“Ok, but why am I here?” asked Myra as she pulled her dress that had caught on a brambly bush. It tore badly as she yanked it free. For anyone else, he’d feel really bad about that, but for Myra it was barely an inconvenience. One dismissive brush with her hand, and the dress repaired itself.
“Hogg thought you should come,” said Brin. “That probably means we’re up against something quick that you’ll need to hold down for us.”
“I’m not an endless mana battery like you.”
Davi held out a hand, helping her over a fallen log. “Don’t worry. We won’t let anything so much as touch you. Brin has scar powers; we’ll let the monsters chew on him.”
“Oh, nice, thanks a lot,” said Brin.
“That’s what I’m here for.”
“We actually should talk about tactics, though. Are you going to be swinging that staff or playing the lute?”
Davi chewed on it for a minute, then slumped and said, “I should probably boost you with music. I get more experience doing that than jumping in myself.”
“Works for me,” said Brin. “If the fight goes on very long I’ll swap you out.”
“Thanks! But don’t get my hopes up.”
They trudged on through the thick underbrush. The forest around Hammon’s Bog was actually fairly walkable, but he was beginning to understand that was only the case because [Hunters] and [Foresters] maintained it. Now that they were two days away, the underbrush was so thick in places that they had to cut it away in order to move forward. Myra’s powers actually worked best for that, but they were making her save her mana. Instead, Brin used his glass spear. A machete would’ve worked better, or even a sword, but this is what they had. He could’ve summoned a machete on the spot, but with the enchantments on the spear it actually cut through pretty well.
This was also giving him a chance to practice with his new spear. It was so powerful that he had a little trouble controlling it with any kind of precision after pumping a bit of mana into it, but the repetitive motions of slashing through saplings and bushes helped him get used to it.
Davi helped by playing an energizing song, so even though Brin had worked up a sweat he actually felt less tired now than when they had started. He only teased Davi about making him do all the work a little bit, and only because he knew that Davi wished he could trade places with every fiber of his being.
Hogg had told them to travel southwest for about two miles, but he hadn’t told them how long it would take since they had to go so slow. He’d been at this for an hour and a half, and had no idea how much longer it would be.
[Athleticism] leveled up! 18 -> 19
“Nice! I got an [Athleticism]!” Brin called.
Davi stopped his music and sighed sadly. “Maybe you could play and I could cut?”
“Maybe I should dance while we walk,” said Myra. “That’s supposed to be my movement Skill.”
“It won’t actually help much with anything except dancing until you combine it with an Achievement,” said Brin.
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn't try!” Davi said a little too quickly. “I’ll start playing again!”
Brin turned back and started to slash at a patch of long grass in front of him when a flash of color jumped out of the grass. Brin pulled his spear back just in time.
“Marksi! I just about stabbed you just now!”
Marksi darted around excitedly, brushing against everyone’s legs. Then he moved back over to the grass and chirped in the way that meant everyone should follow.
“Did you find it? What kind of monster is it?” Brin asked.
Marksi bared his teeth in an eager grin and nodded towards the tall grass, as if to say Go and find out.
Brin pushed his way through the grass, eager to find what they were hunting.
“You should still cut it! You’re going to get ticks. Oh… whatever.” Myra lashed out with her string, and mowed the grass down in front of Brin for a dozen feet. The grass stopped, and the forest floor was a lot more clear after that.
They walked through, slowly, eyes scanning the darkness.
“Hey, did you bring a light?” asked Davi.
Brin remembered that his friends didn’t have dark vision. They’d been moving this whole way off moonlight. He took a glass ball out of his pocket. It was a fake, one that he’d made so that he could pretend that Chamylla had enchanted it. He put a bright and steady light inside. It was the easiest thing to use light magic for and wouldn’t divide his attention to keep it going. He handed it to Myra.
She grew a little sock with grass-turned-fabric around it so that she could point the light as a beam instead of letting it half-blind her.
“I’ll light up the whole area once we get to where we’re going,” said Brin.
“This is good enough,” said Myra.
The trees here weren’t any thinner than anywhere they’d passed, but the lack of underbrush made it feel completely empty. That in turn made the few obstacles that were present stand out in stark relief.
Only a few feet past the tall grass, a long, thin white strand hung down from a tree like a vine. Unlike the first time he’d seen something like this, he didn’t have to think hard about what it was. “Spiders.”
Looking further on, there were more and more of the white strings hanging down. It wasn’t a web like he was used to, more like the trees here were infected with a parasitic viny plant. It was so thick towards the center of the copse that he couldn’t see what was past them, and they swayed gently in the non-existent breeze.
He picked up a twig from the ground and touched the white strand. It stuck to the thread and wouldn’t come off; the spiderweb was incredibly sticky.
