Chapter 14:

A month has passed since we joined the Verix family, I would like to say that it has been fun, but I can’t. I have been beaten, I have been bloodied, and I have been lonely. I wanted to give up so many times, but each time I was reminded who I am fighting for. I know I am weak, I know that it’s all for our survival, but it’s so hard. The loneliness is one of the hardest parts. I have not spoken to Robin or Alex at all in this past month. I only see them briefly before I pass out on the bed at night. Alex stopped sleeping in the same bed about two weeks ago. It only made it worse, and in the mornings Robin was gone before I could even talk to her. You might think I am being a baby, it's only a month. But when each day is harder than the last, and you can’t even talk to the ones you are fighting for it only makes it harder.

My growth has been substantial. My absorption rate, defenses, and control are all leagues above what they were before. My earth element sense radius has increased to fifty yards, and I can now create my own set of earthen armor that can easily take iron swords. During the past month I also completed two quests. I thought they would be easy as the uni-rabbits one, but I was dead wrong. The first quest Brock told me I would be help capture a bull that escaped from its owner. I was naive thinking I could simply create some walls and corral the bull.

Leaving the family complex we left out the western gate, coming along was a woman I have never seen before, but Brock told me she was a saint, a light element race, who would help if healing was needed. I was confused because I was thinking no one was going to get hurt. When we I arrived I realized my stupidity. Brock is not evil or mean, but he puts spartan training to shame. The idea of mercy doesn’t even exist in his mind.

The bull I would be corralling was the size of a truck. It had three horns sticking out of it's head, I later learned that this was an iron bull. A bull that has evolved and is used to pull large amounts of metal from mines, they can only control them via slave collars. It’s strength was way above mine, and my earth armor was just a joke to him. My first attempt ended with my both of my legs being snapped in half. I was healed by the lady that came with us. My second attempt ended with a gaping hole in my shoulder only nearly missing my heart. I was healed again. My third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth attempt ended in excruciating pain. I was healed each time. My clothes were stained with my blood and had holes all over them, but I was pushed to keep fighting. I was finally able to stop the bull after breaking all of it's legs and encasing it in earth. That was only the first quest.

The second quest was even worse, we were tasked with killing some wolves for their fur. We headed out for the forest with the healing woman again. I was not as naive this time, and knew whatever was coming was going to be hell. I was wrong, hell seems like a nice place now. Once we reached the forest Brock put some of his earth around my vitals to keep me from being killed, but this only made me fear more. We found the wolves quickly, a pack of ten. The wolves fur were a mixture of colors, but they were all bigger than me. When I first attacked I was killed, or at least I should have been. The wolf with greenish fur had his jaws around my neck before I could even notice. The only reason my head wasn’t popped off was because of Brock’s earth.

For seven hours I fought, for seven hours I was healed, for seven hours I was killed. Again and again and again, the amount of times I should have died is probably in the triple digits. Each wolf had their element, they were all evolved, ten wolves evolved versus one human. I wish we could have just gone to hell. After the first hour ten was taken down to nine, I was finally able to kill one with the fire element. I caught it's legs when it was biting down on my leg. I crushed two of them, then slowly wounded him till he died. After another hour nine went down to eight, another fire elemental wolf. Another hour another wolf down, this time a earth wolf. Another hour and seven went down to five, I was able to get a kill on both a wind wolf and a water wolf. I encased them in earth and crushed them. Another hour and five went down to three, I started getting the hang of shielding myself from their attacks, and changing their footing really helped. Unfortunately the last three were not like the others.

The last three wolves were either dark or light element. They were fast, strong, tough, and smart. They knew attacks to my neck or head wouldn’t work, instead they took out my legs. Brock had to step in so that the healing woman could get me back into shape when they ripped my foot off my leg. I was amazed and horrified when I learned she could regrow my body parts. As soon as I was back in shape, I was sent back into the wolves. I was able to kill one of the dark wolves when I sacrificed my arm to land a blow to it’s neck. With one down I was able to kill the last two after multiple stops for the woman to heal me. It truly left me with a fear of healers and wolves. When it was all done I was thanked by the healing woman because it was great training for her. At least I could be of use.

