While Marvel tended to her wounds, I accessed my Inventory. No, I wasn’t intending to open it—only to enter my consciousness inside to get a feel for what had happened to the damned bird.

As I hoped, I found it hovering in the darkness of the Inventory, completely frozen in time. It was crammed in the confined space, with one of its wings wounded right around the edge in a completely straight cut, while the rest of it remained frozen, like everything else inside the Inventory.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if it was dead. There was a good chance it was, but I had received no notification to imply such. Perhaps it was because the system didn’t count it as my kill?

Well, the Inventory function did most of the hard work. I simply opened and closed it promptly. Hmm, creatures killed in the trap counted as my kill. Was this because something like an Inventory was far beyond my understanding?

Whatever the case, I couldn’t abandon the other possibility—that it was alive, only frozen in time. I wouldn’t let it out anytime soon to find out.

Marvel had bandaged her wounded appendages with her webs and created a spiral web to rest upon. I was dangling nearby, so depleted I needed rest of my own. Serenity had likely closed the portal after we exited—or something else had—as not many other creatures had fallen since our descent.

A tinge of regret crossed my cold heart for not getting the fruit from her before jumping into the portal. On that note, I hadn’t been trying to enter this secret holy realm. But considering what I had witnessed, perhaps being inside would be far safer.

Gingerly, I brought out a bunch of tasty mushrooms from the Inventory and gobbled them up. As tempting as those glowing bulbous plants looked, I didn’t want to take my chances with them—especially with my Inventory half full of these delicious treats.

Instantly, a tenth of my essence reserve recovered, and my passive restoration pace quadrupled. A pair of Marvel’s fledgling eyes shifted in my direction, watching me devour mushrooms.

“You want some?” I asked.

Before Marvel answered, I brought another batch of mushrooms right around her head. Marvel caught them with her web, expressing a tune of gratitude.

“It’s your crops,” I muttered. Finally, with some essence in my belly, I stirred my prime aspect with some hesitation. An impaling pain struck my mind, and my eyes began stinging. Before the pain grew to feel like they were being gouged out, I halted my ability.

I wonder if a concept of light would solve problems like this. Although it had awakened merely a few days ago, I had become overly reliant on it. That was to say, [Golden Eyes] was beyond useful, even if it had no latent fighting capacity. The support it provided made the difference between breaking and making it.

Since I couldn’t investigate further, I turned to my reliable spidy sidekick, Marvel—low on--Morales. “So, what are these glowing fungi-flower thingies?”

“Spirit Floren,” Marvel returned without turning to me. “These are all infants, but their extracts have some medicinal properties.”

“What kind?” I asked, finally drawing a hesitant forked tongue across the juice smeared on me. It was unnervingly intoxicating already, and the moment it touched my tongue, the feeling magnified.

“Ecstasy, mostly,” Marvel said, sparing me a glance. She noticed the change in my expression and shot me a disapproving look as I licked my peerless form clean. “And emotion amplifiers.”

“Ecstasy?” I lifted my head to meet her gaze. “A magical drug?”

Marvel expressed a tune of affirmation.

“That explains why it feels so numbingly intoxicating,” I said, letting out a heightened hiss. “Any side effects I should be careful about?”

“These are merely saplings. Other than weakening your senses, they don’t do much. Still, refrain from ingesting any more. Serenity is not with us if anything goes wrong. Again.” Her mood soured, recalling how she had left the elder spider to fend for herself. “And you should definitely stay away from any fully grown ones.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Why? I like what I’m getting, though,” I said, grinning and acting a little tipsy. Hmm, maybe I’m a bit high?

“Trust me, it will wreck your head in ways you’d never consider,” Marvel said.

“How do you know? Did you ever take any?”

She didn’t answer, which only proved Marvel was reiterating wisdom passed down from her elders. Of course, I didn’t plan on getting any more high. As a matter of fact... I swirled my essence to clear the ecstatic brain fog the Spirit Floren had created in my head and entered a flow state of meditation.

****

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WICHTER

Wichter felt a headache building as he surveyed the group—the last remaining members of his band. One of them had died, and another had been captured, which was as good as dead.

Dock had barely managed to escape, his wounds beyond their capability to heal. Not only that, but he’d also had to leave Mikel behind to save his skin. The injuries left the lizardfolk in no shape for another battle. His mind had suffered terrible afflictions, though his body was in slightly better condition.

