I prowled toward the trees where the four newborns had hatched, then paused when I spotted the first one. It wasn’t much more than a shadow beneath the leaves.

INTUIT: Juvenile Thornspider, Level 1

Oh. Damn. They weren’t newborns any longer. They’d matured overnight. Well, I’d killed a juvenile the other day with nothing but a branch and gasping terror. Things were different now.

I clicked my tongue to attract the spider’s attention. Two of them heard, though, and both swarmed toward me. I wasn’t sure how things would’ve gone if I hadn’t had at least a little experience fighting multiple enemies at once. But as it was, I chopped three legs off the first one, then buried a hatchet in the thorax of the second. As that one fell dead, the first one caught me with a slash that didn’t hurt much, then tottered unsteadily on the ground from its missing legs, and I finished it.

I pulled my hatchet from the dead spider, and waited for the next assault.

Nothing happened.

So yeah, that was a bit different than struggling to kill a single one.

I grunted to myself in satisfaction, and stalked forward.

A flash of red caught my attention from the trees in front of me. I braced for the advancing spider, and pain flared in my calf.

“Bastard!” I blurted, spunning to find another spider biting me from behind.

It was still attached to the thread from which it had lowered stealthily to the ground. Digging its fangs in deeper even as I hacked its head off.

SUCCESS: You killed a few thornspiders. And threw me a bone.

REWARD: Moderate expoi.

BIG NEWS! Level up?

“Gah!” I said. “Not now!”

I turned just in time to block the other juvenile spider’s leap. Claw-tipped legs slashed toward my fact, but I parried and shifted and chopped the little horror in half.

I looted a few foam beads then checked my injuries.

Health: 33/35

Pretty good.

I headed back to the shrine before I accepted the new level.

You’ve reached Level 2 of Wax Tier!

Have a point, you absolute powerhouse.

Available points: 1

“Give me axe,” I said. “Axe. Not hatchets. Axe.”

Nothing happened, but I wasn’t about to give up. See, I’d figured this out: even though I needed to use hatchets right now, when I left this courtyard I want to graduate to actual weapons. Like a badass battle-axe. So instead of requesting ‘hatchets’ I kept the category broader.

Axe, I thought.

Nothing happened all over again. So I focused on the hatchets in my hands as if to explain what I meant and tried one more time: axe-wielding, dammit.

Fighting Hatchets (speciality: dual-wielding) Aptitude purchased.

What the fuck?

No, I wanted axes!

Aptitudes:

* Spear

* Fighting Hatchets (speciality: dual-wielding)

“Oh, you prick,” I said. “You did that on purpose.”

Then I spun a hatchet in my left hand. My off-hand, my clumsy hand--yet I spun that thing like a dummer spins a stick. With absolute ease.

Hm.

I wanted to return to full health before I left the shrine, so I spent a while experimenting with the hatchets. Combat forms sprung fully-formed into my mind. I double-blocked and twirled, I parry-chopped. I punched with the spiked head of my right-hand hatchet and clubbed with the mace head of my left. Then I switched them on the fly, as fast as crossing my arms. I blocked behind myself, I caught an invisible sword blade and pivoted.

I spun one hatchet then both and I smiled.

Then I imagined what Oksar would say: combine both your abilities and unlock your superduper.

Yeah, I needed to see how the hatchets interacted with my domain. I could make them vanish and reappear with a thought.

Except even after I emptied my domain, only one hatchet fit inside.

Still, I practiced withdrawing that one mid-swipe. I trained myself to withdraw-strike with the broad blade, the rear blade, and the fore-spike or -mace. And every time I worked on a new move, I felt my knowledge solidify.

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“Damn,” I said. “Hatchets.”

By that time, I’d spent at least an hour, so I checked my sheet again.

Health: 34/35

“So slow,” I grumbled.

