MaeveMcCarthy
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Phoenix Healer, Chapters 41-44
🕑 Added 2024-12-12 14:34:21 +0000 UTCChapter 41
Monica placed both hands on the crystal doors and pushed. Nothing happened. Not even a groan or a scrape. The surface remained smooth and unyielding under her palms.
She tried channeling the Obsidian Flame into her hands. The black fire spread across the crystal but didn’t leave a mark. She increased the intensity until the flames roared against the surface, but the doors didn’t even warm up. The crystal seemed to absorb the heat without effect.
The doors remained unchanged.
“Well,” Monica said, letting her flames die out. “That’s not working.” She stepped back and studied the doors again.
That’s when the notification rang in her head.
Ding
Quest Updated – ‘Eradication I/III’
Destroy all the Corrupted Constructs plaguing the first floor of Viscera in order to retrieve the Key to the Temple of Dhoznil.
Progress: 6/80
Reward:
Rare Loot Chest x3
Second Class Slot
“We need to kill more spiders,” she said. “The Quest updated. We need to clear all eighty of them to get a key. The key didn’t appear in the Rewards, which meant it must have physically been somewhere.”
Sir Tristan scrutinized the doors, craning his neck up, putting his armored hand on them. Then sighed. “Couldn’t have been that easy,” he shook his head. “So we need to kill all the spiders first?”
“Seems so,” Monica replied.
“That’s quite a bit of spiders.”
“Not if we do it right,” Sir Tristan crossed his arms. “As long as none of us lose their minds again, we should be able to go through them faster. I have to admit, your Classes might not be leveled up, but they can deal a lot of damage. Let’s make sure you’re all prepared for what’s going to wait for us in the lower levels.”
“They like to hide in buildings,” Ted said. “Maybe we should sweep through the residential district?”
Everyone looked at each other and then started descending the stairs.
“Ted,” Monica suddenly asked. “Wasn’t I supposed to get a Skill at Level 20?”
Ted shook his head, but it was Sir Tristan who intercepted the question.
“It’s not guaranteed,” the large man replied, looking at the steep slope of stairs with a raised eyebrow. “Every ten level you’re likely to get a Skill, but many Classes happen not to get one for tens of Levels. The stronger the Class, the rarer the Skills.”
“Maybe that’s why you didn’t get any Skill,” Heidi said to Ted with a smile. “Your Class is extremely strong.”
“May I ask,” Sir Tristan said, “how your Class works?”
“He has a name,” Heidi said.
“Ted,” Sir Tristan corrected himself. “May I ask?”
“You may but you may not get an answer,” Heidi replied.
“It’s fine,” Ted shrugged. “I got the Bard Class but I only have one Skill, Song of the Phoenix.”
“You only have one Skill?” Sir Tristan sounded surprised.
“Yeah. I don’t know. I just can’t get many levels,” Ted shrugged.
Sir Tristan looked at Ted’s level. He was currently Level 25. Then he looked at Heidi, who through the past two engagements had already reached Level 36. Considering the impact that the young man’s Skill had on battle by empowering both Heidi and Monica, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he actually got slightly more experience than both. But he seemed to only be growing in level slightly faster than Monica herself.
Sir Tristan suspected that the woman had a terrifying experience multiplier to satisfy in order to level up such a strong Class as hers. But could it be that the young man had something similar? He himself only had that pitiful 1.2 for his Steel Knight Class. They were currently fighting monsters more than fifty levels above their own, and yet they were only leveling up this much. And this young man wasn’t getting any kind of freakish growth.
“So you have one Skill, this Song of the Phoenix, and it empowers them because they have Classes with ‘Phoenix’ in their name?” Sir Tristan asked, trying to get a better picture.
“Basically,” Ted shrugged.
That made somewhat sense to Sir Tristan, but it was Ted himself who cleared up his thoughts.
“If I had to guess,” Ted said, “the Bard Class is basically this manifestation of a reflection of someone else’s powers. As a Bard, I think I’m still here to assist Monica. I’m not really sure, to be fair, what my Class is really up to, but I think that the power of the Skill, the reason Song of the Phoenix is so powerful, is because it’s so specific. It doesn’t empower anyone else but those who were blessed by the Twin Phoenix. I’m not even sure that ‘blessed’ is the right term - just those affiliated with the Twin Phoenix. So maybe that’s why it’s hard to gain new Skills, because there’s only Monica and Heidi, and I’m already playing the one song I know.”
Sir Tristan fell silent, thinking to himself that even like this, Ted’s Class sounded insanely strong. Despite the high degree of specialization, it was clearly Ted’s help that allowed Monica, none other than the Avatar of the Twin Phoenix, a being that supposedly was on par with Old Gods, to punch far above her weight.
“So there’s no way to level faster?” Sir Tristan asked.
“Not that I know of,” Ted replied.
Monica studied him thoughtfully. “What about new songs?”
Ted looked up from his mandolin. “You mean like creating them?”
“Yeah. Could you make songs that do different things?”
“Maybe,” Ted said. “The Song of the Phoenix just came to me when I saw you fighting. I didn’t plan it.”
They reached the bottom of the stairs. Monica looked at the buildings around them.
They walked together through the residential district. The stone dwarves lined the streets, frozen in their daily routines. Monica made sure to keep her distance from them. Something about disturbing their eternal stillness felt wrong.
“No spiders,” Heidi said after they checked another street.
“They must be somewhere,” Monica said. “We need that key to get the Spear of Dhoznil. And we need the Spear to kill Machina.”
