Sasha sighed. "Okay, I'm ready. Got my spear and everything..." She said, hefting the weapon in question awkwardly.
"Mmm. Let us get it over vith, yez?" Maxim agreed, holding his own, while Miria and Jack looked at each other and grinned.
"Well don't sound too enthusiastic about it." Jack said, turning to Miria, and the two of them led their reluctant students out into the woods. "So, the idea is simple. Miria draws aggro and pins it, and then one of you walks up and kills the thing. You got it?"
They nod hesitantly. "Seems zimple enough." Maxim replied, and they waited with Jack as Miria advanced a little ways into the underbrush and hurled a rock at a waiting saproling. It rushed her with a low growl, and she danced back, cutting at it with her spear, before rushing in and using her claws to pin it's thrashing form to the ground.
"Alright, Sasha, you first." Miria said, beckoning, and the women swallowed and nodded, before stepping up and finishing the creature off with a couple clumsy thrusts of her spear. "There we go! That's it, very good. Maxim, you'll be up next, just give me a second to go get another one for you." She said, and he sighed and prepared his weapon.
"Uhm. So, uh. I got another new spell. Again, nothing too fancy, but maybe Sarah can do something with it?" Joey said awkwardly, before sharing it's description.
Sarah whistled. "Oh, I sure bet I can. Another one I can learn immediately and make use of. Damn, this one has a bunch of useful energy manipulation references, too..." She frowned. "Shit, I can totally fuck up guns with this, can't I? Well damn. How bout that."
Claire raised her eyebrows. "...Really? Like, just prevent them from working at all?"
Sarah nodded. "Exactly. One little spell, and whoops, gun don't shoot until the spell wears off."
"...Hey, I did it! *Finally*." Claire groaned, laying back on the grass. "Fuck me though, that was way harder than when I learn my spells naturally. I'll see if I can get more the normal way." She said, admiring her newly acquired spell.
Sarah grinned. "So, you're saying you don't want me to start making variants on that spell for sensing plants?"
Claire whined. "Ugggghhhh. I dunno, maybe. You make spells pretty easy... Maybe see what you can come up with, and I'll decide if I want them or not...?" She said, looking up at her. "If it's too much trouble you can just skip them, you have plenty of other stuff to work on."
Sarah shrugged. "Eh, as you said, making spells is dead easy for me. I have a bunch of ideas. Also think I can make a spell to detect essence directly? Not sure exactly how useful that will be, but it's worth a shot."
Claire tilted her head. "You're gonna run out of spell slots eventually, aren't you?" She said, and Sarah shrugged again.
"Maybe, but I have a feeling I can find a way around that. Write a spellbook to keep them in, maybe? I'll tackle that eventually."
Alice growled at Miria. "Yeah, yeah, I know! Of course I'll be careful. C'mon, I've got my short sword and the shield Jack and Maxim made me, I'll be careful."
Zach sighed next to her. "...Maybe if me and Janet went with her? I've been meaning to try my hand at scouting. And between the three of us, we have a decent chunk of combat power. I think we'll be safe." He said, looking over at Janet, and she nodded.
"Yeah, I think we can handle it. So long as *somebody* listens to us, yeah?" The catgirl said, looking pointedly at Alice.
"Yeah, I got it." She huffs out. "No shenanigans, promise!"
Miria walked up to where Maxim stood by a large smoking pit, currently shoveling dirt over it. "Ah, hey! I heard you were making charcoal - is this it?" She asked, and Maxim nodded.
"Yez. I have done several pits already. It iz hard to get high quality charcoal, but ve are at least making lots of lower grade biochar - the latrines shouldn't smell at all now." He said, finishing a layer of dirt. "I got a skill for it too, and one for metalworking." He said, throwing them up for her to look at. "Zo I am making progress there too."
He gestured over to the side, where he had a setup for chopping and stacking firewood. "Unvortunately, ve have not had time enough for the wood to season, so I am limited in what I can do with it. But I am working with it as best I can. I asked Joey if he had anything to help and he said he did not, but that he vould get back to me if he got any spells that would help me. Maybe I should ask Sarah, too...""
Janet and Zach followed along as Alice crept through the forest, carefully sniffing her way. "Hmm. Yeah, I can smell em in the distance, but it doesn't seem any of them explored very far out from their camp at all, huh? Buncha cowards." She said. "Anyway, here's the first of those houses you looted, I think. Still don't smell anything unusual..."
