Lore/Story For The Wynn (17)

Spoiler: Mushroom Madness

‘No.’ The villager professor said. ‘If you really want to learn it, you should go to Grookwarts, pay your school fee and actually get a master to train you. You can’t randomly ask us to teach you something like that.’


‘Oh really.’ Hearolie countered. ‘Then how come I can use Escape without a master.’ A sigh of disappointment left his lips. ‘Honestly, if you don’t want to teach me, you can just tell me.’


‘That’s because it’s as natural as breathing for any archer from Fruma to do that, nothing to write home about.’ Stiba brushed off his protest as if it were nothing. ‘The basic four spells, depending on the recruit’s class, are progressively and naturally learned by those in the Fruma Province. As you grow and develop as a person, you’ll learn to use the other magic spells.’ He then pointed at all of them. ‘You four, for lack of a better term, “unlock” the four spells first, and will then strengthen them to their utmost power as you train hard and fight the corruption and any dark forces. The more you use, the better you perform with them.’


‘Eventually, you’ll learn to utilise their secondary effects. Take your assassin friend here.’ Ragon added and pointed at Skywalker. ‘Since you cast the Whirlwind instead of Spin Attack. That alone proves you’re a ninja and not an assassin, despite the two being very similar. The difference between the two lies in fine details of the secondary effects the spells the caster can cause. Using your first spell as an example, Spin Attack can freeze enemies hit by the attack in place for a second or two, whereas Whirlwind can allow the user to steal the positive effects of the opponent while cleaning himself or herself of all negative effects instantly. The positive effects only stay for around a minute though. You should know that though, but Fruma is famous for its amnesiac recruits.’


‘What about your Barrier Screen spell?’ Reygina asked Ragon, the scene played in her mind. ‘Or Reflect Shield? Are they part of the four?’


‘No, those are Wynnic Spells. That’s why you need proper education to learn how to use them. In fact, all the most common wynnic spells can be learned in whatever order and at any time in Grookwarts.’ Ragon answered. ‘While wynnic citizens can teach each other magicks, most accept our invitation each year without hesitation, no matter if they’re young or old. Grookwarts is the most well-renowned school of magic in Wynn after all, where some of the best education is given by the most intelligent professors in the province. Our well-respected scholars do research on different subjects, such as new spells, historical lore, weapon blacksmithing… These are a few prominent topics, the tip of the iceberg though.’


The three recruits were in awe, fascinated at such a place’s existence. Hearolie however, still wanted to learn something at the very moment badly.


‘Can you just demonstrate one of your spells?’ Hearolie asked Stiba as nicely as he can without sounding too excited. ‘I’ll master it on my own afterwards.’


‘Yeah right…’ Stiba gave in. ‘Fine. I’m only going to do it once. We’re supposed to make our return to Grookwarts hours ago.’

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Hearolie was struggling to control himself. He wanted to throw his bow at the ground, or maybe snap it in two. Although it would be quite a waste, since he only recently got Carvel's Sight during one of his solo lootruns for the group during his freetime. It was a good way to practice his skills and they needed the emeralds anyways. It isn't too dangerous since they usually do these in groups, and with the loot bonus potions they have learned from Localcolt, they can finish these lootruns faster than ever and with more and better loot every time.


‘Salted why!’ He mentally screamed, unsure what he did wrong. The hand movements, the incantations of the spell, his mind was focused on visualising on what the spell looks like.


‘They are all spot on… I don’t get it!’ He tried again frustratingly. ‘Piercing Arrow!’ The arrow once again disappointingly didn’t glow orange as he wanted it to. The arrow simply shot a zombie from the woods and didn’t shoot through and hit the one behind it.


Stiba let out a sigh, it’s been half a day already and still, he couldn’t do it even once. ‘Perhaps you aren’t ready.’


‘It’s a miracle he even got his second spell unlocked at this rate...’ He said to himself out loud, enough for the ninja who was observing him as well to hear. The archer heard what he said, he could feel his anger acting as a furnace boiling his blood. He most certainly wanted to give him a piece of his mind but decided if he could successfully perform the spell to shut him up, his reaction would be sweeter.


‘He saved our lives more than a few times, and he trains a lot by himself.’ Skywalker defended the archer. ‘He’s a really strong recruit.’


‘Oh really?’ Stiba snorted. ‘Well, he can’t fire arrows to save his life. If you need to pick a teammate, don’t pick him.’


Hearolie let out a frustrated cry that shook the heavens, scaring a few birds who took flight instantly. ‘I’ll be back in a bit.’


Skywalker pitted him and was thinking about walking with him. He was pulled back by Krisstal who placed her hand on his shoulder. ‘Let him be. There’s not much we can do for him now.’


The ninja sighed, seeing the archer walk away into the forest alone. The shadows of the trees merged with him.


‘Want to spar with me instead?’ Krisstal asked.


‘Yeah… I guess.’ The ninja apathetically replied. He cast one more look at where the archer was before he readied his sword.


‘He’ll be fine.’ She reassured him.


‘I know.’ Skywalker readied himself and did his battle stance. ‘I wanna try something might as well.’


‘What is it?’


‘Better control of Spin Attack.’ Skywalker stretched his joints.


‘Huh?’ A confused warrior looked at her.


‘When I use Spin Attack, my spell forms a circle of attack around me, let’s use a caravan wheel as a metaphor.’ Skywalker explained. ‘The wheels surround me, so what if instead, I can master the spell and control the axis of the wheel?’


‘Woah…’


‘Yeah, I’m not sure how else I could describe the idea.’ Skywalker scratched his head sheepishly. ‘Let’s say I’m horizontally in the air, with my head on the left and feet at the right, and if you were to try to strike my neck.’ He laid on the ground on his side to help illustrate it better for the warrior. ‘If Spin Attack is used vertically, it might not be able to protect my neck despite I’m using a spell at you, because you’re out of its range. However, if I can master it and use Spin Attack which is unleashed horizontally, although leaving my sides exposed, it gives my neck some sort of defense because it should, in theory, block a few attacks in front of me, in our example, your spear. If you then try to jab my midsection from above while my side is facing you, then unleashing Spin Attack laterally will protect me as well, like a loop around my waist instead of one from my head to my toes.’


‘That’s quite an eccentric idea…’ Krisstal commented.


‘Yeah, I got the idea from the siege of Detlas when I saw the numerous new spells. I wondered if I can’t learn those yet, could I modify the ones I know now. It’s not perfect, but I’m sure it’ll come in handy when the time comes. Maybe I can even make the attack revolve diagonally around me as well someday.’


‘Okay…’ Krisstal could understand the idea, it does sound… well sound for lack of a better word, but is that even possible? ‘How can I help you with that…’


‘Hmm… maybe move your spear like this.’ The ninja demonstrated the movements with his sword for the warrior to follow.

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‘Why can’t I do it…’ He kicked a small pebble on the dirt road.


‘Because you’re weak.’ A voice whispered in his head.


‘Am I?’ He tightened his fist. ‘The professor said it’s hard to perform. So it isn’t my fault.’


‘Pitiful.’ Another voice whispered. ‘Then you aren’t the strong and best archer here. That girl almost beat you.’


‘... thanks for the reminder.’ He could feel the disappointment swelling within him. Is he really that bad with the bow? But if his brother can do it, he can also do it.


‘I’m sorry.’ Someone different spoke, a voice that was all too familiar. That voice… His anger flared up. Nothing he said is genuine. None at all.


‘Shut up Rivalor!’ Without realizing, he had punched what he thought was just empty air. Instead, his fist hit someone square in the face.


He let out a gasp of horror, for he didn’t mean to do that. He wanted to apologise but what came out was instead. ‘You should look where you’re going.’ He mentally punched himself before helping the villager up, he was a strange fellow, being covered in mushrooms. There’s some in his pockets, between his fingers and toes; he could even see mushrooms growing on his skin, yet despite this, the stranger didn’t seem to even notice Hearolie.


‘Talking mushroom?’ The villager crawled on all four and approached Hearolie, examining him as if he were some sort of alien. ‘Is that you?’


Hearolie knew he should have run away; he had punched a maniac on the face. Or worse, maybe he caused him to be crazy by punching his face.


The crazy villager took note of his silence. ‘It’s me! Yahya? How could you forget me!’ He began throwing a tantrum. Hearolie decided to make a break for it but Yayha had already grabbed onto his leg.


‘Wait don’t go talking mushroom! You… you just hit me in the face.’ He looked behind him and saw red and brown mushrooms on the ground and freaked out. ‘See? See? See see see see! You killed them. How could you do that!’


‘Here’s Mooseshroom.’ Yahya cried, he cupped a red mushroom into his palms gently, stroking it as if it were a baby. His legs now clamping onto Hearolie’s feet. ‘That’s… Mooshroom! No, I’m so sorry.’


