The pulsating tattoo was in some kind of design that Rick didn’t recognize until the Cartel Officer put his forearms together. Once they were connected, he could see that it was a spider web, which was a bit cheesy in Rick’s book.

The air grew dark around the man as beads of sweat formed on his shaved head. The darkness deepened until a black disc formed in front of his arms. All previous thoughts of the tattoo being cheesy vanished from Rick’s mind as long brown spindly legs emerged from the disc.

A spider the size of Penny squeezed through. It moved its hairy body back and forth, surveying the area with its eight eyes. Two large fangs moved up and down independently of each other.

Using Identify, Rick inspected the two men.

Lazaro - Level 6 Inkbender

Hector - Level 5 Boxer

Billy took a position behind a protruding panel of glass at the top of a hill furthest away from Stella. Finn darted through the glass tunnels en route to flank the new Challengers.

The spider must have caught a glimpse of Finn and skittered into the tunnel to intercept the wolf.

“Billy, tell them Penny will heal everyone after the battle, but ask about that spider,” Rick said.

Billy frowned and yelled at Lazaro from a distance, “You might want to call back your pet. I don’t think Finn will know how to use nonlethal force on it. The dungeon would also like you to know that his dog will come to heal us after the fight.”

“Don’t worry gabacho. It’s a summoned familiar. Your lobo can’t kill it and we won’t hurt his perro,” Lazaro shouted back, seamlessly mixing English and Spanish. Rick didn’t know Spanish but understood everything Lazaro said based on the context.

Hector didn’t waste any words and began to run toward Billy’s spot in a zig-zag.

The spider familiar and Finn collided in the tunnel under one of the hills. Their battle was obscured to all but Rick. Snarls from Finn and shrieks from the spider were all the other men knew of the battle.

Rick briefly watched the fight between the two beasts. The narrow tunnel didn’t provide a clear advantage or disadvantage to either of them. Finn lunged and snapped in the tight space. The spider raised its two front legs and jabbed at Finn. The wolf managed to force the spider back, snapping at the stabbing legs.

This proved to be a mistake for Finn as he latched onto one of the legs, giving the spider an opening to snap forward and bury its fangs into Finn’s neck. Rick sensed the poison injected into Finn’s bloodstream, paralyzing the poor wolf. A moment later, Finn was sent to respawn and the spider advanced through the tunnel. One mangled leg didn’t slow it down.

As Hector got within range, Billy leaned over from behind the protective glass and shot at his legs. It was a more difficult shot as they were in constant motion, but he had timed the boxer’s running pattern. A single magic bullet clipped Hector’s calf muscle before he could dive behind a panel.

Rick had also been watching Lazaro who had stayed back and was drawing birds in a small notebook with a black pen. The ink began to congeal and lift off of the page, turning into what looked like crows dripping with tar. The tar didn’t slow them down as five took off in the air. The spell must have depleted whatever resource pool Lazaro used because he fell to his knees and heaved.

Billy noticed the birds coming and decided to show off his new skill. “This one is called ‘Protective Slugs’,” he whispered so only Rick could hear. Lifting his guns toward the birds he began to fire what appeared to be his normal rounds. But as they got closer to the birds, the air shimmered around the bullets. The birds slammed into the air around the bullets and either broke or spiraled out of the sky.

“Some kind of force field around the bullets? Badass,” Rick said to Billy, eliciting a smile from the gunslinger.

Hector took the quick opening for a last-stand dash to Billy, roaring as he charged. If the wound on his leg hurt him, Rick couldn’t tell as the man moved faster than before. Maybe some kind of berserker skill, he thought.

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Billy had to reload, but the improved skill let him complete the task before Hector reached him. He smirked as the boxer charged straight toward him, on a collision course with the bulletproof glass. He stepped back, waiting for the man to choose which side he’d go around.

That chance never came as Hector slammed a punch at the glass with his brass-knuckled hand, shattering it into a million pieces. The small pebbles shot out, embedding themselves into Billy and making him fall backward. The gunslinger instinctually started blasting Hector’s legs, making him fall down, cursing loudly.

