Common Clay

His journey home was only interrupted by the need to clean himself off before he left Scout’s Hill, and another rest partway down the hill when his legs nearly gave out beneath him. Clay only allowed himself a few moments to rest, however, before he continued on his way.

He had paused for a while on Scout’s Hill, watching the territory around the Lair. What he had seen had only made him more worried. The spot where he’d staged his ambush had been obvious from the outset; at least three of the elder troll spiders were patrolling around it, and others were searching the area nearby. They must have arrived only after he slipped away, or else they would have spotted and ended him that much sooner.

Clay had wondered for a moment just how long it had taken them to arrive. The fight had seemed to last forever, but how long had it been? A minute, five minutes? How soon had the reinforcements come? If he took too long next time, he might find himself outnumbered as well as outmatched. He needed a better plan.

It was easy to feel a little more secure on the other side of Scout’s Hill, but he didn’t allow himself to relax. Not until he was leaving the Tanglewood, and on his way back to the farmhouse. The fight had been too close, far too close. He kept replaying it in his mind, seeing the giant legs stabbing down and hearing that awful scream, over and over again in his memories.

When he reached his home, he was desperate to rest. The exhaustion of the fight had combined with the fatigue from the escape to nearly knock him out on his feet. Clay staggered out of the Tanglewood, and then made his way over to his house.

There was a horse tied up outside his door.

Clay groaned, entirely unready to explain himself or deal with another conversation. He couldn’t exactly avoid the place, however, and a part of him wasn’t even willing to. He’d spent the last few hours killing an actual monster. Anyone who had a problem with that could just deal with it.

Still weary and hobbling along, he made his way up to his house’s front step. Clay paused on the threshold and then pushed the door open with a sigh. He examined the person who was sitting in his chair waiting and heaved a second sigh. “Good to see you, Herbert.”

“Was it you?” Herbert stood and came over to him, his eyes roaming over Clay and his equipment. The [Guard] was tense, and his face was worried.

Clay frowned at him, pushing past so that he could set down his spear. He unpacked all his gear into a pile next to his bedroll. “Was what me? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play games with me. Was. It. You?” Herbert grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to turn around to face the [Guard]. There was anger on Herbert’s face now, and Clay winced as the man’s fingers dug into his arm. “Tell me.”

“Herbert, I really don’t know what you are talking about. I haven’t been home since this morning. What is going on?”

The [Guard] searched his face for a moment. Then Herbert let go. “A little while ago, there was a… noise in the Tanglewood. A scream.”

Clay felt his jaw drop. “You heard it?”

“Of course we heard it.” Herbert put his hands over his face for a moment. “Oh gods, it was you! I knew it!”

“Look, you knew what I was doing. You knew I was—”

Herbert dropped his hands from his face. “I thought you were being quiet about it! I didn’t think that you were going to be this obvious!”

“I didn’t think anyone would notice!” Clay grimaced and scratched at his hair. “So. You heard it.”

“Hard not to.” Herbert stepped forward and poked him in the chest. “Everyone in the village heard it. Everyone in the baron’s manor heard it. I’d be surprised if the King in the capital didn’t hear it! What did you do?”

Clay rubbed at the spot where the [Guard] had poked him. It hadn’t hurt as much as he’d expected, but it was still irritating to be lectured. “I killed a monster. What did you expect?”

“Well, are there more monsters? Or did you somehow manage to get all of them?”

He remembered the patrolling elder spiders, and the stretches of webbed trees he hadn’t even drawn close to. “There’s plenty more. I just killed one of the bigger ones.”

“Great. Just great.” The [Guard] stepped away from Clay and began to pace. “The baron is worried now. He thinks the monsters in the Tanglewood are becoming more active. He thought the place was getting more peaceful; his last couple of patrols have barely seen anything at all. That scream, though… he thinks it’s a sign that there might be an invasion of some kind. That the spiders might be getting ready to move south towards the village.”

Clay felt his eyebrows rise. It was the first he’d heard of the baron patrolling the woods. He found it hard to picture the man stalking through the Tanglewood, but perhaps his magic gave him an advantage there? “What is he going to do? Is he going to bring his men into it?”

