As he started to fall, Dren wondered. Could Life Surge heal him if he was just paste on the floor? That thought rushed through his mind and the answer he came up with. Was he didn’t want to know. Pulling one of the few explosive daggers he had left from his bandolier he snapped his body upward. He was falling right next to the pillar and pushing off of it was his first idea. Only the stupid web still tethering him to the monster would just yank him back. So he slammed his dagger into his own leg. The blast did more damage than to his hand. After all, he was targeting himself and his leg was already a bloody mess. But mixed in with the bit of flesh blown away from his ankle was the webbing binding him. The impact also knocked his legs into the pillar and with them touching the stone he kicked off. Pushed free of the falling corpse he curled up and covered his head. It was still a long long fall and he didn’t trust trying to land on his feet for what little his boot's safe fall enchantment would do.

With an impact that cracked the stone, he smashed into the ground. His health was emptied and then refilled as his Life Surge went off. It then depleted by a quarter of his total health as if the amount of damage he took was so much it rolled over eating thru his life surge. Groaning Dren put that away for later also. Bouncing once before crashing into a pillar he finally came to a stop.

“Owwww.” He finally said when he could draw breath again. His body still hurt despite his healing skill normally restoring him to perfect. Did that mean there really was a damage limit to it? If he took enough damage would it not work? He was definitely glad he hadn’t relied solely on it to heal him from the spider landing on him. That said he glanced over to see a small crater in the ground. The body of the spider had broken from the impact, slowly filling the crater with ichor and goo.

“Yeah. No. That would have sucked.” Dren grunted as he pushed himself up and felt his back go thru a series of pops as if his spine was realigning. “Owwwww.” He eeked out again. “That hurt.”

Limping he moved towards the treasure chest in the center of the room. “You owe me a dagger.” He whined. Touching the chest he got the expected pop up.

Profane Ruins Dungeon (15) Boss Cleared Two of Two. Party Size One. Solo bonus to loot quality applied.

Prime Kill reward received for a first recorded boss kill.

Calculating Rewards

Loot Pools Selected.

Assassin

Enchanter

…

…

…

No other loot pools were allocated.

With that, the chest opened and Dren eagerly leaned over to examine his new dagger. Then frowned. “Where the hell is my dagger.” He had been certain he would have gotten a dagger.

He looked up and gave the finger to the sky, trying as hard as he could for the system to see it. Then with a sigh he reached in and pulled out the first item. Pulling it out he realized it was a painfully bright white cloak.

Aranea Silk Cloak.

This cloak woven of tough Aranea Silk has been enchanted with Color Shift, Prismatic Camouflage, and bears the active ability of Spider Climb. It allows the wearer to select the color of the cloak and greatly enhances stealth capabilities.

Spider Climb. Allows the user to spend mana to climb surfaces like a spider. Also, makes the user undetectable via normal web tremor sense.

“Damn it.” Dren muttered at seeing another item that would have been perfect for fighting the boss he had just killed. Examining the item he opened his enchant menu and his eyebrows went up. The abilities really were enchantments. He could see the runes of enchantment on them. The cloak’s twenty five hundred mana capacity was fully used. Dren whistled. “I could drain one of these and maybe learn the rune?” Dren wasn’t stupid enough to try. But it was a thought. Managing to get out of his backpack with only a few groans of protest he dropped it down beside him before pulling his cloak off. Dropping it on the pack he flung the new cloak over his shoulder. It settled lightly on his body and he focused on it. First, he turned that almost glowing white to black. It was still so shiny it reflected the light so with a bit more concentration he turned it a non-reflective matte black. “Nice. Very Assassiny.” He nodded then tried to the camouflage. Nothing worked then he slapped his own forehead and activated stealth.

Looking down at his shoulder and behind him he whistled. The cloak didn’t make him invisible. But it seemed to display a replica of the surface he was next to. Moving over to one of the pillars he noticed as he moved the effect distorted slightly. But when he stopped to lean up against a pillar and looked over his shoulder the effect was really close. Grinning he moved back over to the chest. The second item inside was a hen sized egg. Picking it up he found it oddly warm and soft rather than hard like a normal egg.

“Juvenile Aranea Companion. This is a prime reward for the first to kill the Fate Weaver Aranea of the Profane Ruin’s dungeon.”

“A companion? Like a pet? For something like a beast tamer class?” Dren was confused by that. The idea of beast tamers and animal or monster companions wasn’t that odd. But, normally they were tied to a class. Not an item one could use. At least he didn’t remember any stories with something like that in it. Or had he just forgotten? Either way, he shrugged and activated the item. It crumbled away into motes of light that drifted in front of him. They swelled into a larger shape and an instant later they condensed into something of flesh.

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Dren’s jaw dropped as he looked at what appeared to be a young girl with a short mop of hair so white it appeared ephemeral standing in front of him. It took a second for his brain to process before he shouted. “Why are you naked?” Snatching up the tattered cloak he hurled the wad of filthy cloth right at the girl. They caught it with their hands, holding it to their chest. Even as the four spider-like limbs jutting from their back closed over it as well. “Put it on. Put it on.” He howled. They tilted their head but did as asked.

