Aside from my skinned knees, I had completely recovered from the araknor attack overnight, and my HP was full. In this world, your HP very slowly refilled as you slept. Kind of like on Earth, in a way, I suppose.
Sir, Mag, and I wasted no time in beginning our search for the Mother Araknor’s Lair. We spent the entire morning and afternoon looking for a way into the forest’s northeastern region. As we roamed, we made quick work of any araknor that crossed our path. Or, more specifically, Sir made quick work of them while Mag and I watched. But we’d each get a move in so that we shared the EXP.
Also, the araknor, once defeated, would occasionally drop small bottles containing potions of different colors. The red ones fully restored your HP, the blue ones restored your MP, and the green ones cured any status ailments like burns and paralysis. Like the green ones, the red and blue potions tasted like the corresponding colors of Kool-Aid.
You didn’t physically carry these items around with you. They were stored digitally in your Items submenu. Then, when you needed one, you simply had to wish for it, and there it was in your hand.
I liked these potions, as they potentially meant less danger for me. It soothed me to imagine Mag saying, “Run, Emerson! Save yourself! I’ll just use a potion!”
By the afternoon, I had gained enough EXP to level up by learning Remedy, which allowed me to cure paralysis.
Mag also reached level 3 by learning a skill called Blaze. When she cast this spell, flames engulfed her body, making her invincible for five seconds. Any enemies that touched her during that time would take severe damage. It also tripled her speed while it was active. It was such an impressive spell that Sir even let her fight a few araknor on her own.
The first time she used it, she killed three of them in one go. When she did this, I remarked, “Those araknor just got Magnified!” I thought for sure the expression would stick, but it didn’t, as Sir thought it sounded stupid. I also tried ‘Magnifried,” to go with the whole fire theme, but he said that was even stupider and that maybe I should not talk for a while.
Unfortunately, we ran out of araknor to fight about as quickly as I ran out of things to call it when Mag killed them. Perhaps word had spread about Mag’s Blaze power, causing the araknor to go into hiding. Or perhaps they were all gathering near the lair, preparing to launch their all-out attack. Whatever the reason, we didn’t gain much more EXP once afternoon had turned into evening.
Even more dishearteningly, we were still no closer to solving the maze that was Desolation Woods.
But things started to turn around about the time I randomly heard a small voice call my name. “Emerson! Emerson!” it peeped.
Mag and I walked around, scanning the area (Sir still couldn’t hear the trees), but we couldn’t find the voice’s source.
“Down heeeere!” it peeped again, and then “Noooo! Don’t step on meeee!”
I stopped mid-step and saw I was about to squash a bright yellow seedling. It was only a few inches tall with two small leaves. It was trembling with fear.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” I said. “I didn’t see you there.”
“That’s okay!” the seedling said as it calmed itself. “No harm done. I just wanted to say ‘hi’ since you and my father were good friends.
“Wait, you’re that sapling’s son? But how?”
“When my father died after saving your life, his seed landed here, and the next thing I knew—or perhaps I should say the first thing I knew—here I was!”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said.
“You don’t look very pleased,” he replied. “You seem a little sad. Is something wrong?”
“We’re lost,” I told him. “We’ve been searching for a way into the northeastern part of the forest for two days now, and it seems that the more we look, the further away we get.”
“I can help!” the seedling said proudly. “Because my father’s tears spread throughout the forest, I have eyes everywhere, and I can guide you.”
“But how will you communicate with us?” I asked. “We can’t take you with us without you dying, can we?”
“No, but I believe you have a leaf of my father’s in your pocket,” he said.
I reached into my pockets and felt around. He was right. Even though I was now wearing a wizard’s robe, its right-hand pocket contained the leaf that I had taken two nights earlier.
“How did you know that?” I asked.
“Like I said, I have eyes everywhere, including in that leaf. You can use it as a compass. No matter where you are in the forest, I can point the tip in the direction you need to go. Here, I’ll show you—hold it flat in the palm of your hand.”
I did as he asked, and he gave a demonstration, spinning the leaf as if by magic. “Oh, this is exceptionally useful!” I said. “Your father would be proud.”
I wished my brief friendship with this seedling’s father had been more genuine on my end. I had gained a lot from being phony, which felt wrong. But I told myself that’s just how life works. People were constantly using their phoniness to get ahead of me (or so I assumed), and now it was my turn.
Besides, regret never did anyone any good—like how Mag was still so distraught about Archie’s death because she blamed herself. She couldn’t let go of the guilt, and it was destroying her. I didn’t want to live my life like that. How are you supposed to be happy if you beat yourself up about every little thing?
