Zorian found that one interesting thing about the restart is that it may lead to more interesting stories. He should have a deep and comprehensive understanding of Zach's dark experience. At present, Zach has decided to give up on this special restart and become a friend with him. After becoming friends, it is expected that my soul will merge into his body to enjoy his unparalleled passionate battle to save the world, haha. Let’s try it first, it’s better than being trapped and suffocated here! So and so, dear guests, please take a look at the chapter I have written first, and then let’s evolve it. . . . . .
"Roach, I hate you. You do know that, right?"
Zorian let out a long sigh and did not turn to look at Taiwen, but chose to stare at the tunnel ahead. He didn't have to look back to know she was making faces at him. “No, Taiwen, I don’t know. After all, you’ve only told me five times.
"I mean, do you want to piss me off?" Taiwen continued.
"Because I'm so angry right now, I'm telling you..."
"Tavin, please," Zorian begged. "I already said I'm sorry! How many times do I have to apologize?
"Not exactly," Tevin complained. "At least tell me where we're going."
"Don't know," Zorian admitted.
"Zorian, I swear, if this is your prank—"
"I mean it," Zorian assured her. "I'm pretty sure we're close, it shouldn't take too long-"
An alien presence flashed across his mind, retreating as soon as it realized its intrusion had been detected. Its telepathic touch wasn't as subtle as the Matriarch's, but Zorian did get a spider-sense from it.
"Wait!" he protested, hoping the spider hadn't escaped yet. "I want to talk to you, Aranea! I have important information to tell your clan leader!"
"Zorion, what on earth are you talking about?" Tevan asked, completely confused by his actions. "So who exactly are you talking to? There's no one here."
Zorian said nothing, silent. A few seconds passed in silence as Zorian patiently waited for the spider's response. Eventually, the spider decided to make contact again...
...and walked into the clearing in front of him and Taiwen.
Taiwen was shocked when she saw the appearance of the giant hairy spider, and immediately pulled out the magic wand, but Zorian grabbed her wrist and motioned for her to retreat. She gave him a confused look, then glanced at the spider in front of her. It stood motionless, observing them quietly with its big dark eyes, but made no threatening movements. Seemingly realizing that the spiders were no longer a threat at the moment, Taiven relaxed and removed his hand from the spell stick strapped to his hip.
"I promise, I'll explain later," Zorian said with a sigh, then turned to deal with the spider. "What about you! Can't you be more cautious? Why can't you hide in the shadows and contact me telepathically?"
The spider reconnects to his brain and gives him a burst of fun. [If you want to talk to me telepathically, why not call me telepathically first? Aren’t you spiritual yourself? ]
Zorian grimaced. If only it were that easy.
[I'm not trained,] Zorian admitted. [I don't know how to contact someone telepathically. I only know how to get answers based on connections made by other people. ]
In fact, he wanted to know that too.
[That was so sad,] Aranea said. 【You are incomplete. But I guess it could always be worse. You're probably as quick-thinking as your friends there. ]
Zorian glanced at Taiven and stifled a snort. It's a good thing he's talking to the spider telepathically, because he can imagine how Taiwen would react if someone called her a "fudge."
"What?" Taiwen asked, obviously noticing his expression.
"Nothing." Zorian shook his head and muttered. [Miss Alanea, I - uh, you are a lady, right? 】
It was hard to tell, but he was pretty sure the spider he was talking to had a "feminine feel" to her.
[All spiders are female,] said the spider.
[What, really? ] Zorian asked. 【What exactly is going on? Do you divide like a microbe or do you get pregnant naturally or something? ]
[Nothing exotic. It's just that our species is extremely sexually dimorphic, with males being smaller and barely sentient. We don't think they're real spiders,] Spider explained. [If you talk to one of us and they're smart enough to talk back, they're a woman. Males may attack you instead of talking, although you're unlikely to encounter them unless you somehow get into one of our settlements. ]
Zorian digested the information for a moment, then decided not to pursue the subject further,
[I'm sorry to be inconsiderate, but I really need to speak to the women. ]
[I've been listening," the matriarch announced.
[It does,] the matriarch confirms
[I am Zorian Kaczynski, a mage in training,] Zorian said. [The reason I know your real name is because you told me it yourself... right when you stuffed a memory package into my mind. ]
[I do not remember. ] The matriarch said hesitantly.
