The inside of the worm was warm and the opposite of cosy, and most of all it stunk like rotten onions; but on the bright side, he was alive. Was the worm big enough for him to walk, no, but crawling he could manage. The juices and slime he was waddling through tingled his skin in a bad way. [De-buff expired: Miasma], at least something was positive.

“There must be my spear here, somewhere.” He used his hands to feel since sight was no longer an option.

Actually, there were all sorts of stuff inside: rocks, soil, pieces of food and bones. As he was feeling his way around in the darkness he touched a piece of wood involuntarily; it was slick with slime. It crumbled in between the fingers as if it was made of sand.

“Does this juice dissolve wood and stones only? How about meat?”

He was overtaken with worry about the time he still had.

“Likely this is just the first stage of digestion. I need to get out before a different kind of stomach juice fills this space.”

He kept feeling for his spear, for anything sharp at all.

“Here it is!” He found something. “No.” It crumbled between his fingers. “A-ha!” He grasped the familiar shape.

The spear shaft had dissolved but the [Apex Fang] didn’t. He looked for a good spot to begin digging, but how could he decide – it was pitch black, so instead he listened. There was this rhythmic thumping sound flowing through the worm's body. He followed the source of it. As he was crawling he could feel his damaged armour pieces to begin to fall apart. The tingling sensation turned to burning.

He pressed the head to the fleshy wall, he could feel it pulse. “Found it. Whatever this is, it is important.” He began stabbing at the wall, it was quite thick and it took multiple thrusts. Finally, he managed to rip a hole, just large enough for him to squeeze in. It was tight making him feel like some sort of a mole.

“Abominable flesh-digging mole! But, the Worm deserved it.” He was pushing and cutting whatever was between him and pulsing organs.

And finally, he reached it. He could feel with his hands the large sack-like muscle contracting, pumping what was hopefully monster blood.

“A dagger through your heart Monsieur! Assassin style.” He stabbed.

Yeah, he shouldn't have expected one thrust to be enough. He stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, it didn’t seem to be doing much until.

“Plegh!” He coughed trying not to drown.

The organ ruptured dousing him in viscous fluid. He was drowning, he would have if not for the pressure, the oil-like substance pushed him back into the worm’s stomach. Back in the larger confines, he gasped for air. He didn’t think he would ever be happy smelling air so pungent, but he was.

“Let’s hope this did the trick.” Some worms had multiple hearts. “I don’t want to repeat this.”

[Fighting +25000exp] a message informed him.

He didn’t know how to react. He would cheer in joy if he wasn’t still stuck inside the worm.

[Congratulations! You have reached Fighting lvl .1]

[Perk Tough Skin obtained.]

[Congratulations! You have reached Fighting lvl .2]

[Requirements have been met. Hidden perk unlocked.]

[Perk Assasin Strike obtained.]

“Wonderful, I could have used those earlier.” And the perks seemed pretty much self-explanatory. “Back to digging myself out of this mess.”

He began cutting at the flesh, truth be told, [Apex Fang] didn't make a good cutting tool, stabbing however… so he just stabbed at the flesh and scrapped it away bit by bit. Various liquids, substances and juices leaked all over him, yet he continued digging. It was quite morbid so to cheer himself he began singing:

“I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole. ♫ Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole! ♫”

With a song, it went so much smoother. However, the inside of the worm began to feel weird. At first, the flesh was just dry, then it became gummy and later it began to harden. Now it felt like he was picking at the sandstone.

“Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole!!!” He tried not to panic.

If it hardens more he won’t be able to get out with just some glorified tooth.

Thumping sounds were coming from the other side of the hardened flesh, someone was banging on it from the outside. He could see tiny holes and then rays of iconic blues and yellows coming from glowing moss surrounding the tunnels.

He made the right choice not to get too close because shortly after a whole spear tip was pushed right through the hardened monster's flesh. He stared at it, it was only a few inches away from his face.

“Hello? Can you not do that again!” He knew who the culprits were.

“You alive? I told you I heard someone sss-singing.” Someone sounded irritated, very much like when someone was true but no one believed them.

“You sss-said it was a dwarf, sss, of course we wouldn’t believe-sss it.”

“Get me out of here!” He shouted through the tiny hole.

“Hold on! SSS. Don’t die!”

He wasn’t planning to, not in this godawful place.

More lamias began cutting at the flesh and surprisingly it began to crumble. He crawled trough the small opening. And only then he came to light did he realise that he was completely naked. His skin was all slick and yellow as if cowered by rapeseed oil and globs of slime clung to him like he was some sort of swamp monster. That was not the most scarry thing.

