She paused. It couldn’t be another person? Could it?

She hadn’t seen another person in all the time she’d been here. Salos was the closest she’d gotten. And while he was a person, he was also only in her head.

That might be another real, physical person.

And they were well on their way to dying. Probably horribly.

She had imagined a lot of ways to die since arriving. Wrapped up and devoured by a spider was one of the worse ones. Especially if they were still alive while the spider did the devouring.

But what could she do? She was only level 10. The spider was almost double that. Sure, she’d fought things double her level before (the terrorcat had been even more after all), but this was different. With every level, double became a bigger deal. Could she fight something at level 17?

Assuming she could somehow win, how long would the victim survive? They appeared to be alive now, but Identify said that this thing was highly venomous. How full of poison were they?

Hell, for all Cass knew they were dead and it was the poison running wild in their nervous system sending spasms through a corpse. Maybe the poison was liquefying their body and it would be a matter of unstoppable hours before they were just meat goop for the spider to suck up at its leisure.

Hell, hell, hell. Cass didn’t even know if it was a person there. Maybe this was all an elaborate trap set by the spider. Spiders had webs, maybe it was just a puppet on strings. A lure to draw in the unsuspecting soft-hearted.

Even if it wasn’t a trap, how did she know that a person-shaped blob was a person? She was in fantasy land now. How many stories had goblins or orcs or trolls, all humanoid but still vicious monsters out to eat the weak people of those worlds? Maybe it wasn’t even humanoid, just a collection of other creatures pressed into that shape by the spider’s webs.

She should keep walking. She had very specific goals. She knew what she needed to do to survive. She finally had a lead on getting home.

Getting herself killed on a lot of maybes wouldn’t help.

She took another step toward the door.

The figure grunted. Unmistakably in pain.

Her foot caught mid-air. This must be a trap. A trap for all the bleeding hearts of the world.

She should slink out of the room and ask Salos what he thought. He might know more about Grotto Spiders. He might be able to tell her more about the survival rates of their victims. Might have advice on how to kill the thing.

Or he might prioritize her (and therefore his own) survival. He might lie, telling her the victim was already dead. Telling her that there was nothing she could do now. He might honestly tell her that she was outmatched by the monster.

Leaving the room might cause the doors to close on her again, preventing backtracking.

Hell. Her thoughts were already circling around to save the mystery figure, weren’t they?

It was a trap though. It was a trap!

Where had the person even come from? She hadn’t seen a single person anywhere. They didn’t just wander the Deep. She would have seen one.

It was a trap!

She turned, slinking toward the pool. Toward the trapped figure. Toward the spider.

Looking closer, the grotto spider was injured. One of its back legs was gone completely and the second leg on its left was missing the final segment. A long gash ran along the flank of its abdomen, not deep but oozing just a little. One of its eyes had been stabbed out.

Whatever it had caught had put up a fight before going down. Would that make a difference for Cass?

If she shot off a surprise attack, could she penetrate its body? Run in with a Mana Wind Blade-empowered slash? Or should she focus on the remaining legs? How many would she need to take out before it impacted its mobility? How many could she cut through in one go?

Could she strike the eyes? Blind it? No. It was sensitive to vibration. Sight was probably a secondary sense. That was common among animals native to caves. Did the hairs on its body sense movement? Sound? Was there any way to blind them like one could blind eyes?

It hadn’t noticed her yet. Or at least, hadn’t reacted to her presence. Had it noticed and just was uninterested because it already had lunch?

There was no chance it would continue ignoring her if she attacked or threatened its meal.

Cass, Salos whispered slow and quiet so as not to surprise her. What are you doing?

An excellent question. She didn’t dare answer. Not aloud. Not when the spider might be able to hear her.

She wished she could ask Salos her questions. But she didn’t dare talk here, not so close to the spider. She wasn’t sure she wanted to risk backtracking either.

She had no plan. Just a feeling that it would haunt her if she left without trying to rescue whoever it was.

She paused a ways away from its fine-haired body, twisting her staff in her hands. This was her last chance to turn around and leave.

You can’t save them. And even if you manage to save them, then what? Unless they are spirit-bodied they won’t make it where we are going. They will be left behind and then what?

They will die anyway.

But they were definitely going to die if she did nothing now.

She grit her teeth. Did she really have the time to be noble here? Did she really have that kind of leisure?

She didn’t. She needed to get home. She needed to get back to her family.

