Spider Strategies

Chapter 10: Spider Strategies

Mercury slept well that day, waking up right around dusk, where he could watch as the world grew darker with every ticking second. After getting his first meal of the day settled by throwing rocky the rock at a mouse, he mentally prepared himself again. He had taken a break for a day, but he couldn't afford any more delay. It was time to continue his miniature war against spider-bitch. Like seriously, how many spiders did she need to produce, jeez. Did the lady not know about resting? Ugh, whatever, time to cut those numbers down to size. Any newborns would definitely take time to grow, especially given their size, so by taking down adult spiders he was fairly sure he could decrease their numbers.

Thus, he went on his journey towards the spiders' territory, where he could still see many of the eight legged freaks roaming around. They were also still quite a bit bigger than him, which made them all the scarier. He hadn't missed their legs or eyes at all in that time he spent at home, not even the slightest bit.

Anyways, he hunted them. He still made sure to avoid parties of more than two spiders, only ambushing ones that were almost alone. He also made sure to maintain <Sneak> almost the entire time while avoiding stepping on twigs or dry leaves as well. Stealth was his biggest advantage, after all. That, and his ability to throw objects, which the spiders fully lacked. And hopefully also the ability to cast magic sometime soon.

However, since he didn't know any spells yet, he had to rely on his masterful rock-throwing abilities. Or throwing abilities in general, rather. With only one inventory slot, he could only carry a single rock, making it hard to take down multiple spiders with it. Instead, he threw everything he stood on as well, using all four of his paws to activate <Throw> on the ground, yeeting clumps of dirt as well as twigs and pebbles at the spiders. This was surprisingly effective, as it did a small bit of damage and also threw the spiders off for a moment, which usually allowed him to go grab his rock.

Luckily for him, the spiders were amazingly stupid. They were actually able to throw out sizeable amounts of spider silk, but they only ever tried throwing it directly at him, which made it fairly easy to dodge. They never used it to set up traps or anything the like, which was more than good for him. Seems like they only understood how to make nets and even simple barriers or blockades were above them. Spontaneous thinking really wasn't their thing, luckily.

This way, Mercury was able to take down one spider after the other. He still only stayed on the outer edges of their territory though, since he really couldn't afford to move further in and risk being ambushed from behind. He wasn't confident he could run if he got hit by a sneaky bit of silk, so he simply had to avoid situations in which the spiders could call for backup. He also made sure to do a basic scouting of the area before approaching any spider at all to avoid unexpected obstacles or intrusion. This made hunting a lot slower but at the same time, it made it a lot safer. And if Mercury loved one thing it was not being in danger of dying. Death was scary. No fries for him.

Still, one after another notifications rang out.

[You have killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[You have killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold, 1 spider's venom (consumable).]

[You have killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[You have killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 11 Gold.]

[You have killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 11 Gold.]

[You have killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[You have killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

When midnight was approaching he had taken down seven spiders, which was enough to call it a day. His Sp depleted only slowly since the breaks between fights were long, but they took longer to regenerate when he was tired or hungry, and by now the latter was true. So, instead of risking anything, he decided to leave it at that.

When he arrived back at his old trusty log, he soon took out a curious squirrel, scouring the ground for nuts or something. This made for a good midnight meal before he went on with mana training, where he was able to confirm what he had read yesterday. His mana had really changed colour, taking on a slightly silvery hue. It was still largely blue, but its colour seemed to be shifting into a more fitting one slowly. This was nice. It wasn't incredible by any means, but it still made Mercury smile a little. It was like his mana was becoming his just a little more.

This feeling was strengthened when he tried to move it around. The mana still resisted his thoughts and didn't move a whole lot, but unlike before his commands felt a little more efficient. Before, moving his mana had felt like he was trying to run while being stuck knee deep in heavy mud, like most of his energy was fully wasted, but this time it felt like he was moving it just a little more easily. It wasn't like he could do it without trying, or very easily, but he felt more like he was trying to run in very thick syrup rather than mud.

It was relieving, simply put, to feel that his efforts were slowly paying off, and that his experimentation was actually rewarded by this system. With how unfair it had been before he had almost expected it to make the rune explode, but it actually rewarded him, unlike with his inventory, which didn't even allow him to pocket the spider's venom when he wanted to, since he needed to keep the slot ready for his rock.

