Chapter 12

Now that the morning training was over everyone got their equipment on and prepared to leave. They decided to go to Foria and Korin’s home town of Kaito. Snow and Hiro led the front of the group while Korin and Foria moved to the back of the group so that if they came across any enemies the higher defensive units would already be out front. Korin said, "We should head west until we escape this forest. Then we should be about a day from our village." Everyone nodded in agreement and they set out.

As they walked they laughed and chatted sharing stories of their past. Soon the forest began to get dark. They noticed thick spider webs all over the place. As they walked deeper into the area they ran into a web that blocked their path. Snow tried to cut through the web but it was to no avail. The webbing was too thick. Korin decided it was just better to burn it all and cast his fireball. He raised his hand and a basketball sized ball appeared in his hand. Korin threw the ball at the webbing in front of them and the webbing it hit was burnt to a crisp. Any other pieces that it was attached to also began to burn up as well. They continued until…

Dangerous presence detected!

“Everyone be on your guard I sense a dangerous enemy ahead.” Everyone armed themselves and they move forward cautiously. Hiro could sense a very large ki not far ahead of them but they could not yet see it. He could also sense numerous small energies all around them but they were not close enough to attack.

They reached a clearing where they saw it. It was a large spider. It was over 4 meters tall. It was all black with 8 green eyes on its head. Hiro immediately used his inspect ability as well as copy because the spider was strong and he might be able to learn from it.

Widow QueenType:ArachnidHealth:1,200 / 1,200Mana:00/00The most powerful of the forest spiders. She is the mother of all the spiders in the woods. She is extremely dangerous. Her venomous fangs can kill with only a few drops. Her powerful legs can crush and man easily and she spits out webbing that is as strong as steel and cannot be cut with a normal blade.

Snow leaped into action. Hiro activated his ki and joined in behind Snow. “We will have to make this quick as I won’t be able to use my ki for very long”, thought Hiro. He and Snow attacked the spider. They slashed at its body to no avail. Their weapons could not pierce its thick hide. The spider took one of its long legs and thurst it at Snow. He used his shield to block the attack but the spider’s leg pierced through it leaving a large whole. As the spider pulled its leg back, it yanked the shield away from Snow. With out a shield Snow could not block the webbing the spider spit a him. The spider’s webbing covered him from his toes to his neck. Snow immediately fell over and was incapacitated.

Hiro now had to take the brunt of the beast’s attacks. He knew he had to keep the spider away from attacking the defenseless Snow. He activated his Hero’s battle cry ability. The red threatening aura covered his body and he let out a scream the caused the spider to pause. He tried to use his icy stare but it must not have been high enough level to intimidate the spider. Since that didn’t work he immediately began furiously attacking the spider with extremely fast and heavy strikes from his blade. None were working but he had the spider’s complete attention and Snow was temporarily safe.

Foria was shooting her arrows trying to keep the beast at bay but they could not penetrate the thick carapace either. Korin used his bind spell.

After observing Korin using copy numerous times you have learned, dark magic spell bind.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:BindBeginner0100%This spell releases your ki in a chain-like shape wrapping around an enemy preventing it from moving. The strength of the spell will increase with you skill making it last longer and becoming more difficult for enemies to break free.

The spider was immediately paralyzed. Hiro used the chance to dart in and try to land an attack that would finish the spider. Just before he could land his attack the spider broke free of the bind spell and swung one of its powerful legs at Hiro. He could not avoid but he was able to block the attack using his gauntlet. Blocking the attack sent him flying into a tree. Hiro lost 120 hp. He stood back up but the attention of the spider a returned to Snow.

The spider took one of its long legs and pierced Snow through both of his shoulders.  It opened its mouth to bite Snow. Just before it could Hiro used his dashing slash to land an attack right on the spider’s head. The spider fell back releasing Snow. Unfortunately Snow was bleeding badly. Hiro charged at the the spider again. The spider spit webbing at him but Korin burned it with his fireball. When he was close enough the spider attacked him with one of its legs but Hiro dodged it by rolling on the ground. He quickly returned to his feet and slashed the leg with his sword. The leg was chopped off and the spider stumbled.

“Hold on Snow we’re going to finish this thing. Foria, Korin the Hide is thick but the legs were weak. We can incapacitate it by destroying its legs then we can figure out how to kill it."

“I’ll also blind it by shooting out its eyes” said Foria. She shot its eyes out with pinpoint accuracy. As the arrows hit their mark the spider let out a loud shriek. Hiro covered his ears as the sound was so loud that it made his ears bleed. After a moment he looked around. All he could hear was a loud ringing in his ears. He saw Foria and Korin trying to talk to him.

“What are they saying? I can’t hear anything. Am I deaf?”

The widow queen was blinded and it moved around wildly swing its legs.  Just then Hiro could feel the other energies moving towards them. “Look out more are coming!”

Foria and Korin understood him and got on alert. The new enemies appeared. They were smaller spiders only about half a meter tall. “They must have been the widow queen’s children. That shriek must have been her calling for their help. Quick kill them before she starts attacking again” said Foria.

“Let’s do it”, replied Korin.

She fired her arrows and they pierced these spiders. They were not nearly as powerful as the queen. Korin used his fireball spells to burn any that got past Foria to a crisp. They made quick work of the queen’s reinforcements and then they went back to the queen.

“Regain your mana Korin. I have a plan.”

“OK.”

“I’ll keep it busy let me know when you have enough mana to cast your most powerful spell.”

“Agreed.”

Hiro charged in at the queen. “It is much easier to dodge her attacks now that she can’t see me.”

Dodge increased to level 6.

