[lvl 1 spring spider slain]

[Remnant Gained]

"H-huh?"

Before I could process what those words meant, new words started appearing before me, just like when I looked at my status screen. Sentences upon sentences bombard my vision, making me see nothing but the beautifully artistic golden letters.

The pain and fear from the literal wave of spiders chasing me were still prominent in my mind, so it took a few seconds to calm down and start thinking clearly. Slowly, my beating heart calmed and my fear dispersed enough for me to read the multitudes of sentences hovering in front of me.

"...You're lucky I like reading or else I would be pissed," I say to no one in particular.

I slowly adjust to the words in my eyesight as I read, hoping to at least understand something.

========

[Remnant: Clasped Spring]

[Rank: Common]

[Type: Accessory]

[Remnant description:]

Forged from the Mana core of a Spring Spider. These spiders are known for their devastating numbers and mild poison. They are born from the earth and soil and have a slight affinity towards nature and poison elements. Each colony of Spring Spiders has a different poison based on the plant their queen was born from. After using wave tactics to take down their prey, they use their victim as fertilizer to incubate new eggs.

[Skills]

-[Unison]

Any similar Remnants can be combined

-[Piercing Paralysis]

Any attack has a 0.01% chance to paralyze the victim for anywhere from 1-3 seconds

[Passives]

-[Paralysis resistance]

Gives the wearer more resilience against paralysis poison

========

"..."

It is just like a game. From the descriptions to skills and passives, everything resembles a video game. There's no explanation for what these words mean, but I can come to a safe conclusion using common sense.

The thing that stands out the most to me is where it says “Formed from a Mana Core…”. I have almost no idea what it is, and I can only count on loose speculation for what it does, but I have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that it’s important.

I can assume Remnants are taken from monsters I kill. It also says there are ranks, which I'm assuming correlate to how strong the monster I killed was.

The type is still a little confusing to me, but I guess I can equip the Remnant. And the description seems to explain what monster it came from. And thank God I got away as soon as I did. I don't want to "Incubate new eggs". Just thinking about it is going to make me sick.

And the skills seem simple enough. I'm guessing it created skills based on the two most prominent aspects of the Spring Spiders, which are their numbers and their poison.

Passives are straightforward enough to understand, as it's something that will apply to me without me having to do anything.

And can I just say, I hate that goddamn poison! I'm still stuck here, NOT ABLE TO MOVE!!

Whatever, whatever. Being pissed isn't going to fix anything. I'm just tired of being scared and confused about this place, so I'm just going to accept it. I'm going to stop complaining and just acknowledge that this is my life now.

I was taken to a new place where there are monsters and floating words?

"Oh but of course!"

There's a high chance I'm going to die, and I'm going to be running for my life the whole time?

"Sounds like fun!"

But seriously, I can't spend all my time theorizing about what happened. So I'm just going to accept it and live until I have the chance to relax. Only then will I start questioning what is happening.

So with how the words are describing the Remnant, it seems like I can equip it. But how? Maybe it's like the words, and I just have to think about equipping it.

Sure enough, as soon as I thought about equipping it, green particles flew out from my chest towards the ring finger on my right hand.

The green specks were a mix of tranquil forest green and bright neon lime. They felt distinct and separate from each other, but they were interconnected and harmonized in such a way that it looked like they belonged together.

The green particles congregated on my finger, packing themselves together until they condensed into an elegant ring. The ring was made of a lustrous black metal that was twisted into the shape of a spider. It had eight intricate woven spindly legs and a bright lime green gem in the shape of a teardrop inserted in the abdomen.

Its beauty was breathtaking as the gem refracted the golden light from the floating words, making the spider look as deceitful as it did holy. It looked like a spider had come to life on my finger.

As soon as the ring constructed itself from nothing onto my hand, I could immediately feel the tingling sensation all over my body slowly retreating, until there was only a slight itch. Before, I couldn't even move my finger, but as I tried to move again, I could move my entire arm with only some resistance.

