“Alforth was right about one thing.” Jabez said as he led Corwin off the main road and onto one of the many small footpaths that snaked in and out of the Wayward Forest. “Not about that Delver crap, man’s a Thief, or a Rogue if you gotta be genteel about it. But about what happens to untrained folk who drop down into a dungeon unprepared. They die pretty quick, and pretty awful.”

Corwin followed, trying to keep the dwarf in sight as he marched decisively into the old forest. The Wayward Forest covered a large swath of the western side of the kingdom, a dark expanse of old emerald growth all the way up to the towering peaks of the Shield Mountains. For his entire life, Corwin had been told to stay away from the forest. That people who just walked into the forest were never seen again. Well, except for the elves, but no one liked elves.

Jabez seemed perfectly comfortable striding with reckless abandon down one track, then seemingly at random down another. “However!” The dwarf continued pontificating as he stopped to examine a tree that to Corwin looked like every other damn tree in the forest. “Just dropping into a dungeon and seeing how you do is the best way to see if you’d be any good at this job. Sink or swim is how we did in the old days, and you got better adventurers for it. Those assholes back in town may have nice gear and have run a few obstacle courses, but when the shit hits the fan and you’re facing down some ghoul who is pissed off that you’re raiding his corpse. Well that’s when you really find out what you’re made of.”

“We’re going to a dungeon?” Corwin asked as Jabez once again changed directions and strode off along a track that was barely more than some trampled ferns. The forest had gotten noticeably darker and quieter. Corwin wasn’t sure where they were in relation to the town anymore. A deep twinge of doubt was crawling up from somewhere in his belly.

“Ha! No, you wouldn’t last five minutes if I took you to a real dungeon. I’m taking you someplace where you can do the real work of an adventurer…if I can ever find the damn thing.” Jabez frowned, taking in the clearing and peering at the trees around them in annoyance.

“Real work?” Corwin asked.

“Uh-huh, clearing out eruptions from the Underlands. Ah-ha! There it is!” Jabez stalked over to a pile of rocks, from one angle it just looked like a pile of moss-covered stones, but once you had circled around it as Jabez did, a small man-sized hole in the ground became visible, neatly hidden out of the way of anyone who might come casually walking by. Jabez strode up to the lip of the hole and peered down. “Yup, this one’s still in use I’ll bet. All right, apprentice wannabe, this is what most of us do. Shimmy down into holes like this one, find out what’s causing trouble, and make it safe for farmers and whatnot.”

Corwin approached, looking over Jabez’s shoulder. The hole wasn’t deep, maybe eight feet or so, but it sloped towards what seemed to be another chamber just out of sight. “What’s in there?”

“No clue.” Jabez said with a belch. “But you’re gonna go down there and take care of it.”

“Me? What are you going to do?” Corwin asked.

“Take a nap.” Jabez said, finding a tree not too far from the hole and settling against the trunk, sitting the war-hammer he had been carrying next to him.

“I’ve only got my belt knife with me.” Corwin protested.

“That’s good, I mean you are a thief or rogue or whatever, right?” Jabez asked, getting comfortable.

“Not really, I wasn’t very good at it.”

“Damn, that sucks.” Jabez said, flippantly. “But you gotta work with what you have in this life.”

“Can I borrow your hammer?” Corwin asked, looking at the well-used but finely crafted weapon that Jabez had set down in the dirt next to him.

“Touch the hammer and you die, got it kid?” Jabez said without opening his eyes.

“Guess not.” Corwin said, looking around for something to use that was better than the knife he cut bread and cheese with. After some looking around, he managed to find a decent-sized tree branch, it was about as thick as his wrist, heavy enough to do some damage, but not unwieldy. Thus armed, he approached the ‘eruption’ as Jabez had called it. “What happens if I get into trouble?”

“Probably die, I’m just guessing, but that’s what most people do.” Jabez said.

“And if I can survive this then I’m in the Guild?”

Jabez opened one eye and regarded Corwin. “Let’s say it’ll look good on your application.”

