"Hmm... should we go in, or choose another place?" Tyler asked, eyes fixed on the edge of the flower field ahead.

The flowers were strange, too tall, too vibrant, their petals swaying even though there was barely any wind. The air itself felt heavy, as if something unseen was watching.

Chole folded her arms and thought for a moment, her ears twitching.

"I don’t know," she finally said. "If the rumors are true, there should be some kind of Giant Monster living here."

Tyler let out a slow breath.

"Hmmm... well, I’m against taking risks unless we’re hella ready for whatever’s coming," he said. "So yeah, let’s back off."

The decision had barely left his mouth.

Something whistled through the air.

A blur shot out from the flower field, moving too fast to track.

"Mooo?!"

Chole didn’t even have time to react.

Something wrapped around her body and yanked her upward. Her feet left the ground as she was dragged screaming into the air, vanishing into the sea of towering flowers as if the field itself had swallowed her whole.

Tyler froze for half a second.

Then his brain caught up.

Uncouth as it may be, "fuck" is the most versatile word one can use in response to any situation, Tyler thought calmly, even as his heart slammed against his ribs.

"Serena," he said sharply, forcing his voice to stay steady. "Stay on my shoulder. If anything happens, pull us into the pocket dimension pearl. We’ll use the same trick we used on the orc."

Serena let out a sharp meow and climbed onto his shoulder, claws lightly digging into his collar as she nodded.

Tyler stepped forward.

The moment he entered the flower field, the world seemed to close in on him.

The flowers were even taller from inside, far taller than he had realized. Some brushed against his face, others against his chest. Their stems were thick, their petals broad enough to block his vision completely. Every step felt like pushing through a living wall.

The air smelled sweet. Too sweet.

Tyler slowed his breathing, listening. There were No footsteps. There were No movement.

Only the soft rustling of petals and the distant hum of insects.

Then he stopped.

In the middle of the field, standing alone as if it had always been there, was an old wooden house.

Tyler blinked.

"A... house?"

It was small, probably just one room. The wood was darkened with age, the roof slightly slanted, the walls warped but intact. It didn’t look abandoned, but it didn’t look lived in either. More like it had simply existed here for a very long time.

Cautiously, Tyler approached and pushed the door open.

It creaked.

Inside was... ordinary.

A single room. A table. A chair. A bed pushed against the wall. Dust covered everything, but nothing looked broken or hostile.

Tyler stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

The moment the latch clicked shut, his stomach dropped.

Something brushed against his mind.

It was subtle, nothing violent or overwhelming. More like invisible threads grazing the edges of his thoughts, delicate yet invasive, like walking through a web without seeing it.

Tyler’s eyes widened.

This feeling...

It wasn’t like the time he had ventured with Abyss. That presence had been vast and incomprehensible, like staring into a bottomless void.

This was different.

Smaller.

Sharper.

Intentional.

Panic surged through him.

Tyler spun around, eyes darting from corner to corner, trying to locate the source while desperately attempting to mentally block whatever was touching his mind.

He couldn’t.

The presence slipped past his defenses as if they weren’t there at all.

"So... you are here?"

The voice echoed directly inside his head.

Clear. Calm. Confident.

Tyler’s breath caught.

Telepathy.

And not the crude, forced kind.

This was refined.

Controlled.

And according to Chole, mastering telepathy in this world was not easy.

His last encounter with a monster had been an orc, brutal, loud, barely intelligent.

This was different.

This was a monster that could think.

"Interesting," the voice continued, amusement woven into every word. "You feel... familiar."

Tyler’s eyes flicked to the darkest corner of the room.

Did the shadows there just... move?

His hand tightened around the copper pot he was carrying. He raised it instinctively, preparing to swing,

And his body stopped.

Completely.

His muscles locked in place, refusing to obey him. His fingers trembled, but he couldn’t move them. He couldn’t even turn his head.

Cold fear crawled up his spine.

A dark shape detached itself from the shadows and leapt forward.

It landed silently on the floor in front of him.

A spider.

Just like he had suspected when Chole was dragged away, he had noticed the glint of silk, the faint pull of a web.

But this spider was nothing like what he had imagined.

It wasn’t massive. It wasn’t towering or grotesquely large.

It was compact.

No bigger than Tyler’s head.

Its body was solid, dense, built for explosive movement rather than long, spindly reach. As Tyler’s mind raced, recognition struck him.

A jumping spider.

But twisted.

Evolved.

As it turned to face him, Tyler found himself staring into a pair of enormous, solid black eyes.

They were unsettlingly expressive.

Human-like.

There was another smaller pair of eyes above them, set into its ’forehead’, for lack of a better term, but Tyler couldn’t stop looking at the two large ones. They reflected light in a way that made them seem... aware.

Watching.

Then he noticed the fangs.

Long.

Thick.

Sharp enough that they could pierce his skull without effort.

"Hehehe... let’s have a talk, human."

The telepathic voice echoed again, closer this time.

The room shimmered.

The walls, the furniture, the door, all of it dissolved like mist, revealing the truth.

They were standing inside a vast web-covered space.

Thick strands of silk crisscrossed the area, anchoring to unseen points among the towering flowers outside. The ground was uneven, sticky beneath Tyler’s feet.

And there,

Chole.

She hung suspended in a cocoon of webbing, wrapped tightly but not crushed. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow but steady. Only her face was exposed, pale against the white silk.

She was unconscious.

Tyler’s chest tightened.

"Chole..."

The spider’s eyes gleamed with amusement.

"Relax," the creature said smoothly. "She lives. For now."

Tyler clenched his jaw.

Serena shifted on his shoulder, fur bristling, claws digging deeper.

Tyler forced himself to stay calm.

If this thing wanted him dead, he would already be dead.

Which meant,

It wanted something.

And that made this far more dangerous.