Rupegia Ch. 06: Expedition

"Understood, master," she responds diligently.

I smile gently at her. "Then let us be off."

I'm glad she accepted and understood things so easily. I guess she trusts me even though I'm such a bad liar. Maybe because this world is so full of unknown and crazy things, me being just another unknown is okay to her.

* * * * *

We cross the town and reach the east gate. It's closer to the Noble's Quarters, so the landscape is much more beautiful, and the buildings are way less crooked. It kind of loses the charm of the city, though. The clashing architecture was growing on me, and I miss the small, cozy, and rustic atmosphere of the inn.

We get in line and wait for our turn at customs for a good then minutes, then we suddenly hear the characteristic sound of heels hitting the floor rapidly approaching. It's the cool and sexy Roxanne.

She's wielding a simple black metal staff with a flat ring on the top, and a perfectly spherical gem in the middle of the ring, which slowly pulsates as it changes it's color from blue to red. She's also wearing a small backpack, and I can see multiple unknown plants and monster parts dangling from it.

Once she sees us, she waves vigorously by swinging her arm high in the sky.

"OOI! RYDER!" She shouts excitedly.

Wh-what are you doing? I already saw you, just come here quietly.

Alissa and I freeze on the spot, then Roxanne jogs a short distance and stops before us.

She immediately unslings her backpack and starts rummaging through it. "Alright, then! Here are six antidotes and four anti-venom." She bubbles, then she hands us multiple small flasks in quick succession. The anti-venom are in the standard flat metal flasks for combat use. "Keep the anti-venom on a chest pocket because you won't have time to use it if you store it in your [Item Box]. Also, the anti-venom is magically enhanced, so it works instantly. And here are two of my own HP and MP potions. They're very valuable, so they're only for emergencies."

Alissa and I silently receive the flasks, then we reorganize our inventories. After that, we wait until it's our turn for customs.

When the guard sees that I have nothing in my [Item Box] he gives me a curious glance but makes no comment on it. Alissa has things in her [Item Box], so even if it's just me and her, we only look like a duo of adventurers less prepared than usual. Now with Roxanne carrying a backpack, he might have thought she's the servant carrying my things, or something like that.

Once we get out of town, the landscape turns into the exact same as the west side: farms on one side, and the gigantic trees of the Sea on the other side of the road. The only exception is that, on the horizon, I can see a brown mountain peeking from above a small forest far away. That's the Ant Hill.

The Ant Hill is a failed [Meteor] spell that didn't disappear, for some reason. This spell creates a huge flaming rock that falls from the sky, which is supposed to blow up when it hits something, but this one didn't, and it just got embedded in the ground. Eventually, nature grew around it, then the Giant Moles started making a cave system inside because the environmental mana is quite high and they love that shit.

It's called "Ant Hill" because when attacked, the Moles would rush out like hundreds of ants. Then, the lord of Rabanara at the time got tired of it and properly subjugated the Hill, so now it's maintained as if it's a dungeon, which means that there are a lot of Moles inside, but it isn't an infestation that endangers passersby or even that particularly dangerous to the average adventurer.

When we get a good distance away from the wagons trying to enter the town, Roxanne turns to us and strikes a pose.

"Alright! So it's time to test this!" She exclaims as she messes with the system, which we can't see.

She suddenly touches the ground with her finger, and a large carpet appears with a *poof*. It's dark red with lots of yellow geometric patterns, and it has a large, round, green stone near the edge with what seems to be a wooden bike handle coming out of the top.

"A flying carpet?" I let out a question reflexively.

She smiles proudly. "Mhmm. It's made with the new super-fast flying stone, and I'm dying to test it out! It can certainly carry three people, but it'll be slower than its max speed."

How rich are you? This request already pays a lot, and now you just pull out the expensive new hot thing everyone is talking about so casually.

Though I'm actually kind of concerned about the safety of this thing. Where are the seat belts...? I've now realized that Aladdin was an incredibly irresponsible guy.

I smile wryly and try to find an excuse, "Erm... How about this: I'll just ride Alissa since she can transform into a large fox. This way it'll be faster, right?"

Alissa immediately agrees with me as she eyes the carpet suspiciously, "Yes, master. My fox form is really fast, and it'll be more secure for all of us this way."

