Red felt compelled to leave a carved message behind on the stone wall for whoever passed through this place in the future. It would serve as some kind of legacy indicating how far he had reached, as little as that mattered in the end. The boy couldn't read nor write, but he was able to copy whatever scribbles Viran had written in the yellow paper he still had.

Taking out the aged and dirty page, the youth considered which of these weird symbols would be the best to leave behind. Since he couldn't tell what any of them meant, though, he decided to pick the one that looked the most interesting in his opinion. A bunch of lines drawn in different angles and connected to form a sleek figure that Red thought was nice to look at. He could only hope it wasn't any kind of insult.

Picking up his cleaver, he started to etch the lines into the cave wall near the tunnel entrance. The weapon wasn't meant for this kind of task, but the boy was able to complete the drawing with some effort. Stepping back, he gazed at his work.

It looked horrible, but it was indeed a very faithful copy.

'I wonder if anyone will ever see it...'

The youth doubted any humans would pass through this place again, but that wasn't the point. Viran wanted to leave some kind of legacy behind after his death, so Red thought it was only natural for him to do the same. He reached was his limit but maybe hundreds of years in the future when someone stumbled upon this chamber they would know a slave had braved all kinds of dangers to reach the surface. They may admire his tenacity then.

Actually, he wasn't sure this drawing would still be here after one hundred years, but Red felt as if he had wasted enough time already. None of the spiders seemed to have noticed his presence, but he didn't want to push his luck too far. The boy started walking towards the webs while holding his cleaver in one hand. He didn't know if he would have the time nor the space to draw the weapon from his back, so it was best to hold it ready at all times, for all the good that would do him.

Red had assessed the outer edge of this blockade, and he decided to start his trip from a path near the wall. His primary aim was to reach the large rock pillars where a lot of stone spikes were growing from the ground up. He knew that the spiders weren't able to move around or web the tight spaces between the stalagmites, so the boy hoped that by moving close to them he could avoid a lot of threads. It was a dubious plan since Red couldn't see the way ahead of him through all those lines, but it was the only sort of idea he could come up with in his condition.

Coming up just a few meters from the webbing, the youth stopped in place and took a deep breath. He tried to calm his nerves and keep his body in proper condition. There was no room for mistakes anymore. If Red wanted to succeed he needed to be perfect.

Finally, after a few minutes had passed, he took the plunge.

The initial obstacles were rather dispersed as the concentration of threads waned towards the edge of the chamber. The boy could even stand up beneath the lines and walk normally if he wanted to, but he still kept his body as low and small as possible. Even if there was enough space to act freely, this would rapidly change further up ahead and he found no reason to risk it.

As Red crossed the first initial meters, he started to feel a formless pressure in the atmosphere weighing down on him. For a moment he panicked and thought that he had been found out, but after a few seconds, no spiders appeared overhead. Upon closer examination, he noticed this strange pressure was coming from the very webs around him. Some kind of force flowed through them that the boy was unable to feel from afar.

The youth guessed it was spiritual energy. Red was sure that this kind of power wasn't present in the webs he had examined in the earlier chambers, so it might be the handiwork of the bigger spiders. However, he didn't have the faintest idea of what this discovery could imply. Maybe the new threads were better at detecting intruders such that the prey didn't even need to touch it to alert the spiders? It would certainly be a horrible development, but Red hadn't been swarmed by the monsters yet, so he thought it unlikely.

Either way, this didn't bring about any changes in his plans.

Walking forward at a snail's pace, the space around the boy started to slowly tighten. No longer could he stand up without bumping into any threads. The youth stopped in place and started to look around him for what path to take next. It wasn't until this moment that the severity of the situation he was in made itself apparent.

Sure, Red could have rationalized and planned all he wanted while looking on from outside, but when the time for action came it was an entirely different matter. Threads were all around him, blocking his vision in all directions and if the boy tried to stretch his arm he could easily touch one of them. There was less than a meter separating him and certain death. No path to retreat to or hole to hide in.

The webs were so close that Red was afraid of even breathing too hard in case the air disturbed them.

'Why did I stop to think?'

