“You’re back! Did you bring something to eat? I’m starving!” Mayiera called to him. Turning around he saw the snowsuit girl sitting by the fire just as he had left her.

“Yeah! I brought a sandwich.” Darith replied enthusiastically, taking it out of his inventory and handing it to her.

“Oh this is perfect!” She said as she started eating it, and the gray circle above her head turned green for a moment.

Name: Mayiera (Neutral) - Level: ??

Quest: Bring something to eat to Mayiera in the Frost Caverns

Objective: 1/1 Food for Mayiera

Reward: 10 Experience

It was only seconds later that a new blue circle appeared above her head.

“Did you need something else?” Darith asked.

“Well, I was thinking, even if you find the entrance to the ruins, these caves are probably too dangerous for me. I think there’s a Frost Spider nest somewhere nearby... Maybe if you destroyed it, it would be easier for me to travel. I know that’s a hard task, so I’ll reward you for it! Please!” Mayiera asked while still eating the sandwich.

Name: Mayiera (Neutral) - Level: ??

Quest: Find and destroy the nearby Frost Spider Nest

Objective: 0/1 Frost Spider Nest Destroyed

Reward: Unknown

“Of course! I need to do some hunting to get stronger anyway.” Darith said, hitting the accept button that was floating in front of him without any hesitation.

“Thank you so much, good luck World Traveler.” She smiled. Darith then turned in the direction he had gone the night before. He walked to the first fork in the path and took the paper and pencil from his inventory, scribbling a circle for Mayiera and her campfire, then trying to keep the path of the cave as close resembling what it actually looked like as he drew up to the fork in the path.

He didn’t get much of the sketch done before his paper and pencil began glowing in his hands, and suddenly disintegrating into balls of light as if he was putting them in his inventory, but he wasn’t. He stepped back and let go of them as he watched the paper form in the upper right corner of his peripheral vision, taking the shape of a light brown square with a compass on it.

Skill Gained: Cartography (?)

A notification said as the tiny bit he had drawn of his map so far appeared on the light brown square, as well as a blue dot for where he was standing and a green dot where he had marked Mayiera.

“Huh, weird...” He said, and tried walking backward. The map stayed centered on him and adjusted for how he moved. He then opened his skills menu to read what it did.

Cartography - Rank 1

Maps the ares and dungeons around you as you traverse them. Details and accuracy of the map improve with higher ranks. Toggle map display in the Display Menu or minimize the map by touching it with your Index Finger.

“Wow, and here I was planning on drawing all these caves myself. With this, it’s only a matter of time before I find those ruins. But first, hunting and leveling.” He said, and he moved onward down the same path he had yesterday, arriving in the open cave area with 4 paths. Just like the previous day he spotted a Frost Spiderling skittering along the far wall.

“Alright, I’ve been waiting all day to do this. Firebolt!” He shouted, and the red circle formed, seconds later shooting the ball of fire forward at the Spiderling. He directed it with his hand and killed the Spiderling in one hit.

Then, taking a step forward into the open cave he remembered in the very last second about the Spiderling that dropped behind him. He jumped forward while simultaneously spinning around to see the Spider’s fangs barely missing him. He then swung his staff at the Spiderling to hit it away, then charged at it to hit it a second time for the killing blow.

“Two down!” He said, looking at his experience bar in the menu to see he was 31/50 to level 3. “I’ll have to travel all these paths to fully map out this place...” Darith said, heading to the upper path where he heard all the skittering yesterday.

Down the path he spotted one spider, killed it, then saw the pack of three again. Rather than multicast again to waste his mana he decided to hit one and kill it quickly, then used his staff to kill the other 2 with 2 hits each while carefully avoiding their bites.

Skill Gained: Evade (?)

Attribute Up!: +1 Agi

Without any hesitation Darith opened up the Evade menu.

Evade - No Ranks

Allows for quick dodging of enemy physical attacks and gives a chance to completely avoid damage from a hit after it has connected. Higher agility increases your chance to evade.

