– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Rising Sun, Day 52 –
“Are you certain that your soul has fully recovered?” asked Terry. “There is no rush. We can wait.”
“Yes yes,” replied Siling. “I’m fine.”
“Putting the recovery topic to one side for the moment, are you really sure that you want that as your next soul spirit?” questioned Tiana. She was looking with disgust at the information brought by Siling.
“It may not be the prettiest creature, but it adequately fits my needs.”
“I thought you were looking for a mount,” interjected Terry. “That looks tall enough, but it does not exactly look comfortable.”
“Meh, I will get used to it or I can bring a pillow. The primary metal aspect is one of the best arguments in favor of the wiremoss tarantula. Its metal coating can achieve similar effects to Metal Skin or Claw Nails. It is a mana ability, which means I will be able to use it.”
Terry was convinced by the Metal Skin argument. As far as he was concerned, a healer could never have too much defensive ability.
“Also, I am not only looking for a mount.” Siling used the index finger on her right hand to tap the fingers on her left hand and count the favorable arguments.
“The wiremoss tarantula can take a hit thanks to its metal aspect. It can perform mid-range attacks by flicking its metal-aspect-reinforced urticating hairs. It offers debilitating support with its silk and a venomous bite. The silk threads can be reinforced with the metal aspect or they can be made sticky by relying on its minor nature aspect. The nature aspect also makes its venom more potent. Last, its high burst speed synergizes well with my Resummon Spirit spell.”
Siling paused for a moment. Her eyes moved up, and she thought over everything to see if she had forgotten anything. Eventually, she nodded and lowered her hands again. “Its biggest weakness in the wild is its lack of brains. That is less relevant as a soul spirit because I can order it around.”
Tiana was rendered speechless by the amount of information bubbling out of the little elf. Overwhelmed, she quickly retracted her concerns. “Fair enough. Then all we need is a plan. Going by the creature's weak points, we could try to mimic the tarantula hawk wasp’s strategy. I can ask my brother to aspect some additional equipment with lightning for us. He wanted to thank Terry for the imprinted equipment attachments, anyway. Let’s leave the details for later. First, we should wrap up our training.”
“Your turn to get pummeled, Terry,” declared Siling with a mischievous smirk.
Their group had become more balanced and familiar with each other. Now, they used the customary two against one rotation in their sparring sessions. The three stood up and took their positions.
Terry was facing the other two and checked his equipment one more time. His progress in mana crafting had allowed him to incorporate some new strategies. Besides tertium items, he now carried several pieces made from septimum and octavum.
Octavum was a dark-grey metal commonly used for equipment. It was durable and comparatively affordable. Its main drawback was its heavy weight. Although, depending on the equipment, that could be an advantage as well. The vivid yellow metal septimum, in contrast, was rarely used in crafting, because it was expensive and the metal’s properties did not justify the cost.
Terry saw the two metals through a different lens: Septimum was the metal with the smallest activation delay for the Immovable Object spell. Octavum, on the other hand, had the largest delay.
Terry supplemented his cloud badger armor with some new bracers, as well as a set of knee-high lace-up boots. The core material was again cloud badger leather. In addition, the new equipment was prepared with imprinted septimum and a shielding material. He was particularly proud of the mechanism inside the boots.
The match started.
Siling immediately cast a frontal Barrier spell.
Terry ran left and activated his Gravitational Attraction glove with Siling as the target. Her new barrier spell was a moving barrier and moved together with her. This was helpful in most circumstances, but it did not offer protection against Terry’s glove.
Siling activated the imprinted Immovable Object spell in the small attachment affixed to the handle of her barrier shield.
Alright then… Terry had not really expected his probe to succeed. It was him that had crafted the imprinted attachments for his companions and he was well aware that they could counter his glove.
From the corner of his eye, Terry noticed Tiana moved to his right. This was unusual. Normally, she charged at him directly and would never allow Terry to get between her and Siling. He immediately became wary, but took his chances regardless.
