I stood on the roof of a building near the edge of the safe zone, looking out with horror at the giant strands stretching between buildings. They looked like spider silk, but were way too girthy for that.

Not anymore, I corrected.

The world had monsters now. And even if I couldn’t see any giant spiders, there were definitely other things out there that I could see.

Nothing close, thankfully. Nothing inside the safe zone. The area closest to me looked mostly untouched, though there was an apartment building that had been severely damaged, and I wondered if it was one of the ones Bob had mentioned. It was the only one I could see with obvious damage.

But farther in the distance, there were large shapes moving, slinking in the shadows and haze.

I couldn’t inspect them from this remove. My manasight worked, but not well. If I had to guess, the things were around Goliath and Colossus class.

I wondered if any of them were corrupted rather than monsters. There was a difference in mana between people and monsters, but I’d never seen a corrupted with my manasight, so couldn’t be sure what these were.

I wanted to practice stealing mana from the weaker ones, but that could wait until I got some rest. Especially since Goliath were technically stronger than I was, and I’d passed out from stealing the mana of a Giant-class undead golem back in the tower.

Then again, integrating its mana had been what had gotten me to Copper.

The safe zone really wasn’t that large. I already knew it from my map, but standing here and being able to see nearly all of it really brought it home. North to south I could walk it in a few minutes. East to west was larger, though still not huge, maybe just under a mile. All told, not that many people would have been covered by the safe zone. It was mostly businesses.

Which maybe explained why the town was so empty of locals besides the one’s at Finnegan’s.

I was about to close my map when something slammed into my chest, then yanked, pulling me through the air before I could react.

I watched my own dot fly across the map and out of the safe zone.

I soared through the air at great speed then crashed through branches as I landed in the copse of trees near the old hotel at the west end of downtown.

And a good four hundred feet outside the safe zone.

I quickly pushed myself to my feet, my Copper body uninjured despite my clothes being shredded. Whatever had grabbed me wasn’t connected any longer, though torn strands of silk dangled from my chest.

The soil beneath my feet was damp and partly covered in a sticky substance.

Webbing. I could pull my feet free easily however.

I looked around, opening my manasight, but saw nothing with either it or my normal vision.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, the silence oppressive rather than reassuring.

There came a distant screech of a frogmouth, then silence returned once more.

The copse was thick with trees, but I could see which direction the safe zone lay thanks to my map.

Whether I could make it back to it in time was another matter. Especially since I’d still been inside it when I was yanked here.

I hadn’t even seen the web coming for me.

How had it affected me? I’d definitely been inside the safe zone.

Was it because I hadn’t actually been injured by it?

Stupid loopholes.

Nearby, a line of trees swayed in a gentle breeze, their leaves rustling ominously.

Except, there was no breeze.

A soft, eerie clicking echoed from the shadows, and I spun to face it.

I could see… something with my manasight, and the sense of foreboding that washed over me was too intense to be natural.

This was some kind of ability. I focused my mana and pushed it away, which was thankfully easy enough.

The source of this unease was apparently unhappy with this turn of events, as branches cracked and a monstrous spider crept forth from the shroud of darkness. Its ebony body gleamed under the mottled light and eight malevolent eyes began to glow an eerie shade of crimson as they locked onto me. Its chelicerae, long as daggers, dripped with a slick, viscous liquid that shimmered in the twilight.

It was the size of a small car, yet it moved on long, hairy legs with eerie grace.

“Ah balls,” I muttered as it suddenly lunged.

I narrowly avoided its gaping maw while simultaneously activating Smoldering Caress. “Fester and burn.”

I slammed my fist into one of its hairy legs, which ignited immediately.

It shrieked in agony, its leg crackling and blackening and filling the air with a sickening scent.

I quickly inspected it, though I could already tell from its mana that it was only Giant-class.

Adjudicator Arachnoid

Giant-class Monster

Level: 11

I wasn’t entirely sure what adjudicator meant, but I was pretty sure it didn’t fit this monster.

