by Adam Horne
Poison applied.
At least he could do some damage while he distanced himself from the wolf trying to kill him. Galahad regained his feet, cast a heal on himself, and continued attacking with his flail. Kelath assumed he’d gotten far enough away to resume attacking the wolf chasing him and turned to see his target clawing its way across the frozen ground towards him. He threw a dagger and refreshed the poison counter. Elora’s ice bolt kept the animal slowed enough that he could run away when it got close, and she alternated with fire bolt to keep its burn effect going. Kelath threw more knives at both the one chasing him and the pack leader so they were continually poisoned.
By the time they killed the second wolf, the pack leader still had over half her HP, and both Galahad and Elora were nearly out of mana. At the rate they were going, Kelath was fairly certain Galahad wouldn’t survive. He had to think of something.
“Elora, do you have any bombs?” asked Kelath.
“I made a few when I logged in but haven’t used them,” she said.
“I think we should both throw bombs now.”
“But I do better damage with my spells against one enemy.”
“You’re both almost out of mana, and I’m afraid if Galahad turns away to run, he’ll be tripped again. He needs time to pull back and regain his mana. If we can freeze the den mother, we’ll have some breathing room.”
“All right.”
Elora finished casting a spell then pulled two flasks from a pouch on the side of her backpack. Kelath did the same, and they lobbed ice bombs at the pack leader. In the time it took Kelath to throw one bomb, Elora could almost throw two that were targeted perfectly to hit the wolf without affecting Galahad. He couldn’t tell if he was moving slower than a normal person or she was inhumanly fast. His good fortune from earlier in the fight seemed to have slacked off, and he cursed softly to himself each time he failed to get a critical hit.
“Last one,” said Elora as she sent a flask spinning through the air. “I’m out.”
Kelath held one out with his left hand as he prepared to throw with his right. “I have a couple left.”
She took the bottle out of his hand and sent it after his. The first one hit and only did a little damage, but the one Elora threw exploded in a shower of ice crystals. The matriarch froze in the middle of biting at Galahad’s ankle.
“Run around to the other side so she has to cross the slippery area.” Kelath checked the party status and saw Galahad was below half health and had no mana left. Elora had regained some of hers while they’d been throwing bombs. “Galahad, once she breaks free, keep running so she has to chase you. Don’t try to fight. Elora, save your mana. I want you to make sure the wolf is slowed at all times. It might take a while, but my poison will kill her eventually.”
Kelath threw his last knife and pulled his dagger as he ran up behind the pack leader. He stabbed at her once, then the ice cracked away from her fur. Kelath stayed behind her, slashing at her legs and back, as ice bolts made sure she couldn’t catch up to Galahad. It was slow going, but her health continued to drop. She only had a small sliver left when Galahad regained enough mana to cast heal on himself. He let her catch up and brought his flail down on her neck, causing her to fall over, scratch at the ground in a struggle to right herself, and then lay still.
Chapter 15
“What a fight!” yelled Galahad.
“Good job, Galahad.” Elora stretched the name out and raised an eyebrow.
“Thank you,” said Galahad, “for using my full name.”
“I’ll remember…sometimes.”
“It was a close one,” said Kelath as he drew two potions from his belt and handed one to Galahad. “That will regenerate both your health and mana.”
Galahad thanked him as they sat in the grass of the clearing and sipped from their flasks. Kelath took a moment to go over the system prompts he’d been too busy to read during the fight.
Congratulations! Your Bomb skill has increased to 10.
Congratulations! Your Poison skill has increased to 10.
Congratulations! Your level in the Alchemist class has increased to 2.
His other class skills were already above the amount needed to level since they were shared with the rogue class. With most of his damage in the fights with the wolves coming from poison and bombs, it wasn’t a surprise they’d leveled so quickly. He wished there was more information on Genepedia about the alchemist class so he could tell if there were any new skills he should learn now that he’d reached level two. It would have to wait until he returned to town.
“I gained a level after that fight,” said Kelath. “How about you, Galahad?”
“I also feel stronger after such a thrilling victory.”
“Way to go, you two!” Elora raised her flask and tipped it at each of them.
When Kelath’s health was full, he walked over to the dead matriarch and searched her. He found a large, black wolf’s paw but nothing more. He dropped it in his bag and checked the quest, which said it was ready to turn in. Galahad and Elora also retrieved a paw.
“What now?” asked Elora.
“I’m supposed to find some giant spiders somewhere in the forest and collect their venom,” said Kelath. “We could go look for them now.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Galahad peered past them at the cave the pack leader had come out of. “I saw something on the ground as I was kiting the wolf earlier. We should check the area before we leave.”
They approached the cave entrance and found the partial skeleton of a man halfway buried in the dirt. The wolves had carried off a number of the bones, and the ones that were left had been gnawed on. From the state of the remains, they couldn’t tell who the person was, although from the size, they presumed him to be human.
“The wolves must’ve ambushed a traveler and dragged his body back here,” said Kelath.
“We should give him a proper burial,” said Galahad.
