Alex flexed his fingers and pulled on his mana for no reason other than to revel in the absence of pain. The deep ache in his body was gone, and he smiled as the mana flew through his body and to his fingertips.

With a thought, he ended the [Mirage] skill that had been on the surface and felt his split consciousness return to him. He ended that skill as well, feeling his mind whole for the first time in several days, and breathed a sigh of relief. Activating the combination again, a new illusory clone stood beside him in a few heartbeats without any pain whatsoever.

His smile only grew as he cast the barrier spell circle again with no issues and was able to push it into his [Spell Storage]. He tested it again through the storage skill, and the defensive barrier appeared in the blink of an eye and pulled only a few points from his split mana pool. He let out a little laugh and shook his head.

“Mark, toss a rock at me,” he said.

Understanding, Mark scooped up a small rock and tossed it at Alex with enough force to cross the distance, but not enough to hurt.

The semi-translucent barrier appeared just before the rock reached him, and it bounced off harmlessly with a plink.

“Oh, man. I’m untouchable!” Alex laughed again, and his eyes widened as Sam threw a rock at his mirror.

The illusion easily side-stepped the pebble and wagged his finger at the healer. “That’s cheating, I can’t use spells here yet.”

“Wow, that’s weird,” Sarah said, looking at the two of them.

“Yeah, that is super weird,” Alex admitted. The other him didn’t seem at all bothered, though.

“So, I really don’t get how it works. Can you control it too?” Mark asked.

“Ahh, well—” Alex started.

“I’m there, and I’m here. I’m controlling both, but… oh man, how do I explain this?” The other Alex chimed in.

“The skill splits my mind in two halves. Intellect, Willpower, Mana, and Wisdom are all cut in half for each consciousness. Well, if I’m wearing the hat, then Intellect isn’t split. But both of them are my mind, and when it’s in my head, it’s like I can think about two things at once. I know what the other is learning, though I might just need to give it some direct thought. But now that one of my consciousnesses is over there… It’s weird to explain.

“I can open my mind to ‘see or hear’ what the other one is doing or seeing… but it’s probably more accurate to say that I’m remembering it at the same time it’s happening?

“I can sort of nudge the other mind, but that’s about it. I can’t seem to put both halves of my consciousness in the mirage. So, I guess one has to stay here?” Alex said. Each of them picking up at the pauses.

Mark looked back and forth with a wrinkled brow before looking at Sarah and saying, “Do you have any more of that food from Gabby? I feel like I need it.”

Everyone laughed, and Alex was glad to see Mark cracking jokes, though his current train of thought had him worried about dampening the mood.

The mirage looked down and then at Alex. “You look like hell. Why did you make me look like this?”

Alex thought about it. “Huh… I didn’t do it on purpose. I just keep making the mirage look like me.” He dismissed the clone again, but made it look like Mark.

“Ooooh, no. No, no, no.” Mark said, waving his hands around.

“Hmm, don’t worry. Looks like you’re safe,” Alex laughed as he dismissed that mirage as well. “There was some resistance there from my mind. I do feel like I could probably work around it, but not worth pushing things right now.” He created another image of himself with cleaner, more modern clothes. He also changed it so that there was no hat on his head.

The illusory clone, thinking as Alex, turned and moved to go back outside to stand guard.

“I wonder why there’s resistance when it looks like Mark,” Sarah said with interest.

Alex shrugged. “I’m not sure. It’s my mind, so maybe it’s easier if it looks like me? My Willpower is really high, though, I could probably find a way around it.”

“That makes me wonder, though, what about making an image of something inanimate? A rock, or a bush. Could you put your mind into that mirage?” Sarah asked.

“No idea. I’ve got to imagine that would be even harder than a person.”

“Oh!” Sam exclaimed. “What about a dog? It would be awesome to be a dog.”

Alex chuckled. “Same thoughts apply. Worth trying it all out later though, when we’re in some more safety.”

“You really do look like hell, dude,” Mark said, mirroring other-Alex’s words.

Alex glanced at the stinking black sludge lying in the middle of the circle and shuddered. “I do want to get moving after Olivia, but this might be a good place for you to do your D Rank body tempering, too, Sam. You want to give it a go? It might be better to do it here rather than camp.”

“Why do you say that?” Sarah asked.

