It had been only two days when Goldie approached me and said, “You and I will be getting away. We need to get some gear out of camp so we can collect it later.”

  That’s right, dwarves need to carry lots of stuff. Some food would be good in this late winter period. I like my axe, and I want to take some of the ore. I have been influenced too much by the dwarves. I now want things.

  We started a cache well away from camp. Yoboc was the hunter, so he made a couple of trips, once with Goldie. Felix went as well, but he snuck out and met them in the woods. He could then lead me to it if things didn’t go according to plan.

  Goldie started to teach me a way to hide my status from others so their Identify skill wouldn’t reveal my secrets so easily. There were several different versions of this, and the simplest was Mask Status, which was used to hide from the Identify skill and similar. It was also the only one for which I had the mental attributes. While I had some free points, I wanted them for my spiritual attributes, so I learned Mask Status. Mask Status relied on my Mental Strength and the Skill level to block access. A high-level person would still get through, but it was something, and I would know about the attempt. I realised this was why my Identify was not giving me information on the dwarves. They all had this or better.

  I kept working with my Astral Affinity. Yoboc suggested that since I knew cold, I should start with that. This wasn’t an ice affinity, so I was not creating ice. This was the deep cold of the astral. I also realised my mistake before when I was gathering the Spiritual energy around me, and I got Spiritual Manipulation. I would not always be where there was astral-aligned Spirituality around me. I needed to use my own astral-aligned Spiritual Energy.

  The first step was to get it out of my body where I could manipulate it, and that was not as easy as it sounds. The only skill I have that uses energy outside my body is Spiritual Manipulation. Even Spiritual Sensing is me sensing what is around me. It is internal looking out.

  I was on watch in the Cavern with Eric when the temperature suddenly dropped, and my Spiritual Sense felt a surge in cold energy but it was different from the Astral cold. It was less intense. I looked around for where it was coming from. Eric didn’t hesitate to set off the alarm to alert those who were off duty.

  My Guard training has instilled a fantastic awareness of my surroundings. Although my Nightsight hampered me in the Cavern, my training without sight has enhanced my other senses, even my non-skilled ones. The slight change in the breeze made me look up, and a spider was dropping toward me with a line of silk... something connecting it to the ceiling.

  “Above!” I alerted Eric.

  “Frost Spiders!” he identified them.

  Then, a shadow briefly covered the light gem above Dave, and I saw more spiders crawling down the walls.

  “Back to the tunnel!” Eric ordered as we both jabbed a spear at the spider above us. I was taller, and my spear skittered off the carapace, whereas he made the spider flinch as he had aimed for the eyes.

  A wave of freezing cold enveloped us. I had the highest Cold Resistance of all the dwarves by about 10 points. Wandering alone for a winter certainly jumped my cold resistance, and I got a few more when I awakened my Astral Affinity. I am still not sure what those points mean. They seem like mini levels only for resistance. It would be more helpful if it was a percentage of resistance, but it is not.

  The Cold seemed to affect Eric, so I shoved him back out of the way, stepped in front of him, and lengthened my fur. I jabbed with my spear again. The spider landed and skittered sideways to avoid the strike, but I still clipped a leg.

  On the ground, the spider came up to my waist, so it was about the height of the dwarves' chest. The legs spread out to each side, and it had a large bulbous rear end with a stinger. It was ice blue in colour, with frost continually forming on the outside and flaking off. I assume the frost was the atmospheric moisture freezing and giving the spider its name.

  Then Eric's spear flew past me as he had thrown it. It slammed into the spider and cracked through the carapace, and it collapsed on the ground. Its legs were moving ineffectually, but it was dying.

  “They are not hard to kill, but that can be fast. Stay out of the frost breath at the front and the ice web at the back. Their stinger will freeze you from the inside out,” he told me as he retrieved his spear, and we started to retreat to the tunnel.

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  Poor old Dave had three spiders crawling around him, and he was looking decidedly frosty but still standing strong. The problem for me was they were working at the Light Gem as well. That meant unexpected shadows and that they were attracted to the light or the Spiritual Energy of the gem. This meant I was not keen to put a light gem on my helmet.

  I had the ground in this area well memorised and was used to moving in this area without my Nightsight, so I relied on my other senses. My Journeyman level Spiritual Sensing showed the main body of the spider as a cold blob, and I could trace the webs which were growing in the cavern. There were a lot of spiders flooding the cavern from the crack in the ceiling.

