She saw her total health bar had barely budged. It was only a little blood.

Turning her attention to Rover, he bit the end of one of his legs. Jenifer’s eyes widened in surprise at the blue droplets of blood. Kevin gave a low growl, but Woozle sauntered over to sniff the spider’s blood.

The red blood and blue blood pooled and combined on the tile floor creating little rings of purple. The blood samples were not acting as water and oil. Jennifer glanced up at the old giant armored spider.

“So, is it working?” Jennifer’s voice cracked as she spoke.

After a few moments, the giant armored spider’s body seemed to move in a mock nodding motion. “As an armored spider, I believe your mending should work. If your combination of mend and healing potion gives my grandson here a new leg, that leg will grow with him and be part of him. His body should accept the leg and should be able to heal the new leg as if it was his original.”

Woozle spoke before Jennifer could. “I am hearing a lot of ‘should’ when you speak. What happens if the kid casts mend and it goes wrong?”

“I have other grandchildren, but you will not be able to have another one as a pet.” The giant armored spider’s words cut Jennifer's heart. She knew a warning when she heard one. She did not want to make an enemy of the spider and wanted to help.

“My little spider, are you sure you want to try this?” Jennifer asked, with a sinking feeling.

The little spider moved its body up and down in a nodding motion. Jennifer turned to the older spider. “What are the chances this goes wrong?”

The giant spider seemed to think on the question before answering slowly. “One in five is the worst case I would say, but I would give you a one in three chance because you have at least quested together.”

Jennifer turned to the softly growling Kevin. She wondered what he was thinking. Kevin had been logged in from his world for a long while now without logging out. In that time, Kevin had realized they were at least able to team up with others, but they could not communicate beyond basic movements and interpretations. Jennifer reached out to scratch the beast’s chest and focused on what she needed to do next.

Jennifer picked up her little spider and put him on the dean's desk. She steeled herself for the next part. Her stamina and mana were as high as they were going to be. She opened a stamina potion and health potion. Preparing for the operation, she moved her hand over the patient spider and uttered the word, “Mend.”

The wires of her hands began their dance.

Little welding sparks traveled over the spider, cutting and burning while only being a means to repair.

She watched her party interface. Rover’s health was going down, and a metal bar icon which turned gray then blinked white. She assumed the blinking indicated that the effect had not taken yet.

Seeing the health of the spider dip below the one third mark, she opened a health potion with her free hand and placed it before the subject. “Drink it slowly.” She could hear the panic in her voice.

Kevin barked a panicked warning but thankfully did not attack anyone.

The grandmother spider was so still she might as well have been a statue.

The healing potion was working or at least keeping the spider's health from going any lower. But Jennifer’s stamina was almost out, and her manna was below half. She reached for her stamina potions but dared not move the hand that was performing technomancy. She reached for a stamina potion but could not open it with one hand. Her free hand was numb, and she could not grip it well enough to get the top off.

Jennifer’s eyes went wide in fear. She needed the stamina potion quickly before she crashed. “Woozle, I need you to open the stamina potion!” As soon as Jennifer yelled, Kevin howled a long deep howl.

“How? I don’t have thumbs.” Woozle yelled back, attempting to be heard over the howl. It only made Kevin howl even louder.

The giant spider moved.

Kevin stood between Jennifer and the spider, barking and howling.

Jennifer fell to one knee. She knew if she stopped, it would be the end of her pet spider.

Kevin turned. In less time than it took Jennifer to blink, the spider moved, but Kevin moved faster. Darkness surrounded Kevin, causing the spider to miss its intended target. Kevin appeared next to the spider, flanking as he bit into one of the spider’s legs with glowing blue fangs.

Jennifer’s stamina was less than one tenth, and a warning appeared on her menus. Mana was being consumed to replace the stamina, but her mana was going to crash very quickly. Woozle was beside Jennifer pawing at the stamina potions on her belt. The noise of the room became very loud. Jennifer’s body weakened, her energy draining even faster than before. Her mana is being used up very quickly. “Kevin, please,” escaped Jennifer's lips.

Jennifer knew only two options, keep the mend spell up and her spider would live, or to stop and Jennifer would live.

She kept the mend going.

Jennifer looked down at Woozle. “Sorry, this was a short run after all.”

“To the infernal levels with that.” Woozle stopped pawing at the potions and charged into the melee between Kevin and the spider.

Woozle bit Kevin’s tail, holding him in place. Kevin could have easily dislodged Woozle, but he did not, stopping the melee.

