Glancing back, he saw the cobweb covering the entrance, preventing any escape unless he spent time to destroy it. Pretty hard to do when he didn’t even know what kind of mutation the arachne’s magic went through, thanks to that shard in its chest.
Even without a check of his considerable mana sense, he could tell it was from a demon. Though not from which one…
‘There will be time to figure that one out… for now, I just need to DODGE!’ he thought as he had to move once again to avoid a sickly gray projectile that struck the wall behind him, eating away the stone for a second or two.
Then the fight became a constant game of tag as Sam darted around the room while the arachne tried its best to scream loud enough to deafen him and to melt his poor body into a goo.
Thankfully, for now, the monster stayed in the middle of this… chapel he found it in, so he had some area to maneuver. However, he made sure not to touch the altar the arachne was praying at. For now, he didn’t want to trigger the monster’s berserk button.
Occasionally, he tried to shoot back all sorts of magic, trying to see which one would be the best as he hadn’t read anything about arachne in the libraries he had access to, and neither had the other Sam met any of them.
Fire splashed uselessly against the stone skin, the water evaporated the moment it got near the shadowy body and the red lightning surged out to destroy the material, lightning was naturally absorbed by the red lightning and he didn’t even try earth.
‘Well, I knew the odds of them working were low, but man…this is a bummer,’ he mused. He expected that the system set up a monster for him to fight with that was immune to his two primary elements just to challenge him or annoy him. But it seemed it was not the case.
‘That means this thing wasn’t the system’s plan but somebody else…’ The moment he finished the thought, he had to raise his Shadow shield to absorb the impact of a giant spiderweb made of lightning. ‘Or the system is playing some sort of game with me…’
Alas, he had no way to answer that. Instead, he lowered the shield and took a look at the arachne as it raised another hand, then joined by the other one; it raised it over its head where it began to gather a ball of red lightning.
Sam stayed still for a brief moment, just to make sure that the monster wouldn’t alter its target, then when the arachne flung the ball of dangerous lightning at him he waited for the last second to jump up and backward, landing on the wall where he used his earth molding skills to create a small step where he could stay and prepare.
He just forgot one thing.
His enemy was a spider. And spiders were famous for crawling on walls.
Thus, Sam had the privilege to witness as the arachne, fed up with not hitting him, covered its hand in gray mana and began skittering up toward him, the vertical wall not even slowing its eight legs down.
‘Oh, yeah… they can do that.’
He destroyed the earth shelf that was holding him up, and before the sharp-nailed arms could pierce his head, he fell.
On the way down, he reached out with his magic and used wind mana to condense a sphere of pressurized air that he instantly fired toward the still-screeching monster.
The explosion was enough to stop the infernal screeching as well as to put out most of the candles that hadn’t been destroyed by their fast-paced tag, casting the entire area in dark shadows.
The only lights remaining were the eight burning eyes of the monster, six gray candles set up directly on the altar, and the brief flicker of his own Mana Shield.
‘Wait…Six candles?’
He had a moment to realize what that meant before the monster was on him, its arms and the two legs at the front striking at him with varying attacks.
Hands covered in gray light while the legs were simply clad with red lightning. Then the monster opened its maw and instead of screeching began to vomit up stone dust, of all things.
Sam parried the hands with his sword, the legs were blocked by a shadow and windshield, and he ignored the stone dust for now. Glancing behind the monster, he saw that there were indeed two candles that were blown out. And four of the candles had visibly smaller flames.
Glancing at his timer, he saw that he still had time, thus while the monster brought its hand back, he also used his free hand to send a very concentrated ball of wind blades straight at the monster’s throat.
Sadly, it seemed, despite the demonic influence, the arachne’s spider-sense was intact as it moved its torso and neck out of the way, allowing the magic to fly by harmlessly.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Then Sam grinned and used his connection to the magic to detonate it behind the monster.
‘And the screeching is back…’
Not letting up as the arachne began to express its displeasure, he continued the bombardment.
The arachne, however, surprised him.
Instead of dodging his attacks, or even tanking them, it raised its own grayish-black shield to protect itself, while its maw opened in what Sam would generously interpret as a savage grin.
Which Sam mirrored with his own.
As the monster defended itself with a shield that slowly grew to the shape of a bubble, covering every side of the arachne, Sam simply fired a continuous stream of wind blades so as not to give the monster even a second to do anything but defend.
