Chapter 53

In the morning, they set off, minus one companion. At least Praveen was still alive. Joanne looked better. She could not cast any magic, but she thought the ability would re-emerge soon.

Best of all, the town didn’t want them to do anything special, especially after the swooper deal. Staying in a town without an extrinsic threat was pleasant.

“Does everyone remember the details from last night?” Galan asked cheerfully.

“No.”

“Not a chance.”

“Adrian?” Galan asked.

“A little. I recall giving you eight hundred thousand energy.”

“And?”

“Locals could follow and harvest stuff behind us.”

Galan grinned. “There is nothing complicated about this fight. You wear these.” He pulled out an ugly green raincoat, complete with a flap to seal over your mouth. That will protect you from their poison. Beyond that, we just fight. We’re going straight down the Hume. If we’re in their territory, then they are all going to come for us. Stay close.”

Jules rolled her eyes. “We lied. We remember perfectly.”

Galan did not look like he believed her. “Praveen will provide an escort for the locals.” The tank waved and there was a group of around fifty behind them. Most of them were wearing green face masks and gloves. That too had come out of his pocket, but they needed that to process the spitters. The investment Galan assured him would be worthwhile.

“The monsters live in caves with dedicated stronger guards. What we are facing is going to be their roving warrior bands. I expect every group to attack us, which is only about a third of the infestation’s strength. We’re not planning on eliminating them today but destroying such a large number that Euroa will be able to proactively manage their numbers in the future.”

“We remember,” Jules grumped. “It was very noble of you to spend Adrian’s money to help the town.”

Beatrice laughed at that.

“They’ll pay it all back by the time we finish,” Galan promised.

Just two minutes out of town the first pack charged them.

Spiderous Spitters Warrior

These twelve legs monsters have high speed and primarily subdue their prey by spitting poison at the victims. In addition, they possess a nasty bite that can pierce steel armour.

They had an agility of approximately thirty, but his identification focused on the poison that they could unleash. There were around forty different varieties of spitters and till he extracted subtle details he could not determine which type these were. With his poison pathway, small doses from most of them would not kill him, but there were some he needed to be careful of.

The skill completed and he grimaced. They were not a trivial enemy.

His pathway itched, and he reviewed the antidotes available. If he ingested too much poison, then the general antidotes would work. In the meantime, it was a cheap training. He stripped off the protections that Galan had given them. He would not need them.

“Adrian!”

“What?” He looked up at the oracle. She held out a green mask. The thought of putting that on made him feel sick. His pathway was growling at the piece of fabric. “Wear it.”

“No.”

“Adrian, trust me. This is me acting in my role of oracle.”

“The pathway…” he ground out.

“Is wrong. We’ll be fighting spitters all day. Do the maths. Without the mask, you will get immunity in a couple hours and with the mask seven or eight.”

“Exactly! Seven or eight!” he snapped. “That’s too long” Then his face went red as he realised what he had said.

“If you don’t get immunity when fighting the scouting packs, then you can go into the cave tonight and guarantee it then.”

Fuck!

“This pathway is a bitch.” It had made him throw caution to the wind and there was no need. He would be able to safely train the pathway to completion no matter which version of the spitters they fought. They would be fighting for over ten hours.

“Yes,” Kyoko agreed. “It’s a bitch.”

He took the mask and strung it over his face.

Jules, Charlotte and himself were sent off to fight by themselves, with the main group taking the centre.

The first pack of spitters charged him like a herd of galloping horses and while they looked sort of like giant spiders, they were not. Twelve legs, two eyes on each leg, a central body that had a big mouth on one end and a stubby tail on the other that was flexible enough that it could point in a three hundred sixty-degree arc and shoot poison in any direction. Adrian did not know where they were weakest, nor did he care.

He stepped clear of the poison as eight globs of it shot through the area he had just vacated. Triple blade.

He had angled it so the air blade took out two, the fire a similar number and the ice a single one. Then his spear lunged and skewered the sixth. Those six were dead and two were left alive. A flex of his Mind and Flame burned into one head while ice settled its terrifying grip on the other. The fire one died immediately. the iced one slowly. It would probably survive for half a minute, but outside healing spells it was dead.

All eight were dead, all of them still running because their elimination had taken a moment.

Step.

He was clear. Behind him, he heard them crashing into each other. Residual momentum after their brains had been destroyed as they ran around like headless spiders.

After that, he fell into a routine. There was no need to get creative. Instead, he used the same technique repeatedly. Sometimes the triple blade tagged only three but other times it would take out all eight.

Kill. Move on.