‘Had it been a criminal, I would have knocked him out…’ Hearolie facepalmed as he contemplated how to run away.


‘Hey hey! Do you have any mushrooms?’ Yayha had his dirty hands scratching against his chestplate. ‘You see, um... I am out of... red mushrooms. Yes. I need them. Mushrooms!’


‘No!’ He pushed Yayha off of him, but he nimbly balanced himself on all fours.


‘Ho ho ho ho. If I don’t get mushrooms, I would not have anything to serve.’ He quickly twisted his head around while talking to the archer. ‘Help me get mushrooms, or I’ll report to the guards!’


‘Fine… Now you stay here.’ Hearolie sighed with a breath of relief. Now’s his…


‘Oh?’ Yayha tilted his head as if hearing what the mushroom on his ring finger had to say to him. ‘Shall we?’ He looked at the mushrooms around his rags and body, every single one of them.

‘We decided to follow you…’ He looked back to where Hearolie once was, who he saw was sprinting down the road and preparing to escape through the treetops.


‘Well we can't have that can we. Mushboom?’ He whispered to one of the red mushrooms on his toes before quickly cutting a rope that was hidden from Hearolie’s view, which he had tied to a tree next to them.


Hearolie had got his bow out and saw an opening in the trees. He ducked as he saw a tiny branch flying in his direction. ‘That has to be Yayha’s doing, he can’t follow me if I’m on top of the trees. Hope H.I.M isn’t up there though.’


He quickly looked back to see Yayha standing there with a smile. Although dumbfounded, he paid no attention to him. He came to a halt when a load of mushrooms came pouring from above the trees, he lost his focus and stopped before he could cast his second spell.


‘Huh?’ The archer was too distracted to notice huge mushroom cultivated logs swinging down from both sides, sandwiching the archer in between. He yelled out painfully as he felt his insides still vibrating from the impact. The pain weakened him too much for him to move the logs away.


Yayha seemed unfazed as he approached the archer. ‘You won’t need this mushroom to help pick the mushrooms… Ho ho ho.’ He laughed madly as he took his bow and threw it away without a second thought, it sailed through the air and hit something. A curious Groot Golem found and picked it up, and at that point Hearolie knew he wouldn’t be able to get his bow back. ‘My Carvel's Sight…’ Trying to make fun of the moment to distract himself from the pain, he imagined the bow was fine with being tossed away because it didn’t want to be snapped in two by its owner.


‘Fine. What do you want…’ He desperately tried to buy time for himself to gather enough strength to push both logs outwards to free himself in one go. ‘What other booby traps were littered across the area.’


‘I want bowls, I mean mushbowls, no no. Ahh.’ Yayha grabbed his head and tears pooled in his eyes. ‘Ahh hahaha…’


‘This couldn’t get any worse…’ Hearolie thought to himself, as he caught a glimpse of a beehive near them. If bees could talk, they would be yelling at them to buzz off. A few of them even begin flying close to them, ready to sting them if needed. ‘Sting him, not me!’ He’s not sure whether being stung to death by hundreds of bees or being killed by a maniac is a worse fate. Maybe he could somehow convince the bees to think Yayha is there to steal their honey, he only needs his legs to run anyways. Perhaps if Yayha saw the beehive, he’ll panic and trigger the bees into attacking him. Perhaps he could scoop some of the honey that had dripped down from the hive with his fingers and fling it at the villager. If he could aim better, maybe at the ugly nose of his. That would be a funny story to tell the others, if he could get out of here that is. A few dead bees’ sacrifice is worth it to get out of here.


‘Umm beehive, look…’ A potion bottle cracked next to him before he could finish. Its content leaked a thick cloud of fumes that engulfed the trapped archer. He held on to his breath as best as he could, but with his hands locked in place due to the large tree logs, he knew he was either going to pass out from lack of air or the potion. The only thing escaping is his plans of escape from his mind. His body and mind went into overdrive, fighting for survival. He mentally slaps himself to stay awake in order to seize the chance to inhale as much oxygen as he could when the potion dissipated a bit more. His body failed him though, and his body won over his mind. He hastily took a quick puff of air, but it proved to be an erroneous move. His body quickly absorbed the gas as well as the air, and he began to hallucinate and got light headed, as if he had a night of heavy drinking. The spiders that nested on the tree branches were now no longer the familiar hairy creatures, but mushrooms of different size and variety. Hearolie wanted to point out how he’s having an out of body experience, but all that came out was a sheepish laugh and a swear before he passed out.

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‘Oh no… This is really bad…’ Suri murmured to himself. He made sure his calculations weren’t wrong and double checked his graphs. He could feel a lump of rock in his throat, but he had checked everything, thrice to be exact. Has it been this serious already?


‘Suri, everything alright?’ Ragon patted his shoulder. ‘Oh…’ He caught sight of the complicated equations and figures, he might not be an expert in mathematics, but he knew the answers Suri had calculated aren’t a good sign.


‘No. Everything's not alright…’ Suri replied. ‘We need to alert Ragni and Detlas of the situation, preferably the nearby small towns as well, like Maltic.’


Ragon signalled Stiba to come over to where they were, as Skywalker was about to land a strike with his blade at a wheezing Krisstal. The cure was making her feel better, but she was far from making a full recovery.


Reygina was reading some of the research the professor had brought with them, hunger to learn more about the elemental powers and effects. After receiving Suri’s permission, she scanned through the topics and found the one they had just learned more about: Elemental powders. The effects the powders have were intriguing, and if she wanted to try a few things out, there is no shortage of spiders nearby for experimentations. Her mind drifted where Hearolie is right now, she had no doubt he is perfectly capable of defending himself.


‘It’s not like a maniac lives here...’ She murmured to herself without realising.


‘You said something?’ Krisstal asked. She had walked over to where the mage was, hoping to not give Reygina any thoughts of being left out, even though she knew she was fine being alone. Still, she tried to involve Reygina in most of the things she did. It feels… right.


‘Oh… It’s nothing.’ Reygina carefully put the research paper back. The studies were quite fun to read. ‘You think he’ll be okay? What Stiba said to him… it really hurt him.’


Krisstal looked at the three professors now scratching their heads, with a concerned look on all of their faces. She could see Reygina and her calculations on the paper Suri was holding, her gut feeling told her mind that whatever they are disturbed about, it can’t be good news.


‘...When Hearolie came back, I hope he will have bought a few elemental powders back.’ Reygina broke her concentration from the professors. She racked her brain to recall what the mage was talking about mere moments ago. Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice her spacing out.


‘But what if the spiders start gaining elemental resistances if I do that… Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea?’


‘I think you can ask them; they’ll know what’s best.’ Krisstal shrugged. They walked towards the professors who were still muttering about something, unable to hide their distressful faces. Her gut feeling told her that something bad is about to happen...



‘Oh salted…’ Hearolie tried to make sense of his unfamiliar surroundings after being awake. His body felt as heavy as lead. With all the strength he could muster, he scanned his surroundings. Judging by how many mushrooms are laid scattered across the area, he knew this is Yahya’s hut without a second doubt, wherever it is. If he had to describe the feeling he is having right now, it was like his stomach and intestines were tied into knots. It was like a bomb continuously exploding in his head, with a dense fog surrounding in mind.


‘They glow the colours of the rainbow…’ He used his fingers to draw an arc in the air. His eyes twinkle like a kid in a candy store. He danced around the room as he slapped his cheeks occasionally. ‘A little crimson red there, a few bits of green here like the shade of fern, some shades of violet like the darkness.’


Hearolie was trying as hard as he could to focus on what he wanted to do, to escape this mad place. Yet his mind and body are like water and oil, while his mind wanted to get back to his friends as soon as possible, his body moved like a robot on auto pilot. It was like he was being possessed; a puppet controlled by invisible strings.


‘What’s up?’ Yayha placed his wrist next to his ear. ‘Ah! Ha! Yes… Yes… Perhaps...’ He turned at the confused archer who was leaning onto a chair to support himself. ‘The council of mushrooms have decided to tell you how you will help us get the bowl!’


‘Huh?’ He could barely comprehend speech given his hampered cognition and senses. Everything felt magnified tenfold, whether it is due to the candle lights or the noise that threatened to burst his eardrums.


‘The potion we threw at you causes mild paralysis and mind control.’ He pulled another potion from his pocket and shook it in front of the archer. Hearolie tried to move his arm to grab it but his hand just won’t respond to his command. It was like his body and spirit had been separated. ‘We’ll give you the antidote once you complete your quest! Hahaha.’ He dropped another mushroom onto his head.


Rage took over, giving Hearolie newfound strength. How dare he mocked him. The fury overpowered the paralysis briefly as he leapt up and punched Yahya hard before falling again. Yayha threw another potion and this time he was completely being controlled.

