12. Starta Village

Seth stayed in the hole for another hour, for good measure. That was really a little too dangerous for his taste, so he snacked on some apples while waiting. When he was sure that there was nothing outside his hole, he climbed out, or tried to. He had found some spare parts that confirmed his guess that this was a workshop and needed to stack them to reach the edge and squeeze through the gap.

The motorbike was only a little stuck not grown in, so he could get it out after some wiggling. Ignoring some scratches the bike was actually undamaged! When he tried to start it, it started humming on his second try, there was even gas left in the tank.

The situation in the woods was a really weird condition. The buildings and streets had turned into ruins, as if the woods had been growing for centuries, but on the other hand all the things such as this bike, provisions or the occasional car were merely covered in vegetation, but not aged.

With this bike Seth would be out of this terrible forest in no time! He hoped. After looking around some more, he even found a spare canister full of gas. It was a little too clunky, so he freed a spot in his inventory for it. There were also tools and car parts scattered around. This place had probably been a car repair shop or something like that before the apocalypse.

On his new vehicle and with a spare can of gas, Seth set off. The woods , which had been quite creepy when traveling by foot, flew by in a blur.

Impenetrable shadows? Weird dark mists? Black streams of goopy water? No, thanks! He broke the darkness with his headlight! Drove past all the creepy places, macabre totems, twig effigies and bone piles without giving them a second look!

Seth wasn't into horror, so he spared himself those experiences. His only regret was that he could now clearly see the ground at all times, which really offered an assortment of half rotten bones, pale white skeletons, twigs and leaves. Seth couldn't evade the sight, since the ground looked like this everywhere.

Within the next hours he had crossed more distance than during his whole journey on foot. In the evening he actually saw the fringe of the woods! They really had an end!

Here the big trees ended and sunlight fell in through the gap where he forest continued with normal trees and shrubbery!

"And i'm out -urgh!", Seth gloated, when something suddenly catapulted him off the bike-

The bike kept going, ran up a big root like a ramp, flipped in the air and finally crashed somewhere beyond the root, where Seth couldn't see it anymore.

"You can't be serious..."

<Ding! Passive Skill: Calm Reaction lv.2 has become lv.3!>

Almost invisible, there was a giant spider web that stretched between two of the last big trees right before the fringe of the forest. Seth's torso and face had crashed into it and were stuck to it now, while his forearms and legs were still free as they dangled in the gabs of the net. Taking a look around he noticed more webs to the right glinting in the sun. Almost like a big fence spanning around the woods.

He could only see right, as his face was glued to thee net, but the assumed the other side looked the same!

Giant spiders... he should have expected this. Seth was really fed up with forests at this point. Why couldn't it be a wasteland? Or a zombie apocalypse. No, he had to end up in a fast growing forest or something like that...

Seth tried slashing the web with his billhook. Of course, it didn't work. But not only did it not cut the spider thread, even worse, the weapon also got stuck on the web.

After half an hour Seth understood, that he could not get the billhook off the web, or himself. But he already had an ingenious idea. He would rely on the tried and trusted.

Seth summoned the Spirit Smithy right below him. This was the first time he noticed the changes after getting it to lv.2, because he had been too tired last night. The first change he noticed was that he could choose to summon only specific parts of the smithy like the forge or only the grinding wheel. This time, he only summoned the forge with it´s brightly burning pale blue fire!

Seth took the still half filled gas canister from is inventory. He opened it and splattered gas in every direction below him before dropping it into the Spirit Forge.

What followed was an inferno. The canister fell into the fire splashing burning gas everywhere and lit up in an enormous jet flame that set the web and surroundings ablaze.

Trusting his 90% Fire Resistance, Seth hoped to free himself from the trap before he got burned to death himself.

As he had expected, based on game knowledge. Although the spider silk had a great physical resistance, it was very weak to fire. In no time the spider web had burned up and Seth stood on his own two feet again. He canceled <Spirit Smithy>, picked up his billhook and hurried out of the forest away from the fire he had set.

