Peeking over the edge and directly into the yawning maw, all Zeke could see was darkness. He asked, “How far down do you think it is?”

Abby massaged the back of her neck, answering, “Like I know. You have better vision than me. Drop a rock and count. I think it’s like two-and-a-half seconds for the first hundred feet. Three-and-a-half for double that. I don't want to do the math if it's deeper than two-hundred feet.”

“How the hell do you know that?” Zeke asked, eyeing her in disbelief.

Abby didn’t want to answer. In fact, she wanted nothing more than to forget everything about her former life. She’d made so many mistakes, both in her personal and professional lives, that she knew she would be better off if she left it all in the past.

“I minored in physics in college,” she told the big man. At a couple inches under six feet, Abby was tall, for a woman. Zeke still towered over her, but his size wasn’t merely limited to height. Broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, he had rippling muscles for days, though he wasn’t nearly as bulky as Vladimir had been. And with his armor all ripped to shreds, Abby could see almost everything, which only served to remind her just how lonely she’d been for the past couple of years.

“What?” Zeke asked, noticing her stare and reminding Abby just how clueless the man really was. Boy, really. He was barely twenty-years-old, which meant that Abby was old enough to be his mother, even if she didn’t look it.

“You really need to get some better armor,” she said, dragging her eyes away. “You’re half-naked again.”

At least he looked embarrassed at the reminder. Abby couldn’t abide the kind of man who could take that kind of near-nudity in stride. Or worse – who reveled in it. Her husband had been like that. The asshole.

Zeke flashed a shy grin, saying, “This was the last of the armor we took from Julio and his guys, so I don’t really have much of a choice for now.” He glanced over the lip of the sinkhole, adding, “Besides, I have a feeling that I’d just ruin another set when we hit the queen, anyway.”

“Because you don’t know how to dodge,” she muttered. Towards the tail-end of the fight against the drachnid horde, Abby had seen what passed for Zeke’s fighting style. The best that could be said for it was that it was effective, though that effectiveness was more due to the synergy between his ridiculous stats and his primary skill, [Leech Strike]. He would parry the odd blow, and he attempted to dodge, but more often than not, he simply took the hits and trusted in his boosted regeneration. The strategy allowed him to deliver some truly devastating blows, but at the cost of taking plenty of damage. It was no wonder he’d struggled with the elite; having his regeneration cut down was one of the only effective strategies against that monstrous man.

“I know how to dodge!” Zeke insisted, sounding slightly offended at her assertion. Then, he looked down at his ragged armor and conceded, “I just…I’m just not that good at it, I guess.”

“Understatement,” Abby muttered. “We could take a couple of days to regroup. I see you got a level.”

Zeke nodded, saying, “Already allocated the points, too. But I’m as close to a hundred-percent as I’m going to get. Might as well get this thing finished.”

Abby didn’t respond. Instead, she looked over the lip of the pit. Down there was the queen, and unless Abby missed her guess, it was at least an elite, like the champion Zeke had fought. The thing had very nearly killed him, and if he hadn’t cheated the fight by dragging a pillar of rock onto the monster, it would’ve ended Zeke’s story, right then and there. The young man had all the advantages, with stats that Abby suspected could rival some of the guild’s max-level adventurers. And still, he’d very nearly died. So, what business did she have pitting herself against a monster like the queen, who was at least equal to the champion in terms of power?

She hated that question almost as much as she hated that it pointed out her very real deficiency in power. Abby had never considered herself exceptional. Above average for her level, certainly. Maybe even good. But she was still only level fifteen, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she could even scratch a boss-tier monster, much less contribute to killing one. She had no illusions about how it would have ended if she’d have been the one to fight the elite-tier champion. Abby knew she would have been ripped into tiny bits in a matter of seconds.

But Abby wanted more.

She hated her own weakness, and if she wanted to do anything about it, she knew she couldn’t shy away from deadly challenges. If nothing else, Zeke had taught her that much. Abby had spent far too long skating through her new life. Despite her assertions that she wanted to progress, she had played it safe, only taking on challenges she knew she could overcome. That wasn’t enough. Danger begot progress – of that, she was certain. And what was more dangerous than a level fifteen attacking an elite- or even boss-tier monster?