“Well, just because it’s pretty big magic. The twelve D Rank Mana Stones for that one alone are a steep price, not to mention the other ingredients. A lot of the Hunters in here are D Rank and higher Level than me… no sense in letting them know we have the knowledge or resources to do something like this.”

She thought about it and nodded in agreement.

Sam looked nervously at the sludge on the floor. His face paled slightly. “Uhm, I think— I think I’ll wait a bit to do mine. I might look more through the manual and make sure I know what I’m getting myself into.”

Alex rolled his shoulders and adjusted the amulet under his shirt and the hat on his head. He didn’t think this would go over well, but he had to give it a try. “We need to talk strategy before we move. Sarah’s Level 12 now. Mark, you’re 15. That’s progress… but I’m worried about bringing you guys on this. We need to pick between speed to catch up to Olivia, or slow down to allow you guys to gain enough Levels to be safe.”

“So, we’re still liabilities?” Mark’s playful tone dropped. “That’s where this is going?”

Sarah crossed her arms. “So, what? You drop us at the encampment while you chase after Olivia?”

“No, it sounds bad when you say it like that. I was just thinking that it makes some sense. I could move faster and not need to worry about either of you being hurt. You could level safely at the encampment and—”

“No chance.” Mark’s voice had a hard edge to it. His usual easygoing manner was replaced by something Alex had rarely seen. “We didn’t come in here to be safe and sit on our asses while you solo the dangerous parts.”

“Mark—”

“No, listen,” Mark said as he stepped forward. “If we stay at that camp, we might get one or two chances in that shooting rotation over the next week or so. Great. Meanwhile, you’re off risking your neck deep in monster territory, potentially getting killed, because your backup’s still too low leveled and playing pattycake in the camp.” His words came out faster as his volume rose, but he forced himself to take a breath. He continued with a more measured tone. “Sam’s healing makes this safer than it would be anywhere else. Maybe even the camp. If we gain levels with you, we won’t be that liability soon. We can be an actual team and not the little newbies that you babysit*.*”

Alex scratched his head. “I know, it’s just the risks—”

“We’re acceptable when your mana channels were damaged. But now that you’re fixed, suddenly we’re dead weight? Just dropping us off back in the safe spot now that you can actually move full speed.” Mark threw his hands up and then poked Alex’s chest with his finger. “I’m not just here for experience, man. I’m here to watch your back, and I can’t do that from a goddamn camp!”

The cavern fell silent, and even Valtherion held his spot in the air, watching the interaction curiously.

Alex stared at his best friend and had nothing to counter his points with. Beneath all of those jokes, a constant in Mark’s life was being the protector, even before stats and skills. Once, in his dorm room after a late night of studying, Mark had told him that his size had always made others be intimidated by him or think that he was stupid. As a kid, he’d countered that by acting like the class clown, figuring it would be easier to be silly and friendly than intimidating. The last thing he ever wanted to do was throw his size around and intimidate people… but if it came down to throwing that size between a friend and a problem? Mark was there.

“That’s the kind of man you keep by your side, no matter what. Probably the best King of Swords you could ask for,” Maelis said.

What?

“I’ll tell you about it soon.”

“He’s right,” Sarah said quietly. “We’re not strong now, but if we can get the levels, we want to be there for you.”

Sam nodded. “I won’t let anything happen to you guys.”

Alex exhaled slowly. “We do need to move fast. Olivia’s trail is only getting colder. We know she went east, but that was a week ago.”

“So we find a balance,” Mark’s expression softened. “You warned us from the beginning that this was going to be dangerous, and wasn’t going to be easy.” Giving a small smile, he said, “So, don’t make it easy on us now.”

Alex looked at his friends—his team. Every instinct screamed to protect them, to keep them safe. But he knew Mark was right. They weren’t baggage, and they deserved the opportunity to grow and reach their own goals. There would be a certain amount of safety in helping them gain power, rather than keeping them locked away. “All right. You’re right. While we’re moving, I think you guys need to keep training, and I’ll focus on picking our battles.”

The group agreed, and a lot of the tension left the group. Mark seemed to take a bit of time to compose himself and was still quite somber as Alex packed up the remainder of the inheritance supplies and returned them to the crate and spatial item.

The group started moving through the tunnel behind the dais. Alex looked back one final time at Eura. Traveling through the tunnel was easy, and it opened into a cliff face facing north toward the mountains, but it had a small path that led them up the cliff face. When they emerged at the top of the long, switch-backed path, they were back near the northern entrance to Tianluo.

