Standing at the end of the street, in plain view, the casino was almost entirely covered in spiderwebs. The surrounding roads, wherever possible, had spiderwebs spread out across them as well.

  Numerous spiders were running around the area as well, climbing onto and into the buildings. It was clear that they were trying to expand the nest with the casino at its nexus.

  Usually, spiders weren't exactly beings that lived in groups like this, nor did they follow a queen like arachnids did. Ashton wasn't sure why these guys evolved like that in whatever world they were from, but they did. But that meant a few things.

  For one, if Ashton just went and attacked the arachnid queen right now, all the spiders in the area were going to come rushing at him as well. And yes, he was strong, but not that strong. It may have been partially because of his luck, but he did struggle with that giant spider earlier. While there weren't many of them around, there were enough to give him reason to take it easy.

  But on the other hand, if he managed to kill the queen before the spiders gathered, they were going to spread out across the city. Frankly, individually, these spiders weren't an issue, and without the queen's psychic connection to them, the spiders had no reason to work with each other the same way they did right now. That meant that, while Drakewood would end up covered in a bit more web than normal, the spiders were probably a pretty good, 'easy' target for people to fight and get over their fear of some of the more grotesque monsters that were sure to pop up from now on.

  "You said something about the other guys that were with you in the casino, right? That they were acting weird? How weird?" Ashton asked, turning his head toward Sabrina. Her face went pale at the question.

  "I don't know how to describe it... they were a sketchy bunch to begin with. I didn't really know them well, nor was I exactly comfortable with them, but..." Sabrina turned away, hiding her embarrassment "...this is the only casino in town. So I had little choice but to hang around those creeps. But things were beyond creepy then, they were..."

  "Dead-eyed, moving like on auto-pilot, talking less, and giving off a distinctly uncanny vibe?"

  Sabrina widened her eyes, "That's exactly it! You're dead on! How did you know?"

  Ashton's stomach sank, "You said there were originally more that just didn't come back, right?"

  "Yes, there were seven other people in general, and only three came back. And in this new world, I just figured they, you know, were killed by something out here," Sabrina explained, placing a hand in front of her mouth. "But honestly? They were seriously giving me the creep. I seriously thought they did it..."

  Alright, those three were most likely Marked. Whether it was intentional or not, it was likely that they each killed one of the others that were originally with them.

  Even just killing one person in the calculation for the first main quest would turn you into a 'Marked', though the changes were less extreme than with others that killed five people, like the guy that Ashton took out yesterday. But killing just one or two people would make that change happen a lot more slowly. People would be allowed to hold on to at least part of their sanity for a while.

  They were still going to end up going on a rampage of course, but they tended to be a little less aggressive and had lower requirements to regain their sanity. However, maybe because their personality shone through a lot more, the system assigned them a 'Monster Class' way faster. It was very possible that there was some kind of connection between the spiders suddenly showing up here, and what seemed to be three Marked in the casino.

  "This might sound weird, and sorry for asking multiple questions in a row-"

  "No, you're fine..." Sabrina shook her head immediately.

  "Right. So, did one of them have a sort of... I don't know, 'Spider' like personality?"

  Sabrina let out a shocked laugh, "Honestly? That's pretty spot-on. He's this... really, I don't creepy guy? Not just how he looks, though that doesn't help. Really tall, but super skinny, and these seriously long arms and legs. Big eyes, barely blinks, and he even has a bloody spiderweb tattoo on his neck."

  "Alright, so it's him, then," Ashton said. That definitely made things more complicated. Not because he was worried about killing that guy, but rather, because he wasn't sure about killing someone in front of Sabrina. She was too valuable to leave be.

  "It's him? What do you mean?"

  Ashton clicked his finger and called for the Backpacker, "If I'm right, those three guys that came back were 'Marked'. For the first quest, they killed people, at least one each. This marked them as 'monsters' to some degree. And one of them, this tall spider-like guy, was most likely given a 'Monster Class' related to spiders, and became a Spider-Human."

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  Hearing what Ashton said, Sabrina just let out a laugh, "A Spider-Human? Like in the comics and movies?"

  "No, not like that. A lot more... horrible," he explained, as he was given the instant-print camera by the Backpacker. Now that he didn't have to worry about potential bad luck messing with this item, he quickly took a closer look.

  Essentially, he could use this six times a day. The pen's description of this item said that he could select the mode on the lens, and he could quickly spot a small lever at the top of the lens.

  Quickly, Ashton pushed it to the side. With a slight click, it snapped into place, and out of nowhere, a disc of coloured glass was pushed out to cover the lens. It was slightly red. As Ashton continued to push the lever and it clicked into place once more, the red glass disappeared and was replaced with a green one. With the next click, and the last one as the lever wouldn't keep going, a blue glass disc covered the lens instead.

