The swarm of spiders was camped in a nest made at the intersection of four tunnels. There were around 20 of them, but they were moving so much it was difficult to keep track with any amount of accuracy. The spiders were familiar, mostly consisting of drones, followed by a smattering of lesser warriors, with two spitters sitting on the walls as well. Before I wiped them out, I wanted to watch them for a while, checking to see if they acted the same as they did in the tutorial.

These spiders were significantly more animated than the ones I faced before. Occasionally they would hiss at or attack one another, particularly if one of the drones got too close to the warriors. It seems like these spiders had an acknowledged caste system, or at the very least they were afraid of their bigger comrades. That in itself was strange though, because why would the dungeon monsters be afraid of the other dungeon monsters? They always worked in perfectly cohesive teams, before.

With caution, I started advancing towards the group of monsters, the Knight Blade sliding out of its oiled sheath with the barest snick. That was, unfortunately, enough for me to lose the element of surprise. At the noise, two of the closest drones turned and hissed. With my left hand, I blasted a charged bolt of lightning, sending blue light flashing through the tunnel, sending the nearest drone into spider heaven. The rest of the spiders came then, climbing on the roof and walls of the tunnel with the same ease as the floor.

As soon as the first one was in range, I swung my new blade at it, cleaving it completely in two. The edge was razor sharp and would make mincemeat of these hardness 1 and 2 spiders. Even the lesser warriors stood no chance, they too dying to the sword with but a single attack. It seems like the weapon upgrade was a good idea and would make this floor go far smoother than I had ever dreamed. Looking around me at the chunks of arachnid, it was difficult to tell if all of the damage done was from the sharpness of the sword alone, or if it was in part due to the extra damage the blade dealt to spiders specifically. Figuring it out would require experimentation with other monsters, and unfortunately, this was not a dungeon that boasted a wide array of opponent types.

In the den where the spiders waited, I found something strange that gave me pause. There was a dead drone, but I hadn’t been the one to kill it. Instead, it was very obviously killed by a spitter, considering the acid burns that it possessed. Perhaps stranger still, the monsters in the dungeon were not dissipating like they had in the tutorial. The bodies sat where they fell, slowly oozing green goo onto the stone floor. As opposed to dungeon monsters, they were more like monsters found on the surface. I left the corpses where they were, and headed down the left-most path, plotting my route out on my map.

Any thoughts on this Luna?

It's very concerning that the dungeon monsters are not dissolving. These monsters are supposed to be a simulacrum, accurate models of monsters you would encounter in the wild, but fake none the less. These spiders you just killed are the real thing though, meaning that they can grow more experienced with time. The older the bug, the more powerful it will be.

For you that’s not a problem, especially considering the dungeon has only existed for a couple of weeks. In the future though… this could be a disaster on global proportions. If the monsters somehow managed to leave the dungeon, you could imagine the catastrophe that would ensue.

You’re right. We need to get to the bottom of this. Maybe we can talk to this Queen and get some answers about who Labyrinth is and what has been happening to the dungeons. I don’t remember Kaitlyn talking about this when she brought up the Rat Warrens, but without you telling me that this is a problem, there’s no way I would even be able to tell.

The dungeon break; it was a rather common trope in many fantasy manga and light novels. When dungeons were not cleared frequently enough, the monsters within the dungeon would exit, flooding the world. I needed to get back to Cindy and Steph and let them know about the situation soon. We needed to get adventurers clearing dungeons as fast as possible.

I marched through the gloomy cavern; the unpleasant off-green light produced by the bioluminescent fungi straining my eyes. I noticed no traps or new spiders, but the arachnids I did encounter tended to vary wildly. After each fight, I would hear the ding denoting the defeat of enemies, but I decided to hold off on checking my level for a while. Focusing on the levels instead of my abilities in combat seemed unwise. I had all the tools to become a terrifying enemy to face, I just needed to apply them, and the constant dinging was starting to slow my training.

