"Huff Huff Huff!"
The veins on my forearm bulged as I waved the staff and directed my ninety-first fireball. I gritted my teeth and put it back into my inventory, relaxing my right arm. My voice was hurting and... fuck, I was starting to lose feeling in my left hand.
Huffing and puffing, I searched the cave roof for another crack. There. I tried to lift my right arm – I couldn't get it above my chest. Arrgh. For once, I wished Armistice would be a lot less like reality. Even my voice could be overused.
Another ten minutes passed. They were brutal.
My fingers were on the verge of letting go.
I had no choice, I had to try. With one last push, I threw up my right arm as hard as I possibly could, barely able to insert my fingers into the narrow crack.
Ahhh
My left fingers fell out of the original crack. I had successfully switched position. What a relief.
However, my fingers still wouldn't move. I pursed my mouth and beat them against the hard, cold rock roof. Small numbers of damage arose but they were insignificant as was the pain.
Now that I could grip the staff again, I released all my pent-up anger...
"Oh m-mighty fire, converge!"
The chant which was so tiring actually made me a bit happy. I kept at it and a while after fired all hundred fireballs, hitting every single one of them and decimating a hundred demonified adult spiders. I had gained an additional level in the process, but no more since the spiders were level 7 and I didn't recieve any XP from mobs at a lower level than myself.
I barely succeded climbing down the wall and even had to let go the last way in order to handle the pain. The reality immersion was indefinitely close to a 100% and I was trained to endure almost limitless pain – but all of my senses were wasted and what I wanted to do most in the world was to go to bed. So I carried my spent body to a corner in the hall, hoped the spiders wouldn't respawn while I was gone, and exited the game.
"What a day," I said and removed the helmet from my head, almost instantly falling asleep after checking my voice was okay here in reality.
***
I woke up in the middle of the night. Of course, the concept of night and day as most humans know doesn't really exist here on Pluto – nor in space altogether unless you lived on a planet like earth which rotated its axis so that the sun shone on half the surface every twenty-four hours. No, pluto's day and night were each over six normal earth days long. My room was in turn constructed so there was no window or source of light when I wanted to sleep.
This, however, meant I could sleep whenever I wanted and go up as I pleased. I had no train to catch, obviously, and I had just as much to do when it was nighttime as when it was daytime. Before it was absentmindedly staring out or watching the fire but now I was captivated by Armistice and how to allowed me to escape the confines of my banishment. And also, how it gave me hope to triumph over those who wronged me.
My mood turned worse as I thought about the situation all those years ago. How he had stabbed me in the back only to take my position. I quickly entered the game to get on other thoughts. At least for now, I didn't want to think about it. I had thought about it constantly for over several years now. Every day, every night– nevermind, I just explained how night and day barely exist. Alright, let me rephrase myself– every second!
My stomach growled. I resisted the thought of getting more food, as I had begun thinking of revenge there was no stopping it. Not even food. Only the game could make me think about other things. I put the helmet back on, connected and logged in.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The cave was the same as I left. Empty. No more spiders had spawned. I got up and patted the dust away from my white novice pants. I had reached level eight so I fetched the leather west from my inventory and put it on.
Big Paw's Furry west (Rare)
Requirement: Level 8
Description: A west made from the thick hide of a bear notoriously called Big Paw. His favorite hobby was to slap courageous adventurers trying to attack him into meat pulps.
Properties: +4 Stamina. +3 Endurance. +2 Agility.
I decided to invest the ten attribute points I had in stamina. My health pool was at the moment 250 and it would probably suffice to take an attack from the tarantula here in the dungeon. Together with a couple of fireballs, which seemed to be its weakness as all my fireballs here in the dungeon had critted, I would surely defeat it without a problem.
If people saw my game style, they would probably laugh. Who the hell invests in 37 in wisdom, 10 in intellect, 40 in agility and a mere 10 in stamina? Do they want to get killed? Well, I can somehow agree with this thought. However, the wisdom part and agility part was a must for me to survive, and I already had so much damage it was insane, with my intermediate fireball and god-like staff, so increasing the odds of my survival was far more important. I just wondered how it would select the selection of my class...
I was now armed with a pair of boots, a leather vest, and a staff as I continued further down the dungeon. Though I looked like a weirdo, with a couple high-class equipment that glimmered with a respective light-blue, green and crimson light, and every other slot except for a tattered pair of jeans being empty, I guess it was okay.
