The casino spread out across the whole block, consisting of a huge building with several towers, the tallest of which was topped with a steel and glass A-frame roof, and two attached parking structures. Half of the side parking structure was a pile of rubble, the chunks of pale cement forming a small mountain. The front of the casino was originally decorated like buildings from an old western town. The decades of neglect coupled with the withered and dirt-covered garden area added all the more authentic touch to this ghost town of a city. The pillars holding up the awning that covered the valet parking at the front door had collapsed at an odd angle, smashing several cars under it. It was hard to tell if this had happened recently or if it was old damage.

Penny, with the rest of her team, stopped beside the downed awning. “Have you noticed that some of the buildings are damaged and others are just fine?” She tapped the rubble with her wakizashi. “It makes you wonder how much of the earthquake that hit Eden affected this place. If this is the epicenter of the earthquake, shouldn’t every building in Las Vegas have fallen down, based on the damage that Garden City sustained?”

No one answered her question. After all, there wasn’t a logical answer.

Mark glanced up at the tall, cream colored hotel town topped with steel and glass. “How structurally sound do you think this building is? It’s not like it's a little building. If that falls on us, we wouldn’t be able to dig ourselves out.”

The fourth man snorted. “I’m more worried about the monsters that could be inside. If that sword is an Orc sword, this place must be crawling with them.”

They were quiet for a minute.

Blake reached out and whacked the fourth man on the back of the head. “Stop bitching and get going. This building is huge, and we don’t know how big the Portal is. It’s going to take all day to search through the whole place.” He pointed at the entrance of the casino that had been reduced to a small black gap under the crumbled valet roof. “Check it out.”

From my hiding spot behind a dead tree, I watched the man jump as if the request freaked him out. Then he gripped his sword and crept closer to the gaping black hole. He slipped inside.

After a minute, a Guide screen popped up in front of Blake. Blake closed it down and motioned to the remaining Hunters. “Let’s go.” They climbed into the hole and disappeared.

I waited a minute, listening for any sounds of distress. I didn’t know if I was too far away or at an odd angle, but I couldn’t hear any sounds of trouble. Penny said that the Portal was in here, even if she couldn’t find its exact location. At this point, she was the best tip I had, even if I hadn’t seen any other Orcs to confirm it.

I hurried over to the pile of steel and rubble and slipped through the hole.

It was like a tomb inside. The air was thick and dry, so heavy with decay that it was hard to breath. Blackness stretched out on either side of me, like voids swallowing up everything. Pale light from the hole behind me, and a large dim light from an open area ahead, gave enough illumination to reflect off the rows and rows of gambling machines that filled the middle of the space ahead of me. Two walkways along the side of the machines directed towards the bright, open area ahead.

Blake and his team crept along the gambling machines. For the first time I saw a weapon in Blake’s hand, a red and silver longsword.

It was uncomfortable with my vision so limited, so I spread out a thin layer of mist around me. Just enough to build a map of everything within a thirty-foot radius. Hopefully it was bare enough that Penny didn’t notice it through the oppressive odor of the casino. Since I was going to shamelessly use these Hunters as a guide to get to the Portal, it wouldn’t do any good to have them find me before we found it.

Whether or not it was a good thing, I didn’t find any monsters. Odd, since the Portal was so close. I was expecting to find an army of monsters that would attack as soon as we entered the casino. Or at least, a squadron of Orcs. Neither of those things happened.

I hurried and caught up to Blake's team, trailing thirty feet behind. If I could, I would have preferred to stay over head of them, but this was a building, not a forest. Jumping from branch to branch was completely different than swinging from light fixture to fixture.

The darkness faded away, revealing a huge conservatory. As soon as I caught sight of it, I stopped and gaped along with Blake’s team.

It must have been pretty decades ago, but not now. Pathways wound through dead gardens and over a dried-up indoor stream. In the middle of the conservatory were the ruins of a tropical themed open bar, and on the far side was a fake mountain that might have been a water feature, judging from the discoloration on it. Rows of windows surrounded the conservatory high overhead, all faced like tall rowhouses to the steel and glass A-frame ceiling. It should have been bright inside, with the midday sun directly above.

But it wasn’t. The reason why was horrifyingly obvious.

Thick spider webs filled the open air in the conservatory, stretching from all four walls, starting at the fourth floor and going all the way up to the broken glass ceiling. Hundreds of platter-sized spiders crawled along the webs, flashing different colors as if they couldn’t decide on a camouflage tone to settle on. Every single one of them was between levels 35 and 45. The higher the level, the bigger they were, between two to three feet.

In the middle of the humongous nest was a massive spider, larger than a 4x4 truck. Its hairy brown abdomen was at least six feet long, covered in pale brown stripes. The arm-length spinnerets pinched and brushed together, thick white web stretching and gumming between the appendages. Eight thick legs spread out wide, the second pair longer than all the other legs, giving the spider monsters an uneven, scarier appearance. The thorax was just as long and hairy as the abdomen. Under a dozen large black eyes, two thick pincers tipped with curved, sword-length fangs. Above it was a name written in red letters. [Uttu: Lv 82]

I wasn’t arachnophobic, but the sight of that giant spider twisted my stomach and sent freezing shivers all over my body.