He’d seen Giant Spiders before whose web wasn’t sticky at all, and he knew that in a regular spider web some strands were sticky and some weren’t. This breed was different, though, their webbing wasn’t web-shaped, just lots of loose ropes, and all of it was clearly for trapping or slowing down prey.
“Now I know why I’m here,” said Myra. She reached out and twirled the spiderweb strand in her fingers, then let it go.
Brin touched the same spot, and sure enough the white strand stuck to him as if it were made of superglue. Myra pulled it off him, and when she let it go it fell away.
Davi said, “Neat! But where are the–”
A wave of spiders erupted out of the sheltered copse. Some were the size of dogs–there were maybe seven of those–and then dozens of smaller ones ranging from chipmunk-sized spiders to tiny ones like little black dots.
“
Brin thought he had enough time for one more shot, so he pulled on his mana and did it again. This time, Davi launched into a blazing epic, pouring energy and strength into Brin. “
The second wave decimated the mob of spiders. Brin gripped his spear and charged. Empowered by Davi’s magic, and wielding his new spear, he moved like the wind. He stabbed straight through two more of the bigger spiders before they could react.
The next one used some ability to sharpen its fangs and actually deflected Brin’s downward chop. He backed up a step and threw a flurry of stabs, ten inside of a second, eviscerating the spider.
He swept around in wide arcs, finishing off the smaller ones, stomping on them where he could. To think about how scared he had been of Giant Spiders back when he was a [Child]. This was easy!
He noticed that Davi’s song had words, and they weren’t the right ones. This was Jeolfrai’s epic, the hero that Jeffrey had been named after, and Davi wasn’t singing it right.
“They do not value children’s lives,
They send the young ones out ahead,
The bigger ones will come out next,
If we are not yet dead.”
Oh, he could communicate like this. Davi was warning him that this wasn’t over. Brin scanned the darkness, but the light he’d given Myra was actually making it harder for him to see. That was fine if it meant that they could see since the last thing he wanted was for the two of them to get eaten by a spider that he’d missed because they were blind.
Myra tossed the light into the air, and then her threads carried it higher into the trees as if crawling as a spider of her own. Now that the light was up high, it illuminated the entire copse. Many more of the little spiders had arrived, completely surrounding them. More were arriving every second, coming from all directions.
Brin tried bullets anyway, flinging them in a wide arc. He crushed several of the little monsters, but not nearly enough.
Then the beasts were on them. Davi had to stop playing his lute so that he could fight them off with his staff, while Myra laid into them with her unbreakable thread.
Brin and Davi quickly dispatched the few dog-sized ones, but the smaller ones wouldn’t quit. They tried to bite through their clothes and kept trying to climb up Brin’s legs, to his absolute horror.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Of all of them, Myra was best suited to killing large amounts of fairly weak enemies. She cut through several of the little beasts with every swing, although once she swung a bit too wide and cut deep into Brin’s shin. He just smiled a [Scarred One] smile and kept fighting.
After Myra, it was actually Marksi who was next best. He was quick, darting from spider to spider like a blurry bolt of rainbow lightning, killing each little spider with one swipe of his new claws.
The swarm broke, and the little spiders lost their cohesion, scattering every direction. Brin immediately threw himself to the ground and rolled around. He felt the crunch and sudden wetness as dozens of spiders underneath his clothes died. “Oh gross. Oh no. I don’t know if this was a good idea.”
Myra looked at him in horror. “Oh, I’m so glad I’m a [Weaver]. They can’t get inside my clothes.”
Davi grimaced and copied Brin, and they could all hear the soft crunches. He stood again and said, “Look alive. That’s not all of them.”
Brin scanned the treeline, seeing a hulking shape move through the strands up ahead. [Battle Fury] pumped in his veins, up to about 20%. It wasn't counting each of the little ones as a kill. He summoned a javelin from glass, and waited for his moment to strike while trying to ignore the little spiders he’d missed crawling around on his skin, a few of them biting him here and there. If these things were venomous he was going to kill Hogg. He’d do that after taking a bath for a week.
Marksi helpfully climbed up and down him, hunting the spiders, and Brin couldn’t help but notice that most of the spiders were going straight into his stomach.
“Don’t eat so many! You’re going to make yourself si–”
Brin was interrupted by an onslaught of energizing music. The fight was back on. A Giant Spider as tall as a horse crawled into view. It didn’t yell or screech, just charged towards him.
He already had the javelin ready, so all he needed to do was imbue it with mana. “
The Giant Spider veered to the side at the last second, so the javelin missed the main bulk but hit a leg, shearing it off at the top joint.
Brin charged, but something hit his legs. He looked down to see two globby webs had struck his legs, pinning them to the ground.
“
It ruined his charge now, and he was freed just in time to jump back to avoid snapping pincers. He lashed out with his spear, wildly stabbing, then deflecting a slash from a clawed leg from the side, then the other side. He kept his spear moving, blocking the blows as fast as they came.
