Chapter 16 - Spiders. Spiders Everywhere

Everyone stopped what they were doing and walked towards Jack once he said he found the entrance to the dungeon.

But, once we got there, we could not see it. There was no cave or anything similar that we could actually fit through.

"Well, where is it?" I asked.

"It's-o right-o here," Jack said and pointed at the ground.

But there was a whole lot of nothing. Just another patch of grass, slightly greener than most of the other patches around there, with a couple of flowers growing on it.

We all looked at Jack with a puzzled look.

"Oh, you have not-o realized-o yet-o?" he said while taking a small bottle with some kind of white dust inside of it.

Jack threw the odd dust on top of the grass and, suddenly, the patch started getting more and more transparent until it vanished completely, revealing a wooden trapdoor with a black metal knob.

Pulling the door open, Jack revealed a secret passage. It was so dark and the amount of stairs so big that I could not see where they actually ended.

Jack being the leader of the group went in first. I followed him and after me, everyone else started coming down the stairs, one by one.

It would be quite hard to go down all these stairs without misstepping and falling to your demise, considering how dark the place was. Thankfully, Wrel had thought about it and prepared for it. She brought with her a torch she lit and stood in the middle of the group so everyone had at least some light.

"By the way, you still did not tell me your level," I said to Jack as silently as I could. I did not know if I should keep quiet or not. Probably not, or else someone would have mentioned it before going in, but still, being loud in that situation just did not feel right.

Jack chuckled awkwardly. "I don't-o really talk-o about-o levels-o all-o that-o much-o. They are not-o all-o that-o matters-o. Maybe what-o matters-o is-o the friends-o we made along-o the way."

This phrase hit me like a brick and got me emotional as the few memories that I had of my dear friends emerged back to memory. He was right. After all, my friends were the reason I was doing this. I would not have a reason to carry a sword if it wasn't for them.

"I understand. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's-o okay," he said and took a deep breath. "I am-o level-o 52."

Level 52!? I was expecting a high number, but not that high! How long has this guy been crawling into dungeons for? His speed and endurance now made much more sense. No wonder was able to bring his scythe to my neck without me having time to react. Jack struck me as a guy who did not like violence, which made his absurdly high level even more impressive.

I wanted to ask him all sorts of questions. How did he get to that level? How long did it take? Does he have a class? What are all these other weird thing in the profile screen? Do people treat him differently once they learn his level?

But after the answer he gave me, I decided to keep the questions for myself. Maybe another time, or maybe never. For now, I just said "cool."

We did not say anything else the rest of the way down.

Eventually, we reached the bottom of whatever that place was and, oddly enough, the place was very well-lit down there. Enough for us to be able to see without the need of a torch, so Wrel put the fire off.

We ended up in a big, empty, square room with nothing but a door-shaped hole at the other end. Everything was livid. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, and even a faint mist that was looming inside the room.

"Alright-o," said Jack once everyone was finished walking down the stairs. "This-o is-o the dungeon-o entrance. Don't-o panic-o, it-o is-o going-o to be nice and-o easy. But-o be prepared-o. Let's-o form-o the group-o before we go further-o"

Everyone nodded and immediately opened their personal blue screen. I knew they did because they were doing the same movements with their hands as I did when I opened mine. But, to my surprise, I could not see their screens, and I assumed they could not see mine either. I did not realize it until that point, but I had never seen another person access their screen before.

Since I could not see their screens, I had no idea what they were doing, but apparently it was something all of us should do. I did not know what that something was, though. I was about to ask Jack when a notification popped up to answer my question.

You have been invited to a [Group] by hero: Jack

[Accept] [Decline]

I immediately declined the invitation only to receive another one five seconds later.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

You have been invited to a [Group] by hero: Jack

[Accept] [Decline]

Decline.

You have been invited to a [Group] by hero: Jack

[Accept] [Decline]

Decline!

You have been invited to a [Group] by hero: Jack

[Accept] [Decline]

"I am not joining your group!" I snapped at Jack.

"Why not-o? We are working-o together-o on-o this-o"

"No! We are not a group! I am not part of the group! I was more than willing to come here alone, but you insisted that we go together. In the end, that's fine, but I am not part of your team."

"Why not?" asked Wrel, the more rational person of the team. "If we become a group, we share [Exp] and [Coins], we see where each other is and how they are doing in terms of health. It makes planning and strategizing much easier and we can be more effective."

"If I join the group, that means you are responsible for me. And, even worse, it means that I am responsible for you... and I can't afford to do that..."

What started as an angry rant from my side had slowly turned into me trying to hold myself together and keep those damn memories buried. This was not the time to get emotional.

"Am I not supposed to be the 'scoundrel', after all? You guys can form your group — I'm going solo."

"Okay, fine. You can stay out of the group if you want it that bad. But, please, listen to me during battle. Don't go off alone, ignoring the rest of us."