They avoided entering the city again and skirted along the northern side to head east toward the chasm that led deeper into the Night territory. They ran on, reaching the crevasse, each of them attempting to focus on their running form and breathing as they went. Alex dispelled his mirage clone with a thought and focused inward as his secondary consciousness returned.

Maelis. I know you’re close to running out of mana. The mirage is really useful for scouting, but I figured while I had you for a little longer, you could get into some of the warding basics with my second mind.

“Fine, brat. But you better practice before you wake me again,” Maelis said.

That’s fair. But when I wake you, I want to learn a new rune, too. I don’t know which one yet, but I want to start making new spell circles.

Maelis grumbled for a moment before saying, “That’s acceptable. You proved your theory, and it’s clearly powerful. Choose your rune.”

Hmm, is there a limit to which one I can pick? The System gated my knowledge with you, right?

Maelis snorted. “Yes, the System gated the knowledge I can give to you, but that’s based on enchanting.”

Alex was confused, and Maelis could clearly tell.

“Brat, you don’t know how proficiency ranks work with this, do you? Well… you know that the proficiency ranks go from Novice to Master. Novices can learn runes and can make trinkets and charms. But you’re not a Journeyman until you make your first three-link runic enchantment. It must have one rune from each of the three major categories that I taught you: Primary, Control, and Modification. After that, Adepts need to learn to layer two enchantments. This isn’t the same as putting two enchantments on one item, but I’ll teach you about that at C Rank. To be an Expert enchanter, you have to create a runic array, which is a five-link rune enchantment on a single item. Then, for Master, you have to layer two arrays on a single item.”

Alright… so?

Maelis groaned loudly. “I almost don’t want to tell you. How can you be so damn brilliant at some things, and so dense in other areas? It means that since your ‘spell circles’ only need runes for the concept they provide, there’s really no limit on what I can teach you. At least not one enforced by the System. It’s only worried about the complexity of enchantments…

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

The group was running quite quickly across the open landscape of twisted vegetation, but Alex stopped dead in his tracks.

“Holy shit. Are you serious?”

“Of course,”

Maelis sounded so proud. “You’ll still need to be reasonable in what you learn. If you can’t form the concept or intent of the rune, it won’t matter if your Willpower lets you set the pattern into it. Start with something small, and we can work ourselves up. If you try to tell me you want to learn a spatial rune, I won’t teach you anything for the next three times you wake me up… got it?”

Alex laughed out loud, ignoring Maelis’s threat and sprinting to catch up with his friends. Val picked up on his elation and did a dive-bomb to swirl around him before climbing back into the sky to scout for signs of the Night creatures.

After an hour of travel, they reached the chasm, and Alex grinned at his friends. He thought about doing something absolutely insane and attempting to create a barrier for them to hop across the large span of open space. Though when he spent even a real moment thinking about it, he redirected the group to continue winding along the ledge toward the Rift portal. They didn’t need to go all the way back to the portal, but close enough that the gap was at least jumpable. It added time to their journey, but unless they were willing to do something reckless to save an hour, he didn’t see another way to make it happen.

The early days of travel passed quickly as they all settled into a routine. Alex let his second mind focus on a warding lesson with Maelis, while he focused on practicing the lightning bolt spell circle each time his mana got close to capping out. Val flew overhead as a scout while all of them worked on getting [Running].

Alex helped Mark and Valtherion work on their mana manipulation practice on the first night they camped. In hindsight, he could tell he was being a bit too hard on the baby dragon, but it didn’t become apparent until Mark got his [Mana Shaping] skill, and it caused Valtherion to throw a fit. The small bond flew away from where they were sitting against the rocks and coiled up on the far side of their small area near a tent.

From then on, Alex shifted his teaching with Val to allow the amphiptere to go with what felt most natural. In less than an hour, he got his own mana manipulation skill. Instead of attempting to control it like water or visualize its outward movement like the rest of them had done, Valtherion instead breathed out in a certain way. It gave him the [Mana Breath] skill, and Alex had to prevent himself from geeking out over the idea that his companion was one step closer to breathing fire.

This moved Mark and Val both to join Sarah in learning a movement skill.

Each morning after they woke, the group would stay in their camp and exercise. This included various body weight exercises and sprints, and were followed up with several movements and drills from different martial training styles that Mark had copied pages from.

