Poison tolerance advanced to level 8

Unlike my last reset, I did get a poison tolerance level this time. One step closer to not being able to reset myself in such a pleasant manner. And yes, I was going to keep saying that I reset, rather than 'died' or 'committed suicide'. It didn't count if I respawned!

With my armour made and pain resistance evolved, I decided it was time to return to exploration. While I could continue to level some of my skills, investigating that unnatural looking chamber was more important. Really, all that had been keeping me away from it so far was the fear of meeting more sadistic spiders, and the pain resistance evolution helped with that. At least a little. I still didn't want to have to deal with more of them, but it helped to know that if I got caught again, they couldn't torture me quite so badly.

I donned my armour, which involved slicing off my hair to wear the helmet, then took the rest of my equipment; my moss-covered shield, one spider claw knife and a beetle horn spear. I returned to the spider's territory, happy to find that the webs hadn't been rebuilt in the days I'd been away. I was less happy to find that the pool of me-soup was still there, now blackened, rancid and stinking even worse than before, with what looked like giant maggots wriggling around the edges, occasionally sticking their front ends in. Muncher larva, perhaps? Beetles did have a larval stage, didn't they? It was a viscerally disturbing sight, but I managed to hold in my stomach contents and jump past it. It was a shame I had no way to clean it up...

There continued to be no sign of webbing as I walked up the corridor, but once I was past the smell, or possibly once the receptors in my nose had died, I slowed down anyway. The intelligence with which the first spider acted had left me highly paranoid. If there were more here, I'd given them days to notice the damage I'd done and prepare for me. What move would they make?

Re-spinning the webs would give away their presence and leave me on guard. If all spiders had the same predisposition to surprise attacks as the first, that wasn't something they'd want to do. They'd hide somewhere they could see my approach, then try to catch me from behind. But without their webs, how could they catch me from behind?

There was one obvious answer. I spotted one of the small holes I'd made in a wall to break a concealed thread and stopped to peer through it. My fears were confirmed when I saw the break had been patched. It was proof there were more spiders here.

Now what? Turning back and doing more skill training was an option, but I couldn't train my combat skills. More pain resistance would be helpful if I lost, but it wouldn't help me win. I couldn't get better equipment than what I had. I couldn't level my corrosion tolerance, which was the only non-combat skill that would be useful in battle. No, I might as well continue on, remaining alert for an ambush.

Should I break the concealed threads again? I still wasn't sure if the spiders could perceive through them, but even if they couldn't, they may be able to perceive a break. Then again, all I would lose would be the element of surprise, and even if I successfully snuck as far as the web that blocked off the chamber, I wouldn't be able to sneak any further. Short of a spider hanging around on that web with its back to me, I wouldn't be able to launch a sneak attack. The trade-off for reducing their mobility was worth it, so I broke the thread before sneaking onwards, breaking the concealed threads in more places as I went.

Novice stealth advanced to level 2

Did a level increase there imply that there was something around here that I'd successfully hidden from? Or did it count just because I'd been imagining enemies? It wasn't as if I could sneak properly while holding a glowing shield. Either way, nothing attacked me until I reached the web covering the chamber entrance. I immediately broke the concealed thread where it entered this passage. Or at least, the one I'd found last time; worst case was that they'd laid some better hidden ones, while repairing the ones they knew I knew about as decoys.

With the threads severed, I peered through the web into the chamber. Nothing had changed from the last time, still with the other five web covered entrances and angelic central statue. I was about to step back and start dismantling the web when movement caught my eye in the passageway opposite me, halfway up the wall. A spider, barely visible in the darkness, had just rotated. Its head, previously facing down its own corridor, was now pointing towards mine.

It vanished.

Fear tolerance advanced to level 6

Okay, perhaps my experience with the first spider had been more traumatising than I wanted to admit. Given how I'd gone so long without investigating this obviously suspicious statue, and that I'd been basically torturing myself to level up my pain tolerance, I suspected that fact would have been obvious to everyone other than me. Nevertheless, I did my best to keep calm and act rationally. I jumped back, away from the web, and quickly inspected the passage behind me. There was no sign of a spider. What would it be thinking?

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Perhaps projecting the behaviour of the first spider onto its kin would be useless if they each had different preferences and behaviours, but it was the best option I had. It liked surprise attacks, but it knew I had experience with its kind, and that I'd noticed it. It wouldn't just jump behind me, because that would be the first thing I'd check. Even now, I was regularly glancing around. Instead, it would back off to somewhere it could see me but I couldn't see it, and wait for me to drop my guard.

From my experience with the other spider, I knew that if they tried to teleport past a break, they'd materialise at the break point and end up mildly stunned. Given its reaction when it saw me, it obviously hadn't known I was coming. Unless it had some way of checking the threads before a teleport, that meant it didn't know they were broken. I could lay a trap of my own...