I practiced cryokinesis constantly, this time trying to sense when the skill changed, not just relying on the status alerts denoting levels. My improvement was consistent but slow. Eventually, I could summon my water blades, then spend a few seconds hardening them into ice, making them last longer and reducing the constant upkeep. Eventually I got to the point where I was comfortable using the ice in combat.

When I found the next group of spiders, instead of baiting them towards me with lighting then finishing them off with the sword, I started with a hail of icicles. I had been creating them as I explored and mapped, and then, when I reached a group of spiders, I would pepper them with a long-range hail. The ice attacks were slower than both air and lightning, but I could see the potential in the ability for forming blockades, preventing enemy movement, or applying constant suppressing fire.

After the second hour of exploration and hunting, I found my first treasure chest. It was suspended in the air on a line of spider silk and was guarded by five warriors and a smattering of drones. Once all of the spiders were dealt with, I launched a wind blade into the air, slicing through the line suspending the loot, causing the chest to clatter to the ground. After a quick test, I found it to be locked tight. It was finally time for my water cutter to come into play.

I used the ability to slice right through the lock itself, shattering its internal mechanisms that kept the chest’s lid closed. When the lid eventually cracked open, the whole thing began to hiss, a dense yellow fog blasting out of the box and spreading around me. In a panic, I brought a summoned a wall of air, keeping whatever gas was coming from the chest away from my face, but it was too late. By the time my wind had blown the poison out of the cave I was in, I had already breathed enough of it to affect me.

Alert!

Condition Received: Poisoned (moderate), duration: 2m

It seemed without the damage numbers provided by the sprites, the condition alerts would come with a system message. My health immediately began to tick down, as well as my stamina, at a rate of 2 every second. I would survive it but would be severely weakened. I moved away from the chest, and sat down in a meditative position, starting my body strengthening technique so that I could improve my passive regeneration. Every time I regained 25 mana, I would cast Aqua Heal, healing me a small amount, but I still had a net negative on health regeneration. While the poison continued to work, I paid special attention to how I was healing, and just what it did, but still could not understand how it worked on my body.

After the two minutes were up, I continued my meditation, bringing both my health, and my mana back up to the max. It was better to be safe than sorry. In the trapped chest I found a leather sack with 10 small gold coins, and a blue potion I did not recognize.

Lesser Mana Potion – Instantly recover 500 mana

A mana potion was a good item to have, as it would bolster both my attack potential in a dangerous situation and my mobility. I added it to my bandolier so I could access it easily, just in case.

After the fifth hour of exploration, and an innumerable amount of spiders slain, I finally managed to reach the end of the floor. I had managed to find another two small chests, but there were only some more small gold coins in those, no potions. There was no boss fight, just a big familiar closed door. I placed my hand on it and was returned to the long rectangular room I entered the sixth floor from. I was a bit disappointed I hadn’t gotten the chance to use Tempered Body just yet, but I was sure I would later. As expected, another sign and teleportation circle were added, this one denoting the entrance to the seventh floor.

Finally, I pulled up my alerts.

Alert! Floor 6/15 Cleared! Experience Calculated!

Enemies Eliminated:

Skullback Drone (Rank 2) x 213: 71xp

Lesser Skullback Warrior (Rank 2) x 54: 108xp

Skullback Spitter (Rank 2) x 39: 78xp

Experience Bonus: +7xp

First! (+10%)

Lone Wanderer (+25%)

First Dungeon Dive (+20%)

Total Experience: 408xp

Level Up: Lvl 22 -> 23 (231/1828)

Skill Alert! Level Up!

