Cyberserk

Chapter 14 - Underground Spiders

Dan Raven looked at the corpse of the monster.

[Underground Spider (Animal) 

Level: 3.

Several species of giant spiders inhabit locations and dungeons. Previously, spiders were never a big problem for adventurers. But the forces of Evil have changed them, and now many of them are actively seeking to feed on the meat of their victims. These creatures are very poisonous and usually have deadly bites. Despite their defense, they often run when attacked, starting to use their web to slow down the enemy.

Spiders regenerate health 50% faster than normal monsters. Beware the venomous bite of the Underground spider!] 

"The bastard failed to poison me. That's the bad news. You were awesome! Maybe I couldn't have handled that monster alone," said the phantom.

"Why are you glad you're not poisoned?" Dan didn't understand his partner's words.

"Because my job is to learn all the strengths and weaknesses of our enemies. I am an assistant and a suicide scout. Right now we don't know the strength of these spiders' venom," Tom explained.

Dan thought he would never understand the suicidal man's way of thinking.

Suddenly the body of the dead spider hissed and began to dissolve into thin air. When the spider disappeared there were trophies left on the stone floor.

"Look! We got a bag of coins," rejoiced Dan.

"Coins have no value in this world. The currency exchanged is the player's experience. It's not money. It's poison! That's funny. We have our first bag of poison. We can sell it to future apothecaries," said the clone.

"We can grease the blades of our swords," Raven suggested.

"Ugh! We are honest warriors, not students of the shinobi school," Tom objected.

Dan didn't argue and looked closely at the pouch.

[Underground spider venom.

Ingredient.

Level: ????

Cost:????]

"Put the poison in your inventory," Dan suggested. "By the way, I didn't get the experience. Did you get experience?"

"150 experience points," replied Dan.

"I guess this game has a last-strike system. Whoever makes the last hit gets all the experience. 150 points is a lot. We did it fast," the clone remarked.

"The spider has no armor. The bristles on the body and legs may be tough, but they're weaker than the steel of our armor. That's why all spiders run away when they sense their death," Dan said quietly.

"And they spit webs. I didn't see anything until all the cobwebs were gone when the spider died! If a few spiders attacked, they could spit all over us. Dangerous creatures," sighed the clone.

"The spider web is on fire. It must burn. We'd better not throw our torches around. And we should wait. If this spider is reborn, we'll know for sure if the creatures are capable of rebirth."

" We can wait and see. He did 42 points of damage to me. The spider was hitting very fast with his claws. Didn't you notice the damage I was doing?" Tom peered intently into the darkness of the tunnel.

"The creature is too big. I couldn't see the numbers. But you forget that we have a chat window. All information as the battle progresses is reflected in the chat," chuckled the player.

The phantom muttered a curse and suggested that Dan review the information.

"We did between 7 and 11 points of damage. Now I'll calculate the total," whispered the savvy player. "67 points of health on this thing! Chat is a cool helper!" Dan was pleased to begin exploring the dungeon.

"When there's time to analyze information the chat room is very useful," agreed Tom. "I just now realized we're in a dungeon. There's no need to rush. The creature is only level 3 but has the health of two and a half warrior skeletons! And the experience is too much," whispered the clone quietly.

"That's a feature of most dungeons. Monsters are more dangerous and have more health. They do more damage and leave more trophies when they die," the player said.

"Don't you think it's time to upgrade your magic skills?" asked Tom.

"Ugh! I completely forgot about those skills," confessed Dan. He looked in the magic skills section. He froze when he didn't see any new choices.

"Tom, why isn't there a description of level 3 skills?" Dan turned toward the clone, who was staring intently into the darkness of the dungeon.

"Because there are no Level 3 magic skills," Tom muttered softly. "If there were skills, a description of them would surely appear on the player's desk. And that's right!"

Tom took a step with his right foot and made a swift top-down attack on his opponent's imaginary head. Then he began to move smoothly again in his techniques and continued his thought.

"The experience point manipulation system is very interesting. Experience points can be spent to develop skills and spent to buy products. 

There are too many skills and they are all easily available to the beginner. You've figured it out on your own that it's very easy to upgrade skills. There is a lot of experience. By the way, upgrade your swordsman skills! I use skills and I'm sure you benefit from it when you accept my knowledge.

Unfortunately for the people in this nursery, there isn't much need for skills. Any zombie can be kicked by an average brave kid with 1 point strength. Weak monsters devalue the value of magic skills.

The multiple skill set is the only advantage players have over strong monsters. A cold-blooded player can use different skill combinations against different monsters. Each monster has its characteristics and its weakness. 

At the beginning of the game, the player must accumulate a large collection of skills to safely face opponents in the future. But spend now points of skill development is not necessary. You do realize that at higher levels it would take millions of experience points to upgrade a skill by one level."

"I understand that very well," laughed Dan. "Wait a little longer. I'll spend the experience to increase my swordsmanship enhancement skill. And I'll increase the strength of the skill Slowing, I've seen you spoiling with that skill. I liked the effect too. Different emotion from fighting a weakened opponent."