Chance: 1.2%

“Nice, though that chance isn’t something I can really rely on. I’ll have to get my agility up if I want to use that more. He glanced up at his current bars to see 52.5/80 mana and 31.1/55 energy. “Good to keep going.” He said, moving further into the cave, further than he had been yesterday. He made sure to grab all the silk dropping along the way, and as he got deeper in he could hear the skittering get louder. He then started to walk into thick spider webbing that was strung across the cavern, but it snapped easily as he touched it as if it were made of ice. It was only a few strands at first, but the tunnel began to narrow and more webs strung across it, as fewer and fewer torches lit the path in front of him. Then, from further in the tunnel he saw the long legs of a much larger spider.

It’s health bar showed it as a level 2 monster, named Frost Spider. It had 26 health and was moving towards him slowly, it didn’t seem to notice him yet.

“Firebolt.” Darith said, standing his ground as it wandered closer. When the bolt hit, the Spider charged forward at him angrily while hissing. He knew he wouldn’t be able to cast another, so prepared to strike with his staff. He swung it at the spider from above when it got close, but the spider managed to stick one of its legs out and scratch Darith’s leg at the same time. The spider died, and Darith took 20 damage.

“Wow, my defense is really bad! If I get hit 5 times I’m dead?” Darith said as he looked at his bars, then spotted more silk falling out of the spiders body before it vanished. He picked it up and dusted himself off as the pain in his leg quickly subsided. He then checked to see that the big spider had given him 5 XP, leaving him at 44/50 now.

Determined to at least hit level 3 before going back to Mayiera, he treaded forward carefully into the darkening tunnel, pushing his way through the Frozen webs, until finally the narrowing tunnel opened up into a large cavern, very dark and lit by only a few torches on the far wall, making it impossible to see anything in the center. But from the skittering sounds he felt as if the room was alive.

Firebolt.” He whispered, deciding to try and light up the room, and when his bolt shot across the cavern it revealed glistening light blue spider eggs all across the ground with more big spiders and Spiderlings crawling the walls than he could count. His Firebolt managed to catch the attention of several, but luckily not all, and he quickly retreated back into the narrow tunnel. Behind him charged a large spider, and with no time to cast a Firebolt he was forced to turn and hit it with his staff.

He hit it once and carefully dodged its striking leg, remembering how it hit him the last time. It flinched giving him time to back away, then repeat the process and hit it again bringing it to 5/25 Health.

The third strike landed and killed it, but he was now at 7.2 Energy, he wouldn’t be able to use his staff to kill the next Spider charging at him. Instead he decided to take a gamble. “Firebolt!” He started casting immediately after the front spider died. It’s body delayed the next spider from getting past it, but not for a full 5 seconds. The spider lunged at Darith and hit him in his leg with its sharp icy legs, dealing 20 damage before Darith’s firebolt finished and hit it head on. He then followed up with a staff strike to kill it. He got several notifications at this time, but had no time to check them as another Spider was coming still, with several Spiderlings behind it.

With 60 hitpoints left and only 2.2 Energy, Darith had no choice but to run. He knew he couldn’t sprint or he’d get exhausted and be a sitting duck for them, so he turned and walked away as quickly as possible, hoping the last spider corpse would slow them down enough.

He felt weird, running for his life without being allowed to run as he heard their legs clattering on the icy stone walls behind him. Normally he’d feel fear or panic, but his Gamer’s mind passive was keeping him clear headed.

Looking back, he could tell he wasn’t going to outrun them much longer, he wouldn’t make it to Mayiera unless he used through the pain to sprint, but he didn’t want to spend the rest of the night exhausted. He got to the open cave, hoping they would stop chasing or something, but they did not, and as he jumped from the tunnel into the opening with four paths, they jumped out after him, one Spider and 2 Spiderlings, all lunging forward with their fangs. He prepared himself to take the hits, knowing it’d bring him to only 10 HP, knowing he’d have to sprint into his exhaustion, that he’d fall even further behind Ryan.

In that moment of frustration he felt something fly past his cheek, he couldn’t make out what it was, but standing in front of him was a girl. She was tall with pointy ears holding a bow pointed at him. Turning, Darith saw the spiders flinching backward with arrows in their head.

