Logan, Marcus, and the team of level 2 adventurers made their way to the city gates. The youth jumped and giggled at the fact they had people close to ten times their rank aiding them for practically free. Logan saw their naivety on full display, it wasn’t smart to take such an open-hand request, but then, Logan was known as benevolent.

“How’s our attack strategy, Logan, sir?” Alice asked, trying to sound confident but coming off energetic.

“Marcus and I will hang back while you lot deal with the dungeon, healing will come when needed and protection if there’re too many monsters.”

“It’ll be fine, we’re quite strong, you know”, Jayd retorted, trying to sound tough. However, his 15-year-old baby face didn’t give off the rugged appeal of an experienced combatant.

“Haven’t I heard of you before? Mr Hall?” Varuud asked.

“Oh? I’ve helped a few gashriek in the past, I am a welcomed forest visitor”, Logan replied, remembering one of his older titles.

Varuud nodded quickly with a wide smile, “Oh yeah! I overheard some adults talking about you!”

“Forest visitor? What?” Sooryah asked confused.

“Don’t worry, gashriek stuff”, Varuud replied quickly with a knowing smirk.

“Fine then, keep your secrets.”

Passing by the open portcullis gates, Logan asked, “Is what you’ve got equipped all you’re bringing?”

Alice gave a thumbs up, “Yeah, should be enough for spiders.”

“Anything more we’ll need we’ll find in the dungeon, right?” Jayd asked.

Alice nodded, “Uh-huh, should be full of goodies.”

“Do you know what type of dungeon it is? You know it’s a spider’s den, but what else”, Logan asked.

“Uh, it’s big? Should take us two days to clear. An estimate of fifty or so monsters.”

Logan sighed and pinched his forehead.

Marcus instructed, “This is a natural dungeon. It is a naturally forming interior locale that monsters have overrun. It will lack the respawning features of spellforced dungeons. Since it is natural, it will also hold much less in the way of loot.”

“Ay? Why bother then?” Sooryah demanded.

“These kind of places typically hold some other value. Be it a location people pass by, or housing ore and materials to gather”, Logan replied.

“So, we’re keeping the peace?” Alice determined.

“Yes. That’s most of what the pay is for.”

“You lot at least picked an easy one to do, spiders aren’t that hard. Barely passing for a rank one monster”, Marcus encouraged.

Alice smirked, “It was my intuition.”

“No doubt the boss is rank three though”, Logan added.

“Three!?” Alice and Jayd shouted in unison.

“I don’t think I could heal past a rank three”, Varuud admitted.

“A rank three monster is akin to a brown wolf, however, as a boss monster it will be stronger than a normal one. You’ll find they are twice as hardy.”

“Unfair. Why aren’t they a rank six then?” Sooryah demanded.

“It’s like the classification for weapons and armour. A rank three dagger can be weak, but any rank three adventurers can wield it normally. However, a shoddy tier has free-flowing spellforce, while a legendary tier one is condensed and compacted without putting any further strain on the wielder”, Logan explained.

“So, instead of leaking their power, a boss keeps it all welled up inside?” Varuud deduced.

Logan clicked his fingers, “Correct. You’ll find they grant better rewards because of it.”

“You also don’t have to worry about them having the spells and skills of a rank six, if they are still rank three”, Marcus added.

“Thank Desna”, Alice prayed as she let her head droop down.

“Thank her doubly that you’ll have a four-way split on the pay”, Logan teased.

“Yeah, yeah. As promised it’s 25% each.”

Logan looked around at the teens, even though they were seemingly all friends they had the same idea for splits, giving the Devout a lesser share as their “work would be less.” One of the conditions for Logan and Marcus to join was an even split between the four. Though it seemed more of an accepted piece of advice from others, rather than their own invention, so Logan couldn’t blame them too much.

Aside from Varuud who was 16, the group were late into age 15. They had been adventuring for a few months at this point and had all joined when they hit 15 and 16 respectively. It reminded Logan of Marsh, Vaela, and Pon To, who were in a similar position but older. They weren’t as naive though.

To compare, Marsh hit level 4 after 11 months, but he was a bit more cautious than some adventurers. With all the monsters in this dungeon, Logan was sure half this team would hit level 3.

As the party made it to the edge of the forest, far beyond the Demonturle Shell Barrier, Logan had them all group up and teleport to the dungeon.

Apparating with a thick thicket, Logan scanned the area for threats. Thankfully the noise of their explosive entry scared off most. The forest itself was made up of dark trees coated in countless shiny spiderwebs, some minor spiders amongst them that wouldn’t prove an issue.

Sooryah fell unconscious as the party appeared, while Varuud held their mouth to stop a violent expulsion. Alice had shaky legs but held up a thumb to feign security. It seemed Jayd was unphased, probably a thrill seeker.