I was about to attack again while I had the spider distracted with its burning leg, when a chorus of scuttling legs echoed from all around, branches rustling as large things moved down from them.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I was surrounded, I realized, as dozens of red-glowing eyes ignited all around me.

A nightmarish parade of death and terror emerged from the darkness, at least ten spiders just as big as the first, hissing and clicking their pincers.

They moved in as their injured fellow retreated.

I didn’t have time to come up with any kind of plan, instead reacting on instinct as the monsters came for me.

One lunged, its legs outstretched like spears.

I dodged its attack, quickly chanting two incantations in quick succession, testing Dreadnaught for the first time and hoping my intuitive sense of its effect was accurate.

“Let the rising tide bring parity. Fester and burn.”

My fist connected with its hairy abdomen and the creature screeched in agony as flames enveloped its body, turning it into a malodorous torch.

It thrashed about, sending sparks and embers into the canopy above us before collapsing, lifeless.

Well, at least they died easily. At least when I used Dreadnaught.

This time four came for me at once.

I rolled through their legs, marveling at the agility of my Copper body.

I popped to my feet and landed a jump kick on the one closest, activating Smoldering Caress just before connecting.

This one didn’t die, as the attack hadn’t been enhanced by Dreadnaught, but it still caught fire.

It panicked, slamming into the other three that had attacked, the group becoming entangled, fire spreading to all of them.

The stench was now omnipresent, and I had to forcefully repress my gorge. Vomiting would be a distraction I couldn’t afford.

I pushed mana into my lungs, allowing me to temporarily hold my breath for longer than I’d otherwise be able to.

The group of spiders caught in the blaze shrieked in agony as they were consumed by the flames.

But there were still at least another six remaining, though they seemed hesitant to charge in.

I couldn’t make a weapon from the trees, which I sensed was because they were alive and I didn’t possess enough power yet to seize control, but there was plenty of dead matter around that I could control.

“Become my weapon,” I chanted, and the ground beneath the spider nearest to me began to move as I formed it into a giant hammer.

But my concentration was interrupted as webbing splatted onto my face, blinding me.

“Fester and burn!” I mumbled, which thankfully I was still able to do.

I slapped myself in the face, the webbing instantly igniting. Despite the description mentioning a small chance to ignite, it seemed to work more often than not.

“Let flames become flesh.”

I ran toward the group of flaming spiders as the webbing dissolved and the flames were sucked into me to heal. The effect was minor since I hadn’t wanted to punch myself in the face, but I appreciated the minor rejuvenation.

The spider I’d been about to attack with Ephemeral Armament was thrashing about, stuck. The effect of being interrupted in the middle of forming the weapon was unexpected, but not unwelcome: the soil had partially liquefied, transforming into a pit of quicksand.

I made a note of that for later.

Its legs flailed in a futile attempt to escape as it shot webbing in all directions.

Instead of shooting out from the abdomen, it came from the joints of its legs.

“What are you, Spider-Man?”

There were still five other spiders, but they were now quite hesitant to attack, maybe because I was standing by the group of four that had caught fire. They were all dead now, but their corpses still burned.

I would need to breathe again soon, but I wasn’t about to do it here.

“Let flames become flesh,” I chanted, realizing I was somehow doing it without expelling any air from my lungs.

Then I fell back into the blazing pile and felt myself rejuvenate as the flames were sucked into me.

I got to my feet, reinvigorated, and smiled. “Well now, how about we take care of the rest of you?”

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

Only two spiders remained, both now in a frenzy, all caution abandoned.

They were both Giant-class, but much higher level than the others had been at 16 and 19.

They lunged in unison, chelicerae gleaming.

Using Ephemeral Armament, I summoned a shield of dirt between us, the soil compacting and solidifying into something as hard as stone. The spiders’ fangs clamped onto the barrier, gnashing futilely as they struggled to break through.

Splitting my focus, I changed two broken branches into projectiles, imbuing one with Smoldering Caress.

The unimbued one bounced harmlessly off the first spider’s chitin, but the second pierced through, setting it ablaze.

