“Like someone pixelated the spot you were standing . . .” Nick said. He and Bonnie both gave him an oddly disgusted look.

“That just doesn’t look right,” Bonnie commented, shaking her head. “It’s creepy. It’s like someone loaded an image, but one spot was still rendering when the Internet gave way.

“Whatever,” Lucas sighed. Even if it wasn’t perfect camouflage, and he’d still be noticed up close, this cloak meant that his relaxing naps outside would be that much less likely to be disturbed. Heck, even Xun Guan, or whatever her real-life name is, might not be able to steal my cheese and wine while I’m in this cloak. Web of Deceit indeed. “We’ve wasted enough time here. Let’s get going.”

“Umm, boss, how do we get out?” Bonnie asked. “I made sure to tie a rope to the top before I came down, but we’ve got a little problem . . . it kinda got lost during the fight. I think one of Nick’s fireballs burned it.”

“No worries,” Lucas said, pointing to the prison of Earth Spikes that had trapped the giant spider. “We can just use those on the wall and make a ladder of sorts up.”

Nick nodded, looking at what Lucas was indicating. “We can, can’t we? But . . . you sure you don’t want to explore further in, see the rest of what this spider cave has to offer?”

Lucas gave the cavern one more glance over but still couldn’t see an exit. The only direction they could go was to enter the giant tunnel the fat boss had made with its body before appearing. Unfortunately, when he walked over and checked the hole, it was clear that the boss had just been waiting there the entire time. There were dozens of webs connected to it, but it was rather shallow, indicating that the fat spider must have been lazily lying just under the surface.

Seeing that there was nothing to explore, the group used a ladder crafted from their spells to climb back up and then once more maneuvered down the corridor. There were no more interruptions as they journeyed through the caves, and they were able to navigate all the way into the manor’s main building without running into a single spider. If we had just used Frost Breath instead of fire attacks to kill the little spiders, we wouldn't have even had to face off against the giant arachnid.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a ladder leading up to a trap door. Bonnie went first. “Gotta go first before the boss starts thinking I’m dead weight, and business suffers,” she grumbled under her breath, but still loud enough for Lucas and Nick to hear her as she climbed up the ladder into the room above.

“Don’t worry,” Nick responded, “your reputation is fine. You’re clearly moving on up as we speak.”