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Something bad, no, something hellish happened alright.


‘Queen of the Sp-Spiders?’ Skywalker cowered. He had already tried to avoid fighting them in the forest. Even after he slayed more than fifty spiders, their screeching hisses, their sticky webs, their hairy carcasses… these all still scared the wits out of him. Now there is a possibility that a spider queen exists…’


‘Unfortunately, it does seem so. At least a 90% possibility that a new queen has been selected already. These spiders are known to always behave like bees. Spiderlings are “tested” to see which is the strongest and most capable in defending her nests. The “winner” is known as the Arakadicus, who then matures and reproduces more spiderlings that grow into the adult spiders you see now.’


‘So… so. All of these spiders… came from just one spider queen?’ Reygina asked alarmingly. ‘What happens if there’s more than one queen?’


‘Thankfully, there was never such an incident. At least, not yet. And highly unlikely. For any Arakadicus sees any spider not under her control as a potential threat and will not hesitate to exterminate them personally in order to secure her title.’ Ragon said.


‘Because only female spiders lay eggs, the male spiders were only used for mating and nutrition for the spiderlings, and more or less live their whole lives in the nests, nests that are guarded so well even spells can’t penetrate through. It’s why the Arakadicus is never a male, and why male spiders are scarcely encountered, so we can’t control the spiders’ population by simply exterminating the males to prevent them from reproducing.’ Suri showed them some research about the spiders he had bought with him for the recruits to see.


‘Nor can we really kill all the spiders directly. Their nests consist of kilometers of chambers and tunnels in width, height and depth under the earth and some live above the trees. Historically, there have been cases when the nests were found, a large army and soldiers and mercenaries were sent to clear the nest. It did solve the spider overpopulation, but some definitely have hidden well enough to escape the extermination. It took some time, but a new queen was elected and the spiders began overpopulating again, so it wasn’t the most efficient way to tackle this. Plus, these extermination parties do cost a lot, in terms of emeralds and danger to lives which puts a dent in the economy, so those can't be done frequently.’ Stiba said matter-of-factly.


‘But believe or not, the spiders do help with the war effort. It might not seem like it, but the webs and spiders do slow advances of the corrupted. Being territorial, they attack anything near them with the exception of corrupted spiders. Corrupt beings are usually mindless, so they just walk into webs, or get mauled by the arachnids due to not avoiding them the slightest.’ Ragon took the papers back after all three had briefly read through them.


‘It’s why the forest was burned by Bak'al and his forces in 883 AP, they deem the spiders as an annoyance to their siege. It’s hard to imagine what Ragni will be like without the spiders’ indirect aid.’ Suri said.


‘However, despite that. This is one of those times when the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. The spiders are a threat nonetheless. A threat that must be dealt with now, before they grow even stronger thanks to the corruption spikes.’ As if to prove his point, Stiba sniped a spider that was far away without batting an eye. ‘We must be on our way and tell the nearby cities and towns of the situation. The soldiers will be on the lookout of their spider activity, in case they have expanded their home too close to them.’


The professors wished the recruits good luck on their journey. Skywalker nodded and shook hands with Ragon. ‘Safe travels professors.’


Suri gave Reygina who had impressed him with her potential a thumbs up. He then gave all three of them some words of encouragement. ‘And tell your archer friend to not give up. I know Professor Stiba could be a bit… cruel.’


Stiba simply waved his hand after putting out their campfire and didn’t even bother looking back. ‘Come on, we have a caravan to catch!’ The professors waited at the dirt road. A caravan soon appeared, and they boarded it, leaving the three recruits alone in the wilderness.


‘Maybe we can look around?’ Krisstal suggested. ‘I’m sure if we could help find the nest, it’ll make things easier for the people to exterminate the spiders later.’


‘Are you sure we want to do that?’ Skywalker asked. ‘I mean, the forest is indeed swarming with spiders. Not just the forest spiders, I also mean those with abilities as well.’ He hesitated a bit before adding how much he hated spiders.


‘We can just scan the area quickly, we survived in the forest this long already. If we spot anything out of the ordinary, we will immediately report it to the nearest guards. There’s some guarding the path along the forest.’


‘It will be fine.’ Krisstal grabbed his wrist, persuading him to join them. ‘I’m fine as well, Suri said the toxin should be neutralised by now.’


Skywalker dithered for a bit before declining the offer. When her hand left his skin, Krisstal felt dejected. ‘Did he not trust her to be well enough?’ She didn’t show it but said nothing and quickly regained her composure.


Reygina broke the silence to ease the awkwardness. ‘Hey, it’s okay. We won’t make you do something you don’t like. We know how much you loathe spiders, so it’s fine if you want to sit this one out.’


‘Yeah…’ Skywalker patted the warrior’s shoulder. He hoped it would be enough to convey his message; that he didn’t mean to give her any hard feelings for declining the offer. ‘Sorry.’


‘So, what will you be doing.’


‘I’ll be in Detlas training my swordsmanship. But what about Hearolie… Should I go find him first?’ He scanned the forest behind them, hoping to see even a silhouette that resembles a human. As much as he wanted to find him, he knew it’s unfeasible when given more thought into the idea. ‘But who knows where he is by now...’


‘It’s better if we leave him a note at the campsite.’ Krisstal patted his shoulder in return. ‘I’m sure he’ll be back safe and sound.’


‘Detlas?’ Reygina looked at the ninja. She tore a piece of paper from her notebook and began writing.


Skywalker felt his brain lagged a bit before understanding what the mage was asking. ‘Yeah. Tell him to head to Detlas.’

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‘You two take care, alright?’ Skywalker said as he hopped aboard the caravan.


Krisstal gave him a sad smile, but she tried her best to not make it obvious.


‘We’ll be back at Detlas around nightfall.’ Reygina waved.


‘Alright, see you soon!’ Skywalker waved as the caravan driver ordered the horses to move. He had sat down no sooner when he felt pain shot through his head, in particular his eyes. At first, he attempted to ignore it, thinking it would go away. It didn’t, and soon his whole body was experiencing the same excruciating pain, as if he was being cooked alive. He gripped the caravan handlebar so hard he thought it would be crushed under his grip. As he tried to prevent himself from collapsing onto the floor, his vision blurred and the world around him blackened.


When he opened his eyes, he saw he wasn’t in the caravan anymore. He was in a place full of crimson and corruption.


‘What the… Wasn’t I on the caravan?’ He thought to himself. Kneeling down on one knee, he recognised the red stuff as netherrack and the black stuff as corruption, the same material he found at the grave in the sewers and the corruption spikes in Nivla Woods. In front of him was a mansion, a massive one in fact. It easily triumphed over Ragni’s castle in terms of scale and size.



Floating orbs of lava surrounded the castle, defying all laws of physics and gravity. It was intimidating yet stunning at the same time, and Skywalker wasn’t sure which of them he is feeling now. Whoever owned this mansion in this strange place is no joke.


‘Hello? Anyone here?’ He looked up to see the sky in a constant gradient of grey, and a massive downpour of rain and thunder threatened to either give him a cold or overheat him. None of which Skywalker preferred.


There was no reply. ‘Actually, if there is someone speaking when I don’t see anyone, it would be even more scary.’ He murmured, not sure what he was expecting. He took off his jacket and used it as an umbrella, quickly sprinting across the only path leading to the mansion. It was made of an unusual blend of gravel, obsidian, netherrack and cobblestone. Skywalker knew architecture and design isn’t his strong subject, but he found this combination unpleasant. It gave him a sense of dread and nervousness like never before, in fact, those feelings never seem to go away no matter how many deep breaths he had taken to calm himself. He saw corruption spikes around the area so he tried to avoid them at all cost, although given the constant lightning strikes, he found that easier said than done. He found some unfamiliar crimson red blocks around the area scattering across the land like some sort of rash. He was attempting to touch it to inspect what it was, before his wet jacket sent droplets of water onto them. To his horror, said crimson substance began to dissolve into a red, thick liquid. Whatever this thing is, he didn’t want any more business with it. ‘That couldn’t be dried blood… Oh my salted.’ He immediately backed away, almost tripping on the stairs as he did so. like a mouse running for its life when it saw a cat.


‘Hello?’ He knocked on the massive front door. ‘Hello? Anyone there?’ Thinking no one heard him due to the downpour and thunder, he banged on the door with his feet as well. ‘I’m... lost’ He sort of is, stuck in an unfamiliar place with no clue if he could get out. A horrible idea struck him. What if he would never get out? What if he will never see his friends again? What if… The notion of being trapped here forever, all alone without nothing to interact with caused him to hyperventilate. The weather and environment made things worse for him. ‘Anyone? Please!’ He felt like crying, his mind was beginning to falter.


