V2Ch3-Children of the Dark

As they fell into darkness, James threw his head back and laughed. It was a horrible, ragged noise thanks to the hole in one lung, but that didn’t stop him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Jan Roest screamed, struggling helplessly to get out of James’s grip. “And why the fuck are you laughing?!”

James paused his laughter long enough to hiss: “That’s for me to know, and you to never find out!”

“We’re going to die, you crazy bastard!”

“One of us sooner than the other!”

James tightened the arm that he still had wrapped around Roest’s neck and then twisted with all his Strength until he got the ping.

Pillage. It was almost a reflex now. He selected Talent, opened his magic satchel, and directed everything inside.

[Talent Obtained: Flame Affinity!]

Um, I already had that one. System, are you trying to cheat me? Or was that really the only Talent he had? He knew people were bound to have a smaller variety of Talents than Skills. That was why he usually Pillaged Skills. But to think that all he got out of the attack on the Rostov camp in material terms was the gear on Jan Roest’s body, it was a bit outrageous. There was that cool flaming spear Roest had stabbed him with, but it still felt like a raw deal.

He tried not to think about the other elements of his failure. All those people, condemned to be tortured and burned alive, because I was reckless.

He couldn’t afford to fixate on his regrets too much right now, though. He was wounded and falling head first, further and further into a pit so deep and black that he couldn’t see the bottom.

He finally relaxed his battle-weary body. Allowed himself to fully feel the horrible, searing pain in his chest. Pressed his free hand over the opening in his body just above his lung. Cast Laying on Hands to close up that single gaping wound.

Now, how to solve my other problems? James thought. He used Roest’s body for leverage to flip over in midair and look back up at where he’d left the other enemies. And saw nothing.

Just impenetrable blackness.

Wasn’t there a full moon tonight? And I can’t see the cliff I fell from anymore either. Clearly this is no ordinary darkness…

As he noticed this, he felt himself beginning to fall again, but there was something off about the way the pull of gravity felt. As if it was just a little slower than he remembered. As soon as he had the thought, he was falling faster, moving past Roest’s body.

This is impossible. Physics isn’t working properly. He realized he didn’t feel the rush of air moving past his skin as he fell either. Just the vague sensation of falling.

He tentatively thought of moving through the murkiness with his own willpower, and suddenly, his body jolted to a halt. He tried thinking of moving through the darkness again, but nothing more happened. He just hung there suspended.

Fine then, I’ll figure it out in a minute. He used Laying on Hands with the last of his Mana to repair the worst of his remaining injuries. It took a few minutes, but with Stem Cell Production already working, his injuries had been partly repaired before he’d started. The lung had been the biggest outstanding issue. And nothing he’d suffered was nearly as bad as losing a whole limb.

That done, and his Mana depleted, he returned to the big question.

How do I get out of this place?

The environment around him seemed to respond to his thoughts, and he observed himself being pulled through the gloom, getting further from the landmark of Roest’s body that simply floated in place.

Where he was going, he couldn’t tell. This place had not behaved in a predictable way thus far. But it felt like he was moving deeper into the void.

That’s not what I wanted, he thought. Need to focus on what will actually get me out of here. Or maybe—He recalled the thought he’d had before he jumped. Maybe I need to think like a spider. Think like Anansi.

He put his hand on his chin, stroked his goatee, and focused on the problem. If I were a spider, what would this place be to me? Spiders like the dark. And this place has me trapped. So, a place to find prey? He would hate to be found by anything while he was stranded here.

As he had that thought, his body began moving in a different direction.

This time, though, he ignored it. How does a spider web trap insects? It’s sticky, but that’s not the only thing. Most of the time, the more the bug struggles, the more it entraps itself. The web just pulls it further in while it’s trying to get out. By the time the spider gets there, it barely has to do anything.

