“Are you sure this is going to work?”

Victor didn’t look up from his work. “No.”

Frankly, he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Extracting silk from a giant, half cooked spider corpse was not something that most people had the pleasure to experience firsthand.

Victor had done so before, of course. Several times, if you didn’t require the monster to be scorched. It wasn’t a particularly odd job for a butcher.

No, what he was horribly unsure about was the construction of the actual bow. He was fairly sure that the spider silk should hold — it was an exceptionally strong material, after all. The bigger problem was the effectiveness of the carapace.

He had tested the flexibility of the severed limb before beginning the rest of the work, of course, bending it back and forth — but he really had no idea how flexible the material of a bow was supposed to be.

At least it seemed roughly the right shape and length, if slightly asymmetrical. Wiping the back of his hand across his sweat drenched brow, Victor sighed. It was definitely going to be a crude weapon.

“Uh, is there anything I can do to help?”

Looking up this time, Victor frowned. “Do you think your focus might help you with actually stringing the bow properly?”

Thomas shrugged. “I mean, I’m not a crafter, but I guess my gloves do help with my dexterity with ranged stuff… so, maybe?”

Victor nodded. “Fair enough. I’d like to give it a shot, though — I don’t know that I’d be much better.” Returning his gaze to the messy work before him, he paused for a moment. “Just keep watch for now.”

About half a minute later, Victor was almost finished. Unfortunately, he was having trouble separating the harvested silken thread from the corpse — he had accidentally gotten part of it stuck.

Cursing, he retrieved his small knife from his pocket. “Hey Scarlet, can you come a little closer?” The fiendish spirit drifted down from overhead, glowing a bit brighter as she did, significantly increasing the available illumination. “Thanks.”

“Your summon has a name?”

It took Victor a short delay to answer, as he was rather preoccupied with the knife. Several unusual curses later, he took a moment to pause his work and reevaluate his approach. “Yes.”

“I’ve never known someone to name a summon before.”

Pocketing the knife, Victor called upon his new binding thread enchantment. “Yes, well I’m also a craftsman delving a dungeon, so you already knew I was a bit unhinged.”

While Victor was joking, he idly wondered if there was any truth in what he had said. Was he really going insane, or were his actions a reasonable response to the extremes he had recently found himself in?

Thomas’s laugh broke his darkening thoughts. “Yeah, fair enough.”

Wrapping the luminous violet thread around the troublesome bit of spider silk, Victor tied it in a simple, but firm knot. Footsteps approached from behind — Thomas was now peering over his shoulder.

“Woah, what’s that?”

Smiling, Victor made the ends of the string wiggle using just his own will. “It’s a low rank enchantment that the dungeon gave me as a reward for clearing the previous area.”

“What does it do?”

Wrapping the loose end as tight as he dared around his closed fist, Victor tightened the knot as much as he could. “I haven’t had much time to test the limits, but so far, it seems it lets me sort of bind things together.”

Victor was already considering all sorts of possibilities — if only just a few of them were viable, it could turn out to be a surprisingly useful ability. He was actually looking forward to testing it out in more depth — but this was neither the time nor the place.

Returning his attention to the present task, Victor was about to finalize the enchantment — only to realize that he was using his hand as one of the attachment points.

Oh. That was pretty stupid. I hope it would have prevented me from actually going through with it.

With that thought, Victor untied the thread from his fist. Looking around, he spotted a bit of shattered spider leg a few paces to the side. “Could you grab that for me?” he asked, indicating it with a tilt of his head.

Wordlessly, Thomas bent down and handed the bit of charred carapace to Victor. It was the perfect shape and size to tie the thread around, which Victor did a moment later. Satisfied, he finalized the enchantment.

To his surprise, it consumed considerably more arcane energy than it had before — and more alarmingly, the spell yanked the object out of his hands with great violence, slamming it into the remainder of the corpse.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

After recovering from his initial shock, Victor arched an eyebrow. That wasn’t expected — but it could actually end up being pretty useful.

Fortunately, the smaller chunk of carapace was positioned such that he could still get a grip on it. Victor pulled with all his might — and staggered backwards as the end of the collected thread snapped off of the corpse.

Recovering his balance, Victor scooped up the thread into a tangled bundle. “Right.” He glanced at Thomas. “Your turn now.”

The other boy sighed. “I’ll do my best.”

----------------------------------------

It likely only took Thomas at most a quarter of an hour to figure out the best way to string the bow and then to actually accomplish the task — but it felt far longer to Victor.

“It’s done?”

Shrugging, Thomas turned it over in his hands. “I don’t really know what else I can do.”

Victor nodded. “Then lets test it. If it doesn’t snap on the first shot, I can try enchanting it.”

He hoped that it would work and that he could use the spider’s own soul for the enchantment — but he realized it would be idiotic to spend such a valuable soul without making sure the weapon actually worked in its mundane form.

Of course, he also remembered how the mace seemed to become far sturdier once he enchanted it — but that was both a mere feeling and a single incident.

No, there was no reason not to test it.

Raising the bow, Thomas conjured a faint, translucent blue arrow. Drawing it back, he narrowed his eyes and licked his lips. “Here goes nothing.”

