Chapter 1 – Cornered Prey

Bright rays of sunlight pierced through the veil of green as a pair of humans walked across the jungle. The red-haired girl was wearing some form fitting leather armor and was equipped with a short sword and a buckler. Her hair was neatly tied in a braid, and she had a serious look on her face. She jumped at every squeak and creak as they moved along. Her companion in contrast walked with a calm grace and had absolutely no reaction to his surroundings. Almost as though this was a leisurely walk in the park.

“How can you be so calm? My nerves are on the verge of fraying,” the woman squeaked in a whisper.

“Well, your nerves wouldn’t be in a mess if you learned to calm down,” the boy replied in a much louder voice that made the woman jump in alarm.

“Shhhh. We talked about this before we started, Aenon. This is giant spider territory.” she spoke in a much quieter but urgent tone.

“I know Jenny. There are three of them stalking us right now,” Aenon replied in the same lackluster tone. But his latest remark made the poor girl jump and started looking around in a panic.

“What? Where?” she shrieked with her sword drawn and swinging wildly around her. The boy took a step back but stood his ground. “What are we even doing here?”

“Addressing the root causes of your issues,” Aenon replied with his hands held behind his back.

“What are you talking about?” Jenny responded while still looking around wildly.

“Look at me,” he said calmly. When Jenny finally looked at him with fear clearly etched across her face he continued, “Do you see me panicking?”

“That’s because you are a monster. These spiders are no threat to you. Unlike me, a level zero,” she said in a heated tone. Her gaze still occasionally wandered, trying to find the alleged stalkers.

“I walked these woods as a level zero, before I even got my classes. And I was alone,” he replied. That got her attention, as she looked at him slack jawed.

“Wha… How is that possible? And why?” she asked in disbelief.

“Not important. What is important is the current situation. Why do you think we are here?” he asked.

“No…,” her voice got stuck in her throat as her face paled. “You are going to leave me here, aren’t you?”

“That right there, is the first issue we need to fix. Your lack of trust in me. I know what Erwin did to you was bad, but I need you to know that I will never do that,” he said calmly. It took a while for her to stop shivering as she recalled some painful memories.

“So… what do you need me to do?” she asked hesitantly.

“That is the second thing you need to fix. You need to let go of your fears and calm down,” he instructed.

“But… how? You just said there are giant spiders nearby. Spiders, that you know very well ate me alive. How am I not supposed to fear them?”

“I never said not to fear them. I said let go of your fears,” Aenon said. When she looked at him in confusion he went on, “Tell me this, If I wasn’t here and you had to face them alone, what would you do?”

“I… I…,” she tried and failed to say anything.

“Exactly my point. You are so wound up with fear that your mind is shutting down. Fear is a good thing. It keeps you on your toes. But if you don’t learn to control it, it will paralyze you.”

“But what am I supposed to do against overwhelming odds?” she asked in desperation.

For the first time, Aenon showed some emotion on his face. He smiled weakly and turned to the sky, reminiscing about his past.

“Overwhelming odds, you say? Is it more overwhelming than being wanted by an entire Empire? Or a planet full of soul-eating elves who want to destroy you? Or the hungry attention of an existence so strong, that you can’t comprehend their level?” Aenon asked while turning towards Jenny. After a long and confused look she finally responded.

“How do you do it? How do you move on like it's of little consequence?” Jenny asked with an inquisitive stare. Aenon could feel her soul calming down, the turbulent emotions simmering down.

“I do it because I have no choice. I move on because there is nothing else I can do. And I do not care about the consequences, as long as I stay true to myself. If I was to meet my miserable end tomorrow, I would gladly go down knowing that I did all I could. No one can take that satisfaction away from me.”

Aenon stayed silent after saying his piece. He could sense resolve bubbling to the forefront of Jenny’s soul. She had stopped looking around nervously and was no longer a nervous wreck. Aenon smiled at the determined look on her face. He knew what emotions she was feeling, but not the exact thoughts. But he didn’t need to. The look on her face conveyed it all.

“You asked what I would if you were not here. I would kill the damned things. Or go down fighting,” she finally said with utter certainty.

“Heh. Good answer,” Aenon replied with a smirk. “But words are cheap. Let’s see your resolve, shall we?”

Aenon stepped back into one of the shadows, activating his cloak’s ability and dissolving into the shadow like a ghost. Aenon felt Jenny’s nervousness peak as she gripped her sword and shield in a defensive posture. She turned around again to take in her surroundings, but in a much more cautious fashion. Her posture was amateurish, but she was determined, nonetheless.