It must be the paralysis resistance passive. It didn't completely negate the paralysis, and I might still move like a marionette doll, but at least I can move.

Although the ring was beautifully designed and reduced the paralysis effect on me, I could feel that making that ring appear took a huge amount of energy from me. The energy left my body until I could barely open my eyes.

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

"You know what, I-I'm just gonna take a nap. Yeah… that sounds nice…"

Before I could fight my body's fatigue, I passed out.

____________________________________________________________________________

HOKU

The rain merged with my tears as they fell on the blood-soaked pavement. I sat there in utter silence, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Everything happened so fast that my brain couldn't comprehend what just took place. It was as if my brain shut down as no thoughts formed and all that was left was pure shock.

I could hear the faint noise of police sirens, yet I couldn't move. I knew that sitting in an alley surrounded by blood didn't paint a good image, especially with my record, yet my body wouldn't move. Thoughts didn't seem to come together as my entire body was simply frozen.

I could hear heavy footsteps of boots paired with a gruff voice growing closer as the words "Investigating the gunshot on Lafayette Street." echoed through the air. Yet I still didn't move.

I sat there, bright crimson staining my view, covering everything in sight, including my hands. I hear the boots round the corner as they suddenly stop.

I hear a faint gasp as he mutters "Dear god…"

A few seconds of silence pass as the police officer seems to be in shock as well. After collecting himself, I could hear his hands stumble to the gun on his waist.

Seemingly regaining some of his confidence with a firearm in his hands, he yelled "H-hands up!" as I assume he pointed his gun toward me.

Yet even with a gun pointed toward me, my body didn't move. I acknowledged the things that were transpiring around me, but it was as if I was stuck inside my body. Anytime I tried to form a thought, my mind would race back to Dreus disappearing into pink smoke before vanishing.

It felt like all the energy left my body. I could feel my chest grow heavy as pain assaulted my heart. I kept trying to ignore it and push it down, yet it wouldn’t go away. All I could do was sit and stare into the distance while it kept getting harder to breathe. My feeling felt like they were being jumbled up, yet it seemed to only make the pain feel stronger. It felt like every feeling inside me mixed into this sludge that made it hard to breathe.

"I said to put your hands up!!" the police officer shouted again, obviously still unnerved by the copious amount of blood surrounding me in this back alley.

I could faintly hear static as the police officer called for backup. For the next few minutes he kept telling me to put my hands up, yet he didn't approach me.

After a while, I could hear another set of boots run up until they also stopped dead in their tracks. Just like before, I could hear faint gasps of shock and fear. However, unlike the other guy, this police officer collected himself way faster.

Surprisingly, instead of another voice yelling at me, the new police officer started yelling at his coworker.

“THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! He could be hurt, you moron!!”

“But… look! He’s kneeling in an alley COVERED in blood!”

“What if it’s HIS BLOOD you fucking idiot!”

The two police officers bickering entered through one ear and exited the other as my mind kept going through the moment he left over and over again.

Time seemed to be nonexistent as I just stared at the blood covering my hands slowly getting washed away by the rain. The noise of the rain blocked everything else out, and before I knew it, a police officer was squatting in front of me. When I looked up, all I could see was his mouth moving, but the words didn’t reach my ears.

I looked back down at my hand, and everything else from that moment was a blur. At one point, I was checked on by nurses from an ambulance, the police officers tried to question me, and I was taken to sit in the back of the police car. Yet I paid no heed to the things around me as I could feel myself breaking.

I’ve always felt abandoned as if everything in the world abhorred my existence. I don't know anything about my parents, but I can assume they got rid of me when I was born, and no one else wanted to adopt me because of my birth defect. Even the other kids at the orphanage distanced themselves from me.