“Careful, I don’t do much damage with this multishot skill.” The Elf said, then pulled back another arrow and shot at them a second time while Darith moved out of the way. This time both the spiderlings died but the big one remained. “One more....” She said, pulling back a third arrow and firing at the Spider, finally killing it. “Got it!” She smiled.

“Thanks for the save.” Darith said, smiling at her.

“No problem. Nemothyne... Highest skill is Firebolt, 17.85 int... Neat, so you’re a magic type player?” She asked.

“Yeah...” Darith said, looking at the name above the Elf’s head it read Aaron, level 4. “How’d you know all that? I can only see your name and your level.” Darith asked.

“Oh, it’s this analyze skill I got from analyzing stuff at work the other day, pretty neat huh? I can see your basic stats and your highest ranked skill. It says with higher ranks I can see more information.” She replied.

“That sounds really useful!” Darith said, looking at his notifications now.

Level Up!: You've reached level 3

+25 Health, +20 Mana, +10 Energy

+1 Unspent Attribute Point

Rank Up!: Firebolt reached Rank 3!

Rank Up!: Staff Mastery reached Rank 2!

“Hm, so that’s why Ryan had so much HP, you start getting more when you level.” Darith said to himself.

“Oh, that’s good to know, I was worried about being really easy to kill. One of those spiders hit me and my health was already almost 0.” Aaron replied, watching him press buttons in his menu. Darith saw his Firebolt base damage went up by 1 with .1 less cast time and mana cost. His staff attack and the passive mana regeneration went up by 1 from staff mastery as well.

“You’re looking for the Spider nest, doing the quest?” Aaron asked.

“Yeah, how about you?” Darith asked as he started walking back towards where Mayiera was.

“Well, I’ve got the quest but... Have you seen a male elf around? I’m trying to find my Wife.”

“Your wife? No... I didn’t see any male elves.” Darith replied with a scrunched brow.

“It’s weird, I know, but I’m not creepy or anything playing a female character. If I’d known I’d get this body I would’ve went male. My wife always picks guy characters though so I try to balance it out.”

“Hehe, a girl playing guy characters?” Darith replied, Aaron following him now back through the tunnel.

“Yeah I know right? She never likes the way the girls look in any game we play. This game’s a bit different though... I really need to find her.”

“Well, do you know which way she went?” Darith asked.

“The way we just came from, one of those four paths, that’s the last place I saw her.”Aaron said.

“Well, how long ago was that?” He asked.

“A couple days ago...” He said reluctantly.

“Wha- so long? How long have you been in this cave? Did you try checking outside the dungeon back at your house?” Darith suggested.

“Well yeah, of course. She hasn’t come back yet, so she’s got to be in here somewhere. To be honest I’m pretty freaked out, these tunnels are endless, and she- well she wasn’t in the best mental state when we got split up. I’m worried she got killed by one of these monsters, do you know what happens if you die in this game?” Aaron asked Darith anxiously.

“Well, I think you lose your memory of the game and your phone, the guy who invited me to the game had that happen to him. He was fine otherwise...” Darith said, watching Aaron’s worried expression. He felt weird knowing he was talking to a guy that looked like a pretty female elf.

“Well, you’re doing that spider nest quest, right? Is it alright if I tag along? I haven’t been able to check that tunnel out yet, I kept getting swarmed like you did.

“Sure, it should be easier if we team up, but I need to heal at Mayiera first.” Darith said.

“Gotcha, good idea.” He followed. When they got to her, she tapped them both on their foreheads and restored all of their stats fully.

“Nice, let's go then.” Darith said, and Aaron nodded at him. His Elf body had abnormally long red hair that seemed to glow in the caves, and was wearing green armor that resembled Darith’s Nemothyne starting armor. “So what’s it like with a bow, what sort of stuff does this game let you do?”

“Well, I’ve got only a few skills so far like analyze, multishot, and magic shot. The normal arrows use my energy and the magic shot that came with the bow uses my mana, it does more damage but as you can see, I don’t have much mana. The multishot thing lets me hit a lot of targets but the damage isn’t so good, uses my energy fast too.”

“That sounds like my multicast, I can fire more than one bolt but they cost a lot of mana.” Darith replied.

“That sounds cool, I haven’t seen any real spells yet.”

