Chapter 8: Prince and the Spider Queen

Within the biggest and greenest canopy of leaves, hidden the master of the Mangora forest. Discreetly, she observed the situation with prudent eyes whilst her little children chattered noisily. The foolish boys asked for her permission to attack, as always the thoughtless fools they were, the Spider Queen sighed internally, and the smarts girls would tell them to shut up, waiting for her order.

Strange, thought the Spider Queen. That lowly and foolish human male that was so full of fear and so little of strength suddenly metamorphosed into something incomprehensible for the queen of spiders. There was no fear in his voice, only confidence, extreme arrogance perhaps.

Had he gone insane from the fear? Or was the fear and misery that personified him in the past days a masterful act?

The Spider Queen leaned on the former. She could clearly smell the hapless fear trailing behind his footsteps, on the tree trunks he touched and the dried twigs on the ground that he stepped on.

The pathetic human male has disappeared into the yellow smoke. His accursed instrument sounded no more.

What was he planning? Did he think he could win against us all? Have to be careful of his magic. He did not use the power of his gods once. Or was this a ploy for him to run? The Spider Queen clicked her sharp teeth.

Inconceivable. Foolish male, you will not escape my children. You will never make it out of this forest. Before long, you will succumb to exhaustion and became nourishment for my good children.

The Spider Queen clicked her tongue, ordering her children to tighten the circle and like the good children that they always were. They did.

Suddenly, within the yellow smoke, something flew out. A small object, spinning, it hit a tree root and exploded in a fiery ball of iridescent flame. The strange flame greedily licked the tree as black smoke billowed. Another explosion, much bigger, the iridescent flame turned red, like a normal flame, and became weaker and weaker as if being extinguished.

What is this meaningless action? Lowly human, do you think you could stop us with a fire so small? Had we driven you to insanity o pitiful human? Poor human, let my children put an end to your misery life and your pitiful struggle. I will be kind. Even though you had tortured my ears with that abominable noises of your deplored instrument, I will be kind. I’m the queen of this forest after all. I will show you mercy. I will tell my good children to give you a painless death, and you will feel nothing, no pain, no suffering, foolish and pitiable human male.

The Spider Queen ignored the small fire and turned her eyes at the fading smoke the human created. It was fading quickly but the queen could make out the shape of some strange object in the midst of the smoke. She told her children to stop their slow advance and observed the situation.

A hut? The human male pitched a hut in the middle of the smoke with his magic stick. What are you trying to accomplish inside that hut pitiful human? Did you use your only weapon to pitch a hut? O pitiful pitiful human, let my children undo your insanity and end your misery.

A sudden noise, loud, the master of the forest instinctively covered her ears. Her children had the same jerking reaction, bracing their entire body to accept the pain to come.

It was that accursed instrument again, pitiful human, you don’t know when to give up.

The Spider Queen gritted her teeth to endure the pain, and she discovered, there was no pain. She could not feel the hateful pain that grated her entire body as if tearing her soul asunder. That pitiful human was playing his damnable instrument and yet there was no pain. The queen suddenly realized that and so did her children.

“O pitiful human male. Has your only hope abandoned you? Has your accursed goddess forsaken you? Bemoan your fate, not us. Pitiful human, you are truly pitiful until the end,” the master of the forest cackled in ill humor and her children laughed accordingly.

The human as if he understood that his goddess had forsaken him, stop playing his instrument, quietly giving in to his inevitable fate.

“Good children, end the human, be quick and merciful,” the queen commanded. Her children leaped out from their hidden places with their web orbs. They pounded their webs over the hut, spinning it around and around before sinking their venomous fangs into the giant orb of spider web. Then, strangely, they turned at the Spider Queen looking confused.

“There is no human,” the boys said and the girls repeated.

“What do you mean there is no human? He is inside the hut,” the Spider Queen became confused in turn.

“The human is not here,” the girls replied and the boys reaffirmed.