Is she concerned for my safety or did this carpet hurt her pride as a runner?

Roxanne adjusts her glasses and raises her eyebrow in surprise. "Oh, you can ride her? Well, that's fine by me since it's faster," she answers casually and jumps on the floating carpet. It looks as if it's as stiff as a stone floor. She grabs the handle and starts floating up as she shouts, "Then let's goo! Let's race!"

"Who~a, hold on, it might be dangerous," I try to calm her down.

Alissa's hand lands heavily on my shoulder. "No, Master, it's perfectly safe. It will be fine," she assures me, though I feel a little bit of aggressiveness in her tone. So, it really is a matter of pride.

I shrug and give up, then Alissa turns into a fox.

I grab her equipment and mount her, then I breathe in.

"Go," I breathe.

And we go. We go fast.

* * * * *

"I'm sorry, master. I got carried away," Alissa apologizes with a heartbreakingly sad tone as she looks down at me.

Indeed, you got carried away, but I'm not really mad since you won. Well, I can't say anything right now, I need to hold in my breakfast.

"It's... fine..." I manage to let out a weak groan.

It takes me a few minutes, but eventually, my stomach stops churning. I get up from the grass and see Roxanne trying to stifle a laugh. I try to be mad at her but she's such a happy-go-lucky woman I just can't.

"I'm fine now, let's keep moving," I order.

The trip that should have taken one or two hours was done in less than half an hour. The cost was my dignity as I had to spend a few minutes sprawled on the floor to hold myself back from puking.

When Alissa goes all out, the shaking of her body rises to unbearable levels, which shows how considerate she is of my well-being, and I'm really thankful for that.

The scenery has changed a little. We're on a slope at the border of a normal forest, not the Sea of Trees. The road we were on deviates south a bit to go around the Ant Hill, so we've just abandoned it. The normal-sized trees with a normal-sized canopy, the normal atmosphere, and the faint humidity all reminds me of the parks I went to on Earth. I'm not a nature guy, but it's actually pleasant here.

The Sea of Trees is a fantastical and often beautiful forest, but it's very oppressive and filled with memories of battle. I think soon this forest will also have bad memories, but at least I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I put my skills like this:

* * * * *

<B>['Wolf Ryder Skill Report']</B>

<B>['Physical']</B>

[Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level]

[Sword Use: 6+2 | Dodge: 2+4 | Parry: 1+5]

[Block: 2+6 | Shield Bash 0+1 | Mental Resistance: 8+0]

<B>['Magical']</B>

[Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level]

[Sense Mana: 0+2 | Mana Control: 0+3 | Mana Recovery: 3+0]

[ManaEfficiency: 2+0 | Reduced Mana Cost 2+0 | Fire Maigc: 4+0]

[Light Magic: 5+0 | Nature Magic: 5+0 | Blessing Magic: 10+0]

<B>['Miscellaneous']</B>

[Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level]

[Andraste Language 10+0 | Dismantling: 0+1]

OBS: Level means (free point)+(trained point)

* * * * *

I cast [Wind Armor] on all of us and [Sharp Blades] on my sword.

"Ooh, [Blessing Magic]. I knew you were a magic swordsman, but this is really good," Roxanne comments while inspecting her forearm for the faint magical breeze that the spell produces occasionally.

I smile gently at her, then I meditate to refill my mana.

Once I get up, I remember something. "Ah, Miss Roxanne, can we make a temporary fellowship? It'll be good for us to share Experience."

"Sure thing!" She responds cheerily.

I grab her delicate, pale hand and savor its softness, but Alissa's feels better.

Then we start moving.

The trees around here seem to grow in any direction they see fit, and their trunks are so thin and long that multiple trees huddle together in a sort of oversized bush. There's also too many actual bushes and too much tall grass, making traversal through here very annoying.

I pull out a spare short sword and use it to cut a path forward. It's fortunate my sword skill helps in cutting grass.

The cave entrance is not far away, and in a few dozen minutes, we're already touching the brown rock of the failed meteor, but just before we find the entrance, goblins get in our way. Alissa detects a group of three barely dressed goblins with crude wooden spears appear.

"Target practice," I whisper with an evil smile.

Alissa lets arrows fly, and two are already dead before the third even notices.

