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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“This is amazing!” Sam grabbed the black bow from the guardian and was examining the carvings from multiple angles.

“I agree. This is quite the upgrade.” Hiro pulled his blade from his new scabbard. It glistened as it rotated it in the light. A spiderweb pattern of faintly glowing runes were now attached to his blade.

Toaby located his francisca among the spider’s remains. They both only had two points of durability left. Maybe Curtis can repair them? He thought as he slid on his new gloves. After pulling the purple gloves up to his wrists, a new notification appeared.

Gloves of Mana Webs are currently not soulbond. Before you can equip this item, you have to bind to it. Would you like to soulbond with Gloves of Mana Webs now?

Yes / No

He thought ‘yes’ and white bands of webbing crawled out of the gloves and wrapped around his forearms. They weren’t tight and didn’t feel unpleasant. They simple helped secure the gloves to his body.

Congratulations! Gloves of Mana Webs are now soulbond. If you should perish, this item will follow you in each of your rebirths until it is destroyed.

Sweet! Time to try them out. Toaby held his axes firmly. The gems in his gloves shimmered as he was prompted by system to bind the glove’s magic to his franciscas. He selected yes, but nothing happened. Do I just throw them now? He looked at the axe is his right hand and shrugged before gingerly tossing it a few feet away. Gesturing toward it with his open palm, he thought about calling it back to his. The gem in his right glove lit up as the axe flew toward it.

Startled, Toaby ducked to avoid the axe soaring toward him. It flew over his hand and landed only a few feet away. Checking his expendables, he used up five mana recalling the weapon. With his feet planted firm, he gestured at the blade again and recalled it. This time he held his ground and caught it.

“This is awesome.” He stated with a wide, face splitting grin plastered on his face.

“That looks awesome but I reeeeeealy want to test my bow. So, can we go through that big ominous door now?” No one replied or made a move toward the door at Sam’s words. “Come on. We scored fifty experience from that guardian. Let’s take out the spider queen so we can all level up!”

“Excited as ever I see.”

“Let’s go!” Sam headed for the door.

Laura shrugged. “I kinda want to test my dagger.” She headed for the door after Sam. Hiro and Toaby nodded at one another before trailing after them.

Because of the size of the door, it took all four of them to push it open. The nearly one foot thick door swung inward to reveal a dark chamber riddled with cobwebs. After all of them had entered, the door slammed shut behind them and floating balls of purple fire appeared scattered throughout the chamber.

Dozens if not hundreds of two foot tall eggs were covering the floor. Even more alarming were the five foot tall pods hanging from webs on the ceiling. They were covered in a mixture of slime and webbing. The thin purple membrane was semi-translucent, allowing the group to make out the humanoid figures held within. The eggs on the floor didn’t allow such luxury. They were comprised of a green and purple outer shell.

“Where’s the queen?” Questioned Sam as he looked about the room.

“Something tells me were about to find out.” Toaby replied.

“Whoooo. Who enters my chamber?” A woman’s voice called out from the shadows. It echoed and bounced off all the objects in the room, making it impossible to pinpoint its origin. “Who disrupts my slumber?”

“We are adventurers.” Toaby answered.

“Adventurers? You… you are Human?” The voice sounded confused. “How long have I slept?”

The group readied themselves. Sam attached the webbing to his arrow, Hiro had his glistening sword held high, Laura was wielding twin daggers and Toaby was gripping his dual axes.

“Yes. We’re Humans.” Toaby continued to reply.

“Let me get a better look at you.” A loud rumbling shook the room as the

Toaby whispered so only his group could here. “Be ready to fight.”

A large female Dusk Elf spider hybrid descended upon them. Large was an understatement. This creature was enormous. It toppled over them, easily twenty or twenty-five feet tall, and that was with it hunched over on its legs.

The top half was a beautiful, young Dusk Elf. She had long white hair that rolled over her back and spider bottom half. She had two normal eyes with six more, much smaller, Human shaped eyes running up her forehead. All of her eyes were pure black and her skin was purple.

Under her stomach, her legs began like normal but quickly fused into the bottom half of a furry black spider. She had eight massive legs, each one wider than anyone in the group. There was a tribal pattern on her spider body in green. She was a sight to behold and at her sight, the will to fight faded.

