“Within the depths of the earth lie Dungeons, labyrinths of death and darkness. The most terrible of monsters wander their winding halls, desiring nothing more than to taste the fresh blood of those from above.
The Seven Noble Races, a millennium ago, were content to ignore these death traps, but some time along the way, the Dungeons objected to their reaction. The terrible beasts from within spilled forth and attacked all that stood in their way; animals, men, even other monsters of the surface. Their forces were eventually pushed back, but not before the Noble Races realized what they had to do.
Dungeon Delving came into being then, the practice of sending an armed team of fighters to bring forth bloodshed within the confines of the Dungeon itself. Anyone who dared enter the accursed domain would be met with an immediate wave of monsters who lived within, along with many traps and mazes as they navigated the winding corridors and open spaces. It was as if it was the Dungeon’s plan all along, as chests full of treasure and magical items goad these adventurers on, even centuries after the terrible destruction had been forgotten.
But one thing that the adventurers of today can be thankful for is that by performing routine delving, a Dungeon cannot build up its strength, and thus cannot field monsters of a quantity or power too much to handle. It is also very much fortunate that the monsters within run on instinct, and thus are likely to plateau in their development before they become too powerful. Like a warrior practicing their whole life on training dummies. They may learn a few tricks, but it will never compare to one who truly pushes themselves to be better.
So do not worry. We can be safe, as members of the Seven Noble Races, that these dungeons will never produce a truly cataclysmic threat.”
-Yester Flestin, Scholar of the Shostran Royal Palace, successor of Estran Leabrar
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The silent sound of victory echoed through the hollow cavern for nobody to hear.
Push them back! Teach them to never enter our nest again!
[Skill level up! Command Subordinates (21)]
A pair of large spiders, the size of small dogs, ran at the dozen retreating [Juvenile Dungeon Hounds]. At the spiders’ backs were what few brethren of theirs remained. The much smaller [Shadow Spiders] and [Webslinger Spiders] sat above in relative safety while they spewed balled up webbing and venom at the fleeing predators.
The dozen or so [Dungeon Spiders] fought off the equal number of attackers, small young dogs that each rivaled the strongest of spiders in physical prowess despite their young age. Tension was high in the air, and desperation marked the arachnids’ tactics, but they pulled through in the end.
It was one of the lowest stakes battles Click had ever fought in. The only spoils were the lives of hundreds of diminutive baby spiders, who even with their combined might, would not likely be powerful enough to take down even a single of their childlike enemies. Victory was bittersweet. Especially after their most recent losses.
A Dungeon Raid had occurred just a few weeks back, with an army of clothed, bipedal creatures rushing in and killing everything in their path. At first the intruders saw it fit to leave the spiders alone, supposedly because Click’s tribe did not rush in to attack with the other monsters. But then a trio that had broken off from the group decided to pick a fight. The intruders won. The original mega web and sturdy white pillars that made up its base were burned to the ground and stolen. The entire tribe of spiders, save for Click and a few others, lay dead. More than half of those remaining forces died in the process of mating and laying eggs.
But the same intelligence that allowed Click to understand their situation and feel misery for their misfortune also allowed them to see hope. Click was alive and in charge of the remaining spiders. The eggs had hatched and were primed with potential to become whatever Click needed. Their greatest threat, the [Dungeon Hounds] who preyed on them, had their strongest members slain and only a few of their juveniles remained.
The tragedies that befell the web were over. Yet the list of blessings falling into the [Spider Army Commander]’s lap was only continuing to grow. And the tribe itself would grow alongside it!
[Command Subordinates]! Click shouted the Skill in their head and leveled it at all of the spiders around them. The adults lazily looked over to their leader, long having gotten used to the sensation, while the babies sitting within the innermost cocoon of webs all came to sharp attention. We live! Now we eat!
In the three weeks since the now-hatched eggs were first laid, the [Spider Army Commander] devoted their remaining troops to do something they’d all but forgotten; weave a web. With the old protective shell the spiders used as a base now gone, Click figured that the only way to make up for the loss of quality materials was with a quantity of existing materials.
The spiders who had lived most of their lives hunting picked up on their old instincts once again and built up a small fortress made up of many layers of webbing. It occupied a small corner of the cave, making use of the walls on two of its sides to protect the flank while limiting attacks to an easily observable front.
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It wouldn’t be able to stop a swarm of dedicated [Juvenile Dungeon Hounds], let alone [Adult Dungeon Hounds], but in this case it kept them away from its inner chamber long enough to scare them away.
