Before heading out, with the addition of myself to the group, they all ran through the focus of their power. Instead of providing a total breakdown, they laid it out in general terms of the class system I'd brought up. Merry said that she was a DPS through and through, corrosion being her strongest Gift. Nick grumbled something along the lines of DPS and Support, making parts of the territory inhospitable with his fire. Lilly's ice abilities I was familiar with and Ophelia said she had something similar to Sam's vine ability, but focused on pollen.

The brief snippet of the team sent a trill of excitement through me. The world had magic now. With it being a part of my life and such a relevant pillar for humans to return to the surface, I'd forgotten. Magic. On top of that everyone had variations to it, since their bodies processed the mana of the world differently, even within the same Attunements. I couldn't help myself as I focused on the group; my Implant highlighted each of them in gold before their information populated in my peripheral vision,

"Nothing like practical work to get concepts to set in," I said, clapping my hands together and giving the group a smile. Without wasting any more time, the group shuffled out of the base. Clara waved us off before closing the gate behind us. I spared another look to take in what the Wildwoodians had accomplished in a week. I really need to update the fortifications of the Bunker Camp... My mind worked through several plans as we followed the street to US 301.

While the path from the forward base to the town proper had been fairly cleared, and as uniform as a quarter century of asphalt decay could be expected to be, the old main street had seen better days. Whole sections of the asphalt had been lifted up by tree roots forcing their way towards the median; grass, ferns and vines had filled in the rest. Thanks to the familiarity that everyone had with the pseudo urban environment, progress across the road and slightly north went smoothly.

Lilly and I took point as soon as we entered the woods on the other side. Blobby did what Blobby does and vanished out of sight. I knew he would be close by. The trainees didn't utter a peep as we pushed deeper. A cursory glance at my Local Positioning System marked our location. A quick check with Lilly told me we were just at the edge of spider territory. The further we went, the stronger and more multitudinous the creatures would get. For the purposes of testing the trainees, they wanted to stay on the outskirts and around the territory towards where we'd found Kirby's secret warehouse.

"I'll stay in the lead, Lilly will take the rear. If we encounter something, I will set up a wall and if Lilly does, she will too. Ophelia in the center at all times. Even if you take some damage yourself, make sure she is as capable as she can of putting us back together. Understood?" I glanced between the trainees and Ophelia, who nodded. Lilly smiled at me, shooting me a hidden thumbs up. Right before we'd left the forward base, she'd asked if I was willing to take point. She could focus on watching the trainees and she hated the responsibility. Considering I'd been taking point since me and my friends dug out Bec, it didn't really bother me at all.

"Keep your eyes peeled and looking up. I'll keep a look at ground level, but pretty much all of these spider turds have tried to get the jump on us as opposed to rushing directly." The comment elicited a small chuckle from everyone before the tension resumed. Since we weren't going deeper, I wasn't particularly worried but it didn't hurt to keep an eye out. The elite spiders that Devon had mentioned certainly seemed like they could cause problems if caught unaware.

Things in the forest scurried away from our presence, but the webbing along the canopy told a different story. My Perception strained to pick out things from the gloom, but a flit of light and shadow told me something was watching us. It wasn't long enough of a look for the Implant to lock in, but I halted our advance. Nick stepped up behind me, a red glow hazing around his fists.

"They are watching," he said. "Should we attack?"

"Not if we want them to fight. Unless they initiate, the spiders will just escape. Daniela found that out the hard way," I said, my voice dropping as I recalled our first run at farming the spider territory.

"They best get to it fast," Merry said, shifting from foot to foot.

"They'll--" I cut myself off as a rain of silk came down from above. "Now, Nick!"

The organic form of Nick's Skill manifested. Based on the transition into the ground it was a Materialize Skill. It didn't take long to confirm my suspicion as the pulse of heat around us doubled, tripled, then sunk into everything not human. Everything grew red veins of fire, and our assailants were released by the hellish glow. The two closest trees were alive as a wave of spiders rained down on us.

", !" I called my Skills out loud, helping me center myself as the arachnid deluge landed on the smoldering earth. They were not happy, and quickly sought the closest, safest location: my body. Thankfully I'd opted to defend and attack. An aquamarine stone started to form over my palm, but I didn't wait for it to completely materialize. It was already sailing into their midst, colliding with one of the larger spiders and spraying shards all over the place. The rush of spiders got pushed back for a moment, letting me see that more were pouring out from deeper within. This is like when we were deeper in!

That was all the time I had for deep thought before I got swept over with spiders. The rat sized creatures were intent on getting their fangs on me, but my growing armor of stone protected most of my squishy bits. Mana flowed into my pickaxe and I reshaped the crystal into a scythe. The first sweep took down two spiders before the others leapt out of the way. Their attempt to shoot webs was thwarted by the building heat of Nick's Skill. The man in question was drawing the attention of the second group of spiders that didn't have me in between them.