But she also couldn’t stand aside and do nothing. Not when she might be able to make a difference.

Could she make a difference?

It was so far above her level. It was huge. It was a spider.

Was this suicidal?

Cass, keep walking.

But she couldn’t.

She activated Wind Blade. It pooled on the end of her staff, building as the silent moments passed. The spider didn’t notice the gathering gust.

Didn’t react as she swung her staff. As the Wind Blade flew across the room.

The Wind Blade struck its thorax, cutting shallowly through the body’s hairs and chipping at its chitin, before breaking into rolling eddies of wind.

She swallowed, taking a step back.

The spider turned, slowly.

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Cass had hoped that would do more. Slice through in a single go. Leave deep gashes in the body. Knock it from its feet.

For it to have barely chipped its defenses…

Did she double down or flee?

The smart move was to cut her losses and flee. If she couldn’t kill it here, she shouldn’t throw her life away trying to do the impossible.

On the other hand, what would she do if it chased her?

The corridors were trapped. Running past this room and deeper into the temple with the spider chasing her was no less dangerous than standing and fighting. Images of the traps she’d seen and the many more she could imagine snapping out and killing her filled her mind.

She shuddered, pushing her imagined deaths from her mind.

Retreating at this stage wasn’t much better. Maybe there was another path they could take through the Shadow Hall, or maybe they all led back to this room and this spider.

Her hands clenched around her staff. She didn’t want to run.

But that left only one option. She could only double down.

She swung her staff again, shooting another Wind Blade at the turning spider. This one clipped a leg, cutting deeper but still not all the way through. Green ooze bubbled from the wounds, dripping down the leg. The spider hissed in pain, its seven good eyes locking on her.

She had only a moment to follow Dodge’s commands and leap to the left as a glob of something shot from the creature’s mouth and exploded through the air where she’d been standing.

She didn’t know what it was. Acid? Venom? Magic? All she knew for sure was she didn’t want to be hit.

She shot another Wind Blade at the spider as she ran, catching another leg and cutting another shallow gash, oozing green.

It skittered after her. All the power of a semi-truck behind its body, yet not even the slightest bit clumsy or unwieldy. She dodged behind a pillar as another orb flew after her. She heard it collide with the opposite side of the pillar and the sizzle of melting stone.

Acid. Definitely acid. Definitely didn’t want that touching her.

Her respite was short-lived. The spider was closing the distance. Already rounding the pillar.

She scurried around behind it and slammed her staff down on its bulbous thorax.

The impact reverberated up the staff into her arms.

It didn’t even slow the spider.

She clicked her tongue and sprinted away, as the spider turned after her. She’d been hoping blunt force trauma would work where slicing damage hadn’t. She might have inflicted some internal damage, but it was more likely nothing had happened. She needed to either hit much harder or cut sharper.

She scanned through her skills as she sprinted out of the way of another Acid Bolt. Droplets splattered over her as it splashed off the nearby wall. A few drops burned through her jacket, sizzling into her skin before burning itself out. She hissed in pain, still trying to focus.

Maybe a direct Wind Blade? She’d used three or four of them already at range. That was a good 45 to 60 points of mana already. How many more ranged shots did she have? Better to try it at melee before spending more mana on it.

Did she throw Mana Blade on the attack too? It was a minor cost, so yes, might as well.

New plan ready, she scooted around her pillar, intending to jump out behind the spider again.

Only to find herself face-to-face with the thing.

She screamed, falling backward. The shock faded, replaced with hopeless fear. The spider loomed over her, huge and awful.

It lunged, its front legs stabbing down attempting to pin her to the stone, its slobbering mandibles crunching down on her, undoubtedly to pump her full of poison.

Venom, an unhelpful biology fact informed her. If it bites you and you die, it's venomous, not poisonous.

She pushed the thought aside. It was so not important now!

She shuffled backward, narrowly Dodging a leg through her calf. Another leg slammed into her, like a spear, into her shoulder with enough force to simultaneously rend a deep hole in it and knock her back four feet into the wall behind her.

Her head spun as it slammed against stone. There wasn’t time to be disoriented. The spider was quick to follow. It would be in striking range in moments. If the world would just stand still for a moment…

She struggled to the side despite the world’s swaying, a hand on the wall for stability. She moved as fast as she was able, the spider close on her heels.

It would only be a moment. It would be on top of her again. Another stab by its legs. Another acid blast through the air. A chomp of its mandibles on her soft face. That’s all it would take.