“Gods, no.” Herbert shook his head emphatically. “He’s sending a message to the capital. He’s demanding that they send out a party of adventurers to investigate, both here and the Dungeon near Sarlsboro. The messenger is already on the way, and the [Guards] are already patrolling the border of the woods.”

“What? That’s great!” Relief flooded through him. If adventurers were coming, he wouldn’t need to fight any more of the elder spiders. He wouldn’t have to risk himself trying to kill those abominations anymore. The adventurers would even have access to the spell that could kill the Lair; they might be able to free the Tanglewood might for him, anyway!

Herbert laughed. “No, not great.” When Clay looked at him in confusion, the [Guard] laughed again. “The baron has been requesting adventurers for years and the capital has never sent anyone. If he’s demanding a team now, who says they will come anytime soon? So he had to sweeten the pot and make it more likely that they would respond.”

A feeling of sudden concern filled him. “How would he do that?”

“By reporting the fact that he suspects that there is a Rogue in the area. One who might be stirring up the monsters by attacking their Lairs.”

Clay closed his eyes and groaned. “So if they do send someone, they are probably going to want to find me more than they will want to fight the monsters. Is that what you are saying?”

“You got it.” Herbert paused in his pacing, and he gave Clay a steady look. “Don’t be too upset. I’m not so sure they are wrong.”

“Oh really? I don’t see anyone else here fighting the monsters!”

The [Guard] spread his hands. “The baron had things more or less under control. He’d run through the woods every few weeks, make sure the small ones weren’t getting too big. That’s part of what he’s here for.”

Clay stepped forward. “Until one of them gets past him, maybe. Or he gets called away somewhere else.” When the [Guard] started to respond, Clay stepped up even closer and poked him in the chest. “Or what happens if the Undead in the Sarlwood had managed to kill him? Who would have kept it all under control when he—and maybe you—were in the ground?”

Herbert stared back at him. His jaw worked for a moment, and then he grimaced and looked away. “I get it. I do. It’s just…” He shook his head. “That scream… I’ve never heard anything like that.”

“It wasn’t a lot more pleasant up close.” Clay turned away. He finished putting down his sling and bow. The quivers joined the pile, and then the axe. Then he set his hands on the table, feeling yet another wave of exhaustion crash over him. “If he hears more screams, will the baron catch on to the fact that it’s me?”

The [Guard] stared at him, his face stamped with a mix of shock and horror. “You’re going to do it again? But…”

“I’m going to do what has to be done.” Clay looked at him, still hunched over the table. “Will he think it’s me?”

Herbert stared at him for another long minute. Then he shook his head. “No. The baron put you here so that he could keep an eye on you. Maybe make Charles worried enough about you so that he comes home. He knows you’re a [Commoner]. He doesn’t think you’re involved. If anything, he was glad I came out here to check on you.”

“Good.” Clay pushed himself back upright, meeting the [Guard]’s eyes. “Thank you for coming by, Herbert. I think I’d like to rest tonight though. I’ll see you later.”

The man’s expression hardened, but he nodded, and turned away. He left, banging the door shut behind him. A moment later, the sound of hooves on the road told Clay that Herbert would not bother him—at least for the rest of the night.

Grateful for that brief respite, he staggered over to the bedroll and fell into it. The problems he was facing could wait for another day. For now, he needed to rest.

The next day, Clay found himself on Scout’s Hill, watching the monsters move and failing to come up with anything approaching a plan. Every idea he came up with seemed to end the same way in his mind; either he was impaled by a long, deadly limb, or yanked screaming into the air to be webbed and drained of life. Neither option appealed to him.

In his frustration, he brought up his [Gift], looking for any kind of clue for what he should do.

