NOVEL NEXT Chapter Twelve: Physical Education
Physical Education
We reached the gym without much ado. As was becoming my habit, I pressed my ear to the door and waited to hear any sound before going in, but I heard nothing. The trouble with scouting out ahead was that if you don't notice anything, you never know whether that's because there is nothing there, or because whatever is there is better at hiding than you are noticing them. Well, there was nothing for it. I reached to the handle and opened the door, swinging it open slowly. I quickly noticed that the door wasn't coming open smoothly like the rest of the doors in the tower, but rather had an elastic resistance to it. As soon as I opened it up wide enough to see through the reason for it became apparent.
I couldn't see more than six feet into the gym, because it was filled with dense spider-webs. Normal-sized spiders were crawling all over the webs in their hundreds and about three feet away from the door there was a dead spider the size of a corgi.
"Surely they weren't stupid enough to go in there after seeing this," I said.
"I don't know, boss, look," Chum said, and squatting low, under the lowest layers of the web, he walked forward. He made it far enough that it was becoming difficult to see him and pulled something out from within the webs. He returned and handed me a pocket-book sized journal. It looked exactly like my own, and when I opened it, the text inside looked like random symbols.
"Fuck me," I said, "I don't suppose just assuming they're dead would complete the quest."
"No way. You don't actually know what happened, so an info-gathering quest would be incomplete. But boss, forget about the quest. If they're venomous even the small spiders could kill you. And I bet this one isn't the biggest one around," Chum said.
"I'm definitely not going in there without preparing myself," I said, "But let me think, there must be something I can do."
I walked around in circles in front of the door for a few minutes, thinking. Saving that old man from the orc had felt good, more than that, it had made me feel in control. If I could succeed here, I would be well on my way to that wizard class and beyond. Walking in there just like that was out of the question. I could probably attract the larger spiders by disturbing the webbing with my icicles. Fire could quickly take out the whole of the room, but if there was anyone alive in there, it would roast them. Even in the worst case scenario, some spiders hunted with paralytic venom, so there was a chance that the people who had entered the gym were still alive, simply paralyzed, left for a later snack for the spiders. Not that I had a good idea how to set a fire; but if that had been the plan I could scour the classrooms until I found something.
"Do you know where I could get some more spells?" I said.
"I bet the other libraries would have something, but I bet those are pretty rare. Strong monsters may be carrying spell scrolls in their bodies," Chum said.
"Loot reasons. These demiplanes don't make the same sort of sense that the metareality does," Chum said.
The library that I had found had been library #4. Judging by the numbers on the other special rooms- usually in the thousands- looking for one randomly was foolish. I still needed six more spells if I wanted to get to wizard. Did that mean that I would have to fight strong monsters? I bet whatever spider was at the center of all this web would count.
"Shit," I said.
"Giving up here is 100% the sensible choice boss, nobody will hold it against you," Chum said.
"There could be people in there, still alive," I said, "Let's at least see what we would be dealing with, get ready to shut the door so I can seal it if we have to."
"Oh boy, here we go," Chum said. I threw a triplet of icicles into an area of web about seven feet in the air, four or five feet into the gym. The whole of the web vibrated ominously. It took only a few seconds for a spider the size of a small dog to appear and I smashed as many icicles into its thorax as I could, getting ready for more to come.
But none did. As I looked more closely, it became apparent that only a specific portion of the web had moved. Indeed, as I paid closer attention to the webs, I noticed that, while there were hundreds of them in there, these were hundreds of specific, distinct webs.
"I think we can clear these out, so long as we're careful," I said, "if we go one web at a time we won't attract too many spiders at once."
"So long as you precisely hit an individual web each time. And assuming that those spiderlings are the only sort that are in there."
"I still have the door sealing spell. That should give us ten minutes to get out," I said.
"Yeah, sure, boss. No one ever heard of spiders waiting for their prey in ambush," Chum said.
"We'll keep our eyes open. I don't want to get any closer to these things than you do," I said and started clearing out the webs very carefully one by one.
Stolen story; please report.
It was extremely slow going and most of the webs didn't even have the easy to kill spiderlings in them. These gave one experience point a piece, despite what Chum had said earlier about a 5exp minimum, but the ease with which they could be dispatched tracked with that. Fifteen minutes later I had killed five of them and made it maybe ten feet into the gym, and that's when I saw a boot covered in spiderwebs. I pointed it out to Chum and moved carefully towards it. I slowly started pulling it towards me, and indeed it was attached to a body. When it was disturbed, so were several webs, and these were in fact connected to several others. There was a strange clattering "skreee," as five or six spiderlings rushed towards us.
I had expected something like it, but hoped to finally test out my Run Screaming ability. I hoped it didn't require me to actually scream, because if it did, I would definitely attract a lot more attention than I wanted, and would die here.
