"Okay, listen. This thing feels familiar to one of the Giant Borers we fought earlier. Is it a long shot to assume it follows a somewhat similar fighting pattern?"
"Seems to be reasonable to expect," Vymar spoke. "Continue."
"I imagine it can show up under people and swallow them whole, judging from this beast's size. I can feel exactly where this beast is. As such, I propose we move in small groups, each with one of the people standing around me now. That way, I can keep everyone notified on where it is about to strike, giving you time to dodge."
"Sound plan, but how do we kill it?" Vymar spoke again.
"Play it safe, I'd suggest. Valtheril should be here soon enough to end this if this fight gets stretched out. If you can damage it, go for it. I don't know how it'll hold up compared to a normal Giant Borer, so be advised."
"And those stakes?" Velariah asked.
"That's the second part of my plan. I intend to ram them into this beast, like lances."
She looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. I knew what she was thinking. There was no way I could properly carry one of the beams on my own and having someone run with me would be ineffective because they couldn't keep up with my speed.
"That's where Nira comes in. She can fly at great speed. I intend to have her hold onto the butt end of the stake and then fly behind me while carrying it with her claws."
Nira looked at me with disbelief but seemed to regain her composure and nodded.
Seralyn seemed to want to laugh, but she refrained from doing so. This was not the time for jokes and she seemed to read the mood well.
Vymar assigned soldiers to group up with the people that I knew. Velariah, Draco, Seralyn, Allina, Eric, and Vymar each commanded a group of soldiers. Some of the archers had moved up the two nearby towers, leaving about twenty archers on the ground. They were split between Allina and Seralyn. The remaining soldiers were split among our melee-focused companions. The adventurers that decided to join were in Eric's squad.
The size of each squad was a bit too big for my liking, but this was better than nothing. I hoped this would prevent casualties as best as possible.
Please hurry, Valtheril.
"It's coming. Spread out!" I shouted.
The squads spread out around the towers, a large distance between each group. I knew the elven arrows could cross large distances. I reckoned that distance would be even greater with the assistance of added height.
The monster would be here within a minute or two. No matter how many precautions I'd taken, this could still result in a mess.
Or it could result in us completely smacking the monster to shreds. I had no idea what to expect.
Better to be safe than sorry…
I looked over to see where everyone was positioned. I wanted to know exactly where everyone was, and not screw this up.
I stood near the tower. Nira stood next to me, and I held the stake in my hands. The back end of it was still on the floor and Nira stood on top of it. We were ready to begin a charge whenever the opportunity presented itself.
I looked behind me, at Nira. She seemed determined and nodded.
I turned my head towards where the beast was coming from. The four squads were ready to engage.
I focused all my willpower on my legs. I could feel it approaching… I knew exactly where it was.
"Vymar, it's coming for you!"
It started surfacing far before I expected it to.
It appeared above ground, about fifteen meters from the squad. For the most part, it looked like a large Borer. There were two distinct differences. It seemed its mouth was positioned further into its body. I hadn't even noticed it had a mouth at first. It was as if I was looking at its rear end until the flesh retracted, like lips, and its teeth showed.
It made sense, considering it had to dig far wider tunnels. A mouth at the front would make it hard to move around.
Its color was also different. Instead of the usual beige to yellow color, this thing was dark brown.
Not long after surfacing, a volley of arrows was fired by the archer squads on the ground, followed by a volley from the towers.
They were simply deflected. None of the arrows penetrated its skin.
That didn't bode well.
The question of what exactly this thing was was going to have to wait.
Another volley of arrows was fired, but like the first, it was completely deflected.
It appeared we could count out the archers.
The beast still moved forward. The soldiers in Vymar's squad spread out as the beast moved over the ground where they previously stood. They were sure to slash its sides with their weapons. The elite soldiers caused quite a bit of fire damage; at least, it looked like it would do quite some damage. The beast simply ignored the cuts and scrapes and charged forward before closing its maw and retracting the skin back over it.
It then slowly burrowed itself in the ground again.
I observed its behavior and noticed that it wasn't the fastest when it came to re-burrowing after it had surfaced.
When it was underground again, I tracked its movements. It didn't seem to repeat the same action that it had before. Instead, it went deeper and deeper.