At one point, I was taken from the orphanage to star in commercials because of my missing arm. I didn't care that they only used me because of my “uniqueness”. They used me, yet it was still attention. I didn’t care if they had underhanded motives, because all I wanted were people looking at me.

Yet they soon too abandoned me after I "grew too old" and “nobody feels pity anymore, just disgust”. Because of this, I grew bitter and aggressive, destroying my last chance at forming connections with people.

Yet, when Dreus showed up, eveything was different. After I met him 4 years ago at a new orphanage, everything didn’t seem so gray and colorless. There was something constant other than the incessant feeling of being ignored. I finally felt seen and acknowledged for the first time in my life.

… and now he's gone. The last person that treated me like a human being is gone. I don’t know if he’s dead or not, all I know is that he’s left me, unwillingly or not.

Slowly, I recovered from my stupor and shock and realized I was at the police station. I sat on a bench covered in a warm blanket someone had given me at some point to fend off the cold from my rain-soaked clothes.

I sat there, feeling uncomfortable as I could feel everyone in the police station staring at me like a freak. Who am I kidding, I am a freak. I hung my head as a soft sigh escaped my lips, trying my best to hold in the tears threatening to spill out.

Suddenly I felt someone sit next to me. We sat there in silence for a while as I couldn’t find the strength to lift my head and look at them. I felt something warm nudge my hand, and when I looked up, I could see a police officer offering me a cup of coffee.

His brown hair and uniform were slightly wet since we were both just outside in the pouring rain. He had an oval face with round brown eyes. Yet, the thing I noticed first was the look in his eyes. He didn't look at me with disdain or hatred like everyone else did.

“I know this is cliche, but you looked like you needed something to warm you up.” He said as I realized his voice was the same as the police officer who helped me earlier.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t find the strength to, so I just nodded my head and accepted the coffee. I lifted the cup to take a sip, and the familiar warm and bitter taste of coffee coated my tongue.

We again sat in silence, one of us unsure of what to say, and the other slowly distancing himself emotionally from everything once again.

My eyes drifted towards a window as I watched the sky slowly turn from a deep shade of dark blue, into a beautiful mix of pink and orange…

Just like the fog that appeared around Dreus.

Tears unknowingly streamed down my face as I looked at the coral-colored sky. I have to accept it, I have to accept that Dreus is gone. No one in my life stays, so why let anyone into my life at all?

As soon as that thought appeared in my mind, All at once, it seemed like the fear, anger, sadness, and any other emotion seemed to dissipate. The tears that started to roll down my face stopped as soon as they appeared.

Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turn to see the officer on the bench looking at me, sincere concern filling his eyes.

"...what," I say coldly, surprising myself just as much as him.

My rude tone slightly surprised him, yet he seemed to have an understanding look on his face instead of one of anger which I've come to expect. Instead, he looked at me with… pity?

Don't… Don't do that… Don't look at me with such pity. You don't know what I've been through… What I've done to make people pay attention to me… D-don't act as if you care about me…

As these hateful thoughts swirled through my mind like a destructive hurricane, my face seemed as placid as ever.

“Why let anyone into your life at all?”

That thought entered my mind once again. Once again, the thoughts that seemed to be pulling my mind apart disappeared, replaced with indifference.

"If you're feeling up to it, do you want to give your account of what happened?" the officer said slowly, trying to approach me as gently as possible, knowing how weak my mental state currently is.

"You won't believe me even if I did" I speak with no emotion in my voice. My eyes drifted to stare off into space once more.

"Well it's my job to hear your side of the story, so humor me" he replied.

"Fine, I’ll humor you. As my friend was dying after being shot, some type of fog suddenly surrounded him, and when it dispersed, he was gone," I say bluntly, knowing that even I wouldn't believe myself if I was in his shoes.

I kept looking away, expecting him to be annoyed, concerned, or any other normal reaction to the seemingly fake story I just told, yet what I didn't know was that his eyes widened in surprise, shock covering his face.