When Nathan regained consciousness it was in panic and with a throbbing pain in his shoulder. Trying to open his eyes, Nathan realized that they were tied shut by something. Nathan attempted to say ‘where the fuck am I!’ but found that it was impossible for him to move.
And not just because he was wrapped in layers and layers over something wet and sticky that covered every part of him. Nathan was physically unable to move even a single muscle. He also couldn't breathe. Judging by the burn in his endurance reinforced lungs, Nathan had been in this state for more than fifteen minutes.
As the time stretched on, and the burn of oxygen deprivation grew worse and worse Nathans thought became more and more panicked.
What the fuck! Where the hell am I? Did the predator finally catch me? Why can't I move! Oh Sprenfather, please don't let me die like this. I- An alert popped into Nathan's soul perception, interrupting his frantic thoughts.
Alert
Congratulations: You have fulfilled the requirements for the Skill Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1)!
The Skill Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) has been automatically entered into your Skill reserve.
Skill reserve:
Basic Improvised Crafting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Running(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Animal Harvesting(Tier 1) Level 1
Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) Level 1
Nathan immediately switched out his tracking Skill for the paralysis resistance Skill.
Alert
Your Skill Basic Land Animal Tracking (Tier 1) has been removed from your active Skills. Basic Land Animal Tracking(Tier 1) has lost ten levels
Basic Land Animal Tracking(Tier 1) Level 11 >> Basic Land Animal Tracking (Tier 1) Level 1
Congratulations: The Skill Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) has been placed in one of your Active Skill slots. You have no Active Skill slots remaining.
Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) Level 1: Through extreme strength of will, you gain the ability to resist paralyzation effects. You retain ten percent of your movement speed while under full paralysis effects. Each level in this Skill causes the speed retention to go up by one percent. The current speed retention is ten percent. Paralysis effects wear off twenty percent faster. Each level in this Skill causes paralysis effects to wear off two percent faster. All paralysis effects currently wear off twenty percent faster.
Thank you Sprenfather! Nathan mentally shouted. Nathan slowly pulled his arms in, the ninety percent speed reduction making it painfully slow. Once his hands were up against his chest, Nathan twisted his wrists and grabbed his spikes. The predator must not be very smart if it left me these.
Once he had the spikes in hand, Nathan slowly positioned himself in a basic form from his spike style and pushed both spikes forwards, activating Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes for a strength, endurance, and reflex boost.
Whatever was wrapping him slowly tore, as Nathan repeated the motion several times. Nathan reached his now free hands towards his face and slowly pulled the substance off of his mouth and nose, taking a deep, albeit quiet, gasp of air. Nathan had decided that it was better to keep silent in case the predator was still there, wherever there was.
Nathan dropped to the floor with a thud, as the repeated strikes from his spikes had been too much for whatever was keeping him hanging. Looking down at his still bound legs, Nathan realized what had been holding him.
It was spider web. How fucking big is that spider? Nathan thought as he used the tips of his spikes to cut the finger thick webbing off of his feet. It was slow going because he was still affected by the paralysis poison, although slightly less so now because of the second effect of his paralysis resistance Skill.
Nathan stood up, hands busy attempting to get the webs out of his scraggly, finger length beard, and looked around.
He was in a flat, dome shaped cave that had a floor shaped like an oval with a length of fifty feet and a width of thirty feet. There were three evenly spaced exits on the walls, which were plastered with old spider webs. The closest one was about ten feet away from where Nathan stood at the center of the chamber.
Illuminated by glowing blueish green moss, Nathan saw at least a dozen cocoons hanging from the ceiling. Some of them had animal limbs stick out.
A shiver raced down Nathan’s spine. There's no way one spider did all this. This has got to be a nest of some kind.
Nathan spun around, spikes in hand, as he heard a chittering noise off to his left. In the light of the faintly glowing moss on the walls, Nathan saw a spider that came up to the middle of his thigh in height. It was in the process of slicing one of the cocoons open with its razor sharp front legs.
The spider reared up, possibly to jump towards Nathan, but Nathan whipped up his left spike, disconnected it from the wrist harness, and launched it at the spider.
With the help of his spike throwing Skill, the spike probably would have pulverized the spider, but Nathan was still recovering from the effect of the paralysis venom that he was pretty sure one of the spiders had injected into him. So far he could only move at about half speed, but at the rate he was recovering, would be fine in forty minutes.
The spider leapt into the air, sailing over the spike that Nathan had thrown, right towards his face. Nathan threw to the side and just barely managed to dodge the spider. Nathan quickly stood up from the roll he had fallen into, his second spike at the ready.
In the pause between when the spider landed from its jump and when the spider started moving again Nathan dashed forwards and slammed a heel down onto the spider’s abdomen. There was a meaty squelch as the spider's exoskeleton ruptured.
