I rushed back to Aspen and expanded [Soul Sense] to see her.

  She was laying on the floor, on her side, breathing with heaviness. Not unconscious, but visibly getting weaker.

  [Aspen will be still alive for a while longer. We need to hurry before she gets critical!]

  “Right! Hold on, Aspen!”

  I flew as fast as I could towards her, moving through the caves I went through before going into that small adventure.

  It took only a few minutes to reach her. She was laying on the ground, eyes tired.

  “Aspen! Can you hear me?” I asked.

  “A-Alice…? You know…? being injured… sucks… cough…” She coughed blood.

  [Her vitals are still going lower. Those plants Adela discovered are good. Give her the potion. But be warned, if she has any internal injury the liquid can touch, she will feel a strong burning sensation.]

  That did not sound good, but I was worried.

  Okay, how could I do that?

  I made the potion appear in front of me, and made it land on the ground.

  “Aspen, think you can drink it?”

  I pushed the bottle with wind magic towards her. She looked at it, and slowly propped herself.

  Even when I knew how to use magic to move items thanks to Shin and Adela., I did not trust my dexterity with it.

  “What is that?” She sniffed it without moving closer.

  Her voice was lacking her normal energy.

  “Healing potion. Is the only amount I could find..”

  She whispered, and grabbed it with her mouth. I helped her with my handle to push her head up, slowly, and she began to gulp the red liquid.

  Then she fell again, falling on her side.

  “Tastes… awful… heh…” she laughed.

  Then, to my dismay, she closed her eyes.

  “Ah! Hey! Don’t go to sleep!”

  [Give it a second. I know it looks bad, but even with that little she should be better]

  “By whatever that looks over this world, don’t be wrong!”

  A second passed.

  Another passed.

  Another passed.

  “Aspen…”

  The seconds felt like hours.

  But then…

  “Ugh… it… it burns… aaaaaagh!”

  Aspen, suddenly, began to trash and wriggle in pain, complaining and whimpering, eyes closed shut.

  “What is happening?!”

  [Damn it. Is like I said. Maybe in some part of the way down, Aspen has an injury. It will heal faster, but the potion is known to burn and cause pain as it does its job if applied directly. Be strong, she should be better.]

  The seconds became worse. Seeing Aspen in such pain, with me not being able to do anything other than to look, was making me feel helpless.

  She screamed for a few more seconds, until she relaxed. Her voice was coarse already, all from screaming her pain out.

  She stopped thrashing, breathing fast and heavy with her eyes lost toward the ceiling.

  “Aspen…?” I asked her again.

  “...don’t… I won’t drink anything… you give me again… damn!” She spoke with her tongue out.

  “H-how are you? How are you feeling?”

  “Like… I just got a spike from those… those lizards under my tail…” she answered after a few moments. “My body still hurts, but I think… I am fine….”

  The last word came out lower, and she closed her eyes.

  “D-Don’t fall asleep!” I got closer, “Hey! Aspen? Aspen!”

  [Aspen vitals seem to be stabilizing. Her energy has to be quite low, especially after suffering from the potion’s burning sensation. She is recovering.]

  “T-then she…”

  Then, to my surprise, a big snore came from her, followed by a slight whimper as Aspen fell to her side.

  Feeling more relaxed, although still shaken up, I realized she fell asleep.

  “S-she is just asleep… she is going to be fine, right?”

  [100%. Even with that little amount of Healing Potion, she should be able to recover. Is a stroke of fortune we found it.]

  “Yeah, compared to my luck stat, it is amazing.” I answered. “Can you give the armband to Aspen so she can heal better?”

  [On it.]

  With a small shimmer of magic, the silk-made armband appeared on her right frontal leg, close to her paw. It was red in color, and well made.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  [Is a very basic Armband, by the way]

  [Restoring Allokai Worm Silk Armband]

  -Heals 5% of HP each hour. Wounds heal faster.

  “I think 5% is still good..”

  [With the potion, she should be completely healed in a couple of days. She needs to rest, and be safe, but will be back to normal soon.]

  Ironically, I felt that was the safest spot in all of the caverns, based on how even the mindless Arakins would not dare to go down there, and Aspen felt the pressure from the swordswoman Ether.

  She was still sitting there, on her knees, like meditating. Like a centinel, not letting anyone dare to pass by.

  My clone… or what could pass at it.

  I still cannot believe she looks like me… each step on this mission has been leading me to more questions! First her, then the building of the Seekers giving me access. What is even happening? And why is Ella not speaking anymore?

  [Even with how much control some mages have over Ether, it is something we don’t fully understand. Spirits are made of them, but they work in mysterious ways]

  She pushed me forward and then warned me to be careful.

  I was doubting if I really heard her voice, or if maybe we were thinking the same thing

  For now, I needed to worry about more immediate situations.

  My objective originally was to find the exit and see how to deal with the Arakins.

  The door was there, we found it, but the problem was what was between us and that.

  If only I could beat her, we could escape.

  “Erika… what level is she?”

  [Analysing… my estimate is that she must be at least a late level Rank 3 and at most an early level Rank 4.]

  “What about the monsters in the building?”

  [I cannot analyse their Ether. However, I can estimate an early level Rank 2, which means they might still be able to provide XP if fought in groups.]