“I’ll show you when we get to the nest! The downside is that I can’t move while I’m casting, would probably be a lot easier if I just had a sword or something.” Darith shrugged.

“Hah, I know what you mean, but the only stat this game said I had high was agility so I went with the bow.”

“Still probably better than intelligence.” Darith shrugged.

“So you’re someone really smart? I mean outside the game?” Aaron asked.

“Not really, I’m just in high school.” Darith shrugged.

“Oh, hah! You’re a lot younger then me but here I’m asking you for help. This game’s quite the equalizer. I’m an electrician, usually get sent to places no one else wants to go like towers, ect. I guess that's why the game gave me the agility.” Aaron replied.

“Do you normally play a lot of video games?” Darith asked as they got back to the 4-door opening, heading up to the tunnel leading to the spider nest.

“A bit with my wife, she’s the big gamer though. We got invited by one of her friends but haven’t seen him, or any other players really, since we started in this cave. This takes escaping reality to a whole other level though.”

“No kidding.” Darith smiled.

“How bout you, see any other players yet?” Aaron asked.

“No, well... Kind of. My friends got into this as well but they’re in a party together off somewhere else, in another dungeon I think. I kind of got left behind.

“Well that sucks.” Aaron sighed.

“They’re just excited I think.” Darith shrugged to himself. “Alright, so we should make a plan for this. How much do your multishots hit for, and how many can you shoot?”

“They’re hitting for about 9 damage each when I split them, don’t think the number it can hit is limited, but my energy will hit zero if I fire more than 10 and I’ll get that nasty exhausted status. I’ve been using the energy for the multishot and then switching to magic shot for hitting one enemy.” Aaron replied.

“Okay, if we combine our multicast and multishot we can kill spiderlings in one hit, but I need 5 seconds to cast it, well 4.8 but I can shoot out about 6 before I have to stop using mana.” Darith said. “So let’s aim for taking out all the tiny ones first, then focus our big hits on whatever is left over.

“Got it.” Aaron nodded. The two approached the spider nest and could hear the loud skittering all around them. They both stepped into the nest from the narrow tunnel into the dark room, the ground feeling sticky from the webs on it now.

“I’ll shoot a firebolt so we can see, then aim at all the spiderlings, okay?” Darith whispered, and Aaron nodded. “Firebolt.” He said quietly, and Aaron watched in amazement as the red circle formed, then shot forth into the cavern to light it up. He didn’t have time to say anything though, once the cavern was lit he quickly pulled back an arrow and moved his eyes to the 6 spiderlings visible crawling around the walls.

“Firebolt, firebolt firebolt firebolt firebolt firebolt .” Darith said as quickly as he could, thinking how inefficient of a way that was to multicast. All 6 bolts began filling their red circles and he just then realized he’d have to aim them all within miliseconds of each other. He took a fighting stance with his left leg bent and back with his hands up, Aaron watching for the bolts to fire before shooting his arrows himself.

He didn’t want to disappoint Aaron, he wanted to show him how cool of a character he was in this game, so he focused everything he had in those 5 seconds to plan his hand motions, all the while the spiders seemed to notice them and let out a loud hiss, some skittering over the walls towards them while others began grappling down from the ceiling on their webs.

The 5 seconds were up. He used both his hands this time, hoping the game would acknowledge it as part of his spell mastery, One up, one left, one right, one straight, another left, another right. He alternated moving each hand to send the fireballs out correctly, it worked and a notification popped up, but he couldn’t look at it just yet.

“Multishot!” Aaron shouted, and the fireballs fanned out with arrows. All shots connected perfectly, all 6 spiderlings fell dead to the two of them, granting both of them 14 experience.

“Perfect, now back into the tunnel for the big spiders!” Darith said, and Aaron nodded as the two retreated backward into the narrow tunnel. “I’ll hit with my staff, you use the magic shot.”

“Got it.” Aaron said, pulling back the bow string without an arrow in it as the first Spider ran in. Darith hit it once while dodging its leg strike, causing it to flinch. “Magic Arrow!” Aaron said, making a blue translucent arrow appear in his bow which he fired into the Spider. It flinched but didn’t die, so Darith hit it a second time to finish it off.

