Jack was sitting cross-legged on the ground, in front of him was a faint translucent outline of a cube. After quickly going through a list of multiple nouns, he found that thinking inventory summoned a three-foot ethereal box. He could put his hand through its walls, but when he leaned an object against the inside of the wall it acted solid to that object.

After all the gains from the class, Jack wanted to go through and learn about all the new skills, traits, and abilities he now had.

The first was to explore pack mule, which unlocked an inventory system. Contrary to his initial hopes, he couldn’t instantly store and retrieve objects at will. In actuality, it summoned what he could only describe as an extra-dimensional safety deposit box. It would appear anywhere he willed around him up to three feet away. It would only appear on a surface though, through some experimenting he found that if he laid both of his arms out flat it could appear there but as soon as he moved his arm it would disappear. The box didn’t weigh anything so Jack thought there might be some workarounds to the surface rule.

While he was experimenting with his inventory the baby manaweaver was slowly creeping closer. Whenever Jack would look over she would stop and wait, continuing only when he went back to work. She kept on her crawl until she was four feet away where she stayed continuing her observations.

As he was putting items in the box he found the gold coin in his pocket. The Skill Evolution Token, with his racial evolution he had a bit more of an idea of what it might do. Since he had no idea how to use it though he packed it away into his inventory.

After everything was packed away into the box, Jack made it disappear. Stretching, since he had been scrunched on the ground for a while; Jack pulled up his racial traits.

Race Human Humans are one of the most common races there is, for good reason. They can and will mate with almost every sentient race, and their traits are extremely dominant. Traits Resilience Abnormally high natural healing for a sentient creature. A trait some show off by stabbing their skin repeatedly with ink-soaked needles. Adaptability Travel to the most inhospitable area, with dangerous temperatures, and no food. Do you know who you’ll find living there? Humans Invasive Humans have almost no connection to the forces around them. As such they tend to throw off the balance of any ecosystem they populate. Pack Bond From wolves to elephants, humans seem to not know what to be afraid of. It seems whenever they see a new creature they only ask one thing. Can I pet it?

Scrunching his face in annoyance “Of course it is the same text as before. Why would it give me any more information, that would be too easy.” He looked down at the manaweaver “I don’t suppose you know what Pack Bond does?” The spider tilted its head as if to show it didn’t understand him.

He smiled, she was honestly adorable. He wondered how smart she was, Identify did state that intelligence was her highest attribute. With all her observations she was clearly a curious little thing. What did she want? Was she like a dog and wanted to play? “Is that it? Do you want to play?” the spider again tilted its head in confusion.

Laughing he took a step closer to her, causing her to panic and run away towards the boss room. “Oh ok, well bye” his shoulders slumped in disappointment. He hoped to start studying her and see if he could activate Mimicry.

“Well looks like I have about four days to look around here safely might as well take advantage of that.” Realizing he was again talking to himself gave him a punch of loneliness right in the gut. Trying to be positive he began to walk to the place they met the boss, where everything went wrong.

The tunnel looked surprisingly the same, he thought five-thousand years would have changed it geographically. The only change he noticed was the webs were much thicker on the walls, floor, and ceiling. There were also a lot more babies walking around, the males still moved painfully slow; he was extra careful not to step on them.

When he approached the opening to the ‘boss room’ he stopped and looked at the spot he last saw Emily. The picture of what she looked like in her last moments was different in his mind than reality. When pictured, he only saw her standing there, not in the jeans and shirt she was wearing at the time, and not bloody and scared. He saw her standing in her favorite yellow sundress. She was smiling at him, her hazel eyes sparkling. Tears began to blur his vision, he blinked and she was gone.

Shaking himself, he walked to the edge of the room and looked around, his eyes went wide.

Male ManaWeaver Level: 10 Current mood: bored.

A fully mature manaweaver.

Aggressive and temperamental the male manaweaver will attack any perceived threat to it or its brood.

While slower on foot than most arachnids of its size it compensates with a lightning-fast leap and a strong paralytic venom.

With the ability to infuse mana into its silk, it can produce webbing with a multitude of magical properties.

Age: 5 years

Highest attribute: Strength

Highest skill: Overwhelming Leap For defeating the boss of its dungeon this creature is currently not hostile to you.

All over the spherical chamber were male manaweavers. Three level tens, one on the ceiling and two on the walls, measuring in at a ten-foot body and seventeen foot long legs. A few the size of the boss were littered around, a dozen of the soccer ball-sized and too many babies to count. All of the ones seemed to be male, now and then he would see a quick flash of blue of a female baby when it went running to one of the numerous little holes in the walls.

**Alert** You have been overwhelmed with fear.

Jack stood frozen, even though the system said they were non-hostile seeing this many huge monsters sent a primal fear through his whole body. One of the large manaweavers near him seemingly took notice. It began to walk towards him at about the pace of a leisurely stroll, but to Jack’s terrified mind it was in front of him in a blink of an eye.

