Rayna sprinted around the corner, letting the pursuing Robitt smash its skull against the wall. The tunnel shuddered and Rayna had to jump out of the way of a falling stalactite that was dislodged by the impact.

You have killed a Level 18 Robitt.

+900 Exp

+900 Coins

Rayna absorbed the monster’s Essence and moved on.

So far, she hadn’t seen any monsters above Level 20, and the large majority of the monsters in the dungeon seemed to be Robis. There were a few Robitts and the odd Molerat, but Rayna easily outmatched everything she had come up against. It was pretty obvious why the System had marked the dungeon as low-level, though she wondered how someone with a lower C-level would fare.

From the little bit of fighting that Rayna had seen since leaving the tutorial, she was fairly sure the people of Ember wouldn’t consider this dungeon easy.

If nothing else, the rats certainly had the numbers advantage. Rayna had killed hundreds of them and she just kept finding more.

Rayna turned another corner and stopped, backing up to hide behind the rock wall. Ahead of her in the tunnel was a new species of rat. This one was about the size of a squirrel, with blue fur that grew long and curly, making it look like someone tried to mix a rat with a poodle and dipped the whole thing in blue dye.

[Azutin — Level 15]

A quick peek in her journal confirmed that this wasn’t one of the species in her bestiaries. Rayna wasn’t surprised by that fact. Of the monster species she had seen so far, Robis were the only ones that showed up in her notes.

Rayna observed the Azutin for a while, watching for any hints to its fighting style. All the creature did was sniff around and eat rocks. The monsters teeth seemed to be similar to a Robi’s; enhanced with some sort of magic. Either that or it had some ridiculous jaw strength.

Rayna waited for the Azutin to wander closer to her, holding her staff ready for a surprise attack.

Closer… closer… now!

Rayna jumped around the corner, swinging her staff down at the Azutin’s head.

The monster jumped back like a startled cat, hissing and darting away. Rayna ran after it, trying to catch the nimble creature, but it jumped above her head, grabbing onto one of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

Rayna jumped, trying to hit the Azutin with her staff, but it just hopped to another stalactite.

The monster opened its mouth and spit a glob of glowing green mucus at Rayna. She didn’t dodge in time, and the substance landed on her shoulder, sizzling as it ate through her cloak. Rayna swore and removed the garment, throwing it to the side. Another glob of the substance landed on her hand, burning through to the bone.

Rayna cried out, casting Basic Heal, but though the spell healed the damage done to her hand, it didn’t remove the acid. She barely dodged another glob of the stuff and retreated, grabbing her cloak with her good hand on the way. She expected the monster to follow, but as soon as she rounded the corner, the creature stopped spitting acid at her. She waited, healing her hand periodically and trying not to pass out from the pain.

When it was clear that the monster wasn’t going to keep attacking, she peeked around the corner, ready to jump back if she needed to. The Azutin had returned to his rock munching, ignoring Rayna’s presence completely.

She backtracked a few tunnels just in case and sunk to the cave floor, groaning.

Rayna pulled a towel and her waterskin out of her Soul Realm and worked on ridding her hand of the nasty Azutin spit. The water did nothing, and the towel just disintegrated upon touching the substance.

After a couple minutes of trying, Rayna gave up, focusing on healing the damage as it came. The acid dissipated as it ate through her hand, and after about ten minutes of agony, it was finally gone.

Rayna shook out her hand, gritting her teeth.

That was a disaster.

It was.

“Silence from the peanut gallery,” Rayna snapped.

She grabbed her cloak to check the damage, wishing she had a small sewing kit. She was getting tired of replacing clothes.

The spot where the acid had hit her cloak was a little singed, but to Rayna’s delight, there were no holes.

“Hey System, do you have the ability to appraise something?” Rayna asked, putting her cloak back on. She was fairly sure that the durability of the cloak was hidden in the runes somewhere.

I thought I was supposed to be quiet.

Rayna rolled her eyes. “You’re offended? Really? Aren’t you like, three thousand years old?”

