The sound of metal colliding and colorful curses resound throughout my core's room. I urge Arachea to hurry up while the rest of my minions continue to assault the invaders. Arachea seems to send me a helpless expression through our connection as if to say they can't go any faster.

I watch as Arachea melts away more of the vent, but it seems so slow! I yelp to myself as Nana manipulates the mana in the room to shoot a flaming projectile at my core still wedged against the hole!

Bang!

One of my automatons timely leaped out of another hole in the vent, using its body to shield my core from the spell. Whew! That was a close call!

"Argh! What is it with this dungeon core?" One of the dwarves curses before he shoots a ball of light from his hands at one of my automatons. "Why'd it wake up? I thought that was impossible once they enter an eversleep?"

As he finishes his sentence, a red projectile shoots at him. The dwarf uses his own light magic to make a shield that reflects the projectile harmlessly into the vent. I can hear the sound of metal clanking on metal coming from within.

Wait, was that one of my spiders?

"Get back here!" The dwarf roars as he begins to blast the vent with his magic.

I see one of my spiders scuttle away along the vent as the metal around it begins to melt. Wait, is that the sound of something large being dragged? No! That's my core! When I wasn't paying attention, Arachea managed to save it! Now, it's bouncing around the vent as Arachea drags it behind in its escape!

However, the minion automaton being targeted by the dwarf takes a turn and ends up ahead of Arachea's escape route! Dammit! The two automatons collide and get tangled up in each other as the dwarf blasts another hole in the vent.

"I've got it! Don't let it get away!"

My heart drops, literally, right out of the new hole the dwarf created. The sudden fall drags Arachea and the other automaton with my core!

I feel myself panic as they get closer to the edge. My attention is drawn to Nana, who has broken away from the spiders that were attacking her and is now racing toward my hanging core! Crap! Crap! Crap! She leaps onto the altar and uses it as a boost to jump for my core! I can't watch this!

Crack!

What was that? I peek at the situation again. Only to discover that Arachea had decided to save the core by leaping out of the vent! The automaton used its weight to drive it to the ground and pin my core beneath it, digging its legs in. Nana curses as her hand closes on empty air. All because Arachea was too fast for her notice until it was too late.

"What are these damned things made of?" Tharin, the dwarf who turned the vent into swiss cheese, yells. His hammer bounces off a spider while knocking it back.

I shiver as I see him glaring at my helpless little core. Nope! Don't even think about it! I urge my spiders to increase the pressure on him so he doesn't get any ideas while Arachea tilts its body to tank a spell from Nana to protect my core. Its grey body turns scarlet from the heat, but Arachea shakes it off with seemingly little damage. Ok. Don't panic. We can do this! Just... take a deep breath.

A strange calmness comes over me as I watch my minions continue to fight the invaders. Arachea leaps forward, dragging my core behind it to the edge of the room! Nana is just about to reach my core when a spider shoots its web at her! The thread is too sticky to cut through with normal attacks, and Nana grunts as she hits the floor! That gives Arachea time to swing back around, retreating behind several spiders creating a protective wall of webbing from the floor to the ceiling!

Good! That should buy Arachea time to retreat back into the vents! It's too dangerous to keep my core out in the open with the intensity of this battle. I really don't want it damaged!

The invaders are really giving it their all, but my automatons are quite solid. Only Tharin seems capable of damaging them while the others are using bladed weapons that are being dulled and chipped with each strike. I can't tell if that means they are weak, or my spiders are too tough for them. It's best not to make too many assumptions right now. I guess it's time for me to act.

[Spend Mana to activate Spider Automatons' Overdrive?]

Yep! Let's go with that!

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Oh... A sense of weakness invades my consciousness as the mana levels in my core drastically drop. This had better work since I don't have enough mana to activate it a second time. With only two dwarves and an elf left, I'm pretty optimistic about my chances.

My automatons suddenly glow with orange light as they increase their output to over 10x their usual mana consumption. The elf and the dwarves let out a short cry as my spiders move in a flash of speed to overwhelm them!

Tharin's hammer meets nothing but air as my spider uses their webs to leap over him. The other dwarf's axe clangs uselessly against a spider's carapace while the elf's magic blasts miss every time he tries to fire it off. My spiders aren't even bothering to attack anymore. They just want to capture the invaders and drag them away to join Eraina!

"What's going on? Why are my attacks missing?" The elf gasps.

"No way! It's so fast! How do we deal with it?"

