During the first three hours, nothing worthy of note happened. Mako kept a watchful eye on his surrounding while also meditating. He had been trying to resonate his two abilities, anytime he got because he didn't want to be left behind, especially since Bill had achieved a level 2 Sand Ability.
He had made progress as he could find the aura reserves within his body and could also visualize the boundary between the two auras. According to Bill, it took an intense amount of concentration to break the barrier between the two abilities and allow them to merge together and resonate into something completely brand new.
'Uh! What am I missing?!' Mako screamed internally with irritation as he knew that he was close to resonating but couldn't find a way to take that final leap.
After a few more minutes of trying, Mako eventually gave up and instead opened up his system interface. He just wanted to check a few things such as the shop and the quest tab. Mako would do this quite frequently because even though he knew he wouldn't be able to purchase much from the shop, it still felt nice to view all the items on sale. It was like a kid staring in through the window of a candy shop.
As usual, Mako was quickly disappointed by how good some of the things were in the shop and how hard it would be for him to earn the coins necessary to purchase them. Mako felt even more demotivated after that and he was about to just close the system and wait out the rest of his shift until it was time to wake up Bill for his shift.
"Wait a minute.., What's this?" Mako said as his eyes went to the notifications tab just as he was about to close the interface.
[Notifications] ⓘ
[(3) Unread Message]
Mako had no idea at first when he received a notification and he ignored it but he soon remembered that he had skipped a notification after he had carved out the crystal from the Sabertooth Spider's body.
[User has obtained a Medium Tier Sabertooth Spider Crystal]
[Does the user wish to absorb the crystal?]
[YES/NO]
'Uh... what? What do you mean by absorb the crystal?' Mako asked the system using the Ask feature.
[If the user acquires a raw crystal, they have the ability to absorb it. However, unlike refined crystals, raw crystals do not grant the user a completely new ability. Instead, absorbing a raw crystal may enhance the user's understanding of a particular ability by a certain percentage and boost their energy pool based on the quality of the crystal. The user also has the option to sell the crystal at a shop in exchange for coins.]
"Wow!" Mako said as he was quite amazed by that description.
Now he had to decide whether or not he should absorb a medium-tier crystal. It would obviously be beneficial for him to just keep it with him as it had a lot of uses in the real life, but on the other hand, he was going to spend the next two weeks here. He would have many more opportunities to farm more crystals.
Mako decided to experiment with this crystal and so he reopened the notifications tab and focused on the 'YES' option.
[Error]
[The crystal must come in physical contact with the user in order for the user to absorb the crystal]
*Facepalm!*
"Stupid! Of course, you need to hold the actual crystal if you want to absorb it! I should really confront my teacher who labeled me as a smart kid." Mako said to himself after realizing his stupidity.
Mako took out the crystal from his backpack and held it tightly in his hands and the same prompt reappeared in front of his eyes.
[User has obtained a Medium Tier Sabertooth Spider Crystal]
[Does the user wish to absorb the crystal?]
[YES/NO]
However, before Mako could select the "YES" option, he noticed small shadows moving on the sand 100 feet away from them. The only reason that Mako even noticed them was because of the moonlight that was shining brightly on the beach.
Mako quickly used his Analyze skill to check out what the shadowy figures were, but he saw put him in a state of panic and terror. A hundred feet away from Mako were around 20 Sabertooth Spiders that were sniffing their way toward him. They weren't the fastest creatures but they would locate him very quickly.
Mako's heart was pounding hard but he remained steady. It was crucial for him to not make too much noise because the spiders had good hearing and would be able to pinpoint their location immediately.
Thinking about what to do, Mako decided that it was best to first wake Bill up, but he had to make sure that Bill creates any noise, or else it would mean danger. He slowly sneaked over to where Bill was sleeping and gave him a light shake.
Bill wasn't a heavy sleeper and quickly became awake.
"Hey..." Bill said before Mako covered his mouth with his hand and with his other hand put his finger to his lips to tell him to keep quiet.
Bill had just woken up and nothing was making sense to him but he followed Mako's instructions and slowly sat up. Mako let go of his mouth and Bill gestured with his hands trying to ask Mako what all this was about.
Mako took a small pause before slowly pointing at the spiders who were behind him. Bill turned around and was about to scream from the terror of watching 20 giant spiders slowly moving toward them.
Mako quickly grabbed his mouth again before he could scream and reveal their location. Mako helped Bill calm down before whispering in his ear." Calm down, they can't see. They can only smell and hear things to find their way."
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do? Are they strong? Can we take them on?" Bill whispered back and bombarded Mako with several questions.
"My flame bullet skill was able to kill it in one shot, but I can't use that here otherwise the rest will be alerted after killing one. My other skills that have a wide range are probably not enough to take them all out in one shot." Mako whispered.
The same was also true for Bill as any offensive move that he had either didn't have an effective range or wasn't strong enough to deal with all of the spiders.
"Can you move us by moving the sand under our feet?" Mako asked.
Bill shook his head and told him that his ability wasn't strong enough yet to carry their weights. Mako was running out of ideas as there seemed to be no other option other than to fight. Mako wanted it to be a clean fight where they won't have to go near the spiders but it seemed like it wasn't a possibility anymore.
The spiders were getting nearer by the minute and soon they would catch on to their scent and launch their assault. After going over everything that they could do at the moment, Mako finally settled on what he thought would be the best move.
"Bill, How tall of a pillar can you raise with the two of us on top of it?" Mako asked Bill.
"I dunno, around 10 feet or so... why what's the plan?" Bill replied back.
Electricity started to crackle in Mako's hands as said to Bill," When I say GO, you raise a pillar carrying the two of us as high as you can, got it?"
Mako placed his hands on the ground and more and more electricity started crackling on his arms. The noise from the crackling had alerted a few of the closet spiders and they started sprinting toward him.
"GO!" Mako said.
[Electrical Discharge has been activated]
A pulse of electricity erupted from Mako's body and quickly traveled outwards, reaching further than ever before.
The pulse had paralyzed the majority of the spiders while simultaneously a pillar of earth started to raise Mako and Bill upward.
Mako's skill also affected Bill and he was also paralyzed but before the effect could apply, Bill had directed all of his aurae to raise the tallest pillar that he could make. Even though he was now, paralyzed, the pillar kept rising.
Soon the pillar stopped rising and it gave Mako and Bill a 15 feet height advantage. The remaining spiders that did not get paralyzed had now pinpointed their location due to the sound of the crackling electricity and the pillar being raised from the ground.
They quickly sprinted past their paralyzed fellow spiders and reached the base of the pillar. They were quite agile once they found their target and showed how quickly they could reach them.
Now, Mako had to defend the pillar from all directions to make sure that the spiders didn't make it to the top of the pillar until the paralysis wore off in Bill and he could help him in taking these things down.
Fire erupted from his hands as Mako was prepared to defend this pillar with everything he's got and make sure that they make it out of this situation alive.
