I couldn't approach. I couldn't move. I looked around by just moving my eyes, and saw specks of dust in the few beams of sunlight paused in space, unmoving. My children were motionless, and some leaves that had fallen from some of the nearby trees were stuck in the air too.

It freaked me out, so I tried harder to move- and gained a little bit of mobility in my fingers and hands, then legs, then I could move my head, then finally the rest of my body. I wondered if it was a magical trap or something, but the only magic I had found so far was various special skills and my lantern chain.

I couldn't even hear my own footsteps or the swings of my dirty, sticky, wooden sword, but once I realized that, I did hear something. Footsteps coming towards me from behind. But no matter how many times I turned around in order to see behind me, it was always behind me.

"Ahem, over here." I heard a recognizeable voice say. It was the woman from the office window.

I turned around again, and there she was.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to fix this."

"Fix what?"

"Your" her voice was drowned out by the sound of electronic beeps while she held the fingers of both hands out in the air in front of her, and spread them. Was she zooming in to something on a touch-screen?

"My what now?"

I couldn't concentrate on what she was repeating, because now it looked like she was playing skee-ball. Okay all the other things she did... for the most part, were tech-based whether prehistoric or futuristic. How is that... I should stop thinking.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

I heard a couple dings in my head, indicating new popups. I brought them up, but she was gone. Time also seemed to begin moving again.

Skill Acquired: Enfire Level 2

Information: Enfire Level 2. Simply being equipped with an active flame causes any flammable weapons to coat themselves in the same kind of fire while attacking.

Okay, so that's just plain useless since the lantern's fire doesn't even create heat. If the fire wasn't magical, maybe it would be useful. I wonder if I could light the sword's sap on fire so it's already on fire so this bad skill doesn't activate.

Trait Unlocked: Hive Mind

Information: Hive Mind. Hive-minded creatures obey a strict caste-orientation, where only the associated Queen or Brood Mother can see through the eyes of others.

Oh what the what? So we can't share experiences anymore, and I can't be strategic telepathically, and the only use I can have now is being able to see if one of my children died or is in trouble, but can't do anything about it? Yeah, this is really not the time for that kind of malarchy.

But we were here, and we had defeated the reverse-corpse-riding spiders, or fake zombie drider, whatever they really were, but only the ones outside. It was time to approach again, carefully, and hope that the woman from the office window didn't come back to nerf my skills again.

I thought of going in with Sting and Cletus, or sending in Malas since he couldn't be injured, but I made a different choice. I broke a small twig off of a nearby bush, only half the length of my forearm, around dagger size, and threw it into the cave mouth. That was enough of an attack I guess, because it lit on fire and illuminated the cave's cramped edges.

Nothing.

I'd have to go in deeper- but this time it was a better idea to not go alone. Time to bring my heavy tanks and scout ahead...