The next morning, the northeastern front looked almost normal again.
Almost.
Large portions of the camp had been rebuilt through the night. Collapsed tunnels had been filled with stone, timber, and hardened silk. Patrols now moved continuously through the camp while specialized spiderkin repeatedly stabbed long metal rods into the ground, listening for vibrations that might reveal another burrowing force.
Keizeix watched them while flexing the leg that had been injured during the assassination attempt.
No pain.
The healers had done their work well.
Across from him Sia tested the cracked section of her shell with one leg.
Marike noticed.
"Stop touching it."
"I'm checking it."
"You've checked it sixteen times."
"Then I am being thorough."
Keizeix snorted.
Sia's eyes immediately turned toward him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"That sounded like something."
Shirespoke walked between them.
"Excellent. You're both irritating again. That means you're healthy enough to return to battle."
Keizeix straightened.
"Today?"
"Commander Vaelcor has ordered normal operations resumed."
Keizeix glanced toward the northeastern horizon.
"And the Heroic beetles?"
"Not your problem."
Shirespoke said it so quickly that Keizeix looked at him.
His mentor continued.
"The stronger enemy units occupy separate sections of this warfront. Heroic beetlekin, advanced magical breeds, and their higher commanders are being contained by Commander Vaelcor and the officers beneath him."
Marike nodded.
"The enemies in the section you are assigned are strong enough to challenge you without simply crushing you."
Sia seemed disappointed.
Keizeix wasn't.
He had developed a considerably greater appreciation for not being crushed.
"Good."
Sia looked at him.
Keizeix shrugged.
"I've lost enough body parts lately."
Shirespoke stared at him.
"You have lost body parts once."
"That was enough."
---
The beetlekin were waiting.
Keizeix had expected the previous day's struggle to feel easier after surviving Heroic opponents.
It didn't.
A rhinoceros beetle smashed through three spiderkin soldiers before Keizeix used silk to wrench its rear leg sideways.
The creature stumbled.
Keizeix immediately attacked beneath its abdomen.
One strike.
Two.
The shell resisted.
Third.
The membrane tore.
He drove his leg deeper.
**Kill registered.**
Keizeix pulled himself free.
"Still annoying."
Another Iron-shell beetle rushed him.
Keizeix disappeared into its shadow, emerged beneath its rear plates, and struck the exposed joint.
The enemy twisted faster than expected.
Its armored leg clipped Keizeix's side.
He skidded through the dirt.
"Definitely still annoying."
But he was adapting.
His silk was becoming his greatest weapon against them.
Not because it killed.
Because it controlled.
Keizeix began laying nearly invisible threads between shattered rocks.
A beetle charged.
Its front legs caught.
It stumbled.
Keizeix attacked its eyes.
Another tried to flank him.
A strand snapped tight around one hind leg.
The beetle turned toward the webbing.
Wrong decision.
Keizeix hit the softer underside of its neck.
**Kill registered.**
He grinned.
"Armor doesn't matter if I can decide how you fall."
Hours passed.
His kills accumulated slowly.
Painfully slowly compared with the human front.
Sia remained ahead.
Her lightning gave her an obvious advantage whenever she had enough Mana to use it.
Keizeix periodically saw black-purple flashes in the distance.
But they came much less frequently than before.
She had learned.
Waste Mana early and she became another physically powerful spiderling trying to stab through natural armor.
Keizeix respected the restraint.
He would never tell her that.
Near midday he retreated behind a defensive line and opened his system.
He hadn't checked the complete spread since before the assassination attempt.
The numbers appeared.
**Name: Keizeix Silversilk**
**Age: 6 months**
**Race: Spiderling — Silversilk Clan**
**Rank: Master**
**Strength: 53,482 / 100,000**
**Health: 52,917 / 100,000**
**Magic: 29,631 / 100,000**
**Intelligence: 55,204 / 100,000**
**Mana: 29,631 / 29,631**
**Abilities:**
**Consumption Heal**
**Shadow Mist**
Keizeix stared.
"Fifty-three thousand..."
Strength had passed halfway.
So had Health.
Intelligence was even higher.
Then his gaze moved downward.