“He is inside that hut,” the Spider Queen shouted, breaking off her calm and majestic queen-like demeanor.

“O queen, there is no human,” the boys laid flatly to the ground, groveling in their timid voices.

“O queen, the hut is empty,” the girls kneeled with tearful eyes.

The Spider Queen was beside herself with utter confusion. She crawled out of her hidden place, swung her tethered web strings and landed herself to the ground. Her powerful spider legs creaked as she walked toward the giant web orb her children weaved. She could still smell the thick scent of fear of that pitiful human male’s sweat inside the hut. She stabbed her powerful foreleg into the ball of web and felt nothing. The queen could not understand. Thus, “Unbind your web,” she ordered.

Hiding within the veil of the Multi-scales camouflaging mantle, an enchanted item that I took from the Greyscale magic casters as funeral service fee, I observed the situation. My left hand was already guarding my mouth, preventing my quiet breath from being heard. I started sweating when that creature appeared.

What the fuck is an Arachne doing here? I wordlessly screamed the moment that I saw that creature swung down from the trees. It was not supposed to be in this place, I internally put my knowledge of the lore of ROC under an intense interrogation. You are on the wrong side of the world. What are you doing here?

The leader of these golden back Mangora spiders was not a Mangora spider as I thought. She was an Arachne. In the lore of Reign of Chaos, the creature known as Arachne was a race of monster dwelt in a secret settlement on the Long Continent.

According to the lore, the dark elves passed down a famous story from generation to generation, the story about the progenitor of the Arachne, who was a beautiful female dark elf, the noble Arachne. She was famous for her talent to weave the most beautiful tapestries and carpets in the world. In her arrogance, she looked down on the four great patron deities of Escana and criticized their worship. She claimed that not even the gods and goddesses could match her talent and create something better than hers.

The gods and goddesses of Reign of Chaos took offense to that, and they sent Eogaill, the goddess of truth and wisdom to challenge Arachne, teaching the dark elf the meaning of humility. Arachne and Eogaill had their little contest. As the competed with each other, they found themselves equal until Eogaill fell short in the end. In their contest, the two found that talent and experience had triumph wisdom.

The gods were outraged. They sent Niwdar next, the very Goddess of Nature and Beauty herself. Arachne found herself unable to match Niwdar’s creativity and ever-changing tapestries, no matter how many times she tried. As Arachne groveled in her defeat, Niwdar placed a powerful curse on Arachne and transformed her into a hideous monstrosity to live the rest of her life in that form as well as her descendants. URLOX, the developer of ROC modeled this story after the Greek’s Mythology that centered on Athena and Arachne.

The Arachne in ROC was depicted as a race of monster with a body of a dark elf stitched to the torso of a giant spider from its tailbone. Thus, the Arachne retained the complete humanoid form and characteristic of a dark elf as well as the arachnid torso and eight long and slender arachnid legs.

I stared at the Arachne and became lost in thought.

While playing ROC the single-mode, players can play a total worth of 63 character-campaigns, which correlated to 63 playable warlords in the multiplayer mode, and a story campaign, which lead to the real events taking place in the canon history of the ROC universe. While events in the story campaign are fixed according to the script, the 63 character campaigns are not. Players can lead the faction of their warlord against the wheel of history, forging their own path and story through their strategies, tactics and decisions.

I have been playing this game for over thirteen years, and as far as my knowledge of the lore can support me, there should not be an Arachne inside the Mangora forest in all of the campaigns and scenarios.

The appearance of this Arachne had thrown my plan out of the window on many levels. I have hoped for a large Mangora spider to appear, not this. In the game, each individual Arachne unit is considerably stronger than the average human, dwarven and elven unit is. Merleon might be able to put this Arachne down, somehow, probably through a submission choke. But, unlike Merleon, I was not a fighter nor will I ever be one in the future. Besides, this Arachne posed a serious challenge to my principle of, Give warning to the enemy once, a beautiful woman twice.