This one's body was slightly bigger than him, and with its long legs, it towered over Jack. Leaning down so that its eyes were level with his, it poked and prodded him with its thick hairy arms. Its dagger-like fangs were meer inches from his body and by the time his brain started working again, he felt his best option was to stand as still as possible.

While he was patted down, Jack tried to put together what it was doing. With a sudden realization, he remembered that spiders smell and taste through their arms and legs. With that thought, he desperately hoped this was a smell-touch and not the other. While he trusted that the system thought them as not hostile, he was questioning exactly what it meant by that. Was it that they wouldn’t kill him or that they just wouldn’t attack him in defense of their territory. Because if boredom eating wasn’t covered by not being hostile he was screwed.

After what seemed like an eternity the manaweaver seemed to lose interest in him and walked back to where it was lounging before. Jack let out the breath he had been holding the entire time, the adrenaline of fear had worn off a while ago leaving him covered in a layer of cold sweat. Besides the one, no other manaweaver seemed to pay him much attention as he stood there.

Confused as to what his next step should be, Jack was considering backing out and leaving the dungeon entirely when a flash of blue near the center of the room caught his attention. The female baby from before ran up to him, stopping a few feet away. “Oh hey, welcome back, sorry if I startled you before.”

She tilted her head giving the impression of confusion, then turned around going back through the center of the chamber. Jack figured he might as well follow her, she seemed friendly and he was curious as to where she was going. They weaved in between the other spiders, Jack moved slowly, careful to avoid stepping on any; he did not want to have their aggression aimed towards him. The female stopped and waited for him to catch up when he got stuck trying to navigate between two of the larger manaweavers.

She led him to the back of the area where he saw a large patch of blue webbing. She walked up to the patch and was able to slip through the thick webbing without much effort. Assuming this was another ‘hidden’ tunnel Jack pressed up against it; the silk was strong and only had a slight give there was no way he was going to be able to push through it.

Looking around to gauge the others' reaction he took out his knife. Seeing that nothing changed, he pressed the blade to the webbing, cutting a slit just large enough for him to get through. Slipping through, he was surprised to find the tunnel was covered in blue webbing unlike the red of the rest of the dungeon. The baby was sat waiting while he adjusted to the new light source, when he looked down at her, she started walking again.

The tunnel had been long and winding, the only spiders he saw on the way were other female babies. Most sunk down trying to hide as they passed, others took off running, a couple would stay put and stare at him. At the very end was a chamber much like the last one but instead of larger spiders everywhere, there was one huge one.

Broodmother ManaWeaver Level: 40 The matriarch of a brood, most of its time is spent eating and breeding. Either way will end badly for anyone she sets her eyes on. For defeating the boss of its dungeon this creature is currently not hostile to you. This monster is currently undergoing a transformation into the next boss of this dungeon. (Time remaining 97 hours) **Alert** You have been overwhelmed with fear.

The broodmother had a body length of twenty feet, its legs were curled under it but easily could clear thirty feet. It took Jack around two minutes to recover from the fear effect. There was something primal about seeing a creature this big, even though logically he knew it wouldn’t hurt him, he still trembled in fear.

While he stood there the baby ran over to a group of six other female babies and began to, what he could only describe as wrestle. She ran at her full speed then leaped to tackle one of the others, they began rolling around and hissing but neither were biting. With those two fighting, the rest of them began to wrestle as well. With clumps of blue flashing spiders rolling on the ground Jack was able to distract himself from his fear by the sheer ridiculousness of it.

With his wits back, he took a look around the room trying not to get too close to the broodmother. With the soft blue glow and the domed roof, the chamber reminded him of a planetarium. Dozens of eggs were clustered on the walls and ceiling, some broken and some not. Behind the broodmother, Jack could just make out the edge of an archway.

Walking along the edge of the chamber, he made his way past her. She seemed to not care about him at all, hardly reacting to him passing by, almost as if she was sleeping. He wondered if manaweavers could sleep.

Once behind her, he got a full view of the archway. Ten feet tall and five feet wide; even considering how organized this cave system is, the archway looked entirely unnatural. Completely untouched by webs, It had a frame of stone with runes lining it. He ran his hand along one of the runes expecting it to be carved in, but the surface was smooth. The runes appeared to be painted on in some way, though with what he couldn’t tell.

He was willing to bet this was some sort of trap, so he summoned his Inventory and retrieved a ball bearing. When he tossed it in, nothing appeared to happen. Taking a deep breath and leading with an outstretched arm he slowly walked forward. Once he was past the threshold he released his breath in relief.

The hallway was completely barren, with no webs, no signs of anything alive having been here. The walls of the hall were completely smooth as was the floor. With no light source, he thanked his class for granting him darksight. After walking down the hall for what seemed like an hour, he stopped when he saw the end.

A wall of pulsating flesh with thick veins bulging underneath the skin. He tensed up as Identify activated; what he read did not ease his nerves.

Dungeon Heart Level: 30 The literal heart of a dungeon and source of its magical power. For defeating the boss of its dungeon this creature is currently not hostile to you **Skill Up** Identify Level 3