1.6

Amber was all but rolling on the floor, dying of laughter as Harold tried to rectify his naming mistake.

“Nonononono, MY name is Harold, YOUR name is something else.” Harold all but yelled at the little rock. ‘I wonder if this is what my parents felt like?’

Just then, skittering could be heard through the sole entrance to their cavern. Heart race, blood pumping, and with anxiety bubbling in his chest, Harold summoned another war hammer using [Gem Manifestation]. He had a bad feeling that he might very well need it desperately in the coming fight.

‘Rocky’, as he deemed the small stone, for fear of calling it by its new, system acknowledged name, seemed to want to imitate his actions, as it had done for the majority of its mercifully short lifespan.

“And it's gonna stay that short,” he muttered. “If we can’t fight off whatever it is that’s coming through that tunnel.”

He felt Amber at his back, her eyes practically crackling with the energy she was prepared to unleash. Moving to the entrance, he noticed how much smaller this tunnel was compared to the one leading to the cavern where the pair had woken up. It would be significantly easier to defend, but against more spiderlings, he was less than confident. Still, he held the gap.

The skittering intensified and Harold looked upwards nervously. He felt Amber hug him from behind. A short hug, but he needed it.

“Don’t worry about the ceiling. I’ll watch it. Just make sure they don’t come through here. Okay?”

She looked every bit as terrified as he felt, but he couldn’t let it show. Not now. Giving a terse nod, he turned back to the opening. The tunnel was too long for him to see anything happening at the intersection, where this path had diverged from the main tunnel. The further he peered, the less crystals were around to help him see.

No, there would be no fighting inside the cramped tunnel, no shot at living if they tried. It was hold the entrance: do it, or die.

“Skssgh!” The little rock, now a golem, he supposed, gave a sudden shout of elation. Well, as close to a shout as a rock with no knowledge of language could get. In its hands, was an abysmally small war hammer, the same shape as his own.

He gave a small smile, the same smile he had just given Amber. He couldn’t bring himself to laugh, not with a threat so close-

There! The first spider made its way into view. It was strange, a greenish hue instead of the black fuzz that coated the arachnids they had fought earlier. ‘A genetic variation perhaps?’

[Lvl 5 Earthen Spiderling]

It didn’t matter either way however. He brought his war hammer down in his favored strike, an overhead swing. The blow carried the weight of his full body behind it, all two hundred puls pounds of it.

And yet, the bug didn’t splat against the ground. Instead, it stumbled heavily, several of its legs having been torn off by the impact, but it did not die completely. Unlike the standard spiderlings they had encountered before, this new earthen variation seemed far more durable, but they tanked an extra hit at the cost of their damage potential.

He struck the downed spider again, and inspected its corpse. The fangs on this one were relatively small, nothing like the curved daggers that he had seen on the others, even if they had been lower leveled.

“These monsters can grow,” He muttered. Then louder, to Amber. “These monsters can grow, there’s variation. They get stronger as they level. I think we have to clear out that nest, or we’ll be spider food in no time.”

She looked at him dubiously, opening her mouth, as if to refute the idea that they should go charging into a veritable swarm of these monsters. Then, her eyes glazed slightly. No one else might have noticed it, but he’d stared into her eyes too many times to not know the difference. “Yeah, we should wipe them out before they swarm us.”

Shaking off his confusion, his attention was again drawn back to the tunnel. They were in a side tunnel, so it was no surprise that not many spiders were venturing towards them, not like they would be if they were in the starting chamber. Still, wasn’t it too quiet?

His fears were answered when the assault began anew. This time, he didn’t spot any variants, just five spiderlings rushing him as quickly as their spindly legs could manage. They were of varying levels, between two and four, but that wasn’t enough to make him underestimate them.

The tunnel wasn’t wide enough for two of the spiderlings to attack him at once, so two took to the walls, and in a seemingly timed attack, all three jumped him at once. He dodged the fangs of the left one, while bringing his hammer down diagonally, catching both the spiderling on the right side wall, as well as the one scuttling across on the floor.

The spider that had been on his left had lunged at him, but having missed, it now stood halfway between Amber and Harold. One quick mana bolt and it had fallen. The remaining two spiderlings, having seen what happened to their brethren, turned tail to run.

Harold didn’t know what overcame him, but he lunged at the retreating spiderlings, catching one with a glancing blow, stunning it.

Finishing it off, Harold watched as the last monster ran back into the main tunnel from whence it came.

A feeling of relief washed over the group as the last vestiges of spider left their view. Only then did it occur to Harold that this entire exchange was strange, and for a large number of reasons.

“I thought these, ah, spiderling things were mindless monsters. How’d they coordinate that?” Harold questioned no one in particular, but Amber responded anyway.

“Maybe it’s something like an ant hive mind? Like how they come together to kill beetles and stuff.”

“Mmm, maybe? But spiders aren’t a hive mind right? They’re usually solitary. And speaking of spiders, aren’t you usually terrified of them?” Arachnaphobia had been a long-standing issue for Amber. He distinctly recalled being asked to come home, to kill an especially large spider making its web on the porch. In all fairness though, he was the same way with ants. Really nasty little fuckers, ants.

“I… I don’t know. I-it felt like I should’ve been scared, but I saw the spiders and just- I just wasn’t.” The confusion was clear in her voice, and Harold knew something was up, but to undermine her confidence before a monster wave? Probably a bad idea.