[Clay Evergreen]

[Class: Commoner] {Level 4} (All Stats have a maximum of 19)

[Subclass: Laborer (Gain 10% bonus to all skills when performing repetitive tasks)]

[Soul: 210/400]

[Stats] {Might: 19} {Fortitude: 18} {Insight: 17} {Memory: 19} {Valor: 18} {Will: 19}

[Experiences]

{Farmhand: Gain 10% bonus to all skills when performing Farming activities. Gain Planting, Harvesting, and Husbandry skills.}

{Hunter: Gain 10% bonus to all skills when hunting wildlife. Gain Trapping and Tracking skills.}

{Slayer: Gain 10% bonus to all skills when hunting monsters.}

{Forrester: Gain 5% bonus to all skills inside of a forested area. Gain extra 15% bonus to the Tracking skill in a forested area.}

{Watcher: Gain Analysis Skill. Gain 10% bonus to Tracking skill}

{Ambusher: Gain Hide Skill. Gain 10% bonus to all attacks from hiding. Gain 10% bonus to Trapping skill.}

{Exterminator: Gain double the bonus from all Bane Achievements.}

{Determined: Fatigue lessened by 10%. Wounds heal 5% faster. Gain 10% bonus to repetitive or familiar activities.}

[Achievements]

{Spiderbane: 20% increase to all skills and damage against spiders. Bonus increases to 40% versus Mantrap Spiderlings, Troll Spiderlings, Mature Mantrap Spiders, and Mature Troll Spiders.}

{Corpsebane: 5% increase to all skills and damage against Undead. Bonus increases to 10% versus Rotted Levies and Wretched Corporals.}

He didn’t receive any inspiration from the writing displaying his [Gift], which was frustrating. How had he managed to come so far, and yet not have anything that he could use against this threat? The only relevant information was that he’d need nearly two hundred Soul in order to reach the next level, a fact that guaranteed that he would need to kill at least four more elder spiders. Unfortunately, he had no idea how he was going to do that.

Frustrated, he looked out over the valley and watched another elder spider dive on something beneath it. He could picture being on the receiving end of that dive all too easily. Another spider was idly twisting back and forth over a patch of webbed trees. Clay almost thought he could see the webs darting down to help it change direction.

He had to think about what he was facing. How had he eventually killed the thing before?

For one thing, he’d kept it from leaping away into the sky. Once he had gotten in close, he’d been able to batter away at the spider’s legs and keep out of its sight. It hadn’t been able to use the spinner quickly enough to catch him, and as its legs crumbled, he could attack it with impunity. Evading its attacks by staying out of sight was crucial, and grounding it was just as important.

So he needed to stay hidden while it was at a distance, but still draw it in so that he could kill it. Not too hard of a task, right?

Clay sat back, frustrated. Maybe he would have had more options if he hadn’t spent so long memorizing the cursed [Chants]. He grunted and shook his head. It wasn’t a fair thought. After all, he’d assumed the poison would have been everything he’d need. Even if he had ignored the [Chants] completely, he just would have ended up in exactly the same place.

As it was, he had five [Chants] that he could use consistently. Heart’s Light let him create a light wherever he needed. Firm Step allowed him to stay still on uneven ground as long as he didn’t move. Spontaneous Spark could light a fire for him, but it wasn’t the kind of thing that would let him kill an elder troll spider. Nor was Cycle of Return, which summoned an item he had dropped back to his hand, or Pure Touch, which could clean filth from a surface or cloth. Perhaps the more potent [Chants] were still locked behind higher levels of [Memory], but he was currently at the maximum for it at his level.

Clay scrubbed his face with his hands for a moment. The situation was infuriating. To gain more spells, he needed to level up, but to kill the spiders to level up, he needed better options. How was he supposed to get around it? It wasn’t like any of the spells he had could reach up and pull the things from the sky. To be honest, they were all next to useless in a combat situation. Firm Step was probably the worst; it was nice to be able to stay standing on a steep surface, but whenever he used it, he couldn’t walk or even lift a foot. What use was good footing if you couldn’t move at all…

He paused for a moment, watching as one of the elder spiders dove on something out of sight beneath the trees. The spider must have spat its web at something; he saw a struggling bundle jerked into the sky and into the elder spider’s grasp. Clay’s eyes narrowed for a moment, thinking things over. An idea occurred to him, and he turned back towards home. It was a little crazy, but it was better than nothing.

Clay stood on the table and hauled on the cord. The bundle of wood wrapped in the other end of the cord lifted slowly and surely. He grunted with the effort, but he kept going until it was at the level where he could settle it on the table next to him.

