Turns out all bandits universally like juice, especially the palm kind. Due to that, or due to an overwhelming show of power, the remaining bandits quickly switched their sides. Actually, it was rather easy to bribe the bandits, however, people who turned their coats so readily were poor allies. The Spider King was well aware of that, hence so he needed to appoint an overseer, or rather a…
“Roe,” he addressed the woman who was clinging tightly to her safety straps, “I think you should become the Warlord.”
“Eh!?”
“Yes, it’s only natural for the bandit camps to unite and overthrow that Jerico dude. You’ll be the leader of the revolt.”
“Eh-Eh?”
“Don’t worry, I will support you.” He reassured her with a pat on her shoulder. “Gosh, you’re stiff. Could it be you’re afraid of flying?”
“I’m not afraid of anything!” Roe said while trembling in her chair.
“Well, in any case, we’re done obtaining allies and will be landing soon.”
The Roe’s Bandit Camp was already within sight. Once they disembarked, Roe and the Spider King were greeted with shock, but for different reasons.
“Who are they?” The Spider King gave a curious look to a bunch of pale-faced humans. “[Inspect]”.
Monster Race:
Corrupted Human
Variant: BoozeVamp
Magic Affinity: Dark
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HP:80
MP:80
STA:80
Active Perks
[Transformation: Bat], [Shadow Cloak]
Passive Perks
[Limited Flight], [Vampiric Regeneration]
Resistances
[Light Weakness: Medium]
Status Effects
[UV Sensitivity]
The bandits were still human, no doubt about that, but their skin was greyish pale, they had prominent fangs and their ears were somewhat elongated now. Their three stats dropped to 80:80:80, but probably that was countered by their regenerative ability. Actually, the bunch seemed somewhat frail and emaciated. Was this because it was still daytime? But there was an even bigger question:
“Who had Evolved you?” This was unprecedented!
The Vamps looked at each other as if unsure if to tell or not.
“It was Roe.” One of them spoke out.
“Roe?” The Spider King looked at the woman beside him, she was even paler looking than the Vamps.
“No, not her.” The vamp replied looking somewhat confused himself.
“… The other Roe.” A different vamp pointed at the well-dressed figure standing on a side.
She wore high boots, tight leather pants, and a laced leather vest; neither of the clothes was of a cheap kind. The taunt leather was shiny as if vaxed, parts of it were adorned with intricate stitching and subtle patterns. And let's not forget all the pockets, pouches, belts and straps the rogue needed to keep her dastardly tricks and weapons. The outfit just screamed I am a Rogue! However, as nice as it was, judging by the taunt leather at her rear and the struggling laces on the chest – the outfit was a size too small. And also, this Roe, while undoubtedly still a Roe, had a tar-like skin and black matted hair. She was like the more evil version of the original Roe, the Dark Roe.
“You!” The Original Roe pointed at her imitator. “You’ll ruin my best outfit! It’s gonna be all stretched out!”
And apparently, it was the clothes she cared the most and not the fact that there was a clone of her just standing right in front.
“Darkness!” The Spider King scolded. “What did I tell you about stealing other people's identities? Return to your natural form right this instant.”
“But… But do I have to?”
The Spider King gave his bound familiar a glare.
“Okay…”
The Dark Roe’s skin quivered and bubbled, it was rather disturbing, but right after the entire form shrunk on itself and a black slime popped out of a pile of slightly stretched leather.
“It was nice while it lasted, meow.”
Of course, the bandits were looking still slightly nonplussed about which Roe was the original one. If you asked them, they sort of preferred the new and improved Dark Roe. Even if Dark Roe was crazier than usual, at least she wasn’t hoarding all the booze for herself.
“My outfit…” Roe scooped her clothes, there was a sign of tears in the corners of her eyes. “It’s been defiled…”
Darkness ignored the prone form of Roe and jumped towards the Spider King.
“Master, meow, I did well, didn’t I?” It stretched a tendril towards the Vamps.
“I didn’t know you can do that.” He admitted. “But well done.” He patted the slime eliciting a satisfied quiver from it.
“Yes, I worked hard to borrow it from you.” It happily quivered again.
“So you can Evolve monsters now?” He asked just to be sure.
The slime bobbed. “Not quite, meow, only the creatures with potential for Darkness.”
It was rather cryptic. “I see…” He replied regardless.
“An another thing, Master?”
“Yes?”
“The Vamps need their juice, meow. We’d run out and they're sort of starving.”
