Claire turned around. She looked at King and Lance and then raised her eyebrows. “Wait, seriously? She just left me like that?”

  Lance and King both shrugged in acknowledgment. “ Well I guess I'm gonna go guys I'm sorry. We both wanted to try this game. She's my I.R.L bestie. I gotta go find out if she's okay or whatever. Good Luck” She fiddled through her menu and left.

  “ Player has left- You may leave the instance without penalty”

  King and Lance looked at each other again. Lance spoke up after a few seconds of silence. “ So we're good then? I'm gonna continue”

  “Yeah, same. But I do have one question?” King said.

  “Sure go ahead”

  “Why Lie? You've been lying a lot. No offense but you're bad at it. It's okay if you have secrets, Just saying you might want to get your story straight before you dig yourself a hole.” King said as if to lecture Lance.

  If Lance could show it King, would see him blushing. Lance had his brows raised. “Okay What have I lied about? The food worked, areas safe. I don't get it.”

  “Well for starters, you're not a Scarecrow class. And there's no way this area is safe after ten seconds of looking around. Also your little spacing out fits, and mumbling by the water to your reflection? Something's up. If we're gonna continue I'll give you a chance to explain it to me. Otherwise I should just go.” said King.

  Lance frowned. “How can I be this transparent? What do I do just spill it. How do I get out of telling him about the curse… I don't even know what happened. I thought this guy was cool now I'm getting grilled” he thought

  “Alright, fine. You're right. I'm not a Scarecrow class. I'm a Chef. The chef. The Dungeon Chef on Viewcube. I was trying to figure out how to play it off as a different person. I'm just trying to get past this damn level. And also yeah I'm pretty tired probably should have gone to bed instead of playing so I'm spacing out a bit, and yeah I talk to myself sometimes, when I feel alone okay? The areas are clear cause I can't see any ingredients, which is a skill I have. What about you, what the heck's an Entomancer? Bug powers? You knew about the spiders. How come you didn't control the spiders then? I'm not the only one lying.”

  King stared at Lance as he rambled on. At the end of his long winded explanation. He continued staring for a few seconds making a brief awkward silence. Then he began to chuckle and laugh. “ Alright alright. I don't know anything about a dungeon chef on Viewcube but I guess you think you're famous, that's fine whatever. Chef though huh? Guess that makes sense. Ingredients.. hmm interesting.”

  King paused then looked around after a few seconds he spoke again. “ Well my class Entomancer, I didn't understand what that meant either at first and all I started with was a jar of bugs and these clothes. I went through the floor with a full party and we made it to an area like this, but fought a big spider. About the size of the pond here. Anyways I didn't know anything really but when I got the understanding of people using their skills I used one of my own and then it all clicked into place. Yes it's bug related. Also, spiders are arachnids not insects. Basically I have these guys and they can do a couple things.” King pulled up his shirt. His entire torso was covered in these little beetles about the size of a fingernail clipping. They didn't move and he brushed his hand over them. You could hear the texture against his skin, like fingers against a fan blade, as he touched them they popped their wings up and slowly flapped them. “They are called Chiten. And Entomology is the study of bugs, I had to look that up when I logged off. At first I will say I was sort of afraid of them. But you get used to it. They make my armor. I can feed them to replenish their numbers when they die protecting me. It's pretty cool.”

  Lance looked at Kings chest and was thankful he had the sac because he wore a disgusted look. He shook it off and then spoke up. “ Well yeah I guess there's a bit of that in this game, getting uncomfortable with certain things, like the eating of creatures and stuff. Goblin for example… kinda good hahaha. Spiders, bat, slimes, you'd be surprised. Well now that that's cleared up, you wanna clear this floor? I got some friends waiting for me on the next level.”

  King was happy Lance didn't care about the bugs. He smiled “ Absolutely but, Do you think we can? It's just the two of us now. What if one of us gets hurt. We don't have ranged or magic or healing, at least I don't. My official class spec is a Fill which I still don't understand. I'm guessing that means any of the roles, but I only have a couple skills and neither of them fall in the other categories.”