Vymar's squad regrouped on his location.
It suddenly stopped digging and went straight up.
"Draco, it's coming from directly under you!" I shouted as loud as I could. "Disperse when I give the word!"
He raised an axe to notify me he'd heard me.
I waited until the beast no longer had the option of changing its direction.
"Now!" I yelled again.
The soldiers in his squad instantly ran away from where they'd been standing. Seconds later, the beast emerged and chomped air.
It then dragged itself forward again while being assaulted from all sides. Draco's weapons seemed to inflict minor damage. An inherity-empowered arrow from Seralyn found its mark and penetrated its thick skin. It appeared her new bow, combined with her ability, caused her to be quite a bit more lethal.
When it raised its head before bringing it down to the ground to start burrowing I signaled Nira.
"Let's go," I said.
A gust of air came from behind me and the back end of the stake was lifted. I started charging towards its head.
We built up momentum in a matter of seconds. I held the stake with my two unbladed arms while I held my bladed gauntlets in front of me. They would join the attack. Hopefully, a large stake together with two blades impaling this beast's head at maximum velocity would do some damage.
The soldiers moved out of the way at Draco's signal, clearing the way for Nira and me.
I roared. I don't know why. It seemed to add extra mental strength to my attack the moment the stake impacted the oversized Borer. It impaled the beast's skin, and the momentum, together with Nira still trying to carry the stake forward with strong beats of her wings, caused it to penetrate deeply. The stake disappeared almost entirely into its monstrous body.
My blades embedded themselves into its skin, too.
I retracted them and slashed them around wildly, causing a bit more damage before its head disappeared into the dirt, taking the stake with it in its body.
I hoped that would do some work. How did this beast's organs work anyway? Did it have a brain?
"Let's do that again," I said to Nira. She nodded and took to the skies again.
I stood there, watching for a second.
Damn, she was fast.
I ran back to the second stake we'd prepared. I arrived at the same time Nira did. I reckoned I was still faster than her, but this wouldn't be the time to test or think about it.
The enormous Borer had burrowed again in the meantime and was currently descending. I picked up the second stake and saw Nira jump on the rear end of the stake.
I focused on the vibrations in the ground again.
"Incoming on your position, Velariah! Wait for my word!"
She raised her sword up high in recognition.
I waited again and gave the elf my signal. "Now!" I yelled.
They dispersed quickly and the beast surfaced again, biting into nothing but air.
The soldiers in Velariah's squad started stabbing and slashing the beast while it dragged itself forward over the ground. It turned its head to reveal its large maw and almost managed to surprise one of the soldiers who was dragged out of the way by another soldier.
That was possibly a life-saving action.
It then started burrowing again. Its head was facing us when it did so. I imagined if we charged into it from this direction, we'd hit where, in any normal creature, its brain would be.
"Let's go, Nira," I called out to the harpy behind me once more.
The log was lifted. A gust of wind hit my back.
I started my charge, a massive spear in the form of a stake held tightly with two hands as I held the two bladed gauntlets in front of me, ready to impale.
The soldiers were quick to react when Velariah called for them to step aside to let Nira and me through. We reached the beast unhindered and pierced the beast's head.
The stake went all the way in. I was convinced it had done damage, as the beast stopped the process of burrowing. I retracted my blades from its flesh and stepped back. Its maw opened widely and it seemed to be focused on me, although I couldn't quite see eyes that would confirm my sentiment.
The elite soldiers from multiple squads moved up to the beast's sides and started slashing away. Red glows of fire from the effects of their weapons were triggered one after another.
With the addition of two long stakes in its body, it seemed the damage started to mount. It didn't seem to want to burrow anymore, and instead, moved its maw around slowly trying to grab whatever it could with its teeth.
Seralyn's magic arrows shot through my vision into the beast in rapid succession. I could see Velariah's blade glow with her own holy magic, she slashed deep cuts that caused fluid to drain from the oversized Borer. Draco had transformed into his black-scaled form and was hacking away wildly with rapid, heavy blows. His armor was stained with the monster's innards.
It opened its maw as far as it could and continued to crawl in my direction, albeit very slowly, and seemingly weakly.
