The ice was slowly melting, mixing with the goblins' still-warm blood, forming a reddish pool around the lifeless bodies. Aria leaned slightly forward, catching her breath. Her mana was almost depleted, and the slight tension in her shoulders made it obvious.
"For a first real fight, that was pretty impressive. Too bad you underestimated the strength of that goblin at the end," I said as I slowly approached her.
Aria lifted her head, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her sleeve.
"It wasn't actually my first fight. I had already fought wolves and other small monsters back in my native forest."
I nodded, now better understanding her surprising skill despite her low level.
"I see. In any case, you did very well. You managed your mana smartly. Your transition between defense and offense was fluid, and you exploited openings without hesitation. You've got combat instinct and intelligence; those are important fundamentals. All you're missing is combat experience and levels."
He gently ruffled her hair with a faint smile tugging at his lips. Aria flushed instantly, surprised by the gesture, but didn't protest. On the contrary, she seemed to even enjoy it… if only for an instant. Then, realizing what she felt, she abruptly stepped back, turning her gaze away in embarrassment.
"Sorry. Let's take a short break so you can recover your mana. At least you weren't injured, so there's no need for healing potions."
She silently nodded and sat on a nearby rock, breathing slowly to recover her strength. Her tired eyes followed Logan's movements as he crouched by the goblin corpses. One by one, he began extracting their crystals the standard proof of subjugation required by the guild.
The gesture was mechanical, emotionless. Routine for him. But Aria watched in silence, perhaps witnessing for the first time the cold administrative reality of an adventurer's trade.
As he slipped the last crystals into his bag, Aria's ears suddenly twitched slightly.
She froze, alert.
"Logan."
"I know. Looks like the smell of blood attracted other monsters."
Rustling in the underbrush confirmed his words. A pack of wolves slowly emerged from the shadow of the trees, their fangs glinting in the shafts of sunlight filtering through the canopy. Their yellow eyes first fixed on the goblin bodies, then on them.
They were hungry. And numerous. He cast a glance at Aria.
"Do you feel ready to fight?"
She drew a deep breath, leapt to her feet, and nodded with determination.
"Yes."
A faint smile tugged at my lips.
"In that case, we'll split them half and half."
Logan and Aria stood back-to-back, readying themselves. The forest's silence was suddenly broken by the growls and the pounding steps of the wolves charging them from all directions.
For Logan, this had long since become routine; normal wolves hadn't been a threat to him in ages. In less than five minutes, he had already wiped out his half. Each of his moves was swift, precise, surgical. Stone spikes erupted from the ground, heads fell, bodies collapsed without even understanding what they were up against.
Aria, on the other hand, took longer about fifteen minutes. She dodged, countered, and placed her strikes methodically. She took calculated risks, improved her footwork, and corrected her mistakes as the fight went on. Her breathing was heavy, but she held firm. Her style, still raw, gained fluidity with every exchange.
Finally, the clearing fell silent once more. A pack of forty wolves now lay sprawled on the ground, lifeless.
"That wasn't even a warm-up. Do you feel ready to keep going, Aria?"
She straightened, still panting, but her gaze remained firm.
"I'm ready, even if I'm tired."
A slight smile crossed her face.
"That's the right attitude. In that case, let's keep pushing deeper into the forest."
Before leaving, they took the time to rest. Logan, ever methodical, set about skinning the fallen wolves, recovering hides and fangs for resale. Aria sat quietly on a rock, watching his efficient motions in silence, taking mental notes.
Once their break ended, they resumed their march, venturing deeper into the vast green expanse.
The further they advanced toward the center, the more the atmosphere changed. Sunlight struggled to pierce the thick canopy, and the air grew heavier, almost oppressive. Signs of monsters became more frequent—their tracks larger, claw marks deeper on the trunks. You could feel something prowling.
And unsurprisingly, the creatures they encountered were indeed stronger, faster, and smarter.
The true hunt was beginning.
"Shh!"
In front of her stood another High Goblin larger, more menacing than the last. But this time, Aria wasn't overwhelmed. With a swift motion, she lunged at him, carving deep gashes along his stomach. The monster roared in rage, its pain unleashing a blind fury of attacks.
But Aria had anticipated this. Taking advantage of its moment of loss of control, she stomped her foot against the ground. A thicker, sturdier layer of ice than she had conjured before spread beneath it, freezing the goblin's legs up to the calves.
It tried to thrash free, but this time the ice held firm. It realized too late that it was immobilized. A flash of steel swept by, and the High Goblin's head was already rolling across the ground, its eyes frozen in an expression of shock.
From the shadows of the trees, Logan silently observed. Arms crossed, he spoke only one sentence:
"Well done. You learned your lesson."
They resumed their march, pressing further into the hostile depths of the Circular Forest.
The goblins had now given way to High Goblins around level 30, well-armed and organized. Ordinary wolves had become silver wolves—faster, smarter, their fangs capable of breaking steel. And among the dense foliage and twisted trunks now appeared new threats: unknown monsters with grotesque silhouettes.