Seth came down a small slope, where he found the completely demolished bike. He didn't linger for long and crossed a thin band of smaller trees and undergrowth and finally entered a big plain. Wide open prairie as far as he could see. The map confirmed it, he had entered the grasslands!

Seth felt an immense rush of relief surging in him and sat down then and there. With the blazing forest behind him, he finally took a break and checked his status.

Name: Seth Smith

Title: "Faster than the Thought"

Level: 5

Exp: 28%

Race: Ori Huma

Sex:Male

Age:23

Class: Spirit Blacksmith (Unique)

Affiliation: None

Health: 910/1000

Mana:110

Strength:13

Dexterity:17

Agility: 20

Intelligence:11

Willpower:11

Endurance:15

Personality:8

Luck:15

Free AP(Attribute points): 37

Free SP(Skill points): 1

Defense:

Physical : 122 (42+50+ 25+5)

Magical :45 (20+25)

Fire Resistance :90%(50%+40%)

Skill Window :

Calm Reaction(passive) lv.3

Blacksmith(Beginner)lv.8(51%)

Blacksmith's Eyes lv.2

Smelting(Beginner) lv.7(11%)

Blueprint(Beginner) lv.2

Weapon Mastery(Beginner) lv.4 (46%)

Spirit Forge lv.2

Spirit Capture lv.2

Map lv.1

Fear resistance lv.3

Fire Affinity lv.4

Soul Infusion lv.1

Except some burn marks on his clothes and slight burns where he touched the web, he was totally fine. Coming out of that hellfire with almost no injuries? 90% resistance was nothing to laugh at. To his surprise, his willpower had increased a little.

After satisfying his basic needs he got ready to keep going. The bike was gone, but he still had the heightened AGI and a wide flat land to run on in front of him. He checked the map for directions and kept going towards Deltan.

A few hours later. The fire had burned out and two figures appeared where Seth had left.

" This wasn't a normal fire.", one of them stated. It had the upper body of a human, but her lower body was that of a spider. It was an Arachne!

"Yeah... do you see that? It looks like one of the machines of the Ori Huma! It looked fresh, do you think someone... came from in there?", the tall figure beside it answered. He looked like a middle-aged man with a dark scraggly beard wearing light leather clothing like a hunter.

The Arachne spoke flustered, "From IN there? That's the Dark Woods we are talking about! And further in is that creepy Hanging Tree. What could possibly come out of there, other than those corrupted beasts?"

"Yeah, but tell me, who in their right mind would burn down the perimeter fence to get IN there?"

"Hng...you are right, i guess. You should go back to the village to report. I will patch up the fence for now. I will have to get some people later to properly close this giant hole..."

Both looked at the several hectares of burned down forest. Even the giant trees in that area had burned down to piles of smoldering ashes.

Same time. Seth had encountered some minor monsters like goblins and something he would call kobold during his journey through the plains. Kobolds were not as cute as in those games and comics, where the resembled cute dogs like corgis. These were more like a really ugly mix of dogs and rats with barely any patchy fur.

They would occasionally appear in groups of three to five, as a patrol or sitting around a little campfire. They were only around lv.1 or 2, so they didn't pose a danger. He could easily dispatch them with his AGI and the billhook, even in an open battle. After travelling like this for some time Seth saw something on the horizon. It wasn't really on his route, but it was the only structure that stuck out on these plains, so he made a small detour to have a look.

What he saw when he arrived was a small medieval town in the middle of nowhere with a small dirt road winding into the distance. It had a three-metre-high city wall made of stone and a similar sized gate. He could see the freshly plowed beginnings of fields in the distance.

"Hello there!", he greeted the vigilant gate guard. The guards greeting was to point his spear at him as he asked, "Who are you? Where did you do you come from?"

"Erm, I'm just a...traveler? Say what is this place?", calling himself a traveler was the best he came up with.

The guard observed him warily. This was the frontier in a destroyed world. What kind of person would a traveler be? But Seth didn't exactly look dangerous.

"This is Starta Village, one of the empires frontier villages in this world.", the Guard answered in the end.