Kitty spat and kicked at the skeleton while tossing as many insults as she could. Her face hurt and her mouth was filled with the rancid taste of that bone. Yet, despite her fury and bluster, she felt a wave of relief when the skeleton was practically pushed out of the room by the woman. A feat only accomplished after she managed to talk him into believing his leaving was proving his own superiority. Not lowering himself to her level. It was stupid and yet that bag of bones had eaten it right up. What was he some child?

Kitty had turned her ire to the woman, tossing out every insult she could think of. “You are repeating yourself.” The woman spoke calmly while moving towards her. Kitty kicked out but the woman stayed just out of reach as she moved around to stand beside Kitty. “Here drink this.” A vial was suddenly shoved to her mouth mid scream. A familiar liquid filled her mouth and she swallowed some before managing to spit it out. “That is a healing potion, don’t spit it out. Otherwise, your pretty face will be all scarred up.”

Kitty glared at the woman, keeping her mouth shut in case she tried anything else. Yet, to her surprise, she could feel the wounds on her face closing up. Her health points were ticking up rapidly even if she had spat out most of the potion. It really had been a healing potion after all. “What the fuck? Why? If you think healing me will make me like you. You can go get fucked by that bag of bones!”

Maria sighed. “I am not the bad guy here. I have tried again and again to get you to cooperate. Why do you insist on being so antagonistic? Why do you side with an alien here to take our very world from us? A murderer of your own people.”

“Fuck you. You have no proof Dren is an alien. Besides, if he was here to do that. Why protect Little Garden?” Kitty gave the woman a searing glare, her words carrying all her vitriol at the woman. Yet, the shaking of her voice gave away her own uncertainty.

Maria sighed again, tired of arguing with stubborn idiots. Richard was all she could handle. Again she considered killing the woman but all the paths she could see had shifted again. The moment they had made the call all her predictions, as vague as they already were, shattered. Maria looked down at the glaring young woman, who in turn stared up at her. Both hoped to find the answers they sought in the eyes of the other. Finally, Maria made up her mind. She would leave the girl alive. The future was too unpredictable now. Her only hint was that along the path in which she killed the girl here and now, more of her own paths were cut short than if she left her alive.

Maria suddenly burst into laughter, startling her captive who started cursing her. ‘I might as well not be able to see the future at all if that is the best I can do. Perhaps I can give that boy this girl and he will leave us be.’ She again tried to find out what would happen along that path only to come up blind. Shaking her head she left the room to find Richard before he did something else stupid.

Glaring at the woman right up until they closed the door Kitty sagged the moment she was alone. Despite her bravado in front of her captors, she was terrified. She should have just told them what they wanted and been done with it. But she hadn’t liked their attitudes. “No.” She whispered to herself. She hadn’t wanted to believe their claims about Dren. It was stupid she knew, she barely knew him. But it wasn’t any more stupid than leaving Little Garden to follow after him, was it? Her head slumped forward she felt her body shaking and hot tears cutting rivulets through the blood on her cheeks. Crying made her angry. Feeling weak made her angry. But she couldn’t help it. She had almost called out, begged for him to help her when she had seen him in the projection. It was stupid, she knew he wouldn’t come. He had barely given her the time of day before. “Stupid Stupid Stupid.” She muttered, angry at herself again. Why did she have to be so stubborn?

Finally, she sucked in a deep breath and gritted her teeth. She wasn’t a damsel in distress waiting around for a prince that was never coming. She shook her head infuriated she couldn’t wipe away the damning tears that streaked her face. Like badges of weakness that proved she had wavered. She kicked out her free leg and started struggling. “If I can get one leg free. I can get the rest free. Your mistake budget store Skeletor. Should have left me in the cage.”

*****

Dren frowned. They had cleared out even more of the forest around the Haven. Leaving a long wide swathe between the edge of the forest and the towering walls. They had made good time riding on the back of his mount. Doing so allowed him to focus on restoring his resources as they traveled. He had needed to do some mild meditation to get his mana back to finish off the captured natives. Reaper’s cost went up equal to the damage increase after each kill. It was already two hundred and ninety damage as well as costing that much mana. His mana pool was already well over five thousand, almost six thousand. But he lost ten percent of that to Profane Blade. Not to mention, the constant spamming of teleports and keeping his Battle Focus active It went fast, especially when using them in rapid succession as he had.

