Time passed by and so did some days too, although he had lost the feeling of time, yet Arthur was still laying down on the ground, exhausted from the fight he had, waiting to heal up and be able to walk again. *drip... drip...* Water drops landed on Arthur's face from the ceiling. He awoke unable to move quite a bit, which irritated him. He slowly tried to stand up, with a painful expression on his face because of the pain he was feeling in his entire body, yet all he could do was lean with his back on the cave wall. With a heavy breath, his mind became dizzy and he felt like he could collapse any time soon, while a pounding pain traveled throughout his entire body. *pant, huff... huff!* "Dammit!" "Why does it still hurt?!" he expressed, full of anger while slowly falling into despair because his body is weak and the enemies in this cave are even stronger than the lich.
*pop!* A window poped up in front of his face. "New Quest_Goal: Kill the Arachnid Queen Quest Details: Survive in this hell-like cave and kill every spider you can find in this forsaken dungeon, including the Arachnid Queen. Difficulty: Hard+ (can change depending on the users' progress and leveling as well as other conditions.) The duration is about one and a half weeks. Time extension is possible through points.
Rewards: Rare Title: Arachnid Slayer and the curse will be lifted. You will also get 500 points.
In case of failure, you will go through enormous pain and a penny quest and 200 points will be deducted!" Arthur finished reading the details and leaned back. "So I ain't gettin' any rest now, am I?" As he leaned back, he let out a deep sigh, after which he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Haylee struggled with a basket full of clothes and put it down next to a tube filled with water above which bubbles were floating. With the help of a washboard, she washed the clothes with an uneasy expression on her face. On the contrary, her sister Kaylee was chasing a beautiful little butterfly without a care in the world. "What are the two of you doing?" Their grandfather's voice got her back from her thoughts. He was slowly walking towards Haylee. He sat down and looked at her, enjoying the warmth of the sun in the open air on a beautiful field where they were surrounded by flowers.
"I am worried about Arthur grandpa. Maybe something happened to him?" She said this with puppy eyes.
"I know, but we can't do anything. We don't even know where he went. " He said. "Well, he left a letter behind saying that he would go to the dungeon and kill the lich in order to get rid of the lich along with the curse. It has been a week since he suddenly disappeared. I hope nothing bad happens. Dammit! If I could just-!..." He was interrupted from his thoughts, after which he realized that, he clenched his fist. His two granddaughters were watching him, wondering why he spaced out. "Is something the matter, grandpa?..." Kaylee asked in an innocent and childish voice.
"I still cannot believe that the two of you have the same age..." Joseph muttered these words with a deep sigh of regret as he remembered how he could not protect them. "If only..." Haylee and Kaylee put their hands on his big hand and hugged him. "Don't worry about it. One day it's gonna be over, I know it. " They comforted Joseph, after which he smiled.
Arthur woke up and was finally able to move a lot more. "Status window," he said, and a window poped out showing him his stats and condition. "Damn, I can't believe that I only regained about 40 percent of my health back." Arthur expressed disappointment while scrathing his head. "Well, at least my energy is full. W-wait, what is this?!" A strange sign was spotted next to the absobtion skill. "I should find out, *tapped on the sign* Hmmm... Due to overuse of this skill, the host is unable to use it for the duration of a week. The body condition does not allow it. The host's body took too much damage from this skill. If the host is not careful, this skill will be removed! "The host needs a higher level of compability and mastery to use this skill longer and more effectively. " With his eyes open as wide as he could, he was speechless. The only hope for him to survive this quest was this skill, and now he is unable to use it. Dispair and anxiety made their way into his mind, slowly drowning him. While he was looking down, out of the corner of his eye, he saw his backpack.
His face lightened up and he rushed over to it, remembering that he still had herbs that could help him recover. Arthur slowly made his way to his backpack and opened it. There were some herbs for wound treatment and for restoring health (well, not much anyway), some water bags, and his twin bird daggers, as well as a map, which is now useless as he is in the underground. "I need those herbs to treat my body and get in better condition, even if it's not much. "Wait, what is THIS?" Something strange appeared while he was looking at the herbs. "It says: Do you want to analyze this plant? hmmm... Hey system, what does "analyze" mean?"
"Hello Host, what does analyze mean?"
A: "Yes, could you explain it briefly?" Arthur asked while agreeing with the system.
"Analyze means that you examine something or scan it methodically in order to find out more about the item or whatever you have in your hand or want to analyze. You can find some hidden features in items and correctly use them. But be cautious. "
A: "Why, it seems to be really useful and comes just right?" He was skeptical about why the system warned him about it.
"It is an awesome feature, but it consumes energy from the host, which means every time you use it, it consumes some of your energy. The larger the item you want to analyze, the more energy is needed. Of course you can level it up after you level up t.h..e..-" *Beep, beep, beeeppp...* The system seems to be sorted, and the window is shaking while the words are doing so too. An annoying sound comes from it, and the words seem to disappear. Then the system window just disappeared from Arthur's eyes. It was nowhere to be found, and neither did it respond to Arthur's call.
