The giant spiders were bigger than the stone spiders Max had faced back in the dungeon tunnels. They were more brightly colored with florescent slime dripping from their huge mandibles. The largest of the three was black with green stripes that looked like neon lights. The green was bright and glittery, almost hypnotic. The two smaller spiders were a dark brown with red flecks. All three had many eyes that shone black, and hairy mandibles dripped toxic slime as they moved. Legs twitched and stepped forward gingerly before scuttling forwards a few yards, stopping, front legs held up feeling the air, mandibles quivering.
>
>
> Name: Giant Spider
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> Status: Hostile
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> Attack: Stabbing Legs, Paralyzing Poison
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> Threat level: Dangerous
>
>
Max took careful aim. “Should I shoot them or will it just make them mad?” Max said to Elderon.
“Shoot them when they are in range, Max,” Elderon said.
Max gauged the distance and then let the bullet fly.
>
>
> Max attacks Giant Spider.
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>
The bullet flew with speed and accuracy, Anita’s bonus spell aiding his range, power, and aim. He struck the lead spider on its huge eye-covered head.
>
>
> Spider takes minor damage.
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>
The bullet bounced off the spider’s exoskeleton with a crack. It reared up on its rear four legs, front four stabbing the air. It let out a hiss and a chattering, thumping, and spitting that sent the two smaller spiders dashing forward.
Jahrod swung his axe and caused one of the spiders to rear up, avoiding the heavy blade. It stabbed forwards with its front legs. The thin legs hammered into Jahrod’s armor and gave a metallic ringing sound. The spider’s legs were thin but packed a punch, sending Jahrod back a pace before he recovered and returned to the fray, head down, determined. He advanced with his axe held behind him, but when he was in range, he swung it forwards and upwards, delivering a heavy blow to the spider.
Anita parried the stabbing legs from the spider she faced, beating the stabbing legs aside with sweeps of the spear of fire. She jabbed it forward, the flaming tip roaring as she thrust it through the air, causing the spider to back up. It scuttled away before finding courage and holding its ground.
“They don’t like fire,” Max said, loading another bullet to his catapult.
“No fireballs, please,” Elderon said calmly.
The largest spider behind the two red-flecked beasts crouched low to the ground, its legs bent at sharp angles, the body touching the ground, mandibles raised, quivering. Then it leapt into the air, a sudden boost from its legs, and the giant beast launched itself over Jahrod and Anita towards Max and Elderon.
Max adjusted his aim and targeted the spider leaping towards him.
>
>
> Max attacks Giant Spider.
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> Giant Spider takes minor damage.
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>
Elderon cast Magic Missile, the six orange orbs tracing wide arcs before converging on the spider, hitting hard, and delivering heavy magical damage. A wisp of smoke and the smell of burning hair as the short stubble on the spider’s body burned.
Max slipped the catapult into his belt and drew his sword. The spider landed and scuttled towards him. Too late to cast a Magic Missile, but his sword’s bonus spell was ready to go. He held the sword forward, point up.
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> Max casts Sword Lightning.
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>
The jagged shard of lightning crackled across to the spider. The bolt struck hard, and the flickering lines of lightning traveled over the beast’s body, down its legs and mandibles. The lightning gathered at the slime dripping from the mandibles, causing the spider to quiver and shake.
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> Giant Spider takes moderate Lightning damage.
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>
As the spider was quivering, Elderon hit it with a Cold spell. Frost spread over the spider, cracking as it spread. The frost held the spider for a moment. The monster flexed its legs, and the frost covering shattered and evaporated. The spider had taken heavy damage from the powerful spell cast by a powerful Master Mage. Max was impressed. But the feeling was quickly overtaken by a shiver of fear as the spider scuttled forwards, moving fast and closing in, mandibles raised to deliver a stab of paralyzing Poison. Max acted fast.
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> Max attacks Giant Spider.
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>
Max stabbed forward in between the raised mandibles. The sword sank deep, and only the handle cross guard stopped Max from thrusting into the spider’s mouth right up to his wrist.
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> Giant Spider takes moderate damage.
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> Bonus Lightning damage.
