“What can I use these for?” I asked the voice.

“Mana crystals are the only form of currency in the dungeons.”

“Currency? What can I buy with them?”

“Workers and warriors.” Ah, so the spawning room. I glanced from my basket of riches to the doorway to the spawning room and back. Ah, what the hell. I made my way back to the room.

“How do I use this room?” I asked, making my way to the far side in front of the altar.

“Place the mana crystals you wish to exchange into the altar and place a request for a worker or warrior.” I looked into the basket and lined up all the crystals, found the smallest one, and placed it on the altar with a heavy heart. It glowed for a second then seemed to melt away into nothingness, a dull pain hit my heart as 25k just disappeared into nothingness. I sat there in silence for over a minute. Was I just jipped by the voice in my head? “Hey what’s the big idea? I did what you asked.”

“Sufficient funds acquired. Please select warrior or worker.” There was a stabbing pain behind my eyes and I was forced to close them. However, instead of seeing darkness, I saw two types of spiders in my mind. One was large and bulky, while the other was small.

“What is this?”

“Please select warrior or worker.”

“Worker,” I said frustratedly. The smaller of the two spiders in my mind glowed for a second before fading and were replaced with 3 new spiders. One had two front legs that were shaped similarly to flat blades like a chisel or pickax. The middle spider was smaller than the first with legs that were closest to brooms with a large vacuum of a mouth. Finally, the last spider was even smaller with 8 eyes that took up most of its body.

“Okay, so what am I looking at now?”

“At current level, the worker spiders that you can spawn are the miner, cleaner, and surveillance” I didn't bother to ask for further details since the name was rather self-explanatory. All are supposedly needed for the dungeon to thrive, but which would be better to have first?

“Well, do you have any recommendations?” I asked the voice. There was no reply, I was about to give up when all but the miner spider faded away. I felt my energy being sapped away and I opened my eyes, stumbling back. “What the hell is happening?”

There was a glow from the altar that made me step back. The light got brighter and brighter until I was forced to cover my eyes with my hands. The light faded within a few seconds. I lowered my hands blinking looking at a foot-tall spider on the floor that weaved back and forth. It was a light brown color with 8 gray eyes that looked up at me as it clicked his front two chisel-like legs together. There was a part of me that thought it was kinda cute. I bent over and grabbed the chisel-like blade, it felt hard as steel and even cold compared to the rest of its body. It was truly fascinating. As it looked into its 8 eyes I felt a want for instruction.

“Well, I have no idea why I summoned you, it was the voice that did it.” The spider tilted its head to the side and waited. “What should I ask it to do?” I felt that same sting behind my eyes in response, closing my eyes and saw a rough map of the dungeon which only consisted of 2 rooms and a small hallway that led to nothing. There was a decent amount of unused black space that I assumed was available for mining.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

I thought back to the times I had raided dungeons and what they looked like. Normally there would be short small hallways that lead to open areas where forces were normally stationed. This forced the invading forces to file into the hall in ones or twos allowing the defending forces to deal with invaders one at a time instead of a whole army. Before I had finished thinking I felt a feeling of confirmation as the little spider turned and ran out of the room.

“Well, I guess he knows what to do. Okay so what next?”

“Insufficient funds.” I painfully tossed another crystal into the altar, wincing as it melted away. “Insufficient funds.”

“Wait seriously? But I didn't even try to do anything yet”

“Insufficient funds.” I signed and tossed another in physically wincing. I had never thrown so much money away like that before. I closed my eyes seeing the original two spiders again. I left it in the hands of the voice as the second larger spider glowed and faded again showing me 3 different spiders.

One was bright purple with lime green on its back. It kind of reminded me of a black widow. The one next to it was slim with long legs looking almost like a water bug, and the third was just bulky and large.

“Okay, what type of spiders are these?”

“At current level, the warrior spiders that you can spawn are the poison, trap, and tank.”

Before I could even take it in, all but the large tank spider faded. I quickly covered my eyes as the blinding light appeared again. When it faded I lurched back in surprise coming face to face with a lot of spiders. This spider was at least 3 feet taller than me and about 4 times as wide.

“Damn, you are huge.” I stepped in closer as I felt that same desire for instruction. I walked around the large spider looking it up and down, running my hands along its skin. The skin on its sides and stomach was very thick and rough like a rhino, on its chest and head there were large thick plates of bone that acted as armor. It has massive fangs that are as thick as my forearms and incredibly sharp. The back 6 legs were like tree trunks which would keep it from being pushed back in a head-to-head fight. While the front two were clearly weapons. The leg on the right was shaped like a mace used for bashing, while the left was a sword blade. He was incredibly impressive and would be a major pain in battle. I smiled, patting it on the side and giving it a command to go protect the worker. It lumbered out of the spawning room, each footstep smacking the ground.

“Alright, so what next?” This was kind of fun! I could feel a sense of satisfaction with the progress so far. Wait, why am I happy, and also am I taking this all a little too well? Like I woke up not long ago as a spider monster and now I'm having fun building an army. Maybe it's because I am part of the dungeon, maybe it's because I am a monster now? Maybe when my body changed so did my emotions. I wasn't scared or disgusted or even upset about it anymore. I shook my head pushing the thoughts out. I mean, even if I was upset I don't think there is anything that I can do about it now.

“As I said, What next?” After the painful process of ‘Insufficient funds’ and tossing all of the crystals into the altar, I ended up spawning one more miner, a cleaner, and a trap spider. The cleaner was small but fast and used their broom-like arms to sweep dust and loose dirt into its mouth, and the trap spider was medium-sized with sharp front legs used for digging, and its skin was covered in thick hair that was able to change in color and help to camouflage it.

I sent the miner and trap spiders to go work with the other 2 in fortifying and expanding the dungeon, while the cleaner was sent to tidy up the place. A wave of exhaustion flowed over me. It took a lot more energy to spawn spiders than I thought. I made my way up to the throne where I was finally able to sit down and relax.

I realized that I had been so swept up in everything that was happening that I never had time to fully grasp what had happened. Now that I had sat down to relax I began to think about it all.