Chapter 4

Michael stomped through the forest swinging his new club through the webs, taunting the smaller spiders. They gave less sp, but they were easier to kill so he figured he would grind them out for a little while and build his soul power back up.

A small spider launched itself from a nearby branch, directly at his face. Michael raised the large piece of bark he was using as a makeshift shield, and caught it midair. A quick swing of his arm squished the spider between the shield and the trunk of the tree the spider had launched itself from, popping it like a zit and spraying its gooey insides everywhere.

Michael turned and swung his new, shorter, club at another spider scuttling along the ground towards his ankles. The club caught the spider on the side, crushing four of its legs and cracking one side of its carapace wide open. He was about to strike it again when the grey fog lifted from the creature, signaling its demise.

Michael looked around at the virilent green puss dripping from nearly every surface, and noted that in this small corner of the forest, the population of spiders was rapidly nearing zero. He grabbed some nearby leaves and wiped as much of the goop off himself as he could and took stock of his progress.

Michael

Health: 42/50

SP: 55

Strength: 1

Skill: 44/100

Agility: 1

Skill: 32/100

Stamina: 1

Skill: 32/100

Constitution: 1

Skill: 60/100

Intelligence: 1

Skill: 20/100

Charisma: 1

Skill: 1/100

Magic: 1

Skill: 20/100

Michael had been a lot more careful this time around. The spiders were tough and tended to attack in groups, but once you understood their basic moves, they were simple to work around.

He was really excited that he finally had enough soul power to level up one of his skills. The choice was killing him.

“Strength is an obvious choice, but I could really use more stamina” he muttered to himself as he studied the soft blue screen hanging in the air. “But what about the long game.”

Michael thought about his play style. He had never really been a sword and board type player. They had incredibly high durability sure, but if you looked at their careers overall they had the highest death count out of every class. With his pain settings set to max, he winced to imagine getting stabbed and smashed and dying, over and over again.

No a better choice was a long range character. That left either the typical hunter archetype with their bows and arrows, or a ranged spell caster. The problem with both of those characters is that they tended to be a bit of a glass cannon. Something with a decent attack range, but something that could take a punch.

A rustling in the trees grabbed Michael’s attention. He couldn’t see them yet, but he knew they were coming. Thinking about the long game was all well and good, but it wasn’t going to help him in the here and now.

“Focus on the fight in front of you, dumbass” he chided himself.

The spiders were dying pretty easily, so the best choice for right now was stamina. Reaching into his chest for the soul power storm, he reached out to the character screen and selected stamina.

You wish to upgrade your stamina for 25SP?

This change cannot be undone.

Yes / No

“Yes.”

Immediately Michael felt the energy spread throughout his body. The storm cascaded down his arms and legs, through his back, and settled deep inside his bones. Once the storm settled, he appraised his body. He didn’t feel very different. Perhaps less winded? He glanced at his stats.

Michael

Health: 72/100

SP: 30

Strength: 1

Skill: 44/100

Agility: 1

Skill: 32/100

Stamina: 2

Skill: 1/100

Constitution: 1

Skill: 60/100

Intelligence: 1

Skill: 20/100

Charisma: 1

Skill: 1/100

Magic: 1

Skill: 20/100

‘Well shit. So upgrading my stamina reset the skill points. All the work I’ve done to level that manually was just bypassed and lost. So there’s going to be a cutoff point where diminishing returns kicks in and it becomes a waste to spend the SP. Damn this game is devious. It really wants you to do things the hard way.’

He was out of time though, another trio of spiders were right on him. It only took a few swings to crush them, he only took a scratch from the middle one dropping his health down to sixty eight.

DING

Your skill with clubs is now level 2

Skill: 1/100

Michael was surprised to see his clubs skill go up. He had never even considered that he could become more proficient with weapons. ‘I bet if you max out the weapons there’s some nice little bonuses waiting.’

Armed with confidence, increased stamina, a makeshift shield, and a small healing spell; he strode deeper into the forest and thicker webs. It was time to go hunting for the big boys.

Michael didn’t have to go far. Only a few dozen feet away were the larger spiders that had chewed him up last time. This time though he was prepared. Using Bash on a few of the big boys netted him smaller SP gains, but he had a feeling that if he went even deeper he would start to find some worthwhile loot.