Terry kept the glove activated, which pulled him towards the transfixed Siling and provided some additional acceleration. As long as Siling kept Immovable Object active, she could not escape either.
Terry realized his mistake as soon as he had entered Siling’s casting range. The elven woman deactivated her barrier and in the next moment, Terry was caught in the crossfire of two rock spears from both sides. Siling did not pause and quickly added some ice spikes from the front and Tiana hurled a javelin from the back.
Terry activated the Immovable Object imprint in one of his bracers to pull himself up in the air and dodge. He could have used a shield or barrier spear to block, but Terry wanted to practice his item assisted movement in the air.
Terry was taken aback when Tiana did not continue with javelins and instead summoned a loaded crossbow from her storage bracelet, quickly took aim, and shot. Immediately afterwards, she returned the unloaded crossbow back into the storage item and exchanged it for another loaded crossbow. In this manner, Tiana rapidly loosened a handful of bolts. All the while, Siling kept adding her own spell projectiles.
This is going to be a pain…
***
“This is where the wiremoss tarantulas are supposed to be,” said Siling and pointed towards the grassland area. “I’ll have Grumpy look for matching life signatures.”
“We can try the day plan first, but I am still not sure if it is a good idea to attack these things in their burrow,” remarked Tiana.
Terry shrugged. “If their vision is as bad as the info states, we should not have any trouble escaping if the day plan does not work out. Their tremor sense won’t do them any good when we’re in the air.”
Tiana nodded. “Okay, we’ll have to test it before the local Guardians close shop for the day. Otherwise, we won’t be able to rent darkvision goggles anymore.”
“By the way, Siling?” Terry looked at his elven companion. “Will you be able to use the tremor sense ability as well?”
“Nope, shouldn’t be the case. It’s a physical ability, not mana related. Some creatures have earth sense, which uses mana for similar effects. I would have to go for those, but I don’t really see the need at the moment.”
“Would be useful for tracking.” Terry pointed out.
“And for avoiding ambushes,” added Tiana.
“Meh, many things would be useful. I have to prioritize. Although, I hope that this new soul spirit pushes my own soul over its current limit so that I can advance and get an additional soul spot. Then I can consider my options again.”
Siling jerked her head away from her two companions. “Over there. Grumpy has found something.”
The three quickly moved towards the target location.
“The silk lined burrow matches the description from the Guardian info,” observed Tiana.
“Size and shape of the life signature fits,” stated Siling. “Terry?”
“Aspected mana with metal as the primary aspect,” said Terry.
Siling exchanged souls to summon her cloud badger soul spirit. If the lightning-aspected weapons did not do the trick, then Sniffles might get a turn. Afterwards, she distanced herself from the entrance.
Tiana took out a barrier-imprinted long spear and a shield.
Terry retrieved an octavum throwing needle. He directed some mana into it and threw the needle into the air. The needle flew until the Immovable Object imprint activated. Afterwards, he activated his glove to let Gravitational Attraction pull him up towards the transfixed needle.
When Terry arrived near the needle, he deactivated his glove and directed mana into the septimum material inside his boots instead. The imprint activated, and Terry stood transfixed in the air.
Terry glanced down and considered his position relative to the entrance. He switched the activation in his boots from one foot to the other. This allowed Terry to walk in the air. Although, it had to be admitted that his steps were awkward. His practice and his iterating on the mechanism design enabled Terry to move a lot more fluently than in the past, but the whole idea had its limits – an immovable boot did not really lend itself to rolling over from heel to toes. He felt a bit like a waddling duck.
After reaching his desired spot, Terry summoned a tertium slab and moved on top of it. Next, he summoned their prepared bait: a bundle of cloth sprayed with the pheromones of a blade hopper. Blade hoppers were metal-aspected corruptions of normal grasshoppers and one of the wiremoss tarantula’s staples.
They had already tied a long rope to the bait before. Terry only had to check that it was still attached securely. While testing the rope, he already started another dimensional storage retrieval. This time from his crafter’s pendant.