“Good, next one!” He said, a second Spider funneling into the tunnel. This time Aaron lead with an attack.

“Magic Arrow!” He called out, hitting it and flinching it before it got close to Darith. During the flinch Darith jabbed his staff forward, then stepped back as Aaron shot another magic arrow.

“Still 2 more.” Darith said.

“Right! Magic Arrow!” Aaron shouted, and with their alternating combination the two of them took out the remaining Spiders. Both gaining 20 experience. They both stood in their fighting stances for a bit longer until they were sure there wasn’t anymore skittering.

“Whew, that was awesome!” Darith shouted with excitement, turning to give Aaron a high five.

“What a rush, this game is really intense!” Aaron replied.

“Let’s head in and finish the quest. It said we have to destroy the nest.” Darith said.

“Yeah and my wife might be further in that cavern.” Aaron replied, the two walking back into the webbed, egg covered cavern as Darith eyed his stats.

“I’ve got 8.5 mana left and 31.1 Energy, so I’m good for 6 staff hits and in a minute a Firebolt.” Darith reported.

“I’ve got about 3 Magic Arrows and a normal arrow in me for now, so we’ll have to be careful.” Aaron replied.

“I’ll try using kick then, only uses 1 Energy.” Darith said, and kicked at one of the spider eggs on the ground. He was expecting goo of some sort, but the egg shattered like ice and had something glowing blue inside. “Whoa, what’s this?” He said, Aaron walking over as he picked it up.

Name: Magic Potion

Type: Consumable

Quality: Low

Effect: Restores 30mp

Description: A weak potion made by beginner Alchemists

A pop up said as Darith picked it up. The potion then turned into light particles and floated to his waist, Aaron and Darith both looking in amazement. The potion then re-appeared in a strap on his Beginner Nemothyne Pants.

“Whoa." Darith said while counting the straps on his belt. "Looks like it can hold 2 potions from my inventory here."

“It says you can equip some consumables to your belt basically, so you can use them without having to open your inventory.” Darith said to Aaron.

“That sounds useful. You said you used a kick to break the egg right?” Aaron asked as he walked over to another egg across the cavern.

“Yup.” Darith replied, and Aaron then kicked an egg open.

“Oh cool, I just learned kick as well. Hah, who’d have thought kicking something would be a skill.” Aaron shrugged. “There’s a red potion in this egg, looks like its for health.”

“Alright, you take that side of the cavern and I’ll take this, let me know if you find anything else.”

“Got it! I’ll need a break to regenerate some Energy though.” Aaron said.

“No problem I’ll stick to my side.” Darith said as he kicked another egg open and found another blue potion. “I’ve got two now, both slots filled... I’m going to try drinking one.” Darith said as he pulled the blue tiny glowing glass bottle off his belt. Aaron turned to watch as Darith popped the top off and poured the bottle into his mouth.

“Hmm... Mmm, wow, it tastes pretty good! Like blueberry juice or something.” Darith said as he looked to his mana bar and saw it jump up by 30 instantly, now sitting at 38.5.”

“Haha, nice.” Aaron smiled, then turned to kick another egg and found a yellow potion. “Looks like this one is for Energy. It only restores 15 though. I wonder what it tastes like?” Aaron said as he popped it open and drank it.

“Ugh, banana.” Aaron said while squinting his face.

“You don’t like Banana? I thought everyone liked Banana.” Darith said with a chuckle.

“Not everyone.” Aaron said as his Energy bar shot up, letting him kick more eggs without worry. The two took a while cleaning out the eggs, and ended up with a variety of potions, totaling about 15 each.

“Not a bad reward for clearing out all those spiders.” Darith said as they met in the middle.

“I’d say, but the cavern goes a bit deeper there through that tunnel.” Aaron pointed. They both looked towards the tunnel, and through it was only darkness, no torches beyond the cavern. “Hopefully Belle is there... Maybe she got stuck in there from all these spiders.” Aaron said, trying to stay positive.

“Well, if my knowledge of video games serves me right, there’s probably a really big spider in there. How’s your Energy?” Darith asked.

“Good, refilled it on the potions.” Aaron said, then eyed Darith to see his mana and Energy was also full. “So we going in with a plan?”

