“So your entire job was just to play guard, and they paid you five silver a night?” Nathan asked his new acquaintances.”

“Well, it was against possible monsters down here. Jimmy was the only one out of us four that was paid to do the digging. None of us are actually part of their clan. We just needed the money.” Tucker said with a sigh.

“Now look at us, all trapped. No way out, and will probably die from either starvation or from the mobs down here. We can’t rest long enough to regenerate our energy or mana enough to kill a handful of the little guys.”

Nathan nodded. He had the same thoughts. That was before seeing Thu punch through several meters of stone with her bare hands. “So you don’t know any other way out of here?”

“Well, there is another way that was supposedly almost finished to the upper tunnel system.” Jimmy said. “We had plans to dig that way since it would be a shorter trip to haul all the gems out of here.”

The five men sitting around the campfire didn’t look at each other as enemies anymore. Instead, they were all trapped, and wanted to get out alive.

“Yes, the miners that hired us mentioned that. Where would that be from here?”

Jimmy pointed at a tunnel that Thu and Nathan came from. “That way, take the fist right. However, if we do that, we best be sure.”

“Why is that?”

“Monsters. I bet my left ear a bunch of em are all awake and ready to kill us.”

“There are five of us, plus Nathan’s totally not here friend.” Shunter pointed out. “Now that Jagor is all patched up, we don’t need to worry about him. We can fight our way out.”

Tucker rubbed the back of his head. “With my stamina and health that is left? No way. Plus we have no tank. Jagor doesn't have his shield. Unless Nathan’s friend can do it, we are going to be in a whole lot of pain.”

Nathan did his best to not make a face, but he was a horrible poker player back on Earth. “I can handle the tanking.”

“These bugs better not hurt as bad as the slimes. Then again, My [Iron Skin] isn’t Rank 1 anymore. Can’t fail, people are depending upon me now.”

“So that’s our grand plan?” Jagor said from his resting spot. He was still bandaged up and laying down. If it wasn’t for the fact Nathan saved him, he woulda tried to kill Nathan already.

Jimmy threw a rock against the wall he was mining. “Unless we want to wait five thousand years for me to dig through all that, then that is our plan.”

“I don’t like it.” Tucker said. “I understand it’s the only one, but I still don’t like it.”

“I agree with you, I don’t want to fight either.” Nathan said. “But, as much as I hate to admit it, it’s our best plan to survive this ordeal.”

Tucker stood up with a stretch. “I’m a Swordsman. Stick me upfront with whoever is going to tank. Probably Jagor or your friend. Shunter there is a mage, he can-”

Shunter shoved Tucker. “Why are you telling him all our abilities?”

“Because, I want to get out of here alive. If we don’t know what each of us are capable of, then we are fucked when a real fight happens. Either we all die with our pride, or we live and go our separate ways. Which do you want?”

Shunter stared back at Tucker before Jimmy cleared his throat. “I have no fighting skills other than my Pick. It’s fuck all of a weapon, but beats using my hands.”

Nathan could feel the tensions rise. “I’m a healer and a tank. I have a spear as my weapon. I will be up front with Tucker. Shunter, if you are a Mage that will be useful. Jagor can pair up with you and Jimmy as our backline defense.”

Shunter didn’t look away from Tucker, still angry at him. “What about your friend?”

Nathan thought about it, but figured out the best way to put it. “My friend, as you keep mentioning, is someone who can take care of themselves. Our secret weapon. They will do their job, I trust em.”

Jagor looked over at Nathan. “Healer and a Frontliner? What kind of weird ass build is that?”

Nathan sighed. “The kind that hurts a lot.”

“Thu, I hope you are listening and watching my back. I don’t expect them to betray us, but if shit goes south then they just might”

Tucker broke eye contact with Shunter first. “When do we leave?”

Nathan gestured to Jagor. “When he says he is ready.”

Jagor sat up and tested his legs. “They feel okay. I won’t be able to run or carry anything. Thank god for my Constitution and Strength scores.”

Nathan winced mentally. His gut reaction was to tell him not to stand, but momentarily forgot about how this world works. People can recover from horrific injuries in a few days or hours with magic.

“We can wait another hour or two. We are in no rush to die without being sure we are ready.” Jimmy said.

Nathan agreed. He sat down and watched his mana slowly trickle up a few points over the hour. It wasn’t much, but it was more than he had before.

Tucker pulled a stick from the fire to use as a torch. “Nathan, lead us. Jimmy let us know if we are off track. Everyone stay sharp.”

Nathan’s first problem was the light. The single torch paled in comparison to the light Thu could make. He knew she didn’t want to show herself anymore than Nathan had let up while talking to the Bandits.

He kept a careful eye out for any movement. It was after they went down the right path that they started to encounter monsters. Tucker was the first to react, slicing downward to kill the spider instantly using a skill

Nathan was impressed with his precision. “How many more times can you do that?”

Tucker smiled back, “A couple”

“Save those for any big ones please. I don’t want to waste our resources.”

