I gasped despite myself as Vigor sealed my wounds, long bloody gashes extending half the length of my body.

It had ripped me up pretty good, and bitten right through my left shoulder. Of course, it didn’t have any eyes anymore, and was starting to pop and bleed all over the place over there.

The gashes hissed as Vigor washed through them, and flesh drew together into angry red welts, pretending it wasn’t so bad. My arm was still useless while the traumatized muscles squirmed, but I was alive. Went to negative and ‘died’, but I made it.

Hah. Temporary damage and Soak were regained at a base of Level + Con bonus per hour. At higher Melee levels, it was faster, but, eh… would I really get enough time?

Hackles rose on my neck, and I turned my eyes up.

Tiny red eyes up there were looking back at me, from the shadows above the beams crossing the ceiling.

Spiders, with bodies the size of pigs. Lots of them.

I grinned despite myself. At this stage, each spider was a minimum of a two-hit kill. I simply wouldn’t be able to kill them fast enough, even if they weren’t a true Swarm.

That said, I could still run and jump, and my feet worked.

I Inspired for Thorn Stance, One Strike, Flying Kick, and Combat Reflexes, and as they started descending on dozens of silken threads, I ran to intercept some of them in midair with One Strike kicks that would make them explode.

Fight until the end, every time!

---------

I woke up inside a cocoon.

It had been a pretty nasty way to die. They didn’t do much damage, but they didn’t need to, as I wasn’t in fighting shape. Even the extra attacks from Thorn Stance giving me openings when they moved in and around me didn’t let me kill them fast enough. I’d miss my target, have a chittering spider in my face drooling poison, then others to the sides, and down I went under their remarkably light weight. Then it was thrashing, multiple bites of poison flooding my system and finally overwhelming it, and all went black as the stuff hit my brain.

Waking up inside a cocoon… a smart play by the Curse. Why let me just wake up in safety, when this was such a natural extension of how I’d died?

Versatile UA made every inch of me a cutting, smashing, or poking weapon. I could get out of this easily. But I didn’t move, as that would alert any spiders nearby. I didn’t know if this was a reboot, or the Curse chose to continue on from the last time. But I was physically restored, so obviously it couldn’t stop that process.

Karma accrued, eff-u, Curse!

I could take my daily Mastery advance before or after I took a new Level. I definitely needed more ki, and getting lightfoot my next time around the cycle would mean needing Ocean Mastery. Speed was a thing, and of course all the other Ocean Feats to follow…

I waffled between Rogue and Soul Shaper. One would get me a bit of offensive power, the other more defense and staying power.

But offense was what Inspiration was for. I clicked over Soul Shaper.

Fwoosh. I suddenly felt both hollow and full inside, as the power of my Soul began to manifest out through the chakra points in my hands and feet. It was white-hot agony as flesh and ki were pierced through to provide a conduit for the Essence of my Soul. Not writhing in pain was all I could do as my Essence was drawn through, like lancing the biggest blister you ever heard of, until it gushed out and began to surge through my cells, waiting for direction.

Essence and ki were the main energies Forsaken could work with. We just couldn’t spend them or project them, as our Souls were Hard. But there was a lot of things you could do with something that you could just allocate and let sit passively.

A Powered could directly shape Essence into usable tools made out of mana. I would need Tats or magical items to replicate those effects, meaning it was far more expensive for Forsaken to get truly good at using Essence.

But Powered tended to ignore the Soul Feats, because Shaping Essence was so much stronger.

Soulshaper, d6+2 Hit Die, Saves, Weapon profs... all useless. Had the same or better.

Skill points: 4. The key Meditation and Concentration skills were already maxed, so I picked Tattoo Artist, as that was going to be key in the future, and Ivory Carver, ditto, +2 to both.

Gain Essence equal to Constitution bonus +Soul Shaper Level. So, 7 Essence. Didn’t do me too much good, as I could only allocate 1 per Soul Feat right now, based on my Level. But something was much better than nothing, right?

Open Least Chakras, Hands and Feet. Yeah, been there, done that, &*$% thank Mithar for a +11 Fortitude Save. I could never have imagined having this level of pain tolerance in the past, and the Concentration modifier of +12 helped me shut up.

Bonus Soul Shaper Feat. Since I was Forsaken, I got an extra one, too!

Pick Soul and Fist, +Essence invested to unarmed damage and Ki Maneuver Saves. The last was useless, but the first was not. Essence Limit also increased by +1, to 8.

Although it concentrated in my hands, Essence actually flowed to all the striking points of my body, reinforcing and strengthening everywhere in readiness for combat, my soul hitting along with my body.

Pick Bonus Soul Feat, Improved Capacity: Capacity of all Soul Feats increased by 1. At my level, that meant to 2. More Essence moved out, ready to hit things.

It was a long way from enough, but it would help me some. Little bits of progress...

My free Inspiration let me reset the Feats to Versatile UA, Thorn Stance, Combat Reflexes, and Weapon Finesse. I’d be getting off a ton of attacks on the spiders, and hopefully 75% of them would be effective.

More importantly, I’d be closing in on the Achievement Feat Foe Hunter trigger of fifty kills, at which point I could claim the Favored Enemy morale bonus of +2 to hit and damage against them, effectively getting two Slayer Mastery Levels for free without having to get Hunter and Stalker Masteries first.

If I could kill fifty of these things after having them climbing all over me and biting me and wrapping me up in a damn cocoon, I deserved the damn Achievement, and that bonus was going to be so sweet...

My fingers reached out, cut into the strong silk, and began to slice slowly through the matted fibers. They parted quietly, if not silently. My face became a wedge, a line of blade-like ki extending down all my limbs as I flexed and very slowly worked myself free.

The vibration was subtle, and I could feel other faint vibrations around me as hog-sized spiders shifted their weight, moving back and forth. Perhaps I should have been happy one didn’t wander up to see if I was tender enough immediately.

I was up near the ceiling, a cocoon stuck onto a web, dozens of which glistened near-invisibly around me. I could see the dim red lights of many, many spider eyes tucked up in dark corners and shadows, and the silhouettes of those scuttling over the timbers. Lines of webs formed tunnels along the corners of the room and ceilings, traveling highways for them to wander around on.

Totally unnatural behavior with a limited food supply. Hells, they might have woven it all while I was asleep… But it was a dream dungeon. Why should it be realistic?

I looked down; the mobile was back, and no corpse of the hellcat was on the crib sixty feet below me.

Okay, so it was a complete reset. I’d still have to kill all this shit again.

Or maybe not, because there were so many spiders. I’d have to find some place where they couldn’t come at me from all sides, which was something of a difficulty with creatures that were wall-crawlers.

The strings started jerking as a spider started scrambling towards me across the web, looking to secure its meal. It was a bit surprised when I jumped at it, my bones glowing electrum inside my skin with Essence. I planted an axe-heel between its many eyes and ruptured its carapace there, grabbed one of its long legs and swung it away onto the ledge below before the leg unfortunately was twisted out of its socket. I landed on the three-foot wide timber, saw lots of motion starting around as spiders focused on their (once again) new prey, and I charged at the closest one as my previous playmate shriveled up with its internal pressure broken and fell from its web heavily.

Spiders, spiders everywhere. My job was not to run, not to avoid, but to up my kill total. As the closest ones came down the wall, I launched myself at them with flying kicks, ignoring the eighty-foot drop as I did so. Double damage charge piercing attacks were generally enough to kill them…