''Elania?''
…
''Elania?'' a poke in my side took me back.
''Wha?''
''You okay?'' She looked worried.
''Of course I'm not.''
How could I be? Spiders the size of humans, why did such a thing have to exist?
''Elania.'' Velariah put her hand on one of my legs. ''If you're not comfortable with it we could try to look for something else, the reward money for this one is huge, though.''
''I know, we should take it. I'll have to get over this eventually. There will probably be worse things to experience later.''
I tried to be rational and that was the best I could come up with. Besides, who would be better to go up against huge spiders than me? I would be highly resistant to venom and if I had a proper long spear, I wouldn't even have to get close. New top priority: Get a long spear so I don't have to get close to oversized spiders.
''I seriously need to go shopping.'' I sighed. ''By the way, how much was the food?''
''Uhm, one silver five copper, apparently they charged three coppers for a coffee.''
Yeap, capitalism was nothing new here either it seemed.
''I'm pretty sure that will go down when we have production ramped up properly, at this rate they will run out of supply today. I wonder how much Valtheril sold it for.''
''Fair point, part of that should be yours. Anyways, this was my treat, let's go do some shopping before we head out. The quest area isn't far from here so we have plenty of time to get it done today.''
That sounded attractive. If we could get this quest done in a day that would add a fair bit to my buffer. That is, if a spear would stab my budget too much. Hah, get it? Wait, did she just say those spiders were actually close to the village? Yikes.
Velariah's optimistic smile was contagious. I wasn't feeling so bad about what was to come anymore, especially considering I would just stay away as far as I could. Maybe I should look into the crossbow thing, at least make one for myself...
''But first!'' Velariah pointed a finger upward as she walked back to the Lore keeper's desk.
What was she planning on now?
She turned around with an even bigger smile.
''Tadaa.''
She held up a silver tag with both hands. A golden sword with the ''II'' in roman numerals were located next to her name.
''Nice, high-ranked silver.'' not a bad start, I guess.
''Hah, yea it's a shame you drag us down!'' She grinned wickedly while referring to my lower rank.
''Oh, it's on!'' I challenged her.
''Congratulations Lady Velariah.'' The ever-so-polite green lizard chimed in before the situation could get out of hand.
With that, we left the guild hall and went on our way when a thought crossed my mind. weren't the shops closed today because of the ongoing trials? I asked Velariah about it and she had said she meant the shopping as in metaphorical shopping. What we would be doing was going to the armory and find me a proper weapon to fight this enemy. When I had floated the idea that this would be stealing, even if she had a key because of her father, she had assured me we would only be ''borrowing'' what we needed and that we would return it and buy something tomorrow.
I just hoped we wouldn't get in trouble for this.
Velariah handed me a canteen I used to wash my hands once we arrived at our destination. She would refill that inside.
At least the building we were in now was large enough for me to enter and move around in freely. We were currently standing in a large room with all kinds of weapons neatly racked against the walls. From halberds to swords to maces and axes to bows and arrows and some more unconventional weapons were also mixed in. There were a few flails and then there was what I was looking for. Spears and pikes were both present.
I had considered a pike at first due to its extra length but a weapon of that size would just make it extremely unwieldy. Besides, a one-woman phalanx wasn't really a thing. Thus, I opted into a long steel spear that looked to be of decent quality. I actually grabbed a short sword as well. Something that would be easy to handle in case they did get too close me would be good to have as a backup. Even if I didn't have experience with swords, this one wasn't too hard to handle.
Hold on a second.
Why didn't I go for a shield instead? Would I be able to wield a spear a short sword and a shield at once? That seemed like a dream scenario. Added safety from attacks up close and able to finish anything in short range with a sword. With the spear I would still be effective at medium range, which is where I wanted to be.
The shield couldn't be too big though. I would rather not have my fangs or pedipalps blocked by my own shield. No roman legionary shield for me unfortunately.
I looked around for something that could be of use to me but unfortunately found nothing. All the shields here were either too big or too heavy for me to wield properly. That was unlucky. I would have to look into the matter later though.
I had inquired whether Draco needed anything but he said he had his own equipment and armor at the inn he stayed at. He had gone there after I brought it up and would meet us at the guild hall. Velariah went to another room that I couldn't enter. Stupid doors.
