“Warrior all the way for me!” Drace exclaimed. “I’m Half-Human and Half-Giant with a huge boost to Strength and Constitution, and I get special bonuses on certain Martial abilities due to my size. No special see-in-the-dark vision for me, though.”
“It was an easy choice for me! I’m Half-Eberian and Half-Dark Elf, which gives me complete night-vision, along with a high Intelligence and Willpower progression.” Caius grinned as he waved his fingers in the air. “I’m going right into dark magic and aiming to become a Warlock.”
“Well, I’ve always been a spellcaster, and don’t see a reason to change now!” Halcyon spoke as he conjured a blue missile in his hand. “Choosing Mage on my end and I am a pure Eberian human like you Lyrian.”
“Ah! What trait did you pick?” I asked Halcyon excitedly.
“Magical Aptitude. All of my magic skills level faster in general and is considered a level higher when it comes to determining their effect!”
“Awesome!” I was interested to see how that would scale towards the later levels.
We gradually made our way towards Crater Lake, killing a few dozen creatures unfortunate enough to cross our path. I took pains to show Sierra, Drace, and Constantine the basics of Herbalism and after a few failed attempts each, they managed to figure out the basics and successfully unlocked the gathering skill.
“Anything we need to know about this ‘Webwood’ you’re taking us to?” Sierra asked as she pulled a sprig of Hollyleaf from the ground. “It sounds… spidery.”
“It’s a good spot.” I started to explain as the lake came into view. “It’s an area of forest not too far from here that’s slowly being choked to death by an overpopulation of spiders. The worse thing about this place is the poison the spiderlings have, if you’re not quick, they’ll wear you down fast.”
“That plant.” I motioned to the Hollyleaf everyone had been collecting. “Will help you recover from mistakes. Make sure to keep some on hand and call out if you start to run low. If for whatever reason you bite the dust, well, we’ll meet you back in Aldford at the end of the day.”
“We’re also here for another reason.” I opened my journal menu and shared the quest the Bann gave me yesterday.
You have shared the quest: Cleansing the Webwood. (Open) (Group) with the party.
The village of Aldford is threatened by the encroaching spiders of the Webwood. Slay as many spiders as possible to relieve the threat against the village.
Spiders Slain: 0/1000.
Difficulty: Hard
Reward: Experience, Reputation, 100 gold pieces. (Reward proportional to percentage contributed)
There was a pause as everyone digested the quest’s information.
“You don’t do things by half measures, do you Lyrian?” Halcyon gasped with exasperation. “A thousand spiders!”
“That’s a silver a spider!” Constantine exclaimed excitedly. “Hey, if we killed more… do you think we’d get more money? Maybe we could just set the forest on fire?”
“What is with you and fire?!” Caius yelled back. “And what on Earth makes you think that’s a good idea?!”
“Just thinking out loud… besides… are we even on Earth anymore?”
“I can’t believe I need to say this.” I sighed, rubbing my face. “No setting forest fires.”
“But…” Constantine started. “We could-“
“No. Setting. Forest. Fires,” I repeated myself slowly.
“Okay! Okay!” Constantine threw his hands up in defeat. “I’m just trying to save time, that’s all.”
“Riiiight.” Sierra rolled her eyes, voice full of sarcasm.
“We’re going to be here for a while… how hard are these spiders to kill?” Halcyon asked a slight tinge of nervousness to his voice.
“Eh, they should be easy enough to take out. We can probably pull them by the dozen easily, the trick is… finding them.” I paused as a red highlight appeared in my vision. “Ah! Perfect! Time to learn another useful skill…”
Chapter 15
“Aaaaaaaaaah! Get it off! Get it off!” Halcyon’s voice shrilled as he wildly bucked about trying to dismount the [Webwood Spiderling] that had pounced on him from above. We’d spent the last two hours crawling through the Webwood as I taught everyone the Perception skill.
Constantine, Drace, and Caius managed to pick up the skill fairly quickly but for whatever reason, both Halcyon and Sierra were having a rather difficult time in learning the skill, so I sent the others to bring back a few critters to kill while I spent some more time training the pair.
To be fair, I was having quite a bit of fun at their expense.
“Damn it, Lyrian! Why?!” Sierra joined in shouting as she swung her sword, splitting another spiderling in two. “You said these spiders were nothing to worry about! I’m never going to sleep again!”
I laughed as I tore the creature off of Halcyon’s back, crushing it under my boot. “These things? Pah! They’re barely worth our time. I’m hoping Constantine will find the bigger ones while we’re out here!”
“Bigger ones?!” Halcyon sounded on the verge of becoming unhinged, as he attempted to dislodge himself from a web he’d gotten draped across his face. “I hate spiders!”
“Hey, are you okay? I thought you were okay with these sort of things? Didn’t you have a pet snake?”