“My hair.” He grasped for his head. “My hair!” It was gone.

The lamia looked at him incredulous.

“Are you sss-sure we have the sss-same guy?”

“He sss-sounds the sss-same.”

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The sound of crackling filled the air, and he turned to look at the source expecting another monster. There was no monster besides The Great Worm of Oberon. The sound came from it’s cracking and rapidly drying body. The monster was unrecognisable, it looked crispy like an earthworm on superheated asphalt. It began to change colour turning to the sand yellow and then grey. It was decomposing so rapidly that it was eerie. And then it crumbled to dust, a huge pile of course rock dust.

“This is weird.” He didn’t know how to react to what he saw.

The Lamia, however, all cheered in unison.

“You killed it didn’t you!”

“You avenged our-sss Queen!”

The celebration came late but it was welcome.

“And the rest? They did escape, did they?” He asked still worried.

“They should have. ”

“It’s good it’s over then, but at what cost…” It felt too steep.

He walked towards the pile of dust, looking for comrades to bury. There was nothing but dust, the bodies turned to dust just like the Worm did.

“Huh?” That was not true, there was something. “What is it?” He picked a round golden sphere, it was very heavy, but it was not metallic it was crystalline.

A lamia slithered to look at it in curiosity.

“If I had [Identify] or [Appraise], sss, I could tell.” Meaning she didn’t.

“Does anyone here have such perks?”

Multiple lamias hissed one after the other:

“Those are sss-skills, but even then, no.”

“The Queen had-sss it.”

“But now is-sss dead.”

“The Queen’s heir must-sss have a low level [Identify]. You can ask her, sss.”

“You don’t mind me keeping it then?” He asked just in case.

“You killed it you keep-sss it.”

“You are our-sss hero now.”

“A hero?” He didn’t feel he deserved the title. Heroes slay the monsters magnificently, they don’t crawl through guts and bile.

“A sss-slayer of The Great Worm of Oberon!”

“A sss-slayer.” “Sss-Slayer.” They began to chant one after the other.

He was happy they were feeling so giddy after so much death, but maybe this was the reason why – to cope with sorrow.

“Slayer of The Great Worm of Oberon, I’ll make sure to add that to the growing list of ominous titles I possess.”

The King of Spiders, ruler of The Dreaded Place and Slayer of The Great Worm of Oberon – it didn’t sound all too bad. Except for the part that he just wanted to farm on his farm and trade his goods with locals.

“How does this keep happening to me?” He wondered out loud. “Am I lucky or cursed?”

It seems one of the lamias took his monologue for a genuine question. “You are blessed, I think-sss.”

She wasn’t wrong about that…

…

The way back home wasn’t something he would describe as fun. Lamia shared some food with him, some dried mushrooms, they were tasteless but still better than bitter vine. Lamia didn’t care about his clothing, the lack of it to be precise, but regardless he improvised a leaf shirt.

[You have crafted a leaf skirt of superior quality. Crafting +1exp]

[Leaf Skirt: +2 Rep with Elves.]

“I…” He realised something. “I should have worn this when meeting the elves.”

But the obsidian armour was so much cooler! He will need to craft a new set and a new spear. He wasn’t back yet but he was already crafting in his mind.

The group caught up with the refugees, that’s what they were now and it was him who had to break the bad news. Instead of blaming him they instead hailed him as a hero once again. The idea that Lamia were good people was cemented in his mind.

Some lamia wanted to go back to the cave, but that option was shot down immediately by Lamia warriors. They still had no food source there, and everything was pretty much destroyed.

Oh, and the new Queen was that albino child who gave him a tour. She was way too young to lead such an important role, but it wasn’t his call. The celebration was postponed until they were back at his farm.

Which was already in sight. His workers managed to clear a huge chunk of the jungle, only the IronOaks remained; the sole survivors of the ‘slaughter’. Those were the same trees which were used to anchor the web and grow the Tomgrape vines. The trees were few and far between, but there were thousands of webs connecting the trees with each other. His spider farmers climbed the trees up and down, picking the ripe fruits; this was the sight he missed.

The Lamia looked at the ripe fruit with salivating mouths. They too suffered poor food rations on this ill-prepared trip.

“They won’t bite, go and ask for some fruit.” He told and followed his own advice.

Almost all of the Lamia here saw the spiders for the first time. Let’s just say they had their reservations about approaching them. He could see that lamia servants and the little ones were quite terrified of his ‘people’. But the food was a good motivator.

