"I'll help you."
His voice cut through the chamber as he moved toward the fight.
He took two steps—
Then stopped.
"If you tell me what this is about."
Both of them glanced at him instinctively while still fighting.
"The map," Riven continued calmly. "Alric. Whatever you were planning."
For a moment, it felt like the entire chamber paused.
If they weren't currently trying to avoid being torn apart by the spider, both of them would probably have frozen completely.
The broader boy stared at him.
"…What?"
"What are you talking about, Alric—"
"I'm not Alric."
Riven cut him off.
"I was hired as a double for him."
That shut him up instantly.
The broader boy's expression blanked completely.
The girl's eyes widened slightly.
Then understanding dawned.
Another strike from the spider forced her to retreat a step, her blade sliding across one of its legs as she barely avoided the crushing weight of its body.
She collected herself.
"Does it matter?" the voice was a bit raspy between breaths.
"Whether you're Alric or not."
The spider lunged again and she twisted aside, the fangs snapping shut where her shoulder had been a moment earlier.
"If we die here, you won't get out either," she continued. "That thing will kill you too."
Riven watched the fight calmly.
"Let that be my concern."
He tilted his head slightly.
"So?"
"Will you tell me?"
The broader boy was still staring at him as if his brain hadn't caught up yet.
"But then—"
His voice came out almost automatically.
"Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
Riven gave him a flat look.
"I can't exactly announce that I'm a hired double."
He shrugged slightly.
"And after a certain point…"
"…it was too late."
The girl's mind was clearly moving faster than her companion's.
Another attack from the spider forced her to duck low, the creature's leg slamming into the stone behind her hard enough to crack it.
She slid sideways, breathing heavier now.
Then she spoke.
"Fine."
The broader boy snapped toward her.
"Wait—what? No—"
"Yes."
Her tone cut him off.
Before he could argue further, she continued while parrying another strike.
"The four of us entered a trial."
She stepped back as the spider lunged again.
"By accident."
The chamber shook slightly as its body crashed into the stone.
"It was left behind by a powerful cultivator."
Her blade flashed again, forcing the spider's head aside.
"That's where Alric lost his arm."
A brief pause.
"And where he got the map."
She glanced at Riven.
"To the cultivator's treasure."
Another attack forced her to jump back again, the fangs slamming into the ground where she had been standing.
Then she spoke again.
"If you want the rest of the story—"
Her eyes hardened.
"Help us now."
The spider lunged again, barely missing her throat.
Riven listened while the girl spoke, her words piecing together fragments that had already been floating in his mind.
Alric losing his arm.
The map.
The trio searching for him.
It fit.
Everything he had gleaned from them during their short travel together made sense now.
Which meant the girl was most likely telling the truth.
Riven stepped closer.
The broader boy was still fighting hard, trying to push the spider back with a combination of crossbow shots and desperate movement. At that moment he saw an opening and lunged forward, attempting to drive his blade into the creature's side.
But the spider moved faster.
Its massive body shifted, one of its legs pulling back to strike him first.
The boy noticed.
He began to pull back, realizing he had overextended.
"Don't stop!"
Riven shouted.
"I'll block for you!"
The boy hesitated for only a fraction of a second.
Then he committed to the attack.
"Thanks!"
Riven jumped forward.
He stopped just behind him.
The spider's leg came down.
Hard.
The strike landed cleanly against the boy's back, the force driving him into the ground with a sickening crack. His body jerked violently before going limp.
"What—"
The word barely left his mouth.
Behind them, the girl saw it happen.
"You—"
Her eyes snapped toward Riven.
For a moment he didn't move.
He simply looked at the body in front of him, the boy trembling faintly where he lay.
Then he spoke quietly.
"…Sorry."
His voice carried almost no emotion.
"I can't let you live after knowing I'm a double."
The girl's expression twisted.
She jumped back immediately, creating distance between herself, the spider, and Riven.
"Don't you want to know more?!" she shouted.
Riven met her gaze calmly.
"I'll ask Alric."
"You think he'll tell you?" she snapped.
He didn't give her an answer.
