Arn

  Arn was the first to enter the spider’s cave. Anticipating the system message, he focused on a shadow at the center of his vision and was rewarded with the only distraction being a soft ping at the back of his mind. “Form a tight group and focus one target down at a time,” Arn called over his shoulder as he slowly walked into the darkness.

  Each step Arn took was measured, the fear he’d had about facing the spiders replaced with anticipation. His sword was raised and ready to thrust at the first sign of movement, which he didn’t need to wait long for.

  From behind a large web, a spider lept. Rather than end in rounded pads, its eight legs came to slender points with two large talons protruding from the front pair. It was as if someone imagined the most terrifying changes they could make to a tarantula and applied it to these monstrosities. The spider that lunged was the size of a large mastiff, and that was with most of its legs pulled into itself to increase its speed.

  Arn didn’t lunge into the spider's reach, instead, when he was mere feet from being impaled, he shifted his weight into his back leg and used the length of his longsword to shove the creature to the side. The next attacks of the spider were similarly dodged or deflected and Arn seemed to be in no hurry as he danced around it.

  After a sixth and seventh failed attack, the spider changed tactics. It reared onto its back legs and shot several strings of webbing at Arn. The first web caught Arns blade and launched it out of his hands. The next hit Arn in the shoulder and chest and when he moved his left hand to the web, he found it impossible to detach his hand from the sticky substance. Still, he didn’t panic or react much beyond pulling out his arming sword with his free hand. As the spider lunged again to finish off its prey, Arn slammed his foot into the floor and cast Bone Tusk. He conjured the tusk directly in front of himself and allowed the weight of the spider to do the work of stabbing the bone into the beast. As he expected, the tusk broke after impaling several inches into the arachnid, but it had done its job. As the creature attempted to right itself, he stabbed between its several eyes. With a small shriek and twitch, the spider died.

  Arn’s hand was suddenly free from the webbing and when he tested it several more times, he found that although it retained some of its sticky qualities, it was not nearly as strong as it was when the spider was alive. He paused and waited for any of the other oversized tarantulas to attack, yet none came.

  When he turned to the group, he saw that although they were in formation and ready for an attack, none came. Arn grabbed the dead spider’s front leg and with a hard kick, tore it off. He threw the newly freed limb into the darkness in an attempt to provoke the remaining spiders into attacking, yet they remained frozen. “Oh I get it,” he said to no one, “this is what the tutorials should have been. The spiders aren’t going to attack until we get into their aggro range. That’s… a bit of a letdown after all the crap I had to go through already.”

  That’s a pretty big leap of logic there. Lou responded.

  Yes and I’m in a magical dungeon that’s held me captive and tortured me for years Lou. According to the system and the literal God of Death, it was meant to be training. I think making leaps is my prerogative. Arn shot back.

  That’s fair, but maybe test your theory before blindly believing it?

  Alright. Arn said as he walked over and retrieved his longsword.

  “They’ve never behaved this way before. Usually they attack us on sight,” said Punt the leader.

  “Let’s find out,” Arn replied. He walked further into the cave, this time taking smaller steps as he watched the spiders along the wall. Eventually, another tarantula launched itself towards him. Rather than attack, Arn once again dodged the lunging attack, knocking the creature back towards the group. “Kill it while I move on.”

  The kobolds moved quickly to begin stabbing into the spider that Toff was keeping pinned beneath a shield. Arn paid them no attention as he continued walking. The next spider chose to launch webs at him to start rather than lunge.

  Arn cast Stampede and dashed directly into where he guessed the aggro range of the next spider began.

  When the spider’s expected lunge came, Arn cast Tough Skin right before its attack landed. At the same moment he stabbed his blade forward. His immobility during the use of his skill plus the speed of the spider slammed the tip of his blade cleanly through the top of the spider’s skull and into its abdomen. The remaining momentum of the now falling tarantula would have landed atop Arn, but he wrenched his blade from its head while swinging his body towards the next three spiders.

  While Arn moved towards the back of the cave, the kobold group finished their kill and Sprat began firing arrows at the arachnid that had shot webs at their trainer. Two arrows embedded themselves into the back carapace of the spider and it screeched in pain as it launched toward the archer.

  Toff, the group’s usual frontline, ran forward to intercept the creature's attack. When they collided, it was Toff that was knocked off his feet and was now pinned by the weight of the spider. The only thing that kept him from having his head bitten off was the fact that the tarantula couldn’t find an angle around Toff’s shield to bite into him.

  Punt the leader was the first to begin stabbing into the spider’s side with his shortsword. Karn took it a step further and leapt onto the back of the spider, stabbing down as he widened his mouth and let out a fire attack.

  While the others engaged their enemy, Arn broke into a flat out run towards the end of the cave. The final spiders engaged as he entered what he figured out was their twenty-foot aggro radius. The first and final spiders shot webs to hold him in place as the second lunged at him.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Arn cast Empowering Trumpet as he yelled out towards the ceiling, “Fall!” Immediately after, he dropped into a low plank and felt the second oversized monstrosity’s fangs scrape over the plates of his brigandine as it flew over him.

  The two spiders on the ceiling fell onto the ground with a screech as the mental damage of Arn’s shout hit them. They managed to catch themselves before they hit the ground, only to lose their footing immediately as Arn cast Battle Stomp while stabbing into the lead spider. He didn’t manage to kill it immediately and it skittered backwards, its left front leg now dragging on the ground, useless.

  The second spider recovered from the minor quake Arn had caused and once again launched into Arn while his back was turned, this time stabbing into his side and bawling him over.