My eyes affixed to the glorious figure of that Arachne and my thought scattered like bubbles in the ocean.

The female Arachne who led the Mangora spiders to attack me, her appearance was completely out of the world. She did not have the flowing dark hair, the tanned skin, or the silver eyes of a usual dark elf or Arachne. Her hair was a cascade of silver wind flowing to her waist. Her skin so fair and pale that she appeared to be a statue crafted out the purest of pristine snow. Her eyes shone like rubies lodged within and her spider body were covered in milky white fur. She was so fair and otherworldly that she did not seem real, even though I was admiring her figure with my eyes. It was almost as if she were the manifestation of a man’s most beautiful fantasy.

Before I knew it, my magic coins were already spinning within my left palm.

In the game, the Arachnes could not be recruited as ally units under any circumstance. They were coded as monsters, unplayable. Monsters were coded to be recognized as hostile targets from all intelligent races inhibiting the Escana planet. They can perform political actions and form alliances with other monster races like kobolds, fauns, harpy, etc… but not with the intelligent races. Sadly, the Arachne race existed within the game only to provide a common enemy and a reason for warlords of different races to join hand, similarly to the existence of the other monster races.

The lore explained that the Arachne despite their innate intelligence was not recognized as one of the intelligent races of Escana. This happened due to their racial curse, the very curse that they inherited from their progenitor, compelled the other races to attack them on sight.

And yet, I questioned my lack of desire to attack this beautiful creature. So, the curse does not affect me, I wondered.

Her children did as they were commanded under the Spider Queen’s order, unrolled and unspun the giant web-ball with great haste. A strange object fell off the ball and clanked on the ground, the Spider Queen picked it up.

What is this strange object? The Spider Queen held the strange object in her hand and pondered. It was not an enchanted item. There was no trace of mana inside it. A metal tablet? It was gilded with silver on one side whereas the other side was black like obsidian but glossier and smoother. It was so smooth of a surface that the spider could see her clear reflection inside that darkness. The Spider Queen touched the smooth surface of the strange tablet and it suddenly flashed up.

Instinctively, the Spider Queen let go of the strange object and leaped away. Nothing happened. The strange object did not explode or conjure any strange and harmful effect. It bounced off the ground and stayed right there. Its previously blackened side lit up. Slowly and carefully, the Spider Queen walked toward that strange object. She gingerly poked it lightly with her foreleg to test its reaction. There was no heat despite its brightness suggested. It made her looked ridiculously foolish in front of her children. The queen picked up the strange object once more time.

On the brightened surface of the tablet, there was a painting depicting that pitiful human male with four other males, all smiling.

What kind of magical artifact is this? Why can’t I sense any trace of mana imbued inside it?

The Spider Queen touched the bright surface of the strange tablet again with her hand. The painting disappeared to be replaced by a different picture this time. The picture contained nine rings of circles and the strange word “Password,” which she could not read.

What is this strange thing? The queen pondered.

“O queen,” the children said, bowing, signaling that they have completed their given task.

The Spider Queen turned her sight on the opened web-ball, there was nothing but an empty hut. The queen stood without making any movement. Her mind was a tangled web of confusion. She could not understand how the human male was not inside the hut. He was supposed to be inside the hut, the Spider Queen told herself inwardly. He was playing that damn instrument of his until her children immobilized him with their webs. The tablet on her hand flashed again, the picture of that human male, smiling and faded to black.

“Are you mocking me human? Is this your idea of mocking me human?” The queen began to laugh in a hollow tone. Her snow-white face dyed in the color of shame and anger. Escaped her he did, that human male, mocking her he also did.

Such a humiliation.

The Arachne laughed manically as her children all knelt flatly to the ground, prostrating in utter fear.

“Find him, catch him and deliver him to me alive. I shall make him suffer,” the Spider Queen hissed and her children, they scampered away in all directions in the hope of finding that accursed human male, leaving the Spider Queen behind, along with her anger and shame.

