Chapter Nine - Twice Lived

Jaricko activated his [Pocket Watch] fae and felt his muscles assemble themselves back together. It was an indescribable experience, boarding on pain and pleasure. Like the relief of having a dislocated bone knocked back in place. Excruciating agony followed by immense relief.

He watched as a spectator as he traveled back in time. His movements repeated themselves until he was back with Jack and Timothy before the first spider appeared. He couldn’t believe it had all happened so fast. He felt spiritually exhausted like his very being had been squeezed, pulled, and wrung out. He wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the forest floor, but he knew he didn’t have long until the two monsters appeared.

He stumbled a bit, losing his footing in the dense shrubbery they were traveling in. He peeked around, looking at where the first spider had appeared, and pointed toward it.

“I hear something,” Jaricko declared with a weary voice. The other two immediately turned to the spot he had gestured to, each raising their respective weapon in front. It was seconds before an arachnid emerged from the shadows, its long legs the first to appear.

Jaricko didn’t hesitate this time. He watched the monster’s movements, feeling more secure in his understanding of it. He watched its legs and its wriggling mouth, its partially visible fangs dripped with slobbering saliva. Its body shifted slightly and Jaricko’s eyes widened in glee.

Now!

The teenager dodged backward and swung the torch to intercept the leg. The stick smacked against the durable chitin of the creature with a heavy thud. The hair instantly went aflame. The monster hissed in that familiar screeching anguish. It tried to smother the flames but to no avail. The effort only served to spread the hungry inferno across its body.

Jaricko watched in satisfaction as his would-be killer was turned into a smoldering corpse. He kicked it for good measure and didn’t stop the maniac sneer that crossed his lips. He turned away and looked at Jack and Timothy, their spider was taking more cautious steps, obviously noticing its companion’s demise.

He suddenly felt a flood of what he learned was essence poor into his core. The powerful energy roamed through his veins and settled down. He noticed a prompt appear in the corner of his vision and he eagerly glanced at it, utilizing the spider’s wariness to test something.

Absorbing Essence [23/65] - Juvenile Mountain Forest Arachnid [Tier 0]

He instantly dumped the newfound essence into his Body attribute. He felt a sudden shockwave course through his system before a tingling spread through his body. It was as if he had dropped a weight he hadn’t known he had been carrying. He hopped up, feeling lighter than he ever had. He instinctively flexed, feeling muscles that he hadn’t known existed before.

He stepped towards the arachnid with confidence. The monster flinched backward, likely sensing something different about its targeted meal.

With a swiftness similar to Jack, Jaricko dashed forwards and brushed the torch against the beast. It tried in vain to dodge, but only a touch was needed for its demise. The creature met a similar end to the rest and curled up into a bundle of scorched limbs.

Absorbing Essence [52/69] - Juvenile Mountain Forest Arachnid [Tier 0]

Jaricko collapsed into a kneeling position, breathing heavily. Sweat covered his face and he felt like he had just run a marathon. At the same time, he felt stronger than ever. He could feel the power hidden within his limbs and knew that with one push he could leap across the land.

At some point he had dropped the torch to the ground, its flame smothered itself in the dirt. While he felt like he could lift up a boulder, he also wanted to lie down and sleep. It was an unorthodox state of being that had Jaricko confused.

“Holy shit!” Timothy exclaimed with both his hands steadying his head.

“Did it work? The Body attribute? That’s the only thing that would justify you moving that fast!” The mousey boy spoke at a fast pace. Jaricko struggled to keep up.

“Yes, it’s rank two now. Feel’s like a brand new body, a bit disorienting to be honest,” Jaricko admitted while struggling to stand on his feet. He grabbed the torch and used it as a makeshift rest, leaning against it.

“I’d say you moved as fast as Jack, or maybe even faster!” He continued to talk, his expression amazed.

“Yes. It is weird seeing someone of your…physique move like that,” Jack uttered. Jaricko raised an eyebrow at his words.

“Calling me chubby?” The teenager asked, a smirk on his lips.

