While everyone had been sleeping off the attack the normal runner group came into camp. Almost everyone slept through it, they did wake up Jenkins from his nap through. Before he allowed himself to sleep he had filled out a detailed report of the attack and several different requests. One of them being a reinforcement, as he didn’t think they would survive another attack. Another request he put in was for a cleanup crew to be dispatched to remove the dead, both the dead spiders and the dead defenders. Others included transport back to the surface and healing of their more wounded, including Alya.
By the time Bjorn had awoken and started his cleaning and apologizing stent the runners were long gone carrying the requests off to the main army. All they had to do was wait for their reinforcements. They were in a precarious situation. With everyone injured or hurt in some way shape matter or form, the fighters who could still fight were in rough shape. If another spider group attacked, one even half the strength of the attack the day before they all would likely die.
When Meira left her tent she started to make her way towards Bjorn, who was outside his and Alaric’s tent, and started to cast a spell, causing her hands to be covered in a warm gold light. When he saw her he started smiling, when she started to stalk towards him though with her hands covered in magical light the smile started to fade. He rose to his feet and took a step backwards while holding both of his hands up towards Meira. “Woah, hold it. I am the last person you should heal.”
Upon hearing his words she stopped in her tracks letting the golden light fade from her hands and a slight frown spread across her face. “And why is that? I will heal who I please, and I say it is important to heal you.”
“Think about it. There are plenty of people here who are hurt and would benefit greatly from your healing magic. Although I am hurt I stand at the back and fight from the back. My injuries are less important than those on the front line. On top of that I have my increase healing speed, or did you forget that I regain 16 health back per day. I am already on the mend. There are way more important people to heal than me in my current state.”
Meira’s frown turned into one of resignation. “Fine, you make a few good points, You are right of course, I will go heal those who need it in a moment. But first, how are you doing today?”
“I am doing good.” He was going to say more but he cut himself short when he saw the flat look Meira was giving him.
“You just saw your first real battle in this world, unless I have missed my mark. That experience shakes most people. So I will ask again, how are you doing?”
Bjorn waited a moment before replying. “Honestly? Not good. It was hard, and last night just as hard but for different reasons. I think I will be fine, I just need a little time.”
Meira’s expression softened. “I understand, I promise you, I understand. I am going to heal what I can, then I will come find you and we can talk more.” She walked forward and embraced Bjorn for a few moments before letting him go and turning around heading towards their small designated field hospital.
Bjorn watched her walk away, his heart fluttering briefly at the remembrance of her warmth.
“Are you ever going to make a move?” Alaric's voice came from inside the tent.
“What are you talking about?” Bjorn asked Alaric as the dwarf pushed his way out from inside the tent. He stood in the middle of camp shoe-less and shirtless. The muscle bound dwarf briefly arched his back as he stretched.
“It’s obvious. You like her, she likes you. Why don’t you make a damn move already and stop making us watch you who awkwardly dance around each other.”
Bjorn looked over towards his friend. “What makes you so sure she likes me? Also, didn't anyone ever tell you it’s rude to eavesdrop on others' conversations?”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it was rude to talk at full volume right next to where someone was sleeping?” Alaric retorted just as fast as he heard it. “Besides, it’s obvious to everyone but you apparently. Trust me, you won’t regret it.”
“I don’t know about that. You can keep saying that but until you provide me with concrete proof I won’t believe you.”
“You're a dumb-ass. That is never going to happen. I was just trying to help you, take it or leave it, that is up to you.” Alaric said as he started walking towards the small natural spring, shoes in one hand, and a large bar of soap in the other.
“Tayla was going that way to take a bath of sorts, if you hurry you might be able to catch her.”
Once Alaric was fully out of sight Bjorn began to contemplate on his words. Meira? Like him? Preposterous. She was so beautiful, wonderful, and full of life. Why would she like someone like him? No, it makes more sense that Alaric was just messing with him. Yeah that has to be the case.
During the day they all pitched in to help make the camp someplace worth living again. They repaired tents torn up by the spiders. Washed the blood off from the hard stones. They also spent time working on cleaning up bandages for all the various wounds.
While everyone not on watch was busy cleaning Jenkins set Bjorn to check on the alchemy supplies. Most of the herbs that Jenkins requisitioned were still fine, and the alchemy set he had got was a little beat up, but for the most part things weren't overly damaged.
