~Cobb POV~

I knew I regained consciousness when I realized my eyes were closed. The flashing blue didn't help with my fading headache. I stared upwards into the darkness of wherever I was awknowledging the notifications. My awakening was not unnoticed by my brothers.

NOTICE:

Rock Tree Boa has gone too long without influence by its creator. As such the bond between Animation and Animator has been weakened. The magic inherent in the creature will soon fade.

Time Remaining:

0:00

NOTICE:

The God of the Uncharted and Untamed Beasts, Gyru has taken keen interest in your creature. The Rock Tree Boa hunting techniques, camoflauge, cunning and intelligence had brought it the attention of the presiding diety. The Rock Tree Boa continued to earn favor through the various killings of Geckans who upset the balance of the Uncharted, 167 confirmed killings in the span of barely half a day. Through divine intervention and Gyru's power over Untamed Beasts, Rock Tree Boa has been gifted life once again, free to roam the Uncharted. Your Squad Points have been returned as Rock Tree Boa is no longer connected to you.

Effects:

+Gyru notices you

I was wondering when the Rock Tree Boa might be freed of my tether. Apparently Gyru has taken control of my creation? Or rather gave it control of itself? In any case this helps take down more Geckans which serves our purpose here. The thing that surprised me was the existence of Gods. Not many games implement them since actually giving them power over the game limits the powers of the company running the whole thing. Still there are other times Gods are implemented but are severely limited or static. The fun games usually have Gods or Godesses that have their own motives, which make for interesting happenings. One of the times that stuck out the most to me was when a God had wanted to destroy the world and because of the very real possibilty that Yot, God of Absolute Destruction, could do it the game had to be temporarily shut down. I have no fucking idea why you would give a God that title and free reign over the system. Still it got publicity and in the greater scope of things that means more players, more profit, more fun.

"Gyru, God of the Uncharted and Untamed Beasts." I muttered, reflexively squinting at the blue screen though the light had no effect on my eyes. "Looks like i've attracted the notice of a God boys."

"Ahhh shit. Hope he's cool. You don't want a weird one on your back all the time." JST said, seemingly stressed. "Remember Yoyo?"

"All that stuff you did to his shrine, you pissed him off too much." Jones said, facepalming. "Then he tried to destroy everything. Everything." He stressed.

"Cut it out, let's get moving. That shit, leave it in Overworld." I resumed thinking. "Gyru took my snake so I got all my points to animate stuff, all one hundred and twenty five of them." I said eagerly.

"Yeah, now you just need something to animate." Jones said sassily. "Good thing you have all these roots to work with!" He sassed me some more.

"I don't need your sass right now Jones." I said shutting him up. I could feel eyes up above using Hunted Sense but they were seemingly holding back so I ignored them.

There was nothing around except the gnarled empty room of roots, the feint purple veins, and us. After my second scan of the room I gestured Jones to the other opening in the roots indicating the advance. He moved swiftly past me entering the break in the roots. JST was glaring at the roots up above untrustingly so I guessed that he had noticed it too. Normally if they spent the time that they did in that room everything in there would have been considered safe or not hostile or of any concern so I kept trekking through the roots ignoring it unless my brothers brought it up.

The journey was uneventful but I had the feeling we were definitely ascending. Underfoot the roots had smoothed out. The air remained stale and musty, like opening a door into an old study in an abandoned castle. My nose wrinkled at the transition, it seemed the further inward we get the more abandoned it seems. Only one or two Geckans were found and dispatched by Jones as we moved deeper. JST was at my back and tense, very tense. To my knowledge he didn't have a skill that gave him any information outside of his Arena. We had already exchanged our capabilities sometime earlier. What this meant for us was that my older brother's gut was kicking in, nothing but the raw animal instinct of a human unaided by the system, perhaps it was impulsive nature but he was always the most in tune with his instinct. Normally in a videogame it would be obvious when something was about to happen, a bloody smear on the wall, an empty cavernous throneroom, a suspiciously inconspicuous chest, an innocent child playing in a dangerous forest unharmed, anything like that would trip a normal gamer's senses and send alarm bells ringing. However as videogames advanced they became more real, instanced events like that became less obvious, there were more distractions and your attention became easily stolen as the gaming industry progressed. What was left of this previous intuition was a subconcious gut feeling that something was gonna go down. Not everyone had it. But my older brother? He was one of them.

"Eyes open." JST whispered, breaking the silence even I was unaware of. "We're trapped."

Even at a whisper I had noticed that his voice echoed. Unknowingly we had walked into an clear open space, something not ideal for three people. Only now that the small detail of his echoing voice came to my attention did I realize I had been following Jones not with my eyes but with my magic. The amount of glowing purple roots had died down and unwittingly we had all switched to some other means of vision, for me my magic, for Jones his hairs, and JST his Arena. We were so used to the absolute silence that we had grown accustomed to listening for the smallest sounds. We made none so that we could hopefully hear our enemies. It never even occured to me that we had walked into a trap, we were being led into an open clearing fit for a massacre. Ever so slowly our senses had been deprived until we walked ourselves into the trap.