Fighting a monster was nothing like a duel. There was no thought, no artistry. It attacked in a berserker’s rage, flinging its limbs at him. It bit, slashed, and charged, trying to overwhelm him and bowl him over.
He managed to stay back, which was all he needed. Eventually this thing would give him an opening and then–
Davi’s music suddenly changed. It was more urgent now, pressing him forward. Don’t retreat. Attack!
Brin planted his spear in the ground, and the spider charged straight into it, but it wasn’t dumb enough to kill itself that way. It took a light wound, then skittered around to the side with a speed that seemed to defy physics.
Brin spent that brief second charging all the mana he could into the spear. This wasn’t a duel; he didn’t need any fancy moves. He stepped forward, planted his foot, and thrust with all his strength and everything his magic could give him.
His spear pierced straight through the shell and he buried it all the way down into his hands. When he pulled it back out, a stream of green oozed followed the spear out.
The Giant Spider shivered, but it wasn’t done. It opened its pincers to bite. He stepped forward and stabbed again. The spear glanced off its pincer and kept going straight into an eye.
He had to drop the spear so he could duck the bite aimed at his face.
The Giant Spider retreated, taking the spear with it. Brin pulled it back with [Shape Glass], but just as his fingertips touched the spear, another shot of sticky web hit his hand and slapped it away.
Another Giant Spider was flinging webs at him, and now that he was looking, a third Giant Spider, also five feet tall, was darting in from his left.
He called out a wave of bullets to give himself some space “
Both spiders ducked under the small wave of bullets, taking small wounds here and there. Normally, Davi would be good at noticing enemies approaching and directing Brin through the music, but he was struggling tonight. It had to be because his vision wasn’t as good.
Brin made a decision. “Tap me out.”
Davi pulled back when Brin tried to take the Oud out of his hands. “Oh, gross! You’re going to get spider guts all over it!”
The Giant Spider darted forward. Davi let go of the lute and jumped in the spider’s path at the last second, hitting it with his quarterstaff. The blow was awkward, and the spider bowled forward, slamming into Davi and sending him rolling backwards.
Brin launched into what he was calling “Davi’s Theme” and he instantly felt Davi’s magic take hold and reflect power back into the [Bard].
Davi got to his feet, and this time when the Giant Spider charged him, he was ready. A mighty baseball swing hit the spider from the side, breaking two of its legs. The blow didn’t slow it down, and it bit at him and swiped with its claws, while Davi parried.
For a moment they were in a stalemate, both of them swinging and blocking, neither gaining an advantage. The webslinger shot at Davi, but Brin saw it coming and warned Myra through the music.
She unstickied the web mid-air, so that when it hit Davi it was nothing more than getting hit with a pile of cold spaghetti.
“Sing! I can pull more magic in if the song has words!” Davi called back in a panic as he started to get pressed back.
This song didn’t really have lyrics, but come to think of it, there was a vocal part. He started vocalizing, and his voice chose this moment to crack. He made a complete mess of the song as his voice kept switching back and forth between a boy’s soprano and a teenager’s tenor, but it must’ve been enough.
More strength surged into Davi, and now a strike that a moment ago would’ve just barely parried a claw now made a crack as it broke a leg. Davi’s quarterstaff pounded the spider, breaking the carapace and delivering a slow, relentless death.
Brin looked around while Davi finished it off. The last spider in the area, apart from a handful of tiny ones that Marksi was still battling, was the webslinger.
Rather than try to bring it out through the song, Brin just shouted over the music. “That’s the last one! No need to save mana. If you can drag it over here, we can end this.”
“If you’re sure,” said Myra. She lifted her hands. “
The white spider web threads near the slinger spider slithered down and wrapped the spider up, binding it tight. Myra pulled, and the threads dragged the spider toward the group.
“Hurry!” she groaned.
Brin handed the Oud to Myra, picked up his spear, and ran to the spider. He plunged the spear five feet deep into the helpless spider, killing it in one blow.
Alert! Due to the large number of small enemies some messages have been abridged. You have defeated: Horde of Lesser Giant Spiders Giant Spider [25] Giant Spider Matriarch [31] Giant Slinger Spider [21] Experience has been split between members of your party.
Through training you have increased the following attribute: Mental Control +1
Myra gasped and collapsed to her knees, while Davi gingerly took the Oud from her hands, examining it for damage. Brin pulled his spear from the spider. It was so gross. Did he really need this back? He decided to pull it out and carry it with magic for now, at least until they could find a stream or something.
“I got a level!” Davi said with a smile, though he still looked a little disappointed at all the spider gunk on the strings of his instrument.
