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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Hiro examined his new body. His skin was now a dark purple, and he grew a few inches, but his facial features remained the same, albeit a bit more slim. Stretching a hand out, he turned it over with his palm up. A marble sized red flame appeared hovering above his open palm. After a moment it exploded outward, growing to the size of a baseball.

“This is amazing.” He commented as he moved the flame around in his hand.

“Hiro, what the fuck?” Laura took a step closer to get a better look at him.

“What?”

“You’re a Dusk Elf!” Laura shouted, and he nodded. “Why?”

“The promise of magic was very appealing and I’ve already lived a long life as a Human. I thought I would try something new.”

“And how much of it was because of what happened in the dungeon?” Toaby questioned.

“I thought I could help the Queen repopulate the land after what happened. But honestly,” Hiro lifted an eyebrow, “magic is really cool.”

Toaby’s thought his options over again but ultimately selected no. Since he was essentially immortal now and was going to live forever, the bonus experience was too good to pass on. “I’m going to stay Human.”

“Me too.” Laura added. All eyes were now on Sam.

“I’m not sure. On one hand, the experience bonuses are great but on the other, I usually don’t play a Human in RPGs and magic sounds amazing.” Sam scratched his chin a few times before shaking his head. “I can’t give up two of my skill points every level to intelligence and wisdom. I’m going to remain Human.” His eyes went distant as he replied to the system prompt before returning to their normal level of focus.

“Fail a quest and still get some cool rewards. I like it.” Laura jested.

“I agree.” Hiro created another fireball that he quickly diminished.

“I think it’s time to head back.” Toaby suggested.

The party looked around and headed, and when nothing else came to mind, they headed for the stairs.

“Wait.” Queen Anzu called out for them. “I must award you for what you’ve done for me and my children.” Her eyes glowed as she waved a wand at them.

Congratulations! You have gained the unique trait Friend of the Arachnokin.

Friend of the Arachnokin: All spiders and allies of the Arachnokin will forever know what you’ve done. As a result, you will be treated friendly and the Arachnokin spiders will not attack you unless they are provoked.

“I also see that one of you has chosen the path of Dusk Elf.” Queen Anzu bowed her head. “I thank you for being the first among my new children. May we cross paths again. And this is so you shall never forget me.” Bending low to the ground, she hovered a hand over a group of eggs.

Visible waves of energy flowed out of her. The eggs soaked the energy up as they shook. Queen Anzu chanted something none of them could understand. The eggs cracked as her face scrunched in pain.

“Awake my children.” She forced her hand down in a final pulse of energy. Four eggs broke open and revealed puppy sized spiders. The magic didn’t stop there. The spiders grew rapidly until they were the full grown monsters the group were becoming all too familiar with. Queen Anzu smiled warmly at her children before tossing something at the group of adventurers.

Clearly her toss was magically assisted because the four objects flew threw the air with an unnatural grace. They spun and circled around the group before an object landed in each of their outstretched palms.

Toaby turned the object over to get a better look. It appeared to be a thin wooden whistle in the shape of a spider. He pulled up the system information on the item in question.

Whistle of Spider Summoning

Slot: N/A

Rarity: Unique

Condition: Exceptional (+15%)

Durability: 2,300/2,300

Soulbound: Toaby

Description: As a gift from Queen Anzu herself, this whistle automatically binds to whoever it was given to. Blowing on this whistle will summon a unique Arachnokin mount for the wielders use. This mount has a 60% increased run speed over a typical Human or Dusk Elf and can climb some surfaces. Note: Queen Anzu will not permit any harm to come to her children. You can not use this whistle while in combat or when enemies are near. If the spider is already summoned and you engage in combat, it will vanish.

A beam of light shot from each whistle into one spider, linking them. Once the light vanished, so did the spiders.

“Where did they go?” Sam asked.

“They are in a special realm for all linked mounts and pets. They shall reside there while not summoned. Worry not, they are well taken care of there.” The queen fell to the side, catching her balance before falling completely over.

“Are you alright?” Toaby reached out to help, but the queen raised a hand to stay him off.

“I’m alright. It’s just been a while since I’ve used my magic.” She composed herself and stood up straight. “I must ask that you leave. If I’m going to transport my brood from here, I must do it now while I still have the strength.”

“Right. Thank you.” Toaby bowed awkwardly.

“Thank you, your majesty.” Hiro bowed deeply.

Laura waved. “Thanks for the…” she gulped. “Spider.”

“Thanks” Sam nodded.

With that, the group left. Entering the main room, all but Toaby made their way toward the exit. “Give me a minute.”

“Hurry! We need to get out of here.” Laura called out to him as he disappeared into the room where he found the book of enchanting.

Rushing into the room, Toaby ran to the nice desk and chair. Please have room in my inventory for these. He placed a hand on them and received an error message that his inventory was full. He pulled his inventory up and shifted the contents around. Ok, this will give me a nice four by three area. Just enough for the desk and chair. Trying again, the desk and chair vanished and filled his last two slots.

