After a while, Gaia made the Griffin descend. We landed at the edge of the Beginner Village map in a closed-off area. If it weren’t for the griffin carrying us on its majestic back, we wouldn’t even have gotten past the crawling vegetation.

”Don’t worry, I will definitely succeed,” I said and hopped down from the griffin, leaving her warm and snuggly backside. I pointed to my left. ”That’s the entrance, right?”

She nodded.

”Here, take this cloth and tie it around a piece of wood. Spiders are afraid of fire so it might ease your hunting.” she threw down a piece of yellow cloth for me. It felt sticky and smelled like sulfur as I caught it with my hand.

I was just about to turn around and remind her I was a fire mage but the charming woman had already kicked at the griffin, who let out a cry and overvoiced me.

”Be careful not to get bitten by the bigger ones. Their venom inflicts a temporary paralysis effect,” she warned me again. "One mistake and you’ll be swarmed by those bastards.”

The griffin then lifted to the sky and slowly disappeared out of sight. I stood on the ground watching them leave. Now I was all by myself. And so what? I if someone as used to it.

Just as I was about to step into the cave, I remembered the piece of cloth in my hand and went into the woods to search for a good stick to use as a torch. Once I found one, I wrapped the cloth around it, walked back to the cave and then entered.

A couple notifications emerged.

Urcha’s Den

You enter a dark and damp cave that has almost been completely untouched by human hands for centuries. Spiders born from the blood of the great demon, Urcha, wander these narrow tunnels and you feel your blood turning cold as you hear their tiny legs crawl across the rock floor every now and then.

Recently, something caused these gentle spiders to awaken the thin demonic lineage running through their blood. They have now turned into wretched creatures who will attack anyone they come across. Snakes and mice have long ago fled to the corners of the caves trying to preserve their lives from the spiders who wish nothing but to eat them.

You are not sure how many spiders there are in here. But by the sound, you can perceive there are over a thousand of them. If you are smart, you would turn around instead of going further in.

You are the first player to discover Urcha’s den across the server. You have gained +1 in all attributes. Do you wish to register your discovery? (+500 fame)

I registered my discovery since there was no need to not do so.

The next second, the cave opening became overgrown with vines and thorns and the meager light my eyes had accustomed to turned into darkness.

You have entered a hidden dungeon.

* Due to your quest, the difficulty has been set to hard and exiting the dungeon is not possible until the dungeon boss is defeated.

*Failing to clear the dungeon in 48 hours will result in [Spider Trouble]’s failure and the loss of Gaia’s trust.

*Logging out will temporarily stop the timer until you log in again.

I swore. Why do these profession masters always love setting me up? First the blacksmith and now the Alchemist.

Well, I suppose Taylor's act was an act of kindness. Maybe this one is too.

Relieving myself of the smug smile, I held up the torch in front of me and aimed with a fireball to slightly nudge and set it ablaze.

But reality doesn't often go as you hope.

The fireball struck the edge of my homemade torch but was released with such force I could not keep the torch put in my hand. It flew out and crashed into the cave wall, divided into a thousand parts. The fire snuffed out and everything went dark.

"Shit." Swearing again, I had no choice but to advance blindly into the cave.

The only way to see something – which I understand after a moment late – was if I shot out fireballs every time the cooldown refreshed. So that's what I did. Of course, I eventually heard squeaks in the process.

You have slain a demonified spiderling (lvl 2). No XP gained. You have slain a demonified spiderling (lvl 1). No XP gained. You have slain a demonified spiderling (lvl 2). No XP gained.

I had probably gotten hundreds of these notifications right now and I damned that woman, although she was pleasant to look at, and feel, and penetrate, for her lack giving me of useful information.

These spiderlings were level 1 and 2 I should be able to kill them with hand to hand combat, but I didn't dare. Sometimes, a couple of adult spiders popped up. They were level 7 and I probably wouldn't be able to take them out with hand to hand combat if they attacked me in a group. I was told their poison inflicted paralysis and without enough light, I could not ensure they wouldn't reach me. So I kept firing.

Your chant was unrecognizable. Spell failed.

Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!

I had leveled up to 7, but...