“It’s fine!” He put on the bravest smile he could manage. “At least this means we can fight them, right?”

Amber only nodded.

Pulling up his status page, he received a level up notification.

[Congratulations! Level up! Level 4 Gem Soldier]

And then nothing. “Huh, strange,” prompting a questioning look from Amber. “There’s no new skill for when I leveled to 4.”

Shrugging, she pulled up her own notifications. “I dunno, cause I got one for level 3. It’s called [First Element: Fire]”

They weren’t left to ponder their skill gains for very long however, because several spiders came rushing out of the darkness. Left unprepared and distracted, the fight would have quickly devolved into a messy free for all, had the spiderlings come at them.

Instead, the spiders had had the presence of mind to swarm around them, rather than into them upon entering the cavern. Circling around them, the large count of spiders seemed to be waiting for something. Something… stronger than any of them could handle.

[Level ??? Brood Mother]

Oh. Oh shit.

It had scarcely fit in the tunnel. The tunnel, being far taller than wide, had forced the beast to crawl sideways on the wall to reach them. They watched as it drew inexorably nearer.

Harold glanced around. The spiderlings seemed unwilling to attack them, even as their overwhelming numbers and position would guarantee them victory. Perhaps it was a fear of taking casualties? In any case, Harold was not about to dissuade them of their convictions of staying well and far away from both he and Amber.

“WHO ARE YOU, THAT YOU WOULD KILL THE ARACHNAE?” A voice boomed in his head, louder, and stronger than anything he had ever bore witness to in his life.

“My ah, my name is H-Harold Sturm, your… your Highness.”

“AND WHAT IS IT THAT YOU SEEK HERE, HAROLD STURM?” Yup, definitely the most terrifying voice he had ever heard, up there with his sixth grade gym teacher, and his mom, after he had mixed all the laundry together.

“We, that is uh, me and my girlfriend, Amber Liddle, wish for a way out of these tunnels.”

“YOU ONLY WISH… FOR A WAY OUT? IT IS FOR THAT REASON YOU KILL MY BROOD?” The anger in the voice seemed to build with each syllable,

“N-no, we only thought to defend ourselves. Your b-brood was attacking us.”

“YES. IT WAS FOR THIS REASON I SENT MY EARTHEN SON, HE WAS MEANT TO BRING YOU TO ME. YET STILL YOU SOUGHT TO END HIS LIFE.” This time, the voice held hints of grief. Of a mother who had lost her favored son.

“We’re deeply sorry your majesty-”

“DISPENSE WITH THE TITLES. ANSWER MY QUESTIONS.” The anger had no signs of dissipating.

“Of course, your children had been attacking us, so we assumed your, ah, earthen son was also here to kill us.” Harold could feel the sweat, slick on the back of his neck.

“GIVE ME A REASON- WHAT ARE… WHAT ARE YOU?” Confusion replaced anger in seconds.

“Uh, I’m a human, my name is Harold-”

“NOT YOU. THE SMALL ONE. WHAT ARE YOU?”

The rock took a glance up at the monstrosity that was the queen, seeming as if it had not a fear in the world. And considering it had only met friendly beings so far, at least among the things that wanted to speak to it, that wasn’t much of a surprise.

“Me Rock Hard!” He stated happily, glad someone was once again asking for his timeless knowledge.

“VERY WELL, SIR ROCK HARD. I WILL SPARE YOUR GUARDS FOR YOUR SAKE, SO LONG AS THE THREE OF YOU PERFORM A SERVICE FOR MY BROOD.” The voice was neutral, but the overwhelming mental pressure did not cease. Perhaps the spider mother didn’t even know she was emitting such a field.

“And that would be…?” Harold prompted the queen.

“CAN THE NOBLE NOT SPEAK FOR HIMSELF?” A trace of annoyance found its way into the mental message, and only now did Harold consider how weird it was that emotions could be embedded in these voices at all.

“He was just ‘born’, I think. So no, I actually don’t believe he can.” His voice came out... sassier than he had intended, and he really hoped the terrifying spider queen didn’t pick up on it.

“AH, VERY WELL. I SEE WHY YOU HAVE DEFEND THIS CAVERN SO FERVENTLY. TO PROTECT A NOBILIS OF YOUR SPECIES IS A WORTHY GOAL.” Luckily, she didn't seem to notice, and traces of admiration even took the place of annoyance.

“Actually, he’s not- oof.” This time, he was silenced by an elbow from Amber, who had likely rightly guessed that he was about to refute the Spider Mother’s theory.

“TO THAT END, YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO SERVE ME IN THE PLACE OF THE BROOD YOU HAVE TAKEN, BUT I WILL AMEND MY PREVIOUS PUNISHMENT, YOU WILL SERVE ONLY FOR A SHORT TIME.”

The tone of finality sealed possibility of argument, and the pair of humans only mutely nodded as the spider queen made a chittering noise of satisfaction.

“GATHER YOURSELVES. FOLLOW THE BROOD TO MY CHAMBERS WHEN YOU ARE READY.” With that, the monstrous spider turned sideways once more, and slowly began making its way back through the tunnel.

The brood followed her, with one spiderling, a level 2 runt of the litter staying behind, several feet into the tunnel.

‘Huh, guess we won’t die today.’

All while the little ‘sir Rock Hard’ waddled along, intent on following the brood mother to her nest.