Seeds of Discordia

Blair swung her great axe horizontally into a skeleton causing it to collide into the two next to it. Avery, Liam and Roman rushed in and struck as fast as they could with their weapons before the creatures could retaliate.

As the three creatures swung their arms out wildly, Avery, Liam and Roman jumped back to dodge. As they got out of the way an arrow whizzed by and struck one of the skeletons on the side of the face making it crumble. Artem rushed in and bashed his shield against one and his mace against the other, destroying them.

“That was the last one, right?” Blair inquired as she breathed heavily and looked around.

“Yeah,” Liam responded after scanning the area.

“What’s with these groups?” Artem asked. “That was the fourth big group we came across. I thought packs only held four at a time.”

“Who knows, but its great practice,” Blair stated. “I feel like I’m getting used to this weapon a bit more with each of these groups.”

“That’s good and all, but you’re going to need better targets than skeletons,” Mercer commented as he grabbed the arrows that were able to be used again from the ground around the felled skeletons.

Liam walked to each group and harvested them for materials as Avery asked, “Speaking of which, why have there been only skeletons. I thought there’d be more than that.”

“I’m not too sure,” Mercer said as a bit of annoyance flashed over his face.

“Hey guys come check this out,” Roman replied as he looked around the corner.

“What do you see?” Aryana asked with curiosity.

The group walked over and saw the corridor opened into a giant dark room.

“I wonder what’s in there,” Roman said as he peered in trying to make anything out.

“Nothing good that’s for sure,” Artem stated as he shook his head. “Nothing is ever good from a dark and ominous room.”

“Oh Artem,” Aryana started as she gave him a playful smile. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“Not here,” Artem flatly said.

Liam started walking into the dark room without saying.

Artem reached for him and called out, “What are you doing?”

Liam stopped and looked at him. “In video games rooms like this usually lights up when you walk in them.” A devious grin slowly formed as he added, “A strong monster usually appears in them too.”

“Don’t say that,” Artem groaned as he paled a little.

Aryana let out a laugh as she remarked, “You’re so mean Liam.”

Liam kept his smile as he turned and took another step in. as his foot hit the ground light stones started lighting up revealing the contents of the room.

It was an old room with walls and floors paved with stone bricks. The expanse of the room felt like it was the size of three football fields. Liam looked to his left and saw an opening to a dimly lit tunnel. To his right was an entrance to another tunnel with some weird white substance hanging from the opening. Both of these holes looked like something had broken in from the other side as broken bricks scattered from them.

Across from them was a grey chiseled stone wall with columns, steps and glow stones on top of sticks. There was a door that was covered with a solid slab of stone. The sight gave an old ruin feel to it. Above the door was an expertly carved giant snake creature that covered the entire top of the ruined roof. The Head of the snake had its mouth closed and looked down at two empty stone bowls sitting at the bottom of the steps from the door.

“Whoa,” Aryana, Blair, and Roman expressed as they looked around with awe while they entered.

“This video game knowledge of yours seems to come in handy,” Mercer commented.

Liam shrugged as he approached the steps and looked at the closed door. He examined the slab and then up at the snake. He appreciated the artwork that was put into it. It looked so life like that he could confuse it for a real snake.

“So, what do we do now?” Avery asked as she looked around. “I don’t see any monsters anywhere in here.”

Mercer turned to Liam and asked, “What does your video game knowledge have for a situation like this?”

Liam looked at the bowls and stared at them. As he started to turn his head, he noticed something on the floor in front of them. Dust and crumbled stones made a trail to the opening to the left while scuff marks looking like something was dragged ran to the one on his right.

Liam pointed to each as he said, “It looks like something was taken from these bowls. If I would guess we’re going to have to pick a room, go there, fight whatever that took what was here, and return them to open the door.”

“Sounds plausible,” Mercer nodded.

“So then which way should we go first?” Blair questioned.

“I’ll let you guys choose,” Liam said as he looked at them.