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“Oh, so it’s not the light which made them miserable.” He looked at the almost shrivelled vamps.
“That too… Meow. So could you?”
”Yeah, I have a few bottles left.” He retrieved them from his inventory. “But I guess it’s time to resupply. Come hop back in my shadow.”
Darkness did just so and the Vamps swarmed the bottles like locusts the wheat. Upon ingestion of the Plam Juice, their forms bulked up with muscle and the eyes sparkled with newfound energy. Interestingly their stats jumped to 120:120:120.
He turned to look at Roe who had been quiet for quite some time already.
“I’ll leave you to plan the revolution. Once I’m back I expect a solid plan.”
Roe simply nodded.
“And don’t worry about that outfit, I’ll have the spiders to make you a new one. An Enchanted kind.”
Life returned to her eyes, but only for a second; she nodded again.
Darkness popped half-way from his shadow. “Meow? Then she doesn’t need the old one! Can I have it, meow?”
Anger flashed across Roe’s face and then she just threw the clothes at the slime.
“Thank you!” Darkness simply sucked the leather outfit in its body and disappeared in the shadow.
Roe turned to look at the Spider King.
“That new outfit, it better be good!” She mouthed at the King.
“Sorry about that… you know, children; they misbehave sometimes… And it will be good, Spidery Magnificent rather. I promise you that.” He said apologetically.
“And if I’m planning a revolt for ya. I want booze. A lot of it!”
“Sure.”
“And there better be a reward at the end of it!”
“Money? Power? … Booze? You’ll have it.”
Roe didn’t say anything but the smile was back on her face.
“Now, I’m off to get supplies and to snatch my Healer.”
Without wasting more time, the Galleon Whale departed the Bandit Camp.
“What are ya all gawking at!” Roe waved her fist. “Back to work!” She walked up to one of the vamps. “And you, go easy on that!” She snatched the booze bottle. “Mine!” She snatched another right out of the vamp’s hand. “Also mine.”
“Can we have the Dark Roe back?” A vamp complained. “Argh!” The bandit was punched in the gut.
…
At the Aurelian Capital, while the Ship was being resupplied, Spider King and Lord G Bling were having a small meeting.
“My King, could you clarify a rumour for me?”
“I guess, what is it?”
“Some little chirps had reached my ears telling me that rabbits can Tame humans. Is that true?”
Ah, so the beans were out of the bag; it was only a matter of time.
“As strange as it sounds, It is true, they can. It’s probably due to their Animal Affinity perk.”
“Is that so…” The spider clicked his mandibles in excitement. “Then I would like to borrow a few of DemiRabbits from you, could I?”
“If they want to come, yeah. But for what reason?”
“You see, we had our fair share of struggles in the SpiderCare®. While the project is working, it is progressing at a slower pace than anticipated.”
“You want to Tame the children to make them better behaved? … ” He paused thinking this preposterous idea over. “That’s genius!” He slammed the table with a palm in excitement.
The spider clacked his mandibles in agreement. “That, and to train them better. This would allow them to raise their levels quicker and grow stronger faster.”
The Spider King nodded. “It's good that you spiders are so invested in the children’s future. You really are a selfless bunch. I’ll talk with the rabbits and send the rabbit tamers your way. However, they just didn’t have much success with common monsters, leaving the rabbit tamers with low levels.”
“But that’s even better, no?” The spider asked.
“Why?”
“We’ll make two webs with one string. The rabbits need practice and we need Tamed humans. Surely, they’ll gain their levels by taming the humans.”
“Once again… You’re right! And it will be a safe environment for them to raise their Taming.”
“Exactly!” Lord G Bling chirped exalted.
“Then, it's settled. And how’s the war with the Holy Empire going?” He asked somewhat anxious.
“It’s fine. The humans are at a stalemate at the moment. What I gathered from the little chirps is that the Holy Empire realised that retaking the Aurelian lands would come only with a great cost. So they decided to cut their losses and abandoned that idea entirely.”
“That’s rather smart of them.” The Spider King said with a tinge of disappointment.
“Not really. What they are doing now is imposing an Empire-wide trade blockade and reinforcing their border. Only the latter will actually work.”
“I see. So perhaps they think that Aurelian Dutchy still can’t supply its food?”
The spider nodded. “With the Fertile Kingdom now fallen, that would be the correct assessment. The Aurelian people always had to rely on imports to feed their populus.”
“But they failed to take us into account.” The Spider King concluded.
“That’s right. Imperial, Aurelian and as a whole humans remain ignorant of the greatness of the Spider Kingdom. Always underestimating us.”
