The next day saw Aiden and Victoria standing in front of the entrance to the dungeon. They both purchased 5 low grade health potions, 5 antidote potions, 5 night vision potions, and a camping kit containing (10 torches, flint, a cooking pot, a wooden bowl and spoon, an oil lamp, and a glass vial with extra oil in it). They also replaced any arrows that were broken or lost yesterday and purchased another 50 just in case. All told they spent a total of 3600 credits splitting the cost 50/50.

“Well lets head in, if its too hard we can just come back out and try again when were stronger or if we find more people to help.” Aiden figured they were prepared enough so he lit a torch and they both entered the swirling vortex.

He felt like he was being squeezed through a tube for a second then the feeling went away. He was still left a little disoriented and nearly tripped when he took an unstead step forward. He steadied himself and checked the message he just recieved.

“You have entered a one time Dungeon: Rank (G) ‘The Arachnid Den’ - Mana Essence gained doubled / Mana Stone’s received doubled / Loot drop rate doubled / Shop temporarily disabled”

'Well... I guess it's a good thing we purchased all those things before we came in here huh.’ Aiden thought as he took in his surroundings. They were in a rounded cavern around 20 feet wide and 30 feet long and 10 feet tall. The place was slightly illuminated by the moss on the walls but it would still be hard to see with out the torch.

Ahead of them there was a tunnel in the rock wall heading downward in a slight angle. When he looked behind him he froze. ‘Shit. There’s no vortex, meaning no exit, meaning we probably have to clear this dungeon to get out.’ “Well that’s not good” Victoria turned towards where Aiden was looking and inhaled sharply. “Looks like were going to have to clear the whole dungeon if we want to leave... Ooops?”

Victoria gave him a dry and exasperated look tinged with a bit of fear and panic then slapped his shoulder. Aiden braught up his hands defensively. “Look we’ll be fine, as long as we watch each others backs and be careful this shouldn’t be too hard.” He said with false assuredness. Vicky gave him a hesitant nod back and clutched her bow tighter.

Aiden with torch in one hand and sword in the other led the way forward through the tunnel. The torch provided enough light to see 30 feet ahead of them and the moss added to the lighting so they kept using it for now opting to save their night vision potions for when it was really necessary. They walked slowly downward trying to be as quiet as they could.

Five minutes of walking later they emerged in a cavern twice as large as the one they started in. There were webs hanging along the ceiling with giant spiders in them. There were six of them that they could see and they skittered away from the torches light to the other side of the cavern. The cavern floor was cover with small bones. 'Rats probably.'

The spiders were about the size of a human head at their middle plus their legs. Aiden nearly screamed like a little girl at the sight of them. ‘Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.’ He hated spiders and these things were so much bigger and creepier then any he had ever seen. ‘Alright get it together man.’ Trying to control his breathing he used identify on one the closest one.

Cave spider: Rank (g)

lvl 5

Health 70

stamina 70

Vitality - 7

Endurance - 7

Strength - 5

Agility - 8

Dexterity - 8

Skill - 6

Intelligence - 3

Wisdom - 0

Aiden motioned to Vicky and they backed out of the cavern a hundred feet back or so. “They didn’t attack us on sight but I’m guessing they will once we attack them. Their pretty fast so we can at best get two shots off each before their on us. Lets both aim at the same one so we can kill at least one before they charge us. Aim at the closest one. After that switch to melee weapons and back up into the tunnel to give them less room to get behind us. I’ll lay down the torch at the cavern entrance to free up my hands and maybe stop them from entering, they did seem to fear the flames.” Aiden whispered.

They made their way back towards the cavern entrance where Aiden stuck the torch into the ground. Backing up a step he stuck his sword in the ground as well. They both then notched an arrow and aimed at the closest spider. Pulling back the string Aiden counted down “Fire on one. three... two... one!” They both loosed their arrows hitting the same spider within a second of each other. It screeched then fell on the floor dead. There were more screeches and the rest of the spiders quickly climbed down the walls and charged them.

