I smiled at the sound of them scrambling back. I doubt they will have much damage but if they got pierced with a few of the shards they should be affected by the poison. The only question is how much of an effect it will be as well as what that will do to their strategy. It's not like they can leave and they can't just stay here until the gate opens to the other side. I could pursue them, but I don't want to fall into any trap that they might make. I hissed in frustration and paced back and forth. A light nudge to my leg made me look down. The trap spider had come into the room and stood next to me.

“What is it?” I felt a sharp desire from it. “I don't understand.” The desire grew stronger as the spider turned and looked at the tunnel the elves had retreated from.

“Do you want to go after the elves?” The spider bent its body in a nodding motion. After a moment of thought, I asked “Do you think you can do damage without getting caught?” The spider nodded enthusiastically, bouncing up and down like a dog. I knelt down to it, “Okay, you can go if you are that confident, but make sure you do not get injured. If you think you can’t get in and out safely just come back.” With that, the spider turned and ran at the wall disappearing into a hidden trap it had built.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before I started pacing again. I closed my eyes and saw the map. While I couldn't see where the elves were, I was able to see that the trap spider was in a tunnel just outside of the first room of the cave. I waited with bated breath holding out for it to move. It took maybe 5 more minutes for the little Icon rapidly shot into the main room. There was an array of screams that came down the hall toward up. We all tensed up preparing to charge. I kept my eyes closed and saw the icon shoot back into the walls and make its way back to us.

“Wait,” I commanded the tanks who started to inch their way toward the tunnel. The icon came closer before popping out of the wall dragging a thrashing elf. We all blinked at the trap spider as it dropped the elf on the floor. The elf looked around frantically before jumping to its feet getting into a fighting stance. The elf swayed on its feet and blinked repeatedly. Something isn't right here. It looks like the trap spider didn't cause any damage to it. So what's the matter, why can't it stand straight? This elf wasn't the one that I previously injured since there was no injury to its chest. There were a few spots of blood on its face and arms from what I assumed was the shrapnel. Wait did he get this injured just from the little bits of poison it got from those little wounds? I looked at the poison spiders. Just how powerful is your poison?

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The elf stumbled to the side and I smirked, giving a thumbs-up to the poison spider. It looked both confused and proud at the gesture. It was almost sad to watch the elf trying to stand. It was swaying more and more as the seconds went on. My guess was that the poison was very strong and was slowly spreading throughout its body. I'm shocked they didn't have some sort of poison-resistant potion with them, but this is what happens when you enter a dungeon unprepared.

I slowly approached the elf as its eyes started to glaze over. He didn't have much fight left in him. Although an elf was an elf, even if he was poisoned he still had some fight left in him. As soon as I got within reach the elf jumped into action pulling out its short sword and lunged at me. While normally it might have been a deadly attack when I was human, now that I was a spider my reaction speed and strength had both increased. Now that I was faster and the elf was poisoned I was easily able to block the slash as it sailed toward my neck. The elf seemed shocked at that block and was unable to react to my hit. I reached up and punched him in the gut sending his body flying into the wall. He gasped, holding his stomach, and tried to stand up.

“Pathetic,” I said, waving my hand in a motion indicating to take him away from me. The poison spider reacted and launched over to the elf sinking its fangs into the elf's neck. I felt no guilt in killing him. It took me by surprise how much I didn't seem to care about killing a non-monster type. I mean an elf was probably the closest thing to a human and yet I felt nothing. Maybe it was because I became a monster, or maybe it was because I saw them kill one of mine. Either way, this is how it needed to be from now on. It was me against them and I was not going to be the one to lose.

“Let's go,” I said to the tanks as I made my way to the other two elves. If this one was this bad already then the other two were either worse or the same. As we entered the first room we saw both elves on the ground. One was clearly dead, it was the same one that I had injured first and got the largest dose of the poison. The other was alive but not in much better shape than the one we had just killed. The tank walked past me and stabbed the dying elf through the chest, ending its life. That was all of them. I looked around, there were three bags on the ground near the elf that was already dead. I bent down and opened one. It was a basic survival bag that had bandages, repair equipment, extra clothes, and food reserves. I pulled out some dried meat and took a small bite. My mouth instantly started to water.

“Man, I missed food!” I exclaimed. This was my first time eating since I became a dungeon master. “Speaking of which. Do any of us eat?”

“Consuming food is not necessary since you and all of your subordinates live off of the energy of the dungeon itself. However, consuming nutrients will make recovery and stamina increase faster.”