Meeting anew

Ron followed Scarlett through the forest, the path the mother spider took was pretty visible with all sorts of damaged trees and holes in the ground. Soon the cobwebs became more frequent and thicker in size, Ron wanted to check the nest of the mother spider.

They came to a place of pure white spider silk everywhere. There were multiple white cocoons everywhere ranging from small to big. Ron had a feeling these were the spiders still in their egg sacs. Grabbing his whip Ron whipped one of the small egg sacs to open it up, inside the egg sac there was an underdeveloped black spider inside which died quickly.

"I see you want to destroy all the egg sacs so that they don't reappear" Scarlett noted why Ron wanted to come here in the first place.

"That's not the only reason, did you not notice something missing in the forest since we came here?" Ron asked Scarlett as he continued opening up and killing the underdeveloped spiders inside of them.

"Something missing?" Scarlett was confused and looked around. The forest was dead silent except for Ron opening up egg sacs, but other than that it looked like a regular normal forest. Suddenly something clicked and she furrowed her brows.

"It's dead silent," Scarlett said. There was no sound, no insects, no small creatures during their entire walk through the forest. What happened to the other creatures?

"Correct, the spiders must eat to stay alive and reproduce so it's likely they ate all the other forest creatures and insects" Ron explained the spider's purpose. "With no more creatures they'll expand their territory to reach new food, kill it, reproduce and repeat until infinity" Ron was killing all the egg sacs to completely exterminate the spider problem, Elwynn had taught him that creatures that upset the balance of the forest cannot remain.

"So if given another year the spiders would probably have had control of the entire forest and maybe even beyond, there would be hundreds if not thousands of them" Scarlett realised. It would have become a plague.

"Correct and how do spiders eat?" Ron asked Scarlett as he opened another egg sac, this time stopping after opening it. Scarlett noticed and looked over and saw what was inside the egg sac. A husk with only bones was left inside, the husk was that of a squirrel who was caught and eaten.

"You don't think?" Scarlett asked, looking at the bigger cocoons that were suspiciously human size.

"There was another thing that bothered me, how many wishmasters were sent here? You encountered Jeff while I've still not found someone. Do you think they could survive if they went deep in this forest with the mother spider?" Ron theorised his thoughts. It wasn't even a hard theory to swallow, Ron started in the forest if he went the wrong way he would've walked straight into the spider territory.

"Only one way to find out I guess" Scarlett said as she walked to one of the human sized cocoons. She jammed her fingers into the cocoon and ripped it open with her bare hands. A rotten stench came out of the cocoon as it was opened and there it was.

A human half husk with some corrosive liquid coming out of it. Ron could see it was a man who was captured and half eaten by the spiders, the man still had his clothes on and seemed to be some scout judging from the leather attire. Judging from the expression on his face it was quite terrifying to become spider food.

"Guess that answers that" Scarlett said as she moved to the next cocoon. She continued pulling out half human husks and also pulled out some undeveloped big spiders that she promptly killed. Soon a change happened as Scarlett jammed her fingers in the cocoon and furrowed her brows.

"This one is a lot more soft than the others," Scarlett said as she began tearing it open. Spider silk hardened as it was exposed to the air. If this one was still soft it meant that this one was just freshly spun.

Opening up the cocoon a man laid in there unconscious and fully intact. There were some scabs over his body indicating spider bites. The green tuft spiders poison was corrosive and if Ron had to guess the black spiders probably had paralysing poison. The man was breathing slowly meaning he was still alive.

Once Scarlett pulled the man out they could get a closer look at him. He was dressed in a full body business suit from top to bottom but the most noticeable thing about him was that at his waist was a holster with a gun inside. Ron quickly pulled the gun out of the holster and inspected it close.

"What's that?" Scarlett asked, she had never seen such an object yet from Ron's reaction it had to be something valuable.

"It's a gun, a weapon very popular in my own world," Ron said, a little apprehensive. He never had seen a gun up close as he grew up in a country without legal weapons but he knew some countries had legal weapons for the general public. Inspecting the gun up close Ron noticed something etched on the handle of the weapon, it looked like a weird language to Ron.

"How is that a weapon? It doesn't look like one" Scarlett was a little sceptical, there was no sharp point on the weapon so how would it damage someone? Would they smash it over someone's head?

"Let me show you" Ron said, he didn't know what type of gun this was but he had seen enough movies and videos about them to at least know how to fire one. Ron looked underneath the handle to see it had an ammunition clip in there he only hoped it had ammo in there. He tried to move the slider back only to be stuck indicating a bullet was indeed in there.

A little nervous he gripped it with both hands and pointed it towards a dead spider carcass, taking a small breath he pulled the trigger. *BANG* The gun fired and the bullet hit the carcass creating a small hole that exited out the back.