The dwarf closed his eye again leaving Corwin standing, alone at the lip of a hole in the ground made by the gods only knew what. He had come this far, and it was time to see this through. Either he was an adventurer, or he was dead. Sometimes life was a leap of faith. Corwin took a deep breath and stepped.

***

Loose stones and soil tumbled down the hole as Corwin slid on his ass much further than he had intended. The hole that opened on the surface seemed to go much further down than he had expected. The angle left the sunlight far enough behind to only give a bare glow to the earth and stone walls, beyond a few feet in front of him there was a deep darkness. A draft of cold, damp air rushed past Corwin, almost as if the cave were exhaling. The smell of damp earth with a tinge of decay wafted on the breeze.

“Should have brought a lantern.” Corwin grumbled. “Didn’t have the money for a lantern, but that’s beside the point, should have brought one anyways.” His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, and he started to make out dim glowing shapes ahead of him. Branch held forward with one hand and his dagger in the other, Corwin moved forward into the dark tunnel. The shapes, strange fuzzy blotches of blue, green, or orange, dotted the walls of the tunnel. Curious, Corwin reached out and pinched some, finding a strange glowing moss, its light dying in his hand. “Huh, that’s weird.”

As Corwin pressed further his eyes adjusted to the strange moss’ illumination. It gave everything a strange blue-purple glow that both illuminated his path, but also made the shadows even deeper somehow. Corwin strained his senses to see or hear anything ahead of him. The occasional sighs of wind passing through the tunnel and the beating of his own heart were the only sounds he heard. The ground was sloping down, deeper into the earth. Corwin became acutely aware of the tons of earth above him held up by…what exactly? He knew miners used braces to keep their tunnels open, but what was keeping this one up?

“Just keep breathing.” Corwin said to himself. “Maybe there’s nothing down here.”

Just to prove him wrong, Corwin heard a faint scratching sound ahead, like something hard scrabbling on stone.

“Stop talking to yourself, idiot, they can hear you.” Corwin hissed, then winced, realizing what he had done. He took a deep breath then moved forward slowly, cautiously, like Nyx had tried to show him. Foot rolling from heel to toe, making almost no sound on the soft ground.

The tunnel opened into a much larger cave a few feet on. A cluster of moss on the ceiling gave the place a deep greenish glow. The cave was much taller than it was wide. The floor was probably only about twenty feet across while the walls rose two or three times that height, pocked with smaller holes that probably lead to other small tunnels. Cobwebs coated the walls, Corwin judged that nothing had been down here in a very long time. He sighed, relieved, if there was some sort of monstrous beasty down here, it would have disturbed the webs.

“Well that’s lucky.” Corwin said to himself, stepping into the center of the cave and looking around. “Nothing here, so I can tell Jabez that it’s all clear. Guess I was scared for nothing. Probably some sort of hazing that the Guild does to new initiates.” Corwin rationalized. “The sighing air probably came from the cold air beneath the ground rushing to get out through the warmer tunnel. The skittering came from the breeze blowing little pebbles. Smell of rot and decay? Probably came from that corpse wrapped up in the webs right there.”

Corwin stopped turning as he came face to face with a half-decayed corpse. It was about man-sized and was hanging head-down, clothes in tatters, skin a ghastly greenish-gray in the moss-light. Corwin jumped back, startled, then started noticing the other web-wrapped lumps at varying heights among the cobwebs.

Then he heard the sound of many legs scrabbling in the small tunnels above.

“Fuck.” Corwin hissed.

Scrabbling backwards towards the tunnel mouth, he held out his branch towards the suddenly more menacing darkness. It sounded like a lot of legs.

His foot caught on one of the loose stones and he fell backwards, landing hard on his back, narrowly missing the chitinous legs that reached for him. Corwin gasped at the spider that was slowly descending on a line of webbing from the ceiling. It was the size of one of the village dogs, with a hairy, tough exoskeleton and far too many eyes.

