Chapter 7 - Orb Weavers

The morning came and went fairly quickly. The trio packed quickly, and was on the road before sunrise had even finished. Starting today Kahari was going to walk with his armor on, sword and dagger on his hip, and spear in his hand. He noted that Bedora now had some javelins on her back, a spear of her own, and the warhammer was nowhere to be seen. He still didn't know where these things came from, but he was sure it was something Adventurers had to make traveling easier. Nissa had a small hand crossbow on her side, and a case of small bolts, and what looked like a hollow bottom for poisons.

"So what are Orb Weavers like? We only ever really saw Monster Boars, and the occasional Possessed Scarecrow around the town."

"Mmm how should I put it...they're small for one thing. Most of them aren't much bigger than a housecat, and fast. It's part of why Bedora has her spear out, she can hit them with her hammer but it'll drop the chance of them dropping anything besides silk. They have a poisonous bite, but it's more painful than anything else, never heard of it killing anyone. The big thing to worry about is their silk, they like to drop it on you, or spray it at you before moving in to finish the job."

"I just hope none of them have leveled. It's always annoying when the monsters manage to get their techniques and attributes above the spawn level."

"It's not common though, not before D class anyway."

"Yeah yeah, but you remember that one C4 Orb Weaver they caught down in Ogla, it was only a decade old, but it'd apparently been adopted as some Troll's pet. He would feed it anyone he didn't think would be fun to fight."

"Oh shush Bedora, this region rarely even spawns E class, let alone a Troll."

"These days, it used to be a D ranked region just a few centuries ago. That's living memory for most fairies."

"I said shush, you know full well this nest only moved in a few weeks ago, worst we'll have is a F5 or F4, which will drop better material and Essence anyway."

"I will not shush, you're too relaxed about these things."

"No I am not!"

Kahari chuckled to himself, which prompted angry looks from both the scary women in front of him. He just smiled, and they rolled their eyes before idle chatter began again.

"Mmm, Nissa, why'd you pick him to treat out of all the others?"

"He wasn't in uniform, but had a bloodied spear and plenty of cuts. He'd charged into a fight despite being outmatched. That's the kind of heart the Association looks for in new members."

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

"Alright, alright, I believe you. Don't normally go for Humans anyway."

This caught Kahari by surprise. He looked up at the two in front of him.

"Wh-what?"

"Oh don't worry, I'm not interested in Humans. I'd prefer a cute Sidhe boy, or Sylph girl. She's just teasing you, it means she likes you."

"What?"

"Not in that sense, you're a bit too small for my tastes, though I have been sweet on a few boys like you."

"What?!"

Nissa and Bedora turned in unison, and spoke in unison.

"Relax, we're just teasing."

Nissa kept going and prodded Kahari with a finger.

"We're trying to get you to relax a little, don't be so embarrassed. It's true neither of us would really be interested in you, but you're a sweet kid. There's someone out there somewhere for you."

"That's not exactly an important thing on my mind right now…"

"Exactly. While it's important to keep your mind on your goal, if you don't relax and let loose every once in a while, you'll crack under the burden. I've seen it happen more than once."

"Hey, Nissa, eyes on the road, I can see the nest. Kahari, drop the pack, spear ready."

"Right!"

Kahari shrugged the pack off his shoulders, letting it drop to the dirt road with a heavy thunk. Readying his spear, he started to put on his shield before Bedora stopped him with a shake of her head.

"It'll just be a bigger target for the webs, just use the spear in this fight."

"Got it."

Bedora drew one of her Javelins, spear moved to her left hand. Nissa loaded her crossbow, and chanted again before saying.

"Barkskin!"

A green light flashed and flowed over Bedora. She repeated this with Kahari, and he could feel the barrier between his skin and the air. He guessed it'd make him more resistant to damage, but he didn't know the exact effect. Bedora took the lead, with Kahari flanking on her right, and Nissa on the left. As they drew closer, Kahari felt his skin crawl as the trees were wrapped in silk as far as he could see, and the trees seemed to literally crawl with the cat sized spiders.

"Damn it, the nest has gotten bigger since the warning was posted. We can still do this, but we'll have to be a bit more careful."