I almost headed out again, but decided to wait until my health returned completely. While I waited, I played with my gem-given power. I turned to smoke and rose weightlessly into the air. I was trying to fly, but I more just ... wafted. Which was still cool, though I couldn’t force myself more than ten or fifteen feet upward before I needed to resolidify.

I fell with a thump but it was pretty awesome anyway.

My health didn’t tick up fully until after sunset. I ate a dinner of fruit and jerky, and developed another theory. Maybe a pearl bead only worked until I lost another health point. Then I reverted to my natural (though Fortitude-boosted) recovery. So every pearl bead gave me two immediate points then kept me recovering them at one per hour-ish until I was fully healed. There was probably a limit on that, though.

Which meant my normal recovery gave me a bit over two points a day. Not bad. I’d fully recover from the absolute brink of death in like two weeks. Unlike on Earth, where you might spend months or even years recovering from a car crash, and still never get back to one hundred percent.

“Okay,” I said. “I got this. And I’m in no rush.”

I had enough fruit to live for a month, and with my increased stats, sleeping on the cold, hard stone didn’t bother me.

The next morning, I used Oksar’s sewing kit to mend a few of the bigger rips on my jacket. I thought about sitting at the fire with him, bullshitting about ‘selfmobiles.’ Then I spun my hatchets and headed out. I stalked through the small copse of green-barked trees--where a few dozen burls remained--to the boulders.

Peeking to the other side, I caught sight of two adults spiders in the meadow, feeding on the now-silk-wrapped wolf carcasses.

INTUIT: Thornspider, Level 2

INTUIT: Thornspider, Level 2

“Yeah, well I’m level two myself,” I muttered, “you eight-legged bitches.”

I vanished my right-hand hatchet into my domain and built a pile of fist-sized rocks. I wanted to funnel the spiders toward me, somehow, so I only had to fight one at a time, but there were no convenient bottlenecks. Well, except the Hole, but no fucking way.

So I hurled one rock past the clearing, as hard as possible.

The rock didn’t land, didn’t land ... then crashed into the forest beyond.

Both spiders spun toward the sound. The one nearer to the impact--farther from me--took a few steps, then paused.

Nothing happened for thirty seconds, and they returned to eating.

Hm. I waited a minute, then threw another rock, and immediately a third. That time, thornspider nearer to the sound took a few faster steps when the first rock rustled in the bushes--then scuttled fast into the underbrush when the second rock smacked against a tree.

The other thornspider just watched ... until I stepped into view from between the boulders, and recalled my hatchet.

With a flash of red arachnid armpits, it attacked me.

My hatchets seemed to move almost of their own accord. My left cracked the creature’s exoskeleton with the mace-head, forcing the spider to my right, where the other hatchet chopped a chunk from its abdomen. It tried to leap at me but its two rear legs were no longer attached, and as it scrabbled pathetically until I ended it.

The other one burst from the woods and leaped at me. Which was the stupidest attack. It couldn’t maneuver in the air, so I just lined up my swing and bisected the creature’s head.

The corpse thudded to my feet.

“Huh,” I said.

I’d just killed two adults without getting a scratch. Apparently an aptitude for hatchets made all the difference. Well, though a boost in speed and strength didn’t hurt.

I felt pretty smug. Pretty deadly, too.

Then a third adult crept closer through the high tree trunks, picking past dozens of burls. Its blue-black eyes gleamed as it angled toward me.

INTUIT: Thornspider, Level 4

“There’s the real test,” I said.

Which worried me a little. I considered moving closer to the shrine, so if I got in over my head I could throw myself onto the safety of the steps. And if that spider had showed up two minutes later, when I was already past the boulders, I would’ve done that for sure. At the moment, though, I was too far away. Thornspiders scurried too damn fast, like cockroaches scattering when the lights turned on. Except four feet long and predatory. This fucker would take me down from behind if I fled.

So I stood my ground.

I tried to stay relaxed and loose ... but a higher level changed everything. This spider moved far faster than the ones at Level 2. Gray-green legs blurred through the grass. I braced myself, holding my hatchets ready, but it still reached me before I expected.

