Dean turned his head, glancing up towards the canopy of trees some twenty-five feet above. For a moment, just a moment, he could have sworn he sensed something. But when he stared into the darkness, he couldn’t make out any sign of movement.

  His mana sense spread around him, canvassing the area. But he could feel nothing but the throbbing essence signatures of the armored men around him.

  “You alright, Adventuerer?” asked Sergeant Frost. Dean glanced away from the trees, nodding as he turned back towards the path.

  “Fine,” he said. “Just thought I sensed something.”

  Sergeant Frost had brought seven of his best guardsmen with him. They were combat classes, and though their armor was plain, Dean could sense a level of competence in them. The way they moved, scanning the trees' perimeter with weapons at the ready, reminded him of his own military training.

  Frost grunted in response.

  “Aye, well, let me know if that changes. My men don’t often venture into this part of the forest. Too close to some of the more common monster zones for my taste, and the trees and foliage are thicker here.”

  He used a gauntlet to brush aside several thick strands of moss, grimacing when some of it stuck to his armor.

  “We’re small folk, and it’s true we don’t have the same security as larger cities with their own watch garrisons. But in all my time as a guardsman, I don’t think I’ve ever faced a threat like this. Low-level mobs, sure? Perhaps even the occasional beast. But a nest and nest boss this close to civilization?”

  The man shook his head, his raised helmet visor rattling.

  “Things are worse than I realized if it’s come to this.”

  The man’s words echoed in Dean’s head, bringing back memories before the war. There had been rumors of turmoil in the south. Monsters, beasts, and a shortage of Adventuerers had led to the lower Riverlands being weakened long before the first coordinated attack from hell. He could remember bits and pieces of it… whispers of something stirring in the south.

  I’d be a fool to think they weren’t connected, he thought as he ducked under a low-hanging branch. Something happened in the lower Riverlands… something that crippled the south and made us vulnerable to attack.

  Dean snapped out a hand, grabbing the shoulder of the man in front of him and stopping him dead in his tracks.

  “Careful,” he said softly, gesturing towards the trees before him. The man hesitated, his gaze following Dean’s. Then his eyes widened.

  The web was thin, almost too thin for the naked eye to see. But the strands ran in a zigzag between several trees in front of them.

  “What are we waiting for?” said Frost. “We can hack through these without issue. Our blades should be more than enough.”

  Dean shook his head and pointed to the trees above.

  “These are deliberately laid,” he said. “The web isn’t hard or thick like you might expect to see blacking the entrance to a nest. They are thin and delicate. My guess is that they function as a sort of message system.”

  He pointed from tree to tree, following the gentle glint of the web line in the light of the torches.

  “Break one and it sends a tremor all the way back to the nest and alerts it of danger.”

  A guardswoman with a crossbow cradled in her arms made an audible gulp.

  “You mean monsters are capable of planning like that? But how? They aren’t really sentient… are they?”

  Dean suppressed a grim smile.

  “Sentient in the sense that they can talk and communicate like humans, dwarves, and elves? No, not exactly. Generally speaking, spiders, like most monsters, are mere creatures. More animal than anything else. But,” he slowed, noting the essence signatures that he now felt faintly before him. “There are exceptions. Monsters or Beasts that evolve due to essence consumption are dangerous. Some develop powers and abilities of their own. Others might inherit a form of intelligence.”

  “Intelligent or not, it’s nothing a bit of good steel can’t handle,” said one of the guardsmen behind them. He was what they would have called a “heavy” back on the battlefield. A man dressed in heavy reinforced plate. A shield was slung over his shoulder, and his gaze was cutting as he glared through his visor at Dean.

  “Respectfully, Sergeant, I don’t see why we needed to hire an Adventuerer to do what an organized squad could accomplish on their own. Doesn’t help that we’re paying him more than a month's wages for the privilege.”

  “Oh, don’t start, Derek,” muttered the woman with the crossbow, rolling her eyes. “If it were that simple, our patrols would have caught on to what was happening weeks ago. Last I checked, you and the others thought it was a ghost haunting the town just same as the rest of us. If it weren’t for Dean, we’d still be in the dark.”

