Hannah worked up the nerve to turn to Zarian and admit that she’d made a dumb mistake and he should take over. Obviously, she was too weak to lead an expedition against a Rare Level 40 Dungeon.

She figured she lacked the potential. Or the ability to make her potential greater than the Devouring Librarian Dungeon.

The words tasted bitter in her mouth, and she couldn’t even recall what she was saying exactly. It all came down to thinking it was best to fall under Zarian’s leadership again. He was younger, yes, but he was powerful, clever, and her superior.

“No,” said the demigod. “You’re more than capable enough. Learn from your mistakes and push forward.”

That was that. Zarian had spoken.

Now she had to figure things out from here.

Hannah dumped all her misgivings and cleared her thoughts. She couldn’t, however, control her anxiety. That was okay. Discomfort and fear triggered the nervous system and tapped into the flight and fight response. With a low dose of Level 0 Adrenaline Jolt, she juiced herself further and used her Level 0 Tranquil Mind to focus on finding solutions quickly.

First, she observed the starter area.

It was a simple stone room. There were moldy books laying on the ground in separate spots. A few had their pages torn out. There were some sheets of paper lying about that had ancient, intelligible writing that was faded.

These few odds and ends were likely conjurings of the dungeon as per its interior design. The light sources came from soft, lamp-shaped sconces merged into the wall. The air was filled with the scent of old books. This place was ancient.

There were no enemies. Not yet, at least.

She scanned for runes, weaknesses, traps. The dungeon was loaded with complex secrets and obscuring enchantments. Some spots had obscurants that were worn down. She could pierce through with some effort.

For now, there were no obvious dangers. She triple-checked just in case.

Once satisfied, Hannah turned to preparations.

She went for the simplest means to bolster her chances in clearing the dungeon. She turned to Zarian and made her requests.

He flipped to another page in his grimoire, still reading while listening to her. His smile widened. “Good idea. It’s about time we improve our numbers.”

With a flap of the Parasite Cloak, Zarian dropped ten corpses. One reassembled himself right away.

Loner stood upright with his usual angry glare and fanged rictus grin. Hannah smiled because she knew Loner liked her.

She offered her hand. Loner looked at it.

Then he gave her a polite handshake.

Greetings aside, he glanced around at the starter area before moving to the nearest wall. He leaned against it, bony arms crossed over his ribcage, and watched the one exit leading into a stone hallway.

As for the rest of the corpses, Hannah watched with bated breath as Zarian animated them with his Raise Advancing Skeletons spell. A nefarious dark green tint infused the air around the would-be skeletons.

There were three gnoll bodies, four human bodies, and another two goblins. They all stood up and shedded their flesh like stepping out of clothing. It was a wet and sloppy process. Most of the flesh remained warm and bloody, picked up from the moment they’d died.

Para didn’t let their flesh go to waste. She reached out with hungering threads and tendrils, sweeping flesh off the floor quickly before she cleaned off the remaining flesh that clung to their skeletal bodies. She didn’t stop until they were bone white and ready to serve.

“Their levels?” Hannah asked Zarian.

“All Level 25.”

“Yes, so that confirms one of my theories.” Hannah nodded before freezing when she felt the demigod’s attention on her. She explained: “Their base levels come from a percentage of your Mysticism. I believe with the Overpower trait, your Mysticism is at 323. Regardless of their prior levels, your skeletons gain their levels from 80% of your Mysticism divided by 10 and rounded up to whole numbers.”

“I used the necromancy spell while the black magic grimoire was in the beta skill section,” Zarian admitted. “But I’m overcompensating using Aura Channeler and Basic Aura Manipulation, so it would mostly eliminate the beta debuff.”

“Is that for the skeletons’ starting levels?”

“No, it was to ensure a near 100% success rate of raising them.”

“Ah, I see. Well, now you know. I guess it’s a similar case for the spectral spiders, but they can only grow with your Mysticism while the skeletons have a starting level based on your Mysticism.”