“Sneks-” Halcyon coughed as he pulled a web out of his mouth. “Snakes are not spiders! First of all, they are cute. They just want boops on the sno-“
“INCOMING!!” Constantine’s voice shattered the relative silence of the forest, followed by the sound of running feet, I quickly felt the other half of the party sprinting towards us.
“Oh fuck!” I heard Sierra gasp. “Did they just pull the entire fucking forest?!”
I cocked my head towards the noise. “Sure sounds like it.”
“Lyr, you’re being an ass!”
“Well, I have to get you scrubs to my level quickly.” I couldn’t help but smirk at their distress. “This seemed like the best and fastest way.”
Caius, Constantine, and Drace finally broke into view, sprinting wildly towards us, with a veritable horde of spiderlings in tow.
“Oh, fuck you, Lyrian!” Sierra had drawn her bow and started firing arrows into the horde. “If we live through this I am going to kill you!”
Winded, the other half of the party arrived ahead of the swarm. “I think we overdid it!” Caius gasped as he spun to face the swarm.
“No shit!” Halcyon hissed as he started to conjure and throw glowing missiles into the swarm.
“Aren’t you going to draw your sword?!” Sierra shouted at me.
“Nah. I’ve been meaning to work on my hand to hand.” I shrugged the question away as I cracked my knuckles. “Seems like the best time for it.”
“REALLY?!”
The spiderling swarm slammed into Drace, sending him back half a step before a vicious cleave cleared the ground in front of him. Stepping up beside him, Caius streamed a steady cone of fire as he set fire to anything crossing his gaze. I heard Constantine swear, but before I could turn to see what was happening, the swarm was on me.
I dodged and weaved around the spiderlings that attacked me, having already had plenty of experience fighting the creatures. My fists shattered the carapace of a spiderling that was unlucky enough to come within rage, quickly followed by a vicious kick that stomped the creature into the ground. A quick Flare singed a spider attempting to flank Constantine, while another was enough to kill a mortally wounded one threatening Caius.
“Heads up!” Constantine shouted, “We’ve got big ones coming!”
I barely had enough time to register Constantine’s warning before a [Giant Webwood Spider] trampled Drace, knocking him to the ground. A second giant spider came charging behind the first, straight at Constantine and Halcyon. Sierra quickly launched two arrows that sunk deep into the creature before a thick strand of web hit her shoulder.
“Sierra!” My hand shot
out reflexively, grabbing the sticky web. My eyes quickly following the strand revealed a third giant spider attacking from behind, having used the chaos of battle to flank us and catch us unaware.
With a twist of its body, the spider yanked the web, yanking both Sierra and me off our feet as it struggled to pull us closer. Hand stuck to the sticky strand, I fumbled to draw Razor as we were dragged across the ground, but couldn’t reach the blade at my hip.
“Aaah! What’s happening?!” Sierra thrashed trying to dislodge herself from the web.
“Hold on!” I shouted as I conjured a Flare in my trapped hand, the tiny fireball immediately beginning to burn through the web. A strong yank from the spider caused the strand to snap, leaving Sierra and me in a pile on the forest floor. I barely had a moment to collect myself before I heard the spider growl in frustration.
Oh shit! I cursed to myself. This situation was rapidly getting out of hand!
“Get up!” I shouted at the stunned form of Sierra. I knew what that growl meant. “Move! It’s going to jump!”
“What?!” Sierra shouted, her head staring at the giant arachnid.
I barely had enough time to shove Sierra off me before the giant spider leaped onto me, pinning me to the ground. A fang pierced my shoulder as it landed, with a trio of claws, fortunately, being stopped by my armor as it attempted to disembowel me. I viciously kicked up at the spider, landing a pair of punishing blows on its thorax while my hand grabbed and crushed a claw-tipped pedipalp in a spray of gore.
Howling, the spider bore down onto the one fang still stuck deep in my shoulder, causing me to scream in pain as my health bar shrank quickly. A sword flashed inches away from my face, slicing through the fang pinning me and a nearby leg. Sierra wielding the longsword in both hands, swept the blade in an arc, gashing the creature along its maw obliterating a set of eyes in its passage.
I hammered the stunned beast with another kick and managed to get my legs between myself and the spider, heaving with all my might I attempted to force the creature off me.
“Sierra! Kill it!” I bellowed as I struggled to keep it at bay. “I can’t hold this!”
Screaming wordlessly, Sierra lunged forward with her blade, stabbing deep into the spider’s head. The sword pierced through the carapace as Sierra forced it right up to the hilt, ichor streaming freely from around the blade.
With a gurgling whimper, the giant spider went limp on top of me and began to twitch wildly, forcing me to clumsily kick the dying carcass off to one side. Grabbing the blade and wrenching it free I held the blade out to Sierra, who was staring at the now still giant spider in shock.
“Thanks.” I handed her the sword while wincing at the giant fang still embedded in my shoulder. “Let’s get back into the fray.”