He trudged deeper and deeper into the forest. The webs became thicker and thicker. Now he wasn’t just fighting the big ones, they also carried one or two small ones on their back. The swarms started to get bigger and bigger, and he was taking more and more damage. He was running out of soul power too. His healing spell was a nice addition, but the 25% efficacy was killing his SP bank. He needed to come back with a group.

Michael activated Bash and took out the last of the group of four that attacked him. He had been bitten and used his last 10sp to cure the poison. It was time to turn back to easier hunting grounds. As he turned he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

There not twenty feet away was a corpse. It was so completely covered he had nearly missed it, but a small patch of hide near the thigh was uncovered enough to stand out from the dark earth and grey webbing.

He quickly rushed over to it. Sure enough there was an emaciated skeleton underneath all that. His hands quickly tore at the cocoon. Pulling the webbing off, he saw that the corpse was a small form wearing a hide dress. There was a necklace with feathers and animal bones around its neck, and no weapon anywhere in sight.

Michael wasn’t sure what he expected. A locked chest with swords and gold? The corpse of an armored knight? He had been taking on the spiders naked with some branches. The only people who had probably gotten killed here were younglings who got lost.

He relieved the necklace of the corpse, it looked sentimental, and left the rest. He glanced around spotting another suspicious lump a few dozen feet away. He must have found their feeding ground.

Michael was able to loot three more corpses, finding a hide shirt still mostly intact, another necklace and a broken spear.

He turned and was about to search for another corpse when the rustling he had become used to quieted. Immediately he crouched and swept the area. His manic eyes searching for the rush of spiders he was sure was coming.

As he turned he saw a large knot from the side of one of the trees, separate itself from the oak and begin crawling down to the ground.

It wasn’t a knot. It was the biggest spider he had ever seen outside a dungeon. The thing had to be four feet thick at the abdomen and weigh easily 150lbs. Michael thought about running, but he was afraid to turn his back to it. If it caught him while he was running, it could probably kill him with a single bite.

He had no choice.

Michael charged the spider, bringing his club down straight at the things disgusting head. Eight eyes swiveled to watch the club descend. Michael expected the spider to try and dodge, what he didn’t expect however was the spider to swing one of its legs up and block the club.

Before he even had time to process what had just happened, the spider queen leapt forward, mandibles biting for any piece of him that it could get. Michael brought his left arm around to catch the bite with his makeshift shield.

They collided like a runaway truck. The spiders fangs bit into the bark of the shield, scrabbling to try and get through, but the piece was too big to get its fangs around or through. The sheer force behind the lunge was enough to knock Michael back a step and make his arm go numb.

While the spider queen fought with his shield, he brought his club up and under in an underhand swing right into the bottom of its fangs. The spiders head snapped back and it retreated a few steps while it shook its head as if it was dazed.

Michael ran around to the side and raised his club high above his head and activated Bash. Nothing happened. He glanced up at his soul bar and saw that it was still dry from his last heal.

He stood there like an idiot with the club above his head just a second too long. The spider queen got its head cleared and kicked with its legs, catching Michael in the stomach and ripping open a patch of his skin like wrapping paper.

Michael staggered back clutching his stomach which was now bleeding all down his front. He didn’t have time to inspect the damage because the spider lunged for another bite. He was able to get his shield in front of him but only partially. The spiders fang caught an edge of it and ripped it out of his hand, tossing it out into the forest.

While the spider was so rudely throwing his precious shield away, Michael brought his club around in a wild haymaker. The spider was able to block the hit with its foreleg again, but this time there was a loud crack, and the leg snapped off where it was hit. The spider screamed in a high pitched hiss and retreated, holding its leg close to its thorax.

Michael advanced swinging wildly. The spider was off balance, and he needed to keep it that way. He got in two or three good solid hits with the club as the spider retreated. He backed it up against a tree, thinking he had it cornered. The spider reached out with its hind legs and simply climbed backwards up the tree and out of reach.

‘Oh yeah. Spiders can do that.’