  “I ain’t denying that,” said Derek, spinning towards her. “I only meant I don’t see how he’s any more capable than the rest of us. Look at him, he’s a kid. We’re a squad of seven armed men and women that have been on the job for half the time he’s been alive. How d-

  “Quiet,” growled Frost, dropping a hand to the hilt of his sword.

  “No, respectfully, Sergeant, I think I’ve earned the right to say my piece,” said Derek.

  “Shut your mouth, you fool,” it was the tone more than the words that seemed to penetrate. Derek stopped in his tracks, scowling beneath his helmet.

  “What…” he started, but Sergeant Frost held out a hand for silence. His eyes were fixed on Dean, who had frozen with his head cocked to one side. For a moment, that same presence that he had sensed before had resurfaced. It had been faint, as if sensed from far away, but that wasn’t what concerned him. As soon as his skill picked up on the essence signature, it faded, leaving only a trail from the direction it had come in.

  Dean frowned, scanning the trees around him. Something wasn’t right. An essence signature that large couldn’t simply disappear. Not unless...

  “It’s masking its essence signature,” he said, his heart leaping into his throat. “I thought we would draw its attention when we attacked the nest. But it’s already here. It’s been tracking us.”

  So sooner had the words left his mouth than Dean's mana sense triggered once again. He spun on his heel, shoving Derek aside and causing the guardsman to curse.

  “The hell do you think you’re-“ Dean’s sword slammed into the juvenile forest spider, with enough force to mist the thing. Green blood and guts splattered across Derek’s armor in an arc. The heavy gaped at him, his eyes wide behind the visor.

  “Scout,” said Dean calmly, crushing the remains of the twitching glob beneath a boot. “The Deceptor knows we’re here. It’s lurking, but it won’t strike, not before assessing our threat level. Stay sharp, that scout was just the first.”

  Sergeant Frost drew his sword, and several of the others mirrored his movement as they drew closer together. They held their torches high, casting a ring of light out at the surrounding forest. The gleam of multiple eyes stared back at them, and that’s when Dean sensed them. Over a dozen smaller essence signatures were coming towards them through the trees. And they were moving fast.

  “Holy hell,” said Derek, his voice tinged with a note of horror. “How many of those things are there?”

  Ahead of them, the darkness seemed to writhe as spiders swarmed forward. The heavy unslung his heavy shield from his back, his eyes on the approaching enemy. There were at least a score of spiders, all juvenile by the looks of it. They were agitated, chittering as they scurried towards the invaders that had ventured too close to their nest.

  “It’s a swarm,” said Dean. “Kill them quickly, and don’t let them overwhelm you. Their venom may be weak, but enough bites can paralyze even a grown man.”

  “Lovely,” said the woman with the crossbow. She braced the weapon on the ground, cranking a bolt. Dean could see her hands shaking. In fact, he could sense the fear of most of the men in the clearing. The City Watch may have experience fending off bandits and dealing with local crime, but fighting monsters and beasts was another matter entirely.

  Dean vaguely remembered his first time as a soldier facing down a monster nest. A hive of giant hornets had taken up residence in a cave near the fortress in the Midwest. His squad had been assigned to do recon and report on the size and location of the nest. But luck hadn’t been on their side. Five of the eight soldiers who had accompanied him had died in that cave, and back then Dean had considered himself lucky to have survived the night. But things had been different then. Dean was no longer helpless, no longer that weakling who could barely defend himself or others. Now he wielded something he’d never had in the past. Power.

  Essence brimmed within him, responding to his call as he focused on the enemies before him.

  “Stay back,” he growled, and even his own voice sounded foreign to him. The guardsman peeled out of his way like the tide as Dean’s aura pulsed from him, making his arms and hands glow with a soft blue light. That light was reflected in his sword as he lifted it into the air.

