Jack watched in horror as the little spider was dragged under the water and into the waiting mouth of the toad. The image of Emily flashed back into his mind. The last few seconds before she died. The feeling of hopelessness at the fact that he could not do anything. In an instant he knew, he would not lose anyone he cared about again.

The toad was quickly swimming back to the pool in the ring of stone where it would petrify her. The struggle in its mouth was clear, she would not go down without a fight.

Crouching down, Jack took a step forward and activated his skill to leap into the air. Flying far across the pond, he splashed down a few feet away from the pool. Looking around frantically, he spotted the toad climbing the stones that separated the pool from the lake.

Swimming as quickly as he could, he rushed to the rocks.

The toad reached the top of the barrier and prepared to hop in. Its legs pushed off the stone, extending out behind it and diving toward the water.

Jack managed to grab its hind legs a moment before it touched the water. He pulled the toad against his chest and back into the pond.

The toad thrashed wildly in his hands. It was able to free one of its powerful legs, slamming it into Jack’s chest knocking the wind out of him. Gasping for air, the other leg slipped from his grasp.

The toad frantically tried to swim away only to have Jack grab it again. Using both hands, he pried the toad’s mouth open revealing a battered spider and a tongue lying lazily to the side of her with several puncture wounds in it. As soon as the mouth was open, she jumped out of the mouth and onto his shoulder.

Checking to see if she was unharmed Jack saw she was missing two of her back legs. Anger swelled from the depths of Jack’s being seeing how this thing had mutilated her.

Using his current hold on it, he slammed the toad into the rock barrier.

Your party has slain a Soft Toad Level: 3

Your contribution 100%

50% bonus to experience for a party size of 1

You are awarded 20 Experience

Still holding the corpse, he made his way back to the walkway. The spider huddled against his neck, she was trembling in fear. Pulling himself out of the water, he noticed the eerie silence of the room. Looking around, he couldn’t spot any of the other toads.

Throwing the water pouches and the body of the toad into his still open inventory, he closed it. Checking that the spider had a good hold on his shoulder, he was about to start back down to the previous level when he saw the exact thing he was dreading.

Along the bottom of the pond, there was a massive amount of movement, it was as if the floor itself was moving. These were gigantic toads and they could easily swallow him whole.

Soft Toad Level: 9 Current mood: Angry.

Evolving near a source of petrification would be a death sentence for most species, but the soft toad has adapted to take advantage of the affliction.

With skin made of rock, they are already partially petrified.

They are an ambush hunter dragging their prey into their stone prison and then slowly they unpetrify them while digesting at the same time.

Age: 12 years

Highest attribute: Strength.

Highest skill: Grapple.

Very aware of the missing non-hostile tag, Jack's heart started to pound.

A toad hopped out of the water and onto the walkway, blocking the tunnel going back down the way they came. Not wanting to give them the chance to block the other exit; Jack activated his leap to throw himself into the tunnel barely dodging a lightning-fast tongue that shot out of the water.

Landing hard on his hands and knees he looked back to see three more toads climbing onto the walkway in an attempt to pursue them. Determined to escape, he sprinted through the tunnel leaving the sound of angry croaks behind.

He finally slowed to a stop when he saw the opening to the next chamber. He couldn’t hear the toads anymore but he couldn’t be sure they weren’t following him. He peeked into the next room, it was large enough to host a dozen salamanders and graters in it. There was also a suspicious-looking patch of wall that looked like several rocks piled on top of each other. It wasn't physically possible unless they were glued together.

The salamanders were all between levels 10 and 12 but they all no longer had the non-hostile tag. Jack feared every monster in here might attack him on sight. He looked to the spider cowering on his shoulder; she had held on during his entire run not even attempting to jump off.

Female ManaWeaver Level: 2 Current mood: Scared.

Raising his hand and prodding her to move onto his palm, “I am so sorry, I had no idea those toads would attack you like that.” Looking at her missing legs was like being punched in the gut. He was confident that spiders could repair themselves but that didn’t soften his guilt. “I think I am going to have to make a run for it.” Quickly he glanced to make sure nothing was coming “it’s not safe for me anymore and I don’t want to risk putting you in harm's way so I am going to have to leave you here.” He had seen other baby manaweavers in the tunnels as he ran so he assumed it would be safe for her.

She looked back at him not understanding. Moving his hand to a rock jutting out of the wall he tilted his hand to get her to move onto it. When she seemed to understand what he was doing she panicked and ran up his arm to hide next to his neck.

Getting her back into his palm, “No I’m sorry I won’t be able to keep you safe out there.” She looked up at him with those sad terrified eyes; he ran the back of his hand along her thorax, which seemed to calm her a little.

He again attempted to put her on the rock, this time he reluctantly moved to the stone. As he backed up she let out a few distressed squeaks, each one a dagger to the heart.

Looking into the chamber he planned a route as far from the salamanders as possible, making sure to avoid the weird rock wall. As he prepared himself to run he heard another squeak and felt a small weight land on his back, in a second she was back and nuzzled against his neck.

Before he could say anything he received a notification.

**Alert** You have met the requirements to form a Pack Bond with a creature. Would you like to form a bond? Yes No

He was surprised that his racial evolution kicked in all of a sudden, and annoyed that he still didn’t know exactly what it did. He was unsure if he should accept, he didn’t know what it would do to her, or him for that matter. The worst-case in his mind was that it would somehow fuse them.

But when he looked at innocent eyes staring back and him, full of fear; he couldn’t say no. Hoping it would help both of them survive what was to come he pressed yes. He felt a warm sensation deep within him much like when he got his racial evolution.

**Alert** You have formed a bond with “Female ManaWeaver” Female ManaWeaver has joined your party.

He stood there staring, waiting for something else to pop up. But nothing did. The warm feeling faded and he was hit with a huge wave of fear, confusion, and distress. With the disorienting flood of emotions, it took him a while to figure out what was happening.