As early as level 1, a player who chose the swordsman path was able to use three types of magical skills. These were separate classes of sword-armed characters. Swordsman, Swordsman with a shield, Assassin. The Swordsman with a shield reminded Den of the common Paladin type. Shield wielding was a separate universal skill for different classes. A warrior with an ax or a spear could separately increase his mastery of the shield.

Unfortunately for Dan and Tom, the game didn't offer a double-armed fighter class. Even an assassin at level 1 had the usual damage increase skill when attacking with a dagger.

Mages had a clear system of character development. The four familiar elemental schools were complemented by the schools of Curse and Blessing. School Blessing at level 1 pleased the opportunity to learn the skill of healing to restore the player's life. Curse reduced the damage power of the enemy. 

Each elemental magic at level 1 allowed learning an offensive skill to deal damage. But each school allowed learning a second skill. Earth mages could Slow enemies. Air mages could increase the speed with Speeding. Fire mages increased damage power. Water mages increased health. Unfortunately, the duration of the spell effects was very short. Spending 1 point of mana to slow an opponent for 10 seconds seemed an unreasonable waste. On the other hand, Dan was already well aware that ten seconds of control was a huge advantage in combat. In ten seconds you could deal 20 blows and finish off any opponent!

Dan Raven spent more than 10,000 experience points, but he didn't regret it. He had improved his swordsmanship skills. Of course, he hadn't forgotten to upgrade his Phantom skill! 

The partners were now ready to continue exploring the dungeon.

Dan stopped and listened carefully. But none of the monsters were in a hurry to attack.

Tom saw more than the player behind him. When the phantom discerned the new enemy he did not wait. The clone threw a torch in the direction of the opponent and ran forward to deliver the first blows to the stunned spider.

Dan had already considered his actions. He did not slow down! Dan Raven decided to support Tom from the start of the fight. Just doing a lot of damage in a short time could frighten a spider. The scary furry paws were frightening with creepy claws. But Dan already knew that armor could be counted on. 

The spider pounded its jaws and attacked Tom. The clone was again the first to receive the damage and aggression of the enemy. But at that moment, Dan began to deliver strong sword blows on the monster's paw. Now the warrior did not care about a beautiful and clever fight. With such an opponent you have to count on brute force and inflict as much damage as possible.

The spider squealed loudly and tried to jump away from his opponents, but that only made it worse. Tom caught up with his victim in one leap and plunged his katana right into the spider's eye.

It was a powerful blow. The sword sank halfway into the huge head of the blade. Tom began to stab his enemy with his dagger to finish him off with one last deadly blow.

The spider froze and its paws fell limply.

"I won," said the clone. "I'm sorry, but I stole your experience."

"Congratulations," smiled Dan Raven. He liked how quickly they handled the monster. "Don't worry. We have enough experience. There's no need to upgrade. The important thing is that we increase our experience fighting dangerous monsters."

After killing a few spiders, the partners discovered the full meaning of these monsters.

[ Underground Spider (Animal.) 

Level: 3.

Life: 60-70.

Damage: 14-22. 

Skill: Poisoning. Poison takes 1 point of health every 1 second. Time Poisoning duration: 60 seconds]

"Great news!" Tom smiled. "You can't run away from me, and the threat of a deadly venomous bite doesn't scare me." 

The partners moved forward cautiously and began to cope more and more confidently with each fight. Dan convinced Tom that in the case of Level 3 spiders, it was important to do a lot of damage at once. A simultaneous attack by two players terrifies the spider. The monster starts to make mistakes and even tries to escape. 

The venomous bite didn't scare Dan. Even if he gets several bites from an attack by three spiders the player can increase his level rapidly! He could increase his life supply and increase his mana supply! Healing could keep the player alive. The phantom agreed that attacking a spider at the same time was a good method.

On the stone walls of the dungeon were not only glowing moss and mushrooms. Sometimes there were strange symbols and signs on the walls. Dan didn't understand anything about strange symbols, and he wasn't interested in them. Tom looked more closely at the images. Sometimes he asked to wait.

"What do you need this for?" Dan didn't understand his partner's attention to the strange symbols.

"I have a wonderful memory. It works strangely," Tom replied. "I get renewed and still remember the old phantom knowledge perfectly! It helps me learn kendo. Now I'm interested in mysterious symbols. Knowledge can never be unnecessary. We cannot know when we might need the knowledge that is hidden behind the symbols."

When the phantom had finished studying the signs on the walls they began again to carefully explore the underground labyrinth.

The player's map was very helpful in exploring the dungeon. The partners could navigate well. The entire path they had traveled was marked on the map. Dan looked at the time and saw that they had been walking through the dungeon for the fourth hour. It was late evening on the surface. Raven thought he was hungry and needed to take a break and stop to rest. They would be sure to find a way out, the monster spiders proved to be non-lethal opponents.

Suddenly the loud sound of a stranger's voice scared Dan.

"What are you doing in the dungeon? How did you get in here?"