Looking up Allie holds out her wrist. “This watch points us toward the exit of the dungeon.”
“Wait.” Helo says while stopping and looking at her. “So, when I was tossed in here by your father. If I had one of those watches it would have led me directly toward the exit!”
“Yep!” She says with a big smile. “If you follow the compass the tier 1 floors take about…” She puts her hand to her chin and tilts her head back and forth. “I don’t know. Maybe an hour and a half. With us fighting it will take maybe an extra hour.”
Looking at the compass he can see that it is pointing a little to the left from where he is facing. On that side of the cavern along the wall are multiple tunnels leading away. Well at least I know which directing to lead the group. “I ran around for hours. Searching for the exit and fighting everything that I came across.” Helo says while dropping his head and walking back to lead the group. The truth is though. He wouldn’t have done anything different even if he had one. He might have found the exit first the back tracked. But in the end, it would have meant the same thing.
Walking through the large cavern Helo leads his group along a ravine. It is about ten feet across and runs around one-hundred-feet. Looking down Helo can’t see the bottom. But that probably is because of the webs. Within the ravine there are countless webs turning the entire pit into a massive trap.
Motioning toward the hole in the ground Helo asks the group. “So, what do you think?”
“What do you mean? ‘What do you think.’” She says while imitating Helo. I’m not going down there.” Allie says while shivering. Looking down the hole she shudders and backs up.
Looking at everyone else Helo just shakes his head and speaks. “I was thinking more along the lines of getting their attention and then Kenneth uses his taunt skill to draw them out.”
Hinata steps forward and looks at the group. Luna and Aiko don’t seem to mind. Kenneth looks a little pissed that he needs to draw out the spiders and Allie is still shaking. Looking toward Gabi, she just nods her head. “We have fought the spiders before.” Hinata says to everyone. “Usually, it is within their own webs. This idea of using taunt to draw them onto flat ground sounds good.”
Allie steps forward this time and asks Helo. “Is this what you meant last fight about ‘Stationary Tactics’?”
Focusing back on Allie Helo asks “Mhm? Oh. Ah. Yeah, when I was in here alone, I would constantly move around. Fighting groups of rats like we did earlier, I would lead them around constantly moving. But when we just fought them as a group we stayed in one place. It just feels so limiting and one dimensional to me. Like trying to see which side breaks first.”
Hearing a snort they look over. “That is why you should just leave. If you are strong enough your enemy always breaks first. Why retreat when you can make your enemy do so.” Kenneth says this while deepening his voice and trying to sound Heroic.
Gabi walks up and pats Kenneth on the shoulder. “I don’t think it’s a competition muchacho. But if it makes you feel better, I agree with you, I’d rather swing my axe.”
“Well don’t worry sugar tits.” Kenneth says while winking. “A tiny girl like you will always be safe behind me.” Holding his shield up like he was one of the 300 at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Looking at him with a mix of disgust and anger, the arguably tiny girl punches him with a straight jab in the stomach. “I’m not tiny! If I was, that would have been your dick.” Walking toward the ravine she mutters, “Dios Mio, why did I even try.” Looking into the pit Gabi falls back onto her butt with a scream. “EHHHHH, I think I got their attention.”
Pulling itself out of the pit and over the edge, standing over Gabi’s downed form is a massive spider with a body that is at least eight feet long and its legs are almost three times that. It is black with green markings and its legs appear to be sharpened. Following behind it is a mass of smaller yet similar colored spiders; they all range in size. The smallest has a body the size of a human head. On the larger side some have bodies the size of Gabi.
As the spider looms over Gabi, she is unable to bring her axe to bear from her downed state. As the spider rears up a large arrow slams into its abdomen toppling the creature back into the ravine without killing it. Quickly getting up Gabi runs back and gives the massive, ever silent but extremely dependable part-Giant a hug.
As she runs back Kenneth steps forward. Standing about 30 feet from the edge of the ravine he shouts his spell. “Taunt.” The mass of spiders that were crawling around in confusion from their leader falling direct their attention to the tank.
Slowly walking back Kenneth gets 60 feet from the ravine before the mass of spiders is onto him. Gabi and Hinata step up next to him helping him not get overwhelmed. Each blow from a sword, axe, or mace kills one of the arachnids. To their left and right sides, a constant stream of arrows and spells are launched. Allie is keeping her spells small but numerous as spikes pulled from the ground are launched killing whatever spider they strike.