There were no soldiers between me and the beast. I raised my fangs and stood still to aim.
I shot a highly pressurized stream of venom into its maw. I didn't stop until my reserves had completely run dry.
"Suck on this!" I yelled for effect.
I got carried away in the thrill of battle. I didn't realize I'd said it until after I had.
It closed its maw and tried to burrow again, seemingly wanting to escape. The elite soldiers intensified their attacks. It seemed this was the perfect opportunity for them to go all out and use inherity-fueled attacks of their own. Red, blue, green, yellow, orange, all colors that I could imagine were mixed in the flurry of attacks that ensued.
Allina seemed to have some tricks of her own up her sleeve. She shot arrows that seemed to be infused with electricity. The lightning seeped into the creature wherever her arrows hit. Some other archers shot colorful shots of their own.
Not all soldiers present seemed to have abilities. All the elite guard soldiers seemed to possess them, and a few archers. Only three or so of the standard guard soldiers seemed able to infuse their weapons with magic, or use special attacks.
The beast stopped burrowing after a short but intense flurry of attacks.
It then stopped moving altogether.
It seemed to be dead.
A familiar smell reached my nostrils. All the fire that was used in the attacks caused the oversized Borer to smell of cooked chicken. It smelled nice.
One bite wouldn't hurt, right?
WHAT THE FUCK AM I THINKING ABOUT?
I slapped my head with a gauntlet.
I just thought about eating the most disgusting creature I'd ever seen in my life… both lives…
I carefully walked up to the monster and stabbed a sword into its flesh, behind its mouth. I had some trouble penetrating its skin, but once inside, I could cut without too many issues. Velariah mimicked me on the other side and started cutting with her longsword, her inherity active.
Together, we severed its head from the rest of its body. There was no way this thing wasn't dead now.
"Nice work," Velariah praised me. "That was some amazing support you provided."
Vymar walked up to the two of us.
"Support is putting it lightly. I apologize for my earlier comment. The General was right to trust you."
"Not a problem," I stated. "I completely understand where you were coming from. Do you have any idea what that thing was?"
Vymar shook his head. "I have never seen anything like that. This reeks of tampering with nature. This is an unrecorded species. As such, it falls to us to find out how this thing came to be."
"I was an unrecorded species too, until not so long ago," I half-joked.
I had no idea why I said that, it was probably the effect of knowing that the danger had faded.
"I don't know what to say to that," Vymar admitted.
"Forget it. I don't even know why I said that," I admitted in earnest as I shook my head.
I looked at my hands, they were still slightly shaking. Velariah took one.
"It's okay, El."
"I know, I know."
Draco, Nira, and Seralyn converged on our location. Eric and Allina joined in as well.
"You guys okay?" Velariah asked as they approached.
"We're fine," Seralyn spoke. "That was… exhilarating."
Yeah, there was no doubt about that. I felt as if I had consumed three cups of coffee within half an hour. My legs were still slightly shaking, both from the sprinting and the adrenaline that was fading fast.
"It was interesting, for sure," Draco spoke. "But what was that thing?"
Nobody spoke up.
Vymar eventually broke the silence. "It falls to us to find out. If these things show up more often, we need to prepare ourselves."
The sound of hooves on the grass made me shift my attention. Valtheril approached on a white, two-headed horse.
He basically jumped off as soon as he reached us.
"What happened here?" Was the first thing he asked.
"That… thing showed up. According to Elania, it dug its way through the ground, from the forest to here. We managed to slay it, but we didn't exactly have an easy time doing it. Unless you know what it is, I'm lost."
Valtheril shook his head, then sighed.
"Allina, Vymar, I'm going to need reports from you. Please be detailed when it comes to its strengths and weaknesses, including what elements worked and which didn't."
He stared in front of him for a few seconds.
"I don't like this one bit."
"Why did you go to the dungeon in the first place?" Velariah asked.
"I got a report from the guild, saying there might be a potentially unstable core with tainted corium leaking."
"What a bunch of crap," Velariah commented. "We have been there a few times in the past week, and there's nothing wrong with the dungeon."
"That's what I ascertained as well," Valtheril replied. "Vymar, Elania, Velariah, Allina; with me. I'd like to speak in private."
