Keizeix woke to a soft chime only he could hear.
His eyes opened immediately.
No alarms.
No shaking earth.
No Heroic beetles attempting to erupt through his bed.
That alone made it a good morning.
Then the translucent System notification appeared.
**Protected Exchange Completed**
**Seller: Tiestra**
**Items transferred to Personal Storage.**
Keizeix's remaining tiredness vanished.
He sat upright and mentally opened his storage.
Three unfamiliar objects rested separately from his increasingly organized mountains of cores.
The first looked like a folded piece of shimmering blue-green cloth scarcely large enough to cover one of his front legs.
Beside it sat a narrow bottle of pale turquoise liquid.
The third was a much smaller vial containing a thick silver fluid that seemed to swirl even while perfectly still.
A message from Tiestra waited beside them.
**Tiestra:**
*Before you complain about the amount of fabric, press it against your body and feed a small amount of Mana into it.*
Keizeix stared at the tiny bundle.
"She already knows me too well."
He removed it from storage.
The moment it entered the physical world, he glanced toward his tent entrance.
Closed.
No guards inside.
Shirespoke wouldn't arrive for several minutes.
Good.
Keizeix pressed the material against his thorax and carefully allowed a tiny stream of Mana to flow into it.
The effect was immediate.
The cloth liquefied.
"What the—"
Keizeix nearly dropped it.
Instead the material flowed across his shell like warm water.
It spread over his thorax.
His abdomen.
Down all eight legs.
Across the narrow joints between sections of natural armor.
Even his underside became coated.
For several seconds Keizeix appeared covered in shimmering blue-green liquid.
Then the color changed.
Midnight black.
Crimson circles formed around every joint.
His three lightning-like thorax markings appeared perfectly.
Finally the blood-drop marking above his eyes emerged.
Keizeix rushed toward the small mirror inside his tent.
He stared.
Nothing looked different.
Not visibly.
He raised one leg.
Twisted.
Crouched.
Jumped.
The armor followed every motion as though it had grown from his own body.
Keizeix pressed one leg against another.
There.
He could feel a thin additional layer.
But visually?
It was nearly impossible to distinguish from his natural shell.
"Okay."
He opened Tiestra's message channel.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Acceptable.*
The response arrived almost instantly.
**Tiestra:**
*ACCEPTABLE?!*
Keizeix grinned.
**Tiestra:**
*That is personal-grade living-form Edenweave! My mother would drown me if she knew what I sold it for!*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Then you should probably make sure I become a repeat customer.*
A pause.
**Tiestra:**
*I am beginning to dislike you.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*No you're not.*
A considerably longer pause followed.
**Tiestra:**
*Try the tonic.*
Keizeix laughed quietly.
He retrieved the turquoise bottle.
Before he could drink it, another message appeared.
**Tiestra:**
*NOT THE SILVER ONE.*
Keizeix looked toward his storage.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Why?*
**Tiestra:**
*Because the silver concentrate is for later testing after I know how your body responds.*
Then:
**Tiestra:**
*Unless producing silk uncontrollably until you physically exhaust yourself sounds enjoyable.*
Keizeix slowly moved the silver vial deeper into storage.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Useful warning.*
**Tiestra:**
*Keeping my new patron alive seems like good business.*
Keizeix smiled.
There was that word again.
Patron.
He drank the turquoise tonic.
It tasted surprisingly sweet.
Moments later warmth spread through his abdomen.
The silk-producing organs inside him began tingling.
Not painfully.
More like they'd suddenly awakened from a deep sleep.
A System window appeared.
**Foreign beneficial compound detected.**
**Natural silk-production rate temporarily increased.**
**Silk reserve recovery improved.**
Keizeix's eyes brightened.
"Very good business."
---
Shirespoke entered several minutes later.
Keizeix had already hidden every bottle and closed the System.
"Young master."
"Mentor."
Shirespoke stopped.
His eyes narrowed.
Keizeix remained perfectly still.
"Something wrong?"
"You look..."
Keizeix waited.
"...strangely rested."
Keizeix relaxed internally.
"I slept well."
"Suspicious."
"You find everything suspicious."
"That is why I remain alive."
Fair enough.
They left together.
Sia and Marike waited outside.
Sia glanced toward Keizeix.
Then looked again.
Keizeix immediately disliked that second look.
"What?"
Sia moved closer.
"You look different."
Keizeix's insides tightened.
"How?"
She stared.
Could she somehow see through the armor?
Then her head tilted.
"You smell different."
Keizeix froze.
Marike's eyebrows rose.
Shirespoke looked interested.
"Healer paste," Keizeix answered quickly.
Sia narrowed her eyes.
"You didn't use healer paste this morning."