“I shall make you suffer human,” the Spider Queen gritted her teeth in the seething flame of anger, the strange tablet completely crumbled into pieces in her hand.

“Oy, what the heck? That’s my phone.”

The master of the Mangora forest jerked in surprise, turned to the direction of that voice, and she immediately discovered that she was held at knifepoint.

“No, what have you done?” the human bellowed in a sorrowful voice as his strange looking sword placed on her neck.

The Spider Queen stiffened. In her head, there were thousands of questions to be answer, and yet, the white glint from the blade held at her neck froze her on the spot. Her sharp elven sensory allowed her to realize that the blade was a powerful artifact, a divine relic, and not the average enchanted item.

The amount of mana and magic that was compressed and soaked inside the blade was unprecedented. The Spider Queen felt as if she was staring at an entire planet of Escana being compressed into the shape of a small blade.

“Stay still. I would advise you against doing anything foolish. This sword in my hand, even though, it does not look like it, it was made in the First Age by one of the greatest Titan swordsmith ever. It cut through steel like nothing. I only need to flick my wrist lightly and your pretty neck will say goodbye to your pretty body. And I would really hate myself if I were to do that,” warned the accursed lowly human male, “Do we understand each other?” and he asked with a toothy arrogant smile.

“How? How did you escape from that hut?” the Spider Queen asked. Her thought kept coming back to that question.

“Is that a yes or a no?” the human raised his brows, “I don’t really understand Arachnid tongue. It sounded like you are just clicking your tongue and grinding your teeth to me. If you could be so willing, please lend me your Pearl of Universal Wisdom. All of the Arachne had one, right? It would make our conversation become more meaningful.”

“How? How do you know about that? That is a secret among our people only,” the Spider Queen became outrageously bewildered.

“Oh, it’s a piece of common knowledge, don’t be surprised about something so trivial,” the human male arrogantly replied. He should not understand what she was talking about and yet he did, somehow, “Now, would you rather part with your pearl of universal wisdom or your neck? And please don’t tell me that you have lost it or given that to someone else already because I would hate to cut open your throat to verify the truth,” said the human as he pressed the point of his razor-sharp blade against her neck.

The Spider Queen felt a sharp pain on her neck where the point of blade dug into her neck. A hot liquid rolled down her neck and smeared her chest in a red stream. Her entire body broke into cold sweat. She was extremely reluctant to part with the pearl. The pearl of universal wisdom is something of extreme importance to any Arachne. It allowed the Arachne to immediately learn any kind of language they listen to for the first time and become fluent with it. However, the pearl held a deep-seated and utmost sacred meaning to the Arachne than anything kind of wealth that they could possess in their life for many other reasons.

“Pearl or neck, pick one,” the human hissed coldly, pressing his wicked sword into the Spider Queen’s neck. Her neck felt like it was branded by fire.

The Spider Queen gritted her teeth in seething anger. She took a deep breath and swallowed her pride. Her spider legs were stronger than iron, but they can’t be faster than the sword pressing against her neck.

Thus, she can only wait. In her mind, the moment her children come back for her, they would turn this situation around. She would take back her pearl and tear this lowly human apart after making him suffered the most excruciating pain that a human could taste. She opened her mouth and showed the human pearl at the tip of her tongue.

“Thank you,” the despicable human male said, taking away her most precious treasure just like that. He put it inside his mouth, “Great, now we can have a real conversation going,” nonchalantly said without an idea of what it would mean for her to separate from her pearl, without an inkling understanding of what that thoughtless act meant to an Arachne.

The pearl of universal wisdom was a gift from the goddess Eogaill to the progenitor of the Arachne out of respect for her talent according to the oldest Arachne minstrels. Every Arachne was born with a pearl of universal wisdom hidden within their secret sack inside their throat. When a male Arachne fell in love with a female Arachne, he would bow to her, giving her his pearl and asked for her pearl in exchange if the female Arachne deemed the male worthy of courting her.