While I was still going over my choices and wondering if I should change anything regarding my setup Velariah returned with a belt and one of the leather packs that she and the other elves used. Nice, I was missing something like that. I may not have any fancy potions of gear but I can at least carry coffee cherries now, hah!
I feared I would probably use it to carry less satisfying goods... to prove that we killed spiders, whatever body parts we would have to submit to the guild. Nope, I wasn't cutting those from spider corpses, nope nope nope.
After considering my options for a while I decided on settling for the short sword and the steel spear. I would do well try to out these weapons to see what I would need when I was going to buy them for myself. I wondered if weapon enchants were a thing here. I mean, my venom would be useful as coating but I wasn't sure if these spiders would also have some kind of resistance.
The armor that was available would not fit due to my four hands so that was a massive pain point. I was going to have to be really careful to not get myself get skewered. Well, it was only spiders so technically the worst they could do was bite me with their fangs which shouldn't do much because of my inherent resistance.
We exited the armory through a set of large double doors and nobody seemed to care. Maybe the fact that Velariah had a key helped. Still, this couldn't be how this place was intended to be used. Well, it was useful for now.
I strapped the sword scabbard to the belt as we walked outside and Velariah locked the door after us. Once we were back at the guild hall, Draco wasn't quite there yet which left me wondering what exactly his armor and weapons looked like.
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait for long. When Draco showed up, he did so in style. He wore full metal plated armor except for the underside of his arms and back of his legs. Normally I guessed it would have been insanely heavy but I thought he would be perfectly fine running around like that for extended periods of time if those muscles were anything to go by. If his scales were as tough as they looked, I guessed Draco would make for an ideal tank.
He wasn't actually wearing a shield which had me wonder. Wouldn't that be more fitting if what I had thought held true? Instead, he had a large double-bladed battle-axe strapped to his back. All in all, he did look like a huge showoff, there was a lot of visual emphasis on his muscles where armor didn't cover his body.
When he got closer, I noticed a large backpack on his back. It easily had eight times the volume of these relatively small packs on Velariah and my sides. Neat, I have been promoted from pack mule. Actually, maybe I should exploit the fact that I can carry large amounts of good more often. If I could make a supply run in one go instead of multiple there should be quite some easy money to be made there. Oh well, I would prefer actual adventure quests above that, so unless money got really tight, I wouldn't bother.
''You girls ready?'' HIs voice was an awful lot deeper than before. He was trying really hard, wasn't he?
''Yes.'' Velariah had cheerfully stated.
''No.'' I had said at the exact time.
''Alright.'' Draco stated, completely ignoring my ''No''. ''So where to?''
Velariah explained the route to our destination. It seemed a large part of our route would follow the edge of the forest of where we had acquired the coffee beans. If we had any space left in our bags on our way back, we should surely fill them up with them. Speak about two birds with one stone!
So, we walked through the unoccupied field, I hoped the farmer would mind. I took mental note of how many berries there were and it seemed there would be enough to supply the guild for at least a few weeks. The thing was that I had no idea how popular they would get. I hoped the farmer had heeded my advice to plant them. If this field was not used for livestock, he might as well use it for something else.
Draco had asked me if I saw anything in the bushes. I shook my head and tried to not keep looking at those berries, lest he find out where coffee actually came from. The forest eventually ended, and so did the coffee cherry bushes. We entered large green plains that didn't seem occupied as either farmland or livestock so I guess that marked the end of Dawnleaf's outskirts.
The large plains went uphill as a large slope and I couldn't quite make out what was behind the top of it. We kept walking forward to the hill's highest point so I guessed I would soon know.
I was right. When we reached the top there was a lot more to be seen. A large mountain chain stretched all the way from left to right as far as I could see. It seemed some of the mountains to the far right were the volcanic kind. A plume of smoke rose up high and the tops were flattened. I didn't see any flowing lava or something that would one hundred percent confirm my hypothesis.
Right below us were more plains. The one thing that definitely stood out was a hill in the far distance that wasn't covered in grass but by something completely grey. If that was our destination, I feared for the worst.
And it was. Of course, it was, how could it not be? Shady looking hill in the middle of nowhere covered by weird stuff instead of grass, why, oh why.
