I think I blacked out, but I’m not certain.
One moment I was staring at the ceiling, howling in pain; the next, I was on the ground, all air driven out of me, barely able to draw breath. Blood gushed out from the wounds on my back. A spider loomed above me, front legs raised to strike.
I’d dropped my shield and [BULWARK] deactivated. I still had almost half of my MP bar left, so I immediately turned on [IRON FLESH] and threw my hands over my head.
The spider slammed its legs onto my head, directly on my iron-hard arms. I felt the shock of it and my chin dug painfully into the stone floor, cracking that blasted molar again. But my brain, whatever was left of it, still sloshed around in my skull.
With a silent roar, I heave myself up, willing the [IRON FLESH] to shift its target to my right leg. No time to do anything properly.
The spider reared and flashed chrome-plated fangs, apparently shocked I wasn’t a twitching corpse.
I used the short moment of confusion to its maximum effect and kicked the bastard as hard as I could. I got it right in its stupid fucking mouth. Something cracked. My MP bar flashed exactly as my danger sense skill tickled the back of my neck. The last of my MP went into shifting the [IRON FLESH] again, back into my right arm. I spun and punched out blindly.
I missed. But the motion got me out of the way for the spider’s strike. Its legs slammed into the floor with a loud thunk.
With no MP, no shield, and no sword—both lay on the floor a couple steps away—I raised my fists to protect my face and went primal. What else was there to do?!
I kicked out at the spider with the broken teeth and helped it swallow the rest of its chrome fangs. A flicker of the shadows had me spinning and punching. Bare fist met squishy eyes and crushed them—thank whatever deity watched because these creatures weren’t as mechanised as their bigger cousin in the forest.
The spider tried to leap back, but I grabbed at it, fist clenched around one leg. It didn’t weigh anywhere near what I thought it would. So I dragged it back towards me, twisted around, and slammed it into its brother. They went down in a complicated mess of chrome limbs and segmented bodies for just long enough for me to grab my sword. Pain lanced up and down my back, but the rush of adrenaline kept me upright and fighting
Some system notification flashed in my view. I blinked it away. Who the fuck cared what skill I’d trained up or unlocked?
I was fighting for my life, vision gone blurry with the effort, pain constant and almost overpowering.
Willpower alone kept me on my feet. It raised my sword for me, and I screamed when I slammed it down on the two spiders who hadn’t manged to extricate themselves from one another.
It didn’t go straight through. It cut the top one’s thorax from its head, or whatever the fuck that’s called, and ended up embedded in the second spider. I kicked at them until the sword came free, then whacked again. And again. I couldn’t hack them neatly, but I sure as shit could hack them to pieces, blow by blow.
By the time the red haze of anger and despair lifted from my eyes, only mulched carapace and organ meat steamed on the floor.
The last one tried to crawl away. It left behind a snail’s trail of yellow ichor as it drunkenly stumbled towards the room’s far door. I caught up to it in two long, painful strides, and impaled it on my sword. I slammed it down so hard on its back segment that I effectively pinned it to the floor like a butterfly in a collection. I left it there to bleed out, or ichor out, or whatever that slow, agonising death was called.
My battery finally ran out and I fell on my ass, too weak to even keep my head up. Every breath sent a stabbing burst of pain into my chest.
I had to focus on not dying, but it was so bloody hard.
I tried to focus on healing, but my mind slipped around the idea. Darkness crept in at the edges and bone-chilling cold gripped my hands and feet. Blood still oozed out of my back wounds, hot on clammy skin, more with each heartbeat.
With an effort of willpower, I raised a fist and punched myself right in the side of my jaw. I used to slap myself awake on long drives. It seldom worked for more than a couple minutes, but I would take even a moment more if it didn’t mean I would die.
The dead will seldom fight for life.
Eklil’s words echoed in my head as I punched myself again. I didn’t have the strength for another real blow, so instead I dug my fingernails in my cheek and scratched. Long as I could draw breath, I would fight to stay alive.