[I know,] Zorian said. [If you had been able to retain the memory of that encounter, you wouldn't have bothered to put the memory pack into my mind. ]
[I see,] the matriarch said. She was silent for a few seconds, thinking. [Let me enter your mind so I can see this memory package with my own eyes. ]
[Of course,] Zorian said, offering no resistance as the matriarch delved into his thoughts. He turned to his companion, who seemed to have lost her mind as she watched him stare silently at the giant spider. "Tavin, I'm telepathically communicating with a spider. Everything should be fine, but if I drop on the floor and start screaming in the next few minutes, feel free to blow it up."
He still carries the suicide cube, but it never hurts to take precautions. Tavin immediately nodded in agreement, and Zorian saw the spider in front of him twitching its multiple legs uncomfortably at the implied threat of death. The matriarch said nothing, completely focused on her work.
After a few minutes, the figure of the matriarch disappeared from his mind.
[I...I need to think about it. 】The old lady said blankly. [Come back in three days and we’ll talk again. 】
[etc! ] Zorian protested. [I need a way to get here without going through any official entrance. Otherwise, it will be troublesome every time I bring this female mage with me!
He glanced wearily at the girl, but flinched at the frown on her face.
"Well, now that the spider is gone, I guess you can explain to me what exactly I just got involved with. Go ahead," she ordered.
"Before we begin, I would like to point out that if you do what I ask and wait for me at the entrance—"
"Zorion!"
"Just talking." Zorian said lightly. "Well, here's the thing. I'm an empath. You know what that means?"
"No...really..." Taiwen said slowly.
"It means I can feel other people's emotions," Zorian said. "Sadly, this ability is just an instinct at the moment. I have no conscious control over it and it often causes me problems, so I'm always looking for help to master it. Sadly, I've found that no one is willing to The human side helps me, so I... broaden my horizons. The spider you see is a spider - a telepathic spider that I wish I could talk to and teach me how to control my powers .”
Taivin stared at him for a moment, opening his mouth at one point but quickly closing it again. "What did they say?" she finally asked.
"They'll think about it," Zorian shrugged.
Taiwen shook his head in disbelief and walked towards the exit, motioning for him to follow.
"Let's get out of here, Magician," she said. "We can sit down somewhere and have a drink."
He followed.
. . . . . two. . . . .
An open-air pub where you can relax and chat. Well, so she can sit back and relax—
Oddly enough, Taivin accepts his explanation without complaint, believing that his decision to seek help from a giant spider was "brave" rather than reckless and stupid, but things start to go south. She was unhappy that he had planned to meet Spider without backup, and who, if any, was watching over his back. This sparked a heated debate over the need to "go it alone" and his ability to fight his way out of trouble when things went south. Zorian honestly didn't know that she was upset: because he was putting himself in danger, or because he didn't invite her along?
It was probably the latter, as she was quick to insist that he should take her with him the next time he went to meet the Spider Matriarch.
And just like that, he found himself facing Taiwen in the training hall, fiddling with his magic missile wand, trying to decide how to approach this... practice crystal. According to Taiwen, the training hall is heavily guarded to protect those inside from spells, but the use of lethal spells is still not recommended.
"I see you have a magic wand," Taiwen said with a confident smile. "It must have cost you a lot of money."
"I made it myself," Zorian said. "So I didn't spend any money."
"Really?" Taiwen said in surprise. "I didn't expect your spell formulas to be so powerful. I mean, I knew you were interested in them, but..."
"You have your fighting talent, and I have mine." Zorian said proudly
"Anything. In the end, even in the equipment department, you are defeated, even though your homemade magic wand is very fancy." Taiwen said, stretched his hand to his side, and let a staff on the nearby wall fly directly in into her palm. Taiwen channels a stream of mana into it, lighting up its surface with a series of glowing yellow lines.
"Show off," he said.
"Ready?" Taiwen threatened.
"Ready." Zorian confirmed while turning the spell stick in his hand.
Taiwen reacted immediately, launching a small swarm of five magic missiles at him. She was fast, much faster than he was, and Zorian could see in her face that she thought she had achieved victory.
"You are too presumptuous, Taiwen," he thought, raising the hand holding the magic wand and raising a shield in front of himself, while with the other hand he threw a vial filled with white liquid at her.
The missile swarm struck Zorian's shield like a hammer. She's facing off against the time traveler Zorian, who has spent quite a bit of time repeating this month. According to his calculation, it has been almost two years.