Scarlett was surprised at the loud sound and the results. The bullet travelled even faster than the whip and it seemed really simple to use it. Suddenly realisation hit her "Wait a second if this is a weapon from your world does that mean?" she said as she looked at the man in front of them.

Ron nodded and confirmed her train of thought "Even the way he's dressed is similar to some people of my own world, he's most likely a wishmaster".

"So what do we do now? Do we kill him?" Scarlett didn't want a repeat of Jeff to happen to her. Even with the ring as a shield she still didn't know anything about this man.

"We keep the gun for now while we wake him up, you can tell if he's being deceitful we'll move from there" Ron and Scarlett were immune to wishes under 10,000 points from others thanks to the rings, if he tried any wishes the moment he woke up he would need at least 10,000 points.

"What if he has enough points? Aren't we kinda fucked then?" Scarlett was still a little hesitant on waking him up.

"At best he has around 2,000 points on him, nothing more" Ron said, shocking Scarlett a little. How did he know this? She voiced her question and Ron explained "One gets 2,500 points from viewing their own death and accepting it, the gun itself costs 1,000 points and from I can guess he enchanted this gun a little with some of the points"

It would explain the weird language that Ron had seen on the handle of the gun. "Furthermore, finding the spider hive gave me 1,500 points so subtracting it all including food or other items I'm guessing he has around 2,000 points left". Ron concluded his explanation. And besides, who had 10,000 points in reserve instead of spending it on himself?

"You make a sound argument, fine we'll wake him up and move accordingly" Scarlett admitted defeat. She didn't like dealing with wishmasters because of their infinite wishing power. She spent enough time with Ron to trust him and there was no deceit in his eyes whenever they talked.

Ron got some water from his storage and threw it over the man's face. The man's eyes shot open as he heaved for fresh air, he wiped the water from his face and was very dazed as he frantically looked around.

"Calm down and take a deep breath," Ron said. The man was currently panicking as he was confused. The man heard the voice but instead of calming down he panicked even harder and tried to reach for his gun only to find out it was missing.

"We have taken your gun for now just calm down and take a deep breath we can talk this out" Ron told the man that they had his gun and tried to calm him down again.

Finally taking Ron's advice the man breathed deeply and tried his best to calm down, slowly his eyes regained focus and he calmed down after seeing Ron and Scarlett looking at him. He looked around to see the nest and the dead spider carcasses. Confusion took him for a bit before remembering what had happened.

"Thanks for rescuing me from becoming spider food" The man said in a hoarse voice. He was almost suffocated in that cocoon and passed out from lack of oxygen.

"No problem, mind if I ask you a couple of questions?" Ron wanted to ask the man a couple of questions regarding the situation.

"Sure, go ahead" The man gave his okay. There wasn't much choice in his eyes, they had his gun and potentially his life.

"Alright let's start with introductions first, I'm Ron and this is Scarlett. Can I get your name?" Ron introduced himself and Scarlett before asking the man his name. Scarlett looked uninterested in their conversation however Ron could tell she was on high alert. If he uttered the words I wish Scarlett would shut him up instantly.

The man was quiet for a second before replying "Can I ask a question real quick?" The man wanted to ask a question of his own. Ron looked at Scarlett who nodded, she didn't see any deceitful intention in the man's eyes, only apprehension. Ron nodded at the man.

"Can any of you access the wish store?" The man wanted to know if they were wishmasters.

"I can, I assume you can as well. We're what's called wishmasters" Ron explained that they were indeed wishmasters.

"And you just gave me your names? You're either brave or stupid" The man questioned their mental capacity, it seems he's had a run in with some other wishmasters that used the same method Jeff used.

"We're neither, we're protected. I assume you've already dealt with some wishmasters based on your comment" Scarlett told the man. They were getting nowhere with this back and forth and Scarlett's patience was running thin.

"Protected? You can do that?" The man was sceptical of this so-called 'protection' they had.

"You can try it, I'll give you one free shot" Ron gave the man the green light to try and wish for something against them, Scarlett wasn't happy with that but trusted Ron's initial assessment of the man's wish points.

"I wish Ron would give me the gun" The man made his wish and internally he spent all of his remaining 1,750 wish points on it. If he could get his gun back the situation would be back in control. Ron's ring that he had gotten back from Elwyn shone with light and blocked the wish. After that the man got the message that his points were refunded.

"So, convinced now? I can even tell you how to get that same protection. I don't like using my points that way" Ron even wanted to tell the man how to get the same protection. It might seem stupid but Ron didn't like forcing others to work with him.

The man was silent for a few seconds looking deep into Ron's eyes, almost not believing him before sighing and saying "My name is Jacob".