With their smaller size even the tattered cloak covered them enough for him to stop panicking. “Gah.” He said as his mind slowed some. “Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting a naked child to show up. I was thinking maybe a little pet spider that crawled around on eight legs. Not stood on two…. Naked.” Dren covered his face then looked over and let out a breath. “What are you doing?” The girl was down on all four… er eight. They shifted to the side more gracefully than he would have expected. She wasn’t on her hands and knees. But her legs were stretched out so she balanced on her hands and toes. With the spider legs also helping to support her.

The girl looked up at him, with two crimson humanoid eyes as well as two small insectoid ones below and four above that looked like tiny red gems. Her head twisted almost upside down in a way that made him shudder. “Don’t do that. And get off the ground like that. It is creepy. You are creeping me out.” Dren said his voice slightly frantic. The girl's head spun back to normal and she stood up. Pushing herself up with her longer spider limbs to stand in front of him again.

Dren ran both hands down his face in exasperation. This was not what he expected. When he had used it he pictured a tiny little spider that could rid on his shoulder or head. Maybe spin little webs in a corner catching insects.

“Can you even spin webs?” He asked then regretted asking. Afraid where the webs would come out. They came out of a spider's rear right?

Before he could retract the question they raised their humanoid hand and threads of silk emerged to dangle from their fingertips. “Nice.” Dren said without thinking.

“I mean. That is better than it coming out of your… never mind.” He blew out a breath.

“Can I put you back in the egg like the mount?” Their head tilted to the side, but this time no more than a normal human head. “I take that as a no. Ok just… just stay there. I need to look for a rune. Er, actually do you know where the rune is?” Their head shifted to tilt the other way. “No. Of course not.” He turned to walk away while muttering about the stupid system and daggers.

It didn’t take nearly as long as with the Clutch Mother’s lair. He found the rune carved into the back side of one of the pillars. Touching it he felt the same process as before and gained the third rune.

“Profane Rune of Binding.”

Dren opened his enchanting menu to get a better feel of it. The idea of binding made him think of a trap to tether something. And he realized that was possible. In fact, as he pictured putting it on one of the stone daggers he got the idea it would literally tether to an enemy while rooting itself to a surface. That opened so many ideas. But he also found it could do so much more. Such as binding an item to a person. The same dagger could be made to return to his hand instead. It seemed that intent could be applied to it. Gloves could be used to give an effect like adding glue to them for holding onto a weapon or even a person. Like always he got the feeling there were far more uses for the rune than what was obvious right away.

Dren still licked his lips in excitement. No more having his weapon lost or left stabbed into a monster. Speaking of that he remembered his dagger and turned to retrieve it. The juvenile aranea still stood where he had left her. Her head turned to follow him as he moved. Once outside the boss's room, he looked back to see her still standing there looking in his direction.

“Stop that. It is kinda creepy. Just come here.” She sprinted towards him, her arms straight against her body under the cloak as she ran. It was weird looking, seeing someone run without moving their arms but he didn’t say anything. “What are your stats? Can I see them?” He identified her and got

Juvenile Aranea (Unnamed Companion) level one.

“Hmm.” He opened his own menu and found that there was a new section.

Juvenile Aranea (Unnamed Companion) level one.

Agility: 40

Dexterity: 35

Endurance: 20

Intelligence: 30

Spirit: 20

Toughness: 10

Vitality: 30

Dren whistled. For a level one other than her toughness her stats were ridiculous. He didn’t see any class or profession so maybe that was why? She was technically a monster, right?

Closing his menu he stared down at her. She just looked up at him. “Hmm, Unnamed companion. So I can name you?” Dren scratched his chin thinking. “Mom once told me if they had a girl instead of me they were going to name her Ren.” He chuckled. “I think they thought I was going to be a girl and just added the D to make it seem more like a boy's name. So, how about Ren.” Dren’s face took on an odd expression as he thought back. Pushing the thoughts away he looked down at the girl. The spider girl twisted their head the other way. Nothing seemed to happen. Dren opened his menu to see if there was a way to name them and saw the menu had updated to show her name was Ren.

“Ok. Well. You aren’t a dagger.” Dren Sighed. He really had wanted a dagger. “But I guess you are better than talking to my backpack.” They just looked at him. “Yeah, ok maybe not that much better.” Another sigh then he shrugged. “Come on Ren. We need to find two more runes. As he moved away from the boss room he opened his system messages and besides the one showing he now had a companion. He found he had gotten two level-ups from that final kill. Ten percent more to both his Dungeon Compentcy and his Solo Dungeon Compentcy. And for the cherry on top, he had gotten a rank up in his Battle Focus. But the real takeaway was he gained Explosive Resistance at level one. Apparently detonating explosives in his own hand or on his own leg repeatedly did pay off.

Dren pumped his fist in the air in excitement. Not seeing Ren imitate the movement as she followed right in step behind him.