Fast as a flash, Penny grabbed onto Mark’s arm with a clawed hand. She didn’t look away from the huge monster, but her whole body was shaking and she was white as a ghost.

Mark glanced at her and shifted a little closer.

The Uttu stretched out a leg and tapped against a bundle of webbing next to it. The bunch shivered and suddenly a dozen platter-sized spiders became visible as their colors changed. It wasn’t until the smaller spiders scurried away that I realized there was a Red Orc wrapped up in the web. It was obviously dead and already half eaten by the smaller spiders. From the distorted look frozen on its face, it wasn’t a good death. A dozen other bundles of webs with different monsters inside dotted the nest, each one feeding any number of smaller spiders.

The Uttu shifted its body. Behind it was a huge white ball. An egg sac.

Oh my god. There had to be hundreds more spiders in that sac! I swallowed back the nausea that burned in the back of my throat.

The fourth man beside Blake was shaking so badly, his armor was rattling. He mouthed a word over and over, but thankfully didn’t say whatever it was out loud. Even Blake was wide-eyed with a sick expression on his face. The only one that hadn’t lost his cool was Mark, who let Penny grip his arm as much as she needed while she tried to get her expression under control.

Blake turned his body and silently motioned for his team to retreat.

I stayed crouched behind the slot machine, torn on what to do. Penny said that the Portal I needed was in this building. But damn, I really didn’t want to deal with a giant spider that was thirty levels higher than I was. And that didn’t count the army of ‘baby’ spiders behind it.

If I was quiet, I might be able to sneak around the building. Hopefully the spiders were all concentrated in the conservatory. If I ran into the smaller ones, if I could kill them off without alerting the Uttu, it could work. And hopefully there wasn’t another Uttu somewhere. I didn’t even know that monsters could reproduce, but there was no denying the evidence right in front of me.

I watched the Hunters creep towards the hole at the entrance of the casino. Blake had high aspirations, but even he had to admit they couldn’t take on an army of spiders alone. They’d done what they wanted to do — they found the location of the Portal — now it was time to get all the other Hunters here to help clear out the place.

I was conflicted. I wanted to do this alone: I needed the EXP, plus the System was still adamant that I didn’t reveal anything to Kesstel. Only I couldn’t take out the Uttu alone. And finding the System was more important than EXP. Kesstel liked to ask questions and he was smart, but maybe I could still hide what was going on after the Uttu was dead.

I opened a Partner Message to him and paused. I felt a little guilty knowing that I was preparing to use him then lose him, but too much was at stake. Besides, he told me that it was okay to take advantage of him, right? Letting him help wasn’t weakness. I could still stand on my own feet. Right?

I pursed my lips and started tapping on the screen. [I think I — ]

A man let out a startled, pained scream. The sound echoed from the other side of the rows of gambling machines. In the silence of the dark room, his scream bounced around, getting louder and louder. It felt like it lasted forever, even though it was just a split second. After that came the sounds of armor rattling and something heavy hit a machine hard enough to send it sharply screeching across the stone floor.

The sounds finally died, leaving a stifling stillness. The hair on my body stood up and I stopped breathing. All of my focus was on listening.

Click click click sounded from the conservatory.

I twisted around and stared up at the huge brown monster. High in its nest, the Uttu’s many eyes were pointed in our direction. Its fangs tapped together and it jerked its legs around, bending and straightening them out. It was staying in position by the egg sac, but it was obviously agitated.

Dozens of smaller spiders dropped out of the nest, blending into the dead gardens and walkways. The ground seemed to ripple as they scurried in my direction.

Behind, there was another tussle with more sounds.

“Get it off me!” the fourth man moaned.

He stumbled back into the edge of my mist, and I was finally able to ‘see’ what was going on. See the spider that clung to his back, trying to stab through his armor with its fangs. There were more sounds of fighting from the other side of my mist.

Suddenly the small opening at the front of the casino dimmed.

“They — they blocked it off,” Penny whispered in shock. “How do we get out?”

Boom! rumbled from the conservatory.

The tropical themed bar in the middle of the garden collapsed under the weight when the giant Uttu spider landed on it. The monster didn’t seem to mind the cloud of dust that exploded up as it crawled over the pile of broken rubble. The smaller spiders scurried out of the way each time one of its eight legs stepped down, their camouflage colors clashing with their surroundings and giving away their location. The Uttu tapped its fangs together, click click click, as it crawled in our direction. My direction.

A huge spider closed in from the front, and the exit behind was cut off by enough smaller spiders to give three A Ranked Hunters trouble. Without hesitating, I turned and silently sprinted into the pitch-black darkness to the right of the conservatory.

*****