If this is the place off the edge of the map where Anansi told me to look for him, maybe it’s acting like a spider’s web. It moves me around when I think about wanting to be moved or to stop moving. But just like a web, it’s not moving the way I want it to. Maybe it’s doing the exact opposite of what I think in my head. Like a spider’s web, if he wanted to get out, it would just suck him further in.

It was a strange idea, but it was all he had to go on. If he didn’t come up with something, he’d eventually starve in here. And almost on cue, his stomach growled as he realized this.

Fine. Take me far away from Anansi! As far from him as possible! James focused on the thought.

And he began moving through the dark in a new direction. It seemed to be composed of strange, spiraling twists, sudden shifts in path, and headlong motions straight down. Like a nightmare roller coaster in complete darkness.

Like an extreme version of Space Mountain, he thought. He resisted the pull of his mind toward nausea. If he thought about being sick, this place would actually go out of its way to make him vomit.

Take me far away from Anansi, he silently repeated. Away from Anansi!

As he dropped straight down once more and felt his stomach fly up into his throat, he passed Jan Roest. Literally impossible unless this place is a continuous loop in some way.

Then back to his mantra.

Away from Anansi! Away from Anansi! Away from Anansi!

And something came into view in the distance. Not Jan Roest. A shape that was glowing with bright golden light. He had to keep himself from speculating about what this might be in his own mind. He wanted to avoid thinking any stupid thoughts that would send him in the wrong direction.

But James felt an uncontrollable surge of relief. He kept his thoughts largely restrained, but he couldn’t resist wishing: Hope it’s a soft landing!

Suddenly, he accelerated at an impossible rate. He found himself zipping toward the golden glow—a golden web, he had only a second to notice—and before he could think the correct thoughts, he felt his body slam into the web with all the speed and force of a bullet train smacking into the side of a mountain.

James felt his nose strike a thick golden thread—the strand of webbing had a similar diameter to a human wrist—and he heard the bone snap before he felt it. I’ve had worse, he thought for a split second.

Then the rest of his body hit the web. The broken wrist and the broken rib he’d just repaired both bent painfully, then snapped. Then his right femur. Thankfully the web hadn’t smashed his balls. But pain screamed out from almost every corner of his body as he struck the hard structure at what seemed to be near-sonic speed.

He bit into his lip until he drew blood, trying to focus his mind and bring the pain under control. He could feel it was almost enough, even through Pain Resistance, to knock him out. And in truth, he wanted to succumb to unconsciousness now.

But first, one step to make sure he was in better condition when he woke up.

Skill Fusion. He combined Stem Cell Production and Healing Aura, setting this Fusion as permanent. Ideally that would juice up the healing speed. Stem Cell Production hadn’t impressed him much so far. He could still heal other people’s injuries with Laying on Hands anyway. And hopefully Enhanced Stem Cell Production would serve him much better.

Then he succumbed to the darkness clawing at his vision.

When James awakened, he could tell that hours had gone by. Through Pain Resistance, he could still sense terrible discomfort in all of the regions of his body where bones had been broken. But an experimental wiggle of his limbs confirmed that the injuries seemed to be more or less healed. Probably at the stage where I’d be joking about this now in regular life, and people would be asking to sign my cast.

As he finished the physical self-check, he felt vibrations beneath him. Movement on the web.

Perhaps that was what had woken him.

He swallowed drily. Really hope this is actually Anansi’s web. I’m not sure I’m in proper condition to fight Shelob right now.

“Hey, something landed in the web,” a male voice said.

“Do you think it’s food?” a deeper male voice asked.

“You always think with your stomach, Afudohwedohwe,” the first voice said. “We have no reason to think it’s food! Things float here through the darkness all the time.”

“Maybe it’s another human,” Afudohwedohwe said. “I think of food because there’s never enough to fill my belly, Ntikuma, you know that!”

Oh crap. A pair of talking monsters! They must be high level. Need to heal faster.

He tried to sit up, only to realize the golden thread held him fast. And as he struggled against the pull of the golden thread, he heard the voices moving closer.