I had misjudged the distance. By a lot. I thought we'd get there in a few minutes but thirty minutes later we were still walking. I would have liked a watch to actually be able to track time properly. Or a phone. Alas, I would just have to rely on my incredible tracking of time.
I mean, I had to be the world champion for putting something in the microwave for, let's say, eight minutes, then sit behind my PC only to walk back when there is a mere five seconds remaining. It felt surprisingly satisfying to hit the stop button a second before the ping sound.
I had also brought up the idea of Draco using a shield. He wasn't necessarily against the idea. He just had never thought about it. He shared the fact that he had an inherity that would make him do more and take less damage when he had an axe equipped. That seemed far too broad for me but he had insisted that that was literally what his inherity had said.
When I asked about it Velariah answered that the way the inherity ritual was done was to have a grandmaster conduct a ritual which would then cause letters for you to appear on a piece of paper that only the user could read. The words formed on this paper were absolute and an exact interpretation of how your inherity worked.
''So, what if you use two axes, do you get a double bonus?''
''I, I never thought about that.'' He admitted rubbing his chin.
''Or what if you have a shield that is ALSO an axe.'' I suggested.
''Wait what?'' Velariah replied.
''How does that work?'' Draco replied.
"Yes, hear me out. The reason I suggested using a shield in the first place is because you look you can take quite some hits. If those scales of you are as tough as they look you would be an ideal tank. Now if we can get any blacksmith to somehow attach an axe to a shield and it works with your inherity I guess that would make you quite strong, no? I know it sounds crazy but what if it works?''
''That sounds so crazy it might actually work.'' Velariah admitted.
''Interesting observation.'' Draco stopped for a moment and seemed lost in thought. His hand ran over his chin almost as if he was stroking a non-existent beard.
''Yes, my scales are quite tough and I can also harden them temporarily just like I can use those claws. Also, what's a tank?''
Wait what. Was he for real?
''You don't know what a tank is?'' I looked at him dumbstruck. I then turned to Velariah who shook her head indicating that she too, had no clue what I was talking about.
You got to be kidding me. I got into an RPG player's dream world and these people don't even know what a ''tank'' is. Were all of these people solo players or what? When I combined that with the fact these people didn't seem to think about their inherities as deeply as me I suspected that the only people I have seen wielding shields had a specific inherity for them.
We started moving again and I started explaining.
''Ok, so a tank is someone who is at the forefront of battle, looks intimidating and keeps monsters attacking them instead of their other group members. The tank is generally equipped to be able to take a lot of damage but doesn't deal as much himself. They are there to make openings for their other party members to attack while they are distracted by the tank.'' I took a few breaths.
''You do know what a healer is right?''
''Yes.'' They both sounded in unison.
I would expect so. Seeing as they had treemenders and whatnot.
''I guess they are very popular to have in adventuring parties?''
''Yes, but they are rare.'' Draco answered my question.
Yeah, I would assume so. If there was no tank dedicated to protecting them, I doubted being a healer had any real use, you would just be an easy target.
''Figures. Okay, so one of the tank's job is to make sure no harm comes to their vulnerable party members such as healers and spellcasters.''
''Well, that makes sense. But how do you rank up then if you do no damage?'' both Velariah and Draco were actually curious in what I had to say. It seemed all of this was like a fountain of forbidden knowledge.
''Don't you rank up as a group?''
''Well, you do but it seems people are too focused on individual strength from what you're telling me.'' Draco answered.
Boom. He hit the nail right on the head. Good teamwork would be the foundation of a successful party even if some members may take all the fame by landing the finishing blow. From my experience in games, you didn't simply get there by trying to be a show stealer.
''Well.'' I continued ''From my experience, Ideally, you have a tank, a healer, one or more ranged damage dealers and one or more melee ranged damage dealers to cover one another's weaknesses. Ideally you have someone coordinating for the group as well for really tough monsters. I will be honest with you now, I am unable to fulfill that role as a short to medium range fighter. Someone who can do their job from a distance will have a much better overview of the battle and surroundings.''
I decided I might as well toss all the info out there. If I was to live in this world I may as well get the people in my party up to speed with what I believed would be the most successful way to go around monster killing. I would hate for any of them to get severely injured or worse, die when it could have been prevented with proper planning and use of what I knew.