"Analyze."
Name: (Unspecified) | Race: Silver Spider | Age: (Unknown) | Profession: (None) | Level: 30
Vitality: 30 | Magic Power: 37 | Attack: 32 | Defense: 50 | Speed: 28 | Endurance: 31 | Agility: 37 | Intelligence: 25 | Strength: 33 | Willpower: 40
Skills: Fish Fang, Fish Fang, Sticky Thread Shot, Natural Camouflage, Silent Leap, Silk Trap
Unique Skills: Silver Thread, Silver Web Trap
Legendary Skills: (None)
Elements: (None)
Titles:
Silent Weaver
"Silver spiders have a very hard carapace. It takes considerable strength to injure them."
Aria now found herself surrounded by about fifteen of these creatures. Suspended from the thick branches, they moved with chilling ease, using the terrain to their advantage. Their long, bladed legs scraped the air, ready to strike at the slightest misstep.
But Aria wasn't at a disadvantage; she too knew how to play with height. Leaping from tree to tree with feline agility, she attempted a quick strike on one of the spiders, bringing her sword down with all her strength. The blade hit its carapace but barely made a scratch. She had underestimated their resilience.
She didn't have time to reposition: one spider's leg, fast as lightning, shot toward her and pierced her shoulder.
A muffled cry escaped her as she yanked herself free with a sharp movement, leaving a trail of blood behind. The pain was sharp, but she clenched her teeth.
Her gaze hardened. She wasn't going to run; she was preparing to counterattack.
For the first time, Aria tried something new. Taking a deep breath, she focused her mana into her right hand, channeling it along her arm. The elemental energy reacted instantly. A thin layer of frost began coating her blade, gradually thickening.
Within seconds, her entire sword was covered in ice. A white mist drifted from it, as if the air itself were freezing around the weapon. A biting cold radiated from it, ready to freeze any enemy.
Aria's eyes rose back toward the spiders. This time… she was ready.
"I used to do this when I was little; they taught us this exercise. But it's still pretty hard, especially since I haven't trained in a long time," she thought, her muscles tightening.
Her hand gripped the hilt of her frozen sword tighter. Despite the pain pulsing in her shoulder, she repositioned herself, gaze locked on one of the silver spiders.
She leapt again among the branches and launched herself at her target. Her frozen blade sliced through the air and this time, it bit deeply into the carapace. The impact was sharp and clean. The creature reeled, emitting a shrill cry, thrown off balance.
Without wasting a moment, Aria aimed for the spider's head. One strike, perfectly placed. The beast's body collapsed instantly, lifeless.
Her breath came short, but the success emboldened her. Aria launched herself at a second spider without hesitation. The momentum was there, so was the confidence. She struck with force, and again the blade pierced; a second target fell. Another leap, another strike—but this time, the blade hit the carapace with a dull, metallic clang.
The blow hadn't worked; the ice coating on her blade was weakening. She tried reapplying the ice element to her weapon, but nothing happened. Her focus was fading; her mana was dwindling. The frosty mist that had covered her sword moments earlier had vanished.
The spiders didn't miss the opening. In an instant, they lunged at her, leaping among the trees, their legs scraping the bark with terrifying precision. Aria, reacting on instinct, conjured an ice shield just in time to block the first frontal attacks. The impact was violent, but the shield held for now.
However, the threat didn't come only from the front. One of the spiders, slimmer and faster, had slipped into her blind spot. With precise timing, it shot a silver, sticky thread toward Aria. She barely dodged, the thread whistling past her cheek by mere centimeters.
Unfortunately, she had no time to breathe—the next thread hit her sword. In a split second, the weapon was ripped from her hands, yanked toward the cluster of creatures, disappearing among a mass of legs and glistening fangs.
More threads shot her way without pause. Aria tried to dodge, sliding, leaping, twisting between the projectiles. But there were too many, and they came too fast.
One wrapped around her thigh. Another struck her shoulder. A third coiled around her torso. Before she could react, she was yanked violently forward. The spiders opened their mandibles, ready to tear her apart and this time, she had no weapon.
"The threads of these spiders are notorious for their resilience and silver color. There are many variations and evolutions of these spiders. This type here is among the weakest, but even their threads remain extremely sticky and tough," Logan thought, still watching the scene.
As Aria was dragged dangerously close to the spiders' open mandibles, panic could have overtaken her. But instead, an instinctive icy surge erupted from her body. Her element reacted violently to her will.
A wave of cold exploded outward from her in every direction. The silver threads binding her froze solid with a sinister crackle, locked in place by a sudden plunge in temperature. Seconds later, they shattered in a crystalline burst, fragments of ice scattering through the air.
Freed, Aria immediately leapt back, creating distance, panting but lucid. Without her sword, she might have seemed defenseless. However, since childhood, Aria had learned another way to fight an art more savage, more personal. A style she mastered far better than swordplay.
She closed her eyes for a split second, gathering her remaining strength, and the cold began coursing through her arms again. It climbed along her veins, biting her skin, condensing at her fingertips.