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>
The spider juddered and then flung Max away with a flick of a long spindly leg. Max landed heavily and skidded through the leaf litter on the ground. The Sword of Lightning still stuck in the spider’s mouth. It wiped across its face furiously with its long front legs to dislodge the sword.
A Magic Missile spell from Elderon slammed into the spider, delivering heavy damage. The spider started scuttling off, slowed as it tried to dislodge the sword in its mouth. Max didn’t want to let the spider escape with his sword. He knew how to make sure he landed a hit.
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>
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> Max casts Magic Missile.
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>
Two glowing orange orbs streaked towards the spider. They arced through the air, spreading out and then coming back together to strike the spider, one on each side.
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> Giant Spider takes moderate damage.
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> Giant Spider has been defeated.
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>
Max ran to the spider and pulled the sword free. It came out with a coating of Paralysis Poison. He charged at the spider attacking Anita.
>
>
> Max attacks Giant Spider.
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> Giant spider takes minor damage.
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> Bonus Lightning damage.
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> Spider immune to Paralysis Poison.
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>
Max withdrew a step as Anita stabbed forward, delivering moderate damage and bonus Fire damage. Max thought it was interesting that the poison coating might have had an effect on another enemy, but the spiders were clearly immune to their own poison. It made sense, or else biting one’s lip might become a fatal matter.
Jahrod was battering the giant spider he faced with repeated blows from his axe. The spider’s legs hammered into Jahrod, knocking him backwards but failing to penetrate the heavy plate armor the dwarf wore. The beast had already lost a mandible in its battle with Jahrod, and it was leaking poison slime. Jahrod advanced with his axe swinging and delivering heavy damage.
The pair of spiders started to retreat, their leader fallen. They went scuttling backwards, closing ranks with their front legs raised and ready to stab. Anita stood her ground, spear held at her hip, spear tip pointing slightly upwards. Jahrod stood with his axe held across his waist, axe blade dripping fluorescent toxic slime.
The spiders stopped retreating and then rushed forward, having gained some courage from closing ranks.
>
>
> Max casts Magic Missile.
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> Giant Spider takes moderate damage.
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> Giant Spider has been defeated.
>
>
As the giant spider turned over, legs wrapped up tightly to its body, the remaining spider turned and fled at top speed away into the trees.
>
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> Max gains experience points.
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> Max has Leveled up.
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>
“I gained a level,” Max said, seeing the stats table in the dappled rays of sunlight from the rising sun filtering through the branches.
Anita scooped up globs of the Paralysis Poison off the defeated giant spiders with a large leaf. She sealed it in a neat little pouch.
Elderon stepped over to Max while Anita gathered poison and Jahrod checked that the fallen spiders were indeed defeated.
“Make your level now, young Mage.”
Max looked at his tables in the bark of a tree, the jagged lines in the bark twisting and turning to form his table. The sunlight created the words Level Up. They hung over the rest of the table, all other information hidden and out of focus.
Max let the words Level Up wash over him, and then he saw a range of choices appear as a swirling mass of glowing words. Mage was the largest single word from the swirling mass. Some others that had been within reach when he’d made his first levels were now distant and faded. The option for Barbarian was so faded and distant, he was not sure he could reach it even if he wanted to. Worryingly, Thief and Bard were still within reach. He selected Mage with very little hesitation. Max reached out to the glowing word Mage and leveled up.
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> Max gains Level 5.
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> Max gains extra Health.
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> Gain one extra spell slot at Level 1.
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> • Four spells at Level 1
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> • Two spells at Level 2
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> • One spell at Level 3
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> Sneak ability improved.
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> Satchel upgraded.
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> Gain natural ability.
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>
“I’ve gained a natural ability,” Max said, and he checked his stats.
>
>
> Name: Max Lightfoot
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> Class: Mage
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> Level: Five
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> Health: Lightly injured
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> Strength: 10
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> Stamina: 17
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> Agility: 18
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> Intelligence: 17
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> Wisdom: 12
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> Charisma: 16
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> Abilities:
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> • Climb
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> • Dark Movement
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> • Pick pocket
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> • Sneak
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>
His new special ability was Dark Movement.
>
>
> Dark Movement:
>
> The ability to move short distances using Dark Movement. Slows time, speeds movement. No penalty for using Dark Movement.