“Let me check the notifications from that last fight first, I skipped over them.” Darith said.

“Good idea, I got some skill ups as well.” Aaron said, and the two started poking their fingers at the air pressing their game’s interface buttons.

Rank Up!: Multicast reached Rank 2!

Rank Up!: Staff Mastery reached Rank 3!

Rank Up!: Spell Mastery reached Rank 3!

Rank Up!: Firebolt reached rank 4!

Attribute Up!: +1 Int

“Nice, four skill ups and an extra point in intellect. I’m getting a bit more mana efficient now.” Darith said.

“Same, well, Endurance for me. Seems like the hardest part of this game right now is managing our resources. We sure get worn out fast.” Aaron said.

“Whatever is in there, both of us are ranged fighters, so let’s try and keep enemies from getting close to us. I’m a bit more vulnerable because I can’t move while casting...”

“Right, I’ll try and get its attention so you can use those firebolts.” Aaron replied.

“Okay, let’s see what’s in that ominously dark tunnel.” Darith said sarcastically, stepping over some sticky ice webs into the tiny narrow tunnel. It stayed narrow to the point where even Darith had to duck down, Aaron behind him was crawling on his knees, until finally the tunnel opened up into a large round dimly lit room. Stepping forward out of the tunnel, Darith felt the ground was weird, different from the rest of the cave. It wasn’t until Aaron stepped out onto it as well that Darith looked down to see it wasn’t floor, it was a giant ice web suspended in mid air with a bottomless black pit beneath them.

“Uh oh, don’t look down.” Darith said.

“Is this a giant spiderweb?” Aaron said in disbelief, looking around the room. “I hope this thing isn’t going to break...”

“I’m more worried about the spider that made it.” Darith commented, looking around the room. He’d played enough games to have a good idea where it’d be coming from, and after a moment of hesitation he reluctantly looked up to the ceiling. Aaron followed Darith’s eyes until both of them were staring up at a giant blue 8 legged beast staring down at them with 16 wiggling icy eyes.

Name: Ice Spider Queen (Boss) (Hostile) - Level: 7

Health: 500/500

“Analyze!” Aaron shouted as the Spider Queen began hovering down to them on a large thick web. “She’s got two abilities. Frost Fang and Webshot. Frostfang has a 2 second cast, she’ll lunge back before she uses it. Web shot she has to face her back to you, but it's only a 1 second cast.” Aaron said quickly and anxiously.

“Got it, so we stay on different sides of her, who ever she is chasing focuses on dodging her Frost Fangs, the other does as much damage as possible without getting hit by Web shot.” Darith said. Aaron nodded then ran to the right around the outside of the room while Darith ran left.

“Magic Arrow!” Aaron shouted from across the room, starting the fight by hitting the spider in the side and dealing 10 damage. The Queen quickly turned to face him and began winding up her Frost Fang attack, so Aaron quickly ran from her front.

“Firebolt!” Darith said as he made sure to be not behind the boss. The Spider queen finished her Frost Fang attack and lunged forward, hitting the side of the room and causing it to shake the ground beneath Darith, but it didn’t interrupt the cast. The firebolt fired off and hit the boss for 22 Damage, bringing her down to 468 health.

“Uh, Darith we got a problem! My analyze left out the fact that her frost fang destroys the webbed floor we’re standing on.”

“It’s a timed fight then, we’ve got to kill her fast!” Darith called back as the Queen turned to face him, charging her Frost Fang at him now.

“Right!” Aaron replied and began firing arrows at her rear using his Energy. He got off 4 shots dealing 15 damage each before she slammed her fangs into the wall again, and this time it was on Darith’s side of the room so he could see the damage she was doing. The spider queen drove her fangs into the floor and ripped a gigantic hole in the web. Quickly glancing around the room Darith guessed that they had about 10 Frost fangs before the ground would give out.

At 408 hitpoints she took aim at Aaron and he was forced to run. Darith reacted by immediately casting.

“Firebolt!” He called out. The third Frostfang hit and shook the ground worse this time, the web getting increasingly more unstable with every strike from the Queen. Moment’s later his cast finished dealing another 22 damage.