A white mist seeped from her palms. Then, slowly, her hands began coating with ice, layer after layer, shaped by her will. When the formation was complete, the ice suddenly cracked with a piercing sound.
There, in place of her hands, two razor-sharp claws of translucent frozen crystal had formed. Natural weapons, born of ice, honed to kill.
Aria's eyes blazed this fight, she was going to finish it with her own claws.
Aria s'élança à une vitesse fulgurante, sa silhouette disparaissant presque dans un flou de
From branch to branch, she leapt with heightened agility, far faster and more precise than before. Her ice claws glimmered under the filtered rays of sunlight breaking through the canopy, ready to strike.
The spiders reacted instinctively, shooting their silver threads in all directions to trap her once more. But this time, their strategy was useless. The threads, coming into contact with the freezing air radiating around her, froze instantly. Aria sliced through them effortlessly, shattering them cleanly into shards of frost that dissipated in her wake.
The terrain, which until now had favored the spiders, had a new master. Aria vaulted between the branches, moving faster and more fluidly than they could. She exploited height, blind spots, momentum, and gravity with almost surgical precision. Her whole body seemed to dance among the trees, as though she had been born there.
Their advantages had literally melted away. Their webs once formidable weapons were now useless. Fragile, ineffective, unable to withstand the biting cold she radiated.
For the first time, the spiders stopped advancing; their instincts screamed a cruel truth. They were no longer the hunters. Aria was.
One by one, the spiders fell like flies. Stripped of their advantage, blinded by Aria's speed and unable to pierce her icy defenses, they could only suffer. No shriek, no thread, no maneuver could help them regain control. Aria hunted them relentlessly, striking with precision and eliminating them without hesitation.
It was an execution. When silence finally returned, the ground was littered with grotesque corpses. The spiders' dark blood dripped along Aria's claws, soaking her arms, splattering her face.
She stood tall, panting, her eyes sharp and cold. Then, in a calm and calculated motion, she opened her hands again, the ice-covered claws spreading apart with a guttural crack. An arc of blood flung to the ground, cleaning their frozen surface.
Title Obtained: Frost Huntress : You have frozen the battlefield with your will. Your enemies found neither shelter nor respite beneath the biting cold of your claws. Your name will now echo among those even winter itself respects.
Name: Aria | Race: Beastkin | Age: 18 | Profession: (Acquisition) | Level: 35
Vitality: 150 | Magic Power: 68 | Attack: 75 | Defense: 78 | Speed: 74 | Endurance: 80 | Agility: 78 | Intelligence: 70 | Strength: 76 | Willpower: 125
Skills: Ice Wall, Frozen Blade
Unique Skills: Will to Grow, Will to Survive, Frost Claws
Legendary Skills: Beastial Fury
Exclusive Skills: (None)
Elements: Ice, Water
Titles Acquired:
Frost Huntress
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Monster Encyclopedia
Silver Spider
Type: Giant magical arthropod
Average Size: 1.7 to 2 meters in span
Element: None by default, though some specimens develop elemental affinities (ice, shadow, etc.)
Intelligence Level: Semi-intelligent (capable of observing, anticipating movements, and creating complex nests and traps)
Behavior: Stealthy and predatory; prefers ambush and trapping, rarely leaves its woven territory
Appearance
Massive exoskeleton with dark hues leaning toward steel-blue, covered with chitinous spikes.Head with eight pale or bluish eyes, offering near panoramic vision.Curved, serrated mandibles capable of crushing steel or soft stone.Bulging abdomen covered with rigid scales, secreting silver silk that gleams when exposed to light.
Diet
Strict carnivore: paralyzes its prey with silver silk, then drains internal fluids once the body is fully immobilized.Can consume wild animals, adventurers, and even other monsters.
Notable Traits & Abilities
Produces extremely durable silver silk, nearly impossible to cut without magic or high-grade tools.Light-reflecting silk, making its nests virtually invisible in natural environments.Exceptional night vision and highly developed vibrational senses (detects the slightest movement on its web).Can slowly regenerate a severed limb if it survives long enough.Silver threads are highly sought after:In magical smithing to craft lightweight armors and resistant cloaks.In high fashion, used by nobility for enchanted luxury garments.
Habitat
Dense, deep forestsDark cavesNatural or artificial dungeons
Prefers dark, humid places rich in potential prey.
Hunting Tactics
Silent Leap: sudden, lightning-fast ambush attack from a hidden position.Suspended Web: builds vertical labyrinth-like webs where prey tire themselves out and become trapped.Capable of anticipating movements and coordinated attacks if multiple spiders share the same nest.
Known Variants
Moonlight Spider: Affinity with moonlight; becomes nearly invisible under its glow.Spectral Spider: Can temporarily dematerialize, making physical attacks ineffective if not anticipated.
Local Saying:
"It's just a thread, you say? Then why can't your sword cut through it?" Proverb from an anonymous adventurer who vanished in a Silver Spider's nest