Free Web NovelChapter 16: First Rift
Luke stood in front of the rift. Its smoky black insides wisped into the air where they vanished.
The rift park was filled with groups, a few of which had already entered some of the nearby rifts.
Finally, Luke took a step inside the black void.
When he opened his eyes, his surroundings had completely changed. The steel walls of the park had been replaced by the wet stone walls of a cave. Glowing moss was sporadically spread across the walls, allowing Luke to still see.
His eyes bounced from wall to ceiling to floor, then back to wall. There wasn’t a visual description of spiders, but Luke was confident they wouldn’t be brightly colored.
Luke kept his spear at chest level, in case of any surprise attacks. After making sure there wasn’t another tunnel behind him, Luke slowly walked forward.
Every second was spent observing a part of the cave. His senses were heightened to the max. It wasn’t long before he met an enemy.
Unfortunately, it met him first.
A slimy and hard object slammed into his shin from the ceiling. Luke did his best to ignore the pain and focus on the jet black spider attached to the ceiling. He raised the spear above his head and stabbed at it.
The metal tip of his spear grinded against the cave’s stone, while the spider crawled further down the cave.
Luke could feel a small tingling sensation on his shin, but it didn’t hurt enough to care about.
He thought about the speed the spider had just demonstrated. It wasn’t slow, but it wasn’t especially fast either. If it was going to shoot projectiles at him, then he would beat it at its own game.
"Frost Spike."
Mana flowed from his hands, forming a cold spike of ice. Luke waited for the monster to spit again, dodging it with a calculated ease.
His heart beat three times, each beat allowing him to focus his aim.
Then he fired.
Frost Spike spun through the air, hurtling towards the spider with speed befitting of a D-Rank spell. Luke watched as it pierced through the monster’s guts, coating the stone and its body in frost, before the spider fell to the ground with an icy thump.
"Where there is one spider, there are more."
The battle was quick due to Frost Spike, but his mana reserves wouldn’t last if he cast it on every spider he came across.
Luke looked down at his shin, the cloth that was covering it had been dissolved, leaving only his reddened shin left.
He clutched the spear harder as he continued down the cave. This time he was able to spot the spider before it attacked him. Calmly watching its mouth open, Luke sidestepped away from where he stood.
Keeping the momentum, he ran towards the spider on the wall, prepared to unleash a strong stab. Finding the distance, Luke used his hand on the butt of the spear to quickly propel it forward. His aim was lackluster, as he only managed to take off one of its eight legs.
The spider repositioned, before spitting up another mucus ball. This time it landed right on Luke’s thigh. Not sparing a glance at the zone of impact, he thrust the spear once more, this time cleanly stabbing through its foul body.
Green ichor slowly dripped down his spear before he could shake off the corpse.
Luke was about to relax when another mucus ball slammed into his arm. He let out a small yelp of pain before charging at the monster. This time it was crawling on the ground, he let out another painful groan as he feinted with the spear.
Unnaturally, throughout combat, Luke had noticed a move and spit pattern that the spiders had. If an attack missed they would reposition then stand still when spitting.
He took advantage of this in the middle of combat, shifting his spear and slashing downwards; the spider’s mouth split in two.
Instead of letting his guard down after killing the monster, Luke stood up and positioned himself in a fighting stance. Only after triple checking his surroundings did he finally give himself time to breathe.
’Going forward the number of spiders is probably going to increase. I need to attack around the spider’s spit.’
Forming his plan, Luke slowly walked through the cave. He spotted a spider, but not just one. There were three spiders in front of him; one on each surface of the cave.
He didn’t charge forward, instead opting to wait for the monsters to shoot at him.
One ball of mucus hurtled at him, which he dodged.
A second fired from the ceiling, but Luke wasn’t able to dodge as it hit him in the unharmed shin. He sent a well-timed thrust into the spider on the ceiling and tried to hit the spider on the wall, but was hit in the arm by the third monster.
Choosing the easiest opponent, he dashed towards the spider on the ground, spearing it through the abdomen.
Another mucus ball came flying towards him, but Luke had already flopped to his stomach; watching as the object hit the wall behind him.
Not letting the last spider create another projectile, he slashed the spider, cutting off three of its hairy legs. It dropped to the ground and Luke stomped on it. It exploded beneath his foot, covering his academy loafers in green guts and mucus.
He realized his mistake quickly as his foot started to burn with a miserable tingling feeling. It was like a million pins and needles were stabbing his foot, while it was being slowly roasted over a small fire.
’This was what the description meant.’
Luke gritted his teeth, before deciding to take off the shoe. He carefully used the tip of the spear to pin down the shoe as he slipped his foot out.
Feeling awkward with only one shoe he took off the other. His foot still burned, but the pain increase stopped intensifying.
’Note to self, do not step on the spiders.’
