Water trickled through the cavern as they waited. There were small patches of phosphorescent mushrooms that cast a bit of light against the far walls. Thirty minutes had passed since they’d arrived, and Alex had begun subtly poking at the web-ritual with his [Mana Thread] skill.

Mark paced along the stream bank with his boots occasionally scuffing against the stone. “You sure about this? We’ve been sitting here for a while now.”

Sam crouched near the water’s edge with his staff across his legs and pinched between his stomach and knees as he flicked the water. “Maybe they moved on, and the webs are left over? We were outside for three months, which is the same as two years in here…”

“They’ll come,” Alex reassured his impatient friends. He sat cross-legged by the ritual pattern that still hung in the tunnel’s opening. He’d disrupted it with his own mana, but not so much that it would cause the magic to fail. “If anything, I’m sure they’ll come out of curiosity.”

Sarah sat cross-legged on a boulder nearby, practicing on her flute with some more mundane melodies. “Curiosity or hostility?”

“Curiosity… let’s hope.”

I wonder if I’ll be able to scan them now… They could clearly sense it when I tried before. Maybe I should wait until we reach an understanding.

Part of him desperately hoped that it was the same colony that he’d met before, but there was no way for him to know. Was there only one colony? Were there many, and had the ritual magic spread? Or was this one the same one, and they’d become more powerful from the use of magic?

His questions were interrupted as a faint skittering sound could be heard down one of the dark tunnels that branched off from the main chamber. Alex rose slowly and fixed his eyes on the opening. Peering into the darkness, he couldn’t see anything with either of his eyes.

Eight sleek and glossy black legs emerged, and Alex saw the Mana Spinner just as he remembered it. Roughly the size of a dog, and unlike a normal spider, it had two small front limbs that protruded from the thorax. Its many eyes caught the lantern light as it skittered into the light, and then just inside the shadows of the tunnel.

Several more sets of eyes appeared behind it, and he could hear more clicking of chitinous legs on stone from nearby tunnels. Sam stood, turning slowly to look around the room at spiders that appeared as if from nowhere. Within a few moments of the first showing, at least ten others were present.

“Just don’t move,” Alex murmured to his friends.

The largest spinner, the one that had stepped from the tunnel, came closer again. First, it inspected the broken ritual pattern by extending one of its longer legs to test and pluck at several of the webs. It rubbed its two forearms together and clacked its mandibles once before turning to Alex.

It went completely still as Alex slowly extended a [Mana Thread], as he had done with them when they first met. Alex stopped it halfway out, but that didn’t stop the spider from moving quickly away, then forward and back again. It stared at him for a few seconds before extending its mana tendril in kind.

Recognition seemed to flicker as the two tendrils connected, and Alex felt the familiar vibration and shared mental images flash through his mind. The contact felt comforting, and it was surprising, though maybe it shouldn’t have been, how much easier he could follow and understand the emotions and impressions sent through the link.

They were still fragmented images, but his mind could keep up so much faster than it had been able to before. A sense of recognition passed through the link, and he felt the collective term they’d come up with for him and felt it had a better meaning to him now.

Friend-who-weaves.

He sent back his own impressions, an apology for disrupting the ritual, and relief that the colony recognized him. He followed up with feelings and mental flashes of their flight from the creatures of the Night and how they’d ended up where they are, seeking shelter.

“What are they saying?” Mark whispered.

“They remember me,” Alex said, while holding the connection. “They’re curious why we’re here. I think… I think they’re pleased to see me again.”

The conversation between them was broken, but they easily reached an agreement. Alex nodded and spoke to his friends. “I asked for safe passage and shelter for a bit. I also asked if they could help track Olivia’s trail if possible.”

“Can they do that?” Sarah asked.

“Their hunters are great, and they could guide us through these tunnels so much faster than we could stumble through them. I think it’s a real shot at working. They want more ritual knowledge as payment.” Alex’s smile spread into a grin as he sent impressions along the connection to the spinner.

He got a visible reaction of excitement from the spider as he told it he would teach them something better than rituals. The Mana Spinners would be the first creatures to learn spell circles.

It only feels fitting after pretty much my entire magical journey is built on the help I got from them.

The lead spinner’s mandible clicked rapidly, and the other spiders began to move around excitedly. The fine fur on the tops of their bodies stood on end. The lead one moved back to the side tunnel it had come from and motioned for the group to follow with their small arms.

“We have an agreement, then.” Alex rose and dusted off his white robes, which were already filthy from their few exchanges with the Night creatures. “They’ll give us shelter and help track Olivia; in exchange, I’ll give them some magic lessons.”

Mark’s stance relaxed a bit. “Spider magic school. Sure, why not? This day couldn’t get any weirder.”

“Why would you say that?” Sarah said in exasperation as she threw a small pebble at the big man.

The Spinner colony’s tunnels twisted and branched through the underground. Their walks were smooth and gleaming with thin strands of mana. He led his friends through the twists and turns, following after their chittering guide as it skated slowly along a thin strand.

