Robin kept running, his fear overwhelming any possibility of rational thought. The cabinet had barely dented the core of the slime. If that cabinet had dropped on him, there was no chance he would have survived.

Epic-level…! I’m level one! What am I supposed to do here? You’re supposed to die. Robin felt Opal tightening her grip on his shoulder as he ran, cutting slightly into his shoulder. His adrenaline was pumping too hard for him to care, however.

He ran until he came to the blank wall where the former Rest Room had been located. He kicked the wall in frustration, immediately regretting his choice as the pain raced through his foot. He slumped against the wall and slid down, Opal clambering onto the wall behind him. Robin stared directly up at her. She stared back.

“What should we do, Opal? I can’t fight that thing, no way. It’ll eat me before I could even hurt it a little bit.”

Opal remained solemnly silent.

Robin sighed. There wasn’t very much point in just sitting here, and besides, something might find him if he waited too long. It was probably time to head up to the next floor. That just left one decision… Stairs or elevator?

That was not as easy a decision as it should have been. The stairwell was dimly lit and often somewhat slick from condensation. Robin had slipped the few times he had tried taking the stairs, though he hadn’t fallen all the way down the stairs.

The elevator, though, was not necessarily better. It was an extremely rickety, dated freight elevator, and when it was moving, it made ear-piercing grinding and shrieking noises. The elevator was an oddity among the otherwise new and clean equipment possessed by the Laboratory. No one had liked using it, but it was better than the stairs… usually. That would probably be the better option. He had a higher AGI now, so maybe slipping wouldn’t be a problem.

Robin brightened. He had SP to spend! He pulled up his menu after a quick glance around the hallway turned up no creeping, crawling, or otherwise bitey monstrosities..

STR

12

+

AGI

16

+

CON

10

+

BODY

12

+

INT

16

+

WILL

11

+

AURA

15

+

LOOKS

10

+

PHYSDEF

3

+

MENTDEF

2

+

ENERDDEF

1

+

SPEED

3

+

RECOV

5

+

REGEN

1

+

PHYSTAM

42

+

MENSTAM

52

+

MANA

5

+

RUN

7

+

SWIM

2

+

LEAP

3

+

SP

11

+

11 SP! That was more than he thought he had!

Okay, so SPEED was ten points… that would be everything I have right now, leaving me just one. I’ve used MANA a lot more, though… Maybe SPEED and MANA? RECOV and REGEN would let me stay in the fight a little bit longer, though.

Robin willed down on the plus beside SPEED. It bumped up by one point, and ten SP vanished from his total. He blinked and looked around. Everything was normal. He felt ...faster. Well, duh. It was like he had been half-asleep his entire life, and had just woken up fully. He tossed the broom upwards and caught it experimentally a few times. I’m definitely not faster in terms of speed… Robin ignored the irony that before the Ysari System, he had held the record for most glassware broken at the Laboratory. I just… think faster. I feel like I will already be moving when before I would have still been frozen, figuring out what was happening. Robin threw the broom in the air caught it after spinning in a circle, and then immediately looked around again. He wasn’t checking for insectile threats.

Robin gratefully sighed and returned his attention to the menu. It was going to have to be Mana. MANA go up! He giggled to himself and watched his MANA and SP go up and down, respectively. As it had the first time, the SP he added to MANA added 5 points.

I should be able to use Shining Swipe two times now. What was that stupid joke? “What’re the two things a level 1 character can do that a level 20 can’t? Double their power in one level-up, and defeat something twice their level!” Robin winced, smiling. Even my mental imitations of Jeth are awful, remembering his friend’s ...unique combination of a Southern American and perfect British style-english learned in Nigeria. Such was the fate of a military brat.

Robin walked to the stairwell before he could talk himself out of it. My emotions are all over the place…That happens when you keep tiptoeing up to death and poking it in the ass. I’ve got this.

Robin reached out and opened the door, then hurriedly pushed it shut, trying not to make noise. He reached over his shoulder and placed the Deverran Broom into the satchel, and then pulled out the anytool, still in machete form, and then pulled out the silver purse he had acquired - the Regal Spinneret. It was time to try one of his items.

He probably wouldn’t have gotten it if it wasn’t essential for his survival, right?

Robin focused his willpower on the Spinneret. The purse pulsed in his hand. It wasn’t warm, but it felt alive, like it would be running away if it had legs. Robin felt his stomach turn. A small spool of silk was dripping out, looking almost like a liquid in the moment before it hardened in the air to become a thick strand. The strand was gathering on the ground, pouring into the shape of a spider like it was a liquid entering an invisible-spider mold. The Spinneret was noticeably thinning, and Robin focused on breathing through his nose, staring at the spider and not the Spinneret.

After a moment the Spinneret stopped spewing web,and Robin hurriedly stowed it in his satchel. The spider stood on the ground, staring at Robin with gray-white eyes. At least, he thought it was.

Robin looked down at it, using his best “alpha dog” voice. “Go scout out the stairwell, and then report back!”

The spider skittered over to the door immediately, and then waited by the open door, pawing at it with two legs. Robin clicked the door open and watched it skitter in, leaping like a small cat. He was so fascinated at first that he did not notice the webs lining the side of the hallway and crisscrossing over the stairwell. He had noticed by the time the spider leapt up the first few steps, and the dread had begun to form in his core by the time it was halfway up.

The webs were almost like cobwebs, if the cobweb-maker was very precise and used single, large bands instead of a dense thread. It was almost like the spider-picasso version of a normal spider web, just twisted through a hallway and not ...flat. Robin had a pretty good idea what kind of spider made webs like that, though.

His suspicions were confirmed when the spider reached the top of the staircase. The spider had not brushed against any of the webs on the tight staircase, despite having a fairly wide legspan. Robin was impressed; he didn’t think he could make it all the way up without touching any of the thick cable-like web.

It didn’t seem to matter to the black spider that rushed down the wall towards the web spider. It had an abdomen almost exactly the size and shape of a basketball. It had several red dots that Robin could see as it leapt onto the web-spider, but they weren’t the thing that held his attention as the black scramble of legs wrapped over his creation.

Nor was it the red hourglass that was visible on the bottom.

What held Robin’s attention was the golden glow that seemed to fill the inside of one of the hourglass sides.

The web-spider was not going down easily. It couldn’t bring itself around to do damage (and Robin wasn’t sure it could, anyway),but it had no inner organs for the poison of the terrifyingly huge black widow to liquify, and it was sticky in the same way a web was. The black widow was clearly getting frustrated. Robin was beginning to think about running up the stairs to hit the spider with the machete while it was still stuck when there was a golden flash from the belly of the black spider, like an old-school lightbulb burning out.

Robin blinked. The spider was back on the wall, skittering upwards. The web-spider still had poison dripping down the side, and seemed confused.

Robin clicked the door shut.

Time to check the elevator.