She took a deep sniff of air, wafting it to her nose with a clawed hand. “You smell not of this world. Tell me, what brings you here? What would cause you to disturb me? Has Odin finally sent someone to finish me?” She eyed them over. “No. Odin wouldn’t send such weaklings. So why? Why are you here!?” She shouted.

The group looked between each other but eventually they all looked at Toaby for guidance. He gave them a, ‘what the fuck’ look back.

Hiro was standing closest to Toaby and whispered, “technically you’re the party leader.”

I’m dropping this skill. He thought before facing the giant spider woman. “We are reborn from another world. We are not native to Midgard.”

“What happened to the Humans of Midgard? The Humans that drove me into my slumber?”

Toaby gulped. “They’re gone. Only reborn Humans remain.”

“Oh?” That surprised her. “What of the Gods? Did they still walk among you?”

“No, not really. They…” He tried to think of the best way to put it. “They guide us using their system?” He raised a few octaves on the last word. Unsure if that was the appropriate thing to say.

“Their system? They implemented their rules finally? But that means…” She scratched her chin. “That means they can’t directly influence the land. That means my people are safe on Midgard.” She walked over to the nearest hanging sac and caressed it gently.

“What do we do here?” Toaby asked his group.

“I don’t know. The quest is to kill her, but there’s no way were going to accomplish that. Look at her!” Laura gestured toward the spider woman.

“I agree. It's a fool's errand.” Added Hiro.

“Should we just leave?” Sam suggested.

Toaby shook his head. “Not yet. I want to learn what she plans on doing.”

“Are you crazy?”

“No. Imagine if she decides to conquer Midgard or something. Or did you forget that the settlement is the closet thing to this mountain?”

“He’s right.” Affirmed Hiro. “We need to know more.”

Toaby nodded, turned to face the spider and took a step forward. A small step. “Excuse me.” The woman looked back at him and she was crying. Taken aback by the sudden shift in her mood, he forgot what he was going to ask.

“Young adventurers. Thank you for saving us.” Out of all the things she could have said, that was one of the last thing they were expecting to hear.

“Saving you?”

She nodded. “Yes. Allow me to explain. My name is Queen Anzu and many, many years ago, my people fled to this temple. We used our magic to lock ourselves away and hide from the Gods. We were hoping to regain our strength in order to fight back. We didn’t anticipate the spell would drain us to such a degree. After casting the spell, most of us died, and those who didn’t fell into a magical slumber. It was terrible.” Tears were flowing freely from all of her eyes. “I could see my children waking up before me, their minds driven mad from countless years in a state of constant pain and inability to move but being conscious.” She paused for a moment to wipe the tears from her face and compose herself.

Toaby took that opportunity to ask a clarifying question. “So, you and your people were awake the whole time? I mean, you knew what was going on but couldn’t move or act?”

She nodded. “It was a living hell. Those who didn’t go mad were killed by those who did. Even most of my spiders stopped listening. They just ventured out on their own as mindless beasts instead of the intelligent beings they once were. I had the worse fate of all. Not only was I affected by our magic, I was further trapped in this chamber by the magical guardian my people created to lock us in.”

“You mean the large spider guardian?”

She nodded. “There were some of my people on the outside, but they had all gone mad. They were unable or unwilling to release the magic they held on the guardian. You must have slain them and released their magic?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, but we slayed them.”

“Don’t apologize.” Queen Anzu shook her head. “They were too far gone to be saved. You did me a favor. Now I don’t have to put them down myself. I’m not sure if I could have.”

“Do you know how long you were down here for?”

“Thousands of years.”

Nervously, he asked. “And you weren’t driven mad?”

She turned to caress one of the large sacs again. “No. I had my future children giving me hope to hold on to.”

“What are your plans now?”

“I wish for my children to be born, but their souls perished centuries ago. I will look for a way to give them life again.”

“You don’t want to… take over the world or anything, do you?”

She laughed boisterously. “Is that what they said I wanted? I want what I’ve always wanted. A peaceful existence on Midgard for me and my children.”

“Do you mind if I speak with my group for a moment?” She nodded and turned to check on her brood. “What’s the play here?”

“She could be lying. I would lie in her shoes.” Said Laura.

Toaby shook his head. “She’s not lying. I mean, not that I can tell. She seems pretty sincere.” He knew she wasn’t lying. It seemed like all she wanted was to be left alone.

“I agree. She seems trustworthy. I say we just leave her be. Maybe we tell her about the settlement and ask her to settle somewhere else? Last thing we need is a bunch of spider children being born here.”