Magic.
Twenty-nine thousand.
He frowned.
"That's barely moving."
It had increased.
But compared with everything else?
Pathetic.
Then he understood why.
The humans had possessed mages.
Keizeix had spent hours fighting magical attacks, dodging spells, using Shadow Mist against them, and killing people actively circulating Mana.
These beetlekin barely used magic at all.
At least not the ones he was fighting.
The magical beetle breeds were elsewhere on the battlefield, fighting enemies far beyond Keizeix's current strength.
He had seen flashes on distant ridgelines.
Walls of flame.
Green storms.
Massive magical formations.
That was Commander Vaelcor's territory.
Not his.
"So I'm feeding Strength, Health, and Intelligence constantly."
He flexed a leg.
"But almost nothing is feeding Magic."
That was a problem.
Shadow Mist depended upon Mana.
If Strength reached one hundred thousand while Magic remained somewhere around thirty or forty thousand, he'd become increasingly capable physically while his most unusual ability stagnated. Also he wasn't entirely sure if the system would allow him to evolve without each stat reaching the 100,000 mark or if it would hold him at each number maxed until all reached 100,000 or not. He had not tested that yet it had just happened that each had surpassed the max at roughly the same time allowing a smooth progression into the next stage. But would the gap change things and he stagnate without the magic increasing too or would it simply be something that would just lag behind and have to catch up later?
Keizeix dismissed the window. He would just have to find out the hard way.
"I need another way."
A beetle screamed nearby.
He turned.
"And I'll figure it out after killing that."
---
The evening reports were almost insulting.
Keizeix sat across from Sia.
Neither looked particularly enthusiastic.
The reporting officer entered.
"Prince Keizeix Silversilk: one thousand five hundred and forty-nine confirmed kills."
Keizeix sighed.
Only slightly higher than yesterday.
The second scroll opened.
"Princess Sia Silversilk: one thousand five hundred and eighty-seven."
Sia was silent.
Thirty-eight.
Normally that would have produced an argument.
Instead she stared at her meal.
Keizeix looked at her.
"Congratulations."
She glanced up.
"Again?"
"Don't make me regret it."
A faint smile appeared.
"I won't."
Pause.
"Thirty-eight."
Keizeix's eyes narrowed.
"There it is."
Marike laughed.
Shirespoke shook his head.
But neither mentor seemed concerned.
Shirespoke leaned back.
"You improved."
"Barely," Keizeix replied.
"Against the same stronger enemy."
Marike nodded toward Sia.
"And your Mana control improved. Yesterday you burned through your lightning reserves too early. Today you maintained enough to use it until withdrawal."
Sia looked slightly more satisfied.
Shirespoke turned to Keizeix.
"And you stopped attempting to overpower shells simply because you are physically stronger than yesterday."
Keizeix frowned.
"I only did that twice."
"That is still fewer than yesterday."
Keizeix couldn't argue with that.
Marike smiled.
"You are both learning that progress does not always look impressive."
Keizeix considered his statistics.
Fifty thousand.
Perhaps she was right.
His kill count wasn't exploding.
But he was still growing stronger.
---
Later that night, Keizeix opened his storage.
Cores filled the dark space.
He had begun organizing them by grade.
The vast majority were Beginner.
Large piles.
Thousands upon thousands.
Intermediate cores formed much smaller collections.
Master cores were rarer still.
There wasn't a single Heroic core among his personal holdings.
The Heroic enemies he'd encountered had been finished by others, meaning their cores had never legally become his personal spoils.
Keizeix didn't mind.
Not much.
He opened the platform.
Tiestra had sent three messages.
**Tiestra:**
*Did you finish looking at the catalogue?*
Then, nearly an hour later:
**Tiestra:**
*If the prices seem high I can negotiate.*
Then:
**Tiestra:**
*Within reason.*
Keizeix smiled.
She was trying very hard not to sound desperate.
Poorly.
He opened the private channel.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*I looked.*
The response came almost immediately.
**Tiestra:**
*And?*
Keizeix deliberately waited.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Then:
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Some of it interests me.*
Another pause.