''So yeah, proper planning is key, which is why I'm floating the idea of looking into inherities and seeing what is possible.''
''Makes sense.'' Velariah stated.
''May I ask you how you know all this?'' Draco asked me in earnest. I knew I would get the question eventually.
''It's a very long story.'' I looked at the elf which in turn caused Draco to look to her as well. Velariah nodded and Draco dropped the question.
''Maybe I will tell you some day. But for now, I believe there are spiders to be exterminated.
We had arrived at the hill that we had been walking up to. It turned out that the grey ground was not actually webs as I had feared. Instead, the grass was simply dead and had turned into this ugly color.
I could see that the hill had several large holes which I assumed were entrances to an underground hive system. This day had just gotten ten times worse. It seemed they were large enough for me to fit through but there was no imagining what could be found beneath the dead surface.
As if on cue the most horrendous sight filled my eyes. Huge tarantula like spiders with glowing red eyes walked out of several of the holes at once and started walking towards us when suddenly they halted.
I saw my companions quickly draw their weapons and assume combat stance but nothing happened.
Three horror movie antagonists stood like ten meters before us and didn't move an inch. I actually moved closer with my spear to see how they would react but they didn't react at all.
''What the hell is going on?'' I asked as I readied my spear as well, ready for any charging spiders.
''No idea.'' Velariah said.
I moved slightly closer and made a stabbing motion with my spear. No response was received.
I looked behind me as I thought this may be one those scenes where your direct enemy was focused on something behind you but there was nothing there.
''I think it's because of your... you know, spider affiliation?'' Draco suggested.
What? Did he think I could communicate with those monsters or something? Well, let me get him out of that dream.
''I have no affiliation with these things, hell, I have no affiliation with any monster if that's what you meant.''
''Not quite what I meant. I meant that it seems they don't know what to do because of your presence.''
He may have a point there. Their many glowing eyes seemed fixated on me. This was getting quite uncomfortable.
''If that's the case, why not exploit the situation, huh?'' I suggested.
''Sound plan.'' Velariah confirmed as she started to slowly approach the monstrous spiders.
I followed next to her as did Draco. There were three enemies in front of us, if there was truth in the fact that they were fixated on me we could perhaps dispatch all three at once without issues.
There was still no reaction besides their pedipalps grasping the air in front of them. This is why I hated spiders; those weird movements creeped me out. I looked down to my own.
Freaking spiders.
There was still no reaction when we were at a two-meter distance. Were these spiders looking at me like I'm some kind of royalty? That's the idea that I got from their posture and look in their eyes. Look at me, I'm the spider queen now! Oh lord, what a horrible thought.
They seemed passive. Shame they were still nightmare creatures that needed to be exterminated. Next time we were going to do anything like this, we should take a fire mage with us. If this was going to be their reaction to me every time, these kinds of quests were going to be peanuts.
We all struck at once, giving no opportunity to our adversaries to recover from the shock aspect of a coordinated strike. Velariah and Draco cleaved the beasts' heads and I impaled one with my spear. Green blood and gore erupted from the spider's head and a very high-pitched shriek pounded my eardrums as our enemies died and curled up.
I fell to the floor covering my ears. This sound was overwhelming, it made my head spin. As much as I wanted to see what was going on before me in case there were angry spiders approaching, I just couldn't.
''...'' Velariah grabbed the arms I wasn't using to cover my ears.
The ringing in my ears had finally come to a halt but the dizziness remained. What the hell was that?
"Elania, you alright?'' She looked at me with large eyes.
Seriously, the amount that this happened was getting quite out of hand.
''What was that sound?'' I asked, trying to shake off the dizziness.
''What sound?'' I heard Draco ask to my left.
I looked at his face, then at Velariah's. Both of them looked completely fine.
''No?'' I asked with sweat covering my face. There was no way I had imagined it.
The elf shook her head. It seemed I was able to hear things that they could not, and it wasn't exactly useful.
Two more spiders crawled out of holes and moved towards Velariah and Draco, we were in their territory now and they approached closer but still didn't make a move.
''We'll take care of those, you stay put.'' Velariah had ordered me.