From that point on, navigating the forest was a breeze, both figuratively and literally. What I mean is, it was easy, and there was also a nice, gentle breeze in the air.
I like breezes, but I hate how whenever one hits, someone always feels it’s their duty to announce it. They inevitably say something completely void of any value, like “That breeze is nice.” That kind of thing annoys me. We all know the breeze is nice. We don’t need it to be announced to us.
‘Either think of something more interesting to say or keep your damn mouth shut!’ is how I want to respond to that kind of comment. But you can’t go around saying things like that. You just have to suck it up, keep it on the inside, and let it grow into a stress-induced tumor.
Miraculously, on this day, neither I nor Mag nor Sir mentioned the breeze, and that added to my faith that the three of us would find and kill the Mother Araknor and get out of this forest.
The most significant breakthrough in our mission came when the leaf compass pointed off the path. It told us to walk straight into a massive tree, which I had never known to be the solution to any problem.
“That seedling’s lost it,” I said. “Either he’s gone crazy, or someone stepped on him. That’s it. I give up.”
Sir was more optimistic. He placed a hand on my shoulder and said, “Have faith in nature, young Emerson, and she shall have faith in you.” Then, without another word, he walked gracefully right into the tree. And right through it onto a hidden path. Man, he was lucky that worked. After you say something like what he said, you had better hope to whatever god you believe in that the next thing you do goes off without a hitch.
Once we learned we could walk through certain trees and that there were hidden paths, it didn’t take long to reach the northeastern region of the forest.
This part of Desolation Woods was unlike the other parts. It was even worse than when the forest had been blue. The trees here were all dead and black and menacing, and the pleasant breeze had intensified into a fierce, sour wind.
As we walked deeper into this part of the woods, it became night much more quickly than it should have. The only glimmer of joy here came from the persistently bright, colorful stars, but even these were soon obscured as the canopy above us grew thicker.
Although the seedling’s compass still helped us, our travels were not easy. This area was teeming with araknor and had no safe zones. Sir remained unscathed owing to his armor and high defense stat. I also took little damage, mainly because Mag refused to put me in harm’s way. I lost count of how many times she was bitten while protecting me.
By the time we reached the Mother Araknor’s Lair, we had used our entire supply of red and green potions. Also, I had used my Heal and Remedy spells on Mag so often that I had consumed all but one of our blue potions.
On the plus side, I learned I didn’t have to attack enemies to gain EXP. Performing any action during a battle counted, including casting a spell on an ally or using a potion. I quickly gained enough EXP to learn Barrier. The twenty-five percent defense boost would surely help in our upcoming battle. At level 4, I had 120/130 HP and 32/32 MP.
Mag was still at level 3, as her spells took more EXP to learn than mine. But we didn’t have time to grind. It had already taken us far too long just to get here, and we didn’t know how much longer we had before the Mother Araknor’s eggs would hatch.
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So, unprepared as we were, we entered the Mother Araknor’s Lair.
The lair was a downward-sloping tunnel that the Mother Araknor had dug into the earth. It was about ten feet in diameter. Or radius. Whichever one means the whole way across. Either way, the size of the tunnel meant the Mother Araknor was, as Sir put it, “a big fucker.”
The tunnel took us deeper and deeper underground as we followed its twists and turns, and it soon became too dark to see anything. After several minutes, I remembered Sir mentioning that his accuracy plummeted when it was dark, which meant we had little chance of surviving in here.
Just as I was about to mention this and suggest we think of a plan to lure the Mother Araknor outside, the cave started to rumble. It was distant at first but quickly intensified. Whatever was causing the rumbling was coming toward us from the tunnel’s entrance at a spectacular speed.
“Fuck. That’s gotta be araknor,” Sir said. It sounded like at least a hundred of them were stampeding toward us.
Mag got into a fighting stance, and I cast Barrier on myself. Meanwhile, Sir blindly swung his sword around, hitting the tunnel’s ceiling. Boy, he sure wasn’t joking when he said darkness lowers his accuracy, I thought. But I soon realized Sir was slashing the ceiling on purpose. As he hacked at it, it crumbled and quickly collapsed, caving in just as I saw the glowing yellow eyes of the first few araknor.
We were safe from the army of spiders, but we were also now trapped in this pitch-black tunnel. If one of those the-breeze-is-nice people had been with us, this is where they would have said, “Welp, there’s no turning back now.” I would have told them to “shut up.” I was in no mood for people’s generic, thoughtless commentary.
But, to be fair, they would have been right. We had no choice but to move forward.