  “What is he doing?” snapped Derek. “There are too many of them! A sword isn’t going to-“

  Dean released the pent-up energy inside him like the snapping of a whip. He planted his feet, bringing his sword down in a mighty arc with all the force he could muster. Sunder slammed into the ground with enough force to make the nearby trees tremble. A gash had opened in the earth nearly ten feet long. Smoke curled from it – smoke that stank of burning monster flesh.

  You have slain Juvenile Forest Spider x10

  The remaining spiders let out a collective shriek, their dark eyes turning their attention from the party to him. A sound rang through the air, soft but still audible. It sounded like a clicking noise. Dean’s eyes snapped to the side, and for a moment, he could have sworn he saw the outline of something large in the darkness. But there was no time to investigate.

  That noise, whatever it had been, seemed to have stirred to juveniles into a frenzy. They swarmed towards him over the forest floor, coating the nearby trees and ground as they came for him.

  “Well, back him up gods damn it!” shouted the Sergeant as he and his men ran forward. As soon as they reached him, Dean advanced. He moved faster than they did, flowing from spider to spider and hacking, slicing, and rending any who came within range. He could hear the sounds of the others engaging in battle, but he kept his focus on his task. The watchmen could take care of themselves, and right now, he needed to ensure he could thin the swarm as much as possible.

  Dean drew essence from his core once again as he swung his sword at a nearby tree teeming with spiders. The tree trunk cracked in a spray of splinters before slowly listing sideways. It crashed to the ground, crushing several spiders beneath it as it fell.

  “The torches!” shouted Sergeant Frost. “Keep the light on them and kill them when they hesitate.”

  Sure enough, the watchmen were moving together as a unit. Derek was on point, his shield raised and braced as the men advanced. Sergeant Frost and several other swordsman followed behind, with their torches held aloft. The spiders seemed to shy from the light, and those that were brave enough to dart in at the formation were quickly dispatched. Dean grabbed a spider that had leapt at him out of midair, throwing it to the ground. It wriggled its legs up until he drove his sword point into it.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  The initial attack was dying down. They’d manage to thin out the swarm, and now some of the spiders were starting to flee back towards the nest. If he were fast enough, he might be able to…

  Predator Sense: Active

  In the end, it was the goddess's blessing that saved him. Dean dodged sideways as something massive hurtled from the trees. It landed just past him, scurrying forward on eight legs with a speed that seemed wholly unnatural. The spider was giant, easily the size of a covered wagon. Its hair was so dark that it seemed to blend in with the darkness around it, all except for a patch of hair on the top of its abdomen. That patch was white as snow, and the pattern formed something resembling a face. The Deceptor.

  Monster Class: Giant Deceptor Spider

  Race: Arachnid

  Tier: Nest Boss

  Warning: Threat level high

  Dean realized in a split second that he hadn’t been the spider's intended victim. The Deceptor rose on its back legs, using its front legs to yank one of the watchmen towards itself. The man screamed as he was jerked forward, sword falling from his hands.

  In one fluid movement, Dean drew his mother’s knife from his belt and hurled it through the air. It missed by inches as the spider, again showing a speed that could only be born of essence evolution, seemed to phase out of the way. It held the guardsman in its mandibles, and the man’s screaming was suddenly cut off as his head was bitten off in a spray of blood.

  “Robert!” shouted Derek. The heavy was weighed down by spiders, snarling as he beat at them with his axe and shield. The spider twitched, tilting its head as if listening. Then it made a strange gurgling sound. One that sounded a lot like laughter. The guard's limp body fell to the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

  “You bastard!” Derek ripped a spider from the armor of his back, cleaving it in two in midair with his axe. With a roar, he made to charge forward, but Dean’s grip on the neck of his armor held him fast.

  “Don’t, it’s trying to bait you.” He said, nodding towards the Deceptor. It was still frozen in place some twenty feet away, its head cocked to the side as if listening to a frequency only it could hear. Derek struggled against Dean’s grip, but Dean’s essence-infused muscles made it a losing battle.

  “That fucking thing killed my friend,” Derek wheezed, his grip tightening on his axe handle. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting it go.”

  “You don’t have to.” Dean put a hand on the man’s breastplate and shoved gently, sending him stumbling back towards his squad. Sergeant Frost and several others grabbed his arms, preventing him from charging in again.