“My father would say well fed,” Jack smiled back. There was no venom in his words, simply his own humor. The teenager didn’t take offense.

It was true. Jaricko hadn’t lived an active lifestyle, and his physicality showed it. He tried to hide it under the baggy clothes, but his round face gave it away. He bit the inside of his mouth and thought about how his weight had haunted him, the judgment he saw in others’ faces. He saw none of that in Jack’s and Timothy’s eyes. He only saw excitement and lingering fear of the spiders.

Jaricko grinned, a mixture of adrenaline and happiness forcing its way through. The near-death experience and the future he had avoided coursed through his mind, but he shook them away. He had lived. The [Pocket Watch] fae had proved invaluable already. Its neat quirk even made sure that Jack and Timothy hadn’t realized what had transpired.

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While he trusted them both a little more than before, he still believed keeping his ability secret was the best move. Using the fae took a lot out of him, and left him practically unable to use it again in quick succession. If that spider had simply finished him off, his story would have ended there. That thought left him with a bit of chill in his heart. How close he had come to a permanent death.

Jaricko wiped the sweat off his face and looked around. The forest had returned to its loud symphony, and he now realized the silence served as a rudimentary warning when something was approaching. He saw a strip of cloth on a nearby branch, along with another one just behind it, marking the path the trio had taken.

The teenager looked at Jack and Timothy, who were both gazing at him.

“I’m sorry about the torch,” Jaricko said while gesturing to the extinguished top. The cloth had been smothered in dirt, charred, and generally left in worse condition than it had been found. But it had served its purpose and had been invaluable in slaying two of the juvenile arachnids.

“Don’t worry about it. We can always get more lantern oil. Since that bus is useless, maybe we could siphon the gas in it…” Timothy said and shrugged in indifference. His eyes gleamed with a clever glint when he mentioned taking the gas from the bus.

“Won’t someone notice?” Jaricko questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Possibly, that girl that’s been working on the engine is almost stuck to it by the hip, but she has to take a break eventually. Others will have the same idea too, so it's best to take advantage while we can,” The smaller boy reasoned.

“We must share. Others should not be left behind in the dark,” Jack voiced his opinion. The sturdy man furrowed his brow like he was deep in thought. Jaricko and Timothy looked at each other and shrugged.

“Sounds good to me, although I don’t think we’d be able to convince the others to start hunting spiders too. Besides, neither of you have even upgraded your attributes yet. Let’s worry about ourselves before the others,” Jaricko persuaded. The large man grimaced at his words but eventually gave a curt nod. Jaricko sighed inwardly, glad Jack was reasonable enough not to try and save everyone off the bat.

“We should go then and refuel, get another torch so you and Timothy can get enough essence to upgrade an attribute. And then-” Jaricko glanced over at Timothy, who had crouched down next to the second monster and was staring at one of the claws.

“What are you doing? Found something?” Jaricko questioned and moved towards him. Timothy hesitated for a second before speaking.

“Give it a sec, I thought I just saw a flash of orange. It was like a flashbulb went off. Did no one else see it?” The smaller boy said. Jack and Jaricko moved in closer and examined the source of Timothy’s claim. The claw, which he had been staring at, remained still. Jaricko was about to dismiss it as a figment of the boy’s imagination, but he thought back to how he had found the [Pocket Watch] fae. Crackles of purple energy inhabited an ancient clock.

I don’t know how fae are formed, or where they come from, but might this be it? It’s obvious that they’re a result of the System, but what decides where they appear?

Jaricko suddenly saw a crackle of orange light dance across the ebony chitin of the spider. Timothy cried out and gestured towards it.

“You must have seen that!”

“Holy crap!” Jaricko exclaimed. He felt like he had put a little bit too much emphasis on the act, but the other two didn’t seem to notice. Jack stared down at the appendage with open fascination, while Timothy was gaping at it.

“S-should I touch it?” Timothy inquired hesitantly. There was probably a rule for someone not to touch things that weren’t understood, but with so many bizarre events happening, the rules were meant to be ignored. Timothy waited a moment, but after hearing nothing, seemed to take it as a silent confirmation.

