The spider approached slowly. Jade strained with all her might, trying to heave her arm free from the webbing. A few of the silky strands snapped and the entire tangle of stringy goo stretched from the tree, but it held. Barely. She gritted her teeth, frustrated. This wasn't how she'd wanted to reveal her nature to Siora, but there was no other way. Jade focused, drawing on the simmering power in the back of her mind, letting it flow through her. An instant later her horns and tail burst forth, followed by a pair of leathery demonic wings.

The transformation was accompanied by the surge of energy that Jade was slowly becoming accustomed to as most of her stats leapt by 20%. It was joined by something new, though. This time the transition carried with it an undercurrent of emotion. Anger, disdain, and a lust for victory over her foe. The strange sensations caught Jade off guard, distracting her at a time she could least afford it. They faded quickly, however, receding to dark corner of her mind.

She couldn't waste time contemplating the unexpected urges. With her newly enhanced strength, Jade tried once more to wrench herself free.

SNAP.

Her right arm, the one holding her dagger, pulled clear of the restraining webs. Unfortunately, the rest of the sticky mass held firm. Jade immediately put the blade to use, sawing away at the remaining webbing. The spider was still coming, stalking closer. This was taking too long. Even with her arm free, she wasn't going to make it.

Nearby, her companions were also struggling to escape. She could see Luis trying to cut himself out with his sword, but the weapon was too large and unwieldy to be of much use. She needed to buy them some time.

An idea came to her. A terrible idea that probably wouldn't work. Jade's original plan had been to use the enhanced strength of her demon form to break entirely free of the webbing, but in her position she just didn't have enough leverage. With that off the table, bad ideas were all she had left.

"Here spider spider…" She called out in a cutesy voice, lacing her words with the enchanting appeal inherent in her nature. The monster was only 10 feet away from her now, closing by the second. It paused, raising itself higher into the air on its many legs. It really was cute. Jade's childhood pet, a tarantula named Fuzzy, had done the same thing all the time when it was confused.

The sudden memory brought a smile to her face, despite the dire situation. To her surprise the charm magic seemed to react to her emotions. It became more focused, the mana channeling more smoothly through the mental conduits that traced patterns through her mind and body. Emboldened, she tried again, speaking more soothing words.

"Aren't you a cute little spidey widey." She cooed, directing the full might of her spell towards the arachnid's primitive mind.

Normally, Jade could cast the spell 'Allure' at level D. One of her racial traits, however, boosted the rank of all charm spells she cast while in her demon form by one, raising it to 'C'. Her other racial ability, 'Bondage Queen', further boosted the power of all spells she cast proportional to how restrained she was. In her current state mostly stuck to a tree by spider webbing that bonus was maxed out, raising the spell's level all the way to 'B'.

 

• Spell: Allure
  • Rating: B level spell
  • Cost: Medium mana
  • Cooldown: 5 minutes
  • Effect: Attempt to charm one or more nearby creatures that can see and hear you and are all within 10 feet of each other. If you are successful, the creatures will be predisposed to obey your commands for the next (intelligence score) minutes, times five. Charmed creatures will not obey commands that cause direct harm to themselves. Commands that go against their core nature, such as to harm their allies, have a moderate chance of breaking the effect early. If you cast this spell again all previous charm effects from other uses of 'Allure' are broken. Having multiple targets charmed simultaneously dilutes the strength of the charm, making it easier for creatures to resist your will. This spell is more likely to succeed if the target finds you attractive.

 

"Jade!" Naomi hissed to her from where she lay in a tangled heap on the ground. "Are you trying to seduce the spider?!"

Jade ignored her, focusing on channeling the full strength of her magic. She still had a lot to learn about the exact nature of her powers, but she was starting to realize that there was more to her spells and talents than what the system presented in its descriptions. Recent introspection focused on the mental pathways her spells had carved into her mind had given Jade new insight into what was happening when she channeled mana. Because of that, she had an instinctive feeling that the 'Allure' spell was not optimized for use against monsters or other non-sapient creatures. That aside, the spell relied a great deal on language and, moreover, her words being understood by the target. However, Jade suspected that the massively boosted rank of her spell would help it overcome those limitations.

At least, she hoped that's how it worked.

The enhanced power gushed out of Jade's body with such force that it was difficult for her to control, nearly bottoming out her remaining mana supply in one go. She didn't yet possess the skill or mental fortitude to wield such potent magic effectively, and the overcharged spell sent a spike of pain through Jade's head as she released it. The spider froze in place, tilting its head at her curiously. It's 8 large eyes were all focused on her. Jade could feel the spell taking hold on the creature, warping its primitive perception of her into… What?

This creature had no concept of friends. Other than its own kind, creatures it encountered were put into one of two categories: Prey, and threat. The monster twitched, clearly confused as it tried to reconcile the mind-altering effect of the spell with how it viewed the world. Sensing this conflict, Jade attempted to imprint an alteration into the magic flowing through her, a series of impressions overlaying the normal spell. 'I am one of you' the impression said. 'Not prey. Not predator.'

Out of the corner of her eye Jade saw Luis extricating himself from the tangle of webbing. He gestured to himself, speaking softly. "Jade, toss me the knife." He had managed to free his legs and rise to his knees, but one arm was still pinned to his side. "I can take it out while you have it distracted."

"I've got this." Jade said, focusing on the magic as she continued to saw away at the sticky threads holding her against the tree. She could do it. She was almost free.

