Assimilate All Talents

Sol shook his head. "Leave it behind. The creature doesn’t care about our stuff. Once we deal with it, we can come back later."

Duncan nodded and gathered everyone by the carriages. He boarded the slower ones, mostly consisting of the scholars and a few low agility soldiers, onto the carriages.

The horses galloped as fast as they could while the soldiers ran alongside, the castle visible in the distance.

On the last carriage, Sol sat on the roof, keeping an eye on their surroundings, focusing mainly on the museum in the distance where the Bliss Spider was no longer visible. At some point, it had disappeared, making him uneasy.

Sol turned on the PAL and said, "Anything on your end?"

<Nothing so far.> Rex, who was on the roof of the carriage at the front of the pack, responded. <It’s odd, though. Most of my detection skills don’t work unless it’s within line of sight. It makes it much harder to track.>

"Could be it has stealth skills as well, to complement its ability. Just keep your guard up."

<Yes, Captain.>

Before turning off the PAL, Sol connected to Torben’s PAL and asked, "One of us has already been killed by that thing. But we are already on our way to the castle. How are things on your end?"

After a brief moment of silence, Torben responded, <Only one? That’s better than what I thought. Hit a snag on my side. The Heat Inverter is stuck, so I can’t access the small gap in the ceiling.>

"The Heat Inverter? You mean the crystal on the roof of the city?"

<Yes, up there, there’s a small opening in the Azrem Alloy. It’s not big enough for anyone to squeeze through, but it should be enough to hopefully get Orna’s attention. Normally, it could be lowered for maintenance, but the mechanism broke at some point, so I’m gonna have to use more forceful means. If only I can get this damn thing to work…>

His voice trailed off, and Sol could hear metal clanging from his side. Since Torben was focused on whatever he was doing, Sol decided not to mention that they had also informed the orcs of the situation and that they had sent the nearest A-Ranker to inform Orna. He hung up and continued keeping an eye on the surroundings.

It didn’t take long to spot it. The Bliss Spider had climbed onto a faraway building and was looking at their caravan with its hundreds of humanoid eyes. Its bulbous rear shook as it emitted a pinkish yellow gas that spread in all directions. The heavy gas rolled down the side of the building and quickly filled the area with its mist.

Seeing the incoming gas, Sol silently chanted [Gale Wall], sending a large blast of wind at the gas in an attempt to blow it back.

The wind did blow the gas back, but as if the gas had a mind of its own, it gathered and focused its push in their direction, easily breaking through the wind.

Sol continued to loop cast the spell, calling more wind walls to push the gas back, but it broke through each wall with little resistance.

The gas quickly reached their caravan. Some relied on the mask to protect them, while others closed their eyes or blocked their ears, thinking it could enter through any orifice. In a way, they were correct, but the gas seeped directly through their skin and began affecting them all in various ways.

The vision of some became distorted, and they found themselves once more in the pristine city, while others began to hear upbeat songs of celebration. A few began smelling delicious and exotic fragrances, while others could taste and touch them. Fortunately, none were affected mentally, as the headband’s primary function was to protect the mind, which Torben found to be the most important. Still, no one was free from experiencing one or more senses falling into the hallucinations.

"Come! Let’s dance!" a soldier shouted from the side.

Sol wasn’t immune to it either, having his hearing influenced by the gas. His mind was clear, though, and he knew it wasn’t real. Through his PAL, he said, "My hearing has been affected. Go on ahead, help those struggling with the hallucinations. I’ll try to hold it back."

<Why must we fight? It only wants to make us happy.>

He could tell that was Duncan’s voice, but it was obviously influenced by the gas. He could only assume at least one of them understood what he said. He hopped off the carriage and ran straight toward the Bliss Spider.

The creature screeched, but those whose hearing was affected only heard an enchanting song.

’I’m glad only my hearing was affected; at least I don’t need to hear whatever that sounds like.’ He knew that whatever came out of its mouth was likely very unpleasant, given how some of the soldiers reacted by blocking their ears.

With [Terra Manipulation], large amounts of ground and rubble from buildings rose and launched toward the creature. The Bliss Spider didn’t show much reaction, only swiping its front legs and breaking any rocks and rubble that got near it. It was less concerned with the attacks and more so with the fact they were resisting its gas. Even in a weakened state, it could easily affect anyone below A-Ranker at this range, and yet the weakest people were only affected in three of their senses.

Sol wasn’t surprised and continued launching rocks at it to keep it distracted while the caravan reorganized and continued on their way. From a quick glance, he saw they were having a problem with the horses pulling the carriages. The horses were affected by the hallucination as well and without the protective equipment, they were now trotting in place as if grazing a field or rolling on the ground, and nothing the soldiers did could get their attention. With the horses out of commission, they had to leave the carriages behind and continue on foot, which was a nightmare to coordinate with a decent portion of the group unable to see or hear properly.

While stones were being launched at the creature, Sol also cast [Water Cannon], multicasting and loop casting it to create tens of torrents of water blasting forward.

With a leap, the creature flew upwards, reaching all the way to the ceiling of the underground in a mere moment. It pushed itself against the roof and launched down onto Sol, planning to crush the human standing in its way.

With [Phase Step], Sol disappeared and reappeared 30 feet away as the Bliss Spider slammed the ground, creating a massive crater.

Seeing that the human had dodged, it chose to expend more energy and shook its rear again, creating more of the gas. This time, the gas didn’t expand outward but instead gathered into concentrated gas orbs that orbited the spider. If Sol focused on them, he could see each orb carried a different image inside. Some were of beautiful places, others of exquisite foods and drinks, and others were showing concerts playing music. Each gas orb carried experiences of bliss, and once they were formed, it launched them at Sol, one after the other.