They passed a market square. Stone vendors stood behind empty stalls of goods that must have decomposed a long time ago. A mother held her child’s hand, both turned to stone mid-step.
“Still no spiders,” Dotty said.
Sir Tristan led their formation, shield ready. “This isn’t right. We’ve seen them attack before. Why are they hiding now?”
Monica nodded. “The Spear is our only chance against Machina. Lucas was clear about that. My flames won’t be enough to kill her. We need to find these spiders and get that key.”
They walked another hour through empty streets. The artificial sun in the cave ceiling cast long shadows. More stone dwarves watched their passage. But no spiders appeared.
Then they saw them. A group of three Corrupted Spider Constructs stood at the end of the street, their metal legs clicking against the stone. Monica tensed, ready to fight. Sir Tristan raised his shield. Heidi’s hands burst into black flame while Ted readied his mandolin.
But the spiders just watched them. Their mechanical bodies gleamed in the artificial light. Then, as one, they turned and skittered away into a side street.
“That’s... strange,” Monica said.
“They’re avoiding us,” Sir Tristan lowered his shield. “But why?”
They saw it happen two more times. Groups of spiders would appear, observe them from a distance, then retreat before the group could engage.
“This is getting annoying,” Heidi said after the third group fled. “How are we supposed to get the key if they won’t fight us?”
“We need to figure out why they’re running,” Monica said. “These are Machina’s creations. They shouldn’t feel fear.”
“Unless they were ordered to avoid us,” Ted suggested.
“Why would they—”
Suddenly, a notification rang in Monica’s head.
Ding
Quest Progress Updated – ‘Eradication I/III’
Progress: 6/80 -> 6/84
“The spiders are multiplying,” Monica said.
Chapter 42
“Four more spiders appeared somewhere,” Monica said. “The total number increased.”
That was not good news.
“They must be coming from somewhere,” Sir Tristan replied. “A nest or a spawning point.”
“Maybe they just reproduce,” Ted said.
“Can constructs even reproduce?” Heidi asked.
Monica stared at the quest marker for a few moments and looked around. The spiders were avoiding them and doing a damn good job of it. If those creatures were waiting to gather in numbers large enough to swarm and kill them, they were now racing against time on this first floor of Viscera. They needed a way to hunt these monsters down.
While the others seemed lost on what to do next, Monica knew exactly what the solution was - or rather, who. She had barely spoken to Dotty after yesterday’s outburst, but she could see in the teenage girl’s eyes that they’d reached the same conclusion.
Monica walked beside Dotty and put a hand on her shoulder. “This is not the worst thing,” she told the group, gently squeezing Dotty’s leather armor.
“What do you mean?” Sir Tristan asked.
“Dotty, you want to tell them?”
Dotty looked surprised at Monica’s gentler behavior but took the chance to be a more active part of the group. “One of the first three Skills I got was Track Mana.”
Before she could say anything else, Sir Tristan’s eyes widened, immediately understanding what that meant.
“You can track down the creatures, can’t you?” the large man said.
Dotty nodded. “I think so.”
Dotty crouched down and pressed her hand to the stone floor. Her eyes closed as Track Mana activated. She felt traces of corrupted mana on the ground. The residue left a clear trail.
“This way,” she whispered. “The Mana leaves marks like footprints.”
She moved slowly through the streets. The others followed behind her at a distance. Her hand touched the ground every few steps to check the trail. The traces grew stronger.
“The trail’s fresh,” Dotty said. “They passed through here recently.”
She stopped at a corner and peered around it. Her tracking had led them to a small courtyard. Three Corrupted Spider Constructs lay on the ground. Their metal legs were folded underneath them. Their mechanical bodies barely moved.
“Are they... sleeping?” Ted whispered.
“I didn’t think constructs needed rest,” Sir Tristan said.
Monica studied the resting spiders. “Maybe maintaining the corruption takes energy.”
They saw a curiousity—the spiders had a small pile of undefined ore by them, which clearly bore bite marks.
Dotty pulled out Twilight’s Edge slowly. The sword didn’t make a sound. She remembered Sir Tristan’s training about targeting the legs. Her muscles tensed as she prepared to strike.
“Wait,” Monica grabbed her shoulder. “Stay back for now.”
Dotty lowered her sword with a defeated expression.
“Can you sense any others nearby?”
Dotty checked with Track Mana again. “No. Just these three. The rest of their mana trails lead deeper into the city.”
Sir Tristan moved into forward with his shield.
Sir Tristan activated Enemy Magnet, immediately making one of the unconscious Corrupted Spider Constructs fly toward him. He battered it to the ground using the shield almost like a mace, dealing a not insignificant amount of damage. Monica wasn’t happy about that because it would diminish the experience that she, Heidi, and Ted would get for the kill. But Sir Tristan didn’t care. He was just trying to make sure that everyone would be safe. That was his job, his main job.
Monica didn’t waste any time covering her fists in Obsidian Flame. She punched the head of the Corrupted Spider Construct three times in rapid succession. The spider flailed its limbs, but between being stunned by Sir Tristan’s sudden blow while it was asleep and Monica peppering its head with blows, it couldn’t get up. Upon Monica’s third blow, delivered exactly in the same point as the previous two at the top of the spider’s head between its many metallic eyes, Shatterpoint activated. The Skill allowed Monica to deal 300% additional damage if she struck the same spot three times within five seconds.