  Dean turned to look at him, his face serious.

  “You wanted to know why Adventurers like me are paid the way we are? Well, you’re about to see why.”

  Before he’d even finished speaking, the Deceptor launched its attack. It was clever, really, assuming that Dean was distracted, dealing with the others, and going for his back. Or at least it would have been if Dean hadn’t been doing a bit of baiting himself.

  He spun, raising his sword and bracing it with his free hand. The spider's fangs pinged harmlessly off the metal, and the creature hissed, shuffling quickly backwards before he could counter. It was in a defensive stance, its abdomen raised to flash its false face. The air around it seemed to shimmer, and its essence signature disappeared around the same time its body seemed to melt into darkness.

  So, its essence signature isn’t the only thing it can cloak. Mmm.

  Dean closed his eyes, activating his mana focus. He could feel the faint signatures of the spiders in the nest, and beyond them something else.. presumably the queen. He stretched his senses, pushing until he honed in on what he was looking for.

  Left.

  Dean turned his head, his eyes locking on a spot between two trees to his left. The air distorted slightly as if in a heat haze.

  “There you are,” rumbled Dean. And then he was moving. Using his charge ability, he closed the distance in less than a second. He swung his sword at an upward angle, managing to shear through two of the creature's front legs before it managed to leap away. The two hairy limbs fell to the ground, becoming instantly visible again as the monster shrieked. The sound was high and angry, and Dean couldn’t help the vicious smile that came to his face.

  “That’s right,” he said, relying on his senses as he adjusted his grip on his sword. “Killing me won’t be so easy.”

  The Deceptor moved from place to place, so quickly that even his mana sense struggled to keep up. Twice it came at him out of the shadows, but no matter how fast he reacted, it managed to change directions, avoiding his counter strike and fading back into the darkness.

  How was it able to change the direction of its attack so quickly? So far, he’d managed to evade its attacks, but at this rate, he was getting nowhere. From behind him, he could hear the sound of the watchmen still fighting some of the remaining juveniles. The Watchmen?

  Dean turned, cursing under his breath as he saw the shadow from above. The creature had baited him into separating himself from the others, only to go for the more vulnerable party while his back is turned.

  “Look out!” he shouted as he sprinted forward. His eyes drifted to the cooldown in the corner of his vision. It was ten seconds until he could dash again. But right now, ten seconds was an eternity.

  Dean saw the Deceptor descend. Saw it snatch up the woman with the crossbow from above. The woman’s mouth opened in shock, her eyes growing wide in the light of the torches. But in that light, Dean saw something else. A shimmer hovering above the abdomen of the thing. A thread?

  Realization of him like a hammer blow, and this time he knew what to do. The woman’s screams echoed through the trees as Dean sprinted after her, his aura pulsing from him. This was what the creature wanted, he knew. It wanted him to take the bait – to follow it into the trees where it could finish him off from any angle. He would have one shot to get this right. One shot and the girl was as good as dead.

  “Come on,” he muttered as he vaulted over a stump. “I’m right here. Take the damn bait.”

  The screaming stopped. Dean skidded to a halt as he came into a large clearing with a single tree at its center. The tree was tall and leafless, with branches that extended in either direction. Between those branches forty feet in the air, dangled the female guardsman wrapped from head to toe in thick webbing. When the bundle squirmed, he felt a flood of relief wash over him. The woman’s eyes were unbound, and as they fixed on him, she moved her head. She was trying to speak, but even her mouth was bound.

  Her eyes bulged, and they slid to a point over his shoulder at the same time his mana sense went haywire.

  Behind me.

  Dean pivoted on his back foot, at the same time releasing the object he’d been holding in his hand. The knife, which he’d grabbed from the trunk of the tree on his way past, sailed high, missing the spider completely. The Deceptor chittered in glee as it descended on him, but Dean braced himself. It was all in the stance, Captain Ripley had taught him. It starts with the roots. Then the branches. Dean tightened his core, swiveling his hips as he prepared for the strike.

