One heartbeat thudded painfully in my chest. Move. Move. ACT! The goblin dropped the torch, turning. Before he could yell, I reached out. I hated the feeling of spider carapace on my hands as I turned and dragged him as hard as I could.

“Huk,” The goblin managed, just barely taking a breath before I shoved him as hard as I could.

My breathing was heavy and my heart raced in my chest, entire body shaking as I watched the goblin stumble, falling into the web that was made.

The spider that made it was quick, and Lawrence and I watched as the goblin was bitten and tied up. The spider’s limbs were almost relaxing to watch as the goblin struggled, unable to scream because the fangs had pierced its throat.

Terror and an outstretched claw was all that filled the goblin’s gaze in its last moments.

Guilt and horror swirled, my eyes burning with tears and my lungs coming up short for oxygen.

It was just a magical construct. It wasn’t real. The red blood pouring from its throat wasn’t real. It wasn’t…

The giant shadows Lawrence and I made caught my eye, and I turned quickly. Diving to my knees and reaching out, I glanced to the side. No other goblins were coming. I dragged the torch to me, turning and making sure it wasn’t casting our shadows on the wall.

“What are you doing?” Lawrence asked.

The reedy man looked much less affected by the death than I expected. He looked more disturbed and afraid than mourning the fact a life was taken.

Maybe I should be that way, too. Why was I so affected? It wasn’t real. It was just a magical construct.

It wasn’t real.

I swallowed, shaking my head and taking a deep breath as I answered, “We might as well test if fire works against webs, right? If it does this makes everything a lot easier.”

I, still making sure neither Lawrence nor my’s shadow was cast upon the wall in a way the goblins could see, brought the torch to the web. It twisted and smoldered. The spider shrieked, scrambling away from the flame, but its web was unaffected.

I held the torch as I sat against the wall, setting it down on the corner. Then, changing my mind, I dragged it about halfway down the hall between the web and the corner, nodding when I saw the flickering shadows of the main room once more.

Cool.

Great.

That was two facts we learned. We learned that one, spiders are, in fact, terrified of fire. At least these ones. Two, we learned that their webs are not at all flammable.

“… It smells like burning rubber, or plastic or something,” Lawrence said, scrunching his nose as he sat down next to me.

His shoulder was pressed against mine, and I took great comfort in that. It took a long time for my heart to stop racing and for Lawrence’s hands to stop shaking.

It was odd. Unlike the skeletons, the goblin was very easy to… move. To push around with my own strength. It was lighter than me, and it didn’t have any magical reinforcement that I could feel.

Not… that I could feel magical reinforcement, or anything. But if I could, I bet I wouldn’t have felt any coming from the goblin.

Which was relieving.

The goblins were weaker than the skeletons, and the spiders were afraid of fire. That meant we could peacefully go through and use guerrilla tactics, like I first thought.

Lawrence sighed. I glanced over.

The man was sitting, eyes focused directly on the firelight. His face was hard, a crease between his eyebrows and a frown on his lips. Despite his shrill screams and fearful wailing earlier, he didn’t look very afraid right now.

“What do we do now? We can’t just wait here and pick them off one-by-one, we’d starve before that,” Lawrence eventually asked, turning to me.

I pulled my lips into my mouth, glad he couldn’t see me as my eyebrows rose. Ah, right. Food.

My stomach grumbled. I looked to the side sheepishly as I wondered when the last time I ate was.

Right, right. I was kind of hungry.

“Uh, don’t… people sometimes eat spiders?” I wondered, looking back to Lawrence.

Lawrence’s eyes widened, then his nose scrunched, then his gaze darted to the spider that was carefully rebuilding his web away from the web that was set on fire, his face growing pale.

As I stared at the spider web, I saw something very, very weird.

Is that…?

I stood up, wandering to the abandoned spiderweb. I carefully poked at it, making sure it wasn’t sticky. It wasn’t.

“What are you doing?” Lawrence hissed quietly.

I glanced at Lawrence before looking back to the abandoned web. My hands pulled at the webbing around the goblin, and I saw… not a corpse.

Relief filled me at the sight of a glowing blue shard that looked kind of like a jagged rock of clouded quartz. Reaching in, I pulled it out. Flipping it this way and that, I turned, tossing it at Lawrence.

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The man squeaked, flinching, his arms covering his face and destroying whatever respect I had for him. The rock very gently landed in his lap as I gave him an annoyed look.

Maybe I could go out and find the gym dude? He was fully healed, and he owed me one, so maybe he’d go dungeon diving with me? At the very least he wouldn’t scream so loud.

…Actually, I’m pretty sure the only reason Lawrence and I survived was because of the shrieking.

Damn. I guess I’d keep him around as long as he didn’t get himself killed. Jerry would certainly help, and if I saw gym-guy I’d definitely ask him to join, too. A true dungeon party! Nice.

Lawrence calmed down, his tightly screwed shut eyes opening when the white rock that glowed blue landed on his lap. His breathing was ragged and unsteady, and his fingers trembled as they reached down and gently brushed against the crystal.

Crystal. Rock. Stone. Whatever.

“What… is this?” Lawrence asked, voice hushed and soft in wonder and awe.

“A glowing rock,” I replied flatly, looking at it, “Oh, sorry, magic exists. It’s a magical glowing rock. The goblin dropped it. Do you think it’s a monster core or something?”

In spite of my dry response and subsequent question, the awe and wonder didn’t fade, and Lawrence held it carefully without responding to me.