Bedora said with an angry growl. She pulled one of the pelts of the rabbits they'd eaten the night before out of the bag on her hip, and tossed it onto the webbing covering the road in front of her. Quickly a dozen spiders descended from the trees to rush the pelt, thinking it was trapped prey, pushing and crawling over each other to get to the possible food. The moment one of them got to the pelt, Bedora threw her javelin, catching it in the abdomen. It let out a screech that grinded on Kahari's ears, and it's legs curled in as it died, it's greenish blood oozing from the wound. This didn't seem to bother the other spiders who kept coming for the pelt.

Nissa raised her hand crossbow, and fired, catching another spider in the head, it also dropped, unmoving, and didn't even manage a screech. Kahari raised a hand, and chanted his spell, before the still alien sensation of mana draining from his body flowed through him, followed by a curved blade of air that cut clean through two more spiders, bisecting them. That left eight more, who were now finally realizing that they were tricked, turned and hissed angrily at the trio that were killing them. Four charged forward, fangs snapping as they wanted food, and wouldn't eat their fallen kind. Four more turned, and sprayed silk at Bedora, who raised a hand, chanted, and a small gust of fire burned away the silk coming at her, and a small amount of the webbing on the road went up with it.

Kahari stepped forward, thrusting with his spear in a now familiar jab, at the first of the four charging at his friend. He caught the spider in the...mouth? He wasn't sure what it was called, but it scarabbled at the pole before dropping limp. Another spear flashed forward, and caught a spider, before withdrawing. Bedora had made her move. Next to them another green light flashed with the words.

"Storm of Thorns!"

A spray of three inch (8cm) long thorns flew through the air, catching the last two and sending them flying back, skewered by the cruel thorns.

"Nissa! Conserve, got a lot more, focus on your crossbow."

"I know I know, I just...hate spiders."

"Guys! More coming down!"

Kahari interjected between their argument, as another group of twelve, now making sixteen that were coming their way, was heading down the road at them. Kahari could see some more moving through the trees, but they weren't an immediate concern. Bedora withdrew another javelin and used it to skewer another one of the four getting ready to try and bind her once more. Kahari moved forward, knowing Bedora could get around him with her large size, and stabbed another one, catching this one in the belly as it was about to spray. A third dropped as a small bolt sprouted from it's eye, Kahari could hear Nissa reloading behind him.

The last of the close spiders sprayed it's silk, catching the haft of Kahari's spear, and yanking. It almost pulled Kahari off his feet, and he barely kept a hold of the spear. Bedora's hand appeared from behind him and grabbed the silk. Twisting it around her hand, she pulled and the spider came flying, only for a fist to punch it. It's chiten cracked, and it flew several meters into one of the trees, sticking to the webbing coating the side. He forgot sometimes just how strong Bedora was, he'd never seen her actually fight before.

He turned his attention to the group scurrying across the ground at them, but was blindsided as something came down on top of his head, and a searing pain sprang up through his shoulder, though he was barely scratched. That must be the venom. He reached up and wrestled with the spider on his head while Bedora and Nissa focused on fighting the others. After a brief struggle, and a scratch on his face, he slammed the thing on the ground, and before it could get to it's feet, brought the butt of his spear down onto it's head.

Panting, he wiped blood from his face before turning and seeing two more down, one to a javelin and another to a third bolt. Tightening his grip on the spear, he waited for one of them to jump, and brought his spear down, batting it out of the air and onto the ground before stabbing it. Another spider dropped as a bolt sprouted from it's abdomen, and though it got back to it's feet, one of it's legs was no longer working. It didn't get far before a spear ended up in it's face as Kahari thrusted once more.

To his right, Kahari saw Bedora catch a leaping spider with her hand, and brought it down on one trying to bite through her armor, crushing them both. That left six more, but he could see four more in the trees above their heads getting ready to spray silk. He raised his hand, aiming at a thin branch that held two of them, and chanted once more.

"Power of Air, Wind Blade!"