"How do they even get this good at this shit." I cursed. "Back to back boys. We're in for a party." I said as they moved to cover me.

"We've got a ten meter cushion." JST referred to his Arena. His back was to me and to our sides was Jones.

"There's something out there." Jones breathed. I would've heard the unsheathing of daggers if they weren't sandstone and in dirt sheathes. He crouched low. And then lower. "Something big."

Jones normally held the spot in the middle since he was best at weaving in between us, through years of competing he had our movements down. This helped at times like these but when i'm against the fucker it sucks. JST had my back and I had his but it was impossible to make a perfect formation without knowledge on the enemy, this simply was the best bet. Generally our formation didn't need any change unless it was towards a specific enemy or situation. We held formation and kept the silence around us. We peered into the darkness we thought was a wall only moments earlier.

"Move, move, move!" Jones yelled at the top of his lungs, breaking the lull. Instantly I activated Hyperfocus.

Everything slowed down to a crawl, that is to say the giant pincers chomped slowly down onto where we were. It shattered the roots sending splinters across my face. My left leg had barely cleared the area and I felt wood imbed itself into my leg.

"Light it up Cobb! I can't see shit!" A voice called.

I threw green fire into the darkness from where the pincers retracted. Green fire lit up an enormous bug the twice the size of a school bus. It hissed and clicked as blazing fire surrounded its shell, it seemed to get angrier. It's various legs were frantically working to move its body forward. Again I threw bright condensed flame, not bothering to color it. A fireball exploded against its carapace, blasting a few legs off, I felt the searing heat press against my skin. Blown up limbs flew across the chamber we were in and they landed off to the side, I saw something there before the light faded away.

"We're in a chamber! That motherfucker has been waiting for us this whole time!" JST yelled taking his position in front of me.

"Where's Jones?" My voice naturally raised with all the commotion. But there was no time for an answer.

Again there was no sound but JST rammed me off to the side, before using my body to stop his momentum and roll backwards. Giant pincers once again dug into the roots before clamping together where we once were, leaving a huge gash in the already gnarled roots.

"Keep it lit up or we're already dead!" JST said. "It's too fast for me to react like that everytime!" His sword aimed for the joints, chopping off limbs one section at a time.

I kept blasting it with fire, just enough so that my mana stayed constant, yet not too little that I didn't do any damage. The result was a slightly lowering of my mana, still the creature kept hissing at my fire. I didn't know the effect on the creature but I kept alternating colors to fuck with the thing. It probably doesn't like light since its waiting in the dark like a bitch.

"I think my sword's getting dull!" JST yelled back to me. He says that as his sword whips out and hacks a leg clean off.

"Really now? You're fine keep it going!" I threw more fire.

The bugs hissing had stopped after the last fireball and I wondered if it finally died. It wasn't dead but it didn't seem to care anymore, recklessly charging through my fire and hunting down JST. His strategy was a series of backwards rolls, forward dives and quick, enormously powerful sword strokes.

"It's not slowing down!" JST yelled, chopping off another limb.

"It's getting desperate keep going!" I said after throwing another fireball.

It completely ignored this one, in fact it seemed that it didn't even notice it. JST repeated his strategy, always keeping it fresh, yet a pincer strike flipped him legs over head, luckily he landed upright and kept moving, not a stranger to life or death situations.

"It's getting stronger!" JST called to me. "It's faster too!"

I threw some fireballs at varying speeds to light up the room. I took the brief slow motion moment to inspect the creature.

Inform:

Adapter Bug - Level 72

10,504/13,745 HP

Extremely frail physically, mentally and spiritually early in its life Adapter Bugs almost never pass through their infantile stage. When an Adapter Bug reaches adulthood it almost never dies, their bodies work to counteract every possible method of their death including aging. Enviromental dangers are easily the most adapted to as long as they are not too drastic. Most Adapter Bugs however die of something painfully simple like falling off a branch. Exposure to physical, mental and magical attacks that do not kill the Adapter Bug only contribute to its growing natural defenses. Their size is their only constant change, they grow larger the older they are. Generally a large Adapter Bug is classified as a larger threat than a smaller one as it has had more time to adapt. Never approach an adult Adapter Bug without a surefire method to kill it instantly.

"Fuck dude! Adapter Bug, basically learns resistances for everything!" I raised my voice over the chittering. "We've been teaching it for the past ten minutes!"

"What the fuck? I've been, thinking, shit, fuck, my, sword, was, dull." He said punctuating words between hacks. "The fucker is just getting harder." He finished cutting another leg off.