He actually gets scared and freezes on the spot at the sudden death of his companions, allowing Alissa to fire a perfect arrow towards his forehead.

"I can feel the difference," Alissa to me as she plays with her bow.

I put the six extra points she had on [Bow Use] just for this battle, so I'll put them back on [Mental Resistance] when we reach the cave.

"Impressive," Roxanne praises as we walk past the dead goblins.

Alissa looks away so I can't see her reaction, but I can still see her that tail swaying for a second.

Just a few more minutes, and we reach the entrance to the cave: a round, ten meters wide hole. Its size is rather impressive considering the moles are normally only one meter tall. Perhaps they dug it so wide so they could flood out of their caves more easily.

I pull out the spear with a torch tied at the blade. It's something we prepared beforehand.

Alissa lights the torch, and we start moving forward while I lazily wave the spear ahead of us.

Not even five meters inside the cave, a fire suddenly spreads through multiple lines in the air. We've hit the first transparent web.

It burns for a few seconds before fizzling out, then we keep moving.

As the natural light from the sun is left behind, we all cast [Spirit Light]. I imagine a white light, and this time it comes out just as I wished instead of the usual ghostly light blue.

Our progress in these tunnels is slow. Once in a while, Roxanne or I cast a small [Fireball], but the webs have quite a lot of space between them, so sometimes the spell just hits nothing.

It can barely be called a "net" or "web," though. It's made to imperceptibly cling to the body, adding layers upon layers the further the prey walks in, and when they notice the web, they're already deep inside the cave and partially wrapped.

The cave is an unending boring brown maze. The tunnels twisting and turning, they go up, down, and over. It's a chaotic mess without sense or rhyme. Maybe someone could make a random number generator just by analyzing this cave system.

The map is rather nightmarish to understand without 3D visualization. The tunnels end up in rooms that are either square or round, and there's no logic for their shape or location. The cave was just randomly dug in in random directions and rooms were randomly added in just to randomize the randomness further.

After half an hour of progress, Alissa suddenly stops me.

"Something is coming," she whispers sternly.

It must be a Tarantula.

I drop the spear and draw my sword, then I feel Roxanne start gathering mana behind me. This [Sense Mana] skill is quite interesting.

I start to hear the sound of something scurrying about, and the many nimble, small feet are coming directly towards us.

An arrow and a fireball fly ahead.

"HISHAAAA!" Then a hiss comes back.

Hard to believe a spider can make a sound like that.

I see something reflect ahead, then, a few moments later, a many-legged thing enters our light, and it comes flying towards me.

I steel myself and put my shield up, then I feel Roxanne release her spell.

Two things hit the shield and my view is covered by eight furry legs twitching wildly. I push back and immediately slash as a counter.

My sword breaks something hard, then cuts through something fleshy like butter, and I feel something wet and hot fall on me.

The Giant Tarantula is split into two, and I'm bathed in its inner fluids. It's a mix of some transparent, sticky substance with red blood. It's fucking disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgus-...

"[Clean]."

Oh, this feels nice...

It didn't have enough time to soak into my clothes, so everything just disappears in the blink of an eye. I'm better now.

"Thanks, Alissa..." I mumble with a weak voice, and she pats my shoulder in consolation.

"Are you okay now, master?" She asks concernedly.

I force a smile. "Yeah... I just fucking hate spiders..."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ryder, I understand your situation," Roxanne sympathizes.

You don't really need to apologize but it made me feel a little better, so it's okay.

This Tarantula is just half a meter tall, and it looks to be a young one, which means it's dumber. That's why it didn't even stop the charge even after receiving an arrow and a [Fireball] on its face.

I cut a fang as proof of extermination and pick up the flaming spear, then we move on.

* * * * *

"There's two waiting on the fork," Alissa cautions me.

Not a good idea to continue. Tarantulas are very nimble, so we have to deal with one at a time.

A simple scenario, so I come up with a simple plan, "We'll lure them out. Miss Roxanne, use [Torrent] on the one on the right and make sure you don't miss. I won't be able to keep both away if you do."

"Yes, sir! Don't worry, I have perfect aim with my magic," she confidently states and puts a closed fist over her heart. Considering she uses glasses, I'm nowhere near as confident as she is.