**Tiestra:**
*Some?*
Keizeix could almost hear the wounded pride.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*I need something specific.*
**Tiestra:**
*Tell me.*
Keizeix thought about his body.
Normal armor would interfere with movement.
Heavy armor defeated the entire purpose of Shadow Mist and spider mobility.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Light armor. Extremely strong. Flexible enough to move naturally with a non-humanoid body.*
He added another line.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*And I don't want it obviously visible.*
Tiestra took longer this time.
**Tiestra:**
*You want living-form armor.*
Keizeix raised an eyebrow.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Explain.*
**Tiestra:**
*Layered Edenweave treated with mimic moss and skinwater resin. It conforms to the wearer's natural shape and can imitate their surface coloration.*
Now she had his attention.
**Tiestra:**
*If you're black and red, it becomes black and red. Scales, fur, shell patterns, skin tone. It follows them.*
Keizeix imagined armor fitting over his midnight-black body while preserving every crimson marking.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Strength?*
**Tiestra:**
*Depends how much you pay.*
Keizeix laughed.
There she was.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Good answer.*
Then he remembered something else.
Silk.
Against the beetlekin he was using enormous quantities of it.
His body produced more eventually, but there were limits.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*What about something to increase natural silk production?*
No response.
Then:
**Tiestra:**
*You're spiderkin?*
Keizeix froze.
He had never told her.
Then realized the request had made it obvious.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Yes.*
**Tiestra:**
*That's actually easier.*
She sent several items.
**Aquatic Gland Tonic**
**Deep-Reed Nutrient Concentrate**
**Living Spring Restoration Draught**
Tiestra explained that her people used similar mixtures for creatures producing magical secretions, fibers, mucus, resin, venom, milk, or other naturally generated substances.
Adjusted properly, the formulas could increase production without damaging the organs responsible.
Keizeix wanted all three.
Which meant he should absolutely not tell her that.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Possibly useful.*
There was a long pause.
**Tiestra:**
*Possibly?*
Keizeix looked toward his storage.
Beginner cores.
Intermediate cores.
A handful of Masters.
To him, many of them had become almost worthless for personal advancement.
To Tiestra?
They were opportunity.
He began understanding the relationship clearly.
She had products.
He had the resource her world lacked.
That meant he didn't need to chase her business.
She needed to chase his.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Your prices would need improvement if you wanted regular purchases.*
No response.
Then:
**Tiestra:**
*How regular?*
Keizeix smiled.
There it was.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Depends how useful you become.*
He wondered briefly whether that sounded cruel.
Then decided he didn't care.
This wasn't friendship.
Not yet.
This was business.
And if Tiestra wanted access to a steady stream of cores, Keizeix wanted her to understand exactly who held the rarer resource in their relationship.
**Tiestra:**
*I can make custom batches.*
Another message.
**Tiestra:**
*And custom armor.*
Another.
**Tiestra:**
*I have personal-quality Edenweave that isn't normally listed.*
Keizeix's eyes sharpened.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Personal-quality?*
**Tiestra:**
*Things my family makes for ourselves. Better materials. Better treatment. We don't usually sell them.*
Keizeix grinned.
She was already offering inventory that wasn't publicly available.
Good.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Now you're making this interesting.*
Tiestra did not answer for several seconds.
Then:
**Tiestra:**
*Tell me what you want, Keizeix.*
He looked through the catalogue again.
Armor.
Tonics.
Healing materials.
Mana-conductive fabrics.
A whole supply chain from a peaceful world desperate for the one thing his battlefield produced by the thousands.
Keizeix leaned back.
For the first time, his piles of low-grade cores didn't look like disappointing currency.
They looked like leverage.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Start with one fitted set of living-form armor and enough silk-production tonic for me to test safely.*
A pause.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*If they're good, I'll come back.*
Tiestra's response came quickly.
**Tiestra:**
*And if they're very good?*
Keizeix's smile widened.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Then you may have just found yourself a patron.*
This time Tiestra took nearly a minute to answer.
**Tiestra:**
*I'll make sure they're very good.*
Keizeix closed the conversation.
Tomorrow, he would kill beetles.
Tonight, he'd begun building something potentially far more valuable.
A supply line.