Once that was done, he got down off of the table and tied the cord around himself, just under his armpits. He tugged on the cord a little, making sure it was tight. Then he drew in a breath and grabbed a small stick. Clay used it to push the bundle of wood off of the table.

The cord immediately snapped tight as the wood plunged to earth. It yanked Clay off of his feet, where he was forced to kick in the air for a few moments until he could get a foot back on the table. He managed to shift himself over enough to get a bit of slack on the rope, which was quite a bit of relief. Then he started trying to untie the knot; the tension on the rope had pulled it tight, and the loop around his chest was just a little too constricting around him.

“This is…not what I would have expected from you, Clay.”

The voice startled him, and when he twisted around to see who it was, he slipped off the table. He ended up suspended in midair, once again kicking his feet as he swung back and forth. Clay felt his face grow hot as he realized who had talked to him in the first place. “O-Olivia! I didn’t…think…Hold on, I just…”

She seemed to be trying not to laugh. “Perhaps you require some assistance?”

“No, no, I’ve almost…got it…” His foot made contact with the table, but he ended up pushing himself away from it. Clay nearly cursed, but at least the rope swung him back over the table, and he landed more squarely on it the second time. “See? I got it.”

“Yes. I see.” Olivia approached, still biting her lip for some reason. “I’m… not sure I understand what you are doing.”

“Just testing something out.” Clay felt his face burning from embarrassment still, so he turned and started yanking on the rope to haul the load of wood up again. “I need to make sure of something before I hunt down the next big one. The last time it was… a little too complicated.”

“So that was you.” Olivia’s voice grew a little more sober. “I had wondered if something went wrong. You hadn’t come to the village in some time.”

“Yeah, sorry. I guess the time just slipped away from me.” He scratched at his head, and then pushed the pile of wood over to the table again. Then he stepped down again, feeling the rope draw tight around his chest again. “I hope you weren’t too worried?”

“I was… concerned.” Olivia looked away toward the Tanglewood. “Next time, after something like that, I would appreciate a visit. Just to… reassure me you have not met some unfortunate end.”

Clay grimaced and scratched at the back of his head. “Uh, yeah, sure. I’ll remember that.” Then he looked over at the pile of wood. “Though hopefully it won’t be as bad the next time. Let’s see if this works.”

He lowered his head and reached back into his mind for the [Chant] of the Firm Step. The words came with some difficulty, but they came. It took him half a minute to say it, but when he completed it, he felt the solidity of the spell settle over him. No matter what kind of surface he was standing on, he wouldn’t slip or fall.

Keeping the spell firm in his mind, Clay turned to the pile of wood. He reached out with the stick and prodded the pile, shifting it so that it would once again tumble from the table. The cord once again snapped tight, yanking upward around his chest the same way it had before.

Then it stopped, with the pile of wood suspended in the air. Clay grunted, feeling a bit of pain in his chest as the cord fought to lift him from his feet. The [Chant] kept him on the ground, however, as if his feet were anchored in the soil. He felt the pain slowly increase as the weight fought against the strength of the [Chant], but he refused to give in to it. It slowly increased, however, until it finally became agonizing.

Finally, he gave in, and let the [Chant] go. The cord finally pulled him from his feet, leaving him once again suspended in midair. He sighed, as much as the cord around his chest allowed him, and kicked out for the table again.

{Insight increases by 1!}

“Here. Allow me.” Olivia pushed him slightly over until his feet could find purchase. Clay glanced down at her and smiled.

“Thanks!” He felt a burst of enthusiasm. It had worked! Then he coughed into his hand and started in on the knot. “I think that was a good test. We’ll have to see how things go the next time I go after one of the big ones.”

“Do you need assistance again?” Olivia tilted her head to look up at him and then hiked up her robes to join him on the table. She brushed aside his hands and set about undoing the knot herself. It seemed to resist her for a bit while he stood there, uncertain of what to say or do. Clay gave a brief sigh of gratitude when the cord finally loosened.

“Thank you, Olivia. I mean it.” He rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment, and she glanced up at him in surprise. She seemed shocked, and Clay yanked his hand back. Had he overstepped? “If I make it through the next fight, it’ll be thanks to all the help you’ve given me.”

