The rogue was the first to make it to the brood mother, slashing at the back of its legs, causing a bit of blood to spray out. Mike noticed the blood bubbling on the ground, calling out to the group as a warning as he began his attacks.
“Watch out for the blood, it does not look pleasant to get on your skin!” He called out, having to dodge away several times as the spider swiped at him. It was big, and very strong, but was slow due to its mass.
“Spiders don't have blood.” Vladimir said, slinging low power spells with one hand, and preparing a bigger one in his offhand. “They have hemolymph, which just flows freely through their bodies, instead of veins like we have.”
“Nerd.” Nema said, with the group laughing at the expense of the mage. The spider did not like that it was suddenly secondary to whatever the humans were discussing, and lashed out with a whip of mana. Nema was nearly hit by the end of the whip, which cracked through the air faster than any whip Mike had ever seen. It made a loud snap as it tore through the air, wind whipping throughout the room as it made a massive gash in a nearby wall. Mike didn’t feel the need to tell people not to get hit by that.
They danced around the spider, Vladimir and Nema attacking from a range, and Aaron keeping the mage topped off on mana by channeling some into his body. Soon, his spell was ready, and he ran in close to the spider to try and get as much out of the attack as possible. The spider turned, ready to slice the mage in half with his whip, when Mike intercepted the attack, grabbing the whip with both arms. He regretted how he handled it soon after, as he was flung across the room shortly after, still holding the whip.
Vladimir was given the opening he needed as he ran under the spider, unleashing a blast of mana upwards. The mana tore into the spider, leaving a crater in its body and spilling hemolymph everywhere. Everywhere, including on top of Vladimir. He was doused in the fluid as he began screaming in pain, writhing on the floor. The rogue disengaged the spider, scooping up the mage and retreating. He brought him back to Aaron, who began working hard to stabilize the man. This left just Mike, the rogue, and Nema to fight the spider for the time being.
The injury had certainly affected the spider, as it was moving slower than before, losing more bodily fluids by the second. Mike was still holding the whip, attacking it with his soul hammer repeatedly in an effort to dispel it. This quickly proved ineffective, as the whip continued to thrash around. Nema and the rogue got plenty of attacks in as the spider was wholly distracted by the man grabbing its main weapon. Mike let go, reading his hammer to meet the attack flying at him by the whip. He swung his hammer, managing to score a direct, and extremely powerful hit on the whip.
It exploded in a shower of light, blinding Mike for a moment. The rogue was the only one who had been unaffected by the light, and began trying to get the spider's attention to keep the others safe. Moments later, Mike's vision was back to normal after Aaron turned his attention to the rest of the group just long enough to throw out a weak healing spell. He was just about to swing his hammer again, ready to crack the carapace, when he noticed the damage his weapon had sustained. It had broken, snapped about halfway up the handle. Mike cursed, pulling his soul ax out as he began taking his frustration out on the spider.
The rogue had been making cuts and stab wounds all over the legs of the spider, and the effectiveness of the tactic showed as it began wobbling, slowing down to a crawl. Its legs were barely supporting its weight now, and with just a few more good hits, they would fall. Mike was ready to immobilize the spider, when his haste caused him to forget about the webs all over the room momentarily. He was trapped in the strings, with them holding him steady. The massive tarantula turned to him, suddenly ignoring all other attacks, as it began to walk towards him.
“Shit, damn it!” Mike cursed trying all he could to escape. Panic mounted as the spider got closer and closer, with Mike squirming and wiggling all he could. In a moment of pure fear and adrenaline, he tried releasing as much mana as he could from his body, aiming as much as possible at the strings around him. He felt light headed as just over 2000 of his 2200 mana pool disappeared, but it did the trick.
His mana blasted out, not just breaking the strings around him, but disintegrating every single web in the room. He supposed 2000 mana may have been a bit overkill for trying to break something the thickness of a hair, but he had been panicking. A notification popped up in the corner of his vision, clearly uncaring of the fact that he had a pissed off spider less than 10 feet from him.