The spider hissed and dropped. Corwin rolled, stumbling back up to his feet, trying to swing his branch at the same time, only succeeding in swinging himself around and tumbling into the wall of webbing. The branch caught and stuck fast to the seemingly wispy strands. It shouldn’t be that strong!

Corwin chanced a look back and saw the spider rushing towards him. He yelped and dodged aside as the spider sprang and landed on the web beside where he was still holding his ‘club’. The spider made a quick, deft motion and a strand of webbing encased Corwin’s hand.

“Oh you little shit!” Corwin growled, not thinking, he brought his other hand around, the one with his everyday knife in it. The cheap blade struck the spider in the eye, earning a screech from the arachnid, which skittered back a few feet, tossing its head, ichor dripping from the wound. “Yeah! Didn’t like that did you?”

There was a chorus of hisses and Corwin looked up to see half a dozen spiders descending from the holes above.

“Fuck!” Corwin bellowed, pulling at his club with all the strength his scrawny arms could muster. The web gave way with the sound of tearing cloth and Corwin tumbled backwards as the rest of the spiders descended.

A spider darted in, mandibles slashing at Corwin’s knife arm. The boy screamed and slammed his makeshift club down on the creature’s body, feeling the carapace crack underneath the blow. The spider released him with its own screech, scrabbling away with jerky movements. Blood quickly began to soak Corwin’s shirt and he felt a cold burning sensation from the wound. Poison? Could the spiders be venomous? He didn’t have time to think about that right now.

Another spider grabbed Corwin by the boot, luckily its mandibles could not pierce the leather, Corwin hit it with his branch, but the spider held on. A fourth went for Corwin’s bloody wound. With a howl of fury Corwin lashed out with his small knife, burying it deep in the creature’s head. The spider sagged, dead, but bore the knife down with it. The spider biting Corwin’s foot began to drag him, pulling him towards the webbing and the rest of the spiders.

Corwin sat up, grasping the branch in both hands and bringing it down on the spider. The creature squealed in pain as its body cracked, a brackish ichor gushing out from its ruined carapace. Releasing Corwin, it skittered in agony before finally dropping, legs curling beneath it.

“That’s what you get, motherfucker! I’ve got a branch and I’m not afraid to use it!” Corwin screamed. A web hit the branch and yanked it from his grip. Another shot out and pinned his legs, yet another plastered his good arm to his side.

The spiders hissed and chittered as they descended their webs and shot new strands at the prone, would-be-adventurer. Corwin struggled as web after web struck him, immobilizing him. Within moments he was bound like the corpses that hung above him. The spiders approached, chittering and slavering, a grotesque giddiness to their motions. Corwin braced for what came next, hoping it would be quick.

With jerky motions the spiders pulled Corwin’s bound body up into their webbing, hauling him with strands of webs and pushes and nudges from their own bodies. “Saving me for later?” Corwin groaned. “Great, just what I always wanted, to be giant spider leftovers.”

A deep, growling sound came from somewhere above him. Corwin lifted his head and felt cold terror flood him. A spider the size of a horse was descending from above. Its bulk shook the webbing with small tremors as it approached the offering that the smaller spiders were presenting.

“Well, shit.” Corwin said, not knowing what else to say. He had failed. Maybe one of the other apprentices could have done this with ease. But him? On his own? With just a stick for a weapon? He hadn’t even had a chance.

There had been a moment, though, hadn’t there? He had made them pay for it, smashed two and stabbed that one. It hadn’t been enough, but he was not a complete failure. Corwin guessed he could die and not be completely embarrassed.

“Huh, guess you’re not completely useless.” Came a voice out of the darkness.

The spiders hissed, turning towards the newcomer. Corwin craned his head around to see Jabez standing at the mouth of tunnel, war-hammer resting casually on his shoulder.