"Stop cutting its-" I began. The bug whipped its tail end, even in slow motion it was fast, and sent JST flying into the other end of the chamber.

"Where the fuck is Jones." I whispered, chasing the bug down with my limp. I needed to distract it while JST recuperated.

I concentrated on what I wanted. I created fire, small balls the size of my fist, mentally I shaped them into drills and begun to spin them. I sent them one at a time at the head of the bug, it shrieked in pain as the first one drilled an inch or two deep into its carapace. It shifted and the second one met only centimeters from the first impact. It reared its head and pincers to look at me, I couldn't find its eyes, which explained why Hunted Sense didn't work, so I kept aiming for the middle of its head as it charged me head on. Pained shrieks came from the bug, it had already built up a resistance as the rest of my fire drills failed completely. The last fire drill rammed into the middle of its head, another one followed and five more joined the first. The amount of force pushed its head up and backwards but the drills didn't penetrate all the way through, they burrowed two inches in, the same as what one drill would've done earlier. Before the last drill lost its power I caught the flickering silhouette of JST in the air, he had leaped onto the back of the bug and bashed its skull in, the carapace dented but the bug shrugged him off and retreated into the darkness. A different hissing could be heard in the dark.

"What the fuck is this. How's your mana?" He said as he ran over to me.

"I'm down to 20% and I feel the headache coming on." I groaned a bit. "How are you on stamina?"

"50%" JST answered.

We waited for everything to regenerate and spotted light from above. There was a small opening above and from the looks of it we were in the center of the tree. I'm guessing were in part of the trunk that transitioned into branches and we were looking through a crack between branches. Up above I could see the canopy clearly, we had ascended quite a bit. The gentle light of dawn bathed the middle of the clearing and I could see the missing scales on JST. Dark bruising could be seen on the revealed skin and many of his present scales were discolored. On his leg which I recall one of the Adapter Bug's pincers had flipped him there was a giant gash horizontal across his calf, there were no scales surrounding it.

"Health?" I asked worried.

"30%" Came the response. "We're dodging backwards."

Right as he finished pincers shot out from the darkness. They came horizontally, cutting off a dodge to the left or the right. Trusting my older brothers instincts I had rolled backwards whilst flinging a fireball to the things face, if nothing more than to light up its vision. The dent in its head remained but from the description of the bugs abilities i'm not so sure it would stay, already I see new nubs growing out of the bottom of the thing. I dodged back again, using the fireball this time to propel me back faster as well as keep light on the bug. The headache came on but I had to stall for time while I thought of a new way to take this fucker out.

"Lead him backwards." A soft voice from above commanded.

I sighed. "You heard him." I couldn't think with this headache pounding my head.

JST twirled beneath the horizontal pincers, spinning low like a descending tornado he cut under the things chin which really pissed it off, I could see slivers of meat slice off from under the chin it apparently had either no carapace there or a weaker version of it. It began to chase JST and without JST actually having to return blows he successfullly lead the Adapter Bug past the pocket of light and behind us. He was lost in the darkness and I had no means of vision into the darkness like my brothers. A minute passed before Jones fell from the ceiling above me and landed beside me.

"Hurry up let's go." He said running forward.

I followed his heat signature, something the bug did not have, which thinking on it probably came from a defense mechanism to impede predators that hunt that way. When we arrived, what I came across was a gigantic mound of white silk, surrounding the Adapter Bug. It was completely trapped in silk, I wondered what possible way it could adapt to this, this doesn't really classify as an attack but it could still lead to its death so does it adapt to it or not? I shrugged that off and turned my attention to the spiders that were surrounding it.

"What is this? Jones?" JST was a bit further from the cocoon.

"These are the friends I made in the tunnels." Jones explained. "This was their home."

Curious I illuminated the area where I saw something earlier. A single bright flame made its way to the far side of the chamber. It revealed empty dried up egg sacs. A generation of spiders that never saw life. Seeing this the spiders became riled up. Their hackles were raising and they started to screech, only then did I notice there were some on the ceiling as well. They didn't have any heat signatures either, although I didn't see any particular reason why they wouldn't. Jones worked to calm them down, his septules raised as well but he didn't seem aware of it.

"That makes sense, I wouldn't have been able to sense them at all during the walk. The ceiling was too high for JST to get them with Arena and on top of that the glowing purple roots only ever appear on the floor." I thought out loud.

"Friends? You can't make friends with a fucking spider." JST muttered in the corner. He wasn't even trying to hide it.

"I had used my Class Skill Examine Enemy and the only hint I got was to trap it. At first glance, yes I could've helped but I would've long exhausted my stamina. So I went back to ask for help, as a Sperid apparently I have some type of communication with these spiders." He explained.

"Alright let's kill the thing." JST said walking over to the beast.