Coming out of the room, Sam cocked his head. “What’s that all about?”

“I wanted the desk in there. Drawing those runes on my boots was incredibly difficult, and that was with them sitting on the desk. I need it.” Toaby explained.

“They did say they were leaving this place, right?” Laura asked to no one in particular. When no one said anything, she left the main room, walked past the traps and into the entrance room. Pointed at the few pieces of furniture, she said, “we should take the table and chair here. Might as well take the nice rug too.” She took the rug and pointed at the other items. “Sorry, I’m carrying a lot of daggers. One of you is going to have to take the rest.”

Sam approached, and both items vanished. As he did, the room shook and rained dust down on them from above. “Uhh… We should probably get out of here.”

No one argued as they nearly collided, rushing out all at once. Once they exited, the ground shook more violently. It felt like the entire mountain was going to come down. They did their best to stay standing, but the quaking was too much and they all fell.

A blinding flash of light came from behind them. The ground stopped moving once the light vanished. Rubbing his eyes, Toaby turned around but couldn’t see anything in the darkness.

“Do you have any more torches?” Toaby asked.

“No need.” Hiro lit a fireball in his palm.

It was small but provided more than enough light for them to see with. The door they had just left was now gone. Nothing but a smooth rock wall stared back at them. Toaby ran a hand over the wall, attempting to find any evidence of the door’s presence, but couldn’t. It was like the door never existed.

When all of them were satisfied, they left the cave. It was now night. The group all stretched, exhausted from a full day of constant action.

“Is that fire?” Sam questioned.

“Yes. I picked the petty fire spell when I converted.” Hire said proudly.

“No. Not that.” He pointed toward the settlement. “There.”

Something in the distance was clearly burning. Smoke was pouring upward from where the group knew their settlement to be.

“We need to go!” Toaby pulled his whistle out and blew into it, but he heard nothing. “Huh. Is it broken?” He pondered, but he didn’t have to ponder long. A large black spider appeared a few dozen feet away, slowly coming into existence as it closed the gap. Toaby flinched at the sight of the spider, and the spider stopped its approach. “You’re a good spider, right?” The spider actually nodded. “Ok.” Toaby walked forward with a hand out. Placing it on the spider’s head and petting it elicited a purr of pleasure. “Ok, everyone. Lets go!”

Toaby hopped onto his mount, the spider bending low to allow him an easy mounting process. The rest of the gang followed suit. Summoning their spiders and quickly mounting them. The only one to hesitate was Laura, but the stern looks of her fellow party members were enough to push her past her reservations.

They pointed their mounts toward the settlement and kicked off. The increased speed of the spiders proved to be invaluable. What would normally be a seventy or eighty minute walk turned into a less than half hour jaunt. Better yet, the ride was incredibly pleasant. The spiders were also incredibly comfortable once you got used to them and, since they were mounted the entire time, they had time to give their bodies a rest. Something they desperately needed.

As they got closer, their worse fears came true. At first glance, at least two of their tents were engulfed in flames. A man, Toaby didn’t remember the name of, was helping Curtis try to combat the flames. Laura dismounted and ran to lend her assistance.

“What happened here?” Toaby called out.

“What does it look like?” Curtis turned to face them. “A raiding par… what the fuck is that!?” He pointed at Hiro.

“That’s Hiro. He became a Dusk Elf. Listen, it’s a long story. Where can we help?” Curtis didn’t reply. He was busy staring at not only Hiro but the three enormous spiders the rest of the group were sitting upon. “Curtis!”

Curtis shook the fog from his head. “Sorry. Tom and Sebastian went after them.” He pointed toward the river. “They went that way. There were only a few of them, but they were well equipped.”

“Was it Max’s group? The Void?”

“No. I didn’t recognize any of them. We fought back with the weapons we crafted, but after they started the fires, we all went into fire prevention mode. We managed to get most of them out.”

Toaby took a quick glance around. A lot of the other tents had signs of fire damage. “Ok. We’ll head after them.”

He didn’t bother waiting for a reply, he just gently kicked the sides of his mount and was off. With the added speed of the spider beneath him, it didn’t take long for them to hear the scuffle going on. It was only a moment later that they saw Tom and Sebastian fighting off a group of five strangers.

At the sight of the newcomers, the raiding party turned to run, but they weren’t going to get far. “Sam! Your bow, now!”

Sam launched an arrow at the attackers. When it struck the ground, it exploded in a cacophony of webs. That may have shocked all present, but what shocked Sam, Hiro and Toaby even more was the sudden and unexpected disappearance of their mounts. All three of them came crashing to the ground, skidding across the compact dirt as it arrested their momentum.

“What the hell?” Tom turned to face them.

“Owww…” Toaby slowly got up and rubbed his back. “I forgot they disappeared in combat.”