“Most new apprentices freeze up first time they see something monstrous.” Jabez said, casually strolling into the cave. A spider launched itself at the dwarf, the one that Corwin had stabbed but had not killed. Jabez let the hammer come off his shoulder in a lazy backhanded swing, splattering the arachnid against the wall, the legs barely twitched as it slid down the rock leaving a wet patch of ichor behind. “Being an adventurer is all about learning to react without having to think about it.”

The two remaining smaller spiders, one with a cracked carapace, the other still fully intact, circled Jabez. Moving like hunting dogs they tried to flank him. Jabez barely looked at them, he lunged at the nearest spider, hammer making a wide arc and flattening the spider, splaying its legs out flat comically. Without hesitation Jabez pivoted and leapt, bringing the hammer around in an overhead swing. Corwin could’ve sworn the spider screamed just before Jabez’s hammer made it into a greenish splatter on the ground, but blood loss and the burning sensation in his arm were making him feel woozy, so he could not be sure.

“Of course, right now I’m just showing off.” Jabez said in a conversational tone. “Earning your respect and all that, ‘cause if you want to survive in this business it’s usually a good idea to listen to the old buggers like me.”

The huge spider descended with a hissing growl. The razor-sharp mandibles that clicked and flexed were easily the length of Corwin’s forearm, and now it moved with careful, but surprisingly swift movements. Jabez hefted his hammer in both hands and grinned.

“Now big buggers like these?” Jabez said, nodding towards the massive creature. “They require some care. The little ones I can handle on instinct. Just react and boom they’re dead. Big nasties, well you have to think through the fight first.”

The spider let loose a roar that sounded more at place on a bear than an arachnid. It skittered forward with surprising speed. Jabez side-stepped the snapping mandibles, whirling and smashing one of the huge legs. It screeched and reared back, Jabez pivoted and slammed his hammer into the exposed underbelly of the huge creature. There was an audible crack and the spider hissed, folding over onto itself and limping backwards.

“The big ones,” Jabez continued. “Like to make you think that they’re slow or clumsy. But I’ve seen more critters that are faster than you’d think. Always good to be on your toes, expect the swift attack—”

The web slammed into Jabez knocking him to the wall and holding him fast against the rock face. The spider growled, ichor dribbling from its mandibles.

“You were saying?” Corwin asked, woozily from where he hung.

“Don’t sass me, boy.” Jabez grumbled. “Sass isn’t going to help right now.”

The dwarf struggled against the web but obviously couldn’t get any leverage. Corwin watched him as the burning started to fade from his arm, replaced by a kind of cold numbness. “Didn’t you bring a knife? Or is that something you only have if you’re a Thief, or a Rogue, or whatever?”

“I’ve got a knife.” Jabez grunted. “It’s on my belt which is under the webbing. Where’s your knife?”

“It’s in one of the spiders.” Corwin tried to shrug. He let his gaze wander until he found the spider and his knife, lying not far away from where he hung in the webbing. “Right there.”

Jabez looked over and blinked in surprise. “Can you reach it?”

“I’m tied up!” Corwin protested.

“One of your arms is free, you idiot!” Jabez barked back. The big spider seemed to have recovered from Jabez’s strikes and was beginning to advance on the creature that had caused it so much trouble.

Corwin held up his left hand in front of his face. The fingers felt numb and distant. “Oh yeah, there it is. I think the spider poisoned me; I couldn’t feel it.”

“We’ll deal with that later.” Jabez said. “Right now, grab that knife!”

Corwin stretched out towards the knife, numb fingers brushing against the hilt. “Almost got it.”

Jabez watched the spider approach, it was moving with exaggerated slowness and care. It had leapt into combat with the dwarf and would not make that mistake twice. Jabez strained against the webs again, hearing them creak and flex, but he could not get enough leverage to break free. “Try harder, kid!”

Corwin strained, fingertips closing around the pommel of the knife. He tugged; it was stuck fast in the spider. Looking up he saw the massive spider bearing down on Jabez. With a cry, Corwin heaved against the dead spider, feeling the knife slide free. He crowed in victory as he swung back into the webbing, with his blade in hand, still dripping a brackish-green blood.