The dead flit away, for it is their writ to seek what comes, not linger in what was.
I wasn’t flitting anywhere because I was focused on being in what is.
My whole will turned to healing. I knew I could heal. I’d healed earlier. I knew my body knew how to do it. I just needed to hold on until the bleeding stopped and the wounds closed. Whatever else came next I could figure it out if only I didn’t die that very fucking moment.
“Refuz!” I spoke through clenched teeth. “Refuz!” Every little stab of pain I caused myself kept me on the edge. If I fainted, I’d be dead. I knew it for the first time since the bear, and I refused to let it happen.
I would not die in a fucking dungeon! I would not die there!
Slowly, ever so slowly, the bleeding on my back eased. I felt the wounds closing. I tried to imagine myself keeping them closed, fingers clasped around the two punctures… and it kinda worked. Was I about to die? Had I bled all I could?
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[YOU HAVE TRAINED A NEW SKILL: SECOND WIND - UNIQUE]
[WARNING: THIS IS A UNIQUE SKILL AND CANNOT BE UPGRADED WITHOUT A HIGHER UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE OF ETERNITY. INSIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY]
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[YOU HAVE DEFEATED: BLACK TEMPLE SPIDER - ADULT x3]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 6!]
[YOU HAVE GAINED: 1 ATTRIBUTE POINT]
[YOU HAVE GAINED: 1 SKILL POINT]
I passed out from the sudden healing pain. I felt the sear of it exploding into my veins, then the world went white, and I went nighty night.
Waking was just as miserable as passing out. Everything hurt. Everything throbbed. I had the taste of blood in the back of my throat, and the horrid stench of rotten meat in my nose. My first breath devolved into a hacking cough. Bloody mucus erupted from my throat and from my lungs, followed by more great heaves of phlegm and thick strings of blood. I passed out again, and came back moments later.
But I was alive. I lived! The first moment I could, I let out a “Whoop!” as loud as my battered lungs could supply. “I’m alive.”
Three spiders at once, and I was still kicking. Coughing. Puking. Howling mad. But still kicking.
It took me a while to get back on my feet. Hunger almost slammed me back down on my ass, but I soldiered through. No tasty lizards around, unfortunately, so I’d just have to force myself forward.
As before, the pain ebbed after I was completely healed. It left behind the aftermath, which was weakness, soreness, and that hunger so deep that I was even tempted to lick the ichor off the walls.
Nothing remained of my enemies but their maimed mechanical components. Nothing to eat there. It spoke of how sharp the pangs of hunger were that I was willing to consider munching on a spider leg if I could get one. I got back my shield, checked its straps, and then my sword. Both were still in good shape, which was definitely more than I could say for myself.
For the moment, I pushed on. Whatever the next room brought, I still had to move. If I stopped and sat back down, I wasn’t sure I’d get up again.
I checked the missing notifications. I’d upgraded my bash skill and gained a couple unarmed ones. Funny enough, I had a stomp skill now, which probably should’ve been a kick, given how I handled the enemies.
Still, just one skill upgrade and a couple unlocks, and that had been enough to get me up to level six?
[SECOND WIND]
[DRAG YOURSELF BACK FROM THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION]
[LIFE MUST CONTINUE]
[COST: NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE]
[REQUIREMENTS FOR ACTIVATION: RESTRICTED]
There was a feeling there, as if the skill description was showing me just a fragment of what it had to say. Once I got my next insight level, I’d look back into it and see if there wasn’t more there to learn. Still, neat. The interface rewarded effort. I dug it.
At some point I’d have to sit down and think very seriously about how my levelling functioned. Certain actions clearly held more weight than others, and certain circumstances seemed to lead to a higher chance of a level. What each of those was… I’d have to figure it out.
Option time. Either I headed back, took one of the prongs of the fork, and went up the stairs, or I went to the door and see what fresh new horror waited for me beyond it. How much worse could it be than three spiders at once?
It could be one really big spider in one really small room.
Thank you for that, inner voice. I really needed more things to dampen my already battered spirit.
