Liz woke up to darkness. Her shoulder was throbbing with pain. When she tried to reach it, she realized that she was unable to move her arms. No part of her was able to move.

'Oh fuck. The spider! It cocooned me in! I am going to end up as spider food!'

Although it was hopeless, Liz panicked and struggled in the cocoon, trying to get her hands to her daggers. Over time her struggles got more subdued, as her endurance neared its limit.

When she finally calmed down while trying to catch her breath, she realized that she could breathe.

'What is this material? Spider silk shouldn't be so free to breath'

Liz remembered her encounter with one of the spiders before 'meeting' the mother cat.

'Is this some sort of shadow magic? That would explain why I can't even see the dim crystal light, assuming I'm still in the cavern. But how does it make shadows physical? But then again, I have seen stranger things since coming to this world'

Now able to think clearly she thought through her options. She soon realized that she really only had one option: try to destroy the shadow material using her magic.

'Ughh, THIS is really going to hurt!'

Liz went and tried to use a minimal amount of mana in a blast from her left hand. As expected her skin blistered and cracked, though the light, normally quite bright, was missing.

Gritting through the pain and holding in a scream, not wanting to alert anything to her attempt to escape, if her blast didn't already, Liz tried to move her fingers. Though it caused even greater pain to flare through her arm, she could move them ever so slightly, a movement previously impossible.

Channeling Arcane Blast in her left arm, careful not to damage her hand too much, Liz managed to free her arm.

Blindly grabbing the material around her body, Liz tried to yank on it. Yet, her burned and blistered arm and hand were unable to exert enough force to damage whatever bound her.

'Fuck, so I need to use more blasts!'

Desperate, Liz tried something she had no idea, whether it would succeed; she attacked the shadows on her chest, right in front of one of her daggers by moving the mana through her chest instead of her hand. It felt weird to imagine it, and she struggled a bit to envision an attack through her chest. Yet, it worked. And the pain was considerably less than she expected.

'Huh, I guess the mana leaving my body closer to my center destroys less.'

Grabbing her dagger, Liz began cutting into the material surrounding her right arm. Luckily, the dagger was able to damage the cocoon. When her arm was free, she moved the knife to her uninjured right arm, excluding the still throbbing shoulder, and began sawing more of the material from her body.

During the whole procedure Liz wasn't interrupted by any spiders, much to her relief. When she finally removed the material from her head, she was greeted and shortly blinded by the dim light of the crystals along the walls and ceilings of a cave the size of a house. No spider was present, however the telltale clicking sound of the legs could be heard from outside the entrance to the food storage cave. But it sounded like more than one was moving outside the cave.

Judging her to not be in immediate danger, Liz relaxed slightly and went for the vial of healing potion that she had stashed on her belt, having learned from her mistake after the Shadownyx fight. Applying it to her arm and drinking the rest, healed most of the injuries. She also inspected the material that had bound her. To her surprise it was actually made out of a silk-like mesh, but between the dark silk strands, patches of shadow filled the gaps. It reminded her of the coat of the Shadownyx.

'Speaking of Shadownyx! What happened to the cubs? Did they get away?'

A quick look around brought her the answer. Close to her were four wriggling bundles of shadow silk. There were dozens more of the cocoons in the cave, all of them however were closer to the proportions of the lizards than the young cats.

'Can't they just teleport themselves free?'

Unwilling to let the four felines become spider food, she went and cut all of them free. She was greeted by growling before they each recognized her, which turned the growl into a purr and the cats to groom every exposed piece of skin on her.

As soon as all of them were free, Liz started looking for her bag, finding no trace of it.

'Oh shit, hopefully it still is where we fought. But first let's get out of the spider's den alive'

Silently tiptoeing through the bundles of silk and shadows, Liz made her way to the entrance, all her senses on high alert. After watching her, the kittens followed her example and stacked up on her when she peeked around the corner of the entrance.

