"Hungry."
Silvi tugged at Elian's ruined shirt. Her eight eyes were wide, pleading, and terrifyingly vacant. The "cute daughter" vibe was warring with the "apex predator" instinct. Her mandibles clicked a rapid, staccato rhythm—the dinner bell of the abyss.
INNER VOICE: She's going to eat me. If I don't feed her, she eats the nearest protein source. That's me. I am the protein.
OUTER VOICE: "Patience. The meal comes to us."
Elian peered through the small slit in the cocoon. Below, the floor was a sea of shifting shadows. The Corpse-Rats had finished the moth. Now, they were sniffing the air, chittering. They smelled the egg residue. They smelled fresh meat.
He looked at the main anchor line holding their cocoon to the ceiling. It was thick, braided silk.
"Silvi, stay," Elian commanded.
He extended his hand toward the opening. He didn't shoot a web. Instead, he plucked the anchor line like a harp string.
Thrummm.
The vibration traveled down the line, singing into the stone floor.
Below, the chittering stopped. A dozen pairs of red eyes snapped upward.
One rat, bolder than the rest—a mangy thing with a hairless, scarred tail—latched onto the silk rope. It began to climb. It was fast, its claws hooking into the braid.
Scritch-scratch. Scritch-scratch.
The sound grew louder. The line shook.
"Prepare yourself," Elian whispered.
Silvi crouched by the opening, her tiny abdomen wiggling. She looked like a cat ready to pounce on a laser pointer.
The rat's snout poked through the darkness, five feet below the cocoon. It hissed, smelling them.
INNER VOICE: It's huge up close. Size of a beagle. Those teeth could snap my wrist.
Elian didn't panic. The fear was there, cold and heavy in his gut, but the Outer Voice suppressed it. He waited.
Four feet. Three feet.
"Now."
Elian didn't attack directly. He flicked his left wrist. A glob of sticky, unrefined silk shot out, not at the rat, but behind it. It stuck to the rat's hind legs and the climbing rope, gluing the beast in place.
The rat shrieked, thrashing. It was stuck, exposed, and helpless.
"Silvi. Kill."
The spider-girl launched herself.
She didn't fall; she ran down the silk rope with gravity-defying grace. She was a blur of pale skin and black legs. She landed on the rat's back, her tiny human hands gripping its fur.
The rat snapped its head back, trying to bite, but Silvi was too close. She sank her fangs into the back of its neck.
Hiss.
The rat convulsed. Its screech turned into a wet gurgle. The paralysis was instant.
"Bring it up!" Elian ordered.
Silvi didn't have the strength to haul the carcass. Elian reached out with his mind, grabbing the silk tether he'd glued the rat with. [Silk Sovereignty] flared. He hauled the line in, hand over hand, dragging both the dead beast and his triumphant daughter back into the cocoon.
They tumbled onto the floor of the shelter.
[Target Eliminated: Scavenger Corpse-Rat (Lvl 2)] [Assist Bonus applied.] [Familiar 'Silvi' gains 50 EXP.] [Silvi reaches Level 2.]
Silvi didn't wait for a notification. She tore into the rat. It was gruesome. It was primal. Elian watched, feeling a wave of nausea, but he forced himself to stay looking.
INNER VOICE: This is my life now. Watching a spider-child eat a rat. And the worst part? I'm jealous. I'm still hungry.
He noticed a notification blinking in the corner of his vision.
[Loot: Rat Fang (Common), 2 Copper Coins (Digested)]
"Coins?" Elian frowned. He reached into the mess of the rat's stomach (using a wrapped silk glove, thank god) and pulled out two corroded coins.
OUTER VOICE: "Monsters eat adventurers. Adventurers carry money. The economy of death circulates."
Silvi finished the best parts and looked up, her face smeared with blood. She looked... happier. Less feral.
"Pa-pa!" She pushed the rest of the carcass toward him.
"Sharing," Elian realized. A lump formed in his throat. "Good girl."
He couldn't eat the raw meat. Not again. Not unless he had to.
"We need fire," he muttered. "And we need to get off this ceiling before the rest of them figure out how to climb."
He looked down. The other rats weren't climbing. They were... stacking.
They were climbing over each other, forming a pyramid of fur and claws, a living tower rising toward the cocoon. And at the base, a much larger rat—one with glowing green veins pulsating on its back—was barking orders.
[Warning: Plague-Rat Alpha (Lvl 5) detected.] [Threat Assessment: Lethal.]
Elian looked at his remaining silk reserves.
INNER VOICE: Low. I used too much on the hammock. If we fight that thing, we die.
OUTER VOICE: "Tactical retreat. Upward."
He looked at the ceiling. The stalactites went higher, disappearing into a vent shaft that expelled warm, foul air.
"Silvi," Elian said, scooping her up. She hissed at the Alpha below, tiny legs bristling. "We're leaving."
He shot a line straight up, into the dark vent.