“Dungeon disarmament is a tricky subject, and not entirely due to the difficulty. Politics also play a large role in its usage and overall implementation.
Dungeons are often referred to as an aspect of nature, in that just like the trees, they wake and sleep over the seasons, albeit following their own internal clock. When dungeons are active, they invite adventurers to dare their lives in pursuit of untold riches beneath the earth. However, when left to grow in strength, Dungeons will spill forth the monsters within to wreak havoc on the surrounding lands.
This latter case is where Dungeon disarmament comes into play. When enough damage is dealt to a Dungeon; its monsters killed, structures damaged, and loot plundered, the Dungeon will re-enter its state of hibernation and close its doors for an extended period of time.
And that extended period of time is where controversy arises. When delved at a sustainable rate, Dungeons can nourish a local economy for extended periods of time before hibernation. Adventurers require supplies, arms, and armor for their delves, and they will be very likely to purchase them as close to their target as possible. That means settlements located near popular dungeons have an incentive to stand against Dungeon disarmament.
Though that does not apply to all towns; those located in the fringes of the Kingdom stand in favor of Dungeon disarmament due to the danger they pose compared to how few people travel so far out to delve them.
So as it stands, the current policy for Dungeon disarmament is to take input from its nearby towns to determine whether the practice should be followed. This has caused some problems in the past, however, when settlements desire to supplement their economy without having insight into how their Dungeon works. Adventurers are eventually sent forth either way, whether to protect the town, or clean up the corpses.”
-Excerpt from “Political Treatise on Dungeoneering” by Almidus Goldring, dungeon scholar and one-time adventurer
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Click swore to themselves. Or at least, the spider equivalent of chewing oneself out. They knew they didn’t deserve that kind of criticism, even from themselves, but the mistakes that hindsight reminded them about felt much too embarrassing.
[Observation]! Come on, [Observation]!
The intruders were too far away. Click had the perfect chance to get some information about them when they approached the mega web, but the dizziness all of the monsters were feeling prevented the [Spider Army Commander] from making use of their greatest asset; common sense.
At least from where they were seated, Click was in the best position to get the next best thing.
“[Charging Beetles] on our left,” said the woman at the front of the group. She looked uncomfortable under the bright light of her torch, which stood in contrast to her shadow-colored clothing.
“I got it!” exclaimed the man standing at the back. He jumped forward with a shield and sword in his hands, and blocked the oncoming charge with the slab of thin, gray material. He didn’t even flinch when the beetles impacted.
“Finally having fun, Yarric?” teased the other woman of the group. She held a pair of throwing knives in her gauntleted right hand.
“Yeah, I’m just sitting here with my shield up, this is super fun,” Yarric deadpanned.
“Hey, that [Alpha Dungeon Hound] went down in a single hit, that wasn’t fun either!”
“I bet the experience you got was, though!”
“Enough you two.” The first woman spoke up with a raised voice, and despite its serene monotone, it carried enough force of will to make the others quiet. “Scouting the creatures is just about done, so let’s complete our last task.”
Click watched as the trio turned around and headed towards a corner of the cave that none of the spiders had ever entered before. It was at an angle that couldn’t easily be seen from the web, so the [Spider Army Commander] began to follow them with a contingent of hunter spiders.
The spiders’ path was thankfully clear, and even if it weren’t, the fact that the dungeon raid was active would have kept other monsters from attacking them. They set themselves up a safe distance away and began watching. This wasn’t somewhere any of them had been, so Click was very curious about what had gotten the intruders’ attention there.
The woman in the front handed the torch to the lady with the gauntlets, and bent down to inspect the ground in front of a downward facing tunnel. Her deft hands moved with considerable grace, as she dug at the ground and pulled at some sort of invisible mechanism. At least that was what it looked like. She very well could have been fumbling around for nothing, but Click didn’t underestimate them. Especially after they killed the [Alpha Dungeon Hound] so quickly.
I never even knew there was another passage there. Where does it lead, maybe there are more flies down there? Click began to get lost in their own thoughts.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
All of a sudden, the woman jumped back as a series of sharp spikes extended out of the walls of the rocky passage. She stood still for a few seconds before slowly rising to her feet. The expression on her face looked the exact same from before she started.
“Nice job disarming the trap!” cheered the armored man. “I guess it can’t kill anyone else if it kills you first.”
“Purposeful activation,” she retorted. “Easier to do with dungeon traps, since they don’t follow normal trap building conventions. Jumping back was simply an added precaution.”
“Yeah, whatever. So are we done here?”
“Yes. I’ll inform the captain that they can begin.” The woman placed a finger to her ear and began to speak. “Raid leader, first floor has been scouted and the spike trap leading to the second floor has been disarmed.”
While the trio was distracted, Click and the other spiders approached them silently. Now that they were finally within range, the [Spider Army Commander] finally let loose their Skill.
[Observation]!
Human
Name: Amalia Aersoul
Class: Trapfinder Rogue
Deity: N/A
Wait, that’s it? I understand what a name is, mine is Click. But what is a Class? And where are their attributes, Skills, or anything else? System, what can they do?
Human
Name: Amalia Aersoul
Class: Trapfinder Rogue
Deity: N/A
[Skill level up! Observation (10)]
[Skill Perk unlocked for Observation!]
Observation
10
Obtain System information about a target. Bypasses the target's personal desire to hide System information.
Bypass? That perk implies it’s possible to hide your information from others just by wanting to. Then how come I could see everyone else’s information? Maybe they were just too stupid to realize all of your strengths and weaknesses are best hidden from others?
Before the lead spider could make use of the perk, the three intruders caught their attention.
The woman who had disarmed the spike trap nodded to herself before looking to the other two and then to the entrance. The familiar creaking noise began to emanate from the other side of the cavern, but it was quickly replaced with a slam and staccato of heavy footsteps.
[Dungeon Raid! Kill the intruder!]
[Dungeon Raid! Kill the intruder!]
[Dungeon Raid! Kill the intruder!]
The words flashed past Click’s vision several times, and each time they did, the urge to run over to the entrance to meet the newcomers with envenomed fangs grew larger. The [Spider Army Commander] didn’t even realize they were moving by the sixth message, and they had broken into a breakneck pace by the fifteenth.
It was by the last notification, number forty-something, that the spiders had all arrived at the pale gray door and came to a halt. A massive shining rectangle stood before them, the bright, white light it gave off being blocked by a massive throng of bipedal creatures, all clad in various materials and holding all sorts of large objects. At least twenty of them had entered so far, and more were still filing in. There was no sign of any end to them.
The sight was horribly intimidating, and utter fear broke Click out of their Raid-fueled stupor. At least just enough so that they finally got the first good look at the intruders.
[Observation]!
Dwarf
Name: Brimir Steelbeard
Class: Iron Mountain’s Forgelord Crusader (Level 55)
Deity: Dhevos of the Burning Anvil
Statistic
Amount
Health Points
850
Body
657
Intellect
214
Soul
545
Oh… Oh no.
Click had a feeling of utter dread in their gut that no other monster shared.
The predators howled in rage-fueled confidence, and charged at the intruders alongside the bats and beetles.
“Charge!” yelled the man at the front of the group, everyone following with weapons raised.
Retreat! Click yelled through their Skill at the gathered spiders, who ran away alongside their leader.
The sound of yelps, whimpers, and flesh being sheared echoed out behind the [Spider Army Commander] as they made their smartest decision to date.