"Last night."
"You didn't smell like that during dinner."
Keizeix stared back at her.
"Why exactly are you smelling me so closely?"
Sia instantly moved away.
"I am not!"
Marike covered her mouth.
Shirespoke abruptly became interested in adjusting his sword belt.
"I merely noticed something unusual!" Sia snapped.
"Of course."
"Don't say it like that!"
"Like what?"
"Like that!"
Keizeix grinned.
Distraction successful.
---
The beetlekin were waiting.
Keizeix deliberately avoided testing the armor recklessly.
Tiestra had claimed it was strong.
That did not mean he intended to stand still while something tried to crush him.
An Iron-shell beetle charged.
Keizeix slipped aside.
Its horn barely grazed his abdomen.
Normally the armored point would have sliced across his shell.
Instead—
**THUNK.**
The living-form armor hardened beneath the impact.
Keizeix still felt the force.
But there was no cut.
His eyes widened.
"Oh."
The beetle turned.
Keizeix grinned.
"Oh, I like this."
Silk fired from his body.
One strand.
Then another.
Then four more.
They wrapped the beetle's front legs.
Keizeix immediately noticed the second improvement.
His internal silk reserves didn't feel nearly as depleted.
The tonic wasn't giving him infinite webbing.
Not even close.
But his body was replacing what he used much faster.
He fired again.
The beetle stumbled.
Keizeix disappeared into its shadow and emerged beneath the armored abdomen.
His front leg struck the narrow membrane between plates.
Once.
Twice.
The beetle screamed.
Third strike.
**Kill registered.**
Keizeix pulled free.
A second beetle rushed him.
More silk.
A third joined.
Keizeix anchored strands to broken spears sticking from the battlefield.
He moved sideways.
Pulled.
The first beetle collided with the second.
The third tripped over a reinforced strand.
Keizeix laughed.
"This changes things."
Not because he had suddenly become overwhelmingly stronger.
He hadn't.
The beetles remained difficult to kill.
Their shells were still brutally hard.
But Keizeix could afford to control them more aggressively.
Yesterday he had constantly rationed silk.
Today he could build traps.
Layers.
Multiple anchor points.
Web corridors.
A rhinoceros beetle caught him from the side several hours later.
The impact sent Keizeix tumbling.
He crashed through a pile of broken shields.
Pain shot through him.
He rose.
Nothing broken.
No puncture wound.
Keizeix looked down at himself.
"Still hurts."
The rhinoceros beetle charged again.
Keizeix smiled.
"But considerably less."
Shadow Mist swallowed him.
---
By midday Keizeix had transformed part of his battlefield into something resembling an enormous hunting web.
Not literally.
There wasn't enough silk for that.
But there were strands everywhere.
Between stones.
Across narrow passages.
Along corpse piles.
Attached to discarded weapons.
The beetlekin couldn't see most of them until they were already caught.
A horned beetle charged.
Its rear leg snagged.
It turned instinctively toward the obstruction.
Keizeix attacked its exposed neck.
**Kill registered.**
Another became stuck between two corpses Keizeix had webbed together.
**Kill registered.**
His soldiers quickly learned how to use his traps.
They began driving beetlekin toward Keizeix's prepared areas deliberately.
Keizeix's Intelligence rose faster.
Strength followed.
Health continued climbing from sustained combat.
Magic?
Barely.
When he finally checked his spread late in the afternoon, he frowned.
**Name: Keizeix Silversilk**
**Age: 6 months**
**Race: Spiderling — Silversilk Clan**
**Rank: Master**
**Strength: 62,184 / 100,000**
**Health: 61,773 / 100,000**
**Magic: 31,408 / 100,000**
**Intelligence: 65,221 / 100,000**
**Mana: 31,408 / 31,408**
**Abilities:**
**Consumption Heal**
**Shadow Mist**
Keizeix stared at Magic.
"Still barely moving."
He had gained less than two thousand compared with enormous increases elsewhere.
Exactly as he'd feared.
These beetlekin weren't magical opponents.
Almost every kill strengthened him physically or forced him to think tactically.
But they gave him very little opportunity to develop Magic.
He looked toward the distant sections of the battlefield.
Far beyond his assigned zone, magical explosions periodically illuminated the horizon.
That was where the stronger beetlekin fought.
The ones capable of meaningful magic.
And that was also where Commander Vaelcor and other powerful Silversilk officers fought.
Keizeix had no business there.
Not yet.
He closed the System.
"One problem at a time."
Then returned to killing beetles.
---
Dinner felt different.
Sia watched him suspiciously.
"You were faster today."
"Getting better."
"You produced considerably more silk."
"Getting better."
"You were hit several times."
"Still getting better."
