Assimilate All Talents

Chapter 274: Minor Symptoms

They soon arrived at the base camp and saw that everyone was now wearing the mask and headband. They rushed to pack whatever they could before moving out.

Duncan approached and said, "We are almost done packing up. It should take us at most five minutes."

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?"

Rex, who was on the roof of the carriage at the front of the pack, responded.

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

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?"

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."

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.