Maria reminded Aiden of the twins he'd met on the twenty sixth floor just after their father had died. They were filled to the brim with determination and not a soul on Fallendahl could change their minds once they’d committed themselves to something. There were three distinct advantages that the teens had over the eleven year old though.

First and foremost they had training. Proper training, not Maria's rendition of training which consisted solely of throwing herself headlong at the closest threat. The teen's father had been a Veteran Ascender and acted as his children’s guide through many Dungeon Ascensions.

Secondly he had trained them to work as a team. While Maria had been accompanied by other Ascenders her age, Aiden was willing to bet they all fought as individuals rather than a cohesive group like the Entangler and Shining Star had. This child, for all intents and purposes, was alone.

Thirdly the teens had more experience in the Dungeon which could only be gained through time and patience. Neither of which Maria seemed to have. If she wanted to live long enough to work her way up to where the teens were in level of skill she'd need to slow down and learn how to pace herself. Of course Maria showed no intention of slowing down, not metaphorically and surely not literally.

The girl sprinted towards the giant frog as fast as her short legs could carry her. To Aiden's surprise the child managed to dodge the first stream of water that blasted out the monster's mouth. While the water itself wasn't harmful there was enough force behind it to knock the air out of a kid's lungs.

The second blast struck Maria in the shoulder and sent her spinning like a top. Before she could recover the long tendril like tongue of the oversized amphibian latched around her midsection and pulled her into its mouth. Just like that she vanished from sight.

Aiden immediately drew his short bow and nocked an arrow. Most creatures that possessed the ability to swallow a person whole would vomit them back up if they were dealt enough damage. That was the intent of the man in gray as he aimed the bow at one of the frog's eyes.

Just as he was about to release the arrow the monster let out a loud painful croak. Then it croaked. That is to say the giant frog fell over dead as blood gushed from its mouth.

Maria stepped out from behind the dead monster. Blood, organs, and chunks of frog meat clung to her entire body.

"Gross, gross, gross," she muttered as she walked over to the water's edge and began to clean herself off.

The vulture and the Corpse Hunter gave each other an uncomfortable look.

After dunking her head underwater to clean the gore from her hair and face the girl pulled a cloth from her backpack. She dipped it in the clear water and began wiping off the meat chunks before focusing on the blood. The water immediately surrounding her was a murky crimson color and small fish had begun nibbling at the floating frog parts by the time she finished.

Aiden leaned up against the doorframe right where it transitioned from tree bark into cold smooth marble. He waited patiently for the child to compose herself, flipping through one of the journals he'd brought along. When she walked up to him he put the book away and stood up from the tree.

"Ready?" the Corpse Hunter asked.

"I'm not going home yet," Maria replied.

"That's not what I meant."

She looked up at him, trying to figure out what part of his demeanor had changed. But she couldn't quite put her finger on it. When he pulled the door open and walked through she followed behind.

Level eleven was a small ruined village surrounded by dense forest. The pine trees were so densely packed it was impossible to pass through them. Which meant the entire floor was confined to the twenty or so dilapidated huts that surrounded the two Ascenders.

Maria attempted to start exploring the floor immediately but the Corpse Hunter grabbed her by the shoulder.

"I really hate when you do that," she said.

"Shh," Aiden said as he squatted down closer to her eye level. "What monsters do you think are on this floor?"

"How should I know?" she asked. "The Dungeon changes all the time and I haven’t been on this specific floor before."

"There are three things you need to do the moment you ascend to a new floor. Look, listen, and wait," Aiden said. "Look for traps, listen for threats, and wait for whatever might be patiently trying to ambush you. No one ever died solely because they had more patience than their adversaries."

"That sounds boring. And I don't have time for… "

"Stop complaining and start training."

The girl opened her mouth as if to say something but sighed and began scanning the area instead. It really didn't seem like this level had much to offer. Just a bunch of abandoned homes that rested against a dark green coniferous backdrop.