A web of cracks filled with Obsidian Flames spread upon the creature’s head as it caved in and killed the Corrupted Spider Construct on the spot. Meanwhile, as the two other monsters rose from their slumber, Heidi used Emberstorm Convergence and fused three giant fireballs to generate a storm that trapped them both.
Sir Tristan took a second to turn to Monica and say, “It’s time for the girl to get a kill.”
“No, it’s too dangerous,” Monica said. But Sir Tristan, instead of arguing back with the Avatar of the Twin Phoenix, quite simply kicked the construct’s body and sent it flying toward the tempest of black flames while he activated Enemy Magnet again and attracted one of the two trapped creatures to his spot. He pinned it down with his shield and, ignoring its attacks which couldn’t penetrate his extremely high defense, spoke first to Monica.
“I’ll make sure she’s safe. You do your job,” he shouted, emphasizing the ‘your.’ Then he turned to Dotty. “Girl, it’s time for you to show me what you’ve learned.”
Monica, now in the middle of the dying storm with the remaining Corrupted Spider Construct finally getting free, had no choice but to focus on the enemy in front of her. She saw Heidi hesitate when Monica had gotten in her line of fire, but Monica simply shouted, “Heidi, your fireballs can’t hurt me. Just throw them. I’ll dodge around them so they can strike the spider.”
And so a new kind of combo and fighting style was born. Monica decided to let Heidi do the bulk of the work, simply keeping the spider rooted in its position by parrying all its strikes with her golden bracers. Now that her Attributes had increased, Monica could finally deflect the attacks without her bones breaking. They were still taking quite a bit of damage, and she had to occasionally flash the Golden Flame around her body to heal it, but this was more than manageable. Now their speed was catching up despite the huge difference in levels.
Monica kept parrying the blows without the need to activate Fury of the Phoenix. And as Heidi kept throwing fireballs, which were finally eating into the Corrupted Spider Construct’s metal, Monica tried something. She activated Mana Sense and once again focused the Golden Flame through her eyes. Even though she couldn’t see Heidi’s fireballs, she got a rough sense of where they were coming from even without looking. And so she kept dodging, managing to make space for most of the fireballs to pass through, with only the occasional one striking her back instead.
Thankfully, her resistance to inferior flames and the fact that these flames were not just inferior to the real Obsidian Flame, but that they came from herself meant she wasn’t even thrown off balance by them. No, they felt just like a refreshing splash of water on her back, almost making her giggle. Soon, between the fireballs and the aftereffects of Emberstorm Convergence, which left a flaming field of black flames on the ground - an Obsidian Ember Field as the Skill mentioned it - the monster was both taking continuous damage and being peppered with fireballs, and Monica was making sure they would hit their target.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the monster to capitulate.
*
Meanwhile, Dotty faced the spider that Sir Tristan had pinned down. The knight kept the construct’s legs trapped with his shield. Only two legs could move freely.
“Remember what we practiced,” Sir Tristan said. “Target the joints.”
Dotty gripped Twilight’s Edge. She moved to the side of the spider. She watched the legs struggle against Sir Tristan’s shield.
“Now,” Sir Tristan commanded.
Dotty stepped forward. She swung her sword in a diagonal slash like they had practiced. The blade cut through the joint of one leg. The metal limb fell to the ground.
The spider thrashed harder. Its remaining free leg stabbed at Dotty. She jumped back like Sir Tristan had taught her. The leg missed.
“Good,” Sir Tristan said. “Again.”
Dotty circled to the other side. She timed her approach. The spider’s remaining leg struck. She dodged and brought her sword down. Another leg dropped.
Sir Tristan shifted his shield. He exposed more of the spider’s body while keeping it pinned. “Finish it.”
Dotty saw her chance. She activated Magic Rend. The sword glowed with power. She drove it into the gap between the spider’s head and body. The construct shuddered and went still.
“Well done,” Sir Tristan said.
Ding
You have slain [Corrupted Spider Construct - Level 82]
You receive extra experience and skill proficiency for killing a creature fifty levels above you.
You receive extra experience and skill proficiency for killing a creature infected by Corruption.
Ding
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 23
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Ding
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 24
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Ding
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 25
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Ding
You learn a new Skill - Dangersense
Ding
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 26
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Ding
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 27
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Ding
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 28
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Ding
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 29
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Dotty’s eyes went wide.
She had just learn another Skill! And at a -5 level, which was exceedingly rare!
Dangersense (Perception Skill)
Develop the ability to perceive danger in your surroundings.
Usage: Automatic.
Ding
Hidden Effect Uncovered!
Dotty immediately went to check her Skilll List.
Skill List
Dangersense - Lv. 1 Your attunement to magical energies grants you an instinctive awareness of incoming threats, allowing you to perceive danger before it strikes.
#1 Base Effect: Provides a 0.5-second warning before any hostile action targeted at you. The warning time increases by 0.05 seconds every Level. Current Warning Time: 0.55 seconds
#1 Hidden Effect - Magical Threat Assessment: When Dangersense activates, you gain a brief insight into the nature and power of the enemy.
“I got a new Skill!” Dotty exclaimed.
“What did you get?” Monica asked. She walked over after finishing her fight.
“Dangersense. It warns me before attacks and tells me about magical threats.”
Sir Tristan nodded. “That’s a good Skill for your Class. It will help you dodge attacks.”
*
For some reason, Monica’s auto-looting worked on all the spiders this time, despite the last one having been fully Dotty’s and Sir Tristan’s kill.
They gathered around the ore, examining it.
“It’s silver,” Heidi said, surprising everyone. “The Healer’s collects a lot of it because it can be used to enhance healing magic.”