I thumped my shield with my pickaxe to let out a pulse of heat, drawing the spiders to me as I shrugged off the first offenders. Thankfully I didn't have to keep all the creatures at bay as a whistling spray of green rained down on the second group that had been targeting Nick. Anywhere the green fluid touched, an acrid smoke rose up followed by chittered frustration. The attack didn't look lethal, but more than a few spiders lost control of their limbs as they fell prey to its persistent effect.

"Eat my acid!" Merry cackled. The shift in mannerism almost threw me off, but when you have spiders trying to jump on your face it tends to take priority. The woman was jabbing out with a spear in hand, covering Nick as he focused on his Skill. The heat grew once again.

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"Rein in your fire, Nick!" Lilly called. The woman had erected a shield of ice around her and Ophelia. Her hook and one of the hatchets I'd infused flashed in her hands as she killed spider after spider. Almost like an after image of the blow, the insect's ichor froze in the air before flying into one of its compatriots. Unfortunately, I could already see that both her attacks and defensive wall were blunted; the daggers didn't retain their cohesion long and the spell chain around the wall had to be kept up.

"Tighten up on Ophelia!" I called, body checking Nick out of the way before a Q2 spider could get a hold of him. Said spider managed to punch through the armor on my forearm. A warning telling me I'd been afflicted with inflammation flashed in my vision as the burning sting cleared my mind enough to act and think. Four, half powered, flopped to the ground. I was vaguely aware of my guts twisting in on themselves, but the adrenaline let me fight back against my mana side effects. It was the largest back to back casting of the Skill I'd done to date.

Like timed grenades, the multicolored rocks shattered and pushed back the horde long enough for me to get swinging room. The pick-turned-scythe sucked up some more of my mana as I pushed it to increase in size and swung. Spider after spider fell with each swing. Nick retargeted his smolder zone to beyond where I was fighting, weakening and spacing out the spiders that tried to get to our group.

"Merry, target the larger ones!" I called, interposing my shield as webs shot out from the Q2 spiders in the mix. The strands were thicker than their smaller brethren, but visible enough for me to pick them out. With Nick's Skill needing time to surge up and stop that attack, I was forced to fight against the strands attaching to me. When a half dozen dog-sized spiders were tugging on my shield, my feet started to slip on the earth.

"!" I grit my teeth against the growing amount of strands attaching to my shield. My hardened earth barrier appeared low and thick, giving me the grip I was quickly losing. "Get ready for incoming!"

With a bicep snapping tug, I hoisted the large spiders closer. The moment they were in the air, they released their webs. They hadn't been expecting to be pulled towards the enemy. Hanging in the air, it was foes ready to be harvested.

That's when Ophelia and Merry really joined in the mix. The demoness had been keeping the smaller spiders from overwhelming our group along with Nick, but now she switched from an area spell chain to targeted. Bolts of green-black energy fired into the general location of the falling spiders. Each took one in the thorax or leg, dying or being put out of the fight. Ophelia sent out a pulse of gold green energy into the ground around us. The portions blackened and charred by Nick's Skill were ignored as the pulse continued into the patches of hardy grass and ferns. They immediately turned on everything that wasn't vegetation. Whirling blades of turf and weeds cut all the downed spiders and halted the advance of the rest.

"Finally!" Lilly called. I glanced over my shoulder to see an icy version of Dai the lizardman's Flurry summon. The creature hovered in the air for a whole second before turning into an ice-javelin launcher. Each half spin of its body lobbed an accurate spear of azure ice into the center mass of the larger spiders, completely removing them from the equation.

"Don't forget about me!" Nick roared as fire pulsed from him into the ground. Everywhere fire had smoldered, spurts of fire rose up like miniature impromptu volcanos.

I swiped my pick once through the air, killing the rush of spiders that had survived the onslaught. A pesky survivor rounded my left to get at Nick. My injured arm didn't respond fast enough to interpose my shield, but I didn't have to worry. A spear thrust out, pinning the creature to the ground as Merry swayed. She was looking green around the gills, but there was a savage grin on her face. The whole terror look was completed by the spray of ichor matting her hair and horns.

"Sweep the area!" I said, extracting my feet from the hole I'd dug resisting the pull of the spiders.

"Ronan, please come here," Ophelia said gently. When I gave her a confused look, she pointed at my left arm which hung limp. Right. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug!

My eyes roved over the small clearing we'd created with our fight as Ophelia pulsed healing energy into my shoulder and then down to my fingers. Unlike Samuel's refreshing heal, this was a warm embrace. Comfort eased the muscle that had been snapped and coiled before reattaching it. Minor scrapes and the bite on my arm faded away as the mana washed through me. Ophelia slumped as I watched her eyes dilate. "Don't push it. You cast that big Skill during the fight."