Outside was another massive crystal-lit cavern spanning multiple hundreds of meters in every direction. But unlike the traversable caves she had visited before, the ground was extremely rough and uneven, regular fissures and cracks marring the stone. All over the cavern pillars of stone stretched between the ceiling and floor, many with entrances in them. All along the walls and on raised paths Shadowweavers were bustling about. Some without carrying anything, others carrying cocooned prey from and to caves all along the walls. Liz's current cave itself seemed to be on one of the outer walls. Fortunately the roaring of the waterfall was perceivable, although heavily muted.

'Shit, of course I need to be in the middle of a village sized spider den! At least the exit sounds like it's near and not across the cavern and whatever monstrosity lives in the pit in the middle. I definitely don't want to meet the boss of this cave! I rather get out of here before even one of these monsters notices me or checks in on us'

Liz took stock of her available weaponry. She still had 6 of her daggers, one vial of water and antidote, although she questioned it to be effective against this species of spider. Skill-wise she held no real weaponry, still her new skill sounded promising.

Mana Draw - active - lvl 1

Draw in and use mana from nearby non-living containers without physical contact but at an increased mana expenditure. Skill level reduces cost

'Only problem is that I have no good way to use it, now that I no longer have my healing potion! My tactic should simply be avoiding the spiders'

Committing the general pattern of crevices to her memory, she left her cave. Careful to not alert any of the spiders, she silently climbed down the rough cave wall heavily favoring her uninjured right arm, and dropping into one of crevices, the cubs following her through the shadows.

At the bottom of the crevice she waited a moment to see if her movement and sound was noticed, but it seemed the clicking of the spiders moving droned out her sounds. Still careful not to make too much, if any, noise, she slowly crept towards the sounds of roaring water.

She had to switch crevices twice to reach the exit she desired. Both times her heart skipped whenever she even heard a clicking near her, even though she always made sure to be as far away from any spider as possible.

Finally, after half an hour of heavy cardio for her heart, Liz reached a small tunnel, likely too small for the spiders, but still the sound of roaring water could be heard from the other side.

'Guess it's not the only entrance! Only for my benefit'

Still careful of any spiders nearby, Liz climbed from her crevice and entered the tunnel. Once the cubs were inside as well, she released a breath.

At a slightly faster pace Liz made her way through the upwards sloping tunnel, that quickly devolved into an even smaller crevice. Her pace was still quite slow as the crevice held no crystals illuminating it, and she needed to feel her way forward.

Eventually light became visible in front of her and the tunnel widened considerably. Accelerating towards the light, Liz missed the cats behind her recoiling. Only when they started to growl at a shadow, did she turn around.

Accompanied by clicking and hissing noises, a spider triple the size of the small felines emerged from the shadow.

[Adolescent Shadowweaver - lvl 34]

Without hesitation, the cats immediately started attacking the spider in their dance of attrition. Only this wasn't a small lizard. No, it was a spider having double the legs and eight-times the eyesight. Additional tendrils of shadow exuded from its body, doubling its limbs further.

Still the cubs continued their assault at an incredible speed. Liz was unable to provide any help, afraid of hitting the cubs with a thrown dagger.

This didn't mean that the cubs gained any ground, any attack on the vulnerable-looking torso of the spider was intercepted either by a leg or a shadow tendril. The cubs quickly adjusted, simply ignoring the shadows by teleporting through them.

The spider was adjusting as well, shaping its tendrils thinner and thinner, leaving no space to teleport from.

Eventually one of the cats managed to bite down on one of the back legs of the massive spider. It barely held on, the spider waving its leg around in an effort to dislodge the small feline.

While this struggle continued, the other cubs were able to claw and bite three more legs, causing the spider to stumble while at the same time finally dislodging the first kitten. The cubs regrouped in the moment the spider needed to get its bearings again.

While the attack had visibly injured the spider's physical legs, it also seemed to have angered it further. The shadow tendrils now moved in even faster fashion, easily keeping up with the cats weaving around the legs of the spider. Liz was still unsure what to do.

