A Big Pile of Thanks to @Patrick_Schuster and @DarkPriest on PayPal… Also @Wazolek on Patreon.
It's PAYDAY! And Extra Day! And here I thought I piled up some stock chapters to laze for a while!
Also about the cultivation Realm naming… I will put a vote on Discord to settle this once and for all.
Extra Chapter: Every (+10$) Patron or PayPal
Extra Chapter: 5000 Votes
Extra Chapter: 8000 Votes
~~~~~~~~~~
After getting some progress in terms of our Cultivation and even naming our first realm, we went right away to the exploration of White Ridge Barrow.
This place is special and I came here for a very good reason. I am not sure if I will ever find what I am after but there is a good chance to do so.
Just as we opened the jammed gate of the barrow, we found a very chaotic and a badly dim place, unlike the other barrows, this barrow was already explored.
"Damn, this one is probably clean." Wulfur looked around and said in disappointment.
"Just like how I wanted it to be." I said as I cast 'Night Vision' and 'Detect'.
"Wait! You knew the place was already explored." Alina asked.
"Nope, I hoped it was explored. It means the ones we are after have mostly arrived."
I took the lead and judging by how it looks, this place has been abandoned for a long time. Still…
"What is that smell?" Jull asked.
"Sounds like some creature had made its nest here." Wulfur said.
"Not wrong but not completely right. Look…" I said and cast a few 'Magelight' orbs to the front. The whole area started getting illuminated bit by bit.
The place we are in was a large hall followed the entrance, it was kinda run down and some of its parts were destroyed but that was very common for all Nordic Ruins. The uncommon thing was the amount of the cocoons we saw.
On the corner of rooms, there were life-like cocoons that had a hint of fiery light oozing from them. They were beating like hearts and with the diameter of half a meter each. It was awfully disgusting, the place was filled with them.
"What in Kyne's name is that?" Alina moved close to me and held my clothes, her hands started to shiver. It was somewhat cute.
"These cocoons are webs… spider webs." Jullanar figured it out.
"Yes, they are. And they are not friendly at all. Do not go near them." I said.
Everyone started gathering tightly around me.
"Alina, I want you to summon the 'North Wind'. Let's crush them down in full swoop."
Everyone stuck closer to Alina as I said that.
"This so disgusting… All-Maker!" Alina shouted and changes started happening around us.
The All-Maker blessing that Alina acquired is an AOE skill that is a really crazy storm of frost, just as she activated it, we got trapped in the eye of the storm and the place around us started to get messy.
"Jon, a barrier, please."
"On it."
I cast a powerful Ward around us and all the trouble was warded off. As soon as the mini storm ended, the room settled down, we witnessed what happened to the place.
The cocoons were all destroyed and the insides of them were smashed to pieces, they were of course albino spiders. Frost traces were on the walls and the pillars of the place and it really seemed that some Ice Wraiths were wrecking the place around here.
"Nice job, Alina." I said as I kissed her forehead.
"You baby spider murderers." Jullanar was depressed when she saw the amount of the dead spiders around the area. She has a thing for spiders.
"Okay, back to formation, we are going straight to the inner sanctum."
The crew turned back together and we went straight to the largest hall in the ruin, after passing some traps and taking down some albino spiders, we started collecting their eggs then proceeded forward.
On the way, we found body parts and bones from many species like humans and elves who seemed to be bandits judging by the state how they got here, there was also some explorers who seemed to have been killed here and brought here to become feed for the spiders. Some Rieklings and their boars were also there. The whole place was a miss.
"Someone is growing spiders in here."
"I would normally appreciate it but this is too much."
"It is actually normal." I said.
"What? You approve of that?"
"No, but I am saying that most of the researchers had to cross the lines many times to achieve success. Human trails, biological weapons and many other disgusting things that history didn't reveal were all made by researchers who threw away their ethics to reach a new height in knowledge."
Wasn't it possible? It is very possible and was basically how my past world worked.
We kept going forward until we saw something really unpleasant; a man with a spider mounted on his head was was as if he is a zombie.
"What is that thing?"
I didn't reply and just cast a Lightning Bolt that took out the man and the spider down.
"That was a bandit being controlled by the spider."
"Being controlled?"
"Just like Remy from Ratatouille but this time with magic." I replied.
"""What?"""
"Don't mind me! I just wanted to say it so much."
"What should we do against these spiders then?" Jorna asked.
"Don't get close and kill from afar, use Blast Magic to kill as much as possible."
With that plan, we went further killing Mind Controlled bandits and spiders. I was gathering the eggs of the albino spiders for later use and managed to reach a mining place in the Barrow.
As soon as we entered, a voice called for us.
"Help! You there! Help me, please!"
A voice of a man came from a deeper part in the mining area. I took the lead and eliminated any threat on the way until I reached the source of the voice.
'Oh, so he is alive!'
Above a wooden platform, I saw a Dark Elf man locked in a room-like cage with a lot of notes, food and what looked like a study area.
"You there, please help me. I beg of you, get me out of here before she comes." The Dark Elf looked at us and started crying.
"Quickly, help him…" Bjorna said and was about to go unlock the cage but Wulfur and I stopped her at the same time.
"I suppose you are?" Wulfur asked.
"I am Servos, Servos Rendas from the Mournhold. Please help me, my associate imprisoned me here. Get me out before she comes, please."
We all looked at each other and felt a bit conflicted about the man.
