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At least Zarian was a far better sport than most people Gilbert had met. For someone with his background, Zarian had a more forgiving and straight forward vibe that even Gilbert found impressive.

Yes, Zarian was the blame for multiple horrific deaths and man-slaughters.

But Gilbert could only hold a grudge for so long while being under a powerful person’s protection.

Naomi was the one to be wary of. She enjoyed having power and getting even, and she didn’t hide it.

So far, Gilbert had come to agreeable terms with Naomi. But once in a while, when Zarian wasn’t looking, Naomi would watch Gilbert like a hawk watching a rabbit.

Maybe she should turn those eyes back to their party chief, boss, leader, senior, or whatever.

Because Zarian’s occasional lackadaisical attitude and youthful spirit was a danger to himself and everyone else at the worst of times.

The Slave Cook situation could’ve ended with them all chopped up, served up as sirloin, and dumped in a goblin’s shitter after an intimate trip through an intestinal tract.

They now had to finish a main quest against evil corrupted goblins and a horrific mother who was the reason the Slave Cook was a slave. That sounded like walking into a crime syndicate’s main headquarters with nothing but a badge and a prayer.

Now they were in a strange place called a dungeon with more wazoo magic. They were here after what felt like weeks of trekking through a cavern system on a diet of sediment-heavy water and bug meat.

Yeah, Gilbert wanted to think the Big Capital G was testing him. And for his faith, he would be rewarded.

“Bianca, Hannah, do you two still believe in the one God from the home front?” Gilbert asked as his fellow companions looked around.

It was the three of them after a trap somehow triggered and had dropped dividing walls made of ridiculously hardened web.

Zarian and Naomi weren’t on their side of the trap walls. That was the bad news.

The good news was having mini-maps in the corner of their vision. It faded away when they weren’t directly interacting with it. But whenever they needed it, the mini-map was there.

“I have a complicated relation with faith. Being here makes it all the more complicated for me,” Hannah said, looking uneasily at their surroundings.

The White Spider Dungeon was very unlike the cavern system. The ceiling was tall and unnaturally uniformed with concave domes and webbed engravings.

Every surface was slightly sticky and colored different shades of white. Spider-like ornaments covered the walls or marked the floors. Fluted columns flowed in perfect arrangements down the halls and on every corner where Gilbert could see a new bend or hallway.

“I was a strict catholic until I approached spiritual matters with a more open mind,” Bianca said, readying her flashy sword even though she didn’t really know how to swing one properly.

She was really their most offensive option – which didn’t amount to significant damage. Her Searing Flash was just severely distracting for anything unprepared.

Gilbert readied his heater shield and mace, which were both common items and without magic. At least they were practical and simple to understand.

Hannah readied her buckler shield and short spear, also practical and easy to understand.

“We’re going to be alright, my friends,” Bianca said, pointing off to the side. “Loner’s with us.”

Gilbert nearly jumped when he heard a slight rattle. He turned and saw Loner leaning against the wall.

Zarian’s bone necromancy still scared the bejesus out of Gilbert. It wasn’t right for the dead to rise again, especially with how they shedded their flesh like stepping out of clothing.

But at least the goblin skeleton was on their side.

Gilbert nodded at Loner in acknowledgement. The creature looked back at Gilbert with its eyeless sockets and fanged rictus grin.

“Loner, will you help us?” Hannah asked.

Loner shrugged, the bones making a gentle rattling sound.

“That doesn’t leave us with much confidence,” Hannah added.

“Zarian said we should learn to fight without him too much and level up ourselves the hard way. All because of that vitality stuff. I still don’t get it though,” Bianca said.

Gilbert half understood it himself. Before they’d fully delved into the White Spider Dungeon, Zarian made a surprising choice. They went with the mini-map option with the consequence of reduced experience.

Zarian had explained his reasoning that it was a bad idea to level up too fast for now. They also needed to endure more rigors and raise the amount of vitality they gained with each level up.

Apparently, fast and easy leveling, or power-leveling, came with a sneaky consequence. That sort of cheap growth in the Infinita Star System would create fragile adventurers if they ‘cheated’ the System too much.

It sounded like Gilbert was in for some sweat, blood, and tears.

“We can wait here for Zarian and Naomi to circle around to us,” Hannah offered.

That sounded like a good idea to Gilbert.

“No, we shouldn’t,” Bianca said, surprising both Gilbert and Hannah.

Bianca was a pretty thing. Instead of holding a sword for war, she should lead a yoga class or make smoothies or model for photos. She looked like a soft hipster new age type of girl and acted all ditzy Latina most of the time.

Yet, she said, “Zarian wants us to get tough so we can be harder to kill. Well, I’ve seen too much death, and it’s all icky. I don’t want to be killed before I get to see some nice fantasy stuff. Like princess gowns and royal balls.”