'They are so fast. I can neither attack myself nor can I flee with them blocking my way out!'

So she was just able to watch as the felines wore down the spider. At least that was what Liz thought was happening, as the spider was still constantly blocking any assault of the cats. Until it caught one of them, pinning the yelping cub to the floor with its shadows while moving its fangs in reach for the kill.

'OH NO. YOU DON'T!!'

On a possibly misplaced motherly instinct, Liz intervened. Before she could even realize what she did, she aimed her hand at the monster and pushed her mana out.

A ball of purple lightning hit the spider square in the middle of its eyes, causing it to recoil and release the cat as its control over the shadows wavered. It recovered quickly, its eight eyes focusing on Liz, who stood still, looking dumbstruck at her charred left arm.

'Oh fuck, why am I so stupid?'

The menacingly-looking spider advanced towards her, now ignoring the cats still attacking it. Afraid, Liz backed away, while keeping her eyes focused on the spider's shadows. When one tendril struck out towards her, she retaliated with another Arcane Blast.

The purple lightning met the solid shadows and simply melted them away, much to Liz's surprise.

'Yes'

Yet, her arm was now in even worse shape than before. And so, when the next attack from the spider quickly followed, Liz only used a part of the power of the former blast. Still, her Arcane magic annihilated the tendril anyway, albeit a lot slower.

Luckily for her, her short distraction had given the cubs enough time to advance on the spider's side and injure it enough for it to tether to the side and fall over. Ignoring the pain in her charred left hand, adrenaline, shock and pain tolerance doing their work, Liz drew a dagger and ran at the flailing arachnid. Arriving at its head simultaneously with two of the cats, the three of them started to attack the spider's eyes. The cubs using their claws, while Liz plunged the dagger into them.

The more of its eyesight it lost, the more erratic its movements became, to the point that the already reforming shadows simply dissolved into nothingness.

No longer having to fear the tendrils, Liz took her dagger and thrust it into the spiders head repeatedly only stopping when a new notification entered her head.

-- You group has killed a [Adolescent Shadowweaver - lvl 34] --

-- Experience awarded respective of contribution --

-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 10 --

-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 3 --

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 11. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

....

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 15. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

As the adrenaline quickly wore off, Liz dumped 3 of her new stat points into Vitality, causing her skin to heal and her dwindling health to recover. As it didn't heal all the way, Liz spent another 3 points, without any visible effect.

'At least I'm no longer in excruciating pain'

Liz looked up, searching for the cubs. All four of them were sitting next to her, licking their own small wounds.

Afraid of having attracted more spiders and with none of their own fatally wounded, Liz moved out of the small cave with haste, emerging in the main waterfall cavern, the cubs directly behind her.

Quickly orienting herself, she found that she wasn't too far away from her previous position. Just slightly higher than before. Scaling down the wall just like in the spiders' den, Liz made her way to the tunnel that hopefully contained a bag filled with healing potions. The cubs followed through the shadows.

Luckily for her, the bag was where she had dropped it and no spiders were nearby. Downing her second to last healing potion and securing the last in her armor, she was also able to find the dropped lighting ball.

'I seriously need to leave soon. I have no more healing potions. And in here are more than enough monsters able to kill me many times without them'

Without dawdling for long, Liz left for the waterfall cavern, which seemed to frighten away the spiders.

'Maybe it's just a natural reaction to water? Or is there some other monster here? I seriously don't want to meet whatever frightens the spiders, not after having seen what force they could muster'

Fortunately for her, the next tunnel she inspected, now even more cautious than before, constantly staring into any shadows suspicious to her, held another small entrance.

Unlike before it didn't lead to a small corridor. Instead, it opened up to a small cave, illuminated by crystals and moss. In the walls near her were the remains of forges. The whole cavern held remains of what she assumed had once been a smithy.

'And where there is smoke there needs to be ventilation! Also known as a way out!'

After a few moments of scanning the room she found it: roughly two and a half meters above the floor was a hatch blocked off with a rusted metal grid. Jumping up and holding on the grid, brought it crashing down with her.

