It wasn't uncommon for people to incur new phobias throughout their lives, but usually arachnophobia was one of those that developed during childhood. In Marcie's case, she was usually only slightly wary of spiders and would usually leave them alone or relocate them safely out of her home should one intrude. At this moment in time, however, her wariness had fully bloomed into a proper fear-driven night terror.
Marcie could feel her hairs stand on end and her breath fall into tiny short breaths when the spindly legs and bulbous abdomen - closely resembling orb weavers that she used to find taking up residence amongst flower beds and gardens - emerged from a corner of the web to inspect its latest catch. To her knowledge, orb weavers weren't a venomous species, but then again, for an arachnid of that size even if it wasn't venomous, it was still deadly.
She couldn't calm her nerves. The size of a spider-like creature that can rival the menaces in the old movie Eight-legged Freaks was right before her and it looked like it was salivating at the thought of its soon-to-be meal. Marcie was too stricken by fear to even notice the blue window detailing information about the spider appearing.
'What do spiders hate…think Marcie…' The internet meme about killing a tiny spider with fire as an overzealous reaction came to mind. She could use her lightning skill to burn the web, but she would fall too.
Marcie glanced around to find a vine dangling down about 10 feet away. If she could grab it, she could light the web on fire. The spider would fall to the ground that was extremely far down. Even if it survived falling, she hoped it is incapable of vindictiveness and would just move on.
Luckily, Marcie didn't need to use her hand to navigate her inventory now. The window popped up and like it was bending to her will. Some vines, branches and skeletal parts from one of her vorpal prizes highlighted and combined. What came of it, the system referred to as a primitive grapple on a pole. It was enough.
The strength needed to rip her arm off the web wasn't as much as she originally thought. The spider was still being cautious but was moving closer and closer. The combination of pauses and sudden rapid movements it made unnerved her.
Marcie had no time to waste now. With only one hand free, this was going to be really tricky. Catching the dangling vine was easy enough and so was pulling it close, but she would have a difficult time grabbing a hold of it whilst also holding the grapple at the same time. Marcie was grateful for being born a species with dexterous and nimble hands and she succeeded in grabbing the vine.
Not a moment too soon as the web began to shake with vigor and the spider had made the decision to go in for the kill. It rushed in her direction and not a moment sooner did her stuck hand expel a charge directly to the web, setting it ablaze.
The webs were resistant to the downpour of rain, but because their compounds were practically the same as spider silk on earth, it was susceptible to fire. Perhaps it was a bit more flammable than Marcie had intended as the flames thrashed out quickly towards the outer rims. Marcie felt the release of the webs support as gravity pulled her down swinging her away. She nearly lost her grip on the vine and slid down a few feet but with her other hand now free, she grabbed the vine with both hands and dangled while she tried to locate her newest nemesis.
Sure enough, it has fallen to the forest floor just as she planned, but was it still alive? Yes, but…it looked like it was impaled by the lower half of a broken tree. It was clearly screeching in agony and desperately trying to get itself out of its predicament.
"It's a bug… It's just…" Marcie sighed and let herself lower on the vine towards the floor. She winced from the sound and pulled a long branch from her inventory that she used her create skill to turn into a pike. This was a very uncomfortable moment for her and after lining up the tip of the spear with her target, she looked away. The sounds of the spider stopped as the body curled up. Yeah it was a bug… but it was still a living thing.
Marcie watched as the body evaporated and popped up in disassembled parts in her inventory. She ignored their inspection as she felt her arms begin to strain. The Vorpals too, she felt the pang in her consciousness every single time but at the end of the day, she did what she had to to survive.
She glanced upwards towards the canopy. There were more webs surrounding the area, which meant that those monkeys likely are avoiding the area. She supposed it was a blessing in disguise.
By the time Marcie had managed to make it to the branch in which the vine connected high up in the canopy, the sun had begun to set. While the tree itself was too large for her to toss a vine around its trunk to create a support, the branch was just small enough.
Whipping a vine around it took a few tries, but she eventually managed. Amidst her climb, she had obtained an additional passive skill 'Strong Arm (E-Rank)' which basically made her arms stronger without adding bulk. She guessed that strength, based on the information about hunter skills, was equivalent to those old strong man competitions. Of course, those athletes who had awoken are now much stronger than that.
As the night sky settled in, Marcie covered herself with plant material pulled from her inventory in an attempt to insulate. The view from the abnormally tall tree was quite nice. She could just barely see above the general canopy line. There were more cliffs and mountains quite close and the faintest glow of blue and yellow artificial lights between the trees far off in the distance barely escaped her peripherals as she drifted off to sleep.