“The phrase ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ refers to how the grand achievements of the noble races can be attributed to the work and achievements of our ancestors. Their efforts paved the way for us to rise to such great heights, and it is their shoulders we stand on to reach them.
But there is a corollary to that; those who do not appreciate the work or sacrifices of those before them are doomed to fail. An apprentice blacksmith who does not appreciate the techniques discovered by the metalworkers before them will not be able to forge a proper blade.
It sounds like madness for a skilled worker to ignore something so important. What could be the cause? Sheer arrogance, nothing more.
I would like to bring your attention to recent happenings in the royal court. Our new king, recently ascendant on the ‘mysterious’ death of his father, has worked hard to undo all of His work on the kingdom! The nobility had grown so much during that time and expanded their glory past the borders of our fair lands too. Our holdings and industrial output had expanded tremendously when laborers were made to work more than twelve hours of the day, and now the prince seeks to undo it! What could be the cause of that? Fair people, I shall let you decide.”
-Public speech given by Lord Avarician Fringe in the Shostran capital, before being attacked by an angry mob.
----------------------------------------
Click was grateful for everything the [Alpha Hunter] had done. Well, almost everything. It had united the dungeon spiders into a single front, one tribe, and made a mark on the rest of the cavern they all called home. And now that the tribe was Click’s, they couldn’t help but appreciate the shoulders of the giant they stood on.
The [Spider Commander] stomped on the corpse of the big bully they were currently standing on top of and addressed the crowd of spiders below them. Though there wasn’t much “addressing” that could be done. Click waved their arms and mandibles about, and the others simply looked back, a few even trying to copy the movements.
Click
This is hopeless. The spider thought to themself.
“URRROAAAAHHHHH!!!” came a terrible roar from the distance.
A group of predators came rushing in, fury evident on their muzzles. They made a bee-line for the white-pillared home, and while Click knew the defensive cage would hold an assault, the spider still jumped back in surprise at the sound of their impact.
The [Spider Commander] tumbled down the corpse of the [Alpha Hunter] and barely managed to avoid a paw that passed by where they just were. The claws attached to the appendage gripped onto the dead spider and dragged it out of its old home, but not before a particularly brave, or foolhardy, hunter spider leapt up and bit the paw as it made its egress. Another predator quickly grabbed the corpse with their teeth before another spider could attack and slowly began to walk away with it. The others followed along closely behind their leader.
Did they want to keep it as a prize? Wondered Click. Or maybe they don’t want it to go back to its old home? Home is safe, and they would not want something they hate to be safe.
Either way, the brief attack made something very clear to the [Spider Commander]. The war against these predators might have been over, but the spiders still weren’t safe. Something would have to be done about that.
[Observation]
[Skill level up! Observation (2)]
Click called up the Skill while looking at one of the departing creatures. The spider scolded themself for not doing this earlier, it would’ve reduced some of the risks of their coup if they knew what these powerful enemies were capable of.
[System Query: Observation]
[Listing Results (1/1): Class Overview]
Dungeon Hound (Level 8)
Name: N/A
Soul Link: Rockfort Hamlet Dungeon Core Ṁ̶̡̄̒͜o̷͚͍̊͒̃̓̿ǰ̵̧̢̭̫̪a̷͇̋̿̿̽͘ ̵̨̛̥͎͉́̋̈͘D̵̝̭͇̓̎̅ȋ̷̯͔̤̑͋̑t̴̛͉͈̟̽̑͑h̸̪̲̩̗̀̉̃͝͠ä̵͕̼̠́̊̓̕b̴̗͕̏͊̂̓̚ä̷̡̰̱͕̒̌̋
Classes: N/A
Type
Prerequisite
Species
Juvenile Dungeon Hound
Statistic
Amount
Health Points
150
Body
69
Intellect
20
Soul
35
Skill Name
Level
Description
Iron Fangs
7
Teeth are reinforced to be harder and sharper.
Pack Tactics
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
5
Instinctively understand the desires of the rest of the pack.
Prey Detection
6
Instinctually sense the location of prey, and its movements.
Woah. Click was taken aback by the high numbers, especially Body. But these predators, the dungeon hounds, also had the size advantage that was likely to thank. But then the [Alpha Hunter] had a similarly high Body attribute, and it was downright miniscule in comparison!
