For the first time since being transported to this place, I'd had the opportunity of watching the crystal trees change colour as day and night switched places. Several times, in fact, but after the first cycle, things had just kind of blurred together. I wasn't sure which one was which, anyway. I'd never been into the fox-kin town only to find everyone asleep; there had always been some people walking around. Maybe they didn't have a fixed schedule? Or didn't need to sleep?

I wasn't stuck here. I could hit trigger respawn whenever I wanted. Yes, it would take a while to kick in, but it would kick in. And because I could, I hadn't. She was, as she said, a spider of her word, and the number of resistance levels I'd gained since being in the care of the spider queen had been immense.

It had helped that one of the other two cocoons had turned out to contain a priestess. Only a green-robed, low-ranking one, and I had no idea what she was doing outside their town or how she'd managed to get herself caught, but she could heal, and the spider queen had promised to let her go if she kept me alive.

Poison nullification had capped at thirty as it struggled unsuccessfully against her kiss, although at least it now wasn't so completely outclassed. I could blink! I could, to a very small extent, wiggle my fingers! It still took hours to clear out a dose, though, and there was no sign of another evolution. If the spider queen's venoms didn't push it, I dreaded to think what I'd need.

Pain nullification had also capped at thirty. Her kiss of pain was simply unfair. It sent my whole body into agony, despite causing no damage whatsoever. Back on Earth, I'd once mistaken a hot sauce for a regular condiment, and accidentally used rather more than the advised single drop of it on a burger. The effect that had on my mouth and, the next day, on my rear, her venom was having on my entire body. With poison and pain nullification capped, it was just about bearable, but at the start... Despite the paralysis on us both, the fox-kin warrior could somehow tell, and I could feel the satisfaction radiating off him.

To be fair, that had given me another level of novice empath, so there were silver linings everywhere...

Her decay magic didn't grant me a new skill, but had got me a corrosion resistance evolution, and taken it up to twenty-five. It was still increasing, and would probably cap at thirty if we carried on for long enough, but it was starting to slow; the queen's magic wasn't as strong as her venom, and my levels were getting high enough to resist them. The early spells were nasty though; long lived, powerful and highly invasive. Once, she'd hit me in the arm with some sort of rot, causing it to turn black and wither as I watched. The poor priestess was left battling to save it, forced into a war of attrition. The priestess couldn't keep up with the damage, and eventually the spider had simply sliced my arm off to prevent the magic spreading further.

Evolution conditions met: Corrosion resistance ranks up to corrosion nullification
Though not as common as poisons, some creatures or adventurers choose to use strong acids or alkalis, digestive enzymes, other corrosive agents or even rare decay magic. Just another danger of this world that any adventurer needs to be prepared for if they wish to survive. And somehow you have survived a powerful corrosive agent injected directly into your bloodstream, having your body wreaked by blight, and being exposed to powerful decay magic for an extended period. For such a feat, your resistance has been upgraded to nullification. This skill strongly aids in holding yourself together in the face of any sort of corrosive attack, as well as helping to purge corrosive agents from your body.

It was a surprise that it mentioned blight; I thought that was a disease. Then again, the kiss of pain was affected by both poison and pain nullification, so it wasn't unprecedented.

Her ice magic had given me cold tolerance, as well as its first evolution, capping out at twenty. Apparently it wasn't enough for the second evolution. It was more straightforward than the decay magic; either she conjured icicles and threw them at me, which made me wish I could get piercing resistance, or she froze me directly. I'd lost both legs to frostbite, the priestess unable to heal them.

Evolution conditions met: Cold tolerance ranks up to cold resistance
While less common than its opposite, fire, ice magic is still a relatively common choice, largely due to its simplicity. Or maybe magic wasn't the problem, and for some reason you decided to go adventuring mid-winter while naked. For you, magic certainly was a problem, afflicted by the ice wielded by an aranea regina, and surviving it has earned you this upgrade from tolerance to resistance. This skill greatly decreases the lower end of the temperature range in which you can comfortably operate and reduces the damage when you go beyond your limit.

I'd even got a couple of levels of disease nullification, after the queen had got a feel for the healing abilities of the priestess and decided she wanted that kidney after all, digging into my back to claim it. The thought of the spider queen being recognised as the sort of parasite disease nullification applied to was well worth a laugh, but it didn't seem to do her any harm. Nor could I actually laugh, because the queen had carefully kept me paralysed the entire time, even after I'd levelled up enough for it to need to be reapplied every couple of hours. Maybe she thought I'd ask her to stop? She underestimated me, if so.