"Those people controlled by spiders outside, were you the one who did that to them?" Wulfur asked.
"No, sera (sir). It is my associate who did all that, she locked me in here and made me work for her. She is behind all that."
"So you can control spiders?" Jullanar asked.
"... We… we made a discovery but my associate became paranoid that I may turn on her and steal the research, all those fumes from the experiments must have got to her."
"Hehe, that's why Nurina always told us to experiment out in the open, not in the deepest part of a cave." I mocked him.
"Wait! You said the experiments turned her mentally unstable, right?" Alina asked.
"... I guess… I am not sure."
"That makes you as dangerous."
"Please, no. I don't want to be in this place anymore. I am not going to do anything I promise! I know! It is the Chanting Voice… from the deepest part of the Crypt… it is what drove Merilar crazy… it can't be the experiments. I am very sane." The Dark Elf panicked once he thought that we would leave him here.
"Chanting Voice?"
"Yes, it comes from the deepest part of the crypt. We sealed the place because we were wary of any power we don't want to mess with but Merilar, she became crazy… yes, it made her crazy." The Dark Elf man kept shouting.
"You mean a Word Wall? Why would that drive anyone crazy?" Jullanar asked.
Word Walls make some sort of sound when one approaches them. It is mostly the residual power of the Thu'um that was kept in the Word Wall for ages and it contains some of the profound understanding of a certain word. A Dragonborn can understand these Chants and that's how I become able to learn many Shouts this fast.
"Word Walls? You know what is that chanting is?" The Dark Elf was taken aback.
"Yeah! We have someone who is an expert on that sort of thing here." The all pointed at me.
The Dark Elf named Servos looked at me and became curious.
"May I ask… what sort of power is that?" He asked.
"Why would I tell you that?"
"Eh… Ehehe, truth is... it made me curious for a while but I was engrossed in my research more… how about this? A trade! I give you my knowledge about the spiders and how to create them, you show me this power and get me out of here?" Servos said.
"Hahaha, you want me to exchange both knowledge and freedom with only knowledge and you made it sound like a fair trade? I like you."
"... Ehehe, you got me there but I promise you that the Magical Spiders are always worth it."
"Don't worry about it, even if I shared my knowledge with you, you won't be able to do anything with it anyway." I said.
"Eh? Really?"
"It is not a power anyone can use but I promise you, it is worth it."
Servos seemed conflicted. Even though he was caged, Dark Elves have the tendency to be thick-skinned. I am the son of Nurina Aren and I know Dunmer too damn well.
"In exchange, you will teach my fiancee here how to make those little beautiful spiders." I said as I patted Jullanar's back.
"Eh?! You want me to raise spiders?" Jullanar was shocked.
"Yes, why not? You like spiders, right?"
She nodded happily.
From the game, these spiders were known as the Spider Scrolls. They were really unique and made the game a bit fun, they were treated like scrolls but one would equip a spider and throw it, on the enemy, it had many effects and was really fun to troll with. Still, their power was not to be neglected and I need to understand how to craft them. As Jullanar loves spiders and has a thing for Alchemy, I guess she would be able to understand them quicker than any of us.
"Now then, my name is Jon Dare from the College of Winterhold, what say you? You agree to my deal?" I extended my hand through the cell bars and used a slight bit of Aura to remove any naughty thoughts from his head.
Servos seemed a bit frightened but he shacked my hand back.
"Deal!"
"Good, then. Wulfur, the door."
Wulfur took my place in front of the door and held the bars. His muscles plugged from his shirt and under his armor and…
*Tink*
… the Cage broke.
How Wulfur breaks steal with his hand never ceases to amaze me!
"Azura!... Thank you, let me grab my notes…" Servos said and started running around the cage grabbing his notes and stuff.
"This is the Spider Imbuing Device, it is a bit heavy but it is one of a kind. If we could take it, it would save us a lot of time to build a new one."
"Leave that to me." I said as I walked in the cave and clapped my hand.
With that clap, the Spider Imbuing Device was absorbed into my ring without Servos noticing.
"Wow! Is that the power you were talking about?"
"Not even close." Alina retorted.
"... Well, then let's get out of here before she comes." Servos said as he rallied us to leave.
"Not so fast!" Finally, she spoke.
The presence that was hiding at the end of the cave tunnel finally revealed itself.
"Merilar!" Servos panicked when he saw her.
"Brother, were you just going to leave me with my research?"
She said as she walked out of the shadow with cat-size spiders in her hands, Servos shivered and hid behind us. The spiders in her hands were glowing red with a flaming aura around them and were very energetic.
"You there, put back my Imbuing Device and step out. You said you knew what is that Chanting Power in the Sealed Room? Fine, you and I are going to have an extensive talk about it." Merilar said with a hint of arrogance in her tone.
I see where is this coming from, she is overconfident with her spider pets.
"Merilar, was it? I suggest that you don't do any action you would regret." I said calmly.
"Regret? My only regret is that I have left that backstabber alive. And you... you can do anything to me! While you were talking with this backstabber of a brother, I have surrounded the place with all of my spiders."
"Yeah, we pretty much noticed that."
It was all in my range of detection anyway.
"Tsk! You dare talk down on me? It is your mistake!"
As she said that, spiders crawled out from every nook and cranny, there were white spiders, red spiders, green spiders and stranger spiders… these guys were really busy.
But the most important thing was…
"Did you just say 'Dare'?"
""""Oh boy!""""