“So apparently I was killed in a dungeon raid against a dragon, and was then reincarnated as a spider monster” I was just speaking to myself but the voice seemed to respond nonetheless.

“Correct, species Arachne.”

As I recalled Arachne were creatures with the lower body of a spider and the torso of a human, well humanoid. I glanced back at my lower half and nodded, it seemed correct so far. Next, I inspected my arms and chest. Besides the pale white skin and 4 clawed fingers on each hand, I looked relatively human. I had a great set of chiseled abs and a belly button.

“Hold up. Why do I have a belly button if I was spawned?” There was no reply and I quickly gave up on ever finding out. After a moment of mulling around everything that had happened an idea popped into my head.

I immediately stood up and walked to the closest wall. I placed my hand on the stone, it was smooth, cold and a perfect 90 degrees up.

“I wonder,” I said looking up at the wall. I leaned back and pushed my legs forward so my front legs touched the wall. It felt solid like I was standing on flat ground, so I kept going, one leg after another until all 6 were on the wall and I was hanging parallel to the floor.

“Okay, now this is cool.” I started to scurry up the wall running at full speed as the walls began to curve and I came to a stop at the top of the dome hanging completely upside down. It was a trippy experience to be upside down like this, the weirder part is that while I felt the pull of gravity down, I could not feel the familiar rush of blood to my head that I normally would. It was shockingly peaceful to be hanging there.

“So, tell me, mysterious voice, what is the purpose of a dungeon,” I asked after a moment of taking in the awesome ability to climb walls.

“Survival and growth.”

“Survival from what?”

“Dungeon invaders, and other dungeons.”

“Other dungeons? How does that work?”

“A dungeon is a pocket of dimensional energy that is tied to one being as its heart. At any given time countless dungeons exist in interdimensional space, these dungeons are occasionally drawn to each other, and when they come into contact with each other they merge.” I had never heard of anything like this before. While some had thought they were dimensional pockets, it had never been confirmed. Honestly, we knew very little about dungeons as a whole.

“Are we required to fight when the dungeons merge?” If it was possible to be peaceful it would be better.

“No”

“Oh, so it can be peaceful?”

“Unlikely”

“Why?”

“Dungeon resources are limited. However, when dungeons merge they can absorb the materials from the conquered dungeon and thereby increase the dungeons, size, army, and level.”

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“You know this is the most you have said to me this entire time.” Silence. “Well anyways, it makes sense that peaceful compromise would be less likely. What happens if the fighting lasts for a long time?”

“Eventually the dungeons will repel each other and drift away.”

“And how long will that take?” I took the silence that followed as the voice just not knowing and answering. This was a lot to take in. I mean it makes sense as to why I was building up forces to fight, but the fact that dungeons merge into one another was not something I was prepared for. I reached up to my head rubbing my temples. I winced in pain as if I was being stabbed in the eye.

“Wait a minute, I’m part spider, right? So, theoretically, I could.” As I spoke out to the room I concentrated on opening my eyes very wide. Suddenly all 8 of my eyes snapped open, giving me an eerily wide nearly 360-degree view of the room, ceiling, floor, and even past of my own body. The sudden view made me nauseated and dizzy. I swayed back and forth, my legs got weak and I felt myself starting to slip. Before I could steady myself, I dropped from the ceiling. “Ahhhhhhhh” I screamed as the floor rushed toward me. I tensed up bracing for impact as I slammed hard into the ground. I felt a sharp jarring launch through my body as my shoulder dislocated and my arm broke. On impact, the whole dungeon shook as if responding to my pain. A massive crack appeared over the ceiling above me.

The shaking lasted only a second before stopping. The newly formed crack in the ceiling dropped pieces of rock to the floor. I rolled on my side wincing in pain as the thud of spider legs came rushing toward me. I opened my eyes, only 2 of them this time, to see all the workers and soldiers I had spawned thus far rushing toward me. I could feel their concern as they got closer to me, it was rather overpowering to have that many external feelings rushing into my head at one time.

“I’m fine,” I said, reaching my hand up. “I just did something stupid and took a little tumble.” I looked up at the ceiling and its height. Damn this body is resilient. It was over a 40-foot fall and I only managed to break an arm. With the help of a soldier, I pulled myself to my feet and reassured the rest of the spiders.

Through the overwhelming concern, I felt a burst of annoyance and turned to see the cleaner spider hastily picking up the fallen bits of debris and rock that I had caused. The annoyance grew as another piece of rock fell over a patch it had already cleaned. I walked over and picked up the rock feeling a little guilty. Walking over to the cleaner spider I set the rock in front of it reaching out and patting it on the head.

“Sorry, little one. I will be more careful from now on.” I felt a blip of gratitude as the cleaner scooped up the rock and continued to clean. After a few more assurances, the spiders went away to their various tasks again.

I winced and made my way back to the throne. “So, what happened to the ceiling?” I asked the voice as I looked up at the massive crack. It strangely seemed to have gotten smaller.

“The dungeon was injured.”

“Injured?” The words shocked me. “How?” I asked, although I already guessed the answer.

“The dungeon is directly tied to the dungeon master, your injury is the dungeon's injury.” I sighed as the voice finished the explanation. It was as I expected. This was a lot more concerning than I had originally thought. I now understood why the boss monster was always in the last room under the most guard.

“So if I get hurt, the dungeon gets hurt. What happens when the dungeon gets bigger?”

“The dungeon master will grow in strength to match the dungeon.” The answer was rather obvious but now I get why it would be so difficult to have a peaceful meeting with another dungeon.

“Okay, is there any way to tell when a dungeon merge was going to happen?”

“No” This made things much more difficult. I had run out of crystals and as of now, my fighting force was not much to talk about.

“So, now that I am out of mana crystals I just have to wait for a dungeon to merge with ours? Is there any way to get more mana crystals besides defeating another dungeon?”

“Possibility of acquiring mana crystals through mining and expanding.”

“Okay, so there is a chance that I can get more crystals before we are attacked. And until then, what do you think I should do?”

“Recover” I looked down at my arm at the voice's words and nodded. I was even more exhausted after the fall that I soon drifted off to sleep.