G stealthily approached the arboretum entrance and continued past it. Crewton let out a short, low growl and followed G, who made a soft clucking sound with his tongue to signal the dog. They rounded the corner, and soon G heard the familiar tapping of spiders in pursuit. The spiders had detected Crewton, and G hoped that only a few would follow.

Quickening his pace, G led Crewton to the lab and waited near the broken virtual reality capsule. As the first spider entered the room, G cast Mana Bolt. With 240 mana, he could cast it four times, but he planned to stop at three and switch to the Whip of Thorns if necessary. The first spider's health bar dropped from green to red and died on impact. Although Mana Bolt dealt more damage than the Whip of Thorns, it also consumed three times more mana.

G prepared for more spiders, hearing their legs and chittering approach. He had chosen the VR capsule room for this battle because it was far from the arboretum, and the spiders hadn't come to help their nestmate during his previous encounter. G hoped to draw only a few at a time.

Two more spiders entered, hissing and raising their front legs. As they advanced, Crewton barked and dodged them in a macabre dance. G cast a spell at one spider, which stumbled back, its health bar dropping to red but not dying. G then cast his final Mana Bolt at the other spider, killing it instantly. Summoning his Whip of Thorns, he finished off the injured spider as it tried to flee. The corridor beyond fell silent once more.

G waited a few minutes, his mana gradually increasing by three per minute, thanks to his hat's bonus. Then, a popup appeared:

Congratulations!

You have gained one level.

G had reached level 2 again, and his max mana rose to 290. He also received a stat point to allocate. The next spell had already been filled in, leaving no room for reselection, even from the shortlist.

G walked over and attempted to harvest all three spiders. The first two attempts failed, but he succeeded with the third one. A half-sphere-shaped portion of the spider's carapace appeared in his hand, featuring a large red hourglass on its surface. The inside was still moist; G placed it in his inventory, where it sorted to the crafting tab.

Notice:

You have harvested your first item, a large chitin shell of a magically enhanced spider.

+1 skinning skill.

G examined the carcass, wondering if any part was edible. However, when Crewton turned his nose up at it, G decided against trying it. He dragged the spider corpses one by one to the conference room, not wanting them to stink up the place or obstruct his plans for further combat.

It took about an hour and a half for G to restore all his mana, after which he and Crewton lured and killed two more spiders using Mana Bolts. He failed both harvest attempts and moved the carcasses to the conference room.

As they approached the last corner before the arboretum for the third time, Tocai spoke up, "You haven't opened the map. Do you want me to fix it in the corner?"

"Oh, a map? I didn't see that," G replied, thinking about opening a map. A large square map materialized in the middle of his screen, displaying the room he was in, the lab, the hallway, and the tunnel leading to the arboretum. The rest was shrouded in grey. G labeled the rooms by mentally associating names with them, and the names appeared on the map.

"How do I affix it in the corner? I also want to make it smaller if possible," G asked.

"Just think about it being up there. I did that with your combat log and those other screens that didn't show anything useful yet. Just think 'Stay' once it's where you want it," Tocai explained.

G realized he had missed this feature too. "I have a combat log? What's in it?"

Tocai whispered in his ear, "It contains your numbers on damage. You can judge how much something is hitting for, like the Mana Bolt."

G thought about moving and resizing the map, then positioning it at the edge of his vision. Once satisfied with its placement, he mentally commanded it to stay. The map remained fixed in place, and another popup appeared.

New achievement you've opened your map? Now that you know you can't see anything, you can thank Carl von Clausewitz for giving it a nice name. Fog of war. If you are not near it and can't see it, your map will not reflect it. Find a way to see more, and your map will reflect it. Other maps may be added to this map. If you can read them, then you can add them.

+5 to navigation

+5 to cartography

+1 to surprise attack

+1 to perception

Nice! How did the system know about some guy in Earth's timeline? He needed to keep track of that. Something was going on here. Dr. Reamus might have been smart, but these prompts seem to be getting more attuned to G. Did the original system have all this extra information, and who was Carl von Clausewitz? G didn't mind the extra points, though. Did this mean he has those skills now?

He opened up his skills list, and sure enough, he had navigation and cartography among his known skills. G also noticed he had one skill in stealth now. Was that from sneaking near the doorway?

Stealth - You can be Sneaky. Rank 1.

+5 to stealth actions per rank.

So a single rank in this skill was +5. How high did these skills go? Was there a limit? Both questions he had no answers to.

He went through and saw his ability Mending was back, and he was able to pick one more spell from the druid and wizard lists.

He chose them quickly.