“They’ve expanded since I was last here,” Alex noted. “We’ve been walking longer than I remember ever going out to hunt for their prey.”

Shortly after, the main chamber opened up before them. It was so tall that Alex couldn’t see to the top, though the small spiders that leaked mana were easy to see, even in the dark, and made him smile. It was the most noticeable contrast between the adults and the children.

All around the large cave, he could catch the movement of mana signatures in and out of small alcoves that were carved into the walls.

“Holy crap,” Mark whispered. “There’s a whole city of ‘em down here.”

Sam gripped his staff tighter but seemed fascinated by what little he could see. “Are they all looking at us?”

The attention of those near them was unmistakable. They paused in their tasks and turned their large eyes on their group as they entered. Some skittered closer while others moved away to gain more distance from the strange humans.

Their guide led them to a side chamber. It was significantly larger than the small alcove he’d stayed in during his first visit, but Alex supposed that they would need more space with more people. A natural spring bubbled in the corner of the room, and webbing covered several of the walls in a beautiful pattern of mana. The spinner gestured with its forelegs in what seemed to be an invitation to rest.

“Thank you,” Alex said. The creature made a quick bow before retreating.

Mark dropped his pack and stretched. “So… home sweet home?”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “You really just took that all in stride, huh?”

“You’re so weird sometimes,” Sarah said to Mark. “This is a lot to process, Alex. Especially after getting woken up and shoved into a run for our lives.” She shook her head, most of her hair having fallen out of her bun.

“Well, it’s home for now. At least it’s pretty clean and has some water. You guys might as well get comfy and get some rest. When we wake up, we can wash this black blood from our clothes and train until they come to check on us.”

Once settled, the tension gradually melted away from the group. They removed their sleeping gear and didn’t bother with setting up tents. Mark and Sarah cleared some of the cave debris to make space for them all, and Alex told them not to worry about a normal watch schedule. He set the [Mirage] to watch the entrance, more interested in seeing if any of the spinners came to talk with them rather than out of any fear that they would be harmed.

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The night passed quickly, and when Alex felt the mental probing from the other half of his mind, he rolled quickly out of bed and looked around. Everything was still. If he had to guess, it had only been five or six hours and was likely close to morning.

Waking up his friends, Alex went through the training schedule with them. They did sprints back and forth in the room and body weight exercises, though at this point, they didn’t do too much. They each practiced the styles of fighting that Mark had gotten for them based on their roles, and soon, they moved into the skill portion of the training.

Mark and Sam cleared a small, straight stretch of rocks to practice their dash technique, while Sarah found a flat section of the wall where she could rest her back and play her flute.

Valtherion flew overhead, his thin, leathery wings flapping in a steady rhythm. He enjoyed swooping down and weaving between stalactites or terrorizing the glowing bugs that crawled along the walls. After a time, he settled on Alex’s shoulder with a content chirp. “I missed being here,” Val declared.

Everyone froze and looked at the amphiptere.

“Val, that was great, buddy. That was a whole sentence,” Alex said, rubbing the top of his scaled head.

His companion preened. “Getting better with words.”

“Well, dang, guess that skill was worth getting your hands on.” Mark chuckled.

Despite his improved speech, Val stayed playful with an almost childlike level of energy. Moving around the spinners and chasing bugs that caught his interest.

Later, after everyone was more settled in and Mark and Sam were resting between training sessions, Alex approached with his notebook. “Hey, you guys have all been progressing really well. Can each of you share your status with me? I want to note down skills and how many more slots each of us has left to fill.” It took only a few minutes, and Alex was reminded after seeing their screens, how completely abnormal his was.

When finished, he nodded and returned with the notebook to his rock to sit and examine his status.

He had to keep himself from gawking at his own stat increases. He’d only gained one level since they’d entered the Rift, and had looked at his stats just before entering. But he was getting 4 points into Willpower, three into Intellect, two into Mana and Wisdom, and one into Constitution.

He looked through everything else and changed his displayed title to Unbound. It wouldn’t do any good for people to get more information than they needed if he decided to share his screen with someone.

It’s not exactly like someone’s Willpower would win in a contest if they tried to scan me.

His eyes continued to travel down the screen, landing on the last category of items. He had two bound growth items, which he knew couldn’t be normal. They both seemed extremely powerful, his Heavenly Eye even going so far as to be marked as “Unique.”

Based on what Maelis said, it would need to be a goal of his during his time in the Rift rotation to seek out items that could serve to take it to the next rank.

His thoughts drifted to the last thing on the list. He wanted to learn more about the [Manifest Planetary Title]. It didn’t feel right that there was a specific item for no other reason than to prove he was the title holder. Maelis had been very tight-lipped on the topic, and it felt pretty obvious that there was something the spirit wasn’t sharing with him yet.

He wanted to toy with the card some more, especially since he’d only really gotten one or two chances to admire the card itself. Glancing at his mana, he decided to wait and do a bit of spell circle practice while his mana was close to full.