They looked at the half-munched ore, wondering why the Corrupted Spider Constructs had been munching on it. They certainly didn’t ened sustenance—right? They didn’t even have stomachs as far as they knew.
Monica used her Golden Flame to purify the Corrupted items she got. Ted inspected the pieces while Heidi kept watch.
“More Mithril Thread,” Ted said. He held up three silvery strands.
Monica put the threads back in her Inventory.
She checked the Quest progress.
Quest – ‘Eradication I/IV’
Progress: 9/84
“Nine down, seventy-five to go,” Monica said.
*
For the next three days, all they did was track down lethargic spiders and execute them. During that time, the levels of all members of the group, excluding Sir Tristan, skyrocketed.
Monica, despite her insane multiplier on the needed experience to level up, had broke through level 35. The leveling up had slowed down to a crawl for her the instant she had stopped getting the bonus for killing a monster fifty levels above her.
Ted reached Level 42. His leveling was slower than everyone but Monica despite fighting the same monsters. The Song of the Phoenix gained small improvements. The duration increased by a few seconds. The power boost grew slightly stronger.
Heidi hit Level 50 on the second day, which had been a big moment for her.
Level 50 was one of the big thresholds for one’s Class and Heidi had received a new Skill that, together with three new Skills she had learned along the way, now made her a damage-dealing, Mana-hungry powerhouse.
Skill List
Fire Lance - Lv. 7
A piercing spear of fire forged from your mastery of the Obsidian Embers, the Fire Lance impales a single target with extreme precision, dealing devastating damage and leaving behind a burning trail.
#1 Hidden Effect - Piercing Flame:
Your Obsidian Ember increases the damage of Fire Lance by 250%. The damage increases by 5% for each Level.
Current Bonus: 250%
Cost:
Fire Lance consumes 350% of the Mana required to cast a Fireball. The Mana cost penalty decreases by 5% per Level.
Current Mana Cost Increase: 315%
Cooldown: 10-second cooldown.
Fire Lance had been the first Skill Heidi had gotten, and it provided an interesting alternative to Fireball, despite the greater cost and the cooldown.
But the real heavy hitters had come after that.
Skill List
Infernal Overload - Lv. 12
Your mastery of fire magic allows you to overload a single spell with catastrophic intensity, turning it into a devastating force at great cost to your Mana reserves.
#1 Base Effect: Overloads a single fire spell to deal critical damage, increasing the spell’s damage by 300%. The damage increase grows by 10% per Level.
Current Damage Bonus: 420%
#2 Base Effect: The overloaded spell has a 50% chance to apply a Burn effect to the target, dealing additional fire damage over 5 seconds. Burn damage increases by 5% per Level.
Current Burn Damage Bonus: 60%
Cost: Increases the Mana cost of the overloaded spell by 1200%. The Mana cost penalty decreases by 10% per Level.
Current Mana Cost Increase: 1080%
#1 Cooldown: 30-minute cooldown.
#2 Cooldown: 10-minute cooldown for the Skill used while Infernal Overload was active.
Infernal Overload, much like Heidi’s old Skill, Emberheart Fury, massively increased the Mana cost of casting in exchange for much more damage. While Emberheart Fury provided an increase in power and reduced cooldown for all the spells in exchange for a flat percentage consumption of Mana per minute, Infernal Overload was a one-shot type of Skill.
Obsidian Nova - Lv. 9
Unleash the destructive power of your black flames, concentrating them into a volatile sphere that detonates with overwhelming force, crippling enemies caught in its blast.
#1 Base Effect: Creates a powerful explosion that, after dealing damage to the target, also deals 250% AoE damage. The damage increases by 10% per Level.
Current Damage Bonus: 340%
#2 Base Effect: Applies Charred Weakness, a unique debuff that reduces enemy Obsidian Flame resistance by 20% for 10 seconds. Resistance reduction increases by 2% per Level.
Current Resistance Reduction: 38%
Cost: Obsidian Nova consumes 600% of the Mana required to cast a Fireball. The Mana cost penalty decreases by 5% per Level.
Current Mana Cost Increase: 555%
Cooldown: 5-minute cooldown.
Obsidian Nova had given Heidi a new powerful offensive Spell that she had already used multiple times to destroy the spiders. She could now one-shot a spider by herself and, if the spider had other monsters around it, cripple the rest.
But the cherry on top had come when she crossed Level 50, getting what Ted had called a Cornerstone Skill.
Dark Phoenix Furnace - Lv. 4
Channel the essence of your fire magic to transform into a living embodiment of the Obsidian, drastically empowering your abilities but straining your Mana reserves.
#1 Base Effect: Increases spellcasting speed by 100% and spell damage by 200%. Each effect increases by 5% per Level.
Current Spellcasting Speed Bonus: 120%
Current Spell Damage Bonus: 220%
#2 Base Effect: All Burn and Charred effects applied during Phoenix Furnace deal 50% more damage. Burn damage amplification increases by 5% per Level.
Current Burn Damage Amplification: 70%
Special Effect:
Dark Phoenix Renewal: While Phoenix Furnace is active, defeating an enemy has a 25% chance to restore 10% of your maximum Mana.
#1 Cost: Spells consume an additional 200% Mana while Phoenix Furnace is active. The Mana consumption penalty decreases by 5% per Level.
Current Mana Consumption Penalty: 200%
#1 Cooldown: Phoenix Furnace lasts for 30 seconds and has a 15-minute cooldown.