Eventually, Terry stepped off the slab again and finished summoning an enormous boulder. He did not know what his Aunt Brynn would think about him using the precious pendant for the common rock, but he hoped she would understand the utility. He tied the other end of the rope to the screw hooks that had been inserted into the boulder.
As his last preparation, Terry summoned a U-shaped tertium piece. He positioned it with the open end to the top and threaded the rope through the opening before transfixing the tertium in the air.
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Terry threw the bait down to Tiana, who promptly hurled it into the wiremoss tarantula’s nest.
As soon as the bait touched the wiremoss tarantula, the creature wrapped its appendages around the cloth. The retractable claws at the end of its legs extended into the bait.
“Now!” shouted Tiana.
Terry disrupted the imprint in the tertium slab. Without the support of the transfixed slab, the boulder dropped down to the ground. The rope tightened and then the bait with the wiremoss tarantula got pulled out of the nest and into the daylight.
Terry tensed and readied himself. If the creature kept clinging to the bait, then it would be his responsibility to probe with a lightning-aspected weapon.
However, when the wiremoss tarantula got dragged outside, the burrow’s wall touched its back. This caused the creature to let go of the bait and it quickly used its back pair of legs to kick off some hairs from its body. The hairs were thin, barbed, and the metal-aspect reinforcement could make for some nasty wounds.
Unfortunately for the creature, the only thing it hit was its own burrow. Even though it had six eyes, its vision was too bad to distinguish anything more than light and movement.
The boulder impacted on the ground. This startled the wiremoss tarantula, and it dashed off into another direction with astonishing speed.
Terry threw an octavum ring into the air towards the wiremoss tarantula. The ring was tied with elastic rope to another octavum ring in Terry’s hand. When the imprint of the thrown ring activated, Terry deactivated the imprint in his boots and swung towards the creature.
As soon as the creature was back in his range, Terry stabilized himself with his boots and activated Gravitational Attraction on the mana-corrupted arachnid. He pulled it back far enough for Siling to take over.
Siling cast a Kinetic Push, and the creature was propelled back to Tiana.
Tiana kept her shield but exchanged her barrier spear for a lightning-aspected javelin.
The wiremoss tarantula hit the ground and quickly got back on its feet. Afterwards, it remained completely motionless and sensed for tremors with its legs.
Terry used his octavum rings to return to Tiana and the wiremoss tarantula. Then he watched the two. Let’s see if the creature is as much of a ditz as Siling claimed.
Tiana stomped her foot on the ground. The wiremoss tarantula quickly turned. It reared up into a threat posture – it lifted its front legs into the air and extended its fangs. It made a loud hissing sound produced by stridulation.
Apparently, yes.
Tiana hurled the javelin straight into the creature’s thorax.
The metal-aspect corruption increased the physical defense of the wiremoss tarantula. However, the underside between its legs remained a weak point and the metal aspect was incapable of blocking lightning. The creature collapsed. It was far from dead, but the lightning-aspected weapon disrupted its nervous system and caused paralysis.
Tiana quickly finished off the paralyzed wiremoss tarantula. Afterwards, Siling started her soul capture while Terry observed the process with mana sight.
Eventually, Siling stood up with a broad grin. “Success!”
“New soul spot?” inquired Tiana.
“Not yet, but very close. Strengthening the wiremoss tarantula soul will most likely push me over the limit.”
“Does your soul still feel okay?” asked Terry, with concern written all over his face.
“Better than ever!” Siling closed her eyes. After a brief moment, her skin received a metallic shine. She opened her eyes again and probed her palm with the fingers of her other hand. Then she clenched her fists and pumped them in the air. “Muahahaha, the metal coating is mine! I am the Impenetrable Woman!”
“Pfft—” Tiana tried hard to hold back her laughter until she simply could not keep it in anymore and broke out in a loud guffaw.
Siling shot her a puzzled glance. It took a while before Tiana could talk again.
“Ha-haaa.” Tiana wiped something from her eye. “Sorry, but haha. That was an unusually intense purity pledge.”
Siling blinked and stood flabbergasted. Her mouth opened a few times without saying anything. “Point taken. Let’s forget that name. Please. Pretty please.”