  Lance laughed “ Yeah man I'm sure we can. I'm not one hundred percent about this but, I'm pretty sure we're in a lower difficulty dungeon right now. I have some theories about it. I think it's based on level, gear, and a few other things. Also I'm a Fill as well, and luckily if we take our time I have an ability that does heal, I cook. The only thing is we gotta climb.” Lance said as he pointed up to the ceiling above where a hole was, much like his previous attempts.

  King looked happy “ Well that's where I come in. I have one other skill you ready to see it?”

  “Chiten - Arms”

  A moment later King put his arms up and another pair of arms grew out from the sides of his ribcage, bugs crawled on and over on each other to create them, at the end of them being molded he flexed all four of his arms at Lance. Then he walked over and grabbed him by the armpits and waist.

  “Whoa man what are you doing? What's the plan here?” Lance yelled out as the King walked with him in his arms towards the wall by the hole.

  “Calm down, I'm just gonna throw you up there” King began to heave

  “Wait! Wait wait… *sigh* okay go” as soon as Lance said go King threw him up at a slight angle just over the top of the cave wall. He cleared it by just a foot and landed flat on his back. It didn't hurt too bad, Lance just rolled over and sat up. A few seconds went by and he looked over the edge as he heard the slight crunch and grind of stone. He looked down to see King rock climbing with his four arms and legs very easily. The extra pair of arms had extraordinary strength. King eventually made it to the top. Lance grabbed his arm and helped him stand up.

  After standing up top and looking around, King's arms began to recede back into his shirt. “ They're tired now. Gonna be a while for me to use it again.”

  Lance was very impressed, he wondered what it would be like to have four arms. “Does that take mana?”

  “ Cooldown timer, works for one minute.”

  “Dang that's cool. I'll be sure to make the little guys a treat. Uhm. Do me a favor, don't tell anyone you threw me.”

  “Oh, pft never.”

  “Thanks. Okay well I haven't come this way before so let's be cautious. The last two times there have been goblins up here, and there's something I have to get from their little camp.” Lance said as he rubbed his hands together.

  “ And that is?” King said curiously as they began to walk forward.

  “ They have a camp rotisserie. If we can kill them all they probably have even more, I've seen boxes and barrels, stacks of bat furs. We gotta put a plan together. Hey Actually! Oh man…” Lance and King began discussing a plan of action as they walked.

  They continued on the path in front of them. More spiders eventually came, these ones a bit larger than before but fewer in number in pairs and trios. Lance and King made short work of them, they practically hung from the ceiling and webs like balloons to be popped. It wasn't until about an hour later that they both had to stop. They came upon a checkpoint area in front of them, the blue fire torches alight. The area the torches lit up what looked like a small flat area to make a camp at, there wasn't much but there were a couple crates next to the torches.

  The two of them approached with caution and the torches went from blue to red flames.

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  “Checkpoint reached - progress saved”

  Lance was excited as this was something new to him, he approached the two crates. Among them he found a couple waterskins, a rope, bread and two unlit torches. He sat down and split them with King. King quickly ate the bread and drank some water. He saved half of the bread and put it in his shirt. Lance could see his shirt begin to move around and he could hear the bugs begin to squeel scratchy little screams, they weren't too loud but the noise overall was a bit unnerving.

  “Luck is definitely on our side, I think this is perfect for what we discussed.” Lance grabbed the crates, they weren't big by any means, around a foot squared with a wood frame. He began to break them apart and into the small planks. He tapped out and pulled apart the handful of crude nails that held them together. He took his axe and began to split the wood into thinner strips about one by one inch. Then he sharpened them. After about an hour of preparing, the wood had now all become encased in stone. Making them much heavier, but also more durable. They weren't an issue to carry, Lance had grabbed some web along the way, he then placed a few of them across his and Kings arms and wrapped them tight with the web. Both of them now had 6 stakes wrapped to their arms. They were both pretty pleased with the outcome.

