The yellow tags were picked clean by the time Xu Qian reached the board.
Two slips remained. One was the usual lizard patrol. Safe. Boring. Eight points. The other was pinned at the far edge of the yellow column, half-hidden behind a red tag that someone had moved aside.
*Cave Clearance: Iron-Back Spiders. Southern Ridge, Lower Caverns. Class I. Team of 5. 15 Points.*
Fifteen points. Five days of rent in a single task.
Beside it, a handwritten note in familiar, cramped handwriting:
*Need Heavy. Same team. Meet at Southern Gate.*
Xu Qian pulled both slips and walked south.
The team was already assembled when he arrived.
Copper sat on his usual rock, ledger open, scratching numbers with a stub of charcoal. Junior was sharpening his axe with a whetstone, humming something tuneless. Ghost was pacing in tight circles, muttering to herself. Rock leaned against the gate, eyes closed, tower shield propped beside him like a sleeping companion.
"Heavy," Copper said without looking up. "You're late."
"I'm on time."
"On time is late. Early is on time. Late is fired." He snapped the ledger shut. "Spider cave. Lower caverns. Thirty to forty Class I Iron-Backs, estimated. The silk alone is worth six points per bundle if we harvest clean. The venom sacs are another three per jar."
"Thirty to forty?" Ghost said. Her pacing stopped. "You said twenty."
"I said approximately twenty. Approximately means I was guessing. Now I'm guessing higher. Move out."
Ghost's face went pale. She looked at Rock. Rock opened one eye, looked at her, and closed it again.
"I hate caves," Ghost whispered.
"Everyone hates caves," Copper said, standing with a wince. "Caves don't care."
The path to the Lower Caverns cut through the roughest part of the Southern Ridge. The stone was black there, volcanic, sharp enough to slice boot leather. The wind died as they descended below the ridgeline, replaced by still, heavy air that tasted of sulfur and old water.
At the Ridge checkpoint, a familiar figure stood guard.
Deng Kai leaned against a wooden post, his sect token hanging from a cord around his neck. He wore the plain brown robes of a labor detail. His right shoulder sat lower than his left, stiff and slightly crooked.
He saw Xu Qian and straightened. Something crossed his face. Not quite surprise. More like the look of a man who had been counting the living and didn't expect to add a name.
"Xu Qian," he said.
"Deng Kai."
They looked at each other. Deng Kai's eyes moved over the team. Over the weapons. Over the cave entrance beyond the checkpoint.
"Spider run?" Deng Kai asked.
"Yes."
Deng Kai nodded slowly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small clay jar. He held it out.
"Fire paste," he said. "Smear it on a torch. Burns hotter and longer than oil. You'll need it down there."
Xu Qian took the jar. It was warm in his hand.
"How much?" Xu Qian asked.
Deng Kai's jaw tightened. "Don't insult me."
Xu Qian put the jar in his belt pouch. He nodded once. Deng Kai nodded back.
Nothing else needed to be said.
The team passed through the checkpoint and descended toward the cave mouth.
The entrance was a crack in the mountainside, barely wide enough for two men to walk abreast. The stone around it was slick with moisture and covered in fine, silvery webbing that caught the light.
"Formation," Copper said. "Rock first. Junior second. Heavy third. Ghost behind Heavy. I'm in the back."
"Why are you always in the back?" Ghost asked.
"Because I'm the accountant," Copper said. "Accountants don't die first. That's basic economics."
Rock ducked through the entrance. His shield scraped the walls on both sides. The sound echoed into the darkness ahead.
They lit torches. The fire paste from Deng Kai burned with a clean, blue-white flame that threw sharp shadows on the wet stone.
The tunnel narrowed immediately.
Within twenty paces, Rock had to turn sideways to fit his shield through a gap between two pillars of stone. Junior's axe caught on the ceiling twice, showering them with grit.
"Tight," Junior said.
"Too tight," Ghost muttered from behind Xu Qian. Her breathing was fast and shallow. Her eyes darted constantly, tracking every shadow the torchlight threw.
The air changed as they went deeper. It grew thick. Stale. Breathing required effort, like inhaling through wet cloth. Xu Qian felt his qi cycling slow down. The heavy energy in his gut churned sluggishly, resisting the bad air.
"Don't cycle deep," Copper warned from the back. "The air down here is dead. No ambient qi. You use what you brought. Nothing refills until we're out."
The webbing grew thicker. It coated the walls in layers, some old and brittle, some fresh and glistening. Ghost flinched every time a strand brushed her arm.
"I hate caves," she said again, quieter this time.
"Focus," Copper said. "First nest should be around the next bend."
They found the first cluster of spiders in a widened chamber where three tunnels met.
Eight Iron-Backs clung to the ceiling. They were the size of large dogs, with segmented legs and backs covered in overlapping plates of dark chitin. Their eyes reflected the torchlight in clusters of cold blue dots.
"Standard sweep," Copper said. "Rock, center. Junior, right tunnel. Heavy, left. Ghost, lure and retreat."
Ghost threw a stone into the chamber. It clattered off the far wall.