She looked away and blushed. “It was…nothing, Clay. I only hoped to do what I could.”

“Well, it has meant a lot to me. Thank you again.” He turned and started hauling up the load of wood again. There was one more test he wanted to do, and he especially wanted to practice it until he could do it perfectly. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No. I just wanted to make sure that all was well.” Olivia stepped down from the table, moving carefully. “You will have to let me know what the purpose of all this is once you are able to.”

“I will. Good fortune, Olivia!” He waved to her, and she gave him a shy smile. Then she turned to head towards town. Clay watched her go for a while, then turned back to make sure the pile was firmly on the table. He retied the cord around himself, trying to make sure it wouldn’t be quite so tight this time. When it was ready, he picked up his bow, which he had set to one side of the table.

He smiled as he drew and sighted on a target at the far end of the field. The spiders wouldn’t know what had hit them this time.

For the next two days, Clay fell back into the pattern of normal farm life in the morning, and attacking the adult spiders in the afternoons. He stayed well away from the areas where the elder troll spiders were patrolling. They were still agitated, straying outside of their old patterns as they searched for whatever threat had killed their fellow monster. The last thing that he wanted was to try to take them on as a group, and he wanted them to stop being so alert.

Of course, he also wanted to keep robbing them of their lesser guards. If he could make the elder spiders patrol farther out, get them more isolated, maybe it would mean they wouldn’t come to each other’s aid so quickly. Besides, wiping out the occasional spider nest or perch did wonders for restoring his confidence.

Once he’d cleared out a place or two, he returned home to practice the techniques he wanted to use against his next elder spider target, going over the [Chant] of the Firm Step again and again. He was only going to get one chance to test it; if he messed it up at the wrong time, he would not make it out alive very easily. Just in case, he put more effort into practicing the other [Chants] as well. It wasn’t likely that they would be useful in the fight to come, but there was always a possibility, and he didn’t want to miss it.

Then, the third day, Clay moved into the Tanglewood with a purpose. He’d already picked out his target, one of the elder spiders that ranged a bit further to the north than the others, and one that seemed more willing to strike out at targets along the ground. He hoped it would make it harder for the others to come for its aid, and that he’d be able to make the spiders think their threat was coming from a different direction than his home.

Soon enough, just after midday, he stood in the middle of a fairly open clearing, just west of a thick stand of cottonwood trees. The wind was blowing a little harder than usual from the east; he wondered if the dark clouds on the horizon would mean a storm was coming in. If so, he needed to get this done quickly; even if the spiders remained airborne during a rainstorm, he wasn’t enthusiastic about his chances of hitting them in foul weather.

He tested the tension on his hunting bow, feeling the tautness of the string beneath his fingers. Clay had one of the broadhead shafts nocked; the wooden arrows had failed him last time, and he needed to be sure that whatever he hit the spider with at first was both enough to do real damage and enough to get the thing’s attention immediately.

Clay watched the eastern sky, framed by the branches of the cottonwoods, and waited. The spider had passed by, headed east a while ago; that meant it would be coming this way shortly. There wouldn’t be any other spiders to speak of aside from this one; he’d spent the previous day killing off a pair of troll spider perches and a mantrap nest to make sure they wouldn’t be able to interfere. Now all there was to do was watch.

There was a shape in the sky, a glimmer of spidersilk, and Clay knew it was time.

He started the [Chant] of the Firm Step, a spell name he now believed that Olivia might have mistranslated. It was hard to blame her, given that it was in an ancient language he still couldn’t understand, and as brilliant as she was, it wasn’t like anyone was tutoring her in spellcraft. Perhaps Anchored Step might have fit better, but then again, who was to say that the old adventurers had even used it this way?

While he was partway through the spell, he drew the bowstring back, tracking the path of the incoming elder troll spider. It hung beneath its gossamer sheet of spidersilk, its bulbous eyes searching for targets. The thing was moving fast, just as he’d suspected it would. He’d seen the monsters cover a truly nightmarish amount of ground in their patrols. It would make escape nearly impossible if he ran for it now.

Not that he intended to.

