by Phoenix Grey
“A dark affinity?” Mareike parroted as if she’d never heard of such a thing before.
“Yeah. I have a friend who is a half-imp. Elise said that because he is half human and half imp, his affinity is on the dark side, so no magic school would be willing to teach him.”
“Oh.” She seemed to perk up as understanding hit her. “Well, I’ve never been to The Deathlands before.”
Azure waited for her to continue, but she said nothing else. That was his answer. She didn’t know.
There was no point in questioning Mareike further. Talking to the enchanting professor felt like squeezing water from a stone.
Azure took his leave, pulling up his World Map as he walked toward the exit. The Dreaded Flatlands appeared to be about twenty miles away. As with the gnolls, there was no pointed location on his map, just two overlapping red circles.
Feeling like he had the time to waste, Azure practiced mounting Flicker again. Now that he had a method down that worked, it seemed he was slowly making progress on his technique. He was able to throw his leg over her in two tries this time.
Reaching the closest red circle took a little less than an hour. For the first time in a while, Azure noticed a distinct change of scenery. As he approached his destination, the forest grew sparser, giving way to shorter brush and struggling patches of grass. Game seemed to nearly disappear in the open landscape. Soon, grass turned to dirt, and dirt began to turn into sand. Before Azure knew it, he had entered a desert.
The pro to this was that it made his prey incredibly easy to spot. The con was that there was no place for him to take cover. Stealth would not work here when there was absolutely nothing to hide behind. It was also unnaturally hot, which made moving in his armor miserable. Not to mention the fact that his feet sunk into the sand, adding to the labor.
The first critter that Azure spotted was an oversized spider. He didn't even need to Analyze it to tell what it was. With a body the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, the thing was massive. Oversized was an understatement.
It stretched its legs out, making lazy purchase across the dunes in its path. Azure was grateful he spotted it from behind. Most spiders were fast, and he doubted that with a legspan that long, he'd be able to cast both of his spells before the thing reached him. This seemed like a battle better fought from a distance.
Just to see how much power the creature had, Azure activated Analyze. Using it had become a habit before most battles.
Level 13 Oversized Spider.
Lower than him, but not by much.
Azure cast his Grease spell first, creating a puddle of muck at his feet. Then he wove his hands together in the intricate pattern needed for Greasy Summon. The two spells combined were a pretty heavy drain on his Mana.
Azure watched as grease began to rise from the sandy floor and take shape. What shape that was was a bit indiscernible. The result of the spell was a lump of goop that reminded Azure of a big, black booger. It had no limbs or eyes, and it continued to shapeshift as it stood before him, never settling on a form. The only thing that told him it was alive was a shorter Health bar that had suddenly appeared below his.
Azure tried to Analyze the Greasy Summon, and a window popped up.
Name: Greasy
Race: Summon
Level: 7
Health: 170
Damn. It's weak. Azure had thought it would be at least the same level as him. Maybe this spell wouldn't be so helpful after all.
Well, there was nothing to be done about it. At least, the summon should be able to buy him some time when the spider stopped to fight it. Azure was planning to snipe it from afar with his bow anyway.
He made the summon stay by his side until he'd nocked an arrow. Then he carefully took aim before letting the arrow sail. It flew through the air and seemed like it would hit its mark until the spider lifted a leg and placed it lazily in the flight path.
The arrow didn't seem to do any real damage to the spider other than to piss it off. Now aware of Azure's presence, it turned around and hissed at him before racing in his direction. Without even having to command it, Greasy charged as well.
Azure nocked another arrow but held back on drawing, curious as to how the battle would play out between the spider and his new temporary pet. As soon as the two reached each other, the oversized spider reared up and spit at the summon. Instantly, a notification appeared.
Level 13 Oversized Spider delivers 65 damage to Greasy Summon.
Greasy Summon has been poisoned and will lose 6 Health per second for the next 6 seconds.
The poisoned icon appeared next to Greasy's Health bar.
Even though Azure felt bad for the summon's imminent quick demise, he was happy that this was how he had learned of the spider's ability to inflict poison. It was a dangerous attack, and one best avoided if he could help it.
To Greasy's credit, he was able to get in two hits before the spider sunk its fangs into his gelatinous body and put an end to him. Azure watched as spikes of black shot forth from the blob like pointed appendages to stab the spider, though they didn't appear to do any significant amount of damage.
Upon its death, the summon simply melted back into a puddle of grease. This had yet another advantage. Since the spider was right on top of it, it couldn't avoid it. The enemy was instantly slowed. Azure had completely forgotten that would happen.
Despite its size and speed, the spider was an easy target now. Its legs were having difficulty finding purchase in the muck, and Azure would not make the same mistake of shooting it from the side again. Stepping around until he had a clear view of the spider's face, he put an arrow right between its eyes.
The oversized spider screeched an unfamiliar sound. Then its legs flailed out to its sides, and it slumped in death.
Defeated Level 13 Oversized Spider. 78XP rewarded.
“Well, that was easy.” But all the quests that Hawking’s sent him on were.
