I managed to bring the spell up to rank 6. I only planned on raising it to rank 4 but continued summoning the rocks because I wanted to complete the wall that now surrounded Miko’s tent. I was just having way too much fun to stop midway. The campfire now provided 27 to health, stamina, and mana every minute with my trait bonus.

I got some weird looks from my companions in the morning, but they choose not to say anything about the glowing hot glass rock wall surrounding us. I tried to make a small archway, but it kept collapsing. Instead, there was just an open section that we walked through after storing our gear.

Miko got me to use my compass and after confirming the direction against her own, we started walking towards the tower. We came across a dirt path that led in the direction of the tower and decided to follow it. After a few minutes of walking, I noticed some cobwebs in the surrounding trees.

“I hate spiders.” I said out loud.

“Why? Spiders are part of nature. It’s only natural for them to be in a forest.” Said Miko as she walked up to a low branch. “We should collect the webbing to sell since we are here.”

I did not want to get close to the webs and stood in the centre of the dirt path.

“I hate the way they move. Or way they don’t move and just sit there, watching.”

“Aye, I can understand that.” Burin commented while he watched Miko.

“They also love to place single threads right at my eye level. I have never had one hit my chin, cheek, forehead, or hair. It is always my eyes. Also, it’s only ever one thread. If it was a web, I would notice. They conspire against me”

“Aye-what?”

“Some spider must have measured my height when I was asleep once and told every other spider exactly how far off the ground they should string a single strand.”

“Are you okay Reigner?”

“I hate spiders.”

Miko finished collecting the webbing from the tree branch “They are just spiders. I don’t think they have it out against you.”

“Yeah, well I have it out against them. They are lucky I don’t have a fireball spell. I would be making good use of it right now.”

She turned towards me and placed her hands on her hips “Jeez Reigner, has no one told you they are probably more scared of you than you are of them?”

As Miko was talking I noticed a shadow was slowly moving down from the tree above her. It was round with many appendages.

A manly battlecry escaped my lips and I cast a spearbolt right into the centre of the shadow. A dull thunk sounded as the creature was pinned to the tree just behind Miko.

Experience gained

Level up!

3 attribute points gained

Skill gained.

“What was that for!” Miko yelled at me.

Burin chuckled out loudly “Never expected you to scream like a little human girl.”

Ignoring they comments I pointed towards the hideous nightmare fuel that was pinned to the tree.

Miko turned around and let out an “ohhh”

“Would ye look at that. It’s quite big.” Said Burin as he moved to get a closer look “It’s abdomen is the size of Miko’s head.”

“Whoa what a lovely day it is. You know what. I feel like it’s the perfect weather to go for a jog. Care to join me?” Before they could respond I started moving down the path at a jog. The only thing keeping me from outright sprinting was that I was not alone and did not want to abandon the team.

A few seconds later and both Miko and Burn ran past me. I glanced back and immediately regretted it. Behind us were more shiny black spiders racing towards us. I increased my speed and sped past the others. I glanced behind me again to make sure I did not get too far in front and turned around just in time to get closelined by a thread of webbing. The thread was thicker than normal and its only because of that I noticed in time and managed to close my eyes before they impacted with the horror thread.

I let out another manly yell and fell on the ground. I jumped to my feet and ran my hands over my face.

“Is it on me? Oh god is it on me?” My manly yells of calm calculation were interrupted as I felt Burin and Miko grab me from either side and pull me into a jog. It took a couple of swipes to remove the thread and as we ran I made sure to check over myself. Fortunately, there did not appear to be any spiders on my person.

“You saw that right?”

“Aye, I saw ye fall over and scream like a girl again.”

“I did not scream. That’s besides the point. That thread would not have caught either of you. It was placed exactly at my eye level.”

“Aye.”

“So, you get my point?”

“What point?” Asked Miko.

“That spiders are conspiring against me!”

“Why are we running anyway? Couldn’t Miko slow them down for us to wipe them out?”

“We could. I just saw Reigner run and followed.” Replied Miko

There were more cobwebs running across the path ahead and I made sure to keep my arm out in front of my face. I could feel thread snapping against my arm every now and then as we continued running from the clutter of giant spiders.

“What are ye doing now Reigner?”

I glanced down at the dwarf “What? Are you blind? I have run into countless webs!”

“I have not run into any.”

“Me either.” Miko added.

“That just confirms my theory!”

“Stop!” Miko reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I almost just dragged her along with me but noticed that there was another large cluster of spiders ahead of us on the path.

“We be surrounded. No avoiding it now.” Burin pulled out his weapon and shield.

Miko took out her own weapon. “Reigner, summon me a shield. My last one melted.”

I handed over a shield in similar shape to her old one and readied a spearbolt.

“I’ll take the ones in front.” Miko said as she activated her skill.

There was still some distance from the largest swarm behind us but there were a few creeping out of the trees next to us. I summoned a campfire and placed it at the edge of the path and launched my spearbolt.

Experience gained

Because they were so low against the ground, I was unable to kill more than one with a single spearbolt.

I threw countless spearbolts into the mass of spiders as they got closer. Burin managed to summon water and made the path icy. Spiders would either move around the patch of ice or slip when trying to step over it.

