Chapter 7- Deadly Wilderness

Hello everyone. Once more you continue to amaze me with your support by taking the time out of your day to read my fiction. We actually reached over 1,000 average views and about 120 follows. And for that, I thank you. I wanted to upload the chapter a bit earlier but it was a bit delayed. But it is as the saying goes, better late than never. It took me quite some time to come up with how the chapter would go and the well writing it. So far it's the biggest one yet, so I do hope you enjoy.

Thanks to AlmostMythril once more for helping me proofread the chapter and helping me improve the quality if it. Especially this one as this was much longer than the previous ones. If you enjoyed the chapter then be sure to leave your opinions in the comment section below, I'll be sure to read and answer them whenever I can. Also I'll try and make more of an effort to do that as well. With that all taken care of, please enjoy the chapter.

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The sun was up and everyone was walking about in the city. Food stands were opening up, people walking to and from. Alviss and Ayus were among them, walking to the designated gate. Soon the little girl was in view.

“There you two are. Where were you?” The girl was obviously displeased as she was furiously tapping her feet.

“We went and bought some more equipment and a few essential items.”

The girl looked between them. “I don’t see anything.” Alviss patted the bag on his sides. “It’s all in here. So are we ready?”

“Yes. We just need to need to wait for Lila to bring the horses.”

“Horses? For what? The road there isn’t suitable for horses.”

The little girl looked at Alviss like he was an idiot. “For our luggage of course.” The little girl sidestepped, revealing several suitcases and bags.

“That won’t be necessary.” The girl simply looked at Alviss as he picked up of the small bag and fitted in the infinity bag. “What the?! How did you do that.”

The girl ran up and looked at Alviss’s bag before finally realizing what it was. “How did you get a rare item?!” said the girl with more amazement then surprise. ‘Hmm, looks like this bag is more rare than I thought. I probably shouldn’t wave it around like some new purse.’ Alviss thought to himself as he tried to answer her.

“I found it in some ruins.” The girl skeptically looked at him for a minute before turning away. While she did that, Alviss started to unpack some of the girls stuff and putting it into the bag.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Simple. Having a horse will only be a bother. Not too mention, if it runs off, you lose your stuff.” The girl suspension slowly quelled as she pondered on it. “How much?” Alviss gave a chuckle at her question.

“You know not everyone is out for money. Consider it free, seeing how you packed enough food and such for us as well.”

“I see.” With that the girl pulled out a small clear orb. It soon began to glow and an image of maid popped up. ‘Whoa, that looks just like the one at the cafe. I didn’t think it’s application would work as a phone. I need to look into that.’ Alviss kept to himself as the girl was talking to the maid about not buying a horse no more.

Soon the conversation stopped and they simply waited around. “So, what’s your name?” said Alviss as to strike up a conversation. The little girl didn’t answer for a while. “Lily Utias.”

“Lily, I see. So how old are you anyway?”

“Why are you nosey?” Lily gave piercing stares at Alviss who tried to find a reason for his questioning. “Umm, well you know...Ah, you look like you’re ten years old and I thought …..”

Alviss didn’t continue on as Lily was visibly upset by his remark. “Ten?! I’m fifteen!” Alviss quickly tried to calm her down and eventually succeeded. Within minutes the maid finally returned and they finally continued on their way.

The path to the Docks was a fairly short one, about four days at most. The most troubling issue was that the path had dangerous monsters along the way.

For the first day, they rarely encounter any trouble. They made good progress towards their destination. It wasn’t until the second day that they encountered more trouble. The area was a dense forest so they walked along a path.

“Alviss.”  said Ayus who stopped and survey her surrounding.

“Yeah I know. We’re surrounded.”

The group stopped and gathered around one another as the rustling of leaves was getting louder. Soon spider looking creatures slowly appeared. They were much larger than the average spider, about the size of a common dog. Their body was an electric yellow with black stripes.

“Electipder. Be careful of touching them or their webs, they carry enough electricity to stun you to your knees.” said Lily as more of them showed up. Within a minute they numbered around sixteen.

“Lila and I can handle the front. You cover our backs.” said Lily as they got into formation. Alviss and Ayus did the same. “Ayus, use this.” Alviss slowly grabbed a bow along with some arrows and handed it to Ayus. “Alviss, careful.”

“I will.” And with that Alviss charged in. The spiders jumped towards Alviss but some of them were shot down by Ayus. Alviss dodged the initial ones and targeted the ones behind them.