Zarian smiled and thanked her before calling forth more aid. Spectral spiders turned visible on her body, Zarian’s body, on the skeletons, and around the room.

Hannah counted a hundred of them.

“How’s the network signal outside?” Hannah asked.

“Unclear, all static. Dimensional interference, I imagine,” Zarian replied.

Hannah nodded. She’d figured that would happen. The pressure on her shoulders increased. They wouldn’t want to stay too long in the dungeon.

“Come out, Roller. You’re our recharge station.” Hannah removed the Roller Golem from the pouch she kept him in. She’d thought of him as male just recently, and that seemed to suit Roller.

She dropped the ball-shaped golem.

With a pulse of kinetic force, he cushioned his fall and landed with a small tink. Then he expanded to his usual two-foot-wide and marble like shape.

Hannah pulled out ten different runic devices, each oblong, smooth, and as long as her hand. They were all linked to her own runic network. The network was based on Roller and controlled by an enchanting system she designed into the Runic Gauntlet.

She instructed the nine newest skeletons to space out in a line in front of her. Then she placed one keyed device at each of their feet before placing down one for Loner.

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With a flick of her gauntleted hand and activation of the Enchantment +1 skill, she loaded up all the skeletons with Reinforcement +2.

Pale runes whirled in a rush around each skeleton before transitioning to a whitish-blue glow that settled on their bones. The skeletons marveled at their changes, their bodies rattling with each movement.

The spectral spiders remained visible, dancing about around the room as Hannah worked. She applied the second layer of runes, which came with Rune Attachment +1. That allowed her to attach two more enchantments.

She preferred the use of Amplified Force +2, which paired very well with Reinforcement +2. Then, for the third and final enchantment, she customized each skeleton based on new runes she’d studied back in the Lovewar Mansion.

How she found the time to conduct heavy research and study, even with her new Swift Research trait, she had no idea. But she’d prepared for this.

Loner had the vibration rune. The two other goblin skeletons had the light and dark runes, one element for each. The three gnoll skeletons had fire, wind, and frost. The four human skeletons had might, haste, blend, and warp.

Hannah stood back and marveled at the ten skeletons.

One exuded light while another was draped in darkness, which she dubbed as Glowy and Darko. One was covered in embers, his frame blackened, which she dubbed Flamer. One was covered in whirling mini cyclones in his ribcage, which she dubbed Windy. One was covered in a sheen of frost, which she dubbed Icicle.

Then she dubbed the rest as Mighty, Hasty, Blender, and Warper – the last one made the space around him wrinkly. It was best not to use Warper much. He cost way too much aura even with Zarian’s aura supply, aura recovery, and the aura recovery support from Roller.

Still, there was no better place than here to test a strange space-warping rune while having sacrificial skeletons.

It’s better if they all advanced, Hannah thought. Then they would have unique skeletons like Loner, who handled his runes with more potency.

Loner looked down at his skeletal fist as it vibrated rapidly. He turned to the wall, his runic frame flashing with enhanced power, then he threw a punch that struck like a miniature thunderclap and left a crater in the aftermath.

Loner nodded in satisfaction.

The goblin skeletons clapped.

The gnoll skeletons didn’t look impressed. They seemed like they wanted to challenge Loner.

The human skeletons stood off to the side, mostly waiting for orders.

Hannah nodded at all of them. “I hope you all know I could’ve fitted one more enchantment. But I don’t want to overdo the aura drain. So, please work with what you have. Be mindful of how your enchantments can cost a lot for Zarian, especially you, Warper.”

The human skeleton, Warper, rattled nervously, pointing at himself, as if saying, ‘Who, me?’

The other skeletons, except for Loner, gave him suspicious looks. It was if they thought he would drain too much of their supply of aura.

Warper turned away.

“Okay, one last thing.” Hannah nodded at the spectral spiders gathering her rune devices and returning them to her. She stuffed them back into her many pockets. “Zarian?”

“Yes?”

“The dungeon core, please.”

He chuckled. “Interesting.”

