We returned to camp before Rigurd’s group and it was still slightly before evening, so I decided to leave everyone there to figure out how to deal with the vegetables and I took an amu and the dryad to get ready to head out and check on the spider. Overall I was glad that the forest wasn’t too far from where we were camping temporarily, but it was still a pain to travel thirty minutes to it. It was even more of a pain that if I asked any of the monsters a question through a telepathic link, they couldn’t respond. But they could follow orders from a telepathic link, or verbally, at least.

However, there was one thing I had to do before leaving. I went to the carriage one last time and looked at K. His HP wasn’t increasing and he was still in a pure slime form. Damn it! I swear, Luna, if he doesn’t recover by tomorrow you’re being fed to the spider! I poked its body and watched it jiggle for a bit. It tried following me out of the carriage, but I sent a mental message to it to stay there until it fully recovered and asked Eliquis to watch over him.

[Conditions have been met. Garem has leveled up to 4. All stats have increased by one. Conditions have been met. Freelancer has leveled up to level 10. Class corrections increased by 3. Skill points increased by 2. Skill selection increased by 1. Conditions Met. Freelancer Tier 2 Skills unlocked.]

What? But I’m not fighting… Oh right, the spider and slimes are nearby. Guess I’ll gain experience if I’m within a hundred meters or so. Well, I guess that’s one thing on my ‘to test’ list I can cross off. But more importantly, I got two skill points this time! And tier two skills were unlocked. Wait, aren’t most of my skills level two? Then what’s tier two? Well, I’ll check that later and see how my monsters are doing.

I walked about sixty meters into the forest and saw an interesting sight. There were spider webs everywhere. No matter where I looked, there were webs blocking everything, like a massive nest, and plenty of prey stuck in the webs, attempting to escape. So, I decided to help out the spider and began stabbing them one by one with my mana blade. The annoying part was that I was short. Barely a meter and a quarter tall. So I had to stand on my amu just to reach half the prey. The rest were way too far up for me to touch though, so it was pretty annoying.

[Conditions have been met. Freelancer has leveled up to level 11. Class corrections increased by 1. Skill points increased by 1. Skill selection increased by 1.]

Huh? I leveled again? Oh, well I guess forty monsters would do it. Oh, right. I guess the spider and slimes are helping. But, this is depressing. Both my stats and my skill point increase have returned back to one each. I guess I got my hopes up at level ten for nothing. Oh, what’s this? All four of those slimes just used mitosis? Oh, this is bad. That means I only have fourteen slots left… make that thirteen. I guess the slime I sent with Rigurd also used mitosis. Well, as long as they keep leveling as well, I guess it’s fine.

Just as I sighed at my total number of Bran slots decreasing, the spider gracefully made its way across the webs above me and began killing the prey that were too high for me to reach. As it killed it’s sixth, it did a weird wiggle with one of its middle legs. Did it just wave at me? And reflexively I waved back.

>

>

The spider moved some of its webs aside for me to walk through its mini white fortress of fluffiness and I found a rock to sit on. Guess I should take a look at the skills available? Nah, I can do that at any time. Let’s watch my monsters do their thing for a bit.

All things considered, it was a beautiful sight. I’m guessing making this much webbing was difficult for the spider, so it had to eat a lot to keep up with the demand of webbing. But for some reason, it was like all of the monsters were targeting this location, so as the spider made more webbing towards the way that I came from, the slimes went about and began killing things inside of the webbing. They moved in groups of three, stabbing the prey to death, dragging the prey back to the spider, while another group of three went to stab more prey and drag them back. Then they divided the prey between both the slimes and the spider. But only two of the slimes were eating. I also had the amu I brought with me eat as well, since it was an opportunity to feed one mouth.

I see. Since the slimes don’t necessarily need to eat everyday, they have the spider eat about eighty percent of the prey. And two slimes eating twenty percent has them using mitosis every few hours. But this is very strange. Why is everything in the forest trying to attack us? Well, I guess I can’t complain about the experience I’m receiving.