“Haha, sure.”
“No promises from me,” interjected Terry. “I may address you like that during spars if it helps to throw off your spell casting.”
Siling gasped. “Hey now, whatever happened to you, Terry? You used to be such a nice young man and now you are thinking of playing dirty!”
“You started using Liquify Earth in our spars,” retorted Terry. “That changed me.”
Siling turned her head and pondered. She closed her eyes and pointed towards the burrow. She spun several times while keeping her eyes closed. Again, she pointed and then opened her eyes. “Huh? That wasn’t in the information.”
“What?” asked Terry.
“Apparently, wiremoss tarantulas have a mana ability similar to the True North spell. It appears that I am now an elven compass. Don’t recall ever having used a compass before, but more abilities are always appreciated. Lucky~”
Terry inspected the mana corrupted corpse. “I thought the tarantula was supposed to have eight legs.”
“It does,” replied Siling. “The two pairs in front are not really legs.”
Terry furrowed his brow and tilted his head. “They look pretty leggy to me.”
“Yes, but the legs have claws,” explained Siling. “Those have fangs.”
Terry puckered his lips and raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure how to respond to that. I’ll take your word for it.”
“I still don’t understand how that thing can survive in the wild with a threat posture that exposes its weak point,” said Tiana incredulously. “Such a stupid behavioral pattern.”
“A bit like going into a fistfight with your face presented and your arms down,” added Terry with a nod.
“Not the best strategy, no,” agreed Tiana.
Siling shrugged. “A remnant from its non-corrupted days, I suppose. There are barely any non-magic creatures capable of ranged attacks. Or perhaps the posture remains adaptive overall, even if it is very maladaptive in some situations? More predators backing off at the sight than predators with the ability to take advantage of the weak point. Something like that. Probably.”
***
“Here we go,” muttered Siling. Her new wiremoss tarantula soul spirit was now strengthened enough to take corporeal form. After her spellwork, a white tarantula with purple markings appeared. It was about the size of a donkey.
Tiana grimaced at the sight.
“First things first,” said Siling and moved towards the soul spirit. The wiremoss tarantula lowered its body for Siling to climb on.
“Ouch,” exclaimed Siling. “Pillow it is.” After testing out her new mount, she climbed down again.
“I will name you Pricklybum,” grumbled Siling and rubbed her buttocks.
“It’s reaction speed is impressive,” praised Terry.
“Yeah, I guess the lack of brains has its advantages,” said Siling. She tested commands to the soul spirit. This eventually devolved into a sort of synchronized dance routine between her and the wiremoss tarantula.
Tiana shuddered, which caught Siling’s eye.
“Aww, don’t be like that, Tiana! Give Princess Pricklybum a hug!” The soul spirit spread out her front legs – including leg-like limbs – and slowly approached Tiana.
“Keep that thing away from me,” yelled Tiana and positioned herself so that Terry was between her and the wiremoss tarantula. “I mean it. Please.”
Siling made Pricklybum put down her limbs and droop its head as if it was moping. Two limbs moved as if it was wiping tears from its many eyes.
“Secret anti-demon weapon acquired!” Siling pumped her fists.
“If that thing comes close during spars, I will hurt it,” warned Tiana.
Terry turned to Tiana. “Did I just become your designated meat shield?”
“Hush.” Tiana looked embarrassed. “Only if it comes over for cuddles. In combat, I won’t be squeamish.”
“Who’s a good little creature of nightmares?” Siling bent and slapped her knees when asking the question towards the soul spirit. “Who’s a good little creature of nightmares?”
She made the wiremoss tarantula point with its limbs towards itself.
“That’s right! You are!” Siling guffawed. “This is going to be fun.”
***
Lori rapidly dual-cast Liquify Earth.
Terry activated his imprinted bracers in time. He built up momentum with his lower body and then deactivated the imprint in order to let his momentum carry himself beyond the liquified earth.