“Me too!” said Myra. “And I got [Monster Hunter]! Maybe this is why Hogg made me come along. If I’m going to be traveling with caravans, this [Monster Sense] is going to be a must.”
“That’s great!” said Brin. He was a little peeved that he hadn’t gotten anything good. He had to be close to another level. And why didn’t he get [Monster Hunter III]? If the only requirement to advance that Achievement was the number of monsters you killed, then this fight alone should have brought him up to [Monster Hunter X]. The little ones must not count.
The only thing the fight had given him was a Mental Control, which was strange since the only thing he’d done that took much Mental Control was keep the light going above their heads through the fight.
Marksi gave up on hunting the last few little spiders and walked over to Brin’s feet. He started making that gulping hiccup sound that a cat makes when it's about to puke.
“I told you not to eat so many of those things!” Brin scolded.
Marksi just burped, and then walked off, unbothered.
Brin stepped over to the giant spider and examined it. “Is any of this worth harvesting?”
Davi glanced up from his Oud. He was trying to wipe off the spider guts with a clean part of his sleeve, and making zero progress. “I guess? You can eat spider meat, but it’s no one’s first choice. I don’t think it’s worth dragging over. The carapace isn’t actually that strong. You saw how your bullets broke through it. The only way they were deflecting your spear was with some kind of monster ability, and that won’t carry over after death. We should just leave it here.”
Brin sighed. “It feels like a waste.”
Myra eyed the corpse for a moment, and then her eyes went wide like she had just realized something. “Ah! Ah ah ah! I think I finally know why I’m here!”
Brin grinned. “You’ve said that three times now, so–”
“Silk! This forest is covered in silk!”
“Wait. You can make clothes from spider silk?” Brin asked.
“Where else do you think silk comes from?” Davi responded.
Brin shrugged. “I don’t know. Like, special worms?”
Myra shivered. “I don’t think I’d want to wear something made by worms. Help me pick all this up! No, wait actually, don’t get anywhere near it! You’re filthy!”
Myra marched them out to a stream that they’d passed and directed them to strip down and wash themselves off. He really did want to get the bug juice off, especially from the little ones that had climbed inside his clothes, but still couldn’t get used to their blase attitude towards nudity here.
Davi stripped down without a second thought, and Myra had no intention to since she hadn’t gotten anywhere near the fighting, and her [Thread Manipulation] had stopped any spiders from crawling up her dress.
It was probably dark enough? He stripped down and jumped in the stream. The water was cold, but it felt good to get the gunk off. He dunked himself completely under the water and noticed a few still wriggling spiders on the surface when he came back up. Those ones had finally let go of him now that they were drowning.
Myra made them both little rough towels from woven grass that they used to wipe everything off, and then used her magic to dunk their clothes, wring them out, and then dunk them again, over and over until they were clean.
“Just remember I’m not a [Laundress]. Don’t get used to this,” said Myra.
“We won’t forget,” said Davi.
By the time they climbed out, Davi’s teeth were chattering, though Brin felt mostly fine. Davi probably had a higher Vitality than him, but [Survivor of Travin’s Bog] had cold resistance, and that was probably doing some work here.
“Ah!” Myra pointed at Brin in shock, which isn’t what any man wants a girl to do while he’s naked, but she was pointing at his leg. Oh, right, that was still bleeding. It must’ve been deeper than he thought.
He insisted on putting on his underclothes at least before letting anyone look at it.
Myra reached into her pouch and drew out a little spool of thread. It wasn’t her unbreakable thread, but he got the feeling that she had several types of thread with her at any given time. She threaded a needle and then used [Thread Manipulation] to sew his cut closed.
“How did this even happen?” she asked.
“I hardly remember. Everything happened so fast.” No use making her feel bad.
They returned to the spiders’ copse, and started to gather up all the web. Brin and Davi just walked into it, letting it all stick to them, and then walked back to Myra so she could unstick it and spool it all at once.
It lost a bit of mass when she used [Spin] to make it less sticky and more like thread. When they were done, they had a spool of thread about the size of a basketball, and Myra was overjoyed. Brin could see why. Value sense was saying it was worth 4 gold already, which was a huge amount of money for most people. After she finished [Weaving] it, it would probably be worth double that.
They were in high spirits on the walk back. At least until Myra made an observation. “You know… [Singing] is a general Skill. Just saying.”
“Shut up,” said Brin, walking faster.
She smiled, like a cat sensing weakness.
“Jeffrey said that it’s good that my voice already changed before System Day, otherwise I’d have to learn how to sing again from scratch.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my singing,” Brin tried to say, but his voice broke again halfway through.
Myra laughed in delight and stepped forward to see if his face was turning red, which it probably was.
He decided to let them laugh it up and hope that they’d get bored of the topic and move on. They did not. Myra and Davi found it a very interesting conversation piece the entire trip back to the caravan.