The Darkweavers’ danger was in their ability to ambush and entrap their prey. Receiving [Ambusher’s Vision] as a Blooded Trait had only made that more clear to me, though it wasn’t necessarily a reminder that I needed. The cavern itself was enough of one.

More specifically, the cavern’s darkness.

It was unnatural; though some parts of the World Dungeon lacked light, it was hard to slither into a cavern where there was absolutely nothing. No glow-caps, no luminescent moss, nothing.

And, after finding - or being found by - the Darkweavers, I was able to realize why. They hated the light. It made them weaker, dulled their edge, and revealed their traps. There was no light within the cavern because they refused to allow it to exist.

It was that very same hatred for the light that had made them so easy to find in my previous false-life. They had descended upon each [Little Guardian’s Focus] that I created with a maddening fervor. It had been easy enough to track them back to the source, though it meant that I had to constantly absorb the light of my ore-flesh to keep them from fixating on me as well.

Incidentally, their fervor was also how I had discovered an overly-damaged [Little Guardian’s Focus] could violently explode. Wiped their nest right out with that one.

This time, however, I was planning on doing things differently.

The journey to the Darkweavers’ main nest was fraught with traps to bar the way, the first of which was already close to appearing. With [Ambusher’s Vision] at such a low rank, I couldn’t quite make out the trap itself. I could, however, make out the first of the stone-spikes that served to anchor it. Nearly invisible without [Ambusher’s Vision] to pierce the darkness, the stone-spikes rose like a series of mismatched, jagged teeth that began to fill the cavern. Some leaned upon others, all but toppled completely, while more stood straight and proud. Regardless of that, I could just barely make out the signs of damage upon the surfaces of each, likely the results of former battles; scrapes and scratches and gouges that ringed the stone-spikes.

The stone-spikes formed a funnel, their bulk narrowing the cavern and forcing those who slithered through to pass through the gaps between them.

And that was the trap - one of many, but the first between where I had started and where the Darkweavers birthed their young. A series of anchor points for threads as black as the darkness itself. They cut between the stone-spikes in a complex array, the lightest of touches sending a wave of vibrations down the line and alerting waiting bad-things to their now-trapped prey.

They had been surprised when [The Golem’s Echo] pushed straight through it all. As extensive as the threads were, they could only resist so much force.

I didn’t have that kind of force this time.

Instead, once I reached the first of the stone-spikes, I carved a new gouge. Between my increased size and growing familiarity with the trio of stone-based powers that [The Golem’s Fading Heart] provided, it didn’t take me long to transform a sliver of stone-spike into mud, letting it coat the underside of my scale-flesh. Then, with a mental tug on the second of the abilities that [The Golem’s Fading Heart] gave me, I turned it back to stone.

With that done, I moved on. Slithered towards the threads. Let myself be caught.

The heavy stone combined with my own increased weight to shake the threads, sending a thrumming vibration down its length. I twisted in an awkward thrash, not wanting to get caught more than necessary, but still needing to make sure that I gathered a Darkweaver’s attention.

I succeeded; it wasn’t long before the first three Darkweavers arrived.

They skittered across the threads as if walking on air, limbs traversing the sticky threads with an ease and grace that legs should never rightly possess. When they came closer, I sent out a thought-hiss, commanding my spore-puppets to come out from behind a nearby stone-spike and join them. The bad-things slowed, making noises at my puppets. They made noises back. Sort of. They certainly weren’t the same ones, but they were noises.

Apparently that was close enough, because the Darkweavers only paused for a few moments before continuing to move closer, unaware of the lines of gold and blue that lurked below the hairs that covered my puppets’ flesh.

It was the last mistake they made.

Before they reached me, the first of my puppets had already turned on its kin. The other puppet closed the distance to me in a burst of speed that was probably unhealthy, but was still greatly appreciated. With the others still distracted by the betrayal of the first, my puppet had more than enough time to snip through the threads that held me in place.

It didn’t need to, but I wanted it there just in case.

Instead, I let a layer of the stone covering me shift back into mud, and allowed my own weight to do the rest. I dropped to the ground, leaving the layer of stone - which was the only thing that the threads had been actually touching - behind.

Free from my bindings, I hit with a heavy slump. Then, with far larger slithers than I was used to, I fell upon the enemies’ unsuspecting backs. [Constriction VII] meant that I didn’t even need to waste my venom; all I needed was to find somewhere vulnerable, to wrap, to squeeze. It was oddly satisfying when they popped.

The first of the bad-things died easily, gone before it could even try to escape. Before it knew that it needed to.

Experience Gained!

I set my spore puppets on one of the others, and they ripped through its flesh with single-minded ferocity. It tumbled back from one, then the other, only to realize that it was caught from both sides.

A light, [Illusion Spark]-driven flash and a [Sound Shaping]-sharpened hiss was enough to stagger the third. With eyes and ears both damaged, I easily found my way past its revolting limbs.

Its abdomen popped.

Experience Gained!

Level Up!

1 Trait Point Gained.

By the time that I finished, my spore puppets were done as well. Unfortunately, I was left unrewarded for the one that they defeated, having forgotten to bite it first. I would need to remember to do that if I was going to rely on them. And I would probably have to, with bad-things like the leviathans waiting for me eventually.

After taking the time to pulp and consume the corpses, I repeated the same trick again. And again. And again, in a seemingly never-ending feast - until one of them got away. After that, the Darkweavers finally stopped coming.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained!.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Level 17 Darkweaver Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 15/20.

I peered out from behind one of my puppets with a quiet hiss, hiding most of my length with its mass. After the Darkweavers had stopped coming, I had been forced to abandon my efforts and slither further into their lair. More than once, I found myself helplessly caught with threads. My spore puppets, bleeding from a large number of wounds, were still healthy enough that they could free me each time - something that was more than necessary, as the density of the threads only increased as I moved closer to the heart of the Darkweavers’ nest.

It might not have mattered, in the end. The threads, so filled with Darkweavers in my false-life, were bare. It wasn’t long before they grew thick enough that my puppets were forced to snip the threads ahead of me, clearing a path so I could slither through. My increased size worked against me there; I might have been able to slither underneath some of them otherwise. As it was, there was no hope of getting through without my spore puppets.

And still, even as thread after thread was destroyed, the Darkweavers never appeared.

Eventually, however, I found them.

I found them all.