The morning came too fast.
Sam woke up with a groan, his entire body feeling like it had been chewed up and spit out. The cave smelled awful. Even though he threw the dead centipede outside, the sour stench of bug acid and rotten meat hung in the damp air.
He sat up and checked his arms. The shallow cuts from last night were red and angry. He had tied the white gauze around them in the dark, and it looked like a tangled, bloody mess. He tried to tighten the knot with his teeth, but his fingers were stiff and clumsy.
A heavy sigh echoed across the cave.
Lumi walked over. She didn't say a word. She just swatted his hands away, grabbed the loose end of the bandage, and started unwrapping the messy knot.
"I had it," Sam muttered.
"You tied this like a blind monkey," Lumi said quietly.
She pulled a clean section of the gauze from the roll. To get the right angle, she had to step right into his personal space. She stood between his knees as he sat on the rock, leaning over him.
Sam froze.
She was incredibly close. He could feel the warmth radiating off her. The faint smell of crushed flowers completely overpowered the nasty cave stench. Her cool, soft fingers brushed against his bare, bruised arm as she wrapped the white cloth tight.
Sam swallowed hard. He looked down at her. Her platinum hair fell forward, framing her face. The dirt smudged on her cheek somehow just made her look more real. She was biting her bottom lip in deep concentration, making sure the bandage covered the acid burns perfectly.
'She's actually really pretty,' Sam thought. His heart did a weird, heavy flutter in his chest.
As if she heard him thinking, Lumi looked up.
Her glowing amber eye locked right onto his gray ones. They were just inches apart. She froze, her hands still resting on his bare arm.
For a second, the whole terrifying world just faded out. Sam didn't breathe. He didn't look away.
A bright, burning red blush exploded across Lumi's face. She realized exactly how close they were and how he was looking at her. Her eye widened, and she yanked the bandage tight with way too much force.
"Ow!" Sam winced.
"Don't get used to it, mortal," Lumi stammered, scrambling backward like she had just touched a hot stove. She wouldn't look at him, her face still completely flushed.
"Pack your things. We are leaving."
Sam rubbed his arm, a slow, stupid smile creeping onto his face.
"Sure thing, Sovereign."
They packed up their cheap iron pot and water jug into the System Inventory. Sam gripped his new rusted iron hunting knife. It was heavy, ugly, and perfectly balanced.
They stepped out of the cave and into the humid morning mist.
Lumi was right. Staying in one place was suicide. They needed to keep moving and find an edge to this endless forest.
For the first few hours, the walk was quiet. Sam used the heavy iron blade to hack through thick vines that blocked their path. It felt incredibly good to have a real weapon. He wasn't just a guy with a pointy stick anymore. He could actually cut things.
Lumi walked right behind him, keeping her eyes scanning the dark canopy above. The blush was gone, replaced by her usual cold focus, but she stayed a little closer to his back than she usually did.
Around noon, the forest changed.
The glowing blue moss on the trees disappeared, replaced by thick, grayish-white webs draped over the giant branches like dirty curtains.
Sam stopped. He held his hand up.
"Webs," Sam whispered. "Big ones."
Lumi stepped up beside him. She looked at the sticky white ropes hanging from the trees.
"We need to go around. Do not touch them."
*Thwip—*
Before Sam could even turn around, a thick rope of white silk shot out of the shadows. It slammed into Sam's left shoulder with the force of a baseball bat, pinning him violently against the trunk of a massive tree.
"Sam!" Lumi yelled.
Sam grunted, the wind knocked out of his lungs. He struggled, but the silk was thicker than steel cable. He was stuck fast.
High up in the branches, something massive shifted.
A monster dropped from the canopy, landing silently on the dirt right in front of them.
It was a spider the size of a minivan. But its body wasn't covered in hair. It was made of something that looked like jagged, translucent glass. You could literally see its dark, pulsing organs inside its chest. Eight razor-sharp, glassy legs dug into the mud. A cluster of eight black, soulless eyes stared right at them.
[Ding!]
