The length of Eiro's horns had increased by maybe a pinky's length, and his whole body felt completely stiff. The flow of his mana was incredible, truly, but after having his body be under such direct influence of nature magic for that long didn't do him well. Otherwise, the changes that Eiro underwent weren't necessarily visible. He was pretty sure he grew around a centimeter, and his skin was a slight bit tougher than it was before.
Despite the fact that his muscles were too stiff for comfort, Eiro was pretty sure that his overall strength increased, even if it wasn't by much. It was probably only enough to let Eiro lift a few kilos more than now. But even then, it was still a positive change, and the stiffness would disappear soon too. So the timing at which Eiro was woken up by James was perfect, really.
The spiders had been following them the whole time, and were stalking Eiro from atop the cliff the whole time he was sitting there, but they still didn't attack for some reason. Maybe they wanted to wait until Eiro was alone. Either way, Eiro chose to just get started and tried his best to climb up the side of the cliff with the help of Earth Magic, and once he was close enough to the top, one of the wolf-sized spiders actually tried to jump at the demon.
Eiro pulled out his dagger and immediately slashed at the spider, causing pale blue blood to spray out of the leg that Eiro managed to cut through instantly. "This weak, huh..?" Eiro muttered, and then pulled his spark-snapper out of his treasury. Quickly, he created a spark that soon turned into flames that immediately devoured the spider.
[Lethal Damage done to Giant Day Stalker]
Eiro watched the figure of the burning spider drop down, although Nelli quickly managed to extinguish it before it even hit the ground. The Demon quickly climbed up the rest of the way until he stood at the top of the cliff, surrounded by the other spiders.
He extended the flames that were covering his hand to the dagger he was holding, and then proceeded to quickly get rid of these monsters. They weren't particularly strong or anything, but there were a lot of them, so Eiro progressed a fair amount within the 99th level.
"Perfect. Just a little more until I can evolve then. But I kind of wonder... what is it that lured these guys here?" Eiro muttered. At first he thought that it was some sort of residue of Leon's skills, after all, these spiders had a quite great sense for things like magic, but at some point he figured out that they were after him instead.
He was pretty curious about what they were going to do if Eiro let them follow them, but after a few hours of sitting there and watching Eiro, they didn't even have the patience to stay hidden. Even James was able to find them at some point, after all.
"Hm... is it because I'm a royal candidate..?" The Demon muttered quietly as he continued killing these spiders until none of them were left, "I doubt they would go after me just because of that... That's too well-organized... Someone or something seems to be pulling the string..." As Eiro was trying to figure out what exactly was going on, he just started cutting off some of the tall grass growing at the top of this cliff to tie together the bodies of the spiders.
Day Stalkers were pretty troublesome monsters after all, and getting the materials off just one of them was a D-Rank request at the guild. The materials off all of these should push him up within the D-Rank.
And so, Eiro slowly climbed back down the side of the cliff after he gathered all of them up, trying to carry them with his tail and by hooking them up to his hips and elbows so that he wouldn't need to climb up and down ten times.
Soon, the roughly two-dozen day stalkers were down at the bottom of the cliff again. He quickly got rid of the pale blue blood sticking to his hands and clothes, and then placed all of the day stalkers onto the ground.
He stepped over to the side and then just pushed his bare foot onto the ground, creating a small round hole, "James, come over here for a second." The demon said as he pulled over some of the Day Stalkers, and the Light Elf slowly approached while looking at the spiders' dead bodies pretty impressed. They were mostly in pretty good condition, despite the burn-wounds covering most of them.
"I'll show you how to take them apart properly. This counts as butchering, and getting proficiency in any skill that may end up helping your dexterity is the most important thing right now." Eiro pointed out quickly, and then proceeded to do exactly what he said, while trying to give James some more lessons.
Out of James, Krog and Jess, James was definitely the one that had to rely on direct technique, speed, and precision the most, being an assassin. It was important for him to be able to kill monsters as efficiently as possible.
"With these sorts of monsters, you have to watch out. I know your instinct may tell you to go for the legs first and foremost, since they're usually their main weapons and only way of proper defense, the carapace covering them will usually be able to withstand blows very easily. However, if you just straight-up attack the abdomen, you'll end up damaging the materials. So, what else do you do?" Eiro asked James, and he just slightly sighed in response. It felt like Eiro was kind of looking down on him a bit here, despite having many years of experience as an adventurer.