On the other side groups of arrows are raining down. Cody hasn’t perfected his dual arrow duplication but he is trying as he fires into the mass of spiders. As a missed swing from Gabi causes the spiders on the left side to start working their way onto the left flank Cody pushes harder than he has before. Pulling out two arrows he lines up his bow with the mass of spiders. With a surprising shout from the silent giant his two arrows split into ten and rain down.
Breathing heavy in relief Gabi swings her axe and clears away the rest of the creatures. “Big guy this is the second time you have saved my ass in five minutes. I would kiss you if I wasn’t covered in spider guts.”
In the center Kenneth is not having a good time. The spiders are too numerous and sticky for him to fight against. His normal shield bash only works so well against numerous creatures and it is hard to stagger a creature with eight legs. But he is doing his job well. He might not be killing as many of the arachnids as he would like but with his large size he is holding the center of the formation well.
Hinata on the right side is doing well. The spiders are many but they have lower endurance than the rats so her precision and speed-based sword techniques are treating her well. Each of her swings cuts off legs or kills an enemy. Further back Allie is having a panic attack but other than that she is doing okay. One thing that she does know is that there is now way in hell she is getting up closer than she already is.
Luna is focusing her buffs to use ‘Haste’ on everyone. With the large number of weaker creatures, the ability to attack quickly is helping the group not be overwhelmed. Aiko on the other hand isn’t seeing as much action in this fight. There are not much injuries and her ‘Protect’ is best used to block powerful strikes.
Helo can see while watching the group that they have known one another for a while. Their strategy is simple but when it comes to a forward brawl they are doing well. To Helo who has never seen something like this before it likes impressive. Not totally sure where he fits into the group’s fighting strategy Helo uses ‘Double Step’ to jumps onto a rock near the fight.
Looking down over the group he can see that nobody is getting overwhelmed. The closest is Kenneth and none of the spiders are strong enough to do much damage. Any damage that does last is quickly cleared away by a ‘Heal’ from Aiko.
Watching the fight progress he almost steps in when he sees Gabi miss her strike. Hearing a shout from the quite Cody surprises him enough to stop him. Increasing his surprise, he watches as Cody advances his skill. With a smile Helo continues watching.
Looking down at the fight from above feels good. Helo’s instincts are surprisingly content. Like a cat by a fire. Usually in a fight they are pushing him to move and kill. But it seems that the last week of testing his will helped him get more control. Now that he is no longer hungry, he feels good.
Helo watches as the fight pulls inward. The wave of monsters that hit the group was so large that the edges bulged out. It was wrapping around the group surrounding them but with efforts from Allie and Cody, they kept it contained. Now as the numbers are dwindling, they are slowly pushing inward toward the still struggling Kenneth.
Deciding to help he is about to jump off his rock outcropping but something in his instincts stop him. It isn’t the height. He is directly over the fight and only about ten feet up. Looking around Helo doesn’t know what is wrong but deciding to wait he launches his two knives at two spiders that are on Kenneth.
Kenneth doesn’t know what happened but two of the spiders that were on his shield died. Looking at the wounds he sees a flash of silver and then it is just an open wound. It was so quick he almost believes he didn’t see two knives. Thinking about it for a second, he remembers the bracers that he heard about. Calain told Kenneth that he would reward him if he was able to get the bracers from Helo. With a sneer he looks around only to not find Helo anywhere. With a snort he says, “What else would I expect from a weakling.”
Helo on the rock over the fight he can hear Kenneth’s mutterings. But he ignores him, eventually the Kenneth issue will be over. Deciding that after one quick look around he will join the fight, Helo sees a massive leg reach over the edge. One after another, legs start appearing before they flex and an eight-foot body gets pulled back to the top.
This spider has an arrow lodged at the base of its right pedipalps. This is the appendage that is near the mouth of a spider. On normal spiders they are used for holding a manipulating food near their mouths. But for a spider this large and mutated the legs and front facing appendages are sharped and hardened. The right one is hanging limply and dragging on the ground. Blood is seeping from the wound, with a wave of its right pedipalps the arrow snaps and the spider charges forward. It covers the ground quickly, each of its massive legs moving it further than its smaller kin.
“Is that what made me feel uneasy. In the back of my mind, I knew that the largest of them only fell off the edge.” Helo says this while readying himself to jump. Well, this is what’s best, they can fight the rabble. I’ll fight the strongest of the enemies. With a low growl Helo waits for the spider to get closer. “Where did that thought come from? I’m not wrong though. I am much more suited for killing individual strong creatures than groups.”