Phoenix Furnace, thanks to its Dark Phoenix Renewal effect meant that, as long as Heidi could kill monsters without expending all her Mana at once, she could graduate from being a one-shot one-monster trick, to a veritable slaughterhouse.
However, even with the current stat distribution of her Class, which was two Attributes per level to Wisdom, four to Spirit, and six to Intelligence, because of the Class’s twenty percent malus to her total Mana and thirty percet malus to Mana regeneration, she was still far from being a real threat after the first minute of fighting.
Right now, Heidi could basically run through eighty-percent of her Mana in about two minutes normally and thirty seconds if she went all out. While she could output enough damage to scare even Sir Tristan, she wasn’t even close to being an all-rounded fighter or capable of venturing out on her own.
Dotty, just like Heidi, had made quite a bit of progress and she stood on the verge of Level 50 herself, just shy of one level, currently at Level 49. Ted, as expected, was still the one struggling the most, with still only one Skill under his belt.
More importantly, the group, at large, hadn’t made that much progress because the total spider count kept rising. For every three they killed, one new spider appeared somewhere in the city.
*
The quest counter went up to one-hundred fifty spiders.
Ding
Quest Progress Updated – ‘Eradication I/III’
Progress: 46/144 -> 46/150
“They’re multiplying faster than we can kill them,” Monica said, checking the quest counter again.
They had tracked down another group, but the process of tracking down the Corrupted Spider Constructs was not only slower than one might imagine, but it also led them down goose chases at times. There were Mana tracks all over the place and only a few led them to stationary groups. Sometimes, they’d be chasing down the same, non-stationary group for hours. Even if Dotty was getting slightly better at identifying which group might be closer, which might be resting, it was still too slow for them.
Here’s the corrected version of the transcribed section, formatted to match the style of previous chapters:
Dotty looked up from one of the maps they had found around Viscera. “Here,” she pointed at a rectangle on the map. “I think this is a storage room for ore. A lot of tracks point in that general direction. Why don’t we try going there? Maybe we can ambush them or something.”
Everyone looked at her and nodded. Monica felt instinctively that Dotty had made a great call.
Soon, they were standing in front of a large storage building. It was pitch dark inside. It had no windows, and the redhead felt an ominous feeling crawling up her back.
“Wait,” she said as Sir Tristan was about to enter. “Step back.”
“Why?” the man said.
“Step back,” Monica said. Then she looked at him for a second, and he started stepping back from the place.
She activated Mana Sense and empowered it with the Golden Flame. Her vision became much sharper. She now felt a much stronger presence than the ones they had faced before right inside the building. It was one, just one, a solitary monster, and Monica felt it slowly crawling out.
“Get ready. It’s coming,” she said.
What came out of the building wasn’t a normal Corrupted Spider Construct. No. When the first barbed leg was hit by the artificial sunlight, everyone felt their muscles go tense. Unlike the polished, smooth surface of the legs of the previous monsters, this one was veiny. The flow of nodes around its joints resembled tendons and muscle fiber. The barbed edges meant that if anyone got caught on them, they wouldn’t simply get pierced. They would get shredded apart.
As it came fully out, the most striking thing about this creature wasn’t just its twisted form, but also its color. The Corrupted Spider Constructs had been a dull gray, whereas this new thing was almost milk white. It had the sheen of silver, and Monica immediately understood what had happened. The monsters had been consuming the ore to evolve.
As she looked at the tag, her theory was instantly confirmed.
[Corrupted Tarantula - Level 105]
The monster looked at them with its eight steel eyes. But instead of charging immediately, it twisted, and its abdomen suddenly shot out a thin, deadly steel wire easily capable of slicing them apart.
Monica activated Fury of the Phoenix without hesitation. She knew that this fight was going to be different.
Chapter 43
Dotty felt proud when the others agreed to check the storage room. She had studied the maps carefully over the past three days. The spiders kept appearing faster than they could kill them, but this time she had a real plan.
Monica gave her a small nod of approval. It made Dotty stand straighter. For once she wasn’t just the kid they had to protect. She was helping the team track down these monsters.
Sir Tristan took point as they approached the building. Dotty stayed in the middle of the group with Ted while Heidi and Monica covered the rear. This was their usual formation now. They had practiced it while hunting spiders.
The storage building was larger than the houses around it. Its stone walls rose three stories high. Dotty could see where ore carts used to enter through the wide front entrance. Now the doorway was just a black hole in the wall.
Her new Dangersense Skill activated as they got closer. Something felt wrong. The warning wasn’t specific, but her skin prickled with unease. She was about to say something when Monica spoke up.
“Wait,” Monica said to Sir Tristan. “Step back.”
Dotty watched Monica use her Mana Sense. The redhead’s eyes glowed with a slight golden hue as she peered into the darkness. Her expression changed from focused to worried.
“Get ready. It’s coming,” Monica warned.
A leg emerged from the doorway. Dotty’s hand went to Twilight’s Edge. This wasn’t like the other spider legs they’d seen. Sharp barbs covered its surface. The metal looked different too - not dull gray but bright like polished silver.
The rest of the creature followed. Dotty’s stomach turned at the sight. This spider was wrong in every way it could’ve been.
Before anyone could move, the spider’s abdomen twisted. A thin metal wire shot out toward them. Dotty’s Dangersense screamed.
Sir Tristan moved his shield up and managed to intercept the slashing thread. The monster’s legs scraped against the stone like knives on metal, a sound that made Dotty’s teeth hurt.