  The lack of coordination from the spiders turned the table when the final spider shot another web in their direction and it hit its ally rather than its enemy.

  Arn gritted his teeth and put his full strength into rotating himself and the now off-balance spider. As he turned, he slammed his heel into the ground and bone tusk rose from the ground to meet the swinging spider, skewering it and coincidentally blocking the next web from hitting him.

  By the time Arn moved the dead spider off of himself and got to his feet, he saw that the kobolds had already engaged the final spider. The one that he’d injured was now lay dead by the wall, its body now a pincushion of arrows.

  Marshall held up a glowing palm and looked expectantly at the Trainer. It was then that Arn realized that the wound from the spider’s fang was completely numb. It also bled profusely, more than Arn though should be possible with a cut this deep.

  “The venom of the spider numbs its victims and bleeds them out.” Marshall stated, answering Arn’s unspoken question. “I’ll close the wound and stop the bleeding, Punt can remove the venom from your blood.” With that he laid his palm on Arn’s side.

  As numb as he was, he didn’t feel any pain or comfort from the healing. Punt the healer then cast a spell in his direction, whispering an incantation Arn couldn’t hear. The feeling in Arn’s side returned, as well as a coldness in his limbs. It was the same feeling that he’d get when he’d donate plasma and they pump saline into him. He felt more connected to his veins, feeling the blood circulate faster for a moment before settling into what he assumed was its regular circulation speed. “I’ve been meaning to ask, why is the only magic y’all know either fire breathing or healing?”

  It was Sprat that answered first, “We know more, I have an ability that heightens my sight while shooting my bow.”

  “The rest of us will get skills later,” Toff continued for Sprat, “My family paid for an instructor to teach me the charge skill you have, or at least something similar. Punt and the other healers always get their training for free from the council. They also start learning their skills earlier too. The rest of us have to either pay for an instructor or get promoted to get skills for free with a new rank.”

  “So is fire breathing something you were all born with?” Arn asked while turning his upper body side to side to stretch his newly stitched skin.

  “Sort of,” said Marshall, “fire breathing is a skill that all kobolds can pass on to their young. It’s only possible for those of us that are part of the Blooded.”

  “Blooded?”

  “The kobolds you’ve met are all Blooded, the intelligent class, we who are meant to rule. The Unblooded have no connection to the heart of our tribe, they can speak and understand, but they are forever like children. Like these spiders here, they are simple-minded and unable to learn abilities.”

  “Do you not have classes?”

  “Of course we do, all kobolds that become officers have to take classes on strategy and leadership,” Sprat answered again.

  “Uh, no, not those classes. I mean classes from the system, or Divine I guess,” Arn clarified.

  “The Divine does not teach classes, Trainer,” continued Sprat.

  I don’t think they get classes, Arn. Maybe it’s because you were resurrected? Offered Lou

  “Right, let’s just drop it for now.” Arn said, responding to both Lou and Sprat. Arn sat down by a wall to go over his system messages and to recover his mana pool. He didn’t know exactly how much he had left, but he could feel that it was close to empty. “Give me a moment to rest and then we’ll continue.”

  “No problem,” Punt the Leader said, “we’ll harvest our prey.”

  Ew. Said Lou. Who ‘harvests’ spiders? That’s so gross.

  They probably use the fangs and venom for something and eat the meat. Not our place to judge. Arn responded as he closed his eyes to meditate. Let me know if I’m needed. After a short while, he entered a meditative state.

  System Alert:

  You’ve entered Area I of the dungeon.

  Your mentor has left a message for you.

  Anna Pand has received your message.

  Arn inwardly smiled at the final alert, happy to receive confirmation that his wife had gotten his message. Before he opened the message from his mentor, he pulled up his stats.

  Stats

  Strength: 12

  Endurance: 12

  Dexterity: 12

  Intelligence: 12

  Wisdom: 12

  Fortitude: 12

  Vitality: 120

  Stamina: 53/120

  Mana: 5/80

  Rather than absorbing energy directly from his soul, Arn waited to see if his mana and stamina would recover on their own. As he looked on, both went up by one point. He waited to measure how long each would take to recover and learned that his stamina recovered faster than his mana. For every twenty seconds, he received a single point in stamina and it took almost a full minute to recover one point in mana. Forty minutes to refill stamina from empty and over an hour for mana. Arn then turned his attention to the message from his new mentor.

  “Hello Arn, my name is Janak.” Arn heard the voice echo directly in his head, “When you are ready, find a safe place and meditate with the intention to meet me. I will take it from there so we may make a proper introduction.”

  Do you want to meet him now? Lou asked.

  Nah, I’ll probably wait until we’re in my safe zone, who knows what’ll happen. Arn said as he looked up his Karma and saw that he currently had two to spend. Should I spend it or save it?

  Save it, you kicked the spiders’ butts pretty easily and who knows what else we might need it for.

  Arn returned to his stats and drew some of the energy he needed from his soul. It hadn’t returned to its full brightness and he stopped right before he felt it peter into a dangerous state. It looked wrung out and he felt lightheaded. He waited for the feeling to pass and just enough luster returned to his soul that he knew it was no longer in danger.

  Stamina: 90/120

  Mana: 55/80

  I think we should just wait for them to recover on their own before you kill yourself playing with your soul.

  Sorry. Arn replied.

  Don’t be sorry, be better. Lou said. Arn could almost picture the owl haughtily turning its beak up and away.

  Arn mentally snorted. I’m telling Anna that you’re mocking her.

  I’m not mocking her! Imitation is just the greatest form of flattery.