In the kitchen area, there were at least five chimneys above wood burning stoves scattered throughout this large area. For Deacon, they were all above him hanging from the traditional floor. Even the cooking tools were pointed up giving Deacon a sort of disoriented feeling. There were few strands of black webbing in here. Mostly just around the entryway. The poison had flushed through his system and Triage has almost topped him off. The one thing that stuck out the most was a brown chest on the far side of the room. It stuck out mainly because it was on the same plane as Deacon. In the normal world the lid would have flown open, and the contents spilled along the ground but on the ceiling, it was ripe for plundering.

Deacon made his way across the room but stopped halfway as the light began to dim. Most of the light was coming from the sage green trees that were chewing up the bugs. It only reached so far into this room. A deep senses of caution overcame Deacon, and he stepped back. If he was going to switch his energy draw to the Infernal plane, now was as good a time as any.

“The soul still burns.”

Deacon’s eyes stopped their sharp green glow and began to glow a reddish orange. He created two Infernal Sickles to orbit within his aura casting light off in all directions. The sickles popped and sizzled through the air around him increasing the temperature by several degrees. That expenditure brought his soul energy down to two hundred and eighty percent. He mentally noted that since his big guns all took over one hundred soul energy or more to activate. It would have to be small bites until they reached the dungeon boss.

Now that there was more light in here, Deacon could see outlined in blue, where the traps were. There appeared to be a semicircle of traps that got tighter and tighter the closer you got to the chest. Most of the traps had blue lines that lead to the stoves. With that in mind, Deacon used Spectral Jump to sail over the traps and land directly on the chests lid. A few knives in the room quickly shot back and forth through empty air that Deacon used to occupy. Those traps must have been proximity triggered.

Instead of opening the chest, Deacon extended the claws on his right hand and smashed through the lid. Ripping the wooden planks apart. That seemed to be the right choice since it exposed a pretty nasty looking lock with several vials of liquid attached to the mechanism. Inside he found a set of clothes and a spell scroll.

Fighting Monk’s Robes of Dexterity- These robes are crafted from Eikerland silk only found on the eastern continent of the beast men. They grant a plus one to Agility and Speed.

Spell: Tar Field- This spell creates a ten by ten foot section of viscous tar to slow your enemies. Caution, the tar fumes are highly flammable.

Both items went directly into Deacon’s bag. Maybe Tantus could use the spell, but Deacon wasn’t about to get naked and change while he was in this dungeon. That was when he heard a slight whistling from beneath him. It seems his Infernal Sickle was warming the area and the fluid inside the vials had begun to boil. Deacon shot forward instinctively using Spectral Dash, but he forgot about all the traps. Everything happened all at once. The chest’s contents exploded in a black and red column of smoke and fire. All the ovens blasted out gouts of flame that crisscrossed the room as cookware swirled around glowing red from all the fire. The smoke from the burning chest was acrid and made it hard to breath. The only good news is four transparent spiders were running around the floor screeching between Deacon and the exit. He maybe had a few seconds before they died to use Inspect.

Light Weaver Spider- These variations on the Black Weaver spiders evolved to bend light through the crystals on their backs to give them a semi-transparent aspect. This variant losses the ability to spin webs in favor of this effect. The illusion is broken when they are in contact with another living creature, or they are dying. Best avoided. Level 21 /Mystical Creature, Variant.

Deacon hoped the others in his party had seen that message to better prepare them. Between the gouts of flame and screeching spiders his best way out of this is to jump past all of them. He didn’t have as much runway now compared to when he could freely walk halfway through the space. He needed to time it just right. Deacon bent his legs and squared his shoulders. Then he was hit in the back of the head with a blazing hot frying pan and stumbled forward shifting his jump arc from cent to the left and down. As the ability triggered, he was launched forward just slightly missing a blast of fire from one of the ovens. His feet were clipped by one of the burning spiders reaching out for him in hopes of dragging him to hell with them. Deacon finally landed by catching his chin on the left side of the door frame and spinning his lower half through the entryway.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“What was that?” asked Chuck, as he wiped tears from eyes. He had been clearly laughing for some time now.

“I call it making the best of a bad situation,” Deacon indignantly responded.

“Your hair stalks are on fire,” giggled Chuck.

Deacon sighed and floated a water skin out of his bag and doused his head. That was when the others came running down the stairs to this level of the tower. Tantus came out first followed by Hani. Ralph dropped to the landing, turned, and fired a Hallowed Blade diagonally up the stair well. They were all gasping for breath.

“That’s my last one. Unless someone got a mana potion. Who’s ever heard of the difficulty changing in a dungeon while your inside of it?” asked Ralph as he swapped positions with Hani who was now looking up the stairs for anymore threats.

“There he is!” exclaimed Tantus running over to Deacon while gingerly avoiding curled up spider corpses.

“Hey, I’m glad you made it. Did you get my message?” Deacon asked, as the others made their way over.

“The Fae you sent babbled something about invisible spiders and fell asleep. Your use of inspect was a better way of getting the point across. Use your party interface more,” Ralph chastised.

“I would like to point out that his party skill is the only real reason we are still alive, aside from the occasional healing spell from Tantus. There should not be this many monsters inside this dungeon. Rampancy usually has a time limit to recharge the dungeon’s energy, but these things just keep pouring out. What the hell is that?” asked a startled Hani when he finally caught sight of the forest of dead spiders and Chuck.

“Good, your little friends are here. I’d say you’ve got another twenty five minutes on this effect before the trees disappear. I’ll be going now. Farewell summoner,” Chuck said before he stepped through reality and disappeared.

Everyone was looking at Deacon now that the large beaver-man was gone. Deacon took that opportunity to make his way over to the platform that lead to the stairs down. The others followed suit. On the other side of the platform were several of those murder trees but the grove stopped before the stairwell down. Deacon checked it and started to move before he was interrupted by Hani.

“We need a break champion. Stamina bar is running low. If that creature said these trees would last for twenty or so minutes, I request we take shelter right here,” Hani said leaning against the wall. Tantus had already slumped down, and Ralph could barely hold his sword up.

“Right. I apologize. I’m the one who fell five floors after that Virges guy pushed me. Rest up and I’ll stand watch,” Deacon said forgetting he didn’t get tired.

“About that, I got a strange feeling of betrayal when Virges held onto me before coming in here. I do apologize. My precognition only works against danger to me. It was a vague psychic impression I got from him. I intended to lull him into a false sense of security while we were in here and force him to expose his plans. I had no idea he would just push over an edge,” Hani confessed to everyone.

“Typhus knew there was traitor, but he didn’t know who. That’s one of the reasons I was in such a rush. I wanted to get back and warn him. Although I don’t understand the reason for all of this. We should focus back on the problem at hand. It will take forever to reach the boss at this rate. I didn’t even have to fight my way down to floor five. I think we’ll need to change our approach,” Deacon said pacing back and forth tapping his chin with his forefinger.

“Oh no. I know that look. He wants to do something stupid,” Ralph said.

“It’s not stupid, just extreme. Right now we can still reach the platform I landed on. If we can get Tantus to modify his invention a little we might be able to cobble together a makeshift elevator,” Deacon explained.

“Like the lift on the cliffs edge outside of Iron Mountain Plateau?” Ralph asked.

“Yes and no. This would be through the middle of the shaft,” Deacon answered.

“But what about all the webs?” queried Hani.

“You see, that’s the fun part,” Deacon said while his Infernal Sickles blazed to match the excitement in his eyes.