Since I had to wait for my resource pools to tick back up, I decided it wouldn't hurt to take a few minutes to scroll through my available abilities. I pulled off my helm, sitting it beside me. The list was primarily ones I had seen before: Empowered Strike, Hack 'n Slash, Armor Mastery, Parry, etc. However, a few new abilities had shown up. Most were about dealing extra damage to the types of enemies I've already fought or taking less damage from them.

What was surprising to me was a lot of the abilities specialized for non-bladed weapons were no longer available to me. I could still see the other tabs but was limited to choosing from the generic, blades, and armor abilities. It had probably been like this since I picked up either Weapon Focus or Bond Blade. I'd have to pay more attention in the future to make sure I didn't close off too many paths.

I shook my head to clear it before waving away the screen. It didn't matter right now unless I wanted to put off grabbing Imbue Blade. I put back on my helm before slipping into meditation. As soon as I was in peak fighting condition, I hopped up to my feet and started to look for the exit.

After searching for longer than I'd like to admit, I came to the conclusion this room was a dead end, and it was time to backtrack. It wasn't the first time I had to retrace my steps, but it did annoy me that a non-exit room would be a dead-end. I returned to the last fork in the labyrinth and got back to work clearing out the dungeon.

What felt like hours, but was probably closer to fifteen minutes, passed as I made my way through the twisting corridors until I got to the next room. Sighing in relief that at least my boredom was coming to an end. I swapped my pole out for my bow. I rolled my shoulders, loosing up before I poked my head into the room.

Danger Sense screamed inside my skull, causing me to yank back just in time to dodge a glob of molten earth dripping down from the ceiling. Cursing, I backed away from the archway as lightning splashed against it.

My eyes darted around what little I could see of the room. It was a small clearing with little cover unless you could crawl on the ceiling. I stashed my bow and shook out my hands, getting ready for the rapid casting of my one ranged spell.

I rushed forward as the water from my first spell fell, rapidly cooling the puddle of hissing magma at the room's entrance. I jumped through the explosion of steam, my Fire Resistance helping me survive the super-heated steam. My hands cracking with my held spells. I jerked to my left, dodging a spear of ice before sending twin Bolts back at my attacker. I was forced to dance back, avoiding an arc of lightning.

I traced the spell to its origin. A spider hung halfway up the wall, lightning building up around it. I tried something new. One hundred twenty-five cubic feet of water pulled together ten feet above the spider before slamming into it. Chitin shattered as the spider was ripped from the wall. Its broken body was dragged to the ground. I stood there, stunned by how destructive the spell was.

That meant that despite Danger Sense's warning, I was caught flat-footed as a spider larger than the others dropped from the ceiling, landing on my back. I grunted and pushed my tail up, covering its eyes. I trusted in my armor to weather the spider's blows. I rolled to my left, grabbed its middle leg, and sent three point-blank Bolts into it.

The spider locked up, making it easy to throw it off my back. I spun to face my paralyzed foe, my khopesh forming in my hands as I hacked down. My blade cut through its abdomen, my aim spoiled by an ice shard ringing my helmet like a bell and a chunk of molten rock splashing against my back.

Luckily, my tail flicked out of the way in time to avoid being caught on fire. I staggered forward before twisting around my eyes, landing on the molten spider flying through the air. I burned stamina, hurling myself forward and catching the spider in midair. Its legs wrapped around my torso as my electrified khopesh cut a path.

Chitin bounced off my torso, splattering my face and chest in ichor just in time for a blade of ice to crash into my side, causing my Charge to veer off course and into the room's wall. I pushed myself off the faux tree and stumbled backward into the waiting limbs of the extra-large spider.

I widened my stance, and my tail pressed into the ground, stopping the spider from dragging me to the ground. Fangs dripping in venom slammed into my pauldron. My left arm was pressed into my chest, and my right arm was trapped between two legs, making it too awarded to use my sword. I sent the blade back to my inventory.

I could trust my armor to hold out for a while, but sooner or later, the damned spider would break through it. The only upside was that I didn't have to worry about spells until I got it off my back. A glance at my mana showed I just had over half left.

I had just enough movement in my right arm that I was able to point my palm at the spider's face. I cast three Bolts into the spider. I felt the start of a migraine form as the spider lost control over its limbs.

Danger Sense roared in my head, letting me throw myself out of the path of an ice lance. I popped back to my feet, spinning around to find another lance building up between the ice spider's pedipalps. I pulled my khopesh free before rushing back to the paralyzed spider.

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I hacked down, splitting the spider's sternum in two just before the ice lance crashed into my chest. The lance ground against my breastplate, deflecting down and to my left. The tip of the lance cut deeply into my thigh. My teeth clicked shut, muffling the scream that tried to claw its way out of my throat.

-Warning-

You are bleeding.

-5hp per second until healed.

-Warning-

Your leg has taken critical damage.

Movement is restricted until fully healed.

I fought to stay standing, my leg wanting to buckle under me. I shift my weight onto my right leg, taking deep breaths. I stumbled through the casting of Minor Self-heal. The spell shattered twice before I was finally able to cast it. My bleeding slowed then stopped as my leg slowly knit itself together, stopping before it was whole again. Most of the healing was spent healing the bruises and burns I picked up in the fight.

My focus snapped back into place, my eyes darting up to the spider as it loosed another lance. I swung my blade up, catching another ice lance and forcing it off course. I dragged myself forward, my tail lashing behind me. My eyes darted to my mana bar.

'Just under 10%. That explains the pounding headache.'

The spider danced back and forth on the wall, hissing at me before it launched itself at me. My blade hacked down, smashing the spider to the ground, its chitin shattering on impact.

I sighed heavily, sending my blade back to my inventory before I pulled my helm off. I grabbed my waterskin, downing half its contents and pouring the other half over my head. I pulled out the notification, fighting for my attention.

Health: 260/400

Stamina: 152/300

Mana: 26/270

-Congratulations-

Pain Resistance has leveled up.

+1 Constitution

-Congratulations-

Basic Greatsword has leveled up.

+1 Strength

-Congratulations-

You have defeated a level 4 Tonitrus Aranea Venator, a level 3 Molten Aranea Venator, a level 5 Dire Aranea Venator, and a level 3 Glacies Aranea Venator.

I waved away the notification before limping around the room, nudging each spider with my good foot to loot them. The heat from the magma spells had made it so I was too tired to harvest the spiders properly, my Fire Resistance doing little to help cool me off. It also didn't help that my armor can only block part of the damage from spells, given its mundane construction.

I walked back to my dropped helm and started to pull my armor off. Once free of my personal oven, I kicked my pants off to repair the slice in them. I used some of my newly acquired spider silk thread to sew the cut shut after struggling to get the thread on the needle.

A quick cast of Create Water refilled my waterskin, only for me to drain a third of it. Even without my armor, my leather clothes, despite being thin, were anything but breathable. I planned to pick up a new set of clothes while idly playing with the satin square.

It took me far longer than I'd like to admit to snap back to reality. I stashed my sewing kit and square of fabric. My mana had been filled up while I was zoned out. I poured my mana into Minor Self-heal to help speed up my recovery before slipping into meditation.

After I got back into fighting shape, I hopped back to my feet and stretched. I gathered enough deadfall to make a small fire and cooked about a pound of pork for lunch. I made a mental note for the hundredth time to pick up spices when I got back to the city, as I spent the better part of half an hour getting back into my armor. I bounced lightly in place, taking my pole out before diving back into the dungeon. With any luck, I'd be out of here in just a few more hours.