The sound of footsteps had gotten his hopes up, slowly the massive door opened bit by bit. Skywalker grinned from ear to ear. ‘Oh, thank you, thank you. Sorry to bother you…’


‘Ahh I know you; we meet again!’ Herobrine had the same grin on his face. ‘Welcome to my mansion.’


‘He-Herobrine?’ Skywalker leapt back and tried to defend himself with his weapon, only to find he had none. ‘Oh no…’ The purple sword, if he could even call that one, had its blades and handle consisted equally to a half of the entire thing. The purple blades were like two right-angled triangles with purplish pink energy zapping in between the gap. The crossguard looked like a black pickaxe with a cracked texture. It was like a giant two-legged fork.



Herobrine took out the new sword and he raised his hand at the ninja. Skywalker felt his body flew forward as if there was an invisible force sucking him in. Herobrine grabbed him by the neck and stared into his eyes. ‘You’re progressing nicely, keep it up!’ He smiled before stabbing him with the purple bladed weapon.


The world around him started to crumble and dissolve like the strange crimson block under the rain. ‘Wha…’ He passed out. ‘Do you…’ He never got to finish his sentence.


‘Hey!’


‘Is he okay?’


‘What’s the matter with him?’


‘Is he corrupted?’


‘Shush, don’t say that!’


‘Hey, I think he’s waking up!’


‘Huh!’ He immediately sat straight up. He was in the caravan again, this time seeing concerned passengers looking back at him.


‘Are you alright? Mister?’ A little boy asked, handling him his bottle of water.


‘Yeah… Yeah… I’m alright now, thanks.’ He held onto the nearby seat to pull himself up.


‘Son, i think it’s best if I take you to Detlas’s hospital.’ A man said. He was wearing a large grey coat and a hat. Skywalker wondered if he’s some sort of detective or something.


A brown-haired man with a green shirt questioned him. ‘Detective Gadget, are you sure you won’t be bothered? You do have a crime to investigate, don’t you?’


‘Indeed! Mr. Quinton, but I’m on my way to the barracks, so it’s no trouble at all, I’ll walk past the hospital anyways.’ Detective Gadget reassured. ‘What is your name son?’


The ninja slumped back into his empty seat. ‘S-Skywalker.’


‘Well, Skywalker. Don’t worry about the emeralds, it’s on me!’


‘You said you were on a case? Is it about HIM?’ Skywaker curiously asked. ‘Maybe Professor Ragon, Suri and Stiba had altered Detective Gadget to try to investigate them.’


‘No…’ Detective Gadget tried to hide his surprise, but the ninja could see right through it.


‘We’ll talk on the way.’ Skywalker said. ‘I’ll tell you everything you know!’


Acting uninterested, the detective shrugged. ‘Sure, it’ll help me out some day. I'm always on duty.’

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‘Well, there he goes. Do you…’ Reygina turned around to see the warrior feeling down. ‘What’s wrong? You can tell me.’


‘Do you think...’ Krisstal asked with a lingering unease, her eyes hadn’t left the now empty road. ‘No… Never mind, it’s nothing.’


‘It’s ok,’ Reygina gave Krisstal a quick hug from the side. ‘I'm certain he doesn’t mean that.’


Sighing, she finally thought to drop the thoughts in her head. ‘Yeah… Sorry. Where should we go?’


‘Ragni is in the west, go East and you reach Detlas.’ Reygina took out the map she had gotten from Ragni’s King. ‘We are now in the southern part of the forest. All that’s left we hadn’t been to is the northern part.’



‘It’s a good place to start…’ Krisstal looked at the map. ‘I’d say we can take a look for a few hours before calling it quits. It’ll be a great help for the soldiers if we can report where they don’t need to look, that’ll save them some resources and time.’


‘Sounds like a plan!’ Reygina smiled. The two girls headed towards the woods and began their search.


The sun was still high in the sky even after the hours flew by, and they had sat down on a nearby fallen tree log to rest after killing all the spiders nearby. Krisstal sweeped the log with her spear to check if there were any invisible spiders, who was still paranoid about the Stalker Spiders ever since she got bitten by one. As she sat down for a drink, a magnificent green bird soared across the trees. Its wings beat elegantly like a ballet dancing, where the sky is its stage. Despite stretching its wings as much as it can, and yet maintained its flight with great economy of motion as it glided through the air currents.


‘Woah… what’s that bird?’ Krisstal asked, astonished by the sight of the avian.


‘It’s a Nivlan Beauty, younglings.’ The girls turned around to see a Ragni Soldier standing behind them from a distance. Reygina let out a muffled gasp, she felt her stomach flipped when the soldier came out of nowhere.


‘Nivlan… Beauty?’ Krisstal looked at the newcomer. ‘It’s beautiful. I hadn’t seen one till now!’


‘You’re lucky. It’s very rare to see them nowadays as poachers have been hunting them to near extinction.’ The soldier replied. ‘Its beak, feathers and blood were used in a lot of things, from accessories to clothing. Ragni and Detlas have barred people from selling them by strict laws and punishments, but in other places and black markets, prices are as high as buying a house in a small town like Maltic.’


He then noticed Reygina and Krisstal who were still looking at him with a sense of wariness. ‘Oh where are my manners.’ He bowed his head. ‘I should have known sooner you two aren’t citizens of Ragni. I am Captain Enduyn of Theta squad.’ He showed them a grey badge with the word ‘Captain’ on it. Krisstal and Reygina knew that badge well, they’ve seen it a lot of times already since they first set foot in Ragni.


‘That’s a new colour.’ Reygina thought to herself as she observed the badge.


‘I won’t be surprised if you were thinking why you haven’t seen this coloured badge before. It’s a new squad formed after the siege of Detlas recently. We realised how devastating it would be if one of those larger raids happened again, so Ragni’s King formed this new team of soldiers. Thankfully, we have a lot more soldiers and it became much easier to form new squads since Fruma opened its gates, in addition to raids, swarms and sieges being rarer now, so our death rates are finally lower than the birth rates for the past century.


‘Swarms?’ Reygina wondered. She had never heard that before.


‘Raids, swarms and sieges are the same thing. Invasion of corrupted monsters or bandits, pirates and mercenaries. We usually classify them by their characteristics of invasions. Raids are areas affected in scattered, isolated areas that aren’t part of any town, city or village. Swarms are attacks on those said places, but the local army can handle it by themselves. The worst of all, sieges, is when it takes joined forces to combat the undead.’


‘That’s why it’s called the siege of Detlas…’ Krisstal nodded. ‘Speaking of which, why are you out here, Sir? It’s far from the main path.’


‘Sorry, it's a military operation. Can’t tell you.’ The captain replied sternly. ‘All I can say is take care of yourselves. It’s dangerous if you stray from the main path, or else…’


A scream pierced through the woods. ‘That happens, Shadow Clone.’ Enduyn took out his dagger as he stood still.


‘Where did he go…’ Krisstal looked around. Being familiar with this spell, she knew the ‘Captain Enduyn’ in front of them was nothing but a clone, so she wasn’t distracted by it.


‘Don’t know, but the scream came from that way.’ Reygina pointed to their northwest direction with her staff. ‘Let’s hurry! Someone needs help!’


They rushed through trees and bushes until they came across a large shadow on the ground in front of them, the screeching of numerous spiders surrounded them. Krisstal was about to charge forward when she was pulled back by the mage, who fired at the large shadow on the ground. The shadow began to move, and it wasn’t the trees’ shadow that Krisstal had originally thought, it was a massive spider horde that moved in unison. The screeching came from them, not what Krisstal originally thought were hidden Stalking Spiders. The Nesting Spiders sensed danger and let out a loud hiss, as nearby Forest Spiders appeared and attacked the girls. Krisstal used her Charge spell to knock the spiders away, whereas Reygina kept their health in top shape. Occasionally when too many spiders cornered them, Reygina would teleport both of them out of harm’s way, and Krisstal would coordinate perfectly by using Bash on their landing points. With a deafening screech, they looked to see the spiders joining together by using webs and interlocking their leg segments to bind themselves to one another. The spiders then joined together, some emerged from the nearby pond of water, others scaled down from trees infested with giant polka dot mushrooms.



‘Wh- What are they doing?’ Reygina panicked. She never read anything about the spiders being able to do this before, so she’s completely clueless what they’re facing.


‘Calm down!’ This time it’s Krisstal’s turn to pat the mage’s shoulder. With a tone brimming with strength and power. ‘We’ll learn as we engage it.’


Reygina took a deep breath and answered with the same confidence. ‘Right!’ The two girls now locked eyes with the giant creature made entirely of spiders that has taken the form of a massive tarantula.


