Proofreader: Kagenesti

Chapter 14 - A spiders fangs

Riin's POV

Asperd Isle, bottom of the Asperd Mountain Range.

So, I'm not one to complain about where I sleep at night, I mean, I for one, can say I have slept in a lot of different places, but I must admit that sleeping or trying to sleep in this case, while being surrounded by a snoring man, a circle of fire and a group of drooling giant green spiders is a first, not to mention that it has definitely reached a place on my top five places of the worst nights sleep in my life… of all the ways and places to sleep, how mother deals with that kind of snoring I don't know, but I have a newfound respect for her.

As the sun starts to rise our nightly companions withdraw into the thickness of the forest once more, yet I know they are still lurking out there, waiting, biding their time. Father is waking up as well, finally, I was debating if I should stuff his mouth with something, so that awful sound would end.

“Morning, boy. Huh, did you get some sleep? You don't look like you did.”

Sleep, ah, sounds like a sweet dream I once had.

“Good morning, father. Yes, I did sleep.”

No need for him to know about me thinking of ways to stop his breathing. I almost laugh out loud at the thought of it. Now, time to get some answers, to some of the questions that I have been thinking about while sitting and staring at my new friends. If I need to have any use out of my new magic aura then I need to figure out how levels and experience works, why a wolf gives me fifty experience and a spider gives me two hundred experience. And since we are trapped in this small half cave I might aswell use the time.

“Father, what does the level indicate?”

Father looks at me for a while, he seem to be thinking about it, for now I will wait and see what he has to say.

“Hmm, the level is a rough indicator of how strong one is compared to another. Here let me give you an example. Let's say that a mineworker who uses all his time in the mine is physically very strong, so natural the shard would show that his strength is very high, right?”

“Yes, since the shard will try to measure the body's ability and put that into numbers.”

“That's right, smart boy, you listen well I see.”

Father is smiling, that smile mother also uses when she is proud of something I said or did - disturbing, seeing that on a bearded face, he has way too much facial hair to be making that big of a smile, looks like his beard is connected to his eyes.

“Where was I? oh yes, then let's say that another man works as a guard, he would have to walk around and be equipped with more or less heavy armour and weapons, that person's shard strength would also be showing a high number, right?”

Ah, I see now.

“So the level indicates the amount of experience one would have, if we go with father's example, the mineworker and the guard might both be strong men but the guard would know how to handle a combat situation much better than the mineworker, seeing as he would have been in some form of combat at a given time or received combat training, right?”

Father is smiling at me… again, I hope that this will not become a new habit of his, it doesn't suit him very well.

“So you see, boy. The level of one's shard, roughly indicate how much combat experience one has.”

Hmm, that makes sense, but it does not explain the different amount of experience gained for kill different kind of things. Hmm, how to explain that to him… and get an answer… ah!

“Father, do you gain different experience by killing a deer, then you do when you kill one of these spiders?”

Man, I sound so stupid, but I need to know if it's something that gets the different amount of experience or how it figures out the amount one gains for each kill.

“Ah, yes I do, and so would anyone else too, boy. Animals or for that matter any being at all is given a rating. A deer is a small animal and it will also not fight you, so it has a low rating and therefore gives a low amount of experience when killed.”

Father looks around a bit scanning our surroundings, I too still feel them out there, but for now the fires are going and the sun is up, while we will have to get more wood before nightfall.

“The [Giant Forest Spider] on the other hand is a much harder target to hunt down and kill, therefor granting more experience per kill.”

Hmm, now to see if the amount changes at any point.

“Does father gain more or less experience per spider, then say a guard who is higher level than father?”

“Ha! That's a good question, boy! The answer is no, the amount is the same no matter who kills the spider, the spiders personal rating does not change and so its output of experience when slain does not change, you see, boy?”

Hmm, so one can't stay and ‘farm’ spider for experience, if so that would make no sense.

“So, the amount of experience one would need to reach the next level, must change… if not everyone would simply ‘farm’ a low rated creature to quickly gain the requested or wished level...”

Ups… Speaking out loud, without being addressed is bad, have had too many broken bones that way.

“My apologies, father, for my rambling.”

“Huh? Ah, no need to apologise, boy! How many times must we tell you, that you are free to talk all you want? But your reasoning is right, each time one gains a level the amount of experience needed for the next level increases by the double, so you see even if someone decided to ‘farm’ a certain creature, at some point it would prove too much of a hassle to kill that single type of being.”

You have understood the reasoning behind levels and experience gain! You have gained +1 [Wisdom]

“Hmm, I see thank you very much for your lesson father.”

“You're welcome, kid, you're welcome.”

Father ruffles my hair while he laughs about something only he knows, as a thanks to him I will let it slip this time and let him ruffle my hair as much as he wants, just for today!

The daylight slowly ticks by, and all we do is sit here and stare out at our surrounding, I’m growing restless, it's time to get some things done, we will get nothing out of sitting here and looking all pretty.

“Not that I don't enjoy spending some quality time with you father, but we are running low on firewood, we will need to gather some more, if we are to last the rest of the day and the coming night.”

“Yes, we are, boy… but there is not much we can do, right now.”

Hmm, not so sure about that, dear father… Let's see what mother so kindly helped pack for me, thinking I didn't see her putting items down in my backpack, was she even trying to hide the fact that she fiddled with it? Who knows mothers are weird creatures, that I have yet to understand.

“Boy, what are you frowning like that for?”

“Mother put something into my backpack before we headed out… I’m trying to find it, father.”

Susses! I pull out a package of folded cloth, opening it reveals two small flasks with a clear liquid in them, oh, mother, I shall forgive you for meddling with my things, for the time being that is.