He walked away from the others. The ones whose names were called out followed him, including me.
Once we were a fair distance away, Valtheril turned to speak to us. "You have any idea why I asked you here?"
"Seems to me that someone sent you a bogus report," I stated.
"Exactly," Valtheril concluded with a stern expression.
"It seems I was led away, and then that showed up." He pointed to the slain, monstrous Borer. "One would think that report was fabricated with the sole intention of luring me away. I cannot imagine that… thing being the work of someone, but I'm not going to exclude the possibility."
"That would be shocking," Vymar spoke. "But it is something I thought of as well."
"But why?" Velariah asked.
"I cannot be sure at this time," Valtheril spoke. "Strange things have happened as of late. It seems I'm going to have my hands full investigating, starting with the Lore keeper. I reckon she knows where that report originates from."
"I would imagine so…" Allina spoke. "I assume this information is to remain between us?"
Valtheril nodded. "Don't ask strange questions to anyone regarding this. I'd like for this investigation to remain secret."
We all nodded.
"Good. I guess I don't have to tell what happens if information gets out, do I?" He looked at each of us with fiery eyes.
Nope, not at all.
"Good," He finished.
"I'll be expecting your reports delivered to me, personally, at my mansion, before dusk."
"Understood!" Vymar and Allina both replied and saluted.
He simply nodded and the two ranking officers walked off to where the battle just took place.
Valtheril then sighed. "What a mess."
"'No kidding," Velariah let out.
"Anyway," Valtheril continued. "Have you had your ritual yet, Elania?"
I shook my head. "There was a delay on one of the herbs. Grandmaster Ineus asked me to come back in an hour or so, which I assumed has passed now with all this happening…"
"Well, what are you waiting for then? Go for it." He smiled for the first time since his return.
"Thank you, sir!" I smiled back.
He laughed slightly as Velariah and I walked back to our companions.
"How are things here?" I asked when we reached them.
"Miss Elania, I wanted to thank you, personally, for your assistance in battle. Your ingenuity has probably saved a couple of lives," Eric said.
"Thanks, Eric, that's very kind of you," I shook the hand that he'd extended.
"I'll be off to celebrate at the guild with my companions. I hope we can fight together again sometime."
He bowed slightly and walked off.
"Seems Elania is quite the charmer, isn't she?" Seralyn grinned.
"She sure is," Velariah replied.
"Hey!" I let out.
I only caused them to laugh harder.
I smiled. Perhaps I'd been way too harsh on Seralyn earlier. That was funny.
"You guys wanna join me for the ritual?" I asked, causing the elves to stop laughing.
"That'd be lovely," Draco said.
Nira and the elves nodded.
We walked back towards Dawnleaf. I couldn't help but stare at the corpse of the massive Borer variant. The archers seemed to make their way back to the forest while the village guards moved back to the checkpoint. The elite guards and Allina remained and seemed to inspect the beast, probably for that report.
We had to make a quick stop at the checkpoint where I retrieved my spear and my scabbards, which I put on my blades after cleaning them.
We reached the village, in which there seemed to be quite a bit of commotion. There were more than a few villagers outside the walls staring at the battle site.
There were also a few villagers staring at the hole in the palisade.
Oops, my bad.
We moved on and made a beeline for the large tree. The place was virtually empty. The only treemender present was Pylanor. Besides him, only Grandmaster Ineus was there.
The treemender walked up to us.
"I wish you luck, Miss Elania," Pylanor smiled before he walked behind the counter and took a seat.
"Pst," Velariah poked me. "You should take off your armor and leave it with Pylanor."
"That's a custom?" I asked.
"It's necessary," She said. "The ritual is about you, and you only. Armor interferes with the writing. I don't think you'd be happy paying the full sum twice now, would you?"
"Oh, shit, we forgot to get the money," I let out, realizing we didn't bring it with us.
"It's fine, El. Our home is literally a two-minute walk from here. We'll stop by after the ritual."
"If Ineus doesn't mind…"
"It's fine, El," She said again.
"Okay, then."
The Grandmaster had been looking over at us and smiled after we finished our conversation. It served to accentuate his wrinkles even more.