The Spider Queen felt extremely humiliated. Never in her life had she tasted such humiliation. Worse, it came from a lowly male human. It was like adding salt to injury. The Spider Queen felt her anger rose and welcomed it like an old friend. However, she contained it, bottled it deep down to wait for her moment of victory to present itself.

“Ah, before that, kneel,” casually said the human.

“Huh?”

“I said KNEEL” The human hissed sharply, “I am your captor and you are my captive. That’s our current relationship. A captive should never look at the captor from a higher position or equal, that is common sense. So KNEEL.” He scoffed arrogantly.

The Spider Queen glared at the insolent human male with indignant eyes. No female Arachne had ever bowed to a human or a male of any species under any kind of circumstance.

“Kneel or die. Your pride or your life. Think carefully and pick one. You have already given me your precious pearl. What’s so difficult about kneeling?” the human chattered.

Still, she would not bend her knees to a human. An outcast among her kin she was, but she was still an Arachne in shape and heart. Her pride as an Arachne would not allow that. Kneeling to a human would be where she drew the line. The Spider Queen clenched her fists and prepared to accept death with her pride as an Arachne.

“If you choose death, it would mean your precious pearl would forever be in my possession. However, if you are able to keep your life intact for the moment, maybe, you could have an opportunity to take revenge on me in the future and take back both your pride and your pearl,” the human reasoned, “Think and choose wisely. It’s not that hard to kneel to a human.”

She had never been so humiliated, the Spider Queen thought. She closed her eyes, imagining the satisfaction when she reversed the situation and unleashed an endless world of pain on this lowly male. And so, the Spider Queen bit the inner part of her lips and bent her knees to the hateful lowly human male.

“Really, you make me feel like I’m a villain here. Stop looking at me like that. It makes me feel bad,” said the human male in the most affectionate voice as if he tried to console her. He rummaged his cloth with his free hand and produced a small bottle. He popped its cap with his thumb and a strong smell emanated from the bottle, “Don’t worry, this is a healing salve. it’s not a poison. If I want to kill you, I would have done that with my sword instead,” the human male explained as if he noticed her discomfort. He slathered the cold and sticky substance on her neck where he wounded her with his blade.

The human male then produced a beautiful piece of fabric out of nowhere with his free hand which really surprised her, How did he do that? Magic? What God allowed a human to do that? To create something from nothing, and even without any invocation and mana, that’s unfair.

As the Spider Queen was still beside herself with surprise, the human male used that gorgeous looking piece of fabric to wipe away the blood trail on her body, starting with the dripping blood on her navel and up to her neck. As he wiped her blood, his hand accidentally touched against her breasts, which made her entire body quivered to an unknown feeling.

“Hey, don’t move. My sword is still placed on your neck,” the human male warned and focused on his job completion, wiped her clean of the bloodstain. Once he was done with that, he stashed the stained red fabric into his pocket like an item of extreme importance.

The Spider Queen wondered if the human ordered her to bend the knee so he could tend her wound and wiped her. That would not make her lightened his punishment and when her children got back. Maybe she would spare him from a torturous and painful death as she has initially planned, just maybe.

“You have humiliated me like this, lowly human. So now what? What do you want to talk about?” the Spider Queen taunted.

“What is your name?”

The Spider Queen frowned, “You put me through all of these kinds of humiliations just to asking me my name?” She did not expect such a question.

“No, I just want to know your name before we can start a proper conversation. What is your name?” The human male insisted.

“Does it matter?” the Spider Queen stared into the insolent human male’s eyes and clicked her tongue.

“It’s very important to me,” the human male replied in the most earnest voice.

“Ilivardary Kront'tarr. Queen of the Mangora forest. I will allow you to call me Queen Kront'tarr,” she regally declared her name with pride.

“Iliva, then,” the insolent human male nodded his head and affirmed. The earnestness in his voice completely disappeared like it was never there, to be replaced with pure arrogance and insolence alone.

