Are they here already? What the hell. "Yes spiders the size of my palm have infested the village since two weeks ago." The man said. That small? So you are telling me that the arachnid produces millions of spiders the size of goats. Then this goat sized spiders produce spiders the size of my palm in unknown quantities? What is this? The end of the world? "My wife and my children…They are poisoned. I need that medicine." The old man said as he brandished his sharpened stick. I need to get this village and assess the situation. "I am a healer. If you don't mind I want to look after your sick." I said. "Nonsense. You are a soldier and by your stature a very capable one it seems." The old man said. Stature? Ooh yeah I was a little taller than most people here at a little over 190 centimeters. I was also holding a sword and a shield. "Yes I am a soldier and a healer. I don't think this medicine is enough to treat everybody." I said. "That medicine does not treat them. It only alleviates the pain they feel." My employer said. What? Then why are they…? Never mind that. "Are you truly a healer?" one of the villagers brandishing a sickle asked me. I could feel the desperation in her voice. "Yes. I believe I can treat the sick." I said. This was followed by discussions from the crowd. "Let's give him a chance." "What do we have to lose anyway?" "I don't trust soldiers." On and on it went for a few minutes. "What is your name young man?" the old man who was the leader of the group asked. "My name is Chrono a healer and a soldier." I answered. Other questions were asked like where I come from and why I am here. I answered them in a way that allows me to have a plausible deniability. 'Where are you from?' 'I was born and raised in a forest village that was destroyed when I was young. I cannot remember its name. I was taken as a slave' Answers like that were not uncommon for a warring kingdom like this. In fact one of the servants of the Priestess gave such an answer to Zari a while ago. I just stole the formula. After the interrogation process and them finding out that I was hired to provide an escort, some level of trust was formed. I was asked to leave my shield and sword with the horse and follow them. Of course I didn't do that. I waited for the perfect opportunity and turned Jenga to a bracelet and wore him. "Follow me." The old man said. My employer also followed the group out of curiosity. "I only dropped the medicine and left. I don't know how bad it is." My employer said. We walked for a few minutes and then abruptly stopped. "Look healer. This is what is causing all this trouble." The old man said. He was pointing at a spider on the ground. The body was palm sized as he had stated but combining the legs in the equation, the spider was longer and wider than an adult shoe. In terms of measurements, I would give it at least 30 centimeters in dimeter. "There is another one." Another person shouted. The village was in a semi-arid area and for some reason, the spiders were brown in color and could camouflage themselves. "Let's get moving." The old man said. We walked for a few minutes before we entered a rundown shack. "This is the village's treatment center." The old man said. There were n buildings around. "This is not the village?" I asked. "Yes. We moved because it was overrun by those spiders." The old man said. Once I finish up here I should go and have a look. The sight inside was horrific. Some were at the cusp of death. I decided to start with the most serious cases first. "She is still breathing. Good. Can I get a jar of clean and boiled water from all of you who can move?" I said. I wanted to limit the number of spectators. 75% of the group went to fetch water. I held my hand over the patient to assess her. Over 40% of her blood was contaminated with poison. Removing the poison could result in her being anemic. The only option was to change the composition of poison to something else. The poison was liquid in nature. It was impossible to make blood without using a large chunk of my mana. The only option left was to turn the poison droplets to water. The task was completed a few moments later and se fell to sleep. "What did you do?" the old man asked. He was not very strong or agile so he was left here to look after me. "I neutralized the poison. It is a technique that I learnt from a hunter." I answered. The old man was astonished but quickly recovered. "Here. This is my wife and daughter. Please heal them." He saidI did not object. They were not in a bad condition so everything was completed instantly. "I feel my headaches going away dad." The daughter said as she touched her head. The wife also started touching and moving her shoulders. "Thank you Mr. Chrono. Thank you." The old man said while weeping. "Take some water and have some rest." I said as I moved to the next patients. At the end of twenty minutes, all forty plus patients were taken care of. Some fell asleep while other moved around. This is good but I will not always be here to protect them.
[Yes there is. However, the materials are scarce and scattered all over the continent.]
"Listen to me all of you. You need to evacuate from here. The poison from this spiders is extremely poisonous and impossible to get a cure. I might not be around if you fall ill." I said. They all looked at me scared. "Evacuate?" "But go where?" "This is our home." Opinions flew all over the shack. "What direction was your village? I need to investigate it." I asked the old man. "You want to go there?" he shouted. "Yes. Do not worry about me. I can heal myself." I said. The old man was a little reluctant but ultimately pointed me to that direction. I left immediately. I covered my body with a barrier and began to walk towards that direction. Flying would have been easier but I was sure that I needed to observe the ground at close range to look for clues. I was right. On the way I must have met over a hundred spiders where I disintegrated all of them. A few moments later, I arrived at the former village. Is the ground moving? No. are those spiders? The ability f the spiders to camouflage on the ground and move at rapid speeds made it look like the ground was moving. I need to incinerate all of them. I raised my right hand and a violent torrent of fire appeared. Within an instant, all was calm. Not even the ash remained. They were consumed whole and what was left was a dark scorch mark on the ground. I took a look around and found that most of the spiders were concentrated at peoples houses. Do I raze the whole village to the ground? I held my chin in deep thought. Suddenly, my vision was blocked with a white substance. 'What is this sticky substance?' My awareness was always lacking because I was always strong. I did not need hypervigilance because the enemy was unlikely to harm me even with the element of surprise. "Ha-ha are you trying a contest of strength with me?" I shouted. I could feel a certain nudge. I quickly incinerated what I came to realize was a web and regained my sight. Are this the spiders they referred to as the size of goats? What goats were they talking about? There were three spiders here larger than normal. They were at least 60 cm tall and their legs could extend more than 1 meter. They were far larger than normal goats. I should look at them keenly. Their mana reserves were at between 800- 1300. What the hell man? This guys are laid in millions? That is almost a billion in combined mana reserves for the Arachnid?I needed to know their attack patterns first so I did not attack them. They came at me at full speed. After a few seconds I realized that there were three different species. One was able to spout poison, another was throwing webs from its abdomen while another attacked using its highly evolved fangs. It was impossible for normal humans to even challenge them. Their speeds and coordination were very impressive. I let the experiment proceed for a little while to collect more data. I was satisfied with what I had seen. At long range, the spider throwing webs to restrict my movement and sight was the most dangerous. At an average distance, the poison spouting spider had the largest area of effect. At close range, the biting spider could possibly snap a human's leg at once. I needed to find their den so I decided to fight back. I injured two front legs in each of them using light beams and hoped they could retreat. If they did, I would then follow them from behind. That's was what I expected but what happened next shook me to the core. Instead of running away, they came charging at me and in the next moment they exploded. "What the hell was that?" I shouted. That was so unexpected. So this is why nobody has ever found the Arachnids nest? That bastard is so careful.
[You have acquired the skills, web manipulation and poison manipulation]
I didn't even kill them?
[This is the result of the ability Life Manipulation which allows you to copy the magic of a defeated creature.]