Bjorn found their small crate filled with potion vials, which gave him an idea. Taking the box he walked over to the pile of spiders and started to take a closer look at the dead monsters. The spiders varied in size, some were the size of a loaf of bread, while the largest were over 5 feet long in the torso. Other than their unusual size they have the same body proportions as a normal spider. Their bone like carapace was actually not bone like, but was bone. Looking closer at the carapace on a few of the dead spiders it had the same bone structure as normal bone. The hard solid outside and a porous interior. The interesting part was the fact that all of the internal part of the carapace was porous.
The two things Bjorn was inspecting them for were their legs and their fangs though, specifically he was interested in the ends of their legs. After feeling the effect of the hooks he wanted a closer look. What he actually found was that the front two legs ended in points, the next four ended in small hooks, and finally the last two ended in two small points that with some effort were able to close, they were blunted and looked more like a robot arms hands. The back two legs were likely used to clamp onto things.
Each spider had two large fangs that ranged in size from 2 inches long to almost 7 inches long. They also came down to sharp points almost like a dagger. When he was looking closer at the tip of each of the fangs a small hole resided there. That hole was actually what he was looking for. Taking one of his vials he placed it against the hole and tried to push up, which awarded him with absolutely nothing. Next he tried pulling down on the fangs which also was an exercise in futility.
Slightly stumped Bjorn sat back and swore. He pulled one of the spiders out from the piles of bodies and using a stone on the ground next to him brought it down on the top of the spider's head. A resounding crack flooded the cave, but the head was still intact. Raising the stone he brought it back down and the crack sounded again. This time though the bone of the skull gave way and a thick viscous liquid spilled out.
The sound brought attention his way, one of the guards came over and looked down at Bjorn. “Hey Bjorn. Uh what are you doing?”
As he asked his question the guard visibly flinched as Bjorn stuck his hand into the mess of meat and fluid that was the inside of the spider. “I am trying to extract the venom from these spiders. I was thinking that it would be something useful to have, I might find a way to weaponize it against our foes. Afterall their venom breaks down bone, and their carapace is made out of bone.”
“Understandable, but why are you sticking your hand into the spider’s body?” As the guard asked his question, Bjorn pulled out a large chunk of meat and threw it onto the ground. The guard gave Bjorn a disgusted look and took a step back.
“I can’t seem to figure out how to get the spider to release its venom from the outside. So I was hoping that if I could find out from the inside then maybe I could make it release its venom from the outside.”
“Alright. Best of luck to you, I’ll leave you to it. A word of advice, before you come back into camp you should wash yourself. The spider's guts isn’t a lovely smell.” The guard said before making a rather hasty retreat.
“Thanks, I'll keep that in mind!” Bjorn called after the retreating form.
It took him a while but eventually he was pretty sure he found where the venom glands were located inside the spider. He had to cut out parts of the meaty interior. He was pretty sure he had to cut out a part of a throat, and cut the central nervous system and a few other important parts of the spider before he found what he was looking for. There was a small sack that when he put pressure on it venom came out of the holes in the fangs.
He noted where the pouches sat in the spider and moved that one aside for now. Pulling another spider out of the pile he flipped it over exposing the underside of this spider. It had died from its exoskeleton being punctured. All 8 of the spider’s legs were curled up like they normally do when dead. As it turns out spiders actually don’t have any muscles to extend their legs. Their entire body is a hydraulic system and they push a liquid inside their bodies to extend their legs.
Bjorn put his hand against where the sac should be inside the spider and pushed. Which was a practice in futility as the bone exoskeleton was strong enough that Bjorn wasn’t able to make an indent whatsoever. After a little more exploring on the underside he found a small section of the spider where its bone carapace was a little bit weaker. Making a fist he pushed into the soft spot. That did the trick and venom began to bead up at the end of the spider's fang.
Walking back over to his box he bent down to grab his first vial, that was when he remembered his hands were still covered in the spider’s goo. Swearing to himself he made his way to the spring and quickly washed his hands removing any of the spider’s gunk from his hands.
He then spent the remainder of the day slowly collecting as much of the spider's venom as he possibly could. He was able to get a respectable haul. Most of the spiders had been crushed to get the killing blow and when he tried to retrieve any of the venom it didn’t work. So his choices for collecting venom were limited. Still he made out like a bandit.
