Three whole weeks had passed since Kallen had set out the Iron Silk Campaign.
Hunger had set in.
More offerings came over those few weeks. Large crustaceans, fish, and sea mammals that he guessed were once nightmare creatures, found their way in front of his corridor. Sometimes, even a weaker, maimed spider would be sent to him.
Kallen was glad for the turn of events. He took the food, ate what he could, and used the rest to bait traps. He and Puddle grew bolder with the illusions, sometimes sending out deep, guttural growls echoing through the nest at irregular intervals.
He had used his time to carefully expand his territory. Kallen controlled nearly fifty yards in both directions of his corridor, giving him plenty of space to move about when he grew tired of his stiff room. He and Puddle didn't even hide anymore.
Either the spiders thought him to actually be the predator, or maybe its pet, he wasn't sure. Regardless, they did not approach.
The sounds of clicking and skittering could be heard at various hours throughout Kallen's day to day. He had come to figure out that the spiders had fortified the surrounding tunnels to contain him, whilst still giving him wide breadth.
He knew, however, that the relative peace he'd found wouldn't last.
It started with a steady vibration. No tentative probe, just the steady steps of a massive Spider coated in heavy iron plate. He could generally recognize the three types of spiders by the sounds they made when walking.
This one was a warrior… an Awakened Nightmare Creature higher than the level of monster at the very least.
It'd frightened him when he first heard it, and he quickly hid himself in the shadows. A single warrior crept into view, its iron-plated body gleaming in the dim light. It paused at the edge of the corridor, legs twitching as it scented the air.
Kallen didn't move. He didn't breathe.
It was ironic in a sense. He had come into the nest as an intruder, a desperate man fighting for his survival. But as days blended into weeks, something rather insidious had happened to him. He began to think like them.
It stepped forward, right into his territory. Into his trap.
The moment its weight hit the tripwire, the entire corridor twanged. A net of iron silk, woven days ago and hidden beneath a thin layer of normal webbing, snapped upward, yanking the spider into the air.
It thrashed, hissing just as Kallen pounced from the shadows, his khopesh flashing. [Threefold] activated. Three of the spider's eight legs crashed to the floor.
By the time he swung his weapon again, the warrior class spider had twisted itself free of his trap, flopping to the ground in a scrambling heap. But the fight was over soon enough.
Kallen intentionally let the spider spear him through the arm, roaring against the pain as the opportunity presented itself.
The spider had left its head unprotected from the front because it was confident in its thick armor. Kallen knew that his Awakened Weapon of the first tier wouldn't be of much use against the armor directly… under normal circumstances that is.
[Revenge] ignited, rippling through his muscles and he drove his weapon at the creature with both hands—one on the hilt, the other gripping the blunt side of the blade as if he were thrusting a spear.
With a sickening crunch, his sword pierced through thick plate, skewering the Nightmare Creature's brain. Killing it.
[You have killed an Awakened Demon: Iron-Spider Warrior].
[You have received a Memory].
From the darkness beyond, a chorus of movement could be found. Not an attack, but a retreat. Kallen exhaled sharply.
From that moment on, it was obvious that the spiders understood. The corridor was not just claimed, it was deadly, and Kallen was just getting started. He would show them how humans waged war.
~~~
Week three ended with the death of the warrior-class Spider. With its passing, the nest's behavior shifted again. No longer did the spiders seem content to simply appease the 'predator' in their nest. They now treated Kallen's corridor as a forbidden zone.
No more offerings came. The food gifts had ceased entirely as the spiders realized that their sacrifices weren't placating the beast—only feeding it.
He quickly realized that a siege was beginning. The Nightmare Creatures of the nest silently observed his reaction to the lack of food offerings. In response, Kallen began to move into his newfound territory.
This was because he had gained something from that Demon he'd killed. His new memory was yet another charm which was rare considering their low drop rate.
Regardless, it fit snugly around his finger in the shape of a small ring with webbed embroidery. It was an awakened charm of the third tier. After some trial and error, he found that its [Danger Sense] ability better allowed him to react to sudden danger, and vibrations in the air. Its second ability [Spinners Pact] granted him a staggering amount of dexterity when weaving webs with his Iron Silk spool.
If he killed enough of the spiders, he was sure he'd get an armor and a weapon to complete the set soon enough.