“|Triple jab.|” Alviss thrusted his swords at one spider, three holes appeared on its head as blood spilled out. He didn’t let up the momentum. “|Upward slash.|” One of the spider jumped but before it could fall, Alviss splashed it in half.

Alviss looked back to see Ayus pelting two of the spiders with arrows. But what caught her attention was Lily.

Around seven of the were attacking Lily and the maid. The maid had her back and kept them off. Lily on the other hand was casting off spells. “|Flame burst.|” a pair of spiders charged her but she extended out her hand and out shot fire in a wide range.

A couple were about to jump on her until she casted more spells. “|Barrier.| |Arcane missiles.|” A barrier formed around her, blocking the attack. Lily jumped back and small pockets of blue light formed and shots towards the spiders.

“Wow.” Alviss was simply stupefied at the sight of magic. “Alviss!” Alviss was brought back to reality by Ayus. He looked back as one of the spiders jumped at him. “Sh*t!” Alviss subconsciously closed his eyes but a huge thud made him opened his eyes.

The spider was pinned to a tree with a icicle spike through his body. “Wow….thanks.” Ayus ran up to him as Lily casually walked over while chastising her. “What was that?! What happen to being careful?!”

Alviss couldn’t help with but let out an awkward chuckle at the thought of being screamed at. “Sorry, I was just amazed that’s all.”

“Amazed? At what?”

“Your magic. It’s my first time seeing magic. It’s more amazing than I thought.” Lily sighed through her nose. “What are you a child?”

They took a break as they checked their equipments along with making sure everything was in order. Alviss also took the time to scavenge the spider, namely their carapace as it was quite valuable.

They continued to trek until it was night time. They setted up camp and soon they were resting as the maid cooked their food. Ayus was on a tree as a look out. Alviss was doing nothing but looking around as was trying to kill his boredom.

Alviss looked over and saw Lily reading a weird book with what looked like scribble on it. “So...what are you reading?” Lily looked up before going back. “It’s a grimoire.”

“Grimoire? What’s that?” Lily finally looked up and closed the book. “Have you been living under a rock or something? A grimoire is a spell book from where you learn how to use magic.”

Alviss jumped towards her as soon as she finished her sentence. Alviss curiosity was peaked and it was obvious that he wanted to see it. “Can I see it?”

“Why?”

“Come on. Please… I’ll do anything, please just a small peak.” Lily looked back at her before answering back. “I want to see your bag.”

Alviss unfashioned the bag and headed it to her. Lily was surprised by the immediate action but eventually gave him the book. He held it up like it was some holy item before sitting down and reading it.

Like the skill book it showed a image of the spell along with the nature of the spell and the prerequisites. Alviss absorbed everything that was written and kept on looking. While he was doing that, Lily looked at the infinity bag. “Where did you get this?!”

Alviss was looked over as Lily was furiously look at the infinity bag. “What are you talking about now?”

“I thought this was a rare item but instead it’s a unique item.” Alviss could only stare in confusion. “You keep on going about rare and unique item, what is that?”

“Items and weapons are classified in different rarity. Uncommon, common, special, rare, unique, epic, legendary and finally Oblivion class items.”

“I see. So it my bag really special?” Lily simple looked at Alviss like a child who discovered that her doll was worth thousands of dollars. “Anything unique is hard to obtain and anything above epic are almost impossible to get. Where did you get this?”

“Like I said, I got it from a ruin.” Lily still looked at Alviss with suspicions in her eyes but eventually gave up when Alviss ignored her. “This book is amazing. I wonder if I can use magic now.”

This time Lily let out a chuckle at Alviss. “You must be joking. You just read it, like you can actually perform magic just by doing that. To perform magic you must first imagine the spell and then manipulate the mana around to into the form of the spell.” Alviss was about to talk back but memory of the first time he tried to use magic popped up.

‘She’s right. I can’t simply do it.’ said Alviss in his mind. He turned his attention back to the book with determination to prove her wrong. ‘Let’s see, a simple spell. Here it is, |Fireball.|’

Fire, a warm feeling, power, heat. Those were the thoughts when he thought of Fireball. He imagine the shape, it’s property, what it was. He could feel the air slowly getting hotter and hotter. He slowly opened his eyes to see a fireball floating in his hand.

Alviss was shocked by how quickly it formed. But someone else was even more shock than him. “How….How did you do that?!” Lily raced over and slowly circled the fireball. “I just followed your advice.”