"It's not a problem. Two minutes more or less doesn't make much of a difference when I need to travel to pay off the guild from which I bought the reagents anyway."
I heaved a sigh of relief, before taking off my armor pieces one by one. I placed my chest piece on the counter, followed by each of my gauntlets. I handed my spear to Pylanor, who placed it against the wall behind the counter.
The Grandmaster opened the sliding door at the back of the large room and entered, beckoning me to follow.
"Will we all fit in there?" I asked.
"The room is rearranged for rituals. It's not a problem," Velariah reassured me.
I nodded and followed Ineus into the room.
When I entered, I saw him lighting incense that was spread out over the hands of a stone statue. The statue in question seemed to be of a female elf. The figure held its hands, palms open, in front of it.
The statue on the floor was the only thing in the room. The shelves at the sides of the room seemed to have miraculously disappeared, as had the table that previously stood in the middle.
The table I could understand, but it seemed a bit of a hassle to move the shelves out of the room. I wondered how they did that.
I could hear the others enter the room behind me. I looked over my shoulder and past my rear to see Draco entering last and closing the door, before locking it.
"That's Velineri," Velariah commented, pointing at the statue.
That had to be the first depiction of the goddess I'd seen so far. It seemed that all she was wearing was a simple piece of cloth that was folded around her body. Her beauty was undeniable.
The scent of incense started to fill the room. A strong odor of lavender entered my nostrils. The sheer amount of incense used caused the smell to be quite overwhelming, as was mentioned. It made me feel slightly lightheaded.
Ineus was pulverizing a collection of herbs in a mortar which he held in his hand.
"Are you prepared?" He asked.
"I think so," I said softly, slightly anxious.
"Please hold up your left hand… one of them." He corrected himself mid-sentence.
I held up one of my left hands in front of him, ready to have the paste deposited in it. Instead, Ineus pulled a small knife out of his robes.
"Vel?" I asked as I retracted my hand.
"It's part of the ritual. Some of your blood needs to be mixed in the paste," She answered. "I figured you didn't want to know that."
"You're right. I didn't."
I held up my hand again. Ineus made a quick cut and held the mortar under it, collecting some drops of blood.
Draco handed me a bandage which I wrapped around my hand. The grandmaster, in the meantime, mixed the blood through the paste.
He took one drop of the paste and dropped it on the burning incense.
After that, he put away the knife in his robes once again, and pulled out a sheet of paper with this world's common beige-ish color.
"Please hold up a right hand next."
I stretched out my upper right hand and Ineus deposited the mixture that was in the mortar on my hand. He spread it out all over my palm and fingers with the pestle he had been using to grind the herbs.
The Grandmaster knelt down in front of the statue and put down the piece of paper before the statue's feet. He then took one of the incense sticks and spread out its ashes over the paper.
He stood up once more.
"Please put the palm of your hand on the paper and keep it there while I cast the incantation."
I lowered myself to the ground, my legs occupying a fair deal of the room when I did. I then placed my hand on the paper and waited.
Grandmaster Ineus spoke a series of words that I could not understand. He spoke them as one would expect words to be spoken from a priest who prayed in Latin. That was the best description I had for his way of speaking. It was almost like singing, but not quite that. It was more like… chanting.
I felt the paste move from my hand to the paper. My hand felt extremely hot in the process, it was as if it was holding a hot pan.
I kept my hand in place, and soon felt the heat dissipate. The paste was all gone from my hands now and seemed to be dancing around on the paper, before it seemed to sink through the paper and disappear.
The Grandmaster stopped his incantation.
"It is done," He spoke. "You may remove your hand now."
I removed my hand and looked at the paper.
Black letters started to appear and change. It looked as if somebody was continually replacing a letter with another letter continuously. More and more such letters appeared on the paper. I couldn't take my eyes off of the paper, even as my head started to spin as a result.
The changing of letters slowed down.
Eventually, lines appeared, then paragraphs.
I was still on the ground, watching the letters dance before me. The others behind me didn't utter a single word.
Eventually, the changing of letters completely stopped.
I started reading, unable to contain my curiosity.