  “Alright we've got 7 hours, we should be able to make it but I only have enough ingredients for another 2 hours, maybe more but I'm going to have to find something to make it better, we need something tasty. Wait…” Lance said then looked at his small bread loaf. He disregarded it almost immediately when he grabbed the crates. It was a tough chunk of bread he'd rather not have to crunch through.

  “ We need one goblin and I know just how to get one. This might end up being my most delicious dish yet.” Lance said cutting the ropes in half, King and he used the lengths as a belt, although they had to wrap themselves twice and leave a lengthy section dangling from the knot.

  King and Lance began walking; they only had around a half hour left before their current buff of dark vision ran out. Lance sped up into a jog with his D.I Active he ran in Active avoidance of any color, his main goal, the goblin latrine. They would lie in wait for a goblin to fall right into their hands. After about twenty minutes of routing through the speleothem spires the pair made their way to another path that Lance checked for goblin footprints.

  “Perfect, okay it looks like a path that is traveled a lot, I don't know which direction though. King, how much time?”

  “ I've got seven minutes forty-ish seconds left, and then I can only hold my armor for two minutes tops.”

  “ Okay that's fine, I'll go two minutes down that direction, you go the other, if you run into anything or smell shit like you've never before, turn around and meet me here, GO!”

  With their darkvision timers running low they both set off in dead sprints from each other. They had not lit any torches, they both gambled on defeating this dungeon with one thing above all else. Darkness.

  King had been running for close to two minutes. The path was a straight shot with hardly any bends, off in the distance at the edge of his vision he could see the torchlight. Squinting and looking around he stopped and tried to take in a deep sniff.

  “Damnit nothing, what is that though a checkpoint?” Looking at his timer “5:13 huh.. well alright.” He ran forward just another 50 ish feet to get a better look. Two torch poles stood in a small clearing alone with a couple crates. King took a mental note and ran back.

  Lance, being a little faster than King, had run an almost equal distance away in the opposite direction in just under a minute and a half. He too saw the torchlight off in the distance, but it was moving. “Patrol, gotta head back.” He turned around quickly and ran off.

  The two of them met up back where they began each with just under 3 minutes left. King pointed to Lance to speak first as he held his hands on his hips to catch his breath.

  Lance spoke quickly between breaths “Patrol, coming this way, probably that way” he pointed back to King

  “Checkpoint, couple crates, torches if we have too but gotta choose now” King said looking at his menu. “2:23”

  Just as the two of them caught their breath they both heard noise from behind them, torches could be seen off about a hundred fifty-ish yards away moving quickly closer towards them.

  “ I didn't see how many! Ambush or run to the checkpoint, take the lead King!” Lance spoke quickly. King was the active tank for their plan, Lance felt it best to leave the big choices to him.

  “ Rrhhg, Okay here's as good as any. Hide behind the spires quickly.” Lance pulled out an unlit stump of a torch, the remnants of the Angelas torch.

  Lance got in place and King held the torch in one hand and the warhammer in the other on the path they were on. Time was running low. Just over a minute left. The torchlight inched closer, one hundred, eighty, fifty, thirty yards away. 45 seconds.

  Four goblins in a light jog, all wearing bat leather attire, came running up the path. King with his back to them listening for Lance's signal. A gentle whisper from his hiding place behind a stone outcropping “Now”

  “ Chiten - Armor”

  Kings Chiten wrapped around him quickly, turning him an oil slick sheen of hard dark purple, he stood stalwart on the main path. After a quick step forwards he broke forward out of the main section of his armor. He quickly turned around and pushed his bugs off himself and they flew back into formation with the remaining armor, like an empty shell his armor stood like a ghastly haunt in front of him. It held the torch in one hand and the warhammer was conveniently standing on the sandy path to make it seem like it was holding it. He jumped behind a speleothem as the pack of goblins got within the last twenty yards, their torchlight now showing the Chiten armors back.

