“
Quinius Duplius
Esteemed Noble of House Duplius, I, Quinius Duplius, have been serving the realm and the Shostran Kingdom for decades. The abilities required in maintaining my own estate qualify me greatly for the open position of Lord of the Kingdom. I wish to showcase that further with my experiences below.
Patriarch of House Duplius
1027-1054
As patriarch of House Duplius, I served to increase the wealth and prestige of our house while organizing its sub-houses and members into an effective force for positive change. Under me, the house more than doubled in wealth and tripled in the number of members.
Foreman of Duplius Mines
1023-1027
As foreman, I was in charge of organizing the miners of our house mines and keeping them working at maximum efficiency. I increased the mine’s output by a factor of 2 during my tenure.
Skills
Loyalty
Finance
Mathematics
Culture
History
”
-Resume submitted by Lord Quinius Duplius, who was later forced to abdicate his position to his nephew due to lack of contribution to the war effort.
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Click found the intruder they were staring at to be ugly. Tall, powerful, and authoritative were all traits the spider looked up to, but within a bipedal organism covered in soft skin? That wasn’t what the [Spider Army Commander] wanted for themselves. They’d stick with their eight legs, thorax, and abdomen, thank you very much.
But their intelligence, combat prowess, and organizational structure were all things Click wanted to bring to the tribe. Or what was remaining of it, at least.
A small smattering of highly ranked spiders stood around, eager to find some meager entertainment. Too bad the only thing they were capable of finding entertaining was violence. But thankfully, that was enough of a pretense to get them to come along and find something fun for Click. In this case, that was trying to better understand how these intruders worked together.
The group of spiders skittered across the cave walls, past the vigilant gazes of the adventurer trio set to guard the Dungeon’s entrance, and made their way to the second floor. The spike trap that had once laid in wait was already deployed, and the sharp spears were cut down into blunt nubs in case it managed to reset itself. But even if worse came to worst, the gaps between the spikes were too wide to harm anyone except the [Bruiser Spider].
Soon enough, Click and their posse found themselves on the second floor’s walls and made their way down a long-running corridor, until they came upon a battle in an open room.
“Alright, Yerik! You’re doing good!” shouted one of the adventurers to a man dressed in heavy armor and holding a shield.
“Is that what it looks like from there, Jaice? Easy? This is anything but- oof- easy!” the man shouted back. A [Juvenile Dungeon Hound] charged into his shield, causing him to take a step back.
“Esmeralda, do something to make Yerik’s life easier! Crowd control?” The first adventurer, Jaice, turned over and addressed another of their members, a woman in indigo robes.
“Too many of them for that, I’ll just make Yerik stronger!” the woman said, raising her arms and letting her flowing sleeves billow as a burst of blue light left her fingertips.
The light struck the one with the shield, Yerik, and his muscles began to coil underneath his skin.
Another [Juvenile Dungeon Hound] came running at him, and this time, he shoved his shield into its face to send it flying back. It took several moments before it recovered and turned back to face him.
“This feels good!” exclaimed Yerik. “But why are we even fighting [Dungeon Hounds]? Aren’t they supposed to be from the first floor?”
“Maybe they ran down here after we took their old home?” opined Esmeralda.
“No time to feel bad, they’ll be killing villagers if we don’t clean this place up first,” interjected Jaice. “But enough talking, I’m going to finish them off!”
The man ran in a semi-circle around the predators until his line of sight was perpendicular to Yerik’s. Without any fear of hitting his companion, he nocked his shortbow and began to launch arrows at the [Juvenile Dungeon Hounds].
The four enemies fell to the attacks, two to arrows, and one each to a sword strike by Yerik and gout of flame by Esmeralda. The three adventurers cheered at their victory and exited the corridor with smiles.
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Click watched them the entire time from a safe vantage point with a look of pointed interest. The other spiders had similar looks too, but they were more akin to anticipation instead, likely feeling hopeful that they’d get to participate in the fight as well.
The [Spider Army Commander] climbed down from the wall and inspected the damage, while trying to put the combatants’ positions and orders into perspective.
That one intruder, the one the others referred to as Jaice, had a certain directness to their words compared to the others. Combined with their mannerisms, that likely made them commands. And that likely made them the one in charge of the other two.
[Skill level up! Decipher Language (6)]
The [Spider Bruiser] walked over and began to poke at one of the [Juvenile Dungeon Hounds]. The large spider measured up to be just short of the young predator, and didn’t seem to be taking too kindly to that.
Speaking of short, this particular leader isn’t the main leader, and is still beholden to the short one. But even in their sub-position, they’re able to act on their own to direct their own subordinates into winning a fight.
Click looked back at the other spiders and let out the equivalent of a sigh.
If only any of them could also give orders. I’d love to not babysit every fight they get into.
Wham
A sudden force hit Click on the side and sent the spider flying into a nearby rock.