Snatcher Spider Venom x29
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 0.2 lbs.
Uses: 1/1
The venom of a snatcher spider. Snatcher spiders are known for two things. One is their hunting methods. The second is for their venom. If the venom is injected into the body the bones in that area will break down. The spiders then drink the slurry that is left in the bones place to feed.
The next thing Bjorn did was he wanted access to the webbing. Digging into the abdomen of the spider it was the same usual shape as a normal spider. Making his way down to the butt of the spider he inspected it closely. There were two 3 inch points coming directly out of the end of the butt. The spinnerets were less like sharp points and more like barbs running the length of them.
The spinnerets are actually where he found his first soft spot on the outside of the spider. A tough skin covered a fist sized hole. The skin was made of multiple layers of the same tough skin, it was most likely that the spiders pulled the layers back to shoot out the webbing. Using his knife he cut away the layers of skin revealing a small cavity inside the spider. Reaching inside he felt around until his hands came in contact with a sac. Slowly and gently he started to pull the sack out of the monster.
Snatcher spider silk gland
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 1.1 lbs.
Uses: 4/5
Although I shudder to think how you were able to retrieve this. All arachnids have the ability to make spider silk of some kind. Snatcher spiders are no exception to this. This silk gland has the ability to make a strong, lightweight strand of spider silk. Every use of this item can make up to 5 feet of spider silk.
As gross as it was reaching inside the cold corpse of the spider, Bjorn thought it was entirely worth it to find the silk gland. Not sure what he could use it for he stored it on top of a shirt he laid down. Once again he got to work trying to harvest as much of the silk glands as he could. He was mostly successful. Each spider had a silk gland, but not all glands were created equal. Some had only a single use and others had up to 8. All in all he was able to retrieve 53 of them.
Setting them to the side for the moment he next moved onto the tips of each of the spider's legs. The knife-like points were surprisingly sharp and had good penetrating power. More than a few sets of armor had holes in them that matched the bottoms of these legs. Setting to it he found where the tips of the legs were attached. The area where the tips met the legs was segmented. Taking his dagger he put it right on the connection point and pried with it. With a pop the sharp points came loose. Once again he went through the spiders and took as many as he possibly could. Looking at the segment it was almost perfectly shaped for an arrowtip.
Snatcher spider arrowtips x122
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: .05 lbs.
Durability: 5/5
These natural arrowtips are surprisingly sharp and strong. If they are fashioned into arrows they will likely provide either a +1 or a +2 to damage.
At first he also thought that maybe the hooks would be of use as well. Upon closer inspection he wasn’t able to find a way to retrieve the hooks without breaking them. Still he was quite happy with his haul. Taking a step back he looked down on the value of goods he was able to pull from the spiders. It was quite an impressive haul, and no one wanted to take advantage of it.
With his portable pocket being almost full he was hesitant to fill it with more stuff. So instead Bjorn pulled out a small leather pouch that he had in there. He quickly filled it up with the arrowtips and set it aside for now. Now what to do with the glands. He didn’t want to waste them, but he didn’t have any way to really preserve them outside of the pocket. They were organic material after all, Bjorn had no doubt in his mind that given enough time they would spoil. With a sigh he stuck one into the slot that the empty leather pouch filled previously. It went in there without a hitch and a number 1 appeared in the lower left hand corner. Soon he put an additional gland in and the number jumped up. Quickly he loaded the 53 into his pouch, they ended up taking up three slots in his quickly diminishing pouch space.
Not realizing his folly he tried to stand up, but was unable to do so. That was when he realized his mistake. Even though the portable pocket was amazing at fitting many items into its normally small space it didn’t diminish the weight whatsoever. With his newest haul he added well over 75 pounds of crap. It was no wonder he was having issues standing up. It did take some effort, but he was eventually able to stand up. His strength of 23 was barely enough to hold him and his new loot and allowed him to walk. He slowly stumbled back to camp.
Setting down his crate of venom he also set the portable pocket down with a loud thump as he dropped it to the ground. With his entire day of cutting open spiders he was tired, but his hand was still covering his spider guts from when he removed the glands. Once again he made his way to the spring to wash up and clean his dagger. After he made his way back to his bunk and fell asleep.
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That night something that hadn't happened so far did. Jenkins had one of the watches consisting solely of conscripts. Meira, Alaric, Chase, and finally Rickie were all assigned to a single shift. Taking it as jenkins showing trust for the first time spirits were high that night.
