Oliver, Slime, and the cloaked figure all slipped through the entrance with relative ease. Cedric on the other hand crawled in on his hands knees.

"Everyone ready?" Oliver looked around the group who all nodded.

"Hold lad." Cedric called, reaching into his back pouch. "Let's not exhaust youer magic, aye?"

He pulled from his back pouch a navy colored stone. He then knocked his hand against twice and it began to glow an otherworldly white glow. Not nearly as bright as Oliver's light magic ball, but bright enough to light the way.

"Woah, that's so cool! Can I hold it?" Cedric tossed Oliver the stone with a nod.

The stone had multiple smooth angled surfaces across it. Each smooth piece of the rock meeting and creating a tipped point.

The cloaked figured chuckled.

"Whose the kid?"

Oliver turned his attention to the figure and a gave a simple wave and smile.

"Hi, I'm Oliver!"

" Pay 'im no mind. 'e's 'ere on queen's orders."

The figure nodded and turned back towards the slope leading down into the earth.

"Cedric whose this?" Slime asked, hopping up and down to meet Cedric height.

He grumbled for a moment before finally answers.

"This 'ere is a bounty hunter. Or, more like vigilante. Queen occasionally assigns them to different things. Not sure why though." Cedric's arms were crossed as he spoke.

"Probably because I get things done right." An azure eye shot a glare from beneath the shadow of the hood they wore.

Cedric just grunted.

"You two seem like you know each other." Slime added.

"Aye. I was good mates with this one's mum."

"Was she also a vigilante?" Oliver asked.

"Aye, but with more class and discretion."

The figure glared at Cedric for a hard minute.

"You can call me Morgan. That's what everyone else calls me." They said coolly.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, how about we get back to work." Morgan spat as they started down the path.

Step after step the party descended further into the depths. Light glistened off the wet stone walls and floors. After 50 feet they came across a bend in the path. Still descending but turning to the right. As they rounded the bend they encountered what the survey team discovered. A large molting of a massive spider. The molting was as tall as Oliver and with its legs bent under most of the body it was easily four feet wide.

"Woah. . ." Oliver whispered.

"Aye, the size of this creature must be massive." Cedric said in awe.

Morgan said nothing but took the image in.

"Well that's not great." Slime said, his body shaking from the sight.

"What is it?" Oliver knelt down beside his friend, giving him a comforting pat.

"You know wot this is?" Cedric asked looking the molting up and down.

Slime simply nodded.

"I think I have a pretty good idea. But, maybe we should look a little further just to make sure."

The group agreed. Oliver extended his hand down to Slime who promptly hopped into it and nestled onto his shoulder.

Cedric pulled another stone from his pocket, illuminated it and took the lead with Morgan close behind him.

"Whatever that is must be pretty serious." Oliver said softly.

"Why do you say that?"

"I can feel your entire body shaking up there." He reached up to give him another gentle pat on the head.

"Ahh, sorry about that." His body deflated slightly. Oliver just shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. Whatever is down here, we'll face it together." He smiled and Slime smiled back.

They walked for what felt like hours. Their feet throbbed in pain as they slope just continued. Occasionally winding or bending in different directions. No different paths to take. As they descended lower and lower the structure of the cave changed. The flat smooth stone they started out with became more jagged and jarring. Dim lime color crystals started to come from where the floor and walls met. Then as they continued further more of this crystal was found broken or smashed against the floor. The shards spilled out in every direction filling the small cylinder like holes in the floor. As they continued their descent they finally came to room roughly the size of their entrance. Now with three branching paths. One leading directly to the left. Another continuing straight. And a third just to the right of the path forward. It appeared this path might bend even further to the right and it began to slop upwards. The ceiling of this room had dozens of dim lime crystals this time they varied in sizes. In the middle of the cluster was a huge crystal.

"That has to be the size of a house!" Oliver shouted looking upwards.

"Or at a least a shed." Slime chimed.

A loud shushing nose came from Morgan who held a finger up to the mouth.

The group fell silent and listened. At first they group heard nothing, and then they finally heard the faintest sound of tapping. Each looked around the room trying to locate where it was coming from.

"It sounds like its coming from every direction." Oliver whispered while slowly turning looking at each portion of the room.

"There." Morgan jetted her finger near towards the corner of the room near the left tunnel they saw. Slime hopped down and took a closer look.

"These are all baby spiders." His voice was quiet, but his words were frantic.

The group all knelt down to get a closer look and just like Slime had said. Dozens, hundreds of baby spiders were all marching out of this tunnel across the wall towards the center tunnel and following the wall further in.

The group did nothing but watch for several minutes as hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny little spiders continued on their path. Until finally all that remained were a few stragglers trying to catch up with the group.

