Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 81 I Got Something For You.

Isaac and Lenna headed out to kill more spiders much to both of their indignation. “I hope we find something other than spiders. Something had to have shown up to eat the corpses right?” Isaac asked as they entered the spider tunnels for what felt like the hundredth time.

“Hopefully not more spiders.” Lenna commented.

Isaac sighed. He had read that there was a huge list of things that could cause creatures to mutate and cannibalism was one such factor. “If we go from spiders to super magic spiders I might just give up on this and let Kahtesh wipe the whole place clean.”

“I would not be opposed.” Lenna replied.

An hour into their spider hunting stroll through the tunnels Lenna thought she saw something slightly glowing. “Hold.” She whispered.

“What is it?” Isaac asked equally as quietly.

Lenna’s eyes scanned the tunnel wearily. One of the more common mutations down there was affectionately called a ‘Jumping Spider’. A spider that could teleport, effectively jumping directly onto its target. The tell tale sign of one such spider was the eerie glow they gave off from being too full of mana. Once they teleported a few times the glow would start to dim. That was the easiest way to tell that it was getting tired.

The pair saw a spider walk around the corner towards them. It stopped and stared at them, obviously caught off guard. A moment later it took two steps forward before it was executed. Not by a mortal but another spider. A spider with a soft, irie, glow appeared on top of it with its fangs quickly sinking into the head of the normal giant spider.

“Shit.” Isaac said under his breath and vanished. Lenna launched herself at the spiders. She wanted to kill the teleporter before it got a chance to move. She made it almost the entire way there before it disappeared. She planted her feet and swung backwards attempting to catch it with her blind swing.

The blow connected but not very well. She cut off two of its rear legs. She spun to face it as the legs hit the ground but the spider was gone again. She turned and threw her back against the wall. She looked around frantically. It was gone. A minute later she stopped leaning against the wall. “It’s gone.”

“That was insane. It teleported and then teleported again before it hit the ground.” Isaac commented as he appeared a few feet from her near the other spider’s corpse. He tossed her the cloth to clean her sword and she deftly caught it as she moved to meet him.

“If there is one then there are ten.” Lenna replied with a frown. “What’s the plan?”

Isaac walked over and scooped up the Jumping Spider’s legs. “Keep going until we hit our usual ten regulars, then we head back. If we find another one. face off with it, when it teleports behind you don’t do anything. I’ll take care of it.”

“Understood.” She acknowledged.

The pair continued for a while longer without seeing a single teleporter. It even took them three times as long to find the rest of the regular spiders that they needed. They headed back without a Jumping Spider corpse to show as proof and Isaac hoped the severed legs would be enough.

—

“That’s worrisome.” Alice said to no one in particular while staring at the spider legs. “You’re a hundred percent sure it was a Jumping Spider?”

“Yes.” Both Isaac and Lenna replied at the same time.

Alice frowned. “I’ll let the Guild Master and the Guard Captain know. There is a chance the bounty will change but it’s unlikely until a few corpses have been brought in. One sighting is enough that they’ll brush it under the rug but a handful will actually get some attention.”

Isaac shrugged. “Do their parts sell for more?” He asked.

Alice smiled and shook her head. “Always about the money huh? I guess they aren’t really dangerous to you two.” She commented off handedly. “Yes. There is an organ in their body a bit behind their head that stores mana. Another next to it that lets them teleport. Both of those organs are worth a lot.”

“How much are we talking?” Isaac asked and leaned in.

Alice dug for her binder with prices for monster parts, sorted by creature type, and flipped to spiders and then to the Jumping Spider entry. She whistled. “The teleporting organ almost always explodes when the creature dies but if it doesn’t it can sell for as much as five hundred gold. Apparently there is about a one percent chance of it not exploding.”

“Those odds suck.” Isaac commented.

Alice nodded. “Yeah.” She replied and moved on. “The storage organ sells for a gold per percent that it is full. They use them for mana potions.”

Lenna shook her head. “Don’t drink those.” She advised.

“Why not?” Isaac asked. Alice looked up in curiosity as well.

“Chance of mana poisoning isn’t worth it.” She explained.

“Mana poisoning?” Isaac asked.

Alice tilted her head. “I thought that only happened when mages tried to share their mana while they were alive.”

Lenna nodded. “That too. Mana with intent will poison another’s mana pool and damage their mana pathways.”

Alice nodded as well. “Yeah but a potion shouldn’t have any intent or direction left.”

“Shouldn’t.” Lenna repeated.

“Not very many people have enough gold to buy them around here, even if they did they would only keep it as an emergency measure, so I didn't have a large enough sample size to even know that was a thing that could happen.” Alice explained more to herself than to Lenna. She met Lenna’s eyes. “How often does it happen?”

Lenna shugged. “Depends on a lot of things. Maybe one in twenty.” She offered.

Alice nodded to herself. “High enough to be careful but still worth carrying one for an emergency.” She said aloud to burn it into her memory.

Lenna shrugged again. “It could cause permanent damage.” She commented.

“If it’s that or die it’s still worth it.” Alice argued.

She was right but it still wasn’t something Isaac or Lenna would spend money on. “What’s mana poisoning like?” Isaac asked.

“Like your mana is running backwards. Whenever you try to cast, those pathways will explode instead.” Lenna explained.

Isaac’s eyes went wide. “That might just kill me outright. I have way too much mana flowing through me to risk that.”

“Agreed.” Lenna replied.

“Well on that note, how much did we make today?” Isaac asked Alice, pulling the conversation back to the topic at hand.

“Seventy eight gold.” Alice replied. “You are driving the price of spider parts down.”

Isaac scratched the back of his neck. “Well, maybe there should be bounties closer to town that don’t involve speaking to clients.”

Alice just laughed lightly at him and shook her head as she handed him their earnings. “Private bounties usually pay better.” She reminded him.

“Not worth it.” Isaac replied and took the money. “Anyway, see ya tomorrow.” He told her and waved.

“Good night.” Lenna told Alice and joined Isaac.

“Bye bye.” Alice said cheerily.

Once outside Isaac stopped and looked at Lenna. “Any idea which one that was?”

Lenna thought for a moment before she gave up. “No.” She sighed defeatedly.

Isaac chuckled. “Me neither. Spar?” He asked.

“Of course.” Lenna replied and the two of them headed to the arena for their daily spar. Isaac had been getting better by the day and Lenna was sure that given another week or two he would get ‘One Handed Swords’ as a skill on his character sheet the next time he was Identified.

—

The next morning Isaac walked down to get their breakfast with Lenna in tow. “Morning you two.” Celeste called out to them as they descended the stairs.

“Good morning Celeste.” Isaac replied with a smile and Lenna gave her a polite nod.

“I got something for you.” Celeste told them and placed two fruit drinks, with just enough alcohol to make sure they wouldn’t spoil in them, on the bar for them.

“Oh?” Isaac asked and leaned against the bar.

Celeste reached under the bar and pulled out an envelope. Isaac’s stomach dropped. He really didn’t want to have to deal with Mr. Nobody already.