“A warning? What the—“

  A loud bang interrupted Lily on the spot; it sounded almost like something with a lot of weight had crashed nearby.

  And just as she was about to drift off to sleep again, she felt the weird vibration growing stronger, followed by another bang, this time louder and much closer.

  What the hell is going on down there? Lily thought to herself, prompted to check out the situation by a sudden flashback of her close encounter with the mighty basilisk.

  She got out of her make-shift bed and sleepily slid down the web, only for her senses to go haywire once she landed on the inner ring of her lair.

  “Damn, my head,” she blurted out, confused as to what was going on, trying to focus on the strange situation at hand. “What in the hell?!“

  It was in that moment that she saw the outer ring getting torn apart by a powerful force, so strong that not only did it manage to break through her first layer of defence, it even reached the inner ring.

  Water?! Lily wondered, her mind piqued as her web grew damp and lost some of its durability as it softened, “crap!” Suddenly, she thought back to the large patches of wet ground she had found earlier while searching for the ants.

  Without wasting one more second, she promptly jumped away from the center and toward the edges, tearing a small hole in her creation to escape.

  The moment she got out, another blast of water hit her base, taking everything apart with it, strong enough to even crack the rocky ceiling.

  “Phewww…” Lily sighed under her breath, hiding behind one of the many stalactites in search of the culprit, trying to feel the vibrations around her. “Where—“ A cheeky grin suddenly flashed across her face, “found you.”

  Unsure if the attacker had spotted her, she waited motionlessly for its next move, ready to jump away at any moment.

  Not only did she not know anything about her enemy’s capabilities beyond the fact that it somehow attacked with water, but she was also quite tired, and taking a fight was not worth the risk at that moment. Not to mention that she had every reason to believe she was dealing with the culprit behind the ants' disappearance.

  For a moment, the little spider dared to hope that it would all get resolved without doing anything, only for her hopes to get crushed by her Detection passive going haywire with alerts.

  In the blink of an eye, she jumped away in open space, using a web to evade just in time yet another blast of water, looking back once she finally had a clearer field of view. Is that a—uh—large toad? Lily wondered, her jaw dropping open.

  [Greater Toad engaged.]

  Greater? It looks like a normal toad, only much bigger. Does that mean it’s stronger than me? Lily wondered, recalling when the System displayed her own rank. “Not againnn,” Lily blurted out, staring right into the monster's eyes, “at least it doesn’t look as powerful as the basilisk.”

  She consoled herself with the fact that the vibrations the two monsters emitted were entirely different. While the basilisk was more like a sensation of impending doom, the toad she was facing now mostly gave off a mild sense of danger.

  Still, she knew better than to lower her guard, considering that it had managed to destroy her webs and even damage the sturdy ceiling.

  “I don’t want to fight you,” Lily tried asking, wondering if it could respond, but only getting back a couple of rapid blinks from the creature. Nothing, just like the little spider and the mosquito, she thought. It’s different from the basilisk, she wondered, recalling the sovereign’s deep, echoing voice.

  The toad just stood there, not really facing her, though she could feel its penetrating gaze, almost as if it were taking a moment to study her, its focus darting from her to her web, then to the ground, taking deep breaths in between.

  “What do you—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, the little spider heard a faint whistle, then suddenly felt herself falling. Looking up in shock, she immediately noticed that her web had somehow snapped.

  How did that happen? Lily wondered, shooting another one to get further away, only to hear the same noise again. “Oh—” To no surprise, her new web snapped just as easily. It’s using little bursts of air to cut the web, she thought, looking at the monster’s puffed-up cheeks.

  But she wasn’t really worried about falling; she knew that her new body could easily handle that kind of impact, but what she didn’t expect was to be unable to stay up on her feet once she landed.

  “What the—” Lily kept slipping on the terrain; it was like trying to walk upwards on a frozen hill without the right kind of shoes. The terrain’s wet? she wondered, her heart sinking once she caught on. “It’s a trap!”

  When she realized she had fallen right into the monster’s trap, it was too late.

  “Silk—” It took the toad one single jump to close the distance between them, readying its next attack above her in the air, “Web.” Before Lily’s skill could reach any nearby surface, the toad’s humongous tongue slammed into her like a wrecking ball, hard enough to crack the terrain under her as it landed.

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  She had never felt a similar kind of pain, at least from what she remembered, but somehow, even though it left a small crater, she was alive, her spider body still intact.

  [Warning.]

  “UGhhh, t-that—” Lily stuttered under the toad’s potent attack, “hurt like hell.”

  [Health points under 50%.]

  What? Health points? So it does resemble those RPGs, she considered for a moment, knowing she had no time to waste. Before the toad could retract its tongue, she jabbed at it with her pointy limb, causing the monster to whine. “Acid Blast,” she echoed, her voice followed by the usual hisses as she spoke, blasting the toad’s tongue. “You got the wrong damn spider, buddy!”

  Using the inertia of the toad’s motion, Lily pushed herself off it before it could swallow her whole, jumping high up in the air.