Woozle had his jaws firmly on Kevin's tail and was trying to drag him toward Jennifer. The wolf looks back, his eyes meet Jennifer’s. Kevin rushed to her side and licked Jennifer’s face.

Her mana had crashed. Her stamina was at one percent with her health now melted away. Jennifer could no longer speak or move. She had resigned herself to mending the spider for the rest of her very short life or walking away with an eight-legged spider as a pet.

Cool glass touched her lips. When Jennifer opened her eyes, Kevin held a potion in his paw up against her mouth. She drank it down and thought it was the best thing she had ever tasted.

Her stamina ran out again after fewer heart beats then she would have liked. With her health slowly melting away, Kevin pawed her a health potion. Jennifer looked down at her hands, watching the wires continue to mend Rover. She was all in, and while the stamina potions had added to her, they were just a temporary stop. The health potions were a stop gap at most.

Jennifer watched as her stamina was at one percent again, with her health ever closer to zero with each heartbeat. She did not feel terror. She felt pain as the wires used her body, her health, as they continued their dance and did not know if this was going to end in destruction or creation.

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She screamed as the wires receded back into her hands. They had finished, and she was alive. Jennifer peered down at her pet spider.

Rover did not move.

Kevin pressed his massive nose up to the spider and took in a big sniff.

The spider remained still.

Jennifer looked at her party interface. Rover’s name was no longer listed.

Woozle stepped up and nudged Rover with his nose.

Her eyes watered. She had taken all of her available potions, ninety-nine percent of her stamina, one hundred percent of her mana, and ninety-six percent of her health.

But the spider was unmoving.

The dean lit back up, giving everyone a slight shock of electricity.

A glowing purple dot appeared on the back of the spider.

The spider was unmoving but glowed.

The dot became a glowing line.

Yet the spider was still unmoving.

She had been holding her breath. It was all for naught. She collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily and trying to hold back her tears.

A plate carrying a few sandwiches descended on a large spider leg. On top of the multiple snacks stood a small, eight-legged spider with glowing purple straight lines adorning his carapace. A metal leg waved at Jennifer.

The spider was moving.

Jennifer reached out to touch the spider. Rover picked up a sandwich intercepting her hand. She was going to pet him if not for the food. A smile and a tear found their way to Jennifer’s face. She picked up the nourishment and ate all of the food on the plate as she watched the spider get used to the new appendage.

First, Rover walked forward and backward then left to right and right to left. The spider did a roll and what looked like an attack with his now needle-like leg. When the spider reached his adult size, he would be deadly.

Both Jennifer and the much larger spider let out an audible, “Awww.” Rover climbed up Jennifer’s arm and settled into his normal shoulder seat.

Unlocked Blood Ritual trait: You can now add blood to a ritual to enhance any ritual. Blood, it is in you to share.

Jennifer murmured, “That can’t be good.”

“What cannot be good?” the grandmother spider asked.

Jennifer looked down, not wanting to meet the spider’s many eyes and kicked at some imaginary dirt. She spoke quietly, “I unlocked a blood ritual trait. But I’m a good person not . . .” Jennifer trailed off. “I’m not evil.”

The giant armored spider moved its body up and down like someone’s head would move when laughing uncontrollably. “My alignment is near the end of the evil side, and I bake cookies for new students and travelers alike. Alignments do not make you who you are. It is just a system thing. They like putting things in neat little boxes.”

That made her feel better, “But the town I live in is good-aligned, so I have to at least stay on the better side of neutral.”

The giant armored spider went to inspect her grandson and check out his upgrades. Kevin licked the bite marks on his tail, Woozle curled up on the dean's couch, and the dean glared at everyone. “What the infernal level was all that? I nearly had you die on my floor, and not even one of you acknowledged me. And stop unplugging me. It is hard getting the plug back in!”

Jennifer unplugged the dean again. She did not know who had plugged him back in, but she did not want to deal with him.

Although Jennifer was very low on health, mana, and stamina, she had things that needed doing. Courtesy of grandmother spider’s sandwiches, her stamina was over half recovered. Her health and mana were also on the rise, but they were taking their time going back up.

She turned to look at her upgraded spider. “If you are well enough, can you gather some food?”

The group saw a trap door appear next to him, and he disappeared quickly into it. The spider was not gone long, reappearing with some kind of meat on a stick.