  The Deceptor seemed to note his change of demeanor in mid-air. It gathered its legs, intending to retreat yet again. Only, Dean had anticipated that. The spider’s six dark eyes widened as it realized that the thread it had been using to maneuver itself had been severed only moments ago. His mother's knife hit the grass with a thud at the same time Dean met the creature's gaze.

  “Stay still, will you?” he growled as his inherited trait activated. The spider froze in the process of attempting to curl itself inward protectively, held captive by the power of his stare.

  First, the roots. Then the branches. Phantom hands gripped his, holding them steady as the monster fell towards them.

  “There you go lad,” said the familiar voice in his memory. It was as if the old grizzled veteran stood beside him. The closest thing Dean had ever had to a father. “Don’t hesitate. Commit and follow through.”

  Dean’s sword cut an arc upwards, cleaving the Deceptor neatly in two. The two halves of its hair body fell to the ground with a squelch as green spider goo rained down around him. One half lay still, but the other was still twitching. Even as he watched, the thorax tried to dig its remaining legs into the ground. Dean tromped towards it, his sword over his shoulder. Its large black eyes swiveled towards him, and in the light of the half moon, Dean could see himself reflected in them. Half covered in spider gore, his blue eyes glowing with the power of his essence.

  The spider let out a pitiful sound, trying to drag itself away from him.

  “That’s right,” he said, following as he unslung his sword from his shoulder. “That’s how they felt. All the souls that you took and killed? All the people you fed to your queen. Several juveniles burst from the trees, leaping at him. But Dean only laughed, slapping them away with such force that they exploded against the ground.

  At last, the spider gave up. Shuddering as the trail of green goo leaked from its body. The last thing it saw was Dean’s boot as he held it in place, driving the end of his sword into its brain. It stopped twitching.

  You have slain Giant Deceptor Spider.

  You have gained + 4 strength

  You have gained + 5 agility

  You have gained + 3 resilience

  You have gained + 4 power

  Do you wish to harvest the corpse?

  The essence shard rose from the creature, pulsing in the night air as it fell into his palm. It was slightly different than the one he’d taken from the beast. Tinged with a dark energy that made his fingers numb when he held it. Dean examined it for a moment before placing it in his inventory. He’d consume it later, after his job was done, in order to replenish his essence.

  An item had appeared along with the shard, falling to the ground before him.

  Blood Cloak of the Arachni: These woven threads contain a concealment spell that makes the wearer's essence difficult to detect. In addition to concealing the essence signature of its wearer, this cloak provides + 18 additional armor and a chance to deflect 10% of incoming physical damage.

  Dean’s brow rose as he inspected the red cloak. It wasn’t exactly subtle, not something he’d associate with stealth. But when he turned the fabric over in his hands, he saw it shimmer. Strangely, the blood red cloth seemed to meld with the darkness around him, flowing between its crimson state and something almost liquid. He clasped it at his neck, letting it flow over his shoulders.

  He was surprised at the fit, and even more surprised by the faint warmth the cloak gave off. It was a rare item, that much was clear. He’d have to test its ability, but right now he had more pressing problems. Dean used his Sunder ability to slice through one of the branches holding the watchwoman. She wriggled, letting out a muffled scream as she fell, but Dean stepped forward to catch her.

  “Sorry,” he said, lowering her to the ground and using his knife to cut carefully at the threads. “I shouldn’t have let it take you.”

  His knife sheared away the threads binding her mouth, and the woman let out a gasp as she sucked in air.

  “Thank you,” she said, her chest still rising and falling rapidly. “For coming after me. You didn’t have to, you could have stayed with the others but…” she trailed off, her throat bobbing. “Thank you.”

  Dean held out a hand to her, and after a moment, she took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

  “It’s just my job.” He said simply. Then he turned and trudged back in the direction he’d came. It wasn’t difficult to find the others. The watchmen were in a wedge formation surrounded by the bodies of what looked to be a hundred juvenile spiders.

  “Die, you fucker!” Growled Derek, bashing a twitching body with the end of his shield. Dean stepped from the shadows, and Sergeant Frost was the first to see him.