Bjorn woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of unfamiliar voices and creaking wood. With the situation still being tense Bjorn still slept in his full combat gear, which with the inclusion of the chestplate made sleeping not entirely comfortable. Rolling out of bed he made his way out of the tent, and was greeted by the sight of 30 new people he hadn’t seen before. 15 of them were wearing the usual armor and gear of the guard, while the remainder were dressed in more casual clothes.
The more casually dressed people were accompanied by 3 small wagons. The small wagons were all empty. As he watched they started to load up their dead into one of the wagons, at the same time they also started loading up the dead spiders and the wounded, each into their own wagons. The wounded wagon didn’t have many on it, as during the last day another one of the guards died from his wounds even with Meira’s healing magic and several healing potions.
Bjorn watched as they loaded up Alya. While she was sitting there she took a look at her surroundings. When she saw Bjorn her face lit up and she waved at him. He waved back, and then she beckoned him over.
Making his way over to where she was sitting she reached into a pouch in her pack and pulled out a small book handing it over. “I don’t know if this will be any use to you, but it is a list of all of the alchemy recipes I know. I spent all of last night making a copy of it just for you.”
Reaching out he took Alya’s book and without looking at it put it away in a pouch. “Thank you, I am sure it will come in handy.”
Alya’s smile turned into a sad smile. “They told me that they think they can fix my leg, but it might take a while. Right now I am low priority in getting healed. I was told that all of the decent healers are down with the main force. So I don’t think I will make it back down to the fight, stay safe. I want to be able to see all of you at the end of this.”
“You have already done more than anyone could ask for. Your healing potions ended up saving many of our lives. Thank you. You are the reason we are all alive right now.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You have just as much of a claim to saving everyone as I do. We worked on the healing potions together, don’t forget that.”
“That is fair.” They stood in silence for a moment. “Well, best of luck to you. If we make it through this I promise we will stop in and see you.” They briefly embraced. As Bjorn stepped away he couldn’t help but look down at her leg. It was sitting normally, at least for the first time. Then it was shaped like a U, ending up with her foot being behind her body. Trying his best to suppress a shiver at the sight he made it way back to his tent.
What he didn’t see because he left before he could was Laurel getting loaded up as well. Apparently Jenkins decided that she wouldn’t be much help in any future attacks, her traps had done their job. With her no longer having any more traps she wasn’t of use. Turns out what she said about not being a fighter held unsurprisingly true. Jenkins determined that she was more of a liability now than an asset.
Inside he sat down on his small bed and pulled out the book that Alya gave him and began to leaf through it. From the contents of the book Alya was a significantly better alchemist than she let on. Quickly counting up she had written over 100 different recipes for a bunch of various potions. Sitting down he started to read through.
Several hours later someone knocked on the tent wall. “Bjorn, are you in there?”
“Yes.”
“Corporal Jenkins would like to see you.”
“I’ll be there shortly.” Bjorn called back quickly, putting away his book and notes. Shoving his way out of the tent he saw one of the new guards standing there.
“Come with me.” He said and started walking towards the center tent.
Shaking his head he started to follow after the man. They quickly made their way to the command tent. The guard lifted the flap to the tent permitting Bjorn access to the interior. The inside of the tent looked much like it did last time Bjorn saw it. The main difference was the disheveled look. Last time Bjorn was inside the tent it was fairly organized, this time it looked like a strong wind went through. Papers were scattered about, there was dished piled up, and the center table which had a map of this section of the sewers was covered by reports, ink, and various small items.
“Ah, Bjorn, come in.” Jenkins said as Bjorn was already inside the tent. Instead of saying anything he stayed silent. “I am not going to beat around the bush. We went through almost all of our healing potions. I would like for you to brew more, now that Alya isn’t in camp I don’t expect you to make one for everyone. But I think focusing on brewing more health potions should be paramount.”
Bjorn stayed quiet. “I do want to thank both you and Alya for your efforts. If it weren’t for your potions our casualties would have been entirely too many, I fear we wouldn’t have made it out of here. Well that is everyone except for Rickie, he seems to only be strengthened by the spider's bites. I don’t think he would have gone down that easily.”
Sighing, Bjorn finally broke his silence. “I agree that more health potions is important. So I will try my best to brew more of those. But I did have an idea.”