Just before Maelis had fallen asleep on the second day of travel, he’d found it endlessly funny that the group was trying to get a [Running] skill. “Wasting a skill slot,” he’d said. It had been a bit creepy how he just kept laughing as he finally fell into his slumber. Alex was impressed, though. The charge from siphoning the elven wards had kept him awake much longer than before.

Alex activated [Mirage] again and continued to use it as a scout, testing limits and practicing its unstructured mana-shaping skills. Even with half of his Willpower, it was high enough that it shouldn’t take much practice and repetition to develop something similar to mana threads without skill use.

The days blurred together. Physical conditioning, travelling, and skill training. In the evenings, Alex and Sam would practice for [Meditation] while the others set up camp and his clone kept watch with Valtherion. Once camp was set, they took turns in pairs on watch.

Alex selected their fights carefully, and in those first five days, they only took two fights with monsters toward the lower end of D Rank. They were things he likely could have soloed. Now that his magic was back, he could drag out the fight a bit longer and let Mark and Sarah participate more. With her class selected, Sarah could work on buffing either Alex or Mark with her new skills, which gave her more experience as a support type.

Sarah had acquired [Dash] by the fifth day's end. Sam remained frustratingly close, and they continued to work together after Sarah mentioned she had an idea and wanted to see if he could get a related passive skill. Mark joined them after his mana shaping practice and also worked on getting a movement skill, though Alex noted he was intentionally trying to slide more than dash. When he’d asked, Mark said that he wanted to get another earth-focused skill. Shrugging, Alex gave him a few pointers and the idea to focus his mana more toward the soles of his feet, rather than his thighs, if that was the goal.

In the time that they stopped, Alex had taken to studying the body tempering rituals to look for a common pattern in the ritual circles. He had the idea of creating a self-cast spell circle base from it. Since the rituals themselves were designed for targeting and altering the person within their circle, he hoped he could do the same with a spell circle. He continued to test the differences in speed and mana cost from his unstructured and structured spells, and when his mind needed a rest or he was out of mana, he would work on getting the [Meditate] skill.

On that night, like every other night in the Rift, they didn’t start a fire, hoping to avoid drawing undue attention from the monsters nearby. Instead, Alex formed a heating ritual under them and turned the heat down low. He made another wider ritual around that to prevent any sounds that they made from escaping the small camping area. “We’ll try to cover another 15 miles tomorrow, and then we’ll be outside the map that the Guild had made,” Alex said, as he studied the map in question. “We’re making good time, though,” he said to himself.

Looking up, he watched his exhausted friends settle into their evening routines. Sarah focused on whatever passive she was trying to get, and when she got too tired, she worked on attempting to spread her aura out around the camp. Valtherion lay coiled in Sam’s lap while the healer worked on [Meditate]. The young amphiptere was pouting and keeping his distance from Alex, accusing him of being mean after learning that there were pouches of D Rank Mana Stones in the spatial item he’d gotten. Alex regretted giving him a few and telling Sarah that it was fine. Mark practiced one of the hammer and shield fighting styles he’d found, focusing on one swing movement in particular.

They’d all grown and were certainly stronger. Even only taking the two or three fights that they did over those days, Mark had jumped another nine levels and Sarah another ten. Their skills were shaping up nicely, as well… But the constant tension of keeping them alive, pushing forward, his own training, and keeping watch had set a permanent knot between his shoulder blades.

Sam had first watch with the mirage, and Alex rolled his shoulders and adjusted his hat so that he could lie down and it still be “on” to receive the bonus. Valtherion coiled up next to him, despite refusing to speak. It reminded Alex of a cat-like behavior.

Even after five days, the group hadn’t begun to grow complacent. If anything, the deeper they went into the Night territory, the more vigilant everyone became.

Sleep came in fits for him, occasionally waking and probing his own mind for the memories he had from the mirage, only to find that everything had been quiet. He would lull himself back to sleep by thinking about warding nets and how he might soon get to a point where he could turn their camp into a mobile fortress.

Something tugged at his consciousness that evening, like fingers tapping against the base of his skull. He shook his head once, closing his eyes tighter, before they snapped open, and he looked around wildly. Checking his memories, he saw what had woken him. His mirage had seen a pack of creatures prowling nearby, searching for something.

Us, no doubt.

He was awake in an instant, the mirage’s warning cutting through the fog of sleep as quickly as his heart began hammering. Through his other consciousness, he knew he could still see them from up high in a tree. The inky figures moved between the trees with a prowler’s grace, occasionally lifting their heads as if chasing a scent on the wind.

