The RPG Apocalypse 3, page 6
It was such a large monster that even these tunnels were a tight fit.
I didn't hesitate to cast Inspect.
Weaver Fledgling** LEVEL: 37 INSECT EARTH
HP: 46825 MP: 50
STR: 40
AGI: 15
DEX: 45
VIT: 55
INT: 5
A recently born Weaver. It is inexperienced in the ways of the world.
Although I had become addicted to melee combat, I held no belief whatsoever that I could contend with this spider. Fortunately for me and everyone in this chamber, only its front four legs were currently in the room.
Not only that, but those legs were vulnerable to a counter-attack.
Perhaps as a newborn it lacked respect for humans. If so, I felt encouraged. This could be a fatal flaw. It was almost as if it didn't expect any of us to pose any threat. We were simply a meal to satiate its hunger.
This was a unique opportunity and I refused to miss it. I rushed forward with Mana Scythe in hand and targeted one of the front legs
that it was using to dig into the wall. It was trying to pull its thick abdomen in the room and completely ignored my existence.
The scythe came down on the limb and dug about halfway in. Even though I specifically targeted the joint and delivered a good blow, I couldn't cut all the way through. This was a first experience for me.
Up until now, Mana Scythe had cut through everything it touched.
That was likely the only free attack I'd get and I fucked it up royally.
The weaver grew agitated and immediately turned his hundreds of eyes in my direction. I didn't hesitate to jump back and away. A filmy, mucus-like spider web shot from its mouth and caused the ground to sizzle right where I had just been standing.
If I wanted to Harvest the soul of this elite, I needed to be the person dealing the most damage. I cast Cremation and the fires of Hell rose from the floor and engulfed the middle of its body. It screeched in agony and that sign of weakness seemed to awaken everyone from their stupor.
A tank decided to step up and rushed forward. All the ranged DPS
began bombarding the spider with spells and arrows. A clear spidery goop dripped from its carapace and underbelly. I cast Cremation after Cremation.
The spider had no choice but to sit in the fire and burn to a crisp. It couldn't go backwards in these tunnels, there was no room to turn around, and yet it couldn't go forwards either. The tank positioned directly in front of it kept it from moving towards us.
Every time the weaver attempted to push forward, more and more spells would bombard it. Eventually it collapsed and ceased to move.
The entire area smelled terrible as the body went well past burnt. It was nearly incinerated.
I didn't care at all what the others would think at this point and stood directly next to the body. Please work! I started to cast Harvest soul and was pleased to see a huge misty cloud gravitate towards my hand.
It seemed that no one could see the substance at all. Not a single person asked what I was doing or paid any heed to my actions. That was a slight relief as the specifics of my class were unknown and I wanted them to stay that way.
Current EXP: 46600/103000 LEVEL: 32
Soul Harvester Formidable
HP: 1758/1758 MP: 354/684
STR: 27
AGI: 26
DEX: 35 +5
VIT: 30 +5
INT: 55 +24
Available: 0
Harvest Soul: 194 HP: 108 MP: 108
Not only did the weaver give me 12,600 EXP, harvesting its soul gained me 10 HP and 10 MP. That was a mind-boggling amount. I didn't find it likely that I would get to harvest another one of these.
The only reason I did the majority of damage in this case was because I took advantage of everyone's fear and lack of action.
The fights in the future would be much more balanced than this one. Still, this was great news for me. There was something else to think about though. Mana Scythe hadn't cut the limb as cleanly as I had been expecting.
It was possible the weaver was just that much sturdier than the other monsters I fought so far, or perhaps something else was at play.
It didn't seem to have anything to do with the monster's MP as 50
was a pitiful amount. I decided I'd pay more attention to this issue in the future, but buried the thought for now.
With the fight behind us, the morale of those present was distinctly improved. "We should group up and try our best to escape. What do you think?" Surprisingly, the Isabelle-like-girl asked me the question.
"I shouldn't be the one to decide."
"Why not? You're the one who knew it was coming..." One of the people who had disbelieved me before was shamelessly sucking up to me now.
A part of me didn't want to group, but at the same time, it was the safest way to get out of here. Healers could at least see my HP in a party. Not joining might set the entire body of people against me.
"Right, how did you know it was coming?" the guy who had tanked the spider asked. Everyone moved a little closer to hear my answer, it seemed like they were looking at me as a free ticket out of the tunnels.
I was actually stumped at how to even answer. "It's a part of my class." That's all I could come up with but it seemed to satisfy.
"Someone start a group."
After the party was setup, there were 11 of us. We would have had 13 if the tank who had done a runner was still with us and if he hadn't misled the rogue into getting himself killed.
"Soul Harvester? I've never heard of that class." A DPS type must have been reading the raid list.
"It's a rare class option for a necromancer," I replied. Again, I seem to have satisfied his curiosity, even though I was only level 32 and the lowest class change shouldn't have been until 35. None of these people here seem to be veteran Adventurers though, nor was anyone inclined to push me as sharply as they could have.