  I hope this wasn’t the “something” that Yoboc was going to come up with. No, it couldn’t be. I don’t think.

  Eric and I were fending off another one that was between us and the tunnel. At this point, I think he has given up on defending Rock Eater.

  Spear thrust. The shield is used to deflect leg strikes, and it also shelters from cold blasts. Unfortunately, the shields we use are about the size of a dwarven torso, so Eric could crouch behind it, but I could not. I didn’t need to do so as much due to my resistance.

  “Axes will be better, lad,” Eric said as he threw his spear and pulled out his axe. The spider skittered sideways, so his spear only removed a leg and didn’t kill it. An axe required us to get close, but this was not a bad thing.

  The Spiders liked to keep us at a distance that was good for their front legs to strike. Rushing past the leg strike zone put us in reach of the mandibles, but a Shield Bash followed by an axe strike was very effective. My Seismic Smash worked almost as well as Eric’s much higher-level Shield Bash.

  The axes would take out the forelegs in one strike for Eric and two for me. The axe spike would go through the hard carapace. Eric and I started to fight our way to the tunnel. He took the lead, and I defended our rear. We both watched above.

  The Tunnel wasn’t far, but Eric went in to kill the spider already there, and I defended the entrance. The dwarf-sized tunnel hampered my fighting, but the open entrance and top of the ramp were good for me.

  Then Dave’s light went out. I dropped a small light gem on the ground by the tunnel entrance. I had difficulty seeing the spider legs with only my Spiritual Senses.

  It was getting more difficult to sense in the cavern with all the crisscrossing ice webs. Eric soon joined me, and he took the front and the ramp while I took the wall above the tunnel. Being tall has some advantages.

  Then, there was the sound of running feet, and the Commander was there with all the others. “Report!”

  “Frost Spiders, Sir. Probably a nest on the move, attracted by the Spiritual energy. A big one by the number.”

  “Bloody Troll shit. Why now. We almost made it through the winter. Yoboc reported frost spider signs outside yesterday. We were hoping they would just pass by.”

  He did? Could he have lured them in? No, he wouldn’t go against the company. It won’t be him. It will just be a coincidence. That sounded weak when I thought about it to myself. I looked around and couldn’t see Yoboc, but Goldie was there.

  I let Sinmot take my position and moved over by Goldie. I sat down in the tunnel with my back to the wall, “Where is Yoboc?”

  “On watch outside. You might want to send Felix to guard the gear. There are spiders around,” she said.

  “Felix can’t fight these.”

  “The gear’s not near here,” was the quiet reply.

  “Orir,” The commander called, “You have the outer watch with your pack. We will need Yoboc and Hadal in here.”

  “Yes, Commander,” and Orir left.

  “Are Frost Spiders monsters?” I asked Goldie, as The Commander, Eric, and Sinmot were busy strengthening the defensive area around the tunnel and there was no room for more people there.

  “Yes. However, only the Matriarch will have a Monster Core, and she is birthing these. There may be a junior Matriarch working with her, but they soon get chased out to make their own web. They all have high spiritual energy.”

  Interesting. My knowledge of monsters is very limited.

  “They are Spiritually Cold,” I said, “what are the venom and webs?”

  “Yes, a freezing cold,” Goldie informed me. The webs are some sort of frozen silk. They are easy to break when they are new, but they will gather more and more layers of frost and get harder to break. The venom is the killer. It is something that will freeze your blood, and you will soon have frozen limbs drop off. Fortunately, the stinger is easy to avoid; just don’t get ambushed. This is my first time encountering Frost Spiders, so all that is only theory.”

  At least she had the theory. We sat quietly while Eric and the Commander assessed the situation. From what I overheard, the spiders will look to make the cavern home. It is easier to oust them now than to let them get established and wait for the summer team to oust them, although that was a viable option.

  The option to wait also leads to the almost certain destruction of Rock Eater. Now, Rock Eater is just broken. After two months in a cavern with Frost Spiders, it will be beyond repair. The fate of Rock Eater was only a small consideration for the Commander. Everybody surviving was the most important thing for him. He had already lost a dwarf on this trip.

  Can I use the Frost Spiders as inspiration for my own affinity?

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