"Just need... a moment," she slurred.

"Nick, keep an eye on Ophelia. Merry, stick with her until your side effects pass," I said, rising to my feet from the knee Ophelia had me take.

"I'm-- Ugh." When Merry tried to respond, the woman had to stop herself. Having seen it on Clara, I knew she was about ready to tell us what she'd had for breakfast.

"Sit. Recovering as quickly as possible is more important than loot or anything else," I said, putting a bit of steel into my voice. The woman gave a small, meek, nod before grabbing her head. Apparently shaking her head in any way was a bad idea.

Lilly still had her summon hovering a circle around the group, her eyes locked on the woods around her. Her legs and arms were shivering as the coldness of her side effects took its toll and she made a concerted effort to ignore it. "They are reacting much more."

"This was almost as bad as when we set up that temporary base," I agreed.

"At least they were all the same element," Lilly said, pointing to one of the flanking spiders she'd killed. They were grey in color, with shocks of iridescent lines where they'd been tangled in their own webs. Over half of them on her side had been cleaved by axe or ice blades.

"You are right, different Attunements would have complicated things," I said. "Is anyone reporting these large numbers?"

"Nothing quite this large, but yes. I'm not sure if we upset some kind of balance by taking out the Tendrils, but the woods are angry now."

"Good and bad. I just hope we can adapt fast enough," I said quietly.

The two of us lapsed into silence, taking opposing positions around our group. A quickly approaching shadow almost had me call the others into combat ready. Thankfully it was only my helpfully absent gelatinous companion. Except, what it held within its body once again gave me pause. Arm long legs that could only belong to one of the female banana spiders stuck out of its body at odd angles, at least three of them visible in the lime green bulk. Blobby didn't even try to comment on anything, instead it slumped into a camouflaged puddle beside a pile of the smaller spiders. A lazy appendage pulled two of the Q1 spiders into its body, each getting obscured quickly as the slime started to dissolve them.

"I'll be damned," I chuckled to myself. One of those bad boys had to be at least Q3, and it seemed like Blobby had at least scared it off. My thoughts flashed back to when I'd first seen my companion fight the other slimes. For something without a face, I couldn't help but think it had been snarling at the other Tendril creatures. "I'd believe it."

"Believe what?" Nick said as he approached me. He'd been cut deeper by the spiders I'd missed. However unlike my own Limestone Skin- combo, his skin was mundane by comparison. Only a few hazy scar lines were left now that Ophelia had been able to heal him.

"Blobby kept one of the stronger spiders from engaging us," I said, pointing to the almost indistinguishable mass if not for the spider legs sticking out of it.

Nick looked between me and the slime, shaking his head before returning to Merry. "He is a monster," I heard them whisper to each other.

I pushed past the strange blend of feelings that comment caused, starting the looting process. With each boot nudge the spider bodies would crystalize before crumbling in on themselves. Iridescent gold sprays of Pith rose up into the air, hovering unsure before spider webbing into all of us except Blobby. The surge of warmth of the Pith eased my body. I almost braced for the nauseating feeling of the Dreg contained within, but the spiders were just Attuned beasts. The ratio of Dreg to Pith absorbed was laughable compared to Tendrils.

Ophelia unfolded two large duffels from her gear, passing them to the trainees. They went about collecting the massive influx of Infusions and spider bits. The benefits of seniority. I chuckled as the two teens groaned almost every time they bent over to pick the loot up. I wonder if this is what kids cleaning up their room was like? The thought of some slight normalcy compared to pre-Fall Earth brought a smile to my face.

While they worked to gather the sizable pile of loot, the rest of us kept watch. I used my pickaxe-turned-axe-axe to clear some of the low hanging branches, reducing the ambush spots and opening up our view. It was clearing one of these that I caught a glimpse of the sky. Pinprick dots of black drifted in a tight cluster, shifting and swirling within each other. My head tilted in confusion as I watched the spectacle for several seconds until my brain slotted the image with one of Alexis' biology lessons from years ago. "Murmuration..."

The general cloud of birds swept further and further out of view, heading in a particular direction despite their ambling coordinated motion. "East... The town!" I screamed as I realized what the birds had to be.

"Ronan?" Lilly asked.

"Grab whatever we have already, we need to go back!" I yelled. Matching action to word, I hauled one of the duffels and threw it over my shoulder. "Blobby, make sure our path is clear!"

The slime jiggled, spitting out one of the half digested spiders before mitosing into three. Each took one of the Metier Crystals in its center with it, but the smaller Blobbys were much faster as they sped into the woods eastward. The rest of the others adjusted their gear and followed a step behind me.