“I guess staying hidden in the depths of the jungle has its benefits.”
“Indeed it does.” The spider chirped in affirmation.
A small spider tapped with quick-paced spidery steps into the room.
“It is done.” It announced.
The Spider King stood up from his chair. “Well then, I still need to grab my Healer.”
“Good luck with your quest, and talk with the rabbits for me.”
“I will, [Shadow Walk].” He disappeared leaving trailing wisps of darkness.
Only to reappear by the SpideryTemple. The pious Minions followers informed him where to find his quarry. The Radian Angel was meant to be in the temple's dungeon. Why a temple needed a dungeon escaped him, but it definitely was there. He descended a steep set of stairs leading deep underground. The dungeon wasn’t like the prison dungeon, it was built rather spacious, and instead of a narrow corridor leading to the many cells, it had a big hall clearly built for some type of ceremony. The stone surface on the floor was etched with a web pattern, and above, carved In the ceiling, was a spider sculpture overlooking the entire hall. On the sides, nested inside the pillars, there were Dark Lanterns, the purple flame flickered in it ever so slightly.
The dungeon hall was an artwork by itself, however, it wasn’t the thing which elicited a yelp from the Spider King.
“What a…” He was left standing mouth agape and speechless.
The hall was not empty, aside from the Angel, as if trapped on the stone web, there was a gathering of people.
“We’re not worthy.”, “We’re not worthy.”, “We’re not worthy.”, they chanted again and again.
A thick crimson liquid was streaming from their bare backs and right to the floor. The tool to achieve that was still in the hands of the pious. *Crack, *Snap, – a whip did its job. “We’re not worthy,” the pious said in unison.
Moreover, each of them had a fresh ShadowVine collar tightly wrapped around their neck. The collar couldn’t be pleasant because the plant afflicted Drain upon contact. A few of the pious were slumped to their knees, but even when their hands moved the whip and the chant continued. The blood pooled in the grooves on the floor to fill the etched web with crimson.
Further away on a small pedestal stood a rather radiant woman, in contrast to the bloody and wounded pious she sparkled with cleanliness and health. Her being stark naked only added to the contrast making her stand out even more. Her pristine skin radiated a faint glow and her wings were stretched wide in a majestic way. The Radiant Angel was chanting a chant of her own, entirely different from the pious, hence it was drowned by their voices; at least until the last word of her chant.
“… [Initiation]!”
With those words, radiant light basked the fervent pious and the blood filling the web exploded in purple motes of light. As the motes were rising, they brushed past the skin of the pious. Upon touch their wounds closed and the crimson evaporated from their tainted backs leaving the skin fresh and renewed. There was more to it, old wounds, old scars, blemishes and imperfections, all old flaws disappeared at that moment.
An uncanny transformation was taking place here in the spidery dungeon of a SpideryTemple. And not all of it was pleasant. The vine collar burst into a purple flame and soon crumbled to dust leaving a permanent mark on the necks of the pious. But that was the only mark which marked their now otherwise flawless bodies. And there was another small addition, a faint and wispy hallo formed above the pious heads accompanied by almost imperceptible ghostly wings of light on their backs. However, unlike their golden counterparts, the halos and the wispy wings were tinted in the shade of purple.
The purple motes continued up to the ceiling and flowed into the mouth of the spider statue. There was no way for the Spider King to see, but the huge lantern in the temple hall proper burned with increased vigour and intensity as if fueled by this ritual.
With the last motes gone, the ritual was brought to a conclusion. And only then did the Radiant Angel notice the shaken presence of the Spider King. As if suddenly embarrassed, her face flushed crimson red and she moved her wings to cloak her nudeness.
The pious registered the sudden change in body language their HighPriestess exhibited, this was very unlike her, so they turned to look at the disturbance, only to kneel soon after.
“We’re not worthy.” Everyone said in unison.
“Why did my Chaos Blessed activate?” The Spider King pondered while still shocked by the cult-like spectacle. However, there was another thing he was more curious about. “[Inspect].”
Monster Race: Angelic
Variant: Fallen Cherub
Magic Affinity: Light
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HP:100
MP:200
STA:100
Active Perks
[Angelic Heal], [Bless]
Passive Perks
[Pristine Body], [Cherub Aura]
Resistances
[Dark Weakness: Medium]
Status Effects
[Minion]
Huh, so they maintained their Light affinity. But more importantly, it’s not just Darkness who could force evolutions…