After a month of fighting for my life I am finally close to being done. Today is the day, I am going on my third quest with Brock. If I can succeed on this quest I am done with training. Brock told me that Robin and Alex are also doing their final quests. Truthfully I haven’t even seen Alex in two weeks. At night when I hold Robin’s tail is the only time I have any contact with her. I am slightly jealous of meat. The thought that I would soon be done with this hellish training was the main thing pushing me.

I arrived at the main family building early in the morning and go directly to dining hall. My eating habits have changed, I now eat two meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eating quickly I wait for Brock to meet me in the front hall. When he arrives I notice the healing woman following behind him. I have developed a slight trauma because of her. “Good morning John, I have your quest for today. We will be heading out west to clear out a mine that was taken over by spiders.” He makes it sound simple, but I can’t be fooled. Only a fate worse than death awaits me.

It took us a couple hours to reach the mine’s entrance. “John, this is your last test, if you can complete this quest then you are done with my training. This time it’s different though. You won’t have someone to heal you. You won’t have me to protect you. You will go in alone, and you only have one chance to complete this. If you exit the cave you will be healed, and you will be safe, but you will be training under me til I believe you are ready again.” Alone huh? What does this mean? Is this quest as hard as the previous ones? If it is then without a healer I will be killed in seconds. But, it doesn’t matter I need to finish with this training, I could just walk away, but then what would all the work I have put in be for? I need to finish so that I can finally relax and enjoy my time with my friends. “You know Brock this past month has literally been hell, but thank you. Thank you also for all the healing you have done, and I hope that I won’t need your services this time. When I get out of this I would like to know your name if that is ok.” The healing woman gives me a nod, I shake Brock's hand and head into the mines.

Once inside I check my equipment, food for the whole day, my earth armor and weapons are made and ready, and my senses are at max. The mines are dark, but my eyes can still see in it. Apparently it is a result of the absorption, and at higher evolutions your eyesight allows you to see for a long distance and quicker speeds. After about five minutes of walking I realized I should have gotten more information on the quest. All I know is that spiders have taken over the mine and I need to clear them out. But, how many are there, and how big is this mine? I can only sense part of the mine, but I can tell that it is a lot larger than the area I can sense.

A while passes with nothing of notice happening and at this point I thought that I was being messed with. No webs, no spiders, no nothing. I reached a dead end for the fifth time, and decided that I will only travel one more path before I stop searching. “Ouch”, I feel a small prick on my cheek. Nothing too much kind of like a paper cut. Touching the cut I don’t seem to be bleeding. Then I started to feel more slight cuts, not on my face, but my hands, my arms, and my legs. None of the cuts drew blood, and they didn’t cause much pain, but I know now that I was not as alone as I thought.

Cut after cut I started getting quite annoyed, I can’t see them but maybe I can feel them. I focus on the earth and try to feel the pressure that is being put on it. Almost unnoticeable was the pressure of these spiders, but I found them. They were hiding above me, and were only the size of my thumbnail. I quickly crush them, and feel to see if I got them all. WIth no changes to the earth I conclude my search. Well seems like this wasn’t a fake quest, but I really hope that they aren’t all that small. While easy to kill, and they hardly even damage me, they are annoying. Following the next path in the mines I run into some more of the tiny spiders. A few cuts and crushed spiders later, I reach a large opening inside the cave. When i got the center of the room, a distinctive skittering noise could be heard from all around me.

Not a hundred, no try more like ten thousand, that is a rough guess at how many of the spiders there are. Wave after wave is being sent at me. I initially tried to leave the room but it has been sealed by a thick web. So I fought, I crushed about a hundred at a time, but they keep coming. The cuts are starting to add up and they have drawn blood. I created walls to funnel them into a single area and started to mow them down. After two hours of slaughtering them they finally ended. My body only had a couple of deeper cuts, but nothing even close to life threatening. Though my body does feel slightly heavier.

Continuing on the path I encountered a spider that was the size of my fist. I killed it easily with my sword, but I know that it was only the beginning. Soon the fist sized spider were in groups of five, then ten, then twenty. With being able to see them I could focus more on my control then sensing them. I killed them just as easy as the tiny spiders, but they left deeper cuts. My body also felt slightly heavier, I think this has something to do with the spiders. Could they be poisonous? I hope not as I don’t have any antidote. I reached a room very similar to the one with the numerous tiny spiders. Understanding that this time there will be numerous small spiders, I readied myself.

