Deep within the darkness of the Drow City, surrounded by cold stone houses, stared by ashen faces and red eyes of crimson, in a small and shallow crater – there was a cube most strange and menacing. The Cube of Forges was its name. It was a device made out of black and glass-like bricks giving it that sinister look, but for the lucky few, for those who gazed at the right angle the cube would shine in a magical purple sheen betraying its magical nature. If one dared to come close, very close, they would see the Drow glyphs adorning the black bricks, but they weren’t coloured or glowing, nothing like that, they were just there etched into the surface as if to remain hidden from a distant observer. The structure was both menacing and mysterious, but even then, it mostly was just a massive cube.

While the cube was exactly that – a perfect cube, its walls had holes and facets resembling greedy mouths. And greedy they were! The spiders were running back and forth watering the greedy mouth with that red and oily juice. The cube consumed the liquid in great quantities. Another mouth craved solid food, the spiders were feeding it something rather expensive, something known to many as spirit stones. And yet another mouth desired something most strange – broken and tainted weapons; weapons radiating the aura of death were fed to it. It was most strange! With each weapon consumed the cube would let out a roaring and bone-wrenching wail, a cry most unpleasant.

Of course, what comes in has to come out eventually; in one way or another. The ‘food’ the cube was ‘eating’ was transformed; further tainted or purified remained unclear. Out of its back, and through a very small hole, black little triangles popped one after the other. The spiders swarmed to gather the falling droppings.

They were careful in their task of picking them. They carried sharp triangles in a very dignified fashion. They did it so because this was not refuse, waste or garbage – the triangles were most precious. It was metal black like the night itself, it was Glem.

…

Obtaining Glem was not easy, shaping it was even harder, but with a sharp mind and spiderish perseverance, everything was possible. With the metal now shaped the spiders could move to the next task. The task was of high significance, it was so important it could be considered as Holy.

And as in all rituals of significance, this one had its fair share of spectators. Once again the Drow gathered to observe the spiders in their Holy quest. Few even offered their help, but that was unnecessary.

The spiders gathered in between the piles of various materials and once again gazed at a single parchment, they did it for like a hundredth time already, but even then it still felt like that was not enough. To them, a simple Blueprint was anything but simple. No, to them this piece of paper was Everything.

The spiders checked the measurements and quantities again and all seemed to be in order. And with that, the spider old and experienced, the Venerable HeadCrafter, gave its permission to start.

The crafters moved like professional dancers, their movements fluent with no wasted motions. They worked in tandem to assemble the construct depicted in the Divine Blueprint. The ‘Divine’ part was unofficial, hence the lack of identifying colour; but considering the significance of the construct that was only a matter of time.

In mere moments the spiders finished assembling the construct, the first of its kind. Obviously, it was in a shape of a spider, and it was spiderly magnificent. This was a craftsmanship of the highest quality, a masterwork achieved by the spider friends working hard together. The metal spider was black as the spider should be, and had all of the limbs it would ever need. The Glem made it heavy and nearly indestructible, but its overall sleek design gave the vibes of elegance and speed. The construct's head had the iconic spider mandibles and four bright and shiny yellow sapphires for its eyes. The gems were most splendid, more beautiful than normal eyes. Thank you Kobolds for finding such gems! The body and the many limbs were engraved with Drow enchantments. Those will give the construct speed and power to move that otherwise heavy body.

The first of many was just finished, but many more remained to be completed. Tirelessly spider crafters worked to assemble one construct after the other. And did it they with a smile! Because they knew that with each construct crafted, they moved closer to resurrecting their spider friends.

…

At the same place, in the Drow City, where the spider crafters had just finished assembling the constructs, a large area was cleared for the upcoming ritual. The complex ritual consisted of three circles.

The outermost circle was bordered by White Sprigans, creatures who had bigger mana stores than Drow, they will be guiding and powering the better part of the ritual.

In the middle circle, there were a bit less than a hundred constructs. They were magnificent in their shape like splendid statues. Each was surrounded by another individual circle with its runes, engravings and other sacrificial materials.

In the inner circle, there was a Mana Spring and the Master of The Ritual, The Spider King. In his hand, just as a priest would, he held a dark and leathery tome. The pages in the True Dark Tome flipped on their own as if they had free will. In his other hand, he held an artefact of significant importance, it was the Mana Well. The artefact was mostly empty, only a few souls remained in it. But those souls were of the most importance and the very reason for this complicated ritual.

The King looked around and nodded happily. Everything was ready.

“Let’s go!” He announced. The casual tone broke his otherwise regal image, but it was alright because it helped to ease the building tension.

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The mana flowed into the circles, from the outer to the middle and then to the centre. But then from the centre to the middle and back to the outer circle. The Nature mana shifted and transformed into Dark mana. The ritual circles finished activating, the air was saturated with power. The remaining souls escaped from the Mana Well and then they just flew around the King in circles. The dark-coloured souls were in vague shapes of spiders. The souls didn’t wail or scream a tortured cry, instead, they just chirped happy noises and frolicked in the air.

The King smiled urging, “Go spiders. Claim your new bodies. Be Reborn!” He allowed them to consume great portions of the Dark mana.

The souls darted towards the constructs sinking deep into the metal. The individual circles activated consolidating the soul and the body. That was where most of the mana was consumed, and so the Mana Spring dried significantly. Just before it could go completely empty the first of the spider constructs began to move. The movement was dexterous and fluid as if it was practiced to perfection. From those flowing movements one wouldn’t be able to tell that the construct's body was actually heavy and metal. If anything, this was a testament to the expertise of spider crafters. The new bodies were just perfect!