“Oh? Please share.”
“I was wondering why the spider venom doesn’t affect themselves. As far as I can tell whenever a spider bites someone the venom attacks their bones and starts to break them down on the molecular level.”
“Molecular level?” Jenkins asked, confused.
“Ah, that's right, you wouldn’t know. Basically it turns our bones into a liquid state then they drink it. They then use the bone slurry to grow their exoskeletons and make it tougher. So my question is, if their bodies are made out of our bones then why doesn’t the venom have the same effect on them that it does on us.”
Jenkins sat there thinking. “You bring up a good point, I hadn’t even thought about that. Where are you going with all of this?”
“I think that if I am given some time I might find a way to make the spider venom work on the spider's bodies. I don’t know for sure, but I think it will be worth it. If we can find a way to weaponize their own venom against them it will make it easier for us to fight back.”
“Hmmm. I agree that it might be worth looking into. But I also think that our soldiers' lives are more important than some extra damage. So I would like for you to focus on making more health potions. If you get to the point where you have brewed at least 20 more health potions I would say it is worth looking into.”
A frown crossed Bjorn’s face. “Ah, I see that you aren’t happy with my thinking. How many spiders do you think you’d be able to kill with your poison? Conversely, how many do you think you could save with your healing potions? Is it worth losing a man just in the off chance that you could kill a few more spiders. You have to look at it from my end. Your potential poison could make some people extremely good at killing spiders, but there is no guarantee that you’d be able to find a way to weaponize the venom. At the same time your healing potions can almost guarantee one of my men’s lives. Even if you don’t think so, you and your friends are included in that count. I personally would rather your health potions over a better way to kill.”
“20 potions could take me the better part of 2 days if I don’t have any failures.” Bjorn said. “You are right, I don’t like it, but I can see where you are coming from. Do you think we will be here for two more days?”
“Unfortunately I think we will be. Things slowed down again. We were finally making good progress towards the center of the spider's nest when we ran into spiders that were larger than we have so far. These spiders are easily up to 8 or 9 feet long through the body, and from the reports I am hearing their size matched their length. This isn’t anything we had thought would happen. Based on the description we got from our books, these spiders are something else entirely. There was no mention whatsoever about these damn spiders growing this large.”
“Alright, I will focus on making healing potions on the condition that when I am done I have free reign to brew whatever I want to brew.”
“You have a deal. I promise you that when you finish I will not ask you to brew anything else. I also promise that I will not put you on guard duty the entire time you are brewing.” Bjorn nodded and bowed his head slightly, turning to leave Jenkins spoke up again. “Oh, and I will put in a good word for you when this is all done, I will make sure you are put down for increased compensation.”
With that Bjorn turned and made his way to his small alchemy area and started the slow process of brewing healing potions. He dedicated his entire day to brewing healing potions, with various success. He was able to brew 9 potions, some with higher potency than others.
Around halfway through the day Alaric and Meira came over and had a seat next to Bjorn while he brewed.
“If I knew this is what we would be doing here I would have suggested we leave Blackrock Bay.” Alaric said.
“Don’t lie to us. You might be frustrated at our circumstances but you are glad we ended up here. You are glad that we are here to help in this situation.” Meira shot back.
“Yeah you’re right, I am glad to be here and help save people. I still just wish we weren’t forced into it. I do think that if we had managed to escape town and found out about blackrock bay getting overrun later I would have regrets.”
“That is because you are a good man deep down.” Bjorn said.
“Thank you, I try to be.”
There was a brief lull in conversation. They sat there in companionable silence as each of their minds wandered.
“Hey Meira, what was that warleader thing that you told me you'd tell me about later?” Bjorn asked.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. I don’t know exactly how to get the skill, but I do know that it can be powerful. Basically you are able to form a party and you then get a bunch of benefits for the entire party. Like for example when Jenkins gave you the scout role. You used your identify ability and then the results of that got transmitted to everyone. We all could see the highlighted spiders and we could see the levels of the spiders as well. From what I understand there are a ton of roles that you can unlock. But I don’t know how to unlock different roles.”
“There was someone back in my village who had the warleader skill.” Alaric said. “From what I was told, when you form a party and kill things you get points to unlock and upgrade things. He didn’t tell me everything, just a small amount. There is a zone that you are able to influence. He called it his sphere of influence.”