Wrel was trying to avoid confrontation, but more than that, Wrel was trying to make sure there was a calculated, methodical approach to clearing this dungeon. There were just a handful of things that she hated more than chaos and leaving things to luck.

"Alright, I will. I still don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Good," Wrel said briskly.

"Everyone, get-o ready, we are about-o to go in-o," said Jack as he stood up, with his scythe already in his hands.

Wrel pulled out a dagger she was keeping hidden and held it in her hand, ready to strike when needed.

Tim pulled out his crossbow slingshot, holding it in his left hand, with his right hand stuck next to his quiver to have as quick access to his arrows as possible.

Sanor lifted his hands to his face, getting into a stance similar to that of a street fighter after he consumed an early [Spherule of Power], increasing his offensive stats as he was almost certain he was going to need them.

And I... I just waited.

Once everyone was ready, Jack signaled us to follow him.

"Let's-o move in-o," he said.

Jack went first, as usual, and everyone followed through that odd door-shaped hole in the wall.

From that point on, we were officially inside the dungeon, and things already felt different. What I was seeing in front of me looked like an enormous cave, stretching too long for me to see the end of it through all the mist that had suddenly become almost twice as thick.

In front of us, there were two small ponds on the left and right, which made the atmosphere feel humid, split by a long, narrow line of stratified gravel, looking like a bridge.

Jack walked first over the 'bridge' and I was ready to act as I thought there was a high chance of the thin bridge to break because of how heavy Jack—along with all the stuff he was carrying—was. Thankfully, the path was able to hold its ground.

As he was halfway through to the other side, we found out what we would have to deal with.

A few oversized spiders, about half as tall as my shin, started coming from the other side of the bridge towards us, walking one behind the other like mindless puppets.

I assumed their plan was to eventually attack Jack, but that was far from what they actually did, as Jack held his scythe in front of him, held it at the middle of the handle and started spinning it, basically creating a circular shield in front of him that was pushing off the bridge and into the pond any spider that was foolish enough to get too close.

He safely walked across the bridge and we all followed shortly after — except for Sanor.

Apparently, he was really close to leveling up and these spiders gave him enough [Exp] to do so, even though he did not actually beat any of them.

He stayed back, thinking about how he should distribute his newly acquired points, although all of us were pretty much certain he would end up adding all of it on Strength.

While Sanor was still messing around with his blue screen, I saw a spider, slightly bigger than the ones Jack pushed off the bridge, come out of the wall on the side Sanor was and quickly approaching him.

"Sanor! Watch out!" I yelled.

I grabbed the hilt of my sword and rushed as fast as I could back to the other side to help the weaponless Peacemaker. He noticed the spider that was getting close to him, closed his blue screen and gave it a strong kick in the face, blasting it far away, back to the wall it came from and from there falling dead on the ground.

When I finally got next to him, the battle was finally over - if that could even be called a battle. Although he was the lowest level member on the team, he was still able to effortlessly deal with it.

"Relax, dude - it's just a spidey," he said and opened his blue screen back up to distribute the rest of his points.

"You are right," I said. "Just a spidey. Nothing serious."

We then walked back to the other side to meet the others.

We did not walk very far, as the spiders that came earlier seemed to have a lot of friends. A sea of spiders, too many to count, started crawling out of every wall of the cave dungeon — out of every tiny hole and creek.

Slowly but surely, we were getting surrounded by myriads of spiders. Yes, beating one spider was easy. Five? No problem. Ten? Piece of [Wild Fox] meat. But when they become too many to even count, it's a whole other story.

Wrel started immediately thinking of the best way to approach this and did not lose any time ordering us to move ourselves to what she believed to be the optimal positions.

"Tim! Head back! Right in front of the bridge and give support to the flanks from there, got it? Do not let yourself get surrounded, no matter what!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Tim responded and immediately ran back while grabbing an arrow from his quiver, readying himself to shoot down some spiders.

"Jinden, you get the left side! Sanor, you get the right! Make sure you do not let any spiders get past you or our archer will be in trouble! Jack will take the front. I trust you won't have a problem, will you?" Wrel continued.

"I'm-o fine, don't-o worry," Jack said and turned his back to face some more of these spiders.

I ran to the left side, although I was not completely agreeing with Wrel's plan.

"What are you going to do?" I shouted at her while running away from her. "Just sit in the center and watch?"

"Worry less about me and more about the spiders that are coming!" she said.

This was an okay plan. Simple and effective — if we were four people. But we were five and, at that point, Wrel was basically dead weight. Did she think that just because she was the one responsible for the plan, she could just sit back, relax, and earn the [Exp] for free while watching us fighting to keep the spiders away? She was an [Assassin], which made her less effective against swarms of enemies like this, but that was not an excuse to just do nothing.

I did not have time to argue as more and more spiders were approaching, so I decided to leave it for after we were safe.

For now, I had much more important things to do. I had to christen the Illuminator.

And keep the spiders away from Tim, of course.