No time like the moment. I cleared the webs, checked the columns for maybe some hidden switches or whatnot, found none, then stood in front of the door and stared at it like a Muppet.
“Right,” I tried to psych myself up. “I have enough MP. My head’s just barely spinning. And I still have my shield and sword. Whatever’s in there can’t be worse than everything else.”
I still stared. In the end, it was either go in or fuck off up the stairs.
The door swung open easily and noiselessly, as if its hinges had been greased that very morning.
Big spider. Called it.
I drew back and slammed the door shut. The thing was the size of the room! It occupied more space than I could imagine possible. It was black, looked vaguely like a horribly angry black widow.
… and it hadn’t moved an inch.
I cracked open the door again and peered back inside. The spider was still gigantic, but it was also not moving at all. The door opened up a bit farther and I stuck my whole head through.
It was a statue.
And beneath it was a chest, nestled between its legs, almost trapped by the statue itself.
Why was there a big statue of a spider in a very small room?
Why was the statue guarding a chest?
Two very good questions. I wrote them down and would grill Eternity once I got out.
The chest was locked but I had a sword that so far could cut through just about anything. I hacked at the lid a few times until the lock gave way and the thing opened up.
Neat. I had loot!
There was a bundle of things in there. Atop the bundle, as if set on a pedestal, was what looked like an yellow keycard. It looked exactly like a golden credit card from back home. Right down to the rounded corners and the size.
To make sure I wasn’t about to celebrate prematurely, I slipped the item in my pocket and checked my inventory.
[DUNGEON CORE CLEARANCE KEY - SINGLE USE]
If relief had a noise, it was probably the gurgling thing that errupted from my throat. All the pain had been worth it in the end. One fuck up at a time got me to where I needed to be. I breathed out a long, long sigh of relief.
There were three more items in the chest. The first was an actual pair of gloves. They were black and felt like leather. I opened one up and turned it towards the torchlight, checking its insides. Nothing creepy or crawly waited to nip at my fingers. The gloves were lined inside with a thin, soft fur.
I tried them on. Initially they were too big, but in a moment they squeezed around my arms and fit like a second skin.
[HANDS OF THE DEEP MINER]
[CONSTITUTION +2]
[STRENGTH +2]
[INCREASED RESISTANCE TO WEAR AND TEAR]
[INCREASED RESISTANCE TO HEAT]
Neat. They also felt really good on my hands and, maybe, I could finally stop getting so many scraped knuckles and the like. A check of my status sheet showed my constitution up to 12, and my strength at 11 now.
The next item was a potion. It came in what I’d always imagined a potion would be stored in, which was a tear-shaped vial. The liquid sloshing inside was black as tar and about equally as thick. It barely fit in my pocket for me to check what it was.
[ELIXIR OF THE DEEP MINER]
[ALCHEMICAL PRODUCT]
[RESTORES HEALTH, STAMINA, AND ENERGY]
[WILL REPLACE THE NEED FOR FOOD FOR UP TO THREE DAYS]
With no way of carrying it around without breaking the vial, I drank it. After the day I’d had, I was willing to accept any windfall that came my way. It tasted entirely too sweet for how it looked, but it immediately got me feeling like a new man, like I’d slept for a day straight, had a huge meal, and treated myself to a triple shot espresso. All the aches and bruises cleared up and I felt ready to take on the world again.
Pure magic in a bottle.
The last item was a very small satchel that jingled. Opening it up revealed several silver coins inside and a few black discs that looked like the obsidian shards, just rounded better. I fished out the shard in my pocket and dropped it into the pouch, then tied the whole thing to one of my belt loops.
“Neat,” I said, already feeling much better about my chances.
I’d found the key. I’d healed up. And I even got some money out of it. Things were looking… well, not up, but certainly not as hellish.
With nothing else available in the room aside form the spider statue, I stepped back out before the thing got the idea of waking up or something. Time to see where the stairs led, and how I was going to get myself back up to the temple.