Bjorn furrowed his brow when Meira talked about gaining skills. “You said you don’t know how to get the skill, what does that mean?”
Understanding dawned on Alaric’s face. “No one ever explained it to you, did they? Well there are certain parameters that you have to meet to gain every skill. Some of them have several different ways you can gain the skill. Some of them can be as simple as hit a thing with a sword gives you the swordsmanship skill, others that I have heard of I can’t even begin to guess how you would gain the skill.”
“Alaric’s exactly right. Many people in the Eld have dedicated a good portion of their life into trying to figure out the ways to unlock skills. With some or no success. I am not sure exactly why, but most people in the Eld don’t like to share information.”
“I think I understand.” Bjorn said. “Knowledge is power. If you know how to obtain a certain skill, or brew a certain potion, or even make a better metal. It gives you an edge on your opponents, that edge then can grow and lead you to victory. This world had a very heavy might makes right mentality. So why would you share whatever you learn with your potential future enemies? Why would you give them another weapon they could use against you in the future? It makes little logical sense to share information with those around you.”
“Yeah I guess that makes sense,” Meira said.
“Actually, I bet it isn't limited to just skill unlocks. It is the same reason that Magic isn't shared. I mean look at what our spells did, hell exclude me, look at what Meira’s spells did. The mages decided to share with her 3 new spells and they were the most impactful thing in that spider raid. One spell killed the most spiders out of all of us. Another slowed down the spiders attack, without that spell we would have lost there is no doubt in my mind that is the case. Lastly her healing spell saved countless lives and let us fight on. It’s also why people don’t train other people's skills. That is why the public library is so weird to me. The entire city of Blackrock Bay is willing to share its knowledge with anyone who wants it.”
Nodding Alaric spoke up. “You are absolutely right. Blackrock has the first public library I have ever seen. I have heard about others but this one is the first I have personally seen. From what I have heard most areas that have libraries restrict who has access to it.” Alaric stopped with a contemplative look on his face. “This city's public library played a huge role in our fight. Going off of what Bjorn said with knowledge is power. Without the knowledge we wouldn’t have known what we were fighting against, and we also wouldn’t have known anything about the snatcher spiders. All we would have had to go on was Bjorn’s ability, and even that didn’t give much.”
“Exactly, which is why I am surprised with how free people have been in this city with their knowledge.” Bjorn said. “So far they have given free access to their library. They have taught both Meira and myself several spells each which have paid dividends several times over. And then they have given me several different recipes for potions that have done their job so far. Even today Alya gave me a recipe book that has well over a hundred different potions in it. Most of them aren’t going to be useful, but they might be in the future.”
“Alright you sold me on it.” Meira said. “I see why you say that and what you mean by knowledge is power. I think you are absolutely right as to why knowledge isn’t shared around, it is a powerful tool and weapon both.”
After that there was a brief lull in conversation before they started talking about small unimportant things as companions often do. When Bjorn went to reach for something and winced, Meira noticed.
“What hurts?” She asked.
“My many cuts aren’t fully healed yet. My increased regeneration is working, but my body isn’t fully healed yet.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, I am so sorry, I forgot to come back to you and use my healing magic on you. Here let me cast my spell on you.” Her hand was surrounded in a warm golden light as healing magic left her body and flowed into Bjorn’s. The magic did its work exactly as it was supposed to and the wounds on his body started to knit back together and scabs began to fall off. Her magical spell recovered 30 health over 5 seconds, with a 5 minute cooldown it wasn’t fast, but it was still faster than his regeneration and had less drawbacks than drinking a healing potion. After her round of healing it brought him up to 208 out of his 253. When the spell's cooldown elapsed she cast it on her again.
“Thank you. That should be enough.” Bjorn said.
They then began to talk amongst themselves again. After an hour or so they got called away to do some menial task around camp, leaving Bjorn by himself with his alchemy set again. It took Bjorn the 20ish rough hours left in the day to brew his 9 healing potions.
The next day Bjorn spent the entire day brewing while the new guards began integrating into camp. Bjorn got a new slew of men and women he was having a hard time remembering the names of. So instead of dedicating the mental energy into remembering he decided to just brew. Throughout the day he slowly ran through all of his notifications that have been piling up over the last day.
You have advanced your skill level in: hand to hand combat. reaching skill level 10. Blows you land with bare fists and legs now deal 20% extra damage.