And [Pack Tactics]. The [Spider Commander] looked back to their tribe. I wish I had a Skill like that, I don’t think any of the others can actually understand me. Only what their instincts tell them. Wait…
It was a longshot, but Click called forth and considered the description of [Command Subordinates] again. Words were still something they didn’t quite understand, but they didn’t need to with the way the System supplied them information.
Skill Name
Level
Description
Command Subordinates
15
Command subordinate members of your organization. They will follow your will as if it were an instinct. Can target specific subordinates to command.
“Follow my will as if instinct,” Click quoted. In that case, [Command Subordinate]!
A quartet of web spiders snapped to attention, and looked at their leader intently as they supplied a series of instructions. After a few seconds, the four spiders quickly ran up to the web megastructure and began to weave a long, ladder-like tunnel back down to their white-pillared home.
It wasn’t a complex task, all things considered, but it wasn’t something they would do normally.
Climb up to the big web.
Weave a web in the shape of a tube down here.
Perform the above two steps, but with enough space between the last one that the tube goes through a different gap between the white pillars.
Those were the instructions Click had given. And seeing how the quartet continued to weave new pillars coming down from the mega web, it seemed that the Skill could impart complex instructions beyond native instincts.
But as far as the [Spider Commander] knew, the Skill was just for giving short-term orders. Could its instructions last beyond the Skill’s active effect?
Click regarded the spiders with a facsimile of a smile after they completed their task. They smiled back, and their leader made sure the reaction was genuine by deactivating whatever trace of [Command Subordinates] was left. Their mandibles didn’t lower.
That only made Click smile wider, seeing another confirmation that they truly were the new leader.
They followed up by pointing at one of the tubes and then at another gap between the white pillars further down their home. The quartet of spiders looked at their leader for a second before lighting up and running up to the mega web.
A few moments later, and they were already partway to the ground with a wide tube of webbing following their trail.
Success!
With the newfound confidence, Click activated their Skill once more and directed it at a small group of spiders
Climb up to the web megastructure
Position yourselves an equal distance away from each other, covering the entire length of the web.
If you see a predator, shake the web as hard as you can.
They quickly acknowledged the command and climbed up to the top of the structure. Click saw them begin to arrange themselves, and was satisfied, looking back down to the assembled spiders before them.
The next part of the plan would be tricky. The tribe now had scouts to warn of impending danger, but now they needed someone to listen to the scouts. Spiders didn’t exactly have a way of making noise like the predators and their howls, so they had to use what they had.
[Observation]
Click had to use the Skill several times on the spiders to find a few that fit what they were looking for.
Skill Name
Level
Description
Web Sense
8
Feel vibrations through your web, even when you’re not on it.
Nope.
[Observation]
Skill Name
Level
Description
Web Sense
7
Feel vibrations through your web, even when you’re not on it.
Nada.
[Skill level up! Observation (3)]
[Observation]
[Observation]
[Observation]
[Skill level up! Observation (4)]
This is taking a while.
…
[Skill level up! Observation (5)]
Skill Name
Level
Description
Web Sense
12
Feel vibrations through your web, even when you’re not on it. Identify the source of the vibrations.
Bingo! [Command Subordinates]!
[Skill level up! Command Subordinates (16)]
Stay within the confines of the white pillars.
If you feel a large vibration caused by a member of this tribe, begin to shake in warning.
Click wasn’t done yet, however. They looked at another spider and activated their Skill.
Stay within the confines of the white pillars and web megastructure.
Bring food to the stationary web spider during meal times.
That would take care of the tribe’s alarm. It wouldn’t do to have it break a few days in, after all. But what about the other spiders? What was their instinct when they saw the fear shiver in their own home?
The [Spider Commander] steeled themselves and began to call [Command Subordinates] in a rapid fire, bringing all of the spiders of the tribe under their control, and imparting only a single quick instruction.
If you feel the fear shake when you are already in a safe location, do not flee.
Click didn’t know how well the Skill would override an existing instinct, but it was the best they could do in the circumstances. The fear shake would mainly be for any spider just outside of their home. Getting everyone to safety during an attack would reduce casualties.
Click
Lowering deaths wasn’t enough. It made for a good start with the resources and personnel Click had, but nobody in their right mind would be satisfied by just that. Click wouldn’t be truly happy until the spiders could wander the entire cave without risk of getting eaten.
The [Spider Commander] looked towards the gathered hunter spiders and raised their mandibles. There were plenty more levels to gain, after all. Click would make sure they would reach it as efficiently as possible.