Three more minutes on the potion. He should be able to finish it in that time.
Ashton immediately started spinning around his staff and channelled the wisp. But instead of shooting it straight at the spider, he had the wisp slam into the ground as he also channelled the gnome. Like this, the wisp simply absorbed some of the asphalt.
The wisp was much heavier than before, but was a bit harder to manoeuvre than before. However, this increased the force of its impacts considerably. For a little while, Ashton kept the elemental in the ground and started to build some force in his staff. Really, he was just trying to spin it with one of his hands, while using his other hand to block that spin. By the time the spider came close enough, and the gambler had ducked away, Ashton finally snapped his staff up and with that, the wisp shot up from the ground and hit the spider on the underside of its thorax.
Ashton could hear something crack already, but it clearly wasn't enough. The spider jumped to the side, trying to avoid any further of these hidden attacks. That worked out pretty well for Ashton. If the spider hadn't jumped out of the way, Ashton would have used the sylph to help push him to the side. The gusts of wind that he could create with the air elemental were shockingly strong and could help create that initial jolt of movement.
Immediately, Ashton continued spinning his staff around, hitting the massive spider again and again using the earthen wisp. Its chitin started cracking all over, but these big guys were so strong that this wasn't close to enough to take it down.
"Poppy?" Ashton said, and the pixie already knew what to do. She quickly used her ability and Ashton was immediately enveloped by a magical flower that, albeit slightly, boosted his speed stat.
And when she used it, a message finally popped up.
[Contract | Flower Pixie - Level 1 -> Flower Pixie - Level 2]
Contracts levelled up the more a summon's abilities were used, and until now, Poppy had only used her magic three or four times. He should really use her a lot more, but it seemed to be quite straining for her to use that magic, so he had held back. But now that she levelled up, he should be able to use the buff more often. Plus, over the next few levels, the strength of the buff would also increase.
But for now, this was fine. Ashton essentially had 18 speed now, basically 10 more than he had started out with. That was an immense boost.
He ran toward the giant spider and pushed his staff into the ground, practically vaulting up onto the monster's back. With his current stats, though it was still a little awkward to do, Ashton could do these things relatively easily.
However, when he landed on the spider's back, his foot pushed through the already-cracked carapace. At first, Ashton thought this was great, but then he realised that the spot where his foot sank in was surrounded by weirdly sturdy areas.
Essentially, Ashton was stuck.
"Uh-oh," he said with a wry smile, as the giant spider started trying to shake him off. Poppy and the elementals that could fly jumped off Ashton for safety, but the gnome just dug into one of his pockets to not be thrown-off.
Ashton started slamming down his staff onto the cracked back of the spider, specifically onto another spot that soon crumbled away. Like this, Ashton was able to at least help keep himself upright so that he wouldn't break his leg with the spider trying to shake him off.
While this was happening, Ashton continued to channel the earthen wisp with his hand, and tried to make it slam down onto the free end of the staff, so that he could basically push it down further into the spider's body.
However, every single time he tried, he kept on missing. The wisp did continue hitting the spider's body itself, so at least it didn't look like he was messing up, but this must all look a lot more sloppy than he would like.
He guessed chaos like this did just end up looking a bit sloppy at times. But that was fine, it didn't matter.
He just had to try and stop the spider for a single moment so that he could properly aim the wisp.
And so, instead of the wisp, for a moment he controlled the Sylph. The small sparrow was perched on a nearby traffic light. Ashton quickly channelled the elemental and started gathering as much wind as he could. Since air was probably the most readily available element in this situation, the bottleneck was more about how much of it Ashton could actually handle at once. Since the mass of air was actually quite little, the sheer volume that he could pull in couldn't be compared to what he could control through the gnome, either.
It required a bit of concentration, but soon, Ashton gathered together a good bit and kept twisting it around. It was basically a small tornado, picking up dust and fallen leaves off the ground. After a few seconds, Ashton managed to gather enough air, and forced it all together as much as he could. His fist was starting to hurt with how tightly it was pressed together.
Stolen story; please report.
But then, once it was compressed enough, Ashton pulled the wind closer, right underneath the giant spider's body. And then, waiting for the exact right moment, Ashton splayed his fingers and pulled his flat hand upward. The magical gust of wind pushed up on the underside of the spider and stopped it from moving for just a moment, which was enough for Ashton to make the wisp slam down onto the other end of his staff.
Like he was hammering in a stake, the staff was pushed into the car-sized abdomen, and specifically tore into its heart. It struggled for a few more moments, but soon...
[You have killed an [Arachnid]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 28 Coins]
[Contract | Lesser Sylph - Level 2 -> Lesser Sylph - Level 3]
[Contract | Lesser Wisp - Level 6 -> Lesser Wisp - Level 7]
The spider's body slammed down onto the ground, and Ashton could finally pull out his foot. With just a slight hop, he got back to the ground and smiled broadly.