>
>
The only penalty Max thought Dark Movement had was that it summoned a giant slavering slug to follow him forever. By his reckoning, there still was one giant slug somewhere in the world slowly creeping towards him. Hopefully, by the time it caught up to him, he’d be powerful enough to defeat it.
Max checked his Satchel upgrade. It was now tiny, shrunk to the size of a small pouch that he could tie to his belt. It was much lighter now, and yet its storage capacity was greatly increased.
“How can it be?” Max said. “It’s much bigger on the inside. It sounds like something off TV.”
“What’s Tee Vee?” Anita said.
“A waste of time, mostly,” Max said with a grin. He looked into his pouch. He could see the list of his inventory just inside, and he knew if he reached in, he could instantly grab any item he wanted. “It must be some sort of quantum physics in action. I’ll never understand it.”
Jahrod scratched his coarse beard. “Quantum what now?” he said. “It sounds strange enough to me when you speak your spell incantations, but it makes more sense than some of the other nonsense you come up with.” He rolled his eyes. “Quantum? Tee Vee? What a load of guano.”
Lastly, Max checked his Mage Book. He had one new slot in his Level 1 spells, so he added a Magic Missile to the slot.
>
>
> Selected spells
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> • Magic Missile
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> • Magic Missile
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> • Magic Missile
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> • Magic Missile
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> • Magic Missile
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> • Magic Missile
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> • Strength
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> • Summon Fog
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> • Fireball
>
>
Two of his Magic Missiles had been used. The rest of the spells glowed in bright golden letters, but the spent ones were a dull brown. Next time he rested, they would be bright gold again, ready to be cast.
“Are we all ready to move out?” Elderon said.
Jahrod and Anita looked to Max. He was grateful they let him take his time to level up. It was something they had done many times before. Anita was a tenth-level Druid, Jahrod a twelfth-level Fighter. But leveling up was still new to Max, not to mention exciting. He looked up to Elderon and nodded.
“Ready to move out when you are, Elderon,” Max said. “Where are we heading?”
Elderon pointed. “We should try and get back to Ralynn City. They probably have information on the Deadtide army already, but King Glynn will appreciate hearing it from us.”
“How are we supposed to get past the Deadtide army?” Jahrod said. He didn’t wait for suggestions. “We will have to travel east to the Kraken Sea, north of Castle Deadtide, south through the Hinge through the East Ridge Forest and then west into Faregent along the South Awen Way. It is a long journey, but it is the only way to go because I will not cross the Salt River again.” Jahrod looked at Elderon and then Max, all while letting out a low and fearsome growl.
“You crossed the Salt River?” Anita said in surprise and amazement.
“It was not his choice,” Max said. “He was put into a magical sleep and taken across. I promise you,” Max turned to Jahrod, “we will never do that to you again.”
Jahrod continued his low growling as he moved off a few paces. Max didn’t want to see Jahrod angry, and even though he trusted the dwarf, he was glad to be out of range of his axe.
Elderon led the way eastwards towards the Kraken Sea. Anita marched alongside Max. She spoke quietly.
“Jahrod must really value your friendship. If you carried him over saltwater against his will, I am surprised you are still alive. No dwarf would choose to cross saltwater.”
Max bowed his head. “I would not intentionally offend the dwarf. Elderon said it would be ok.”
Anita glanced up at Elderon, who was striding ahead. She put her arm over Max’s shoulder. “Many Mages think they can do whatever they like, as if the rules of society do not apply to them. I hope you will be a different kind of Mage.”
After an hour of marching steadily eastwards in almost total silence, Elderon raised his hand and called a halt.
“Dark Mages,” he said. “The wards of warning I have moving ahead of us have detected a small party, a dozen of them, maybe more. They are lying in wait, an ambush.”
Jahrod walked forward, making very little noise. Max could see that Jahrod was more than capable of moving with stealth if the situation required it. “Let’s see if we can’t ambush the ambushers,” he said.
Max stepped up next to Elderon and spoke quietly. “I will go ahead and get a better look.”
“We will be close behind,” Anita said.
Elderon considered this and then nodded.
Max pulled up his Hood of Sneaking, activated his Sneak ability and headed towards the Dark Mage ambush.