“Well, if it’s a human, you can have him,” Ntikuma said. “That last one was far too greasy for my taste. He made my belly ache!”

Shit!

James still couldn’t escape from the sticky threads, so he did the only thing he could think of. Natural Camouflage!

Hopefully his body would somehow camouflage against the backdrops of the black void and the golden web. He wasn’t optimistic, but he was literally helpless to do anything else. He couldn’t even see who was approaching him, since he was stuck to the web lying face down.

Finally, the vibrations drew close enough that he was certain they must be standing almost right on top of him.

There were a few long moments of silence.

“Say, brother, you said I could eat this one, right?” Afudohwedohwe said finally.

“Yes, that’s right. He looks a lot healthier than the last one too. Hurry up and grab him before I change my mind.”

James instantly felt a hand grasp him from behind the neck.

“Wait!” he yelped. “Anansi! I’m here to see Anansi!”

The hand that had grabbed his neck very smoothly pulled him away from the golden web, seemingly effortlessly.

“Here to see Pop, you say?”

James was pulled through the air and turned toward the two figures.

They were a pair of the strangest people—if that was the correct word—that he’d ever seen.

One of the two, the one not holding him, was a giant black spider standing on his hind legs, with a male human head attached where the spider’s head would be. The one holding James was even stranger: a male humanoid figure with six arms, a pot belly, and a black spider’s head. Both of the brothers had dark colored skin.

“The children of Anansi, I presume?” James managed to squawk.

“That’s right,” said the one holding him. James recognized by his voice that he was Afudohwedohwe.

“I’m here to see Anansi, he asked me to come,” James repeated, desperately hoping that he was in the right web.

“Well, Pop didn’t say anything about visitors, did he?” Afudohwedohwe asked, turning his head to Ntikuma.

“He did, actually,” Ntikuma said, rolling his eyes. “You were just too busy stuffing your face while he was talking. Still—” He looked at James closely. “I don’t know if you’re really him. Pop said there was a smart human coming. You don’t look too clever.”

“How many humans do you think are looking for Anansi’s web out here?” James asked, gesturing frustratedly at the void around him.

“You sure I can’t eat him?” Afudohwedohwe asked, still looking at Ntikuma rather than at James.

“Well, let’s not say I’m totally sure yet,” Ntikuma said. Afudohwedohwe gave James a gluttonous look. “We should test him to see if he’s worthy of Pop’s attention.”

“Alright, big brother,” Afudohwedohwe said. He looked pleased, as if he was sure James would fail this test and become dinner.

At least I’m not dead yet, James thought. He was not entirely confident that both of these brothers wanted to give him a fair shake, though.

“I agree to be tested,” James said, “even though your father specifically requested that I come as his guest and didn’t name any such conditions. However, I’ll only do it if the one to test me is Ntikuma.”

“What’s that about?” Afudohwedohwe asked, tilting his head and giving James what seemed like a hard look. He sounded incensed, although it was hard to read his emotions when the words were coming out of a giant spider head.

“What he said,” Ntikuma agreed, a stern expression on his face. “Are you questioning my brother’s honor, kid?”

“Not at all,” James quickly lied. “But I’m an important guest of Anansi. I deserve the older brother’s attention, not the younger!”

The two brothers exchanged a glance, and then both burst out laughing, so hard they clutched their sides.

“Ha ha ha ha! I think I’m going to like this one. Maybe there’s something to his story after all.”

“I can sort of see what Pop might see in him. Ha ha ha ha!”

James nervously chuckled along with them until the laughter faded.

Then the two brothers began to walk away from the edge of the golden web, where James had been suspended. James was still gripped from behind the neck in a single one of Afudohwedohwe’s massive hands, as if he was a toy in the grasp of an over-large child.

As they reached the center of the web, an alert popped up for James.

[Dungeon entered! You have arrived in Dungeon: Anansi’s House!]