Arthur stalked forward slowly, crouching down as much as he could without falling on his ass as he had done a few times already, concentrating on using his [Hide in Plain Sight] skill as much as possible.

He didn't know whether it was just him being disillusioned or if there was an actual change, but since the skill had reached level 10 he could almost feel a sort of aura wrapping around his body and somehow blurring the edges, if that made any sense.

As he arrived within ten meters from one of the maggots that had fallen off from the carcass of the spider, he laid his spear on the ground and took out a javelin from around his back, hoping his brief training with the things would be enough to land him a good shot at his first try.

The bulging, squishing thing wriggled around in the sand, seemingly trying to right itself and go back towards what to it must have been a very appetizing meal. Arthur had to force down his gagging again as he regarded the rotting insect meat oozing from the missing chunk of spider.

Instead, he took aim, drawing back his right arm and poising for a moment before throwing, using his left to balance himself and line up the shot. When he felt he was on the right track he brought forward the javelin and threw it with as much strength as he could muster, rotating his torso to exert more force.

In all his movement he felt the slightest interference from his [Self-taught Javelin], adjusting the positioning and strength of various muscles in his body. It was a faint thing, probably because of the low level of the skill, but since this was a much more physical skill than the rest he could feel its influence all the more.

The wooden javelin travelled through the air and, surprisingly for both the maggot and Arthur, its sharpened tip buried in the midsection of the creature, striking the general area he had aimed at.

Contrary to what Arthur expected, the fleshy thunk of his javelin hitting tissue wasn't followed by any further sound from the maggot, neither a screech nor a gurgling, it simply started wriggling even fiercely than before.

Not seeing a point in throwing another javelin at it, Arthur inched closer to finish off the disgusting vermin, when he felt a something crash on his head, and a slimy liquid drenching him completely.

Overwhelmed by the sudden feeling of weight, he almost crumpled to the ground completely, but managed at the last second to throw himself to the side, activating [Desperate Dodge].

He couldn't help but shudder as his skin tingled from the contact with the slimy and stinking liquid that now covered most of his torso. He also very much regretted not creating a helmet for himself, as he could already feel something of a concussion developing from the hit, even though the shirt wrapped around his head had cushioned some of it.

Shaking his head to gather himself, Arthur took a glance to see what had hit him, finding another of the damn maggots sucking on a chunk of rotten green flesh. Looking up, he realized a piece of the corpse must have detached from the rest, bringing down with it the white grub.

He almost took a deep breath out of exasperation, before remembering what exactly he was covered in, and decided to just finish the job he had started rather than wait and be hit on the head again.

Half a dozen stabs for each maggot later, Arthur walked back towards the boundary between the small valley and the rest of the desert, hauling with him the corpses of two unfortunate grubs. Luckily for him, the spearhead of his main weapon was shaped just like the rest of his javelin, straight rather than having an actual head so it didn't get stuck in the flesh of the maggots, although it certainly dealt less damage than it would otherwise.

Taking cover behind a dune, Arthur created a few seeds to make himself a campfire, rather like he had done while he was at the underground lake, although this time it would be much easier with both temperature and arid climate on his side.

Although he was hungry, he had no intention to eat what he had caught raw, so fire would be necessary. What he needed to figure out next would be how to actually prepare the slimy things, though they didn't have much slime now since they'd already started drying up.

He figured that since he had two of them, he could use the first to experiment and see what worked out, and then reproduce it on the second. He conjured up quickly a seed to grow something resembling a serrated knife, since a normal knife made out of wood wouldn't make be very sharp anyway, and waited a while for everything to be ready.

With some effort, he managed to separate up its insides, although he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, and ended up with a few broad pieces of see-through white flesh, which jiggled much like jelly would.

He skewered each piece of a javelin, which he then propped up near the campfire he had managed to light up after some tinkering about. He had even been able to make sure the wood he created was dry, so the fire didn't produce as much smoke, making it much less visible from afar.

Through the whole dissection and setting up process, he had even got two dings from his Viewer, notifying him his [Ingenious Cobbling] had gone up two levels, meaning at least something of what he was doing must be correct. Probably.

After some time, Arthur judged the meat could be considered ready, since it already looked a bit singed around the edges. He had expected meat to take slightly longer than a few minutes to be ready, but considering he was working with bug meat in another world he decided everything he knew should be taken with a grain of salt.

Salt which his meat very much lacked, Arthur realized as he hesitantly took a small bite.

"Yup. Fucking disgusting," he announced, simply summarizing his feelings on the whole matter. Chewy and bland, with a slight aftertaste of charred plastic and marsh water, it was exactly what he had expected from eating a creature which had been feasting on the corpse of a giant spider just an hour before.

Still, he couldn't help but shed a tear on the first few bites of meat, or even of actual food he'd eaten in the last three days. It was disgusting and he ate a whole wheelbarrow of it, finally feeling full after such a long time.

Honestly, after eating a couple skewers it didn't even taste as bad as it first had, and as he cleaned off his early bath of digested spider with handfuls of sand – no way he was going to waste water on that – Arthur finally felt he had a chance at survival.