They each quickly notched another arrow and fired again hitting another one that unfortunatly didn’t die, it was tossed back and onto its back however. Aided tossed his bow to the left then took hold of his sword and took a step closer.

He took an over head swing at a spider that stopped at the edge of the torch trying to get around it, the sword slashed through its eyes and head sending ichor flying everywhere and freaking him the fuck out when some of the ichor splashed him in the face.

Aiden shiver in disgust but didn't stop and kicked the thing back sending it flying to land on its back a few feet away. He took a quick glance to his right towards Victoria who had an impaled spider on her spear and was using it to bat away at another one. He ran forward picking up the torch on his way and using it to hold one of the spiders at bay while he pierced another one with his sword, killing it.

He then turned his blade on the other one slashing down and cleaving off a few legs as the spider tried to dodge. He stuck the torch into it making it catch fire while slashing at another spider that was about to pass him and head towards Victoria scoring another kill. He then killed the screaching spider that was now on fire.

Quickly looking around he saw that there were three left. The one with two arrows sticking out of it was on its back and trying to flip over, the one he stabbed and kicked before was slowly heading towards him leaking ichor and another one that Victoria was in the process of skewering. He quickly dispatched the two injured ones then went back and picked up his torch.

“Congratulations! Your Party has slain Lvl 5 Cave spider: Rank (g) 80 essence gained” x9

Aiden breathed deeply a few times catching his breath while his adrenaline wore off. He then went over to help Vicky get the two spiders she impaled off of her spear laughing a little at the sight. She gave him an exasperated huff but he saw her give a small smile.

Once they freed Vicky’s spear they both looked around. “Huh” Aiden said a few seconds later. “The bodies are still here. That’s never happened before” He walked up to one and cautiously poked it with his foot. causing a message to appear.

“Loot corpse? Yes/No”

“Ah” He concentrated on yes and the monster dissipated.

“You have received 25 low grade Mana stones”

Once they finished looting, Aiden said they should probably take the night vision potions going forward. It was already difficult to see with the torch since the moss in here was sparser and they were only able to see six spiders here when in fact there were nine of them. After they each drank a potion they took another look around and saw that this cavern had two paths they could go. They chose the left passage first and continued on their way.

The passage lead to another slightly larger cavern that was a dead end as far as they could see. There was however a small opening in the wall where water was coming out of creating a small pond and flowing into the the adjacent wall.

The water looked crystal clear and was maybe 4 feet at its deepest. There was nothing in the water so with a happy exclamation of “Bath!” Aiden stuck his torch into the ground at the entrance of the cave and jumped in the water clothes and all sans boots. Victoria laughed silently but followed him in a few seconds later.

The water was cool and rejuvenating and they were both extremely happy to get the stink and grime off of themselves. They spend a good half an hour bathing and just enjoying the water. They eventually removed most of their clothes to wash them more thoroughly. Aiden sneaking glances at Victoria when she wasn’t looking and she doing the same to him.

Once they were done Aiden took out a wooden chair he stored in his inventory for just such an occasion, broke it up into pieces and used the torch to start a small fire while Victoria refilled any empty water bottles they had with fresh water from the small opeing in the wall where the water was flowing out of. Aiden took out the cooking pot that came with the camping set and filled it with water then placed it on top of the fire.

They sat down next to the fire to dry off waiting for the water to boil. They were both still in their underwear and both had slight blushes and were trying not to ogle each other too blatantly, but they both still noticed the other doing it. Aiden talked a little about his past revealing that his father was an army ranger and trained him in fighting with most short blades and hand to hand, and took him hunting a lot when he was a teenager. Sadly he died when Aiden was 19, from Cancer.

Victoria was sympathetic seeing he was very close to his father. She wrote down that her father too had died when she was just a little girl. He had died in a car accident like his mother had, one which almost claimed her life as well but ultimately left her alive but unable to speak. She had a piece of windshield impaled in her neck and would have probably died if one of the people who came to help wasn’t a doctor and was able to keep her alive till the ambulance came.