None of her training prepared her for this.
Fear froze her in place. She couldn’t even grip Twilight’s Edge properly. Her hands shook too much.
Then she saw Ted. He had already started playing Song of the Phoenix, completely focused on his mandolin. He didn’t see the second wire shooting from the spider’s body.
Dotty moved without thinking. Her body reacted before her mind could catch up. She slammed into Ted’s side, tackling him to the ground. They hit the stone floor hard. Something whistled overhead. The wire cut through the air where Ted’s neck had been. It sliced into the stone wall behind them, leaving a deep groove in the rock.
Ted’s mandolin clattered beside them. Dotty felt his chest rising and falling under her. He was alive. If she’d hesitated for even a second, that wire would have taken his head off.
Dotty helped Ted up, her hands still shaking. The spider’s wire had cut deep into the stone wall - a clean slice that would have gone right through Ted’s neck.
“Thanks,” Ted said, grabbing his mandolin. He immediately started playing Song of the Phoenix again, but his fingers trembled slightly on the strings.
Dotty wanted to help fight, but what she saw made her freeze. Monica and Heidi were delivering a terrifying display of power. Heidi opened with Emberstorm Convergence, trying to trap the evolved spider in her signature black flame vortex. But unlike the normal spiders, this one barely moved. Its silver-enhanced body was too heavy to be pulled in. Even the burning ground the spell left behind didn’t seem to bother it.
Monica shot forward, Phoenix Step carrying her in a blur of gold. She aimed for the spider’s left side, where its legs looked thinner. But before she could strike, three wires whipped out from its body. She twisted mid-air, barely avoiding the first two, but the third forced her to drop and roll. She came up ready to dash again, but more wires were already flying. The spider didn’t even need to move its legs to attack - the wires shot out from its body like arrows, filling the space around it with deadly silver threads.
Monica tried getting close, using Phoenix Step to dart around the spider’s attacks. But every time she found an opening, the monster would shoot out more wires, without even need to retialiate physically, creating a deadly web she couldn’t pass through. Even Monica, who could come back from death, had to back off.
And Monica wasn’t just immortal, she was also the best fighter at her level. Even with her fighting experience, with her instincts, the
“Dark Phoenix Furnace!” Heidi shouted. Black sparks erupted around her as she unleashed Fire Lance after Fire Lance. Each burning spear left trails of fire across the battlefield, trying to pin it down. But its enhanced armor deflected most of the damage.
Monica’s eyes glowed as she used Mana Sense, looking for weak points while trading blows with the monster. But every clash with those silver-reinforced legs made her entire body shake.
“Hit it with all you’ve got!” Monica shouted to Heidi. They tried to coordinate like they had done with the Corrupted Spider Constructs before.
This time, Heidi pulled all the stops. Dotty saw black flames around her arms as she recognized the signs of Infernal Overload.
If Dotty was guessing right, Heidi was trying to use Obsidina Nova while Monica distracted the creature. But the Corrupted Taruntula wasn’t bothered in the least by Monica’s attacks and simply shot a wire in Heidi’s direction, forcing the blonde to throw herself away and interrupt the casting.
Dotty gripped Twilight’s Edge tighter, wanting to help. But what could she do? Her sword felt so small now. She remembered how she’d gotten Monica killed by jumping in too soon last time. The voice in her head kept saying: You’ll just get in the way.
Sir Tristan stepped forward, his shield catching another wire attack. He’d been watching, studying the monster’s movements. Now he planted his feet firmly.
“Moonpiercing,” he said quietly.
Dotty had never seen anything like it. Sir Tristan’s sword began to glow with a pale light. The spider shot multiple wires at him, but they seemed to bend around his blade like water. Then he thrust forward - one simple, perfect motion.
The sword pierced straight through the spider’s enhanced armor like it was paper. The monster didn’t even have time to react. Its legs collapsed and the light faded from its eyes.
Dotty stared at Sir Tristan in awe. That one strike had done what Monica and Heidi’s strongest attacks couldn’t. She’d thought she was getting stronger, learning to fight.
But she clearly still had a long way to go.
“Girl,” Sir Tristan called, making her jump. “You saved your friend’s life today. That’s worth more than any killing blow.”
Dotty nodded, but her eyes were drawn to the fallen spider.
She walked over and crouched beside it, activating Track Mana.
“The mana feels different,” she said. “It’s... concentrated.”
“I can take care of one,” Sir Tristan said, looking at the others. “But if a group of these comes our way, I can’t guarantee anyone’s safety if I also need to attack.”
“Wait,” Dotty suddenly said, looking at the trails of Mana around the storage building. “There are a bunch of trails coming in and out. But… There’s a clear pattern. Most of them come from one place. I think they might lead us to their nest.”
Chapter 44
When Dotty had said that a lot of tracks, not just the one from the storage room, were converging toward the same place, Monica told Sir Tristan, Heidi, and Ted to wait behind. They had no stealth, and if Dotty was right, they were about to walk very close to the spiders’ nest. If worse came to worst, Monica was fairly confident that she could get Dotty on her shoulders and use the urban landscape to get away from the spiders. They might have been nimble, but in a guerrilla-like fight, there was no way they would be able to hunt down Monica.
The two stopped before a large plaza in a part of the city they had not yet explored. Monica put a finger to her lips, gesturing to Dotty to be silent, and then gently pushed on her chest, leaving her behind. She peered from a wall, and what welcomed her was a hellish landscape.