It was odd to “see” through the other set of eyes, as the System didn’t grant his mirage the ability to see through his Heavenly eye. It left him looking at large patches of unnatural darkness through normal sight. He could vaguely count eight creatures that resembled wolves with jagged ridges along their spines.

Alex got up quickly and quietly, whispering at each of his friends. Despite the ritual around the small camp, he kept low and kept the noise down as much as he could.

Sarah was on her feet in seconds and stuffing gear into her storage item. Mark took a bit longer to wake up and realize what was going on, but soon positioned himself between the potential threat and Sam, who had started to dismantle his tent.

“How many?” their Level 20 tank asked.

“Eight that I could see. We’re avoiding the fight, so you can start packing,” Alex said. “The mirage is currently running away from the camp with their attention, since they seem to be drawn to the mana. I think they were trying to track us by the ritual circles I made.”

Just as he finished the sentence, he froze and stopped packing, lifting his head high to look around as his second consciousness returned to his body. A howl split the night air. The sound was unnatural and sent a shiver down his spine.

“Shit. We gotta go,” he said, slamming a few more items into his pouch. “Come on, you guys. We head east, quickly. They caught the mirage way too fast. Mark, leave it there. Come on. Mark and Sarah, you guys lead with Sam behind. I’ll cover you all as we start moving. Val, you’re in the air, buddy.”

Thankfully, the bond seemed to pick up on the urgency of his voice and the situation. He took off into the air at the same time the group stopped packing and started moving away from the pack of creatures.

They almost made it.

The first creature burst from the dead undergrowth. Alex could more clearly see the white spine protruding from its back in the dimmed lantern light. He pulsed his mana into the spell circle he’d been holding over his left hand and sent a bolt of lightning arcing through the air and catching the beast mid-leap. It convulsed and crashed to the ground, the overly loud bzzzt sound that came as it cracked several times through its body.

“Run!” he shouted to his friends, dropping all sense of stealth as he formed another spell.

The clearing erupted into chaos. Mark blocked a lunging beast with his shield and somehow managed to keep his feet planted despite the obvious size difference. Sarah had her flute already in hand and played a few notes before stowing it and drawing the bow she carried.

Two attacks came at once for Sarah and Sam, one creature from each side. Sam saw the one coming for Sarah and moved to cast a healing spell on her right away. Alex activated [Spell Storage: Disk Barrier Spell Circle] to protect Sam. The lunging Night wolf collided with the wall at full force, coming to a stop with a crunch and a yelp.

“We can’t win this,” Alex shouted over the snarls and screams that Sarah let loose as a creature landed on her. “Get moving, Mark! Now!” He used [Feather Step] to cross the distance to Sarah and began hacking at the beast that had bitten into her shoulder and was attempting to drag her away. The monster let go under the assault of his blade.

He grabbed Sarah’s collar and shoved her toward Sam, already seeing the green healing magic around her through his left eye. He cast another lightning spell at the wolf that eyed him warily and activated the stored barrier spell again to block a wolf that had snuck around to his flank.

Blessedly, the group was moving, which allowed Alex to move and slip out from the surrounding group. As they traveled east, he remained at the rear, fending off the occasional probing attack as the pack of beasts pursued. After having a few seconds to breathe as they moved, he was impressed with his friends’ ability to follow the orders and keep a cool head in the hectic situation.

A howl sounded from over his shoulder, and he let out a groan.

“They’re cutting us off,” Mark called from the front of the group. He was panting and had some blood dripping down the side of his face from a cut near his hairline.

Alex’s reserves were getting to the halfway point, and he decided not to use [Mirage] again, as the clone couldn’t do much other than distract one or two at the moment. He placed his right hand over his left arm, withdrew a D Rank mana stone, and used [Mana Siphon] while they continued to move.

“Start going more north,” He whisper-yelled to Mark.

Damn, I see why Greg’s powers are so useful.

Despite how much magic he’d cast in such a short period, Alex felt revitalized by the back-to-back casts of spells and how well the mix of direct offense and defense worked. His newly healed channels were able to flood with mana as quickly as he could draw on it.

“There’s some kind of—,” Mark said as he pointed his hammer at a dark depression in the landscape to his left. Though to his right, Sarah’s yelp cut through his sentence. She’d been there one moment and then was gone as fast as he could blink.