[7 Damage taken! HP: 21/28]
What was that?! Click screamed internally as they looked to see what had hit them. A large furry paw was raised with a small predator on the other end. Small, yet its padded paw was still large enough to send the [Spider Army Commander] sailing.
Where did it come from? Was it also hiding like us? AAAH! I should’ve searched the room first! Too late now, though, I’ll just have to take care of it. [Command Subor-
Before Click could finish invoking the Skill, the other spiders had already jumped into action.
One of the [Adult Dungeon Spiders] was running around to each of the spiders and making charade movements with their legs while pointing at the predator. Everyone it talked to seemed to understand something from the almost erratic movements, and jumped into action soon after.
[Bruiser Spider], run at the enemy.
The large spider immediately abandoned the corpse it was inspecting and charged over at the still-living variant. It collided in a muted thud as the [Juvenile Dungeon Hound] went toppling to the ground from the force of the impact.
[Shadow Spiders], run from behind. Bite.
The smaller arachnids did just that, soaking envenomed fangs into the creature’s back legs. It let out a yowl while still too focused on the spider in front of it to act.
[Webslinger Spiders], shoot webs and venom into its eyes.
The red and blue spiders followed their orders, taking semi-calculated potshots that mostly hit fur rather than anything sensitive, but still did well to keep its focus split.
Click simply stared from where they were, watching as the fight progressed. They hadn’t called forth [Command Subordinates] even once.
The [Juvenile Dungeon Hound] lost balance in its hind paws and began to fall, only to be assisted to the ground by the [Bruiser Spider] who slammed into it while activating [Become Stone]. The large spider’s legs acted as a cage to keep the predator’s front paws pinned as the others came over and finished it off with additional bites to the jugular and heart. The [Juvenile Dungeon Hound]’s muscles became loose as life left it. The spiders stood up, victorious.
Click walked over and stood up too, not in victory, but in pride.
Maybe I was wrong about you all? They thought.
The spider that directed the attack, the [Adult Dungeon Spider] walked over to their leader and made a bowing motion. It looked familiar to Click, and they realized that it was the same spider that saved them from the predators when Click was standing over the [Alpha Hunter]’s corpse way back when.
If anyone’s qualified to carry out my orders, it would have to be you. Click nodded back in acceptance of their bow.
[Class level up! Anthropologist (4)]
[Class Ŝ̵̬̼k̸̟͋̕͝i̴͚̍͜ļ̸̇͝ḽ̷̯͍͌́̚ Obtained!̴̡̨̤͕̹̻͎͙͓͚͚̹̗̭̥̝͇̹̱̙̼͎̤̟̦̫͕̙͕̰̙̦̎͐̍̂͐̈́͑͋͑͆̃̏̉̐̓̀͆͠͠͠ Establish Hierarchy]
Hey, this looks relevant! I wonder what it does-
Before Click could pull up the System menu, the [Adult Dungeon Spider] before them began to transform. Limbs elongated as its torso lengthened and gained much more mass. The spider before Click was larger than any other, even rivaling the [Bruiser Spider] by a hair’s width.
Even better! What are you now, I haven’t seen this evolution before. [Observation]! …oh no.
Alpha Adult Dungeon Spider (Level 1)
Name: N/A
Soul Link: Rockfort Hamlet Dungeon Core Ṁ̶̡̄̒͜o̷͚͍̊͒̃̓̿ǰ̵̧̢̭̫̪a̷͇̋̿̿̽͘ ̵̨̛̥͎͉́̋̈͘D̵̝̭͇̓̎̅ȋ̷̯͔̤̑͋̑t̴̛͉͈̟̽̑͑h̸̪̲̩̗̀̉̃͝͠ä̵͕̼̠́̊̓̕b̴̗͕̏͊̂̓̚ä̷̡̰̱͕̒̌̋ Click
Classes: N/A
[Command Subordinates]! Get over here, kill this a-
The massive spider slowly kneeled before Click.
The [Spider Army Commander], ever vigilant, still completed the command and had the others run at them. Fangs were bared and ready to kill their brethren on orders of their leader. Click waited until the last possible second to call off the attack.
The other spiders stopped just before their attacks could make contact, and Click had them take a step back. A short step, that was.
Click slowly regarded the brand new [Alpha] before them, and after a few more seconds to digest the table before them, slowly nodded in acceptance of the newly evolved spider.
It rose, and Click felt… happy? There was still fear, but it was superseded by a stronger relief that Click somehow knew to trust.
And then, Click saw it. In that table, under the Soul Link cell, there was a name written next to the gibberish that was normally at the end. It was small, almost utterly imperceptible, but it was there. “Click.” The [Spider Army Commander]’s name was written there.
It looks like I have my first sub-leader. You’ll be the one to lead the others into battle.
The [Alpha Adult Dungeon Spider] looked like it couldn’t be happier.