Little Blighter
The moment Samar broke the Pristine Shadow Cocoons, the Sun Blight Spider sensed it and his anger was stoked even further
Arachnos roared, chilling the hearts of the Players confronting him. Its eyes had turned yellow and it had entered a berserk state.
The members of New Moon Legion could not handle its frenzied rage. Soon, they suffered the first casualty as Sun Blight Spider thrust one of its forelegs through a saber wielding Warblade's chest, killing him on the spot.
This was the start of the New Moon Legion's misfortune.
A Natureguard stepped forward to close the opening but his half full HP bar was not enough to endure the enraged Arachnos' Shadow Strike.
One after another, the melee players began to fall like a chain of dominos and within a few seconds, 4 Players of the New Moon Legion had perished!
"Hydro Blast!" Lunato shouted, as a blue spherical water ball flew towards the Sun Blight Spider like it was shot from a cannon. It collided against the sturdy chest of Arachnos and exploded, pushing the boss back by a few steps.
The Guild members of New Moon Legion watched the spectacle with shock. It was unthinkable for many that a magic skill could force the behemoth of a boss to take a few steps back.
However, Lunato's eyes widened with horror seeing the damage dealt by the skill.
-1198 (Crit)
The damage may be high for others but it was quite low in his eyes because he knew the reality.
Lunato had used his most powerful skill that amplified the damage by 300%. Yet, the skill had only wiped out 6% of Arachnos' HP despite securing a critical hit!
The damage dealt by others in the New Moon Legion was even lower. Apart from Red Dart and another Elementalist, no one had been able to take away more than a 100 HP with their skills.
On the other hand, more and more players were falling under the combo of Dark Net, Shadow Strike and the Sun Blight Spiders normal attacks. Minutes after the Boss went berserk, the New Moon Legion had lost all but three of their melee players!
'With a team of weaklings like these, this raid was doomed from the start,' Lunato cursed in his heart, knowing that taking down this boss was a fool's dream.
His eyes looked past Arachnos, at the lair shrouded in darkness. A grand prize awaited him inside, a youngling of a Super Monster, Eclipse Spider.
Lunato made up his mind. He disengaged from the battle and called the Team Leader of New Moon Legion.
"Red Dart, I am going to the lair. No matter what happens, do not let the Boss return!" He commanded, knowing very well that he had signed them up for a death sentence but he did not feel guilty in the slightest.
As long as he could take the Eclipse Spider as his pet companion, his advancement to the R4 of the Howling Moon Guild was guaranteed. In front of such a temptation, what were the lives of a few insignificant members of a subordinate guild?
Lunato left towards the lair, disregarding the look of displeasure on Red Dart's face.
Inside the lair, Samar observed two of the creatures that emerged from the broken Pristine Shadow Cocoons.
He recognized them instantly even though they looked slightly different from their adult selves; In fact, Samar had fought with their adult versions numerous times in the past few hours.
They were miniature versions of Shadow Seamstresses and both of them were Lv 1!
This meant he could use his newly gained 'Capture' skill to catch them!
Even if he kept only one as his pet, knowing the preference of many players for sexy monstrous creatures, he could auction off the other one for at least 10 Gold Coins!
Samar immediately used Capture on one of the Shadow Seamstresses. A rope made of mana emerged from his hands and lassoed around the Shadow Seamstress' midriff.
The Lv 1 creature panicked and let out a loud shriek. She flailed and struggled, trying to free herself from the rope.
Every time she flailed, the rope cut into her, making her lose some health. Samar felt his heart jump, fearing she would die before the capture was successful.
Fortunately, a few seconds later, her energy was all spent and the Shadow Seamstress could no longer struggle. She surrendered herself to her fate and allowed Samar to retrieve her in the Pet Storing Device.
Ecstatic upon the successful capture, Samar turned to the other Shadow Seamstress. He did not see her as a monster but a money bag full of gold coins.
He once again activated Capture and repeated the motions. Soon the Shadow Seamstress disappeared into another Pet Storing Device and a notification congratulating him chimed in his ears.
[Congratulations! You have successfully captured the Lv1 Elite monster, Shadow Seamstress.]
[Do you wish to bind it as your companion pet?]
Samar declined and closed the window once again. Why would he choose hastily when he could compare the two and keep the best one for himself?
He opened both of their Stat windows.
—--
Name: (Shadow Seamstress)
Lv 1
Growth Rating: Elite (77)
HP: 100 MP: 32
Attack: 5
Defense: 5
Skills: Shadow Stitch, ???
—--
Name: (Shadow Seamstress)
Lv 1
Growth Rating: Elite (81)
HP: 100 MP: 32
Attack: 6
Defense: 5
Skills: Shadow Stitch, ???
—-
Samar was over the moon as he looked at the two Stat windows. He had captured a Shadow Seamstress with a Growth Rating of 81!
Growth Rating, just as the name suggested, determined the stat growth of a pet. Even if two monsters were of the same type and had the same number of stars in attack and defense, the one with higher GR would have more stats than the one with lower GR.