The tarantula let out a high pitch screech as it began charging at them. Reygina teleported both of them after harm's way by moving upwards and over the tarantula. However, the spiders moved and changed their positions with their webs. As the humans had appeared above tarantula’s back, the Saw-tooth Spiders fired their fangs at them. Krisstal thought fast and used Charge, launching both her and Reygina out of the barrage of attacks. When they landed however, the tarantula shot webs at them, but they quickly hid behind the trees to take cover.


‘Reflect Shield or Barrier Screen would be so helpful right now…’ Krisstal cursed under her breath.


‘They got quite good teamwork.’ Reygina shouted as the spiders let out another horrifying scream, angry that they missed their prey. ‘And I hate to say it, but I don’t think we can fight it. Not like this.’


‘We’re running?’ Another jet of webs was blasted at the trees they were hiding behind, the trees and surrounding area were now covered in white, like a blanket of snow had fallen and buried the usual green.


‘What choice do we have.’ Reygina replied. ‘It can fire poisonous fangs and webs from literally all directions and on this scale.’ She carefully inspected her hair and back to make sure she wasn’t intagled by webs.’


‘Grr…’ The warrior gritted her teeth. She hated running away, doing so felt like avoiding problems rather than solving them. But she’s been through lots of battles to know better than to be reckless. The Decrepit Sewers, the siege of Detlas, the skirmish with Herobrine, even Skywalker’s close calls to being bitten by a zombie.


‘Sometimes you have to survive to win.’ Reygina's voice snapped her back to reality.


She was about to ask how they should escape from the tarantula when she saw one of its legs swiping sideways towards them from her right. Without a moment to lose, she used her Bash spell, and it caused the leg to split apart. The attack managed to break some of the webs that held the spiders together and as a result a section of the leg was separated. This caused the tarantula to lose its balance and slumped to the ground. And since the spiders have binded themselves together with string, they couldn’t separate themselves easily.


‘Ahh…’ Reygina observed. ‘We need to attack its legs before the spiders “regenerate” it, and before they use more webs to bind them stronger together.’


‘What do you propose then?’ She thought she had heard a soft cry of help but saw nothing surrounding them.


‘Your Bash and Charge spell should be able to smash through the legs, but we need to get in close enough. Once we get rid of the legs, we can run away.’


‘Yes! Finally, a plan.’ Krisstal eyed the tarantula menacingly but stopped when she could hear a muffled cry above them. ‘Gosh…’ She looked up at the trees and saw a cocooned woman and her child next to her above them. It wasn’t just them that were spider food though, there were a few more others nearby, stuck and dangled in midair.


Reygina looked at where she was looking and shrieked in horror. ‘Well, that explains why there were so many spiders here… They found prey.’


‘We can’t leave them here… but we can’t help them if we both go out there.’ Krisstal thought as she peeked from behind the trees. The unmistakable Nesting Spiders has let out the unmistakable SOS cry, meaning they will repair the tarantula’s leg and it will be mobile once again soon.


‘Reygina, since I’m the only one here who can unleash a greater force of impact, I’ll distract it!’ The warrior eyed the mage sternly. ‘You get them free, and if possible, ask for help. They’re likely to be bitten so time is of the essence.’


Reygina nodded and immediately sprang to action. ‘Careful not to get yourself stuck!’


‘You too! Anyone one of us gets incapacitated will likely mean the end.’ Krisstal shouted as she blocked a few fangs with her spear. She ran from the side and the tarantula set its eyes on her, and she leapt out of the harm’s way, occasionally using Charge to gain momentum and to dodge the webs sprayed at her. With a flip midair and positioning herself at the right angle, she smashed through one of the legs with the aid of her magicks. Losing its balance, the massive mob flumped. The spiders changed their formation yet again, this time the tarantula’s fangs were now made of Spinwarp Spiders just as the warrior had appeared in front of them. Krisstal felt butterflies in her stomach, Spinwarp Spiders shoot their poison like a water gun, and she could fathom what this monster is capable of. She made a last second decision to move upwards instead of charging in for one of its legs again. The tarantula blasted streams of poison at where she was. The poison corroded the wood and leaves and left a greenish smoke where the acid had evaporated, leaving only the few remaining thick branches and trunks still standing. Krisstal clipped her nose and felt tears forming from her eyes, resisting the burning sensation from the smoke. Despite her distance, her leather armour was slightly eroded by the attack.


‘I can’t let that monster turn the other way around. If the attack is used on Reygina and the people, they’ll be cooked alive...’ She winced in agony as she landed above the trees. The acidic poison had also dried and heated up the air near her, making it a pain to breathe. ‘Seven more legs… Wrecking the legs one by one would use too much of my mana… Or stamina… Ahh whatever…’ She scrutinized across the area, Reygina had half of the people safely on the ground, freeing them from their sticky bindings, no doubt working as fast as she could after witnessing the poison shot out like a geyser by the ginormous tarantula. Krisstal shouted as loud as she could, not only to signal for help from the soldiers patrolling the area, but also keeping the spiders distracted.


‘Come on… Think of something…’ She glared at the spiders who were ‘rebuilding’ the leg. She didn’t have the power nor speed to penetrate through more than… she believed two is the maximum number. In spite of that, testing her theory would be just as suicidal as well, for if she stayed too close or too long, the spiders would no doubt entrap her. ‘What would Skywalker do...’ Her mind drifted to where he is right now, he’s the best at being creative with how he uses his spells. Maybe she could do something similar with her own Bash spell, yet she couldn’t even visualise in what way the spell would be helpful.


A thick white adhesive was shot and stuck her chestplate with it, she immediately returned to reality at the realisation of her distractions. ‘Is this it? I’m sorry Reygina…’ She was pulled from the trees she was standing on, like a cod being fished out of its watery habitat. The spiders seemed eager to content themselves by having some fun on their prey, for they wanted revenge on this particular human for killing their kind just now by blasting them. The tarantula spun the warrior in the air like a cowboy, using the strand of web like a lasso. Higher and higher, faster and faster. Krisstal felt like an out-of-control fire rocket, in the air flying aimlessly till who knows when. The world around her spun and she felt her blood being pooled down into her lower body. Occasionally, she would wake up to brace herself when brushing against the treetops, destroying her leather armour more and more. Only to be pulled back up into the air, at one point, she thought being cocooned with zero velocity sounds like a more pleasant way to meet her demise than this.


‘Velocity…’ The world starts to become a dark ring again, thickening from the outside towards the center, like a tunnel. But her brain was functional enough to give her an idea. Her hands aren’t tied, so she could use her spear and spells. If maybe, just maybe, she could change her direction midair, like Skywalker had proposed. Perhaps… the speed she has now is more than powerful enough to destroy a whole row of the tarantula’s legs. With half of the legs missing, they will have more than enough time to escape. She couldn’t contain her smile at the brilliance of her plan. She isn’t going to just break though the legs, she’s about to be a sledgehammer that will decimate these pests. She felt herself making another descend, which couldn't have been a more perfect time to make her move. Nearing the corroded tree trunks now, she prayed to whatever deity there is that those corroded tree trunks are strong enough to alter her direction.


It was now or never. ‘Charge!’ She did the hand signs for the spell and made herself dive towards the trees. As if the gods had listened to her, the web coiled itself along one of the tree trunks and she knew the angle was perfect. She gripped her spear so hard that her fist paled, with all of her remaining mana, unleashed as many Charge spells as she could directly at the arachnid, the spear and spell sliced through the tarantula’s parts like butter. The spiders couldn’t even comprehend what was happening apart from screeching in horror. She was too fast, too strong. It was over for them.

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It was a small place built in an opening in the woods, hidden by trees and vegetation. Some people were harvesting on the small patches of farmland around the place. Hearolie wondered why they would settle here where the monsters were everywhere, they didn't even have any guard golems to defend themselves. He doubted more than twenty citizens live here, and most would likely move out to find themselves a new home in the bigger, more secure cities with their soldiers and tall walls.


‘This is the place where Bob trained in wand lore.’ At first, he thought there was some other village in Nivla, the whole decor and theme here looked... underwhelming in his mind is an understatement. He thought the whole place would be a bit more magical. Everything here looked plain and normal, the complete opposite of what he had imagined. The lifestyle, the buildings and even the attire was nothing but normal, the closest thing to something magical he saw was the villagers using their wands to aid in their daily task. The farmers were using some growth spell on their plants, the plants glowed green as any withering parts were healed, the sickly yellow was removed and replaced with a healthy shade of green.


He helplessly watched as he entered the only store in Nivla Village, which only sold necessities. ‘One bowl please.’ He spoke in a monotonous voice. Somehow, he made it to a village in the Nivla Woods in one piece. There wasn’t a terrible number of spiders thankfully, he felt as if like Lady Luck was with him during the whole trip.