“Aw come on!” Nathan pronounced to the now empty chamber as spider guts sprayed all over him. That’s not gonna wash out of my hair easily.
Nathan walked over to where his other spike had landed, and began strategizing.
Where am I? Somewhere underground in a cave that's in a giant spider nest. Okay what do I need to do? Nathan was about to answer himself that he needed to get out of the hell out off there, when something occurred to him.
What if the objective of this level is to kill the queen off the spider nest? Or if it doesn't have a queen, to destroy the nest? Nathan nodded to himself. That seems extremely likely. I mean, Why else would there be a nest of giant spiders in the middle of a forest? If it is true, I should try to kill the queen, or destroy the nest now, while I’m already inside of the nest.
Nathan nodded again, having decided on his course of action. He picked up his spike and looked at the three exits, wondering which of the three to go down.
Alert
Congratulations: You have gained a level in The Skill Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1).
Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) Level 1: Through extreme strength of will and exposure, you gain the ability to resist paralyzation effects. You retain ten percent of your movement speed while under full paralysis effects. Each level in this Skill causes the speed retention to go up by one percent. The current speed retention is ten percent. Paralysis effects wear off twenty percent faster. Each level in this Skill causes paralysis effects to wear off two percent faster. All paralysis effects currently wear off twenty percent faster.
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Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) Level 2: Through extreme strength of will and exposure, you gain the ability to resist paralyzation effects. You retain ten percent of your movement speed while under full paralysis effects. Each level in this Skill causes the speed retention to go up by one percent. The current speed retention is eleven percent. Paralysis effects wear off twenty percent faster. Each level in this Skill causes paralysis effects to wear off two percent faster. All paralysis effects currently wear off twenty two percent faster.
“Oh yeah. I’m still under the effect of the fucking paralysis venom.” Nathan sighed. Once the paralysis had worn off, I should go down the tunnel that has the most webs. That’ll be as good a bet as any to find the queen that may or may ot exist.
////
It took the paralysis about half an hour to wear off, and when it did Nathan went down the exit that he had mentally labeled as tunnel number three.
It took Nathan about thirty seconds to run into his second spider. His third and fourth too.
“Fuck you!” Nathan screamed as he roundhouse kicked a spider down the tunnel. Nathan lunged forwards and stabbed another spider through the abdomen mid-jump.
Nathan yelped in pain as the third spider sliced the back of his calf. The pain did not stop Nathan from stomping and crushing the spider's head.
Ignoring the gore that sprayed at him, Nathan threw the spike that didn’t have a dead spider corpse on it at the still living spider that was getting ready to jump at him.
Alert
Congratulations: You have gained a level in The Skill Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2).
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2) Level 4: You have practiced the Holbrich Spike Style forms for years and are very proficient with them. You have incorporated spike throwing into the forms. When you throw spikes using this Skill, the spikes move ten percent faster while retaining the same accuracy. Each level in this Skill causes the speed increase to go up by two percent. The current speed increase from this Skill is sixteen percent.
>>
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2) Level 5: You have practiced the Holbrich Spike Style forms for years and are very proficient with them. You have incorporated spike throwing into the forms. When you throw spikes using this Skill, the spikes move ten percent faster while retaining the same accuracy. Each level in this Skill causes the speed increase to go up by two percent. The current speed increase from this Skill is eighteen percent.
Nathan wiped the gore away from his leg wound. The spider had created a gash on the back of his calf that was about five inches long.
Nathan snapped one of the legs off of the spider that he had impaled. Nathan used the leg to cut a strip off of his kilt. Nathan then tied the strip onto his leg wound and continued a long the tunnel.
///
Nathan stomped down on yet another spider. What was that? Fifty three or fifty four? Will I ever get to the queen that may or may not-
Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, Nathan whirled around. As the spider hurtled towards him, Nathan dropped his spike and, when the spider was about an arm’s length away, back handed it into one of the tunnel’s walls. The spider’s exoskeleton burst and showered Nathan with gore.
Nathan ignored the gore–he was already completely coated in it–and used a spider leg that had been ripped off during the battle to cut yet another strip off of his kilt to wrap around where he had sliced his hand on the spider's leg. The kilt was little more than a loincloth now because of how many injuries he had taken that had needed to be bandaged.
Alert
Congratulations: You have fulfilled the requirements for the Skill Basic Medicine(Tier 1)!
The Skill Basic Medicine(Tier 1) has been automatically entered into your Skill reserve.
Skill reserve:
Basic Improvised Crafting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Running(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Animal Harvesting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Land Animal Tracking(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Medicine(Tier 1) Level 1
Nathan decided that it was better to be able to treat himself medically than to be stealthy in a situation like this one.