Take for example the two Shadow Seamstresses. A Shadow Seamstress was a monster species with a 4 and a half star attack. Yet, the one with 81 GR had 6 points in attack at Lv 1 while the one with 77 GR only had 5 points.
This gap would only grow as their levels increased. So, it was always better to get a pet with higher GR than lower.
Samar decided to keep the Shadow Seamstress with 81 GR for himself and sell the other one at Auction.
Just as he was about to designate the 81 GR Shadow Seamstress as his pet, he felt something brush past his feet. He looked down and saw a pure black spider the size of his fist scuttling around.
It was the third creature that came from the broken Pristine Shadow Cocoons. Curious, Samar picked up the tiny little spider on his palm and looked at it closer. It was pitch black everywhere except for the small white disc on its back.
He poked the white circle with his finger and the little spider spat shadowy tendrils at his face in response.
Samar was tickled by its foolishness, sure that an Lv 1 monster's attacks would not harm him. He was sorely mistaken.
The shadowy tendrils quickly wound around his body, immobilizing him. Their effectiveness was just as good as the Shadow Seamstress's Shadow Stitching skill, perhaps even better.
He struggled to break free from the Shadow Binds that were tightening around him and squeezing his body. However, the more he struggled the tighter they squeezed and cut into his body.
"Fuck!"
Samar cursed as he realized that he was in trouble. He checked the spider's status window to determine what he was dealing with.
—--
Eclipse Spider (Super)
Lv 1
Attack: ★★★★★☆
Defense: ★★★★
HP: 100
Skills: Shadow Bind, ???, ???, ???
—--
Damn! This Spider was a Super creature, a grade higher than even the Shadow Seamstresses!
Its potential stars were even more outrageous, nearly comparable to the Ferocity of Virident Forest, Arachnos!
Fortunately, it was only Lv 1 at the moment and knew just one skill, Shadow Bind. Moreover, the level difference between them prevented the spider from dealing him much damage.
Still, he lost nearly 10 HP per second for the duration of skill. This shocked Samar.
Despite a level gap of 18 Levels, the Spider had dealt more damage than he had endured in the nest so far!
Knowing it was futile to struggle, Samar waited for the skill duration to end. When he was finally freed from the binds, he looked at the tiny spider in his palms with eyes filled with desire.
"Such a powerful critter! Only you deserve to be my first pet!" Samar muttered with a greedy grin.
The spider screeched as if understanding Samar and launched another shadowy thread at him but this time, he was prepared.
Samar interrupted the Spider by using the Capture Skill. Mana Ropes formed around the Spider and bound him, not giving it another chance to attack or run.
The Spider shrieked as it tried to escape but the Lv 1 creature stood no chance of evading its fate of being caught.
[Congratulations! You have captured the Lv 1 Super monster, Eclipse Spider.]
[Do you wish to bind it as your companion pet?]
A 'Super' monster was comparable in stats to a normal boss monster and there were very, very few of them to be found in the maps below Tier 3 in Dreamverse.
Along with its powerful Shadow Bind skill, the Eclipse Spider had everything that he wanted in a pet.
Still, its Growth Rating was an important factor that Samar could not ignore. He called for the Pet stat window of the spider and opened it.
—-
Name: (Eclipse Spider)
Lv 1
Growth Rating: Super (94)
Attack: 7
Defense: 6
HP: 100 MP: 60
Skills: Shadow Bind
—-
Samar looked at the stats and he could not contain his joy.
A Growth Rating of 94! He had hit a jackpot!
"The Luck Stat buff is truly OP!" Samar thought as he realized there were still 5 minutes left from the 60 minute duration of the buff.
The +25 points in Luck had allowed him to catch the three creatures on first attempt with his 'Capture' skill and all of them had a much higher Growth Rating than the average GR of the pets found so far.
Moreover, he had chanced upon an Eclipse Spider, a Super Creature! Its base stats were so much higher than that of a Shadow Seamstress's.
Seeing them, Samar completely discarded the plans of keeping one of the two Shadow Seamstresses and decided to designate the Eclipse Spider as his first pet.
[Congratulations! You have bound a Lv 1 Super monster, Eclipse Spider as your pet companion.]
[What would you like to name it?]
Samar looked at the tiny critter on his palm and said the first word that came to his mind,
"Little Blighter."
The moment he said the word, the loud roars of Arachnos resounded throughout the lair. They were so loud that they drowned all the subsequent chimes of notifications.
"Shucks! Did the New Moon Legion team already bit the dust?"
Samar wondered, alarmed by how loud the noise was. Fearing the untimely return of Arachnos, he quickly collected the rest of the Pristine Shadow Cocoons and put them in his inventory.
Just as he turned around, someone lit up a torch. Under its orange light, the darkness in the lair was driven to the corners and Samar came face to face with the person behind the New Moon Legion's incursion, Lunato.