I was three thousand when I went to sleep. I’m not sure how much time has passed since then.

Rayna shrugged. “Well, either way, you’re too old for whining.”

And you’re too young to be arguing with me. Try again in a few millennia.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Rayna shook her head. “Fine. I’m sorry. Can you answer the question?”

Yes, I can appraise items, but it takes Essence and I won’t waste it just because you are curious about the functions of your cloak. Appraisal is an easy skill to learn. You can check when we get out of here.

Rayna sighed. She would just have to be careful not to get acid on her skin. She wasn’t sure how much damage the cloak could take, but it was better than nothing.

Rayna waited for her Mana to refill before trying to fight the monster again.

This time she didn’t bother with the element of surprise. Rayna ran in, trying to guess which direction the Azutin would leap in.

She guessed wrong and had to course correct, nearly slamming head first into the wall.

The Azutin spat at her, and she pulled the cloak up to block the acid. It sizzled and popped ominously, but nothing got through.

Rayna chased the monster around the tunnel, trying everything to get some sort of advantage, but the Azutin was just too fast.

Rayna gave up when her Mana hit half, backtracking again. She growled in frustration. How was anyone supposed to catch that thing?

“Any hints?” Rayna asked the System.

As I told you before, my memories are incomplete. I don’t know anything about this creature either.

Trying to outrun the Azutin wasn’t working. Could she just get past it? But her strategy so far had been to backtrack whenever she needed to let her Mana refill. She couldn’t do that if every other tunnel was occupied by an acid-spitting menace.

“If at first you don’t succeed,” Rayna said, grabbing her staff.

Rayna tried three more times to catch the Azutin. Each time she failed, her cloak took a little more damage. It seemed to be self-repairing—Yay for runes!—but it was getting damaged faster than it could repair, forcing her to take longer breaks between attempts.

I believe your people have a saying about the definition of insanity…

“Yeah, yeah,” Rayna waved a hand.

The System was right. She was just wasting energy and time, something the little devil seemed to have in excess.

She had to hit it before it could react to her. Whenever she got too close, it took off like a cat with the zoomies. There had to be a better way to attack it.

Rayna put her staff away and peeked around the corner, making sure that the monster wasn’t looking at her. She snuck forward, ready to dodge when the monster noticed her.

When she got within a few yards of the monster, it turned and spit acid at her face.

Rayna screamed, ducking just in time to block the acid with her hood. She ran back out of the tunnel, turning back to see what the monster did after she left.

As it had every other fight, the monster went right back to munching on rocks.

Rayna tilted her head. Could she get it with a ranged attack? It didn’t seem to react until she got closer.

She tested the theory first by standing in the Azutin’s tunnel for ten whole minutes, just watching the monster eat. It didn’t acknowledge her presence once. It didn’t even glance her way.

Rayna grinned, picking up a rock.

Here goes nothing. Rayna threw the rock at the monster.

It hit the Azutin in the side with the force of a bullet. Blood splattered the ground, dissolving the rock like Styrofoam.

The monster screeched, writhing in agony as it tried in vain to spit acid at Rayna.

She didn’t approach even when she got the kill notification.

You have killed a Level 15 Azutin.

+1,500 Exp

+1,500 Coins

Rayna got a monster drop as well; a small vial of Azutin mucus. Rayna eyed the salt-shaker sized vial with distaste. She couldn’t think of a situation in which she would need it, but she might be able to sell it to someone and at least get something out of this.

It had more potential than the Robitt skulls and the Robi teeth, at least.

The more Azutins Rayna fought, the better she got at killing them quickly. The key, as she had discovered with the first fight, was hitting them before they realized she was there. Thankfully, the little monsters seemed to have very short memories. If they spotted Rayna, all she had to do was round the corner and wait for them to turn their back.

Rayna lost track of how many monsters she had killed. She was accumulating an uncomfortable amount of Azutin Mucus in her Soul Realm, and she started to wonder if there was a limit to how much she could put in there.

It had to be getting late, but sleeping in a dungeon didn’t seem like a great idea.