I nodded at his wonderful response. Yes, great answer. Brilliant. Beautiful, the man really had a way with words. Trying not to sigh, I walked away from the web, tapping my bat against my boot as I walked to slump next to Lawrence again.

My eyes focused on the rock. Was it blue? Was it white? It looked like the outside edges were white, and the blue glow looked like it came from within. While it engulfed my hand, it looked small in Lawrence’s.

That meant that while it looked kind of sharp, I doubted it would be useful as a weapon for him.

That left me as the sole damage-dealer.

Great.

My stomach rumbled again, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in at least two days. Pulling my backpack to me, I opened all of the pockets. Finding two granola bars and a tiny bottle of water, I put the granola bars away and lifted my helmet up just enough that I could down the water.

Feeling better, I put my helmet back down, glancing over to see Lawrence looking at me.

“Do you have more?”

I shook my head, gesturing, “The goblins have water, we’ll just have to fight to get the waterskins I saw.”

At least I hoped the random things around the fires contained water. Or maybe the dungeon would supply us with food and water as loot if we asked nicely enough, instead of the weird magical stone it gave us? We’d find out.

Not like we had much of an option anyway, I noted. Though…

Since we had the torch, we could definitely leave, couldn’t we?

I hummed, gesturing, “Not that it matters. We can leave to get water before coming back in, now that we have fire that the baby spiders are afraid of.”

Lawrence looked at the fire, then he leapt to his feet with great energy, his cry echoing out, “You’re right! We can leave!”

“Quiet, idiot,” I snapped as I stood up too, looking at the reflections. Lawrence froze, looking to the side as well.

We both remained still, staring at the firelight. I hissed at the sight of a shadow, taking a moment to glower at Lawrence before turning back to the corner as I edged closer. My bat lifted up the moment a shadow wandered over.

As several goblins appeared, my bat swung out. Pointed ears and red eyes were crushed in the large swing, and the first goblin was down.

Without missing a beat another goblin darted forward. My bat swung both ways, though, and the second goblin was dealt with. My heart was hammering and I was breathing heavy with the effort of crushing two skulls in a row, but I had no time to rest, taking a step back as a third goblin dived forward.

The shadows danced on the wall as the goblin’s claws reached out, and the sound of nails scratching through plastic reached my ears.

My elbow darted out, slamming into the goblins face. Another scraping sound escaped it as the goblin gurgled, and a forth goblin tried to tackle me, sending me staggering into the tunnel’s wall.

One hand released my bat and I punched the goblin, hand reaching out to claw at its eyes. It shrieked and closed its eyes even as blood poured over my fingers from the sockets. It backed away and I kicked it, watching as it tripped over Lawrence.

Wait.

Doing a double-take as I kicked the third goblin, I saw Lawrence passed out on the ground, unharmed.

The fifth goblin, waiting for an opportunity and ignoring the non-issue, darted forward with a weird gurgle.

Turning, I saw him flying through the air.

That gurgle saved my life as I slammed myself against the wall just before he got me. The goblin landed in the web as I turned my focus back to three. Five made a quiet rasping noise and struggled fiercely against the spider-web he’d landed in.

Three clawed at my stomach the moment he could, leaving deep scratches in my dirt-bike armor. The pointed ears wriggled weirdly, and the goblin had a grotesque snarl on his face, his nose scrunched and his teeth bared.

My bat came up, slamming against his head as hard as I could one-handed, the bat clattering to the ground with a loud echo. My other hand reached out, slamming a fist with metal-reinforced knuckles into the goblin’s face.

“Agh,” Four’s guttural noise made me look over. I saw sharp teeth aimed at Lawrence’s leg. Turning, I dived, slamming four’s head into the cave wall. Once, twice, three times.

Thin arms wrapped around me and I dived back. The arms released me the moment I slammed myself against the opposite tunnel, and I turned. My leg reached up, and I kicked as hard as I could.

Bone, meat, and brain matter splattered my combat boots and the wall, teeth clattering to the ground alongside the body. Lifting my foot, I set it down.

Looking around, there were several torches on the ground. My heart hammered as I only barely saw my black baseball bat that blended in with the shadows. Swallowing thickly, I reached down, picking it up.

Turning to the last goblin, I stalked forward.

Anger filled me at the sight of it struggling, clawing at the strands, almost free.

A weak-hearted accountant.

My bat swung out, a vicious crack overcoming the sound of my heart beating in my ears.

Of all the people I could have picked up, it was useless fucking dead weight.

My chest was heaving as I stared at the dead goblin. My right hand held the bat tightly, my left clenched into a fist. My teeth were clenched as I watched the goblin slowly fade into ash that blew away on an invisible wind, disappearing into the air.

Left behind was a yellow stone.

Glancing behind me, I saw the rest of the goblins except four, who was not doing too well, had equally vanished into red, blue, and yellow rocks. Three, the hardest one, also left behind a weird necklace.

Swallowing thickly, I collected the rest of the loot, piling it against the wall next to the blue stone. Then I dragged Lawrence back to where he’d been before the idiot collapsed.

Looking over him just in case, I scoffed when I didn’t see any injuries.

Wonderful.

Deadweight has full health.

Gathering the torches together, putting them in a line, I slumped, exhausted, against the wall, next to Lawrence.

I’d only just woken up a few hours ago, but I really, really wanted to go back to sleep right about now.

Just as I was about to fade off into restful slumber, a scream echoed throughout the tunnels.

A human scream.