Chapter 7: Webs

Stopping outside of the forest, Kaze looked around. The only things he could see were trees and darkness. It would be quite easy for an enemy to sneak up on him, so he needed to be on guard. Taking off his gloves, he stretched his long dagger like fingers. Now that he thought about it, he could probably use them as weapons. But although his fingertips were pretty sharp, they wouldn’t do as much damage as a wooden spear would.

Once he finished stretching his fingers, Kaze put them back into his gloves. The gloves were a little bit tight, but he had to make do. The glove’s blunt finger tips made it easier to hold his spear. He could hold it without them, but it would be uncomfortable. Also the gloves gave him defense and dexterity, so he was glad to have them on.

After this, he began stretching his arms. The reason he was even doing this was because he wanted to be limber when he went into the forest. Thanks to the darkness, an attack could come from anywhere. And when it did, Kaze wanted to be able to dodge it quickly and fluidly. If he pulled a muscle while he was dodging and got killed, he would never forgive himself. Dying like that was unacceptable.

As he stretched various body parts, Kaze realized a few things. One was that he was extremely flexible. And when he said extremely flexible, he meant it. It was quite unnerving when he realized just how far he could turn around without moving the lower half of his body. Just to see if he could, he began performing front flips, cartwheels, and handstands. To his amazement, he was able to do all of these with ease. Sadly he wouldn’t be able to use this to his advantage in the forest, thanks to how little space there was to maneuver around. If he tried doing a backflip in the forest, he would probably slam his head into the trunk of a tree. That was something he would prefer to never happen.

Jumping side to side with his legs, Kaze tried to see how fast he could go. If he was being honest, it was pretty fast. This was either because of his dexterity stat or because of his four legs. When he jumped to the side, he only needed two of his legs to touch the ground before being able to push off and leap towards the other side. Although this was bound to be useful, he once again wouldn’t be able to use this maneuver in the forest. If he ever fought a lot of enemies, he would need to find a large clearing in order to use himself to his fullest capabilities.

Crouching low to the forest floor, Kaze dug his legs slightly into the ground. Then, in the blink of an eye, he jumped up as far as he could. Imagine his surprise when he leapt several feet off the ground. Landing on the forest floor with a small thud, a pondering look crossed his face. Was he able to do this because of his race, or because of his stats? It was hard to tell. Still this might be useful in a fight, so he made sure to keep his high jumping ability in mind. He could already imagine his enemies surprise when he attacked them from above. They wouldn’t expect him. After all, no one ever looks up.

Once he was done messing with his legs, Kaze moved on to his head. He had something like pincers in front of his mouth, but he didn’t think he would ever be able use them in battle. Number one, he shouldn’t ever be that close to an enemy. Number two, he didn’t think his pincers would do that much damage. Although they were quite sharp, they weren’t that big, which made their damage potential limited. Still, if push came to shove, he would use them.

The last thing that Kaze looked at was the spikes that jutted out from his body. There had to be a purpose for them, and he wanted to know what for. They couldn’t be used in battle, seeing as how most of them had a dull tip. The tips were also orange and glowed slightly in the darkness. Thankfully they weren’t that bright, so they shouldn’t reveal his location whenever he was hiding. Touching the tips revealed nothing so he was left in the dark about their usefulness. In the end, he decided to move on and think about it later. Maybe in the future he would figure out their use.

After fiddling around with the spikes on his back, Kaze reached into his inventory. Pulling out a vial of water and another loaf of bread, he began eating. He was getting pretty hungry and he wanted to have a full stomach before venturing out into the forest. The vial of water was extremely helpful since it helped wash down the dry crumbs that remained in his mouth after eating the bread. He was glad he brought some since eating dry bread by itself wasn’t that pleasant. He had experience that sensation before and he regretted it ever since. That was part of the reason he started bring vials of water with him on his adventure.

Wiping his mouth, Kaze licked off any remaining crumbs from his pointed teeth. Although the bread satisfied his hunger, he longed for something filled with blood. With a surprised look upon his face, Kaze tried to think of where that thought came from. It had to have been influenced by his race. Sure he ate meat in real life, but not that much. He had never craved for something filled with blood as he was doing now. He might have to cook up the Frogera legs he had sooner than he thought if his craving didn’t go away.

