Nearing the exit of the dungeon Alexander saw that it was already day outside, the moment he was fully outside the cave he collapsed, since he was assaulted by unbelievable pain. His wings painfully retracted into his body and skin, muscles and nerves grew back giving the feeling of acid being poured on every inch of his body.
The black gooey stuff that formed a robe around him seeped back with a scorching pain into his mouth, which felt as if he was drowning or at least how he imagined it to feel like.
His scythe turned into a bubbling mass in his hand which formed a face. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head:
“Massssster, you may choose my three extra forms. ”
“No way! Are you the scythe? That’s a really nice option. You forming a face and speaking in my head surprised me a bit, but this is a game! Ok, I’d like to have these three forms: Bow, Claymore and these two chakrams. Can you make two for me to dual wield them?”
“Yessss. Very well masssster. ”
Learned new locked skill: Soul Weapon Transform.
Soul Weapon Transform
Change between the three types of weapons your soul weapon can transform in by shouting the key word, which is determined by the types of weapons you choose. At night the soul weapon will always form a scythe at first!
Health cost: 300 health points
Health cost for transformation at night: 100 health points/ second
Locked skills. Skills that count as passive skills, with a usage cost and no level.
The soul weapon transformed into a bow, probably since that was his first weapon choice. The transformation looked amazing, since the soul weapon moved like liquid, slowly forming the weapon and then becoming solid.
“Pleassssse change the form of the weapon according to how you want it in the future to be. Changing it later on requires a complicated ritual.”
The bow however was too short for Alexander's liking, so he said:
“Can you be longer? At least a bit bigger than my height if possible.”
The bow grew longer according to Alexander's wishes. It was now about half a head taller than him. But when he lifted it up and pulled the string he noticed another problem. The draw length and the draw strength needed for it was much too low to suit his preferences.
So he also changed them both to shoot at least 500 meters far. He could make them both much higher than in real life due to having extra strength and agility in game.
“Finished!”
“Now pleasssse change the next weapon.”
The Soul weapon changed into a claymore, which he immediately made longer as well. It was now over 2 meters long with the blade part of the weapon being as long as him tall. Holding it, Alexander was surprised by how light it was.
“Can you also change weight? If yes please become heavier until I say stop.”
Making the sword much heavier Alexander was satisfied. He might not be able to swing this 50kg weapon around fast anymore, but this just meant he would increase his stats wielding it and its destructive force would rise as well. It was already even longer and just as thick as the last one so no changes. If it was stabbed into the ground in front of him he could almost fully hide behind it without being seen from the front.
“Now the lasssst weapon, masssster. ”
The soul weapon changed into the two chakrams.
“Hmm can you add a small spike at the front of the the flat sides.
A spike the length of his thumb formed on each side of the chakrams.
“Make them half as long.”
Alex could now also use these to hit down on weapons and maybe break them in process, while still having the sharp round part of the chakrams acting as a slicing weapon.
“Finished!”
“Thank you masssster. I will now go back to sleep and wait for more souls to eat.”
~Weird, but still somehow a cool weapon.~
Additional effect to Soul Weapon Transform obtained!
By saying: Arma transmutant X you can transform your weapon.
X is gladius for claymore, arcum for bow and sicam for chakrams.
The unicorn had watched all this with fascinated eyes and now was confused that Alexander displayed a human form unlike before inside the cave. The unicorn's head didn't even reach the shoulders of Alexander, which proved to Alexander that it indeed was young.
Reactivating system messages he was flooded with notifications of increasing skill proficiencies, stats, levels and even generating a new stat Perseverance.
Toughness
You are able to endure more hits and pain. Cannot distribute any stat points.
You have cleared the entire Gropper’s nest.
Fame +50
For clearing it Single-handedly
Fame +20
He had leveled up 18 times in the cave and had reached lvl. 85. He distributed his stat points with a focus on agility, wisdom and intellect since now he would need more mana to effectively incorporate his mana-consuming skills in a battle. He also put some in strength due to always needing a bit of it.