Now they had a new problem. There was no way Meg was going to make it to the wall. Her curses had rather short range, she would never get close enough let alone be able to cast her spells with all that open space. Nor would the normal plan of having Ren hang back and play trapper support work. Normally they used the terrain to set up her ambushes, but there just was nowhere for her to hide. Even if she made it to the wall without being spotted, it wasn’t like she could ambush them unseen. His only ranged attacks really didn’t have that much range to them. Neither his aura nor his throwing knives could reach the wall from here. It was an aggravating situation and revealed another weakness of his.

While he glared at the Haven walls in the distance a hand settled in his and he glanced over at Meg with surprise. Why was she holding his hand? Before he could ask her what she thought she was doing, she pulled her hand away and he realized she had put something in his hand. “I said it is ready, mostly.”

Dren blinked at her, only then realizing she had been talking to him while he was glaring at the Haven. Looking down he found a grisly fetish in his hand. It was made of bone, sinew, three human eyes, and some of Ren’s silk. It was made of the materials he had imbued for her. Mostly with the Rune of Agony but some with the Empower rune.

“I had to rush to put it together but it should work.” His witch ally pointed at it as she spoke again.

“What does it do again?” He asked, eyeing it with identify.

Fetish of Dark Energies.

“Just hold on to it and focus on which resource pool you need it to fill up. It will do the rest.” Dren nodded and turned back to look at the walls. At the edge of his vision, a timer flashed, showing that there were just twenty minutes until the Monster Surge started. There were already people on the walls, way more than he expected. Sitting back he crossed his arms as he thought. There was still Ren’s evolution. They had discussed it on the way but hadn’t selected one. He had wanted to see what they were facing as well as give Ren time to think about her choices. He pulled the menu up again and examined the branching paths.

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There were three choices similar to when he had evolved his class. One was simply to stay a House Aranea, the description not even changing. She would gain a second Medicinal venom, something he forgot she even had. As well as a small bonus for her silk production and weaving skills. It would also upgrade her tailoring to Silk Tailoring but he already had a scroll for that. As for attributes, it doubled what she was currently getting. She would get twenty to agility, dexterity, and intelligence while getting ten for all other skills. It was an insane one hundred and ten total attribute points per level. True, she only had multipliers in vitality so for all other attributes it was more like she got half that many when compared to himself. But it was still an insane amount of raw attributes, just showing how powerful monsters really were. He almost regretted not going Beast Tamer.

Appearance wise she would actually undergo a rather drastic change considering she was staying the same choice. The preview showed a much older version, one closer to the Witch Meg’s age. The preview this time showed the form clothed instead of naked. Wearing a plain silk dress and an apron, giving the image a very young mother feel.

The next option was a familiar one in the form of a Fate Weaver Aranea.

“Mistress of the Web the Fate Weaver Aranea dedicates her life to her webs. She weaves the very strands of fate into her webs so that she might divine the future. While not a combat-oriented evolution, their large size lends them greater might and resilience. They retain their crafting abilities but no longer focus on them.”

She would gain new skills including Infused Web Weaving and a skill called Reading the Weave. From what Dren could tell, it was a class very similar to the Seer class. It wove complex magic webs that allowed them to predict the future. If he understood it right, there were countless factors in predicting the future requiring a more complex web in most cases. The more powerful the target or the further one wanted to look, the longer it would take to produce a web able to predict anything. It wasn’t an ability that could be done on the fly and would in fact require Ren to spend a great deal of time working on a web in a single place.

For attributes, she would get ten for all attributes except intelligence, where she would get fifty per level. It was ten more total attributes than if she stayed a House Aranea, but over all other than intelligence, she would be weaker. That was slightly offset by the fact she would also get an additional fifty percent size bonus for strength and vitality. This was even better than getting just more raw attributes per level, as it worked on all the points she already gained. As for appearance, she would look almost identical to the one he had fought back in the Profane Ruins. A huge spider body with a human female torso growing out from the top of the spider’s head.