It doesn't take long for my spiders to wrap webbing over the three invaders and drag them away to the other room while I watch through my spider's eyes. Tharin roars with anger as he struggles against the confines of the webbing. I can tell that he wants to get me. Probably kill me, to be honest. The others don't seem too interested in getting away, their spirits appear broken as they're dragged into the other room. Waiting for them is Eraina, who is just hanging there in the air, her face frozen in shock. I chuckle at the cocoon suspended from the ceiling that leaves her head exposed.

I can see the terror in her eyes. She's definitely never faced this kind of situation before. I wonder how she ended up here? What brought them to explore this place? No matter what the answer is, I feel like I wouldn't have woken up if they hadn't come. So I should be grateful, I guess? Or maybe not. I shrug as I frown through my senses, wondering what to do with them.

At first, I thought I could interrogate them. Get some information. But I'm now realizing I don't have a way to communicate with them! I mentally sigh while my minions hang the other four up beside their friend.

My core feels strangely... lighter now that it's free of the altar. I'm not sure why I feel that way. Maybe it has to do with my sense of self growing stronger? After all, I think I am self-aware now. But what does that mean?

A searing pain flows through my consciousness as I try to grasp memories and knowledge of things I know. For some reason, this pain comes every time I try it. So I guess that won't be happening any time soon. Maybe I'm broken? Just thinking of that possibility gives me another headache.

Ok, back to my captives then. What to do with you five? I can't let them go. There's too much risk of exposing myself if I do that. I could kill them, but that feels a little shortsighted in this situation. That leaves me with... keeping them? At least, until I can figure out a way to communicate. But I seem to remember that creatures like them need food and water to sustain themselves. That's something I'm severely lacking in here.

Oh, right, won't they die if they're left hanging upside down for too long? Something about blood running to their heads. At least, I think that's a thing? I send a mental order to Arachea to let them down for a break every so often before hanging them back up. That should take care of that problem.

"What do you want from us?" Nana screams.

Sorry. I can't answer you. You'll just have to hope I can figure out the communication issue before you starve to death. Or I kill you to have a look inside to see how you work exactly.

"Nana, be quiet," Eraina whispers. "Since we're still alive, it's obviously not interested in killing us, yet. Don't give it a reason to change its mind."

Who's a clever girl then? That's right, you are! I mentally pat Eraina on the head as I lose myself in my thoughts for several minutes.

"Hey, Eraina!" Tharin growls in a low voice. "If this dungeon is Adam, where's its Avatar? All the stories mentioned it. But, this dungeon seems a bit weak compared to those stories."

Hmm? Avatar? Now why does that sound familiar? I feel like some dust is being cleared from my memories as several images flash through my mind. Ah, so that's it! Now, where are you?

"I don't know." Eraina shakes her head. "It may not be Adam. But it could be a side effect of waking from the eversleep. There's no telling what's going on here. If it really is Adam, and its Avatar is here, then there's a chance for us to get out of here."

"What if it's not Adam?" Nana asks.

"We'll likely starve to death during our captivity." Eraina tries to shrug but her cocoon prevents that.

"Better start praying then." Nana sighs as her ears twitch. "Something's moving."

Ah, she's probably hearing my core bouncing around the vents as Arachea takes it to its destination. I make sure to keep an eye on Arachea's progress while continuing to listen to their conversation.

"Do you have any ideas about those spiders?" Dain, the other dwarf, asks.

"Hmm, they're probably golems made using ancient magic. There are only myths left of dungeons using golems though, so I never thought it was possible." Eraina appears thoughtful as she falls silent.

Huh, so they call automatons golems? That's new. But at least it sounds like there are other dungeons out there. It's good not to be alone.

"How will the kingdom react when they discover this dungeon?" The male elf, apparently called Lorithian, says aloud.

I sense the atmosphere between them become tense and awkward. I can't help but narrow my nonexistent eyes at their reactions. That doesn't seem good. At least now I know there's a kingdom out there, and it likely isn't too fond of my kind. Well, that's a problem for later. Hopefully, I'll have enough time to prepare before coming into contact with anyone important from it.

Arachea has almost reached the secret room I sent it to through the vents. Finally! I'll be able to get some real answers soon. I watch it work as it melts a section of the vent before lowering my core, then itself down into the room that's big enough to fit only a single person.

I groan as I finally pay attention to what I sent Arachea to find. It's all banged up and damaged. However, it seems like it will still work. For a short while at least. Hopefully, I'll be able to repair it to some degree at a later time. I can't help but worry that some of its functions won't work anymore. Oh well, here goes nothing. I mentally nudge Arachea to slot my core into its chest.