His skills had all also increased extraordinarily in proficiency:
NON-Class Skills:Blacksmithing Lvl. 9:99%
Repair Intermediate Lvl.Tailoring Lvl. 6: 32%Illusion Lvl. 7: 24%Conversion Lvl. 4: 29%Cooking Lvl. 9: 14%First Aid Lvl. 8: 42%Trapping Lvl. 7: 4%Taming Lvl. 1: 18%Bloodlust Lvl. 1: 64%Dragon Soul Set:
Dragon Roar Lvl. 7: 51%
Dragon Power Lvl. 5: 19%
Dragon Hide Lvl. 5: 17%Passive: Identify Lvl. 9: 23%Passive: Vision Lvl. 8: 63%Passive: Animal Speech Lvl. 1: 15%
Class Skills:Wild Hunt Lvl. 1: 0%Room of Sound Lvl. 1: 13%Mist of Weakness Lvl. 6: 22%Passive: Shadow Walk Lvl. 3: 12%Soul Reaper Set:
Soul Weapon Mastery Intermediate Lvl. 6: 35%
Soul Eater Lvl. 1:0%
Soul Fury Lvl. 4: 67%
Soul Slice Lvl. 6: 43%
Passive: Soul Harvest Lvl. 8: 72%
Soul Suck Lvl. 3: 29%
Soul Sense Lvl. 7: 14%
He couldn't learn even one more skills due to having earned a class and thus being able to learn only ten non-class related skills. Only a few more levels until he reached Lvl. 100 and then he could learn up to 15 skills aside from his class skills.
“Do you know where the next town or city is.”
He asked the unicorn, which answered:
“Yes. But why? Also know that I will be hunted inside.”
“Don't worry, I can make you seem as if you were an ordinary horse.”
“How? Which skill or spell can make something like that possible?”
“I have the illusion skill!”
“Orange magic? You can perform orange magic! How is that possible?”
“You know of orange magic? Please tell me what you know. I need to find out more about it.”
“Not much! Only that it had been supposedly forgotten or rather lost millennia ago. But the unicorn elders might know more.”
“Can I meet them?”
“I am not sure. Normally we do not show our home to others and hide ourselves, but since you have saved me they might just allow it.”
“That would be great. I was sent on a quest to find out more about orange magic to break an ancient curse. However that can wait. First of all we should find a city since I need to resupply. On our way there I will train my illusion skill to let you look like an ordinary horse, while we are inside it.”
For the next two weeks they travelled side by side towards the nearest human settlement. On the way Alexander continuously trained his illusion skill to let the horn disappear and also to let the fur of Shea, which was the name of the unicorn be a little browner and not so pristinely white even after walking for hours on end through the forest and through mud.
Just before they arrived at the town. Alexander and Shea hid in the forest to wait for his mana to replenish. Then Alexander walked out with Shea who looked like a regular young, light brown horse.
Naturally he also used the illusion skill to hide his murderers mark, which took quite a lot of training to flawlessly execute. Since maintaining his concentration on these three illusions at the same time was considerably hard by itself but to execute these three at the same time, while also being able to focus on his surroundings and react to them was the truly difficult part.
The guards who were NPC's sceptically looked at Alexander due to his high infamy and told him to watch what he was doing inside the town. Luckily the illusion skill made them less wary and allowed him as a PK’er inside the town.
It was a small town almost as small as a regular village, which had a lot of activity though. NPC's and users were bustling about. Walking at the edges of the crowd, since both Alexander and Shea felt uncomfortable with that many other people around them although for different reasons. Alexander due to bearing the murderer’s mark and Shea due to being one of the mythical unicorns that were hunted for their magical horns.
This village wasn't a starting town, but was rather for players just above lvl. 50 due to the hunting grounds surrounding it, so the players as well weren't considered newbies anymore.
Alexander had collected 40 gold coins by looting the players in the citadel of Serabourg, the undead and the grasshopper creatures. Quickly but nonetheless cautiously they moved at the edges of the crowd to find a blacksmith to replace the portable furnace for a better model, which allowed higher temperatures and more space to melt more metal at once.
They also found a tailor where he bought himself better equipment than what he was currently wearing. Since his current equipment was at best adequate for Lvl. 50.
He also bought new sewing materials and many fabrics and much leather since he really needed to improve his Tailoring to beginner Lvl. 8, so that he could finally acquire the Handicraft skill.
