This place feels much more like a dungeon than the insect cave back home and the water temple combined. Well, this place is at least as big as the part of the water temple I explored, and have glowing stones along the walls for lighting. And as opposed to the other two, this one has monsters.

They can easily be described as giant spiders, but that description doesn’t really get across the sheer size of the things. Being tall enough to reach my waist and as wide and long as I am tall, their main body is the size of a very solidly built man. Bodybuilder level. They also seem to rely mostly on sight, but they also have hearing and seemingly some ability to sense vibrations through the ground, a tremorsense.

That’s relevant because I’m trying to be stealthy here.. I summoned the fox puppet or kamaitachi or whatever I’ll call it. Flying stealth fox if I wanna be descriptive. I have found that controlling puppets indirectly, whether or not I move my focus to that body, is much easier if I when doing instinctive movements and behaviours, like moving around, eating and the like. The same goes for when I take on said forms, unsurprisingly.

As for myself, I have taken on the Mist Djinn form, and am silently hovering down the tunnels. I spread Mist a dozen meters ahead and behind in the tunnel, letting me get a sense of the tunnels, even beyond corners. I also use the Mist’s ability to hide both me and the puppet. Both of me? I passed one of the monsters earlier, it seemed to be excavating a side room, but other than that it has been a single, winding tunnel.

Ability learned: [Illusion Magic]

Well that’s convenient. I’m gonna keep my current setup since I’m more used to these abilities, and I might need to do an emergency swap if something comes up. There’s a room ahead, and I slow down, letting Mist fill the room while trying to not expose myself, and without alerting the monsters.

It’s too large for me to fully grasp without entering it, but I think there’s one dead monster, and that it’s being eaten by two others. And there’s one more, near one of the at least two exits. I quickly ensure the spider-thing I passed isn’t going to attack my back, then move my focus to the fox puppet.

I give myself a couple seconds to get used to the much smaller body, then round the corner so that I can see the room. The colors seem a bit off when combining the fox’ different sight with the soft green glow of the light stones, but I can identify five living monsters, as well as the dead one. Convenient as it may be, I think I’d rather not have the fox’s sense of smell, and ignore it. It’d be nice if I can figure out a way to do that when shapeshifting as well.

Three tunnels going of to the side, again twisting and turning so I can’t see any sort of distance away, and one large opening leading into a huge cavern. I didn’t go that far down, did I? I didn’t even notice a slope, so we can’t possibly be the twenty-plus meters below ground that this place would require. This is a dungeon all right, and that right there is the central chamber. Also, that’s a freakin’ lot of giant spiders. And spider web. Giant spider web.

Aside from the regular spiders, I can see some that are significantly smaller, ‘only’ at the size of a small dog, as well as one that is like three times bigger. There’s also figures not unlike my own Drider form. I can’t say for sure, but their upper body definitely seems more spider-like than mine. I’m sure some people would be sad from hearing it, but they definitely don’t have breasts. If anything, they have the maws of something that belongs in a gore horror movie.

I consider my options. I could attack the nearest ones, but I doubt these things operate by the logic of games, where monsters can’t help their allies unless their are within some arbitrary range, so I should prooobably avoid combat. I also don’t think there’s any benefit to keep observing them. I doubt I can sneak past them, and even if I could, I’d be surrounded if I was spotted.

I return the fox puppet to my body, moving my focus back to it, and immediately start heading back. Oh right, there’s still that one monster I passed by. Hmm, the fact that there are so many monsters here, and only five corpses were outside means they either don’t want to leave the hive, or that they can’t call allies from far away. These tunnels seem to absorb sound, but that might just be the Mist I’m making. Either way, I should be able to kill the loner safely to get an idea of how tough they are.

Wait, will it even attack me if I take on the drider form? Are they hostile to begin with? From the little adventurer group that entered and then very quickly left, it sounded like they didn’t immediately attack, though they did start making sounds, presumably warnings.

Let’s take on the form and find out. I quickly strip off my pants and underpants, as well as my ankle bands, putting them in the bag. From the bag I grab a large piece of silk cloth I made, wrapping it around my waist and attach a little clasp to hold it there. I feel a bit like I’m wearing some sorta fantasy kilt/skirt, but this should work for most forms without leaving me naked when I revert to human.

A bit later my legs make six muffled sounds as they touch down on the floor. I unsummon the fox puppet, which probably reduces the effectiveness of the Mist a bit, then walk towards the spot where I saw it, magic gun in hand. A drider with a piece of soft, white, silk cloth wrapped around the base of the human part, with a brownish bag hanging over that, wearing light blue T-shirt, and holding a somewhat shoddy-looking magic gun? If I saw this strange mix in a movie or book I’m not sure what I’d think.