  “Thank the gods you’re alright. And…” his mouth dropped open as the watchwoman moved out from behind him. “You’re… you’re both alright. But where.. How did you escape that thing?”

  “It’s dead,” said Dean simply, kicking aside spider corpses as he approached. “Now that the Nest’s patriarch is dead and most of the drone mobs, by the looks of it, we should be free to kill the queen.”

  “It’s… that thing… you killed it?”

  “Of course.” Dean reached into his inventory and withdrew an item. The helmet had still contained a head when Dean had retrieved it from the spider's stomach, but he’d taken the liberty of removing it and cleaning the metal as best he could with his canteen and a rag. He stopped before the warrior, holding the item between them.

  “It was his,” he said. “It’s a specialty item, so I thought that you might want to have it.”

  Derek stared down at the helmet, the man seeming momentarily lost for words. His gauntlets closed around the helmet and his swallow was audible.

  “Thank you,” he said, glancing up at Dean. “For, everything.” The man’s eyes darted over his shoulder towards where the crossbow woman was speaking with the Sergeant. He reached and took the helmet, running a thumb over the visor.

  “I suppose I owe you an apology. What I said back there… I guess I was just skeptical, that's all. Ain’t every day we have to face a monster like that. I have no illusions, Adventurer. If it wasn’t for you, we’d likely all be dead right now.”

  “We all have our jobs to do.”

  Dean stuck out a hand, and Derek glanced at him in surprise before reaching forward to shake it.

  “I could use your help disposing of the nest. The Queen won’t put up much of a fight, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t dangerous. We’ll have to burn everything, including her corpse and any egg sacs we find.”

  Sergeant Frost clapped Derek on the shoulder and gave Dean a nod.

  “We’re with you Adventuerer. Just point us in the right direction and we’ll get it done.”

  They spent the next hour combing the forest for remaining spiders. As they drew nearer to the nest, the waves of drones became more and more desperate. The gorge itself was guarded by three larger spiders that his system identified as adult warriors. They put up a fight, but in the end, Dean cut through them the same as he had every other enemy.

  The watchmen burned the corpses as they went, scattering leaves and sticks to be sure the fire didn’t spread. Then they followed Dean into the hole in the ground. It was dark inside, and the dampness made the underground cavern feel even colder than the brisk breeze outside. Dean could sense the queen within, her essence signature pulsing with fear and agitation. In the end, they found her crouched at the back of the cave, surrounded by glowing green egg sacks. She didn’t put up much of a fight.

  At his orders, the watchmen set fire to the corpse before doing the same to the egg sacks clumped about the cave. The smoke was thick and viscous, and they were forced to exit to avoid being suffocated. Sergeant Frost pulled off his helmet, wiping the soot from his sweaty face as he stared at the smoking hole in the ground.

  “I think our village owes you more than a bit of thanks, Adventuerer Dean. The amount of egg sacks in that nest… if they had hatched, there would have been hundreds. Maybe thousands. He shook his head. I shudder to think what might have happened if you hadn’t found it.”

  Dean watched the blaze burn itself out, his tired mind turning itself over. The Sergeant was right. Years ago, these woods would have been patrolled. A nest this size would have been reported, and a Guild would have dispatched Adventuerers to take care of the contract swiftly. But these last few years had been hard on the Empire. There had been less rain, poorer harvests, and with rising tensions among the races, trade had slowed to a crawl. Numeria was experiencing the beginning of a recession that would hit the pockets of its people hard. And this, Dean knew, was only the beginning.

  “Sergeant,” he said, turning to look at the man. “I know you can’t spare many of your men to patrol these woods – especially when they’re stretched so thin. But I suggest you have a party scour this area for the next few months to be sure nothing survived.”

  Dean strapped his sword back onto his back, suddenly feeling the weight of it and his armor. He’d burned a lot of essence in this fight, and he could feel the onset of essence fatigue beginning to set in.

  “Come on, lad,” said Frost, resting a hand on his shoulder. “I think we owe you a drink.”