The string snapped back, and the glowing arrow shot off into the darkness. Victor grinned. “It works?”

Thomas frowned in response. “I mean, yes — but it’s very weak. Very light draw weight — I doubt I can do much damage with it.”

Victor pursed his lips. “Try it a few more times. If it holds, we can try enchanting it and see if it does anything useful.”

As before, Victor was loath to waste a good soul — but he didn’t have any other use for it at the moment, except for turning it into raw arcane energy. And besides, Thomas having a working weapon would increase their chances of survival significantly.

Victor decided that if the mundane version passed testing, it would be worth the gamble.

Drawing back the bow once more, Thomas fired another shot. And then another. Seven shots later, he lowered the weapon. “That’s ten times. It still feels good, and I don’t want to waste arcane energy.”

Victor was satisfied. “Here, give it to me.”

Thomas obliged, and Victor reached into his own spirit for the spider soul. At the same time, he called on the ability nestled at the core of his soul — what his book had called a fragment of Creation.

Victor activated soulforge.

A sickly greenish glow shot up from the center of the silken string, reaching either end of the carapace. Branching green veins spread back towards the center, joining their tips together seamlessly.

The link having been established, Victor pulled the weapon into his inventory.

Spitting Spider Bow of Corrosion (Rank E) added to inventory.

Thomas was now staring wide eyed. “Did you just…”

Victor nodded. “My Class lets me store and summon items I enchant in the same way you can with a Focus.”

“Fuck. That’s useful.”

Conjuring the bow back to reality, Victor handed it over to Thomas. “Here, try it with the enchantment.”

Nodding solemnly, Thomas took the weapon with a greater degree of caution. “What kind of enchantment did you use?”

Victor bit his lip. “I don’t know yet.”

Thomas arched an eyebrow. “Okay…” shrugging, he raised the weapon and drew it back while conjuring another arrow. “Well, let’s see what it does then.”

Just as he released the shot, a pulse of pale green energy raced across the surface and through the string — and the faintly glowing, formerly blue spectral arrow changed color to match as well.

The projectile hurtled off into the darkness within a crackling bolt of green energy. The two boys shared a glance.

“Any idea what it actually does now?”

Frowning, Victor thought back to the name of the item. “I think it has something to do with corrosion.” He paused. “Why not test it on the spider?” Thomas nodded, and prepared another arrow. “Wait.” Victor eyed the bow with suspicion. “We should probably back up, just in case.”

The two boys retreated about two dozen paces, while Scarlet remained in place, illuminating their target.

Drawing back the bow, Thomas fired again.

The crackling bolt struck the hulking black carapace with a hiss and a splash. Sharing another glance, the pair cautiously approached.

Closer inspection revealed that the shot left a sizzling hole straight through the chitinous exoskeleton, while corroding energy continued to eat around the edges. Thomas whistled.

“Damn. That’s pretty serious.”

Victor grinned. “Looks like it does work.”

Thomas scoffed. “Yeah, no shit.”

----------------------------------------

The key to the next rest area turned out to be in an iron chest in the very center of the cavern. The reward was surrounded by crumbling stone walls and lone columns — now blackened by the recent inferno.

Victor suspected that something had previously been guarding it but had perished in the fire. That’s certainly one way to clear a floor, he mused. Now that the crisis was over, he found the situation just slightly amusing.

Not that he would ever trust his companion with fire or explosives in the future.

Fortunately, it was easy to figure out which direction the exit was, now that the fungal forest had been reduced to ash. It made the whole floor feel almost uncomfortably spacious.

The chest also contained an additional, larger waterskin, a medium sized pouch of raisins, and most amusingly, a flint and steel fire starting kit.

Victor was one hundred percent certain that the dungeon was making a joke at their expense. He was thankful for the other two items though — the water was always welcome, and the raisins would make for an exquisite treat.

The walk across the wasteland was rather tiring, but they persevered. The thought of whatever small comfort awaited them at the rest area filled both boys with more than enough motivation to slog onward.

Finally, they reached the doorway. Exhaling in both exhaustion and relief, Victor inserted the key into the nondescript hole. To his delight, some hidden mechanism clicked, and the door groaned open.

Taking a step back, Victor peered cautiously inside. Thomas began to step forward, but Victor stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “I want to always make sure there’s nothing horrible lurking on the other side,” he whispered.

“Fair point,” Thomas whispered back.

When nothing leapt out at them, Victor stepped inside, followed by his two companions. Scarlet’s light illuminated what appeared to be a small, basic stone bath.

Crystal clear water gurgled in the central tub, two luxuriously soft towels lay folded on a stone bench, and a separate, chest high basin bubbled merrily as well.

The two boys shared a glance.

“Am I dreaming, or did we just hit the jackpot?”

Shaking his head in wonder, Victor didn’t respond directly. “Hey, dungeon core? Thanks a lot. I’m sorry that my friend here burned down an entire section of the floor.”

“Hey!”

Ignoring Thomas’s indignant protesting, Victor refilled his own waterskin from the smaller basin and took a large gulp. Not only was it clear — it was frosty cold as well. Victor smiled.

He couldn’t forget why he was here — but he would take his wins when he could get them.