The spiders dropped.
All eight at once.
They fell like rain, legs spreading wide, silk trailing behind them. Two landed on Rock's shield with a heavy thud. Three scrambled toward Junior. Two darted into the left tunnel toward Xu Qian. One chased Ghost.
"THE LANDLORDS!" Ghost screamed. "I FOUND THE LANDLORDS!" She was already running backward through the entrance tunnel. The spider behind her skittered across the walls and ceiling with horrible, clicking speed.
Junior swung his axe. The tunnel was too narrow. The blade hit the wall with a shower of sparks and a sound like a struck bell.
"CAREFUL!" Copper screamed. "The silk is flammable! One spark and we're all on fire!"
Junior froze. He looked at his axe. Then at the silk-covered walls. His face went pale.
"Oops," he said quietly.
Rock shoved forward with his shield, crushing one spider against the wall. The second scrambled over the top of the shield and lunged at his face. Rock caught it with his bare hand and threw it into the ground. It cracked but kept moving, dragging itself in circles.
Xu Qian faced two spiders in the left tunnel. The space was barely wider than his shoulders. His sword had no room for a horizontal swing. The ceiling was too low for a full overhead strike.
The first spider lunged.
Xu Qian tried to swing. His blade hit the tunnel wall halfway through the arc. The impact jarred his arm and sent the sword bouncing off stone. The spider scrambled past the blade and latched onto his forearm.
Pain. Sharp, burning pain. The spider's mandibles bit through his sleeve and into flesh. He felt something hot and wet spread across his skin. Silk. It was wrapping his arm.
He grabbed the spider with his free hand and ripped it off. A strip of skin came with it. He threw the spider against the wall.
The second spider was already on his leg, climbing toward his waist.
He couldn't swing. He couldn't slash. The tunnel was too tight.
He did the only thing he could.
He drove the sword straight forward. Not a slash. Not a cut. A thrust. He shoved all his heavy qi into a single forward push, ramming the tip of the blade into the spider's center mass.
The spider hit the wall behind it. The impact was wet, heavy, and final. The chitin plates cracked inward. The legs curled.
Xu Qian stared at the sword tip buried in stone, the spider pinned between steel and rock.
It wasn't a slash. It wasn't a drop. It was a shove.
But the weight was the same. The density was the same. He had just pushed it forward instead of letting it fall.
The spider on the ground was still moving. He stomped on it. It stopped.
They cleared two more chambers. Twelve spiders total. Junior learned to punch instead of swing. Ghost learned to throw rocks from farther away. Rock's shield collected so many tooth marks that Copper threatened to charge the spiders rent.
In the fourth chamber, they found the queen.
She filled the tunnel ahead like a plug of dark chitin and silk. Her body was twice the size of the others, her legs spanning wall to wall. Her eyes caught the torchlight and held it, burning with a cold, patient intelligence the smaller spiders lacked.
She didn't move. She didn't need to. She was the cave.
The team stopped.
Copper looked at the queen. He looked at his ledger. He looked at the queen again.
"That," Copper said calmly, "is not in the budget."
He closed the ledger.
"Retreat."
Nobody argued.
They backed out of the tunnel slowly, torches raised, eyes forward. The queen watched them go. She didn't follow. She didn't need to. They were leaving her home. That was enough.
They emerged into the sunlight gasping and blinking. Ghost sat down on a rock and put her head between her knees. Junior patted her on the back with a hand that was shaking slightly.
"You did good," Junior said softly.
Ghost didn't look up. "I hate caves."
"I know."
Rock sat down and inspected his shield. Three of the mounting bolts were loose. He began tightening them with his fingers, his face expressionless.
Copper was already counting. He had laid the silk bundles and venom sacs on a flat rock and was sorting them by quality.
"Fourteen spiders. Eight clean silk bundles. Six venom sacs. Minus one bundle that Junior stepped on. Minus two sacs that Heavy crushed."
He looked at Xu Qian's arm. The spider burn was red and swollen, weeping clear fluid that stung when the air touched it.
"Medical deduction," Copper said. "One point."
"For a spider bite?"
"For bleeding on the silk," Copper said. "That's contamination. Contamination reduces market value. Reduced market value reduces my will to live."
He divided the tokens.
"Twelve points each," Copper said. "After deductions."
Twelve points. Nearly a week of rent in a single day.
Xu Qian took his tokens. He looked at his arm. The burn throbbed with a steady, hot pulse. Spider silk residue. It would sting for days.
He looked at the cave entrance. Dark. Silent. The queen was still in there. Waiting.
"Same time next month?" Junior asked.
Copper looked at the cave. He looked at his ledger. He looked at the cave again.
"Only if we bring more torches," he said.
"And a bigger budget," Ghost added, her voice muffled by her knees.
Copper sighed. "The budget is the budget. The budget does not grow. The budget does not forgive. The budget is eternal."
Rock tightened the last bolt on his shield. He stood up. He looked at Xu Qian.
He nodded once.
Xu Qian nodded back.
They walked home in the fading light, five shapes on the ridge, casting long shadows down the mountain.