“How dare you?” the Spider Queen angrily hissed, “That’s a name only for the closest people to my heart to call me, not you,”

“Look around us, there is nobody but you and me here. Who else but I stand the closest to your heart in this very moment? Me,” he retorted as if she has said something strange, “Are you blind or what?”

“Foolish male. Don’t you know what a metaphorical expression is?” Iliva seethed. Her anger seemed to originate from the fact that somehow, the human male’s argument got a point.

“I understand perfectly what a metaphorical expression is. Thank you, you don’t have to explain it to me. So, Iliva, can you tell me why you are completely naked like this? Don’t Arachne weave their own cloth? Why are you naked like this? Don’t you feel embarrassed?” the human male asked, staring intently at her voluminous perky breasts.

“Why should I be embarrassed?” the Spider Queen indignantly scoffed. The question was beneath her regal stature.

“Are you telling me that you feel nothing at all even when I’m staring at your tits right now?” said the human male as if he was shocked to his very core.

“Do you human get embarrassed being naked in front of insects?” Iliva sneered mockingly. A regal prideful smile floated on her lips.

“So you are telling me that you consider those spiders of yours as nothing but insects?” the human male tilted his head, confused.

“I’m obviously talking about you. The only insect here is you. Are you so stupid to not realize that?” Iliva was beside herself with anger and she roared. This human male kept getting on her nerves. He just had that talent to pull all the wrong nerves every time.

“If I’m just that stupid according to you, what does it make you then? You were fooled by me into revealing yourself and then were miserably captured by me as well. I was prepared to gamble with my life on the line to capture you and hold you hostage in front of your spiders. I did not even expect you to be so stupid that you would tell your spiders to leave you here all alone to look for me. That is like the dumbest decision a person could have ever made,” the human scowled his dark eyes as if he had a hard time accepting Iliva's comment.

“…” Iliva gritted her teeth in unrepressed frustration and could not come up with any counter to that. She was thoroughly shamed by this lowly human male, again. She has decided on the torture once she reversed the situation. Until Death takes you away, you shall live in pain, Iliva swore inwardly.

“Cat got your tongue huh? You dumb exhibitionist. Okay, Iliva, next question. You are obviously very far away from home. You are not supposed to be here. Your home should be in the Long Continent. Why are you here?” he asked

“Why are you asking me this kind of question? What does it have anything to do with you? If you have something you want to ask, ask away, and stop wasting my time.” Iliva flared up. Her fists clenched tight and her arachnid legs dug into the ground.

“I’m sorry. I must have touched a sensitive topic to you huh? Were you banished by your own kin?” The human male apologized.

“How do you…?” Iliva gasped and looked at the human male with newfound surprise and anger.

“Really? Damn, I got it right with the first guess. This must be my day or something.” The human male scoffed.

“…” Never before had Iliva felt such stupefying anger.

“So Iliva, can you tell me why you were banished?” the human asked in a voice full of concerned but of course, Iliva knew that he merely pretended.

“…” Iliva gritted her teeth and spoke no further.

“Oh, playing the silence game now. Okay, let me guess. Did you murder someone important from the settlement?”

“…”

“Wrong huh? Okay, did you rob someone or steal something important from someone?”

“I’m not like you lowly inferior human with no principle and pride.” Iliva exploded, “We Arachne had our own pride. The reason I was banished from my village is because of my appearance,” Iliva, the Spider Queen bellowed.

“Your appearance?” the human male examined her figure carefully with his eyes that was as dark as obsidian, from her hair to her chest and down to her secret garden.

“Hah, if you want to mock me, mock me,” she snorted.

“Okay, Allow me to get this fact straight. So, you are banished from your settlement because you are too beautiful?” he asked, his head tilted, confused.

“Are you mocking me human?” Iliva flared up. Her face felt hot with anger and shame. The longer she talked with the human male, the angrier she became.