The bowl merchant didn’t seem to notice. ‘Sorry we’re sold out.’ She shrugged. ‘We have our entire stock sold out since Detlas needs them urgently to treat the wounded, and a mushroom-obsessed villager bought the rest of them yesterday.’


‘I need a bowl, now!’ Hearolie slammed his fist onto the counter. The shop owner was taken back but quickly recomposed herself.


‘Another one…’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Sir please calm down. You’re disturbing the others.’


‘My mushroom friends need it, Miss. So give me,’ he went next to an armour stand. ‘A bowl now.’ Hearolie desperately tried to control himself, but to no avail. His hand automatically slammed the stand towards the ground, he even managed to dent the wooden floorboard a bit. He could feel dozens of eyes staring at him.


‘Sir, get out!’ She took out her wand that was hidden beneath the counter and pointed at the nuisance.


Hearolie reached his back when he realised his bow wasn't there. ‘Yayha must have forgotten he threw my weapon away in the first place. Thank salted I can return now.’


It felt weird to say the least. He could see, he could hear, he could feel but he isn’t able to give any response. His body was speaking in a voice that wasn’t his, movement that wasn't him to control.


‘What if I’m really cursed.’ His heart sank. First, he was almost beaten by Ryia, but perhaps she was much more experienced with archery, not more skilled. ‘Just more experienced. Just more experienced.’ He convinced himself. His mind then drifted to where he couldn’t learn Piercing Arrow. ‘But that was just me being inexperienced with the spell… I’m sure I’ll get it tomorrow.’ He tried to make it certain, but he couldn’t convince himself. Say if he can’t do it tomorrow, what’s the reason for that then? Then what about his humiliating escape from Yayha, he never saw that coming.‘Did Drale used some curse spell on me when he escaped?’ He remembered how the cow madman spoke of the devil - Peppered.


‘What is my attraction with madmans? Salted…’ He realised how many insane people he had met already since Ragni’s outskirts.


He came to a sudhalt that caused his thoughts to be pushed away. He knew he wasn’t far away from Nivla Village as the villagers’ gossip of various topics were relatively audible. Without realising, he began climbing one of the trees that grew taller than the rooftops.


‘What am I… is he up to now…’ The endless possibilities flashed in his mind regarding what is going to happen. Is he going to jump? Is he going to be stuck on a tree, however? Is there a spider that Yayha knows secretly waiting to feast on him? He saw his own hands moving on its own, scaling up the remaining distance using the tree’s vines. He landed gently on top of one of the building’s rooftops and laid there, his head focused on the merchant store.


Hearolie panicked at the realisation. He knew Yayha is insane, but he didn’t know he was crazy enough to rob a store, in his body, nonetheless. He was trapped in his own body, and if he was going to break into the store just for a bowl, he would be committing a felony. He would essentially become an outlaw, and Yayha would no doubt be long gone before the truth is revealed.

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‘That was amazing work.’ Captain Enduyn beamed. ‘My soldiers are escorting the citizens back as we speak.’ He looked at the scattered remains of the spiders. ‘I wish our squad could have come sooner but we are preoccupied with rescuing trapped citizens and guiding other citizens out of the area as you were fighting that… thing, the number of spiders didn’t help speed things up. My sincerest apologies for our inability to provide aid sooner, please take these as our apology.’ The soldier next to them presented them with new weapons and armour pieces that had a different colour from the leather ones they were wearing, they have a golden colour that shone brilliantly under the sunlight.


Krisstal was too drained to reply verbally, she simply smiled weakly and nodded. She let out yawn unintentionally and rested her head against the mage’s shoulder.


‘Hey, don’t worry about some of the spiders that got away.’ Reygina smiled and healed her again. ‘I don’t think they’ll want to mess with you. I knew you could do it.’


‘Yeah… thanks.’ Krisstal didn’t mean to sound bored or emotionless, but she didn’t have the energy to do so.


One of the soldiers who had helped clean the mess saw Krisstal and whispered something to her fellow soldier, who gasped and pointed at her. Another one clutched his head in shock and nod fiercely, which made the others squeal with excitement a bit. They nudged each other until one of them bravely stepped forward and approached her.


Krisstal weakly turned her head to see a soldier with visibly shaky legs, as if she would tumble with even the slightest breeze blowing on her. ‘Are you Krisstal? You know? The same one who Lieutenant Jenprest said defeated Witherhead, landed the finishing blow in the siege of Detlas against a Mama Zomble, and just now defeated an armada of spiders?’


‘Yes… Why…’ She honestly thought for a moment if there was something on her, or maybe some of the acidic poison had corroded more than just armour… She went red with the realisation she might not have covered herself properly.


‘Oh my salted! It is you!’ She turned and let out a small shriek. ‘Guys! It is her!’


Without having the time to mentally prepare herself, a few soldiers gathered around her. She could feel their eyes burning holes through her, at that moment she wished she had requested a blanket. It would at least give her some sort of barrier from them, even if it's made of fabric.


‘You’re amazing!’ One swooned.


Krisstal’s face went blank. ‘What? What’s going on? Am I naked or what?’


‘How did you manage to do that with just two spells?’


‘You saved my brother during that siege, thank you!’ Another one chirped.


‘You’ll defeat the Arakadicus, won’t you?’ The soldier who approached her first asked innocently.


The idea hit her like a ton of bricks. ‘That sounds impossible… I’m not that good…’ She scratched the back of her head.


‘Don’t be modest,’ another laughed. They all seemed to think her concern was a joke or just for the sake of downplaying her achievements. ‘You have survived that many battles through your power and skills! This will be a piece of cake for you.’


‘But I wasn’t trying to.’ Krisstal protested but nothing came out of her mouth, nothing but silence.


Someone gave her a thumbs up. ‘You can do it! We believe in you! You’ve done a lot to help the cities and soldiers before! You can do this again.’


Not wanting to disappoint her… supporters, she reluctantly agreed. ‘Sure, I’ll defeat the Arakadicus.’ Her response was met with a mess of cheering and shoulder pats. Deep down though, she wasn’t sure if she could. She never encountered an Arakadicus, but if it’s just another tarantula-like monster, she might be able to do so, having just defeated one herself just now.


Reygina let out a small laugh when she saw how popular the warrior is with the soldiers. She continued to observe from a distance until she saw something that made her insides flipped. It had hidden itself well, it was a miracle she could even notice it. ‘That’s… one… ugly… arachnid…’ It was larger than any spider they have seen so far and has a more segmented body than any other spider, as if wearing armour. Its appearance looked like a beetle and a forest spider fused together. Seeming to notice the humans spotted it, it did a one-eighty and made a run for it, the black body merged perfectly with the tree shadows.


Captain Enduyn and Krisstal looked at where she’s pointing. ‘Short, blunt spinnerets! Guard Spider. Quick after it!’ He used a Shadow Clone spell and rushed after it. A few nearby soldiers followed behind.


‘Should we…’ The mage lingered on, waiting for Krisstal’s suggestion.


‘Yeah. I’m good.’ Krisstal stretched her arms and got up. They quickly followed the captain after he reappeared in front of them, still chasing after the Guard Spider.


They were near the northern end of the woods when Captain Enduyn skidded to a halt. The gruesome spider has disappeared, and it would seem they have lost it. Captain Enduyn however wasn’t going to give up that easily. He instructed a few soldiers that have followed them to look around if there are any hiding spots that the spider might have crawled inside to hide.


‘Captain? What is the meaning of this!’ A soldier approached them looking disappointed. He had the same grey badge, but this time had the word ‘General’ on it. ‘Why did you abandon your post?’


‘Apologies Sir!’ Captain Enduyn saluted. ‘I left because I saw a Guard Spider.’


‘A Guard Spider?’ The general eyed suspiciously. ‘Are you sure it isn’t any other spider. We haven’t seen that for two years…’


‘I swear in the name of Bob.’ The Theta squad captain replied. ‘There’s no mistake. I saw it personally.’


The general looked at him dead seriously, contemplating the squad’s next move. ‘That’s good enough for me. Everyone, continue your search for the spider’s nest!’


‘Finding it will please the king.’ One of the soldiers said. The guard spider, chosen by the Arakadicus herself, will only appear near the spider nest. Its duty is to survey the surrounding area and report back to the Arakadicus.’


‘This place is near Mount Wynn…’ Another soldier added. ‘The heat generated from it must have made the underground here more hospitable for the spider queen.’



‘Mount Wynn.’ Krisstal murmured as she looked at the massive dormant volcano beside them, a path strayed into the heart of the volcano, but for what purpose could someone be sane enough to enter the volcano? Despite being at the foot of the volcano and separated by hundreds of meters of rock, she could feel the heat radiated from it, mixed with a strong scent of sulfur. Streams of lava overflowed from vents that connected with the magma chamber within the large mountain and melted anything in their path, freeing themselves through the sides of the volcano. Luckily, there isn't any stream that is close to their proximity thanks to smaller and shorter bedrock walls blocking the lava flow from heading south, or else the whole forest might have caught on fire.