*Trait Skill unlocked*
Mike really wanted to look at it, but he was busy as the spider continued trying to kill him. Vladimir had finally been fully healed, and Aaron was working on replacing the mana that Mike had lost in the desperate escape. With the entire team back in action, it didn't take them long to wear down the already injured brood mother. The fight was finished as Mike used his mana to empower his body, splitting the head of the spider open with his ax.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
*Class level up x2! Mighty Infusionist Slayer (level 15)*
*Race level up! Human (level 15)*
Mike was noticing how his class often gave him levels in pairs. He wasn't complaining though, as he felt it was certainly an earned reward. The entire group was exhausted after the fight, and after destroying all the spider eggs, they rested for a moment to catch their breath. Mike decided that was the perfect time to check his notifications, and find out what skill his trait had apparently made.
Freedom (Trait) (Epic)
No chain can bind you down. Using your mana and strength, break any bindings you are trapped within.
It was an epic skill, in both sense and rarity. He had certainly over done it with the mana the first time, and he was a bit tired from the exertion, despite his mana having fully recovered by now. The description of the skill was very familiar, and when he reread the description of his trait, he saw that it was ripped straight from its source.
Indomitable
You are impossible to suppress, no chains can bind you down, and no man can make you kneel. Small wins mean nothing, as winning through complete domination is more your style anyways.
It seems like it wasn't just flavor text after all. All the others also had gained quite a few levels from the fight, with Vladimir getting the most levels of anyone, thanks to his massive attack that nearly resulted in him dying. Mike wanted to bring the corpse back to camp, but it was far too large, and far too heavy to ask the others to help him carry.
In the end he convinced the group to each carry one leg of the spider, he decided to just take as much undamaged carapace as he could from the top of the spider, wanting to try and find a way to replace his poor hammer that had been killed in the line of duty. They walked back to camp, and had been greeted by the happy faces of the people, which they ignored before passing out in their beds, wanting to rest up and relax.
The next day Mike asked the rogue to see the statue that he had made, and he was extremely impressed. It was a statue of an alpha night stalker, and was so realistic that Mike wouldn’t have been surprised to identify it and see it was one in disguise. Instead, he identified it, getting a description of the item.
Alpha Night Stalker Statue (Rare)
An extremely accurate and realistic representation of an Alpha Night Stalker. This one in particular is made to represent one slain by this statue's creator. This statue gives a minor bonus to its creator when fighting alpha night stalkers below his level.
“Wow, how did you get it to give you that bonus?” Mike asked, extremely impressed by what he saw.
“It’s from my trait.” He said, opening up about the thing he had been so secretive about before. “It lets me get stronger from any art I make, and honestly I think it really fits me. I’ve always had a passion for creating art, and sculpting in particular.”
“Well it seems to have really paid off here.”
“Yeah, but it’s not super useful anymore, as the night stalkers already don't prove to be a threat to me anymore.”
“Still, if you can make one for the spiders, that would help quite a bit whenever you need to fight the swarm, wouldn’t it?”
“It would, yes.” The rogue didn't seem to want to talk about his trait anymore after that, and instead the two talked about their lives before the system. Mike learned a lot more about the man than he had ever expected to, and honestly was kind of saddened by what he was told.
“I was made an orphan pretty young, and never really made many friends the entire time I was fostered. Even the foster parents never seemed super fond of me.” He said, clearly pained by the memories. Mike simply stayed silent, letting him vent. “I have always had trouble connecting with people, and it got even worse as I became an adult. Kids are much more forgiving when you are socially awkward, but adults are just assholes about it.”
“You don’t seem too bad at it now, you are talking quite a bit with everyone and socializing.” Mike said.
“I know, but it’s because I feel like I have a way out. I can just walk into the forest, and thanks to the system and me getting stronger, I could start from scratch and run away if I mess anything up too badly. I just feel so much more free.”
“I can understand that feeling.” Mike could relate to the man. He’d had a soul crushing office job that he had hated every second of before the system. He had always felt like if he tried to get a new job, he could end up broke or homeless if he messed up just a little. The system really had given people the opportunity to grow and become who they wanted to be. They sat a bit longer, chatting while they absentmindedly worked on their professions, not getting any real work done. After an hour or so, the rogue stood up.
“I’m going to go do some hunting, thanks for listening.” He said.
“No problem, it was nice talking to someone.”
The rogue turned around just as he was about to leave the cave. “My name is Lucas, don't tell anyone what we talked about, please.” He exited the cave, not giving Mike a chance to respond. Mike continued working, pondering the things he and Lucas had talked about.