AN: Chapter 5, the ruins

******************************

David and Diane didn't know if they were lucky or not. While being separated, they were in the bigger group while Erwin was on his own. However, that also meant they would n longer benefit from his buffs and healing, and in this forest with spiders and plant monsters everywhere it would be troublesome. On the other hand, Erwin could use more of his mana to heal himself, buff himself more often and debuff more enemies. However there were no longer anybody to watch his back, if he got seriously caugh once he would be done.

-------

The spiders were fast, as fast as Diane. And Erwin knew that she was faster than an average human, he had seen how fast some really athletic persons were. If not for the agility enhancement he would have been caugh. He focused on putting as much distance between them as possible and used healing on himself to make sure any wound he may have gotten while descending the cliff were closed. After all, the spiders came because of the fresh corpse. Erwin was silently cursing in his mind, throwing insults at the all the gods he knew for all their recent bad luck.

Sometimes, some vines would suddenly move toward his legs. The first time, he had completely forgotten about their existance, and thus caugh off guard. He cast agility and strenght decrease on the perpetrator to slow it down while it dragged him. It gave him enough time and stability to violently slash at the vine. All of this didn't take long, but it was enough for the fastest spiders to get close. One of them close enough to jump at him, but he slashed at it while it was in the air, luckily hitting the head and lethaly damaging its brain.

Erwin was now running with his gaze slightly turned toward the ground, ready to jump each time something moved on the ground. When his enhancement ran out he would recast them. Like that, he ran for 20min before stopping, tired. He had gained a skill along the way.

Skill aquired: Parkour

Your movements in an obstacle-filled path is notably improved

Satisfied by the notification, he sat down against a tree to catch his breath. Once he had recovered, he noticed that it had been a few minutes and there were no signs of the spiders. Erwin though they must have given up on him. He suddenly got worried about the others.

“Shit, did they manage to get away despite the lack of buffs? At least I hope David and Diane are ok... No, now isn't the time to think about others, I should stay focused and advance toward the ruins. There is still a lot of walking to do in this damn deadly forest.”

On his way, he came across several other plant monsters and small groups of spiders. He mostly ignored the plants but did exterminate the small groups of spiders, he could spare the mana to debuff each members of the groups. After killing the last spider, he was about to leave when he stopped and looked at it again, and the others.

'Wait, I don't have to stay alone, do I? I could probably have tamed some of them with my contractor skill. If I tamed a leader, would the other still follow it? Though, I wonder how effective a spider would be against another spider. Wait, I can already deal with groups of them. By adding one new pet with each new group I would be able to grind the contractor skill while increasing the number of minions/meat shield!! Moving in this forest and sleeping would be a lot less risky. Let's do that!'

When Erwin encountered the next group of spiders, he killed all of them except for the bigger one. He used the blunt side of his makeshift sword to break all of its legs on one side. The spider was around 120cm tall, dark geen, almost black, with a thin, barely noticable green patern on its back. Its numerous eyes were dark red. Erwin found the spider kinda cool, even though he didn't particulary like them. He put his hand on top of his head and used the contractor skill. After a small colorless glow, he got a weird feeling from the spider.

“... Is that defiance? It's resisting?”

Erwin increased the pressure of his hand on its head and tried to will more mana into the skill, without succes. He could make best use of his buffs with soldiers, and as he was alone he definitly needed one. His nonchalant attitude was replaced by his will to dominate the wounded spider and survive. His will was conveyed to the spider through the link created by the skill, and the wounded spider with little intelligence and sentience couldn't do anything about it. A mark appeared on its head and the colorless glow disappeared.

Contract successful

Gamora Spider has become your faithfull servant

'Tch, so a contract can also fail. Defeating an opponent isn't enough, I have to somehow impose my will and overcome theirs... So those things are gamora spiders eh.' though Erwin as he started to heal the spider. '… Servant's status!'

NAME:-RACE:Gamora spiderAGE:2GENDER:FemaleLEVEL:12BONUS POINTS:00TitlesErwin Russel's first servantLIFE:187/ 228REGEN RATE:90%STAMINA:199 /223REGEN RATE:89%MANA:100 / 100REGEN RATE:87%STRENGHT:30CONSTITUTION:42AGILITY:58DEXTERITY:61INTELLIGENCE:20SPIRIT:15WISDOM:10CHARISMA:13FIRE:00/-15WATER:13/00EARTH:09/00AIR:00/00LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:07/11ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00RESISTANCES:Poison(31%) - Illness(18%)-

“No name? Since you're my first servant, I will give you a nice one... Wait, I don't know of any famous unique spider...” 'When you think of spider, you think of agility, poison, web, hunter... an assassin build... an assassin using strings... Sadira from Killer Instinct!!' “From now on, your name will be Sadira.”