The person who took the most interest in me was the blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl, "What's your name?" she asked.
"Joseph."
"I'm Samantha, this is Ajax." Well, there it was. The man she was traveling with -- the person who had healed me -- was named Ajax. It seemed I could mark him off the list once I got out of here. This was fortunate but it was also disappointing. My brother was a long way from here.
"Should we move?" Samantha asked. It felt odd, the way people looked to me for answers to every question, but I simply nodded my head in response. It didn't need to be said, but my role was obviously one of alerting the party to incoming danger. The burden on me was actually more than I anticipated. I felt anxious that I might miss an incoming spider with disastrous consequences.
We headed down the tunnel I originally came from. It didn't take us a long time to reach the four-way fork, and I made the decision. It wasn't blind but based on things I noticed before falling.
First, my view from left to right before falling had been of nothing but cobwebs. That at least suggested to me that I had fallen more
towards a side than the middle of their chambers. If that was the case and if I hadn't rolled over while unconscious, taking a left at this fork would bring us deeper in.
Deeper didn't sound better, but I couldn't imagine the exit being anywhere else but dead center. It would make sense if the entire complex had originated with a queen spider digging down and slowly building it outwards from an initial cavern. In any case, no one even asked for an explanation of my choice.
Other than the first weaver I hadn't felt the presence of anything at all. People continuously asked me if there was anything to worry about. "I can't sense anything," was all I could tell them.
A few of those at the front started to grow bolder.
Every time we came upon a fork, they would walk a few feet in each direction, having a look along the branches.
"Careful! We shouldn't split up," I urged them.
And yet they didn't listen to my warnings. My anxiety was that we could not be sure that the only danger was the weavers.
A tank who wouldn't listen decided to keep checking the branch offs anyway, and she paid dearly for it. She walked down a hallway for a look and we heard a scream. We rushed towards the sound and found her in a deep manhole. It was another trap.
Worst of all was the larvae inside. They weren't small by any means. Each was as big as a football and gripped to every bit of her flesh. The munching sound gave me goose bumps, as did the woman's screams.
She was too deep to save and after our two healers had kept her alive several times I urged them to stop. "Don't heal her anymore...
can't you see you're making her last longer in that pain?" She was truly so delirious from the pain that she was just clawing randomly at the walls as the larvae devoured her.
After that, no one opted to go off on their own. In fact, no one wanted to even lead the party in front. Eventually I was left with the task. I used the bottom of my Mana Pulsing rod and tapped it along the floor in front of. Hopefully if there was a trap, I would feel it and we could avoid it.
"There are monsters ahead." I announced. We had walked for another five minutes when I finally could feel the presence of more souls. At least this suggested we were moving more towards the center of the complex.
"How many?"
"I can't be sure...maybe two or three?" It was difficult to differentiate them as they were incredibly close together.
"Should I take the lead?" It was the tank from before, I still didn't know his name. Introductions seemed to be the last thing on everyone's mind. No one wanted to end up as spider food.
"It's fine for now." And so I kept walking. My foot came down and instead of the normal soft and spongy earth it was something hard.
Almost instinctively I stopped and recoiled back. My reaction freaked out everyone.
"What is it?" Samantha asked. I lowered my hand and allowed fireball to illuminate the floor more clearly. There was something white and smooth sticking out of the ground just a little bit. I started to rub my foot against it.
"Oh my God..." One of the DPS peeking from the side covered his mouth. It was a human skull embedded into the dirt. If anything, it indicated we were maybe getting a bit closer to the core. It was also the first sign of a body.
"It's okay, let's keep moving." I did my best to reassure everyone and started moving again. We came upon another fork and I needed to make a decision. Everyone near me looked on expectantly. I really didn't have all the answers. If they knew what I was basing my movements on I think they would change their mind about following me. I was actually moving to the area with the most monsters not away from them.
I concentrated hard and then began walking, "There's a spider just ahead." And the tank immediately rushed in front. It was eerie, the fact that we couldn't see something so large and so incredibly close.
I knew it was there, but just seeing the light illuminate the spiders'
beady little eyes and hair-covered head scared the shit out of me.
The tank braced himself and stood in its path.
Despite how scary the weaver appeared, it was actually not so frightening in combat at all. The tunnels were designed for their travel, but the room provided for a weaver to move in was tiny. It wasn't possible for the spider to maneuver in any way.
Because of that, the monster simply took every hit and spell we could throw at it. The tank in front did a great job of minimizing damage, and made sure not a single attack could make it past him.
Morale skyrocketed after another successful encounter.
It seemed from their conversation that people were starting to lose a bit of their fear. We were going to make it out of this spider complex alive. Even I thought so.
Chapter 7: The Cavern of Bones
"This way." We were getting closer and closer to a large number of spiders. We had maneuvered this underground maze almost completely blind and so far no one else had fallen into a trap.
"There's something ahead." I warned everyone.