“Show of hands,” Roman started. “Who votes right?”

Artem, Mercer, Avery and Blaire raised their hands up.

“I guess right it is,” Liam said as he started walking. As he approached the hole he stopped and noticed the white stringy substance gave a soft glow. He assessed it.

 

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“Silk Slinger Spider Silk. Crafting material. Harvestable. Item Rarity – Uncommon. Item Quality – Average.”

“Would you like to Harvest Silk Slinger Spider Silk? Yes No?”

---

 

“What is it?” Mercer asked as he walked up to Liam and looked at the spider webs.

“It’s a crafting material called Silk Slinger Spider Silk,” Liam answered as he mentally accepted and harvested the crafting material.

Artem froze as he heard Liam. Without hesitation he threw his hands up and said, “Nope. I change my mind. I vote the other hole.”

Everyone turned to him.

“Are you…,” Ariyana started. “Are you afraid of spiders?”

“Terrified. You guys can tease me all you want but I draw the line where spiders are concerned,” Artem argued.

“Artem,” Liam started. “You voted for this way. You can’t change your mind after it was decided.”

“I can. I will. I am!” Artem stubbornly said.

Avery sighed. “Artem no matter what we’re going to have to go this way now or later. If we do it now, we can get it over with.”

Artem stared at her. There was a long pause before he let out a sigh. “Fine, but you guys owe me.”

“I’ll buy you those Poor-Quality Cooking utensils you’ve been eyeing after we get this floor done with,” Mercer said.

“And some new ingredients?” Artem asked, pressing his luck.

Mercer shook his head before saying, “Fine, but no bulk items.”

“That’s fine,” Artem said as he looked at the hole, shuddered and added, “I’m going to have nightmares for weeks after this.”

Liam gave a slight giggle as he ordered, “Defenders to the front. We don’t know what to expect going in.”

“Got it,” Blair responded as she made her way to the front.

As Artem followed he grumbled to himself, “God damn tunnel of spiders. Why can’t it be a tunnel of butterflies. Is that so much to ask?”

Liam shook his head. “Roman and Avery, pick a wall and walk near it.” He then looked at Aryana and Mercer as he ordered, “Aryana walk in the middle of Avery and Roman. Mercer, we’ll take the rear.”

“Got it,” Aryana said as she got in place.

Mercer nodded as they started for the hole.

As they walked Liam looked around. It was eerily silent as they made their way down the windy tunnel. The only sounds that could be heard were Artem’s grumbling. As Liam thought about it, he couldn’t hear their footsteps even though it was a dirt and rock filled surface. He looked down and noticed they weren’t walking on dirt or rocks at all. The ground was covered in the same silk he harvested at the front except it wasn’t harvestable.

The surface was hard, and he was able to feel the rocky surface underneath it, but the silk was soft enough that it made each step they took quiet. As he lifted a foot up, he noticed the webbing slightly stuck to the bottom of his foot, but easily released after lifting his leg a certain height. The webbings shook for a moment before becoming still.

“Why would it…,” Liam started to mumble until realization dawn on him. “The vibrations of the webbing. It was like an alarm system.” He quickly scanned the walls and the floor. Four spots caught his attention as slight movement was barely seen. “Crap, stop!”

His warning came too late as Artem walked close to one of the spots he saw. The spot was a lighter color than the floor around it due to extra webbing packed on. Without warning it flung open as a hairy dark brown spider reached two of its legs forward to grab Artem.

A look of fear grew over Artem’s face as his eyes widened. He couldn’t move as the legs got closer.

Right as the two legs were about to grab Artem, Blair’s great axe swung up from underneath it and crashed into the bottom of the spider’s body causing it to fly backwards spinning.

Liam assessed it.

 

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“Lower Burrower Soldier. 82/95 HP. 25/25 MP.”

---

 

As the spider creature crash landed on its back it swiftly righted itself. It lifted it two front legs and abdomen raised and started vibrating as a shrill noise echoed out of its fanged mouth.