With some time to prepare, Logan summoned up his elementals, forms of fire, electricity, ice, water, and shadows. Celsius, Spark, and Fahrenheit were all cleanly at 5’ tall, while Servoir and Umbra stood at 4’10”.

As the party awoke and recovered, their eyes became wide at the sight of five elementals simultaneously.

“Sir, you must be super strong!” Alice mentioned.

“No doubt, these fellas could take on the dungeon themselves”, Jayd added.

“Such mastery”, Varuud thought aloud.

“Now now, we’ve got a job to do. Leader, lead on”, Logan interrupted.

“Right! Team, form up and check your gear”, Alice ordered.

The youngsters did as commanded, drawing their weapons and checking them over for invisible marks. Varuud looked over his crossbow closely, thankfully the idea of ranged combat had reached this Devout before Logan had appeared.

“Ready”, the team all announced.

“The formation is the same as usual, but with Logan’s summons at the far back to make retreat easy”, Alice instructed as she looked at the Spellthief.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Marcus and I will only engage if needed, we’ll treat this as a training day for you lot”, Logan confirmed.

The team nodded.

Alice took the lead with Jayd at her side, while Varuud was in the middle and Sooryah at the back facing the elementals and the higher-ranked adventurers.

A few minutes of travel passed before the team reached the dungeon, a large hill that descended into the ground. A whistling wind could be heard inside, revealing it either had a geyser or a connection to another exit. Before they could enter, however, a trio of spiders leapt from the mound to attack the party.

Alice was able to block one spider, the 3’ wide beast grappling onto her sword. Jayd slammed one and blocked another with his mace. Varuud let a bolt fly at the one on Alice, impaling it and allowing the Fighter to swipe it in half. Sooryah used Dash and circled Jayd, slashing the spiders at the other Fighter’s side.

The team cheered at the victory while Logan made mental notes on how to improve. Marcus moved closer and used Healer’s Caress to heal some slight marks from imperfect parries.

“This was a good warmup, but stay on guard inside”, Alice instructed as Jayd took out a torch.

“Identify.”

“Spider Spy - Arachnid. Level 1: 6/6 HP.

…”

“These are the weaker variants, don’t get overconfident”, Logan instructed as he left the reading until later.

“Right”, the team acknowledged.

With the way lit by Jayd, and the back by the elementals, the interior of the cave was quite bright. Whilst mostly brown and black, it was covered in glistening spiderwebs all around. Alice had to cut through them constantly to make a path for her team, while the tall individuals had to clean their hair of mess.

Logan clicked his fingers to activate Echo Radar and spotted countless enemies ahead in the messy corridors and caverns. He kept the information to himself, as it wouldn’t be learning if he announced ambushes.

It seemed this team lacked the same awareness, as they were ambushed by a group of seven spiders.

Alice jumped out of her skin as she deflected one but was grappled by another. Jayd bashed away another but had his legs grabbed. Varuud started to let bolts fly, but Sooryah had to dodge some of them in such confined spaces.

Alice’s blade glowed red as she slashed away one spider, Jayd’s mace the same. Lights filled the room with multiple colours as the teens used their skills to batter back the battalion.

One spider on the ceiling was about to drop onto Varuud’s head if not for a blast of Force from Logan that splattered it into nothing.

With the rest of the spiders dealt with, the party were a mess of deep breaths and sweat before Alice perked up, “Good job team! Ambush survived!”

“I’d give you a passing grade”, Logan scorned.

“What?” Jayd said in shock.

“Only passing?” Alice pushed.

“You forgot to protect your allies as the leader and Fighter. Without a Knight, who is meant to protect your healer?”

“What do you mean, he’s fine!” Alice retorted before looking at Varuud who had slime over his hair.

“An ambush isn’t just a single attack, the enemies know you’re there so they will attack with the upper hand, literally. You forgot to check the ceiling”, Logan instructed as he pointed upwards to an almost black abyss.

“C’mon, you can’t see Wallace up there.”

“Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

Alice gritted her teeth in anger, both at Logan’s instruction but also at herself.

“Alright, we get it. Right, Alice?” Jayd consoled.

“Yeah”, Alice slouched, “Sorry, Varuud. We’ll keep an eye out for you from now on.”

“Thanks, leader”, Varuud responded with an apologetic smile.

“Ok, we used a lot of skills here. Time for a rest”, Alice instructed.

Logan nodded, it was a better plan than most. If an ambush made them use even half of their allotment they should retreat and come back later.

Since they didn’t need to risk it, the team left for the entranceway of the cave. Logan used his elementals to guard all directions while Marcus tended to wounds.