As he said that, the mark on her head briefly glowed, and when he checked back her status the name was on it.

'Handy! What about her abilities?'

TRAITS-SKILLSTYPELEVELPoisonous biteActive5Thread generationActive8SurvivalPassive14SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL---

'Nothing noteworthy, as expected of a spider. Though, survival? I guess all beings living in the wilderness should have that... Now, I should raise my troops and contractor skill while I advance toward the ruin... Wait, it used about a third of my mana. I can't use it anymore today or I won't have enough mana for my magic during battle.' “Guess it will be just you and me for a while. Follow me.”

-------

He resumed his travel with Sadira behind him. Each time they encountered monsters, he would order Sadira to hide, then he would wound half of the enemies and order Sadira to kill the wounded. He would kill the others himself. They reached the first ruined buildings at the end of the afternoon. Sadira had gained 2 levels, and Erwin put all her bonus points in agility. His healing, buffs and debuffs skills had leveled up as well.

The buildings had turned into rubbles, and twisted or torn metals. It looked like they had fallen from a higher place, they were completely crushed. Some pieces of roads were in the same state here and there. There were less trees and bushes, but still enough to remind people that is was within a forest. It would be useless to look around there so he advanced further. There were old traces of blood sometimes. Probably people that fell alongside the buildings, splattering upon impact and eaten by spiders and other things.

He continued to advance for several minutes, and noticed that the rubbles were made of bigger pieces. It has also become more silent. He noticed that before, there were still birds noise around, but here he could barelly hear one. He put his back against a tree and carefully looked around, including above his head on the branches of the tree. Nothing.

'Shit! This place is probably more dangerous... Think, what kind of animals can be found in a forest? I already found insects and plants. There should be canins things like wolves or felins things like tigres. There can also be lizards and snakes... Or humanoid monsters, goblins and orcs... I hope monsters just avoid this place because it's new and full of stranges smells. I should hurry and find a place to spend the night.'

He advanced with his legs bent and weapons in hands, checking the ground and the branches of the trees as he moved. There were more and more ruins of buildings, with bigger pieces intacts. It was as if the buildings in the outskirts fell from a higher position than those near the center, or their fall was slowed by something compared to the buildings in the outkirts. He soon found a building that was partially intact – at least the upper floors weren't completely ruined. It looked like an appartment buildings. In the few rooms he could go in, almost everything was broken. He didn't spend much time in there since the place was constantly creaking.

Later he found another building, less damaged. Again, only the upper floors survived. He found some canned food inside, but nothing to drink. He then realised that he would need to find some drinkable water soon. He left the building to go to another one. A suspicious and loud craking noise warned him of the danger, and he spun around, weapons crossed in front of him. He was knocked to the ground, but the monster that attacked him retreated after having its front legs wounded by the weapons.

“Sadira, stand back!!” He ordered as he cast the buffs on himself. He didn't have the time get up when the beast attacked him again. Once again, he tried to parry the attack, but he wasn't successful and the beast sunk its fangs in his right shoulder.

“GHUAAAAAAAAA!!!”

In retaliation, Erwin struck the neck of the beast with his left hand. The beast growled in pain, and Erwin strongly kicked its tummy, disturbing its balance, and stabbed the same place he had struck before.

“GROAAAAR!!!”

The beast roard in pain this time and released him. Its claws had bitten into his flesh, and along with the wound on his shoulder he was bleeding a lot. He was finally able to get up and have a good look at he beast. It was a crimson red panther, with crimson eyes. They looked at each other for a bit, when it prepared itself to attack again, Erwin debuffed it and counter attacked. Since he couldn't do much with his right hand, he used it to defend and pierced the front right leg of the beast. He then pressed the attack.

“Sadira, poison bite!!”

Two seconds later, the faithfull spider had jumped on the back of the beast and bit the nape of its neck before retreating. The beast roared louder than before, and started to spasm while producing gargling sounds. It became unsteady on its leg, and fell to the side. Erwin quickly killed it. He butchered its hind leg of and went back inside the building with Sadira behind him. Once inside, he tossed the leg in one of the rooms and told Sadira to eat it.

He used a bit of his remaining water to clean the wounds after stopping the bleeding with heling magic. He used the rest of his mana to close the wound and even used detoxification magic just in case. He went in the least accessible room, and after ordering Sadira to stand guard at the entrance, he quickly ate the content of a can and fell asleep. He had another nightmare that night but didn't have the chance to wake up in the middle of it.

******************************