“Did I get anything wrong?” the human looked at Iliva as if he did not understand her question.

“You call this sickly pale white skin beautiful? You call this chalky white hair beautiful? You call these blood red eyes beautiful?” Iliva challenged and looked into the human male’s eyes, allowing no falsehood. Her shoulders quivered uncontrollably

“…yeah… am I wrong?” and he asked, looking confused as if he wholeheartedly agreed to what Iliva has just said.

“I am beautiful?” It was Iliva’s turn to be confused this time.

“Easily one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen… As long as you are not shoving your spider parts to my face.”

“Are you mocking me human?” Iliva asked the human again. This time, her voice was completely devoid of anger or shame, just plain confusion, and uncertainty.

“Do I look like I’m mocking you?” the human male pointed at himself, deadpanned.

“…No…but … hmph…you are just a lowly human, what do you know about beauty?” Iliva suddenly found herself flustered, her voice rasped. Her face still felt hot like it was burning, but not with anger or shame this time. Her face burned but the fire was fueled by some kind of emotion that was unknown to Iliva.

“Oh, I beg your pardon. My ability to appreciate beauty is better than most people and definitely better than your entire fucking Arachne race. In fact, after talking with you, I believe that they should all start gouging their eyes out because if they cannot appreciate beauty for what beauty is when they see it. They don’t need their eyes inside their eye holes. You are the very personification of beauty, well, minus that spider parts of yours because I don’t have any spider part on me so I can’t really appreciate them with my atheist sense. But I think I can live with that with time,” the human male animatedly jabbered, anger emanated from his body.

“You are just an inferior human… Hmph… you will get nothing from flattering me,” Iliva hummed and broken the established eye contact with the human male.

It was that time, Iliva saw the human male flared up for the first time, for real.

“Are you fucking stupid or what?" He shouted, "You and your fucking god damn spiders chased after me for TWO FUCKING DAYS without giving me a moment to rest. Who does that? You bunch make me cry like a bitch. Who does that? That was the first time I have ever felt so humiliated. And you just broke my phone. Who does that? Even the most extreme paparazzi that I have met did not do anything like that. Even my most crazy girlfriends did not do that, and when I meant crazy, I meant batshit insane, and still, they did not do that. You made me go through that kind of craps. Why do I have to flatter you? What the fuck?”

“…Sorry?” daunted by the sudden temperamental shifted, Iliva let it slipped in form of a question, unsure if that was the correct answer.

“You better be,” and the human male took it as Iliva has just apologized to him.

It was then, Iliva heard the distant rustles of tree branches, and she grinned widely, “Do you hear that human? My children are returning to me. Return my pearl, put your sword down, grovel to me, beg for my forgiveness and I will let you walk out of this forest alive.”

“You are a really fucking moron if you think that the situation will improve for you once your spiders get back here. Are you just a pretty face and no brain?” the human fired back.

“Are you complimenting me or are you insulting me?”

“I am obviously insulting you, you dumb exhibitionist. You have already lost this battle. Don’t you understand?” the human male exasperated.

“You are just bluffing. Grovel to me and beg. I will be kind and forgive your insolence.” Iliva advised.

“Okay, dumb woman, you call this bluffing?” The human male sighed dejectedly. He then moved on to do something Iliva had not expected. He retracted his blade and daringly moved away from Iliva.

It took a full two second for the utterly confused Iliva to comprehend the implication of the human male’s action.

“Hah, you are really stupid. I give you the chance to live and you don’t even know how to take it. Now die,” Iliva raised her powerful arachnid foreleg like a blade and pounced at the human male.

However, her arcing blade suddenly froze in midair and so was Iliva’s entire body.

“What? Who is stupid? What are you doing? Hit me, come on, hit me." The human male dared, "What? You can’t hit me? No, don’t be too scared. You are a big girl. Hit me. Hit me. I won’t hit back. I promise,” The human male was full of opening, his arms spread wide and inviting. He patted his own chest, daring Iliva to strike her powerful leg through his rib cage, “Hit me. Come on."