Sierra looked at me blankly for a moment before the words reached her. “Lyrian-“
Without warning, a blue football sized missile struck Sierra in the back, sending her sprawling to the ground. Flinching, I barely dodged a second, smaller missile as I scrambled to find the source of the attack.
A third missile flew from a nearby bush, and immediately my Perception skill kicked in, highlighting a hiding creature. The missile grazed my already wounded shoulder, sending a searing pain through it.
A [Webwood Aberration]’s Arcane Missile grazes you for 26 damage!
Gritting my teeth through the pain, I broke into a sprint towards the creature, finally drawing Razor as I ran. I tore through the bush, sweeping Razor in a wide arc to catch the hiding beast. I felt the tip of the blade catch on something, followed by a hissing scream. Shoving myself through the bush, I gasped as I finally saw the Aberration.
It looked like a grotesquely mutated spiderling, hairless and covered in eerie glowing boils. No leg was the same size or length, and it was covered in far too many eyes, at least a dozen more than even a spider should have, it was almost as if this creature was mutated due to radiation exposure.
Continuing to hiss at me, the boils on the creature flared a bright blue as its pedipalps traced a pattern in the air, a heartbeat later another blue missile hit me directly in the chest.
“Aaah!” I screamed as the missile tore through my armor as if it wasn’t even there, sending my health to dangerous levels, it was all I could do to stand on my feet as I fought through the pain.
My heartbeat hammering in my ears, I desperately swept Razor at the Aberration's oversized legs, severing a pair of them. With a wail of pain, the creature bounded away from me – its unusual shape and size making it difficult to land a follow-up blow on.
Oozing a pale blue stream from the wound, the Aberration's boils dimmed slightly as I chased it, not letting up. The boils flared once more the creature turned to fight. Eager to end the fight I closed in on the creature, feinting with Razor then suddenly lunging at the creature, stomping on a misshapen leg to keep it from escaping.
The Aberration flared even brighter as it struggled to tear its leg free, it began to emit a keening cry. I slashed down into the creature, coating Razor in bright blue ichor as I carved the misshapen beast to pieces. With a final thrust, deep into a glowing boil, I put the creature out of its misery.
Only to have the spider erupt in a spray of glow gore.
Without warning, I was thrown to the ground as in a wet burst of glowing ichor covered me. My skin burning unbelievably wherever it touched. I felt what little health I had remaining slowly ebb away.
“Fuck… I need help…” I muttered to myself, wincing through the pain. I could barely see a sliver of health in the corner of my display. What sort of spider casts spells?!
I let out a gasp as I attempted to sit up, my head starting to spin.
Instinctively tried to wipe as much as the glowing ichor off me as I could with my good arm, the other still having a wicked fang embedded deep inside. A rustling noise nearby caught my attention causing me to turn my head. “Sierra?”
A pair of green cat eyes regarded me with curiosity, sniffing the air. Recognition dawned in the creature’s eyes.
“Oh shit.” My hand groped the ground for Razor, but I was too slow. The puma leaped at me with a growl, teeth gleaming, claws outstretched.
Then I died.
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Interlude
Purgatory
Creativity watched the Grand Tapestry silently, her senses fully outstretched. Billions of threads slowly wove themselves into place, guided by countless Golden threads, her Agents or as the mortals called them, Gods.
A gray, decaying, thread caught her eye.
Poor thing missed again…
With a gesture she pulled the thread from the Tapestry, pruning the now defunct story arc. Cradling the thread like a tender child in need of soothing, she gently caressed it while cooing softly. The thread quivered under its mother’s touch and slowly color returned to it until it shone a bright and vibrant violet.
Satisfied, Creativity turned to regard her grand work, reading each individual strand with infinite care.
Perhaps this will be a better place for you this time.
She wove the now brilliant thread high into the Tapestry, where it would have the greatest chance to touch an active thread. Creativity paused as she considered the potential of the reborn thread, she was reluctant to meddle and get lost in the minutia of her design, but what mother did not wish the best for her children?
With a gentle tug, she pulled free a single translucent hair from her head and attached it to the base of the violet thread. She then drew the hair around a number of Copper colored threads, before finally anchoring it to a Silver one. It still wasn’t certain that the thread would be touched, yet now its potential was greater than ever before.
Creativity lovingly ran her finger down the Silver strand – the color representing Adventurers with the greatest potential to affect the world. Her fingers touched an unexpected knot.
Oh no! She gasped in surprise as turned her full attention towards the unexpected presence.
“Do you like my work, Sister?” Discordance rang through Creativity’s mind as an intruder slithered into her domain.
“Destruction!” Creativity snapped as she turned her attention from the Tapestry. “What have you done?!”
“Right to business already?” Destruction spoke with a laugh akin to the sound of shattering glass. “Aren’t you happy to see me, Sister?”
“You are not allowed to touch the Tapestry! You meddle outside your purview!”
Ascend Online Page 14