Meanwhile, he used his multitasking to reach out to the magic protecting the monster and slowly began to feel it out. He looked for weak points, and thankfully, he found them.
The shield, just like a real spider web, was strong and stretchable, or rather in this case, capable of absorbing a lot of power in a short time frame, but if you chose a point and overpowered it like a human would tear down a spider web infesting their home, then it would crumble.
However, before he could implement his plan, he noticed that another two candle flames began to weaken.
‘Why are they not destroying the legs?’ he wondered as he watched the arachne also realize what was happening to its precious altar.
He saw its anger grow and used this momentary distraction to strike.
Shaping his mana into a very precise blade, invisible to the eyes, but blinding to anybody with mana sense, he struck at one of the weak points.
Instantly, the shield protecting the arachne flickered for a moment, then simply vanished into the ether as the mana structure collapsed under Sam’s precise assault.
He used this distraction to launch one really powerful wind blade, which, in turn, managed to take off one of the stone-like arms of the spider monster.
However, instead of blood – or liquid stone – shadowy tentacles erupted from the stump, only to form a facsimile of an arm, red lightning visibly coursing through it.
“That’s not good, right?” Sam asked audibly, as the monster didn’t even hesitate for a second and charged forward with renewed vigor.
“Why do I even ask these questions?” he spoke under his breath as he did his best to dodge the new assault.
The battle was going all right in Adam’s eyes.
No doubt the forward scouts of the guilds were hidden all over the place, mixed in with the solo players who thought they could snatch a few items from the loot that dropped or even kill steal.
Pity that none of them knew that what they were doing was a simple theater and the real fight was happening somewhere else.
According to Tim, the guilds were getting closer, with the Abyss Vipers coming in as strong contenders for the first one to reach them. Apparently, the Steel Lions refused to participate and instead remained focused on the Valley they had ‘found’.
Weird, but it made his job much easier.
Adam was pretty certain that the other guilds were just letting the poison-addled idiots charge in as a litmus test so that they only had to follow them and harvest the results.
Or at least, that’s what he would do…
The Eternal Light should have enough strategists on their payrolls to devise at least that basic of a plan. Though, from what he heard from Isabella, that may have been a big ask…
Thanks to Sam’s crazy suggestion, from what he was seeing on the forums and hearing from Tim (and his own scouts) most people were going crazy over the chance to snag a ‘guild-level’ blueprint. Ignoring the fact that no such thing existed.
Greed blinded almost everyone and those who saw through the ruse or questioned the validity of the rumor were flamed to hell and back.
Thankfully, the game developers were also staying silent which most people interpreted as approval.
‘Truly, avarice knows no bounds…’
But while Sam was fighting inside the pocket dimension or whatever his insane boss found and the other guilds were murdering each other for a chance to wear the king’s new pants, he had a job to do.
The fourth leg was already wounded, leaking lightning all over the battlefield as his teams ran around the gigantic rampaging monster and made sure that none of the wounds or already destroyed legs regenerated.
“How much until the next strike?” he asked without looking away from the quarry. Or at least what remained of it.
Instead of receiving an answer, he saw the process of the bombardment begin once again, different magics slamming against the hard exterior of the stone exoskeleton of the humongous monster.
And once again, two of the legs were cracked, their crystalline marrows being exposed to the air.
‘That’s eight legs… which means it’s not long before shit truly hits the fan,’ Adam mused as he gave the order for the people to reset.
With a few motions, he dialed Tim.
“Yes?” the hooded figure of the team and company’s security head showed up on a screen, the background unrecognizable.
“We are almost starting with the last two legs. Any new information?”
There was a moment of silence before Tim answered in a low but measured voice.
“Abyss Vipers are being ‘encouraged’ by the other guilds to strike first.”
“I expected as much. What about the Steel Lions? They hate the boss, right?”
He couldn’t see the top part of Tim’s face, but the lower part was visible enough to show a grimace.
“I think they realized it’s a trap. It seems even old dogs can learn new tricks…”
“Huh, that’s something… And the other guilds?”
“Gray Skull, Dark Moment and Bloody Fangs have united and plan to strike together. Eternal Light is convinced that they could sweep everyone. The rest are inconsequential…”
“How do you know that about the Eternal Light?” he asked curiously.
