World Seed

When he finally opened his eyes again in the dark outside world he gasped for breath and stayed silent for quite some time to organize his thoughts. Bon quickly cast his torch spell allowing Aerwyn to see the world around him. Looking up he was surrounded by Bon, Rin, Ren, and Teek, who all showed deep concern for him.

"...H-how long have i been out?" Aerwyn"s throat felt like sandpaper and his voice sounded almost foreign to him.

"I-it"s difficult to tell time down here master... I believe it"s been about two days." Bon hesitantly replied.

"..Water." Aerwyn thought for a moment before he quietly mouthed an order. Bon quickly obliged bringing over a sack of water he had prepared from the underground river. Aerwyn took a large swig before coughing it back out and drinking it more slowly.

"How many goblins are left?"

"Thirty one master, we lost four more yesterday after a different type of creature attacked. I kept the corpse intact in case you wanted to see it master." Bon pointed and sent a flying torch above a large corpse.

It looked to be some sort of two meter tall beetle, it had six legs, a tail, and a sharp horn on its head. The giant bugs mouth was different from what one would expect from an insect, it was filled with fangs and teeth much like a wolf. The creatures legs came to a point like the giant spider but it appeared to have a far thicker carapace, almost like it was covered in armor.

Aerwyn sighed after inspecting the bug, he needed to be more careful from now on. This was by far his costliest battle yet and he lost far more than he was comfortable with. Despite gaining more undead as a whole, he didn"t like losing a single undead much less nineteen.
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He entered the darkness again to call the spiders back and opening his eyes once more attempted to stand. Not eating for two days and being dehydrated made him weak and lightheaded, forcing him to use his staff for balance.

"Have the goblins harvest the mana cores, we"re going to need them..."

"It"s already done master. I-i even sent a few with the spiders to harvest their kills without your orders master, please forgive me." Bon hung his head and kneeled.

"No, stand up. You did well, good thinking." Aerwyn spoke and weakly patted him on his shoulder.

It took a few hours for the spiders to return and with them a sack of a few hundred mana cores. The giant spiders bio luminescence appeared to have changed colors with its resurrection, it was now the same color purple as his flames. It"s eight black eyes now replaced by soul fire that stared into him.

"Can you speak?" Aerwyn asked it.

"Yes." The voice was feminine but raspy and oddly soothing as if beckoning him to come closer.

"D-do you know a way to the surface? You obviously can"t fit through the cave we came in." Aerwyn was slightly taken aback by the voice, stuttering his words.

"Yes. There is a cave large enough for me to squeeze through about half a day from here." Aerwyn was taken aback again as her words seemed to flow out as if casting some sort of spell enticing him closer.

"...Stop doing that." Aerwyn commanded as he slapped his cheeks and snapped out of it.

"Doing what? Master." If the spider could wear a smile it would undoubtedly be wearing a devilish grin as it spoke those words.

"Whatever you"re doing with your voice, stop it."

"Yes master..." Her voice sounded the same but it no longer carried the same enticing feeling it had before.

"I"m weak so i"ll be riding you until we return to Ardin. Kneel down so i can climb up."

"Yes, master." She once again used whatever magic she used to entice her voice but Aerwyn let it go for now, his head hurt from hunger and he couldn"t be bothered reprimanding her again.

She kneeled down but Aerwyn"s weak body was struggling to climb up so she grabbed him with her two front legs and lifted him onto her back. Once atop her back Aerwyn found a small dip in the carapace that ran along where her spine would be if she had one and sat down cross legged.

Aerwyn and the undead began marching through the dark endless cavern.

"What"s your name?" Aerwyn asked the giant spider.

"My name is Erit, master."

"How did you receive a name in a place like this?"

"I was part of a brood that was birthed from an arache. There were hundreds of us at first but only a few survived the first year. To the nine which survived, mother bestowed names."

"Arache?"

"It is the final evolution of my species, half human and half spider. In fact... They can even freely transform between the two, taking human form or transforming into what the form i currently hold." She replied using her voice magic and added emphasis on the "human form" part of her explanation.

"...Where is your mother now? Also, are there anymore arache"s around here?"

"I haven"t seen mother since i evolved into this form. The underground is vast and i rarely leave my territory. I have never seen any arache"s besides my mother either, master."

"Hmm... Why did you attack the way you did? You seem intelligent and even with your size, charging after me through that many enemies seems foolish."

"I am close to evolving and a humans mana core would be enough to allow me to evolve. I... may have underestimated you." Erit"s words caused Aerwyn to chuckle at her poor luck.

"Pfft, i"d say more than underestimate. Even if you killed me, you would be severely disappointed. I don"t have a mana core."

"...Is that so. I"d say it worked out for the better, since now i have a big strong human master to take care of me. Surely you wouldn"t neglect this little spider and not feed her any mana cores right? Surely i can be more use to you if i was a person right master?" Erit shamelessly talked Aerwyn up seemingly using every ounce of her magic voice to entice him.

"KWEEEEEEEE!" Rin cried out as if saying not to fall for the spiders sneaky tricks.

"You heard the little lady, there"s a line and you"re currently in the back of it. Hmm... it"s rather comfortable riding you, from now on you"ll be my mount. If you"re good, i"ll see about feeding you some mana cores."

The traveled for a few hours before they began encounter trouble. A few beetle creatures appeared which according to Erit were called tzintatchik in the arache language but he couldn"t p.r.o.nounce it after numerous attempts so he decided to name them zin beetles. Erit made quick work of them but more and more appeared as they traveled, slowing their pace.

Aerwyn would"ve liked to have killed some of them as they looked like they would make strong undead but he had just spent what felt like years in the darkness and he had no intention of going back anytime soon. He decided to come back underground after he"s dealt with the goblins and make some zin beetle undead.

Every now and then Aerwyn could see glowing green cylinders flying around in the darkness and Erit explained that the creatures were something akin to lightning bugs. They weren"t carnivorous so they left the group alone to his disappointment, he wanted to see what they looked like but the creatures always seemed to be far off in the distance no matter how close they got.

After a few more hours they were nearing the cave exit Erit had spoken of and new critters began appearing. Aerwyn caught sight of one as it traveled a little too close to the torchlight before scurrying off. It was the size of a large dog, covered in fluffy white fur except for it"s four legs that were red and scaly. It had huge pale red eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth that stretched to its ears.

Erit told him that they were another impossible to p.r.o.nounce name so decided on calling them feros. They appeared to be far more intelligent than the zin beetles, never attacking and only watching from outside the light created by the torches. More and more trickled in but they always kept their distance, acting almost like an escort through their territory.

They finally reached the cave exit that led above ground and the feros watched them enter before they began to retreat back into the darkness. The cave was a tight fit for Erit and Aerwyn would be knocked off if he choose to ride any further so he was forced to walk the rest of the way to the surface.