“Revenge. It’s a very controversial topic, where there exist myths and legends that glorify the act, while history and common teachings decry it. It seems that everyone has an opinion on the subject.

  A very common story that many myths follow is that of a revenge seeker, one who has unjustly suffered at the hands of a terrible evil, and is thus led on a quest to become powerful enough to defeat them. The hero, of course, eventually wins and takes their place as the villain’s successor, with implications that they will rule more justly than them.

  More recent history, on the other hand, shows that things tend to go differently. And never well. Either the revenge seeker, blinded by rage, makes a foolhardy mistake early on that spells their demise, or becomes far worse than whatever villain they attempted to vanquish in the pursuit of their goal.

  This scholar has yet to read accurate accounts of a revenge tale gone right, let alone seen one with their own eyes. Perhaps there will soon be a case where the quest for revenge is successful, or perhaps the hero finds a more constructive goal with a similar end result?”

  -Tavern talk by Rogulus Dragonlove, Bard and Historian

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  The intruder ran as soon as the fireball detonated. Ash, flaming webs, and the charred remains of hundreds of spiders flew across the cave as Thamus charged into the epicenter of the explosion.

  The noise and shockwave completely blindsided Click, who was left too stunned to properly respond.

  As burning pieces of webbing collected on his armor, turning it red hot, the intruder grabbed onto the white pillars of the spiders’ home and pulled with all his might. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and muffled the burning in his arms and on his skin as he heaved the bones of his old friend out of the ground. Fire continued to rain down around him as he turned around and ran back to his companions, the corpse held between his arms in a tight hug. Thamus finally collapsed as soon as he made it back to safety.

  “W-we did it,” the adventurer mumbled from his place on the cavern floor.

  “We got her back,” added Quintus with a weary smile.

  “More than. Worth it,” said Cassia in between deep, labored breaths.

  M-my home… Click thought. They took my home. They killed all of my brethren… They destroyed… everything. The spider lost all feeling in their legs and felt them begin to curl up.

  The intruders all weeped tears both bitter and sweet. Click’s tears, if they could cry, would only be bitter. A series of new feelings erupted within them, something with an intensity they had never felt before. They were gut wrenching.

  Grief, rage, both at a level the [Spider Army Commander] had never felt before. They had experienced a kind of loss that until now, was utterly incomprehensible. To lose everything all at once, Click felt… hatred. These intruders were going to suffer.

  [Command Subordinates]. Start biting.

  The [Shadow Spiders] that were still on the adventurers snapped out of their stupor and began their attack anew. Venom-drenched fangs pierced unprotected skin as lithe legs carried the stealthed attackers to another part of their bodies before they could react.

  But none of the intruders were reacting. They had already fallen to their knees or on their bottoms, and were just staring at Click’s home with melancholic smiles, at the black sockets within the strangely shaped top piece of the white material. A top piece that Click was beginning to realize resembled the intruders’ heads.

  Idle wonder simply passed over the spider’s mind, as they called forth their Skill once more.

  [Command Subordinates]. Faster. Bite harder. Kill them.

  The spiders obliged, yet the intruders didn’t react. However, in the dim light of the glowing mushrooms, their faces began to turn ever so slightly pale.

  “That scroll took too much out of me, guys, more than I even had,” grunted Cassia. “Got too much mana burn to even reach for a potion, let alone swat this spider off of me.”

  “Don’t worry, Cassia, you’re not the only one,” Quintus replied in a drawn out breath. “I think the venom’s starting to take effect anyway, so it’s not like you would’ve been able to do much either way. Can’t even get my armor off to find them because of my sprained shoulder. I think it might even be broken. Three [Shadow Spiders] on us each is too much, ugh.”

  “Three? It’s just one for me,” said the mage.

  “Oh. Well, what about you, Thamus?”

  …

  “Thamus?”