Fortunately enough, he didn't need the venom that badly, since he didn't think the queen would be very susceptible to her own poison, but he could have definitely used it later. No point in worrying about that though, since he simply couldn't take it with him until he unlocked a second inventory slot. Then again, with it costing 1000 Gold he was actually approaching that threshold, right? Status!

Status:

Mercury Rainfall Starlight

Lv.: 1

Species: Zetraspa

Titles: <Tutorial Completer>

Hp: 55/55

Mp: 62/62

Sp: 63/75

Strength: 21

Vitality: 16

Dexterity: 20

Agility: 27

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 13

Willpower: 12

Luck: 14

Ability points: 21

Skill points: 450

Gold: 670

Whelp. No, he wasn't. He was ⅔ there. He had probably gotten quite a bit of that money recently from killing spiders, but a large amount of it also came from the great Stag and the high amount of food he took down. He also did other quests which gave him Gold. In short, he had yet to benefit from his <Shop>. Though he definitely would get something from it eventually, right? For sure, no two ways about it. Eventually. After all, these unique Skill were supposed to be pretty cool n shit, no?

Whatever, right then he should probably focus back on his training. Then, he spent the remainder of the night moving his Mana, only stopping when he felt his headache get worse around morning. Then he also realised just how tired he was and fell asleep soon after.

The next day went fairly similarly. Training when he woke up at dusk, then hunting some spiders. In this case however, he actually levelled up after taking down just two creepy crawlies.

[Level Up!]

As per usual, the system rang out as soon as it happened. This time, Mercury made a mini retreat before checking his status.

Status:

Mercury Rainfall Starlight

Lv.: 1 -> 2

Species: Zetraspa

Titles: <Tutorial Completer>

Hp: 55/55

Mp: 67/67

Sp: 85/85

Strength: 21 -> 22

Vitality: 16

Dexterity: 20 -> 22

Agility: 27

Intelligence: 17 -> 18

Wisdom: 13 ->14

Willpower: 12

Luck: 14

Ability points: 24

Skill points: 550

Gold: 670

It was a good level. Nothing incredibly fancy or groundbreaking, but it was good enough. It would make hunting a little easier for sure, at the very least. But wouldn't the efficiency of levels decrease over time? Like, right now three points may be a lot for him, but what about the future? Would he still get three points per level when he was level 100 or would he get more points? Or maybe a single point was worth more at level 100? Right now a point in strength might let him lift a kilo or so more, but maybe one point at level 100 meant an increase of 1.000 kilos?

Well, in the end such questions were pretty pointless, right? They were only hypothetical. He had no way of knowing, so all he could really do was to get back to completing quests and raising his level. That was how he would find out his answers too. Those who were strong could find out secrets, after all. If he was a king who would dare to keep secrets from him? Yes, this was most certainly the optimal goal for him to have in this world. To become someone great. This was what he was working towards, the goal of growing a kingdom, starting right from this forest right here. And his current obstacle was Ms. many legs, eggs, and eyes.

Right, back to taking out spiders then.

The first night went very well, in addition to the two from the start he managed to take down another six spiders since he encountered multiple pairs.

The second night didn't go too poorly either, ending with six spiders dead. He encountered a few groups of three, making it a little harder to hunt them down.

On the third night he got another level after taking down three spiders before taking down an additional four.

The fourth night went a little worse as he encountered a few groups of three. He only managed to take down a total of five spiders.

On the fifth night he killed three. There were a lot of larger groups, even some numbering four or five spiders.

Then, during the sixth night, he pulled back without taking down a spider. There were fewer groups of them now, but all of them were of three or more spiders.

They had figured out that something was hunting down the spiders and increased the size of the groups patrolling while decreasing the density of the patrol. This was terrible for Mercury, actually. He didn't care much about the density, since this only meant it would be doable for him to sneak into the spiders' territory, which he didn't wanna do anyways. He was absolutely not going to do something this stupid. No chance at all, not this damn time. After that stunt with the bear he felt he had stretched his luck enough.

Instead, he now needed a different strategy. The spiders were adapting quicker than he had hoped they would, meaning he needed to add something new to his arsenal as well. He could do that or focus on finding a better strategy, but nothing really came to mind. He didn't exactly have a Skill he could use to split the spiders' forces, nor did he have a way to bait only a few of them.