A light breeze carried the scent of pine needles over to Maria which made the inside of her nose itch slightly. It wasn’t a bad scent, just a bit overpowering. As she scratched her nose she saw movement atop one of the nearby huts and turned her head to look at it. To her dismay it wasn't anything of interest, just an empty bird's nest.

That was when she noticed something odd. Every single hut had a bird nest atop it, some even even supported multiple nests. Most were made of small branches and pine needles though a few had scraps of what looked like white cloth or maybe silk in them.

"Are we fighting against birds?" Maria asked.

"No, but you're heading in the right direction. You saw the nests, now tell me what you hear," said the Corpse Hunter.

The child put her hand to her ear and waited a few moments before turning back to the man in gray.

"I don't hear anything."

"Exactly. Well over a dozen nests and not a single bird within sight or sound. Isn’t that odd?"

"So we're not fighting against birds then?"

"Correct. We're fighting against whatever ate them."

Maria quickly turned her attention back to her surroundings. She still wasn't sure what the threat was so she kept her eyes on the area ahead of her as she spoke.

"So what ate the birds?"

"That’s what I asked you to figure out," the Corpse Hunter replied.

"Can't you just tell me?"

"You said you were here to train, not to take shortcuts. If you can't tell me what we're about to go up against then you aren't going to get any stronger than you already are."

She looked up at him with worry in her eyes.

"You don't get better at understanding your abilities solely through mindless violence. You have to grow as a Fate Holder, as a person. Unless your Fate solely revolves around inflicting violence…but that's not your case is it?"

Maria shook her head no.

"That's what I thought. Now, tell me what we're up against. Then we can inflict some violence upon it."

The young Ascender looked out over the village. Other than the nests and a distinct lack of birds there wasn't anything that jumped out at her. Not that she wanted anything to actually jump out at her.

When the breeze returned she watched the loose nest wobble just as it had before. A piece of the white silk flapped in the wind and suddenly vanished before her eyes. One moment it was there and the next it was gone.

As the breeze died down the piece of fabric returned. Maria blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Her eyes carefully traced the strip of silk where it hung from the cluster of line needles.

It didn't end at the bottom of the nest like she had originally thought. Instead it hung down from the side of the collapsing roof like a long thin rope. The portion of silk that dangled in the air was translucent, much harder to see than the piece that was mixed in with the dark green needles.

But it wasn't silk, at least not the kind she had imagined, it was a web. She hadn't noticed it before just as one would have a hard time noticing a piece of glass in a bowl of water. Now that she understood what she was looking at, the picture became much clearer. Nearly every single building was coated in long translucent webs.

"We're fighting against spiders," Maria said confidently.

"Right on the money," the Corpse Hunter replied, patting her on the shoulder.

"Right on the money?"

"It's a metaphor."

"Your metaphors suck."

Aiden rolled his eyes as he pulled a torch out of his pack and lit it with a tinder kit.

"Take this," he said, handing it to the girl.

"What's this for?" she asked as she gripped it in her right hand.

"There's two ways we can tackle this floor. We can wander around getting ambushed by spiders, potentially getting bitten, and very likely covered head to toe in spider webs. Or we can set fire to their webs on fire and smoke them out."

Given the options listed Maria chose to ignite the closest strand of webbing. It didn't take her long to make up her mind. She'd clearly had her fill of being covered in gross things today.

The webs went up like they'd been soaked in lantern oil. Shrieks rang out over the abandoned building as an untold number of monsters burned alive. The first group of more fortunate arachnids climbed out through a chimney two huts over from the Ascenders.

"Remember what level we're on," the Corpse Hunter said as the spiders skittered towards him and Maria.

"I know, I know, they could be venomous," the child said, drawing her knives from the bandolier on her waist.

The spiders were about the same size as the frogs from the previous floor. The head sized ones, not the horse sized champion. Once they were in leaping distance the ugly creatures tried to pounce on their opponents. Aiden cut one in half sending little black hairs flying through the air.