  Lance stared on examining the goblins quickly as he and King lost their darkvision buff.

  “ Hehehe, Lost? Hue man!” The forefront goblin said as they walked closer to Kings armor. The three goblins behind chuckled in unison then licked their lips. Lance could understand this but the goblin speech came into understanding only a couple seconds later. The goblins got within ten feet of the armor. The same goblin spoke up “ Follow us, goblin city, or die” he said waving his crude goblin longsword at the back of King's armor. The armor stood motionless. Another goblin spoke up from behind “ Stupid, He's stupid, we come back and eat. Won't follow” he whispered to their patrol leader pointing at the armor.

  “What are they saying, goblin city?? Follow, or die? Sounds like a threat I don't understand.” Lance thought, a second later a stone spike pierced the leading goblins head from the side. King snuck around to the side and threw it from behind the stone. “ Wait no!” Lance yelled out.

  The remaining pack of goblins all screamed out in anger then pulled out their weapons, the furthest back an small bow and arrow, another with daggers held one and in the other hand a torch, the one behind the leader grabbed its fallen leaders torch while brandishing a goblin longsword of his own. It tossed the torch over the stones illuminating King standing there wielding two stone spikes.

  “ Chiten - Armor”

  Kings chiten armor form turned into a swarm and flew towards him the three goblins all turned towards the swarm wide eyed. As it flew towards King the archer in the back let loose an arrow. The swarm blocked the view of King briefly, as it coalesced around him. It took shape, except for the arrow stuck out of his shoulder. “ Agh frikken, grab it Lance!” King yelled out. He moved forward towards the small stone wall in front of him and kicked it, shattering and spraying rocks at the goblins.

  Lance gritted his teeth and rolled out onto the path, he quickly grabbed the warhammer and swung it overhead, At that moment King stepped forward and lunged the two stone spikes at the dagger wielding goblin it dodged one into the other spike, piercing it right in the head. The bow wielding goblin shot another arrow into the leg of King, it pierced through the armor just barely but shattered a second later as the goblin with the longsword swung low and into King's leg almost in the same location. “Arrggh” King yelled out as he fell to his knees. Lance threw out the Warhammer, it flew straight and landed square in the face of the longsword wielding goblin. A loud crunch sound was made as the weight of the warhammer fell with the goblin smashing its head in the dirt. Lance charged in pulling out his axe. The last bow wielding goblin pulled back an arrow, King quickly looked at the goblin and grabbed the bow yanking it down, the arrow shot off wide into the cave. Lance jumped and came down with the axe right onto the goblins head.

  Lance quickly grabbed the fluttering torch before it went out. He looked back as Kings armor began to recede into his clothing. He looked down at him kneeling. A four inch section of arrow protruding his lower right calf, above which a large gash that leaked a lot of blood was wide open from the chop of the goblin. King reached up and pulled the arrow from his left shoulder. He winced as he did it then grabbed the lower arrow and did the same. He fell back on his butt looking at his leg.

  “Shit, this sucks, I don't think I'll be walking for a bit. And my health is fine, but I'm losing more each second, blood loss.” King said with strain in his voice.

  Lance quickly ripped off a section of Kings sleeve. He grabbed his leg and wrapped the gash and then tied it tightly. “ Put pressure on it, I have to make a pan then I can cauterize it. Just hold on. Then, we'll cook.”

  Lance quickly unwrapped the web on his arms, it was sticky and wet from being wrapped on him for so long. It made it difficult to make a pan, he couldn't really make any walls, he ended up making a rather flat plate with it and an enstoned stick from his arm.

  “Enstone”

  “Item created - Stone Griddlepan”

  “ Stone Griddlepan”

  Created by: Sammich

  Shame tier

  One time use

  Description: A flat pan used to grill, commonly used for better temperature control, made of Web, wood, and stone

  Value: N/A