Chapter 16 - Countdown

Riin's POV

Asperd Isle - Fall, Bottom of the Asperd Mountain Range.

So, after my little nap I decide, that it is time for some payback, a quick check on father and a massage of seven hours left until he becomes a person again, or at least a person with a bump on the back of his head and not just a easy target if the spiders were to somehow get inside of our camp. Now, let's see my own status.

Name: Riin TrovrarAge: 8 [Child]Race: HumanSex: MaleLevel: 2Health: 25/30Stamina:40/45Mana: 70/70

Yeah… I really need to work on my health more, buuut… that will be a problem for later on, when I'm not surrounded by giant spiders, that's trying to eat me. But really if I don't get working on it soon, I will end up an easy target for my coming enemies, I really do need to think up a plan for that, later. Now, however, it is time to see how my leg is doing… I slowly get up and start to put some weight on it… okay, so far so good, as they say, I can at least stand on it. Next, is moving, I slowly starts to walk along the rock wall, then when I'm sure that I will not lose my balance, I starts to walk around the fireplace, yeah… I can definitely still feel it, that's for sure, but still, I can move about without reopening the wound, so that's good news, see, burning the entrance / exit holes of that type of wound works wonders, no bleeding or at least not on the outside. What I have to be careful of is if the bleeding starts from inside the wound, while I'm sure that it did not hit any large blood vessels, when it priced me, it still went clean through my leg… so bleeding will happen if I like it or not. Oh! that's right, I still have those herbs, that I found on the way here, the [All-Heale] plants.

While they are normally applied to a freshly opened wound and require two weeks time to prepare before they will work their magic and speed up the healing of the wound, if I can speed up my healing process by grinding the leaves into a fine paste and then boiling that in water, drinking it as a thick soup instead, in theory, it should work, all I can do is test it out, to see if I'm right or not, there is just one little problem… we have no more water left… fuck, my life sucks real big sometimes, really, fuck it. Okay, next option on the list, using the paralyzing poison from the spider's fang, the one that I saved earlier, the problem there is that I have no use how much is good and how much will end up with me being paralysed for some unknown period of time… okay, let's go the safe route, shall we, and by the way, if I end up paralyzed, I'm going to kill every last one of you darn green motherfuckers, just so you know, consider yourself warned, my dear spiders.

Picking up the cut off fang, I squeeze it a bit, letting some of the poison drip into the fire. Here goes nothing… I lift the fang to my mouth and let a drop fall in… bitter… but I need something to act as a painkiller, if I'm to move around without being too distracted about my new wound, so all I really need is a tiny amount of toxin to numb the pain, my problem is laying in the amount I need to use for this to happen…

You have ingested [Giant Forest Spider] venom! Paralysing level 5%

Additional information:

[Analyse Poison] shows that it has a paralyzing effect on the body.

Dose: Unknown [Skill Locked]

Five percent? does that mean that if i reach one hundred percent it will become a ‘full’ paralyzing of the body? So different percent effect the body different… five percent is doing a good job of diminishing the feeling of pain in my leg… So between five percent and one hundred percent the effect of the poison will ‘change’ huh.

You have found a clue behind how poison affects the body, by doing so you have gained +1 [Wisdom]

Knowledge added to [Analyse: Poison] skill.

Okay, so let's see what we have to deal with… I have seven hours to deal with the problem at hand… that being tons of big ass spiders, man I'm so glad that I don't suffer from arachnophobia, that would be a pain for sure. Okay, so I got two problems at hand, first we are surrounded by critters and second but most important in my book, we are out of water… my best guess is heading further into the mountain range keeping to the route father planned for us before we were attacked, since I'm sure that father would not plan for a trip without knowing where the streams and rivers run, in case of us running low on water. So, it's decided that I will head closer to the mountain range. But first I need to check my equipment, knives, check, leg wound, looking good and the spider venom is working, check, cloth and other normal easy to bring items, check, looking at the fire keeping the spiders at bay, I can see that I will need to add more wood to it before heading out… let the countdown begin!

6:60:59

I jump over the fire once more, taking the blunt force of the landing on my good leg, wasting no time, I sprint ahead into the forest and rock area that marks the starting of the mountain ranges rise. I'm going to lure the spiders as much away from the campsite as I can, then do a quick turnaround and pick up some more firewood. Dodging an attack on my left, I jump to avoid the legs of an extra opponent joining in the fight, a rolling fall and a leap to the right and I'm clear of tree attackers, continuing my sprinting up the rocky hills behind our encampment, I'm starting to see that the ‘stats’ one gain is also affecting my body more, I'm clearly becoming faster at avoiding attacks against me. The moonlight is shining brightly, even as I run around with overgrown spiders trying to make me into food, I can't help but to admire the view, out here there is no city lights, no noise, just the sound of the forest and the moon shine showing the way ahead.