With a tight grip on his spear, Kaze headed into the forest. He had only walked a few feet in when he decided to stop. Before he moved any further, he wanted his eyes to get adjusted to the dark. Right now he could barely see anything. Even though he put his hand directly in front of his face, he could only see a tiny bit of it. His skin was also quite dark, so that didn’t help. It would help him stay hidden in this darkness though, so it wasn’t all bad. Unless the enemies that came out at night had night vision. Then things would start turning problematic.

It only took him a few minutes of waiting before he was able to vaguely see his surroundings. He was pretty sure his eyes adjusted to the darkness faster than is should’ve, but he didn’t know for sure. Kaze proceeded to take another step before stopping once again. Even in the day, when there was light, Frogeras had managed to surprise and ambush him. Now that it was night, with barely any light, he could only imagine how easy it would be for enemies to sneak up on him. He needed some type of plan, or he might die to an enemy he would probably never get the chance to see.

It only took Kaze a few minutes of thinking before he came up with a plan. Turning to his left, he glanced at a nearby tree. The trees in this forest were quite large, and he was pretty sure he could climb them if he wanted to. It was time to put that theory to the test. Crouching down as low as he could, he pushed all his energy into his legs and leapt towards the tree. Once he was close enough to the trunk, he dug his bladed legs into the bark. Sticking his left hand out, Kaze grabbed a piece of the tree to balance himself. His right hand remained unused since it was holding his spear.

Removing one of his legs from the bark, Kaze slowly moved it a couple inches forward before once again sticking it into the trunk of the tree. He repeated this process several more times until he got to the first branch. Jumping onto to it, Kaze looked down. It was hard to see the ground, but after looking down for a few seconds, he was able to see it. If he had to guess, he would save that he was at least ten feet off the ground. He knew that the trees in this forest were large, but he hadn’t really expected them to be this big.

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Holding out his arms a little ways away from his body, Kaze tried to find a comfortable position to stand in. Although the branches were thick, they weren’t thick enough for him to be able to casually stand on them. Due to this, his legs were forced to be a little close together. This of course affected his balance, so he had to be careful he didn’t fall off. Noticing that the branches above him were thicker, he leapt up and grabbed the branch above him with both hands. Straining his muscles, Kaze managed to pull himself up and onto the branch. Taking a few deep breaths, he allowed himself to rest for a few seconds.

Moving his legs closer together, Kaze practiced walking on the branch. Although it was proving quite challenging to do, he kept at it. This wouldn’t be the hardest thing he had to do after all. His bladed legs helped out quite a bit, but his many legs evened out the task. Still, if he kept on trying, he was positive he would be an adept tree climber.

Once he found an enemy, he would just leap off and attack it from above. Not only would he get a sneak attack, but he should also be able to knock his enemy down. If he was fast enough, he would be able to kill it before it even got up. But in order to do that, he needed to make sure he could walk across the branches quietly.

Placing his legs gently on the branch, Kaze moved towards the end of it. Since the trees in this forest were pretty close together, he didn’t need to jump that far to get to the next one. Now that he thought about it, he probably could just walk from branch to branch instead of jumping. His only concern was that the branch would break. This was because while the branches were thick by the tree, they thinned out the further they got away from the trunk. He should be fine as long as he didn’t place all of his weight on a specific part of the branch. But there was always that little chance so he was little bit worried.

Moving a couple of steps back on the branch he was on, Kaze prepared to jump. Running at a moderate pace, he leapt toward the branch of a nearby tree. It only took a few seconds of being in the air, before he landed on the branch……with only one leg. Widening his eyes, he watched in horror as he slipped from the branch and began to fall to the ground. Thankfully his descent was stopped by a sturdy branch that his stomach slammed into. Gasping for air, he felt something liquid and sticky leak from his bottom.

…..Shit……

Pushing himself off the branch and onto the forest floor, Kaze fearfully looked below him. Something had leaked from his body when he had hit the branch, and he didn’t know if he wanted to find out what. Normally he would ignore the fact that something as embarrassing as this happened, but whatever came out of his abdomen was still connected to it. Reaching his hand down, he touched whatever came out of his abdomen with a disgruntled look on his face.