She stepped over stray branches as she moved around the trees, constantly looking out for movement. Aenon saw her brush past an imperceptible web strand, which alerted the spider that its prey was heading for it. But Aenon continued observing, for he knew she had to do this by herself.

She surprised him by turning back to look at the strand that Aenon assumed she didn’t notice. She stepped back and carefully touched it with her finger, plucking it like a guitar string. Aenon sensed mana gathering in her eyes as she started looking over the entire area, accurately pinpointing the location of all the subtle webs the spider had laid out. If Aenon’s guess was correct, this was a class ability of hers. She immediately started moving away from the trap she was heading towards.

Aenon smiled in appreciation as he sensed the spider getting agitated. Its carefully laid out trap had just been rendered moot. And so, it stealthily moved to set up another ambush. It weaved its web in Jenny’s path in absolute silence, but once again she stepped around it. Aenon watched in fascination as this kept repeating five more times, with Jenny outsmarting the thing hunting her, making the spider more and more agitated. From within the shadow he was in, he cast identify on it.

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Getting frustrated, the spider queen moved far closer than before. But Aenon sensed something shift in the spider queen’s demeanor as it did. It shrieked in anger and jumped out of it perch right in front of Jenny. It was almost as if it had recognized her and was angry at being duped again and again.

Aenon felt Jenny freeze up, and in a battle with such a level difference, it would have been a death sentence for her. But something truly extraordinary happened that even Aenon didn’t expect. The spider queen spoke.

“Welcome back my little food bag,” it hissed eerily. “My babies missed you.”

Aenon could clearly feel the raw fear coursing through Jenny. She was absolutely paralyzed with fear. But the spider didn’t attack, deciding to taunt her further.

“I was beginning to get so frustrated imagining who had strayed into my territory. Who was it that was avoiding my carefully laid out traps. Turns out it was my favorite prey. Aaaaah. The screams, the screams. How I miss those, as your flesh nourished my brood,” the spider hissed on.

It stepped in circles around Jenny, who was still not moving. The queen started spinning webs in a 4.5-meter (15 feet) wide circle around her, cutting off any escape routes. Yet, Aenon didn’t step in to save her, observing in silence.

“Ooooh what fresh entertainment will you provide me this time. You survived for three full days the last time since I laid my eggs in your arm. Maybe I will lay my eggs in your ears this time. Yessss. That sounds delightful, don’t you think,” the spider queen hissed happily. “You are after all prey, born to entertain predators like me.”

At that last statement, Aenon felt something snap within her. It was like all emotions suddenly ceased within her and he couldn’t sense a single emotion from her. Jenny turned to face the spider queen.

“What did you just say?” she said with narrowed eyes. And then Aenon felt it. An avalanche of raw mana gathering in her hands, which eventually flowed into the sword she was wielding. She turned to face the spider queen, a cold look on her face.

“Ooooh. I love it when my prey fights back. It makes it so…” the spider queen started taunting before her words were replaced with cries of anguish. “Aaaaaaaaargh.”

Two of its legs fell to the ground, severed right at their base. The sword in Jenny’s hand was glowing white. Aenon had seen clearly, as Jenny swung her blade and shot some kind of compressed mana projectile. It covered the 3-meter (10 feet) distance between the two in an instant and had chopped off the legs like they were made of butter.

“Youuuuuu. You will pay for this. I will not lay eggs on you. I will feast on your flesh myself. Keeping you alive much longer than before,” the spider queen shrieked.

Aenon saw Jenny panting in exhaustion. She had probably spent her entire mana pool in that one attack. He saw her try to get into a defensive posture but was too tired to raise her hands. The spider queen flicked away her shield with ease before ramming her to the ground. It stabbed into Jenny’s shoulder, eliciting a bone chilling cry from her.

“Kyaaaaaaa.”

Jenny retaliated by swinging her sword blindly and landing a lucky slash across the eyes of the creature. Four of its eyes tore open and a viscous ichor sprayed all over the place. The spider stumbled back in agony, trying to shake off the green liquid that was flowing out of her injured eyes and into the good ones. It was momentarily unable to see and was falling all over the place.

Jenny barely managed to stand, clutching her injured shoulder with a deep scowl. She eyed the spider warily before looking down at the sword on the ground. She let go of her wound and picked it up with trembling hands. Aenon felt fury and anger bubbling within her soul as she gripped the sword with both hands and charged in screaming.

