Master Of None

2175  2175. Broken Strings

'Shadow string tarantula

Known for moving between elemental planes so that it can make better nests and traps for weaker elemental prey, the shadow string tarantula is rarely even seen. All due to the fact that it uses a very minimal amount of light mana to create shadows that it hides in with its dark mana. While it appears to only be a dual elemental affinity monster, it actually has a very minor space affinity. Because of this, it unknowingly is able to easily traverse all elemental planes and even safely move between them. However, this is all a passive affinity that it does not actively control. It will use the light and darkness mana to make somewhat invisible webs that trap prey within them. Then it will crawl from the shadows it poisons to them with its venom. This causes them to bleed away their manas rapidly so that the left behind body can be consumed by the shadow string tarantula.

It is known as the shadow string tarantula because it always leaves a shadow hidden string behind so that it can retrace its steps. This is how some monsters are able to hunt it. However, they are more likely to fall in to a trap than become the predator of this situation. As the shadow string tarantula grows, they develop many shadow hairs on their bodies which allows them to better hide. This is because their proper adult form will often become very large. So much so that the eldest of the shadow string tarantulas are known to take over entire small elemental planes as their nests. When this occurs, they will often lay hundreds of eggs within the center of that elemental plane giving birth to a new elemental variant of their species. This is why some of the more intelligent beings will use these monsters as the ideal pets to take over smaller elemental planes and harvest the elemental manas from them…'

The information about the weak monster laying crumpled after being experimented on by the immortal king was a lot to take in. Walker felt terrible to see that this was another monster, another living creature that became a victim. Worse off yet, this was a rare monster that was very seldom seen because of its reclusive nature. Beyond that, it was here to look for its new home to eventually lay eggs. While Walker was sure that they would have fought this monster if they encountered it, that did not change the fact that there was a lot to show that there was a wrong committee here. The party would have fought this monster for survival and used every single part of its body to help others or become stronger. That method of thinking was what every adventurer or being should think. It was survival and growth. It was respect for those that were true. Leaving bodies and other aspects of the ones that someone fought was considered insulting and terrible. The elves lived and breathed this along with the echidna who also used everything they could if they hinted. Even more purely than what many others did. The immortal king had stained all the growth and work that this shadow string tarantula had gone through to get where it was today. Even worse, he had left some weaker skeletons to kill it the rest of the way after the immortal king failed to make it an undead. Instead just torturing it. "It wanted that space mana, didn't he?" Gil wasn't hiding that he had caught the same fact in the explanation of this monster while they watched midnight turn the skeletons in to nothing but shards. "I would guess so. The immortal king uses all elemental manas and was even able to use natural mana to some how separate his soul from the tower he was trapped in. I assume he wanted space mana to more easily move toward whatever he senses." This was pretty clear to Walker. The more that they pursued the immortal king, the more that they all understood him. The immortal king was obsessive. For him, he had spent years and years experimenting for immortality. Then he had spent years and years beyond years to discover a way out of the tower. Now, he focused on making the perfect body to reign over death mana. He was a monster through and through. Even if there were immortal chasing race members alive, they would not be able to see this monster as one of them. Regardless of their own cruel intentions, this was a monster. Or at least that was what Walker hoped was the case. He truly hoped that the immortal chasing race would be one of the few races that actually remained extinct. Midnight slashed through the skeletons with her claws channeling wind mana. She had been acclimating to manas much better showing off her own condensation of purer manas within her hearts. Because of this, she had not needed to draw manas from her surroundings as much as she used to. Instead, she had them within her at all times. The slight mixing of natural mana within her hearts also made Walker proud to say that she had begun to grasp things he had hoped for her to learn for some time. She hadn't hidden that she wanted to keep up with the way that walker understood elemental manas. Now she might become a new form of nature dragon champion. His mind didn't have time to lean on that thought though. Right now, he was able to move near the barely alive shadow string tarantula and sense the life mana within it. "Its legs are all broken. The hairs were stolen from its body. Its fangs are cracked, and it's blinded in four eyes. You have chased a criminal without equal in to our balanced homes." From the way that the light devourer dragon spoke, he had accepted the truth of the immortal king. An evil monster that should not be. The demon king had been entirely different compared to the immortal king. He had been driven by madness and emotion. A broken heart caused by the immortal chasing race. The immortal king was unfeeling and cruel to everything in existence because to him it was all a tool to make him more powerful in any potential way. "You are right. And we will erase him once and for all. But we can save this one. Let it have a second chance." The light devouring dragon flinched away as Su spoke. What he did not know, was that Su had seen grave injuries healed by the healers in battle. Had seen manas used to rebuild entire limbs. Right now, this poor monster was born and on an edge before the abyss of death. To any sane person, this was the end. But to Su, who had seen the unsettling dangers of battle, this was just what she could help manage. "I hear you. Gil, use a light arrow on the ground here to bring more healing light mana in to the air. Midnight, support Onyx in protecting us if anything happens. Remey, healing potion watered down to be used on bandages." Walker cracked his knuckles while he reached out to the life mana within the shadow web tarantula. While multiple light dragonoids and the light devouring dragon watched, they saw that the party was all working together to ensure that nothing interrupted the whaling process. The shadow string tarantula was too weak to even move while the party moved. Walker reached out using the life mana that he had tapped in to before. His focus on healing was within the monster's body. Bringing the natural healing to a higher rate using stored nutrients within the body. Remey soaked bandages that Su began to use on the open wounds. Especially the broken legs which flinched away due to pain slightly. However, the pain and flinching slowly stopped as the legs were straightened out. The monster finally realized that it was not being attacked any longer. It could also sense the intentions within the manas that were being used on it. Not cruelty or probing. Kindness and warmth. Gil release done for the light arrows, this was one of the arrows that caused healing effects instead of damage, an odd and often not useful light arrow that was finally being used better than it had been before. The light mana around had a natural healing effect while Walker channeled that mana in to his healing skills which also mixed it with life mana. The effects were slow, but clear. To bring this even further, Onyx had also released some of the dark mana he had gathered up since he fought earlier. It flowed to the shadow string tarantula to replenish its strength. In just an hour of their hard work, the shadow string tarantula had changed from the crumpled nearly dead being it was to a slumbering partially healed monster on a road to recovery.  .…

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…. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om