Everyone has those moments when they are doing something, like writing a paper or eating dinner, and they get this feeling that someone is behind them or watching them, only to turn around and see someone peering over their shoulder. This was the feeling in the back of Jack’s mind, only instead of behind him, it was focused on his shoulder.

He could obviously feel her standing on his shoulder, the slight grip her legs had on his wet shirt keeping her from falling off. The pressure of her weight. This was something else; it was as if he could feel her presence.

Along with that presence, he could sense emotions rolling off of her. An empathic link he thought. Hoping it wasn’t a one-way link he ran his hand again over her back and tried to push the thoughts of reassurance and protection to her. He had no idea if it was the petting or if she felt something, but she seemed to calm a little and her flood of emotions was reduced to a small trickle.

“Ok so you are coming with me, I need you to hold on as tight as possible” He gripped his shoulder as an example. She seemed to understand crouching low and positioning her legs to give a better hold on his shoulder.

Pulling the extendable pole from his pocket he made it two feet long. He wanted the strength boost it provided and it should help him fend off a monster if it attacks. He checked the pistol.

Pistol of Protection A shield against those that would hurt you and your allies.

Create a Barrier that lasts for 5 minutes. (500 mana)

Charge 743/1000

Recharge 1 mana per minute.

He thanked his past self for not experimenting more with it so he at least had the one shot left. “Ok around the corner to the right of the salam…” he trailed off and let out a small laugh, at least he had someone to listen to his ramblings now.

Taking off he rounded the corner, the salamanders of the room all immediately took notice of him and started towards him. Expecting this reaction he dodged to the right of the first salamander that tried to lunge at him.

He kept going, aiming for the tunnel in the back of the chamber as two more salamanders slithered up to him. He activated his jump skill to give him a large enough boost over them so they couldn’t hit him. Unfortunately, he jumped too high causing him to lose his footing when he landed.

He could hear the hissing of the salamanders behind him as he tried to stand back up. One of them lunged, biting his leg and clamping down. Along with its teeth stabbing him, Jack also felt a burning sensation in the wound. Letting out a cry of pain he slammed the pole into its head, momentarily dazing it and loosening its grip enough that he could pull his leg away.

As he pulled away, the sharp teeth dragged down his leg leaving bloody gashes. With adrenaline helping him fight through his pain, he continued his sprint. Sparing a small glance behind him to check how close they were, he saw a salamander run near the strange wall.

The wall began to push out from the bottom like a giant doggie door revealing a large alcove behind it. In a flash, a large blue manaweaver popped out, sunk its fangs, and pulled the salamander back into the alcove. The glued rock wall sunk back down as if nothing had happened. Jack was able to see what had kept the rocks together on the backside, it was covered in thick webbing.

Jack instantly remembered trapdoor spiders. They would burrow a hole in the ground or a wall, then create a cover out of webs and whatever was near to blend in. That way when prey came near it would open its lid or ‘trapdoor’ and pull its victim into its lair.

Seeing that no other salamander was near enough to attack him, Jack sprinted at full speed across the rest of the chamber and into the tunnel.

He sprinted until he started to see black spots appear in the corner of his vision. His stamina was empty, his throat was bone dry and he felt a little woozy from blood loss. Keeping an ear out for anything coming, he quickly summoned his inventory while he collapsed onto the ground.

Pulling out the first aid kit, he found rubbing alcohol, gauze, and bandages. His leg already felt like it was on fire from the wound and what he could only assume was some sort of venom or acid, so he had no hesitation in dousing his leg with the stinging disinfectant. Letting out another whimper of pain, Jack felt overwhelming concern and worry from his shoulder.

Grabbing a disposable towel from the box he cleaned off his wound and wrapped it in gauze. After wrapping the gauze in a bandage, he leaned against the wall of the tunnel. He was surprised, from the little he knew about wounds and bleeding, he thought there would be a lot more blood. But when he had wiped off his leg only a slight amount of blood was coming out. He hoped it had something to do with his high vitality or recovery, then something wrong.

Pulling one of the water pouches out, he began to drink; He didn’t care if it was fully purified yet he just needed water. He downed about a quarter of the bag before he felt sated enough to put it away.

Leaning back against the wall he tried to calm his breathing. A small chirp had him open his eyes and look at the spider, he felt more concern from her. He reached out and gave her a few small pets “I think I am going to be ok, I just need to rest for a few seconds.” He received a small blip of joy then quickly going back to fear.

**Skill Unlocked ** Medicine Would you like to learn this skill? Yes No **Skill Acquired ** Medicine Level 1 Improves ability to treat and cure afflictions.

Jack checked his health.

Health 15/24

Two more hits like that and he'd be gone. He was starting to regret not trying for a more tanky build. “No no you’re fine, you are just very low level and everything around you is higher.” He began muttering to himself as he started to put his items away while doing some mental math. Health recovery is two percent per hour, twenty-four max health, twenty-four divided by fifty is about a half, so half a health point every hour. Stamina recovery is five percent per minute, so twenty minutes to get back to max.

Knowing that unless he wanted to wait a few hours, there was no point in sitting around longer than twenty minutes. Trying to think back to when he first entered the cave, he was pretty sure the first level only had three or four chambers so he shouldn’t have too far to go till he reaches the exit.

After his rest, he extended the pole to use as a walking stick to lessen the weight on his leg. He planned to sneak and scout ahead. If he saw anything besides the exit he’d back up and wait for his leg to heal so he could properly run. He had an optimistic outlook until he turned a corner and found a circular chamber. Luckily there were no monsters, unluckily though there were eight different tunnels and he had no idea which one led to the exit.