Quickly pulling out the long thin substance, Kaze tried to throw it away. Sadly this strange substance seemed to be stuck to his hand. Bringing it closer to his face, he tried to see what exactly came out of him. A translucent string like substance is what met his eyes. Based on what he was, the only thing this substance could possibly be was web.

With a confused look on his face, Kaze began fiddling with the web. The more he messed with it, the more he was sure that it was web. Huh, that was interesting. He didn’t know that his race could create web. The only thing he knew was that it was related to spiders, but he still never expected something like this.

Now that he knew he could create web, endless possibilities awaited him. There were so many things he would be able to do with it. If he fought multiple opponents, he could just trap them with his web and attack them while they were defenseless. For a brief moment he wondered what other skills his race had. Since it was related to spiders, he probably had more spiderlike abilities. Still, he couldn’t really think of any other abilities except web making. Maybe he would realize what the rest were when he had another unfortunate event happen to him. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

After examining his web, Kaze took a moment to look around. His little fall wasn’t that loud, but it still made some noise. And something could sneak up on him quite easily in this darkness. He could see a good bit, but not as much as he wanted. Once he made sure the coast was clear, he focused his attention back on his web.

The next few minutes were filled with awkwardness as Kaze tried to figure out how to shoot web from his abdomen. The feeling he got when he created web wasn’t painful, but it was odd to say the least. After all, humans normally couldn’t shoot webs from their bodies, at least unless they were a certain superhero. It was after doing this for a few minutes, that a blue box appeared in front of him.

Skill Gained!

Web Creation Description: Allows the user to create web from various parts of their body. Skill Type: Active Skill Level: 1 (0%)

It seemed that Kaze could shoot web from more places than his abdomen. At least that was what his skill said. Glancing around his body, his eyes stopped once they reached his hands. Could he shoot webs from his hands? The skill said various body parts, but it didn’t specify. Well, there was only one way to find out.

Holding his hand out in front of him, Kaze began to try shooting web from his fingertips. The first few tries nothing happened. He had no idea what to do, so he had no idea what he was doing wrong. After a few more tries of nothing happening, he took a moment to think. Just imagining webs coming from his fingertips wasn’t doing anything, so what would make this work?

After thinking about this for a few minutes, Kaze came up with an idea. Focusing on his abdomen, he began shooting web onto the ground. As he did this, he focused on how exactly he was creating the web. Keeping that process in mind, he tried doing the same thing with his fingers. It was after attempting this that he felt small holes begin to open up in his fingertips. Once the holes were opened wide enough, web began to shoot out. Smiling in satisfaction, Kaze looked down at his hand.

….Fuck….

It seemed that he had forgotten that gloves were on his hands. Pulling his hand out of the glove, Kaze watched as pieces of web came off his hand. Hopefully his web would come out of his glove. If it didn’t, he was going to be pissed. After a few minutes of working, he finally managed to clear all of the web off his gloves. Thankfully his web wasn’t that sticky, so it wasn’t that hard to get out.

Now that his gloves were clean, Kaze could focus on his current problem. Even though shooting webs from his hands would’ve been useful, he would have to remove the gloves he had on in order to do that. In his opinion, the defense and dexterity the gloves gave him were more important than the weak web he was able to emit from his hands. So in the end, Kaze decided to only shoot webs from his abdomen. He could probably cut holes in his gloves, but he didn’t want to damage them. Not until he had another pair to use in case something bad happened.

Aiming at a nearby tree, Kaze leaned back and shot his web toward it. Sadly, his web never reached the tree. Instead it fell to the ground pitifully a few feet away. Tch, he would definitely have to work on his web making skills before he was able to use it in battle. Although he wanted to see what type of monsters came out at night, he would have to put that on hold. This skill would probably be his strongest one, and he needed to make sure he gained a few levels in it before fighting. With an intense look of concentration on his face, Kaze began training. He didn’t have that much time, and he wanted to make the most of what he had left.

AN: Thanks for reading!