Unluckily, he didn't have a whole lot of Skill points currently. They were also still all around his level physically, which wasn't too amazing. His only leftover advantage were his saved up Ability points. Maybe he could consider <Throw> one, but he was already heavily relying on it, making it more of a balancing factor that was already in play. He also didn't have any plot armor to rely on either, making this next step quite a bit harder.

So, Mercury thought about it. What stats would be of use if he was going to beat the spiders? What Skills could help him most efficiently in this predicament? What preparations could he take? He ran into a few issues with every question. The stats were limited by his points, making it hard to get a high enough allround boost to compete with the spiders. His Skills were limited by his Skill points. His preparations were highly limited due to his lack of inventory space.

Even looking at his current arsenal of weapons left a bad taste in his mouth. He had rocks to throw, but what else did he have? The only other item he had was the great Stag's antlers. Wait. Antlers. He just now realized something about these. They were pretty heavy, long and most certainly pointy. Couldn't they like fucking stab the spiders? Well, it definitely increased the power of <Throw>, but it still wasn't enough for him to feel safe while tackling three or more spiders.

So, what else could he get? With his latest level-up he had 650 Skill points, which could definitely get him… something. But what? He also only needed to take down one more spider to get his second inventory slot ready. He could probably also unlock it with the Gold from a squirrel or two. This would increase his weaponry further. But now, time to check the Skill shop for something valuable.

Mercury was lost in thought a little as he browsed through the shop. He could definitely get basic attacks like <Scratch> or <Bite> or something, but he could most likely also acquire those without spending points on them. The problem laid with him absolutely not wanting to get close to any of the spiders at all. They were still quite a bit bigger than him and definitely, definitely not something he'd have to dodge up close. So, onto his next choice.

Advanced Skills like <Psychokinesis> and <Spider Thread> were still far out of his reach. His mana had yet to become useful in face to face combat. It was genuinely hard to find applications for his current Skills since the only ones really suited for fighting were <Throw>, <Dash> and <Bloodlust>. He needed something he could manipulate the battlefield with, some way to split the spiders from each other, but finding something that fit those descriptions was incredibly hard.

But still, he had to find Skills that fit the bill, so he searched for them. And eventually, he put his finger down on two options that were currently affordable for him. There was <Tame> for 200 Skill points and <Dig> for 300. Yeah, the simple act of digging was more expensive than taming something. That was because <Tame> only stopped an animal from being hostile towards you. Digging on the other hand was fairly difficult to pull off with soft cat paws, especially when it comes to harder soil.

Now, both of these had drawbacks. First of all, he couldn't be sure of the effects of <Tame>. He didn't know how long it would take or if it would work at all. He couldn't be sure if the animal would stay tamed if its former comrades were attacked and he didn't know if he could do it from a distance. He didn't know if it was loud or quiet and he didn't know if it was bright or flashy or something the like. But it was both cheap and future proofing, since he most certainly wanted the <Beast Army> Skill at some point.

<Dig> came with its own set of drawbacks. It was more expensive and most likely to be slow. He couldn't be sure if he would be able to even dig a hole at level 1. In addition, it would most certainly be fairly noisy and easy to see if he started digging a hole and its effectiveness was questionable at best.

In the end he settled on the choice that was more chance based, <Tame>. This was for a simple reason, actually. It was a wildcard, while <Dig> was highly likely to not do a good job. In addition to that, he also liked the idea of already levelling it up for when he would need it in the future. So, he bought the Skill.

[Acquired the Skill <Tame lv. 1> from the Skill shop.]

There. Now, time to appraise this bitch.

[<Tame>: This Skill will allow the user to attempt to convince a beast of their harmlessness. Upon success, the beast will no longer perceive the user as a threat. If combined with other Skills, they may recognize the user as an ally or their master. If they do so, the taming will not wear off as long as their stance towards the user isn't shaken significantly. Its success chance is based on the user's Willpower, though each beast also requires Mp to tame. In order for taming to occur, the user has to place one of their appendixes on the beast and activate the Skill. Once activated, the Mana of the user will shortly present itself with a flash and the taming will have succeeded or failed. Regardless of the outcome, the taming chance will stay the same. The user's mana will also be consumed either way.]

