I stared down at the situation below with a mix of excitement and concern. Logically, I knew that this creature was dangerous, or at least should be. For some reason, however, I felt nothing staring down at it; it felt nothing like staring at the [Serpent Root Sentinel], which had radiated danger to me as soon as its presence had been revealed. I felt more from the small horde of [Serpent Root]s that were rapidly fleeing the clearing; their presence was like a tiny pinprick of light, nearly the smallest threat imaginable, but still a threat. The root heart had none of that feeling. It was decidedly strange; I hadn't encountered anything like it so far.

  I watched from my place hidden in the boughs as the last of the small swarm finally left the clearing. Admittedly, the lack of feeling from the heart was concerning, but I could only see two real possibilities. One, it was hiding its strength, which could be bad for me. Or two, perhaps all of its power pointed in a different direction? Perhaps all its abilities were centred around controlling its progeny and producing more, with little or no direct combat ability. Either case could explain why I felt no threat from the strange root creature.

  Well, either things will get much more interesting, or this will be an underwhelming end to the chamber. I thought to myself as I crept forward through the tangle of tree limbs. Not sure which would be worse.

  I had spent my time in the boughs planning. Though there wasn't much planning I could do. I simply had too little information and no way to gather any more than what my eyes could tell me. This made formulating any sort of real plan difficult. In the end, there was no other choice but to rush in and end things as quickly as I could manage.

  My legs contracted beneath me, like springs under a massive amount of tension, as I prepared to launch myself at the heart. Whether it was a threat or not, I was not taking any chances. If I could end this before it began with a single blow, I would. My mind settled, and all my worries fell away as I settled. I could almost feel my vision tunnelling on the creature as I prepared to strike.

  Now.

  Wood shattered, splinters flying through the air as I launched myself from my hidden spot in the treetops. The tree limbs hadn't been able to handle the force my limbs exerted as I sprang towards my target. My heart pounded in my ears, or at least it felt like it, as I flew through the air. Nothing but a black blur. My forelegs extended, reaching out towards my target like readied spears, set to impale my enemy and bring me in close enough that I could deliver a lethal dose of venom with my fangs.

  The impact was both oddly jarring and strangely squishy. My limbs hit resistance, and it felt like I'd smashed them into a steel plate. In the next breath, the resistance gave out, and my limbs bit deeply into the creature, driven in all the deeper by the weight and momentum of my leap. A moment of surprise slowed me slightly, but planning rapidly reasserted itself. I quickly anchored my other legs to the heart, not wanting it to have the opportunity to throw me off, if it turned out it could actually move. It was hard to tell, given the way it seemed rooted to the ground, but I wasn't ruling anything out.

  My fangs penetrated deep into the exterior layer of the heart; that same feeling of resistance was there once again, though it was gone just as quickly. I dumped venom into the creature via my fangs, letting out an odd hissing growl as I pumped the creature full of liquid death. The heart wobbled under my assault, but it seemed that it really didn't have any way to resist me. I could hear the enraged screams of what seemed like hundreds or thousands of serpent roots, coming from all directions, blurring together into a massive cacophony of sound and rage.

  This was a race against time. Would my venom finish its job first, or would the veritable horde of enemies reach me first? I redoubled my efforts, pumping even more venom into the heart, though I was beginning to have a strange, empty feeling in my guts. It was odd, but I took it to mean I was running out of venom, which was not good. My other legs pumped in and out, spearing deep into the body of the root heart, trying to cause as much damage as possible in as short a time as possible.

  Seconds passed, then minutes, and the heart grew weaker with every passing moment. Its steady rhythmic beat became erratic, stuttering its way onward by little more than sheer tenacity, it seemed. I began to hear the rustling approach of the serpent roots, the noise growing louder and louder by the moment. When it finally seemed that they would reach me before the heart gave out, and I prepared to pull my limbs and fangs free of the creature to do battle with its offspring, that was when the situation changed.

  The heart shuddered, its exterior going slack, as it slumped limply to one side, unable to continue supporting itself. The blue light it had been emitting up until now dimmed to nothing, casting the clearing in shadows and dim. The sound of the serpent roots' approach was also missing, leaving the clearing and jungle eerily silent. I cast my gaze around as I began to pull my limbs from the heart, dripping with dull blue fluid that had barely any resemblance to the glowing blue blood that I had seen these creatures bleed previously.

  Almost immediately, I spotted the serpent roots. Or rather their bodies. All around the edge of the clearing, hundreds of serpent roots covered the ground, bereft of the glowing patterns of blue that had covered them. It was as if they'd been completely drained of whatever energy had animated them.

  Screens appeared in front of me, but I waved them away. First, I wanted to investigate. Make sure there wasn't anyone playing dead, just waiting for an opportunity. I scuttled around the clearing rapidly, stabbing each corpse with a leg as I passed. More screens demanded my attention for every body I dead-checked. Finally, I could only conclude that the lives of its spawn were intrinsically tied to the root heart; otherwise, why would they all die alongside it? Why wouldn't one of them simply grow into a new root heart if they could?