Janet stepped forwards. "Doesn't mean nothings there. Let me go first, I'll check the place over. You and Zach follow behind me and keep watch, yeah?" She said.
Alice sighed, but nodded, standing by with Zach whole Janet slowly crept forwards, circling the house. "Hmm. Don't see anything, or hear anything, or smell anything... But it's quiet. Too quiet." She said, meeting them again by the door. Alice groaned, but Janet quelled her with a look. "Hey, I know it sounds silly, and if it turns out there's nothing here you can make fun of me on our way back, yeah? But for now lets play it safe." She said, and the wolfgirl sighed and nodded again.
Slowly, Janet stepped up and opened the door, peering into the house, and then slowly slipped inside - only to fling herself backwards, rolling to her feet and backing away as a spider the size of a small dog dropped from the ceiling above the door and tried to snare her. Dozens more came out following it, the house erupting in chitinous forms and angry screeches. "Shit, back, back!" Janet said, as the spiders tried to encircle them. Her spear arced out, cutting one of them down, while Zach's body shone in red gold light as he followed suit, both of them striking down spiders as they tried to retreat.
[Woodland Arachnus, Level 3]
Nevertheless, the spiders were able to get behind them and begin cutting off their line of retreat. Alice joined the fray, her short sword cutting down spiders until the smaller ones pulled back. A couple of larger ones charged them, one throwing a lasso of silk to snag Zach's weapon and try and pull it from his arms, but he fought back, gritting his teeth and holding onto it, until Alice darted forwards and cut the offending spiders limbs off, then retreated as the smaller spiders attempted to catch her out, cutting several more of them down in the process.
[Woodland Arachnus, Level 4]
All the while, Janet was a whirlwind, cutting down spiders left and right, dodging the one that tried to throw a net at her, before screaming a war cry and charging it, thrusting her spear at it as it desperately dodged, until she finally brought it down. The rest of the spiders took that as their cue to flee into the woods, leaving the party behind.
"Shit, everyone okay?" Janet said, catching her breath and looking herself over.
"Peachy." Alice said, looking up at Zach, who nodded.
"I'm fine. What the hell was that?" He said, looking around, while Alice shivered.
"Spiders. Yuck!" She said, spitting in disgust.
Janet shook her head. "Worse than that. Intelligent spiders. They had a lot of tricks - lassos, nets, an ambush, they knew how to retreat, and they were doing something to hide their scent. This is real bad news." She says, cautiously stepping forwards to peer into the house, then pulling back. "We'd better return to Miria and report it immediately."
Oh yeah, there's a spider mom about.
"Shit, I can totally f*ck up guns with this, can't I? Well damn. How bout that."
Claire raised her eyebrows. "...Really? Like, just prevent them from working at all?"
Sarah nodded. "Exactly. One little spell, and whoops, gun don't shoot until the spell wears off."
But of course! Why wouldn’t a spell that suppresses fires and sparks stop *firearms*?
technically, it prevents REignition and it's not a fire but a detonation that happens in a firearm so technically, let me emphasize, technically, it wouldn't stop a firearm.
@tekknotrain I might need to reword it then... Any suggestions? Maybe just say it prevents combustion?
@DrStrangeLover stops all combustion from happening would be a good way of saying it yeah
Merry Cristmast!!
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the chapter. I just realized that they haven't set a night watch schedule.
backing away as a spider the size of a small dog dropped from the ceiling above the door and tried to snare her.
Ok scary sure, but that is good food right there, roast the legs like a crab and it will taste the same as crab meat.
The problem with people using spiders are food irl is that they always grind up the exoskeleton to include in the eaten part and that ground exoskeleton ruins the flavor of the meat so having dog-sized spiders would remove the need to grind it into a powder since the legs are big enough to roast whole.
I mean, I assume when eating bugs IRL you pretty much have to grind the whole thing up, digestive system and all, right? Unless you're willing to pay through the nose to have somebody hand disassemble the damn things. :/
@DrStrangeLover well yeah which is why bugs irl are gross except for larger bugs like crab and lobster which are widely enjoyed.
should ask Sarah, too...""
Extra quotation mark.
Merci pour ce chapitre !
Merry Chrysler and tftc :) Love the Story so far!