It worked. I shouldn't have doubted that I would be able to tell if I was moving faster. When I suddenly ran half as fast again as I had ever ran before, it was almost disorienting, but my dash towards the exit of the room must have been like 20 miles per hour. I was briefly shocked in terror when I saw that the quickest of the spiderlings were only a couple of feet behind me, but there was enough time to cast spells as I ran from them. In the end I killed four with my icicles and the fifth splattered on my shield. I took several deep breaths and went back into the gym.
This time, when I pulled on the foot, the man came with it, and there was no immediate movement from the webs. He looked roughly like what Artemis had described and he was limp and heavy. I was semi-crouched, tired and wired and as I pulled him towards the exit inch by inch I was convinced that he was dead. Half-way through my right foot slipped on something as I was taking a step back and I lost my balance. Instead of falling on my ass, I windmilled my arms around by instinct, and hit every spiderweb around me. I said "shit" sotto voce and heard the skittering of the spiderlings moving towards me rapidly. I started pulling faster, and then I saw the swarm approach. There were dozens of shadowy shapes in the webs.
They came at me, and what was worse, some of them were coming from above and behind me to intercept. I should have left the body and sprinted to the exit, but my mind was hyperfocused on completing my task, and I didn't even think of letting go at the time, as if by letting go I would somehow fall to my own death. I should have died there, but without warning the small spiderlings first froze and then scattered away. I did not assume that this was a good thing, and moved even mored desperately.
Then I saw her in the shadows, just as I was at the door. I mean, I didn't actually know the gender of the spider, but giant spiders are female, right? Or was that just a Lord of the Rings thing? Anyways, I pulled the man through the door and as I slammed it shut I saw the mini-van sized body and head of the giant spider, skittering towards me at break-neck speed. I slammed the door, and just before I finished casting the spell, two sword-length fangs jammed through the door, one an inch to the right of my left hand and dripping with green fluid that hissed and sizzled as it fell on the floor.
I finished the spell and the fangs retracted like a switchblade going in reverse. I thought I must have done some damage to the spider, but there was no way I would get anywhere near her again. At least not anytime soon. If the description of the spell and of my hat were exactly correct, I had ten minutes to get away from here, which I reasoned was time enough to pull the body with me. As far as I could imagine, my only chances of completing the quest that I had come here for were to either hope that this man was still alive, or else to find some clues on his body. I didn't want to have come here for nothing, and I didn't think that the spider would follow me too far.
So I dragged the man back in the direction of the guildhall for ten minutes, and went around a corner in the first crossing leading towards it. That's when I sat down to read my log.
Log
You have killed venomfang spiderling x11, experience to level 4- 18.3/50
You have gained the stealth skill at level 1
You have gained experience in stealth. Experience to level 2- 12.5/25
My quest description hadn't changed, but the quest told me to bring information back to Artemis from the beginning, so I didn't think it would until I was back in the guild. In any case, if I had to go back into that gym to finish the quest, the quest simply wouldn't get done. The orc was one thing- he had been very nearly human, I could think of ways to hurt and kill him. A spider the size of a minivan was simply beyond the possible. At least for now.
Next I examined the man. I had assumed that he was dead, and from his pale face and apparent immobility I didn't see myself being wrong. Still, I had to make sure sure. I checked his pulse. Nothing… wait. Was that a heartbeat? If it was then it was very slow and we-.. Wait, no, yes, definitely. There had been another beat. Paralysis was deadly as fuck. Most of the most venomous creatures on earth killed by paralyzing hearts and lungs, I think. So he sure as shit wasn't fine, but as I put my ear close to his mouth I thought I could sense the faintest of breaths. Shit, I was not a doctor. Would his healing ability do anything fast enough for this if he even had one?
Wait, duh. I pulled the red potion out of my pocket, and I fed it to the man. At first it looked like it was just spilling down the side of his face, but then- a cough, a splutter, then his throat was working and he swallowed the liquid. Slowly, then suddenly his breathing became more regular, I could feel a slow pulse. He was still laying there, with no sign of waking up though. Hell, even if he lived he could be brain damaged for the rest of his life, I didn't know what this venom had done to him. But I had come this far, and I didn't want to give up now. I was not a strong man, and I never had been before. But if you can carry a sack of potatoes, you can fireman's carry a man of your own size, and this man was a little smaller than me.
I pulled his arms over one of my shoulders, and lifted him up on my back. Then I stood, and could barely stand. He was heavy laying unconscious like that. When I started walking, I didn't think I had any chance of getting past the next corner, much less getting him all the way back, but I had already decided that I would try. What followed for the next two hours was simply put the most grueling physical exertion I had ever endured in my life. What made it possible was also what made it torture. Apparently, the muscle strain and the build-up of lactic acid counted as hit-point damage, so every minute I would get some of my strength back. It just so happened that a minute was also almost exactly as far as I could carry him. So every time just as my body was about to entirely give out under me, I got a boost of healing and could move forward. It did nothing for my pain or exhaustion, and as I reached the adventuring guild I could barely see straight for how tired I was.