In his mind, he knew Alric probably wouldn't tell him anything.
But with the Arachnotoxin Canon he could just track him.
And find stuff out himself.
The spider shifted again.
Its many eyes locked onto the girl.
Riven stepped to the side.
The creature barely acknowledged him.
Instead it lunged straight for her.
Exactly as he expected.
He had made sure not to involve himself in the fight anymore. As long as he didn't attack it directly, the spider treated him more like an obstacle than prey.
Not that he feared it.
If he transformed, he could probably defeat it.
But there was no reason to risk that.
Not when the spider was doing the work for him.
Riven turned and walked toward the entrance, now completely open since the spider had moved deeper into the chamber in pursuit of the girl.
Behind him the fight continued.
Steel clashed against chitin.
Stone cracked under the force of heavy limbs.
He stopped just short of the exit.
Waiting.
He listened to the sounds of the struggle behind him while turning slightly.
It would be embarrassing if he left now and the girl somehow survived.
His eyes drifted across the chamber.
The tall boy lay where the spider had attacked him earlier, his body twisted at an unnatural angle. The earlier ease that had defined his expression was completely gone now. His chest no longer moved.
Dead.
Not far from him, the broader one was still barely alive. The blow that had crushed him into the ground had shattered something vital. His breathing came in short, uneven bursts, each one weaker than the last.
Riven watched him for a moment.
A few months ago—
He would not have been able to stand here like this.
Back then, even the thought of killing someone had been difficult for him. The first time Vaern had brought him to the sect's prison and asked him to execute a criminal, he had walked away.
Leaving the prisoner alive.
At the time, it had felt like the only choice.
Riven looked down at his hand for a moment.
There was no blood on them right now.
But the result was the same.
The man on the ground exhaled one last shaky breath before going still.
Riven didn't react.
The strange thing was that it didn't feel as heavy as it should have.
Unpleasant, maybe.
But familiar.
Normal.
Is this what Vaern meant?
The question formed quietly in his mind.
Is this what he meant when he said you have to become used to killing in this world?
Riven exhaled slowly.
If he had been standing in that prison cell again now, facing that same criminal—
Things would probably have ended differently.
A sound echoed from deeper inside the chamber.
Riven's head lifted.
The spider emerged from the darkness, its heavy body scraping against the stone as it slowly walked back toward the entrance.
The girl hung lifeless between its iron-black fangs, her body dangling loosely as the creature carried its kill.
Riven watched it for a moment.
Then he turned and left the deep cave without another glance.
On the way back through the cave, Riven passed the bodies of the spiders they had killed earlier.
They lay scattered along the path, twisted across stone and webbing alike.
He stopped at the first one.
Then the second.
And the third.
With the trio at his side earlier, they had chastised him to not loot the corpses. They had acted like the creatures and their loot were nothing more than a burden they wouldn't want to carry with them once they found what Riven now knew was some kind of treasure.
But Riven had no reason to be so restrained anymore now.
He crouched beside the nearest body and pulled out Yue Lin's dagger again, cutting carefully into the thick chitin. His movements were efficient and practiced, searching through the interior for the small hardened core that sometimes formed inside feral beasts.
There was none.
He clicked his tongue softly and moved on.
The next one.
Then the next.
Each corpse received the same treatment. Riven cut them open, checking carefully before standing again and continuing down the path.
He wasn't going to miss a potential beast core.
Not when the auction wasn't far away anymore, and the Silvercrest Mansion situation seemed to turn more and more complicated.
Time passed slowly as he worked his way back toward the entrance, the pile of opened carcasses growing behind him. Eventually he did manage to extract a small core from one of the greater ferals, its faint glow catching the dim light of the cave as he wiped it clean before storing it away.
Step by step, he drew closer to the exit.
The air grew lighter again.
The webs thinner.
Then—
A faint skittering sound echoed from further ahead.
Riven stopped.
His gaze lifted slowly toward the darker part of the tunnel.
"…We must have missed one."
He straightened, his hand moving toward the beast pouch on his waist.
"This is a good chance."