In the long run, two years is not a long time. Still, it was an ongoing two-year exercise in combat magic, most of which focused on a handful of spells—including shields. His shield spell is nearly flawless. The Force Plane is nearly invisible when not under pressure, and Zorian can heavily charge it to further enhance it.
The shield held. The missile swarm struck it ineffectively, causing the nearly invisible surface to become opaque under the pressure.
Zorian sent a pulse of mana at the bottle flying toward her before Taiven regained her senses and attacked again. The bottle shattered in mid-air, as if it had been smashed by an invisible fist. A thick white smoke came out, and the liquid turned into gas.
The vial was nothing special, just a simple alchemical concoction that would cause coughing in those who inhaled it, but it was enough to incapacitate Taivin, who stumbled out of the smoke dazed and defenseless.
Exploiting her weakness ruthlessly, Zorian fired a crusher straight into her torso, hoping that would be the end of the fight, but half-expecting Taivin to save himself by throwing a shield at the last second.
She didn't use her shield - she fired a huge battering ram, knocking his attacks away like snowflakes and continuing to come at him unimpeded. Unfortunately, his dodge was only partial. Although he avoided the main force of the attack, he was still trapped on the outside of the attack range. The attack sent him spinning like a rag doll, and he soon found himself crashing headfirst onto the cold, unforgiving floor of the training gym. Probably only because there was a buffer shield in the room to protect him, he didn't break his head or suffer a concussion in the end.
Taivin seemed more interested in coughing his lungs out than trying to end the fight, so he stayed on the floor for a while, waiting for his head to stop spinning. Apparently he made the coughing fit a little stronger than he intended. He stood up with difficulty and walked towards Taiwen.
"Your definition of non-lethal is very strange," he told her.
"You deserve it, you *cough* liar!" she snarled.
"But I'm nice to you, aren't I?" Zorian smiled.
She snorted and waved her staff slightly at him, obviously hoping he would dodge the slow-moving object. To show off, Zorian instead put up a shield, causing the scepter to bounce and escape from her grasp.
Taiwen looked at the shield curiously and knocked it hard a few times. The Force Plane didn't even become opaque, let alone succumb to her attacks.
"What is your shield made of?" Taiwen asked. "None of the 5 missiles were damaged, it looked... different. It was almost completely transparent."
"It was just a shield spell that was just overcharged and executed extremely well," Zorian said. "I spent a lot of time practicing that spell."
"Without that stupid trick of yours, it still wouldn't have helped you." Taiwen scoffed. "This was supposed to be a spell battle, dammit!"
"You said you wanted to see how I fight," Zorian shrugged. "By the way, how do you know where to launch your attack? You close your eyes tightly."
"Oh. It's just a little trick one of my teachers taught me," Tevin said. "I doubt this will help you much, though - it's quite a waste as far as mana usage goes."
"What do you mean?" Zorian asked.
"Well, this is a very simple action that requires draining a large amount of magic power and filling the surrounding area with magic power. Then you can sense the surrounding environment through the generated mana cloud. Just like the magic missile you threw to me Same. In fact, I don’t know where you are. Even with the help of the magic cloud, I think if I aim in the direction of the attack, I might be able to catch you."
This sounds... very familiar. Zorian was pretty sure he used the exact same thing in his secret unlocking trick.
However…
"Tavin," he began, "suppose I saturate a large bubble around my head this way. Could I sense the magic-filled marbles within that volume this way?"
"But it's easier than just using my innate magic sense to sense magic-filled marbles, right?" Zorian pressed.
"Much easier," Taivin confirmed. "In fact, almost any method would be easier than this. Gods, I don't know, you'd have to be an archmage to sense such a weak source of mana."
. . . . six. . . . .
After an argument about who won the little showdown (Zorian claimed it was a draw, Tevan claimed she ended up winning outright), Tevan insisted on resolving the issue with more fighting, while Zorian saw no reason to refuse . Of course, he lost all subsequent battles - Taiwen was strong enough.
Possibly re-writing: Zach decides to deal with another dragon or some similar mission to save the planet! I think it’s time to enter Zach’s soul and take a good look at the wonderful world outside and the unforgettable salvation! Ha ha.
The matriarch decided to speak to him personally rather than simply express her thoughts through one of her subordinates.
[Well, I've had time to digest the memories sent to me by my...'other self',] the matriarch began. [The story...is not as implausible as you might think, and the memory contains some pretty damning evidence. I guess we should "swap stories" now, no? Can all the guests agree? Now onto the thirty day mission about saving the planet, ha! . . . . . .