General Skills:

Stealth – lvl 15 -> 22 – (-22%) noise generated passively

Class Skills:

Beginner Chaos Body Strengthening – lvl 24 -> 25

Combat Skills:

Beginner Swordsmanship – lvl 7 -> 9

Magic Skills;

Storm Command – lvl 30 -> 31

Cryokinesis – lvl 1 -> 14

Unsurprisingly, the gains from this level were not particularly impressive. I had been getting the experience as I killed the enemies, but it was nice to see a summary of the level. Plus, it was significantly easier to keep track of the experience granted per enemy. None of the fights were very interesting, and the most dangerous thing there was trapped chests that wouldn’t even kill me if I took the full brunt of the poison they produced. The experience from the extremely large number of spiders killed was smaller than I imagined it would be. I was only getting two exp for a lesser warrior, and two for a spitter, while I was getting a measly 1/3 of an experience per drone. If I was going to level up, I needed fights that were challenging. I would be spending days on this floor if I wanted to get to level 24. I rearranged my supplies, marked a new spot for a map in my notebook, and cleaned my blade, before stepping onto the teleporter for floor 7.

I arrived at a similar landing, but this time, the caverns around me were much larger. I was on a small offshoot next to a massive cave with a floor of loose sand. Checking the ground, I noticed lots of spider tracks. It seemed like I was on the spider dungeon equivalent of a highway. Once again, I decided to take a left.

I slowly crept through the hall, staying next to the wall while exercising my sneak skill. I opted against practicing magic here, considering the potential for enemies to face. Sure enough, I heard a rumble coming from behind me. I ducked into a small indentation in the wall, waiting for whatever was passing to make its move. Down the highway marched a group of spiders, roughly 40 in number. Most of them were lesser warriors, but among their group was two brood mothers, as well as one large warrior.

Trailing behind them almost out of sight were more than 50 drones, all moving in a pack down the road. Once the last one passed, I started creeping up behind the large group. They were fast, and I had to move at a rather quick pace to keep up. The drones were starting to lag behind their more powerful brethren, so I started to pick them off one by one. The sword and the ice blades were almost completely silent, and by the time the spiders noticed they were under attack, they were dead on the ground.

It took around 10 minutes, but I eventually reached the first of the lesser warriors, and I continued my tactic. The larger spiders were leading the pack, and I was well hidden behind them, so they were easy pickings. It wasn’t until my second to last lesser warrior that I made a mistake. As I moved to kill the arachnid, I overextended and ended up crushing its back with the guard of the sword instead of cutting it in two. It was still a lethal attack, but it wasn’t silent in the least. The injured spider let out a shriek as it died, alerting the two broodmothers and the warrior that they were under attack. The three turned and looked at me, just as I killed the last lesser warrior.

Before the large warrior could even begin to attack, I lunged, aiming my sword to slice off his front left blade. I went ahead and used tempered body, sacrificing 100 stamina to increase my strength by 10. My sword passed right through his guard, severing the weapon before the black spider could even react. The broodmothers were already making their squelching noise, preparing to send their combustible babies running at me. The warrior was shrinking back in pain. I used the distraction to attack the closest broodmother, bringing my sword right down, cleaving through its head, killing the large spider instantly. It was impressive how easy the right tools could make tasks.

The warrior was starting to recover and moved towards me in a deep lunging attack. I jumped up and to the side, moving into the opening created by the missing limb, before stabbing the sword right through its eye socket. It too shrieked as it fell to the ground having its brain destroyed. Turning toward the final spider, I could tell it was starting to get scared. Its broodling was charging towards me, so with a long wind-up I punted it down the corridor, leaving it to explode where it was incapable of harming me. The broodmother turned to retreat, but not before I attacked, putting a deep gash in its head. I retreated, leaving the corpses of the broodmothers to detonate where I wouldn't be harmed.

I let out a breath and looked at the sword in my hand, still dripping green goo from all of the slain spiders. Behind me, a trail of carnage arose, as I had just slain more than 100 of the ugly bastards. The blade was still razor-sharp, even through all of the extreme use. I looked down at the sleek instrument of death, gleaming in the murky light the fungi put out, still dripping in blood and gore from the medley of carnage.

“I think I’m in love.”

I cleaned the goo off of my new metallic partner using the soft sand on the ground and sheathed it at my side. It was time to find out just where those spiders were going.