I didn’t scream, but it was a close thing as I jerked my hand up and flung the giant spider hard. It sailed past Cove, who took one look and vanished between one moment and the next, either teleporting or sprinting out of the way. I wasn’t sure which, and I didn’t really care. The giant spider flew at the back of Eliza’s head. In one smooth move, she turned, impaling it with her nife and dropping it into an empty pan on the side. It withered, all eight legs twitching as Sinbad patted over, peering into the pan grimly.

I could tolerate some level of spiders, but one the size of my cat?

Ah, I hated the outdoors.

“We’re not going to eat that,” Cove stated, his blue eyes focused unwaveringly on the pan the spider was roasting in as if he were afraid it would leap out at him. I was far more concerned with where it had come from in the first place. Like many video games, the developers seemed to have had some twisted pleasure in throwing giant spiders around. As a favored prey for the massive rooks, spiders even larger than these were known for populating the island.

I’d been hoping I’d never encounter them.

Eliza shrugged and served herself a plate. “More for us, then. It won’t be the worst thing I’ve eaten while exploring.”

Sinbad picked up a plate of his own, dishing out the last two to Cove and me. “I believe that would be….”

“The pickled U’katha,” Sinbad and Eliza finished simultaneously with a shudder.

I certainly didn’t want to hear what it really was, and by Cove’s expression, he didn’t either. That didn’t stop Eliza as she sat down on her makeshift chair. “It ‘ad the texture of gritty snails and smelled and tasted like it’d been up the a–”

Looking down at my food, which now appeared thoroughly unappetizing, I interrupted. “I don’t care.” I forced a forkful of food down my throat, grimacing as it turned to metaphorical ash against my tongue.

“Let me finish. It’ tasted like–”

“Eliza,” with a single word, Sinbad, my favorite person at the moment, finally got her to shut her mouth.

That night, as I lay staring up at the odd cloth of the tent above, I could only think of my first days in Heirs, where I’d been terrified of every bug and creature that had gotten near me. My sleep was as unsteady as it had been in those times, the pricking sensation of the spider’s fur against my hand tingling through my nerves every time I closed my eyes.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

My dreams were sparse, none lingering for more than a breath in my mind. I awoke feeling more tired than when I’d gone to sleep, my brain fuzzy and my thoughts incoherent. Sinbad and the rest were already outside, eating whatever Sinbad had cooked for breakfast.

I shoveled it down without looking, deciding that, in some rare cases, ignorance was better than facts.

With the inventory, cleaning up was far quicker than normal, and we’d finished cleaning up after breakfast in mere minutes, Cove and I glancing uneasily around the campsite, searching for more unexpected and unwelcome visitors as we inched toward the edge of the lake. Where Sinbad and Eliza moved confidently toward the edge of the water–confident, I was sure, in their own abilities, Cove and I were a bit more out of our depth, toeing the water in the same manner people inch into freezing cold lakes and streams.

Sinbad caught my eye and winked as he gestured for me to go ahead.

Or perhaps, I thought, Eliza and Sinbad were propelled by the depts of their confidence in Cove and I’s ability to navigate the dangerous waters from the book. Where that confidence might have cowered me previously, I tugged on that growing sense of faith I’d had in myself, reminding myself that this time, I had not only read the book, but I’d played the game. Not only that but I still wasn’t limited to only using Zenith Online’s abilities, as Cove was.

Eliza’s hand grazed my shoulder as she handed me a cylindrical object, shoving it in my face. I looked over my shoulder at her, watching as she pressed an identical object to her mouth, taking in a deep breath as she waved the other one in my face.

“Thank you,” I said, taking it from her and pressing it to my own mouth before we stepped over the ledge, falling beneath the surface.

[You have entered the Rook’s Dungeon! Try not to get lost…]

The suit acted as a wetsuit, preventing my extremities from feeling the bitter cold that pulled at my hair, tossing it in the current. My eyes stung as I opened them beneath the surface of the water, catching a glimpse of Eliza’s leg as she kicked herself deeper into the water, the shimmering dust that had looked like stars shifting and rippling in our wake, casting just enough light for us to see by as we sank deeper and deeper down the hole.

Using the rocky cliff at our side to give myself a boost, I pulled myself deeper, eventually passing her to climb near Cove. Cove paused, elbowing me sharply to grab my attention. Once he had it, he pointed at the entrance to a dark cavern near our feet. I swam down to it, tracing the edges of the cavern, looking for the inscriptions that I knew to be there.

A grove caught the edges of my glove. Looking closer, it was the inscription I’d been looking for. It wasn’t the tree that heralded the entrance to the rook’s nest, but rather a simple cloud, indicating this was somewhere players who were unable to breathe underwater could pull over and catch their breath. We didn’t need it, so we moved on, swimming and climbing deeper.

Our hole expanded the deeper we got, widening until we could nearly fit an airship down there, if we’d been so inclined. Bright, exotic underwater plants grew out of the cliffsides, the current swirling and glimmering around them. A few times, I caught a glimpse of fish, luckily none we had to worry about.