A: "W-w-what is going ON?!!" He shouted with anxiety while trying to do something about it, and he wondered if it had disappeared completely! "It reappeared! Thankfully, it did not disappear!" Art expressed, after which he let out a big sigh.
system. *buzz... buzz...* The words and the window are still shaking "I'm sorry, Host, for whatever happened."The buzzing and shaking stopped. "It seems that it was information that I cannot share with you. I cannot tell you anymore because you could be in danger too." *WARNING! The system is running low on energy and must be shut down soon to charge!
A: "What the heck is that?" Unable to understand, he spoke his thoughts out loud.
System: "Host I need to shut down soon because I am low on energy. You will still be able to use the basics like status window, description, and so on, I will not be able to respond, talk, or communicate with you."
A: "How long will it take and can't you just take some energy from me in order to recharge?" He asked.
system: "I do not know how long it will take, but I can drain some energy from you. However, I do not recommend it, dear host; your body will be unable to withstand it, let alone handle it. " You will simply break your body and die from it."
Arthur wanted to argue further and clenched his fist but held back because the longer it drags on, the longer the recharge process will take and he does not know what will happen if it shuts down completely. He eased his grip and sighed, collecting his thoughts together. "I see. Then go and recharge, but inform me when you are completely recharged!" He demanded quite loudly.
"I will do so, and for now, bye." And the window closed off.
Arthur was scraching the back of his head, anxious about what had just happened, before realizing that he was still holding the herb in his hand. While looking at it, a window poped out, "Analyze," Arthur read out loud. He is tempted to use it. "I mean, the system said that the consequences would not be that great if it was just a small item, so it will not hurt, will it?" Even though he wanted to try his new system feature out, he could not forget the warning the system gave him about not being able to handle the pain. After a hard fight with himself and his inner desire to try it out, he put the herb in his mouth, eating it and meditating in order to bring his body back to his former condition again. "Of course, my body would not regain its former condition with just this-OUCH!" He remembered that his muscles were still a little sore from all the fighting he had done some days ago. "Anyway, I need to stretch a little." Having said that, he stood up and started stretching.
Some time had passed, and Arthur packed his stuff, ready to go out and explore the dungeon and begin his quest. Wandering around through the dark and cold cave, he realized that it would take quite a lot of time to explore the whole dungeon. But he still did.
"I have not seen any spiders till now..." Arthur concluded as he was walking and taking the thinker's pose. "Anyway, I need to get stronger fast in order to get out. Status Window!" *pop* "Ahhh... there it is. Let's see... I still have about.. ahmm just eight days, 20 hours, 12 minutes, and 40 seconds left. Well, the time countdown is quite accurate. " While thinking this, he heard a silent sound, which was pretty easy to overhear.
Arthur, with his back to the wall, dared to look around the corner. What he saw frightened him. A spider was there, huge and with eight sword-like legs that could pierce and slash everything that came in its way. The hair on its body looked like a fur of thorns covered with acid and poison. While Arthur peeked at the spider, a window appeared in front of his eyes. * scanning*
"Monster Type: Cave Spider; Ranking: Common-Low; The spider has eight legs and can pierce through iron and slash through stones. The hair on their bodies is soft but also very sharp and can cause you to lose a limb. It is covered with acid and poison. They have praiseworthy eyesight but a not very sensitive hearing ability. " Arthur read the description in his mind.
Art slowly pulled his sword out of its sheath with relief and dashed at the spider. "Activate Aura Blade" and jumped at the spider and slashed some energy attacks at it and landed in front of it He turned around quickly and for all the right reasons. The spider got a few blows but dodged the others with enormous speed. It was fast, but not fast enough to disappear from Arthur's field of sight. "Hmmm... something is different,something has changed..." The spider attacked him because of the opening he showed by not concentrating on their fight. Suddenly, Xaviers' body dodged backwards through a flinch response and attacked the spider's leg with a backwards spin attack, he cut it off. "Hmm..." Arthur is getting distracted again while looking at the sword, as if he is getting sucked into it. *Huhh...* He let out a deep breath, tightened his grip on the sword's handle, and dashed at the spider again while infusing more energy into his sword, strengthening his aura. "Precise Strike!" Art expressed himself powerfully as he struck at the spider's head and slashed it open.
That was easy...
[POV Arthur]
I am not even tired. How can that be? I am looking at the spider and taking pity on it. Maybe more fights with such beasts are needed to explain what changed, because even though I am not in my top condition nor at the peak of my power, I did not have any problems killing it. I can't explain it by being a low level being, because common-low ranked monsters are five times stronger than lesser-high ranked monsters. Anyway, I need to- A window poked out again "Congratulations on slaying a higher-ranked Spider Pawn. There is a change in your quest details: Once you slay all of the queen's minions, you will get hold of the information about where the queen is.
Arthur looked further into the cave, "Aura Vision," and saw a bunch of other spiders. With a grin, he dashed towards them and started killing them, well... the correct term would be that he was massacring them.