Hiro used his dashing slash this time when he dodged the queen’s attack. He was able to cut one of the legs and queen lost its balance. His mana was beginning to run out. He had to do this fast. He ran towards the queen again. It spit webs at him but he was able to dodge. “Might as well try it!” Hiro ran in as close as he could and called out his new skill “Bind!” The queen immediately froze. Hiro quickly activated his dashing slash and cut all of its legs remaing legs. The queen’s body hit the ground with a loud crash.

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“Now Korin!”

Korin now raised his staff in horizontally with both hands firmly clasping about arms with apart. Hiro grabbed Snow and moved back. Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot forth from the staff and the spider was shocked and stopped moving. It was dead. Hiro released his ki and they all paused because they now had deal with another problem, Snow was still bleeding and he was encased in the webbing.

Level up

Sword mastery evolved to novice

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Sword MasteryNovice0100%Sword mastery novice gains 5 points to agility for each level. Also you gain a 10% chance that enemies struck with your sword will also be inflicted with the bleeding status ailment making them lose 10 hp per sec.

“Quickly, Korin cast your healing spell.”

“I can’t my mana is too low.”

“Give him the potions from in the magic bag.” Foria quickly took out 2 of the potions and poured into Snow’s mouth. He swallowed and the bleeding stopped. His wounds were healing but he would need some rest. He was not going to die but he was still trapped. They needed to free him.

Foria tried cutting the webbing with the knives and Hiro tried with his sword but it wouldn’t budge. They were afraid to use magic because Snow might be harmed. “Guys, I have an idea. Everyone stand back. I have to meditate for a moment in order to regain my ki.” He closed his eyes and began to meditate. After a few moments he had regained his mana.

Hiro began summon his ki. “I can feel it flowing around my body. Now I have to move it to my arm like Snow did when he crushed the rock.” His arm suddenly had a red aura around it. He opened his eyes and thought, “It worked! Now I just have to push it out into the blade. If I can strengthen my body then why shouldn’t I be able to strengthen my blade?” He closed his eyes again.

Hiro visualized his ki moving from his arm to his hand and from his hand down to the hilt of the sword all the way to the end of the blade.

Snow said, “Amazing! How can this kid have developed this amount of control of his ki in one day? It usually took years of training to do such things.”

Hiro opened his eyes. His blade was shrouded in a red aura. The blade looked almost as if it was on fire.

You have learned the technique of weapon enhancement.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Weapon EnhancementBeginner0100%With this skill you are able to shroud your weapon with your ki and thus give it remarkable destructive capability. As you gain proficiency with this skill you will be able to imbue more ki causing your blade to cut through armored foes, rock, and even the hardest materials.

Hiro moved toward Snow. “Stand him up against a nearby tree.” They did as asked. Hiro then told Snow to take a deep breath and hold completely still. Snow inhaled and Hiro raised his blade. Hiro paused for a moment clenching both of his hands around the handle of the blade. In one quick motion Hiro swung his blade down through the webbing. “That was amazing it cut through as if it was just paper. It was if it had no resistance at all. It fell like he was cutting through butter.”

Snow was even further impressed that Hiro was able to achieve such skill in such a short time. Snow thought to himself,

“This young man has great potential. I would like to see what he will achieve.”

After getting Snow free they took some time breaking the spider into pieces. Hiro decided to use his new ki skill to cut the spider up. He cut part of the carapace in a larger round circle. He then attached a handle made from the leather of the forest panthers to make a shield for Snow. It was much larger than his previous shield as now it protected him from his thigh almost to his neck and now no normal weapon would be able to penetrate it. Snow was now like a walking fortress.  

As Hiro continued to cut up the spider he found something shiny. It was a baseball sized emerald green gem. He had never seen this before. He raised it up to the rest of the group. “Does anyone know what this is? Foria and Snow shook their heads saying they didn’t know.

Korin said, “That it was an elemental gem. Some monsters have and affinity for certain elements making them resistant to damage from that element. Green signifies wind. Brown is earth. White is light. Black is dark. Red is fire and blue is water. If you knew an enchanter you could use the gym to give you equipment wind elemental properties.”

Now that they were finished with the spider they took a break as the spider was definitely a powerful foe but their group had triumphed showing their skill and teamwork.

“While everyone relaxes, I might as well go and work on my herbalism and alchemy skills as they will definitely help me with my mana.” He activated his ki placing it around his feet and began to walk away from camp towards the forest. He looked around and saw many plants but none had a glow about them like the other plants he had used for herbalism.

“Is it that they are not useful or my skill is not high enough to detect their usefulness? Let me check.” Hiro grabbed one of the plants and used his inspect ability.

Weed. A normal weed that grows in the wild. Has no value.

“I guess they are jus not useful and my mana is low. I need to meditate to replenish.” Hiro sat down and meditated to regain his mana. After a little a few minutes past he was ready to go. He reactivated his body strengthening technique then continued his search for a little while. He had now walked about 200 meters away from the camp going south when he found something. He saw a soft glow in the distance. “Maybe that could  something useful”

Hiro saw a field of flowers. He recognized the mint and sunlion but there were 2 other flowers growing. One flower had white petals and the other was a very soft purple color. Hiro inspected them both.

Poison blossom

Do not be fooled by its beautiful white petals, the nectar inside is an extremely potent poison.

Paralytic Jasmine

Its beautiful soft purple color invites you to come in but the oil from its petals will cause whatever it touches to lose its ability to move.

Hiro carefully collected as many of these plants as he could.

You have collected 25 blood rosed, 18 mint, 20 sunlions, 24 paralytic jasmines, and 35 poison blossoms.

Herbalism Skill has increased to level 7

“If I can make some poison and paralyze potions that will definitely upgrade my alchemy skill. Once I make them I can coat our weapons in those potions so that they can have a greater effect in battle. That spider was tough but with poison or paralytic weapons it would have been much less difficult.” Hiro made a sinister grin and rushed back to camp.