Sia stared.
"That answer made less sense each time."
"It works if you don't think about it."
Marike laughed.
The reporting officer entered.
Everyone quieted.
"Today's confirmed results."
The first scroll opened.
"Princess Sia Silversilk: one thousand six hundred and forty-one confirmed kills."
Sia's posture rose slightly.
Fifty-four more than yesterday.
Then the officer opened Keizeix's report.
"Prince Keizeix Silversilk..."
Keizeix waited.
"...one thousand six hundred and forty-one confirmed kills."
Silence.
Sia slowly turned toward him.
Keizeix slowly turned toward her.
Again.
"No," Sia said.
The officer sighed.
Apparently he'd expected this.
"One thousand six hundred and forty-one."
"Read his again."
"I already did."
"Read mine."
"Princess—"
"Please."
Marike began laughing.
Shirespoke joined her.
The officer reread both.
Identical.
Keizeix grinned.
"A tie."
Sia's eyes narrowed.
"You were thirty-eight behind yesterday."
"And now I'm not."
"You improved suspiciously quickly."
Keizeix's heart tightened slightly.
He kept his expression relaxed.
"Maybe you're slowing down."
Black-purple sparks crackled around Sia.
Marike immediately pointed.
"No lightning at the dinner table."
The sparks vanished.
Sia leaned toward Keizeix.
"Tomorrow."
Keizeix leaned closer.
"Tomorrow."
No one noticed the invisible armor beneath his natural colors.
Exactly as Keizeix intended.
---
That night he waited until everyone had settled before removing the Edenweave.
It peeled from his shell like liquid and folded itself into a compact bundle.
Keizeix inspected it carefully.
No tears.
No major damage.
Nothing that suggested the day's punishment had seriously degraded it.
He stored it immediately.
Nobody could know.
Not Shirespoke.
Not Sia.
Not the Queen.
Not yet.
The platform itself was impossible for anyone besides Earth's chosen survivors to perceive, but the objects Keizeix brought through it were physical.
And physical evidence created questions.
Where had he obtained armor unlike anything produced by their clan?
Who made it?
How did a six-month-old prince acquire foreign tonics inside a military camp?
Questions became investigations.
Investigations could become imprisonment.
Dissection.
Study.
Keizeix remembered Earth.
He remembered what governments had done merely because they wanted to understand something.
He had no intention of finding out what powerful magical civilizations would do if they discovered his private connection to worlds they couldn't reach themselves.
So the platform stayed secret.
Completely.
He opened Tiestra's messages.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*The armor performed very well.*
Her response arrived immediately.
**Tiestra:**
*Very well?*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Yes.*
Several seconds.
**Tiestra:**
*And the tonic?*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Useful enough that I want more.*
Tiestra replied so quickly he almost laughed.
**Tiestra:**
*How much?*
There it was.
Keizeix mentally looked over his core stores.
Beginner cores dominated everything.
Intermediate made up a much smaller but still respectable share.
Master cores remained comparatively rare.
No Heroic cores.
For now.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Send me your best long-term pricing for regular armor maintenance, silk tonic, healing supplies, and anything that improves Mana recovery.*
Tiestra paused.
**Tiestra:**
*I can do better than marketplace pricing if the orders are regular.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*They'll remain regular while your products remain worth buying.*
Another pause.
**Tiestra:**
*Understood.*
Then:
**Tiestra:**
*I'll make it worth keeping me.*
Keizeix smiled.
Exactly.
He wasn't trying to destroy her business.
Quite the opposite.
He wanted Tiestra successful.
Stronger.
Capable of making increasingly valuable things.
But he wanted her to associate that growth with one fact:
Keizeix supplied cores.
She supplied what he needed.
Mutual benefit.
With leverage firmly on his side.
Keizeix closed her message and checked his full status one last time.
Strength above sixty thousand.
Health above sixty thousand.
Intelligence above sixty-five.
Magic barely above thirty-one.
He frowned.
The System flickered.
A new notification appeared.
**Rank Progress Analysis Available**
Keizeix opened it.
**Current Rank: Master**
**Target: Heroic Tier Breaker**
Then another line appeared.
**Statistical imbalance detected.**
Keizeix's amusement vanished.
**Strength progression: Acceptable**
**Health progression: Acceptable**
**Intelligence progression: Acceptable**
Then—
**Magic progression: Severely deficient**
Keizeix stared.
One final line appeared beneath it.
**Current advancement projection: Heroic Tier Breaker progression cannot complete until deficient attributes reach required threshold.**
Keizeix sat completely still.
Then looked toward the distant horizon, where magical light from the stronger battlefield still occasionally illuminated the night.
His eyes narrowed.
"So that's how it is."