There was a gigantic hole in the ground, probably seventy to eighty feet deep. Inside, Corrupted Spider Constructs crawled everywhere. In their ranks, there were also a few of the evolved ones. There was metal everywhere, and piles of silver ore that smaller, low-level Corrupted Spider Constructs were feasting on.
Monica checked their tags.
[Corrupted Hatchling - Level 36]
Though they’re not all super strong, Monica reasoned, it takes them time to level up. They must consume silver.
She craned her neck a little more, and she saw a gigantic spider in their midst, slowly weaving a hatchling out of metal. With Monica activating Mana Sense and empowering her eyes with the Golden Flame, she still couldn’t fully grasp whatever she was doing, but she felt closer and closer to understanding. Now that her eyes were enhanced, she saw Mithril Thread being woven into the hatchling.
So that’s how they’re reproducing, Monica thought.
Monica checked the tag above the gigantic spider.
[Metallic Arachnid Matriarch - Level 135]
Monica tightened her fist. She did a quick count of the spiders and then swiftly led Dotty back up to where they’d come from.
Once they met again with the group, she started unloading her thoughts.
“If we don’t have a plan, we need to get away from here,” she suddenly said, surprising everyone.
Ted and Heidi, the two who had witnessed Monica’s exchange with Machina, who knew the promise Machina had made about Monica’s children, looked at each other warily.
“Monica, dude,” Ted said. “What about your children?” He cringed when he asked, but Monica nodded.
“First, I don’t know that Machina wasn’t lying. Lucas said she probably wasn’t, but we’re not suited to fight these many monsters together, and they’re not going to come out of the nest in single pairings for us to slaughter as we level up. So the only thing we can do here is to either find a great plan or get the hell out. There were seven evolved spiders in there. The matriarch is Level 135. There is no way for us to face all those evolved monsters, the matriarch, and the normal Corrupted Spider Constructs. So I give us twenty-four hours to find something. If we don’t, we’re out. I don’t care about Machina. I don’t care about leveling up immediately. You would all die. I might get trapped here. The New Gods are on the move as well, from what we know. If we can’t do this, we’ll just let them take care of it.”
“This is probably the most reasonable thing you have said since I’ve met you,” Sir Tristan commented, trying to keep his voice steady but not able to hide some relief from his tone.
“I’m not a fool,” Monica replied. “Or at least I try not to be. This is an impossible fight. We’ve gotten some levels, and if I can’t keep you all safe, including you, Sir Tristan, we will retreat.”
Everyone nodded, in different states of relief. The moment Monica told them about the evolved spiders that were crawling all over the nest, they had wondered what kind of crazy plan would allow them to kill so many at once. It appeared that Monica wasn’t crazy, and all of them, including Dotty, knew that Monica’s rational choice was partly because she didn’t want Dotty herself to die. Heidi suspected that Monica also cared about Ted, but she wasn’t nearly as protective with Ted as she was with Dotty.
The group retreated.
*
Ted sat alone in one of the stone houses they’d claimed for rest. His mandolin lay in his lap. He kept replaying the fight with the Corrupted Tarantula in his mind.
He had almost died. If Dotty hadn’t pushed him out of the way, that wire would have taken his head clean off. And what had he done during the fight? Just played his song, hiding behind everyone else.
Ted looked at his fingers on the mandolin strings. One song. That’s all he had. Sir Tristan had killed the monster with a single strike. The knight hadn’t hesitated or fumbled around. He’d just stepped up and ended the fight.
“I’m useless,” Ted muttered. Without Sir Tristan, they might all be dead now. The knight’s shield had protected them from those deadly wires. His sword had pierced through armor that even Monica’s flames couldn’t melt.
Ted strummed a few quiet notes. The Song of the Phoenix was powerful, but it wasn’t enough. Monica and Heidi were getting stronger every day. They had new skills, new ways to fight.
Dotty, a teenage girl who could probably beat him blue, not only had more Skills than him, she had saved his life.
And what was he doing? He was still stuck with one song. He couldn’t defend himself. He couldn’t attack. He just stood back and played while others risked their lives.
He thought about the spider nest Monica and Dotty had found. What could he do against that many monsters? His song might help the others fight better, but that wouldn’t matter against seven evolved spiders and a matriarch.
Ted set his mandolin aside and buried his face in his hands. They needed real power to survive this place. Power like Sir Tristan’s Moonpiercing skill. Power like Monica’s flames or Heidi’s spells.
He picked up his mandolin again. Maybe if he practiced more. Maybe if he tried harder to create new songs. But deep down, Ted knew it probably wouldn’t matter. One song or ten songs - he’d still be the weakest member of the group.
He looked out the window at the eternal twilight of Viscera. The artificial sun cast long shadows across the street. Somewhere out there, those spiders were getting stronger. And Ted was still just a boy with a mandolin, trying not to get in everyone’s way.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He quickly wiped his eyes, not wanting anyone to see how upset he was.
“Yeah?” he called out.
“Dinner’s in a few minutes,” she said.
“Oh, ok.”
Monica went out and, soon, as he was lost in thought, Ted heard footsteps again.
“Ted?” It was Heidi’s voice. “It’s time for dinner.”
Ted stood up and grabbed his mandolin. When he opened the door, Heidi was waiting. She looked at his face and frowned.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Ted lied. “Just thinking about songs.”
*
Ted dragged himself to the mess hall where the others had gathered for dinner. The stone tables felt cold and unwelcoming, matching his mood perfectly. A line of petrified dwarven soldiers sat frozen at one of the far tables, forever caught in the middle of what must have been their last meal.