I covered my ears as pre-emptive measure. If what I thought was correct these spiders would release a death screech that all but crippled me. Why did I have to be half spider again? Who thought this would be a good idea?
Imagine if I could actually communicate with spiders. That would be the most useless super power in history. In fact, it seemed some part of that was true, though it seemed to be one way only, and it was detrimental to me. These spiders didn't seem to bear ill will to me but I just couldn't let them become a problem for others. Maybe I would have let them live if I could command them? I doubted it.
Fortunately, I had Velariah and Draco with me.
With some luck I would be able to stay at range and have my companions deal with them while being in range so they wouldn't make a move towards them. I should feel bad about exploiting my newfound ''Spider Authority'' ability and to some degree I did. Were it not that my animosity towards spiders was greater than the amount of love I had for them. To be fair, there was no love at all so that wasn't hard to achieve.
I saw the elf and lizardman cleave down more spider heads from the distance and felt another shriek reach my head. I was lucky to have my ears covered and to have some distance between us. It did seem to reduce the effects of this horrifying screech.
Ouch, this was not fun at all. The only good thing about this was that we didn't seem to run into any resistance or danger, which technically made this quest extremely simple. Combine that with the fact that we already had five spiders killed we would rake in at least two gold in reward money. I just hoped these spiders would not suddenly decide to attack when Velariah and Draco were unprepared. I didn't think they would be stupid enough to let down their guard. Even if they didn't, these spiders still almost matched their height, I could see why this was a group quest; maybe three people would normally be considered too few.
More spiders exited the tunnels and were quickly dispatched as I looked with my ears covered. It seemed today was not my lucky day. Even with keeping distance and trying to mute the sound as best I could I could still feel a headache growing as more hellspiders were killed off.
'These painkiller potions better cost less than the reward money' I thought.
I had no doubt they did but I would still like to keep expenses to a minimum if possible. Maybe I was just frustrated.
Eventually the slow stream of spiders, and with them the screams, stopped. Velariah and Draco were both standing next to one of the entrances to what I assumed would be a hive. I walked over to them slowly. I tried focusing on the sounds around me to see if I could pick anything up that might resemble some form of weird spider communication but heard nothing. It seemed the only sound they made was the one when they died.
''We going in?'' I asked.
''Uhm, only if you want to, otherwise we can go with just the two of us.'' Velariah suggested.
''Nah, I'll go with you.'' I paused before I realized something. ''Hold on, do you have a torch or anything? it's pick black in there.''
''Uhhh.'' She mumbled. ''Oops.''
Nice one, we both forgot.
''I do.'' Draco said as he put down his backpack and started rummaging through.
Yep, we could really see who the gold ranked adventurer in this party was. Hint: It wasn't me. Velariah and I were humiliated when Draco held up a torch. It was a good thing he wasn't the type to joke around. This would have been far worse if he had had a smile on his face.
Then he did something unexpected. He laid his axe down on the ground and hit it with the bottom of the torch. Before I could ask what he was doing, the torch set itself on fire. That was one mighty convenient self-igniting torch.
He went ahead of us and entered the tunnel after passing the torch to me, he could not carry it at the same time as his axe and well, I may have had a hand or two free. I followed behind him with Velariah covering my back. Because of my spear's length I would still be able to provide support to Draco if it was necessary.
The walls of this tunnel widened up after the entrance which allowed me to move much more freely. The only thing that really stood out was the webs that covered the walls. They weren't sticky fortunately, otherwise Velariah and Draco may have been in trouble.
I was pretty sure I could walk on sticky threads, right? I mean isn't that what spiders did? It would surely suck if they got caught in their own webs.
I pried off a piece of web as I had to make sure of something. We could be in a really dangerous situation here. We had not run into any hellspiders yet and it would be better to check this before things got spicy.
I held a pried-up piece of the web into the torch and saw it get eaten by the flames in an instant.
''Draco, we should turn back.'' I called out to him.
The lizardman had continued walking and was almost out of reach of the light produced by the torch.
He walked back to be before he asked a question.
''What is the matter?''
''These webs are extremely flammable and from the looks of it this entire place is covered in it. I suggest we torch the place and then kill whatever is left. With some luck we fry some spiders in the meantime.''
