As the plates emptied and the last morsels were fought over, conversation slowly shifted. Jaxon leaned back, his chair scraping against the cave floor, and cast an expectant look at Jabor. "Alright, brainiac, what's the plan?"

"First things first," Jabor began, fingers tapping on the stone table as he collected his thoughts. "We need to assess our current situation."

"Right," agreed Joe, nodding along. "Situation, bro."

"Exactly," Jabor continued, undeterred by the obvious statement. "We've got a good handle on everything right now with the beasts, but that could change quickly."

“Don’t jinx it” a chitter could be heard coming from Kristina. For some reason, Cal felt that the whispers were drawn to her. She felt wrong.

"Especially with how quiet it's been around here," Elena mused, her brow furrowed in contemplation. "Too quiet."

"Does anything feel off to you guys?" Cal chimed in, though his gaze remained fixed on the quest reward vase and Jobe.

Cal noticed the agreement on Elena’s face. It almost urged him on.

"Regardless, we need to stay sharp," Jabor pressed on, his demeanor shifting to one of seriousness. "We'll start by—"

"Scouting the perimeter, bro!" Jaxon exclaimed while pounding the makeshift table. The system vase rattled slightly.

The excitement earned a nod from Jabor. "And setting traps – though not sure how much that will help us against stage-twos. We don't want any surprises."

"Right," Joe echoed, the gravity of their situation settling over the group like a heavy cloak.

“I think we should relax a little longer, let the taste of dinner really sink in,” Kristina chimed in again. Again, the whispers grew.

“Temp do you feel something is off?”

“Let’s talk strategy in the meantime while we have everyone here.” Jabor's eyes narrowed, a signal that shifted the air from conviviality to caution. "Inventory. Anything from the system, in particular, we can use?"

Cal hesitated, but he firmed his thoughts as he considered how the cervidians had helped him.

His fingers brushed against something concealed within his jacket. A moment's indecision flickered across his face before he pulled out Jerry’s spatial treasure.

"Found this on Jerry," Cal grunted, thrusting the object toward Jabor. "Anything in it that we can use?"

Jabor's hands closed over the treasure, turning it over with practiced ease, revealing an empty void where valuables should have been. His brow creased.

"Hmmm – there are some gadgets we could use to help detect approaching enemies. I remember him telling me about them earlier." He scanned the treasure quickly, disbelief etched into every feature. "Jerry was loaded, did you blow all the mana crystals?"

"Errrrr… about that," Cal confirmed, voice even, eyes locked on Jabor's puzzled expression as Jabor passed the bag back.

His question hung unanswered, absorbed by the stone walls that surrounded them.

Cal's shoulders slumped, a silent surrender to the inevitable. The air between them grew thick with tension. "Another of my treasures," he said, his voice little more than a whisper, "it devoured the lot."

"Devoured?" Jabor's voice cracked like a whip, disbelief turning to shock. "All of them?"

"Every last crystal." Cal's hands opened and closed at his sides, an empty gesture for the vanished crystals.

Jaxon's antlers seemed to bristle, his cervidian heritage making his emotions all the more palpable. "And this item, what does it do?"

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Unsure." Cal's admission was a mere breath.

“Temp, can you pull out the ring?”

Nothing appeared, and Cal was confused.

“Well, ok… if you want to share, we can see if we can figure it out together. If it’s that powerful, it could help us.”

“Temp? What’s up buddy?”

Silence still.

“Give me a sec.” Cal moved his arms around his pockets and body in a motion to search for the ring and grazed his dagger first, and his oversoul pistol second. With a loud bang the pistol went off and seared his leg with a minimally charged oversoul shot.

“Fuckkkkk! What the hell?” Cal let loose a surprised shout. The vase rattled again with the commotion and started tipping towards Jobe but corrected quickly.

Kristina rose with a skitter and a growl.

Everyone else followed up, “Temp, are you alright?” Jaxon exclaimed.

“What just happened?” Elena followed, but clearly feigned surprise.

“Bro, you okay?”

“Fuck bro, you scared the shit out of me.”

“Cal, act natural.”

“Temp, what the fuck? Why did you shoot me?”

“Cal, take a look at “Kristina.’”

“Damnation Cal, with some discretion.”

“What do you want me to see?”