Elora looked at him curiously but said nothing. Kelath didn’t want to appear callous, but he considered it a waste of time. They were playing a game after all. They didn’t have a shovel, so Galahad removed one of the metal plates covering his shin and used it to scoop out a hole next to where the skeleton laid on the ground.
Since Galahad seemed so set on digging the grave and two people could work faster than one, Kelath asked, “Would you mind removing the piece on your other leg? I don’t have anything rigid enough to dig with.”
Galahad handed him the leg plate he’d been using and unstrapped the other one for himself. Together they dug a passable grave in about ten minutes, and Elora busied herself uncovering the bones that had sunk into the ground and searching for any others she could find in the grass of the clearing. They climbed out of the hole and carefully rearranged the skeleton at the bottom.
“He was wearing a bronze ring,” said Elora while they worked. “It appears to be magical. What should we do with it?”
“It belonged to this man,” said Galahad. “It should be buried with him.”
Kelath and Elora exchanged a look. While he was willing to go along with Galahad’s role-playing, they weren’t exactly swimming in magic items. It would be a shame to give this one up.
“I heard a story once,” said Kelath in an effort to change Galahad’s mind, “about sailors and why they wore jewelry. Supposedly it was because they knew how dangerous their life at sea would be, so they had earrings or other items made of silver and wore them in case they died. That way whoever found their body could sell the jewelry to pay for a proper burial.”
Elora smiled and held the ring out to Galahad. “Perhaps that’s why he had this ring. I think you should take it. It would suit you.”
Galahad thought about this and finally took the ring from her. He removed his glove and slid it onto a finger before proceeding to throw the dirt they’d dug back into the hole. After another ten minutes, they patted the mound and stepped back. Kelath returned the leg plate he’d been using, and Galahad
strapped them back on again.
“Thank you for your help,” said Galahad. “That was the right thing to do.”
“You’re welcome, buddy,” said Kelath. “Now, let’s go find those giant spiders.”
* * *
Kelath checked his map for the fifth time since they’d left the wolf’s den. They’d decided the most likely place to find the spiders would be in the center of the woods and headed in that direction. The problem was they kept running into obstacles. In one place they found a field full of moss-covered boulders with paths leading through them like a maze. They spent fifteen minutes searching for a way through. Elsewhere they found a wide fissure in the earth and walked nearly a mile out of their way before it became narrow enough to jump across. Each time they had to stop to regain their bearings before continuing on.
“Are forests normally this hard to traverse?” asked Elora.
“Maybe in areas where people don’t normally travel,” said Kelath. “In high school, I did a lot of hiking and trail running. Although that was easier than this because I mostly followed paths that other people made. Don’t tell me you’ve never been on a hike.”
Elora looked away and mumbled, “I live in the city.”
It sounded impossible that someone could live their whole life and have never gone on a hike. Surely city schools went on field trips to places like state parks, but he didn’t pursue the line of thought any further because Elora seemed uncomfortable. He turned his attention to the task at hand.
“Have you guys noticed strands of webbing dangling from tree branches?”
“I have,” said Galahad, “and it is occurring more frequently as we get deeper into the forest.”
“Maybe we’ve found the spiders,” said Elora.
They continued forward and started seeing full webs in the branches between trees. Before long the sticky strings crisscrossed everywhere, and Kelath had to cut through them with his knife. They tried burning the webs, which worked very well, but it required Elora to cast fire bolt or Kelath to throw a fire bomb. They moved forward slowly, making Kelath wish he’d thought to bring some torches.
Eventually they began to see cocoons hanging above the ground, wrapped up tightly in the webs. Kelath approached one he could reach and sawed away with his dagger until it split partway open. Inside was the desiccated body of an animal he couldn’t identify, mostly bones with a thin covering of skin and fur. Similar cocoons of various sizes hung in trees all around them.
“There must be dead animals in all of those,” said Kelath.
“Or live animals,” said Elora.
“Or live people,” said Galahad.
Kelath shivered involuntarily. “Let’s not become one of them.”
“We should check them to make sure no one is trapped inside,” said Galahad.
Kelath glanced around. “There must be hundreds of cocoons here. We can’t check all of them.”
“We can at least check the bigger ones.” Galahad pointed at a cocoon hanging from a branch twenty feet ahead of them. “That one’s large enough to hold a dwarf.”
Kelath walked forward and cut into the cocoon. After a few seconds of rocking the knife back and forth, the tight webbing split open. Baby spiders the size of his hand swarmed out by the dozens and leapt onto his arms and head. He screamed and waved his dagger, but they kept coming. The ones already on him bit at his neck and face. Galahad ran forward and smashed the egg sac with his flail, but this only made the opening wider. Spiders jumped on him too, and they both attempted to sweep the creatures off with their hands. The spiders swarmed out faster than they were able to knock them away, so in desperation Kelath pulled out a fire bomb and dropped it at their feet.
Flames shot out when it exploded, scorching both of them but also burning the spiders. Their bodies dropped to the ground by the hundreds since each one only had a tiny amount of health. The webs around them ignited, and any arachnids remaining inside the cocoon cooked from the heat. Galahad sputtered and coughed and Kelath shivered from the combined effect of the venom from a score of bites. Both their health bars dropped slowly until the poison finally went away.