When the water finally started to boil Aiden took out the three cups of Ramen they found in the teachers lounge and emptied them into the pot. 5 minutes later they were sitting next to each other sharing the only bowl they had and took turns spooning noodles into their mouths. It was the first warm meal they had in 4 days and it tasted delicious, lifting their moods even higher.

Sighing happily Aiden patted his stomach. “That was good. We should try and find more Ramen if we can. I’m pretty sure the cafeteria had some in the vending machines so when we go to clear that place out we should definitely grab some.” Victoria nodded with a content smile. “alright..." He said with a sigh "We need to get going... I don’t want to spend the night in here and we didn’t bring that much food with us. We only have four granola bars left.” They both reluctantly stood up and went to put on their still damp clothes.

Cleaner and with moods lifted they backtracked and took the other path this time. They entered three more caverns full of rock spiders clearing them all out. In the next cavern after that, they ran into new enemies. Scorpions twice the size of the rock spiders all at lvl 7 and 8 plus they were poisonous. Luckily there weren’t that many of them only four. Unfortunately Victoria was still stung in the leg during the fight and they had to use one of the Antidote potions.

On a more positive note the scorpions gave out more Mana essence (150-165) and seemed to have a higher loot drop rate as two of them dropped loot other than Mana stones. One dropped a low grade health potion and another dropped armor. They also weren’t spiders and Aiden internally rejoiced at that.

Leather Vambraces - (Common) / Quality (Good) / +4 defense

They decided that Aiden should wear them since he fought in front most often and could use the extra defense. They each gained a lvl from all the fighting bringing Aiden to lvl 8 and Victoria to lvl 7. The party continued on until they reached another split path. Once again they chose to go left first. This path lead them to a cavern with three wide openings connecting it to three more caverns.

As soon as they entered they heard screeching and three spiders twice the size of the previous ones leapt down from the ceiling and attacked. Aiden only had a second to identified them before two of them were on him. This time he did scream like a little girl.

Arachne Warrior: Rank (g)

lvl 10

Health 100

stamina 80

Vitality - 10

Endurance - 8

Strength - 8

Agility - 11

Dexterity - 11

Skill - 6

Intelligence - 3

Wisdom - 0

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Aiden cursed while sticking his torch into one of the spiders face's and hacking at another one. The sword connected with a sickening squelch sound and the spider let out a screech and backed away. Aiden felt pain in his leg and looked down.

The other spider which was on fire pierced his leg with one of its own front two legs which were as sharp as knives. “Gah! fuck!” he cried out and chopped down, severing the limb that impaled him. Stumbling back a bit unsteadily he faced the other spider which was now charging him again.

With a slight jump to the side he dodged its attack and drove its sword into the side of it twice finally killing it. He turned towards the other spider but it was already a charred corpse. Out of the corner of his eye he saw more spiders charging out of the other rooms. He whimpered at the sight of them and cursed mentally. He quickly stuck his sword in the ground to take out his knife, flipping it to blade in hand he tossed it at the nearest spider accurately piercing its head killing it instantly.

He heard a slight 'Ding' sound in his head and knew that the hit was a Critical. Aiden did some tweaking in the settings a few rooms back so instead of text letting him know he scored a critical he would hear a sound instead. He looked around and saw there were three more heading towards him, Victoria had killed the other one and was coming up behind him to help.

He picked up his sword again and used the Rush Aura ability of his ring at the cost of 50 Mana to double his movement speed for 10 seconds. He zoomed past the first spider slashing through its legs on his way past, severing four of them and leaving it for Victoria to finish off. He came upon the next spider moving lightning fast stabbing it in the face then quickly pulling out the sword and spinning to the right into a backhanded swing cleaving another spider horizontally in half.

Still with 3 seconds left he jumped forward 5 feet in the air and impaled the last spider straight into the ground. while it was stuck to the ground screeching and flailing its legs Aiden quickly retrieved his knife and stuck it in its face. Breathing a little heavily he quickly checked his status.

