would envy it. However, Kael and the others had no time to discuss Aeglos at the moment. With the Spider Queen's death, the other giant spiders instantly became leaderless, beginning to scatter in chaotic disorder, fleeing in terror. The Elven warriors naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity and began continuous pursuit and slaughter. For some giant spiders that fled back into the spider nest, Kael simply had basilisk Herpo hunt them down or force them out. Thranduil, watching the giant spiders fleeing in panic under the basilisk's pursuit, couldn't help but sigh to Kael. "I truly don't know how you bred such a powerful yet dangerous creature. So formidable even at such a young age. When it matures in the future, it will probably be another powerful creature, no less than a dragon!" "Your Majesty, Thranduil gives too much praise!" Kael smiled and shook his head. He knew his own situation. Though the basilisk appeared terrifying and dangerous, with both deadly eyes and incurable venom, it actually had a very fatal weakness: rooster crows. A single rooster could make the basilisk flee in panic, and rooster crows could cause fatal damage to basilisks. Like Slytherin's thousand-year-old basilisk, despite living so long, it still feared rooster crows, requiring the piece of Voldemort's soul possessing Ginny Weasley to specifically kill Hagrid's roosters. So until the basilisk's fatal weakness of fearing rooster crows was resolved, the basilisk was a half-defective product that couldn't compare to dragons at all. On this point, Kael rather wanted to consult Saruman. He remembered that after Saruman's open betrayal, he specifically bred Orcs that weren't afraid of sunlight. If Saruman handled it, he might actually be able to fix the basilisk's shortcoming. A basilisk without flaws would truly be a formidable weapon. The Elven warriors spent a day and night hunting down the scattered giant spiders throughout Mirkwood. Except for a few giant spiders that escaped the forest, all other giant spiders were completely annihilated. The giant spiders in the spider nest were either killed by the basilisk Herpo or eliminated by Elves after fleeing the nest. Thus, Mirkwood finally belonged completely to the Woodland Realm once again. Thranduil was very pleased and announced that upon their return, they would hold a grand banquet to celebrate this victory. But before returning in triumph, Thranduil, to thank Kael and basilisk Herpo for their help, specifically had the Elven warriors collect all giant spider corpses and give them all to Kael. Kael also followed Herpo's lead into the spider nest through the web passages. Then he collected the giant spider corpses scattered throughout into his space bags. The spider nest was enormous, like a giant maze. Kael wandered for ages before finally collecting all the giant spider corpses, ultimately arriving at the spider hatchery. The spider hatchery was a massive underground cavern, surrounded entirely by webs, containing huge egg sacs woven from spider silk, each filled with countless spider eggs, numbering in the tens of thousands. Seeing so many, even Kael couldn't help but draw a sharp breath. If these spider eggs had hatched, the explosive increase in giant spider numbers would have been a disaster for all of Mirkwood! However, all these spider eggs had now been poisoned to death by basilisk Herpo's venom. Each egg sac had been bitten open by Herpo and injected with a drop of venom. Though only a single drop, after the toxin spread within the egg sacs, it directly killed all the spider eggs. Herpo's thorough extinction strategy impressed even Kael. Truly vicious! No wonder the Spider Queen was so furious she wanted to hunt it down. Kael collected all these spider eggs and preserved them with Freezing Charms, partly as snacks for Herpo, partly to see if they could be used to make potions. By the time Kael finished packing all the giant spider corpses, he had filled several space bags. Giant spider venom also filled dozens of barrels, most collected with the Elves' help. Especially Spider Queen Shelob's corpse, which was packed separately in one bag. Her venom was even more precious, and he collected a full barrel. He also extracted and preserved the Spider Queen's nerve fibers. These were the finest materials for making wand cores, specifically for wands oriented toward attack and dark magic. Though he couldn't use them himself, it satisfied his collector's instincts as a wandmaker. After finishing everything, Kael and the others followed the Elven army back in triumph. The Elves held a grand celebration banquet. Kael, Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen all became honored guests at Thranduil's table. Especially Kael, who sat at the same table as Thranduil. "Kael, today because of you and your pet basilisk, we achieved such a great victory and completely reclaimed Mirkwood. Both I and the Woodland Realm are grateful for this!" Thranduil raised his wine cup, happily toasting Kael. "A toast to you! In honor of our greatest contributor!" The other Elves also smiled, looking at Kael with respect as they raised