Chapter 41 - 41: 1 Hour Before (2)
'W… why is nothing happening!?'
Van's eyes started to shake as he could not feel anything happening, and the Yellow Crystal that was on his forehead was not even glowing or doing anything. His SP was about to run out any second now, he needed to use his superspeed wisely if he wanted it to last.
His eyes wandered towards the two gigantic spiders that were slowly approaching him as his panic once again started to rise. He was sure that if he did not have [Time Perception] on, he would have already drowned with his own sweat.
'Come on! Come on!', his superspeed fluctuated as he tried to absorb the crystal, but no matter how much he wills it, nothing was still happening with the crystal.
'I… I am not dying here!', he bellowed in his mind as he slammed the crystal on his forehead, to that he saw the blood coming out of his forehead floating in the air. He could already feel his vision starting to darken as his fatigue was reaching its limit.
[SP 6/38]
'F*ck, f*ck!', his eyes once again started to tremble. Just a few seconds now and his [Time Perception] skill would run out. After that, he had to try his best to avoid the spiders with his superspeed alone. But seeing as he could not focus that much due to the pain that was crawling around his entire body, he might as well slam himself to the wall and get this over with.
His chest was starting to feel like something was pinning down on it as his SP was reaching its minimum. Van once again turned his eyes towards the spiders as he slightly crawled away. They were only a few meters away from him. Once his SP runs out, the two would surely mangle his body into pieces.
[SP 2/38]
Frenzy instantly appeared in Van's eyes as he roared.
"F*ck this!", he roared as he opened his mouth and swallowed the Yellow Crystal whole. He definitely felt his throat being cut by the crystal as it went down, but even so, his eyes remained in frenzy as he grit his teeth in pain.
"I… am not dying here!", his loud scratchy voice echoed throughout the cave as his SP completely ran out.
The arachnes were alarmed with Van's sudden roar, but it only lasted for a few seconds before they once again approached the defenseless looking boy. But then as they were about to pierce him with their sharp and pointed legs, Van's body started to vibrate, his body moving on the ground due to the strong vibrations.
But this wasn't enough to deter the two hungry beasts as they quickly raised their legs in unison. And without pause, their legs thrust towards the defenseless boy.
However, right before their sharp and pointed legs could make a barbecue out of the boy, they stopped. No, perhaps it was more appropriate to say that time… slowed down.
Van let out a deep breath as he stared at the 2 sharp legs that were about to penetrate his body. He could not help but gulp as he realized that the sharp end of their legs were only inches away from him. And so, with his eyebrows slightly raised, he carefully grabbed one of the legs as he slowly pushed himself and got up.
He felt his muscles aching due to the sudden change in attributes, but since he could already move, he would just grit his teeth and try to ignore the pain as much as he could.
And with one final deep breath, Van grabbed the leg he was holding with both hands and forcefully moved back, completely tearing the spider's leg off from its body.
Seeing the bits and pieces of the spider's leg slowly exploding, Van could not help but laugh as he continued to back run back. And with a laugh, he once again rushed towards the arachne and lodged its own leg through its eye.
And without pause, he pulled the leg off and proceeded to penetrate the other arachne's eyes as well, not giving them time to retaliate as he ran to the distance before finally turning off his [Time Perception] skill.
He didn't let down his guard as he carefully focused his attention around him while watching the gigantic spiders squirm on the ground. But even after the life was completely snuffed out of the two spiders, Van still did not let down his guard.
It was only after a few seconds had passed that he fell to the ground butt first as a huge sigh of relief was released from his body. He momentarily closed his eyes before rotating his leg which previously had a huge hole in it.
"The crystal also healed my wounds?", he muttered as he also checked his arm. What luck, he thought. He was aware that the Crystals could give you experience to level up and also replenish your SP, but healing his wounds? Maybe he missed it during class when he was still too busy trying to read what was on the board.
Finally being able to relax, Van quickly checked the changes in his Status Window. His mind was in disarray earlier, not to mention he was completely panicking. So that's why…
'System Window'
[Base Lv. 2 -> 6 EXP: 113/1600, System Lv. 3 -> 5 EXP: 56/500
HP: 209/210 | SP: 35/39
STR: 10 -> 50 | (Atk: 16 -> 117+0)
AGI: ??? | (Speed: ???)
VIT: 20 | (Max HP: 210, Def: 8 -> 24 +0)
INT: 5 | (Max SP : 38 -> 39, MAtk: 14+0)
HP Regen: 5 | SP Regen: 1
Status Points left: 0 ]
He kind of placed everything in STR. Now that he was thinking straight, he definitely should have distributed some to INT so that he could use his [Time Perception] more and won't be put in life threatening situations such as what happened earlier ever again.
As Van was busy checking on his stats, a series of chittering whispered through his ears. Van immediately closed his System Window and threw the spider leg he was currently holding to the ground. He then pulled out a new leg from the slightly melted corpse near him. He did not want to repeat what happened to his gaff when it snapped in half.
Van could not help but take a deep breath as the source of the chitterings revealed themselves. It started with 1, then it became 5. All coming from the corner nonstop, arachne of different sizes.
Van couldn't really bother to count anymore as he activated his [Time Perception] and quickly rushed towards the first one before it could even see him.
And… that's what happened. He was able to defeat all of them, his SP once again almost depleted completely as he used his [Air Step] for the first time to get on top of an arachne and kill it from above with the leg of its dead comrade.
After that, he saw another face and instinctively rushed towards it, only to find out that it was actually a human called Nisha and not a spider-human.
And so, that brings the story to conclusion.
"So… what exactly happened here?", Scott planted his shield to the ground as he sat on a nearby boulder.
"...It was like this when I got here", Van nonchalantly said as he stood up and dusted off his pants. He didn't really tell the story of what happened to him to the members of the 7-Headed Cerberus guild, he just quietly recalled it in his mind.
"What?", Nisha could not help but raise an eyebrow as she heard Van's answer, "But when we saw you, you were on top of an arachne, creepily laughing by yourself!"
"I like spiders", Van said nonchalantly, without even batting an eyelid.
"..."