I swung and missed and a thorn ripped across my temple and my ear. Pain blossomed. My vision blurred with carapace. An impact hit my shoulder. The spider clung to me, shaking its fangs between my armored plates. Blood and heat bloomed in my head and for five terrible seconds I lost track of the fight.

I flailed and struck and bled and screamed, until finally I dislodged the spider.

This Level 4 version clawed harder, dodged better, and moved faster. And--worse of all--it took a hit better. My blades chopped into it instead of through it. Partly because they were dulling, partly because I wasn’t strong enough. But mostly because it was just tougher.

And smarter, too, aiming for my unarmored spots.

Oksar had taken down a Level 3 without trouble, but he’d been, what, Level 6? I was Level 2; I couldn’t handle this Level 4. I was too weak to fight but also too late to flee--one claw savaged my right hand as a thorned leg lashed toward my face.

Toward my eyes, with a blow aimed to end the fight. Aimed to end me.

Two inches before that fucker blinded me, I desperately turned into smoke.

The spider’s limb slashed through a cloud of head-shaped smoke. The momentum of the missed blow spun the creature so it landed awkwardly and I was already swinging my hatchet before I solidified.

I returned to my body mid-scream and mid-chop.

With the spider unbalanced, I managed to hack my dull blade into its abdomen. I ground that hatchet deeper while I used the other one to block a few feeble claw-swipes before the thornspider died.

SUCCESS! You cleared the courtyard. That wasn’t so hard.

REWARD: 3 points.

BIG NEWS! Level up?

“Ow, fuck,” I said, panting on the grass beside the dead spider. “Yes.”

Available points: 4

I didn’t bother with those yet. Instead, I looted eight foam beads from the spider, which gave me enough to make another pearl bead. Which raised my numbers to ...

Health: 18/35

The pain eased as the pearl bead melted on my tongue. I tugged my hatchet from the thornspider’s carcass then gingerly touched my ear. I was pretty sure that I’d lost it completely, but to my relief it was still there. Or maybe it had grown back.

I limped to the pool and washed, then gathered more fruit. I stayed alert despite knowing that I’d cleared the courtyard. I finished off Oksar’s jerky and rested on the temple patio as my health ticked higher.

QUEST: Leave the courtyard of the Temple of the Billowing Ones, Those Who Linger, the Formless Forms of Forgotten Flames. Find civilization.

REWARD: Minor expoi. Enjoy a nice meal.

FAILURE: Don’t find civilization. Instead, wander lost, hungry and filthy, and eat grubs.

“What a tough choice,” I said.

A new text window appeared: ARCHMAGE’S CHOICE.

“Okay, what does that mean?”

QUEST: Clear the infestation in the tombyard of the Temple of the Billowing Ones, Those Who Linger, the Formless Forms of Forgotten Flames. Oh, and save the princess.

REWARD: Gain major expoi, substantial strength, and a kickass blessing.

REWARD: And an ally.

REWARD: Loads of rewards for this one, hoss.

FAILURE: Death, again. Also pain but mostly death.

“Save the princess?” I asked, reading the question. “What the fuck, now I’m Mario?”

Then I said, “Wait, wait. The tombyard? What’s a tombyard?”

Except I already knew what it was. Of course I did. I knew with a terrifying certainty that the tombyard was that creepy shadowy graveyard-y place beyond the Hole.

So what I did was nothing.

Well, I grumbled, “Who the fuck says ‘hoss?’ You disembodied shitwit,” but I didn’t do much else.

Except think.

I wanted to leave.

I wanted to find civilization.

I wanted to enjoy a nice meal.

But I’d watched a good man burn to death in front of me. This wasn’t a gentle, kind world, and I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to watch helplessly as other people died. I’d cowered in a bush while my only friend in this entire universe was murdered horribly, twenty feet away. That wasn’t going to happen again.