The risk I was taking was that the repaired threads were decoys. Judging the risk to be worth it, I tried to relax and stop looking behind me quite so much, then moved to start dismantling the web, starting from the point nearest where I'd broken the concealed thread and keeping my eyes peeled for the slightest sign of movement. I gave one last glance behind me before turning back to the web, and moments later the spider materialised at the break. I thrust at it with my spear before it spotted me, reaching halfway before it even gave any reaction to its interrupted teleport.

It didn't have time to evade, and my spear ran straight through its head. It made a shrill screech that would surely have alerted any other spiders in the area, before its legs curled up and it fell from the wall. I moved backwards, dragging it with me still at the end of my spear. Despite the hole in its head, I was still concerned it was faking its death, and I didn't want to check this close to the web.

This time, my paranoia was misplaced; it was very much dead. Nor did I see any sign of other spiders responding to the screech. If they'd guessed that their threads had been broken again, they would probably wait until I'd entered the chamber, because there wouldn't be any other way to attack me from behind.

Not knowing was awful. At least when I'd seen this spider, I'd known it was around and that an attack of some sort would be imminent. I could keep up my vigilance for a few minutes, but not for hours. I'd need to dismantle this whole web while constantly looking for blobs of acid coming in from the other passages. This spider had a full acid sac, and I could drag it back to my base and level corrosion tolerance some more, but that would just give any other spiders time to set up more traps, this time with the knowledge that I'd be looking for repairs to the concealed threads.

Hoping that my armour would hold up against any surprise acid attacks, I moved forward and resumed dismantling the web. With my spider claw knife, I could cut them down a lot more quickly than with just the spear, despite not being tall enough to reach the ceiling of the corridor, and I managed to take down the whole thing without any more spider interruptions. That left me needing to step into the room...

Fear tolerance advanced to level 7

Yes, I know I'm terrified! You don't need to tell me...

The height of the ceiling in the chamber was greater than that of the corridor, even at the edges of the dome, so there was a section of wall directly above the archway that wasn't visible from outside. It would be a perfect ambush location, so I stuck my head in, glanced up, and pulled back out, but nothing was there. It seemed nothing was waiting for me inside the room. I took a step in, looked around, and jumped back out. Again, nothing. Perhaps there were only two spiders?

For some reason, there was no web on the ceiling in the room, nor was there any on the floor. Only around the walls could I see any of the spiders' threads. They wouldn't be able to drop webbing on my head. Taking a deep breath, I plunged into the room, approaching the statue while trying to keep an eye on all six passageways. Even the one I just came from couldn't be ignored, given the web covering the wall above it, out of reach of even my horn spear.

click

I spun around at the noise behind me to find a spider sitting on the web that covered one of the entrances. But why did it announce its presence like that?

click click

More clicking came from either side of me, other spiders sitting over another two entrances. That was... too much. How was I supposed to deal with three of the things at a time?

click click click click click click

Clicking laughter started up all around me. Eight spiders in total, one sitting over each of the five webbed entrances, two standing guard in front of my cleared passage, and one more behind them, crawling along the top of the arch, dropping lines of silk to block off my escape. It couldn't cover the whole space instantly, but one thread was enough for the others to teleport. If I ran for it, I doubted I would make it.

Fear tolerance advanced to level 8

Well, I had to hand it to them; as traps go, this was a pretty good one, even if it did rely on sheer weight of numbers. I was going to die here. Again. Knowing that, my best course of action would be to take down as many of them with me as possible before they subdued me. And preferably ensure they didn't take me alive. As long as they didn't respawn, I could chip away at their numbers, over and over. And hence die, and probably get eaten, over and over... If they did respawn, I would have to repeat it until my skills rose high enough to take them all at once. That would take even longer...

I noticed a gap in the clicking; one of them had stopped. I didn't even turn to look, and just jumped to the side as a tennis-ball sized blob of acid went flying past. The others seemed to take that as a sign, and all the clicking stopped.

Novice dodger advanced to level 4

I backed away towards the statue. It wasn't as good as having a wall at my back, but it would be better than nothing. Assuming they had limited shots of the acid balls, anyway; given my lack of a long range attack, if they could fire that indefinitely, my only remaining option would be to charge them. The last one had fired three and still had more left in the sac that I'd plundered. But, as I approached the statue, it started to glow.

New side quest: Clear the nest of aranea volito

You have stumbled upon a nest of aranea volito, who have desecrated a shrine to the Goddess. Kill the defilers.

Clear conditions: Kill ten aranea volito.

Reward: Gain one class slot.

Class slot? What the hell was a class slot?