[Congratulations! Mental Corrosion Resistance (D) has reached 100% of mastery. +8 to Mind, Physique, Soul.]

[Will you like to Evolve the skill Mental Corrosion Resistance (D)? A D-rank skill usually costs 8 Evolution points.]

[Accept | Decline]

Grandpa’s voice awakened Shai as her inside whirled in an unsettling sensation, as if she had eaten something wrong. The confinement of the webs, accompanied by the creepy chilliness, made it even worse. She wiggled her narrow form the moment she regained consciousness, struggling to break free.

She was unsure of how long she had been in the confinement, but the time left her cold and unsettled. Shai had to bite the webs for a few minutes, infusing cosmic energy and even channelling the [Concept of Hunger] to create a small hole. Once the little gap appeared, it wasn’t hard to free herself.

Since she didn’t have enough evolution points, she dismissed the idea of evolving the skill for now. But damn, the boost in attributes was nice. 24 whole points…

Shai wrung her body out through the hole to find she was hanging from a high wall in some unknown chasm. There weren’t nearly as many interwoven webs in this one like the Training Chasm; however, this one gave a deep foreboding feeling of unease, as if her very being was in danger. It came from the depths of the pit, a cold chilly sensation that prickled at her very core.

Her eyes only led to deep murky darkness as she looked down into the depths. Instinctively, she curled her tail around the web and looked up.

The first thing she saw was a human—a familiar face—who was confined in another cocoon like she had been, though his head was free. It was the young captive she had seen in the jungle and later with the two men. His face was ashen cold, leaden. Although his eyes were open, Shai wasn’t sure if he was seeing anything. Poor fellow, he barely freed himself from those men to land in the webs of the spiders.

Such a twisted fate. Shai’s situation had been a lot better than his, yet here they were at the mercy of those spiders. Shai tried [Golden Eyes] on the youth, only to find out he was a Lvl 42 copper ranker, and nothing else in particular, his path hidden with question marks. He was alive, though shaken to the core.

I wonder why the spider didn’t just finish us if they left us here to die, Shai wondered as her mind whirled back to remember the whole event. Hmm, Marvel.

It didn’t take long for her to find another cocoon on the other side of the pit, wrapping the spider inside fully. Still, it couldn’t restrict the young spider completely, as soon Shai had the unsettling feeling of a telepathic link knocking on her mind.

The rest barely recovered her mental faculty. Shai was far from handling any heavy tasks save for meditation, yet she answered the communication. It was little trouble, anyway.

“Good job, Shai,” said the spider, “you got out. Now help me get out.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“Why?” Marvel sounded hurtful.

“You said bad things about me,” Shai said.

“What! When?!”

“When the spider mama captured us.”

“That’s. . .” Marvel paused. “It’s all the truth, though.”

“So it was all my fault? I’m just a greedy reptile, who wants to grow levels, huh,” Shai said, her eyes darting everywhere to find a way out. Unfortunately, there were no holes for her to crawl into and hide. “You hurt my fragile heart.”

“Well, not all your fault,” Marvel tried to pacify the situation. “I mean most of it was that dumb lizard’s fault. You’re not dumb though.”

Ah, it’s so easy to manipulate a kid…

“Yup, that’s not working,” Shai sighed, curling along the webs to move forward. She tried to scale the wall, only to find it smooth as polished marble, with some odd currents running through them. Thankfully, it wasn’t all smooth everywhere, as time and other creatures had left their marks on the smooth surface. The wall didn’t dispel her movement, but within a moment of contact, Shai felt something eerie. Something odd and chaotic that disoriented her.

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“Come on, Shai, you can’t leave me here,” Marvel expressed. “Serenity will eat me alive.”

Shai stopped her inspection. “What, really?”

“Figuratively, we’re not a fan of cannibalism.”

“Then you’re good.”

“NOOO!” Marvel whined. “No, please! You cannot leave me!”

“I’m pretty sure I can,” Shai laughed, moving to check another direction, which led further away from Marvel.

The fledgling spider seemed to sense her departure somehow, as she whined with more pressure in her empathic wave. Shai put her words no mind, manoeuvring her narrow form to climb upwards.

“Wait, you cannot leave,” Marvel said. “I mean, you cannot leave safely from here. This place is ridden with deadly essences and traps.”