The huge spider bearing down on Jabez turned to look at Corwin. It hissed, almost inquisitively. Corwin took aim for the creature’s eye and hurled the knife with all his strength. The knife spun end over end with deadly speed. It sailed across the room, past the spider, then hit the opposite wall and clattered to the ground.

Jabez turned back to Corwin, face blank. “That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“What was I supposed to do?” Corwin protested.

“First you cut yourself loose.” Jabez said. There was a tearing sound and a knife sliced through the webbing holding Jabez to the wall. The spider turned back in alarm as Jabez stepped out of the webbing. “Then you try and kill the monster.”

A flurry of blows followed. Jabez moved swiftly, smashing legs and cracking the creature’s armor. The spider hissed and gave ground, backing further and further. It ran into the side wall of the cave, tried to haul its bulk onto the wall, but too many of its legs were broken. The spider snapped and snarled at Jabez, who stood just out of range.

“And when you get the chance.” Jabez said, taking a wide stance. “You end it.”

Jabez sucked in breath and drew the hammer over his head. “Baldniruk!” He called, and is voice took on a strange reverberation. A blue-white glow shimmered around his hammer for a moment, just before he slammed it against the ground. A ripple of force raced along the ground, striking the spider with enough energy to crack the creature like an egg. Blood and ichor erupted from the spider, splashing against the wall behind it.

“And that’s what we do, kid.” Jabez said with a shrug, turning to face Corwin. “Sure you still want in?”

Corwin tried to reply but all that came out was a strangled, “erk!” Before darkness overwhelmed him and he passed out.

***

The fuzzy green shapes coalesced into leaves swaying against the late afternoon sunlight. Corwin groaned, his head was pounding and his arm throbbed. He tried to sit up, but decided it was a bad plan after a wave of nausea hit him.

“Baldniruk!” Someone bellowed nearby. There was a thrum of energy and a sharp crack and rumble of stone collapsing against itself. Corwin turned to see Jabez standing over the pile of rocks, watching the tunnel entrance collapse.

“So, you wouldn’t let me use your hammer because it’s magic?” Corwin grunted.

Jabez turned and snorted. “I wouldn’t trust you to use a butter-knife properly. By the way, I found yours.” He said, approaching where Corwin lay and tossing the blade onto the ground. “Don’t throw it, for the gods’ sake.”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Corwin said, gingerly pushing himself up on one elbow. “What happened?”

“I cut you down and gave you a few potions. It’s always a good idea to have at least a minor healing potion in your kit.” Jabez said, sitting across from Corwin. “The cost of which is coming out of your cut.”

“Cut? Cut of what?” Corwin asked, confused.

“What, you think I dragged you out here to see if you were ‘adventurer material’ or something. No, that right there.” Jabez pointed at the now collapsed rocks. “Is literally one of the things we do for a living. The Underlands break through all over the place, especially as you get closer to the Shield mountains. Guild has a standing bounty on those things. Just bring proof of the encounter to any Guild affiliated tavern or chapter house and you get fifty crowns.”

“Fifty!” Corwin exclaimed, sitting up too quickly and becoming woozy again. “That’s…that’s a lot.”

“It’s a rough job, but it pays pretty well.” Jabez shrugged. “But we’re going to have to spend most of your cut getting you outfitted. Can’t go wandering around with a tree branch, folk’s’ll think I’m a druid or some such.”

“Oh.” Corwin said. “So, does that mean I’m in the Guild?”

Jabez made a face and waggled his hand. “Not officially. You’re an apprentice, specifically you’re my apprentice as long as I feel like keeping you around. We’re going to play this by ear, see how you do. I may decide to ditch you at the next tavern, who knows. But you did all right down there.”

“I did?” Corwin scoffed. “I got bitten and trussed up like a winter ham.”

“You’re still alive.” Jabez said. “Take the win where you can.”

“And don’t throw my knife.” Corwin said, sheepishly.

Jabez chuckled and held out a hand. “On your feet, kid. Let’s go get paid.”