Unfortunately, Jorg was caught off guard this time, and he slipped. He reflexively used his hand to catch himself on the ground, which caused his hand and lower arm to sink into the muddy earth. Jorg immediately felt dread for one of Lori’s new spells and hastily tried to use his spear in order to push himself above the mud.
Lori burst forward and cast Harden Earth. Jorg’s hand, which had been stuck in the mud before, was now trapped in rock and Lori continued to charge at him.
Terry dashed forward to intercept Lori. To his surprise, Lori suddenly jumped back again and cast Raise Wall. An earthen wall rose between Terry and Jorg on one side, and Lori on the other.
Terry recognized Lori’s next spell structure before it was activated – Harden Earth again. The spell choice perplexed Terry even further, and he eyed the wall warily.
Why would Lori go on the defensive now?
Terry moved next to Jorg in order to help free him – or at least try to. Terry had already suffered under his sister’s new spell combination several times, but he was still not sure how to deal with it. How was he supposed to free a trapped body part from rock without risking injury? Crushing the rock while the hand was trapped inside did not seem like a feasible option.
Terry had found it difficult to believe that the Liquify Earth spell could possibly become even more annoying, but this new spell combination had unimaginably succeeded in the feat.
Terry could sense another spell structure from behind the wall. He recognized it from Lori’s spell practice. He had to think for a moment to recall the supposed effects. When Terry remembered the spall effect, his pupils dilated, and he hurriedly summoned a tertium slab to protect Jorg and himself.
It was not a second too late, because right at this moment, Lori finished casting Rockspall Touch. She struck the hardened earth wall with her palm.
Lori’s palm-strike reverberated through the hardened earth wall with a bang. The spell impact caused countless rock shrapnel to be propelled from the side facing Terry and Jorg. Luckily, the rocks were blocked by the tertium slab.
“Wastes,” murmured Jorg. “You’d think she was angry with me.”
“Did you steal her dessert again?”
“Not today, no.”
“We surrender,” shouted Terry.
“We do?” asked Jorg. “Why?”
“Really?” questioned Lori. “Jorg’s out, but you’re still standing, though.”
“Yeah, really,” replied Terry. “Good spar. I would rather continue the rotation instead of going one on one. The spar is supposed to be two against one so that two can practice coordination while one can face increased pressure.”
“I guess it’s not fair for Jorg to slack off while we sweat.” Lori teased her twin brother.
“I would do less slacking off if you would stop this rock entrapment,” protested Jorg.
“I mean, you could avoid it, no?” retorted Lori challengingly.
“I also remember that you threatened to learn the Liquify Earth spell at some point,” interjected Terry, while looking at his brother. “Whatever happened to that?”
Jorg grimaced.
“You could also learn a long-range attack spell,” offered Lori. “If you require further motivation, we could suggest some spells to Ma and Unca Samuel.”
Jorg gasped. “Are you sure you’re not angry with me?”
Lori chuckled in response and cast Liquify Earth to liberate Jorg.
“Actually, since we have some time,” started Lori. “Alrik suggested that our groups travel a bit and take missions on the road to broaden our horizons. What do you think?”
“That’s… surprising,” said Jorg with a drawl. “I got the impression Alrik does not enjoy working with others.”
“Well, Alrik wanted to travel, and I suggested we team up with your groups again,” explained Lori. “I mean, everyone is already familiar with each other and our bounty hunting retake showed that we can work together.”
I guess…
They had recently taken their second attempt at passing the bounty hunting examination and Terry could only describe it as a steamrolling success. In fact, it had been over so quickly and easily that it had felt surreal. They had been careful to avoid similar mistakes to their failed examination, but there was more to it than that.
Terry thought that part of the difference was simply Tiana’s presence because she had changed the overall group dynamics for the better and her plans were invaluable as well. They had all gotten stronger. With all factors combined, the retake was like a breeze in the park with nothing noteworthy to happen. A sharp contrast to their initial examination.
Terry believed Lori had a point. Their groups already knew each other. At least he knew what he did not like. Terry still did not like Alrik or Elena, but perhaps a longer trip with all their groups as a team could help with that.
***