Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2)

by Scottie Futch

  He shouted out a loud curse, “Shit!” then tore at the webbing in a desperate attempt to remove it. In this mine, spider web based attacks could only mean one thing.

  <<< * >>>

  You have been entangled with webbing!

  Your movements are slowed.

  <<< * >>>

  “Shit.” cursed the sorcerer once more. He had not been able to remove the web fast enough.

  His opponent was another one of those damned shadow weaver spiders. They were a major pain in the ass even when there were two people in the party.

  The shadow weaver skittered through the shadows on the roof of the mine. It was quite agile despite the fact that it was easily the same size as a normal man. The open area that Scott had entered had a much higher ceiling, more like a natural cave than a manmade structure. That great height would make it difficult to attack the annoying monster at range. He would have to lure it closer. Unfortunately, shadow weavers were slightly cunning. They would avoid coming within striking range of their opponents.

  The music grew louder in tone and developed into a heavy percussion style reminiscent of a beating heart. Drums beat loudly, ominously, in the background. That meant that the monster that he faced was strong enough to do serious damage if he let it. He had not heard that particular musical score until he had come to this mine, but whenever it had played he had faced a hard fight.

  Another hissing noise escaped the spider and webbing shot down once again. Scott was prepared for it this time. He leapt backwards and managed to narrowly avoid being hit by the annoying attack. It did no damage on its own, but the status effects were deadly. The spider skittered around a little more. It was planning out its next strike. Scott could feel its calculating gaze upon him. The sorcerer decided to take the fight to the creature.

  The main issue that he had with these things was that they tended to only pop up in areas where there was a high ceiling. His freeze spell would not reach it, but he did have one other that he could try that he knew might do the trick. It had worked before. After narrowly dodging another web-shot he reached a large rock and leapt atop it. Scott immediately jumped once more after reaching the top then loudly shouted, “Burn!”

  A fiery dart of burning magical energy raced out of his palm. The spider tried to avoid the attack, and partially succeeded. However, the burn spell was more than just a tiny little darting flame. A bright explosion of fire and light erupted outward with great force only two feet from its position. The extra height from Scott’s leap had given him just enough range to affect the monster.

  The shadow weaver screeched in panic and fell from the ceiling. It plummeted toward the ground then crashed into the hard-packed earth with a loud *thump!* The noise and light had temporarily stunned it and the hard landing had only deepened that status affliction. Its little spider legs wiggled in the air in a spastic and uncontrolled manner.

  Scott immediately hurled another fiery ball of destruction in its direction. The attack hit with another explosion of light and sound that rocked the area. The badly injured spider curled up like an angry fist, but that would not save it. The third burn spell set it on fire after doing over thirty points of damage. It did not take much longer after that for the annoying monster to turn into motes of light.

  “Man, I hate those damned things. I waste so much mana on them.” Scott continued to grumble for a brief few seconds. He would not make the mistake of trying to fight the spiders in this mine at melee range again. He could hurt them, and they could hurt him. However, they were also venomous. The poison was mild and it wore off quickly, but he only had three of Rhea’s herbal tonics to use in an emergency.

  The music took a little longer than normal to change back to its standard mine exploration track, but the result was the same.

  <<< * >>>

  Victory!!

  You have defeated a shadow weaver!

  +84 EXP

  +28 Fayth

  +1 Ability Points

  Item(s) Acquired:

  Spider Web X 3

  Spider Leg s X 2

  <<< * >>>

  “Not bad.” The only good thing about the annoying monster was that it did not swarm. Usually there would only be one or two in an area. If there had been more of them in the area than that working the mine even with Rhea’s help would not have been a good idea.

  Scott moved on. There would probably be no more monster spawns in this part of the mine due to the presence of that creature. The spawning system was a strange combination of random battles and natural habitat considerations that made little sense, but somehow worked. He had not fully comprehended all of the subtle nuisances of the system, but he learned a little more each day.

  Once he had escaped the spider’s lair, the web effect ended. It never lasted long, anyway. Luckily he had been hit in the chest with the sticky attack. His movement speed had not been slowed enough to matter. During a hunting trip with Rhea, he had been unfortunate enough to have a web-shot trap one of his arms against his side for a while. That had been a major cause for concern at the time since it effectively cut his attack options in half and threw off his balance.

  The sorcerer walked boldly through the mine while he searched for prey. Hiding and stalking prey was either not possible or required skills that he did not possess. Either way, if he wanted to fight he had to be seen by the randomly attacking monsters. It was annoying at times, as he would never know if a monster was nearby. They managed to get the drop on him most of the time and he was forced to fight battles that he might have avoided otherwise.

  It did not take long before he was faced with a new opportunity. A loud cry from the darkness alerted him to the presence of his next opponents. Four goblins ran at him from the corridor up ahead. They were sharp noses, green skinned, creatures that stood at about the same height as Scott’s chest. In some ways they seemed like the world’s angriest, ugliest, children.