Her logic was weird, but her spirit was rock solid.

Gilbert sighed and moved forward, taking the spot ahead of the ladies. He had the bigger shield, after all, and less of a risk of dying permanently.

“Then let’s go find some stupid trouble,” he muttered.

He took a couple of steps and stopped when he heard some subtle rattles. Loner moved up front and pointed at himself before making a walking motion with two fingers. He mimed something like an explosion.

Or like a trapping going off.

“Ah, I get it,” Hannah said, quicker on the draw. “Thank you, Loner.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The skeleton nodded before leading the way carefully.

When the undead goblins wanted to, they could get real quiet. Gilbert and the girls followed Loner’s example, moving quietly, stepping where he stepped, stopping when he stopped.

Soft white sconces shone with light down from the ceiling. Because of the dungeon lights, they could see plenty fine here, way better than back in the caves and tunnels. But the light also made the shadows look deep and menacing.

Gilbert could feel his heart pounding and hear the girls’ shaky breaths. Occasionally, he heard the skin-crawling scratches of many hairy legs moving about out of sight.

Loner stopped and pointed up at a strange spot in the ceiling where the shadows were too dark. The skeleton stepped back and gestured, his balled fist punching his other skeletal hand.

Gilbert checked the mini-map and saw a red dot where Loner had pointed.

Here it goes!

“We got ourselves a bogie,” Gilbert announced.

He let his police training kick him into overdrive, blood rushing, heart-hammering. He raised the heater shield like he would a riot shield, although he had to make adjusts since it wasn’t see-through. He held the mace like he would a baton, which also required adjustments.

Bianca took a deep breath. Hannah quickly enchanted their gear. She was faster with that skill of hers now. If only it came with more offense, then she wouldn’t have to risk her life fighting upfront.

We lack the proper training, Gilbert thought, not for the first time.

A white spider the height of a giant dog and many times wider fell from the ceiling on a long thread of webbing. Unlike the name of the dungeon, it was more black than white. Its beady eyes, however, were white, almost like they had cataract grown over.

Bianca screamed out to the good Lord like she was ready to jump back into the Christianity wagon. Hannah shook like a leaf beside while preparing her battle instruments. Gilbert remembered how he’d poured all of his fear into rage and faced down his worse challenges.

Then there was no more time to prepare. The spider dashed to their front, closing the distance fast, and kicked its legs forward almost rapid-fire like.

Gilbert soaked a kick with his shield and nearly flew off his feet. Hannah lost her footing and rolled backwards, spear dropping from her hand. Bianca started flashing her fancy magic sword in a panic.

Surprisingly, it worked. The spider slunk back away from the flashing lights. Bianca kept at it, giving Gilbert time to get his weight and balance under him.

Then he did the damndest thing. He charged right into the face of the nasty, giant critter.

He soaked another hard kick from the spider with his shield. The impact struck weaker than the last one. Gilbert was a big man in motion now.

He endured another hard thunk against his shield, feeling it through his shoulder, and clenched his jaw as he kept plowing forward until he smashed into the spider’s face with a shield bash. The creature stumbled back while scratching at Gilbert’s shield with its fangs, and Gilbert roared in return as he shoved the spider at an angle toward the nearest wall to crush the monster.

No shot.

The spider simply walked up the wall backward.

“No!” Gilbert shouted, pulling back the shield a little and swinging forward his mace. The riot training paid off. The mace slammed with reinforced weight into the spider’s milky white eyes.

If the creature could scream, it would. It still stumbled on its way up the wall backward.

Hannah rushed in, having recovered her composure and weapon. She thrust her spear forward where Gilbert had struck. The sharpened point slid into the monster’s face easily and blood spurted out.

Bianca was taking the left side and hacking her light-flickering blade at the legs. Her technique was piss-poor, but the enchantments Hannah had laid on their weapons did most of the work.

That still wasn’t enough to stop the spider from ascending up the wall and nearly out of reach.

“God dammit, let us get our own win!” Gilbert threw down his weapons and lunged up with all of his Strength.

To his surprise, his Strength was significant enough to send him flying higher than an NBA player. The big man reached the spider and grabbed onto a leg.

The fuzz on its body prickled like sharp grass blades on a freshly cut lawn, but significantly tougher. His hands took some nicks, but his Basic Healing helped with that fast.

Gilbert put all of his fear and rage into dragging this thing back down even while it tried to kick him off. Gilbert kicked, too, knocking at another leg.

When kicking at the spider legs didn’t work, he stomped his feet against the wall and yanked down with all of his might. He felt something pop in his back. But he had the spider going down. Along with him.