He also bought spices and some fruits and other snacks for Shea and himself. After buying everything he needed he had less than one gold coin remaining. After finishing his purchases he walked up to different players and asked them where the hardest hunting ground was near the village. He was told that it was the lair of the spider queen. They also told him where to find it.
Hurrying outside since his mana had completely ran out once more. The other times it had ran out inside the town, they had hidden themselves in dark alleys and even once broken into a house to refill Alexander’s mana to maintain the illusion spell.
They moved into the forest where Alex could finally release the illusion cast upon them.
“That was thrilling, but also really uncomfortable, due to always fearing that someone would discover us.” He commented, since it had happened that players as well as guards had come close to them due to seeing Shea’s horn, but when they had gotten close enough they weer affected by the illusion skill as well and didn’t think too much about what they had seen. The guards and other NPC’s had been perplexed, while the players probably thought it was due to sleep loss.
“I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if the skill had failed and we had been discovered.” Shea replied.
“No use worrying. Nothing happened and even if something had happened, I am confident enough to say that I would have gotten us out of there by using brute force. Okay now let me get to work.”
Throwing Shea an apple, Alexander sat down and after activating the dragon power skill, he began to sew. Shea also buffed him and his agility and stamina had both greatly improved thanks to it.
Shea even though young was quite proficient in buffing spells, but rather lacked in healing or attack spells. She was also only at level 54 due to her not being able to fight as well as other unicorns her age. She said it was, because she was too timid for a fight and also not proficient enough in damage skills. Her most proficient skills however were of the defensive type making her a laughing stalk amongst the younger unicorns, especially the males.
Alexander sewed for an entire 2 weeks to reach beginner Lvl. 8 and finally collapsed due to having worked almost nonstop for the last 50 hour end-stretch. You have learned the skill Handicraft
Handicraft
A handicraft is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. It increases both damage dealt by fists and also damage dealth with melee and ranged weapons.
Raised as a by product of other craft related skills
Due to having reached limit of learnable skills, the Hadnicraft Skill will be unavailable until freeing up skill slots!
“Finally!”
He loudly exclaimed. He woke Shea up with his shout as well as frightening a few animals in the surrounding trees and on the ground.
The first few nights the transformation had been extremely painful and his screams would have alerted the guards and players if it weren't for the room of sound skill. But it became less and less painful. Partly due him getting used to it and also due to his toughness stat raising quite a bit each time. Even though it was becoming less and less painful it was still horrible and hurt like hell!
Sewing with his skeleton hands in his reaper form surprisingly wasn't any different to sewing with his normal hands. He was no good both times, which was the reason it had taken so long to increase his tailoring by even a few levels.
Standing up he and Shea made their way to the lair of the spider queen to become stronger and especially increase their skill proficiencies. Shea particularly wanted to train her attacking skills and due to now joining Alexander in a party also her healing spells that will be crucial to survive in higher difficulty regions.
They needed to get stronger since the areas surrounding the home of the unicorns was inhabited by very strong monsters that were around level 350-400. Young unicorns were all set out somewhere in the continent to get stronger on their own and they then journeyed to reach their home place. It was made more difficult due to the home place being in a special dimension that changed its entrance in this world irregularly. Shea most likely was the only unicorn with a companion due to them being extremely cautious and mistrusting beings.
They both knew that it would take quite a long to get strong enough to even think of journeying there, so they were in no real hurry and wanted to explore many places on the continent on their adventure first, which also meant they couldn’t exactly slack off in getting stronger.
Arriving at the entrance to the lair, which again was a cave much to Alexander's happiness. Heavy sarcasm intended.
Alex quickly used the illusion skill since players were spread out all around the entrance prepping up or just leisurely waiting for team members or something similar.
Good thing that nobody seemed to have noticed that Shea had a horn or changed her colour from white to light-brown in the blink of an eye.
Walking towards the entrance some groups of players stopped him to ask what class he was and if he wanted to join their parties. Most of them assumed that he was some kind of monk or martial artist since he didn't carry any weapons, which he didn't need anymore due to his soul weapon which was currently a bracelet on his right arm. And also because he wore light armour.
