“Being mayor of a mining town isn’t easy. The king himself appointed me to this position to keep his coffers and armories full! That’s a very important duty, and thus a very difficult position. It’s not all about making sure ore is constantly being mined, I have to manage the town’s economy on top of that, and the miners themselves!
These miners are still human beings, and face the same limitations you or I do. They require sleep, food, and water. I make sure they’re given enough of all of these, and get back to work as soon as their needs are sufficiently met. I’ve seen what happens when you don’t.
Without enough sleep, a miner will wander the tunnels aimlessly and pick fights with each other over the most petty of things, not that they’re concerned with anything but petty issues. Without food, they won’t be able to swing their pickaxes as hard, and that means less mined ore. And finally, without any water, they’ll very likely die within three days, and a dead miner is as good as no miner at all.
So I make sure they get sleep! Four hours every night, and six as a reward if they’ve mined enough! There are several perpetual stew pots that are constantly boiling whatever people bring out to donate for their meals. The chefs even spoil them by scraping off any mold from the food! And there is always enough fresh water to fill their canteens before they go in. Of course, I don’t expect them to leave the mine until they finish their job for the day, so one refill is all they get, but that should be understandable.
Huh? My sleep schedule? I normally sleep for ten hours, of course. Managing everyone is an intellectually stimulating task, not anything like mining, so I actually need those hours! And… is that my private chef? What are you doing here?! You should be cooking my next meal for when this whole business is done! Honestly, everyone is so lazy these days.”
-Cross-examination of Margon Dewellier, mayor of a small mining town, during his trial. He was later found guilty of worker abuse and stripped of his position and arrested by the king.
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Come on, come on! You three, head over to that section and reinforce that pillar! A single predator could barrel through it and get at the eggs! And you hunters, what are you doing just standing there? If you’re bored or something, then patrol the surrounding area! We don’t need a swarm of bats or whatever to fly down for a quick meal!
Click had been shouting commands for several hours at this point. After getting the eggs down from the ceiling web and moving them to a corner, the [Spider Army Commander] couldn’t help but realize how defenseless the clutch still was, and had everyone under their command working full time to build a suitable nest for their would-be niblings.
The current generation’s parents were able to make a home out of the old white pillars, the incredibly hard material being more than enough to keep even the strongest adult predators out. But their old home had been stolen, so Click had to make due with the next best thing. If they didn’t have access to quality materials, they’d just have to make use of quantity.
A small group of spiders returned from a distant foray. They were all [Shadow Spiders] and [Webslinger Spiders], forced into the role of web weavers. While Click was worried at their reactions, it seemed that they had some affinity for the task and found an equal amount of enjoyment in it as they did hunting. These ex-hunters barely kept themselves on their feet, but still stood upright at the ready, awaiting their next orders.
Has our new home been cordoned off? Good! Click lifted their mandibles in a facsimile of a smile and looked over to where the other spiders were. A thin rope of webbing was laid out from one wall of the cave to another in a curving line. The area inside of it included the new web and a very wide area stretching several dozens of feet.Go build an actual web from it now, so all of the other monsters will know to stay away.
Click threw out a [Command Subordinates] at them and watched as they slowly began walking away. One of them fell to the ground, but soon lifted themselves back up and continued, albeit more slowly than before.
Click was ready to send out another use of [Command Subordinates] at that one spider in particular, but stopped before they could fully form the command.
No, wait. I’m going to work that one to death at this rate. The lead spider turned to look at their brethren sluggishly moving around, and felt a pang of guilt. I’m going to work everyone to death at this rate. They need a break.
The [Spider Army Commander] sent out another wave of [Command Subordinates] and had them all come together before addressing them. Good job with everything you’ve done so far. We’ll take a break and get back to it after sleeping.
They all looked happy, and slowly began making their way next to the eggs. That was where the comfiest webbing placements were made, after all. But before they could all leave their leader’s sight, Click sent out one more command to the most energetic looking spiders.
Except you three. Even if the only predators around are juveniles, we’ll get killed if they gang up and attack while we’re all vulnerable like this. You’ll be guarding the web, so stay sharp. You can sleep all you want once we’re all up.
The spiders didn’t look happy, but they acquiesced nonetheless. It wasn’t as if they had a choice in the matter, but they at least looked accepting of their task, and that was all Click could ask for.
Among the group was the new [Alpha]. Click especially didn’t want to get on its bad side, but it looked to be the most energetic out of all of them, and dying now to a surprise attack was worse than dying farther down the line from betrayal.
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Click themself settled down inside the web, next to the eggs in the center of the nascent mega structure. They closed their eyes as sleep took them.
The next day, Click was woken up by the [Alpha]. At first, the lead spider thought that they were initiating a surprise attack, but they quickly realized that that wasn’t the case.