Mark, being only a few feet away, lunged for where she’d been, but slid to a quick halt.

“It—it looks like a cave. Alex, come look at this,” Mark said.

He ran over and came to a skidding halt next to Mark. Alex looked up and back the way they’d come from, where the D Rank beasts waited. He glanced up at his companion circling overhead.

Val, how many are there around us?

A lot many. More shadows than cookies Alex has.

Alex gulped. If Valtherion was comparing the number of beasts to a hundred explained Mana Stones in a sack, then they were in deep shit.

“All right, let’s go. In the cave.” Alex ushered Mark and Sam.

To their credit, they just looked at each other once and then slid down the steep incline into the dark cave. Unlike Sarah’s tripping fall, both of them tried to use staff and hammer to slow their slide into the underground.

Alex recalled Valtherion to his shoulders and slid down after them. The forty-five-degree incline lasted for about twenty yards, and then it leveled out. As he joined the group, he found Mark and Sam helping Sarah to her feet and dust off. Sam cast [Healing Touch] on her to make sure her scuffs and cuts were healed, and Alex removed his lantern from his storage again.

“We need to keep moving,” he said. “Use lights and be careful. There are more holes in tunnels like this one that will take us deeper. Just try to go straight and create some distance from these bastards.”

They stumbled deeper into the tunnel network and were able to pick the pace up to a fast jog as they went. With his blood still pumping, Alex channeled mana into his legs and lungs as he breathed.

He couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he hit accept. Curious about how it worked, he activated the skill and felt the System pull on his mana. A uniform amount of mana was channeled from his pool and into his legs. His breathing came easier, and his pace naturally picked up despite not requiring any more effort. With wide eyes, Alex canceled the skill as he quickly caught up to Sam’s back in the tight tunnel confines.

Pushing his initial desire to test the skill aside, Alex took the time to activate his [Mirage] and [Parallel Mind] combination once again. Despite thinking it wasn’t necessary up above and in the fight, now that they were in the tunnels and could use the narrow space as a choke point, it would work well as a sort of early alarm system to leave the other Alex behind to keep watch for pursuers while they moved deeper.

They ran on for quite some time; the tunnels adjusting from small, cramped ducts to wider areas where an entire vehicle could fit through. After about half an hour of following Mark, Alex felt Valtherion twitch on his shoulders. The tunnel had transformed to something perfectly circular in shape, and the walls were smooth. It reminded him of his first time in the underground area.

Mark interrupted his thoughts as he was the first to step into a wide cavern. “Uhh, should we stop here for a bit?”

“What’s up?” he called as the back of the group finally caught up and moved into the open space.

They all looked around, the focused beams of their lanterns scanning the walls or space for potential threats. What was different about what Alex could see, compared to what the others could see, came down to mana.

While Mark saw an open space with a narrow entrance toward the monsters, with the addition of a small stream of water running through the cave, Alex instead saw small formations of mana. They caused him to freeze, as if he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

His Heavenly Eye showed him more than his normal vision, and the intricate patterns of threads of mana that wove across the floor near the far entrance to the cavern immediately drew his eye. Not only that, but they were in the crude shapes of rituals.

Not threads… webs.

“Mana Spinners,” he breathed. “This is their territory.”

Mark stared at him until recognition dawned. “The spiders that helped you?”

Sam and Sarah both looked immediately uncomfortable.

“I have no idea, but I think we should find out.” He pointed at the surrounding cave. “Notice something different about this area?”

“There is no Night infection,” Sarah was the first to notice.

“Yeah… I’m willing to bet that whatever’s hunting us won’t come down this far or cross that threshold. I don’t know if it's the same spinners that helped me before, but I can at least try to communicate with them. They clearly have been using what I taught them.”

“What exactly did you teach them?” Mark asked as Alex moved to the far tunnel where the ritual web-work had been laid.

“Uhm, yeah. I may have taught them some magic.”

“Magical spiders,” Mark said to the ceiling. “Because, of course. Why not?”

Alex ignored him and looked at the web in fascination as he approached. In his mana sight, he could see the delicately woven strands of webbing that covered the floor and opening in the tunnel. It was a bit hard to see what the ritual did, without knowing what catalyst was used in its setting, but based on the shapes he could see, it would likely redouble the strength of the webbing’s normal binding property.

He activated [Mana Thread] and tentatively reached out to touch the webs.