''Brutal!'' Velariah exclaimed.
Yeap, but if this worked it would make our job a lot easier.
I was happy I noticed this before we got in any kind of fight, we would be in so much trouble if I dropped this torch. We walked out the same way we entered. Once outside, I handed the torch over to Draco and made sure to get far away from this place. I was not keen on getting the worst headache from spider flambé. I've had enough headaches for a lifetime I would say.
Once I was at reasonable distance, I gave a thumbs up gesture and started to cover my ears, afraid of what was to come.
Draco torched the tunnel. Smoke started to rise up through the tunnel, he and Velariah stepped back from the fire. Within literal seconds smoke rose up from separate tunnel exits. As the smoke appeared, so did the ringing in my head.
Because of the distance it wasn't as bad but the sheer number of screams that rung through my brain brought me to the verge of collapse. My sight went blurry again but even through that I could make out several burning figures running out of the tunnels and quickly being mowed down by my party members. Each kill lessened the strain on my mind until all was quiet again.
One weak scream remained, but it was weak and didn't cause much of a hassle for me. I stood up again and rubbed my eyes, causing them to regain focus. The storm seemed to be over, there was just this one nasty scream in the back of my mind that didn't seem to go away. If it was just one spider it shouldn't be much of an issue.
I walked over to the elf and lizardman who were still watching the entrance cautiously.
''There's only one left.'' I informed them of the situation.
''How do you know?'' Velariah didn't seem to believe me.
''Trust me, I know. I'm surprised it's not dead yet, its screech has been bothering me for a while.''
I looked over inside the tunnel. It seemed the plan I had come up with on the fly seemed to do its job. There was a raging inferno going on inside and I was glad we decided to burn it. Now we could safely enter after the flames had died down and clean up anything still left inside without having to worry about accidentally burning ourselves. A decision wisely made if I do say so myself.
The screams in the back of my mind became louder and I could feel... emotion in it? I felt anger coming from whoever, rather, whatever this ''voice'' belonged to. Whatever was screaming out was calling for vengeance, for blood, it wanted me. That wasn't just a hellspider, what the hell was this?
Of course, everything had been too easy so far. Of course, there had to be something that would make my life literal hell. Of course, the biggest, baddest, monstrous spider mother had made its way to the surface through one of the burning tunnels.
A spider twice my size (and I was already on the plus size) appeared. Velariah and Draco just stared at it as it slowly made its way towards us. Large silver fangs caught the sunlight from above and sent shivers down my spine. Its entire body was smoldering and smoking, some parts on its abdomen were still on fire. Multiple glowing, large purple eyes on its head were looking at me and were out for blood.
''You!'' it screamed out in pain.
Wait, what.
''You betrayed ussss!'' It dragged the last word out into an unearthly screech.
Oh shit, this thing could talk.
''What the hell are you talking about. I was never with you to begin with.'' I screamed back.
''Death! Death! Death!'' it started advancing to us.
What was this spider's problem? Also, why did it have to be this big? This thing was a dungeon boss if I'd ever seen one! Actually, I hadn't seen one yet. Freaking spiders, man, give me a break.
''Is this beast communicating with you?'' Draco.
Oh.
''Yeah, it's saying I betrayed them, not sure how, but apparently, I pissed it off, quite badly too. Not sure why.''
That last part was quite sarcastic. I think I said that to suppress my severe case of arachnophobia that grew stronger by the second as the mythical final boss beast of Oceania approached us. I dub thee, Hellspider queen.
I considered running but I had no doubt that thing would easily catch up with us so that was out of the question. I started grinding my mind to come up with ideas to take this fight on with minimal risk but came up empty.
''Watch out for those fangs and its spinnerets, those will be the main dangers we're facing. This thing is somewhat intelligent but I have no idea to what degree so be careful.'' I called out.
Velariah and Draco nodded in understanding.
If this thing was only good for one silver, I would call bullshit.
I suppressed my fear, knowing I had to stay focused or I might lose my newfound friends. We would try to whittle it down while avoiding the major dangers. I would try to keep track of things to find openings. We would have to be prepared for anything.
Step one: Find the enemy's weakness.
I had Velariah, Draco and then myself coat our weapons with my venom before battle commended.
We split up and charged.