“Are you both nuts? You’re going to trust that monster?” Laura argued. “Tell me I’m not the only crazy one.” She looked to Sam for help.

“Err… I’m siding with the guys on this one.” Sam muttered sheepishly.

“WHAT!?”

“As long as she's willing to relocate, I say we leave her be.”

“Sorry, Laura.” Said Toaby. “You’re outvoted on this one.”

“Fine, but don’t come crawling to me when you’re pumped full of spider eggs.” She huffed.

“Queen Anzu.” Toaby called out to her. Honesty is the best policy, right? “My group has a quest to kill you.” She bent low and readied her claws.

“Nice going, idiot!” Laura shoved him from behind.

“Wait! We don’t want that!” Toaby shouted, and Queen Anzu visibly eased a bit. “We have a small settlement close to this mountain and were concerned about its proximity to you. To put it bluntly, were worried about having to fend off spiders. They already make mining difficult.”

She chuckled. “Thats all?” He nodded slowly. “Do not worry, little Human. I have no intention of staying here in this coffin of ours. It holds to many ill memories. My magic is already returning to me and I shall use it to transport my brood and I to lands elsewhere.”

“Toaby.”

“What?”

“You keep calling me little Human. My name is Toaby, and this is Sam, Hiro and Laura.” Toaby gestured to each of his teammates as he called them out.

“Do not worry, little Toaby. After you leave, you will not see me again.”

Warning! You’re current course of action will result in a failure to clear the Dungeon of the Arachnokin. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

Yes / No

Judging by their far way expressions, the rest of his group just received the same notification he had. Still feeling guilty about killing the world’s last Dust Elves, regardless if they were mad, he thought ‘yes’. “I choose yes.” He declared proudly.

“As did I.” Hiro added.

“Me too.” Sam said.

All eyes were the on Laura. “I was so close to another level.” She frowned. “I just hit yes.” She sighed.

Congratulations! Your dungeon delve is complete. You have received a 85% completion rate. You have failed to complete the final objective and have lost the completion rewards. Better luck next time, adventurers.

“I guess we’ll be leaving. We wish you the best and…” A system message crashed into view, refusing to minimize itself.

Attention inhabitants of Midgard! The ancient race of Dusk Elves have returned to the land. Led by the Arachnokin Queen Anzu, the Dusk Elves have become a playable race for all new players entering Yggdrasil. With the introduction of a second playable race, racial bonuses have been unlocked.

Humans: The most diverse, adaptable and ambitious of all the races. They range wildly in tastes, morals, customs and appearance. As a result, they are quick learners and capable of a greater variety of customization.

Humans receive the following benefits:

+3 attribute points per level

+10% skill leveling speed

+10% new skill acquisition rate

General skill: Chosen Path

Chosen Path: You may select a skill as your chosen path in life. That skill will receive an additional +10% skill leveling speed. Once a month you will be prompted to select a new skill for chosen path. If you select the same skill, it will receive an additional +10% skill leveling speed for every month it is chosen consecutively up to a maximum amount of +50%.

Congratulations! You have completed a hidden world quest. The Return of the Arachnokin. As a reward for being the group to complete this quest, you will be offered a one time chance to switch races.

Dusk Elves: Ancient and mystical, Dusk Elves are born of magic. Because of this, they have extremely high amplitudes toward the mystic arts. Through generations, this connection to magic has grown and permeated through their very cells. Their skin has taken on the purple tint of magic and hardened to provide some basic protection.

Dusk Elves receive the following benefits:

+1 attribute points per level

+1 intelligence per level

+1 wisdom per level

+10% mana regeneration rate

+5 natural armor

General skill: Mana Touched

Mana Touched: While other races study and struggle to learn the mystic arts, you are born with the ability to use magic. You are able to choose one of the following basic spell upon your first reincarnation as a Dusk Elf: Petty Fire, Weak Gust or Chilling Touch.

Would you like to become a Dusk Elf?

Yes / No

The information overload was too much for Toaby. A new race of people in Midgard, and he was being given the opportunity to become one of them? What was better? A bonus to his mana and gaining the ability to cast spells right now or the experience gains? It seemed to be a question of immediate rewards or long-term ones. While he was running the options through his head, Hiro lifted into the sky next to him.

As he gained altitude, he rotated slowly. In a burst of purple light, his body shifted in an instant. He fell to the ground as a Dusk Elf.