Clay waited for the monster to draw closer, even as he came to the end of the [Chant]. Firm Step settled over him again, a familiar and comforting stability that he could feel in his core. It sung in strange counterpoint to the tension and strain of the bowstring under his fingers, and the way his eyes needed to trace the path of his target across the sky. The contrast might have made him fumble the spell and release it, or distracted him enough to miss the shot, but the past two days had given him plenty of time to practice the situation.

He was ready. It was time.

Clay loosed, letting the arrow shoot high into the air in a deadly, graceful arc. He watched it go, tossing aside his bow and reaching for the boar spear, which stood upright with its butt in the dirt next to him. The arrow flew true to its target, striking the monster square on the body. Despite the distance, he saw the monster jerk and shift around, immediately searching for the prey that dared to attack it.

He saw it stiffen as it spotted him. Clay smiled at it, wanting it to see his confidence. His defiance.

It reacted instantly. The screech echoed over the forest. Clay winced a little as he pictured the reaction of the people in town. Hopefully, the initial scream hadn’t been the one they had heard, but he couldn’t be sure. He’d need to check with Olivia or Herbert later.

Then it twisted slightly, holding onto the sheet with two pairs of legs while it brought its spinner around to bear on him. The glide became a sudden dive as it came for him, ready to snatch him up and away, a new bundle of screaming meat for consumption.

Clay braced himself, trying to settle deeper into the spell’s strength. It was going to hurt; he knew that, but it would be so, so worth it—

The web almost took him by surprise, despite expecting it. It was a wet, sticky impact that hit him square in the chest, instantly bonding with both his shirt and the skin beneath it. He saw the trailer of silvery thread tracing back to the elder spider’s spinner, saw it tensing to yank him skyward for death. Fear filled him a little, but he refused to let it break his concentration. There was a heartbeat of hesitation, a pause between breaths.

Then the pain tore through him. It was as if something was trying to pull the very skin from his bones, and it was all he could do to hold his place. Firm Step was the only thing that kept him on the ground, and for one terrifying heartbeat, he thought that either the spell would fail, or it would rip his body in half.

Yet neither happened. There was a distant snapping sound, and a startled, fearful squeak. He looked up through a haze of pain, and saw the elder spider tumbling through the air, the tattered remnants of the sheet flying free as it accidentally yanked itself from the sky.

{Fortitude increases by 1!}

Clay felt a burst of victory as he watched it frantically try to reorient itself. Had it leaped on its own, or had it been higher in the sky, it might have recovered. It had already been diving, however, and the sudden loss of the threads it needed to glide was too much of a shock. The spider did manage to cut the thread attached to him and even flipped itself halfway over.

Then it hit the stand of cottonwood trees, still tumbling and disoriented. Branches snapped under its weight, and limbs cracked as they flailed through the canopy. The spider began an aborted screech, one that cut off with a gasp when its body slammed into a trunk. He saw two of its thin limbs snap off completely, cartwheeling away through the bushes and undergrowth, even as the spider itself came to a rolling stop just inside the trees.

He released the [Chant] and staggered forward, every muscle in his body now burning. Every part of him ached from the strain of resisting the thing’s pull, but he couldn’t waste this chance. It had to be stunned. Maybe it was even mortally wounded already, but if it wasn’t, he couldn’t let it scream again to summon help. The monster had to die now.

It was still just stirring as Clay approached it. None of its limbs looked like they were intact, but only three of them looked shattered, aside from the two that were missing. The stumps and broken legs still scrabbled at the dirt weakly, and the bulbous eyes, while dull with obvious pain, were still fixed on him with clear malice.

He smiled at it as he drove the boar spear straight into its head.

The notification appeared on the third stab, but even without it, he could have told that it was dead by the way it suddenly went limp. It hadn’t had the time or the strength to scream again, at the very least.

{Elder Troll Spider slain! Soul increases by 60}

Clay gave it one last stab out of spite and then veered northwest. He paused only to collect his bow, and then he was running through the forest again, hoping that none of the others were close on his heels. Despite that fear, it was hard to deny the rising feeling of triumph in his heart. Another monster was down, and in the days to come, many more would follow.

One way or the other, the Tanglewood was going to be free.