You have been poisoned. Your poison resistance has reduced the duration of the poison from five minutes to two minutes.

Deacon could feel the spider bite pumping fluid into his back. He’d been avoiding using aura abilities until now since these dungeon monsters didn’t have souls. If Ralph hadn’t convinced him to start training without using abilities to conserve soul energy, he might be in a more desperate position right now. Instead, Deacon began spinning two Ice Sickles around his body spending ten percent soul energy out of his three hundred. As they began rotating around him the mass of sheep-sized spiders that had taken the opportunity to dogpile him started thinning out. It was now apparent that the floor near where Deacon was fighting was littered with spider corpses. He started stuffing some of them in his bag just to gain some sure footing.

The blades had given Deacon a breather to check his health bar. It kept dipping below one hundred fifteen percent and popping back up to one twenty as his perk wared with the damaging poison. Deacon looked down to see the innards of a bisected spider on the ground spilling out of thin air. The spider’s invisibility was just that good. A sinking feeling crept over him. What if there were more of that variant just lying in wait? How could he detect them other than the speed at which they moved through his aura? Deacon decided to warn the others. He could hear them fighting on floors above him.

“Tantus? Can you hear me? Look out for –” was as far as Deacon got before the next wave of spiders showed up. He was going to have to do something stupid. He knew it was stupid but there was supposedly a dungeon boss at the end of this and he was running out of options. Deacon couldn’t go all out and still expect to fight a boss battle. Time to change the music. Deacon pulled out the Adventurer’s Die and threw it at the closest mass of spiders whose legs weren’t curled up above them in death. It tumbled through the air bouncing off of one carapace after another before landing on the number four: summon soldier.

A five foot tall portal opened up and a half-man half-beaver wearing overalls and a flannel shirt stepped through. He held a log over his right shoulder and stood about five-feet-eight after hunching to make it through the portal. All the spiders stopped in their tracks now that another combatant had appeared. Deacon once again heard the background chittering as the spiders split into two separate hordes.

“The names Chuck. I see you have a big bug problem. Mind if go first?” asked Chuck.

“Be my guest,” replied Deacon, as he prepared for his own battle.

Chuck swung his log out in front of him in an arc. Not to hit the oncoming spiders but to launch a series of pinecones that erupted like cluster bombs within the spiders midst. Every spider hit by one of the explosive seeds bloomed into a rapidly growing tree. Upon maturation emerald-green leaves spun up in a storm around each tree shredding more and more spiders. It was like the opposite of wildfire as a veritable forest began to bloom on floor five.

Deacon marveled as Chuck not only took care of his enemies but the group that was coming at Deacon also got caught up in the conflagration. Chuck turned to check on Deacon only to see him plant a boot through a spiders carapace that then slumped to the ground unmoving.

“Just one. Seems like I’m doing the lion share of the work here,” joked Chuck.

“You killed everything in a huge swath. I’ve been fighting these things hand to hand since I got here,” Deacon shot back while trying to kick spider ichor off his boots.

“Is that so? Maybe you need to move on. Doesn’t seem like this a safe place for ya,” said Chuck as he gave Deacon a saucy wink.

“How long will those trees last?” Deacon asked as the leaves hadn’t stopped spinning and it looked like more trees were growing out of the corpses of fresh kills.

“Bout an hour. Why? Something in that direction you need?” asked Chuck as he hefty his log back onto his shoulder.

“Nope. Just the stairs onto this floor. I guess this gives me a chance to look around more. Whatever you do don’t go near that dresser draws. It has a mean bite,” said Deacon as he turned to look around.

It seemed to him that the ceiling was covered in tables on this floor. This may have been the dining hall for this tower. If that was true, then Deacon posited that there must be a kitchen area on this ring of the tower. He snatched up his Adventurer’s Die and headed off to check a nearby archway.

“Crap before I do this, Ignis can you go tell the others to watchout for invisible spider variants. I know, that sounds impossible. Just tell them to be careful,” Deacon said while his eyes reached the tops his sockets trying to look up at the top of his scalp.

“I’m tired,” replied Ignis.

“Come on. You can go rest in Tantus’s platinum hair. He’s a magic user and has lots of mana.” Deacon teased trying to get the will-o-wisp to go.

