More spiders appeared around the edges of the abyss. With the area in front of the dungeon’s exit clear, Caesar summoned the Kelpie and nodded at the Draugr King. It climbed onto the horse without hesitation and tapped its feet against the side, launching them into motion.

Absolute havoc reigned amongst the spiders as knight and steed charged into the swarm, sending dozens flying on contact. Hoof and maul crushed everything in their path, and black flowed. With a few swipes of the Draugr’s weapon, more died. Yet they did not stop attacking, driven by some sort of mindless frenzy.

Caesar sat down and watched the carnage. Over time, enough had died to create two, smaller and weaker Sanguinary Aberrations at Level 10. They detected him soon after forming but weren’t intelligent enough to see the pit in front of them, instead scrambling off the edge to join their mightier brethren.

Once all spiders were dead and his two summons had gotten enough practice, he called them back to lead the way down. While the Draugr hopped down the steps easily, the Kelpie could not. He thus unsummoned it and joined his undead minion.

Although many of the Shimmerwisp spiders had re-emerged, they all fell to the Draugr King’s swipes, including a rank two midway. Their light magical attacks merely splashed against its skin. The two quickly tore a path downwards and reached the first point of descent, a large web which should have held a Mutated Shimmerwisp Spider.

But nothing special like that appeared at the bottom of their territory. Instead, two rank two spiders shared the web below, making a little nest to easily feed on other spiders which crawled up after hearing the shriek. He sent the Draugr down first to distract the two spiders, before dropping down as well and summoning the Kelpie to support. As it galloped forwards, a stream of pestilence rushed from its mouth and illuminated the silhouette of one of the invisible spiders. Thus, its ramming charge struck precisely, knocking the enemy down for hooves to trample.

From these three corpses came only a single Shimmerwisp Core, although rank two. He pocketed it and sat down to rest, allowing the two monsters to have a moment of peace together, the Draugr picking at its steed’s mane.

The first time here, he hadn’t descended deeper into the abyss because of the much longer drop without the rope to ascend. But now, both him and his Draugr climbed down a strand of hanging string without hesitation before letting go. He landed onto the ground with a jolt, the force sending pain shooting up his legs.

This new place contained more space for Caesar to tread, with an area of land that did not end in many small drops in between. That meant he could finally use his summons properly, although the passage was still quite rugged. Yet it was enough, for the Kelpie had Terrain Traversal as its ability. He summoned it and had them grow used to trotting around.

Meanwhile, Caesar walked near the edge of the abyss and stared down. The darkness was too dense for light to penetrate, and he saw nothing.

Although the light level had decreased from the hole in the ceiling, various plants from the walls and earth emitted soft patches enough for him to see. So he stepped back and continued onwards before a spider caught his profile and decided to attack.

Down the rugged pathway he went, with the Draugr close by. He used the time to summon the Earthlord Python, saving the Kelpie for hardier enemies. If they needed practice working together in harmony, fighting monsters of proper strength would help much more.

The serpent swung its head around and detected a scant amount of foes lingering around in the dark. Perhaps the scream had sent the majority to the surface, and only those with some form of natural defense like invisibility weren’t afraid. Furthermore, only those with such practical abilities could survive long enough in this brutal environment to gain another rank.

Thus, of the few who remained here, only one was rank two. The python sent a Fragmentation Orb soaring right next to the location, the splinters piercing something hidden in a crevice. It shrieked in pain and leapt into sight – another Phase Spider. It fled in fear once it saw what it had to face.

Earthen Sensing revealed something inside that spot, yet it was too stony for the Ripjaw Ant Queen to dig through. Without a place to stabilize the motion of a greatmaul, he could never access these special pockets.

Should I really bind a spider minion? Perhaps the miniboss? Caesar thought not. For now, these items were unnecessary. He already had many items suitable for his needs, and many ways to scrounge up more to sell during the auction. The fallen loot from the Black Market Massacre had remained, with nobody tracking them. Therefore, although a web would allow him to easily access many places in the dungeon, it also required much work to forge the metals into suitable artifacts. It was wiser to focus on the Epic boss below instead.

He circled around the abyss twice, killing more Phase Spiders along the way. Only a single one held a rank two Phase Organ inside its body, but it was such a luxurious catalyst that he didn’t know what to do with it.

[Item]: Phase Organ

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: A material containing spatial energies, or a catalyst for rank 1 abilities.

Spatial abilities were some of the rarest types, and thus he wanted to keep it for his own minions. He kept it safe with the Skeleton Mage and continued onwards.

The second major point of the dungeon appeared at the end of the passageway, revealing a great web spanning the entire abyss itself. It was sturdy enough to hold both him, the Kelpie, and the Draugr, but he did not want to risk more. Below the web squirmed many different worms and grubs, waiting to be eaten by the mess of spiders on top.

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It appeared strange to him why there was no miniboss here. He wondered where the source of the web was, as none of the spiders below showed any signs of creating their own. Instead, these were all hunters with venomous fangs.

Caesar shrugged and sent his two summons to massacre the area, destroying the entire nest with relative ease. They faced five rank two foes, two with black blood splattered across their body. Those were almost certainly infected with the Stygian Pollution and coming into close contact with the source of the contagion only exacerbated their symptoms.

The Draugr saw this and dismounted, staying in place with the Kelpie by its side. As the spiders moved closer to probe, they became weakened after a short fight, until the undead grasped the advantage and burst forwards with surprising speeds. Its greatmaul shattered two, while its steed brought low the other three.

