After some relaxation time in the Spider Pillow Fort (patent pending), we finally decided to leave the chamber and explore one of the tunnels.
"Are you ready on your end?" I asked.
"I still need to pick my priestess spells," she smiled and leaned back against me.
"That's right, I need to do that too."
I pulled her closer in my lap with my lower set of arms and went back to my status screen. I already know most of the spells I wanted so the final selection was quick for most of them.
> Requested Regrowth (Healing, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Lifebloom (Healing, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Tranquility (Healing, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Divine Circle (Protection, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Divine Armor (Protection, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Divine Barrier (Protection, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Read Language (Knowledge, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Clairvoyance (Knowledge, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Scrying (Knowledge, Gaia) from patron
> Requested Anti-Magic Field (Magic, Lolth) from patron
> Requested Dispel Magic (Magic, Lolth) from patron
> Requested Mana Burn (Magic, Lolth) from patron
It still took some time for the spell to settle. I felt Vel leave my lap, she was probably done on her side.
For the last two domains, things were slightly more complicated. For Runes, the domain increased my proficiency with the Runic Magic skill and opened up new avenues. In Arcana, there were two mandatory spells to pull either a major or minor spell from the deck. I could draw up to three at once and either cast them as usual or use other Arcana spells on them. There was a fairly large selection of options there, combine spells, upgrade them, sacrifice them, and so on. I settled on Astrodyne which burned the spells and turned them into buffs.
> Requested Minor Arcana (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
> Requested Major Arcana (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
> Requested Astrodyne (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
"All ready on my end," I said.
Vel turned to face me with a big grin on her face. In her hands was a familiar wooden box. I knew what was inside as I had received the same. Words caught in my throat and my heart started to beat faster. This wasn't how I had expected it would happen.
"I think you already know," she said with a knowing smile. "I wanted to wait until we were at the capital but with all that's happened …"
I nodded numbly and brought my lower right hand forward. Vel opened the box and delicately took out a ring made of a silvery wood. She gently took my hand and asked.
"Would you …"
"YES!" I didn't let her finish.
She slipped the silverwood ring on my finger.
I pulled her into a tight hug and spun her around. In my excitement, I missed a few steps and I tripped over my own legs. Vel and I tumbled to the ground. Neither of us had been harmed but the moment was well and truly over. My girlfriend started to giggle uncontrollably and I followed a few seconds later. I felt some amusement from Alan as well who had watched us tumble from the table.
After a minute or so of uncontrollable laughter, I managed to get my legs in order and back under me. Vel smirked the entire time but I managed to stun her by pulling out my own ring.
"I think we both know the answer at this point," I presented it to her and she let me slide it onto her finger, "until our souls return to the void."
Exchanging silverwood rings was tradition when a couple decided to take their relationship further. It was an Oath between the two partners, to love and support each other. It was usually followed by a big ceremony, mostly because the village loved celebrating things, where the union would be announced to all. There was also a tradition of wearing fancy dresses, that had been the most important part for my young self. Not that I had changed my mind.
"Now, don't you dare die on me anytime soon," Vel hugged me, "I'll find a way to bring you back!"
"I have no doubt you would," I kissed the top of her head, "be careful too, alright?"
The next big decision was to choose which path to take. Their initial direction was fairly obvious if I looked through the ground with my perception sphere. But we didn't know if any of the corridors took turns or even split down the line. I hadn't allowed Alan to explore them too far, just enough to confirm there wasn't more to the complex itself.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Not this one," I said, "near certain it leads to the big cathedral."
And that place was almost certainly filled with rank five taratects and even a rank six queen was possible. Even with our recent power increases, I didn't feel ready to take on such a foe without a larger group.
"The one near the offices goes into the direction of the library," I pointed, "and the one near the workshops goes towards the outer walls, likely to one of the warehouses."
"I think we should get out of here," Vel said.
"Agreed," I grimaced, "we already got more than what we were looking for."
----------------------------------------
Elyssa disliked spiders. Any place Elves settled to, a race of spiders seemed to as well. The northern forests of her youth had the Black Mygalis and the heavily wooded forests of the kingdom had their own as well. Taratects were by far the worst in her opinion, I was unfair how a white spider managed to hide so well in a dark green environment.
It was partially her fault, she had agreed to go down to the sixth level with her party. The surface and higher levels had stopped yielding decent experience a while ago and adventurers needed to complete at least some missions on the sixth to get their gold rank badge.
Their second job in the dark cavern was to slay the Taratect Queen that had made its home in the temple ruins. The job had been requested by the head of the nearby Dark Elf village, something a bit unusual according to the guild clerk. According to her, the elves usually took care of the nests in the jungle themselves.