“But that’s impossible. To learn a spell almost instantly, that’s almost unheard of.” Alviss started to sweat as he tried to figure out an answer. “Umm, well this spell is pretty low isn’t it? I just got lucky that’s all.”

Now lily was even more suspicious. First the bag and now the ability to learn spells very quickly. “Just who are you? I want the truth.”

“It’s like I said before I’m no one. It’s my first time here and this is the first time I’ve seen this. You have my word on that.” Lily returned the stare for about a minute before the maid came over to inform them that dinner was ready.

Lily was the one that broke and left the bag with Alviss. “Return the book when you’re done with it.” Lily left and Alviss was alone until Ayus came over with two bowls of soup.

“Husband, hungry?”

“Thanks Ayus.” Alviss gladly accepted the bowl and began to eat carefully while trying to read. For the next couple of hours he spent the time looking it over. Even when most went to sleep, he stayed up practicing before finally going to sleep.

When morning came, they continued on their journey. Like the day before they meet minimal encounter. While continuing on their way, Alviss tried to start another conversation.

“Hey, I have a question.”

“What is this time?” said Lily who was trying to hide her annoyance. “Well last night when reading, I reached a section where I couldn’t make out the words or spells.”

“Most likely you reached the higher rank spells. To most the words makes no sense but to those who have the potential of casting, they are readable. Most likely you reached the rank 4 spell section.”

“Umm. Right.” Said Alviss rather nervously as to avoid the question. “So, I’m guessing rank 4 is really special. You must be a good mage.”

A small smile crept up on Lily’s face as she puffed out her chest. “Of course. Rank 2-3 magic are usually what most people achieve. To even go up one rank takes years and years of training and practice.”

“Wow. that’s amazing.” A egotistic grin soon form and Lily simply talk all the way. “Of course. I’m a genius. Just watch, I’ll be one of the greatest mage in history.”

Alviss stayed quiet as to not disturb Lily’s moment. “Just how high does the rank go up to?” Lily finally snapped out of her delusion. “The highest rank is rank 12. But I’ve even heard that some spells even reach rank 15, but they’re only rumors. Spells are categories by ….”

“They are categories by arcane, elemental, pyromancy, conjuration, blessings, illusion, alteration, enchanting and finally void.”

Lily was speechless for a second. “I didn't think you’d know that.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Well it does state it at the beginning of the book.” This time Alviss let out a small chuckle. They continued on their way until was around evening time.

The forest started to get darker and darker until they finally reached an open field before another forest. The air around was tense and there was an odd, eerie feeling coming from the forest up ahead.

As they got closer the eerie feeling only increased. A decrepit wooden sign was visible as they walked up. Although some words were scratched out, it was obvious what it said. “Turn back. Too dangerous.”

“Where are we?” Alviss couldn’t help but shudder as they got closer and closer. Ayus was also feeling the effects. “This section of the forest was rumored to be home of a Kuplios.” said Lily who walked without a problem.

“Kuplios? What’s that.”

“According to rumors, it’s a very massive creature with very tough skin. It’s even able to spit poison and is very fast. That’s all everyone really knows about it.” Alviss looked nervously at the forest.

“Maybe...we should look for another way.” said Alviss who was trying to convince the group but Lily wouldn’t budged. “We wasted too much time already. We’re leaving with or without you. Besides, I don't believe in rumors.”

They started to walk away. Alviss eventually chased after Lily. The forest was very humid and dark. The tree’s were spread out so they gave them plenty of room to walk around.

Dead leaves spread across the floor. The only noise that was heard was the sound of dead crunching leaves. Alviss jumped at every little noises. “Will you quit it!”

“But the monster.”

Lily turned back at Alviss and chastised him. “What part of a rumor don’t you get? There’s no suc…” Lily didn’t finish her sentence as the ground shook.

“What was that?” said Lily as she looked around. They all started to form up. “Alviss, hear.” Alviss looked to Ayus who had her spear out and was shaking uncontrollably. He closed his eyes and focused on his hearing. At first there was no noise, but soon he picked up on something. Something moving very fast towards their general direction. The noise got louder and louder. Alviss focused his hearing until he identified where it was coming from.

“Below us!” screamed Alviss as he felt something digging up. They all jumped out of the way as something came up. Alviss was knocked down as dirt fell from the sky. “AHHHHH.” Alviss looked over to see Lily pointing and screaming.

He followed her sight and couldn’t help but let out a pathetic whimper in response. The creature that came out was massive. It was an insectoid creature, very similar to a centipede. It had around 7 eyes looking at them. The shell was black with purple polka dots scattered about.

