As we went downstairs I told them about the notification I had received.

‡ You have wrested two shadow levels from an enemy! ‡

‡ Will you attempt to absorb them? ‡ ‡ Will you expand Shattered but Whole? ‡

"So I can absorb them, which literally killed me last time, or apply them towards my Shattered Title. I'm hoping the second will be slightly less deadly. I can't make it go away so I need to do something." I said.

"I would personally go with the less deadly option."

"Thanks Stew. I'm going with the second but I needed to let everyone know." I replied.

"Thanks?" Stew said.

"Jeezus. Stew all you got to do is let him know you got his back," Meagan put her hand on my shoulder. "We're here for you."

"You already know my answer." Mike said.

I smiled at Meagan and nodded at Mike.

"It's starting to flash so I don't think I have much time."

Once we got downstairs I led the way into the armory and then selected the Shattered option. In the most anticlimactic fashion possible it not only didn't kill me, it didn't even hurt. It was just like using Skill Points with other Titles. One gave me the second level bonus and the next brought the third level a bit closer. Two more should give me the third level bonus if it kept a steady progression. I was really interested in it after getting the first two.

Shattered but Whole - The Shadow shattered you and you resisted.

•Gain

•Health and Mana Regen +100%

?

?

?

It took an hour for me to heal with my new HP Regen as well as using my MP Regen to cast {Heal}. {Heal} gained 2 levels from bringing myself and everyone else back up to full HP. After replacing my hatchet and hammer out of the piles still laying around we went outside to look at the area outside the squat keep. In a corner we found a rat hole that lead into the area with the spider.

"You think we'll find the diapers over there?" Stew asked.

"I think the wall is where the make-up was. So that side is where the diapers were." Mike said.

"Why do you know where the make-up aisle was? Do you have something to tell us Mike?" Stew said.

"Yes Stew, I do have something to say. You are an ass. I shopped at this store for awhile, of course I have an idea where stuff is." Mike responded

"Even if he did have something to tell us we wouldn't care, because he is our friend. And holding a machete." Meagan said. She had replaced her broken staff with a six foot long inch thick fiberglass tree stake she had found.

"Make-up was next to the baby stuff. So since we didn't find it here we should find it there." Mike said.

Looking through the hole we could see what looked like a moonlit jungle. Never mind that it should be late afternoon. There were lots of leafy plants growing over the shelves that obscured whatever was on them.

"Everyone knows the plan?" I looked at Stew.

"Yes. You sneak over and see if you can find diapers, then you come back. If anything attacks then you come back and we are ready to attack it right back." Stew rolled his eyes.

I crawled through the hole into the unexplored portion of the dungeon. My ?Shadow Sense? wasn't telling me anything. I suspected that meant this creature was an ambush hunter. I had really grown to like my ability and the advantages it gave me so I wasn't happy it wasn't helping right now. I quietly covered the ten feet to the nearest shelf and moved some leaves. Cat litter.

I heard a hissing behind me and whipped my head around. Mike was pointing further along the aisle.

Waiting for my heartbeat to slow from the sudden noise I studied my surroundings. The light wasn't moonlight, it was more of the crystals. They gave off a faint blueish light through the leaves of the vines that covered every inch of the walls and ceiling. Some of them were thick enough that I could mistake them for trees. The floor wasn't linoleum or the flagstones of the other section, it was packed earth.

‡ Dungeon is no longer contested ‡

The wall I had crawled through seemed to fade into the distance leaving me staring at my friends as they stood next to the carts in the newly created section of the jungle.

"So I guess we'll end up finishing this quest too?"

I felt a blob of enemies appear and start moving in our direction. Around the corner behind us came dozens of fist sized spiders.

‡ Lvl(1) Spiderlings ‡

"Oh, fuck no." All four of us said at once.

I held my crowbar in one hand and my hammer in the other. "Well Stew, I wish I could blame you for this. But I think it would have happened anyway."

"Thanks Dave." Stew said sarcastically.

When they reached us we all began stomping and smashing. We were in such a panic about these spiders that we were almost done when I started to realize they weren't even as strong as the squirrels. I wasn't using any Stamina in my stomps and still spider legs were flying as they squished under my feet.

As I realized their weakness I also saw they couldn't hurt us either. None of them even had the strength to climb above our shoes.

+ Spiderlings +

Spider species are a favorite form for Shadow to steal.

+ Often found as a subservient to one of the larger Macro Spiders. +

"Dave." I looked over at Mike. He looked pushed to his limits, pale and sweating. "I don't know how long I can keep this up. I really don't like spiders."

We were surrounded by broken spider corpses. I decided not to mention the possible Macro Spider.

"Yea, Mike I'm totally there with you, man. Let's just grab our carts and head to the exit." I said.

I felt what happened more clearly this time. A large creature appeared from the ceiling around the corner from us and a dozen spiders jumped off and fell to the floor while the larger one faded back into the ceiling.

Crap on a Popsicle stick. My heart kicked it up a notch when I realized how far out of our league this thing was. We couldn't see it to find it, even if we could find it we couldn't reach it twenty feet up on the ceiling. Even worse, we didn't know how many spiderlings it could produce or if that was all it could make. This was way worse than the Rat King.

I started power walking to my cart while I talked as fast as I could. "All right that is that. Let's grab our ill-gotten gains and walk briskly to the exit." I didn't think we would make it before we had to deal with spiderlings, but I knew Mike would break if we actually started running.

We made it most of the way down the aisle before we had to turn and deal with our new fans. My goal had changed from find diapers to get everyone out alive. Stew had plenty of shirts.

Once they were a few feet away I tried to act casual as I gave instructions. "Oh Kay guys. We're going to have to stop and squash a few pests here. Mike you watch ahead of us while the rest of us take care of them. On 3. 1. 2. 3."

Mike stopped a few feet ahead while the rest of us started stomping. After that we kept on around the corner and past the now leafy check stands towards the exit.

The third time we stopped I thought I might have even seen Gilberto standing outside under that sweet, sweet open sky.

"Last time. Now we're going to just keep right on out." I said.

Five feet into that last walk we ran into a slight complication. A man sized spider dropped down in front of us and blew a haze of fibers into the air.

"What the hell is that?" Stew asked.

‡ Lvl(7) Green Spider ‡

That's when I would swear I actually heard Mike snap. "A spider is spitting a cloud of fucking webbing at us Stew. It's probably tapioca fucking pudding!" Mike dropped his weapon. "Don't let it touch you." Then he took a deep breath and made a hand sign similar to the one I used for the Mana Bolt. Bringing his hands up to his face he blew furiously, like he wanted to blow the spider away. A gout of flame spewed out and turned the cloud of webbing into threads of ash that slowly drifted away. I might have stood staring at Mike in shock if I hadn't known the spider had disappeared back into the ceiling before the flame had reached it.

It was now dropping directly towards Stew.

"Watch out!" I pushed Stew. The spider powered four claw tipped legs right where Stew's head had been. The spider's body knocked both of us down onto the ground as its other legs absorbed the shock of it's landing.

I rolled around until I could hook my crowbar around one of it's legs. As it crouched, readying itself to spring back to the ceiling, I yanked on a leg. Startled the spider jumped before it was ready, it landed ten feet away. It spread its fangs in preparation for another cloud of webbing, this time close enough I would be well within it's range.