As a matter of fact, Kallen thought. That wouldn't be that bad of an idea. Since I'm stuck here with no way to escape, wouldn't it make sense for me to grind for items that would better assist me in this environment?
It was almost like a video game If one discounted the horrific circumstances.
After some time, Kallen had adapted to the new status quo following the death of the Warrior Spider. The fight had been shockingly easy—far easier than it had any business being. He had struck down an Awakened Demon in mere moments.
Yet it wan't strength or luck that secured this victory. It wasn't his abilities, nor any particularly favorable circumstance. He had turned his meager attributes and mediocre weaponry into precise tools. Leverage to overcome a foe that, by all rights, should have torn him apart. Because, quite simply, he was smarter than them.
More than that, he'd been granted time. Time to study the creatures, to unravel them. To observe what made them tick, what spooked them, what drove them to aggression or retreat. What instincts overrode others.
He learned them. Slowly. Carefully. And with a building, primal hunger to overcome nature.
Corpses, as it turned out, were generous teachers. They revealed much about strengths and weaknesses both. In time, he'd uncovered that the plating around an iron spider's head wasn't uniform; some points were much weaker than others. More critically, where the spider's head joined its thorax, a vulnerable seam existed. A deathly flaw in the monstrous design.
Normally, that spot was shielded well by the creature's legs—no matter the class. But from above? A clean cleaving strike would punch right through.
He had slain the warrior with surprise on his side, springing a trap and baiting it into overcommitting. He'd even let himself be hit to create an opening. The Demon had gone from complete confidence to a sword buried in its head in the span of a heartbeat.
In a fair fight, Kallen wouldn't have stood a chance. He would struggle against the lesser workers and the hunters. A warrior? Unthinkable. But he had no interest in a fair fight.
He had caught the bastards unaware weeks ago. Since then, he had stalked them, terrorized them, made guerilla war from the shadows. He was a ghost in their nest and he had no intention of stopping.
~~~
Kallen closed his eyes, crouching down and placing a hand to the ground, listening to the vibrations of the nest. He'd waited days for something like this, grinning silently as he felt a few workers and a hunter head toward him. Puddle had done a fantastic job funneling them in.
With a twitch of the hair on his arm, Kallen felt the spiders enter into his territory, he quickly darted down the hall, placing himself just outside his second kill box.
These 'kill boxes' were short rooms he carved out, which he and Puddle had painstakingly cast an illusion of depth inside, making potential spiders think that it was an escape route.
As he watched them crawl into view, he lunged from above, cleaving the head off of the hunter at the lead of the party. The two workers came up behind it, and instead of going through Kallen, they fled to the right, directly into the kill box.
The workers tripped over themselves, slamming into the wall. A jagged piece of chitin fell from the trap in the ceiling, but failed to pierce its target—no matter. Kallen rushed in. In a flurry of strikes and evasive maneuvers, the two arachnids fell before his blade, only earning him a single gruesome bite to his arm in the process.
The wound would fester with venom if he didn't do something, but his gauze and bucket memories would take care of it.
Kallen hurriedly sliced the fangs off of the spiders and stored them in a small silk woven sack he had left just outside the room. As he was bent over placing the fangs into the bag, Puddle came flopping up beside him with a soul shard in his mouth.
With all four shards in his bag, as well as all six fangs, he left for his home corridor with a pleased smile on his face.
When he returned, he dumped everything he had, keeping only two fangs on his person. In the corner of the room where he had stockpiled his goods, an impressive pile of soul shards, spider fangs, and bits of plated chitin could be found.
The chitin he had been using to craft himself armor, since his [Hadronite Carapace] was too unsuitable for the type of warfare he was enacting. It covered his body, leaving him unable to sense vibrations.
Instead, a personal suit of Iron Silk and spider chitin was slowly being made. Partially for utility, but partially to give Kallen something else to do other than listen to the nest, set traps, or talk to Puddle.
Things like that kept his mind off of several things that had been bothering him. Like where was Seren? She was still alive thanks to the attribute signaling that they were still connected, but he wondered how they were doing.
Another thing weighing on him was his vision of that crimson spire. He hadn't received another once since.
It was probably for the better. He still wouldn't escape from his current situation for quite a while if he were to guess.