Jennifer took the stick from her spider but stared at it in wonder, unsure where the stuff was gathered from. Being too low on stamina to think about it much, she ate. Before she was done with the first, her spider had gathered a second. She gratefully ate the food because the paper raid was coming up in town, so she would need to have her health and stamina potions restocked. She had other items left on her to do list.

Jennifer stood up and prepared to get lost again. She smiled at Kevin and said, “Let’s go goblin hunting.” Woozle was already beside her, and a glowing spider sat on her shoulder prepared for the rest of the day.

Chapter 10 (11): It Was All in the Hat

Step one of Jennifer’s plan was to find the goblins. So far that plan has not worked well. A chance encounter led to meeting the goblins before, so she did not know how she was going to find them again. She had no tracking skills and no idea how to mime, “Find goblins,” to Kevin. So, she got lost and hoped for another encounter.

At one point, Jennifer exited an empty food kiosk onto a grassy square with old red brick campus buildings on all sides. Turning around, the kiosk had disappeared. She shrugged; this was all part of her getting lost plan. Although the grass around her was green, it had not been well maintained. A strange looking cow in sunglasses was filling up on the overgrown grass. The black and white cow had long shaggy fur, a mane and beard under its chin and a long tail with a tuft of hair at the end. He had a big head with short black horns and a hump on its shoulders. Compared to the other cows, this one was a high capacity assault cow. The creature let out a long moo while looking at her.

Jennifer did not have much time to keep looking around if she wanted to make it back to town on time. She went up to the cow. “Hello. Um, do you know where I can find the goblins?” She felt she had been lacking intelligence when she left the dean's office. She should have asked the older spider for directions.

The cow looked at Jennifer through the thick, dark aviator style sunglasses. Jennifer had no idea if the cow was a fragment, parallel, or functionary. She swore she would treat everyone the same and was going to wait and see if the cow reacted. Kevin was laying on the ground beside her. She realized that she might be lucky, and the wolf had not tried to turn the cow into a meal.

The cow gave out a long deep, “Moo,” turned, and walked away.

Jennifer glanced at Kevin who had his head and ears perked up. Looking at Woozle, Jennifer shrugged and asked, “Do you have a better direction?”

Woozle simply shook his lynx head in a no.

The group followed the strange black cow. A Beefalo ID tag appeared over the cow. Jennifer was unsure if the word was a description or the name of the cow, but she turned off her navigation skill and followed.

The cow walked through the archway and turned a corner and went through a door. When the group suddenly came out of a tent door in the middle of a goblin camp, Beefalo was nowhere to be seen.

Jennifer did a double take in spite of the fact that she knew the map had been moving around her rather than her moving around the map.

The encampment went silent as the goblins stopped what they were doing and stared open-mouthed at Jennifer’s party. A lot of the goblins were doing what she expected to see in any town. The only difference was that rather than buildings there were tents. Two green tents had a logo on the top of a mermaid in a white circle. Chairs were set up outside where goblins were drinking beverages. Jennifer made a mental note to visit those tents when she had a chance, because the drinks looked tasty.

After a few moments of Jennifer taking in the view of the goblin tent town, she realized that the goblins were still staring at her party. She had the plan to get here, but had no idea what she would do when she got here. With a nervous smile, she raised one hand in front of her and wiggled her fingers. “Hello.”

As soon as the word left her mouth, the goblins went into full panic mode, running in all directions while yelling in their guttural tongue. The goblins that were carrying supplies simply dropped them, leaving them where they fell, and dashed away. The beverage drinking goblins also left their drinks behind.

She looked down at Woozle and Kevin had taken prepared stances, eyes and ears looking forward ready to launch at any moment. She was happy neither went charging after the goblins, so she reached down and petted them. The goblins sprinting every which way reminded her of children playing tag in a school yard. Jennifer frowned slightly as she could not remember ever being in a schoolyard before becoming a fragment.

Once the area in front of Jennifer was deserted, she called out, “Hello, umm, anyone out there?”

From behind one of the larger tents, two rows of four armored goblins came out. The goblins wore purple tunics and bronze body armor with matching bronze caps and carried spears. A drumming goblin followed the armored goblins.

Jennifer blinked at the attack force. She remembered only a few days ago when she met goblins for the first time. She thought they were just strange looking green-skinned children with long pointed ears. She looked over the goblins with their weapons in hand coming toward her and smiled. The world was not as strange to her now as it had been only a short while before.

She recognized the second goblin on the right as one of the first goblins she ever met and talked to. Thinking quickly on what to do, Jennifer pointed at herself and said her name.