Chapter twenty: mountains

Kaijo levels up his faith to 30. He needs to go north to the capital now through the mountain pass through the cavesystem with the great spider mother and her spawn. He descends the mountain in no time and gets back on his sandboat. He proceeds north. He enters the sandsea again and the storm is still going sand covering the sunlight. The creatures are still swimming around hunting vibrating through the ground. He finally makes his way out of the sandstorm and can see the bordering mountains as a great divide seperating him from the old capital. He arrives at the steep mountain walls and looks around for a way up. As he makes his way along the mountain walls he stumbles upon stairs leading up to the mountains covered in sand and ruins. He proceeds onwards with caution. The end of the path is nigh and he arrives at a abandoned settlement in ruins. He explores the area and stumbles across undead dwarves. The dwarves are smaller than him but stronger physically they use axes and hammers and wear some armor on top with their long beards flowing from under the helmet. They attack him. Kaijo dodges them and counterattacks killing most of them off. The leftover dwarves hit him and deal damage. "HP: 40/60". "Ouch that hurt!" Kaijo says finishing them off. He explores and finds a campfire to rest at. Replenished he proceeds along the path. The path leads deeper into the mountains with nature overhanging the mountain path surrounded by jagged cliffs. He continues on and stumbles across a ruined iron gate and stone ruin. He goes trough and finds dwarves fighting off spiders the same size as them. Kaijo waits around for them to finish fighting once they do he rushes in finishing the leftover spiders that survived. The spiders are surprisingly though and manage to inflict poison on him slowly draining his hp and slowing his movements down. He manages to finish them off tanking through the rest of the hits. "HP: 15/60". He takes two swigs of his healing flask and heals back to full. "Healing flask: 3." He continues on and finds a diverging path curios he takes the path on the right. He can continue on but some stones come rolling down. Luckily for him there was a opening in the walls to hide behind. He looks around seeing if the air is clear. "That was a close one!" he says continuing onwards. He finds a ruined temple and enters it. He finds a spell, a new weapon and a new champion of old. "Spell acquired: key. Spell description: A spell that can open doors imbued with runes." "Item acquired: Blackmith´s hammer. attack: 400. Item description: A finely crafted dwarven blacksmith hammer that is used for forging. Surprisingly strong as a weapon it´s weight can smash through skulls with ease." "Item acquired: Old dwarven shield. Defense 500. Item description: A dwarven roundshield imbued with runes. Special skill: It can be thrown and will regenerate upon use." He tries the weapon out by throwing it like a discus. It flies far and with a lot of kinetic energy smashing some rocks it hit. It regenerates. "That went pretty far." He says continuing along opening a door that leads further inside using his key spell. He finds the grave of an old hero and puts the coiled sword and receives the souls information and rests there. "New technique acquired: Smithing. Technique description: You can now forge new weapons using materials , a fire and a hammer. He heads out back to where the path splits and continues along to the left. He continues along and needs to run because a boulder is rolling toward him. He finds a small opening and jumps in but there is a big spider there that pushes him back into the boulder. He blocks using his shield but loses all his stamina and is pushed off the mountain killing him. "You died!" pops up. He respawns back at the temple and backtracks his way immedeatily running for the window swinging his hammer as he enters smashing the spiders head in. "That´s what you get for turning me undead again!" he says waiting for the boulder to roll by. He looks around and heads for the path away from the edge. This time he arrives at the cave that is closed off by two doors covered in runes. "Open sesame!" Kaijo says using his key spell opening the gates. He enters and can see torches lighting the path inside revealing smooth stone structures, a path forward. "Those dwarves are really something else building all this crap here!" He says looking at the bridges and houses that are all empty. He takes a torch and holds it in his arm with the shield. The air is murky and is filled in a creepy atmosphere as he enters the long stone hallways. "This is creepy." Kaijo says continuing on hearing the spiders crawling around. He arrives at a cave entrance that is only covered in a stone path. He proceeds in and arrives in a huge cave system covered by faintly glowing blue moss. He continues along and finds a long wide bridge which he decides to cross. The bridge is flooded with spiders all crawling towards him with killing intent. "Oh crap!" Kaijo says attempting to run away but there are spiders there too. He uses dragon flight to cross the bridge flying over the spiders. He lands and starts running and runs into a dead end. "Crap!" he says ready to fight back with no space to fly away only a opening way up high. The spiders rush in but he is janked away somewhere by spider web. The spiders crawl away noticing the web signaling that they got it covered. He is up there saved by a human spider hybrid. "It´s dangerous here whitout knowing the path!" the hybrid says. It´s a woman with the lower body of a spider eyes and all. "Thank you for saving me there!" Kaijo says only now noticing the lower body because he was focused at the naked woman part with her long hair covering the chest. She has long black hair and long black nails with red eyes, a scaly lower body with hairs a demonic looking spider. She leads the way. "What are you even doing here undead?" she asks him. "Here to kill the great spider." he says following her. "You need to be careful she is strong and has an army of spiders as you already have observed. I´ll help you I have a bone to pick with her." she says. They arrive at a small cave room with a fire altar in the middle and fabric hanging along and a rudimentary bed with torn clothes. "Rest up!" she tells him. "I will, thanks. How do you know about my connection to the fire?" Kaijo asks sitting down. "I felt it. Your connection that is. You´re a rare one being able to harness the full power of the fire. It symolises a new beginning and allows one´s soul to be reborn from ash. I have witnessed it myself. I am a witch that found a fragment of the gods soul the one symbolising fear to be precise. I only managed to absorb a bit of it before the great spider interrupted me killing me in the process and somehow our souls mixed and I transformed into this." She tells him. "I´m gonna need that piece." he says. "You´ll receive it if it means ridding myself of this hideous form. For that you need to kill the great spider first . If she is dead the spider soul and the gods fragmented soul that linked us will return to it´s former state meaning I am a part of her and if she dies the spider soul dies as well returning me back to human." she explains. "Understood. You´re a medium of souls that accidentaly had her soul linked to a big bad spider in posession of the fragmented gods soul." he says. "Yes, correct. I shall lead the spiderlings away. I can offer you pyromancies if you´d like." she says. "Alright." he says buying some pyromancies from her (fire ball, fire storm, flame blade) and a pyromancy catalyst.