[Conditions have been met. Freelancer has leveled up to level 12. Class corrections increased by 1. Skill points increased by 1. Skill selection increased by 1.]

Ugh, again, only one skill point. This is gonna be rough. Oh, and I guess I’m down to eleven slots already. What a pain. Oh? The spider made a clear path out of the forest for me. Well, I guess I’ll have them all join me as well. Yes spider, you can take your prey back with you. I’ll return first.

Upon leaving the forest there was a strange scent in the air and instinctively I looked upwards. Unconsciously, I sent a telepathic message to the amus back at the camp to bring the carriages to the base of the forest to pick up the other monsters. Rain, huh? When was the last time I saw rain? I climbed on my amu and went back to the camp in time to eat the food while it was fresh. Rigurd did a good job just hunting enough to feed us today and tomorrow. The slimes don’t have to eat tomorrow and the spider has enough prey to last her another day, I guess.

“Hm? You haven’t noticed?” Rigurd asked. “In this region, it generally only rains at night, but when it rains during the day it’s usually pretty bad.”

“No, I haven’t actually been paying attention,” I admitted.

“Well, with the way it smells out there, we can assume it’ll be raining tomorrow. You should probably call back the slimes at the construction site so they can at least take shelter somewhere,” Will suggested.

“I already sent two amus with one of the carriages over there to grab them. This will set us back tomorrow.”

“Yeah, but the brats need a rest. I worked them to the bone today so they’ll be super sore tomorrow.”

“Oh, speaking of which, I’m putting you in charge of babysitting Luna as well.”

“WHAT? Why would you give me that disaster? I already heard the details from Eliquis.”

“Because, I absolutely hate her. And I’m pretty sure I’m going to start stabbing her the next time she messes up,” I admitted. This uncontrollable rage towards her- there was no reason for it to be there, but she just kept adding to it with every mistake she made. It was dangerous to keep her around me until she managed to fix that about herself.

“Well, the amount of vegetables you brought back will spoil before we can eat them all,” Mary said, changing the subject after glancing at Luna. “If we were to sell half of them, we could probably make a silver coin.”

“That’s it? Well, I guess that’s good enough. Actually I kinda messed up on our budget. We only have six big silvers left, anyways.” My response got me smacked from behind, causing me to choke on my stew.

I turned around to yell something, but immediately retreated away from the glaring eyes of LIora. “Garem, for now on I will be holding onto the majority of our money. I will allow you to keep one big silver coin though. If I ever catch you having more than that on you and spending it without permission, I will punish you like any other child. Got it?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Huh? That didn’t sound like a proper response,” Liora snatched my bowl of stew away and kicked me to the ground in one swift movement. “So?”

“I’ll be more careful with my money,” I immediately withdrew five big silver from my CMP cloak and handed it over to her.

What is this feeling? Why am I terrified of her? She feels like...a mother? Yes! A mother. And one that’s pissed. I don’t like this- I swear on everything that I will force everyone to deal with her from now on. I felt so tiny and insignificant as she glared at me. It was like time stopped and the entire universe’s gravity was being pushed down on me. It was hard to breathe- forget about moving. And for some reason, every inch of my being was screaming in fear. It took everything I had to not cry, but I felt a few tears leak from the corner of my eyes. But after the longest twenty seconds of my life, she snatched away the money and smiled gently at me, as if nothing had transpired. I glanced over to my right, and saw everyone else had turned six shades paler. Oh, guess they were scared too. I can’t use them to deal with her now, can I? They’ll definitely sell me out. Wait, why am I acting like she owns my soul? What the hell is this feeling? I don’t like this at all.

Everyone continued to eat in silence, attempting to pretend as if nothing happened. But everytime Liora moved, everyone twitched in fear. It was clear as day that Liora ran the show in the hideout. I went to bed that early and didn’t even complain about Eliquis refusing to leave my side. If push comes to shove, I’ll sacrifice Eliquis. Yeah, as long as she remains in arms reach, I can use her as a shield, so I have to put up with it for now.