“386.” Darith said as the queen turned to him. “Not gonna make it in time...” He began running to avoid the frost fang, but this time ran in close with his staff out and began swinging his staff wildly at her legs. 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 damage as he used up 25 of his Energy, at the same time Aaron shot 4 more arrows off dealing 15 each, but each shot eating 5 of his energy as well.

“266, almost half dead!” Aaron shouted excitedly as the spider turned to cast her 5th Frost Fang on him.

“Firebolt!” Darith chanted. And seconds after the 5th frost fang shook the ground he landed the Firebolt, knocking her to 244 hit points, but her icy blue body suddenly turned bright red and an angry icon appeared next to her health bar as she turned to Darith and started casting Frost Fang a 6th time. He dashed out of the way, but it was just in time, as the Frost Fang fired off almost instantly, and she began casting it again, lunging her legs back in preparation to thrust her fangs forward, giving Darith no time to hit her with his staff.

“Uh oh, she’s got a status effect on her saying her attack speed is increased by 100%!” Aaron shouted.

“Kill her fast, hit her with all you’ve got!” Darith shouted as the ground began to feel more like a trampoline as it held up by fewer and fewer strands of the icy web.

“Uhhh, Multishot!” Aaron shouted, firing all remaining arrows that his energy would allow at once, but dealing half damage. The result left him with 3 Energy while dealing 91 damage to the spider queen, leaving her with 153 health left. She then quickly turned to cast her 8th Fang on Aaron.

“Alright, my turn.” Darith said as he grabbed a mana potion and chugged it fast, putting his mana back to full. “Firebolt, Firebolt, Firebolt, Firebolt, Firebolt, Firebolt!” Darith shouted, forming the 6 circles in front as the 8th fang shook the web viciously, almost causing Darith to lose his Balance as Aaron ran for his life. The 9th hit as well a second later, just barely missing Aaron, and the final strands holding the web up began to snap like rubber bands. Darith’s Gamer Mind kept him calm, but Aaron’s lack of it was obvious as he let out a girlish scream while the 10th Fang was on its way. Just before it landed on the web Darith released his 6 Firebolts, hitting the Spider Queen for 55 Damage, leaving her at 98 health left.

The last of the web snapped, the weight of the Spider Queen in the center pulling it down from under Darith and Aaron’s feet. They both jumped to the wall of the room, grasping at the icy stone of the Frost Cavern. The ice was chilling to the touch for Darith but he held on has best as his tiny Nemothyne hands would allow, while the Spider Queen fell only slightly before shooting a web from her rear at the wall, causing her to swing to it and dig her 8 giant spider legs in, shaking the cavern wall slightly as she did.

Below them now, she looked to Darith who was last to attack her and let out a ferocious hiss as she charged across the wall towards him with incredible speed.

“I can’t shoot anything without both hands free!” Aaron shouted from across the cavern. Darith heard this and knew he wouldn’t be getting any help. As the wiggling glowing eyes of the Spider Queen came at him, he used his calm mind to think fast. 0 Mana, 45 Energy, 1 Mana pot left on quick bar, 98 health left on the boss.

The Spider Queen reached Darith and pulled her mouth back to cast Frost Fang. 1 second cast, a second Darith used to propel himself off the wall with his feet towards the spider, jumping on the top side of the spiders head as she lunged forward with her fang into the wall of the cavern, shaking it violently. From the Spider’s side he grabbed his mana potion with his left hand and popped the top off with his thumb, throwing the blue liquid into his mouth as his feet slipped along the back of the icy spider. He released the bottle and desperately threw his hand towards one of her lower legs as he fell below the spider Queen’s icy body. Grabbing it just barely he felt tiny ice spines on her leg dig into his hand, but he held tight, watching his health bar drop by 10. He then swung his staff from his right hand upward at her, hitting her in another one of her legs as she began charging upward towards the ceiling trying to shake him off.