"Come on." Cedric pointed in their direction with his chin. The group continued to keep their voices low and pressed on.

"Slime, do you think there's anything else down 'ere?"

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He looked the tunnel up and down as they continued.

"I don't think so. A lot of beast-kin don't usually team up with arachnid type creatures."

"Why's that?" Morgan whispered back.

"Well, they're kind of like goblins. They're really territorial creatures. If they don't have to share a space, they won't. Or they will until they decide they're done."

"I thought goblins live with other species?" Morgan said.

He bobbed his head up and down.

"Yeah, they can. But they usually coincide with other goblins, imps, or similar kinds of creatures. You know, beast-kin that admire power, resourcefulness, and the such."

"So, in that regard arachnid types are more dangerous?" They asked.

Slime nodded.

"Yeah, you wouldn't catch me trusting anything they have to say."

As they continued down the tunnel they followed spiders into Slime stopped.

"Hey quiet for a second!" He commanded in a hushed whisper.

Without argument they all followed his directions and stood silently.

"Shoot, draw your weapons people." Slime commanded. Cedric pulled his axe off his back and Oliver the blade Derelict had given him several days ago. Morgan seem unprepared, however, their cloak covered most of their body. No one was quite sure what kind of weapon or attack they were preparing. Or if they were keen to just do nothing.

The group readied themselves in haste, but after several dozen seconds nothing came down the corridor at them.

"Slime, what are we doing here?" Oliver whispered.

"Don't move, and stay ready." He insisted.

Again, nothing came.

"Bah!" Cedric groaned putting his axe away. Furrowing his brow he glared down at Slime. "There ain't nothin' comin'."

While the two started to bicker back and forth Oliver began to feel a little light headed. Their arguing grew muffled his eyes began to feel sleepy. Slowly closing them moment after moment he couldn't hear the others anymore. As the weight of his eyes began to be too much his eyes quickly opened and loud snap came into his ears.

Like times before his sight blurred around him until finally a murky sandy brown image came into his mind. His peripheral vision was difficult to make it out as it blended, or smeared on the edge of his vision. The image before him though was clear. He continued to the team arguing with another completely losing their focus on their surroundings. Then two large spiders came down the corridor at them. Both raised their abdomens slightly over their main body. Their spinnerets show a thick sticky web that trapped Morgan and Cedric. Oliver and Slime tried to free them but as they moved to help a third spider came up from behind them and bound Oliver in the same fashion.

Another snap rang in his head causing him to blink. When he opened his eyes again there he was, his team still bickering.

"Guys get ready! Two are coming from that way, and another behind us!"

Oliver turned to face their rear while Cedric raised an eyebrow toward him.

"Now listen 'ere boy. . ." Was all Cedric could say before Slime transformed into a wall reflecting off two thick web shots with his body.

Cedric redrew his weapon and Morgan jumped back into the center of the group.

The spiders let out a loud screech as the third one came up to flank them.

"I knew it." Oliver said under his breath. He sprinted towards the spider hopping to the side, catching himself on the tunnel wall as the spiders silk shot flew passed him landing on the group just in front of Morgan. In a flash the tether had been cut by Morgan. Oliver didn't see by what though and turned his attention forward back on the spider ahead of him.

He heard Cedric let out a loud bellow and then a gnashing and crushing sound filled the air around them.

"Gross!" He heard someone exclaim in disgust but between the screeching, gnashing, and fighting Oliver couldn't tell who said it.

A coolness slipped across his mind and suddenly he felt calm. His vision became tinted in gold and small glittering dots appeared all around him. He now realized he was watching his body lunge at the enemy. Looking down he notice his body was floating up near the tunnel ceiling. He saw his body stab his sword into the head of the spider and sliced the blade through its body cleaving it in two. A green ichor spewed from the creature and splashed onto the cave floor.

Turning his spirit like body to the right he watched as Cedric and Slime finished off the remaining two. Severed spider limbs littered the dimly lit tunnel. While Morgan continued to take small steps away from the ichor slowly flooding the flood.

His body stood frozen, emotionless, as it stood beside the carnage it had brought against the spider. Oliver suddenly felt a gentle, warm hand press against his back. He turned to look over his shoulder and in the briefest moment saw a smile. Everything in sight illuminated with sunlight forcing him to close his eyes. When he opened them again he finished turning around and saw his comrades catching their breaths. He was back in his body again.

"Oliver!" Slime called out. Cedric and the others walked over quickly noticing the fallen spider beside the boy.

"Dang!" Slime responded.

"Now thats a clean cut. 'ella've job lad." Cedric said cheerfully, smacking Oliver's upper arm with his large forearm gently knocking him off balance.

In a literal slip of the tongue Oliver noticed Morgan slightly sticking their tongue out in disapproval. They quickly noticed Oliver's gaze and turned away from him.