Now that the spider was out of range, Michael backed up and looked for large rocks to throw. He had the spider injured now if he could knock it down, he could just finish it off. Off to his right, near the feet of one of the corpses was a rock about half the size of his head. He quickly grabbed it and spun to throw it. But when he turned around, the spider was gone.

He quickly scanned the trees. He knew the spider was still there somewhere watching him. The thing was bigger than a great dane, how the hell could it hide so well?

Michael searched and searched, looking for any sign of the mottled brown and black spider queen in the branches. Wherever it was it was invisible. He was still turning and scanning the trees when a web shot out from his side and tangled his legs.

The spider hadn’t been in the trees, it had been sneaking around on the ground.

Michael cried out as his legs were snared out from under him. The spider queen was on him in an instant. He swung his club up and jammed it in the spiders mouth right as it tried to bite him. Instinctively the spider latched onto it and began to shake its head violently, trying to tear the club from his hand.

He hung on desperately to his only weapon as the spider shook, and his left hand scrabbled madly for the rock that he had dropped. His fingers searched frantically as his right shoulder felt like it was going to be torn from its socket. He came across something hard. It was another stick lying on the ground.

The club was finally ripped from his hand, tearing the skin of his palm open in the process. Just as the spider threw the club away and came back to rip Michael’s head off, he jammed the stick into the spiders mouth.

The tip of the broken spear that Michael had accidentally grabbed, went straight through the mouth of the spider queen and out the top of its head, skewing its brain in the process. The spider gave a twitch, and then collapsed on top of him.

Michael lay there for a second, stunned and breathing heavily. Part of him suspected the whole thing was a ruse and the spider was going to tear into his throat any second. But the seconds passed and the spider lay unmoving.

He heaved the heavy thing off and studied the massive queen. Her eight eyes were staring off into space and already beginning to cloud over. A tentative prod of her legs revealed no movement whatsoever.

He had done it. He had killed the spider queen and survived. Sure he had won accidentally and should have died half a dozen times, but he didn’t.

The grey mist rose from the corpse and wooshed into his chest. He checked his stats to see what the kill was worth.

Michael

Health: 32/75

Soul Power: 100

‘Holy shit! A hundred soul power? That must be the boss of the area.’ Michael did a little dance. With that single kill he had regained everything he had lost in the last few fights, plus a decent margin.

He looked around and found a long thin rock and began chopping at the joint of the spider’s neck. It was a grueling mess, but finally the head came free. He picked the head up by the piece of broken spear jutting up through its skull and started walking back through the village.

The spider swarms he had fought through to get to this point seemed to flee at the sight of him holding the head of their queen in his hand.

“Drive your enemies before you and hear the lamentations of their women,” Michael said with a wicked smile.

He walked up to the village amid the gasps and stares of the villagers. Before the women ran and hid at his nudity and the men pointed spears as his...spear. Now they just stood there, mouths agape.

He walked right through the village to the big fire in the middle where the old woman sat chatting with some other ladies.

He walked up and unceremoniously threw the head at her feet. It bounced and rolled, coming to a rest on the broken spear, eyes staring up at her.

The old woman looked at the head and looked back at him. It was obviously not a trick since he was literally covered from head to toe in spider guts.

“You have killed the spider queen? Alone and naked? Our greatest warriors could not do so. Who are you?” She asked. All previous arrogance disappearing like a fart in the wind.

“I am the same man I told you before. I am Michael, sent here by the goddess Sara. She told me to speak to the good people of this village and learn about the area” he said with an air of formality. He quickly deflated. “All I’ve learned so far is that spiders are a pain in the butt and shoes are a very underrated necessity.”

That caused a chuckle to ripple through the crowd. The old woman stood up and clapped her hands together. “I am spirit guide Nizhoni! I see Michael, champion of the goddess Sara.”

The crowd repeated, “I see Michael, champion of the goddess Sara.”

“Michael has proven his virtue by slaying the spider queen that has threatened our village for a decade. On this day our children and our warriors have been avenged!” A mighty cheer went up from the villages who were now crowding closer and closer. Everyone wanted to be a part of the spirit guides announcement.

“On this day, let us rejoice in our loved ones who have finally achieved peace, and in our new friend Michael. Tonight we feast in celebration!”