Two days had passed by, Fraser's journey was relatively peaceful.
He hadn't gotten into any battles with foes at all, this wasn't as surprising considering he was nearing the center of South Fable, where there were much less hostile beasts and sorcerers. However, on his journey, he had made a painful realization: if he wanted to get to Fable city, Fraser would have to climb the mountain range.
Using his cloud enhancement technique had greatly aided in his travels toward the Sovereign mountain range, it was only a tier one technique, so it didn't absorb as much arcane, yet it was able to increase his speed and agility by several fold, without it, the journey would go from taking a couple of days to taking at least a month.
The third night was descending, a warm glow from the deep purple sunset overtook the distant horizon, accompanying it was the majestic howls of wolves and the quiet rustling of bushes, tattered browning leaves left their mother trees, gathering on the ground gently. It was truly a magnificent sight, Fraser was sitting in a small cave in the middle of this silent forest, refilling his depleted arcane.
The second night previous to this had yielded no encounters, he didn't need to absorb arcane either because of the negligible decrease from cloud enhancement. However, after continuous use for two days, his stores reached fifty-two percent. This didn't seem to be a dangerous point, but if Fraser was attacked, he wouldn't be able to pull another cheap trick like absorbing arcane from a meridian mid-battle without preparation before the battle.
The sound of steel tapping against rock began to emerge from the depths of the cave behind Fraser.
"Hm? Who's that? Show yourself!"
The incessant tapping became more frequent and louder within seconds, the feeling of danger entering Fraser's mind. He swiftly got up and stored the drained meridian, grabbing the Tidal Edge and removing it from its ornate sheath while taking slow steps backward.
Fraser's skin shuddered, his spine rattling from top to bottom, eight pairs of ruby-like red eyes peered into his soul, locking onto him like snipers from within the darkness.
"What? Since when do spiders get that big?!"
The eight spiders slowly crawled out of the abyss, their sword-like legs carving holes into the ground underneath, tier two auras permeating the surroundings as bloodthirsty eyes swept across Fraser.
These were Midnight Blades, a type of arachnid that admitted shallow caves in South Fable as nests; their main body was organic, but their legs and pincers were made of a durable alloy created in these caves, sharpened with every step they took and every battle they faced.
This group of eight was led by six tier two spiders, and two tier one spiders. The characteristics in their battle strength was odd, lower tier midnight blades were larger in size than higher tier midnight blades. The tier two spiders were about the height of an adult human's waist, while the tier one spiders reached the shoulders.
Not knowing better, Fraser had initially assumed that the larger spiders were tier two, however after feeling their auras, he had pinpointed their tiers. He was confident in winning this battle, beasts did not have the same intelligence as humans, usually, a sorcerer would be able to kill multiple beasts of the same tier, but this depended on the situation, in this area, where the spiders were fighting in their homeground, the cave, Fraser was disadvantaged.
He still stared at the spiders with confidence in his gaze, fidgeting with the Tidal Edge in his hand. A damp, wet feeling emitting from the blade, greatly contrasting the mirror-red shines coming from the midnight blades' abdomens.
"A good opportunity to test out this weapon has presented itself, I will not waste it."
Saying so, Fraser charged toward the midnight blade group.