Another blade formed from twisting air lashed out, and cut through the thin branch, interrupting the two. They fell with the branch and caught a third leaping towards the group, one of the six on the ground. They were tangled in that mess for now, so Kahari turned his attention to the next nearest spider, and thrusted forward once more, catching it in the side as it was charging Nissa, going around him. Two others landed on his arm, one's fangs sliding off his arm guard, but the other finding purchase in his bicep, he yelped with pain and dropped his spear. Drawing his dagger, he brought the short blade down onto the head of the spider that was pumping it's painful venom into his arm, which was clenching and hard to move from the pain. Bedora grabbed the other one and used it to swat the last of the ground spiders, not counting the ones tangled in the branch, out of the air before she brought her spear down, impaling both of them in one move. Kahari grabbed his spear, but found it hard to hold with the pain in his arm.

"Nissa, light healing, I'll cover you."

Nissa grabbed Kahari and with strength unbefitting her lithe form, pulled him away from the front lines. She put her hand on his arm, and started chanting, a slightly longer spell than he had heard before.

"Mend Wound!"

He could feel the pain in his arm quickly disappear, full range of motion restored. What's more, the pain in his shoulder dulled, and the cut on his face healed. He wasn't back to full, but it seemed she had cast a variant to remove the poison instead of purely healing the physical damage.

"Thanks Nissa."

"Focus on the fight, thank me later."

Kahari moved back up beside Bedora, who had finished off the last of the three on the ground, and was retrieving her javelins while dodging streams of silk attempting to bind her like she didn't care about them. Probably because they were too weak to actually bother her. The fight continued much like this for about an hour, slowly working their way down the road. By the end Kahari was drenched in sweat, and his whole body ached. Nissa had had to heal him several times during the fighting, but he'd survived. As soon as the fight ended, the bodies and blood of the spiders disappeared in puffs of black smoke, leaving behind small red stones, as well as the occasional chunk of chitin, pile of woven silk, or vial of venom.

Kahari was too tired to question why the silk was already woven into strands, or the venom already in vials. While Bedora was using her simple firebolt to clear the eggs, which occasionally dropped a Alchemical egg item, he and Nissa were resting in the shade under a tree they'd already cleaned. He wanted to just pass out now, but they still had some traveling to do, so they were just stopping for lunch. Nissa smiled and patted Kahari on the head.

"Good job Kahari, that was a tougher fight than most level ones ever face. Not much of a problem for us, but it was good training for your skills and stats, plus with the amount of things here, we're going to get a decent payday."

"Uh huh."

"Yeah, that stamina will build up with your Vitality, thankfully these guys are good for that, so even if we have this exact same fight tomorrow, you probably won't be as tired."

"Uh huh."

"Is that all you can say?"

"Uh huh."

Nissa playfully smacked Kahari who gave her a weak chuckle before she moved to bring their bags over. Bedora sat down next to Kahari while Nissa was still gone, one finger rubbing her head.

"I hate using magic, the headaches are just so annoying."

She didn't wait for Kahari's lack of an answer before she had an apple in her hand, which she took a bite out of. She smiled with pleasant surprise.

"Oh! These are sour! The sour ones are my favorite!"

The large green apple was one of the local specialities of Seras, their big export was a kind of sour apple cider called Seras Cider. It didn't go far beyond the kingdom, but it supported...or had supported his little town. Kahari's mouth watered as he thought about that Cider, he never drank much, since he was nineteen Seras only allowed him to during festivals, but he had enjoyed the Seras Cider more than the beers and meads his father prefered. He found an apple dumped into his lap as he was thinking.

"Eat, it'll restore your stamina faster."

"I'm n-"

"Eat! You'll be starving by supper if you don't eat something small right now."

Bedora berated him, acting much like he thought an older sister might. With a groan, he pushed himself up, and looked down at the apple. Taking a bite, he was surprised about just how sour it was. If the stock of these survived the attack, the Seras Cider made from them would be some of the best the village had produced, according to how the brewer commented on different batches when Kahari had bumped into him. It was when he munched on the second bite that Nissa rejoined them, dropping the bags next to her and catching an apple before sitting down herself.

"There's a river and bridge that we'll hit tonight. We'll camp a bit aways from the road so we can all get a bath in the morning with a bit of privacy. With the nest cleared, it won't take long for merchants to start using this road again."

Nissa said before taking a bite out of the apple on her own. She had a surprised look on her face.

"Ugh, sour. Edible but...ugh."

She sighed and reluctantly took another bite. Looked like she didn't like sour foods much. Bedora just looked at her and shrugged.