'Almost' wasn't good enough. Jade's tenuous hold on the spell was slipping fast. It just wasn't effective against creatures like this. Jade's clumsy attempt to modify her spell's effect wasn't meeting with much success. The main reason it was working at all was because of its greatly enhanced power.

"Good spider…" She said to the monster, doing her best to keep the spell going. It couldn't understand her, but the intonation of her words was calm and soothing. "Aren't you a pretty monster?"

She still wasn't free; her legs were stuck more securely than she'd thought. In front of her, the spider growled. The guttural sound sent a chill down her spine.

Faster. Faster!

The spell shattered. With a hissing snarl the spider lunged towards it's trapped prey, serrated mandibles open wide. Jade squeezed her eyes shut, paralyzed by fear. At any moment, she expected to feel the slicing pain of her chest being ripped apart by-!

There was a whooshing sound and a sickening squelch, followed by the thud of something heavy thumping to the ground at her feet. The horrible pain never came. One second passed, then two. Heart nearly bursting from her chest, Jade took a peek. The spider's body lay in a heap in front of her, its severed head lying on the ground beside it. Luis stood in front of her holding his massive sword in one hand. One of his arms was still stuck to his side, only half free of the spider silk. He turned to look at her, breathing hard.

"Next time, listen to me. Yeah?" He said. There was no trace of his usual good cheer. The large man looked frustrated, almost angry. If Jade was reading the situation right, he had decapitated the spider with a single, one-armed swing of his sword. How…?

Holy fuck we got lucky.

No, not lucky. She'd messed up. If she'd just tossed Luis the damn dagger, he could've gotten there sooner. Instead, her arrogant assumption that she could do it all by herself had nearly gotten them all killed.

"Sorry…" She said, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "I was almost out. I thought I could do it."

With a few more cuts, Jade extricated herself from the last of the webbing. She looked again at the spider's gaping maw and shuddered.

"It's fine." Luis took a deep breath and, with obvious effort, relaxed a little. "All's well that ends well."

"Yeah, well, thanks. For saving me."

"Couldn't have done it without your distraction." He said with a shrug. "It never even saw me comin'."

"That was a hell of a swing."

"Ha!" This time, Luis couldn't keep a grin off of his face. "You know, I think I'm gettin' the hang of this."

"That's great and all!" Naomi called from where she was lying half tangled on the ground, partially obscured by a giant fern. "But how about some help getting us out of here?"

 

---

 

A few minutes later the four of them were finally free from the last of the spider webs. As it turned out, the material wasn't very durable. By the time they got to Siora the sticky threads were already half dissolved. Jade committed that fact to memory. If they encountered more of these creatures, it would be good to know that their webbing only lasted for a few minutes.

Although. Jade ruminated, waiting while the others collected the packs they'd dropped at the onset of the battle. A few minutes is a long time in a fight.

Fortunately, they didn't seem likely to encounter more of these creatures soon. The jungle around them was calm, with no sign of any additional threats.

A few notifications blinked in the corner of her vision. They'd popped up during the battle but had been automatically minimized. Jade pulled up the first one and was immediately intrigued.

 

• Spell Update
• You have modified the base parameters of your racial spell 'Allure'. You may now choose to convey basic mental impressions to targets you have charmed with this spell.
• Note: Choosing to cast the spell in this way weakens the strength of the charm effect.

 

So, her attempt to mentally communicate with the spider through the link her spell provided hadn't been a complete failure? And now the spell was officially modified? Or rather, officially 'unofficially' modified? The fact that the system recognized and codified the change was curious. That implied that other spells, and probably talents too, could also be adjusted. Jade closed the window, deciding that this warranted further experimentation.

The second system message was noteworthy as well, in that it prompted Jade to break a personal record for how fast she could change her mind about something.

 

• System Warning
• You have modified the effect of a soul imprinted spell. Attempting to alter soul imprinted spells with an insufficient grasp of the magical theory underlying their function may result in unintended side effects such as spell malfunction, spell backfire, mana poisoning, and spontaneous combustion. Caution is advised.

 

Another, smaller box popped up on top of the first.

 

• Suppress this warning in the future? (Y/N)

 

For some reason the feminine voice reading these messages was more robotic and emotionless than usual. That fact hardly registered to Jade as she immediately clicked 'No' on the new query.

Ok… She thought, suddenly feeling queasy. She read the listed potential 'side effects' again. Don't fuck with the spells. Good safety tip.

That sounded like something that should have been mentioned earlier, and Jade reflected that the Labyrinth desperately needed a better 'wayfarer orientation' program. With that warning in mind, Jade resolved to avoid trying to manipulate any of her spells further. At least for now. Her gaze lingered on the words 'magical theory'. Was that something she could study? Now that thought intrigued her.

Jade dismissed the warning and glanced at the final notice. It was just a quest update for 'The Hunt Begins', her monster hunting quest. After defeating the pair of spiders her tally was now at 4/5. Just one more until it was completed. Technically, Luis had defeated the second one, but apparently the system had given her credit as well. Her participation in the battle must have been enough to count for the quest.

Distracted by the notifications, Jade didn't notice Siora walking up to her until she spoke.

"So… Jade." Siora started, then paused. The elf looked down, not meeting her eyes. Something was clearly bothering her. "Um…"

Oh. Right. Jade thought, closing the last of the notices.

In the heat of the moment Jade had nearly forgotten that Siora thought she was human. Now she stood before her with horns, wings, and tail on full demonic display. There was no hiding what she was now. Not that she'd been planning on keeping Siora in the dark for long. Either way, it was time to get this conversation over with.