The other spider impaled itself on Maria's daggers as she held them out in front of herself to block its attack. She threw it to the ground and crushed the spider’s head with the heel of her boot. Purple colored blood spattered across the ground.

"If we can get your situational awareness to match your combat prowess you might actually turn into a decent Ascender," the Corpse Hunter said.

"What does that mean?" Maria asked.

"Situational awareness?"

"I know that one, they say it a lot at the Academy. What's prowess?"

"It's like your skill level. You're obviously good at fighting. It's your awareness and your patience that still need work."

Maria frowned at the comment but didn't argue. The man in gray wasn't mocking her, he was offering advice on what she needed to improve upon and she knew he was right. What she didn't know was why he'd suddenly gone from such a bossy jerk to acting like a helpful Dungeon guide so suddenly.

She didn't have much time to think about it as another group of spiders poured out of a nearby window.

"Round two," the man in gray called out.

The spiders were far enough away that he had time to draw his bow and kill two of the arachnids before the rest were in melee range. Only one of the remaining three went for the Corpse Hunter while the other two went for Maria. Low level monsters often lacked the intelligence required to identify and attack the biggest threat.

Which was unfortunate for Maria as the two spiders converged on her. She dodged the first spider's attack but stepped right into the second one's web. The monster’s webs weren't especially strong but then neither were most eleven year olds. Her boot stuck to the ground like glue, holding her in place.

Both spiders leapt at her at the same time. One was cleaved straight down the middle by the Corpse Hunter who had vanquished his own attacker and stepped in to help the girl. The other spider slammed into Maria's forearm. She wasn't fast enough to impale it with her knife like before and the arachnid sank its fangs into her wrist.

The girl let out a cry of pain before stabbing into its thorax with the dagger in her other hand. The creature fell to the ground unmoving as blood oozed out of its body.

"Are you ok?" asked the man in gray.

"Yeah," Maria said as she cut the webs off her boot.

Aiden looked at the bite marks on her arm. "Are you poisoned?"

"I don't think so. My wrist hurts a little but other than that I feel fine."

"Some poisons take a while before you really start to feel them. Let me know if you begin to feel strange."

Four more of the eight legged creatures rushed out the doorway of a burning hut behind the Ascenders. Vagrant, who had been tasked with watching his party members' backs let out a screech before flying towards them. Two of the spiders stopped to shoot a string of webs at the vulture.

The bird swooped down at the nearest spider, clawing it apart with his talons before ripping a second arachnid's head off with his beak. It was an impressive maneuver even in spite of what happened next.

Both of the spiders that had stayed back to fire their webs hit their mark. A glob of the sticky silk coated Vagrant's left wing and chest causing him to slam into the ground beak first. He flapped about angrily trying to right himself as the spiders moved in.

The only way to truly kill a Familiar was to destroy its spirit which meant traveling all the way to the Ethereal Plane. While on other Planes of Existence Familiars were essentially immortal. They could still die on the Material Plane but would return when their summoner called them back.

Even so Aiden cared a great deal about his feathered friend. He didn't like seeing the vulture die or be subjected to pain regardless of his ability to bring it back completely restored of any previous injuries. So when Vagrant began squawking and thrashing about behind him the Corpse Hunter went to the bird’s aid.

"Stay here," he said to Maria.

Vagrant was pecking wildly at the spiders to keep them from pouncing upon him. But he was rapidly growing tired from trying to simultaneously defend himself and break free from their webs. Evidently vultures had roughly the same upper body strength of human children. It was a relief to the Ethereal creature when Aiden ran up and skewered the spiders with his shortsword.

The bird cawed at the dead monsters triumphantly.

"I appreciate you watching my back but I think you're out of your element on this one," Aiden said, cutting the webs off his friend's body. “Best you stick to keeping a look out for now.”

Vagrant gave another caw in response before hopping onto his companion's shoulder.

"What do you mean where's the girl? She's right where…," the Corpse Hunter turned to see a half dozen spiders running his way.

Maria was nowhere to be seen.