Dren had mixed feelings on this one. It would in effect make her a stronger fighter, but her new much larger size would make it harder for her to continue her role as an ambusher. Then there was the future predicting role, Dren knew just how annoying dealing with that could be. It was the main reason he was here now. The only reason, in fact, he reminded himself. But it sounded like it would be a real pain and it wasn’t like he had a base he could just leave her at to do her thing. Still, it was tempting and they could change up their strategy. It appeared that her infused webbings would increase the power of any web based abilities at the cost of a ton of mana. Something her new intelligence score would help.

Finally, there was Nest Watcher.

“Nest Watcher Araenea. Focused on support, crafting, and domestic duties the Nest Watcher Aranea is a homebody of the aranea species similar to her more common House Aranea sisters. Like the House Aranea, they focus more on supporting their chosen nest mate. But they believe that a well-defended sanctuary to return to is just as important as any item they could provide. While not as focused as the House Araena on crafting, they still maintain all their potential in that field. While also expanding their trapping ability and their knowledge of defensive construction.”

It was, to put it bluntly, a defensive trap specialty version of the House Aranea. Not getting any new bonuses to crafting or silk skills but instead a boost to their trapping skill. They also gained a skill called Fortification Construction. Despite the whole spider web and nest theme, it appeared this would allow Ren to construct a number of defensive structures. She also gained a ton of bonuses while within her own lair. What qualified as a lair was a bit vague, but it seemed like any location she stayed in for a long enough time would become her lair. There might be some required level of construction or web making she had to do as well.

Finally, this one was by far the best when it came to raw attributes. Thirty to Agility, Dexterity, and intelligence, with ten to all the others. A total of one hundred and forty per level. Appearance wise this form changed the least. Growing a bit larger as if she had aged a bit, putting her in her early teens. More feminine than her current childish figure, but far from the huge change the others resulted in. It made him wonder if that meant she would for sure have another evolution path after that. The others looked fully mature, or at least far more so. He knew that monster evolutions could dead end. Preventing them from reaching maximum level on top of not resetting their level. That was something else to consider.

Like the Fate Weaver evolution, this one was stronger than staying a basic House Aranea. But it also leaned more towards staying in one place long term. Dren knew there were some advantages to a long term base compared to their current vagabond existence. But he wasn’t sure when or if they would set up a base of operations.

Ren it seemed could actually view her options this time and had seemed equally unsure of which path she wanted. The truth of the matter was, other than a boost to attributes, none of them would be too useful right now. Minutes had ticked away while he debated yet again. But in the end, he still didn’t have a good choice. Nor did it seem Ren had made up her mind, considering her scrunched up brow as she sat brooding nearby. Turning his gaze back to the wall in the distance he blew out a breath. “We should be in the other dungeon right now. Grinding away. Not having to deal with this bullshit.” Again he ran through the options and again he came to the same conclusion. He needed to know how all this played out before he made his choice. If he had to continue dealing with the Seer’s mess the Fate Weaver might be his best option. But as he gazed at all the natives on the wall he considered just how useful a fortified base would be.

‘Or Ren could just become a better crafter, maybe that scroll will improve her skill. Or even level it up more. Better gear could be helpful and it isn’t like she couldn’t keep fighting as she had in that form either.’ His mind still racing he stood up and throwing up his hands growled. “Fuck it. We will pick after this fight. We don’t have time to do an evolution anyway. It might take longer than before.” Pulling off his cloak he dumped it over Meg’s head. “Put this on and stay here with Ren. You two join in if an opening presents itself.”

“Don’t you need your cloak for your approach? It helps your stealth correct?” Meg asked while holding the tattered silk garment.

“You need it to stay hidden from the monsters of the surge. If they are like the last ones, they will be focused on the Haven. But you can’t just sit out here with your shitty stealth.” Dren swapped out a number of the daggers on his bandolier. “Besides. I’m not going to do this stealthily. I want all the natives to see me coming this time. I want them to know who they are messing with.” Dren felt all the annoyance, anger, and frustration he had felt recently swelling within him. He knew that a stealth assassination would be his best strategy. His main target was the Seer and his secondary that bastard of a skeleton. But at the same time, it wasn’t like he was going to walk across that field with so many people watching. Besides, he also wanted to show them just what they were dealing with. He wanted the natives to fear him enough that they would leave him alone to do what he needed to do. And if they wouldn’t leave him alone, well as Meg said. Killing them was a good source of experience.

Plus there was one more reason he wanted to make a bold open attack. He had a new skill to play with.