A quick leap to the right to dodge an attack once more and I make it to the forest line, time to get some firewood so that the old man don't end up as a night snack. Heading over the hill and into the forest, I see no spiders following me at the time, so i start to pick up sticks and throw them over the hill and ‘down’ into the small valley of rocks and the likes to get as much burnable material as I can as fast as I can. Fifthteen minutes or so tick by with me running around like a insane person picking up all the wood, small enough for me to throw and sticks that, I can see within my range of the hill that I'm targeting as my place of landing my throws.

Ten minutes later and my first break from this stick pickup game comes in form of an attacker trying to jump me as a bend down to grab a new one that I had just spotted, lucky me or I would have had a new headdress in form of a spider stuck to it… yeah not my thing, so the spider leap over me and into a tree, head first… déjà vu, well not that I care, I will use any advantage that I can get while having to do pest control. I set off to follow its jump and bring my knife down into its head for the back of, the drops to the ground with me still laying on top of it, disgusting.

6:35:59

Not long after the first one is down, two more joins the fight, must be the ones that I outran before, when I left the camp to gather some more firewood. One attacker leaps straight unto me… they are starting to be very easy to read, I duck under it and slice it up from below, it lands on the other dead one, adding to the pile. The last one hisses at me, baring its fangs and jump to attack, I meet it mid jump as I ramp my knife into its head, and twitch it to do some more damage. Three down, now I need to get the last bit of firewood to the camp and then I will need to find water, after all it is one of the fundamental things for us to live for, you can be a strong fighter but without food and water, you will not last long, no matter your strength.

Heading back around the rocky hill, I greeted by a few new arrivals, screeching at me, great more experience for me. I know that I'm grinning like a mad person, but what can I do, the feeling of killing is one I grew up with, the need to strike down at the enemies, that desire my life, I will never give up this life of mine, for it is mine alone, no longer am I a puppet in my father's ranks, no longer will I be used as he sees fit, so for that reason alone will I fight - I shall never be another one's puppet again, never.

Ups, got to keep in together now, dodging an attack on my left side, I strike out at my opponent and slice off some of its legs in the process, making it unable to reenter the fight, while it is spinning around on the ground, I leap into the head of another one, ending its life as the knife cut open its head. I sidestep an attacker to my right, jumping back and slicing off some of its front legs, making it fall down on its.., ass? doing a rolling fall backwards, I get under one that jumped to attack from behind, cutting up its abdomen, making it fall to the ground in a mess of green goo and screeching… but soon it is silence as its life drains from it. I reengage the one with no front legs, jumping into its range of attack and ramping the knifes from each side into its head, then ripping them out, ending in a result with a spider brainmass all over the ground.

Other than the spider spinning around in a circle to my left, there don't seem to be any attackers in the area for now, good, time for some research, on what makes them trick. Walking over to the spider laying on the ground, missing its right side legs, it hisses at me as a walk closer, clicking its fangs together making a lot of noise, hmm better fix that first. Grabbing one of the sticks laying around I stuff the stick into its mount, then as it bits down, I swing my knife slicing off its fangs… ahh, that worked wonders! no more hissing or screeching at me. Now next thing on the list, its legs, the left side is still trying to strike out at me, better fix that too, no need to get stabbed by a stray leg, now is there. Getting to work on the legs one by one i cut them off.

By being exceptional cruel, and torturing a defenceless opponent, you have gain the skill [Torture].

You revel in the pleasure of causing pain on others, whether to extract information or simply for the sake of causing suffering, having a mentality to perform such acts of evil you have gained +1 [Wisdom]

Huh? Torturing… exceptional cruel… you revel in the pleasure of causing pain on others, what the hell is this!? it's a fucking spider! a simple minded critter, a insect! I will show you Torturing, when I find a human, you fucking message system! Oh, well onwards with my little study. After some hard work on the study of the spiders anatomy, the different segments of it are much clear to me, it seem like the spider will ‘survive’ as long as the head, thorax and abdomen areas are left intact, it will remain relatively alive and responsive. That's great to know, now ending let's end my little meeting with it, slamming my knife into its head and slicing it up. Getting up, I walk over to my pile of firewood, and start throwing it into the fire keeping the spiders out, better get this train moving.

5:40:59