~~~
Seren
Seren's fist stung as she pulled it back from the Elder Gargoyle's stony hide. "West!" She shouted, kicking the statue's ankle for good measure. "You were supposed to take me west, that's where my brother is, you stupid—"
Her [Vigilance] attribute flared in her mind. She was getting better at discerning the different types of pulses that her attribute emitted in her head. Quick and rhythmic thumps almost always symbolized something unknown coming, a sharp pulse signaled danger, and slow pulses signaled a trail of a past traveler.
What flared now, was a quick and rhythmic warning… something was coming. Seren's eyes widened and she hid behind the trunk like legs of her gargoyle.
Soon, she saw three people walking toward her. At the front was a pale young man—the same one she had taken wilderness survival with. Behind him—
Changing Star.
The Immortal Flame heir moved with a confident certainty. A golden rope coiled around her waist, the other end tethered to a pale blonde girl whose vacant eyes stared off into the distance.
Seren reluctantly stepped out from her cover, relief flooding her. Nephis was one of the two Sleepers to have a true name, the only person to be ranked above her brother in the academy…
What a twist of fortune!
"Um… hello," she called, mustering as much maturity in her voice as possible. "This is my echo…" she pointed at the Elder Gargoyle. "He won't attack you guys, I promise."
The pale boy stopped as Changing Star handed him the rope. She stepped forward, coming within a few feet. Up close, the famous Sleeper was taller than Seren remembered her being at the Academy.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Seren. From… from the House of Night."
Nephis took another step, a steady expression on her face. Then, she did something startling. She put a hand on Seren's head, and patted her a few times, as one might soothe a skittish pet.
"We heard you shouting something about wanting to go west? That's where we were headed."
Seren nodded, glancing at the hand with wordless confusion. "My echo wouldn't take me that way. He grabbed me and flew off… dropping me here after he battled a big crab thing. It was an Awakened Demon… I think?"
The pale boy—Sunny's face was hard to read. He looked like he wanted to object, but Nephis nodded, seemingly unsurprised. "That's a powerful echo. It'll be a big help if you would like to join us."
Seren's fingers gripped around the rough stone of her gargoyle's leg as she studied the trio. Nephis's hand remained atop her head, warm and oddly comforting despite the warrior's impassive expression.
She would be stupid not to join them. Especially if they were going to lead her to her brother.
"I would. I can help with navigation," Seren suddenly said. "I have a support aspect so I promise I won't slow you down."
Though, with her flaw, she wondered if what she said would turn out true.
The blind girl tilted her head slightly, eyes boring into Seren.
Nephis finally removed her hand and nodded. "We need to move, is there a reason your echo is covered in stone?"
"Mhm. He turns into stone during the day time. But he's really strong at night."
Nephis opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again, craning her neck to look at the echo's face. "What class and rank is it?"
"It's an Awakened Terror. My brother killed it in his first nightmare and he gave it to me."
"Your brother killed this in his first nightmare?" Nephis frowned at the echo. "Kallenir, right? The other Sleeper with a true name?"
Seren nodded enthusiastically. "He's super strong. Oh, um, but also, he goes by Kallen, not Kallenir."
Sunny strode past them, walking with Cassie, saying that they could both walk and talk. Something about burning daylight.
Seren dismissed the Elder Gargoyle and kept to Nephis's side. "Why are you guys going west?"
Nephis sent her a sideward glance, but it was Sunny who answered. "Cassie had a vision of a human settlement that way." He paused for a second, then added. "You were punching your echo, saying something about going that way as well… how did you know to go the right way?"
"I didn't," Seren said, fiddling with her fingers. "I have an attribute, that, um, it lets me attach a spiritual thread… a connection to someone. I put it on my brother and I can tell that he is somewhere in that direction."
Nephis snuck a look to the girl named Cassie, who nodded affirmatively. Seren wasn't sure what that nod meant, but Nephis strode ahead, taking Seren's hand in her own. "Since you seem to be the most equipped to be our pathfinder, you'll be in the front. I'll stay with you, while Sunny's shadows scout ahead for danger.
Nephis squeezed Seren's hand once before releasing it. "Stay close. If you pick up anything, warn us immediately."
She nodded, she would prove that she could be useful, despite her flaw.