“Fine,” she said. “You have a rope in that spatial storage of yours? Or do we need to free climb?”

“I was kind of hoping you’d have one in your pack,” Zeke admitted.

“Nope,” she said.

Zeke huffed in annoyance, then stowed his mace away. It simply disappeared from his hand, deposited into the cellar of that summoned cottage of his. A second later, Pudge climbed onto Zeke’s back, his sharp claws digging into Zeke’s flesh. He winced, but he otherwise didn’t acknowledge the wounds.

Masochist, Abby thought, shaking her head.

“You good, buddy?” Zeke said, looking back at his soulbound companion. That was yet another oddity about Zeke; Abby had heard about skills that let people tame animals and other monsters. However, Zeke didn’t have any skills. He’d simply created one on the fly. Pudge let out a grunt of acknowledgement. “Alright then. Here we go.”

Then, Zeke started climbing down. The pit’s walls were rough, so there were plenty of handholds, so the going was reasonably quick. Meanwhile, Abby retrieved a rope from her pack, secured it to a nearby boulder, then tossed the other end over the edge. The climb down went quickly, and before long, she’d made it to the bottom, barely beating a clearly annoyed Zeke.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“You did have a rope,” Zeke growled as Pudge dislodged himself from his back. “Do you have any idea how annoying of a climb that was? And it was closer to two-hundred feet.”

Abby grinned, shrugging as she patted him on the shoulder. She said, “Don’t be like that. Climbing builds character.”

For a moment, Zeke seemed fit to burst. Then, it all faded away and he laughed, shaking his head. “Touche,” he said. “Let’s go kill a spider queen.”

“Drachnid, but yeah,” Abby corrected, pulling her bow off her shoulder. With a thought, she summoned an arrow. Beside her, Zeke pulled his bone club from his spatial storage, and Pudge…well, Pudge just stood there looking as cute and cuddly as a murderous bear cub still covered in gore could look. Abby gestured down the tunnel that branched off from the pit’s floor, saying, “After you.”

Zeke took the lead, grumbling, “Why does it always have to be caves?”

The trio stalked forward as silently as they could, and Abby found herself impressed with Zeke’s stealth ability. He didn’t have a skill for it, but he was light on his feet and made little noise. He was almost as undetectable as Abby, who was entirely silent. Even Pudge, who waddled along behind them, was incredibly quiet.

The tunnel itself was rough-hewn and rugged, but it was clearly unnatural. It had been dug, probably by the woefully inept drachnid tunnelers that she’d dubbed experience pinatas. At least they had some use, she mused. Gradually, the slight decline led down into the earth, the air growing more and more stale with every step. It was still breathable, but it tasted wrong. Inert, almost. And there was a hint of something rotten clinging to everything.

“This is probably a huge mistake,” she muttered, eliciting yet another grunt from Zeke. He really wasn’t the talkative type. Probably for the best, she thought – she wasn’t exactly the best conversationalist, even when she wasn’t stalking through an underground tunnel that likely housed a monster that could and would probably kill her. “Fun times.”

Not for the first time, she wondered what the old Abby would’ve said about her new life. She probably would’ve been horrified. But then again, Abby hadn’t been the adventurous type, back then. In fact, she’d been so danger averse that she’d married a horrible, abusive alcoholic just because he provided financial stability. And eventually, that decision had killed her when, drunken and arguing with her, her husband had lost control and wrapped their car around a telephone pole. Abby had died instantly. She could only hope that her asshole husband had followed suit. Maybe, one day, she could find him in the new world and put an arrow through his eye. That might make things better. Maybe. A little.