As we continued our trek, we held hands so that no one got left behind in the all-consuming darkness. Per Sir’s instruction, Mag went in the middle (that way, Sir wouldn’t have to hold hands with a boy), and Sir and I each stretched our free hand to the tunnel wall to guide us.
“This is stupid!” Mag complained after what felt like an hour but was probably only fifteen minutes. “Can’t I just use my fire to see where we’re going?”
“Plus, the warmth would be nice,” I added. The deeper below ground we went, the colder it got, and I was now shivering like anything.
“No,” Sir said. “We only have one blue potion left, and we’ll need your fire magic to defeat the Mother Araknor. We can’t waste a single MP. We can’t all be like dipshit over here and cast Barrier spells on ourselves for no reason.”
“But what if we’re two steps away from walking right into the Mother Araknor?” Mag pointed out.
“Yeah,” I said. “Or what if we’ve already walked through her mouth and into her body and just haven’t realized it yet?”
Sir thought for a moment and changed his mind. “You’re right. Not you, Emerson—that was actually one of your stupidest things yet. But, Magoo, you make a good point. The last thing we want is for the Mother Araknor to see us before we see her and attack us pre-emptively. Not to scare you, but she could probably kill either of you with one bite.”
That did scare me, though. It scared me a lot. Sir’s transitional phrase hadn’t helped at all.
Sir decided that Mag should use Spark periodically, and we would fill her MP with our blue potion once we spotted the Mother Araknor.
So, Mag used Spark, but it didn’t allow us to see very far, owing to the tunnel’s turns and slope. Since the power lasted for only a few seconds, this strategy wouldn’t help us see the Mother Araknor unless we were very lucky.
Before long, Mag informed us that she had only enough MP for one more attempt. “I wish we had a candle or torch or something,” she said.
“Hey, my staff is something,” I pointed out. “What if it can act like a torch?”
My ideas don’t usually work, but this one did. Mag used Spark and transferred the flame to my staff. Although the light was dim, it didn’t burn out after the usual few seconds and didn’t require any MP to maintain. It was, as a breeze-acknowledger would say, better than nothing.
After many careful minutes, the tunnel ended. There was a massive hole in the ground. I lowered my torch into it to see how far the drop was, but the hole’s depth swallowed the torchlight. This was going to be one of those leaps of faith that most people have to make three or four times in a lifetime. Or just once if they’re unlucky.
“The Mother Araknor’s nest has to be at the bottom of this pit,” Sir said. He gave Mag our last blue potion, which she promptly drank, refilling her MP. “Since it’s so dark down there, we’ll have to finish this fight fast. How many times can you use Blaze with full MP, Magoo?”
“Three.”
Sir thought for a time and then laid out our battle plans. “Okay, once we spot the Mother Araknor and get within attacking range, you’re going to use Blaze and deal as much damage to her as possible. The instant it times out, use it again. And then a third time when that runs out. During these fifteen seconds, you’ll give off enough light for me to use my physical attacks with near-perfect accuracy. So, while you’re burning her ass, I’ll chop away at her.
“Emerson, since Magoo will be invincible, your job is to watch me and use Heal if I take a few hits or Remedy if I get bitten.”
“But I thought your armor protected you from araknor bites,” I said.
“It does, but the Mother Araknor’s venom could very well be strong enough to burn through my armor,” he explained. “We absolutely must win the battle before your third Blaze runs out, Magoo. But, if we can’t, we need to keep fighting with physical attacks. Even though most of our strikes will miss in the darkness, hopefully, we will have weakened her enough that just one or two more hits will kill her.
“Finally, Emerson, as our healer, you are not to get anywhere near the Mother Araknor under any circumstances whatsoever. Do you understand?”
I said I did. Per Sir’s instruction, I cast Barrier on him and Mag, and then we jumped down into the Mother Araknor’s nest.
Sir went first, followed by Mag and then me. It was hard to tell how many feet the drop was, but it was plenty for me. The ground was muddy and slippery, and I twisted both my knees when I landed. I was sure I had torn something, and I fell, making a muddy mess of my once pristine robe.
My knees hurt so badly that I had to prop myself up with my staff, which I had been careful not to let hit the mud. We needed the torchlight to find the Mother Araknor.
The flame didn’t give us a great view of the area. However, it was clear that the Mother Araknor’s nest was enormous, and it was littered with egg sacs the size of basketballs. Fortunately, we hadn’t landed on any.
But, unfortunately, the Mother Araknor had heard us land, and she didn’t like that we were in her house. From somewhere far away, she hissed and roared so loudly it shook the ground.