The spider constructs chirped giddily expressing their joy to be alive again, and their thanks for it.

And just like that, the most complex ritual yet was completed without even a single hitch.

…

The High Chief rushed towards the Spider King, the drow had a clear concern painted on his face. No, this couldn’t be about the Mana Spring, because the spring will recover in time. This was something else…

“King, King…” He shouted while running and waving. “Please hurry.”

He sprinted towards the High Chief. “What happened?”

“It’s hatching! Quickly.”

But how? When he asked the drows assured him that it will be weeks.

While they were running towards the Drow Archive the High Chief began explaining between the pants. “The ambient mana… The leftovers from the ritual… The egg absorbed it… The core is forming… The wyrm will hatch.”

Ah! So that’s why!

They reached the Drow Archives and began the climb up the winding stairs. And there were many stairs.

This was an urgent matter and the stairs seemed endless. “Why did you decide to keep it on the top floor?” He complained.

The drow panted struggling to find the air necessary for an explanation. “…”

“I’ll go ahead. You’ll catch up.” He left the out-of-shape drow and urged up to reach the top floor.

He sprinted through conveniently open doors and into a large room filled with sand. The cracks on the egg were already forming.

“Phew, it seems I made it in time.” He rushed closer to the egg.

The cracks were spreading and soon the whole shell will be nothing but cracks.

“Any moment now.” He looked at the egg expectantly.

But for some reason. “…” Nothing was happening.

The High Chief finally burst into the room, sweaty and struggling to breathe. “I should’ve… sent… the servant girl.” He lamented while wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

“Hey, Chief. Should I help it to hatch?”

The drow shook his head. “No.”

“But it’s not coming!”

“Hmm…” The High Chief was thoughtful for a moment. “It might be afraid of your presence…” He implied something and then added, “…you have that you know.”

“My Aura, yes. I tend to forget since it became second nature to me.” Indeed, he had that Project Aura perk, it was running in the background passively at most of the times. “Let me change it a bit.” He shifted it to his best image of a motherly aura.

That seemed to do the trick. The shell broke and a head emerged out of the tiny hole. Six green and beady eyes gazed at him.

“Meow,” The desert wyrm meowed at him.

“Aw, so cute.” He reached to pat the snake-like head.

The wyrm used the chance to coil its body around his hand. At this moment it looked more like a yellow serpent than a ferocious wyrm.

“I guess you’ll grow…”

“Meow,” it meowed again.

[The Familiar Bond was formed], it didn’t even ask him if he wanted. But, yeah he did want that.

“I’ve just tamed it, but…” He had to ask, “But why does it meow?”

The High Chief shrugged. “That must be the noise the wyrms make.”

“But isn’t this a type of a Dragon? It should roar or something like that.”

“Meow!” It meowed with increased intensity.

“…”

“Close enough I guess.” He patted the wyrm. “I bet it’s hungry. What do I feed it?”

“According to our research, anything is fine. But the natural preference is …” The High Chief paused meaningfully. “Scorpions, Scarabs, Fennec, Armoured Beetles and other… desert denizens.”

One of the names didn’t seem to fit but, “So it’s insects. We have those in the Dark Tunnels, no?”

“I guess, that would fit its preferences. Good thinking, King!” The High Chief hid the severed hand he had purchased from Fennecs previously and looked at the nearby drow researcher meaningfully. The man disappeared presumably to retrieve some steamed centipedes.

He too looked at the wyrm meaningfully. “You are forbidden from eating my spiders.”

“Meow?”

“Forbidden!” He projected his usual aura. “Understand?”

“Meow!” It even nodded.

“Oh, it might be intelligent.”

“According to our research, they are. But just how much is difficult to tell.” The High Chief took the steamed centipedes and handed them to the King. “Then it comes to legendary monsters It’s hard to parse facts from fiction.”

He began feeding the wyrm.

“Huh, it even purrs like a cat.”

Curiosity flashed on the drow’s face. “What’s a cat? Another type of legendary monster?”

“Ha! Legendary asshole more like.” He laughed. “But no, they are just cute pets.”

“King, I’m positive I don’t need to remind you but… this wyrm isn’t just a pet. It’s cute now but according to our research…”

The High Chief didn't get to finish that overused phrase because, “I know! It will try to eat me later.” He patted the eating wyrm. “You will won’t you? You’ll try to gobble me up. But I won’t let you. No, no, no…” He baby talked with the wyrm.

“Erm…” the High Chief was left speechless.

“Let's see if the White Sprigans or my best mate Wisp can speed that growth of yours.” Then he remembered something. “Oh, and High Chief. The Myconid Cavern will be expanding quite significantly, so don’t get alarmed at the increased spider activity.”

“But of course. If we can be of assistance just let me know.”

“Meow!”

He ignored the meowing. “Hmm, then… speaking of expansion. I’m thinking of making a tunnel, a direct tunnel to the Scorpion Desert. The Kobolds will mine that out, but can you please make sure it stays on course and we don’t have any cave-ins and other accidents like that.”

“But of course!” He found another phrase to repeat. “You can leave the planning to us.”

“Well then. With that, I’ll bid you farewell.”

“But of course. You must be busy.” He bowed. “Farewell King.”

Well, he wasn’t quite done yet. He needed to go and see the crystal spider. He would have done so after the successful ritual if not for the unpredictable egg hatching. According to the Spider research, the crystals the crystal spider grew possessed an interesting property. A property which could further advance the Rebirth ritual. If the theory was correct… well, it would make his spiders functionally Immortal.