While she missed her friends and family, particularly her sister, she still considered her death to be the best thing that had ever happened to her. On earth, she’d been a middle-school guidance counselor who was rapidly approaching middle-age, but here? She had the body of her twenty-year-old self, which would’ve been enough of an endorsement of her new life, all by itself. But she was also free from her husband, who represented the worst mistake she’d ever made. To top it all off, she was practically a superhero. And she could get stronger. She could control her own fate. All it took was a willingness to face down death, time and time again, and come out on top. She would make that deal every single time.

So, she continued to stalk forward on silent feet, following Zeke toward the monster that might just put an end to it all. She didn’t waver, though. She accepted the fear, internalizing it to the point where it became fuel for her determination. Through it all, Zeke remained silent, ever the stoic warrior. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that he was so young.

Finally, after almost two hours, the tunnel leveled out, and only ten minutes later, it opened up into a vast cavern. Abby’s jaw dropped in awe as she beheld the chamber. The ceiling was largely hidden by dark shadows, the only evidence that it existed being the barest twinkling of crystalline stalactites. The cavern floor was similarly awe inspiring, as it bore a thick carpet of luminous moss, its red glow the only light in the entire cave. Veins of crystals snaked through the walls, reflecting that relatively weak light and bathing the cavern in its illumination.

It would have been one of the most beautiful things Abby had ever seen, if it weren’t for the elephant-sized monster in the center of the cavern. Or the hundreds of gooey, green eggs dotting its floor. Waist high and much taller than they were wide, their shells were obviously malleable, because Abby could see them distorting under the pressure of whatever they contained. More drachnids, surely. But they weren’t what drew her focus. Instead, her eyes locked onto the monster that dominated the room. She didn’t even need to inspect it to know it was the queen; even so, reflexes were difficult to stop, and with a slight flicker of thought, she used her inspection skill, [Keen Eye].

Ara Kamana, the Drachnid Queen – Level 25 (E)

Abby breathed a sigh of relief. Not a boss-tier monster, at least. Then, she gave herself a mental shake. An elite was plenty to kill her. And this one looked stronger than most.

If the champion had veered more towards the humanoid side of the drachnids, then the queen went in the exact opposite direction. For the most part, it looked like a giant, spindly-legged spider. Its thorax was rust red that became black at its sharpest points. Like its eight legs. Or the scorpion-like tail that hovered over it like a snake. Or the tips of its claws. Abby shuddered.

The queen’s torso was vaguely humanoid, though it was probably ten feet from the waist to the top of its head. And it was completely covered in that same rust red chitin. All but its strikingly human face, which resembled that of a beautiful woman – if said woman had shark-like teeth and eyes like black gemstones.

All in all, the drachnid queen was every bit as frightening as Abby could have anticipated, and if it wasn’t for Zeke standing beside her, she might’ve turned tail and run away. After all, the tunnel from which they’d come wasn’t big enough to accommodate the queen. Though she was probably strong enough that that might not matter. If the tunnel wouldn’t allow passage, the queen would probably just smash her way through.

“You dare to disturb this holy place?!” screeched the queen, its voice a strange amalgamation of the clicks that characterized the drachnids’ communication and human speech. It sent a shiver up Abby’s spine, almost like someone was running their fingernails down a chalkboard.

“Yeah,” Zeke said, sounding entirely unperturbed. “Sure.”

Then, without further hesitation, he darted forward faster than she’d ever seen him move. In barely more than a second, he’d covered the forty yards or so between the tunnel’s mouth and the drachnid queen, and when he drew close enough, he leapt high into the air, his mace already swinging for the creature’s face.

An instant later, a crystalline stalagmite battered him from the sky, sending him rocketing back from whence he’d come. He flew through the air so quickly that when he collided with the wall near the tunnel’s mouth, the stone cracked and cascaded around him.

For a moment, Abby felt panic rising within her. Had the thing really just dealt with Zeke so easily? Despite her determination, she knew that without him, she didn’t stand a chance. But thankfully, a second or two later, the rocks shifted, and Zeke pulled himself out of the rubble.

He spat blood, then rolled his shoulders before saying, “Yeah, she seems pretty tough. Might’ve made a mistake here.”

Then, before she could suggest retreat, the big man shot forward once again, and the battle began in earnest.