“Well that sucked,” said Kelath as he took out a piece of willow bark to chew on. “No more opening the cocoons.”
Galahad still looked concerned. “There could be people inside them. What if Elora burned them to let the person out?”
“You saw what happened when the fire bomb hit the egg sac. It ignited and roasted anything left inside. We’d be killing them anyway.”
Galahad nodded reluctantly and cast a heal on himself. “In that case, the sooner we find these giant spiders and wipe them out, the better.”
When they’d regained their health and mana, Kelath pushed forward into the maze of webs. He readied himself to be attacked at any moment, but there didn’t seem to be any spiders around. He steered clear of clusters of webbing large enough to have eggs inside. He checked the map and made sure they were still heading towards the center of the forest. It was easy to get turned around with his vision constantly obstructed.
“Why haven’t we run into any adult spiders?” asked Galahad, who had his flail out and was peering around nervously.
“Maybe they’re nocturnal,” said Elora.
Kelath had not paid much attention to the day and night cycle so far, but it made sense for some creatures to behave differently if the game wanted them to be as realistic as possible. He knew elves in games like this usually had better night vision than humans, and although he’d noticed he couldn’t see as far at night, the moon had been bright enough for him to see by. The only time he’d been underground was in the goblin mines, and there had been torches on the walls to provide illumination.
“When is nightfall?” asked Kelath.
“It should be at the same time in the game as the location where the server is housed,” said Elora. “Most players are automatically assigned to a server in their time zone, unless they happen to be near the line between zones. No matter what, it should be within an hour of when it gets dark in the real world. And when the sun comes up, the game switches back to daytime.”
“Then we still have a few hours. Let’s push on and see if we can find the spiders. No matter what, we should leave before nightfall.”
Galahad and Elora both agreed. He led them in the direction he assumed to be the middle of the forest, and after about half an hour, they reached something new. A hole fifty feet wide opened in the ground before them with a ramp leading down into it. Sunlight filtered through the trees and illuminated the bottom, which was about a hundred feet below them. He didn’t see any spiders on the sides of the pit, but he could hear something chittering in the darkness at the bottom.
“Looks like we found their nest,” said Kelath.
Galahad peered over the edge. “I can sense something moving around down there.”
“Let’s descend to the bottom and see what we can find.”
“I’ll go first.”
Galahad led the way down the incline, which curved around the outside of the hole. Kelath went next and Elora followed in the rear. They fanned out when they reached the floor of the pit. A tunnel ran underground from the wall in front of them. Kelath approached the entrance and looked inside. The corridor widened into a cavern after forty feet, and the echoes of spiders scuttling over the rocky floor carried to them.
Galahad joined him and squinted into the tunnel. “I can’t see anything, but it sounds like there are several monsters lurking out of sight.”
Kelath gave him a funny look. “I don’t see any in the open, so they must be somewhere in the cavern.”
“What cavern? I can only see about thirty feet inside, and there is no end to the dirt tunnel.”
Kelath looked again and realized his earlier thought must have been right. He could see about twice as far as Galahad, and he could even make out the colors of different rocks and other debris littering the floor. He felt sorry Galahad had chosen to play a human, until the healer
cast a quick spell and his flail began to glow like a torch. He walked into the tunnel and the light spread far enough to show the floor of the cavern.
“That’s a useful trick,” said Kelath.
“Yeah, it’s a spell called glow, from the light skill.”
They followed Galahad as he crept forward. Kelath told them to stop when a spider emerged from the blackness, perched in its web near the ceiling, and watched them. He examined it so he’d know what they were up against.
“I can see one of the spiders,” said Kelath, “and they’re definitely giant. It’s a level higher than we are and as big as a dog.”
“The wolves we fought earlier were higher level,” said Elora. “It shouldn’t be a problem with three of us.”
“I’m going to draw it out. Be ready if there are others I can’t see.” Kelath threw one of his knives and hit the spider in the thorax.
Poison applied.
The spider descended on a thread to the floor and skittered towards them, but no others followed behind. Galahad ran forward to intercept it, and Elora cast a fire bolt when it came into the circle of light around him. Kelath waited until Galahad did enough damage to get the spider’s attention, then he joined in with his dagger. It bit Galahad’s leg, getting between the armor plates, and he grunted in surprise.
“There is some kind of venom.” Galahad’s face turned a sickly green color.
“That’s what I was sent down here to collect,” said Kelath. “Be careful your HP don’t drop too low.”
With three of them attacking, the spider died quickly, but even after it was gone, Galahad’s health bar continued to drop. He had to heal himself to avoid being killed by the lingering effect. When the venom finally dissipated, he topped up his health then sat down with a bottle of conjured water Elora gave him to regain his mana. Kelath searched the spider and found the venom he needed for his quest. It wasn’t soulbound, which surprised him, although that meant he could purchase more of it from the auction house, instead of having to kill spiders every time he needed to make poison. They explored the inside of the cavern and fought any giant spiders they found until he had twice as many venom samples as were required for the quest.