‘I found something,’ Reygina shouted. The others hurried to where she was. ‘I think the guard spider went inside here.’ She pointed to a hole at the base of the trees, hidden almost perfectly by the leaves that were webbed to the entrance. Reygina was only able to find it by firing the ground nearby and realised these leaves in particular being stuck together. Upon closer inspection, webs had glued them together.


The general discussed with his troops before turning back and speaking to Krisstal and Reygina. ‘Great find, we think it’s worth taking a better look, but before that… Step aside please. I’m about to use a powerful spell.’ The girls darted away as the general to point his staff at the hole.


‘Chaos Sphere.’ Purple particles and light gathered from the base of his wand and travelled quickly to the top. A purple orb of energy formed at the tip before moving at a slow velocity towards its target. The unstable and destructive ball pulsated and got slightly larger every few seconds, energy made of purple particles got jetted out of it like little tentacles, before it caused a small explosion as it met its target.


Krisstal and Reygina felt ominous as they saw the attack, it was like watching a looming globe of death slowly making its way to whatever it was marked at. Nonetheless the general’s spell not only disturbed the hole, but it also destroyed the tree. No not just destroyed, more like disintegrated. The bark has been broken into pieces.


‘Anyone here has a torch?’ The general asked. Most of the soldiers shook their heads, until one of the soldiers took an unlit torch from his pouch and gave it to him. The general used a flint and steel to light it up and dropped the torch into the hole. The torch slowed its descent halfway as it hit the webs underneath, it burnt out before it could reach the bottom. If the webs aren’t evident enough to tell people the spider’s nest beneath them, then the thousands of spiders’ screech as one will.


‘This is the place alright…’ Captain Enduyn said. ‘We have to eliminate some of them first, before we can dig it up.’


‘Same as always then. You know the drill.’ The general replied and got all the attention of the soldiers present. ‘You were all trained for this. Operation Boiling Water.’


‘Yes Sir!’ The soldiers, including the captain.


Shovels and picks were distributed among them. ‘We have some digging to do. We’ll begin by making the hole bigger, in here, here, and over there.’


‘Sir? What’s with the digging?’ Krisstal asked the general who was busy guiding the soldiers where to position themselves.


‘We’ll have a better idea how deep down their nest is,’ replied the general. ‘And it’ll be easier for the lava to flow into the hole and burn those vermin.’


‘Lava?’ Reygina was shocked to learn what the operation is. ‘Won’t your Chaotic Sphere do the trick?’


‘Unlikely,’ said the general. ‘By far the easiest way would be with lava. Fire or magic seems to do nothing, we tried that for decades before, and it is unlikely that this will be an exception. In fact,’ he gave the girls a cross section of the map, indicating the lava streams and the volcano’s passageways inside. ‘We need someone to bore through the mountain's sides, in a controlled and pierced manner. It will guide the lava down and into the hole we would have finished digging.’


‘Sounds like a plan… We can help!’ Krisstal flexed her arm with confidence.


‘But our spells aren’t strong enough to blast through those thick rocks.’


‘Not strong enough? What spells do you have?’ The general seemed genuinely surprised.


Krisstal and Reygina replied they have only two spells and a basic. The general couldn’t hold back his amazement. ‘So, you defeated that tarantula-like behemoth with those spells alone? Truly astounding. Lord Salted blessed you two.’


The girls blushed at the compliment and thanked him. ‘Not to worry, I know someone who can help.’


He shouted a name, and one of the male soldiers came over. ‘Sir? Your orders?’ He asked, shovel still at hand. He looked young and seemed to be around their age.


‘You came back from Grookwarts, yes?’ The general asked.


‘Yes, sir. But it’s only my first year there, so I didn’t learn much in terms of practicality.’


‘Good! You can have some field practice now. I don’t care how you do it.’ He pointed to the volcano. ‘Help these girls crave a path for the lava to flow into the hole we’re digging.’


‘How do you want us to do it, Sir.’ The soldier gulped when he saw the flowing streams of lava on the hill, directed only by the rocks and gravity. But rejecting his mission would probably mean he will be tossed into one of those bubbling streams of foul liquid.


‘I don’t care how you do it. Just don’t cause an eruption, don’t burn anything apart from the vermin. And don’t make me file a report for your deaths.’ The general barked. ‘Dismissed.’


The three soldiers took their picks and shovels and began their ascent towards the nearest lava pool. The gases trying to escape them caused them to flinch on occasion, the wind thankfully wasn’t blowing the burning air at their faces.


‘So… you went to Grookwarts?’ Krisstal asked, striking some sort of conversation to distract herself from the heat.


‘Yeah…’ The soldier turned his head towards her. ‘Nice place actually, you can take many classes there and meet a lot of people. I’m most surprised by the school’s…’ He excused himself and coughed before continuing. ‘Headmaster.’


‘Headmaster? The strict and grouchy type?’ Krisstal asked. Reygina still seemed uncomfortable talking to the stranger, so she continued to try to guide the conversation in a lighter mood.


‘He’s a great teacher and a good friend, love his entrances and exits.’ He laughed. ‘They’re… the embodiment of magic. I mean, one time he had us guess what he looked like at my year’s opening ceremony. After we finished our drawings, the paintings talked to us as if it were real, his face moved and such. It was… sensational!’


‘Sounds like a cool person!’ They have arrived where they were needed.


‘Oh, very,’ The soldier agreed. ‘There’s literally no one as charismatic as him. I wish he won’t be retiring any time soon.’


‘Heard of Professor Ragon, Stiba or Suri before?’


‘No… I don’t think I have seen them, nor heard of them for that matter. Who are they?’


As the two were getting along, Reygina was surveying the surrounding area, deducing the best path they should make. ‘We each begin at these three different places and meet up as we move up.’ Reygina explained as Krisstal and the soldier headed to their respective points and began to work.


‘Nice work.’ He gave her a thumbs up, to which Reygina smiled in return. ‘Hey you two!’ The soldier looked back and with a salute before his figure disappeared from their line of sight. ‘For The Wynn!’


‘We better get started…’


‘You know? Funny how you had no problem talking to the professors and us.’ Krisstal giggled. ‘But you always kept quiet at the beginning when meeting strangers.’


‘I’m… working on that.’ Reygina looked at the soldier making his way down to the bottom of the volcano. She hoped she didn’t come out as ungrateful or rude for the soldier, she did only give the necessary responses, and no more than what she needed to.


‘And I know what you’re thinking.’ Reygina saw the hole the soldiers below have dug got bigger and deeper, they better do their part as well. ‘Your life was at stake, so I guess any form of communication helps when Professor Suri and Ragon arrive, even if I’m forced to break out of my comfort zone.’


‘I know, thanks.’ She gave the mage a high five before climbing down the volcano for her assignment.


By the time they had converged and lined up their channels, the three were beat. Reygina occasionally teleported down to the main excavation site for multiple refills during the hours of mining and digging, as they had emptied their water bottles many, many times.


‘Looks good!’ The general walked up to them after inspecting their work. ‘Our part is done, as you can see.’ He pointed to where a massive hole was dug. Time after time, the group were attacked by the spiders that came out of the pit, but they handled every single assault effectively and swiftly. The sight of Young Forest Spiders was proof that a new generation is being reared, and some soldiers even reported the sight of unhatched eggs by the number of thousands. They could even see the cocooned adventurers and defeated soldiers lay everywhere. The abhorrent spell was even worse than the metallic and sulfuric taste of lava.


‘Let’s burn these spiders…’ He grumbled. ‘You three, blast this last boulder!’


The three soldiers aimed their spells at the boulder, and it exploded, clearing the path the lava needed to flow. The molten liquid creeps slowly towards the hole, sizzling the webs upon contact. The cries of a nest full of spiders echoed from within, with webs sizzling into nothingness. The lava heated up the air within the nest and caused a small outburst of dirt, stone and gravel on the surface, whereas smoke erupted from beneath. The lava had burned the webs that once secured the nest’s walls strongly and opened up a pathway directly into the spider’s nest. The whole team watched as thousands of spiders scurried across the nest.


‘Can you… hear them… whispering?’ A sinister voice reverberated from within. It was muffled and barely audible, but it was clear enough for Reygina and Krisstal to know it is anything but human. There were hisses and screeches mixed in that.


‘General Coppe! It’s the Ara… Arakadi... dicus…’ One of them stuttered, she was as pale as a sheet of paper.


While everyone was paralysed with fear, only the general seemed to have maintained his composure. ‘Quickly, we must report this to the King as soon as possible.’ General Coppe grabbed everyone’s attention by firing a Chaos Sphere at the cave. The cackling orb made a small explosion on the nest’s roof. ‘All of you, have done a great service for your city! We shall make haste to return to base.’


