Note: This chapter has not gone to my editors and events may change before final release. The below is also unedited and in a raw non-polished form.

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Pulling up his inventory, Toaby looked for something to enchant. Since he only knew defensive runes, the obvious choice would be his armor, but it was in a pretty terrible state. Most of his leather vest’s durability was gone. His leggings and boots still had three points each, though.

Gaining the knowledge from the primer, he knew what he had to do. He pulled a mana crystal from his inventory and placed it in the runic bowl on top of the desk. Grabbing the rune carved mortar, he crushed the crystal into a dust.

You have created Powdered Mana Crystal x1.

Powdered Mana Crystal - Crafting material

A powdered crystal containing magical essence. This substance is used in a variety of crafting professions.

5/5 Durability

Next he took of his boots and set them next to the bowl. Grabbing a handful of the powder, he sprinkled it on-top of them.

You are attempting to enchant Sturdy Boots.

Warning! This item does not have maximum durability and has a higher chance of becoming unstable. Do you wish to proceed?

Yes / No

Toaby selected yes, and a new overlay displayed itself on top of the boots. It showed their overall enchanting potential, the percentage chance of the enchantments becoming unstable, the runes he had available for enchanting, and a cost, both to his mana and how many crystals it would take. Since the boots had suffered some durability damage, the failure rate was already at twenty percent. Being a starter item, the boots also only had a potential to accept a single rune. He figured better equipment would have the potential for more runes, but he would work with what he had.

Interesting. Toaby mentally dragged the protection rune, Algiz, from the side of the interface onto the boots. The rune was an uppercase Y with an extra line at the top. It somewhat resembled a crude trident. As he placed it on the boot, the image of the rune appeared glowing on the outside of each shoe. Checking his interface, the runic cost increased to ten mana and two crystals.

Since he had just leveled up, he threw one of his three free points into intelligence since it was the skill tied to enchanting. His overall mana bar grew in size as its total went from five to ten. While he had the interface open, he placed two points in constitution. From his previous conversation with Laura and Hire, that was going to be his best advantage early on. His high hit point multiplier of ten.

Closing his character sheet and returning to the enchanting window, he ground up another crystal. He heard his party saying something to him but he was too engrossed by the task at hand to pay them any attention. As he placed a finger against one of the rune overlays on a boot, a spark of blue electricity formed at his fingertip.

He followed the path of the rune on each boot, tracing it with his finger. The sparking magic at its tip carved deep into the material. His line work wasn’t perfect, the energy flowing through him was potent and forced his hand to shake and jerk. He did his best with the basic rune, knowing that he would need practice controlling this unknown force. The chance of failure increased to thirty-five percent because of the poor drawings. It wasn’t like he could go back and fix them either. They were permanently carved into the material.

When he finished, he sprinkled dust over the runes to fill their crevices. Covering each rune with a hand, he allowed his mana to drain out of him. His mana flowed into the powder as it emitted a bright light. After a minute, the entire pair of boots shimmered in a kaleidoscope of colors. It had worked, and the enchantment was stable. He picked up his masterpiece to take in its glory.

You have obtained Sturdy Boots of Weak Protection x1.

Sturdy Boots of Weak Protection - Foot armor

A sturdy pair of leather boots, enchanted with the basic rune of protection.

2 Armor (1 + 1 enchanted)

5/7 Durability

Seriously… It only gained one point of armor and a few points of durability. Someone shook him from behind.

“Toaby! Can you hear us!?” Toaby turned to see Sam shaking him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Sorry. I really wanted to try my new enchanting skill. I may have gotten into the zone.” Toaby scratched the back of his head, absent minded.

“That explains the fancy light show. How did it go?” Asked Hiro.

Toaby shrugged. “Well, it worked.” He handed the boots to his party for inspection. “The enchanted gave them an extra point in defense and some added durability.”

“That’s amazing!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! This is only a weak protection enchantment, and it doubled the boot's effectiveness. Imagine what will happen when you get better runes.” Hiro handed the boots back after everyone gave them a look. “And with the higher durability, they’ll last a lot longer.”

“Yeah.” Toaby mumbled at first but repeated himself in a more firm tone. “Yeah! It is pretty awesome!”

“Thats the spirit.”

“Thanks. I’m down for some more adventuring. Can’t wait to see what we find behind the last couple doors.”

Sam smiled widely. “No, Hiro. That’s the spirit!”

The group all chuckled and headed out of the room. Not before Toaby stuffed the mortar and bowl into his inventory. As they left, Toaby also noticed that he had pending notifications, so he pulled them up.

Congratulations! You have learned the agility skill Drawing.

Drawing: They say that man only transcended from mindless, less hairy apes when they learned to cave paint. It was a cornerstone in the formation of language, history and society. You’re not quite as good at drawing as those mindless apes, but this skill should help. A little. Provides a 1% drawing accuracy bonus per skill level.

I see that Loki is back creating the system messages. The nice ones are gone for now, I suppose. Toaby sped up, so he didn’t fall behind.