  “Oh, yeah. Come on!” exclaimed Scott before firing off his burn spell. The tightly grouped monsters were caught in the fiery explosion that resulted.

  One goblin caught fire and started to squeal while running around in a blind panic. “Burning! I’m buuurn-ing!” screamed the goblin while he flailed his arms around in a way that made him look like he was trying to fly away.

  Scott fought back a brief bout of dark amusement at the burning goblin’s antics then utilized their sudden panic to his advantage. He raced in to take the battle to them directly. He had not reached a point where he could just spam cast his spells, otherwise he would have burned them all to death from a safe distance. There was something to be said for the ability to use magical heavy artillery when the only expense was a little food and rest.

  The sorcerer landed a flying kick to the chest of the closest attacker. It fell back with a loud cry. One of the other creatures lashed out with a rusty machete, but Scott easily blocked the strike with his forearm. His wooden armor was stronger than the dull and battered metal. The surprised goblin found that his attack was turned to the side. Scott slammed his other hand forward, ramming his rat fang gauntlet into the creature’s exposed chest. A bright red number twenty-six floated up and away.

  The burning goblin squealed once more then fell to the ground. He spasmed a few times then turned into motes of light. ‘One down, three to go.’ thought the man before following up his previous strike with a vicious uppercut that skewered another goblin’s jaw.

  He was forced to dodge the strike of the third remaining goblin now that he had gotten its bearings once more, but the creature’s clumsy attack was easy to deal with. Scott turned along with the direction assault and ripped his gauntlet from the second goblin’s jaw in the process.

  A powerful kick slammed into the third goblin’s lower back that sent it sprawling. Scott did not have time to revel in his victory, however. He cried out in pain suddenly then immediately turned to face the thing that had hurt him. The first goblin struck out once more. He had gotten back to his feet during the brawl with the ot
her monsters.

  Scott hopped back to avoid a hard horizontal slash, and then repeated that movement when the goblin swung back in a reverse swing. He seemed a little more skillful than the others, but that was not saying much for his capabilities as a warrior. The monster posed no real threat to the sorcerer.

  A hard strike to Scott’s left flank caught his attention. He was losing focus and taking hits! The third goblin had gotten back to his feet and joined his comrade. Thankfully the second goblin was bleeding out on the floor, or the man would be hard pressed. Fighting three monsters of a similar level to you could be problematic. He was strong enough to deal with two of them, but he was taking damage.

  Scott jumped back to avoid a horizontal slash from the first goblin, but was forced to twist to the side to avoid a lunge from its companion.

  The goblins grew more aggressive upon seeing that they could back him up in this manner, but they forgot to take into account the fact that he could use magic. Their murderous intent was clouding their judgment.

  Scott hopped back to avoid a strike, but then leapt forward diagonally to evade a downward stabbing motion from the other combatant. His palm shot out and gripped the goblin’s face in a brutal display of aggressive dominance. “Freeze!”

  He had expected the cone of freezing energy to wash out and capture both monsters in its field of effect. However, something far stranger occurred. The freezing magical attack coalesced entirely inside the goblin’s head!

  “The hell?” asked Scott, stunned at what he had seen. He was barely able to lean out of the way when the other goblin tried to strike him in the shoulder. Instead of hitting the sorcerer, however, the attack missed and slammed into its companion with great force. The unfortunate goblin’s head exploded in a shower of meaty frozen splinters.

  The surprised monster who had launched the attack open his eyes wide then made a startled cry. “Skeeshna, no!”

  It turned to look at Scott accusingly and the sorcerer shrugged. “You did it.”

  Scott almost felt bad for the thing, but he decided that it did not matter. According to Rhea, monsters respawned after a period of time passed. The goblins that he had defeated would all live again, maybe not in this mine specifically, but somewhere. Though, he had already defeated at least eight or nine Skeeshna’s in this place. It was possible that he had killed the same goblin more than once in the last few days. Everything respawned eventually, even the people. Though, with humans and similar beings the respawn was through rebirth as a child. They ended up living new lives, and did not remember much if anything from their former lives.

  It screamed at the man once more, but its scream was cut short by a strong kick to its stomach. It doubled over in pain, but its agony would not last for long. A brutal uppercut rammed Scott’s rat fang gauntlet upward with enough force that he completely penetrated through the bottom of its jaw and up through its eye.

  “Seriously?” Scott frowned at the dying monster and shook his fist. He was stuck! What a disgusting development.

  “Damn it, just die already!” snapped the man while trying to free his hand. The goblin complied with his desire after a short time passed. He made a mental note to not do that again if he could help it. Getting his weapon stuck inside his opponent seemed like a good way to get killed during a protracted battle.

  Three of the four goblins were now dead, but the goblin he had stabbed earlier in the battle still jerked and spasmed on the floor. It bled heavily from its brutal wounds, but it had not quite died yet. Scott elected to end its suffering via a hard kick to its face. He was a kind hearted soul and did not want to see anything suffer. The sound of snapping bones echoed down the corridor when he repeated his merciful kick.