That gave Shai a pause. She couldn’t discern any falsehood in the young Marvel’s tone, only eagerness. Although she should be capable of hiding her emotion in the telepathic link, Shai hardly believed the young spider was astute enough to think of that. Shai didn’t think long to entertain Marvel’s conjecture.

“You think I’ll believe your spider mama will leave you in a deadly pit?” Shai hissed in contempt. They were empathic spiders, not apathetic—that was something Shai noticed long ago.

“Of course. You don’t know us. Rules are everything to my elder siblings. Nobody escapes them,” Marvel said, her empathic pulses waning. “It isn’t the first time I have broken the rules. From what I’m sensing, this place is likely the Hell Chasm.”

“Hell Chasm?”

“The place we are in right now,” Marvel said. “You cannot imagine how dangerous this place is. Many of my predecessors died in this pit.”

Shai said nothing for a while as an awkward silence settled between them, though she could feel the spider gnawing at the back of her mind. Marvel was more unsettled than she let on.

Since she woke up, Shai had felt an awfully unsettling presence coming from the depths of the pit. Was that the reason behind Marvel’s demure behaviour? She was spontaneous like a child before, but now depending on her.

“What is in the depth of the pit?” she asked.

“Hell!”

“And?” Shai pressed, as the word simply didn’t describe enough.

“Nobody knows,” Marvel said ominously. “Whoever is sent to the Hell Chasm tries to climb their way to forgiveness. Whoever went down doesn’t come back, no matter their level and cultivation.”

“Then how do you know it was hell down there?” Shai questioned. “If nobody comes back.”

“You don’t understand. Eight generations ago, dozens of our predecessors went on an expedition there, led by four Gold Rankers. None of them returned. It left our clan crippled. We still haven’t managed to overcome.”

“Still, that didn’t tell anything,” Shai said with an exasperated sigh. “For all you know, it could be paradise compared to this place you call home. What if they just didn’t bother to come back?”

“What are you saying? That’s outrageous! Impossible!” Marvel didn’t even entertain her conjecture. “Can’t you feel the wrongness oozing from there?”

Shai could. It was somewhat similar to the corruption, yet entirely of a different calibre. Not the deranged feast. Her instinct told her she wouldn’t survive if she went there. But there was something else too. Similar to the corruption, there was a promise of power.

“Well, you got a point,” Shai dropped the topic, “but that doesn’t explain why I should trust you. You’re a rat, Marvel. Why would I jeopardise my safety trusting you again?”

“I’m not a rat!” Marvel expressed strongly, not comprehending. “I’m an Empathic Spider, A Named one at that. Our bloodline is at the very top of the system.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Shai snorted in the link. “You rat me out, Marvel, to your Mama.”

“Rrrrrr!” Marvel croaked, finally understanding. “That’s not a fair comparison, you know. Rats are stupid; how could they betray you when they don’t understand anything?”

“Well, you’re right,” Shai agreed. “I guess humans are a good comparison.”

While the figure of speech could be applied to snakes, Shai didn’t voice it out.

“Humans?” Marvel wiggled inside her cocoon a little, still struggling. “I have never seen one before today, but I sensed unbearable contempt for them from my elders… But that’s beside the point. Please free me, and we will climb out of this chasm like how we defeated the deformed wyrm together.”

“And then you’ll betray me to your mama?”

“I told you, Serenity isn’t my mama,” Marvel cried. “We are all born from the same origin, the Great Mother.”

Shai thought for a second, finally getting a solution for her trouble. “Then take a vow on your mother's name, that you won’t betray me.”

Marvel became silent. Shai reeled her head to look at her cocoon before creeping away.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! I’ll take the vow,” Marvel screamed, her distress evident through the empathic pulses. “Just don’t leave me here.”

Shai sighed in relief inwardly. If she could manipulate this little spider, perhaps Shai would get her chance to be free from the clutches of the spiders.

“So,” Shai asked, “why are you silent?”

Marvel let out a croak. “I, Marvel of the—” Marvel screeched in agony as another voice rang into their mind.

“Little Marvel, I’m so very disappointed in you.” It wasn’t the voice of the spider mama, Serenity, but a voice full of contempt.

“Elegy?” Marvel barely managed to utter under the mental pressure. “You were spying on us?!”

“How could you sully the Great Mother, for this little, lowly reptile.”

“Your mama’s lowly,” retorted Shai, against her better judgment.