The mage glanced at the soldier who they have worked together, hesitantly debating whether she should ask him or not. Theta team left the area one by one, their backs turned against them as they went into the woods to wherever their base was.


She made up her mind after a moment and sprinted, catching the soldier by surprise. ‘Grookwarts… How do we apply for it?’ Reygina asked the soldier. ‘I’m… Rey… Reygina by the way.’ She wanted to hide so badly after getting the answer.


‘Part of the fun is the application.’ He clapped his hands together. ‘It’s sort of a test actually. I’ll give you this though, you must each find a magical item. How you interpret it is up to you, as long as it's magical.’


‘Huh… Something magical…’ Reygina thought to herself. ‘What did you find?’


‘Don’t remember.’ The soldier replied. ‘Somehow I forgot what item I have found. All I remember is saying something and then the next thing I knew, a parrot flew in my home with the application form in its beak. I filled it in and then it flew away with my form, days later I got the school’s invitation letter, saying that I was accepted!’


‘I see. Thanks. Congratulations.’ Reygina replied, desperately thinking what else to say. ‘I’m Reygina. Oh wait.’ She buried her face in her hands. Why did she say her name again? She felt so stupid.


The soldier let out a small laugh which made Reygina blushed even harder. ‘Sorry, sorry. You’re funny! I’m Louis.’ He nodded his head. ‘Nice to meet you!’


‘Uhh…’ Reygina replied, still mentally beating herself up for the awkwardness. ‘Same… I guess. Thanks.’


‘Yeah well, I got to go!’ Louis packed his tools and made his way into the forest like the others. ‘Good luck with your application.’


Reygina stood as if she were one of the trees of Nivla Woods. Gosh she felt dumb for ruining such a minor interaction, what would he think of her now… Maybe people will think she’s crazy, a recently escaped patient from a psychiatric hospital.


‘Let’s just get out of here…’ She began walking towards the woods, expecting a reply from the more sociable soldier. None ever returned.


‘Krisstal?’ She quickly looked around but saw nothing. Could she have gone back with the others? No… Impossible. She wouldn’t have left her alone in the woods like that. She has to be somewhere. She decided to call her out again, this time louder. ‘Krisstal?’ Her voice pierced through the silence. She tried not to think of the worse, trying her best to bottle up her fears. But there could be that small possibility…


‘I’m in here.’ A faint reply came. The mage quickly ran towards the direction and found herself back at the dreaded cave. Foul. Revolting… Nothing but the darkness and corpses stared back at her, the spiders had long retreated back further inside their nest. If they were to face the Arakadicus, they would need to enter their nest and find her. She wondered what lies inside the nest, apart from spiders.


The warrior seemed to have entered the nest by herself, and Reygina desperately tried to pull her back. ‘What are you doing here, we should go.’


‘No…’ Krisstal stated. She edged ever so slowly deeper into the nest despite the mage’s protest. The lava provided just enough light for them to see the scale of the cave. It was… twice as large as the Groot Golem’s, despite them being significantly larger than the vermin.


‘No? Why?’ Reygina shifted from foot to foot, her eyes pensive.


‘It’s just that…’ Krisstal began as she took another step forward despite the resistance. ‘I want to do more.’


‘But you already did!’ The mage begged. ‘You helped kill the spiders and found their nest.’ She tried to persuade the warrior otherwise, she had a vague idea why she’s doing this. ‘You helped a lot!’


‘Yeah but… Could I do more?’ She finally replied. ‘Maybe I’m good at defeating monsters! I should try to see how far I can go!’


‘Yeah but…’ Reygina paused, trying to think what else to say to convince her otherwise. ‘I don’t think a nest is the best idea to try out your powers.’


‘Yeah but…’ She poked the ground with her spear. ‘They believed in me, they said I could do it… That I could help.’


Impulsiveness took over as she slammed her spear on the ground. ‘Don’t you trust me?’ She covered her mouth after releasing what she had said. Regret injected into her system, as she wished she could have taken it back.


Reygina took a few steps back and had let go of her. ‘Krisstal…’ Shock and disbelief washed over her. ‘You know that’s not true…’


Krisstal buried her head in her hands. ‘Just let me do this, please. I promised them. I want to help them.’


‘Okay… But we’re leaving at the first sign of trouble.’ Reygina surrendered. Once her mind was made up, it became impossible to convince her otherwise. Her will is like an immovable object.


Krisstal noted as the two girls ventured deeper into the cave, using the lava nearby to see where they’re going. The path was only dimly lit from that only source of light and very narrow, which reminded Krisstal the sewers she ventured in previously, the major difference is that water is now lava and the moss replaced by webs. The path they were on started to taper off into another caravan ahead, and the lava had flowed away from them, presumably into one of the spiders’ chambers.


‘The webs are soaked for whatever reason.’ Krisstal remarked as she pulled the webs away from her exposed skin. She thought there were spiders above the ceiling but realised it was only some old webbings that have dissolved and fell onto them. She felt a bit saddened when she didn’t get a reply, had she gone too far?


Reygina remained silent as her mind was focused on wondering what the queen of spiders will be like. She was still taken back from what the warrior told her, and although she knew Krisstal also didn’t mean what she said seriously, it still shocked her a bit. She would be lying to herself if she says it doesn’t hurt. Talking was really not her strong suit, and sometimes she wished she could be like Hearolie, who didn’t give a care and just say what he likes without any regard. She personally preferred to avoid taking sides and hoped the whole thing would blow over on its own, since usually trivial things were the spark for the groups’ heated arguments.


They had reached the end of the path and could see spiders at the caravan’s entrance. ‘Guard Spiders at twelve o’clock.’ She said as she shuddered when she felt something wet wrapped around her ankle. She looked down to see it was a small ball of webs, and thankfully it was just webs. She picked up the wet and disgusting thing before tossing it at the side of the path. It fell deeper into the nest below and swallowed by plain darkness on both sides of the path where the lava couldn’t illuminate. Falling off the path would probably be the end of their little adventure. They were too far from either side of the walls to grab a hold of anything if they did fall left or right. Even if they used all their mana they had to use as many movement spells as possible they could muster, it still won’t cover the distance required. It made Reygina realize Professor Stiba wasn’t kidding when he said the nests can reach kilometers, despite the ones who made these are animals only the size of a human forearm in comparison.


‘Come to think of it. Could we have been near the nest when we were looking around in the old cow passage? We did hear spiders after all.’ Reygina thought, and her mind slightly drifted to where the ninja and archer were. Hopefully, the boys won’t need to worry for too long…


They locked eyes with the Guard Spiders who proceeded to attack the threats to their nest. Their ‘armour’ proved to be resistant to the human’s basic attacks, but they were defeated quickly, nonetheless. When they entered the cavern, they were not prepared for what’s to come.

 

Continued here due to my post exceeding the character limit.
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It took me multiple attempts to think how I want to tackle this chapter, in fact, this chapter is really a bit difficult when I try to handle both concepts, I created to mix well with the Wynncraft ones, but to start, thank you the team in Wynntils for providing the map, its high resolution and quality is something I struggled to find for the past year, as when I recently gave the map a try, it was amazing. Love the mods for enhancing the experience. The Herobrine Mansion Map belongs to HYPIXEL and XIANTIS, and I’m sure I don’t need to praise how spectacular their work is. To make the theme fit however, I used World Edit and modified the landscape, it took some time to learn those commands, so this chapter took a lot longer than I thought. I’d say it again, the story and main characters belong to me and I do not claim ownership of what isn’t mine. This is a fanfiction in the end with a mix of my own twists and turns.

Thank you to every officer, admin, builder and others who created and developed Wynncraft. Do share important information about Wynncraft, such as easter eggs and timelines or even 'wynn'consistencies. As the information will help me improve my story greatly. Thank you once again for reading until the end. I do not own anything except this story. If you are interested, I could add your player characters as characters in my story, just send me your name and a screenshot of your character (with or without gear) in wynncraft, preferably your front, side and back. It would be a bonus if you can list out the names of your gear and mount. Feel free to talk to me about things not related to Wynncraft as well, I would never mind changing topic anyways. Thank you all and may the force be with you. This is an unofficial story made only by myself and everything here is based on either what's currently in the game or my interpretation of what's currently in the game. Hypixel weapons belong to Hypixel. I only own the main characters and this story only.

Other sources:
Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/699806539-for-the-wynn-king's-recruit-part-1
Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12951945/1/For-The-Wynn
Archives of our own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14778395/chapters/42299039

Thank you

 

Dude this wall of text lmao

 

Lol yeah, I know it's a lot. Originally I was wondering should I leave some for the next chapter but decided against it. This took several attempts for me to find a version I think is decent.