Jayd picked out waterskins and ration blocks and handed them out to the party. While they weren’t too loud, the group conversed about the recent fights and plans for the rest of the dungeon. They were happy and go-lucky, but still aware of danger. Logan was just worried they were a bit too energetic about everything.

With their rest complete, and skills off their cooldowns, the party continued into the cave. With Marcus’s restoring skills, the party was able to clear out the place much faster than they had calculated. Since normally they would have to wait a day for Varuud to regain his MP, Marcus having almost infinite amounts of his skill let them continue at a rapid pace.

Sword swings, mace smashes, crossbow fire, and double dagger plunges caused many spiders to fall down with ease. Logan could clear this place in minutes, but then the youngsters would learn nothing and get overconfident. This way, they could adjust their output and realise the difference in power with the monsters.

Eventually, the party reached the final chamber, much larger than all the rest. Speckled sunlight pierced through several cracks in the ceiling to reveal a room dappled with cobwebs and cocoons. Within the centre of the far wall was a 10’ tall spider, if not for its white and black design Logan would be scared it was another vaskt.

“Identify.”

“Spider Queen ☠️ - Arachnid. Level 3: 52/52 HP.

…

Reduction: Damage 2

Resistance: Damage 25%, Elemental 50%, Fire 0%.”

“Marcus keep an eye out, get to the left flank”, Logan ordered.

Marcus nodded as he darted to the side of the chamber.

“We got this, he’s only rank 3, right?” Alice said confidently before turning to her team, “Keep your wits. Varuud throw heals if we get hit, this thing won’t need a third to kill us. Jayd, keep attention from its right limb, Sooryah, anger its right flank and take some legs. I’ll go left. Use all your skills and spellforce!”

“Right”, the team confirmed.

Logan took a few steps forward and stood at the ready, before the team Dashed and Rushed at the boss.

Even though it was a single entity, its size and number of limbs allowed it the ability to take on multiple foes easily. Jayd slammed heavily with his mace, but the creature’s defences almost nullified its effect.

Sooryah glowed yellow as he let out slashes, small specks of blood floating into the air.

Alice made a leaping swipe with her red misty sword, but was easily battered back by a limb, taking off a few pieces of hair with the strike.

A piercing jab of a limb came at the leader, Alice parrying and having it slide across her blade past her face to the floor behind her. Alice’s arms shook at the weight and fear, she turned her face to Logan for a second before recomposing herself.

“Jayd, ready a Power Strike and aim for the head!”

“Got it!”

Alice slashed away the leg and jumped to the side, the spider’s two front limbs smashing into her sword as she blocked and slid backwards with them.

“Now!”

Jayd jumped into the air and slammed his red misty mace into the spider’s face, a terrible hiss filling the room as it felt the worst pain so far.

Another limb came from the side and sent Jayd flying against a far wall, his body getting hit with a yellow light from Varuud shortly after.

“Two left!” Varuud informed as he avoided another limb.

“Die, you fuck!” Sooryah commanded as he left loose several slashes at the side of the spider, three hitting before he was also sent flying away.

Yellow lights shot past Alice towards Sooryah who stood again.

“One left!”

Alice yelled out, running towards the spider all alone. As limbs came her way, she dodged to the side, twisted her blade near the floor and screamed, “Severing Slash”, shining her blade blue as it swiped through two of the creature’s limbs, jets of blood going everywhere as they fell to the floor.

The spider screeched again as its health continued to drop, just as its legs did. Two limbs crushed Alice to the floor as saliva and blood flew from her mouth, yellow light hitting her pinned form.

“Fuck”, Varuud swore as he ditched his crossbow, picked out a mace, and charged at the limbs to batter them.

Jayd did the same as bludgeons collided with the hairy legs, letting their leader go free.

Four daggers went singing across the air as they impaled the spider’s face as Sooryah charged at the foe again with two final blades.

Alice kicked up to her feet as the final three joined their Rogue in the conflict.

Slams and slashes harried the spider as it tried to defend itself with only six limbs remaining. It turned into a berserker finale as the teens tried to end their foe with rushed blows, all out of skills to use.

A leg went high, turning hair to daggers, and was about to swipe at the teens, before Logan apparated in front of it and punched the leg into a red mist. With a last flurry of strikes from the team, the spider fell motionless to the floor.

Alice and Jayd continued to attack but halted at the command of Logan, “Stop.”

Covered in blood, both theirs and their foe’s, the team fell to the floor in gasps for air and pained moans.

Marcus jogged over to heal the youth with his skill, bringing them to max easily, but not removing their fatigue.

“Sloppy, but great work. Alice, good callouts”, Logan praised.

Alice smiled through bloody teeth and tears before landing her back on the floor.

--- *** ---