King of the Mountain

Chapter 43: The End of the Warrens

I almost fall into the pit of acid as I stumble backwards from the sight of a giant yellow orb. Silence, all I hear is silence and my thudding heartbeat. Maybe I saw something else? Maybe I was too close for it to see? I know that I am going to have to look again, but I need a moment. I back up carefully behind the acid pit, I don’t want an accident to happen. Wait what if I don’t have to look, what if I just need to get a reaction? I like that idea much better. I pick up two larger pieces of rubble and scoot back into the tunnel a bit farther.

Here we go, I toss the first rock over the edge of the tunnel entrance and listen carefully. I hear a splooch and nothing else. What does that mean? I decide to continue with my little experiment, it keeps me safe and lets me feel like I am doing something useful. My second rock sails over the edge and also makes a splooch sound. Now what on earth makes a splooch? Is that even a word? It’s the closest I can get to replicating the sound out loud. I decide to continue my splooch experiment until something different happens or at least I get my nerve back.

Five rocks later the splooch becomes a thuddy tink. Once again I know thuddy tink is not a word, but you try and describe these sounds, it’s not easy. One more time, this rock is also a thuddy tink, and with me concentrating I can hear a soft splooch at the end. Alright, I am sufficiently baffled enough that I will look over the edge again. I approach cautiously with my shotgun held in front of me as if could ward off evil. When I peer over the edge I try and take in the whole picture without giving into fear. The eye is still present but looks much less intimidating with several rocks covering it. Is it dead? I do not know of any animal that could get hit in the eye with rocks and not respond, but spiders are tricky creepy crawlies. I better make sure.

I carefully wave my shotgun barrel around to see if it responds to movement. Nothing. Ok the ultimate test. I line up the shotgun with the eye and get prepared to run. I pull the trigger on the shotgun and a geyser of yellow and red goo gushes up and covers me. Gross, this smell is horrible and oh no some got in my mouth. After wiping my face off and rinsing my mouth out several times I realize that Spiderzilla must be dead for two reasons. Number one it did not respond to getting shot in an eye and two if it was alive it would have killed me when I dealt with the shower of gore that covered me and distracted me from what I should have been paying attention too.

Alright, one giant spider monster killed. No explosions to knock me out, but I did get covered in some of the most disgusting fluid known to man. I will retreat to the cavern where my dragonlings are and wash off before we proceed. Once I get to my dragons they start to run up to me and stop almost immediately. Yep I was right, I must smell horrible. All four of them retreat to a safe smelling distance and look at me like I am crazy to be walking around like this. I take the time to hollow out a basin in the floor with my Earth Magic, fil it with water from my inventory, and then heat it with my Fire magic. Voila, instant hot bath. I scrub and clean repeatedly for the next half hour, having to create a new bath twice as I wash layers of filth off of me.

I must be clean now because my little ones gather around me after the last round in the bath. Ok, time to move forward and finish this stupid dungeon. I set out with my dragonlings and as we approach the cavern with the dead giant spider I could see their noses twitch in disgust. It was so cute! I wish I could take a picture. Hmm, note to self when I get out of here check the Great Game store for image capturing devices and magic. Somebody has had to come up with it. We reach the edge and I cautiously look over one more time, who knows it could have turned into an undead giant spider. I still see most of a yellow orb and no movement from the rest of the body that I can now focus on when I am sure the thing is dead.

We maneuver around the carcass and I look around trying to see and understand what happened. From the scarring on the floor, wall and the dent in the metal door, along with the rather large hole through a good portion of the dead spider I think I can put together a rough timeline. First off now that it is dead and I can look at it a little more subjectively I realize it is not quite as big as I made it out to be. Now don’t get me wrong, it is still around 10 meters high and probably 20 meters wide with its legs which is gigantic, but it is not Godzilla size, it just seemed that way to me. It looks like the ballista bolt I shot penetrated right through Spiderzilla and hit the door it was guarding. That would explain the hole through the spider and the dent in the door.

The back end of the spider is crispy and spattered with shrapnel, so it probably suffered secondary effects from the bolt after it hit the door. The spells worked but did not go off until it hit and broke on the door. I wanted them to go off inside the spider so it is a partial fail even though I managed to kill it. Speaking of which it seems that all the noise I heard was the spider’s fury as it slowly bled out and died. Not the way I planned on killing it, but a dead spider is a good spider no matter how you look at it.

I cut off and store some of the more interesting bits of the carcass and then approach the metal door. With a tremendous exertion of strength, I am able to open the door. Actually after pushing on it for about 15 seconds with no result I realize that there are rings on it and it was supposed to be pulled open. The side without the dent pulled open rather easily and the one with the dent did not move. I probably damaged something. Oh well the door is plenty big enough with just half of it open. I look into the room beyond the door and see treasure casually scattered about with several skeletons of animals and humanoids and what seems to be egg sacs. Wait, egg sacs?