With the blockade gone, Liz threw her bag in the hole, put the lighting ball in her mouth and scaled the wall, barely managing to hold on to the rough stone.

She finally managed to heft herself into the hole to look back down on four mewling cubs. The felines quickly went into the shadows around the cavern before reappearing behind Liz in the soot-covered shaft leading steeply towards the surface.

"Guess we will find out how you react to sunlight!" Liz said to the cubs before scaling the steep walls. This time it was easier, with the orb held between her teeth she braced her legs against the walls in the narrow shaft while using her left arm to drag her bag with her and her right to pull herself along.

'Guess that's how Santa Claus feels. I can understand why he only works one day and needs a year vacation in between'

"An yu are myf reindeerfs!" Liz laughed around the glass ball in her mouth to the cubs still following her, elated by the prospect of soon being free again.

Unlike her the cubs were in their element, the inclined walls easily conquered by the slender felines.

After about 50 more meters upwards, the shaft narrowed down considerable, Liz barely able to fit through. Because the bag got stuck, Liz needed to get rid of 10 spikes which then tumbled back down into the smithy, passing four cubs trying to get hold of them in midair.

Finally, light was visible from up above. After moving through the last narrow meters, Liz emerged from a small crevice in a rocky hillside into the morning sun. After a quick scan of her surroundings she surmised that based on certain landmarks, she was still in the side-valley and even on the same side she had originally come from. The path she had taken should be slightly to the east.

After she was clear of the entrance, the first of the four cubs emerged. It shortly flinched back from sunlight on its fur, but seemingly seeing its new surrogate mother basking in it, it got the courage to reemerge and take its first steps in the sun.

The process repeated for all three remaining cubs, causing Liz to laugh only to be squished by four cubs wanting belly rubs and scratches.

Liz however, unwilling to encounter any more Bonestingers, slung the bag over her shoulder and began walking east at a fast pace.

After half an hour of walking the group of one human and four Shadownyx found themselves on the path towards the fort. 10 minutes later Liz found the spot where she had diverged from the path and went towards the meadow.

Arriving Liz saw that the staff and pendant were still lying in the moss. Standing on the border Liz now wondered how to retrieve the pendant lying 5 meters from her. As she was going through possible solutions, one of the cubs neared the moss, sniffed and instantly recoiled, angrily hissing at the moss.

"I guess you are smarter than me! Even my meager identify could have seen that, but I am too stupid to use such a thing" Liz laughed towards the now huffing cub.

Eventually Liz settled on enduring the mana concentration again, finding no better solutions. She spent a few minutes experimenting. The 'pressure' only appeared when she was in contact with the moss. The air above the moss was also breathable, only if one was stupid enough to breath through the moss would it hurt.

She also realized that the 'Absorbing' part of the moss's name was referring to the moss draining and possibly absorbing her health and stamina. She had realized this after 10 minutes of experimentation when she was interrupted by the notifications of

-- You have successfully learned the skill [Stamina Drain Resistance] --

-- You have successfully learned the skill [Health Drain Resistance] --

Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1

Your stamina is yours to keep. Effectiveness of stamina draining is reduced. Effect increases with skill level

Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1

You hold onto what making you stay alive. Effectiveness of health draining is reduced. Effect increases with skill level

Feeling safe to proceed, her observations showing it was possible, Liz waited for her health and stamina to fill up.

After her stamina reached its maximum, she sprinted onto the meadow, making a U-turn once she reached and grabbed the staff and pendant, and leaving as quickly as she entered. In the end she had 120 health and 80 stamina left.

"Finally, I thought you would never come back. At least I could spend the time recharging my mana" the locket complained.

"You have no idea how happy I'm to hear your whining" Liz exclaimed, having expected nothing else from the grumpy piece of jewelry.

Unwilling to dawdle any longer she quickly took the staff in hand, gathered her bag and nearly sprinted back to the fort.