My card was way more effective on things below me in class, even if their levels were higher.

The flaming one tried to flee, but didn’t make it far before collapsing onto its back, its legs curling in as acrid smoke billowed up from it.

The final one shot webbing at me which I managed to catch. Without thinking, I spun around and found I could easily lift the spider. It had to weigh several hundred pounds, but I barely noticed. I made three rotations then the spider cut bait, releasing its webbing and it went flying away, smashing through bushes and tree branches, its pained screeches fading into the distance.

A moment later there was a loud crash, then all was silent.

I looked around in amazement.

“Whoa. That was actually kind of fun.” I looked down at myself. Thanks to the healing from Blood of the Phoenix I was mostly uninjured. My clothes, on the other hand, were rags. “I really need some magic armor.”

Two of the spiders’ corpses sparkled with the light indicating they contained loot, and I took a step toward the closest of these, but halted as a deafening hiss echoed through the trees.

“Oh come on, how many are there? This place is only a few hundred feet. How many giant spiders can possibly be hiding here?”

I got my answer a moment later: at least one more.

A massive spider, easily twice the size of the others, emerged from the darkness.

With my manasight I could sense it was far more powerful than the others, and I quickly inspected it.

Adjudicator Arachnoid Queen

Goliath-class Monster

Level: ???

“Queen spider? Aren’t you supposed to be solitary?”

I wasn’t expecting an answer, but got one.

“No,” she said, in a voice like rushing water.

“Holy crap you talk.”

“Yes, as do you. Quite a lot for someone in battle.”

I shrugged. “It’s a talent. So, you going to try to eat me too?”

She let out a sound that seemed like disgust. “We do not eat your kind.”

“Well, that’s good to know. Can’t say I really believe it though.” My mind raced through possibilities. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to use Contract.

“You are a shopkeep, are you not?”

“How the bloody balls do you know that?”

“We hear much.”

I frowned, then nodded. “Ah, vibrating webs.”

“Yes.”

“So, why do you care about me having a store?”

“We seek safety.”

“Join the club.”

“We would like to.”

I frowned. “Uh, what exactly are you asking?” I wasn’t convinced this wasn’t a trap, but it gave me time to recoup and plan my next move.

“We want to be allowed to live within the safe zone. I can detect its presence. There are things outside which are… beyond my ken to deal with. This is a dangerous place.”

It was weird talking to a monster. Especially one that looked like she did.

A thought struck me. “Are you a corrupted?”

“I was always as I am, never human.”

“I mean, I’m guessing you didn’t come through the gateways.”

“There are other ways to traverse the worlds.”

“Well, I’m not sure I could stop you from entering the safe zone.”

“You are one of two merchants of the Village. We only need a majority vote to enter. With two, that means the vote need be only one.”

“That doesn’t seem very democratic,” I muttered.

“Allow us sanctuary within the safe zone. We won’t harm anyone. We can’t, of course. And no one can harm us.”

“Uh, don’t you like, eat people?”

She hissed. “Why do you keep asking this vile question? You’re filled with all sorts of contaminants.”

I couldn’t help but notice her objection wasn’t to the idea of eating humans, but rather to the worry of being polluted by doing so.

“What will you eat then?”

“I do not need to eat. My subjects feed on mud. There is a park in the heart of the safe zone that will be satisfactory.”

“I’m, uh, pretty sure your ‘subjects’ aren’t okay.”

This was quite the understatement, considering I was standing in the midst of scorched and dismembered spider parts.

She was a spider and a monster, so I was trying not to anthropomorphize, but it was hard to accept she’d just let the killing of her subjects, as she’d called them, go. Even if they’d been the ones to attack me.

As if reading my intent, she looked around, and I could read amusement not on her face, but in her mana.

“So long as I live, they cannot truly die.” Webs shot out from her to the charred corpses and body parts, pumping life into them as they came back together and rose, fully healed.

Suddenly, I was surrounded once more by reanimated spiders.

“Uh, yeah,” I said, voice cracking. “So, which building would you like?”