The stalagmites continued to shine from the roof, which made the process clearing the dungeon easier. I found a ladder at the end of the tunnel. Climbing down, I found myself in a narrow tunnel leading out to a brightly lit room. Inside the room lay a 2-meter tall spider as if asleep. It had purple fur and a shiny black carapace. As I moved closer, I noticed how spiderwebs most of the walls. I wondered if could climb further than the adult spiders, because if so wouldn't stand much of a chance.
Demonified Mother Tarantula (Dungeon Boss): Level 10
Health: 5600/5600
Holy shit was that the standard health value of a normal dungeon boss? No, nevermind – I'm on the hard difficulty for this dungeon. Normal groups at this level wouldn't even be able to get past the hall with hundred adult spiders at once... wait, doesn't that mean this dungeon wasn't even meant to be cleared? I only got past by my use of weightless skill, and if I didn't have that skill... would this be possible? In other words, only by being the first player to solo the One-Eyed could someone get to this dungeon?
Inspecting the Demonified Tarantula further, I noticed a shadow standing at its left side, channeling some sort of crimson energy into its body.
???: Level ???
Health: ???
The shadow was over two meters tall with two horns on its head and stood straight as an arrow. I couldn't discern either its name, level nor health. It flickered every now and then, and as I crouched slightly closer to get a better view, it suddenly turned around. The shadow flickered again and was snuffed out like a candle.
"I a-attacked Michael?" a teary female voice emerged from the spider's mouth. "What have I done, I– ARGGHG! PUNY HUMAN, I SHALL RIP–" it suddenly changed, then back again. "What's happening to me, why is– YOU APART LIMB AFTER– p-please get out of my head, ah it hurts, it hur– LIMB HOW DARE YOU– i-it's taking over! Youngster, run, I can't hold out any long– INTRUDE UPON MY TERRITORY!"
The giant mother tarantula slowly rose, her eight legs unfolding. The two-meter-tall spider now became a 5-meter towering presence, and as it opened its red crimson eyes, I noticed a swirling chaos inside them – a madness far worse than what I had ever beheld, one that contained no reason – only wanton destruction.
"ANYONE WHO RESISTS THE GREAT LORD SHALL PERISH!" it screamed.
*Quest Update: Spider Trouble has been changed to Dark ploy
Dark ploy
You have discovered the true cause of the Urcha Dungeon's disturbance. It turns out a mysterious force in the form of a shadow infected the gentle spiders and Mother Tarantula with demonic energy.
The shadow left before you could find out what it was and the spider was finally consumed by a presence seemingly obeying to a great lord.
Task: Defeat the Demonified Tarantula, take its poison sack to Alchemist Gaia and report your findings to the Beginner Village chief.
Reward: ???
Swosh the black tarantula almost instantly closed in on me.
I had totally mismatched its speed and I was forced to throw myself out of its way as it tried to pierce me with one of its front legs.
I tumbled over the hard rock but shot up immediately, sprinting to the wall to my right side. If not for that quick reaction, its sharp leg would have pierced my chest.
She's broken. There is absolutely no way I could beat the boss on hard difficulty in my current level straight up in a fight. And I thought getting here was hard. Hah.
I evaded the sticky web and climbed up the wall faster than before. After all, I had gotten better at finding those crack. The Mother Tarantula and its humongous body – supported by eight, sharp shiny legs which could be used as weapons – hurled straight after.
Suddenly, I felt something sticky attach my right leg to the wall. Looking down, I saw it was a white spider web. Fuck I missed it. I instantly made the decision to equip my staff and activate crimson beam. The streak of red crushed the web to smithereens and I put it back in my inventory, just a finger away from getting stabbed by the mother tarantula.
The rest of the climb went quite well.
Until now. As I inserted my fingers in a crack in the roof, the spider lunged from the wall toward me.
Holy fuck it can do this as well.
I equipped my staff and bashed the incoming leg as hard as I could, pulling myself up and clinching to the roof at the same time. With my back pressed against the wall for a moment, I witnessed how the spider's teeth were centimeters away from crunching into my face. Then the huge spider fell, waving its eight legs as it descended onto the ground with a resounding crash.
It lost about 3 damage from my strike and 650 from the fall. It glared at me from below, before I could see how its mad eyes flickered and what seemed to be a grin showed on its face. It then began to climb up the wall again. I understood what it was doing. It was going to try until it reached me, and then tear me apart.