Mikel and Dock had been two of his more reliable underlings. Now, with half his band disposed of, Wichter was unsure how far he could go to complete his mission. At the very least, he needed to save the two remaining men in time.

Using Lashin for surveillance, he had managed to avoid most of the cursed creatures, but those vile spiders were a different matter. He should have known something like this would inhabit Kismet-forsaken lands.

“Couldn’t you at least have returned with the hostage?” Wichter glared at the disgruntled lizardman, his voice cold as ice. “Do you realise how useful it would’ve been to have a princeling? He might have been our only leverage to get out of this mess alive.”

“I did all I could, believe me,” Dock said, a shiver running down his spine under Wichter’s piercing gaze.

“Those spiders were devious. They’re intelligent—nothing like the monsters we’ve faced before.”

Wichter stared at Dock, his hard gaze unyielding and calculating. He seemed to see something Dock could not—something that gave him pause. He ignored the lizardman and accessed Lashin through their bond. He hadn’t checked on the bird since everything went to hell.

Sitting down cross-legged, Wichter closed his eyes. Soon, his vision merged with Lashin’s. A shiver clawed at his heart as the sight came to him: monsters—hundreds of them—ravaging everything in their path.

Lashin soared over the cursed, darkened terrain filled with those horrors. Wichter sighed in relief to find the bird in a safe aerial position. The dungeon seemed to lack aerial predators—or at least, if they existed, none had revealed themselves yet.

With a mental nudge, he guided the golden-tailed eagle to survey the area further. That was when his gaze turned toward a wide, shimmering light—revolting and pulsating, marked by signs of spatial magic he couldn’t fully comprehend.

Cursed creatures swarmed toward the portal, desperately trying to enter. A lone spider fought against them. Its unique grey and brown carapace suggested it was a sentient spider with empathic power. It should have had enough wits to withdraw, knowing the odds were stacked against it.

Yet it didn’t. Soon, Wichter realised why. A smaller spider, half the size of the elder, lingered nearby, struggling to fend off attackers.

Lashin’s emotions shifted the moment it spotted the fledgling spider. Wichter failed to discern if the devious creature was playing tricks on his companion, but it shouldn’t have had the leeway to do so while confronting a horde of monsters.

Through the bond, Wichter felt a surge of unbridled emotion: anger, hunger, and violent fury.

To his surprise, the fury wasn’t directed at the spider but at the white snake coiled around the spider’s abdomen. Without waiting for his command, Lashin dove. The reptile hissed menacingly at the approaching eagle, taunting it, unwilling to give an inch.

“No!” Wichter’s voice echoed through the bond, but Lashin didn’t waver. The eagle’s form expanded, its size increasing as it prepared to strike.

Yet something unexpected occurred. Just as Lashin closed in, an expanse of darkness materialised before them, devouring the golden-tailed eagle in its wake.

Wichter jolted awake with a scream. The connection between him and Lashin had been severed. What had just happened?

“Boss? Are you alright?” Dock asked.

The other two survivors looked at Wichter with trepidation. He ignored them, focusing on the fractured bond. Clenching his teeth, he tried to re-establish the connection, but every attempt was futile. He could still feel a faint link, suggesting Lashin wasn’t dead—not yet. But why couldn’t he access the bond?

“Boss?” Dock pressed again. Even in his injured state, he wasn’t as hesitant as the others, who were too frightened to speak.

“Something’s happened to Lashin,” Wichter said, rising to his feet. A rare expression of worry crossed his face.

“What do you mean? What happened?” Dock’s tone grew sharper. “Is it…?” He let the question hang, the implication clear.

“No, he’s not dead!” Wichter clenched his fists. “I can still feel him. Something must’ve happened. Perhaps he entered the portal, and it severed our connection. I’ve heard of such things happening before.”

The connection between bonded companions rarely failed due to distance, but spatial disturbances could disrupt the link. Yes, that must be it, he reasoned.

He paused for a moment, his brow furrowing, before turning to his team.

“Five minutes,” he announced. “You have five minutes to prepare. We’re going after Lashin.”

“Boss, are you sure—” Dock began, but Wichter silenced him with an icy glare.

“No questions. Without Lashin, we’re blind in this mess. And now that we’ve lost our hostage, it’ll take a miracle for any of us to get out of this unscathed.”