  The armored man was frozen in place, his eyes still staring into the empty sockets of his friend. The vibrancy of life was still visible within his own, just a spark, but it was slowly fading. The chainmail on his back was still giving off smoke and had sunk a fraction of an inch into his skin.

  “Oh gods, how much damage did you take, Thamus?! Your armor’s pretty much melted into your flesh!” Quintus let out a weak cough before falling to his arms.

  He didn’t respond.

  Good.

  Click didn’t need to be human to understand what despair looked like. The spider knew these three were feeling it, feeling the same thing they inflicted upon Click.

  Before the [Spider Army Commander] could wallow any further in the intruders’ suffering, a far away noise broke them out of it. That noise turned into many as they got closer, and soon revealed themselves as the crunching of boots on the cave floor.

  “I got the alert and heard an explosion! What’s wrong?!” shouted the Dwarf with dozens of others just behind him.

  “S-spiders, Shadow…” muttered Quintus before fully collapsing. “In our armor.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The shorter adventurer didn’t hesitate and snapped at another robed woman standing near him. “You, hydromancer lass! Make them wet! Make sure the water seeps all the way through their armor and onto their skin!”

  “B-but what wou-?”

  “DO IT!”

  The standing mage didn’t argue back and simply pointed her hands at the downed trio. A blast of water flew at them, almost immediately drenching them from head to toe.

  “Now freeze them!”

  “Into a solid block?! I’m not a high enough level to-”

  “Just a little, bring them as close to water’s freezing point as you can.” He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “Please.”

  The hydromancer nodded and complied without another word. A chill resonated from her hands, and blew through the cavern, leaving a trail of small ice crystals over the water it passed by. When the chill reached the adventurers, their clothes and exposed skin began to frost over. Cloth stiffened while leather barely kept the ice to the surface. But underneath the fabrics and armors, ice began to form just above their skin, and soon enough enveloped the [Shadow Spiders] that continued their assault.

  The Dwarf didn’t give the standing mage a chance to pause her attack, as he rushed over to the downed trio with several vials in hand. Three small glasses filled with a deep red liquid were placed to each of the adventurers’ mouths, and they were forced to imbibe their contents.

  “Easy now, it’s a healing potion. Can’t exactly do triage when you’re seconds away from dying now, can I?” The Dwarf let out a small chuckle. “We don’t exactly have antivenin, but [Dungeon Spider] venom should pass through your systems within a few days.”

  “Th-thank you,” coughed Quintus. “Thamus ran through a fire and Cassia’s got mana burn.”

  “Well you heard him, get them a burn and mana potion each!” shouted the shorter man at the other standing adventurers.

  A pyromancer and their teammate rushed over to get them each a drink from their own belts.

  After drinking them, Thamus only blinked while Cassia slowly and dizzily lifted herself up to her feet.

  “So, now that you three aren’t going to die, would you mind telling me why I shouldn’t report you to the Adventurer’s Guild and have you all thrown in jail?” The shorter adventurer’s nurturing expression turned both fiery and frigid as he glared at the three.

  “Jail?” asked one of the adventurers in the back of the crowd. “Didn’t they get attacked?” mumbled another. “Yeah, they threw up the emergency alarm.” Even the trio looked confused.

  The Dwarf pointed at the corpse before them and shouted. “Dungeon Ossium! You greedy fools brought this upon yourselves! I saw that corpse underneath the spider’s web! I’m not an idiot, I know you attacked them first if you have that!”

  “Hold on, what’s that?” asked a voice from the crowd.

  Before the group could erupt into a mumble of questions, the lead adventurer spoke up. “It’s a substance that forms in dungeons. When bones are subjected to a dungeon’s magical energies, they become incredibly hard, akin to a gemstone. They’re worth their weight in gems, for their enchantability or just their prettiness.”

  “So how are they in that much trouble for wanting some?” another voice asked. “They’re just bones, it’s not like they’re rare or anything, then.”

