WolfWrites

The Calling of Wrath - Book 2 - Chapter 8 - Pits of the Arachnids (Patreon)

Published:

2022-09-22 21:17:44

Imported:

2023-02

Content

Cassandra
Year 820 | Month 3 | Day 4

Right around halfway through the trip from Acre to the border city located on the other side of the Dark Forest from Acre, Luis suddenly asks, “What the heck is this thing?”

I take my attention away from the spatial pouch in my pocket to look at him, only to find the guy standing several meters away from us while staring at a seemingly endless black pit.

‘It’s a dungeon,’ I write in big words above my head before narrowing my eyes and sending the words over to the guy who obviously isn’t paying attention to me.

He stumbles backwards in surprise as the words appear in front of his face.

“A dungeon?” he mutters on confusion. Meanwhile the others turn to me, and Roxy asks, “I take it you’ve been in one before?”

I nod my head in agreement before walking over to it and kneeling down beside the hole.

I’m kind of surprised they haven’t so much as heard about a dungeon before, but I guess they’re probably not very common. After all, I’ve only seen two so far.

Which reminds me. I wonder what happened to that first dungeon I passed by?

A few seconds pass in silence at that thought before I decide not to think about it and instead focus on the dungeon entrance.

After not seeing any System notes appear in my vision, I turn back to the others and write in the air, ‘These things are incredibly dangerous and will eventually shatter, causing an outbreak of a lot of powerful monsters.’

Roxy frowns at that before focusing on the dungeon and asking, “Just how powerful are we talking?”

I glance at the dungeon again as I answer, ‘The strongest monster in the one I entered was Tier 3.’

A collective silence falls over the group at that, but Roxy eventually asks me, “What do you think would happen if we left it here?”

Is she…

I glance at her, just to notice the mixture of fear and determination on her face.

She is.

‘It would likely shatter, releasing all of the monsters here to go on a rampage and destroy the nearby villages, and possibly even the city we’re heading to,’ I answer her while gritting my teeth slightly at the thought.

Which wouldn’t be good.

“So we should stop it,” Luis suddenly says before jumping straight into the dungeon, making my eyes go wide from the pure stupidity of what I just saw.

“Damn it, Luis!” Luke shouts while jumping in after him, followed shortly by Jerold who jumps in without saying a word.

I look at Roxy, just to find her shrugging with an annoyed look on her face.

“Guess we’re going in,” I mutter out loud since she’s the only one left.

She nods and jumps in, followed immediately after by myself.

The instant I fall inside, I find myself in the same room as the last time I was in a dungeon. With a similar but slightly different note in front of me.

________________________

You have entered the transition area of the dungeon: Pits of the Arachnids

The System has locked the Crypt Arachnids in a series of ten sealed off tunnel systems covered in cobwebs so as to trick them into not attempting to break out of the dungeon for as long as possible.

As a note for you, a Crypt Arachnid is a tailed arachnid, otherwise known as a tailed spider.

These creatures have the ability to dig through solid stone through the use of their tails, and prior to the System, would often be found throughout the planes in large hives located underground.

If you do not pass into the dungeon proper before the countdown expires, you will be forcefully teleported there by the System.

2 Days 23 Hours 59 Minutes 49 Seconds

________________________

A grimace emerges on my face as I remember the irritating acid-blooded spiders from back in the Dark Forest, but it fades away quickly as I hear Roxy ask, “So what should we do, Scarlet?”

When I look at her, I find her standing with the others as they all stare at me with expectation on their faces.

Were they really only that confident in coming here because I’ve been in a dungeon before…?

I narrow my eyes at the thought before sighing, glancing at the brown and gray door within the white room, and speaking through my aura again, ‘Once we enter through that door, we won’t be able to leave. Not until we complete the Dungeon Mission, or until the dungeon begins to shatter.’

My words seem to shake their confidence slightly, but they all continue to liste-, err, read my words as I continue updating them, ‘In the dungeon I entered, there was a single Tier 3 monster, with one thousand Tier 2 monsters, and ten thousand Tier 1 monsters spread throughout and entire mountain range.’

Unsurprisingly, they all begin to shrink down even further, losing more of their confidence.

That is, until I add, ‘And there were about seven different objectives with rewards for each. Even if you don’t finish them all, or are kicked out due to the dungeon shattering,’ where they all immediately brighten up again.

I raise an eyebrow at that, making each of them avert their gaze, with the exception of Jerold, who is still staring at me with a greedy look on his face.

Huh. Didn’t think he would be the greediest one here.

If I had to have guessed, I probably would’ve thought one of the twins was the greediest. Probably Luis.

‘There are also no real resting areas unless you make your own, which is what I did,’ I continue while walking towards the door, leaving the words floating at my back, ‘I used the water areas and sealed them off through cave-ins to make areas to rest in, and the monkeys themselves as food.’

However they respond to that, I can’t see since I’m busy examining the door as I speak, ‘But the monsters also grew smarter over time and eventually started breaking into the cave.’

I turn around to see their worried expressions having returned and finish, ‘They adapt to you and begin to fight you with greater numbers and even some basic strategies. So be careful.’

They all share worried looks with each other before each of them seemingly does some sort of calming ritual and regains their previous vigor.

My eyebrows raise slightly at that, but I just shrug and turn around as Roxy walks up to the door.

“Let’s go,” she says before reaching out to touch the door, making a bright white light shine from it and envelope us all.

And right as I’m expecting to appear in the dungeon with the others, a flash of red light shines from my body and combats the white light, creating a split between me and the others before I find myself alone in the middle of a cobweb-infested tunnel.

I blink at the walls around me in confusion for a second before muttering, “What just happened?”

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