Billy breathed a sigh of relief and laid his head back to look up at the sky and glare at Rick. What greeted him instead of the tall ceiling was a pair of spider fangs which promptly shot down into his eyes, injecting the poison. Billy’s respawn timer began shortly after and the spider vanished into another black disc that appeared in the air.

Rick could have warned Billy that the spider was sneaking up on him, but he didn’t think that was really fair. Plus, if he held Billy’s hand all the time, the gunslinger would never improve.

“Ok, Penny. Your turn! That guy is bleeding out pretty fast. Go to him first,” Rick said, hoping she would understand

The golden retriever wagged her tail and bounded through the door. She sniffed the air and quickly found the direction of Hector and the smell of blood.

He had passed out but was moaning on the ground, sweat soaked his shirt. Penny made it to him about ninety seconds later, barely panting despite sprinting for nearly a mile. Her nose made the golden glow and the bullet wounds began to slowly close.

She started to whine and pant, likely depleting her resource pool. Hector’s moaning had slowed and he breathed more deeply. The wounds weren’t completely healed, but were good enough. They were now just red lumps of scar tissue on his legs. Penny laid down panting.

“Here Pennster, have some water,” Rick said and produced a bowl of water for her. Penny’s legs shook as she stood up but happily lapped up the water.

At this point, Lazaro had recovered enough to speak, “I guess guns are still the king of the jungle. Although, I suspect that even that gabacho’s guns will be obsolete in time.”

Rick wasn’t entirely sure what ‘gabacho’ meant, but he knew it was directed at Billy. He had to disagree with Lazaro, though. While magic and skills would replace ordinary guns in short order, magic guns would likely always be formidable.

“This will be a valuable training ground for my men,’ Lazaro continued, admiring the dungeon floor room. “We’ll attack the Eagle Empire in two days and bring your mama and papa here. But first, I need Jimmy’s help to drag that pendejo, Hector, out of here,” he said the last part with a laugh.

At that moment, Rick realized he liked Lazaro despite being an officer of a dangerous gang. They would transition to this new world better than most and he was glad that they were now on his side. Hopefully, they could keep it that way for Jimmy’s sake.

Lazaro went out of the dungeon and returned with Jimmy.

“Damn, you guys beat both Billy and Finn? That means you should be on top of the leaderboard,” Jimmy said as they walked in.

The leaderboard had not in fact updated. It still had a bunch of names that Rick didn’t even recognize from when he was in his building trance.

Leaderboard

1: Chris Carpenter

2: Erica Sanders

3: Adam Grieves

4: Stanley Barnstorf

5: Hans Morgan

6: Deandre Booker

“I don’t think it updated because of the deal we struck. Which actually might be a good thing for them. Keeps their trainees under the radar,” Rick chimed in.

Lazaro looked puzzled. Anyone inside the dungeon could access the leaderboard.

Jimmy nodded and explained it to Lazaro, “I guess you truly have to challenge the dungeon to show up on the leaderboard.”

Penny recovered enough to find Jimmy and Lazaro to lead them to Hector. Rick suspected her fast recovery was due to making sure she didn’t miss out on any of the ear scratches both men greeted her with.

“Even with the agreement, Hector still almost died,” Lazaro said, clearly disappointed at his name not being present.

“And he would have if Billy didn’t aim for his legs,” Jimmy pointed out.

“Fair. Once I have better control of my mana, I will challenge this place by myself,” Lazaro promised.

“Jimmy, I’m going to produce some assault rifles for Lazaro and his men. Their magic was fine, but Lazaro became useless after two spells. They’ll need them.”

Jimmy nodded and relayed it to Lazaro as delicately as possible, not wanting to offend the man.

“That is a gift outside of the deal,” Lazaro said, “I will think about a gift in return. Thank you.”

“Tell him not to worry about it until my parents are back. I could also use some more trash,” Rick said, leaving the men to their task of getting Hector out of there.

Rick enjoyed watching the fights and growing stronger, but he was still somewhat relieved that they left. He had been itching to work on his dungeon floor. It still needed a lot of growth before the Kaiju Egg hatched and he hoped he could force another skill evolution.