  The Dwarf’s left eye twitched, but he bit down on his anger. Most of it, anyway. “Monster bones don’t work since they’re already attuned to the dungeon. So think about it, genius, what does that leave you with?”

  “H-human bones?” someone weakly asked.

  “Or that of any of the noble races. And I’m sure you all know what happens when you mix money and death. You get murder. And then regulation from the Adventurer's Guild. And punishment for breaking them. That’s not to mention what Dhevos’s opinion on the matter is.” The Dwarf’s eyes were especially fiery as he made that final statement.

  But as he continued to look at the three, especially Thamus, his gaze began to soften. He saw the party’s leader still staring at the corpse’s eye sockets. Almost as unblinkingly as the skull. A single tear fell from his eyes into its head.

  “What’s her name?” he finally asked.

  “Eldia,” replied Thamus, not even looking away.

  “You loved her, lad?”

  “Yeah.”

  The other two party members looked at their friend with wide eyes.

  “I-I didn’t even…” mumbled Cassia.

  Quintus tried to school his expression, but underneath it, something was roiling. Regret and personal failure. “…meant that much to you? We didn’t do enough…”

  “What in the thousand hells are you talking about, lad?” shouted the Dwarf, breaking everyone out of their stupor. “You got the girl back, what’s more to do? But why didn’t you tell me in the first place?”

  “You said it yourself, gathering Dungeon Ossium is illegal,” shrugged Cassia. “We figured you’d think we were only after her for the money. Not because she’s our friend. I mean, that’s the kind of thing all of these other adventurers would try to pull.”

  The crowd behind the shorter man collectively glared at Cassia.

  “Oh, knock it off, you lot!” shouted the Dwarf, turning around to give them all the stink eye. “You’re all absolutely the kind of fools who’d try to pull that kind of a thing! That’s why you were dragged along on this job in the first place.”

  The adventurers broke eye contact and looked down in embarrassment.

  The shorter man faced the trio again and cleared his throat. “Right then. After your emergency alarm and the explosion, I grabbed everyone and ran back up here. With everything too side-tracked, we’ll have to regroup and try again tomorrow, otherwise the Dungeon might get wise to what we’re all doing and try to cut its losses with this active season. Besides, we got just enough done today that we can hit it even harder tomorrow and get it to close down for even longer! I just hope the townsfolk would be fine with accommodating us for an extra day on behalf of your actions.”

  The trio looked at each other, and then back to their leader.

  “Since you helped bring Eldia back to them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t invite you all to stay for another year,” said Thamus with a small smile.

  “Now that’s the Thamus we know!” exclaimed Cassia as she walked over and hugged her friend.

  Quintus, blushing red after being given an offer to join them, slowly made his way over to them and joined in the group embrace.

  As the adventurers looked at each other with happy eyes, a small figure in the shadows looked ahead of them with weariness.

  Click looked at the sliced corpse of the [Alpha Dungeon Hound] and called forth their Skill.

  [Command Subordinates]. If you’re alive and can safely move, come down here.

  A [Shadow Spider] crawled out of the creature’s fur and stopped in front of the [Spider Army Commander].

  A [Webslinger Spider] from on high slowly descended from a hanging stalactite and let go of its web about a foot from the ground. It landed in front of its leader.

  An oblong rock off to the side suddenly came to life and walked over on its seven legs and stump, settling on its belly in front of Click.

  They weren’t all dead. Click raised an arm into the air, and the fifteen spiders behind them did the same, with the new three wordlessly following along. They survived. Hope wasn’t lost. They would rebuild. And that in itself, to Click, was a victory.

  The large door at the end of the cavern creaked shut as the intruders left the Dungeon, and a notification popped up in Click’s vision.

  [Raid Status: Failure! +0 Experience]

  Click narrowed their eyes but stood tall. It was still a victory, even if someone didn’t think the same. But if that someone really thought so poorly of the spiders, then they didn’t matter. Not in the slightest.