Chapter 38. Unexpected Discovery.

After rejecting Adel's "help" in the form of painkillers, I felt a bit better, perhaps due to the comical nature of the situation. My back aches, although my health in the information field has almost reached 70 points out of 108 in full condition. Ironically...

"Will my back hurt until my health is fully restored?" I asked Ever with a wry smile.

"Unfortunately, yes. But... it might continue to hurt even after," she agreed at first, then added a note, "Wait, so you don't exactly know how all this works?" I asked her.

"Let's start with the fact that I didn't know you would have a health panel. Even your resistance might not have been thoroughly thought out from the beginning. I'm not to blame for the fact that my foundation is taken from the game," she said with evident anger in her voice. Her frustration with the situation was palpable.

"Yeah... sorry, didn't mean to blame you. Essentially... you're a child, after all," I said, reflecting for a moment.

She was created from scratch in front of me, and maybe I forget about it, but sometimes I think about it. Can I treat her like a voice assistant that helps with information search or plays music? Of course not. For me, she is primarily, uh... another human? Although it's not that simple to characterize her, she is my only ally who won't betray or leave me, perhaps the only soul that understands me in this world.

Though I can't say I'm alone here, considering everyone surrounding me... Damn, this spider. The spider that stood all this time, forgetting about me, suddenly screamed louder, as if trying to call for help, but... in the next moment, it attacked me, making a jump in height and trying to crush me with its entire body. I timely used "Shadow Leap," moving to the opposite side of this "island."

The spider, landing on its belly, froze for a few seconds as if digesting what had happened. It realized that it missed me, so after a few seconds, it slowly rose. The spot where it fell was slightly dented, and a tree nearby fell to the ground. Now I had to wait for it to rush towards me, then dodge and hit one of its legs. Having devised this plan, I started waiting for the next jump of this Arachnid... well, this spider.

I didn't have to wait too long because as soon as it noticed me, it immediately jumped at high speed. As planned, I shifted using the ability to a new place. The spider heavily landed on its belly, and I, at that moment, rushed towards it. Now was the best moment to destroy the last little leg. I invested all my mana into the attack and not only managed to separate the remaining part of the leg from the body but also slightly damaged the place from which its web leaked. Perhaps, because of this, a mass resembling white liquid leaked out.

The spider seemed stuck in this goo, but it lasted only about ten seconds. During this time, I did nothing, as if mesmerized by what was happening. In the time I watched, a glimmer of hope warmed me that my confrontation with it was over, but, unfortunately, it didn't happen. Since he received a new session of removing unnecessary legs from me, he was clearly more aggressive than before. Unfortunately for him, now goo was dripping from him, which was supposed to become a web.

Getting up, he rushed at me again, ignoring the liquids oozing from him. Flying at high speed, he again crashed into the ground, causing a large portion of liquid to fly out of him. I didn't waste time and, using an axe, tried to remove one of his thick legs with one blow.

I swung the axe with anticipation, hitting with all my might. The blow hit the target precisely, but the axe got stuck in his leg. The sensation from the blow was such that it seemed to me that I hit a stone. My hands hurt, and they began to shake, almost causing me to drop the axe.

"Do you have enough mana for another strike?" Ever suddenly said.

Thanks to her words, I was able to snap out of the trance the situation put me in earlier. I was caught off guard by such an outcome, but after Ever's words, I put all my remaining strength into my hands and pulled the axe out, then immediately swung it again. However, even the second strike was not enough to completely detach his leg. His leg remained attached to the body by only a few centimeters of flesh.

Since there wasn't enough mana for a finishing blow, I retreated backward. Only after that did an idea come to my mind. Why not use bullets? It takes only 20 mana for a bullet, so I have enough for just one bullet and a few "Shadow Leaps." Considering the situation, I immediately used the ability and created a bullet in front of me, filled it with mana, but instead of releasing it immediately, I used a new leap to appear close to the spider. Being right next to the wound, I released the bullet, which finally tore off its leg, and it heavily fell to the ground.

But the fallen leg didn't significantly affect the spider's stance. Despite being angry and even screaming in pain, it continued its seemingly senseless attacks against me. While it attacked me, I tried to sever one of its legs each time after its attack. So we continued repeating the same cycle for several minutes. During this whole act, I managed to detach only two legs, leaving the spider with 5 legs, with which it somehow managed to support its weight.

Everything would have been fine, but only now did I realize, or rather... fall into a trap. Yes, the spider caught me in a trap. All the goo that remained after its jumps had, after all, filled this small island. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this in the heat of battle. I was too deeply immersed in the battle process; for me, the whole process was a typical game mechanic against some boss from a game. But now, here I am.