It wasn’t until she fumbled a fight and got a face full of acid that Rayna decided she needed to find some place to sleep.

She backtracked several hallways, not trusting the Azutins to keep their pattern of ignoring her. Three hallways down, she found a side tunnel that she hadn’t noticed before.

Maybe it’ll lead to a cave or something.

Rayna followed it, hoping to find some place in which she could set up her tent. She had seen a few caverns on her first trip through the tunnels, each one filled with a small horde of low-level monsters. Even as tired as she was, she didn’t think it would be a problem.

Sure enough, she came to a cavern the size of a small ballroom. The walls were a lighter color than the rest of the cavern and they glowed slightly, making the place feel somehow ominous and cozy at the same time.

Rayna was too tired to care. There was a distinct lack of monsters in the vicinity—not that she could distinguish individual monsters from the overpowering aura of the dungeon itself—and she would take what she would get.

She did a quick survey of the cavern just in case. She did not suffer her way through hours of acid spit just to let herself get killed in her sleep.

Rayna pulled out her tent and set it up, driving the spokes into the hard rock with her bare hands. It looked surprisingly similar to a modern tent, except that it was made out of a rough brown canvas material and had ties and buttons instead of zippers. Runes lined the edges of the fabric. Rayna recognized a few that her cloak and tent had in common, and she hoped it was the self-repairing runes.

She climbed inside and laid out her bedroll. It was pleasantly warm in the cavern despite the chilly dampness of the rest of the cave system.

Rayna crawled under the covers, trying to get comfortable.

Despite her exhaustion, she found it difficult to fall asleep. She was just starting to drift off when the System’s voice startled her back to full wakefulness.

“What was that?” the System whispered.

Rayna sat up, her heart racing as she tried to find whatever the System was talking about.

What is it? Did you hear something? Rayna couldn’t see anything through the thick tent.

I don’t know… but I think there’s something in the cavern.

Rayna frowned. She didn’t hear anything, nor did she sense anything through the constant flood of danger warnings that the dungeon assaulted her senses with.

Should I go out? Rayna frowned at the tent flap. She wasn’t thrilled about the idea of leaving the dubious safety of her opaque tent. She wished the lighting on the cave walls was stronger, so she could at least see shadows. She had no way of knowing if something was lurking outside her tent.

If it’s an Azutin, I can run or hide. If it’s a Robitt, I just get out of the way. Robis aren’t a problem either. I should be fine…

Rayna wasn’t doing a very good job of convincing herself of that fact.

She pulled her staff out of her Soul Realm, inching toward the tent flap.

She slowly unbuttoned it and peeled back the material. She didn’t see anything immediately outside. That was a good sign.

Don’t let your guard down.

Don’t distract me, Rayna countered.

She poked her head out and looked around. She didn’t see or hear anything amiss. Had something come and gone? If this cavern was a thruway for monsters, she was going to have to find another place to sleep.

Rayna left the tent, holding her staff out in front of her. The only difference in the cavern was that the walls seemed to be glowing brighter than they were before.

She walked over to the wall and examined it. Some sort of white substance coated the wall. It was thick like a blanket and when she poked it with her staff, it had some bounce to it.

Rayna tried touching it with her hand.

If she hadn’t been so tired, she might have realized how monumentally stupid this action was.

Her hand stuck to the webs and a sudden wind in the cavern pushed Rayna into them, sticking her back and arms as well.

She swore, trying to dislodge herself from the wall, but though the webs stretched, she couldn’t quite break them.

A low hissing sound emanated from the ceiling. Rayna looked up—something that she should have done earlier—and froze, her blood turning to ice.

A giant spider propelled down from the ceiling, landing silently on the cavern floor. It was smaller than the Arachne, but its plump hairy body was more than large enough to fuel Rayna’s nightmares for weeks.

Instead of a name tag, the spider’s entrance prompted a notification.

You are facing Arodra, the First Keeper. Defeat her and the cavern will become a safe zone, fail and your bones will rest with the others foolish enough to touch her webs.