“Alright, but are you going to be ok without me?” Ignis asked, as a small globe of light lifted out of Deacon’s ponytail.

“Chuck over there is here to help. I’ll be fine,” Deacon said as he slightly pushed on the door before it collapsed inwards.

Tantus raised another shield from the ring on his finger blocking another attempt to bite him. Ralph leaned around the shield to skewer the charcoal grey spider. Upon reaching level six they’d encountered grey statues of spiders standing in neat rows all around the ring. Every third statue was just a camouflaged Black Weaver spider who’s carapace closely resembled stone. Once the group caught on to the pattern it was just a matter of blocking the attack with the magic shield and having Ralph or Hani slay the creature.

“I don’t here anymore of those weird explosions. You think he’s alright?” Tantus asked Ralph as he drew back his sword.

“Check your party interface. He keeps taking damage and healing. He probably did something stupid that gave him the upper hand. You know how he is,” Ralph replied.

“You know, I’ve only been with you all for a short time, but I’ve had more strange things happen in that time then the rest of my life. Is it always like this?” Hani asked, spinning his hat in a tight circle his right side.

“You get used to it. You really shouldn’t, but you get used to it. Traveling with the champion of Chimera is… an experience. But we’ve all reached level twenty in a very short time. Although I don’t think that’s much of an incentive for you,” Ralph commented with a sneer.

“What gave it away?” Hani asked as he hopped over Tantus’s shield to slash his hat in an arc from left to right out at the next ambushing spider.

“I’ve never met a more deadly jester in my life,” Ralph answered preparing for the next attack.

“Then the one’s you’ve met are better than me,” Hani said with a wink as he danced back behind the shield.

A small light bobbed up the central column and began to spin in a slow circle. Tantus was the first one to notice it as they were only a quarter of the way around this ring toward the stairs down. The light stopped rotating and slowly made its way toward them.

“Hang on guys. I think that fairy is in here with us. It’s magic is really low though,” Tantus said as the three of them slowed down.

Ignis moved a slow pace toward them listing back and forth like a someone gave a toddler too much wine. It eventually stopped in front of Tantus but didn’t say anything. It just hovered there.

“Ignis right? Is everything ok?” Tantus asked, getting strange looks from the other two.

“Tired,” Ignis said before landing in Tantus’s well-groomed hair.

“Where is Deacon Ignis? Why did you come up here alone?” Ralph asked, urgently between clenched teeth.

“In the kitchen. The wood chuck is standing guard. Sleepy,” Ignis replied before yawning loudly.

“By the ten hells, what does that mean?” Ralph exclaimed before being held back by Hani.

“Ignis, did Deacon give you a message for us?” Tantus asked in a much more gentle tone than Ralph.

“Something about invisible spiders. Nap time, this hair is very comfy,” Ignis said before it’s light winked out.

“Shit!” Ralph spat.

Virges Hascavir made it to the foothills south of the mountain pass. From here he could make it back to the Shattered Sky within a day. He was very proud of himself for taking the opportunity to end the champion. What fool peers over precipice? Virges jumped at the chance to complete an alternate objective. He would surely die from the fall and should he survive the rampant dungeon monsters would tear him to bits.

His cover was blown now and the only choice for him would be to make it back to the families district at the Shattered Sky before Typhus Bloodbeard’s caravan of misfits. Unfortunately they would have to enact alternate plans within the city to wrest the tapestry from Typhus before it could be presented to the Stone Council.

The rainy season was about to start so Virges had a little pep in his step. There were only a few Black Weavers in the trees on his way out of there and they were crushed beneath his boots. His Titan’s Strength earth spell was nearing level six. Arguably his most useful spell for increasing his attribute in short bursts. This trek across the foothills will give him an opportunity to train Titan’s Stamina. House Hascavir will maintain it’s political stranglehold on the city no matter what. He yearned for the brisk sea air to fill his lungs again. Soon he would be home.

On a nearby rock sat a pixie. It wore woven leaves and red hat made from folded rose petals. It watched the Deep Dweller sprinting through the countryside with interest. The pixie stood up and dusted off its hemp pants and turned around. Behind the rock was a group of pixies around a small campfire.

“Alert the Queen. The Deep Dweller heads to the Shattered Sky. If she wants answers about what went on in the rampant dungeon, we’ll have to move quickly,” spoke the Pixie.