After a quick breakfast, he moved the Lamia towards the centre where all the buildings were.

Someone asked straight away if they can dig a burrow for the eggs, which was a bad idea since the deeper ground was wet and the water would flood the burrow.

“You can borrow one of my hatcheries. It should be okay, no?”

“If it’s out of the light, then yes.”

They moved the eggs into the hatchery and only then did the lamias relax. By that point, one of the scouting expeditions has returned, which included one Guard Lamia.

She was dressed head to tail in blue cloth; a complete face veil, long tunic and then cloak hid every inch of their skin. It looked excessive. It was a shame to hide a beautiful face, even if it had sharp fangs, serpentine eyes and a slightly pale complexion. Moreover, he wasn’t the one who crafted these clothes.

After initial greetings, he asked out of curiosity.

“Your attire, how did you get it?”

“The sss-spiders made it. They insisted we wear these. We weren’t allowed to sss-say no.” She said it in a polite but half-complaining manner.

He recognised the voice, this was the friendly Lamia.

“Oh! I almost have forgotten, there is a rule in this village. A royal edict: No one shall go naked.” He remembered.

Lamia Guard bowed in apology. “You should have told us sss-sooner. We didn’t know-sss about the rule.”

“I forgot.” He laughed it off. “How is the forest?”

Lamia made a sour face. “We protected your spider sss-scouts, no one died sss-since, but we didn’t kill any elves-sss either.”

“That’s good, no?”

“No. They harass the sss-spiders, test-sss our patience every day. SSS! You should attack their lair.”

“I don’t want to invade further into their forest. I want a peaceful resolution.”

Lamia shrugged, “Just sss-saying” She looked at the rowdy crowd in the distance. “What is-sss this about?”

He turned back. “Oh…” He didn’t want to break the bad news just yet, the one where her mother died and for some reason her younger sister is a Queen now.

Anyhow, there was more pressing matter. A horde of spider-weavers was wrangling little lamias and wrapping them in cloth. The few remaining warriors managed to fend the spiders off, but the servants and children didn’t. Following laws was important, but this was not the way to do it.

“Hey! Hey! Stop!” He ran waving and shouting, hoping to stop the fight before it escalated.

The lamia slithering behind him had other ideas. “Ha, ha, ha.” She laughed in evil glee. “Just look at them!” For some reason, she found their struggle funny. “Give up, you sss-stand no chance. I have learned that the hard way. Sss. The cloth only feels uncomfortable for three days.”

The children were crying and trying to pull the blue cloth away, but the spiders fastened it with ropes.

“Oh, boy. I am so sorry about it.”

By the look of it, the child Queen suffered the same fate, she too was crying fat tears. He explained the situation and apologised to everyone involved. Surprisingly the Queen was the first one to forgive.

“If this is-sss your edict, I understand. Rules are rules, we are guests-sss here.”

“That’s very mature of you, thanks.”

The child Queen gave him a toothy smile.

“Anyway, since everyone is safe now… There was something I wanted to ask for a long time.” He just couldn't find the right moment. “I need a favour.”

“You saved us-sss twice, you are our hero. For you anything-sss.”

“Hero?” Friendly lamia asked but was conveniently ignored. “Wait, where is Mother?” She slithered towards the warriors.

“Can you tell me what this is?” He passed a golden crystalline sphere.

“[Identify]… Ohh!”

“What is it?”

“It say-sss it’s The Blessing of Oberon.”

“What does it do?”

“It’s the blessing.” She frowned.

“Yeah, but what effects does it give.”

“It makes you blessed.” She frowned deeper.

She was obviously dodging the question. The reason was obvious: her skill level was too low and she couldn’t tell more but was too proud to admit it.

“I see, thanks. Any way to activate it? I was carrying it but received nothing.”

“Yes-sss, yes-sss.” She smiled “It says you need to put-sss it inside your body. Eat it?”

“How? This is solid and the size of my fist.”

“I don’t know!”

“Unless…” He frowned deeply at the disturbing thought. “No, thank you!” He wasn’t sure he wanted the blessing anymore, and…. “I think I will pass. What sort of blessing a calamity Worm would give anyway?”

“Oberon is a name-sss for the Mountain Deity, it’s also the name-sss of the place we live-sss: Oberon Undermountain.” She explained.

“Oh, that changes things.” He wanted it after all. “But stuffing it in…”

“You can give it to sss-someone else. With a bigger mouth, sss.”

“That’s an idea.”