There was no time to regret her decisions.

Requirement one: don’t get hit again. Difficult given it was fast. At least as fast as her. Definitely just as agile if not more so. She couldn’t take it in a straight fight. No, if they were face to face, she was losing and losing badly.

Atmospheric Sense warned her of another Acid Bolt targeting her from behind. She let Dodge guide her into a painful roll to the side, slipping behind another pillar at the last moment. It had fallen further behind to cast its spell, inadvertently buying her another moment.

Her mind raced, empowered by her heightened Alacrity. She watched the spider approaching in slow motion through Atmospheric Sense and Perception. There wasn’t even time to take a deep breath.

She couldn’t fight it directly. What did that leave?

Escape? Which direction? Deeper into the temple was desirable but not an option. She’d ruled that out earlier.

Retreating the way she came was slightly more reasonable. At least she was reasonably confident the traps were already tripped. There was still the concern of an Acid Bolt to the back of the head in the straight and empty corridors between the rooms, but it was an option, technically. Maybe if she could lose the spider in this room somehow first…

The spider had rounded her pillar, its legs flying like spears for her soft flesh. Cass blocked the first with her staff and wove between the rest with Dodge, retaliating with a slam of her staff into its face. Cass Sprinted away as the spider screamed a hissing cry of pain.

If she could somehow hide from the spider here, wouldn’t that change everything? If she could slip in and out of sight, she could strike and retreat repeatedly until the spider was dead or until she could get the captured victim free.

How good was her Stealth? It wasn’t invisibility. It wasn’t that good. But, it was better than simply walking quietly. She didn’t like thinking about it but she didn’t understand how it worked at all.

She pulled up its description again as she ducked behind yet another pillar.

Stealth (lvl 7) (Wind)

[Slink through the shadows through places you should not be or do not wish to be found. Unseen as the wind. As quiet as a breath.

Passively reduces one’s presence to others to a small degree.

Active use greatly reduces one’s presence to others and advises on how best to move one’s body to mitigate detection.

Association with the Concept of Wind increases the effect of these bonuses while user is in motion.

Modified by Dex.]

What did that mean, “reduces one’s presence”? What was “presence”? She didn’t have time to verbalize her question for Salos to hear. She was thinking many times faster than she could speak. But, man, did she wish she could ask him what presence was.

Presence? It refers to how much your influence on the world is perceived, Salos said, somehow answering her question.

What! He could read her mind! Cass’s eyes went wide the implications spinning around her. How much of her private thoughts were so casually exposed?

I don’t know what you are worried about all of a sudden, Salos said. You are not projecting very clearly or consistently. You need to focus on the grotto spider. Specifically on leaving. We can talk about mental projection later.

Cass mentally shook the shock off. Salos was right. The spider was still chasing. She could feel the rush of air as it raced after her. She had seconds until it caught up again.

Right now she needed to know more about presence reduction. Was she invisible? Intangible? She focused those questions at Salos.

Er, no, presence reduction is not as simple as invisibility, said Salos, it is more of a catch-all. Things will notice you less. You could be standing upright in an open field, but with a low enough presence, the eyes of others will just glide over you. As unremarkable as a tree in a forest. Except it applies to all senses more or less equally.

Cass focused very hard on her question to Salos: Can I use it to hide from that spider?

Maybe? Salos said. Higher Perception and the knowledge you are there are going to cut through the effects like it is not there. But if you dodge behind a pillar and then activate Stealth? It would be better if you had actual cover to hide in though.

Not a ringing endorsement of this plan, but the spider hadn’t noticed her until Stealth had dropped before she attacked, so maybe it would be enough?

She activated Stealth, begging it to follow through on the description, to make her as unseen as the wind. She could feel the telltale spin of air around her that always accompanied it. It cloaked her, a silent reassurance that something had happened, that she wasn’t just standing here doing nothing.

But she still couldn’t leave everything to the skill. The spider must have seen which pillar she’d ducked behind. She could feel it approaching. She slipped out the other side, her feet alighting silently on the stone, sliding around another pillar just as the spider rounded around her original hiding place.

It screamed in frustration upon finding her missing, erupting into a flurry of motion. From the resounding cacophony of slamming and banging, it was brutalizing the area behind the pillar she’d last been seen. She inhaled sharply, imagining what would have happened if she’d been standing there still.

The tantrum lasted another minute before the chamber fell silent again. The spider stalked around, patrolling the pillars, hissing to itself all the while.