"Uh. . . nice work kid." Their statement was cool. Oliver chuckled at how quickly Morgan recovered and returned to work.

"Well, let's keep going." Oliver stepped ahead of the group and waved them forward.

As they continued though the tunnel started to change shape. The walls began to be more jagged and grooved. The broken crystals from the previous tunnel made a return here except now they all appeared in the center of the pathway. Wherein the previous they were scattered in every way on the floor.

Further in they started to see signs of further molting. Another huge husk was crushed and pushed to one side of the tunnel.

Cedric and Morgan stepped closer to examine what was left of it. Large circular holes were throughout this one.

"I think this one would've been even bigger than the last one." Morgan mused as they pulled a piece of the husk back and forth.

"Aye." Cedric grunted in reply doing the same with what must've been a leg.

"Do you hear that?" Slime asked.

The group collectively hushed themselves and turned their heads to listen further down the path.

"Is that. . .water?" Morgan questioned.

"I think youer right." Cedric agreed.

They continued forward. Moments passed into longer moments but soon the ground found a much brighter light than their stones illuminating the path forward. As they approached the mouth of the tunnel their eyes all focused on one thing. As the tunnel opened into a massive clearing they saw a huge waterfall falling on the opposite side of the cave. It fell into a large lake. Surrounding the lake was grass, stones of every size covered in moss. Small trees grew beside the lake as well. A portion of the lake appeared to pour out into a thick river on the left side of this cave and it lead into another tunnel they couldn't see down.

"Check, it, out." Oliver said softly stepping into the bigger room.

"Wait!" Slime shouted in a whisper.

As Oliver turned his attention back to the group the room was filled with the sound of stone being crushed. The trio rushed forward to stand beside Oliver as they all turned and saw a massive spider stomping their way. It's legs smashed into the stone floor leaving gnashed holes where it stepped. This creature had emerged from one of the tunnels near the waterfall and in a matter of seconds crossed the entire room. Stopping before the group they were able to see it's dozen or so eyes moving and taking them in. This creature had long thick strings of hair coming off its legs and two massive jaws below the eyes. Its abdomen alone was larger than boulders portrayed in folk stories of adventure. It bore a yellow, green, and brown color throughout it's body. It then let out a loud ear piercing scream. Forcing the group to cover their ears and hunch over in pain.

"I knew it!" Slime called out.

"Wot is this beast!" Cedric called out, pulling the shield off his back and reaching for his axe.

"This isn't any old arachnid beast, it's the dreaded Kin-Eater. Of all the beast-kin we're taught to avoid this is at the top of the list!" Slime shouted.

Then a sharp leg swung at the group. Cedric planted his feet firmly into the group and drew his shield up. The force of the leg sent him crashing into Morgan and the pair were thrown across the room. They hit the ground and rolled further away. Morgan rolled straight into the cave's river. Cedric on the other hand slammed his axe into the floor and his body jolted to a stop. He turned and reached his hand outwards for Morgan. Who grasped it quickly and was pulled from the water.

The Kin Slayer lunged toward Oliver with its huge maw. As it crunched down towards the boy a stone spire suddenly erected itself in front of him blocking the bite. Oliver looked it up and down and near the bottom of it saw Slime wincing from the creatures force.

"Get. . .out of here. . .Oliver!" He struggled to say as he pushed with all his might to maintain this form.

Oliver ducked under it's legs and ran in the opposite direction of the river. The Kin-Eater pulled Spire Slime from the ground and flung him towards the lake. Before his body hit the group he let the form go and returned to his gelatinous shape. His body splashed against the stone floor into a puddle.

"Slime!" Cedric shouted.

"Oh no!" Morgan spat, coughing as they struggled to catch their breath still.

The large arachnid turned its gaze back to Oliver and with just a few ground impaling steps standing up higher on its back legs preparing to slam into the boy with its front ones.

In this moment the world felt like it stopped for Oliver. His eyes grew large as the Kin-Eater towered over him. He fell backwards in disbelief. In fear at the size of this colossal creature. Suddenly, the only feeling Oliver had was one of dread. His heart sank as the creature started its descent.

I just want to go home. He thought. Images of time with his father came flooding into his mind. Tears filling his eyes as the realization that he wouldn't get to see his father again.

His eyes gazed behind the beast catching Cedric wide eyes, his mouth large as if shouting. He was scrambling to his feet slowly. To his right his saw the puddle of Slime still spread across the floor. Then he looked up once more to see the Kin-Eater mere feet away from crushing him.

"Father. . .Father. Father Help me!" He screamed pinching his eyes closed hand raised to try and shield himself.

The next sound he heard was a loud pop and then an endless ringing.