After another thirty steps the tunnel exited into an enormous chamber. There was no way to tell how large it was in this darkness.
My intuition told me that the signature of weavers dotted the distance.
There was an innumerable amount of them.
Yet I didn't panic. These didn't feel the same as the fledgling we had encountered, and the reason came quickly. There were egg sacs littered everywhere. Cobwebs harnessed them to the floor and secured them in place.
It wasn't just these eggs though. I could feel the presence of much stronger souls. These must have been the weavers wandering this underground maze.
The area we entered was so wide and open it was impossible to find a path. We almost lost our way completely and ended up just hugging the wall. We couldn't even see the other side, and on just leaving this tunnel we would lose our way completely.
"Half of us need to stay here so we don't end up lost," I said, "once we find another exit you can walk to us around the perimeter; my fireball will always be lit." And sensing the entire group growing uneasy, I added, "Don't worry, there's no weaver nearby."
Fortunately, someone else had an ability that granted a weak light.
They stayed right there in that tunnel with several companions and the rest of us started to walk around the perimeter. If we didn't do it this way, we might make an entire circle and find ourselves directly where we started but thinking that we were at a new exit.
"Careful." We were walking incredibly close to the egg sacs. When the light illuminated them, it was possible to see the larvae squirming inside. When we were on the complete opposite side we found an exit.
Encouragingly, the tunnel wasn't flat to the ground but instead slanted, which suggested it eventually led to the surface. This was our way out of here. The people with me were so excited I could barely keep them from rushing up and out. "Wait for the others." I said.
I said that, but there was suddenly a large amount of weaver's moving into the chamber. Had we done something to alert them? I couldn't be sure, but they were coming from every direction, at least ten of them.
"We need to go!" I didn't hesitate to yell across the cavern now. The speed at which the monsters were returning was too fast. They would be here in a matter of moments. Hugging the outside was no longer an option.
I threw Fireball in the center of the room to light a path and realized why the weavers would be rushing here so quickly. The entire center was filled with bones, an endless pile of bones. This was where they brought their food.
They were returning here to feast. The problem was, a good portion of their meals must have escaped, and coincidentally were here already waiting for them. I had no intention of being turned to human slush and devoured.
"Just run over here!" I yelled again, sure that the far group heard the urgency in my voice. It wasn't necessary to say that the weavers were returning. I didn't need to spell it out for them and the opposite group were running hard.
The people at my side were already restless. I could see eyes darting around with anxiety. Any moment now weavers would enter this open eating chamber and begin a massacre. The people with me almost certainly wanted to run too, but I started to rush towards the opposite group.
It was a crazy decision, but I did it anyway. The main reason being was that Samantha and Ajax happened to be in the group that stayed. It had been my idea to split up and I felt responsible for them.
The weavers were here in the darkness and already rushing towards them.
Three weavers charged at the running group with no regard for danger. They were free to move in this open space, and none of the previous sluggishness was there. Come on, faster! That's all I could think as the monsters scurried towards their prey.
The first scream echoed out. One of the people in the very back of the group was snatched from behind and quickly pulled away. The weaver didn't hesitate to dig its fangs into the body. Their screams stopped shortly after.
I managed to reach the others just in time. My scythe sliced out without the slightest hesitation and the blade connected with the face of a weaver. My sudden attack surprised the chasing mob. It had just been moments from snatching a tasty victim and now it was slashed across the mouth instead.
The weaver let out a painful screech and waved its front legs at its face before recovering and rushing forward again. I could see Samantha and grabbed her by the wrist immediately. I didn't have any attachment to the rest of them. A good majority of them weren't on my side originally anyway.
Only she had showed me kindness from the get go. There was also a peculiar feeling about her. I wasn't some hero, this felt like a second chance at redemption. It was something I needed to do to feel better about the loss of my party.
She was surprised for only a moment before running with me.
Another weaver struck out and I pushed her out of the way of the attack. A limb smashed into my back and sent me tumbling a few feet. I managed to swing out Mana Scythe in a frenzy and directly towards the face of that weaver.
This counter-attack brought me a brief moment of time and I rose to my feet and continued rushing towards the opening. Two of the weavers had stopped to eat and there was the one just behind us.
But we were not safe. Unfortunately, another half-dozen or so weavers were scrabbling over the bones to get to us.
When I reached the opposite side, only Samantha, Ajax and I were still remaining. The others from the first group had been pulled into the darkness despite their desperate attempt to reach the exit.
"Go!" I yelled for the benefit of the first group. My shout was wasted. The four other members in the front group who had traversed the chamber with me were nowhere to be found. They hadn't waited at all and had simply rushed up the shaft on their own. Bastards!
There were just us three left to fend off at least eight remaining weavers. What else could be do but flee and hope for the best? At least the large size of the monsters meant only one could rush up the shaft at a time.
We would only have one on our back, but seven more remained behind the first. "Go! Don't look back!" I yelled. Maybe this was how Aaron had felt in his last moments? There was a weaver already dripping venom down my neck.