"No." Jones and I both said together.

"Are you crazy? I actually feel naked now!" He yelled pointing to his bare skin.

"The conditions for the quest say to win the spiders home and give them the beast." Jones grinned. "You guys should've got it too."

With that I glanced at my notification bar and realized I did indeed have a quest.

Unique Quest: Take back the Spider Den

An Adapter Bug has taken refuge in the Spider Den. The Spiders of the Geckan Tree Lair ask for your aid in their revenge. They ask only for the body of their murderer, alive.

Success Conditions:

+Deliver the Adapter Bug incapacitated.

Fail Conditions:

+Kill the Adapter Bug

+Die

Rewards:

+Can communicate with Spiders

+Relations with all Spiders increased.

Completed - Unique Quest: Take back the Spider Den

Rewards:

+Can communicate with Spiders

+Relations with all Spiders increased.

Suddenly the room came alive with voices.

"Who are they?" A voice from above.

"Ssstaa why do they help us?" A smaller one said.

"I do not know young one. Hush." A bigger spider responded.

"Enough, quiet." A powerful voice boomed, but then gave way to a smaller spider.

Silence once again took over the chamber, actually this is how it sounded before I completed the quest. I wonder how loud the tunnels would have been if I understood spider-talk then.

"I am Sraa thank you for returning to us our Den." A spider in front of Jones addressed him. It looked like a normal spider albeit bigger, but I vaguely recognized what some of its gestures meant.

"It was not just me but my brothers as well who helped defeat the invader." Jones gestured to us.

"Ahh your brood had come together to save ours, thank you young Jjerg, young Druman, young Sperid." He replied, a smile in his voice. It warmed my heart for a split second before I realized it was an ugly spider. I shook my head of those thoughts, I try not to be racist.

"As the Spiders of the Uncharted I can send word through the Web, your deeds will be known to all other Spiders." He finished. "We had assumed our webs would be shrugged off just like our venom had in the past, we had never really attempted to trap it so solidly." The spider seemed grateful believe it or not. I didn't even know how I knew that.

Sraa stayed by us while he ordered his brood to start rebuilding the Den. With that they moved slowly over to the destroyed egg sacs, with hesitance and pain they began clearing the area. Soon white webs began to fill the chamber. They dragged the Adapter Bug around with them as well, I really had no idea what they planned to do with it. They tethered ten or so spiders just to pull it around. It was nice seeing things like this, always there are parts of the game running where conflicts are never resolved, to find one of these and fix them? It was always one of my favorite things to do in the games.

"Why did you want to save it?" Jones asked me.

"Huh?" I returned to my thoughts.

"The bug, why did you want to save it?" He clarified.

"I am curious as well Jjerg. Even I know not what to do with it, only that I want its crimes repaid." Sraa added. By now I had been accustomed to the talking spider.

"It's a cool bug." I said simply.

"A "cool" bug?" Sraa asked.

"How do I put it? It begins as the underdog and lives its life only reacting to what the world throws at it. Despite that it triumphs, becoming a better version of itself over and over again. Of course this doesn't change the fact that it is still a monster, but evil, I don't think so. Programmed with the instinct to survive, yes. In the end it is a beast, a powerful one, one capable of breaking its own limits time and time again. So yes I wanted it to live, if only to see where it may go. Other may see an untamed beast but on the other side of the same coin there is beauty in its ferocity, a passion in its struggle for survival, in many ways they are like us, just trying to survive." I elaborated.

The talking spider was silent. The humanoid spider boy was also silent. They both looked to the Adapter Bug.

My notifications were flashing so I called them up as I let the spider and spider person ponder what I said.

Storytelling - Intermediate 10 (10%)

Storytelling is used to captivate an audience, it is an art that though may seem mundane, not many people perfect. You have taken steps into the world of entertainment and have succeeded in eliciting from your audience what many people fail to, emotion.

Effects:

+16% more emotion from the audience

+Stories are 10% more compelling

Normally I don't check the prompts for leveling up skills but I wanted to see how much that little tidbit helped me out.

NOTICE:

Your story has captivated not only your friends but also a God. Gyru the presiding deity of the Uncharted has resonated with your story

Effects:

+Gyru approves

Welp. Wasn't expecting this.

I didn't know that my stories could even affect a God. It wasn't even really a story, more like a heartfelt sympathy for the bug. I understand that Gyru loves his beasts and what not even going so far as to adopt my Rock Tree Boa but the point of this whole excursion wasn't to fight an Adapter Bug and help some spiders get back their den. The whole point of this trip was to kill the Geckan leader. It had come to my attention that there have been a very small amount of Geckans so far and I had no idea why but I think I knew an eight legged individual who might.

"Sraa. Where are the Geckans?" I asked. Breaking him out of his reverie.