“Snap out of it Artem,” Blair chastised as she readied herself.

Three other tanned and dark brown spider creatures jumped out of their hiding spots. There were two dark hairy and muscular spiders the size of a miniature horse standing in the front while two tanned less haired and slimmer spiders stayed in the back.

Liam assessed one of the two in the back.

 

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“Lower Burrower Silk Slingers. 75/75 HP. 50/50 MP.”

---

 

Artem let out a short involuntary high pitch noise as he stared at them.

“Defenders get ready!” Liam barked. “We don’t know how they’ll move but you’ll need to be ready for anything. If you can try to…”

As Liam was instructing Artem let out a panicked shout. The Silk Slinger standing on the right shot a line of webbing that hit Artem’s shield and was spreading to his arm and slowly growing.

“Crap! Avery shoot a Fire Ball at that Silk Slinger!” Liam pointed at the creature. “Mercer play a Resilient Defense song on Artem! Roman use Static Grasp on the Burrower Soldier heading towards Artem. Blair get the other Burrower Soldier’s attention. Aryana, try and charm the other Silk Slinger. If that doesn’t work, then use Dancing Lights to distract it!”

Everyone started their assault.

Avery brought her rapier to her chest then pointed it at the Silk Slinger that was shooting string and chanted, “Oh, flame of burning power. I beseech you to come forth. Burning bright and hot shot true towards my enemy. Fireball!”

An orb of fire the size of a baseball lit up and swirled at the tip of Avery’s rapier while she chanted. After she was done chanting the orb shot towards the Silk Slinger and collided with it.

Fire Ball was a Fire Focus Point Ability that, at higher levels and better understanding in the appropriate Knowledge Theory, could grow much bigger and do more damage.

A screech left its mouth as the fire crashed against its head. A bit of the fire cut the web string connection and started disintegrating it as it rushed towards Artem. As it burned away the webbing the flame started dying out. As it reached Artem it disappeared allowing Artem to Break the rest of the webbing off of him.

Mercer pulled out a wooden flute and brought the mouth hole to his lips and leveled it horizontally to his mouth before started to play. The sound was low and had a strong hollow feel to it, making you feel like you could get tougher. The way he played it also reminded Liam of a beginner as some mistakes were made in his playing, but he stuck to it as he slowly played through till the end.

Resilient Defense was an Instrument Proficiency Focus point ability only available in the Field of the Bard that allowed Mercer to give a target a 2.5% buff to their Sub-stat Resilience. Allowing them to be able to handle more pain and raises their defense.

Liam watched as a steel-colored light faintly emanated from Artem for a brief moment. Then an icon with the picture of a Shield with a plus sign appeared next to Artem’s Food buff. The timer on it stayed at 30 seconds during the duration of the song.

Roman balled his right hand into a fist as he held it in front of him. He started chanting, “Lightning surge bright and engulf my hand with the sparks of your stunning force.”

A couple of small electric arcs sparked around his fist.

“Static across my enemies as my grasp collides with their form. Static Grasp!”

After he finished the chant, the static sparks multiplied around his fist as he brought it to his side and charged for the Burrower Soldier lifting its two front legs getting ready to drop down on Artem.

Before it could bring its two legs down, Roman appeared to its side, opened his fist and slammed his palm against the creature’s body. Sparks of electricity engulfed the creature and raced around its legs, head, and abdomen. A shrill noise escaped its mouth as its legs recoiled closer to its body. The muscles flexed as it tried to move but failed to do so.

Static surge was a Lightning Focus Point ability that could not only do some damage, but also had a 5% chance to tighten the target’s muscles causing it to be stunned for 5 seconds.

Ariyana stared at the other Silk Slinger. She placed her hands on her legs before slowly running them up to her hips in a seductive way as she started chanting with a sweet and mesmerizing voice, “Listen to my voice as you fall under my spell.”