  Though it was just a guess, he figured that the order that the filters were written down on the paper corresponded to the order of filters on the actual camera. In that case, the red one must be the one that showed 'the magic flowing through the world'.

  Ashton held the camera forward, looking through the viewfinder. He immediately aimed it at the casino, and then pressed the shutter button. With a click and a slight flash, a picture was taken.

  "... Is this really the time to take photos?" Sabrina asked confused, and Ashton just smiled.

  "It's a pretty special camera," he pulled his eye away from it, and waited for the picture to pop out the front. As he waited, he noticed something else. There were six small beads on the top. They were white, though one of them had just turned black. Ashton figured that it would turn white again when the charge recovered.

  Soon, the picture was pushed out of the camera, and Ashton quickly grabbed it. He was about to shake the picture, though Sabrina stopped him.

  "I don't think you're supposed to do that, actually."

  "Hm?"

  "You're not supposed to shake those pictures, they turn out better if you let it develop normally."

  Ashton raised his brow, "Oh, okay, fair enough. Thanks."

  He looked down at the picture, and waited for the picture to develop. Surprisingly, it came along pretty fast. Then again, Ashton didn't really know how fast these things developed normally, but he figured that it happened faster because it was a magic item.

  It showed the street with the casino in its focus. Though, it wasn't covered in a layer of red as Ashton thought. Rather, it was completely black and white. But after a few moments, once the base picture developed, something else appeared.

  A red hue slowly appeared on the photograph, moving along the way that Ashton knew magic moved. It was concentrated in exactly the places he figured, as well. The arachnids. If he took a close-up of one of them, he could probably see the exact ways that magic flowed through their bodies, too.

  That being the case, Ashton followed the concentrated spots of mana, presented through a deeper, more vivid red, and soon found the largest cluster right in the casino. Specifically, in the right side of the small, one-story building that looked like a box someone had just dropped down on the side of the street. He had never been in there, but it looked fairly small, honestly. Barely enough to fit just one of those giant spiders.

  But since the lump of mana went slightly under the ground, it seemed like a hole had been dug.

  "What's to the right here? The place with all the red," Ashton asked, showing the picture to Sabrina. She took a closer look and squinted her eyes.

  "That's... yeah, that's where the slot machine that Gordy always sits at is."

  "Gordy?"

  "The spider-human."

  "Mhm, got it." With a nod, Ashton gave the camera to the Backpacker. "Anyway, thanks for the help. Do you think you would mind using that coinflip of yours before I head out?"

  "Before you- Wait, do you think you're going in there alone? Are you mental?"

  Ashton shrugged, "I can handle it."

  "No way, I'm going in there with you."

  "No you're not," Ashton said bluntly, "What level is your class?"

  "... Level 3, why?"

  "Mine is level 8. Plus, I've got actual combat capabilities," he explained. "I'm happy you want to help, but I don't think this is a good idea."

  "Hah, you think just because the number is higher that I-"

  "Are you ready to kill a man?"

  Sabrina's face went pale, "What do you..?"

  "Gordy is a monster now. He probably willingly killed someone else to make his life easier in the quest. If I'm right, then he's not how you remember him, but he's still human. A 'Marked Human', sure, but a human anyway. Are you ready to kill him?"

  "... Do we have to?"

  "Yes."

  His blunt response confused Sabrina, but she didn't have anything to say against that. She figured that he was probably right. That, if Gordy was really like one of those monsters now, that he was too dangerous. Plus, Gordy was likely a murderer, so...

  "I don't... I don't know..."

  Ashton nodded, "That's fine. Most people can't. Which is why I will go in there on my own and take care of it. Just stay out here and stay safe. If you want to help, maybe you can try to distract some of the spiders. If they come toward the casino, just use these." He quickly asked the Backpacker for the rest of the prepped coins, "If you throw these, they're going to start popping and making noise, should be perfect to lure some of them away. But be careful not to drop one or activate them in your hand, otherwise you'll lure them right to you."

  Sabrina slowly nodded, taking the coins.

  "Okay, I'll do that."

  "Also, as I said, please use one of your coin-flips on me. A power boost would be nice."

  She was hesitant, but slowly held her hand in front of her, and a large coin appeared in her hand. Sabrina flipped it and watched as it landed on her hand. Immediately, Ashton could feel himself become empowered. It wasn't a boost worth a full point for him, less than a 5% boost, but it was still better than nothing.

  "Thanks," Ashton said, spinning a staff around, "Oh, and one more thing. I'm sure you've been struggling to find a use for that skill too."

  Sabrina looked at him confused, and Ashton leaned slightly forward. There was another skill, probably the one that interested him the most, that might be extremely useful for Ashton. It was technically a sort of 'contract' as well, and if that was the case, it could potentially boost his contract capacity the same way quests did.

  "What do you mean?" Sabrina asked, and Ashton grinned.

  "Do you want to make a bet with me?"