From his perch over the fight Helo is crouched a little over the spider’s head height. Drawing both blades, he gets ready to jump. Helo is ready for his initial attack to not work. Creatures like this usually have stronger instinct with a danger sense, Kenneth’s taunt might be able to give him an opening but he doesn’t trust Kenneth.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Uncommon Mature Cave Spider
Tier 1 Level 20
Through a mutation this cave spider has matured faster than its brethren. It has a strong body and can lead its siblings.
Down below the group is fighting the last 15 spiders. They have been forced to slowly walk forward due to the spider corpses. With Kenneth now free to move more freely because of the spiders on his shield dying they all feel some relief. The fighting wasn’t particularly difficult. But due to the large numbers they all used up a lot of mana.
As the mature spider rises from the cliff, everyone starts to back away. As the mature spider walks forward the final smaller ones find shelter under its legs. Cody and Allie try firing at them but the mature spider blocks the projectiles with its armored legs.
Hinata and Gabi step behind Kenneth, while Kenneth starts to hate the fact that is brother convinced him to be a tank. Under his breath he mutters, “Be a tank he says, the heir bitch will fall head over heels for you. She’s a mage and needs a good tank. Ha. Nah. Not when I have to stand in front of this.”
About to flee Kenneth finds that his feet won’t move. The mature spider was able to shoot its web out and trapped his feet to the ground. Everyone else prepares to attack as Kenneth tanks the spider, they are unaware that he wants to flee. When the spider is looming over him just thinks. Fuck it. I’m not dying just to get rid of some kid.
When training Calain and Kenneths brother were teaching him how to adapt his ‘Taunt’. Allie’s party all through Kenneth was increasing his Steady Bash skill. Instead, he was training on how to direct a ‘Taunt’ to force the enmity toward another. His actual skill is called ‘Control Grudge’. I’ll direct the spider at Luna. With that bitch gone I’ll be able to use more of the clan funds.
From above Helo sees how a red aura coat Kenneth and jumps forward. In the air from the corner of his eye he sees the aura distort and reach toward Luna. That is all the time he had and focuses back on his jump. From below everyone is to focused on the fight to see anything weird happen. Everyone is looking up toward the spider and sees Helo leap toward its head. They are not paying attention to Kenneth.
The spider starts its attack on Kenneth but at the apex of its swing it changes from an attack to stepping over him. In the brief moment where it is changing its focus the spider sees something dark coming from above and shifts its right foreleg to block. This shift from Kenneth to Luna broke the taunt and the spider looks up at Helo.
Helo is not ready because he wasn’t expecting the taunt to be intentionally broken and then shifted. He doesn’t know what happened but he does know that something is wrong. The taunt was broken but so far nothing has happened to break it.
As the leg swings in Helo slashes down with his right blade. Activating ‘Crippling Stike’ the leg’s swing stalls and becomes less responsive. With the leg slowed in the air Helo drops his right blade and uses his claws to grip the leg. With the leg slowed Helo uses it to brace his ‘Double Step’. Jumping toward the top of the spider’s head Helo finds his path blocked by the left foreleg of the spider. Slashing down with his left blade this time Helo uses his aura coating to cut through the leg. With a spray of blood, the spider screeches out.
With his momentum broken Helo drops to the ground and roll to catch himself. This brings him directly underneath the mature spider and trapped with 15 smaller ones. On the outside everyone saw how Helo hurt the spider then disappeared under it, into the tangle of limbs and bodies.
“He broke my taunt!” Kenneth says while placing the blame on Helo. “I need five minutes to cast is again.” Activating his ‘Steady Bash’ Kenneth takes a blow from the remaining forelimb.
Everyone else starts launching attacks at the spider. Hinata focuses on crippling the legs on the left side and Gabi does the same from the right. At the same time Cody is launching attacks at the spider’s joints. Every once in a while, he is successful and lands a blow locking or damaging a joint.
Allie who is worried about Helo starts casting spells into the mess of limbs under the mature spider. Slowly they start whittling it down. First, they break the spider’s front legs. With renewed vigor the group keeps attacking.
Underneath the spider Helo only has his left blade and in his other hand is using his claws mixed with the bracers ability to project a replica of his own hand. In training he learned that he can use it every 5 seconds. Feeling limbs striking his body and ripping open his flesh Helo growls in pain and starts slashing wildly.
