Everyone checked gear, made sure we were all whole. Dekka, unusually stayed in Hellhound form and just flopped on the stones near me and kept an eye out.

  The NPCs seemingly had accepted my assertion that my tiny adorable ‘dog’ was now a massive murder beast with no questions. Ayerelia on the other hand…

  “Where did you get that companion? I heard they were going to release mounts and companions much later on.”

  “I completed an epic quest.” I said.

  “Which story line were you in?”

  I shrugged. “I just saved a random deer from a huge carnivorous plant.”

  She gave me the side eye. I could tell she wanted to call me a liar. But unlike me saying I was stuck in the game should could see my companion for herself.

  “Seems a little OP if you ask me.” She said, staring as Dekka panted slightly, steam rolling off her shadow tongue. “They’re probably going to nerf that. So I wouldn’t get to comfortable depending on it.”

  I bristled. Dekka wasn’t an ‘it’. But I held my tongue. I wanted her to like me so I could try again with the ‘I am stuck in this game, no really’ routine.

  Instead I opened my HUD to allocate my skill point. Every time I levelled up my stats improved. But so far it was only my Strength, Speed or Constitution that got boosts. Was that due to my class? The only boosts I got to my other stats had come from quests. I would need more quests-I glared at the wisdom stat. That elf puzzle had greatly boosted it from a three to seven. But I wasn’t going to do that quest next time.

  I went through my skill tree. SWING was good. But I wondered if finishing out the HIT branch would do anything so I put the skill point in TARGETTED HIT.

  CONGRATULATIONS FIGHTER you have filled a skill branch. Fill one more branch to upgrade your class.

  OMG! Ask and ye shall receive. Oh, and maybe then I could respec.

  The hit branch now glowed showing it was completed. That was nice.

  “We should get going. I have places to be.” Ayerelia complained.

  I closed my HUD and took the lead. Ayerelia lighting the way ahead of me with a glowing orb that hovered over my head.

  Great, I have a glowing neon light over my head advertising “Here is a dungeon snack come and get it.” I guess that was one way to pull aggro. Really this should be Bram up here.

  We walked for a while, everyone staying alert and in formation. Me at the head and Bram protecting our rear. The room ended in a tunnel and we followed that for a bit. I kind of liked the tunnel, it felt safer, the blue light lit every facet of of

  the walls. No velvety shadows for rats or worse to hide in. But eventually the walls widened and we came to a natural looking cavern. The shadows pooled at the edges and the walls were fuzzy.

  Fuzzy? I squinted, raising my torch higher. No. Not fuzzy. Webbed.

  Aw Fuck nuggets.

  “Don’t touch the—!” I started, but Kevin had drifted out of formation and had brushed up against the wall with his cloak.

  Every one stopped but the fabric had adhered to a strand and as he stopped moving and the cloak settled the strand of web snapped, and the vibration sang out, a plucked harp-string in the silence, strident and raw.

  We waited. Frozen as the twang echoed up and down the cavern. It was much larger than I had realized. Go echolocation.

  I was just thinking we might have gotten away with it when a thick, leggy shape dropped from the ceiling with a wet, meaty thunk.

  Three spiders. Big ones. Each one the size of a Dekka’s Hellhound shape retriever. And these weren’t those cute little jumping spiders, either. These were pure nightmare, all black glistening bulbous bodies and slender too-long limbs that looked too delicate to hold up their large bodies. Fangs curved down like black sickles and dripped a dark green venom. The nearest one’s eyes gleamed.

  Six eyes. What was it with this game and three pairs of eyes. Spiders here have not enough eyes and cows have too many. Someone make it make sense.

  Rory was already sideways into shadow, whispering “Absolutely no way. Hate spiders.” But he still pulled his daggers.

  The first spider lunged straight at Bram. He parried with his sword, that man was fast. Blade skittering over the carapace with little impact. He had clearly expected his blade to bite in and he staggered off balance, the spider’s mandibles snapped shut just inches from his thigh.

  The second spider came for me. I swung my club up ready to goo-ify these horrors. But the monster skittered sideways, watching me the whole time and in the dim light I think I saw it climbing the wall. Oh hell no that wasn’t fair.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Ayerelia,” I yelled. “Can we get some light?” and then to everyone else. “Watch out from above. I think one might try to drop down on us.”

  Kevin swore quite inventively. I appreciated whoever programmed that into the game.

  [ILLUMINATE] Unfortunately, this cavern was much too large, and in some ways the light made me feel smaller and more vulnerable. As gross as it was, we were lucky the spiders were shiny. They were visible by the gleam on their bodies.

  The one was half way up the wall to my left, one was engaging Bram and the other was holding back. I got the impression it was assessing the situation. That was concerning. Just how smart were spiders?

  Bram lunged forward. His form was great. Seems he was going for a point stab vs a slash. Smart. His sword bounced across the spider again as it dodged but he managed to slice into one the joints where the leg met the body.

  The spider screamed. Just as rabbits should not hiss, spiders should not scream. The sound freaked me out enough that I was jolted into action. I raised my club up and used HIT. Right on its ugly little head. The vibrations of the impact went up my arms and felt the moment the carapace cracked.

  “Take that you hideous thing you.” I yelled at it.