His health dropped by another 10 points as he continued holding onto the icy leg, arriving at the ceiling he was now dangling against gravity. His health at 105, her’s at 86 now, she began stampeding violently along the roof of the cavern trying to shake him off. Darith got another swing of his staff in before taking another 10 damage and losing his grip. 95, 74. He started to free fall down the center of the bottomless cave, but a thread of hope dangled beside him, the strand of silk that the boss had used to initially descend onto them remained hanging in the center, and he desperately grabbed at it with his left hand, his fingertips just barely catching hold of it as his body weight jerked towards the web, forcing it to swing slightly.

“Firebolt!” Darith shouted. A red circle appeared in front of him as he held onto the web. Though the web was not still, Darith was, and it let him cast without interruption while the Spider glared down at him, then began scurrying down from the ceiling back to the wall,

“She’s going to lunge at you across the cavern, you’ve gotta move out of her path!” Aaron shouted as the spider aligned herself on the wall at eye level with Darith. She got into lunging position with her fangs sticking out, and Darith knew he needed to swing out of the way or he’d be dead for sure. He quickly turned his Firebolt on himself as it finished casting, the explosion propelling him out of the center of the cavern just as the Spider Queen leaped from one side of the cavern to the other, her fangs just barely missing Darith as he flew towards the far cave wall, releasing the strand of web and grabbing the wall again.

“Firebolt!” He shouted immediately after he had grabbed the wall, the cast starting as the Spider Queen regained her grip on the wall she had jumped to by stomping her Icy legs into it, tiny rocks and debris falling into the endless darkness below them. He was at 73 hit points now, the Queen still at 74. As she started stampeding towards him he counted down his Firebolt cast, watching the circle complete as she got close enough and began her Frost Fang lunge. The instant the cast finished and the bolt flew at her face, he released his grip on the cave wall and her Frost Fang just barely missed him, smashing the rocky wall where his hand was just gripping as his Firebolt splashed over her eyes dealing another 22 damage.

“52 left to go!” Aaron shouted, desperately looking around for any footing that would allow him to use both hands, spotting the tiny tunnel they had used to enter initially. He put his bow string in his mouth to carry his bow and freed up both hands as he began climbing towards the tunnel opening as fast as he could.

Darith grabbed the cavern wall once more, but he was only centimeters from the Spider Queen, she had her legs dug into the cavern wall above him and turned her fangs downward, preparing another Frost Fang lunge. With little room for error, Darith propelled himself to the left with his legs and swung his staff wildly with his free hand. His staff connected with the Spider Queen mid lunge as her fangs just barely missed his leg, but her spiny legs brushed him dealing another 10 damage, knocking him down to 63 health and the queen down to 40.

The queen turned too fast though, before Darith could even grab the wall again she was already casting her Frost Fang. He was planning to release his grip and fall again, but he didn’t think it would be enough. He was going to get hit, and could only hope it would do less than 63 damage.

“Magic Arrow!” Aaron shouted, just barely making it in time to the ledge of the tunnel they used to enter. His blue arrow fired and hit the Queen in her eyes mid-lunge, and by some miracle for the first time that entire encounter, the queen Flinched, interrupting her lunge. She then turned to Aaron and lost interest in Darith, stomping along the wall of the cavern quickly.

“Firebolt!” Darith shouted.

“Magic Arrow!” Aaron shouted. The arrow casting first and hitting the Queen in the head once more, bringing her to 20 health. She got closer and closer to Aaron as he looked to his now empty mana bar. Darith watched anxiously as the red circle finished forming. The Queen began her lunge at Aaron and he flinched his eyes shut, but in the nick of time Darith’s fireball released, hitting the Ice Spider Queen directly in her back. She stopped her lunge at him and let out a horrific screech of pain, falling off the wall and down several meters to reveal the floor of the cave. Not an endless pit of death, but a dark floor with no light. The Queen began to scurry on the floor in pain, smashing countless spider eggs that had been laid there and sending shards of ice and stone in all directions as Aaron and Darith watched from above. Her rampage started to slow, and eventually came to a stop, and she rolled onto her back. Her legs curled up and the cavern suddenly filled with light as torches on the walls appeared all around them, then an icy ramp appeared from tiny balls of light that lead from the tunnel entrance to the floor of the cavern.

“Hell yeah!” Aaron shouted excitedly. “That was awesome, where’d you learn to do stuff like that?” Aaron asked.

“Lots of video games.”