Escaping to the back of the spider he can see its spinneret is sharpened and made for piercing. Dodging to the left he barely avoids being struck by it and escapes behind the spider. Jumping onto its back Helo uses ‘Disabling Strike’ on its body.
With the use of his skill and its front legs being cut off the spider’s body drops to the ground with a thud. From the side he can hear a “Helo!” Get yelled out from Allie.
Everyone else is looking on with worry. Except for Kenneth who looks pleased with himself. They look worried but the spider still isn’t dead. Running forward the group is about to finish it off but the spider stops moving with a final twitch. Looking at the top of the spider they see a dark shape rise up from its back.
“Huuuh! Helo!” Allie says while running forward, she is so focused she even forgot about her aversion to the spiders. Jumping at Helo as he drops from the spider she hugs him.
With a grunt Helo hugs her back with is right arm. His left is still clutching. Everyone else makes their way over. About to speak Hinata is cut off. “This is what I expected! A homeless fool like you could never be trusted to get a plan right. You attacked too early. Its taunt was broken. Someone could have died because of you.” He says while walking up and shoving Helo as hard as he can.
Getting shoved back into the spider Helo makes a grunt of pain and holds his side. He has a lot of venom coursing through him and is having trouble standing. With a grin Kenneth steps back. He feels like he has asserted himself. Anything else will get him in yelled at.
Kenneth was right in that regard. Everyone say how the spiders taunt was broken and the only person moving was Helo. Allie is about to speak up telling him that Helo is still new. Hinata wants to mention that if Kenneth wasn’t always causing problems he would have trained with them more and showed his skills.
They both are cut off as Aiko runs up to Helo. “Your bleeding!” Pulling up his shirt she reveals his muscular form but unlike in the bathroom. This time Helo’s torso is filled with rips and holes. With a gasp Aiko starts using her skills. At this time Hinata and Allie forget to say anything and run to check on Helo. “I’m almost out of mana. That is all I can do.” She says as Helo’s wounds start slowing their bleeding.
“I don’t have much Mana left. But I did some. The venom will have to work itself out.” Hearing Helo’s groan turns into a growl she looks into Helo’s eyes.
Hinata realizing that there is another way he can heal starts taking off her bracer. As she is pulling it off a hand covers her forearm. “Wait, I can move.” Helo says while staggering up. The venom is quickly being taken care of. Hearing a yip from his side Lelai knows what to do.
She has led Helo to prey before and knows how quickly he can heal. “Get everyone to rest. That was a big fight. I’ll be right back.” Leaving the group and disappearing behind a rock they all start cleaning themselves.
“Is he going to be okay?” Gabi asks. “He was really messed up. Shouldn’t he be resting? That was more damage than a low tier heal can fix.”
“Just give him a minute.” Luna says. He heals quickly.
“Ha. The guy probably went to die with his dog.” Kenneth says with a laugh.
About the round on Kenneth, Hinata grabs Allie’s arm and shakes her head. Everyone is resting and meditating by the time Helo gets back.
He walks back into the clearing and sits down near everyone else to meditate. Asking Lelai to watch for him he starts recovering his energy. He can use his skills multiple times in a row, but that is in training. In a real fight the mixture of all his abilities and skills adds up quickly.
“Damn, I really am a one pump chump. I get one maybe two big hits and then I’m pretty much done.” He says while shaking his head. Hahhh, I really prefer hit and run tactics. But something was up with Kenneth’s skill. It was acting weird.
When Kenneth was yelling at Helo nobody said anything, Helo didn’t either because he doesn’t want to fight between one another on the dungeon. But Kenneth wasn’t right. Helo has looked over all his teammates’ skills, even Kenneth. When Kenneth refused to show off his skills Helo looked them over on his tablet. The clan tablets have all sorts of important information in it, along with videos on skills. I’ll look at it later.
While everyone is meditating Allie speaks up. “We should have gained a lot of experience!” Looking at her notifications she says “I almost leveled!”
“I gained a level!” Hinata said with a smug look in her eyes. She was looking at Allie while she said that. Smiling at her friend she rubs it in.
With chorus of joy Luna hit level 19, Aiko hit level 18, and Cody hit level 18. All three took a moment to add in their stat points. The rest of the group congratulates them. They all know that they should gain levels pretty quickly.