He had understandably failed to consider the human factor in this task. The youth wasn't a machine, as much as he looked like one. So he was still afraid of dying, and that fear inhibitted his actions. The longer he spent considering his next move, the worse his situation would become, so Red simply decided to let his instincts do the hard work.

Possible routes and paths started to appear in his vision, and the boy didn't let hesitation hinder his steps. He crawled below a thread that almost brushed against his back. Then, when the path was too narrow to squirm under, he tip-toed over the webbing. At one point, some of the obstacles were bunched up too close together and the youth had no choice but to backtrack through the way he had just come from.

Almost in a trance, Red repeated the same process over the next half an hour. He didn't stop to think about how close he was to bumping against the threads at every moment. As soon as he succeeded in walking over one thread the boy immediately started to think about how to proceed to the next one. His body and mind were functioning in unison to keep him going.

It was the only way he found not to let panic take over and it was working.

His progress was extremely slow, and although he couldn't place his exact position in the chamber, he knew he wasn't even halfway through the room. However, Red still hadn't been noticed by the spiders, and it was all that mattered.

After an hour, he neared the center of the room where the stone pillars rested. However, the webs started to abruptly become more cluttered. The youth tried to backtrack and approach the area through different angles, but no matter how much he circled it, there was no clear path forward. The spiders had done their best to block off this section of the chamber. Although there were gaps in the webs, they seemed too small. Even if the boy could pass through them, it would be almost impossible to not bump into any threads.

Red's already slow momentum was dragged to a halt. The pressure he had been able to ignore up until now started to crash down on him like an unstoppable tide, and with it came the awareness of his condition.

Pain and dread returned.

His entire figure was covered in a cold sweat and the boy felt as if he had fought against the insectoid a few times. His muscles hurt from the tension Red had put them through during his firm and precise steps on the obstacle course. A throbbing headache spread around his skull. All the exhaustion and pain the boy had put his body through over the last few days suddenly decided to catch up to him at this moment, and they had arrived with interest.

Red felt as if every time he blinked his consciousness would try to slip away into darkness. He was tired - too tired to keep going. Even the veins he had opened made no difference right now. This was his limit.

'Not now...'

The boy resisted while his body threatened to shut down. His efforts were barely enough to keep him from collapsing and he didn't know what would happen if he tried to move forward. Suddenly, though, he heard the sound of hissing from above.

A jolt of adrenaline surged up his spine. Red looked up.

The monsters were moving. Not directly towards him, but not far from him either. In all his efforts to not touch their webs, he had completely forgotten that the spiders could still notice him if they climbed down to collect their prey. The image of the creatures started to become more visible between the webs. He couldn't see how many there were, but they quickly approached his vicinity.

The boy felt his body shiver.

Looking ahead, the same wall of webs blocked his way forward. His eyes wandered towards the biggest gap he could find. It wasn't even half a meter wide, and it was too high for him to climb. If he wanted to reach it, he would need to jump.

'No, there's no space to run.'

If he planned to leap over it, he needed enough room to gather momentum, but Red was still surrounded by threads. There was simply no way he could reach it from this position.

He tried to think of another way. Seconds passed, and the spiders got closer.

'I need to hide.'

But there was no cover. Red could only crawl under a few threads hoping they would block the spiders' vision.

The creatures reached the ground, unimpeded by the webs. Some of them landed no farther than five meters from him. The boy could feel his throat tighten up. His heart seemed ready to burst out of his chest.

He heard the familiar sound of fangs digging into insect flesh. A short and loud shriek accompanied it.

Then there was silence.

The spider that had dealt the killing blow started to climb back up. The others examined the rest of the area for some other prey. One of them started to wander closer to Red.

He tightened his grip around the cleaver.

The monster's feelers waved in the air while it wandered in the surroundings. Suddenly the creature stopped. Its appendages started to move over a certain thread. It felt something. The beast slowly turned around, its pitch-black eyes eventually coming to a stop on the youth's small figure.

Red's heart sank.

The spider walked over slowly, one of its legs reaching forward to seize the human.

His cleaver swung up abruptly, cutting off the monster's limb.

The spider hissed in pain and Red felt hundreds of eyes turn in his direction.