The boy pressed his pale fingers against the charred corpse, and Jaricko watched in awe as the claw shrunk down from the half-foot length to a small glowing orange pocket knife. The blade looked just like the claw, curved and black, but now had a handle wrapped in what looked to be silk or webbing.

Jaricko instantly recognized it as a fae and wanted nothing more than to swoop in and seize it for himself. A cautious part of him reigned back the greedy gamer mentality to see what would happen.

“There’s a prompt from the System. It says, ‘Mountain Forest Arachnid Clawed Dagger Fae [Orange - Tier 0]’ and I’m getting a feeling like I could…absorb it? I feel like that’s the right word,” Timothy explained to the other two. Jack cracked his knuckles absentmindedly, his gaze still studying the mystical sight in front of them.

Timothy met Jaricko’s eyes but then turned away. He seemed ashamed of something and mumbled under his breath.

“Loot rights go to the person who killed it. It belongs to you Jaricko,” It seemed to pain the boy to say those words, and Jaricko didn’t blame him. The teenager got the feeling that Timothy was a lot like himself, game mentality-wise, the instinct to hoard and collect every shiny object was a developed behavior.

Jack didn’t appear to care, and he still hefted the heavy metal spike in his right hand. While he did seem curious about the fae, he wasn’t overly excited. If there was an average for suddenly seeing a ghostly apparition of a claw turned to magic, Jack would be it.

Jaricko contemplated what he should do. A sudden thought popped into his head.

“Out of curiosity, can you try to absorb it? You haven’t killed anything yet and unlocked your status sheet, so I wonder if it's even possible,” Jaricko wondered aloud. The other boy shrugged and furrowed his brow. A look of intense concentration was etched across his features. A moment passed and the young boy sulked, defeat evident in his posture.

“I can’t. I can sense it, sorta, but when I try to bring it into my chest it just won’t enter. It’s like there’s no home for it to settle in,” Timothy languished. Jaricko bit at his fingernails, contemplating what to do. Timothy obviously wanted the fae dearly, and Jaricko wasn’t too intrigued by the prospect of filling one of his fae slots with a dagger.

While he knew it was possible to remove fae from the slots, it didn’t seem like a pleasant process. The teenager worried there would be undesirable side effects to the procedure, which he didn’t want to risk.

“Can you pick it up or something? Carry it until you’ve unlocked your status sheet? I don’t want it, never been fond of daggers,” Jaricko admitted. The excuse sounded lame to his ears, but Timothy didn’t seem to read too far into it.

The boy grasped at the miniature glowing orange dagger. The fae seemed to slip out of his grip after every attempt, returning back to the end of the spider’s leg. Timothy appeared to be on the verge of crying. Jaricko would have giggled but he could tell Timothy was placing a lot of importance on obtaining the mystical apparition.

“I can’t fully grasp it. It also feels like it's fading, or losing power,” Timothy remarked with urgency.

Jaricko noted that the boy seemed too desperate, almost as if something was driving him. There could be an ulterior motive, or Timothy simply saw the fae as what it really was. A potentially useful tool to ascend in power.

The fae was losing some of its brilliance as time passed. The blade appeared to renounce its deadly edge and the ebony gleam was turning a brittle gray.

Timothy eventually gave up and turned towards Jack.

“I don’t want to leave it here for it just to disappear. Do you want it? Jaricko doesn’t, and I can’t even touch it, so the next in line is you,” The boy was frowning while he talked to Jack.

“No. The dagger is too small. Barely the size of my finger,” Jack said while comparing the miniature blade to his hand. Jaricko rolled his eyes. It was very likely the fae would increase in size when used. Likely summoning a weapon upon activation.

Timothy scowled at the grinning man. Jaricko heard a faint rustling behind him and pivoted around. It seemed an arachnid had been attracted by the trio, and was now running its forelimbs against the first spider Jaricko had slain.

Jaricko looked at Timothy.

“Looks like you might be in luck after all.”