Congratulations you have gone from a beginner in hand to hand combat to a novice. By doing so you have gained a perk. You may invest stamina into a punch to increase the damage of a single hit. The damage scales off of how much stamina you invest capped at twice the damage.
You have advanced your skill level in alchemy, reaching skill level 18. Potions you make will be (x)% increased effect and 36% increased duration of effect.
Due to your constant running away like a little bitch you have gained a single point of endurance. Your efforts are so pathetic that you couldn’t even gain more than that.
You have advanced your skill level in swordsmanship, reaching skill level 8. Your attacks with swords now deal 16% more damage over base value.
Due to your inability to not get hit, your skill level in Light Armor, reaching skill level 6. When wearing light armor your defensive value for the light armor is increased by 6%.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in traps, reaching skill level 2, 3… 6, 7. All traps you set will be 17.5% harder to find.
Level up! You have reached level 17. You have 6 (normally 8) skill points to distribute. (again he is still 2 levels of stat points over where he should be, I won't distribute stats this time, if I ever release this as a book I will fix it then.)
You have advanced your skill level in Water magic. reaching skill level 7. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in Earth magic. reaching skill level 7. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in Dark magic. reaching skill level 2. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 15. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 22.5% over base damage.
You have advanced your skill level in herb-lore. reaching skill level 17. The efficacy of plants and herbs you collect will increase by 51%.
One thing that did confuse Bjorn about his skill gains was how he got his Herb-lore up. Everything else made sense, but not Herb-lore. Thinking about it the only thing that made sense was when he was collecting the venom. But it wasn’t a herb so why did his herb-lore increase when he collected none plant based materials. He guessed that it would include any alchemical ingredient that he gathered himself, but wasn’t entirely sure. The benefit he got from leveling also gave credence that it should only be for herbs. Looks like he would have to ask Alya if they ended up surviving this ordeal.
On the morning of the third day runners came into camp once again, which at this point had become routine. This time something felt different though. As the runners came into camp they seemed almost elated, they made their way into camp and ran straight for Jenkins tent. Once they were inside the state in which they entered camp quickly made its rounds and people were talking excitedly.
It was a few hours before they came back out of the tent, usually they were inside the tent for 30 minutes to an hour max. Once they left the tent they took off at a sprint heading for the next camp.
Jenkins came out after them and gave an order. “Everyone, collect by the entrance of the tunnel in 10 minutes. You have that time to collect everyone, make sure we are all there.” After his command he ducked back into the tent.
Everyone who heard quickly trickled around the tunnel. Bjorn upon hearing made his way over there slowly as well. By the time he made it there everyone except for Rickie of their little group had made it. As they slowly trickled into the predetermined area small segregated parties started to form. They were divided into three groups, it was the old unit under Jenkins command, the new unit that showed up as their reinforcements, and finally the draftees.
When half the time elapsed and Rickie was still nowhere to be seen Chase went to go find him. Right before Jenkins deadline expired Rickie and Chase walked into the clearing, coming from the spring. Rickie was wet up to his elbows leaving little wonder as to what he was doing. He was doing the dishes from their last meal. They joined Bjorn, Meira, Alaric, and Tayla.
After the elapsed time Jenkins came back out from his tent and walked over to where everyone had gathered. All together they stood 32 strong, still three less than what initially set up camp at this tunnel entrance. What they traded in numbers they made up for with fighting capabilities. As every single one of them have been tested in battle against the spiders. The reinforcements had been broken off from the main army and sent over. They had arguably more experience against the spiders than anyone else from the initial group.
“We have gotten new orders.” Jenkins said. “As of tomorrow they will be assaulting the room that is connected to our tunnel. Our orders are to make our way through our tunnel and meet up with the main force to either help and attack the spiders from two different sides, or to crush any spider we come across on our way to join with the rest of the army. They expect that fight to take a toll on our forces so they will begin the attack right at midday. We are to set out once everyone has had a chance to get a full night's rest tonight. That is all.”
“What about the camp?” Asked one of his guards.
“We are to leave everything behind that isn’t of vital importance or that doesn’t give us an edge in the fight. So make any preparations you need to before we set out in the morning.”
With that Jenkins left to make his way into his tent to do just as he ordered. There was a brief lull and then a burst of motion as everyone burst into action to follow Jenkins orders. Tomorrow they were joining the fight for real.