  The music changed back to its normal score and he eagerly awaited the results. These goblins seemed to be a little stronger than what he had found outside and in the entrance areas of the mine.

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  Victory!

  You have defeated a squad of goblins!

  +384 EXP

  +320 Fayth

  +4 Ability Points

  Item(s) Acquired:

  Rusty Machete X 2

  Torn Leather Vest X 3

  Tatter Boots X2

  Goblin Soul [Rare]

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  “Nice! Wait... I acquired a goblin’s soul?” Scott looked at his inventory screen to see what that was supposed to be. His eyes lit up.

  “No way...” He pulled his new skill ring from his inventory and then looked at it until he could see its basic information.

  <<< * >>>

  Goblin’s Soul

  This lore ring allows the wearer to develop the ability to summon goblins as minions.

  EXP: 0/2400

  <<< * >>>

  “I can use this to summon goblins?” That was cool, but he put it back into his inventory for now. He wanted to gain a few levels while he still had the bonus in effect. He would try and learn more about the goblin summoning ring later.

  “I wonder if every monster can be summoned.” He was not a summoner by trade, but the ability to call extra help might be nice.

  Scott checked his health then frowned. The short fights he had faced earlier combined with this goblin battle had whittled away quite a bit of his health. “I should probably go rest.”

  The sorcerer made his way back toward the mine entrance. Along the way he ran across common threats in the mine, a few rats and a lone goblin. Once he reached the surface he trotted toward his campsite then sighed loudly. He really hoped that he would be able to restore his health and mana with greater speed in the future.

  He walked into the sanctuary zone to make sure that it still worked properly then stepped back out of the safe area to practice his spells. He had gone on three quick hunting trips so far and his spells had been used frequently.

  After firing off three freeze spells he received a message that stated that he had increased its level to two. “Sweet!”

  “Force three, mana requirement six... Nice.” Sure, he had to use it seventy-five more times before it increased in level once more, but it was much stronger now. From what he could tell the magical damage that a spell could do was something like force times intellect. Intellect and a few other factors determined its resistance to magic. Smarter monsters were usually more resistant to magic unless they had a critical weakness to a specific element.

  The concept seemed a little broken, until he realized that the force would top out at five when his spells were mastered. Higher tier spells probably had a higher force rating, so it still balanced out. The real difference between magic-users would be intellect and any skill modifiers that would change the level of force for a spell. Someone with an intellect of one thousand would do up to ten times more damage with a first-tier spell when compared to someone with an intellect of one hundred.

  Scott considered how broken that seemed. Magic-users who could use high-tier spells with much greater spell force would be army killers. Unless your opponent could completely resist magical effects, a mage would be an incredible damage dealer compared to a warrior or fighter.

  He checked his other spells and decided to train his burn spell with the last of his current mana. He spent the last of his remaining mana to cast the spell twice then sighed. The draining effect of being critically low on mana made him feel exhausted. Still, it was not a big deal. He had intended to get some sleep anyway. When he woke up, he planned to go in for one last hunt before the bonus period ended. He had not quite reached his next level, but he was one or two battles away.

  Scott looked at his status then frowned. Hunting solo was a lot slower than it had been when Rhea was with him. It made no sense. What was he doing wrong? Sure, the spawn rate was lower now due to their constant hunting over the last few days, but he should be able to do better than this.

  A thought occurred to him, and he decided to try it out on his next hunt. The exhausted man stretched out on his cot.

  Sleep did not immediately claim him. A
fter a short time he began to think over the events of the last few days. Things had been going quite well between him and Rhea. They worked well together. However, there were things that still nagged at him. Not all of those things had to do with her directly, but they led to him thinking a few strange thoughts.

  She had to leave for long periods of time, occasionally changed her speech patterns, and seemed to have personality issues. At one moment she would be the sweetest girl he had ever met, and at other times she had an icy demeanor. Did that matter? No, elves might be naturally bi-polar in this world, for all he knew. However, when he combined her actions with a few other things... His suspicions increased.

  The most definitive thing was something that had nothing to do with her. It was the mine bonus. Why was it ninety-six hours? Wasn’t that extremely arbitrary and random? He had been in this world long enough to notice that most things regarding time and usage were similar to Earth.

  Scott could have easily seen a twenty-four hour bonus, or even one for up to seventy-two hours. A week, or even a month might have made sense. Why four days? Why was the bonus for exactly four days when he knew of nothing else that synchronized with that? The world operated on a seven day week with twenty-four hours available in each day.

  The sorcerer gazed up at the roof of the tent. Rhea sometimes had a strange sense of time as well. She’d had to go do her so-called elf stuff once on the trip to Meaden. She had said that she would be back in ten or fifteen minutes. However, she had been gone for almost an hour. He overlooked it then, but the arbitrary four day bonus had tickled his brain a bit.