[Monster Identified: Glass-Weaver Spider]
[Threat Level: Cataclysmic]
The spider didn't even look at Lumi. It looked right at Sam, pinned to the tree like a fresh meal. It hissed, its mandibles dripping with a sickly green venom.
"Lumi, run!" Sam yelled, struggling wildly against the web.
But Lumi didn't run.
She bent down, grabbed a rock the size of a grapefruit, and threw it as hard as her mortal arms could manage.
*Clack!*
The rock bounced harmlessly off the spider's glass-like head, but it did the trick. The massive monster snapped its head toward her. It hissed, raising two of its front legs like scythes, ready to skewer her.
"Hey, ugly!" Lumi shouted, backing up quickly.
"Over here!"
'She's crazy,' Sam thought in pure panic.
He didn't have time to waste. He twisted his right arm, bringing the rusted iron knife up. He sawed frantically at the thick silk pinning his left shoulder. The Iron Sharp edge of the cheap hunting knife ripped through the webbing.
*Snap!*
Sam tore himself free just as the spider lunged at Lumi.
"Get down!" Sam roared.
He pushed off the tree and dove forward. He swung the heavy iron knife with everything he had, aiming right for the spider's front leg.
*CRACK!*
The iron blade smashed into the glass-like armor. The impact jarred Sam's bones, sending a painful shock up to his teeth. But the rusted iron held. The blade bit deep, shattering the spider's leg right at the joint.
The monster shrieked, a high-pitched sound like grinding glass. It collapsed heavily onto its front side, blue blood spraying from the broken stump.
It wasn't dead. It thrashed wildly, spinning around to face Sam. It reared back, opening its jaws to spit venom.
"Its eyes, Sam!" Lumi screamed from the mud.
"The armor is thickest on the back! Aim for the eyes!"
Sam didn't hesitate. He didn't freeze. Five days of running and hiding had flipped a switch in his brain.
As the spider lunged forward, jaws snapping shut, Sam dropped to his knees, sliding through the wet mud right under its deadly fangs.
He grabbed one of the monster's hairy mandibles with his left hand to anchor himself. He looked right into the cluster of black, soulless eyes.
"Die!" Sam yelled.
He drove the iron knife straight up.
*Crunch!*
The heavy blade smashed through the center eye, sinking deep into the monster's brain.
The Glass-Weaver instantly stiffened. Its eight legs curled inward, twitching violently. Sam ripped the knife out and rolled backward, getting out of the way just as the massive, heavy body crashed into the mud.
It twitched once, twice, and then went completely still.
[Ding!]
[Monster Defeated: Glass-Weaver Spider]
[Reward: 120 SP]
Sam lay in the mud, staring at the gray sky through the trees. His chest heaved as he sucked in greedy gulps of air. His arms were shaking from the adrenaline.
He slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position.
Lumi was already standing. She walked over to him, her breathing just as ragged as his. She looked at the massive dead spider, then looked down at Sam sitting in the mud with his bloody knife.
"Are you hurt?" she asked. Her voice wasn't arrogant. It wasn't commanding. It actually sounded worried.
"Just bruised," Sam panted. He looked up at her and let out a tired, breathless laugh.
"You threw a rock at a Cataclysmic monster."
Lumi crossed her arms, though her hands were shaking slightly.
"It was going to eat you. I couldn't let my only source of cooked food die."
"Right. The food," Sam smirked, pushing himself up to his feet. He wiped the blue spider blood off his knife.
"Whatever you say, Lumi."
She glared at him, but the faint pink color returned to her cheeks. She turned quickly and started walking around the dead spider.
"Let us keep moving. I refuse to be ambushed by another overgrown insect."
Sam watched her walk away, shaking his head.
He opened his System.
[Current Balance: 210 SP]
They were getting stronger. They were actually fighting back. Sam gripped the handle of his iron knife, feeling a real, solid spark of confidence for the first time.
He didn't know what was waiting for them at the end of the thirty days, but he knew one thing for sure. He wasn't going to die here.