All he could do was stare in absolute terror at the monster. It slowly started to move and more of it’s body came out of the hole. He looked over to see Lily and the maid along with Ayus who was on a tree, standing scared.

Unlike the encounter with the beast, this time their chances of winning were practically zero. But he didn’t just sit there and await death. He got up and quickly ran over to them. He quickly shook Lily out of her daze. “We...We need to run!” said Lily

“No!” Said Alviss, shooting her down. “That thing is extremely fast, we can’t out run it.”

“Are you saying we should stay here and fight it! We’ll die!” Ayus and the maid looked at Alviss as if he lost his mind. “At least we’ll stand a small chance. Our opinions are run and get horribly mauled or fight and maybe scare it away. ”

“.......... What’s the plan?” Alviss showed a small smile but quickly asserted the situation. “Ayus, you say high in the tree and provide us with cover fire with the bow. You’ll also be a diversion, jump from tree to tree as to not get hit.”

“Yes.”

“Lily, you’ll be the bulk of the attacks. Stay back and attack with your best spells. The maid and I will be the close range fighters. We’ll target it’s legs as they seem to be the most vulnerable. Not to mention, it will slow it down as well. Got it?”

They all nodded in response. “Good, let’s go!” With that Alviss charged in, using |Acceleration| he closed the gap almost instantly. He started slashing at the legs one by one. However, Alviss meet with unexpected results.

Everywhere he attacked it bounced back his swords. It was as if he hit hit sword against a stone wall. At close range all the Kuplios could only attack by bringing down it’s rather sharp legs. Even the maid, who was wielding a heavy sword, was easily repelled.

Ayus and Lily’s effort also prove to be pretty fruitless. Ayus fired off arrows that simply bounced off. While it took Lily’s spells without so much as a flinch. All the damage that they did only seemed to annoy it rather than hurting anything.

“All right, let’s try this. |Piercing slash.|” Alviss thrusted his sword into one of it’s leg and managed to pierces his skin. “That’s it! Use your skills, focus on one point.”

The maid heard Alviss and heeded his advice. The next second it let out a small scream as more blood fell. Their strategy seemed to have made it more aggressive as its attacks were getting more vicious. It even started using its two tails to attack us as well.

The attack came as a surprise. “|Barrier.|” Lily casted a barrier around Alviss and the maid and it was able to take the attack. The Kuplios reeled it head up and began to spit a stream of poison. They managed to escape as it ate through the barrier and part of the ground.

“Damn it! We’ve only damage it’s legs and it barely shows any signs of injury.” cursed Alviss as he regrouped with Lily to catch his breath. The Kuplios didn’t let them rest as they charged in. They managed to dodge to the side in a split second.

Tons of trees fell down as dust blew everywhere. Alviss was on the ground and tried to get back up but something blocked him. He looked over and saw a big tree branch on him. “Sh*t!”

He continued to struggle as it started to move much closer to him. Soon it was on top of him and was chomping down when Ayus came to his rescue.

“AHHHHHHH!” screamed Ayus as she jumped down with her spear in hand. She dove towards its back and landed with a huge thud. There was a loud cracking sound along with a loud screech from it. It began to try and shake Ayus off but she held on for just long enough for Alviss to break free.

Eventually Ayus fell off with part of her spear and landed against a tree. It turned its attention to Ayus and was about to kill her. “Noo!” screamed Alviss who managed to finally get up and ran towards her. Using acceleration he ran up to her and in front of it “|Fireball|”

He shot a fireball directly at it’s face but it dropped a bit and hit its neck/lower area. It let out another screech and backed up. Lily and the maid made it over to them as it backed off.

“Are you alright” asked Lily as Alviss was paying more attention to Ayus. “I, fine.” Alviss only nodded. “I think I found a way to beat him.”

“Really?! How?!”

“It’s flesh. Even though it's an overgrown insect, it’s still an insect. The skin, if we can hit the skin, we can kill it.” Lily was still skeptical. “But its head is heavily protected. not to mention the uncovered body is almost impossible to hit.”

“It mostly attacks in an up right position. If we can divide its attention, one of us can distract it while the other attacks.” Lily looked back at it as it was recovering. “We don’t have much of a choice right now. I saw you fireball, what else can you use?”

“I’ve practiced with other spells but fireball is the only one that I can cast with 100% certainty.” Lily was dishearten by that but quickly got rid of it. “Alright, here’s the plan, Alviss you’ll be the one to run distraction, I’ll be casting high rank area of effect spells. As for ….”