"Join our party. We can use an agile fighter. "
"Join us. We will sweep through the lair"
And similar things were said to him. But he replied to all :" No, thanks. We will be fine on our own. "
They were all confused after he said this. Some at first because he said we even though he was clearly alone with only his horse. But most because they couldn't believe him since even the current highest level players were only in the level eighties and they would have problems soloing a lvl. 70 dungeon.
Undisturbed by their stares Alexander and Shea went into the dungeon. Maybe they weren't fully undisturbed since both of them were nervous due to having to keep up the illusion skill and not liking to be the center of attention.
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Thankfully the further in they went the darker the cave got and finally Alex felt safe enough to dispel the skill. Walking a bit further they arrived in a small cave which had a dozen or more different entrances.
Alexander finally transformed into his reaper form since this seemed to be the real entrance to the lair. Both activated their Soul-sense skill and finally decided on one of the tunnels due to the most souls being located inside. They hurried towards the entrance, since they could see the light of a torch getting stronger in one of the other entrances, which meant players were coming towards the cave they were currently in.
Both of them didn't need a torch inside this almost pitch black cave. Alex was fine with his upgraded vision skill, which had reached the late intermediate levels and Shea could see in the dark since she was born due to a certain uniqueness in the eyes of unicorns.
Alex didn’t have qualms killing the spiders inhabiting this dungeon due to them being bloodthirsty, senseless killers and mutations to normal spiders. Walking through the tunnel Shea started to hear small clicking sounds, which she told Alexander telepathically.
Using soul sense once more Alexander realized that they were very close to the first enemy spiders. So he whispered:
“Please buff us, Shea.”
Shea cast the buffs she could use and a white light surrounded them due to the holy magic Shea used. Apparently holy magic didn't hurt Alexander even though he had a skeletal body. But only buffing spells could be used on him. Healing spells didn't have any effect when he was in this form, which they had found out after Alexander fell down a small cliff hidden behind bushes, while he was talking to Shea on their way to the human settlement. He had been distracted by maintaining the illusion skill and talking at the same time.
The moment the white glow started emitting from them the shuffling and scuttling sound of the spiders feet had stopped. Going further down the tunnel, they were in a big cavern that was eerily silent. Stopping at the entrance of the tunnel they were in they both finally looked up after scanning the room for spiders, but not seeing any, to see hundreds of eyes looking down on them.
As if waiting for a perfect opportunity the spiders had stayed quiet to ambush them, but now they were seen, so they collectively jumped on Alexander and Shea.
A blinding shield of light was erected around the two of them on which the spiders that were as big as small dogs landed. It was one of Shea’s defensive skills called
~Nevermind that for now. We’ll become a better team over time.~
“Dragon Roar!”
The skill had leveled up a few times and was now also amplified due to the form of the cave they were in and resounded as an echo.
Many spiders were stunned and without missing a beat Alexander sliced through them with a swing of his scythe in a wide arc.
Jumping back just as Shea had finished her incantation, which he had judged according to the quickly intensifying red light surrounding her. She used
The spiders caught fire and the fire started to spread from spider to spider due to them panicking and scurrying around, the fire on the spiders was illuminating the cavern they were in. The sight was amazing. At least a thousand spiders were on the ground, the walls and the ceiling around them.
“Dragon Hide!”
Alexander whispered and was finally attacked by the now furious spiders after the effects of the shield disappeared. Slashing and hacking Alexander desperately fought of the spiders and was happy that they had the tunnel behind them so no spider could attack from there. Shea aided him by using shield of light a few times to give him time to bandage his wounds. She also used as many of her aoe spells as possible. They included
After almost an entire hour of desperate fighting they finally managed to clear this cavern even though the spiders weren’t all that strong. At the other end of the cavern was another tunnel.
Walking through it, they arrived at another chamber with different possible entrances. Following the tunnel with the most life forms they made their way into the heart of this bee-hide or rather ant-hide like cave.
After a few days of killing masses of spiders, exploring the caverns and also getting lost, since it seemed that following the most life forms wasn’t ultimately the correct direction, they arrived at a chamber that was illuminated by fungi on the walls.
In the middle of the chamber lay a huge spider, which was at least size of a van. It was the spider queen according to the golden name above her head. It being golden of color meant this was a boss-class monster. They were stronger than even the same monster type at 50 levels higher than them.