“I can help in the front line now. My hit points have recovered the best they can.” Hiro said to no one in particular.

“Let’s see how many of them there are. I have fifty hit points now, so I’ll do my best to keep their attention if I can.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Let’s go.” Toaby pushed open the next door. Four enormous spiders were crawling around the small dark room. Everyone tried charging in, but Toaby held them back. “Wait! Let’s funnel them out to the larger room. We should be able to take them on one at a time as they exit.” Toaby took a few steps back and readied himself.

The fight went smoothly. All four spiders tried making it out of the room at once but couldn’t fit. Instead, they spent most of the fight trying to crawl over one another. They seemed a bit rabid without their handlers. Toaby got poisoned several times, but whether it had been their level ups or time fighting together, none of them were seriously wounded.

Toaby frowned when the fight was ultimately over because he only gained twenty experience. After looting the corpses, they explored the room. Toaby watched as the spiders vanished.

“Ya know. It’s good that the system absorbs the bodies like that. Can you imagine having to walk around the room with bodies just lying around?” Toaby shivered.

“I would be fine with it if it wasn’t spider corpses.” Laura muttered as she searched through a pile of hay.

“Not me.” Sam added. “I’m glad the system absorbs the bodies.”

“What about you, Hiro?” Toaby asked.

“Death is a part of life. The important thing is taking ownership for what is done. I shall carry each of their deaths with me. Whether it's a monster or another human. Carry it with you.”

“Wow. That’s deep, Hiro.”

Hiro nodded. “My wisdom has come with my age. It’s all experience.”

“I look forward to getting to know you, Hiro.”

“And I you.”

“Let’s move on.” Sam stood and brushed the hay from his pants. “Theres nothing in here.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Toaby took one last look around. The small room was just full of hay and cobwebs. It must have been a sleeping chamber for the spiders because there was nothing of value inside.

As they walked back into the primary room, something caught Sam’s eye. “Look at that.” He pointed to the large spider sculpture. Six of the eight legs were glowing the same blue as the flames lighting each room.

“Hmm… Three fourths of the legs are lit.” Toaby pointed to the three open doors in the room. “I think their tied to clearing the rooms in here.”

“Makes sense. Told you this world is just a giant video game!” Same slapped Toaby on the shoulder.

“I guess so.” His gaze went to the last unopened door. “Should we finish this up and get back to the settlement?”

Laura nodded. “Yeah. I have a bed to break in.”

Hiro smiled warmly. “Ohhhh. A pillow.”

Before they could all start drooling, Toaby went and opened the door. He let out a silent curse because in his haste he forgot to check it for traps. Luckily nothing triggered, and the door opened without protest.

Purple flames ignited on a pair of chandeliers to illuminate the room. The room had a very elegant purple rug covered the floor. There were bookshelves lining one wall and display cases along the other. Another two rows of display cases adorned the middle of the room.

Toaby got excited at first before realizing all the display cases were smashed open and their contents gone. Broken glass, torn pages and burned books covered the rug on the floor. Something or someone did a number to this room.

“What the hell happened in here?” Sam said as he entered.

“Careful of the glass.” Toaby added as Hiro and Laura came in. Hiro and Sam had sub-par clothing on their feet.

“Look around for anything useful.” Laura half-ordered.

After a quick walk around the room, the only thing they found that was salvageable were some torn pages out of an unknown book. They outlined the history of the Arachnokin. The group gathered to read it together.

According to the pages, the Arachnokin were descendants of Dark Elves. They were called Dusk Elves, and the name Arachnokin was given to them by the Gods because of their fascination with spiders. An unnamed God blessed their ancient leader, Anzu, with a spider egg larger than any they had ever seen. She treated the egg like her own child. Nurturing for it and protecting it the best she could. Her following grew as word spread, and soon she had an entire tribe by her side.

That’s where the story got dark. Apparently that egg was cursed. One night while Anzu slept, cuddling with her precious egg, it latched onto her and changed the Arachnokin forever. When she awoke, she had become a monster. The text didn’t describe what she became exactly. It appeared they were missing some pages, but where the story continued on another page, Anzu started breeding what the text referred to a brood.

When Midgard was designated to be the realm of Humans, the other races were exiled. The Dusk Elves refused to leave and so the Gods’ started a war. After many battles, they retreated to their temple where all the surviving members of the Arachnokin sacrificed themselves to seal their Queen away. They burned through their magic to reinforce the temple and place their Queen into a deep slumber.

Disgusted by the genocide of an entire species, Odin commanded all to leave them be. Anzu was sleeping and trapped behind a veil of magic. It would be thousands of years before the spell faded that trapped them inside. More than enough time for Humans to spread through Midgard and make it their home.

The few remaining Dusk Elves who survived the racial sacrifice spell signed the last page. Everyone’s eyes drooped upon finishing the text. Slowly coming to the realization that they may have killed the last of an ancient race.