  Ranks really made a difference. Just 1 or 2 ranks above me and I could not deal with them. Just a few levels above the same Rank and I could defeat them with some strategy, but were clearly a threat. It was disturbing, in a certain way.

  Having played RPGs, both on computers and tabletop, made the idea sink in comfortably between my other questions. But one thing was clear.

  “I need to level up. I need to be able to go through that door. If that thing is stopping me, then…”

  [Then you need to continue gathering Ether. Make use of the stones you have been obtaining, they will help you gain more XP and go up faster. Being in an Ether rich environment like this one has also helped in your progress, based on my analysis. Normally, reaching your Rank takes longer, not that much, but you would be still early Rank 2. The job of the System, me, is to make sure you can use as much Ether as possible from any source you can acquire it from.]

  Then I will. I was going to become stronger.

  }------------------------------------------o~o------------------------------------------{

  I went up to explore back to where the Arakins were. They were gone, the horde was no more.

  My [Soul Sense] gained a few hundred meters, and I could see Aspen from a longer distance. My plan was to not get too far away, but I needed to make sure we were safe and scout ahead.

  Still, I never tried to look for more than a couple of places at once, one being my immediate situation, and the other the spots I wanted to pay attention to.

  There were more around where they lost us. Maybe making use of it if we ever returned, but would keep my distance, glued to the wall on the chasm.

  “They cannot sense Ether, right, Erika?”

  [Negative. They are not Ether sensitive, and cannot use magic. That doesn’t mean they are not affected or do not follow its rules, however. They even can benefit from it, but they cannot use it like you.]

  Good for me, then. I did not want to be signaling myself to a bunch of those things.

  I moved, trying to find their nest. Their territory was big, bigger than my [Soul Sense] could reach. Moving around the caverns, the Arakins seemed to do their normal lives, moving in rows and precise paths.

  They never hit each other, and they moved in lines like ants. Never spoke, never deviated.

  “Now, who is the Queen they so much want to protect?”

  I moved through the ceiling. Even when they were capable of using the ceiling to move, none of them were inside of their territory. Maybe it was one way to set up traps and reach higher spots instead of normal travels.

  A few meters forward, still with my presence hidden, I found a giant nest made of a material I could not recognize. It was big, reaching for the ceiling, and had many holes on where the Arakins went in and out.

  Inside of it I saw them work, move food around, and eggs. The food, by the way, were animals they would capture and wrap around in their cobweb.

  The eggs, rounds and pearly, seemed to be soft on the surface, and bouncy.

  And the most impressive part was not all of that.

  There were rooms, special areas on the giant nest, connected by tunnels. And on them were something that caught me by surprise.

  “Are those tables?” I asked Erika.

  [Arakins are not a mindless species. They are capable of thought, learning and speech.]

  “But they are so robotic…”

  I saw tables, what I assume were tablets made of wax with a stylus on the side. One of the rooms, in the lower levels, made me think of a classroom with a big slab on the back, like a blackboard.

  There was a kitchen made of stone and twig tools. And all kinds of other rooms, like bedrooms, studies, all discarded without removing them, left to rot forgotten by the hive.

  The wax was dried, the furniture destroyed and discarded like there was a big fight.

  The Arakins moved around them, never entering any.

  An egg in the middle room hatched. Breaking through came another Arakin, younger and smaller. There was no larva stage, they were born that way.

  Confused, it looked around. It moved its wings. Seemed to have more life on himself than the rest of his nest.

  Then… its arms fell. Its eyes stopped exploring, and it joined the rest of them.

  Mindless, controlled, without self identity.

  [That was odd. I noticed changes in that one’s patterns.]

  “I don’t think that one was lucid?” I asked.

  [Maybe. There is a non zero chance that the corruption is entering them after they are born through the pheromones.]

  That was horrible. Too horrible. Suddenly coming into existence, being aware and, out of nowhere, having your mind stolen from you?

  I could not call that anything different than what Erika had been calling it. Corruption.

  Aspen was still within my reach, sleeping and safe.

  I moved forward, trying to get a glimpse of the Queen.

  “What the… that is…”

  I had to process the beast I was seeing there. A big Arakin, with bigger wings and leaner body. She was still taller and huge compared to the rest of the spider creatures

  And a big crystal on her head and another in her big lower body, a nasty growth like the ones I had seen so far in the lower parts of the caverns. She was surrounded by eggs, in a big room.

  Her two arms were limping, while she stared at the eggs surrounding her, like she was in a deep trance. She was drooling, her white saliva, maybe made of silk and poison, dripped into a puddle under her.

  And that was not the only crystal. There were many all around her body. Ether Contamination, too much.

  “Wait… if they cannot use magic, then… that means that the Ether she has…”

  [Exactly. If any Ether managed to enter her body, it would have such heavy ramifications. How it did is another question, but that Queen is contaminated.]

  “What Rank is it?”

  [Early Rank 3 at most, late level Rank 2 at the minimum. If you are going to fight it, be prepared. I will have a map of the area and nest for future use.]

  Then a challenge that I could use to reach Rank 3.

  But I had to wait for Aspen. She was sleeping and it would be a bad idea to go have adventures while she was unconscious in the middle of the caves. Even when she would be most likely safe and nothing would happen, I would be feeling bad if she would wake up and I was not there.

  I returned.