Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Arachnicide

They weren't still. The marabunta of spiders were moving from and to several piles of food, which take Eldi aback. Someone was feeding them, raising those spiders with a purpose that he couldn't grasp. It was impossible for him to know if the spiders that had invaded the forest had been a premeditated act, or an unwanted consequence of that situation.

They were noiseless, but, with so many of them moving, it was impossible for them to produce no sound, besides there were continuous fights between them. The soft brush of their legs multiplied by thousands of them was the continuous sound he had heard before.

And as he watched incredulously at the scene under his feet, he suddenly noticed two dark figures levitating on the spiders. They were floating a little below the hole in the wall over which he was peeking, and high enough to be out of reach of spiders.

Their levels were above 70, which made them excessively dangerous if they were enemies. He hid in the shadows and used Sharpening Senses to try to hear what they were talking about.

"The experiment was a success. They burned part of the forest to prevent it from getting worse, but it's been proven how effective they are," said the first one.

"Excellent. When we throw them all, they won't be able to control it. We'll see if they don't beg us for help then," the second added.

"Maybe we should let them die, or use them as blood tanks. Elves are delicious," suggested the first.

"It's a shame, but the Lord has uses for them."

"There's nothing we can do about it. Hopefully, we'll get some. There are always those who rebel."

"Ha ha ha, you never lose hope. You are such a glutton. Let's go now, this place is disgusting. With this, they'll survive another week. Let's see if, by then, they give us the order to take them out for a walk."

"Hopefully. This job is too boring. I look forward to seeing them in action."

That was the most important part of the conversation Eldi heard. The conclusion was clear, there was a conspiracy by "the Lord", whoever he was. It wouldn't be surprising if there were some link with that power in the shadows that was beginning to appear too much. Or if he was even that same power.

In addition, those two beings were vampires, which used to be the "bad guys" in the game, although there were exceptions. Little could he do against them right now, he didn't have enough power. For now, he had to deal with an army of spiders.

There wasn't enough resin in the inventory to burn them all, so he had to opt for the only method he came up with. It was unpleasant and dangerous, but he couldn't allow the forests to be invaded, he couldn't let them get away with it. The biggest problem was how to get to the food without being attacked by hundreds of them.

A spider approached the huge pile of food, as so many others were doing or had done. Although this was a somewhat strange one, because two human legs came out from under his stomach, something that didn't worry the others spiders. When it reached the huge pile of food, hands appeared and threw something on it.

He reached the second pile with great difficulty, being pushed and even attacked by other spiders, and repeated the operation. And he did the same with the other two. Finally, he went to what looked like an exit, to the other end of the place from which he had entered the huge cavern.

Soon, the first corpses began to appear, and the spiders didn't doubt to devour them, poisoning themselves by the same poison that had killed their fellows. It was a dangerous and cruel method, but the only one he had available.

He had gotten the poison during a mission long ago, a poison that was useless in the game, so it had remained stored in his inventory. Being level 100, it could kill even those spiders with great resistance to such attacks.

But, even so, he wouldn't have used it if it weren't for a special attribute, that of disappearing completely three days after the seal would have been broken. Otherwise, he would have been unable to know how far the consequences could have gone.

He watched at the terrible scene from the security of Sleepyhead's Shield, a scene that was extremely heinous, but he couldn't stop watching it. He was the main culprit of that, so he considered it was his responsibility to be there to contemplate the consequences of his actions.

Despite being spiders, despite having already killed a few of them, or despite being avoiding a disaster and a conspiracy, he felt a strong tightness in his chest that barely let him breathe. The vision of that massacre was something that would take long to forget, if he ever did. Although they were spiders, they were still living beings.

As he watched the spiders die one after another, he noticed that the experience was accumulating. It was a method as effective as frightening to level up, one that he didn't want to repeat. It didn't take long to reach level 56, then 57, and ended up arriving halfway to 58.

At 56, he had recovered Renovation, that allows transforming energy into mana, reaching an efficiency of 50% at affinity level 10, which is what he had. He had used it often, either in battle or while training.

The spell at level 57 was Burning Spear, which makes a spear of said element, and whose duration is one minute per affinity level. All spear skills can be used with it, but not spells such as Frozen Touch, and, of course, it has the characteristics of the element that shapes it, as if it were a normal spear imbued in fire, but more powerful. The biggest disadvantage, apart from the limitation in the time of use, is that it doesn't have the bonuses of real weapons. It was at 10, since it was cool to wield it in the game.

At 56, he had also recovered the Revitalize skill, the reverse of Renovation, that is, it transforms mana into energy. He also had it at 10.

The skill at 57 was Duel, which prevents both, oneself and the opponent, from moving away more than twenty meters during its duration. It consumes energy while it is active, consumption that is reduced as affinity rises. It was at 4, since he had only used it occasionally.