Chapter 2: A Long Night

Arriving at the designated location to be his temporary shelter, John halved 3 wooden planks and positioned them vertically on the ground, half-buried in the earth, serving as support for his improvised plank bed. Two long planks of nearly 2m lay side by side, combined in size to that of a single bed, supported at the top, bottom, and middle by the 6 vertical planks.

Lying down briefly, he noticed how uncomfortable the planks were, but it was better than sleeping on the ground. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind, not feeling cold even though uncovered, so that wasn't a bother. He pursued sleep for a few more tens of minutes, calming his breathing and slowly losing consciousness, but a small sound of something falling on the grass awakened him.

When he opened his eyes and turned his head to the area of the forest where he thought he heard the sound, he noticed a black shadow quickly climbing the tree. It was a tree relatively far from where he lay, he could only hear the noise from that distance because of how silent the forest was. Deciding whether to ignore the shadow, flee, or confront it, he chose the latter. Ignoring could mean his death, and fleeing wasn't viable either; it could alert more of those creatures to follow him. The only option was to investigate the creature himself and, if possible, confront it; if not, fleeing was always available.

Approaching cautiously to make as little noise as possible, John materialized his spear and prepared for a possible fight as he stared at the tree canopy where he expected the creature to be. The moon was directly overhead, and the faint light that reached his eyes could barely distinguish a thin, hairy leg resting on the trunk. It was small, so it probably would be a creature that could be hunted, but as he got closer, he noticed more legs than expected for a tree-climbing animal. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized there were 4 pairs of red eyes: it was a giant spider.

Far beyond the size that an arachnid should have, it easily measured a meter in length, perhaps more. With his panic about insects and arachnids taking over his mind, John made the mistake of making his steps too heavy and loud, alerting the creature that remained still. With a quick turn, John planned to run at full speed to the river; a spider shouldn't be a good swimmer. However, he was quickly stopped as he stumbled on the ground. Looking at his feet, he saw an extremely viscous substance sticking his feet to the ground, and the spider was quickly descending the tree with its eight legs toward its prey. He tried to shake his legs to free himself from the viscous substance, but it was useless in the short term.

Trying to remain calm, John decided to appear vulnerable and wait for the spider to be within range of his spear. It wasn't difficult to aim; it basically ran straight toward him. At the moment, he extended his arm as fast as he could in his position and stabbed the spider in one of its eyes. It recoiled and ran in circles for a few seconds but soon resumed its course toward John. Another stab in the eyes made it furious again, and after struggling, instead of running, it jumped directly over his head. John was surprised and unprepared for this; the spider's prey scratched his face, leaving him bleeding before he could use his arms to push it away. With another stab, he saw the spider give a final shriek and fall to the ground belly-up with its legs curled up.

Breathing heavily, John leaned on the ground with his elbow as he stared at the spider's corpse, a faint green essence emanating from it and entering his body. At first, he was scared but felt no change in his body. After breathing for a few more seconds, he now needed to free himself from the web on his feet; the scratch on his face was already healing but extremely slowly, while his stomach caused him greater pain. He reached for the web and tried to store it in his inventory, but the bracelet didn't react. Frustrated, he began tearing the web with his bare hands. It took a lot of effort, but in just over two minutes, he managed to free himself, and the web fluid was successfully stored in his inventory after removing it from his feet and the ground, registering another item in his system and confirming that the item needed to be in his possession to be stored.

String Registered

The spider's corpse disappeared in a cloud of smoke that dissipated instantly, leaving 3 spider eyes in its place on the ground. John found the sight of the eyes absolutely unpleasant, but considering their potential future utility, he decided to store them in his inventory.

Spider Eye Registered

Walking to the tree where he saw the spider descend, he squinted his eyes and tried to see if anything else was hiding in the dark treetops. He wished he had a lantern now, but limited to his vision and the weak moonlight, he couldn't distinguish anything in the tree. Resorting to a more brute method, he struck the lower branches several times in hopes that the vibration would awaken the hunting instincts of any timid spiders. Nothing happened, but without confidence that a single spider would be the reason he wasn't sleeping now, he decided to check the next trees as well. After two more attempts, he heard the same agitation noise in the tree he had just hit. Cautiously, he quickly stepped back and waited for the spider to descend to the ground. A few seconds passed, and he heard no movement. Deciding to take a risk, he took one of the eyes from the spider he had previously killed and threw it on the ground nearby.

A spider at least twice as large with white-striped fur descended from the canopy and threw itself at the eye, devouring it voraciously. John seized this moment and with a pull and a jump, he used his momentum to strike the spider's face. His spear barely pierced the skin, but with a quick movement of the spider's head, it tore half of its head and disabled 4 of its eyes. Grunting, it tried to climb the trunk again, but it was stabbed 3 more times in the head area until it fell dead to the ground. Its body released notably more green energy that entered John's body. A few seconds later, its body disappeared in smoke, leaving only 1 eye and a small strand of web, both securely stored in the inventory.

Repeating the same tactic on all the trees within the short range of his bed, he found no more threats that could disturb his sleep. The spiders seemed to be creatures that emerged from nowhere and remained hidden, waiting for their prey in a concealed and safe location. It seemed unlikely that they would descend from their lair to bother him in his bed. Temporarily, his hunt was concluded.

John walked to the nearby river in search of some pebbles. Upon picking up a few units and storing them in his inventory, he noticed that no new entry was registered in his system. His initial theory was that the pebble apparently had the same composition as the stones previously registered, but he had items with different entries in the system like branches and woods even though they had the same composition. Apparently, the pebble and the stones were similar enough items to not require two entries. The pebbles he picked up were placed on his improvised wooden bed, making it even more uncomfortable. He had read some story where the protagonist deliberately slept in inconvenient places to avoid falling into a deep sleep and easily wake up to any noise. Following this logic, he could avoid the spider problem more easily. It was going to be a long night.