[<Appraisal lv.1> has levelled up!]

After a bit of reading Mercury nodded to himself, not yet noticing the second message. This was definitely a good Skill. The casting time was apparently low and while it did come with a flash of light, there was no sound it seemed. Now, the only question was if he could actually tame the spiders or not.

Then, when Mercury saw the second message, his eyes shot open again. Appraisal was already very useful, so he was excited to see how it would do after levelling up. He didn't feel any immediate effect, or rather, nothing he could put into words very well. The most accurate way to say it might be something like that he now... knew himself better? It felt like he had more of a connection, or more information on his own abilities without immediately checking them...

But for now this was second rate information. He had to shake it off. It was time to try out <Tame>, and then to determine if he maybe should already get some more of the <Beast Army> Skills, namely <Beastmaster>, since he guessed that was the one he needed to control his minions. So, in order to figure his next steps out, Mercury started his search for one of his most typical targets: a mouse.

It only took him a few minutes of careful scouting to find one scurrying on the floor and searching for food. Mercury immediately activated <Sneak> in response, since doing anything else was completely stupid. Then, he slowly moved in closer, taking one careful step at a time. Now, for a human this may have seemed all cute and shit, but for him this was serious business, okay?!

When he was within range, Mercury closed the distance with a single jump and closely held the mouse between his paws, immediately activating <Tame> when he was sure it wouldn't be able to flee. Then, there was a flash of silver light. Well, a flash might not be accurate. It was more like a sheet of silvery water enveloped the mouse for a second before dissipating into the air as mist.

[Taming successful! Get: 2 Exp.]

It worked! Frick yeah! He even got Exp from it! Mercury then let the mouse go to make sure it wouldn't run away, and it simply continued its search for food around him. No fleeing in sight. This was proof that things went without a hitch. Now, in this case the taming wasn't so hard since it was a mouse. He doubted he currently stood any chance if he tried to use it on a wolf or the bear, but since the spiders were higher in number in exchange for far lower strength he might have good odds against those.

Currently he needed to be careful though. The time he maintained friendliness with a creature was limited, so if he wanted to apply it in combat he would need to either be quick or use it multiple times. Though with how the system has been he really had to question if he could even use it multiple times. Do you have anything to say for yourself, <Tame>?

[<Tame lv. 1>: Current beast familiars: 1/1.]

Well wasn't this something he just had to add to his status if he ever decided to make an army? How could he actually increase this number? <Appraisal>?

[Familiars: Familiars are creatures that you have made your own. Their maximum number depends on the level of the Skill used, the user's Willpower and the user's Intelligence. Each Skill has its own count. These counts can be exceeded if the user convinces the familiar to let them use the Skill on them.]

So essentially upgrading his magic and practicing the Skill would allow him to get more familiars, made sense. The fact he was allowed to go above his maximum if he got them to join of their own free will on the other hand? Wholly different story. Amazing news. 10/10. Love it. Fuck yeah, that's the shit we like to see here. Now there was only one question left. How would he get mastery?

[Familiar Skill mastery: In case of Skills relating to familiars, mastery is gained in multiple ways. The user of the Skill will gain mastery for any attempt at taming, binding or whatever else the Skill entails. They will receive additional mastery if they succeed in acquiring the familiar. They will also passively receive mastery depending on the number of familiars owned and the strength of those familiars.]

So familiars were also categorized depending on their strength. He had guessed so when he saw <Familiar Growth> and <Familiar Skilling> but this confirmed it. His familiars could level up even while bound to him. Now he was curious how Exp sharing worked, but as soon as he asked his access was denied as this would require him knowing the information of Skills he didn't have yet. This did give him some info though, namely that Exp was subject to some rules and also that it was incorporated with other Skills.

After confirming all the things he had wanted to know, Mercury added his familiar count to his status and then opened it up. By now it was also getting a little long, but oh well.