As if on que, thousands of fist sized spiders started attacking me from every angle. Creating a wall to limit their attack area, I attack with both sword and earth bullets. I encased those I could, and slowly I whittled down their numbers. My face took the brunt of the damage as one of the spiders able to reach it and it started slashing my face up with it's legs. I have also accepted the fact that these guys are poisonous. My body feels almost twice as heavy as before, not unmanageable, but not good in this situation. With the second large room cleared out I decided that it was a good time to break for food.

Eating my food quickly, I was already back to travelling the underground paths. I come to dead end and head back to finish the last available path. The last and final path, my body is heavy, but I can do this. Each of my steps fall hard, and I meet my first new opponent. The spider is the size of my chest now. The outside of the spider is harder, but with enough force I can penetrate it and kill the spider. Again I find a large room, this time around a hundred of the large sized spiders swarm me. It was close, at one point one of the spiders snuck up behind me, and was able to pierce my neck with it's fangs. I shifted my armor to better protect my neck after that. After killing the spider that pierced my neck, I finished off the rest with easy.

The heavy feeling left my body, and I am back in tip top shape. Full of energy I continue down the path. A couple more packs of the large spider show up, but I finish them off easily. At the end of the long path is a large cavern. The ceiling was around four stories tall, and stalactites were hanging all over. As I was mesmerized by the cavern, a huge spider bigger than me, dropped from the ceiling. Along with it many of each kind of spider. Strengthening my armor and preparing myself for the fight, I stared at the spider. Tough exterior, fast, and probably smart but I have faced this before. The wolves were faster and smarter, and bull was stronger and tougher, I can do this. With a small movement on my part the spiders rushed me. Blocking the larger ones with my shield I mowed down the little ones with controlling the earth around me. After seven hour of fighting it was down to me, and the giant spider. I am bleeding all over, but I still have energy. I have a plan to deal with this one, all I need to do is simple stop it for a bit of time. The giant spider attacks and I block it with my shield, quickly I cut through one of it's legs with my sword. One down eight to go, soon I took out another leg with an earth bullet. After another thirty minutes I had reduced the spider to a body without legs. The outside shell was still tough, but I pulled on a stalactite and forced them to plunge down from the ceiling. Slowly I was able to piece the spider and kill it.

I am done. Finally I can stop this hellish training, the last quest was the easiest, but I won’t complain. I get to relax all day again, and just sit and talk with Robin and Alex. Slowly I made my way out of the mines with the head of the giant spider as my proof. Just outside of the mines I found Robin and Alex waiting for me. “Congrats John.” “Great job Boss, I know you could kill the giant spider. Now we can go back to hanging out all the time.” Both Robin and Alex are smiling at me, and I feel like I am at the top of the world. “Good job John, with this you are done with my training, never again will you have to suffer.” Giving me a firm handshake Brock starts walking away. Together me, Robin, Alex, and the healing girl walk back to the city.

Robin and Alex told how their month has gone, Robin is almost evolved, and Alex can now freely control his dark element. They tell me how their trainers never took them on hard quests, but they taught them so much and they have become really strong. They tell me how that if we went together that the iron bull or the wolves wouldn’t even be a fight now. How we could hike whatever mountains we wanted. It is a bit strange that they new about my quest, but they must have talked to Brock while I was inside the mine. Just as we reached the family main house I remembered my promise with the healing woman. “I almost forgot our promise, since I made it back in one piece, could I know your name?” With a small smile from the woman she told me, “Yes you may, my name is ajsicse. It has been a pleasure John.” Huh? “Sorry I did not catch that could you tell me your name again.” Looking a bit annoyed, “Yes once again my name is acsejis.” What? What is going on whenever she says her name is just sounds like gargling. I can’t understand it at all. “Alex did you catch what her name is?” Alex looked at me confused, “Ya boss it was ssicaje.” The fuck? Not only the healing woman, but also Alex.