My leg was tightly ensnared by the goo, literally enveloping my leg tightly in its embrace. This was clearly not something I wanted to experience in my life. I had two options now, or at least that's what I thought at that moment. One of them was to take the spider's attack, attempting to defend myself with the axe, and the second option was to try to break free from the web.

Fear filled me; for the first time, I felt cornered. Every fiber of my being screamed about danger and begged me to do something, leading to the birth of my ideas. These solutions came to me in a fraction of a second, and frankly, I probably would have used one of them, but Ever, addressing me, presented another idea that I tried to implement.

"Use Earth Trap; it will pull you out of the web," she said.

"But it won't have time to pull me out before the spider's attack," I said in fear. My entire being continued to scream about danger. Wild fear paralyzed me, but reason, trying to trust Ever, still prevailed.

"It won't, but you have 'Protective Veil,' right?" Ever reminded me of another one of my abilities.

"Oh... I completely forgot about it. It creates a protective layer, right?" I asked, slightly calming down. Echoes of happiness and faith resisted my visceral fear of the predator.

"Yes, when your health drops to the minimum threshold, a veil will form around you, protecting you for 5 seconds," she said confidently. I believed her.

"Then let's try," I replied to her in my mind, full of hope. It was a moment when I staked my life, entrusting her with the right to choose actions. In the next moment, I said aloud in a confident and firm tone, "Earth Trap."

My hand was directed to the ground beneath me, and that's where the Earth Trap appeared, vigorously pulling me towards it. Perhaps because it was my spell, but I didn't feel any damage from it, although there was some pain due to the strength of the pull. Now it was clear why goblins couldn't react quickly and defend against me, given how strongly it sucked them into the ground.

Of course, my joy didn't last long. Clumsy but quite fast, and most importantly, heavy, the spider still managed to make a jump. The height was no longer the same as before; until this moment, it had been able to jump tens of meters high, and now the jump didn't even reach ten meters. But even such a height would be enough to kill me. At the moment when its body approached me, time seemed to flow hundreds of times slower for me. It seemed to me that I needed to make just one roll to the side, and I could avoid it. But as much as I wanted it, my body didn't obey me. It was as if frozen in time, not even moving a millimeter.

Like being chained, I watched as the spider's body enlarged in front of my face. It seemed, make at least a small move to the side, and maybe you can dodge it, but fear... it presses on you, making you forget about everything. Only when the spider was a few centimeters from my face did I remember about "Shadow Leap."

"Shad..." I managed to say only part of the word when I felt a blow.

I took its blow upon myself, and believe me, no one has ever felt such pain. Maybe someone did, but surely not to survive. I was literally crushed; I felt my bones bending at an unnatural angle. Ribs seemed to plunge into all my internals, and my legs, under the spider's strike, seemed to be completely shattered. After the blow, my head seemed to empty; I literally felt no thoughts in it, only a ringing emptiness that enveloped me.

"Temir!" suddenly someone's voice was heard. I couldn't understand who it was. Perhaps, because of the intense pain and concussion, someone's voice sounded to me. Already depressed and cornered, I suddenly felt someone's strong hand grabbing me and dragging me aside. I felt an unprecedented happiness, as if I had been pulled out of the jaws of death. With great difficulty, I tried to lift my head, but I noticed only the indistinct silhouette of my savior, possibly Arman, or maybe someone else.

Placing me on the ground, this silhouette ran towards the spider, which got stuck in its own web. I was happy at the thought that someone would finish off this creature; my strength was not enough for a complete victory over it. Although I couldn't move and only tried to watch the scene unfolding before me, Adel approached me. She used her abilities and began my healing. Though it was tough and painful, squinting and focusing my gaze, I scrutinized my health panel.

Information Panel: Health: 47 (108) (regeneration 0.48 + 0.25 per second + 3) Mana: 94 (378) (regeneration 2.16 per second)

Looking at the panel, I discovered an additional 3 points of health regeneration per second. Her healing ability turned out to be quite strong. Slowly but surely, my health was recovering, and the mana bar was replenishing. I just needed a little more time to help finish off this wretched spider. Little by little, notes of happiness and triumph filled me. I believed that once I recovered, we would quickly finish this dungeon. Everything could have ended perfectly, but unfortunately, things don't always go as we wish. The ground suddenly cracked, and we literally fell into a swamp that began to pull us into its depths.