  In the end, such things were well beyond my understanding, and I put the whole question out of my mind under the file of 'things man was never meant to know', right alongside why everything tasted like chicken?, and why every culture seems to have a version of Swedish meatballs? Some things we simply weren't meant to know, or the answer might drive the unwary insane.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Finally, I turned my attention to the screens that had been growing increasingly annoying; it was like a buzzing in the back of my mind, having so many screens that I hadn't tended to. The first thing I did was clear all of the loot notifications. I doubted the serpent roots would have much of anything that would be useful to me at the moment, so the loot of the entire nearby population was haphazardly dumped into my storage space thanks to [Inventory]. Fortunately, I had plenty of room.

  A brief glance told me that it was mostly crafting materials; there were a few things that might require a closer look later on. A dagger that might be worth looking at, a few oddly colored liquids in strange bottles that reminded me a little of potions. Curiosity dictated that I simply had to look at the new shiny.

  Now that's interesting. I read the information for the potion. It was a little vague on how effective it would be, but still, a freebie from getting poisoned was valuable. My own experiences with being injected with venom and the other side, doing the injecting, had made it blatantly clear that poisons and venoms were a terrifying weapon. Anything that could assist one in dealing with such things was to be valued highly. There were two other potion vials to check, but I decided to leave that for later. There was still the boss loot after all.

  First, I checked the quest that I had received before defeating the [Serpent root Sentinel]. I wanted to be sure I was really done with it this time.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I read the screen. The reward had been revealed, which I took to mean the quest was completed. It was really done this time; I wouldn't have to go on another massive hunt. At least not in this jungle. I quickly scuttled over to the corpse of the boss monster, poking it with one of my limbs. I accepted the prompt to loot the boss monster the moment it appeared. Which was apparently not called a root heart. Unfortunate.

  The boss dropped not one, not two, but three new items for me. My arachnid eyes glittered with greed as I roved my inventory space, pulling up screens for my three newest acquisitions.

  I wanted to howl in rage at the sight. The items were great, amazing even, but there wasn't a single one I could make use of as a god damned giant spider. Spiders didn't wear boots or necklaces, or cloaks for that matter. A hissing growl escaped me as I stared at the screens before me, as if the universe was mocking me and my spider limbs.

  Here are all these fun things you can have, you won't be able to use any of them, but you can have them, sure, I grumbled mentally. The lack of things I could use when in this form was beginning to get more and more frustrating, given my continued lack of ability to get back to my human form.

  I was staring at the windows, totally not brooding over this latest disappointment, absolutely not, when a thought struck me.

  If I have a stat sheet telling me my stats, do I maybe have one for my gear? Like a paper doll?

  Immediately, I focused my mind on the idea of pulling up a new screen despite the others still demanding my attention.

  A blank screen appeared with several empty boxes overlaid with an image that reminded me of old anatomical drawings of a human body. Though this one was a little different since where the dividing line that ran down the middle from the top of the man's head to his feet, on the left of that line, everything looked normal. On the right-hand side, however, the body morphed, showing a depiction that looked extremely similar to my spider form.

  The boxes lined up perfectly with where I thought different gear slots should be, one for the torso, one for the head, the legs and the feet as well. There was also a slot of the hands by the look of things, admittedly, I was guessing mostly based on game experience and where the boxes seemed to line up with the diagram.

  Those boxes ran down the left-hand side, the human side. Five more slots ran down the spider side on the right. I suspected these were meant to be accessory-type slots, rings, necklaces and the like. Reaching into my inventory, I withdrew [Totem of Regrowth] and pushed it into the gear window where the box I suspected might be for a necklace was.

  The necklace vanished from where it had been hanging from my foreleg, and an icon appeared in the box as I felt a feeling of vitality rush over my body, wiping away any remaining tiredness from the short battle. A whispering cackle escaped my lips as I realized my error. I had simply assumed I wouldn't be able to use any gear in this form because I wouldn't be able to wear anything. That was apparently wrong.

  Fuck logic. Magical fuckery for the win.

  I was engrossed for a moment as I rapidly began drawing items from my inventory and placing them into slots in my new gear screen.

  It was a bit hit and miss. I didn't really benefit from anything that was on the left-hand side of the screen, all the items that were meant specifically for my human form. It made a twisted kind of sense, given that they were items that had to be worn to get the majority of the benefits, like the cloak and boots. On the other hand, I seemed to benefit from anything that went into the accessory slots, which, for now, was just my [Totem of Regrowth].

  Oddly, I didn't see anywhere to equip a weapon, but for now, I wrote that off as a worry for another time. I had other things still to consider, like the two new levels I'd gained from the boss or my quest reward.

  Follow so you don’t miss future chapters. It’s the easiest way to support the story and makes a real difference on RoyalRoad.