Sid POV

  Sid scanned the canopy again, eyes moving through the layered branches and hanging leaves above them. He had tucked his staff inside his shirt, pressed against his back. He preferred to keep it in hand, but that was only when the dagger was his primary weapon. Against spiders, reach mattered. The spear gave him space, and space kept him alive.

  “There’s an eerie silence here.” Varun’s voice came out low, almost casual, like he was thinking aloud. “Feels like a horror movie.”

  The words landed heavier than they should have. Pallavi swallowed, her throat moving visibly before she turned toward him. “Pay attention to your surroundings. Sid warned us earlier.”

  Sid resisted the urge to rub his face. The area was thick with sensory webbing laid by elite guards. He could not see it, but he felt its effect in the way sound seemed to die before traveling far. Every step they took pressed into a space that was meant to notice them.

  Being careful with their movements would not help. It was a lack of skill rather than prudence that was working against them.

  What unsettled him was not the threat of attack but its absence.

  If the Matriarch were in her lair, she would’ve responded by now. No response likely meant she was fighting goblins or, worse, was dead. Neither option sat well with him. He needed the lair cleared before the goblins reached it.

  Varun drifted toward the base of a nearby tree and climbed it. His movement was smooth enough to be quiet, but Sid still caught a flicker at the edge of his vision and snapped his head upward.

  Sid narrowed his eyes, tracking him as he moved higher until he settled against the trunk, body angled outward. From there, Varun swept his gaze from left to right, steady and deliberate, as if memorizing the forest.

  Rohan and Pallavi froze when they noticed Sid had stopped. Their weapons came up almost in unison, bodies angling defensively as they followed his line of sight.

  “Where’s Varun?” Rohan asked. The strain in his voice was clear. His breathing picked up, shallow and quick, as his eyes darted around the mist.

  Sid raised one hand and pointed upward. “He’s up there.”

  Rohan followed the gesture, squinting up the trunk. For a moment, he saw nothing. Then Varun seemed to appear from the bark itself, one hand and both feet braced against the tree, his other hand gripping his spear.

  Rohan exhaled, though the breath caught halfway out. Tension still clung to his shoulders.

  A heartbeat later, Varun dropped to the ground beside them.

  “Let us know before you pull a stunt like that,” Rohan said, stepping closer. His eyes narrowed, irritation cutting through his relief.

  “I was just checking if you guys were alert.” Varun took a small step back, a crooked grin forming as he spoke. His eyes flicked toward Sid for a moment before returning to Rohan.

  Sid hoped Varun would start taking things seriously after the beating he took from Pallavi. That fight had been humiliating enough to leave a mark. Instead, his advancement to Tier 1 and the knowledge that he had chosen a better path than both Pallavi and Rohan had planted a quiet arrogance in him.

  “Drop your bullshit,” Rohan barked, glaring at Varun.

  “What did you see up there?” Sid asked before the exchange could turn uglier. He knew he would have to deal with Varun’s flippant attitude eventually, but now was not the time for it.

  “There’s nothing up there apart from branches and some webs.” Varun’s disappointment showed in the way his shoulders slumped. “I couldn’t even see that far. The fog was thicker higher up.”

  “Are you sure your skill told you to prepare for an attack?” Rohan asked. Confusion and suspicion mixed in his voice, his brows drawing together.

  Sid felt a tight knot form in his chest. He had taken a calculated risk by inventing a skill to justify his intuition. It had worked earlier, but now the cracks were showing. He searched for a way to redirect the conversation without exposing himself.

  Before he could speak, Varun stepped in.

  “You can’t trust these types of skills all the time.” Varun’s gaze flicked between Sid and Rohan, as if measuring their reactions. “Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t.”

  “And how do you know that?” Rohan planted the butt of his spear on the ground and leaned on it. The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable.

  “I read and I know things,” Varun said, echoing a familiar line from fiction.

  Sid sighed. Misquoted, he thought. But correcting him would only make things worse. Time was already slipping through their fingers.

  Sid’s thoughts snapped back to the bigger picture. His original plan had been to grind their skills against the elite guards. That was no longer viable. If the goblins reached the lair before them, then staying here served no purpose. At that point, retreating to camp and preparing for George would be the only logical move.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Sid tilted his spear forward so that its shaft cut cleanly between Rohan and Varun, breaking the tension. He waited until both of them turned toward him before speaking.

  “Let’s not waste time here,” he said. “We were looking for a cave, right? Let’s do that.”

  Pallavi gave a small nod, her lips pressed together. She did not argue, which Sid silently appreciated. Rohan released a slow, exaggerated breath, clearly unhappy but unwilling to push further. He gave a curt nod.

  Varun only shrugged, as if the tension had never mattered to him.

  They moved again, falling into a loose formation. Sid took the lead, his attention split between the canopy and the ground. The silence followed them, heavy and watchful.

  No spiders appeared. No sudden movement broke the stillness. That absence felt wrong. In a place this dense with webs, there should have been signs. Sounds. Something.