Monica and Sir Tristan were deep in discussion about fighting formations. The knight was moving pieces of dried meat around his plate like troops on a battlefield while Monica nodded along, occasionally suggesting adjustments. Dotty sat next to them, practicing the grip changes Sir Tristan had taught her even as she ate.
At the other end of the table, Heidi had laid out a piece of parchment beside her plate. She was scribbling furiously, working out optimal Skill combinations and Mana expenditure calculations. Ted caught fragments of her muttering: “If I open with Emberstorm Convergence, then chain into Fire Lance while Dark Phoenix Furnace is active...”
“Ted! Are you ok?” Dotty brightened when she saw him. “I was just telling everyone about that dangerous wire.”
“Yeah,” Ted managed a weak smile, settling onto the stone bench. “Thanks again for that.”
“The girl has good instincts,” Sir Tristan commented without looking up from his meat-piece battle plan. “Those wires are deadly. Even my shield barely deflected them.”
Ted picked at his dried meat in silence while the others continued their discussions. Monica and Sir Tristan moved on to debating shield wall tactics. Heidi crossed out an entire section of calculations with an irritated grunt. Dotty kept practicing her sword grip changes between bites.
“Maybe if we coordinate properly,” Dotty was saying, “we might be able to-”
“It won’t matter,” Ted interrupted, surprising himself with the bitterness in his voice. “Seven evolved spiders plus a matriarch? We’d need an army.”
An awkward silence fell over the table. Ted felt their eyes on him but couldn’t bring himself to look up from his plate.
Heidi gathered up her parchments covered in calculations. She had taken extremely well to her new Class, unlike Ted.
“I need to work this out properly,” she said, standing up. “I think I can get more damage output if I adjust the timing.”
She strode out of the mess hall, already muttering numbers under her breath.
Ted nodded numbly and stood up as well, his food barely touched.
“I should go practice,” he muttered. He walked out of the mess hall quickly, wanting to escape the suffocating feeling of uselessness.
*
Ted walked through the barracks after dinner. The artificial light from above made everything look dim but not dark—it dimmed at night but it still felt very disorienting to have it on all day. It messed up with you, making sleeping harder. But he hadn’t had the courage to really voice his complaints after all the gory fights they had gone through the past few days.
His footsteps echoed lonely in the barracks.
He reached the courtyard where Sir Tristan had trained Dotty. His feet carried him down random paths. He wished someone would give him an answer, a way to help the group. The barracks halls felt endless, each turn leading to another empty room, another silent corridor.
A broken shield hung on one wall. A cracked sword lay forgotten in a corner. Signs of the dwarves’ last moments before they turned to stone. Ted wondered if they’d been listening to music when it happened. If some bard had been playing while their world ended.
He stared at the two Skills populating his rather sad Skill List.
Skill List
Inspect Lv. 91
Develop the ability to Inspect items.
Phoenix Song Lv. 23
A powerful song about the Avatar of the Twin Phoenix.
That was it.
That was the extent of the description.
Sure, it kept leveling up, but Ted had no real idea about the Skill specifics. He just… played. Yeah. That was it.
Not knowing what else to do wit his hands, Ted reached for his own half-broken instrument and Inspected it for the upmteenth time, perhaps hoping some answers would lay there.
Ding
You have successfully inspected Defected Dwarven Mandolin (Uncommon)!
Defected Dwarven Mandolin (Uncommon)
Durability: 13/100
Enhancement Slots Available: 2/7
The Defected Dwarven Mandolin Enchantments are not active due to the state of disrepair of your instrument.
Forged inside Viscera, the great Dwarven Capital, this mandolin belonged to a famous Bard. The mandolin was damaged during an ill-fated performance for the Elven King’s court and fell further apart due to the passage of time. Ever since it was damaged, it hasn’t sounded the same.
Tip: Bring it to a high-level Blacksmith in order to repair it.
“We don’t have high-level Blacksmiths here,” Ted muttered, then looked at one of the petrified dwarves in the barracks. “Not anymore.”
He turned a few more corridors, almost losing himself in the large complex. Dwarves really liked building complex things. Then, as he turned one last corner, he suddenly found himself inside a dining hall they had not explored before. As with the rest of the building, it was well lit by crystals. When he entered, he raised his eyes above the main table.
And stopped dead in his tracks.
A massive mural covered the entire wall before him. The scene showed a Bard in the center. Ted could tell because the bearded dwarf had a mandolin, very much like his own. Around him, warriors fought shadowy figures. But what caught Ted’s eye was the blood. It flowed from the Bard’s hands as if he was cutting himself on the strings, and it spread on the ground to touch the feet of every fighter. Where it reached them, their feet seemed portrayed more vividly in the mural.
Ted stepped closer, squinting at the details. The blood was weird. It really felt like it was still flowing. He gently placed one finger upon the larger pool of blood. When he pulled back and looked at it, he found a red stain. He smelled it.
“This is actual blood,” he muttered.
He had seen high-level artworks before, so he wasn’t totally freaked out. Ted knew this was probably a work of magic, nothing else. But something about how the blood seemed to make the dwarves around the Bard more alive put him in a trance.
Things started clicking in his head as he remembered one crucial detail that everyone else had seemingly forgotten. His heart started beating faster and his eyes widened.
“I KNOW WHAT TO DO!” The words burst from him before he could stop them, his voice bouncing off stone walls that had been silent for centuries.
He turned and ran back to the group.
He knew what to do.
He had just found a way to kill off the entire nest.