I have seen this movie and it does not end well. Bruce, you and I have work to do. Standing at the door and not getting close just to be sure Bruce and I use flame to purify the room of its infestation. After I am certain there are no more egg sacs or other surprises I start to explore with my group. I casually toss in whatever I find, weapons, gold and jewels, it is probably what most people would call a hoard but I have looted so much it was just more stuff to me. At the back of the room is a smaller alcove with a sign above it and a magic symbol on the ground. The sign read,

Congratulations on finishing the Arachnid Warrens. If you managed to enter this area without defeating the guardian, please be warned that you will be teleported in front of it. If you successfully eliminated the guardian you will be transported out of the dungeon when you step on the magic symbol.

Ok one last quick check around the room to make sure we did not miss anything and then I stepped on the symbol with my dragons. After a nauseating teleport, I wonder if there is a magic equivalent of teleport sickness pills, I realize I am outside the slime dungeon and in the middle of what looks to be a military camp. Why is there a military camp in front of the dungeon? Several soldiers have notice my arrival and have drawn weapons and one has run off, I suppose to get someone in charge. I decide to stay in place until I know what is going on. In the distance I see my daughter and Randolph the head of my military council running in my direction. Before I can even think about what is going on I receive the Great Game notice for clearing the dungeon.

“You have cleared the level 100 limited instance dungeon Arachnid Warrens. Calculating and applying rewards. You receive the title Lost and Found +1 for staying more than a week in a single dungeon. You receive the title Spider Bane +3 for killing more than 1,000 spider monsters of at least 3 related types. You receive the title Top 100 +1 for being one of the first 100 people to exceed the level 100 on your planet. As the first being to clear a limited instance dungeon on your planet you will be able to select one unique skill or item from the Great Game store.”

Alright, another unique skill those are always helpful. I mean when I used my first one I got from the Biltmore Estates dungeon earned me two titles and the infinite inventory. The second one from the bloodline dungeon I picked, ….., I picked, ……, did I forget to actually use my reward for a unique skill or item from the dungeon. Let’s see, I came home, time was longer in the dungeon than I thought, I was prepping for the change over, got distracted by family leaving early, crap I did forget. This entire time I could have had another unique skill or item that could have helped me tremendously. I have got to use these things as soon as I get them or what is the point. Now at least I have two things I can select. I need to do that as soon as I check in with everyone and clean up.

I close the Great Game screen just in time to catch my daughter who was jumping into my arms. Wait, is my daughter light blue and scaly?

“Daddy, we were so worried. No one knew what happened to you just that you were still alive!”

Interesting, how did they know I was still alive if we could not contact each other?

“I am sorry sweetie, daddy got stuck in a dungeon and communication was not allowed. Now tell me why you are blue and scaly?”

“Dad that is not important, what happened to you?”

Uh oh, my dad senses are tingling. She is hiding something important.

“Don’t change the subject, what did you do to turn blue and scaly?”

Nicole looked like she had turned back into the six year old I remembered that used to get in trouble all of the time.

“Ok Dad I’ll tell you, but don’t get mad.”

I hate it when kids say that. I stay silent and just stare at her.

“Alright, remember before you left how some of the soldiers were taking me around to different dungeons?”

“Yes”

“Well when I came back from the last trip, you had already left for your trip so I was bored and went into your office to write you a letter saying I was going to go to another dungeon.”

“Still not seeing how this turned you blue.”

“Well when I was in your office I saw the map you have on your wall and I started studying it.”

Oh man I know where this is going.

“Alright I get it you saw the bloodline dungeon marked, thought if dad did it I can, and then went to a DANGEROUS dungeon without your guards.”

“How did you know I did not take any guards?”

“Well sweet pea, your guards would not have let you go to such a dangerous dungeon without my approval.”

“Oh.”

“Just stay still.”

Identify:

Name: Nicole Anderson

Race: Storm Dragonkin

Level 36 41%

Affinities: Air 100% Water 100%

“YOU WENT AND DID A DRAGON BLOODLINE!!!”

“Now dad don’t freak out.”

“Too late for that. Guess who is grounded for a month if not more.”

“Dad you can’t ground me, I am an adult.”

“Don’t care I am king and you WILL listen to me on this.”

I could see Randolph trying to hold back his laughter. I could fix that right quick.

“Randolph!”

“Yes Sire.”

“Thank you for volunteering to make sure Nicole follows my orders for the next month.”

His smile disappeared.

“But sire my responsibilities.”

I interrupted him.

“Now include watching my daughter like a hawk to make sure she doesn’t do anything else stupid.”

“Yes Sire.”

“Now somebody please tell me a few things, first how did you know I was still alive, second why am I surrounded by the military, and finally what has been happening for the past month while I was gone.”