“Asked Isabella to ask her cousins who were happy to brag. And before you ask, Bloody Fang has been bragging about their ‘plan’ on their forums.”
Adam mentally adjusted his expectations of the guild, didn’t question how Tim got access to a private forum like that, then continued with the discussion.
“Still the same plan then?”
“Unless something changed?”
He shook his head.
“No. The moment boss stepped through the portal, he was locked down. Which means…”
“… it’s a boss fight. Heh. Our boss against a monster boss. I can’t wait to see the recording!” Tim grinned. “Any other questions?”
“No. A few minutes before the last strike then it’s fireworks.”
“Good luck.”
“You too.”
He hung up and stretched a little. Soon it would be time to fight but before that, he looked around and found the eyes of the officers that both Tim, Lucy, and him had cleared of being spies and nodded slightly.
Their eyes widened as they realized what that meant, then they all began to move, getting ready for the final phase of the fight.
He also took his sword and raised it high and, using one of his commander-type skills, he began to roar.
“Everyone! We are close! Do not falter! The enemy is weak and we are strong! Strike with EVERYTHING!”
His roar of encouragement was answered by a cacophony of roars from all over the quarry as his skill conveyed a rather nice buff to everyone belonging to his side. Usable once in any battle, but very useful in decisive moments.
Owed bonus chapters: Two (2)
Titles:
[Apprentice: You are an apprentice learning under a master. Increased experience point gain in the key skill of the apprenticeship.]
Magical Items:
[Ring of Minor Health Regeneration: A small ring, made from subpar materials, with a low-quality magical gem. As long as the gem holds mana, it aids with health regeneration. Can hold 100 Mana Points, and regenerates 10 Health Points for every point of mana consumed. Current Mana: 100/100.]
[High-quality Troll Leather Armor: Created by a journeyman crafter employed by your own company. They worked extra hard to make sure to return your goodwill. Excellent quality, given the materials and the crafter. Enchanted to decrease the sound it makes during movement, as well as has increased durability. Thanks to the substance it was impregnated with the troll leather it lacks its customary weakness to fire.]
*Not actually bottomless.]
Quests:
Active quests:
[Just walk in there!]
[Prove yourself!]
[Peaceful land, peaceful mind]
Finished quests:
[Monster Parade!]
[Topping the tree!]
[Reap what you sow!]
[Seaside opportunity]
[Another seaside opportunity]
[The booty of mystery!]
[Demonic demonstration!]
[The Test of the Survivor!]
[To the city you go!]
[Eternal Vigilance!]
[Returning Champion]
[Volatile Valley]
[Ride forward to be not killed in nasty ways!]
[Location, location, location!]
Skills:
Mana Skills:
[Mana Body: Level 7/100 (21%) (Passive) Your mana permeates your body, enhancing and improving it. The better your control of your mana is, and the more mana you have, the bigger the effect is. For every 100 Mana Points, it grants you 1 Base Health gain. For every skill level, it increases the Health Regeneration by 0,1.]
[Mana Shield: Level 99 (99%) Using mana, you can form a simple shell around yourself, which decreases the damage you take. Damage decrease depends on the amount of mana invested. For every unit of Mana invested in the spell, the shield will protect you from 9,9 (physical) damage.]
[A/N: Currently: WIS: 50 / MAG: 50 = 1 --> +2 Mana Regeneration per skill level]
Neutral Mage skills:
Elemental Mage Skills:
Wind Mage skills:
[Wind Blade III: Level 9/10 (99%) (Active) A spell that allows you to launch a blade of wind. The cutting power and speed of the blade are increased. You have greater control over its movement after creation. Allows you to slightly control its path after launching the wind blade.]
[Wind Blade Storm: Level 6/10 (7%) (Active) A spell that unleashes a storm of wind blades around you. The damage of the released Wind Blades depends on the Wind Blade spell and your mastery over it.]
[Wind Bullet III: Level 9/10 (99%) A spell that allows you to launch a bullet made of concentrated wind. You have excellent control over the projectile’s speed, size, and path.]
[Wind Explosion: Level 3/10 (21%) A spell that allows you to create a singular bullet of wind mana, and then fire it, which will, upon impact, detonate. The strength of the detonation depends on the amount of wind mana channeled into the bullet and your mastery over the Wind Bullet spell!]