If the enemies were as isolated as this one had been, it might be a good time to test out the other effects of his Volatile Bolt spell, since he hadn’t really used it much on the gnolls. The terrain here was better for it. He didn’t have to worry about catching anything on fire.
Azure walked up to the spider and shivered as he looked down at its body. More a tarantula, each of its red eyes was the size of a golf ball, of which there were numerous. Its fangs were as long as Azure’s forearm, and he didn’t even want to imagine how much each of the legs weighed individually.
Now he needed to figure out how to get the venom sack out of it.
His gaze instantly fell to his Loot Automizer Pendant. “Let’s do this the easy way.” Azure lifted his pendant and pointed it at the spider.
The body began to glitter black and then shrank down into an orb no bigger than his palm. When he picked it up, the orb melted away into something smaller still.
You have received the following item:
Sharp-fringed Moss
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Crafting. Alchemy.
It appeared to be a plant with green dagger-shaped leaves with black tips. The thin stems seemed flimsy, but the leaves themselves were every bit as sharp as they looked. This was not what Azure had wanted. How it related to the spider at all, he wasn't sure. He shrugged it off and stuck the moss in his Bag of Holding.
Azure had to walk several yards and crest a large dune before he found the next oversized spider. This one was actually coming toward him, but it didn't seem eager to attack when their eyes met.
Level 12 Oversized Spider.
Taking stock of how much Mana he had left, Azure decided to try a different approach. He cast Grease, letting more of the substance flow from him to see if he could summon an even bigger version of Greasy, figuring that the size of the summon probably correlated with the size of the puddle. That assumption proved to be wrong. Though the summoning
spell soaked up all of the grease on the floor, the new Greasy was no larger than the previous one had been. Analyzing it showed Azure that the stats were the same as well.
Name: Greasy
Race: Summon
Level: 7
Health: 170
Instead of using his bow, Azure decided to give Volatile Bolt another try. He made a finger gun at the oversized spider, then fired off the spell. The spider was lifted off of its feet as a gust of wind swept across the desert at an alarming speed, kicking up enough sand to create a small twister. Azure felt the power of the spell cause backlash. He planted his feet, but still the force pushed him back. Sand sprayed everywhere from the wind, blowing into his eyes and momentarily blinding him. Though he didn't take any damage, Azure imagined he was just as stunned as the spider.
The oversized spider flew up a good six feet into the air before the twister dissipated, dropping it back down. Despite its good relationship with gravity, the spider was still injured in the fall. What was more surprising was the fact that the ground beneath its feet was now completely iced over.
Azure wasn't sure how this worked as there had been no moisture there before. It was yet another mystery of magic.
Whatever the case, the spider was flattened on its stomach. By the time Greasy reached it, it only took one good poke of his spiky tentacle to bring about the spider's demise.
Defeated Level 12 Oversized Spider. 72XP rewarded.
TRING!
Congratulations! You are now Level 15! Your base stats have been boosted. You have earned 3 points to assign to your characteristics. Please note that adding points to some characteristics(Vitality, Intelligence, and Strength) will further boost your base stats. You may also advance any 1 skill of your choosing by 1 level.
Very nice!
Upon vanquishing the enemy, Greasy returned to Azure's side. He was torn between quickly finding another spider to get the most bang for his buck from the summon, looting the one they'd just killed, or allocating his characteristic points. Decisions, decisions.
If Azure let Greasy disappear, he'd have to wait seven more minutes to summon him again. Still, it would probably take that long to loot the body and allocate his characteristic points. Besides, if he rushed, the summon might wear out before he finished the battle, and Azure wasn't completely sure how he wanted to approach the next fight.
Coming to the conclusion that it was best not be hasty, he turned his attention to looting the body. Using his Loot Automizer Pendant again, Azure crossed his fingers and prayed for a venom sack.
Again, the spider's body shrank down to way smaller than Azure could have hoped the venom sack would be. As the item began to take shape, he prayed that he was wrong.
You have received the following item:
Urticating Hairs
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Crafting.
“Shit.” Whether Azure liked it or not, he should probably suck it up and get his hands dirty on the next spider. He only had so many chances to get this right.
The item seemed more like a handful of nine-inch needles than hairs. Azure stuffed them in his Bag of Holding, then concentrated on pulling up his character sheet.
Name: Azure
Race: Human
Level: 15, 1% of the way to next level
Health: 460 / 350 (470)
Mana: 240 / 320 (470)
Stamina: 420 / 320 (440)
Vitality: 20 (12)
Intelligence: 17 (15)
Strength: 17 (12)
Agility: 14 (10)
Dexterity: 15 (8)
Charisma: 11 (9)
Luck: 15 (5)
Skills: Archery Lvl 9; 7% of the way to next level
Stealth Lvl 4; 33% of the way to next level
Analyze Lvl 11; 82% of the way to next level
Cooking Lvl 6; 55% of the way to next level
Alchemy Lvl 5; 14% of the way to next level
Foraging Lvl 12; 11% of the way to next level
One-Handed Weapons Lvl 9; 58% of the way to next level
Tracking Lvl 2; 80% of the way to next level
Two-Handed Weapons Lvl 6; 58% of the way to next level
Fishing Lvl 3; 0% of the way to next level
Drinking Lvl 2; 45% of the way to next level
Land Magic Lvl 3; 33% of the way to next level
Enchanting Lvl 3; 66% of the way to next level
Languages: Common Tongue, Sprite, Goblin-Tongue, Elvish, Cheoksum
Adventurer Rank: E
Allocating his points was a no-brainer. Due to his increased use of Mana, Azure put all three into Intelligence.