My throat was sand-paper dry and after two hours of killing almost a thousand of those damnable spiderlings it was so messed up the system didn't even recognize it. Right now, I swore if I had gotten another chance I would have picked some melee skills instead of this fireball. Even if I gained an OP growth staff and nicely crafted gear. (Not to mention how that shit of seamstress probably wouldn't help me)

In a rage, I spent the 10 attribute points I had saved up from reaching level 7 on agility. My character menu looked like this now.

Player #6 371 937 373 Strenght: 11 Movement speed: 157 (121) Agility: 42 Jump power: 35 Stamina: 11 Attack speed: 0.67 Endurance: 11 Intellect: 50 (21 Wisdom: 82 (48) Masteries * Mastery of Fire (3) All fire-related skills deal 113% damage. Skills Active skills: Intermediate Fireball Passive skills: Weightless

My staff, though a magician's, was very durable because it had come from the world tree. So it possessed quite a good attack power (31-36).

Now that I could no longer speak, there was only one thing to do. Smash apart these frigging spiders with my staff until my voice came back from the dead! If I could find some water, that would be good too. Otherwise just letting it rest was fine as well.

I closed my eyes and carefully advanced, allowing the sounds to magnify in my ears. I had fought blindfolded before. It was one of the tests we underwent before joining the army when I was a young man. To see with your ears and walk with your sense of touch.

I could hear how the spiderlings came closer to me. They shrieked and swarmed the place. Must be over a hundred of them. Just as I thought I'd be dead meat, a notification rang in my ears.

You have gotten slightly used to the darkness.

I released a barrage of attacks. When I swung my staff I also kicked out with my right leg as a follow-up, and when I had to defend with my left arm and either kicked or swept with the staff. All in all, the combinations were magnificent and although I got bitten by the spiderlings, they did not have any poison and barely did any damage.The darkness seemed to get a bit lighter. I could now barely discern the rushing silhouettes as they shrieked. It was a flood of spiders, advancing on their eight legs and looking at me with their small, glowing red eyes. As the first one reached me, I bashed my staff from an overhead position and squashed it into the ground. Although the damage was far from my fireball, it was enough for killing the spiderlings.

As an adult spider attacked me. Just as it was about to reach me, a crimson beam flickered into existence. The active skill of my staff. Now it was on cooldown so I had to push my voice to the limit and speak those long chants a few more times every time an adult spider appeared. However, in relation to how I used my voice prior to starting the staff-rampage, it was given a lot more rest and recuperated better.

After a while, I came to a bright cave hall. However, that's when my face dropped. There were about a 100 larger spiders present, and although the shining stalagmites in the room shed light so that I could see properly, it didn't disguise the fact of their presence. Especielly as 800 eyes turned to me. I cleared my throat and shook my head.

*Shsrii*

*Shsrii* *Shsrii*

An army of shrieks drowned my hearing. They charged toward me and I had but a moment to think of what do do. Think Charles. Think, think...

The world seemed to move in slow-motion as I glanced around in the cavern. There. There were cracks in the walls. I put the staff back in my inventory and sprinted toward the wall.The horde of black mobs chased after me, and as I climbed, they followed.

But I was faster.

However, it made me wrinkle my nose. How was I faster?

Ah.

The skill I gained from the One-Eyed wolf.

Weightless. The description was: Light as a feather. That's right, as I climbed, my body was incredibly light. Coupled with my quite high agility, I moved fast and with ease.

As I climbed, the wall became steeper as time passed, and the cracks smaller and less. I had to concentrate my utmost to find those cracks and grip them. What was good though was that I didn't need to grip very tight in order to hold up my almost weightless body.

Dang, at least they can't get to me now. Now you might think, isn't that great? Well, have you forgotten about my sore throat? The spiders wouldn't leave the room as it was the core of their spawning ground and they weren't smart enough to seek shelter. The problem was; my staff wasn't weightless like me and my arm got sore holding it.

As I bombarded the spiders with fireballs, one each plus the dot was enough to eradicate their small health pools. But I had fired about twenty of them when my voice broke and that same notification as earlier popped up. My arm was getting sore so I put the staff back in the inventory.

Now a big problem remained. Until I cleared the spiders, I wouldn't be able to go down. And sadly, I couldn't log out either because I was hanging here from the roof.

What was I gonna do?