Leave the bodies behind him for others to process.

At about midday, he pulled off the mask and left it on a corpse. There was no reason the gatherers couldn’t reuse it, and he no longer needed it.

He kept fighting. If it could be called that. It was as exciting as editing a management report. Just repetition. Making sure the grammar was precise, and all the different numbers added up. Tedious.

After ten hours, it was done. The remaining scouting packs retreated, having finally got the message that they were outclassed.

Praveen jogged up. “Can you guys stay around longer for security?”

They agreed and sat down to make some roasted spider meat while they sort of kept watch to make sure none of the spitters were getting near.

Almost immediately, the innkeeper appeared and took over the cooking.

“That was a fun day of bashing,” Jules declared.

“It was boring.”

“It is what you make it, Adrian. You didn’t put any art into your fighting. One time I hit a spider so hard that I decapitated it and the head fell at my feet and the body flew eight metres and knocked the next pack flying.”

“You’re so lying,” he said laughing. “I know what sixty strength does, and it’s not that.”

“No lying. I reckon it went ten metres. My point is you just killed rather than getting creative. Charlotte?”

The redhead giggled. “At one time, I had like three hundred chasing me, all of them with a life drain on them.”

“Then?” Jules asked.

“They started dying faster than I could get replacements.”

“Mike, you got any stories.”

“Nope, we did our job. Life’s too delicate to take unnecessary risks.”

“Boo,” Jules jeered.

Mike shrugged. “I kept everyone alive, despite lacking a tank. And I killed like sixty personally with my spear. It was successful.”

Praveen came up and pulled out a stone that glowed sapphire. “You made a profit,” he said cheerfully.

“What’s that?” Adrian asked.

“The returns from everything we killed minus their meat,” Galan explained.

“How much?”

“One point three million.”

Galan whistled. “Four hundred thousand profit. That’s four times what I forecast.”

“Tubs,” Adrian called out and the innkeeper almost jumped from where he was passing out what looked like tiny cakes to the girls. “We’ll take ten thousand each. The rest of the profits go to the town.”

By the time he had stated the instructions, Tubs was back and grabbed the glowing sapphire and took over distributing it. Two minutes later he came back with a sapphire that was noticeably dimmer. “Eight hundred and ninety-six thousand,” Tubs told him. “Your initial investment plus your ten thousand.”

“Good job. How did you split the town contribution?”

“Everyone involved got paid two thousand energy, and then the remaining half went to the town.”

“Great job.”

Tubs grinned as he went up another two levels to seventeen.

“I should charge by the hour for the honour of waiting on me.”

Tubs immediately pulled out two gold-coloured energy chips. “This is all I have, but if you give me time, I can raise more.”

“It was a joke.”

“I know,” Tubs said jovially. “but what sort of host would I have been if I just left you hanging there. If you had tried to take the money, I would have socked you one.”

Adrian laughed. Tubs had meant what he said. Despite the physical difference between them, which meant Adrian could crush him with barely a thought, Tubs still would have hit him. “Tubs, forget this shit. I know you’re incentivised but thank you for treating me normally.”

The other man nodded. “I know how hard it is to stand out.” The man winked and patted his belly. Galan yelled for another beer, and as graceful as Jules moved in battle, the big man zipped away.

Adrian had a look at what stats had changed.

Pathway of Poison Resistance - 79% (+2%)

Experience - 79,787 (5,241 from actions, banked experience 5,756) of 100,000 required for Level 7

It was getting dark. “I assume we’re camping here?” he asked Kiyoko.

“Yes, there’s no point going to Avenal at all, especially this late.”

“Why?”

“Just pointless distractions. They don’t have anything they need us for. We skip the town and start fighting the slimes tomorrow afternoon. Fight for five hours and then retreat in order to camp and then break through to Seymour the day after.”

“We’re so close to Melbourne,” Adrian whispered.

“I don’t know about that,” Kiyoko admitted. “I have very limited information on the echidna.”

“I can just fly over it now.”

The oracle burst out laughing. “That is one thing that you can’t do.” She pointed up and to the right. It was dark and there was nothing he could see in that direction.

“What is there?”

“Who knows,” Kiyoko said. “But air monsters are more territorial than ground. If anything, attempts to travel too far in the air, it’ll attract class monsters. And trust me, in the air, they can fight better than you.”

“If it is just class four, it’ll be trivial.”

“It won’t be.”

His drink was empty. He went to raise it but Tubs was already there and replacing the alcohol. “Water.”

Another glass appeared. He had never experienced that level of service before. He knew it was going to spoil him.

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