Even with the benefits of the campfire I was running out of mana quickly. There was just too many of them.

“We might have to use a signal flare.” Miko asked from behind us. I glanced towards her and saw that she had a small mound of dead spiders in front of her, with more climbing over to reach her.

“Ain’t that dangerous? What if that elf sees it?” Burin asked.

“If he does come then we can just lose him through the forest.” I pulled out the flare from my pouch. “Besides, we will know if its him before even seeing him. I doubt he could resist burning all these spiders.”

I sent up the flare and went back to supporting Burin. He did not seem to mind the spiders and played the role of tank. Allowing me to focus on launching spearbolts around him.

With the campfire bonus my mana regen was currently 53 per minute. That allowed me to cast two spearbolts a minute once my mana bottomed out.

Just as it started looking like Burin was going to be overwhelmed Miko shouted “Someone’s coming” from behind us.

I glanced over my shoulder and could see spiders collapsing to pieces. I couldn’t see who was killing them and saw only the carnage of their passage. A moment later and a blur ran around us in circles. The spiders, and I mean all the spiders were cut into bits and collapsed into a carpet of yuck that stretched out in front, behind, and on either side of us.

The next moment I heard a cry from Miko and saw that a man was now hunched over her, holding her tightly.

Miko was sobbing heavily now and just as I was about to pull the man off her heard her identify the man. “Dad… I was so scared.”

“It’s okay kitten, you are safe now. I got you.”

They stayed like that for a while, Miko sobbing into the arms of her father.

I went to pat Burin’s shoulder but noticed that he was covered in spider bits and loose web and changed my mind. “Good job Burin. You made a great front line.”

“Aye, I gained a level and a new spell when we killed that troll. That’s why I was able to freeze the ground. That combined with Miko’s slow stopped them from just running over us.”

“Oh yeah, the troll. We still have the loot to look at too. I have yet to open the bag.”

Burin’s eyes gleamed “I forgot all about the loot!”

“Well, they say there is only one thing worse than a troll”

“Aye, what’s that?”

“Two Trolls.”

Burin just glared up at me.

“Oh, you have a bit of uh… everything on you.”

He looked down himself and started brushing off the bits of spider and thread from his gear.

“Reigner, its good to see you. And a dwarf. What are you doing here?” Jace looked confused as his eyes bounced between me and the dwarf.

“Call me Burin. I owe your daughter and Reigner my life.”

“I see.” Jace looked to be studying my face for a moment before continuing “Well, it’s good to meet you Burin. I’m Jace, Miko’s father.” He smiled while Miko still clutched at his side. Jace looked to be in rough shape. His face looked tired, he had bags under his eyes, his hair was scruffy, and he kept glancing to his daughter.

Come, there is a clearing not far from here that is outside spider territory. We can make camp and have a chat.”

I watched the others walk over the mass of dead spiders, hearing the snaps, cracks, and squishes of their footfalls. I really did not want to come into contact with any spider, alive or dead. Deciding I had no choice, I took a few deep breaths while mentally preparing myself and moved back a few steps. I pushed myself into a sprint and instead of stepping into the nightmare carpet, jumped as high and as far as I could. This would be the first time I pushed my body to its limits since arriving in this world as I never felt the need to before now.

I sailed over the trio and landed 10 metres ahead of them, sending spider guts, legs, and other things I don’t want to name, flying into the air around me. Before I could register what I just did, I jumped again and again until I landed on clean dirt.

I managed to keep it together for almost a full second before freaking out and slapping myself all over my body while jumping up and down. Once I was convinced there were no spiders or spider bits on me, I stopped and calmed down.

Five minutes later and I was joined by the others. I made sure to keep my distance as their boots and Miko’s feet were covered in spider gore.

“Bet you wished you accepted those boots now, right Miko?”

She did just glared at me.

“What level are you?” asked Jace with a stern look. His eyes flashed yellow, and I felt mana splash against me.

“Did you just cast identify on me?”

“You are new here. It has not even been a week. There is no way you can move like that at your level, and your health…” Jace pushed Miko slightly behind him and took a step forward. “Just who are you and what do you want with my daughter?”

“Dad stop!” Miko moved around Jace and stood between us. “I would not be here if it was not for Reigner.”

“I know. The Tower Knights explained what happened. After responding to a flare, the Knight witnessed Reigner kill the last standing dwarf before escaping into a mazer hole with you.”

“What?” Burin shouted and turned to face the rogue. “They said Reigner killed my friends? Hah, absolute cragshit!”

“I thought it was nonsense until I saw him move. There were witnesses. The report said that you two got into a dispute with some dwarves over a boss camp before Reigner started attacking.”

“What witnesses dad? Elves?” Miko shouted.

“The survivors, a couple of elves, said that they tried to stop Reigner but he overwhelmed them. They said they were only alive due to the prompt arrival of the tower knight.”

“A prompt arrival? There was no arrival, Dad. And what about the tower knight? Were they an elf too?”

Jace’s face twisted in confusion at his daughter’s words and his eyes glanced over each of us.

I went to place a hand on Miko’s shoulder but thought better of it as she was covered in spider muck. “Looks like a lot has happened. Let’s move to the campsite, get cleaned up and then we can exchange information.”