  Unfortunately I had only made it more hideous. The spider was still funcional but the side of its head was staved in and it was leaking fluids eveywhere. It had spun and was skittering unevenly at Kevin. I don’t think it could see out of the right side of its face anymore.

  Kevin panicked. Understandable really. But the energy bolt he shot at it was over kill and unfocused. Lightening arced all over the place, hitting us and the spiders. Must have been some sort of AOE. Dekka yelped and backed off, acting like she thought that attack had come from the spider.

  “You are so stupid” Ayerelia yelled at Kevin, but cast [REGENERATION].

  The one that had been on the wall had fallen with the Kevin’s stun attack. It wasn’t moving so well. The one with half a face was also moving jerkily but the one at the back seemed unharmed. It looked at me then skittered straight at me.

  “Elizabeth,” the elf yelled. “Kill the one that fell, its health bar is the lowest. We need fewer spiders.”

  “What you can see health bars?!” I screamed, dodging a pair of fangs. A spray of venom splashed across my arm and burned, pitting my skin. [-15HP] I felt woozy but I ran towards the one that was kind of walking in circles. Dekka, gaining confidence with my movement, joined me.

  “Sorry, girl, that was friendly fire.” I whispered to her as we ran.

  As soon as I got close, I used CRIPPLING BLOW and smashed two of the spider’s legs out from under it. Go power level. This game might be miserly about handing out XP, but levelling up was seriously useful.

  It shrieked, a hissing, high-pitched noise that set my teeth on edge. Ichor pumped from the spot where one of its legs had been and spattered the floor, black and sticky as tar.

  17XP!

  Battle rage or no I wanted to throw up.

  I turned to see Rory and Bram fighting the one with the mishapen head. Kevin seemed to be crying and Ayerelia was yelling at him.

  Rory disappeared for a few heart beats then flashed into view, daggers glinting. He jumped onto the back of the spider and drove both blades down, right where the head joined the thorax. The thick black icor spurted up. He jerked back to

  avoid getting sprayed in the face. “Now Bram.” He yelled over the screaming spider.

  “Left flank!” Bram shouted, and Rory shifted his weight the other way causing the spider to list. I was running to help, I could see that Bram was still having difficulty trying to get his sword past the spider’s chitin. Seemed my club was better at somethings than a sword.

  The spider feinted, then spat—actual web—straight into his face. He reeled back, blinded.

  That made me angry. That was anatomically all wrong. I mean, it’s one thing to take liberties with eye counts, but spiders spat webs from their butt. Everyone knew that.

  I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it in time. Bram was on the ground sliding in the slick oily black mess on the ground.

  “Go get ‘im Dekka” I told me dog. “Gettit!”

  She took off focused on the flailing spider. Rory saw her coming and jumped off. Dekka grabbed the spider’s head in her jaws and gave one great terrier shake.

  1.7XP!

  My dog was retching and pawing at her face. Seems in hellhound form, she could feel and taste what it did.

  That just left one spider. It tilted it’s head at us, I could feel it thinking. It had watched its brethren fight and die. Had it let them die so it could size us up.

  If I could have noped out of that dungeon right now, I would have. Loot be damned. The smell of acid venom and spider guts was one of the most foul things I had experienced. And it was so thick I could almost taste it.

  Lets get this over with. Letting the spider watch us was only giving it the advantage.

  Screaming incoherently I moved in. SWING, my club connected with the spider’s abdomen, knocking it sideways a bit. Dekka joined in harrassing the spider by snapping at its feet. But this spider just danced it’s feet out of the way oh her jaws and spun to bite me on the arm.

  Oh fuck that hurt! A deep, burning pain. [-19HP] flashed before my eyes. Followed by [-1HP (poisoned)]

  “Poisoned!” I yelled, fighting back the panic. Ayerelia didn’t hesitate; she pointed her staff and green light washed over me. [CLEANSE]. My vision cleared a fraction. “Thanks!”

  Kevin looked like he was getting himself back under control. I was thinking we just might make it when the spider scuttled over to the wall and pulled on a web.

  No…

  Yes, it just called for reinforcements. We stood shocked, I could hear rustling coming from further in the cavern.

  “Oh sorry guys,” Ayerelia said. “I have to leave for work shortly. I think we are too under leveled for this dungeon anyway.” She turned to me. “You’re weird but that dog of yours is handy. We should party up again sometime” [PARTY MEMBER HAS LOGGED OFF]

  We were immediately swallowed by darkness as the orb overhead quickly faded away.

  Kevin screamed. Bram swore. Rory was silent.

  Then the spiders attacked.

  In the pitch dark there was nothing we could do. I heard my party members screaming, Bram pleading for his mother at one point, then my life became pain. A spider bit the back of my neck and venom like acid was injected into me. I didn’t know that much pain was possible. I screamed. Dekka was fighting something but my vision was swimming. Death could come anytime now. Or unconsciousness. Dekka better be there when I woke up again.

  My body stiffened, I couldn’t breathe. Sheer mindless panic set in. Which I knew was stupid. It wasn’t real. I wasn’t really breathing before. But it didn’t matter. I was scared, it was dark, and I was dying slowly and painfully. I wanted my mom too.

  Finally, mercifully I died.

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