They killed a few more, even causing Shunter to fire a bolt of flames to help once in a scuffle. That fight had caused a lot of noise and Nathan was worried everything would be coming for them.

“We need to move faster.” Tucker said, thinking the same thing.

They ran into an open cave. They only knew this from the way their footsteps echoed and how the walls were no longer revealed from the fire light.

“Fuck, okay everyone stay close. I am going to follow the wall clockwise.” Tucker said. “Jimmy, any clue where to start digging?”

“I’ll need to see the walls for marks or even an unfinished tunnel.”

Thu chose that moment to cast her spell to illuminate the cavern. The Bandits and Nathan all jumped from the sudden brightness.

“WHo the fuck are you!” Shunter yelled in demand, reading a spell to throw at her.

“Woah, that’s just my friend. Thu.” Nathan said, putting his arms out to stop Shunter from attacking her.

Thu wiggled her fingers in greetings.

“Hey guys,” Jagor said, looking around. “Anyone else know why the walls are so shiny?”

Nathan looked around and up. Jagor was right, the walls were shiny. They had a white color to them. It wasn’t like glass or metal. It had a texture to it, causing the sheen to be rough instead of smooth.

Nathan stepped back and bumped into the wall. He tried to pull away but felt himself stuck. His eyes widened in fear. “Don’t touch the walls, they are sticky!”

Everyone turned to him, Thu running over to help pull him away when a loud shriek echoed through the cavern.

“Spiders! Why does it always have to be spiders? Why can’t it be harmless butterflies for once?” Shunter complained, readying himself.

Thu pulled out a knife and started to cut Nathan away. He looked around and saw a few large ones start to scuttle toward the group. Shunter threw one bolt of flame at the closest one causing it to pause.

Jimmy and Jagor were side by side, each ready for when one got close to attack. Tucker ran forward to start attacking.

Nathan was soon freed, but could still feel some of the webs on his back. It made him shiver from it. Thu darted to the side to start running interference. Nathan looked around for their exit. “Jimmy, where do we go to get out of here?”

Jimmy started to turn his head to look. “No clue, I’ll get on with that, keep them away from me!”

Nathan walked forward next to Jagor and Tucker. “Stay together guys, Shunter save your mana please. We have no clue how many are down here.”

He had no clue what he was doing, but was simply copying what Brawn always said or did. Adding in advice he was told from others including El.

Every one of the spiders were dark in color, almost black. If it wasn’t for Thu’s light, they would not be able to fight this.

“We need to head back to the tunnel we came through, funnel them there!” Jagor said.

“What about Jimmy? He just left to find our exit!” Tucker replied, not excited about what is about to go down.

“Shit, we can retreat there once he finds it. He can keep digging while we hold these fucks off.” Jagor said.

“Won’t we be stuck with no way to retreat?” Nathan asked.

“That tunnel or any other, the spiders will keep following us. This way we know nothing is behind us, there can’t be that many of them right?” Shunter said.

If Nathan was a superstitious man, he would shame Shunter for jinxing them.

Tucker sliced down at the first spider only cutting off two of it’s right legs. Nathan stabbed down at its center and was able to pin it down. The Fire Affinity gem worked it’s magic and singed the wound Nathn left behind causing even more damage.

Whenever he took a hit, Nathan would use the exact number of mana to heal himself up. He did his best to stay above the 200 HP mark. Jagor and Tucker were harder to judge. Neither of them could see their Health exactly. He would patch them up enough that any external wounds were no longer bleeding excessively.

It was a shame he couldn’t stop to bandage them instead of wasting mana. Nathan was slowly nearing below 75% of his mana when he noticed fewer spiders were coming out of the walls. It was thanks to his [Battle Mind] skill he even noticed. Without it, he would start to doubt they could survive.

“There are fewer coming out of the walls, keep it up guys!” Nathan shouted.

It was after five more kills Jimmy’s voice was heard. “I found it guys! This way!”

Nathan glanced behind him to the left to see Jimmy waving them over. He started to head that way when a long black blade stuck out from the front of Jimmy abruptly.

Nathan was confused and stopped. Everyone else gasped in horror. Jimmy looked down at his chest and let out a scream of pain.

[Invigoration Ray] was already cast and slowly healing Jimmy when another blade-like object pierced through his gut area. Being carried up in the air, Jimmy floated forward.

Coming out of the cave was a large creature. Nathan didn’t see it at first due to how black it was. He just thought it was the shadows in the cave. Eight legs carried the giant spider into the cave.

Jimmy was on the mandibles of the spider, now dead. The Spider dropped his body down and started to wrap him in spider silk with it’s back legs, slowly moving forward to the rest of the group.

It was the size of a school bus. Each of it’s hairs was a deep black. From its mouth dripped a green liquid that caused the floor to singe. The beady eyes on it’s head seem to stare at everyone at once.

If not for Thu not freezing in fear, the smaller spiders would have over ran and killed everyone.

Shunter was the only one to react by throwing bolts of flames at the Spider while screaming a single word. “RUN!”