Note: This chapter has not gone to my editors and events may change before final release. The below is also unedited and in a raw non-polished form.

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“So what class are you, Hiro?” Toaby asked as they proceed toward the mines. They had all gotten up early, had a hearty breakfast and headed out. They wanted to get an early start to the day since they weren’t sure what they would find.

“I’m a level three swordsman.” Hiro replied.

“A swordsman? How did you manage to get that? It sounds more… advanced than most classes I’ve heard about so far.”

Hiro shrugged. “I think it had something to do with my life back on Earth, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe Heimdall just liked me.”

“Your time on Earth?” Toaby knew he wasn’t supposed to ask about anyone's history, but Hiro brought it up. If he changed the subject, Toaby wasn’t going to push the topic.

“Yeah. I was a kendo instructor in Japan. I’ve spent most of my life with a sword at my side.” Hiro patted the thin samurai style sword tied to his waist.

“Japan? So you’re Japanese?” Hiro nodded. “I hope its not rude for me to say, but you speak incredible English.”

“Funny. I was going to say you speak incredible Japanese.” Toaby looked dumbfounded, causing Hiro to chuckle. “The system translates everything into your native language. To me, you’re speaking Japanese and to you, I’m speaking English. Truth is, I never studied English and couldn’t say something if I tried.”

“That’s incredible!” Hiro nodded his agreement. Getting the conversation back on track, Toaby asked, “What kind of skills did you get with a class like swordsmen?”

Hiro grinned. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

Toaby grinned back as they continued on. A half an hour later, they reached their destination.

“Let me party us all up before we continue.” Toaby invited each of them to his group. One at a time, their names and health bars appeared below his. “So, how do you want to handle this, Sam?”

Sam pointed at himself. “Me?”

“Ya. You’re the one who found the door and know where it is.”

“Right. Its on the far end of the cave.” He pointed into the darkness.

“Should we fight our way through or try to sneak?” Proposed Laura.

“I don’t like sneaking.” Hiro drew his sword. “Besides, I’m dying to try out this blade.”

Toaby smiled. “We fight our way through, I guess.”

Laura sighed. “I’m never going to be able to level up my sneak skill.”

“Lead the way, Sam.” Toaby gestured forward.

Nodding, Sam pulled a lit torch from his inventory. “This won’t last forever so we should hurry.”

Sam shuffled into the cave, everyone following close by with their weapons at the ready. It wasn’t long before the spiders discovered them. Their light source easily giving them away amongst the darkness.

“We have incoming. There’s one on the left and one on the right.” Laura called out loudly.

Sam kept grip of this torch but a spear appeared in his free hand. One with a proper blade tip instead of a sharpened rock. Laura tossed a pair of daggers at one spider. She followed her initial attack up by rushing the creature, pulling another set of daggers from her inventory.

Hiro rushed toward the undamaged spider, dragging his sword behind him. As soon as he was within range, he swung his sword upward and slashed a large gouge out of the monster. It reeled back in pain, prepping a counter attack. It didn’t get the chance as two axes sunk into his head.

Hiro turned and nodded his tanks toward Toaby before chasing to join the battle Laura and Sam were having. Toaby rushed over and picked up his weapons. As he did, he received a notification that signified the fight was over.

You deal 3 slashing damage to a Baby Tunnel Spider.

You deal 3 slashing damage to a Baby Tunnel Spider.

Congratulations! You have defeated Baby Tunnel Spider x2.

You have been rewarded 10 experience.

“Ten experience?” Toaby said a bit shocked. “I got thirty yesterday for killing two spiders.”

“Didn’t you say that you leveled up?” Sam approached.

“Yeah, but you’re level three and said you got five per kill. I thought I would get at least ten.”

“Normally you would have if it was just you or possibly you and I, but you have a full party now. The system awards experience based on the difficulty of the fight. It wasn’t that hard for us to slay two of those.”

“I guess.” So much for an easy level up.Toaby looked at his measly fifteen total experience and shrugged it off. Hopefully, there’s something cool behind that door.

The group slew five more spiders on their way to the back of the cave. They received some minor wounds but nothing too critical. When Toaby asked if Sam remembered to speak with the herbalist in town, his face went ghostly white.

“Sorry, Toaby. I completely forgot.” Same pleaded for forgiveness.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll just have to be careful and let our hit points regenerate on their own. Besides, I forgot too.” Toaby admitted.

The group moved in toward the back wall of the cave where a single metal door sat. It appeared to be built into the wall. It wasn’t ornate, in fact it could have easily been mistaken as just a metal slab if it hadn’t been for the circular metal ring acting as a doorknob. They approached cautiously. There were no spiders in sight, and the door was covered in dust and cobwebs.

“Should we knock?” Hiro asked.

Everyone just shrugged. Sam walked over and knocked gently.

“I think you need to know with a little more force.” Toaby approached and wrapped a fist against the door several times.

The clang rang out in the chamber. The noise of scurrying feet above drew the party’s attention. There were dozens of spiders waking up to the noise and becoming agitated by the torchlight.

“INSIDE!” Toaby was caught by a thick string of webbing from above as he shouted orders. Cutting the arm free he shouted again, “GO!”

Sam pulled on the door, but it barely budged. Hiro jumped in to help. They pulled and pulled, but the door was only opening an inch or two. Another few shots of webbing flew at Toaby. He dodged one and cut another, but he couldn’t stop them all. In the matter of a few seconds, he had three strings attached to him. The spiders pulled and they lifted Toaby a few inches off the ground. Laura lashed out with her daggers and cut two of the strings. That gave Toaby enough mobility to sever the remaining link.