Looking at his own notification Helo looks at his gains.
Class: Shaded Predator Level: 11 (3,394/1,025,000)
“Well at least they are happy.” Looking at Aiko Helo decides to ask. “At level 10 when your doubling stopped how much experience did you need?”
Aiko gives him a weird look. In their culture that is a very private question. It’s basically asking someone about what their potential is. Remembering their interaction that morning she decided that they were close enough. “I was at 76,800. It is a decent number for elites. A step below direct clan members and the like. I won’t even ask yours.” With a small smile Helo moves away.
Thirty minutes later they are all ready to head out. As they are moving Allie who tends to be happy and energetic skips along by Gabi. “So, do you think that was a territory boss?”
“Maybe, it was uncommon tier. So that makes it a step above most things we will fight here other than mini-bosses and tier bosses.” Gabi says with a smirk. The last time the faced a territory boss, which is a creature that doesn’t get killed and grows stronger in its territory, she got her axe.
“I’m not surprised it got so strong. There are not many people who would enter a web filled ravine. I know I wouldn’t.” She says with a shudder while holding herself.
They are all following behind Lelai who is following Helo. Lelai and Helo used to travel this way in their forest. He would conceal himself except for scent or sight and Lelai with her keen senses would follow him.
With the rest everyone is ready and jumps back into the next fight. These are all very similar to their last ones, except without an uncommon variant. An hour and a half later by the time they are at the exit of the floor everyone but Helo has gained their level. Putting Allie at 22 along with Hinata, Gabi and Kenneth both went up to twenty and gained a new skill. Gabi’s skill increases the toughness of her skin; she got the skill because of how she is pushing her main skill. If she can get her main skill to give a set amount of boosts each time, she is hit then ‘Bronze Skin’ will make it so she takes much less damage.
For Kenneth he gained the skill ‘Force Dispersion’. Unlike steady bash which acts more like a counter stabilizing him from a hit before hitting back. This new skill is purely defensive. It mitigates damage he takes, with a focus on blunt damage.
Getting to the exit everyone is excited to get out of the caves the 18th floor is known for being a forest like location. Before heading to the stairs they all sit around the torches and rest. While sitting down Cody points off into the distance. On a hill next to the exit is a small chest.
“Haha! I told you Gabi! It was a floor boss!” Allie says while running over.
“I never disagreed with you.” Gabi responds while every gets up.
Following Allie, they all watch as she teases open the chest before shutting it. She does this multiple times as every is getting exasperated.
“I say we cast a vote now.” Hinata speaks up with irritation. “No matter what it is, Allie doesn’t get it.” Like that with unanimous agreement Allie is no longer allowed to have whatever is inside.
Opening the chest she pills out a silk arm wrap that has a image of a spider on it in the center. “This is the best and worst part about spider loot drops. They are comfy as heck. But they have spiders on them.” Allie says.
Using identify everyone but Helo, Allie and Hinata are impressed by the loot.
Arm Wrap of the Spider Limb (Common)
This silk wrap is incredibly comfortable and has a cute spider on it.
- Increases strength by +5
- Once an hour whatever arm is wrapped can bend unnaturally (for a human)
“Awwwww! This would go so good with my hammer.” Allie says this like she is a physical fighter and not a mage.
“Well, this is usable right now, so someone should claim it and we can move on.” Luna says this while pulling out her folders from her new bag of holding.
After some arguing from Kenneth, Gabi finally got the wraps. Her fighting style requires strength and flexibility. So, it was decided that she should wear it.
As they were arguing with the group Helo sensed a rat coming up behind the group killing it quickly Helo looks at the hole in the rat’s head. Inside he sees something shiny. Digging it out he ends up pulling out a mana core. “Oh no, we forgot.”
Running back Helo holds out the core to the group. “We messed up.”
Everyone sees Helo and gets worried but seeing his hands they just brush him off. “We only collect them in the final floor of the day. Otherwise, it slows us down and starts to gets too bulky.” Luna says as she puts her things back into her storage bag.
Staring at her in confoundment Helo looks between her and her bag. Gabi seeing Helo’s eyes smacks her face.
“Whack” “Aggghhhh we are so dumb!” She says pulling out her storage bag.
Everyone looks at her and pulls out their bags. Then a chorus of noise sounds through the dungeon.
“NNOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Class: Shaded Predator Level: 11 (7,594/1,025,000)