I don’t know if those things are sensitive to magic, so I don’t charge the gun. That said, I do get ready to blast it on a moment’s notice, and of course I’ve kept my magic defences up since I entered the dungeon. It’s a bit scary to be about to enter a fight. Aside from the small fights just after the Upheaval, where I had no idea what I was doing, and very lacking skills, I now have a ton of abilities and experience with them, but I have yet to really use them to fight.

Dropkicking the basilisk doesn’t really count, nor does hunting with the wolves, where the worst that could happen was if I tripped or something. I did fight the insects when they attacked, but that was a team effort, and besides, I just spammed my basic spells from a distance.

I round a corner and see the entrance to the side room. If I want to leave, I can just revert to human form and do so. I don’t have to fight it. Or face it. It might not be hostile to this form. Or it might recognize me as from a rivalling hive or something and call the entire dungeon on me. Bah, I can probably shred it to pieces if it’s hostile, let’s stop deliberating and Shia LaBeouf style.

I enter the room, and it turns to face me. It stands still for a moment. Then another. So, not hostile? Why isn’t it returning to work? As I think that it starts moving. Towards me, making soft clicking sounds. It doesn’t seem hostile, but I summon the hexagonal shields, hovering one behind me and one off to each side. It pauses for a moment upon seeing that, but continues moving. It walks up to me, stopping more than close enough to leap forward to attack me.

And then it sniffs me? It’s different from when mammals do it, but I’m pretty sure it’s smelling me…? All while making clicking sounds, which I assume is some sort of communication. Maybe.

The insect monster chitters with a higher intensity than before, then leaps forward. Lars reflexively steps backwards with half of his six legs, but is too slow. The monster’s mandibles shut around the top of his left front leg, and he cries out, more in surprise than in pain.

He sends the two shields at his flanks slamming into the sides of the spider, and puts the muzzle of the gun to its head, firing a quick shot.The force pushes the spider downwards and away, tearing it off his leg. He raises his front legs to ward of any further attacks, but winces in pain as the muscles pull on the injury.

The monster attempts to leap forwards again, but is hindered by the two shields, and the only think its mandibles meet is the smooth surface of the third shield. As he charges the gun, he thrusts the open palm of his free hand, creating a blast of air. It staggers backwards, and just as it gets ready to attack again, he unleashes the charged {Mana Spike} from the gun into its head, which crumples inwards.

“Fuck, that stings!” I exclaim at my leg, which upon inspection is both scratched, and worse, cracked. I walk over to the corpse, making sure not to put any weight on the injured leg, and with [Mana Crafting] and a precise and swift jab through the central chitin, cut to the core of its body, where I grab the mana crystal, pulling it out. I blast off the white goo with air, and put it in the side pocket where I have the compass.

I put the gun in the bag, then start moving to the hallway, while boosting [Regeneration] and applying [Healing Touch] to the area of injury. The pain lessens, but I still keep the foot off the ground. It doesn’t seem like the fight attracted any attention, but I also think I should start heading back out. This is a dungeon all right, and I think you’d want at least the typical five-man group to proceed further than I did.

I should probably revert to human form before I exit, but shapeshifting with wounds is bad. How do I- That’s part of the instinctual knowledge from abilities, isn’t it? A firm, but vague sense of ‘don’t do this’. The scratches are fine by now, but the tears in the muscles are still healing. At least the chitin is more or less kept together now. While I feel like my [Shapechanger] abilities are definitely playing a role in this, this healing speed is absurd. While I wonder how large role each ability, as well as my stats, plays, this is not the place to find out.

I stop near the exit, turning my attention behind my to check for any pursuers, like I’ve done several times already. I should be able to revert to human form with little to no ill effects beyond a bit of pain in parts of my left leg, but it’s a bit disconcerting to just know something like that with no obvious, meaningful source. As is becoming a somewhat worrying trend, I opt to not think much about it.

I revert to human form, then exit the tunnel. I am immediately waved over by a policeman, and asked to explain what I saw. I tell of what I saw, noting that it’s not exactly to scale and my observation that it seems to occupy more space that there actually is, as well as my conjecture that they won’t leave the hive, at least not easily, right now. I suggest they set up defences outside, just in case, and warn them to be very careful if entering the tight, winding corridors.

I half joke that they can call me if they need me for a dungeon clearing party, but the police officer seems to take me seriously. I end up giving him my number, telling him that I could possibly get down here in a few hours, but that it would probably take longer. After finishing up that, I yet again take on the birdkin form and take off, heading north.

Hirtshals is ahead, so I just to land, then find a cheap place to sleep for the night. Tomorrow I should get a bunch of aquatic aspects, and hopefully Eagle World will let me improve my birdkin form.