The lead spider pointed the others towards the outer edges of the web fortress, a long stretch of webbing laid out in an arcing plane, and the baby spiders all instinctively charged towards their first ever meal.
Instincts continued to drive them as they bit their fangs into the collection of flies and other squirming insects. Enough of them had collected in the webbing over the weeks the eggs were incubating that the baby spiders were able to get their fill, and on top of that…
The most eager of the newborn spiders was the first to change. After devouring its fifth meal, it began to grow in size, quickly becoming several times larger than any of the other spiders around it.
The sight felt nostalgic to Click. They’d gone through the very same transformation soon after being born, and it let them get a particularly annoying bully off their back.
Soon enough, the other baby spiders began to transform too, and the web they were all standing on began to droop several inches at the collective increase in mass that was now burdening it. The web held strong, thankfully, though Click didn’t leave its fate to chance. When all of the spiders had evolved, the [Spider Army Commander] sprang into action.
[Command Subordinates]! All [Juvenile Spiders], begin reinforcing the web!
[Skill level up! Command Subordinates (22)]
It took a little while for the newly evolved arachnids to get the hang of using their brand new web glands, but about half of them took to it like a fish to water. The other half, as reluctant as they were, were at least able to get a little bit of the stringy substance onto key places.
That’s how I leveled up the tribe earlier, that’s how I’ll do it again. Click raised their mandibles in a facsimile of a smile as the [Silk Spinning] Skills of all of the new spiders began to increase. Even with the ones who didn’t take to it would benefit whenever something got caught in the web and eaten. Experience distribution was strange that way, in that anyone who contributed to a web that caught prey would get a flat number of experience points that counted towards level ups. It gave the combat-oriented spiders a steady boost, while a small communal web woven by all of the web-oriented spiders thrown into a battle would net them combat experience.
As Click was lost in thought, the spiders continued to eat to fill their fast-growing bodies. The [Spider Army Commander] was finally snapped back to reality by a second set of transformations. The [Juvenile Dungeon Spiders] began to transform into [Juvenile Dungeon Hunter Spiders] and [Juvenile Dungeon Web Spiders], with a mix of [Juvenile Dungeon Ambush Trapper Spiders] thrown into the mix. All of them were choices Click was offered for their second evolution, but there was one missing evolution; [Juvenile Dungeon Spider Commander].
It didn’t irk Click too badly to not see another like them. They remembered what happened when someone tried bossing them around when they had that class.
Poke
Click turned to see Bored, the [Adult Dungeon Alpha Spider], whose presence made the lead spider’s flashback continue. Their old boss was also an [Alpha], albeit incredibly incompetent and willing to get the entire spider tribe killed just to sate its lust for battle. Even if there was another [Spider Commander] amongst the newborns, Click was confident that they would prove themselves to it, and make it a loyal follower.
Poke Poke
That broke Click out of their flashback. They looked up at the gargantuan [Alpha] with a frown, but quickly broke the intensity of their gaze.
Poke
Ok, fine! I don’t know how you aren’t satisfied from the last fight, but sure. Take these spiders out on a hunting trip, there’s only so much experience they’ll get from eating flies, and we’re almost out anyway. In fact, I think I’ll join you too.
[Command Subordinates], besides transferring instructions, could also get across intent and emotion by themselves. Bored jumped in place with a big grin.
[One Army, One Being]! Click began to call out their other commander Skill in quick succession and grouped up the newborns. The Skill allowed small groups of spiders to act as a single entity to the System, allowing Click to only use a single call to [Command Subordinates] to take control of them all. They hadn’t needed it for a long while, seeing as how there were only a few other spiders left, but now, there were hundreds!
[Skill level up! One Army, One Being (6)]
[Skill level up! One Army, One Being (7)]
[Skill level up! Establish Hierarchy (2)]
Huh, I’d completely forgotten about that Skill. What does it even do? The [Spider Army Commander] looked over to the newborns, and noticed that they began to form into the groups Click marked out. However, all of the spiders in each group seemed to crowd around one particular groupmate. An… established leader?
I suppose that’s definitely a hierarchy. Even the invaders had sub-leaders for each of their smaller groups. Making a leader in each of these groups was totally an accident, but I think it might be a very helpful accident. More leaders means less work for me!
Click jumped on top of Bored’s head and called out to the others. [Command Subordinates]! The enemy is still weak and reeling from trying to eat you! Let’s go eat them instead!
The newborn spiders lifted their mandibles into the shape of a smile, a strangely instinctive display of happiness independent from the human gesture, and began to follow Click and several other members of the old guard off into battle.