ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter Two: At Night Crept

My mind did feel clearer, more focused, but the change was minimal. No genius solution presented itself, and no cool psionic powers developed. I let out a sigh of disappointment. I was better at learning, which might help me out the next time I needed to survive a classroom. Maybe the next demon would be a succubus posing as a sexy teacher? Being carried by a giant spider-demon and, no doubt, its unseen army? Not so much.

"Don't panic," I remembered the voice of my father. "Take stock of your surroundings, inventory your assets, and formulate a plan. The enemy will make a mistake, wait for it and capitalize on it."

The memory seemed to come unbidden, almost like a flashback. Was this the system's way of helping me to solve problems, by conjuring up old memories? Or was this my own subconscious?

Yet, what were my assets? A weak arcane bolt, and the ability to learn. I also was a little more resistant to poisons and venom. With some experimentation I found that I could blink out Morse code, something I realized I wouldn't have been able to remember without the new clarity brought on by my increase to Intelligence. With nothing to do, I watched. I focused on the world around me.

The swinging of my cocoon caused by the creature walking would change my perspective just enough that I could see each of its legs. All twelve of them, hairy and segmented. The front most legs were not used for walking and were instead covered in barbs, each limb with a long stinger at the tip. Behind the monster trailed a long flat tail that was curved downward and tapered as it got closer to the body, much like the tail of a lobster.

Upon analyzing my bindings, I found that they had some give, and I could stretch my arms and legs out somewhat. Despite this give, the bindings were completely unbreakable. I imagined that the flexibility made them much more difficult to break. My new power of memory, however, was enough for me to realize that the bindings were becoming stickier and had more stretch to them than when I had first woken up. Perhaps they degraded with time?

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill(s)!! Analyze © -

Analyze ©- While others fight, you watch and listen. You learn mysteries and secrets unknown to others, secrets obvious to those with the ability to see them. Passive; reveals Name, Class, and Level. Activated: 1 Mana per second, reveals the background, strengths, and weaknesses of objects and creatures.

My new skill immediately seemed useful, just not useful enough. What I really needed was firepower. Or lightning power, I really wanted to shoot lightning from my hands. What was the point of having magic without flashy powers or gizmos?

The passive use of the ability immediately became apparent as I caught a glimpse of the monster's leg.

Gwerlum, the Gloomweaver. Arachnid Matriarch. Lvl 24.

The name was highlighted in purple, which probably had a significance I was unaware of. The level told me I stood no chance against this creature. It also gave me hope, it meant the system had the ability to feed me information. If I could find a way to access more of that information I had a chance of learning what was going on, and perhaps making sense of this situation. First, I had to survive the immediate situation.

Fighting was out of the question, but if I could analyze the silk binding me perhaps I could find a way to break free. I immediately activated Analyze with a thought, and I could feel the pull on my mana that I hadn't noticed before. It didn't tire me, but a part of me deep in the back of my mind rebelled at the drain much like lungs cry out for oxygen when none is available. Though momentarily stunned, I quickly recovered and turned my attention to my bindings.

Cocoon of the Gloomweaver. This cocoon was spun by Gwerlum to capture her prey. The silk has a tensile strength greater than steel, but it is the elasticity that truly makes it unbreakable. It is vulnerable to fire, slashing, and magic, but cannot be torn without truly prodigious strength. Gwerlum has sprayed this cocoon with her venom, this deteriorates the strength of the silk but helps to digest the prey more quickly and increases the adhesive properties of the silk. This process is unnecessary for common consumption and is only done in preparation to produce an egg sac. It is likely that the prey trapped in this cocoon is intended as food for the spider's spawn, thereby continuing the unholy lineage of Ungoliant, the Primordial Spider.

I wasn't too thrilled with being food for spider tykes, but it meant there was hope. It would likely take some time before I was expected to be properly digested, and my venom resistance should help keep me alive. The key thing was that the silk was slowly being weakened. If I could wait till Big Mama sprayed the cocoon with more venom, it might weaken enough for me to escape. In the meantime, I needed to focus on speeding up the process.

Over the next few hours I focused on using my arcane bolts to try to destroy some of the silk around my left hand. My current mana was enough for me to cast five arcane bolts, but it slowly regenerated enough for me to get off an additional bolt every few minutes. When the spider queen finally stopped I had created a pocket of free space around my left arm and had drilled a hole large enough for a single finger to poke through the cocoon. It was a start, I only had to hope that I had enough time.

Additionally, I had gained 3 levels in Arcane Bolt and Analyze, and a single additional level in Poison Resistance. It seemed that the first three levels of each skill were relatively easy to learn, but I was unable to advance any of the skills to their fourth rank. There was not much to analyze during the trip, but there were the occasional rock, mushroom or fungus that caught my attention. What was curious, and potentially helpful, was that it seemed each increase in skill gave me something called FP, a counter was kept on top left corner of my stats screen calling out for my attention.

I mentally selected FP, and I smiled at the results.