It had taken them six days to reach the ruins. They had mostly encountered isolated groups of monsters on their travel but the experience had been good. Elyssa had gained a dozen levels already. When they had reached the ruins, trouble had started.
The nest was apparently already riled up. Hamak, their Orc ranger, had used one of his pets to scout the area and some tier four and even five taratects were scouting the outer perimeter. According to him, there should only have been tier three at most for a colony this size.
Had someone else beaten them to the punch?
The second day, they moved forward and started to clear the nest. The addition of the occasional higher tier spider made the fights tougher but nothing their party of five couldn’t handle. That was also when things got weird.
"Hold on," Hamak said, "there is some fighting further ahead."
"Infight?" Gwynn, their Dwarf warrior asked.
"Spiders don't sling spells around." He said. "Usually."
"Let's proceed with caution," said their leader Darrel. "Maybe there's a group of locals already on the job."
"Lys, think they'll be aggressive?" Asked Katherine, their rogue.
"No," Elyssa said, "they keep to their villages but I've heard they're friendly." Then she added, "if you don't start trouble."
Kat nodded and everyone took up a defensive formation. Darrel and his shield at the front with Gwynn, Hamak and his pets to cover the rear, Elyssa in the center as the squishy mage with Kat as her backup. They crossed a dilapidated courtyard and entered the second layer of walkways.
The sound of fighting was getting stronger and when they cleared the building the fight was finally visible. The walkway had been turned into a chaotic battlefield. Branches and vines covered the hallway for dozens of feet and several spiders were tangled in strangling vines or impaled on thick stakes. In total, a dozen or more taratects were battling two Dark Elves.
One of the elves was engaged in a deadly duel with a wounded alpha taratect. She was riding atop a black spider of her own. Both the elf and the spider had white and orange runes on their body, almost like magical tattoos. The taratect was relentlessly battering at a golden barrier protecting the elf with her front legs. Behind her protection, the elf drew two complex runes in the air over a pair of spell circles.
Runic Magic? Elyssa had heard of it but never seen it in person.
One seemed to pull in all the nearby heat while the other was the actinic blue of lightning. A hail of razor sharp ice shards converged on the spider from all directions and sank deep in its carapace, on the heel of this attack dozens of small blue spheres appeared around it and discharged their thunderous payload. The alpha was on its last legs, its strikes were much slower than they should have been. Vines started to grasp at its legs and slowly immobilized it.
The elf mage started to prepare another spell. Several magic circles appeared around her and started to spin. Small white spheres the size of Elyssa's fist appeared in front of each circle and the air chilled even colder, mist visibly formed around and coiled strangely around the magic. After a few seconds, the spheres left brilliant white trails as they shot towards the alpha and created a wave of cold that reached even their group.
The spider collapsed to the ground, dead. Its body had been pierced through by the projectiles and covered in frost. The runes on the elf's body slowly faded.
While this fight had been going on, the other elf hadn't been idle. From her position inside a web of branches and vines, she had killed most of the lesser spiders with her plants. Some had been slowly crushed by the deadly plants while others had been impaled by stakes shot from the mage herself or even the ground. Clouds of yellow and green spores hung around, expelled by small mushrooms. Any spider that came into contact with them stiffened, likely from a paralyzing effect, and started to suffer damage if they had the misfortune of touching the green spores.
It looked like they had caught the tail end of the battle.
The spider riding elf called forth her icy rune once again and rained thick spears of ice onto the remaining attackers who fell in droves. Silence fell on the hallway. Only the quiet sounds of the wind could be heard in the hallway.
"Those two certainly aren't playing around," Katherine whispered to Elyssa.
She decided to identify them to be sure of what they were dealing with, she had the highest skill level.
> [Dark Elf (Level 126, Rank 5; Mage⋆⋆)]
> [Dark Elf Arachne (Level 126, Rank 5; Mage⋆⋆)]
Elyssa raised an eyebrow at the results. Rank five and already rare classes? With two stars? Did that mean three classes? And what was an Arachne? She didn't know what they fed Dark Elf children but it was the good stuff.
"They're both rank five," she said, "but the result is weird, it's possible they have blocking items."
"Two rank five can't handle a swarm of taratects that size," Darrel remarked.
"Identify shows they both have two rare classes with two stars," she shrugged, "maybe it's not an item and they got very lucky with evolutions."
"They don't seem angry," said Gwynn with a grin, "let's say hello. Maybe they want to join up for a go at the queen."
She put her massive war hammer on her shoulder and started to walk forward. Darrel looked like he wanted to stop her but stopped himself. He was the careful sort, too cautious some would say, it had kept their group alive for so long but it had cost them jobs as well.