“Thanks.” Muttered Toaby.

“Don’t mention it.” Laura cut down a few strings coming her way.

“How are we on that door!”

Hiro and Sam pulled and pulled with all their might. The door finally budged enough for them to squeeze in.

“We’re in! Come on!” Sam shouted before leaping through the doorway, quickly followed by Hiro.

Noticing their webbing wasn’t having an effect, the spiders fell to the ground and started advancing. Sam and Toaby didn’t require additional motivation to get moving. They bolted to the door and jumped through. Landing hard on stone, they turned to face the door.

“They’re still coming!” Laura pointed at the dozens of spiders advancing on them.

“We’re trying!” Sam and Hiro were pulling furiously to get the door closed, but it wouldn’t move.

“Anytime now!” Laura frantically added.

Without warning, the door slammed shut on its own. Torches on the wall ignited by themselves, providing plenty of light in the now illuminated small chamber.

“What did you do?” Toaby stood up and dusted himself off.

“Nothing, I swear.” Toaby helped Laura to her feet.

Toaby tried to take a look around, but a system notification blocked most of his vision.

Welcome to the Dungeon of the Arachnokin. Once a proud clan that worshiped their spider queen, they have been forgotten to the sands of time. You have uncovered one of their ancient structures. The magic they left behind was strong and has morphed this place into something sinister.

Your party will have 24 hours to complete this dungeon.

You have five lives with a respawn timer of 30 minutes.

Good luck, adventurers!

Spider Queen Slain: 0/1

Rewards: 50 experience, 1 magical item

A thin layer of blue flames covered the exit to the dungeon, making it impossible to even approach. Toaby looked around and everyone’s eyes were distant. They’re probably reading the same notice.

“Did you all get the dungeon notification?” Toaby asked to no one in particular.

They all nodded, but Hiro was the one to speak. “Yeah. Half a level worth of experience and a magical item? I haven’t seen magic in this world yet. I mean, other than the gods.”

Toaby thought for a moment. Out of all the people in the settlement, none of them had use of magic or a magic class. There were no wizards or spell casters of any type. “Now that you mention it. I didn’t even know there was magic on Midgard.”

Sam had a smile that split his face. “I knew it! I knew this place would have what we needed. If we get some magic items, we’re gonna wipe the floor with the Void!”

“What’s the big out having five lives mean though?” Laura asked.

Toaby shrugged. “It probably means we can die up to five times in here. It does list a respawn timer, so maybe we’ll respawn inside the dungeon if we die? I’m a bit worried that we can’t leave though.”

“Yeah. What’s with these flames?” Sam attempted to touch the door.

Warning! A party member is attempting to leave the dungeon. If they leave, your completion attempt will be considered forfeit. All party members will automatically be teleported out of the dungeon and will be barred from reentering for 1 week.

“I was just asked if I want to leave the dungeon.” Hiro commented.

Toaby nodded. “I was just told if you leave, we all have to leave and can’t come back for a week.”

“I got the same warning.” Sam added and Laura nodded.

“They really did make this a game, didn’t they?” Toaby muttered to himself.

“What was that?” Inquired Hiro.

“Oh, nothing.”

Sam was practically jumping up and down with excitement when a bow appeared on his back. “I’m soooo jazzed for this! I loved video games back on Earth. We’re going to find some sick looooot!”

“I guess we’re going in.” Hiro chuckled.

“Let’s approach this with level heads at least.” Toaby took charge. “I see that you had a bow fashioned, so why don’t you travel behind and offer support. Hiro and I can take the front. Laura, do you have enough daggers to keep at range, or?”

“I collected the ones I threw, so I still have five total.”

“Hmm… stay behind Hiro and I then. Offer support when you can and attack after we engage. Does that sound like a rough plan?” Everyone nodded. “Ok. Let’s keep our eyes open. We have no idea what we’re in store for. I rather not get jumped out of nowhere.”

“Toaby makes a good point. We have plenty of time. Let’s begin with a look around this room.” Hiro suggested.

Everyone agreed and started a scan of the room. It was a rectangular room with the door they entered on one side and a similar door on the opposing side. There were plenty of lit torches on the wall, providing amble lighting. The room itself was made of smooth stone with a cobblestone floor. There was a dusty purple rug running almost the full length of the floor with ornate spiders drawn on it. The only other thing of note was a table and a set of chairs near the entrance.

“Ya know, that table, chairs and rug would be great additions to the settlement.” Sam suggested.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Responded Laura. She bent low and placed a hand on the rug. Her eyes went distant for a moment, but the rug didn’t vanish.

“What’s wrong?” Toaby asked.

“I can’t take it. Or at least I can’t add it to my inventory. I got an error message telling me that I can’t place dungeon objects into my inventory.”

“Hmm… They must have coded in protections so you couldn’t just steal everything. Smart.” Commented Hiro.

“I guess we just go through that door then.” Toaby pointed at the only other door in the room.

Sam ran over. “Oh, let me! Let me!” Without waiting for a reply, he grabbed the handle and pulled on it.

It came off to reveal a small hole. A clicking noise was coming out of it and the grinding of gears could be heard from inside the wall.

“What do you think that…” Sam started to say but was cut off when a large saw blade flew out of a nearly invisible slit in the wall and literally cut him off. Or in half, to be exact.

“What the hell!?” Laura shouted in horror.

Lives remaining: 4