"I guess that worked out pretty well," he pointed out, as Poppy and the elementals came flying back over to him. The undine flowed past his cheek for a moment, and the Sylph perched on the end of Ashton's staff. Poppy just sat back down on top of his head as well.
For now, though, Ashton just looked inward. The effect of the potion was over now. That really was extremely wild. He really should make sure to head back to the school and get himself another one, though. Ashton definitely wouldn't use it again right away, but at the very least, it was good to have on hand.
All things considered, his luck was actually pretty good this time around. He had gotten an epic item and met someone with a pretty niche, but useful, class.
On the other hand... he had gotten hurt a lot more than he would have liked, and the pen of insight still hadn't woken back up, either. Ashton was actually extremely worried about it.
But for now, Ashton turned away and headed toward the spot where he saw the Gambler head to earlier. Right now, she wasn't really hiding anymore. Rather, she was just standing there with her mouth agape.
"You actually just killed that giant thing all on your own... without hesitation, either," she said with a wry, confused smile. Ashton shrugged and smiled.
"Mhm, I did. But it's actually not that big a deal. If you know what you're doing, living things die a lot more easily than you would think," he explained, "Anyway, would you be available to talk real quick after all?"
The gambler slowly nodded. She still seemed hesitant, but was obviously much more open to talking to him than before. "Sure. But... I need to ask you a few things as well."
Ashton thought for a moment, and then nodded, "Sounds good. Let's go with this. I'll start harvesting some stuff from that Arachnid, and you keep an eye out to make sure we're not ambushed. And then, we just take turns asking each other questions."
"Harvest? What do you mean?" the woman looked over at the spider, clearly trying to figure out what you could possibly get from that, and Ashton just laughed as he turned around.
"Let's just take that as your first question," he said, and the woman slowly agreed. Ashton clicked his finger and had the Backpacker give him his knife as he walked over to the massive monster. "Essentially, the monsters that are roaming around here are treasure-troves if you know what you're looking for. Some of them have materials that are great for potions, others have amazing, nutritious meat, and most importantly, almost all of them have magic stones. They might not be useful just yet, but they're an incredibly important material for anyone that uses magic in any capacity."
The woman's eyes widened, "Did you say 'Magic Stones'?"
"... I'll let that count toward the first question, but yes. They're small crystals like these," Ashton said, channelling the Backpacker to select a small bag of magic stones. The spirit appeared and held the bag forward, and the woman take a look. She tried to reach out and grab the bag, but the Backpacker immediately threw them into their backpack again and then disappeared. "Sorry, I actually do happen to need these. Anyway, it's my turn now."
The woman slowly nodded, clearly a bit embarrassed. Ashton started tearing away at the chitin to be able to reach the spider's heart, and thought about what his first question should be. Though, no matter what, there was one that felt like the most important at this time.
"What's your name? I'm Ashton," he said with a smile, reaching his hand out toward the gambler.
She was still hesitant, but slowly shook Ashton's hand, "Nice to meet you. I'm Sabrina."
"Likewise. Your turn."
"... That's your question?"
"Mhm."
"Oh, uh, okay. Uhm... how did you know that I'm a Gambler?"
Ashton looked the woman up and down, "Well, as I said, you flipped the coin, and that's a Gambler's skill. Your outfit is also a dead giveaway. Plus, though I only just realised that a bit ago, we're pretty close to the casino, right? Walked past it the other day, but the whole spider infestation wasn't a thing yet."
"Okay, I guess, but... Do you know other 'Gamblers'? Is that how you know about the skills?"
Ashton just smiled up at her, "I did know some other gamblers in the past, yeah. There's none around here, though. But sorry, that's a question I can't get into too much detail with beyond this."
"What? But that's-"
"I said we'd ask each other questions, not that we have to answer all of them." He interrupted her, and Sabrina crossed her arms.
"Fine. Your turn, right?"
"Mhm. Where did you hear about Magic Stones before now?"
Sabrina smirked, and Ashton could practically read her mind. She was thinking that she would pay him back and not answer, but a moment of thinking later, she sighed and realised it would be better for her to answer, as well, "As you said, there's a casino nearby. I was actually in there when everything happened. Was stuck in there for a while, and only left when the first main quest started..." She grimaced slightly, as if remembering something horrible, "I was the only one that managed to kill some of those goblins, and then came back before the rest. When I did, I realised that there were three new machines in there. One of them seemed to take those 'coins' that I got, and I just kind of... used them all on it, and got my class like that. But one of the other ones was asking for 'Magic Stones'."
Ashton was surprised. That was also a new thing that he hadn't heard about in Lumia, but that was great. Really great, actually.
"I'm guessing they're still working, too.
"I think so... I had to leave after a while, when the guys came back and..." Sabrina held a hand in front of her face, "Some of the people that went out after me were missing, and the rest that did come started acting really weird, so I left, figuring I was safer outside. I tried going back, but then I saw all the spiders huddling around the casino, and..."
"Wait, what? So you're saying... the casino is the nest?"
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