Para took out the dungeon core from her pocket dimension and handed it over. Hannah scanned it before she made some alterations.

What she was doing wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the core’s self awareness. It wanted Hannah to use her Rune Alteration +1 skill on it.

Using all her best abilities for the task at hand, Hannah unlocked a secret power in the dungeon core.

Then she let it go.

The core floated in the air while glowing in a pale light.

Zarian stopped reading to watch, clearly impressed. All the skeletons, even Loner, were interested in the core’s mystical display. The spectral spiders formed a dancing circle rotating underneath the core.

After a while, the core exuded more light before taking on an immense shape that filled up the starter area. Hannah backed up. The spectral spiders scrambled to the far corners.

The light solidified into graceful spider legs, a spider body, a feminine pale face, and platinum white hair that fell like a waterfall. The monstrous spider woman had a serene and restful expression before she opened all eight of her pale eyes.

Reiki of the White Silk Dancers looked down at Hannah and gave a monstrous fanged smile.

“Hannah,” Reiki hissed in greeting. Then she turned around. “Zarian.”

“Reiki, hello.” Zarian sported a big grin before looking at Hannah. “I didn’t know you would do that.”

Hannah was breathing hard from the excitement and exertion of the complex work it took to prepare for the dungeon crawl. She soaked in the extra aura Roller sent out in waves, helping to replenish what she’d spent. With these preparations out of the way, they should be ready now.

The System interjected with something Hannah had never seen before. She’d only heard about it from Zarian.

Another red notification popped up.

“Um, Zarian, I think I did something I wasn’t supposed to,” Hannah said nervously.

“Must we say it?” he asked, before both he and Para said, “Atta girl,” together in one monstrous voice.

“Oh, please, no!” Hannah shouted.

All the skeletons rattled in nervousness except for Loner. The Runic Enforcer charged up vibration magic into his fists, as if he was going to punch the notification and save Reiki.

The spider boss didn’t look bothered. She raised her head, accepting her fate.

Hannah wanted to scream. Instead, she held it in and watched Zarian act. He hopped on Reiki’s back and wrapped her up with the Parasite Cloak.

He looked up defiantly at the red notification and said, “No, System. You destroy Reiki, and I’ll do something you’ll regret. Remember, I alone am the Honored Outsider.”

Hannah thought of Zarian as a demigod, but right now she was doubtful. He was still closer to mortal than god. The System could destroy him.

Then Hannah saw another amazing sight.

The System replied with a gold notification box:

Hannah was flabbergasted. She’d known about the gold notifications. She’d known that Zarian was treated especially well by the Star System.

But seeing was believing, and she couldn’t wrap her mind around it all that instant. Instead, she turned and watched Reiki transform into a smaller and more humanoid form. Zarian ended up dropping off of her by the time she was done.

“Hm, weaker, but okay,” Reiki said, standing as a tall woman with three pairs of arms and a single pair of legs.

She had a miniature spider’s abdomen sticking out from the small of her back, spinnerette tip at the ready. She was also naked, but she didn’t have the anatomy of a human. Instead, she had a feminine insectoid figure while pushing several inches above six feet.

Her hair was beautiful and long, reaching down to her knees. Somehow, even with the eight pale eyes and face of spider fangs and mandibles, she looked more pristine and glamorous than most humans.

She reminded Hannah of the drider Naomi had described, Ekri the Tailor. But feminine and alluring.

Hannah, the skeletons, and the spectral spiders marveled at Reiki’s humanoid form. The spiders did their dance in several concentric circles around the dungeon boss. It was as if they were worshiping a spider deity, and Reiki seemed to enjoy being the center of attention.

Zarian chuckled as he glanced over at Hannah, who was slowly recovering from her stupefied state. He asked, “Are we ready to crawl a Rare Level 40 Dungeon now?”

“Is this a crawl?” Hannah asked, looking at the many assets at her disposal. She didn’t realize she would have this much help. And other than Roller, these summons truly came from Zarian.

“Or is this a raid?” Hannah added.

“Does it matter?”

No, it didn’t.