Quietly sneaking up to the queen that seemed as if she were sleeping, Alexander raised the scythe and used
The queen woke up with a screech that left Alexander stumbling backwards holding his ears, but fortunately holding onto the scythe.
Shea too stumbled away from this horrifying noise. Even though Alexander’s dragon roar was quite loud, it couldn't be heard far into tunnels, which were twisting and turning constantly. But the screech of the spider queen was in an entirely different dimension of loudness! It was loud enough to be heard by all spiders inside the entire lair and all players or other creatures inside it. Even outside the entrance one could hear it if one listened closely.
All spiders, even the ones engaged in fighting other groups of players suddenly started to rush towards the queen, which left the players confused!
"What was that?"
“What happened?”
“Was that ….?”
“Yes I think so!”
All players reached the same conclusion. Someone had found the spider queen!
The players inside quickly followed the spiders, but most couldn't keep up. Nonetheless those that could. Assassins, monks, made signs on the way, while tracking the spiders that were accelerating to a speed that was even too fast for them to follow, so team members could follow their trail. It was the first time that someone had reached the spider queen. It was a huge lair with at least 100.000 spiders inside and hundreds of tunnels forming a labyrinth and no players managed to survive long enough against the quickly reproducing spiders, which only didn't go to the starting cavern due to it being too bright for them there, maybe.
When other players arrived at the last place approximately 10-15 minutes after the spiders, since they got shaken off and had to track them rest of the way. There they met with a slaughtering where an incredible battle must have taken place.
When their team mates that were slower finally arrived the various rogues, monks and assassins that stood still at the only entrance to this chamber were completely shocked. Tens of thousands of spiders lay dead around the lifeless body of the huge queen. All loot had been taken and the players or whatever did this was in sight.
The different groups staring at this scene went outside after not being able to move for 20 minutes due to the shock and sat down together to eat. They discussed how it was possible to kill so many of these spiders so quickly even though they arrived only slightly behind the spiders. And also to discuss how it was possible to kill the spider queen, which was a boss monster equivalent to a Lvl. 130-150 mob.
Only very few boss monsters had been beaten before and certainly non close to the spider queen’s level. One of the players then said:
“Someone apparently was able to defeat such a monster.”
He didn't know how right he was when he said that!
-----
Back to Alexander and Shea at the moment of the screech.
-------
Backing off from the screech. Alexander readied his weapon. Shea had activated her soul sense and told him that many spiders were currently heading their way, so they had to hurry.
Activating
The queen stopped her screech and made a gurgling noise before spitting at Alex , which he dodged by a hairs width due to not wanting to be spit on. Seeing that the spit sizzled on the ground and left behind a hole. He guessed that it was some kind of acid and he was lucky to have dodged it.
The spider turned to attack him with one of its huge legs, but Alexander noticed it and swung his scythe to slice it off. It met the scythe and fell to the ground with blood spraying off it. The blood also sizzled like acid on the ground.
Jumping up and to the side he avoided another one of its spit attacks. He landed on the ground and immediately darted to the left since many of the usual spiders started running towards him from the right. Shea used
Running at the wall then jumping up and using the wall as a boost backflipped. Some spiders had followed him and couldn’t stop fast enough so they ran straight into the wall. Even before landing he immediately started twisting and spinning his scythe around himself, hitting slashing and smacking the surrounding spiders.
More and more spiders were coming out of the tunnel connected to this room but also from cracks on the walls and ceiling located everywhere. Shea was in a corner and maintained
The scythe once again was glowing purple due to having reached the maximum amount of souls that could be stored inside, but instead of using soul fury like he normally would have done, which would cause a quick and powerful burst of releasing all souls at once, he controlled the souls he had stored in the scythe to steadily stream out to envelop first his scythe and then his body to hopefully increase his attack and/or his defense.
Turning around he continued to defend and attack against as many spiders as possible. Sometimes kicking them or even throwing them of his shoulder/back. He turned around quicker and quicker and the souls also turned around quicker and quicker and soon began to slice the souls of the spiders. No physical damage was caused, since they were intangible themselves, but instead caused spiritual damage.