Gilbert landed with a crunch on his shoulder and had the wind knocked out of him. He would’ve wailed if he had any air in his lungs as the spider scrambled all over him.

“Searing Flash!” Bianca called out as forewarning.

Gilbert closed his eyes and threw his forearm over his face as an extra measure. The flash still got to him, but it did worse to the spider.

The creature stumbled around and struck down on Gilbert with its spider feet, pummeling him pretty good. He was still conscious, still alive. He could still fight.

Battered but not beaten, Gilbert crawled out from under the spider on his own terms, even while dragging himself with one arm.

He got some space before he stood, grabbed his mace, and joined the girls. Together they worked like absolute savages, beating, stabbing, and cutting down the monster for the next couple of minutes until it finally died.

Gilbert gasped for air, bent over with his hands on his knees. Hannah and Bianca were sitting on either side of him, their backs to his legs.

Basic Healing flowed with physical contact. They caught their breath while Gilbert’s healing ability took the edge off, replenishing their vitality.

“Any levels?” Gilbert asked hoarsely.

Bianca and Hannah shook their heads. Nobody had leveled up even after all that struggle against a Level 17 monster.

Damn it all, was the mini-map worth it?

What was Zarian thinking when he’d made that decision for them?

“I don’t think we appreciate Zarian enough,” Hannah said.

“I’m feeling damn unappreciative for not getting a level, true,” Gilbert muttered.

“No, think about it. That was our first time fighting without him.”

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Hannah had a point. Gilbert hated to admit it, even to himself. Then Bianca drove the point home even further.

“That was only Level 17? We killed way stronger back at Castle Grimrock,” Bianca said. “Wow, Zarian is really, really strong. And we’re really, really weak.”

Gilbert caught his breath and straightened up. He looked over at the monster’s corpse. It was all cut up, bashed up, poked to hell, and now lying on its back with legs curled in death.

How long would it take before fights like these became easier? How long until Gilbert could bash these things down and keep on trucking from one enemy to another?

“Y’all are healed now. Let’s get going,” Gilbert grunted. “If we’re going to live in the shadow of the valley of death, we better show them we fear no evil.”

“Unless it’s Zarian.” Hannah stood with a sigh.

“Mm, I wonder what he’s up to,” Bianca said, getting back to her feet.

***

While the weakest party members learned teamwork and more humility, Zarian was entangled halfway into a spider cocoon elsewhere in the White Spider Dungeon.

Only his legs were entangled, really. The rest of him was free while he hung upside down from the ceiling. He was doing some light meditation with his arms crossed over his chest.

He would’ve had a harder time if it wasn’t for Para. Yes, the spiders had him halfway caught, but his Parasite Cloak had them entangled in return.

The fight between Para and multiple spiders in the high teens and early twenties in level was interesting.

Para whipped out lashing tendrils tipped with bone spurs, spikes, and teeth. She sprouted an array of lamprey mouths and jagged maws from the ends of her material. She shifted from flesh to bone rapidly, staying flexible in some places, and hard in others.

She tore up the spiders one after another. Zarian wasn’t sure if this would help him build up his vitality.

Breaking his meditation, he split part of his focus on his minimap while the fight served as background noise.

He had it wide open so he could track the blue dots moving around on their own.

He counted four together toward the western part of the dungeon. That should be Gilbert, Bianca, Hannah, and one of the skeletons.

He saw another five moving quickly up the middle of the dungeon. That was definitely Naomi and four minions assigned to her.

Five other skeletons waited under Zarian while he hung upside down, Para covering for them.

“I should work on using two spells at once,” Zarian said. “Is it a limitation of the System? Or is it a limitation of the mind? Which one can I break first?”

Zarian went back to meditating with his grimoire floating next to him, chained directly to his soul. After some time, he diverted his attention to his book of spells.

He imagined the skeleton spell running while evoking the lifesteal spell. He stopped when the skeleton spell faltered. He reset his concentration, then tried again.

He kept failing and failing. He kept trying and trying. He had no breakthroughs yet, but that was fine. Zarian was patient, and the White Spider Dungeon was the perfect place to practice.

Then, for just a split second difference, he felt his magical attention diverge. A little more power streamed into the lifesteal spell before the skeleton spell began to falter and he had to reset quickly.

Zarian smiled. “So it was a weakness of the mind. Sweet. I can break that any day, any time.”

He went back to practicing.

The skeletons below watched the dangling wizard silently. Then they looked around at the massacre Para made of the attacking spiders. With a shrug of their boney shoulders, the goblin skeletons started kicking around little web balls.

When the web balls burst open, baby spiders flowed out and quickly died under the skeletons’ stomps. Then the skeletons grabbed another web sac of baby spiders and kicked it around like a soccer ball.