Nature's Roots - summon roots and weeds to trip and slow any creature that travels through them. The area of effect was two meters. The saving throw is dependent on agility and level vs. the caster's level and rank.

Elemental Absorption - a magic shield that can absorb up to twenty points of elemental damage of your choice, fire, ice, lightning, mana.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

G doubted that either the weeds or the web would be very effective against the spiders, considering their ability to easily navigate sticky webs.

G and Crewton cautiously approached the entrance of the enormous arboretum once again. This time, G didn't hear any spiders or their tapping on the metal walkways in the room. He held Crewton by his side while peeking slowly around the edge of the entrance.

Numerous webs now covered the side walls, with strands hooked to the walls and extending into the darkness beyond G's vision. Along the edge of the room, several large grey hanging sacks dangled from the metal walkway. G could see a goblin's green nose and ears sticking out of one sack as a spider bit and began to feed. G felt sick at the sight, despite his dislike for the goblins. He took one last look around the room before backing away from the entrance and allowing Crewton to growl into the darkness.

After a few seconds, G recalled Crewton, and they hurried back to the lab. He heard the spiders before seeing them enter the room. One crawled on the ground while the other clung to the top of the empty doorway and wall. G wondered if the latter intended to ambush them from above. As the first spider approached Crewton, G saw the second spider leap towards him from the ceiling. He unleashed a Mana Bolt at the creature but missed, forcing him to dive out of the way. The spider sailed past the empty space where G had been.

G quickly cast Whip of Thorns in his left hand and summoned his Officer Worker's Revenge crude flanged mace in his right. He lashed out with the thorn-covered vine at the spider that had just landed, causing it to roll and slide slightly. As the creature scrambled to its feet, G brought his mace down in an overhead swing, smashing through its chitin shell with a wet crunch. Ichor splashed across his legs as the fatally wounded creature spasmed.

Turning to help Crewton, G saw that the small dog was playing a strange game of tag with the remaining spider, which was trying to pounce on him. G put the mace back into his inventory and cast a Mana Bolt at the spider, killing it in one shot. The spider spun and rolled onto its back, its legs folding as it twitched in death.

Only two spiders had come this time, and G heard no more in the corridor. He attempted to harvest the two spiders and succeeded with the second one.

You have harvested a spider fang.

The fang, as large as G's middle finger, was sharp at one end and hollow. G placed it in his inventory and dragged both spider corpses to the conference room. A smell had started to emanate from the bodies. G wondered why the cavern hallway outside the vault-like door hadn't had a similar stench. The air there had been musty but not foul like in the room. The same airflow didn't exist in the lower part of this Area 51 military base. G knew he wouldn't want to start a fire here or be around when the spiders began to decay.

G and Crewton repeated their routine: Crewton growled a few times, and then they retreated to the lab. But this time, no spiders followed. They tried again with the same result.

On their third attempt, G tried something different. He cast Wizard's Helping Hand while peering around the corner of the entrance. He focused on the nearest webbing anchored to the floor. A translucent hand, slightly larger than a human hand, appeared near the web's strand. G tried to mentally command the hand to move, but nothing happened. When he physically mimicked the action with his own hand, the magical hand responded as if controlled by a distant glove. He flicked the webbing and watched the reverberations travel up the strand. Soon, three red spider dots cautiously emerged from the ceiling above. Crewton growled at the sight of them, and G noticed that the map displayed three red dots before he had fully seen the spiders. Apparently, Crewton's sight could update G's map when the pet was nearby.

G and Crewton backed away from the entrance and returned to the lab, where they waited. After several minutes, they heard the soft tapping of spider legs approaching down the corridor, slower and more cautious than before.

The first spider entered the room cautiously and only raised its front legs when Crewton began growling. G's Mana Bolt hit the spider, deepening its health bar into red. Two more spiders rushed in, charging past Crewton and heading straight for G. Another Mana Bolt staggered the spider on the right, depleting most of its health.

G sent a third Mana Bolt at the left spider, bringing its health into the red as it momentarily retreated. G fired another Mana Bolt to finish it off while the injured spiders continued their advance.

G cast Whip of Thorns and summoned his mace as the whip lashed out at the nearest spider. The creature's health bar turned completely red. As the spider slid to the side from the whip's impact, bits of it were torn away by the thorny vine's slashing attack. As soon as the second spider died, the third tried to flee out the doorway but was killed by the whip's thorns that tore a deep groove across its back and legs.