Status:

Mercury Rainfall Starlight

Lv.: 2 -> 3

Species: Zetraspa

Titles: <Tutorial Completer>

Hp: 55/55

Mp: 67/67

Sp: 90/90

Strength: 22 -> 23

Vitality: 16

Dexterity: 22 -> 23

Agility: 27 -> 28

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 14 -> 15

Willpower: 12

Luck: 14

Ability points: 27

Skill points: 450

Gold: 993

Beast familiars: 0/1

Heck yeah! Honestly, these customization options were seriously the best part of living in this world. He could change the colour of his mana, he could change the layout of his status screen, he would later on most likely be able to edit his inventory and Skills screen. This was the damn best!

But okay. Back on track, Merc, we don't have all day to spend with your menu, even though it most certainly is amazing. Right. It still showed the stat increases from his last level, which was a little weird, but not too bothersome. After all, this was not that big of a deal, especially since they stopped showing up the next time he opened his status. So, he chose to ignore it. While he was still editing the status screen, the system also notified him that the time limit for taming had run out, so his familiar slot was open again for testing (no animal testing was done for the sake of this novel.)

This time mice wouldn't do though. He needed to put this flashy new ability to a field test, so it was time to head out and kick some silky butt. He also made sure to remind himself to get another inventory slot as soon as his Gold hit 1.000. This was vitally important if he wanted to actually carry around useful items with him, and even more so if he was planning on taking them home with himself.

And thus, our hero began his perilous journey towards the territory of the spiders. Many an obstacle thought it could place itself in his wake, but the cat did not pay any heed to those fiends trying to obstruct him. He stepped forward, one foot in front of the other, again and again, crossing what felt like mountains and endless hills of grass, making his way through swamps and bogs and icy tundras and deserts and-

JEFFREY! Get out of my office right fucking now!! Jeez. I'm gone for five minutes and he seriously has to start narrating my work? Ass. Alright, where was I? Ah, right. Spiders.

Mercury did indeed make his way back to that dead part of the forest, though the only obstacles in his way were pebbles and leaves. It also wasn't really that far, so it only took a dozen or so minutes of running until he arrived. By now he was very well aware of its location, making it easy to slow down before reaching the border and starting his hiding. This was the same song and dance as usual, use <Sneak>, scout the area, stay quiet, yadda yadda.

The true test was about to commence when he found a group of three spiders. First try at that. So, when he found the spiders, Mercury prepared. He scouted the area, checked for landmarks or other spiders, then hid and snuck ever closer to the group of crawlies. His little fluffy feetsies were almost silent on the soil as he slowly made his way closer. After crawling the last bit of distance through the undergrowth, Mercury was within jumping distance. This was pretty much exactly where he wanted to be.

So, without much ado, our hero jumped. Our medieval narrator friend Jeff would have called it a mighty leap, but it was quite average, really. He kicked off the ground and flew through the air for a fraction of a second before landing half on and half next to a spider. Then, Mercury used <Tame> without missing a beat and a silver sheet of light enveloped the spider he had jumped on at the same moment that the other two turned to face him.

Sadly there was no chance in hell he was going to read a message on whether he had succeeded now. Instead, the two antlers magically appeared in the air in front of him and he immediately tapped them both, having them launch forward very quickly and surprisingly stable. Seems like <Throw> actually threw things differently depending on their center of gravity. This was the good news. The bad news laid within the fact that, while he had successfully taken out one spider, the other one sidestepped his attack by reflex, landing it a spot that was fairly safe from other throws given Merc's lack of ammunition.

This was pretty fucking terrible. Since he also had no clue if his taming had succeeded, Mercury simply decided to, well, book it. So, he used <Dash> and immediately disappeared, leaving the antlers and spiders behind. Only when he had put about five minutes of running between him and the spiders did he stop. Then, he checked his notifications.

[Taming successful! Get: 25 Exp.]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

It worked. It actually. Fucking. Worked. His plan went surprisingly well, given the fact that he had absolutely 0 idea what the stats of those spiders were. But now that he knew that it worked, he had to actually put it into practice and go hunting. So, he returned to the spot where he had left the antlers, only to find them surrounded by seven spiders. Seven. Whelp, this quickly ended his hunting tour for the day as he returned back home to gather his thoughts.

There, he lamented running for a few seconds before deciding it was probably a good choice. Then, he spent his Gold for once. 1.000 Gold were spent on a second inventory slot. Good news! The next one cost 2.000 Gold. Twice as much as his current one. Just great. 10/10. Scratch that,11/10, 5 star review. Fuck this bullshit.