We move forward a little bit so we can see the fork ahead. The tunnel opens into a square room with two other tunnels at the end of it, so the spiders must be just around the corner if we can't see them.

Do they sleep? Do they hibernate or something? The book didn't talk about these things. I'll have to make noise so they understand we know they are hiding, then they'll either retreat or charge depending on how smart they are.

I throw a [Fireball] to clear any remaining webs nearby, and we move to around twenty meters from the fork, then I ask Alissa to get near the wall and a few arrows the furthest she can into the corner of the room ahead.

Three arrows hit the stone ground and break near where one spider should be.

We wait a few seconds, but nobody hears anything.

"Nothing?" I whisper to Alissa.

"Nothing," she responds in the same tone.

I throw a [Fireball] where the arrows hit and we wait... but again, nothing.

I grit my teeth in anger. "Well... FUCKING STUPID SPIDERS COME OUT YOU LITTLE SHITS!" I let out an outburst.

"Oh...! That did it!" Alissa exclaims and nocks an arrow.

Seriously? Whatever...

I pull up my shield and prepare.

Two, one-meter tall spiders come out of the fork and dash towards us with frightening speed. One charges towards me, and the other towards Roxanne.

Once they're a few meters away, Roxanne fires her magic.

The spider is hit in the face with a thick jet of water that pushes it all the way down the corridor until it crashes onto the wall of the fork ahead.

That was actually a really strong spell; I'll be surprised if it's unscathed. I little more power and it would've been an instant kill.

The other spider jumps towards me, and I remain immobile, just waiting for it to come.

An arrow whistles past my right ear just as the spider readies its fangs, and an arrow sinks into its mouth.

It's mid-flight and can't stop, but it starts writhing in pain, completely giving up on the attack.

The back of the arrow hits my shield and goes deeper into the spider but doesn't kill it, then its legs hit me and it pushes itself away from me.

I try to counter with a thrust, but it's too fast and my sword hits nothing. That's okay, though, as it's part of the plan.

I cast [Constricting Vines] at the spider far away who's writhing about on the floor. It's honestly the first time I have a good opportunity to use it because it's kind of hard to time it right. Green vines burst from the ground and wrap themselves around every limb of the Tarantula, keeping it secure to the floor.

This spell can be very useful, but it takes time to get a grip on the target, so most intelligent monsters are either strong enough to ignore the vines, like the Orc Headhunter or the Young Ogres, or it's smart enough to dodge it, leaving few situations where it's worthy of trying to combo a stun with this spell.

The remaining spider backs off as it realizes I'm too hard to kill and tries to circle around me to jump on Alissa.

Like hell I'm going to let you do that.

I jump forward and slash towards it, forcing it to retreat as it hisses at me, then another arrow pierces its face, taking out one of its many eyes.

"HIIIIII," it lets out a high-pitched scream in frustration.

I retreat back to the middle of the tunnel, and now I wait.

Roxanne releases a [Fireball] at the Tarantula, but the spell is too slow, so the spider jumps backward and dodges it. When it falls, it meets another arrow that pierces its mouth again.

Shit Alissa, that was good. I didn't even tell you to combo with the [Fireball].

I cast my own [Fireball] along with Roxanne's. The spider dodges one, but its leg gets burnt by the other, then another arrow hits it, though this time it hit the hard exoskeleton, so it only penetrates shallowly.

"SHAAA!" It screams and charges forward. Now it's angry and making a suicide charge, so I start preparing a [Fireball] in response.

I take the charge head-on, and I feel its two fangs hit the shield with power. It hurts my shoulder, but I stand my ground, then I open my shield and point the [Fireball] directly at its face. It has no way of dodging point-blank.

It lets out a disgusting high-pitched scream as it pushes itself away from me and rolls backward on the floor.

I feel the vines are dissipating, so we have to finish this now.

The burned spider stands up, but it's blind and writhing in pain, making it completely defenseless. Another arrow hits its mouth, and it starts to get dizzy, losing its balance.

I jump forward with a thrust, and my sword hits its head. I crush the exoskeleton and the blade enters the flesh, sinking deep into its brain, then it immediately goes limp. It's dead.

In the distance, the other spider comes charging. Two of its right legs seem to be broken, so it's lacking in balance and its charge is slow.