Despite my willingness to tolerate her attention, it could never last forever. I hadn't eaten, drunk or slept, and my health smudge was shrinking despite the efforts of the priestess. Even she wasn't doing too well, having only drunk molten ice produced by the queen, and refusing all food. Mainly because of what the food was. The other two fox-kin were long since dead, the queen slipping between the threads of their cocoons from time to time to snack. I never did find out who was in the third cocoon.

"Aww, did the little fly break?"

"Huh?" I asked, and then realised I could ask. She let the paralysis expire?

"You were laughing rather strangely."

Oops. I hadn't even noticed. "Ah. I do that often," I said, surprised I could still talk so easily after days of not drinking. "Don't you think this world is something worth laughing at? It really is quite a silly place, when you stop to think about it."

The spider queen stared at me, still stuck in her web, missing three of my four limbs, not to mention a kidney. Despite still having room to grow corrosion nullification, it probably was about time to leave, so I activated trigger respawn.

...Crap. During my time here, Sru'taklin must have done something to my respawn cave. I'd lost it as an option for my respawn location. I set my destination to the temple instead.

What would happen if I had no valid respawn site? Would it just dump me somewhere at random? Would I fail to respawn at all? Hopefully, I'd never find out.

"Sorry!" shouted the priestess. "I'm so sorry! I... I..."

"What for?" I asked in confusion.

"Because I let it do that to you. I helped it, just to save myself."

Huh? I thought she'd been listening to the conversation when I first got here. "But I asked her to," I pointed out. "If anything, I should thank you for helping..."

Come to think of it, my actions must make no sense whatsoever to her. She probably thought I was the biggest masochist in the universe... "Umm... I should explain a bit," I added hastily. "I grow more resistant to magic the more it's used on me, and both decay and ice magic resistances will help me survive the blight in the catacombs. Mere immortality turned out not to aid me much down there."

She looked at me in confusion.

"Yes," said the spider queen, suddenly. "Yes, you are quite right. The world is indeed a silly place."

She started clicking, just like the other spiders when they'd been laughing. It kept getting louder and went on for some time. Did I just break the spider queen? Mutual breakage?

"Well," she managed, once she had stopped. "I do feel better now. Has our deal been concluded to your satisfaction?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Good. Then I'll be taking that second kidney now."

The queen vanished, and I soon felt pain at my back, easily ignorable with my maxed pain nullification, but this time the priestess wasn't healing the resulting wound. Looked like I'd bleed out long before trigger respawn kicked in.

"I'm not going to apologise for your young, though. They started the fight."

There came no answer, the queen being busy detaching my internal organ from whatever important bits of plumbing it was connected to. The red smudge at the bottom of my vision rapidly faded to nothing, and for the first time in days, I passed out.

My eyes snapped open in the temple. One advantage of the place was that it was well lit, so the traditional couple of minutes for my eyes to adapt weren't required. One disadvantage was the array of symbols that had been drawn in a circle around the statue, the air distorted and vibrating above them. Sense mana was telling me I was inside some sort of spherical barrier.

"Wha... What in the abyss?!"

"That only matches what we expected. Don't lose your nerve!"

I spun around to see a pair of mages, one of whom was in the process of tossing a green vial that looked very much like the one used by the previous mage I'd met. There wasn't a single priestess in sight. What was happening here? Not that I intended to wait and find out; I activated fast travel and jumped upstairs.

"She's here!" came a shout, and I spun around to see a whole group of fox-kin, one of whom was in the process of tossing one of the green vials. Yup, there was the same barrier magic inscribed on the floor, too. One respawn location had been destroyed, and the other two trapped. In a split second decision, I decided the barrier would almost certainly stop me from escaping and instead I should catch the vial before it smashed. I leapt forward, successfully grabbing it out of the air, then tossed it back out at the mage who had thrown it.

His initial surprise when I'd caught it turned into a smirk.

The vial shattered against the inside of the barrier. Okay, so it wasn't just me it stopped from getting out. It was everything... Oops... I activated trigger respawn, which would probably work this once, but more than that and they'd work out the hour limit. Thankfully, I'd just done a bunch of seriously hardcore poison nullification training, and I was prepared to bet the stuff wouldn't send me to sleep just from proximity anymore. I could hold my breath for a couple of minutes. How could I break the barrier?