As the others resumed their activities, Alex let mana flow to his fingertips and began spinning them into the proper circle base for an area. Thanks to the body tempering and his newest passive, his mana was flowing smoother than ever, and the circle was complete and formed in front of him in about two seconds. He pulsed his mana through it, and the disc sprang to life.

It wasn’t until that moment that he realized a spider that was nearby was watching him closely. At the sudden appearance of the disk, the mana spinner had become startled and scurried back; however, as the spider realized Alex had created the spell without the need for a catalyst like a normal ritual, it became almost frenzied. It skittered left and right, got closer to him, and then created more space while bouncing up and down slightly.

Alex laughed and found it amusing how excited the spider was. He even tried to extend a mana tendril to speak with the creature, but it just began attempting to weave its own mana webs and mimic his spell circle.

“Tomorrow’s lesson will need to be on how to write and set a rune,” he promised the little spider. It moved a bit away from him at the vocalization, but seemed too excited to be bothered.

Splitting his mind, Alex decided to knock out two birds with one stone. Over his left hand, nearest the spinner, he practiced forming and reforming the barrier spell circle. While he loved the new [Spell Storage] skill that came with his class, he didn’t want to become dependent on it. Being back in Tianluo and at the garden had sent fresh memories of Eura’s teachings and lessons on the difference between structured and unstructured magic.

Especially after what happened to him weeks ago, Alex felt like the less he could rely on the System, the better. Even though he was still using [Mana Thread] to form the circles, he had a plan to fix that as well. While practicing with his main body, he’d use the skill to practice quickly forming the circles; then, when he was using [Mirage], he would practice the mana shaping exercises from there, since it couldn’t use skills anyway.

The idea that soon he’d be able to control his mana to create threads of mana naturally excited him. It was the only step that stood between him and his ability to have the illusory clone cast spells.

So, in the meantime, he practiced the formation of the barrier spell over his left hand, and in his right, he turned the pages of his notebook. There were two things that he wanted to devote more time to studying. The first, being a bit easier, was the desire to turn the body tempering ritual into some sort of self-cast spell circle base.

The second, though, could be potentially much more wide-reaching.

The sun elves had taken everything with them when they retreated into the portal, but Alex still had taken plenty of notes on the ritual and runes they used to upgrade and potentially break open their own Rift. Even though they had the edge in runic knowledge, Alex knew the combination of magics better than they did.

He spent the next hour focusing on those two tasks. Eventually, his mana ran low enough that it threatened a migraine, so he set the training aside and took a long drink from his Hydroflask. The mana spinner left shortly after he stopped, leaving him alone in the small space.

Remembering his earlier thought, Alex activated the [Manifest Planetary Title] item and watched as a golden light began to emit from his chest. Just as before, he reached up and pulled it from himself. The faint golden light continued to shine from it, enough to be noticeable but not bright enough to see by if it were dark in the cave. It was bigger than his phone, but a bit smaller than a tablet, and looked as if its slightly reflective surface mirrored the lantern’s light as he wiggled in from left to right.

The card's surface hadn’t changed at all; it still showed him looking very serious and casting a spell circle with his mana threads. He wore robes and held a wand, while on the table in front of his figure lay a staff, a sword, and a cup.

Looking at it closer, he hoped to find some secret or hidden detail within the image. The soft sound of movement came from his left, and he nearly jumped as he realized that several mana spinners were there now. He was very unused to there being things that didn’t leak any mana, which left his left eye at a disadvantage since he didn’t have normal peripheral vision.

The spinners stood motionless at the chamber entrance, their eyes fixed on Alex. They were so still that it freaked him out a bit. Almost like in a horror movie, the little kid would stand at the end of the hall, unmoving and waiting. Their bodies were crouched low to the ground and oriented toward him. Their legs were pulled in close to their bodies, and the front limbs were stretched out.

More appeared, and they created a silent semicircle just outside the chamber. None of them entered or made a sound. They simply stood utterly still.

“What the fu—” The card caught the light from the lantern and drew his eye.

One of the larger spinners stepped forward from the group. Alex recognized it as one of their hunters. It approached him sideways before slowly extending a mana tendril for communication. Alex accepted it warily, feeling a pulse of feelings and a mental image come through.

A desire. Following, Urgent.

He hesitated. “You want me to follow you? Why?”

The spider’s small forelimbs gestured toward a tunnel to the side of the space. It didn’t say anything else, just sent along a single pulse of urgency.

He glanced at the other spiders at the main entrance, unmoving, and then at his friends. They’d all stopped their training and were looking on with more than a little concern. “Guys,” Alex called over to them while keeping his eyes on the spinners. “Keep training. I need to check something out.”

“You all right?” Mark asked.

“I think so. Just… I want to see what they’re so worked up about.”

Alex let the forgotten planetary card in his hand dissolve by reactivating it, curious to see if it affected the spinners at all. They didn’t budge. He shrugged and stood to follow the waiting spider. It moved away quickly and waited for him at the tunnel entrance he had pointed at before. He followed and reached the tunnel’s entrance before looking over his shoulder at his friends and the prostrated spider colony.

What the hell is going on?