Fortunately, the sickle was good enough to harvest all of the parts from the spider that Runa felt would be best. It required a bit of skill to get the eyes out using a sharp sickle without damaging them, but she managed! Using the sickle for it was important so that she would benefit from the Extra Yield tag. Without it, she wouldn’t have been able to gather nearly as much as she did.

“I guess I should go for the Monster Carver path,” Runa said. “I think I’ll have to harvest… six more monsters before I can get it?”

“Sounds like a good idea to me!” Tabitha said. Admittedly, she struggled to picture Runa actually getting into a monster’s corpse and carving it up and all that, but Runa already proved she had no problem handling a dead, giant spider. She just didn’t like monsters when they were alive, clearly.

As for the items Runa gathered, Tabitha reached down to use Analyze on the first, most obvious item of the bunch.

Item Information

Name

Giant Pine Crawler Leg

The sharp leg of a Giant Pine Crawler spider. It is as useful for dealing damage as it is for moving around.

Rarity

D

Quality

41

Element

Earth

[Bonus Tags]

[Sharp II]

[Fear I]

“Fear? That’s a new one. Oi, Men—actually, wait. I’ll check the rest of these out first so ya can show me all the new tags all at once,” Tabitha said.

Looking the leg over a bit more, it was about as tall as Tabitha was when she fully stretched it out. The incredibly sharp tip of it got her thinking about how that was even possible, though. She figured that something with a tip that sharp and pointed would get worn down from being walked on all the time. The spider was big, too. It wasn’t light. Then again, it had eight legs, so maybe the weight was distributed across them in a way that prevented the legs’ tips from getting too dull?

The leg didn’t seem to have any specific trait that would affect its durability, but what if it was just a natural part of the leg that all of them had? It wasn’t like every single trait of an item showed up as a tag. So, what if there was another property to the leg that didn’t show up as one?

And what if it was somehow combined with metal to create a blade less prone to losing its edge? Like melting a spider leg into some molten iron? Would that have any effect on the final product’s sharpness and durability?

Gonna have to start myself a list of science experiments I wanna try. That can be the first one, Tabitha thought before moving on to the next item.

Item Information

Name

Giant Pine Crawler Eyes

The eyes of a Giant Pine Crawler spider.

Rarity

C

Quality

39

Element

Earth

[Bonus Tags]

[Poor Vision I]

[Critical Down I]

The brown eyes took up her whole hand and Tabitha hated how soft and squishy they felt as she rolled them around with her fingers, but they gave her an idea. Both of its tags sounded like negative effects. Given that she was already thinking about making a spear specialized for hunting giant spiders that played on their weaknesses, adding those effects to it would take that even further.

Next were the fangs.

Item Information

Name

Giant Pine Crawler Fang

The fang of a Giant Pine Crawler spider.

Rarity

C

Quality

42

Element

Earth

[Bonus Tag]

[Sharp I]

Item Information

Name

Giant Pine Crawler Fang

The fang of a Giant Pine Crawler spider.

Rarity

C

Quality

57

Element

Earth

[Bonus Tags]

[Furious Fang I]

[Durable]

The fangs were both the same size and didn’t exactly look like anything special. They were long, sharp, and deadly, but still just curved, black fangs that looked like giant versions of what could be found from any spider. Though, the Furious Fang I trait definitely grabbed Tabitha’s attention.

There was one more item she wanted to look at before checking out all the new tags, though.

It was an organ that looked sort of like smooth, raw chicken on the surface, but it had what looked like a tube of sorts attached to one end of it that was tied by Runa to prevent anything from dripping through it.

Item Information

Name

Giant Pine Crawler Venom Gland

The venom gland of a Giant Pine Crawler spider.

Rarity

B

Quality

66

Element

Earth

[Bonus Tags]

[Spider Venom II]

[Enfeebling Venom I]

“Ya know, menu, ya got a bit creative with the spider leg back there, but the rest of these descriptions have been as generic as can be,” Tabitha said and sighed. “Ah well. I can always add my own descriptions to things I make. For now, oi, Menu, do the thing!”

System Menu

Fear I

Decreases Willpower in enemies this item is wielded against by 5%.

Poor Vision I

Slightly worsens one’s eyesight when consumed.

Critical Down I

Slightly decreases one’s chance to critically damage an enemy when consumed.

Furious Fang I

Slightly increases the chance to critically damage an enemy when used in piercing attacks.

Spider Venom II

Drains 5 HP per minute and reduces Strength by 10% until cured.

Enfeebling Venom I

Decreases all Attributes by 2.5% until cured.

“Ooh. Well, that’s a lot of fun stuff to play with,” Tabitha said. “It’s all… pretty violent, but that don’t mean it’s not fun. That could all be stacked onto a single spear, too. And if I can imbue it with those mushrooms… that’s gonna be one scary, spider-killin’ spear. Probably overkill, honestly. Also, readin’ all these descriptions reminded me of somethin’.”

Runa was already at work putting the items away in the backpack, leaving the leg awkwardly sticking out of it. “What is it?”

“Never checked out that new skill I got from unlockin’ Blacksmith. Menu. The thing. Do it.”

Skill Information

Name

Sense Metal

Sense Metal allows the user to detect any metal, either raw or processed, within a small distance around them. Can be activated by touching any piece of metal and focusing one’s attention on their surroundings.

Level

I

Type

Trigger

Field

Knowledge

Cost

50 EP

“Huh. This one’s actually got a cost to it. Feels more like it should be a gatherin’ skill, though. Guess this system is really tryin’ to create some synergy between crafters and gatherers. Kinda makes sense when I think about it. Good for balance, plus it makes sense that a crafter is going to know what they want while a gatherer knows how to get it. Or somethin’ like that. Ah, well. I ain’t gonna sit around here tryin’ to justify how the system works.”

Curious to try the skill out, Tabitha borrowed the sickle back from Runa to touch her hand against it before focusing her attention on her surroundings.

What she felt next was a sensation unlike anything she ever experienced before. She became acutely aware of every single piece of visible metal within plain sight, which was mainly the sickle she was already touching, but also felt herself getting drawn toward a spot in the center of the grove. She let go of the sickle, confirming that the skill was still active even when not touching any metal, and walked over toward the grove’s center.

“What is it?” Runa asked.

Tabitha, standing directly over the center, looking straight down at the ground beneath her. “There’s somethin’ metal here. Right beneath the surface.”

“Metal? Maybe… an ore deposit?”

“Don’t think so. It’s gotta be pretty small. Maybe somebody dropped a dagger or somethin’ out here.”

Though, when Tabitha looked around, she noticed that the abundant growth of the grove was in an exact circle around where she stood. It looked far too perfect to be natural.

“Runa, it’s time to dig up some treasure.”