The scenery was horroristic. But at least they had decided my fate in my stead. If all there is left is to fight, I'll give you a fight.

  I fired first – Piercing Shot directly at the Broodmother's core cluster. With the same motion I turned and fired a Flaming Arrow into the midst of the Spiderlings.

  Not even waiting to see the result, I Quick Stepped out of the way of a web launched at me by the Elite.

  The moment Flaming Arrow come off cooldown I quickly used it to set a web pillar on fire, igniting the wall behind the Broodmother. She was forced off her web throne and into a small path, which gave me a bit of space.

  I activated Nature's Howl and decided to tank as much damage as possible, while quickly restoring my health via the lifesteal.

  I darted wide and began kiting the spiders, killing them one by one, reserving my mana as much as possible. As I was doing so, I suddenly got hit with a devastating attack, wiping away almost half my health despite my high defense value.

  The Broodmother was faster than I would have liked it to be. I began kiting her in a circle, forcing her to rotate and readjust. Her front legs stabbed the ground in quick bursts as she tried predicting my patterns.

  When she reared back and spat three venom globs, I leapt over one and rolled through another, and then used Leap Attack to get behind her. She shrieked as I tore through her side.

  I was quickly mowing down her health and killing the Spiderlings simultaniously, gaining good exp in the meantime.

  When I got her down to 50%, the ground beneath her pulsed. She rose, shrieking into the chamber, and her egg sacs ruptured, spawning at least 20 more Spiderlings around her.

  I was slowly running out of Mana. I was mostly relying on Nature's howl, Flaming Arrow and basic attacks, but at this point I had to choose carefully which skills I used.

  They burst out in droves. Tiny, fast, annoying. I dropped a Flaming Arrow into the middle of the bunch, creating some space.

  Come on then, I murmured.

  They chipped away at my health, so I used Nature's Howl one last time to try to sustain myself, but while I dealt with the swarm, the Broodmother had vanished into the upper webs.

  The walls started vibrating.

  I guess she's not retreating.

  I backed to the middle of the room, clearing Spiderlings on the way, while scanning the ceiling.

  She dropped from above in a surprise pounce, leaving me no choice but to burn my mana for a Quick Step. The aftermath had still hit me, leaving me hanging by just a thread.

  I dodged her fangs as she was trying to sink them into me.

  I had about 10% of my health left, my mana was a flat 0 and she still had around half her health remaining.

  There were only two or three Spiderlings left, but the Broodmother was too strong.

  I'll at least take the small ones with me if I have to die.

  The Broodmother was beelining towards me while I finished off her spawn. I had just sent a final arrow towards the last of the spiders as she crashed into me.

  My first death, at least. Honestly, counting how many times I was saved at the last second, I couldn't help but feel like it was due.

  The Broodmother's fangs sunk deep into my flesh, and the pain I felt was greater than anything I had experienced in the game so far. It still wasn't too bad, considering this was just a game, but it was quite unexpected.

  What was more unexpected was that I was alive.

  Both my health and mana had reset the moment I leveled up, when my arrow struck the last Spiderling.

  Alright, I'm probably immortal at this point. Another insane deus ex machina. Another survived death.

  It made my blood boil with excitement.

  After the Broodmother's attack I had around 70% of my health remaining, but my mana bar was full. It was a beautiful sight.

  I stopped wondering about which gods were watching over me and turned to face my enemy.

  With a quick rotation I started fighting back, loosing skill after skill, adrenaline keeping me at the top of my game. There were no more adds, so I could fully focus on the Elite.

  At 20% of her health remaining, she began spinning webs in combat; a fast, rotating move where she bound parts of the chamber and tried to cocoon me in place.

  The arena shrank. I destroyed as much terrain as I could with fire, forcing her to fight on open stone. I rolled past her next strike, turned and shot a Flaming Arrow at her. She screamed.

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  I charged forward. Piercing Shot, basic attack, basic attack, Leap Attack, Flaming Arrow.

  Nature's Howl kept regenerating my health.

  Quick Step and Catapult Legs kept me safe.

  My arrows struck true every time I shot.

  She reared up one last time, started channeling some sort of a webbing skill, but that meant she rooted herself in place just long enough for the final shot.

  THUNK.

  She collapsed in a shriek, legs curling below her.

  I sat down on a rock and let out a deep breath.

  I had gotten 7,400 exp and a full gold coin as loot, and much to my delight she had actually dropped a Skill Rune as well.

  I instantly learned the skill. It was another great utility piece that will definitely help me survive in the future. I had also put my five new attribute points into dexterity, raising my attack speed to 86.

  The sustain from Nature's Howl and Foxfire were definitely coming in clutch this fight, I thought. And my bow's passive, too.

  I had about 10% of my experience bar filled. I decided to check out the path behind the Broodmother, but it was unfortunately just a collapsed tunnel, which meant I had to take the long way back.

  No more spiders have spawned in the cave, much to my delight. I was guessing that this Broodmother was a fix spawn, so I could come back here and farm it for a while, since it did give me quite a huge exp boost, and the materials processed from her carcass were of great quality too, but not a single cell in my body wanted this experience to repeat itself for a while.