Again, Archery seemed to be the only skill worth leveling, so he used his ability there, hoping for another perk.
Congratulations! The skill: Archery has reached Level 10. This skill allows you to use a bow and arrow to defeat enemies. Aim strong and true.
No new perk, but no big deal.
For a moment, Azure wondered if he was being too aggressive leveling that particular skill. Maybe saving the ability for his Two-Handed Weapons skill would have been a better choice since he tended to switch weapons whenever he found anything new and superior to what he already had. For the longest time, Azure had thought that the Bergen's Glaive would be his be all and end all sword, but there were clearly more powerful weapons to be found in The Realm. At this point, he knew himself well enough to realize that he'd switch his fighting style to suit whatever weapon benefited him the most at the time. Minus the Black Barbed Whip, that is. That thing was just dangerous.
A new experiment popped into Azure's head, but he wasn't sure it was worth it. Honestly, what were the odds of him ever needing the whip when he had so much magic and other things at his disposal. With that thought, Azure shelved the idea of learning how to use the whip. It decorated his belt nicely enough, still giving him the benefits of its stat boosts without him having to actually wield it.
Content with his choices, Azure closed his character sheet and moved on, scouring the desert for another spider to slay. He found one not too far away creeping over a dune. Curious about how many different element types could come from his Volatile Bolt spell, Azure decided to deploy the same method as before.
He cast Grease and Greasy Summon, then spent another 20 Mana to shoot with his finger gun. The lot of spells combined cost him 50 Mana, which was a ridiculous amount. Azure would definitely be snarfing down some Blue Mushrooms later.
Despite his desire for a different element, another maelstrom of wind blasted forth from his fingertip, having the same result as before. Azure briefly wondered if there was any way to control the spell, but he supposed it wouldn't be called 'volatile' if that were the case.
The spider lifted off of the ground and spun in the air a few times before being dropped heavily onto a frozen bed. Then Greasy ran up to finish it off.
Defeated Level 12 Oversized Spider. 72XP rewarded.
Azure approached the dead spider, making a disgusted face from the thought of the work ahead. Not knowing much about spider anatomy, he could only assume that the venom sack was somewhere within the monster’s head. Taking out his Black Dagger, he got to work carefully carving the critter up, looking for anything inside of it that resembled a sack. Unfortunately, the item wasn’t so easily identifiable, and Azure ended up covered in goopy spider viscera with no positive results.
While he hadn’t located the venom sack, he did find hairs on the spider’s abdomen that matched with the ones he had acquired from his Loot Automizer Pendant. Thankfully, they seemed as strong as metal, and he was able to extract them from the body without damaging them, making the surgery not a total loss. Though, to be fair, he never would have gotten filthy if he’d just gone for the hairs.
You have received the following item:
Urticating Hairs
Item Class: Common
; Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Crafting.
Finding this particular spider completely unsalvageable, Azure decided that he'd just take the whole damn head of the next one. The venom sack had to be in there somewhere.
Azure had just enough Mana to kill two more spiders using the same method. Then he'd have to refill for the snakes. Either that or switch to non-magical methods. Presently, he felt pretty confident with his bow. He also had a good idea of how the spiders attacked, so saving his Mana for the snakes might be a smarter idea. Also, it wasn't necessary for him to keep using Volatile Bolt. While Azure was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't get to finish testing out its full range, he felt it was better to save his Mana for more important things. There would always be another time to give the spell a try.
Azure walked a ways to find the next spider, considering trying his luck without any magic. He worried he wouldn't be able to maneuver in close enough to one of the spiders to get a body shot in without sustaining multiple injuries though. Not to mention getting poisoned. Although Azure generally enjoyed combat, he did not enjoy getting hurt. Wasting the Mana for distant combat was far better than sustaining injuries, he decided.
Upon approaching the next spider, he cast Grease and Greasy Summon but refrained from using Volatile Bolt. His bow had proven only somewhat less effective from a distance.
As soon as the summon was ready, Azure shot the spider from afar. This time, he managed to land a hit in the monster's abdomen.
Critical Hit!
That should have dealt a good amount of damage.
Azure stood back while the summon and the spider went to war with one another. Rearing back, the spider spit its poison just as Greasy reached in to stab it. That would have been where Azure would have taken the opening should he have been fighting the spider with his sword. Maybe he could have dodged the poison. Perhaps not. Greasy didn't seem to have any desire to try to dodge, taking the full brunt of the damage.