their cups in distant toast. Kael raised his cup in return. "Your Majesty Thranduil is too kind! Today everyone present and all the Elven warriors are heroes! Let us toast to everyone!" Hearing this, Thranduil's gaze became even more appreciative. This banquet continued for a full month before Kael finally politely declined Thranduil's repeated requests to stay longer, returning to Weathertop with Arwen, Elladan, and Elrohir. As for Legolas, he temporarily remained in the Woodland Realm. Now that Mirkwood's giant spiders had been eliminated and the southern forest reclaimed, the Woodland Realm needed to consider many issues, like territorial expansion southward and restoring the southern forest. Legolas, as heir to the Woodland Realm, needed to stay beside Thranduil to handle these matters together. He couldn't return to Weathertop in the short term. Returning to Hogwarts Castle, Kael finally breathed a sigh of relief. Elves possessed eternal life, so holding a month-long banquet didn't seem problematic to them. However, Kael felt somewhat mentally exhausted. Arwen went to the garden treehouse to see eaglet Thorondor, while Elladan and Elrohir went to the library to read magic books. After meeting with steward Edward, Kael went alone to the cellar where the dragon lived. Smelling Kael's scent, Smaug instantly awakened from slumber, looking at Kael with alert eyes, his body instinctively blocking most of the treasure as if a robber had come. Just as he was preparing to cry poverty, Kael directly interrupted the words about to emerge from his throat. "Enough, I'm not here for money this time!" Kael rolled his eyes irritably. "On the contrary, I'm here to bring you money!" Hearing Kael's words, Smaug immediately swallowed the words in his throat, looking at him suspiciously. "Really?" "Really." With that, Kael took out a space bag and poured it down. Instantly, many brilliant gems and diamonds came cascading out, piling into a small mountain as tall as Kael. These were gems given by Thranduil as thanks for helping reclaim Mirkwood. Seeing so many jewels, Smaug's attitude instantly changed. While constantly flattering and praising Kael to high heaven, he imperceptibly pulled all these jewels to his side. Kael paid no attention to this money-obsessed stupid dragon's behavior and turned to leave the cellar. He first came to the potions room, refrigerating the giant spider venom and some spider eggs collected this time. Then he directly went to the thirtieth floor in the middle of the tower, using the Extension Charm to expand a room countless times, making it the size of several football fields. After some arrangement, it became a small giant spider nest covered in webs. Kael waved his wand, keeping the entire room in perpetual darkness, with only a moon providing dim illumination. Then he placed a giant spider egg sac containing spider eggs in the nest, waiting for them to slowly hatch. After finishing everything, he left the room and magically locked and hid the door. This would serve as a giant spider breeding ground in the future, providing reserves for basilisk Herpo and a collection site for giant spider venom. Coming to the innermost wall on the second floor, he spoke "Open" in Parseltongue to a small silver snake pattern on the wall. The silver snake instantly came alive, biting its own tail to become a serpentine door knocker. Kael pulled the knocker, and a hidden room door was revealed. Opening the door, Kael walked inside. It was a space the size of a football field. Kael waved his wand, dumping out all the giant spider corpses from several space bags. Soon the giant spider corpses piled into mountains. Kael inscribed runic symbols on the surrounding walls with his wand. As magic power was infused, the entire space became cold. Then he went directly to the wall opposite the door, speaking "Open" in Parseltongue to an even larger silver snake pattern. The silver snake coiled around the wall, forming a circle, biting its own tail, and then became a circular stone door that opened automatically, revealing a huge passage leading downward. Kael didn't continue down the passage, as below was a chamber he had created for the basilisk, located within the mountain's belly. He took out the case containing basilisk Herpo from his space bag and opened it. A somewhat bloated basilisk crawled out of the case, its swollen belly nearly getting stuck at the case opening. "Master, so cold!" Basilisk Herpo burped, then shivered from the room's cold air. Looking at the overstuffed Herpo, Kael was somewhat speechless. He pointed at the mountains of giant spider corpses around them and said, "When you're hungry in the future, come to this room to get food yourself, understand?" The basilisk looked at the mountains of delicious food and happily slapped the ground with its tail. So much food would be enough to eat for a long time. Moreover, the more it ate, the faster it would shed its skin, and it would become larger and stronger. After settling the basilisk, Kael left the secret room. The room's door disappeared again, leaving only an easily overlooked small silver snake on the wall.