  He adjusted his grip on the spear and focused on the path ahead, pushing aside lingering irritation. Whatever doubts Rohan had about his skill would have to wait. Right now, reaching the cave mattered more than proving anything.

  Sid spotted it first. Two blocks of stone met at almost right angles, forming a narrow recess in the terrain. Time and neglect had worked together to hide it. Undergrowth crawled over the stone, and a fallen log lay half wedged against the opening. What little space remained was barely wide enough for a person to crawl through.

  The state of the entrance suggested disuse. That alone made Sid breathe a little easier. If the tunnel had not seen traffic in a while, it likely meant no guards were stationed inside. The real danger would begin only once they reached the lair itself.

  “I think I see something.” Sid raised his right hand, elbow level with his shoulder, palm closed into a fist. They had agreed on several hand signals before setting out, simple ones meant to prevent confusion under pressure. This one meant halt, but no immediate threat.

  “What is it?” Pallavi moved in beside him, her steps careful. She followed his gaze, leaning slightly forward as she tried to see what he saw.

  “Think I found your cave, Rohan,” Sid said. He kept his tone light, threading a hint of humor through it to hide the tension coiling in his chest.

  Rohan’s lips twitched upward as he stepped closer. “Let’s go check it out.”

  Sid moved first, staying alert. Even now, he felt the others pressing in behind him, eager and restless. He adjusted his pace more than once when they closed the distance too quickly.

  He stepped onto the fallen log, testing it before shifting his weight. The surface was uneven, and he angled his body slightly to the right to stay balanced. He glanced back at Varun and held out his hand. “Sword.”

  Varun passed it over without comment. Sid weighed it briefly. A sword was a poor tool for clearing plants, especially with a dulled edge, but it would have to do.

  He swung at the shrub blocking the entrance. The blade caught on fibrous stems that refused to part. The roots were anchored deep into the horizontal stone slab forming the top of the opening. He tried again, sawing at the same spot. The resistance made his footing slip, and he had to shift quickly to keep from losing balance.

  Pallavi tapped his calf. “Let me try.”

  She did not wait for permission. She climbed up beside him with practiced ease, her movement confident and direct.

  Sid handed her the short sword and stepped down, giving her space.

  From below, he leaned forward to peer through the tangle of leaves and branches. They had already examined the cave earlier from the outside. Even tossed a few stones inside to listen for movement. Nothing had answered then.

  Sid kept his breathing slow as Pallavi worked behind him. He listened for any shift in sound from within the cave, any scrape or echo that would suggest movement. There was nothing.

  “Use the sword like a lever.” Rohan had a smile on his face, his tone lacking the tension that had clung to him for the past two days.

  At some point, Rohan had started to associate caves with safety. The last two nights spent inside one had passed without incident, and that experience had quietly reshaped his expectations.

  Pallavi fixed her footing on the log and wedged the sword into the narrow gap between the root and the stone block. She took a breath and pulled the stem downward while pushing the blade upward.

  “Stop. You’ll break my sword.” Varun stepped forward and grabbed her leg to get her attention.

  Pallavi did not even look at him. With a firm pull, she tore the shrub free. The main stem snapped loose while the smaller roots stayed wedged in the rock.

  “Thanks.” Sid looked up at her, relief softening his expression.

  She met his gaze with a brief, gentle smile. “Let’s go check out what’s inside.”

  She tossed the plant aside and climbed into the cave first, moving with practiced ease. Sid followed, planting one hand on the log and swinging himself over before dropping inside.

  The shift was immediate. Inside the cave, the light dulled as though evening had arrived early. Shadows clung to the walls, and the air felt still, almost held in place.

  “It looks like a spider lived here.” Varun pointed toward the side wall.

  Sid followed his gesture. Thick layers of spider silk clung there, layered over each other as if reinforcing the surface. It almost looked structural.

  Rohan’s head snapped toward Varun, then followed his pointing finger to the webbed wall.

  “You think this is a spider’s home?” Rohan asked quickly. His tone sharpened as he crossed the short distance between them and placed a hand on Varun’s shoulder.

  “That’s unlikely,” Sid said before Varun could respond. “The entrance was too small for us, let alone a large spider. I think it was abandoned a long time ago.”

  Rohan’s eyes lingered on the silk. Sid saw fear flicker there, quick and unguarded. For a moment, it looked like Rohan might suggest they leave. Sid could not let that happen. The tunnel connected to this chamber mattered too much.

  A sudden scrape of stone against stone pulled their attention away.

  Pallavi stood near the back of the cave, her back to them, examining something along the wall.

  Sid knew immediately what she had found.

  “I think there’s something here,” Pallavi said, pointing ahead as she turned around.

  Her finger pointed to a darker opening carved into the stone. A narrow tunnel extended beyond the small chamber.

  “Looks like we need to find out what,” Varun said as he stepped forward. There was a grin on his face, and his voice carried a note of excitement. He glanced at Sid as he passed, as if inviting him to share the moment.

  Happy New Year folks!!

  Next chapter on Monday (05 Jan 2026)

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