“Your maid will stay here and protect Ayus.” Lily was taken aback by and tried to talk back but Alviss shut her down. “Ayus can’t fight. Cast your strongest barrier spell. I can guarantee that I’m the fastest.”

She was about to talk back but it slowly made its way over. “All right fine.” Lily started a small chant and a multi layer barrier formed around Ayus and the maid. Alviss and Lily turned their attention back to the Kuplios.

Alviss used acceleration once more to run around it. It had trouble keeping up him so most of it’s attack missed. Alviss would used skills and attack it’s leg along with spells at its body and head.

Like before it mostly annoyed it rather than damaged it. “|Thunder whirl.| |Blaze Cyclone.| |Pulsing arcane missiles.|” Lily started to fire off powerful attacks at the Kuplios. Most hit throughout its body, usually damaging it to some extent. However there was no way of gauging it they’re winning or not.

They followed this strategy for about several minutes but the results were about the same.

“|Fireball.|” He fired one but this time it shifted its position, blocking it with its back. “What the?! Don’t tell me it’s learning?!”

“|Flame spiral.|” A wave of fire shots toward the Kuplios but it quickly reacted. It landed on the ground and began to roll up. The attack only it hit’s armored skin. “Don’t bother, it already knows our tactic.”

“Thanks you telling me the obvious. What do we do now?!” screamed Lily with fear in her voice. Alviss couldn’t think of anything and simply looked around. Soon something caught his eye, the broken spear. Having gotten a closer look he found that it was still embedded into it’s back after it broke through the shell.

‘This might be it’ Thought Alviss as he tried to formulate a plan. “Lily, do you see that spear?!”

Lily was confused by Alviss called out but quickly understood what Alviss was saying. “I see it, what’s the plan?”

“When you have the chance, use your most powerful single point spell and aim it there. In the mean time, stay back. I’ll distract it.” Alviss charged in once more as it finally unravel itself. He released a flurry of fireballs and skills not caring about exhaustion.

It mostly divided its attention between Alviss, Lily, and Ayus and the maid. Most of the time it was defining against Alviss but the window for attack for Lily was always small. He continued at this until the fatigue slowly caught up.

His entire body ached and he tried to hold up his own sword but had trouble doing so. All he could do was take short breaths as he had to constantly move. But soon an opportunity presented itself.  

The Kuplios sensed that Alviss was on his last leg so it was focusing its attention on Alviss now. He drew it away from Lily and the rest to a safe location. It ready itself and charged in for the final kill. “|Acceleration.|” Using it once more, he dashed to the side and away from it.

It hit a large tree, confusing it for a moment, giving enough time for Lily to attack. “|Lightning javelin|” Static and electricity popped around lily and concentrated on her hand. A long pole of electricity formed and was thrown at the wound.

A loud cracking noise accompanied by a piercing screech rang through the forest. The smell of charred flesh spread through the air. A small explosion happened, covering the field with smoke.

“We did it? We did it!” Alviss was jumping up with joy but that was all short lived. Out of the smoke, one of its tail swung towards Alviss. He didn't have time to react as it slammed him onto a tree and pushed him against it.

“Ahhhhh!” screamed Alviss. The force managed to break the bones in his arm along with a couple ribs. Blood filled his throat as he chocked on it to scream anymore. The tail finally let go and Alviss fell to the ground with a thud.

The smoke cleared to show the Kuplios heavily damaged but not dead. Green blood was spilling out of it’s head and through its shell. It looked over at Alviss, then turned its attention to Lily who was on her knees and Ayus and the maid.

It slowly trudged over to them. Lily tried to get up but couldn’t. The maid ran out to help her up while Ayus was screaming at Alviss. All Alviss could do was simply lie there and stare as his conscious slowly faded away.

The pain was unbearable as her entire body ached and even a single movement was impossible. “R...n” Alviss tried to warn them but only blood came out. His eyes grew heavy and as he watch the Kuplios continued to move closer and closer. He felt helpless as blood continued flow and all he could was watch as the maid dragged Lily to safety.

Soon it was over the barrier with Ayus and the maid who dragged Lily over. The last thing that he saw was it reeling it’s head back. Before he saw the action he finally blacked out, only hearing the action.

*Cracking noise.*

Also before I forget, I'll be taking a short vacation/break for a while. At most I won't be uploading for 4-5 days.

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Congratulation you finished the chapter. Want a hug?

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