Nara ran.
The moment Kael's voice cut through the trees she broke into a sprint, bare feet pounding over roots and moss. The heavy Grimoire satchel slammed against her back with every stride, threatening to drag her down, but she refused to drop it. That bag was the only reason she had crossed the barrier. She would die with it strapped to her body before she let Kael take it back.
Pip kept pace beside her, small legs moving in a blur that should have been impossible for a Level 1 goblin. The creature navigated the dark terrain without once looking down—dodging roots, leaping low branches, slipping between ferns as if the forest itself whispered directions only it could hear. Its grey eyes glowed faintly, locked on the path ahead.
Behind them, boots crashed through the underbrush. Four sets. Kael's escorts were Level 12 to 15—professional fighters with real combat classes and stamina that came from proper meals and training. In open ground they would have run her down in minutes.
But this was not open ground.
Pip veered left without warning, pulling her into a narrow ravine choked with thorny vines. Nara followed, breath steady, legs burning but not failing. Undead physiology had its advantages. She did not tire the way living things did. No gasping lungs, no lactic acid screaming in her muscles. Just the constant, heavy drag of the satchel and the cold calculation running in her head.
Stamina drain: NegligiblePursuer distance: 47 meters and closing
The System still fed her fragments of data, even if half the interface remained grey and corrupted.
One escort shouted ahead, "She's heading for the ridge!"
Pip changed direction again, guiding her up a steep slope covered in loose shale. The escorts behind them slowed, boots slipping on the unstable rock. Nara gained precious seconds. She risked a glance over her shoulder. Torchlight flickered wildly between the trees—four flames now spread out in a loose net.
She had no combat skills. No weapons worth mentioning. Only the knife in her belt and the sheer stubbornness that had kept her trying to cross the barrier eleven thousand four hundred and twelve times.
Pip darted ahead, then doubled back, tugging at her sleeve to correct her course. The goblin moved like liquid shadow, small body slipping through gaps she would have missed. Every time the escorts gained ground, Pip found another patch of difficult terrain—dense brambles, a sudden drop into a dry creek bed, a cluster of glowing mushrooms that released irritating spores when disturbed.
Ten minutes passed in a blur of motion and calculated risk.
Nara's grey life bar held steady at twenty-three percent. No fatigue debuff. No collapsing muscles. The escorts, however, were starting to breathe harder. She could hear it in their shouted curses.
She remembered a line from the manual she had read earlier that night: low-level Zone 1 monsters avoided bright torchlight. They associated it with predators and pain.
A fork appeared in the narrow game trail ahead—two paths splitting around a large boulder. One torch had been dropped earlier by an escort who needed both hands for climbing. It still burned brightly where it had fallen.
Nara snatched it up without breaking stride.
She hurled the torch hard to her left, into thick brush that caught immediately. Flames roared up, casting wild orange light and sending sparks into the canopy.
"Over there!" one escort yelled.
Three of them veered left, chasing the sudden blaze and the noise it created. The fourth—taller, broader, with a scarred face and a heavy mace—kept coming straight at her. He had ignored the distraction.
Pip hissed a warning, but it was too late.
The escort closed the distance in three powerful strides. He slammed into her like a battering ram, driving her backward until her spine hit the rough bark of an old oak. The impact rattled her teeth. The satchel wedged painfully between her back and the tree.
His forearm pinned her throat. The mace hovered inches from her face, ready to crush her skull.
"Got the little thief," he growled, breath hot and sour. "Kael wants you alive, but he didn't say anything about unbroken bones."
Nara's hands were trapped against her chest, the satchel strap still looped around her arm. She had no room to draw the knife. No space to kick. No combat training to turn the situation.
One option left.
She shoved her right hand deep into the open flap of the Grimoire bag, fingers scrambling blindly through vials, notebooks, and dried specimens. She closed them around the first solid object she touched—a small, sealed glass jar—and yanked it free.
The escort laughed, pressing harder on her throat. "What are you gonna do with that, girl? Throw books at me?"
Nara didn't hesitate.
She smashed the jar directly into his face.
Glass shattered. Thick, black liquid exploded across his eyes, nose, and mouth. Something inside the liquid moved—long, hairy legs unfolding with terrifying speed.
The escort screamed.
It was not a normal scream. It was the sound of a man realizing he had made a fatal mistake.
The manual's entry flashed in her memory the instant the jar broke: BLACKTHORN SPIDER, ZONE 3, PARALYTIC VENOM, DO NOT OPEN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
She had opened it.
The spider—larger than her fist, legs tipped with hooked barbs—latched onto the escort's face. Venom pumped through twin fangs straight into his cheek. His body convulsed violently. The mace dropped from his hand. His arm slipped from her throat as he staggered backward, clawing at the creature that was already burrowing deeper into his flesh.
Nara didn't wait to see what happened next.
She shoved away from the tree and ran again, Pip darting ahead to guide her into the darkest part of the forest. Behind her, the escort's screams rose into a wet, gurgling howl that echoed through the trees.
The other three escorts were already turning back toward the sound.
Kael's voice rang out, furious and sharp. "What the hell is happening? Find her!"
Nara kept running, heart strangely steady despite the grey bar and the chaos she had just unleashed. The satchel bounced against her hip. Pip ran silently at her side, grey eyes scanning for the next safe path.
She had no idea whether she had just saved herself or made everything far, far worse.
The Blackthorn Spider was Zone 3 venom.
And it was now loose in Zone 1.