“Potions? Do you know what kind they are, boy?”

“Antidotes for poison, father”

More specific, my dear father, it is antidotes for paralyzing poisons.

“Oh”

Oh? What an unintelligent answer that was, oh well, let’s get things moving. Standing up I draw my knife, grabbing one of the potions, I make a cut in my hand-

“Boy! What are you doing!”

… and pour a fourth of the potion in the wound, grabbing a price of clean cloth, I wrap up the cut up.

“I’m making the antidote into a fast acting one, father. While it this works for me this way, due to the size of my body, I'm afraid it will take more than thirty minutes for the antidote to work on a body of your size and that is with the whole potion and that also will require that the poison is in your system, this way we can use it more provincially.”

“Hmm, and let me guess, you are thinking of going out there and getting more firewood, alone, are you not, boy?”

“Yes, father, please allow me this.”

We stare at each other for some time, father to son and all that.

“… your sure that the antidote will work, I swear, boy, if anything happens…”

“Yes, father.”

Father draws a deep breath, then sighs loudly.

“No telling your mother about this, do you understand, boy, not a word.”

“Yes, I will not tell her a thing, father.”

We are smiling at each other as we sit there talking.

I stand and walk over to our quickly made ring of firewood, it's slowly burning down, I secure my grab on the knife and in a quick motion, jump over the fire and into our awaiting friends. I just about land and the first one is already gunning for me, I duck and roll under it as it makes its attack on me.

“A gift, father!”

The sound of the spider screeching and the smell of roasted meat, and I'm sure I heard father grunting something too, oh well.

Sprinting over the to trees I start to grab some fallen branches and small twigs, I throw them near our camp. A screeching to my right warns me just in time to dodge the incoming spider, as I dodge, I take a swing for its legs, success, I feel the knife connect with something and hear the screeching rise a sound level, and darn they are loud. Turning around I find the spider missing all its left side legs, it's making an attempt to run… I think, or its trying to get closer to me, but the result is kinda the same, it's right legs make it spin in a circle, looks funny, but stupid aswell.

‘Here little spider, let me see them fangs of yours.’

A quick jump into its close range and I plunge the knife into its brain… do they even have brains? Hmm, that's something I need to find out, I mean ofcourse they have ‘a brain’ what I want to know is what kind of Intelligence level I'm dealing with here…

You have slain a [Young Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience!

You have reach level 1!

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [3]!

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained a level! You now affect creatures of level 0!

Wow… I kind of feel sad right now… Fear me, level zero creatures, so that's like what, deer and other non challenges critters? But I don't get much time to think as it seems the screeching of the now dead spider was a call for backup or reinforcements. Out of the corner of my eye I see father getting ready to throw my gift away, can't have that dear father, that will ruin my further plans.

“Father! I will need that spider, don't dispose of it, please.”

Not that I get to hear the answer, as the new arrivals are running straight at me, yep, I'm sure, they have no brain cells at all. Throwing a branch in this… face? of the one to the right to slow its attack, I make a rolling fall to avoid the left ones jump attack. Getting in range of the left one I plunge the knife into its head area… yea, head sounds better than brain, seeing as they have so little of it.

You have slain a [Young Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience!

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [4]!

One to go, turning around I launch my attack on the spider, well timed on its part as it too has turned around to reengage in the assault on me, making my attack a knife through the open mouth and into the softer parts, a jerk up and I pull back my arm from the creature's mouth, no need to test the antidote mother so kindly gave us.

You have slain a [Young Giant Forest Spider] by doing so you have gained 200 experience!

[Bloodlust Aura] has gained [5]!

Now to the real quest at hand, more firewood, so I continue for a half an hour without nothing trying to eat me.

“Boy! Get back, we have enough wood to last the night.”

Good, I'm starting to get bored of collecting sticks, what I really want to do is look at my new best friend, the spider, father so kindly took care of for me. Jumping over the fire, I land next to father, he is frowning at me, what now? My grip on the knife tights as the staring continues.

“My heart, boy! Next time we need firewood, I will go! What would I do if you had been bitten?! Elisa, would kill me!”

Huh?... Your heart… what about mine, don't be staring at people like that man, you will make them jumpy.

“My apologies, father.”

As I turn around, I can't help but to keep an eye on him. I move to the dead spider, father has put it over on the far side, away from our sleeping and campfire area. Now, how to get the right… If this spider species is anything like the spiders I know of then… if I remove the fangs carefully I should not damaged the poison glands.

You have gained the [Alchemy] Sub-Skill [Poison Gather]! This skill will gain experience as normal but can not be accessed until the main skill is unlocked.

You have gained the skill [Analyze: Poison]! The skill will allow you to know the type of poison you are using or making, remember poison can also harm you as you are handling it, use with care.

Interesting… a skill allowing me to know the type of poison I'm dealing with, that will come in handy for sure. Let's see… how to use a spell… With the [Bloodlust Aura] I seemed to gain it by letting my killing intent show… How if the… Shard? Detects spells and skills based on those intents then I should be able to ‘cast’ the spell by intending to do so…

You have learned the ways of silently casting spells all by yourself, you're a natural! You have gained +2 [Intelligence]!

Hmm, so I was right, looking down at the poison glands, I try my teory out, - that being me staring intensely at the cut of spider part. ‘Analyze: Poison ’.

Analyzing poison, poison type found: Paralyzing poison. Dose: [Skill Locked]

… So one bite and you are in trouble for sure, at my current size that is, while a full grown human might be fine for a while, I will surely end up in a very bad situation if I'm bitten without an antidote to cancel the poison out… well at least I now know how to cast spells that something.