Soul weapon skill learned soul Tornado
Soul Tornado
Wrap all stored souls around your body, then begin to whirl them around yourself. They will increase in speed on their own and reach astonishing speeds that directly cut into the souls of approaching creatures.You will be standing in the center of this tornado and are able to touch and attack through it without getting hurt. Soulless objects aren’t affected.
Effect: 1% of attack power damage when it touches any living creature.
Mana cost: 30 mana/sec.
Now even without Alexander turning around, the tornado continued to spin. It was also good that the tornado was semi-transparent, since otherwise he wouldn’t see anything beyond it. It was similar to looking through a slightly purple tinted glass.
Now running right into the masses of spiders, Alexander now slashed through as many as possible and used soul fury almost continuously due to the amount of enemies killed and souls stored.
Glancing at Shea through the corner of his eyes he saw that she was still alive and seemed to be in a milky white cocoon with eyes closed and unmoving. It seemed as if she used a skill he didn’t know of. No spider seemed to be able to damage the cocoon but due to their mindlessness they continued to attack. Thousands of spiders kept pouring inside the cavern and if not for the mana and health potions he had bought and looted from players he would have died long ago.
Their level might not be as high as some of the undead he fought, it was most likely even slightly lower than the gropper’s, but they were many many times more aggressive and numerous than the other enemies he had faced. Seeing that his mana and health was almost depleted and he had no potions left, he decided to try one last thing before miserably dying, hopefully saving Shea’s life in the process. Using the souls in his scythe, he mentally pressed them together to form a condensed ball at the top of his scythe, above the place the blade was attached to the staff part. Aiming the ball quickly at the queen he shouted:
“BANG!”
And released the condensed ball towards the spider queen. He had intended to shoot the ball to crash into her, but instead it shot out like a beam, which went right into the head of the queen, thus killing the already weakened queen with a critical hit.
New locked soul weapon skill learned: Soul Beam
Soul Beam
Gathering stored souls into a ball to release them in a concentrated beam to inflict high damage on a target.
Effect: 10% attack power per soul used
Soul weapon: Scythe form changed appearance due to user’s usage. Creating a spike at the top of the staff.
Accepting the inevitable death since he had achieved in killing the queen and had even gained two new incredible skills during the fight, he waited for the pain accompanying multiple spiders ripping into him with their teeth and poison.
Ding. Opening his eyes due to the sound of system message and since no pain had come, the first thing he saw was:
Level up
Level up
Level up
Level up
Level up
You are first to have cleared the entire lair of the spider queen
+50 FameFor clearing it Single-handedly
Fame +20
Looking past the messages he saw that Shea was in front of him and had used
Shea had recovered enough to use her weak healing spells. Even though they were weak, they were still better than nothing. After a few more healing spells she finally had recovered enough to stand up again. Alex asked:
Are you alright now? What happened exactly?
“You critically wounded the spider queen, so all spiders started to rush to her and ignored you due to their queen having sustained such damage that she was about to die. Her body was growing quickly in size, so I suspected that something bad might happen. I ran to you to cover you, since you didn't move, and managed to erect the
Looking around Alexander realized she was right, due to her having been damaged he hadn’t noticed all spiders lying dead all around them. The spider queen had many holes in her, if one looked closely and some fluids were still leaking out of them. Furthermore most of the spiders in the cave were half gone due to acid or had holes in them.
Standing up Alex quickly picked up all available loot, like coins, spider threads and even the occasional poison sacks. He followed Shea out through by going up a slope of rocks that had broken form the ceiling after the spider queen’s death or rather her last acid explosion attack. THis slope led to a platform a few meters above the ground and was covered with at least a dozen spider eggs the size of soccer balls. Alexander couldn't bring himself to smash the spider eggs even though it would prevent the spiders from repopulating. He had to leave the possibility of them respawning for other players to use the caves as training ground or rather slaughtering grounds. He even took one with him as a sort of souvenir. Now he was at level 101 and the Handicraft skill was available as well as 4 more skill slots.
When the eggs cracked the ones that hatched first quickly began destroying the other eggs by pushing them off the platform killing the spiders inside, since they weren’t fully awake yet. The surviving spiders started to fight against each other until only a single spider remained. This spider had become the next queen of the cavern.