The spider reacted to the scream but was a second too late as Jenny struck one of its legs. Unfortunately, the sword just bounced off harmlessly, costing Jenny another stab wound to her thigh. The spider slammed her back with all the force it could muster, making her fly back and collapse on the ground. But she got up again and continued her wild charge.

This time she aimed at one of the joints and successfully managed to chop off another leg but got a severe gash to her torso in return. The spider, perhaps sensing its growing wounds, decided to close in and eliminate the threat quickly. It cornered Jenny into a corner and rose to its full height.

“Prey shouldn’t try to defy their lot in life. You are nothing but entertainment for…,” the spider’s voice cut out as a sword pierced through its throat. Jenny had tossed the sword as a last-ditch effort, and it had stuck true. The spider stepped back in a rush, trying to gain some distance between them.

But Jenny just stood there, too exhausted to move. But she stared in defiance at her tormenter, even as she started bleeding out. She took two unstable steps towards the spider before saying.

“I am no one’s plaything.”

She collapsed soon after, and Aenon felt her lose consciousness. Thankfully, the spider queen was too injured to retaliate, and it too collapsed in a heap. But it stared with hate-filled eyes towards Jenny before shrieking loudly. It was a call to its children, who had been silently spectating the battle from the shadows. It was going to perish soon and wanted its children to finish the job.

But contrary to her expectations, none of her children stepped forth. In their place, a bipedal form emerged from one of the shadows and approached the unconscious girl. Aenon kneeled before Jenny to make sure she was ok, but did not interact with her. Satisfied that she would live, he quietly stepped back. He turned to the spider with a dismissive gaze.

“Guess you forgot. Cornered prey is the most dangerous thing for a predator. You should have stuck with ambushes instead,” he stated with a finality as the life faded from the spider queen’s eyes.

………………

Jenny

A warm feeling on her face is what woke up Jenny. She opened her eyes but shut them instantly as a blinding light pierced her eyes. She turned away and blinked in confusion. As her eyes refocused, she noticed she was lying on a soft patch of grass by a campfire. She looked around groggily before her eyes landed on the enormous form of a spider. Her adrenaline shot up as she stumbled back, trying to find her sword. She found it by her side and immediately aimed it at the monstrosity before her. But it didn’t move. Instead Aenon’s voice spoke up from behind her.

“Good instincts,” Aenon said while calmly sitting with his back to an earthen wall he must have created. He continued when Jenny didn’t respond in confusion, “Going for your sword. Its things like that which will keep you alive.”

“What… what’s going on?” Jenny asked as she lowered her sword and looked around her. They were in the center of the wall of webs the spider had spun around her. And the only ones still alive were her and Aenon. The spider, she realized was dead.

“Well, you took a nasty beating, and I reckoned you might need a nap. So, I set up camp right here. It is quite protected from the outside thanks to the webs. I even made some spider soup, want some?” he asked while putting forth a metal bowl filled with some dark green liquid in it.

Jenny held in the urge to barf as she turned away with a hand on her mouth, “No thanks.”

“Suit yourself. It isn’t chicken, but does ok in a pinch,” Aenon responded nonchalantly as he gulped down the liquid. A tiny trickle escaped his lips and flowed down his chin, which made Jenny turn around and finally empty the contents of her stomach.

“How can you…,” she started saying before holding herself back. “Never mind that. What the hell kid? You didn’t tell me that I was up against the fricking spider queen. I couldn’t even see its level.”

“Meh. You did ok I think,” Aenon said with an annoying smile that grated on her nerves. She was about to lash out again when he interrupted her, “Check your notifications.”

She controlled her temper for a bit longer, as there was indeed an annoying exclamation mark flashing in the corner of her vision.

Title achieved: First Blood (S)

Title achieved: Underdog

First Blood (S): Assessment of first kill difficulty found to be extreme. Granting S rank

+20% to all stat gains from Titles

Underdog: Defeat a foe more than 20 levels above you

+20 all stats

Her eyes widened in surprise as she felt a rush of energy course through her body. She had heard of this feeling from other adventurers, but never had she imagined she would be feeling it herself. She looked at Aenon with her mouth hanging open, unable to decide what to feel.

“You… you…,” she stammered on.

“Ooh this is gonna be so much fun,” he said cryptically with a devilish grin which made Jenny shudder for some reason. She wondered why she feared spiders before, when she should have been fearing the devil before her.