She then ran the tips of her fingers across her stomach crossing them as they ran under her breasts to the top of her shoulders. “Let loose your mind and allow me to be the conscious to guide you.”

She then rolled her right arm out away from her body to point at the creature with her index and middle fingers as she winked and finished the chant. “Fall victim to my charm and ways so you can do my bidding. Charm!”

Charm was an Entice and Distract Focus Point Ability. It has a 25% chance to charm a living creature or being with eyes, noses, and ears. If the creature is successfully charmed, then for 1 minute you can have it do whatever you’d like it to. After the charm effects are gone though it will focus its ire upon you. You can try to charm it again, but the success rate drops by 5%.

The Silk Slinger shook its body and then shot a web at Aryana in response to the attempt.

Aryana jumped out of the way before stomping a foot down and shouting, “How dare you not let it work.” She then pointed her wand at the creature and chanted another spell, “Oh, dancing wisps of light. I call upon you to help me distract this creature with your delight. Have fun and be merry. Dance around to a beat of your own making without being wary. Dancing Lights!”

As the chant ended three different colored balls of light shot towards the creature and began swirling above its eyes. The creature, distracted from anything else started swatting at them with its two front legs, but failed to hit them as they phased through them.

Dancing Lights was another Entice and Distract Focus Point ability. The spell creates three dancing-colored lights that circle around a target’s head for 1 minute; causing the target to focus on the lights every now and then causing the target to get distracted.

Blair swung her great axe to the side then behind her before taking the momentum over her head and striking down hard against the Burrower Soldier. A bit of blood oozed out from the wound as she pulled out the weapon.

“Blair, keep that up!” Liam called out. “Aryana keep that Silk Slinger distracted!”

“You got it!” Aryana replied as she watched the creature.

“Mercer, Avery, with me on that Silk Slinger!” Liam ordered as he and Avery ran towards the Silk Slinger closest to the Burrower Soldier Blair was attacking. They gave Blair a wide berth as they rushed towards their target.

Mercer placed his instrument into his inventory and pulled out his bow and quiver. He grabbed an arrow, knocked it back aimed and released. The arrow flew towards its target and struck it in the eye.

The Silk Slinger reared back with a pained noise.

As it reoriented itself, Avery thrusted her rapier three times digging the tip in a couple inches with a swift motion.

Liam swung his dagger across one of its legs, cutting it off. Another arrow crashed into it as Avery and Liam slashed a couple more times. Mercer’s next arrow felled it, making it drop to the ground.

Liam looked at Avery and pointed to the Burrower Soldier behind them.

Avery nodded with understanding as she pivoted her foot quickly and lunged for it.

Liam spun around and threw a dagger at the other Silk Slinger. It landed and embedded itself in the abdomen, making the creature turn its attention to him.

It shot a web at him causing Liam to jump to the side and was about to shoot another until several streams of violet balls crashed into its side.

The Silk Slinger turned to see more streams rushing towards it coming from a beachball sized violet colored sphere in front of Aryana. It shot two webs back-to-back to block the incoming magic. The collision cancelled both attacks.

It got ready to shoot another web but felt a sharp pain as Liam pulled his dagger out from its abdomen. Liam then swung his dagger three times.

Torn from who to attack, more streams of arcane magic collided against its face. After a streams and dagger strikes successfully landed the Silk Slinger dropped.

Liam turned to see the two Burrower Soldiers drop.

Artem walked up to the creature closest to him and kicked it several times as he said with a voice mixed with anger and fear, “God damn stupid spider. Thinking it could get the drop on me. AHHHHH!”

Everyone stared at him, not sure what to say.

After he stopped kicking it and was out of breath Blair questioned, “Out of your system now?”

He looked at her breathing heavily and replied with a sheepish look, “For now.”

Liam shook his head and swung his dagger down to let the blood fly to the ground before ordering, “Drink a potion and get ready.” He scanned down the hall and spotted more spots slightly moving. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”