We cautiously searched the nest for her, avoiding stepping on her eggs. After a minute or two of searching, a glob of venom landed on my staff, extinguishing the flame.
The Mother Araknor was on the ceiling, directly above us.
“Use Blaze! NOW!” Sir ordered.
“Blaze!” Mag yelled, and her body was instantly surrounded by flames.
The Mother Araknor had detached from the ceiling and was falling toward us. Sir and I dove out of the way, and the Mother Araknor landed on Mag.
Mag’s Blaze spell kept her safe while damaging the Mother Araknor severely. She squealed and scuttled away. Mag and Sir chased after her.
The Mother Araknor let out another ear-piercing squeal as Mag caught up to her and burned her again. This slowed her down, allowing Sir to join the attack. He sliced a couple of her legs clean off her body, causing blood to shoot everywhere. She couldn’t withstand their attacks and continued to back away awkwardly on her remaining legs.
Mag and Sir stayed on her, and I followed at a safe distance. They soon had her backed against a wall, and she hissed loudly, shooting venom from her mouth, some of which hit Sir in the face. His helmet must have protected him, as he made no indication that he had been hurt. However, he did begin using his free hand to cover his face, which I assumed was now exposed.
Because Sir had to fight more cautiously than anticipated, he and Mag hadn’t defeated the Mother Araknor by the time Mag’s Blaze spell expired for the third time. Once again, the nest was completely dark.
The Mother Araknor bit Mag (I couldn’t see it, but I sure as hell heard it). I followed her screams and found her lying on the ground. Meanwhile, Sir and the Mother Araknor had battled off somewhere.
“I’ve been bitten,” Mag said. “I can’t move. But don’t waste any MP on me. You need to help Sir. I still have just enough MP for one Spark. Let me light your staff again so you can help him see.”
There was no way I was going to do that. The torch barely gave off any light; to actually help Sir see, I would need to get so close to the battle that the Mother Araknor could hurt me.
“But he said for me to stay away at all costs,” I said.
“But that was before I got paralyzed. Besides, we weakened the Mother Araknor a lot. I think one more strike will finish the job.”
Those were good points. I racked my brain for a legitimate excuse, but all I could think of was clocks, so I let Mag relight my staff.
But just then, there was a loud thud, and Sir let out a pain-induced grunt. His body crashed into the ground, not far from Mag and me. He landed on and broke open an egg sac, from which a dozen baby araknor emerged. Though they were just babies, they were the size of full-grown tarantulas.
A moment after the first egg sac broke open, so did all those around it, and then all those around them did the same. Within thirty seconds, the place was flooded with baby araknor, crawling toward us.
I ran away, though I didn’t know where I was hoping to run to. I guess I was hoping to find a hidden escape route, or maybe I could dig my way out.
However, in my panic, I forgot how muddy the ground was. I twisted my knee again and fell onto my back, though I managed to hold on to my staff, keeping the torch alight. But this might have been a bad thing, as it only allowed me to see dozens of blood-thirsty spiders crawling up my legs. They tore through my robe with their teeth, and I screamed as they attempted to do the same to my flesh.
Per the Mrs. Lennon rule, I might as well admit it now: I got so scared I crapped myself. I crapped myself big time. I prayed the stench would at least repel the baby araknor, but it only attracted more of them, if anything.
Or maybe it was my torch. Maybe, like moths, these spiders were attracted to light. In a desperate attempt to save myself, I got up to my knees and threw the torch like a javelin. I didn’t even look where I was throwing it, but I was hoping I had thrown it toward Sir or Mag and that the baby araknor would follow it and go after one of my companions while I looked for an exit.
I know that makes me seem like a selfish coward, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it. That’s just the way we live in the free capitalist world. That’s why there’s all those expressions promoting individualism, like “every man for himself” and “survival of the fittest.” Actually, those are the only two such sayings I can think of. But there has to be more. That’s not nearly enough words to base an entire social system on. Or maybe it is. I don’t know. I had more important things to worry about, anyway.
I watched the staff sail through the air, waiting to see where it would hit the ground, to see if it drew the araknor to it. As its trajectory peaked, it suddenly stopped. In an incredible stroke of good luck, the lit end of the staff had hit the Mother Araknor right in the eye.
She let out a fantastic squeal and vibrated the way video game bosses sometimes do when they’ve been defeated. As she evaporated, so did all her children.
I couldn’t believe it. I had done it. I wasn’t trying to be a hero, and I certainly didn’t feel like one, but I had killed the Mother Araknor.