Vaile finished yeeting the last necessary vial of Revival Potion at a dead member of the Spider Cult and stepped back to appreciate his handiwork. A few moments later and the last victim of the slaughter would stitch themselves back together and, hopefully, be thankful for the fact that they were alive again. And as for the members of the wannabe Colonial Marines? Well, they were mentally shattered.

Unlike a Player who had experienced their character dying in an almost incalculable number of horrific and painful ways, these guys had never faced the reaper in such a way before. Being killed off and then brought back so many times in such short order was more than enough to break their minds. Although to be completely clear, he had not expected them to find their minds like this so quickly and after so few revivals. If Vaile was going to be brutally honest, it was a bit disappointing.

Still, he had (hopefully) shown that he was more valuable as he was currently than as a host for spider eggs. Hopefully, the giant nameless spider that the cultists worshipped would be more inclined to let him remain. If not, well he was more than willing to utterly demolish anyone in his way and was considering simply lobbing a few pots here and there to either burn down the base or collapse it. He was of the mind that the nameless spider would want to keep the cult around, as it almost certainly took a major effort to make in the first place.

That all said, the ball was not in the Spider Cult’s court, so he would let them and their masters take the next move. He had played a damn fine hand, but now the next round needed to begin. What would the spiders do and say? How would they react? He would plan a bit ahead in his head, and depending on the reactions he got he would move forward a bit in one direction or another.

The fear he had when faced with the titanic arthropod down there in the depths had clouded his judgment and overall ability to come up with ways to get out of that dangerous position. Fear did tend to do that to people, so that was understandable. But now that the situation was less overtly calamitous for him, the gears in his head began to whirr. He had lived in this new and strange reality and faced enough crazy shit that he was gradually getting more accustomed to the relatively high ambient stress level.

Now he just required a response, and from there the game would resume.

…

“… that is all the more reason that he is made to carry my children.”

“But Mother, we know what he is capable of! Even should we try and take him, the chances of us being able to do without costing our faith an irreparable loss would be nearly one hundred percent! Surely we can find someone or something better to take his place. Perhaps he knows of some other being that would meet the same criteria, or perhaps he knows of an object that can-!”

“My child,” growled Mother, cutting off the High Confessor, “do you truly wish to be the first to stand against your own God? Do I need to remind you what happens to those who are cast away from my grace?”

Gareth gulped, but he doubled down.

“Great Mother, our most glorious Goddess, please know that I do not seek to rebel. I merely wish to honor my word and to find something that can take his place. He is, in my eyes, too valuable as he is to be used as a mere vessel for your young. If you give us time, we will find a way to empower you for ages to come, possibly even to the point that you will never need to worry about the strain of molting again. If I cannot do this, then I will willingly suffer any punishment you deem appropriate. I merely ask for a small window of time. For one such as him, there must be things that he knows that could assist you.”

Silence reigned in the telepathic connection as Mother thought about what course of action she would take and force her children and worshipers to take. Finally, after several minutes, she spoke into Gareth’s mind.

“You have three 24-hour cycles, starting now. If you cannot find both a replacement and a more permanent solution by then, you will bring him to me and bind him yourself and then face my judgment for attempting to deceive me.”

High Confessor Gareth bowed his head and began to withdraw.

“It shall be done, my Lady.”

…

Vaile walked through the base that the cultists called their headquarters. He had a vague feeling of unease in his mind, like he was being watched and stalked by someone or something both malicious and not in any way, shape, or form either a monster or cultist. This was not the same feeling that he had felt whenever the rat women were after him, nor was it anything remotely like what he felt when those weird glitched-out humanoids appeared and it was also nothing like what he felt when near those strange obelisks that the Desert/ Sand Elves employed.

No, this was a feeling that he had experienced many times before, but to his recollection, he had never once experienced this feeling in the New World. This was a sensation that any Player worth their salt would know and know the meaning of. He was being stalked, but not by a person or entity native to this New World. He was being followed by what he was sure was a Player, and a Player with a decently high level at that.

As soon as he realized this, he immediately began to prepare. PvP was always a challenge when one side prepared for longer than the other, and he had no idea how long that the other side had been preparing for this fight. Every bit of preparation would help, even if it was less than that of his foe. Vaile brought up the menu and began to use his eyes to rapidly select and prepare everything he could in order to set the stage. The cave tunnels were cramped, so he could use that to force his foe into a more opportune position, or at least he would be able to if they couldn’t teleport, that is.

He took one final hallway that led directly into a dead end and once he reached it he quickly turned around and threw several different potions and other mixtures behind where he once was. The vials shattered on the ground, the walls, the ceiling, and on a single stealthed entity that stood a bit taller than an average Dwarf, or just the average height of a Dwarf Player. This noise must have alerted the other beings in the caverns, but that was merely a secondary tactic. The true aim was to make it impossible for Vaile’s potential assassin to hide, and the gunk that was smeared all over the Dwarf Player did just that.

The enemy Player clicked his tongue and rushed in, trying to reach Vaile before he could do anything to counter. However, any Assassin worth their salt would know that if your target knows that you are after them and are close that they would have the advantage in regard to short-term preparation. Vaile had removed the Player’s element of surprise, stealth and the additional damage and debuffs that would be applied to him should the sneak attack have succeeded. Now it was merely a battle between a high DPS assassin build and a roughly Generalist build, but the thing was that Vaile, as a Tamer, was almost never truly alone.

Besides, after meeting the giant, nameless spider, he had acquired a new fast-travel point on his overall map. He didn’t need to kill his foe. If he did, he would lose a valuable tool that could replace him as a victim of the Cult and their Goddess. Vaile lunged forward and took a decent stab to the kidneys, but he was close enough that he could grab the other Player and force the fast-travel system to ignore the damage he was taking and the danger he was in.

The two of them blinked out of the dead-end and into a certain massive underground cave and fell right on top of a massive web. Vaile looked the other Player in the eyes and then tossed him away from himself and out towards the distant walls with a smirk on his face. The Dwarf Player got stuck to the walls and began to try and use his escape abilities to try and… well… escape. But it was no use, and he quickly realized how fucked he was when he saw Vaile look over at the stadium-sized spider that was now eyeing him maliciously and yell a few words before tending to his own wounds.

“Terrible Fate Substitution no Jutsu!”