Thump
The dull sound of a juvenile predator hitting the ground echoed out in front of the web. As Click came out to meet them, the [Alpha] nudged it closer with their leg and looked down on their leader with hopeful eyes.
Click looked between the corpse and the [Alpha], the creature’s killer.
Uh… good job? Click sent the message over with [Command Subordinates]. Such a usage was becoming a common occurrence nowadays.
The [Alpha] lifted its mandibles in a smile and trudged over to the web to finally get some sleep. It had earned it. Click just hoped that it wouldn’t start a war of revenge like the other [Alpha] did.
The other spiders were now up as well, and Click directed them to continuing with the construction of the mega web. The first layer of it was done within two hours yesterday, and featured a larger sac to cover the original one, yet with plenty of holes and gaps to create a sort of aerated cushion. After that was a grid-like layer of webbing to keep out the smaller sized creatures that might have sneaked through. That was still under construction, which allowed all of the spiders to enjoy the softness of the inner layer last night.
Work continued on a little faster than yesterday, and Click quickly realized that it was because of a wave of Skill level ups the spiders had experienced. As the [Spider Army Commander] turned their [Observation] on each of their subordinates, they saw that the web weavers’ [Silk Spinning] had gone up. Not by much, mind you, but a level or two here and there still gave them all a noticeable difference.
The few Skill level ups turned into many as their work continued for over two weeks. [Silk Spinning] wasn’t the only Skill to go up, as Click did the same with [Command Subordinates] and [One Army, One Being]. And the occasional increase in [Observation] as the lead spider studied everyone else’s progress.
Wow, already in your 20s, huh? Click thought to themselves as they leveled the Skill on one of the [Webslinger Spiders].
Silk Spinning
25
Secrete a sticky string that can ensnare weaker creatures. Effects of external forces such as gravity are weakened while moving on the substance. Know the position and identity of any entity touching the web.
That last bit looked like an interesting perk. It would make lookout duty easier if…
Click quickly ordered a set of web spiders to connect their in-progress megastructure to the outer rope with a single, impossibly thin strand, and then all but one to grab onto the barrier rope once they were done.
Do you sense them touching the web? Click asked via command to the spider with level 25 [Silk Spinning]. Lift up a leg for every one of those three spiders that holds onto the web.
Nothing happened for several seconds, and then suddenly, the spider lifted two of its limbs into the air.
Click lifted their mandibles and was ready to jump for joy. If such a thin strand could transmit that much information over such a long distance, then lookout duty was now trivial! Who needed scouts when any predator or hungry monster that crossed the threshold would automatically trigger the alarm? The only thing that was needed now was to create that threshold.
Before Click could order that to be done, they began searching the crowd again to see who had the highest level of [Silk Spinning].
Silk Spinning
31
Secrete a sticky string that can ensnare weaker creatures. Effects of external forces such as gravity are weakened while moving on the substance. Know the position and identity of any entity touching the web. Silk can be spun in any color, and innately know what colors are needed to fit a desired pattern.
It was a peculiar perk, but while it didn’t have as amazing an application as the level 20 bonus did, it could still be helpful.
You, level 31 silk spinner! Cover the innermost chamber with silk to look like a rock. Click figured that in the off chance something managed to get all the way inside, it was worth throwing one final insane defense. Maybe they could do the same to the outer layer to keep more predators out, but one or two spiders wasn’t going to get the job done anytime soon.
Beyond everyones’ Skill level ups, there wasn’t anything of note, save for a few more observances of juvenile predators than normal. Maybe there was a mating pair of adults out there somewhere that were producing them? Wherever they were, they weren’t on the first floor. Click made sure the spiders swept it clean. There would have been nowhere an [Adult Dungeon Hound] could’ve hidden from the search parties, and nowhere they could’ve hidden their eggs. They did lay eggs… right?
Click didn’t worry too much about it. Their new home was coming along nicely and things were going great!
As another week passed and the mega web was nearing completion, there was a shake from the inner chamber.
Every spider paused and looked inwards. Had a predator snuck in? Maybe one of those smaller creatures like the beetles barged inside when nobody was looking and was feasting on the eggs?!
Before paranoia could grip Click any further, they received their answer. A small, absolutely miniscule spider crawled out between the tight weavings. And then another, and another.
Soon, a whole swarm of [Baby Dungeon Spiders] began to run out of the web fortress and out into the open space beyond it.
Click wasn’t worried, though. They had a wide space beyond the fortress cordoned off with a rope and incredibly fine layer of webs. If something crossed it, they and every other spider would know.
As if by cue, the spider in charge of lookout began to wail around frantically. Click looked over and began to interpret the message from the simple dance language they’d taught the others.
Predators… small… ok, that’s not too bad, we can easily take one or two. But how many?
The lookout began to lift their legs. One, two, three… and then fell to the ground. They didn’t get up. Not because they were pinned or injured or anything, but because all of their legs were raised in the air and continuing to flail around.
How many predators even is that?!