The only possibly relevant skill was bend mana, so I put my hand against the barrier and tried to do something to it. I could push against it, distorting the barrier, and I could absorb mana from it, weakening it, but neither would destroy it in time.

Bend mana advanced to level 2

The group of fox-kin were watching in silence, presumably waiting for their poison to take effect. I tried attacking with sword and spear, but neither achieved anything. Bend mana definitely had the largest effect, so I switched back to that, kneeling to try to attack the runes directly.

Bend mana advanced to level 3

Alas, while my resistance skills were all highly trained, manipulating mana was something I'd barely done before, and my only related skill was weak. How were these fox-kin even doing this? The last time I'd been attacked next to a statue, the barrier had protected me, but this time I was having no such luck.

The green mist had spread throughout the interior of the barrier, and there was no way I was getting through it before needing to breathe. On the bright side, poison nullification was indeed protecting me, and the feedback I was getting suggested that even if I breathed it in, I would be out for a few minutes at most. Potent as it was, this stuff wasn't a patch on the spider queen.

I wondered what sort of effect the nectar of my pet murder tree would have on me now. Would I be completely immune to it yet?

Bend mana advanced to level 4

Another level, but I wasn't making enough progress. Given an hour, I might be able to tear myself out, but not in a matter of minutes. Desperate for air, I gave in, but at least tried to keep my breathing shallow. It didn't help, and I fell forward, asleep before I even hit the floor.

"Given how long it took the sleeping gas to take effect, we have to assume she'll recover quicker than normal too. She's also suspected to be able to resist pet collars, and we have no data on her ability to remove magical bindings, so we'll be moving quickly. Third and fourth, run behind and keep watch for signs of her waking. Second, run ahead. Go."

Well, more fool you. I was already awake.

"She's already awake!"

"Damn, why don't we have orally administered sleeping potion?"

Okay, don't fool you then. I couldn't move, and my abilities were sealed. They must have put a slave collar on me while I slept. In addition, my hands were bound in front of me, and my ankles were locked together, presumably by those magical bindings they mentioned. Trigger respawn hadn't progressed much, so it didn't look like I'd been out for long. Just long enough for them to do whatever they did.

I was in a fireman's carry over someone's shoulder, but no-one here was strong enough for sense presence to respond. Maybe I could fight my way out? I'd need to move quickly; they were headed down the passage to their own territory. What were these bindings they had on me? I fought the control of the slave collar and fired analysis.

Mind magic resistance advanced to level 14

Cursed mage-bane manacles
This magical item prevents spell casting by the wearer. This item is cursed and is irremovable once worn.

Thank goodness the description specifically said spell casting. From the name, I was worried it would prevent all mana use, which would have blocked item box. It was time to find out if item box worked on cursed items.

First, I activated item box to remove the collar, immediately replacing it with one of my own. I waited a few seconds, but no-one reacted. Apparently I'd got away with the switch. That gave me my freedom back, but my arms and legs were in full view of the followers behind us. If I removed them, they'd notice. Nothing for it but to try.

I tried to activate item box, but it refused. The feedback was as if I was trying to put in an object that didn't fit, or something that was living. I couldn't use it to remove cursed items. Damn.

What other options did I have? It was a magic item, so could I suck mana from it with bend mana? Nope, that didn't work either.

Could I fight with my hands and feet bound together? Maybe, but not well. I could definitely cause some serious pain to the person carrying me, but the ones behind me wouldn't be happy about it, and I wasn't sure what my next move would be. Could I slave collar him? No, in my position I couldn't bring my arms around to his neck.

I had one weapon that wouldn't be immediately fatal and would probably cause them to panic. I pulled my blight-infected shield from my item box and scrubbed it over my captor's back before storing it again.

"What the fuck was that?!" he shouted, throwing me to the ground as the whole group stopped jogging.

"She created her shield and rubbed it over your back before erasing it again."

"What did you do?" he shouted at me.

"Take these off, and I might tell you," I answered, holding out my arms.

"I order you to tell me what you just did."

"And I reject your order," I replied with a smirk.

"Since she's so hardy, what about shoving a vial of sleeping gas right up her nose?"

"Hah, good idea," answered their leader, wrapping cloth around my head before shoving another vial into it.