  The sky was just starting to warm with the orange hue of the afternoon when I emerged from the cave. To my surprise, a party of four players were standing at the entrance.

  Their party leader, a sturdy guardian was briefing the other three.

  "And then after it spawns the army of small ones, I will lure all of them to the side. Dongle will finish them quickly with AoE spells so the two of you should still be focusing on the--"

  He suddenly stopped as the party saw me leaving the shadows.

  "Hey!" I said casually.

  "Hey..." the arcanist looked at me cautiously. "Umm, what... what were you doing in there?"

  They looked at me with mixed emotions.

  "Oh, I cleared the cave," I said. "But the elite will surely respawn sooner or later."

  With that I went past them, not waiting for their reaction. I could feel their burning gaze of disbelief on my back for quite a while.

  I took a deep breath. The webbed air of the tunnels was finally behind me. Dusken Lake sparkled in the distance like a silver coin, the shoreline bustling with lower-level players clearing boars and hounds. Just beyond them, the rooftops of Carpa peaked over the trees.

  With my bag full of hides, fangs, venom glands and other monster parts, I made my way back to the village.

  By the time I reached Carpa, the Spring Festival was in full swing again. Music echoed between the rooftops while someone was loudly trying to sell caramel-roasted chestnuts, gathering a sizeable crowd around them.

  I ducked into the Adventurer's Association, bypassing the queue of newcomers near the quest board.

  One of the clerks nodded when she saw me.

  "Reporting in?" she asked.

  "Two jobs finished. Dusken Lake clean-up and the hide quota."

  I dropped the sack of furs and pelts onto the counter. She examined the tags, gave a satisfied nod and stamped both parchment records with a wax seal.

  I bagged the 4,000 XP, 60 silver coins and the 4 adventurer's XP. This meant I was at 16/20, meaning I had to complete two more quests for Silver rank.

  I grabbed a meat bun and a bottle of citrus tea from one of the festival carts, spending 10 silver coins, then headed west, past the busy square, out the main gates and toward the cobbled road that cut through the hills.

  Shademere Forest was just south of Shadowreach, the westernmost village of Tidemark county. It was about a three hour journey there, and I decided to get to the village while there was still light.

  Shadowreach.

  It was Tidemark's smallest welcoming ground. Less crowded than Carpa or Oakenlight. I remembered reading on the forums that it was a cozy little village tucked behind a mountain range; welcoming, peaceful, a bit off the radar.

  And the destination of my next quest.

  The road curved gently through the low mountains, carved into wide, well-kept switchbacks that made the elevation almost enjoyable. I fought a few mobs along the way – mostly rock beetles and forest lizards – but nothing gave real trouble.

  The scenery was tranquil and quiet.

  After about three hours, the first buildings of Shadowreach came into view. Built on a slope, nestled against cliffs and pines. Smoke drifted lazily from chimneys. Children chased wooden balls through flower fields. Even the Spring Festival here seemed humbler and more personal.

  Shadowreach might have been the quietest welcoming ground in Tidemark, but the forest next to it was another story.

  The southern trails had long since overgrown. Moss-covered stones poked out from the soil like lost teeth, and trees clawed skyward under a thick canopy. Every few seconds, a raven would caw overhead.

  The air itself felt tense.

  I moved off-trail fast. In the beginning, the familiar wild dogs and boars were abundant. Understandably, the level 1 adventurers of Shadowreach had to have something to fight against in the beginning, just like in Carpa.

  After about twenty minutes of going deeper into Shademere Forest I saw my first prey.

  Two wolves with sleek black coats, ember-red eyes and long fangs. Each one bigger than the boars around Dusken Lake.

  After my encounter with the Elder Stag I tried to be considerate of hunting animals, even though I knew that it was unavoidable. This time, however, I didn't have any second guesses.

  I loosed a Piercing Shot, catching both of them in their shoulders. They howled simultaneously and lunged, but I was already repositioning, laying down a Web Trap behind me. When they lunged together, one got caught in the web, struggling as the second rushed ahead.

  I hit it with a Flaming Arrow, lit the brush around it, then Quick Stepped to the side and finished both of them with a basic combo.

  Their hides were of a very high quality, both yielding a Fine Shademere Wolf Hide. These might just be the materials for my level 15 equipment.

  The next few hours blurred into a kind of deadly rhythm. I moved through brush and briar, weaving between rock clusters, using Nature's Howl to heal when needed.

  The wolves were smart, sometimes retreating to lure me into ambushes, other times spreading out to cut off escape routes, but I was always one step ahead.

  I rotated my cooldowns and kept being careful, but there were times when my health dipped dangerously low. Regardless, I managed to complete my quest by the time it became dark. I was about one third of the way into level 15.

  I paused beneath a crooked pine, catching my breath when I heard a familiar sound; the sound of a battle unfolding not far from where I was.

  I crept toward the sound, off path, toward a grove where the trees thinned slightly, and I finally saw them.

  Four players, judging by their equipment at least level 12. One was bleeding heavily, crawling behind a rock. The others were locked in frantic combat, rotating cooldowns as best as they could.

  Their opponent was a black furred beast easily twice the size of the other wolves. Its back bristled with jagged spines. Its eyes glowed deep violet.