[Wind Movement: 39/100 (19%) (Active) You can use your mastery over wind to move in any direction you wish. Your movement speed is increased significantly. This speed boost is increased by 1% for each skill level.]
[Wind Edge III: Level 9/10 (99%) (Passive) A spell that allows you to enhance the edge of any bladed weapon you wield with the wind. Thanks to the spell, the speed of your strikes will greatly increase. The power and reach of the blade will be greatly increased further.]
[Wind Affinity: Level 61/100 (17%) (Passive) You have a good affinity for the wind. Beings born of the wind will be more favorable to you. The cost of the Wind-type spells and skills is reduced and their power is increased by 0,5% for each skill level.]
- Wind Flurry
- Wind Bullet Barrage
- Healing Wind
- Wind Jump
- Wind Drill
- Wind Blade I-III
- Wind Blade Storm
- Wind Bullet I-III
- Wind Explosion
- Wind Movement
- Wind Edge I-III!
Utility skills:
Companion skills:
Shadow skills:
(Shadow Cloak triggers this benefit.)]
[Shadow Affinity: Level 30/100 (14%) (Passive) You have a good affinity with the shadows. Beings born of the shadows will be more favorable to you. The cost of the Shadow-type spells and skills is reduced and their power is increased by 0,5% for each skill level.]
Physical skills:
[Basic Armor Mastery: Level 91/100 (6%) (Passive) You learned the basics of wearing armor. Decreases the Stamina consumption slightly while wearing any kind of armor.]
[Clean Armor: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) Your mana got used to a certain spell, so the waste mana radiating from you will, over time, permeate and clean your armor.]
[Resistant Armor: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Thanks to your practice, you can fully utilize everything that your armor provides, granting you increased resistance against the environment. Grants 2% increased environmental resistance per skill level. Environmental resistance protects against environmental effects only.]
[Durable Armor: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) You learned how to roll with the punches. This includes knowing when your armor can take a hit and when it can’t. Increased durability for any armor you wear from incoming damage from non-environmental sources.]
[Epic Breathing Technique: Level 9/10 (99%) (Passive) You breathe, and the world breathes with you. You move along your own rhythm. Decreases stamina consumption even more during any activity and further increases stamina regeneration when not in a fight. Gain +2 Stamina Regeneration for every skill level.]
[Tranquil Heart: Level 11/100 (54%) (Passive) Your heart beats to the same rhythm as your body. It’s efficient and harmonious. You have an even easier time resisting mind-altering effects and a portion of of those effects are reflected back to the source. The portion is 1% per skill level. You also radiate an aura of tranquility that confers the resistance portion of the skill to your allies near you.]
[Flow: Level 77/100 (9%) (Passive) Thanks to being a natural sensor, you can read the flow of the mana. Increases your stability and the bonuses any movement or martial art skill provides by 1% per level in the skill.]
[Focused Flow: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) When focusing on any enemy beyond what is normal, your ability to read their flow becomes clearer and more precise.]
[Controlled Flow: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Your read of the flow is more controlled, allowing you to see the flow much better. Increases the flow visibility by 20% for every skill level.]
[Immersed Flow: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) When you start reading the flow a counter starts. After every ten seconds, the effect of the Flow skill increases by 1% for each skill level. Maximum 600 seconds.]
Parry: Level 24/100 (13%) (Passive) Decreases the stamina consumption of defensive weapon movements. It allows you to more efficiently and accurately parry incoming attacks. Decreases the damage of the blocked attack by 0,5% for each skill level at the moment of blocking.]
Resistance skills:
General skills:
[Dwarven Language: Level 5/10 (1%) (Passive) You managed to learn the basics of the Dwarven language.]
[Elven Language: Level 7/10 (8%) (Passive) You managed to learn the basics of the Elven language.]
[Dark Elven Language: Level 5/10 (1%) (Passive) You managed to learn the basics of the Dark Elven language.]
[Sarkan Language: Level 3/10 (42%) (Passive) You managed to learn the basics of the Sarkan language.]
Crafting skills:
Pet skills:
[Strong Jaw: Level Max (Passive) The jaw of the wolf is strengthened.]
[Lucky Aura: Level Max (Passive) Those who are in the same party as the wolf receive a buff to their luck. It depends on their luck how big the increase is.]