Alert
Your Skill Basic Stealth(Tier 1) has been removed from your active Skills. Basic Improvised Crafting(Tier 1) has lost a level.
Basic Stealth(Tier 1) Level 12 >> Basis Stealth(Tier 1) Level 1
Congratulations: The Basic Stealth(Tier 1) has been placed in one of your Active Skill slots. You have no Active Skill slots remaining.
Basic Medicine(Tier 1) Level 1: You gain basic medicinal knowledge. You know how some plants and herbs can be mixed into poultices as well as how to set broken bones and stop bleeding. When you apply any bandage, poultice, or splint that you have made to an injury, the wound will heal three percent faster while the bandage, poultice, or splint that you have made is on the injury. This healing speed bonus is increased by one percent per two levels you have gained in this Skill. The current healing speed bonus from this Skill is three percent.
Nathan gathered up his spikes, and pumped his fist in the air. That's gonna be a lifesaver.
////
Nathan continued down the tunnels, fighting through at least two dozen more spiders before they finally stopped coming. He had continued walking, and had eventually reached a giant chamber. The chamber was at least a hundred feet across and a hundred and twenty feet long. The entire cave was piled with silk balls the size of Nathan's head.
Nathan mulled over the question as he wandered along a path of cleared ground that led between the piles, working his way towards the center of the chamber. When he was about half way through the tunnel, Nathan realized what the silk balls were.
Nathan froze in place, not daring to move an inch more. Fuck! Those are spider egg sacs! Nathan began backpedaling slowly, panic written on his features. If those hatch and swarm onto me…
Nathan slapped himself gently. Stop panicking. If this is the hatchery, then the queen that may or may not exist is probably in the middle. And besides, the egg sacks aren’t going to suddenly hatch. I’ve already been in this chamber for a minute or two, if they were going to hatch and swarm me, they would have done it already.
Nathan gripped his spikes for reassurance, even though they wouldn't do anything if the eggs decided to hatch, and continued his careful creeping forwards. Basic stealth would have been great for this.
When Nathan reached the center of the chamber he was unprepared for what he saw. In the center of a circle that had no egg sacks, there was a circular wooden table, about four feet across. How did the spiders even get that?
On the side of the table that was facing towards Nathan, there was an empty wooden chair. On the other side of the table was a spider. The spider looked the exact same as the spiders that Nathan had fought, except that it was about twice their size, coming just over the top of the table.
On either side of the table were two absolutely gigantic monsters of spiders. They were at least six feet tall. Those are some impressive bouncers.
Nathan reeled back in surprise when the spider in the middle spoke in a clicking, uncanny voice. “Welcome human,” the spider said in a placating tone, “I am the Matriarch of Those Who Dwell In Stone. I have come to negotiate a peace.”
Nathan stuttered, shocked at the talking spider less than ten feet away from him. “I-what-I mean, you can talk!?”
The Matriarch ignored Nathan and continued talking. “You pretended to be unconscious so that you could enter my nest.”
I guess what I did was sort of like accidental subterfuge. Huh.
“That is a despicable strategy that you have used to slay many of the hunters of my nest. You will cease this behavior at once.” The Matriarch made this pronouncement in a tone that was definitely not what was used in a negotiation. The Matriarch sounded like a noble talking to a lowborn, a tone that immediately inflamed Nathan’s anger.
“Hey!” Nathan almost shouted at the Matriarch. “Your ‘hunters’ dragged me here, and attacked me! Why should I stop, when they have been engaging me in conflict first?”
“You, human,” The Matriarch said ‘human’ as if she was a noble saying ‘lowborn’, “Will cease this behavior, or you will regret it.” The spiders that Nathan had decided to call the bouncers, took a step closer to Nathan, so that he was just barely out of the range of their front legs.
Nathan slammed a foot into the ground in outrage. “Fuck you spider! I-”
“Chrachlkl!” The Matriarch shouted what was probably a curse in her language at Nathan. “You will bow and apologize! Just for that I should-”
Nathan had had enough of this. The Matriarch was like a snooty noble, waving her power in Nathan’s face. Except, unlike the nobles, The Matriarch had approached him with an offer and then threatened him. The Matriarch wanted something from him, and the Matriarch was acting like that? Ridiculous.
In a fit of rage, Nathan decided to do the only thing that he could do to destroy the air of arrogance and false power the Matriarch had about her.
Nathan threw his spikes. They both sunk into the Matriarch’s forehead with a squelching noise, ending her life almost instantly.
Both of the bouncers lunged forward with their front legs, aiming to slice Nathan to pieces. When they reached the space where he had been just a moment ago, they hit nothing.
Nathan had finished the second level of the Gauntlet.