Then he snickered like a devil, "Oh, now, you have finally realized you can’t hit me. Took you long enough, you dumb woman,” he taunted, showing Iliva’s pearl in between his jaws, threatened to crush it, “The very moment you give me your pearl, you got no chance of winning this. Why else did you think I use this sword to nick your pretty neck and make it bleed? It makes me feels so bad when I thought I might have scarred your pretty neck. But you know what? My life is more important. As long as I managed to make you give me your pearl, I can get out of this forest alive whenever I want. Hphm,” the human sarcastically hummed at the end.

“You coward…despicable human male, you don’t play fair.”

“Thank you, that’s the best compliment a schemer like me could receive from someone he has just defeated. And since you have just compliment me, I will do you a favor now.”

“What? You are going to return my pearl?” Iliva brightened up.

“Are you really that fucking stupid?” the human male mocked, “No, I’m talking about your spiders. I will let you save some dignity and face in front of them. Tell them that you will let me leave this forest alive, and tell them to be good kids and stay right here and do not follow me. You get to decide the story however you want. Also, you will stick with me until I get out of this forest like a good girl and I might consider returning your pearl.”

Iliva mulled for several seconds and asked, “Do you promise that?” She had no other option but to trust the human male.

“I promise,” the human male replied.

And that’s how the Spider Queen ended up following a human male to the edge of the forest.

Some times after Iliva managed to convince her spiders to stay back, I made a small discovery.

I noticed a hallucinating screen of some sort inside my head, invisible to everyone else but me. It was the familiar level up menu in Reign of Chaos. Immediately, I identified my previous conflict with the spiders as a military conflict, and my pact with the Spider Queen as a military negotiation. By resolving them, I gained EXP and leveled up.

It took a while before I understood how to access to that menu without using a mouse and keyboard. I managed to access to my character sheet. the first page was the character Biography like it always was in Reign of Chaos.

Fearless, Phúc Đ. Bạch, August 21, 2045- April 1, 2072

A tribute to the greatest Reign of Chaos player of his generation, the greatest Ender and perhaps the greatest Reign of Chaos player to ever picks up a mouse and keyboard. He has inspired a generation of people to fall in love with ROC with his love for the game, his great personality, his work ethic, his love for the community and his unique play style. For that, he will forever have a special place in our hearts.

A seven times World Champion, five times MVP, four times Final MVP, and twelve times All-Star, and holder of numerous individual awards, a champion among champions. He is one of the main driving factors that leads to the Greatest ROC dynasty The Alliance’s unshakable dominance for over a decade.

People grow old, but Fearless, his achievement and legend are timeless.

It’s the only justice that he had a place in a world where he has devoted his entire life.

For that, with unanimous votes from players all around the world and all members of the developing team of Reign of Chaos, he will be immortalized within the planet of Escana as one of its inhabitant.

May he continues to live, finds happiness and inspires people as he did to all of us.”

What is the meaning of this? What the fuck is this? This can’t be real. I turned the next page. It displayed a table:

Fearless/Human/Male/ Warlord

MIGHT 18 (+20)

LEADERSHIP 84

POLITIC 75

CHARISMA 90 (+10)

INTELLIGENT 87

WISDOM 101

What is it? This cannot be true. I’m dead. Stop joking. What the fuck is this? People don’t die from a glass of cocktail. People died when they are killed. Again I turned the next page.

Perks:

-Champion of champions: Eligible for any military or civil position to gain EXP

-Philanderer: Can engage with multiple opposite sex characters at the same time. Can reverse the status of any opposite sex character to to form marriage pact.

-Harem Prince: Can form marriage pact with multiple warlords of opposite sex regardless of races.

This cannot be true. Please tell me that this is a dream. I can't die. I did not die. I could not bring myself to turn the last page of the character sheet.