Now, as we all know, becoming complacent and saying things like 'I think I can make it' is a good way to guide karma in a very bad direction. Unfortunately for him, Arthur had forgotten about Murphy's Law, although he was quickly reminded when a screech broke the quite of his lunch – dinner? – and sand started to shift all around him.

Arthur launched himself in a random direction as he felt the ground moving underneath the spot he was sitting at, just in time to evade a shape exploding from the sand and launching itself in the air. It sailed a good ten meters before impacting the ground again, digging its way quickly and disappearing.

It happened so fast Arthur still had no idea what had tried to eat him, but looking around he could see both the remaining maggot corpse and his fire had disappeared completely, together with one of his javelins. An unfortunate loss, but he much preferred it to losing his life.

The sand started shifting around him again, but this time he didn't hesitate before he started running towards the giant carcass in the middle of the nearby valley. Although he couldn't be sure it would be enough to keep himself safe, climbing on top of the spider would give whatever was following him both an obstacle and a distraction in the form of a full meal of blind grubs.

Arthur reached the body quickly, approaching from one of the sides that had yet to be breached rather than try and climb on the slimy and soft rotting flesh, hoping the hairs covering the carcass would make his ascent easier.

Looking back, he could see clearly the forms of a large number of something digging just under the ground, forming small crests of sand on the surface of the desert valley. He was even more relieved when he saw a few of their number veer off and jump out to eat maggots in a single bite directly from the spider's corpse.

This gave him a chance to see what he was up against, which didn't really help him much since all he saw was the long body of some kind of crested worm, the length of which he couldn't determine, although he could tell its mouth was wide enough to swallow him if it emerged directly below his feet.

Shuddering, he stowed his spear away, quickly grabbed on a clump of hair and started climbing, using a few dents in the chitinous armour as footholds. Luckily the worms didn't seem able to follow him, simply circling for a minute after he had started climbing and then moving on to join the grub feast happening a short distance away.

The climb was long and exhausting, with a few very close call as pieces of rotting chitin gave way under his weight or his burning arms started slipping up, but he managed to not fall down and become a splotch of red in the sand by way of sheer luck and determination. He had come so far, and he'd rather not die from something simple as messing up while free-climbing after all he'd been through.

He reached the top, tired to the bone and drenched in his own sweat, bent down with his hands on his knees in an attempt to recover his breath, when he was almost scared into jumping off the carcass by a loud ding going off in his mind.

He swore a blue streak after regaining his balance, his heart thumping from the near-death experience. He opened up his status screen, since he wasn't exactly sure whether that was a level up or something else, and was surprised to see another skill had been added to the list.

Skills - [7/12 Slots Filled]

Rank

Level

Category

Desperate Dodge

Common

5

Active Skill

Sun Tolerance

Common

10

Resistance

Hide in Plain Sight

Uncommon

10

Ability

Magick of the Bountiful Oasis

First Invocation – From Sand, Seed

Rare

13

Magick Set

Self-taught Javelin

Common

6

Expertise

Ingenious Cobbling

Uncommon

6

Expertise

Adventurous Climb

Uncommon

4

Ability

"Wait, but this doesn't make any sense. Why is it an 'Ability', shouldn't it be 'Expertise'?" Once again, Arthur's understanding of this system was absolutely bashed as he gained another skill.

"And why is it already level four? Does that mean the whole climb was taken into account, and the skill was already there when I started?" He mumbled to himself, unsure of any theory he may have. "But then, why would it only show up now?" Questions, questions.

Obviously, Arthur was neither an expert nor did he have any experience in having some kind of system governing his life, but he would have to become one if he didn't find someone to explain it to him before long.

"I also need to find out if there is a way to delete skills, since for now the only job I can think of would be…" He reviewed his skills to come up with a satisfying answer, but gave up before long. "Gardener. Adventurer. Tourist? I guess I could sign up for the Olympics with the javelin, if they have them in this place," Arthur sighed, quite unsatisfied with the options that were presented to him.

As he thought over what the future may have in store for him, Arthur started pacing around on the back of the giant spider, his sandals clunking when impacting with the chitin.

Differently from his experience climbing the carcass, the surface felt decently solid, and could hold his weight, which was kinda strange. Why would the top be stronger, or maybe thicker, than the sides? It didn't seem to make much sense, structurally speaking. Or maybe he was going about it wrong, maybe the top was stronger because the maggots had yet to reach the higher reaches, and were still confined to the bottom…

His feet froze just before touching the ground, as he noticed the chitin he was about to step on had started to bulge and grow, and with a last push something broke free from it. Arthur immediately activated [Desperate Dodge] as a reaction, fearing another worm attack, and launched himself to the side.

Unfortunately, it appeared the grubs had just started to reach the top at that moment, so as he landed mid-roll the ground collapsed and he found himself grasping for a hold as he dove in a pool of half-digested and rotting chunks of insect flesh.

Absolutely covered head to toe in the stuff, Arthur managed to heave himself out and to dry land, but he was far from happy at this point.

"I hate this place so much."