"It was the only fruit they had in the market still, the rest was already being preserved by the townsfolk."

"Better than those bitter ones we got when we were in Ogla, I couldn't eat those at all."

"Oh I know, supposedly they're good for cooking but...I dunno, never had anything with them."

"Just...when we get to Ixul, I'm using some of the quest money from these spiders on a slice of cake."

"Cake? What about those Crepe Cones from the new stall by the Association?"

"Mmm, never tried those…"

"Look, I'll use some of my share to get you one, if you like it you use part of your's to get me one. Fair?"

"Fine fine."

Kahari watched the two, waiting for his chance to interject.

"Guys? What's a crepe?"

"Don't really know, Bedora has had them though."

"They're...kinda like cakes, sweet little pancake things. The stall I'm talking about rolls them into a cone and puts ice cream in them."

"Ice Cream?"

"Cold, sweet, it's really good. Hard to make without magic, so most people that carry it are mages, or could afford the enchantments to store the stuff. Melts if it gets too hot."

"Sounds...odd."

"A little, but trust me, the stuff is delicious. Some Naiads that live in the mountains invented them."

"Bedora, how do you know so much random crap?"

"I drink at Association taverns, you hear all kinds of things in those places. Sometimes I even remember it."

"There's Association taverns?"

"Yeah, Adventurers and Association employees use them because other taverns are generally full, and we keep odd hours."

"Makes sense to me, but Seras didn't have one."

"Too small, it had a little bar with the rooms in the basement levels."

"So that's where the cider they bought went."

"Dunno, we got to town during the attack, never got a chance to look."

"O-oh."

"Don't be so down, your town put up a better fight than most, you should be proud. I don't like Ogres but...Marge held the line pretty well."

"She's a tad scary."

"Yes she is."

The conversation petered after that. Before they got moving Nissa crouched down next to Kahari.

"Alright, let's see how your status has changed from that fight, okay?"

She raised her hand and chanted the spell, a status window popping up.

Personal name - Kahari

Family Name - Miraki

Primary Job - Smith (Unlocked)

Secondary Job(s) -

Race - Human (Continental)

Level - 2

Height - 5'9" (176cm)

Weight - 150lbs (68kg)

Age - 19

Status - Stamina Drain Minor, Mana Drain Major.

Literate - Basic

Strength - 18 (Level 1)

Vitality - 4 (Level 2)

Dexterity - 19 (Level 1)

Magic - 18 (Level 1)

Wisdom - 11 (Level 1)

Perception - 12 (Level 1)

Skills - Jack-of-all-Trades (Reincarnation), Smithing 2 (Level 2), 1H Hammers 18 (Level 1), Foraging 12 (Level 1), Stealth 13 (Level 1), First Aid 7 (Level 1), Spears 15 (Level 1), Shields 8 (Level 1), Light armor 10 (Level 1), Woodcutting 12 (Level 1), 1H Double Edge Swords 8 (Level 1), Daggers 10 (Level 1), Air Magic 5 (Level 1)

Techniques - Wind Blade 4 (Level 1), Piercing Thrust 1 (Level 1), Haft Slam 1 (Level 1), Shield Bash 1 (Level 1)

"Eh? Level 2?! That was fast…"

Nissa sounded almost disappointed but Bedora laughed loudly and brought her hand down onto Kahari's shoulder.

"I'd be surprised if he didn't level, that would be a tough fight for anyone at level 1, even with a big party."

"He's got some techniques too, looks like he unlocked them when he leveled. Piercing Thrust is the only real useful one. You'll need to teach him how to activate them next time you spar."

"That can wait, we're going to celebrate tonight, I still have some wine left, and he deserves a drink after all he's been through."

"Seriously?"

"What?"

"He's nineteen! It's illegal here unless it's a festival."

"I am using my authority as the only authority for several days to approve it."

"I don't think it's how that works…"

"We're drinking tonight when we camp, don't look so glum. It's that cherry wine."

"Wait, that one? Ugh...alright, fine."

"Woohoo! Let's get moving so we can camp sooner."

Kahari was once more left in the dust by his more rambunctious companions, though he found their bickering endearing. It spoke volumes that they traveled together despite it, they were an odd pair, but then this world was an odd one. It was almost as if the gods had made it a game just so they could watch the little people play.