"If it's a lot weaker than me and I'm properly prepared, I'll try to attack places like where the legs connect to the body, or better even, I try to disconnect the abdomen from the main body somehow. If it's an actually risky situation, I'll stop giving a fuck and attack wherever I can."
"Yup. Perfect. I figured that would be your answer, but I just wanted to make sure. Now, do you know why I attacked them without any care for the carapace?" Eiro asked, and this time, James actually had to think about it a little. It didn't directly make sense to him, since Eiro was obviously far stronger than these spiders. And then, he looked at the bodies of the spiders again.
The only parts that were actually directly burnt up were areas covering the abdomen. James ran his hand over the carapace there once, and saw that it immediately started crumbling away.
"Because... it's too weak anyway?"
"There we go." Eiro said with a smile on his face, "The only parts of a Day Stalker that have any direct worth are the blood, the venom, the legs, and the internal organs. Day Stalkers aren't combat monsters, they're just scouts."
"Wait..." Krog intervened, "Aren't those day stalker carapace things super expensive? I heard you can make really good stealth-boosting armor out of them."
"Those are... Night Stalkers, I think." Jess pointed out, "Night Stalkers have the ability to blend in with their surroundings, but Day Stalkers don't have that. What was their main ability again..?"
"Analysis. Night Stalkers are combat types. Basically assassins. As I said, Day Stalkers are scouts, they're just there to gather information. They're a lot smarter than Night Stalkers. Their legs have a strong flow of mana, so they're sometimes used for staffs or offerings. The rest is really just for potions, poisons, and medicine, like normal." Eiro explained, and then proceeded to teach James what he really needed to do to safely take the spiders apart.
Like this, James could practice finding the weakspot of arachnid-type monsters, while also practicing the generic usage of his prosthetic.
"But wait..." Krog pointed out, "If they're scouts, then there must be actual attackers somewhere? But where're those?"
With a grin, Eiro stood up and let James finish everything alone, making him pour the blood into the hole Eiro made in the ground after covering it in a thin layer of ice to make sure the blood wouldn't get dirty.
"Perfect Question. We'll look for them soon, there's probably a nest somewhere around here. It's a good place to get you guys to level up a bit."
After Eiro announced this, everyone thought about it for a little while, "There's not just going to be Day Stalkers though, right? You think it's really going to be safe?" Jess asked with a frown, and Eiro quickly nodded his head.
"Mhm, I do. Otherwise I wouldn't suggest it. In the first place, I'll be there as well, so I can help out of it gets too hard for you guys alone. Either way, it's needed. James is an assassin, a class that relies on stealth. Trying to get through stealth-based enemies and taking them out one by one is the perfect way for him to level up. For Krog, the best way to level up as a heavy warrior is to take on a lot of weaker enemies at once and letting them do light damage to him, since he's both an offensive and defensive fighter. And you, Jess, are going to be able to make use of different types of magic for this depending on the situation, which will be needed a fair bit. Fire Magic for attack, wind magic for sound concealment, earth magic for movemnet obstruction, things like that."
After a little while of thinking about this, everyone seemed to agree to the idea of going in there and trying to level up like that. Due to the fact that they could now use Life Force manipulation, and that James gained a new arm, their combat prowess would increase considerably, allowing them to take on more enemies way safer. And having someone like Eiro there would also help their confidence in taking on a lot of monsters.
At the end of the day, these three have only been really active as adventurers for the past two years, ignoring the few months that James was an adventurer eight years ago. For one, James had to recover properly while trying to adjust to his damaged body. He also had to figure out how to live with his grief.
And Krog and Jess simply only started out as adventurers two years ago.
For that, their growth-speed within the adventurer's guild may not have been exceptional, but it was definitely still pretty good as far as Eiro was concerned. Krog and Jess were just around 18 or 19 years old, after all, despite the fact that Krog looked far older, and they both only had one or two classes before becoming adventurers.
But now that Eiro was there to push them a bit more, none of those excuses would be of any use. Because Eiro would make sure they could all become worthwhile party members.