G recalled spending a few weeks in the Sierra Nevadas with his grandfather when he was a child. He knew that black widows preferred the night, solitude, and even cannibalized other spiders, including their own kind. However, these giant spiders behaved like pack animals, not solitary hunters. Moreover, normal spiders would only leave their webs if they were hungry and sensed prey nearby. On Earth, black widow webs were easily identifiable, as they were usually low to the ground and looked haphazardly constructed.

G harvested the spiders, obtaining another fang and experiencing two more failures. He noticed a couple of flashing icons and opened them. The pop-ups now automatically minimized during combat.

Your skinning skill has increased by +1.

G was pleased with the progress. He took the three spider corpses to the conference room and rested to replenish his mana. Later, he and Crewton stealthily returned to the entrance of the arboretum, where G cast Wizard's Helping Hand again.

He plucked the spider web with the semi-transparent hand, sending vibrations into the darkness. No additional spiders appeared on his map, and Crewton remained silent. G cautiously moved the helping hand deeper into the room and plucked another web. The webs shimmered in his dark vision, and he knew they would have caused problems if he had touched them with his real hand. Still, no spiders emerged. He moved the hand to the webs near the doorway and repeated the process, but no spiders appeared.

G glanced at Crewton before slowly sneaking into the room, keeping an eye on his minimap for any red dots. In the center of the room, he saw the hanging bodies of three goblins and a hobgoblin, all wrapped in webbing. He moved the hand forward and plucked a few of the threads near their suspended forms, but no other spiders came into view or could be heard.

The hobgoblin's face was mostly covered by webbing, except for its right eye, which watched G as he approached cautiously. G observed the health bars beneath the goblin's heads. All seemed dead except for the hobgoblin, whose health was deep in the red. The hobgoblin tried to speak, but G couldn't understand him through his connection with Tocai, as the creature's face was mostly covered, muffling his voice.

G moved a few meters closer, near some wilting trees in large pots adorned with a few strands of webbing. The Wizard's Helping Hand spell ended. He looked around, feeling as if the whole place was a giant trap. He needed to ensure the spiders were dead before leaving, as he didn't want to respawn and find thousands of them roaming the corridor. Additionally, he wanted to question the hobgoblin about what was happening. He suspected it was connected to Ryan, but he needed confirmation. G also wanted to find Ryan's location, deal with the situation, and find a place for Tocai's new magical form. And, of course, he wanted his jacket back. Who steals someone's jacket? He was determined to retrieve it.

G and Crewton snuck up to the next planter, with the dog staying close to G's legs as they moved. Crewton seemed even more apprehensive about the location than G.

A high-pitched, thin female voice whispered at the edge of G's hearing, "It is the one, sister! We must consume him again. It is the one!"

Another high-pitched female voice, accompanied by a slight clicking sound, replied, "No, sister, we should capture him, so we may feed on him slowly."

The first voice insisted, "No, not this time. I let you have your way with the nasty-tasting one, but not this one. His lifeblood will be mine. I won't wait again."

The clicking grew louder, "We must not squander this opportunity, sister. We can keep him here alive for days while we feast. Imagine how we will grow then?"

"No, I'll have it all now! He moves for the tunnels, catch him!" the first voice exclaimed, louder now as two red dots appeared on G's minimap, rapidly descending from the darkness above.

G was already heading towards the entrance when the hobgoblin made more muffled noises behind him. He had no intention of fighting these creatures in this confined space, whatever they were, and he wondered how they could even talk. A blob of webbing struck the floor right where he had been crouching a second before. Crewton barked and followed him as another blob of webbing hit his legs, causing him to fall onto his face. He thought he would have rolled or slid, but he was stuck fast. Desperate, he tried to pull himself forward when a giant spider landed between him and the corridor. He heard another set of spider legs behind him and glanced back to see another spider. Crewton began barking at the one that landed behind him, lunging forward and back in an attempt to distract it.

These two spiders were enormous compared to the others he had killed. While those had been the size of basketballs, these were as large as wolves—not the wolves seen on TV, but the ones found deep in Canada, where few people live. They both appeared as though they would be taller than his waist if he were standing. They had long legs, and, worst of all, their faces looked almost humanoid. Their strange visages seemed as if the head of one creature had been grafted onto another, with eight eyes on their foreheads, all staring directly at him. Eight black eyes with small red points of light in them. Stringy hair with bare patches hung behind their eyes and over lumps on the sides where ears should have been. Their mouths contained two large mandibles or fangs. The fangs curved downward from the upper mouth and were about twenty centimeters long. The head was perched on a bulbous thorax and a bloated abdomen. Each of its legs was easily two meters long, and it's front two, which were raised, had sharp pointed ends that could easily pierce through leather or hide.

The spider near the entrance clicked its mandibles.