Name: Elania
Race: Arachne
Age: 24
Inherity 1
Toxin Assimilation
Grants the wielder complete immunity to all venoms and poisons that have the sole purpose of directly harming, or immobilizing the body. In addition, allows the wielder to synthesize any toxins that have previously been neutralized for their own use.
Inherity 2
Adaptive Body
Evolutions allow for body enhancements and improvements of existing enhancements. In addition, allows minor adjustments to be made to the physique.
Included enhancements:
Regenerative Blood-???-Exoskeleton Hardening-???-Arachnid Communication-Tremor Detection-???-???-???-Healing Molt-???
Inherity 3
Corium Enhancement
Allows Corium to be absorbed at a faster rate than usual for self, and nearby allies. Higher evolution levels increase this speed further.
Inherity 4
Silk Weaver
Allows for the infusion of magical and physical properties in created silk. New options become available after evolutions.
Currently learned:
Sticky
Non-Sticky
Strong Water-resistant
Very Weak Fire-resistant
I stared at the piece of paper for minutes.
The very first thing that struck me was that I had a whopping four inherities. As far as I knew, there were no records of anyone having more than two.
I then started reading more closely.
Some of the things listed, I was already familiar with. However, other things were completely new to me. My eyes ran over the multiple question marks many times, trying to figure out why there were question marks in the first place.
I'd discuss that with the others.
Also, 'Arachne'? That's what I was, now?
I guess it was better than 'unknown'.
Another thing was striking; apparently, I was 24 years old. I guessed that was my age before coming here, but I couldn't be quite sure.
The Corium absorption seemed very interesting. This was exactly what I'd need to survive in this world. With this, I imagined I could grow stronger far faster than a normal person. The best part was that it would also apply to my party members, although I wasn't quite sure about the range.
However, the most interesting thing was definitely the Toxin Assimilation inherity.
I was completely immune to venom and poison that would harm me? How awesome was that?
Wait.
Weren't caffeine and alcohol technically poisons too?
Were they excluded because I drank them with the intention of the poisonous part to do something else than harm me?
Odd.
Also, I could use venoms and poisons that tried to affect me for myself? Did that mean I could use the same paralytic poison that the goblins made with their yellow mushrooms?
How did that work, though? Did I simply have to think about the properties in the same way I did with my silk?
I was going to try that out immediately after returning home. I couldn't wait to share this information with the others.
I was in high spirits. These abilities were amazing!
I had a broad smile plastered on my face.
My companions walked up and looked down at me and the paper that was still on the floor. Ineus stood where the shelves were previously placed at the side of the room.
"That looks like you got good news," Velariah was the first to speak.
"It's far better than that," I said. "Like, FAR better."
"Oh, that certainly sounds interesting," Seralyn said.
"I can't wait to share this with you guys," I said softly and stood up, paper in my hands.
I handed it to Velariah. "Please put that in your pack, and let's make our way home."
Velariah nodded and put it away.
I turned around and unlocked the door.
"You don't mind walking with us, right?" Velariah's voice came from behind me. Likely directed at Ineus.
The Grandmaster answered. "Stretching the legs never hurt anyone."
"It's only two minutes away, anyway," Velariah answered.
I opened the sliding door and shock struck me. Behind the door was the same human adventurer that gave me a hard time in the second battle in the guild trials.
Pain coursed through me before I realized what happened.
The human ran off as quickly as he'd appeared as I looked down, my mind racing.
A sword had been driven straight through my heart. It had gone all the way through my torso, blood was running down the blade.
"EL!" Velariah screamed behind me.
"PYLANOR!" Ineus's voice called out loudly.
I heard the treemender rush his way over to me as I felt my legs give out beneath me, my arms started to lose strength as well.
Velariah was upon me first, her hands took hold of my head and forced me to look at her. Pylanor and Nira followed shortly afterward and had their hands on me, forcing their magic into my body.
"Don't you dare leave me, El!"
I knew I couldn't do that. This wound was fatal.
My life…
My new life…
Vel…
Darkness crept in and I started losing my sight.
"Vel," I spoke weakly and raised an arm with the last strength I had. I dragged her face to mine.
I prayed that the gods would be kind enough to bring us back together sometime…
"I love you, Vel…"
I took her in for one last kiss before darkness took me completely.