Health: 108/140

Stamina: 68/130

Mana: 40/90

Aiden looked around for any more spiders and saw there were two more coming in from another room about 60 feet away with a third one not far behind them. Gritting his teeth he ran forward once again tossing his knife hitting the right most spider, he continued his charge as an arrow came whizzing by him striking the spider he hit bringing it down.

He changed trajectory slightly to the left heading for the next closest spider. He saw another arrow whiz by striking the spider in the side. As he got close he jumped up and over the spider turning around quickly and slicing at its rear legs, taking two of them off.

As the spider started to turn to the left to face him he strafed right staying at its rear cutting in to it twice more and finishing it off. He felt a severe pain in his back and let out a cry. Another arrow went whizzing by and hit the spider that impaled him from behind killing it while Aiden fell to his knees in pain.

Health: 38/140

Stamina: 59/130

Mana: 40/90

He checked his status briefly noticing he was down to only 38 hit points ‘bastard must have crit me’ and looked around again for any more spiders. Thankfully that seemed to be it, being confirmed be the messages that came flooding in.

“Congratulations! Your Party has slain Lvl 10 Arachne Warrior: Rank (g) 180 essence gained” x8

“Congratulations! Your Party has slain Lvl 11 Arachne Warrior: Rank (g) 190 essence gained” x2

“Your Party member Victoria Leblanc has leveled up!”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! Your party is the first on your world to survive and win a battle with 10 or more enemies with a higher level then your own. +1 permanent bonus to all stats per party member”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! You are the first in your world to kill 5 or more enemies with a higher level then you in a single encounter. +1 permanent bonus to all stats.”

Aiden sat down on the ground breathing heavily and pulled out two health potions from his inventory drinking them booth down one after another bringing his health back up to almost full. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Victoria looking at him worriedly.

“Thanks, that thing almost killed me. I shouldn’t have turned my back on it but I though it was going to head towards you. I’ll be more careful next time.” She nodded her head and sat down next to him and gave him a hug holding on tightly.

He noticed she was trembling. He put his left arm around her and held her closer. “Hey it’s alright, I'll be more careful next time I promise. It’ll be ok. We were a little too reckless just coming in here like that and we weren’t as ready as we should have been.” She sniffled a little and nodded her head letting go. “Now come on lets loot these bastards, for a hard fight like that they better have dropped something good.”

And drop something good they did, other then Mana stones, two pieces of equipment dropped. A new sword that was almost a foot longer than the one he was using, it also had what he would classify as runes engraved on it similar to the ones on his ring. The other thing to drop was a pair of dark leather leggings that were studded in areas to provide some protection.

Bastard Sword of Striking - (Uncommon) / Quality (Very Good) / Damage Physical: 38-43 / +5 Strength (when carried or equipped)

Studded Dark Leather Leggings - (Common) / Quality (Very Good) / + 6 defense

Aiden swung his new sword a few time getting used to the length and weight while behind him Victoria changed into her new leggings. It was a good blade, extremely sharp, not too heavy and with good reach. The +5 strength bonus was a game changer as well. ‘That was a really lucky drop. And just before the boss fight too.’ Aiden looked nervously through one of the openings in the Cavern to see a large wooden door, no doubt leading to said boss fight.

He was currently thinking of a strategy to use which was useless since they didn’t know what kind of boss it would be for certain. Going by the naming theme of the Dungeon it would probably be some kind of Spider or scorpion, meaning it would probably be poisonous. Then there was also the chance that it would have helpers like these Arachne warriors they just faced, which would mean he would have to hold off the boss on his own while Victoria took care of them. Hell the door may not even lead to a boss.

Aiden sighed and turned to face Victoria who was walking up behind him. ‘Damn she looks good in those pants. No! bad Aiden! focus!’ Dragging his eyes up with reluctance Aiden spoke “Alright, so here’s what i came up with...” He the proceeded to explain the contingencies he came up with for the Boss fight. Once he was done and Victoria gave some of her own suggestions which he hadn’t even considered they moved on towards the door.