“She’s a ‘fucking giant ass spider,’ as you so called her the first time we saw her. Keep calm, or she will know you broke the illusion.”

Realization dawned on Cal as he truly saw Kristina once more while scanning across everyone’s faces. She was indeed a big ass spider. Hairy as fuck. Cal would have shivered if Temp had not warned him beforehand. Cal considered the irony of the dinner party as eight beady eyes looked back at him.

“Sorry guys, my bad – my hand slipped.”

Temp materialized the ring into his hand. “Here bro, this is the greedy treasure.” Cal handed the ring to Jabor to inspect .

“Goddess be damned. How did this happen? Fuck. Like seriously, what the fuck.”

“We apparently killed her weaker mate when we crashed her home. Now she is playing with her dinner. At our dinner party of all places.”

Cal stared across the room looking at his team’s expressions. “Hey Elena, don’t we have tea and crumpets for dessert?” Cal used his safeword, rather safewords, with Elena.

"It's not even full of mana," Jabor observed grimly. “What a strange ring.”

“Oh yeah, Elena, bring it out,” Joe followed. “I’m totally up for some biscuits.”

“Bro, crumpets aren’t biscuits.” Jaxon interjected.

“I could definitely use some jam on my crumpets.” Jabor added.

"Yeah but biscuits are the best with tea." Joe replied.

Elena sighed, the surprisingly pulled out a tea set, “Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean.” She stared at Cal, while responding to the cervidians. She turned to Jabor, “this is also a quest reward, by the way. Won’t help us though – it’s for comprehension, like the others on the table already.”

"Do you think she knows too, Temp? Why'd she pull out a tea set?"

"Yes Cal, she knows."

“Elena, you forgot the crumpets!” Joe pouted.

“No biscuits or crumpets, sorry Joe.” She started pouring out tea for everyone.

"Can we use it?" Cal asked Jabor, changing the topic back to the ring.

"Perhaps? I think it still needs more mana if we want to use it. Maybe three times as much, and even then, only briefly." Jabor turned the ring over in his hands, narrowing his eyes as if trying to pry secrets from its inert form. "I poured some of my own inside, and it feels bottomless, it’s like navigating blind here. I have no idea what it does."

“Okay, well, maybe we have a last resort then," Cal decided, a note of determination seeping back into his voice. Jabor handed the ring back to Cal.

Elena's silhouette shifted, her hands deft as she unearthed gear from her own spatial treasure. "We're not entirely out of cards," she said, her violet eyes flashing with a hint of mischief. The items she placed on the ground—a helmet gleaming with unknown metals, an ice stasis coffin exuding a chilly aura, and scuba diving equipment—looked almost alien against the rough stone floor.

"A coffin, scuba gear?" Cal quirked an eyebrow, interest piqued despite the weight of their predicament.

"Freezes anything inside, buying time if needed," Elena explained, running her fingers over the smooth surface of the coffin.

"Scuba gear for underwater escapades, I presume?" Jabor chimed in, his tone laced with dry humor, though his gaze lingered on the helmet. “How does that help us now?”

"Depth and pressure won't be issues," she assured, then added, "And this," she tapped the helmet, "is for extreme conditions." She looked towards Cal.

"Handy," Cal muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching into the semblance of a smile.

"Speaking of handy," he said, directing their attention to the ornament that had been sitting quietly all along—the vase. It was more than just décor; its presence demanded attention. "This is also from a quest." He hesitated before adding, "System warned not to break it."

"Break it?" Jabor echoed, taking an instinctive step back, his instincts momentarily kicking in. “The fuck, bro. You put a bomb as the centerpiece!”

Kristina scowled and also instinctively got up.

"Let's not test that," Jaxon concluded, nodding at the piece and backing away as if it were a dormant beast.

"Agreed," Elena said, wide eyed with horror, glancing at the serpent-like pet that had wound its way around the vase, its forked tongue tasting the air. “You beautiful idiot.”

Cal grinned sheepishly.

The silence stretched, a tangible shroud over the group. Snek's scales shimmered in the dim light as it slithered around the vase, its movements silent but deliberate. The air was thick with tension, every eye tracking the serpentine pet.

"Hmmm, I thought the system just meant that it was expensive. It is a tasteful vase, after all." Cal murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.

[Escalation, stage 2: Survive the entrapment of hungry predators. Time limit: 200 hours]