Caesar quickly ran up to the dead before the Sanguinary Aberrations could fully form and cut open the corpses for loot. Unfortunately, only one held a rank two organ which granted additional Strength, and it was inside one of the plagued spiders. He gave it to his Kelpie to eat, grimacing, then looked over the side of the web to discover flat ground below.

It gained a point of Strength, bringing it up to thirty-five. Caesar unsummoned it afterwards and jumped down with his Draugr, landing with a thud. He brought out a torch, for no light was present from this point on.

Not long after exploring the platform, he discovered no way forwards. Instead of panicking, he summoned his Skeleton Mage again and ordered it to bombard the area below. Fireballs revealed three sets of platforms which he had to land on, and a vast amount of worm-like bugs crawling onto the walls. Some even had wings, explaining how they reached the middle of the great web. Then, he spotted something horrific.

Flesh Crawler – Level 21

[Rarity]: Uncommon

In the middle of a particularly large group of grubs, a hideous monster of wriggling flesh appeared. Red tendrils around its entire body reached out to thresh others near it, dragging corpses they found into the creature, including the charred bodies of those struck by his Fireballs.

Caesar frowned and began to make his way down with the Draugr. Those worms could not have been the only dangerous horror here, so he had his minion hold a torch and drop down first.

Flesh Monstrosity – Level 21

[Rarity]: Rare

And there it is, he thought. A monstrosity – some animal hideously warped into a fleshy thing, with no eyes or other recognizable orifices. Only a mass of red as large as his hippo. The Draugr laid the torch down and engaged it in combat whilst he watched from above. It too, bled black.

It took so long for it to die. Caesar took out Ill Dominion and wore it, having confirmed its inability to pierce his Disease Resistance. He then began to Identify the creature continuously, revealing more and more information with each minute that passed. First came its physical stats, Strength, Agility, and Vitality, eventually quantified in numbers with more time instead of vague values like “average,” or “high.” Then came its Magic, and Willpower, before two minutes later, its Presence. As his Draugr brought the fell creature down low, he called at it to stop and let the blood disease finish the kill.

Flesh Monstrosity – Level 21

[Rarity]: Rare

Strength: 25

Agility: 25

Vitality: 27

Magic: 6

Willpower: 6

Presence: 25

Abilities: None

That confirmed it as a summoned entity. While it wasn’t impossible for summons to have abilities, those that had levels and didn’t have one were almost certainly summoned by something like those Sanguinary Aberrations.

An Epic summoner? Not a bad minion to secure. The benefits of a summoner were great. If strong enough, they provided the ability user with immediate reinforcements, without consumption of important resources like a swarm and their need for catalysts. The problem was that most summons were quite weak, such as the Minor Flesh Elementals from his second horror encounter.

“Destroy it,” he called. The greatmaul smashed it into tiny pieces and sent them flying over the edge. He watched the Draugr continue until the monstrosity’s entire body was gone and black essence rose to signify death.

A Sanguinary Aberration formed only to fall over the edge. This time, it looked more like a hulking beast instead of a spider. So they mimic their host’s form.

Caesar jumped down afterwards and stepped over a few unmoving fragments of flesh. The two continued deeper into the dungeon down the narrow, rugged passageway, where they encountered a similar creature.

Flesh Abomination – Level 24

[Rarity]: Rare

Humanoid in shape instead of a quadrupedal monster, this thing still made the same attacking motions as the other fleshy summons. Tendrils writhed from where its mouth should be and wriggled from where its arms were. They reached ahead, only to collide with a furious horse and roaring undead giant.

The monster slammed against the wall and continued struggling, even as the Draugr grasped its arms and began to tear. Although his minion was powerful, something connected their foe’s flesh together and prevented it from easily coming apart. The Draugr reached for its maul again, to pound the enemy before it into pieces, but Caesar said, “Stop. Use your head.”

He wanted to find out the thing’s weaknesses before he faced the boss. If it continuously spawned these monsters while they fought it, the danger might overwhelm them unless his minions could kill these quickly enough.

The Draugr assented and kicked at the thing’s legs, attempting to knock it down. But it barely budged. His undead minion growled and stepped to the side, pulling out its greatmaul and knocking the abomination onto the floor. It then straddled the horror and began to tear its tendrils apart, the Kelpie aiding it with sharp teeth.

Severing them was very difficult. Although they seemed less sturdy, they instead shared the same durability as the arms and legs. Thus they went for the neck next but had no luck there either. Fists bounced off against its head and the rest of its body, and teeth only ripped out a few scraps.

“The thing has Physical Resistance. Use your spells,” he said and stepped far back. The wave of pestilence washed over the area and increased the amount of black blood flowing from the abomination. It’s a good thing these monsters have blood.

Eventually, as two more Pestilent Novas were used and the Kelpie’s Mana went to zero, black blood perforated its host’s body from the inside and oozed out. He looked at it, surprised, for it had reached Level 26. The Draugr moved to shield Caesar, and the aberration thus attacked the Kelpie who ran off the edge. It followed, and he unsummoned the horse midair.

“Let’s rest, for now.” He suspected more of these flesh monsters would appear while they continued to descend and wanted to fully regenerate Pestilent Nova before that happened. Thirty-six hours. Time to read, I suppose.