  “Silk Web,” she chanted, aiming directly for the monster’s body instead of the rocky surface. “Got you—” In a split second, as she landed onto its back, the toad jumped away, pulling Lily along as it tried to shrug her web off, “AAAh!!!”

  It was basically like riding a bucking machine at the fair or going on a roller coaster.

  Using its powerful hind legs, the toad jumped around frantically as it tried to swat her off, but Lily wasn’t going to give in that easily, especially since it had ambushed her first, so she dug her legs into the toad’s back to get a better grip.

  What is this feeling? Lily wondered as she tried to dig deeper, feeling slightly dazed the longer she was in contact with the monster’s skin. “Don’t tell me…”

  [Warning.]

  “You’re joking!” The little spider cried out, still trying her best not to let go.

  [Poisoned.]

  “What the hell does that mean?!” Lily exclaimed, and the usual translucent window appeared right in front of her. “UGhhh, kinda busy to read right now,” she blurted out, her tone growing angrier, just like the faint hisses that followed her voice.

  [Poisoned Status Effect: inflicts poison damage over time.]

  “Oh, that’s how you wanna play this?” Instead of letting go, the little spider dug her legs even deeper into the toad’s skin, her grin widening with each second. “Let’s see how you like this then!” she exclaimed, hoping her new skill would work as well as she first thought, “Absorb.”

  The moment she blurted out the skill’s name, a bright green circle appeared on the toad’s back, causing it to scream out in pain again. Meanwhile, Lily instantly felt refreshed, and the longer the skill lasted, the more health she recovered, just as the tooltip of the skill indicated.

  This skill is so incredible, she thought to herself, quite surprised by its usefulness; it was like having a cheat code available for any risky situation.

  Still, just as she felt she finally had an advantage over the fight, the toad had other tricks up its sleeve, and after halting for a second, it launched a powerful water blast toward the ceiling, basically carving out a safe hole between all the stalactites.

  Unable to keep her concentration up, Lily’s skill was interrupted as she focused on the toad’s actions, “what the—”

  The monster used all of its strength to jump straight up with its back turned toward the ceiling, wanting to squish the little spider between itself and the rocky surface, with such speed that it was basically impossible for Lily to get out of the way fully.

  “UGhhh!” Lily cried out a sharp, high-pitched noise as the left side of her body got smashed between the toad’s weight and the ceiling. “V-venom Bite,” she stuttered, struggling to speak clearly, but thankfully, her skill still activated, and the tip of her right forelimb shone with a purple hue. Take this, she thought as she stabbed the monster in the closest place she could reach, unsure if it would even have any effect on such a large monster.

  They both fell toward the ground like two sacks of potatoes, with Lily unable to feel half of her body but still smiling because her plan actually worked, while the toad was paralyzed entirely due to the little spider’s attack.

  The first to hit the floor was the toad, as it weighed much more than Lily, creating a decent-sized crater on impact and likely losing some of its health points. The little spider followed right after, landing near the monster’s large body.

  “Ouch, it hurts…” Just as breathing got harder, Lily could only whisper.

  [Warning.]

  Tell me something I don’t fucking know, she thought.

  [Health Points under 10%.]

  Lily knew this was a do-or-die situation, and even though it hurt so much that she felt like she was going to faint at any given moment, she still tried to drag herself toward the toad, whose paralyzed body was slowly starting to move again.

  “D-damn,” she stuttered, noticing that the debuff of her attack was already starting to wear off, unlike when she first fought the mosquito. As a last-ditch effort, Lily planted her feet firmly on the ground and shot a web toward one of the whoppingly huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling, aligned directly with her enemy’s frame. “Come onnn.” Using all the strength she could muster—surprisingly quite a lot—she tried pulling it toward herself.

  “Oh… it’s time…”

  That voice again, where is it coming from? Lily mused.

  Thanks to its nearly 360-degree vision, the toad quickly realized what she was planning and did its best to get out of the way, but the only movement its body managed was a twitch of its hind legs, as its body still hadn’t neutralized Lily’s potent venom.

  With her vision rapidly getting blurrier, Lily tried to pull one last time, feeling her strength draining away the more she struggled.

  I should have tried to use Absorb again instead of Venom Bite, she thought to herself, pondering if it could have healed her enough to regain some feeling in her left side. “I can’t give up now,” she told herself, rolling up in her web to leverage her weight—though it wasn’t a lot—and add it to the force of her pull.

  And just as the enemy monster finally managed to regain some use of its hind legs, a loud cracking noise horrified it; the little spider’s struggle finally paid off.

  What followed was a powerful shockwave that forced Lily to close her eyes and would have easily blasted her away had she not planted her feet firmly in the ground earlier.

  The toad’s deafening shriek echoed throughout the cavern one last time.

  [Greater Toad defeated.]

  Is it finally over? Lily wondered, tired and unable to open her eyes, yet feeling like a new flame lit inside of her.

  [You have reached the threshold for evolution.]