Of course,
Noose Spiders had more than just their webs—they also had venom. However, they only injected it after capturing their prey, slowly delivering it through their fangs, so the process was not fast.
At Aaron's speed, they never even had a chance to get close.
His iron sword kept sweeping through the air. The slime on the blade evaporated rapidly under the high heat, making the already foul stench in the air grow even thicker.
Time ticked by.
The sound of the sword cutting air and the spiders' hissing screeches intertwined without pause.
A short while later…
Aaron stood on the ground, panting heavily, one hand braced on his knee. Severed spider limbs were scattered all around him.
Out of nearly a hundred Noose Spiders, he had killed roughly two-thirds in one go. The rest had already scattered, and in a forest like this there was no way to track them.
A pity.
He let out a deep breath.
It could not be helped. With the tools he had right now, he simply lacked any large-area attack methods.
From what he could tell, these Noose Spiders were probably around level 2–3.
That might sound low,
but ordinary Re-Estize soldiers were in that exact range.
In other words, one Noose Spider was roughly equivalent to one regular soldier.
Of course, if an equal number of soldiers and spiders fought in the forest, a hundred-man squad facing a hundred Noose Spiders would almost certainly be slaughtered.
After all,
even Aaron could not outrun them easily in this terrain.
He guessed
this swarm of Noose Spiders was probably the strongest group of monsters in the outer belt, living in the buffer zone between the Wise King of the Forest's territory and that of the troll.
Now he finally understood why people in this world went pale and spoke in hushed tones whenever someone mentioned the Great Forest of Tob.
This was only the outskirts, and deeper in lived the three Forest Rulers, each with hero-level strength. Aside from the Wise King, the other two also had large numbers of subordinates.
Meanwhile, the entire Re-Estize Kingdom had only two Adamantite-ranked adventurer parties.
Right now Aaron barely dared breathe through his nose; the stench in the air was so overpowering it made him nauseous.
The heated sword had been very effective, but the smell of scorched blood and flesh was enough to choke someone.
"EXP: 2985/1000."
Ignoring the stench, he immediately checked the EXP value on his status panel.
"That should be enough for two levels," he thought with some satisfaction. "Level up."
[Ability Sheet]
Innate Ability: [Player]
Overall Level: Lv9
EXP Bar: 685/1500
Classes:
Basic Class: Genius Lv1 (Warrior, Priestess/Priest, Apothecary, Alchemist, Mage, Thief)
Intermediate Class: Sword Saint Lv8
Skill Points: 13
Passive Skills: Item Box, Slashing Boost (8%)
Active Skills:
Warrior: Instant Reflection, Fourfold Slash of Light, Quick Slash, Stealth
Magic: Paper Creation (1st Tier), Heating (1st Tier), Light Wounds Healing (1st Tier), Magic Arrow (1st Tier), Odorless (1st Tier)
Class Skills: Pharmacology, Alchemy
...
"Finally past level 8," Aaron murmured as he studied the sheet.
Overall Level 9.
His face lit up with joy. At once he pulled the 2nd-tier Identify Item scroll he had bought from the Magic Caster Guild out of his Item Box.
Just as he was about to unfurl it and acquire the spell,
his eyes suddenly fell on the two upgraded zero-tier spells on the sheet—and noticed there were no "↑" marks after them.
He blinked, then slapped his forehead.
"I only focused on my level and nearly forgot my caster level is nowhere near high enough."
The excitement faded from his expression, replaced by a hint of resignation as he put the scroll away again.
Most of his new levels had gone into Sword Saint—his warrior level. His caster level was still stuck at Genius Lv1.
"Finish maxing my warrior level first."
He exhaled and looked down at the piles of ruined spider bodies.
He remembered that Noose Spiders had venom sacs in their abdomens.
He crouched, slit open the bellies of several corpses, and carefully removed the sacs that were still intact.
Most of the spiders were far too mangled, though. After some effort, he only managed to gather about twenty usable venom sacs.
Once he was done,
Aaron moved away from the reeking clearing, but not very far. He stopped and leaned against a tree around seventeen or eighteen meters away.
He needed to rest after that fight, and this was clearly Noose Spider territory.
The survivors had already been scared off, so he did not have to worry much about other monsters attacking for a while.
Also,
by his estimate, he had to be close to the troll's territory now.
He grabbed a handful of leaves off the ground and bunched them up like a rag, using them to wipe the spider blood from his sword.
The Heating spell had long since worn off. Thinking back to how boosting the sword's temperature had increased its cutting power, he had to admit the method was pretty good.
Almost like a roundabout kind of enchantment.
The downside was that the higher temperature affected him as well.
He looked at the sword, holding it easily in one hand and giving it a few casual swings.
The blade sliced through the air, making sharp, rapid sounds.
Every level in Sword Saint noticeably boosted his overall power. But beyond the obvious numbers,
Aaron had noticed that each increase also made him more comfortable and fluent with the sword, as if he had gained techniques he had never practiced.
It felt both natural and like something he had trained for endlessly.
That change
both surprised and fascinated him.
In YGGDRASIL, class levels had just been numbers on a panel. Here, raising a class level felt more like gradually internalizing the abilities that class was meant to have.
Like when the poisonous insects had attacked earlier in the forest—
he had relied entirely on instinct, barely looking as he casually swung his sword and cut them down.
Even when he had fought the black-green serpent, all kinds of blocking and countering techniques had simply flowed out of him.
Before crossing over, he had been an ordinary person. There was no way he could have learned such skills on his own. This was clearly all thanks to the Sword Saint class.
After resting for about half an hour,
Aaron felt more or less recovered. He picked up his sword again and continued east.
On the way that followed,
he did not encounter any more beasts, let alone monsters. Instead, the number of birds increased.
Strange-looking species he had never seen before, with unusually dark-colored feathers, flew overhead from time to time or perched amid the dense foliage, calling out.
Aaron frowned slightly but kept going, though his steps grew noticeably lighter and more cautious.
______
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