Ilyz led the group forwards on the new land. The plants here all looked brown and starved for water but a quick inspection showed it actually seemed to be their natural colors. It wasn’t unusual, different Pieces seemed to have their own rules sometimes. Nightblink was an obvious example.

However no monsters were in sight in the brown and quite thick vegetation. Mostly thorny bushes too. It wasn’t really an issue as they were by the edge still. The vegetation here was rather sparse. They were currently forteen, the three adventurers, ten warriors and Ilyz. Of course he didn’t know where the cave was and it looked like the adventurers didn’t know the layout of the land that well. At least they hadn’t been in this part, so they simply made their way towards the center.

It didn’t take long for Ilyz to spot a sign of life, but contrary to what most monsters did, this one scuttled away as soon as it saw them. He suspected these were rather intelligent monsters, for monsters at least. Group instincts or a hive mind? It was too soon to tell. It also meant there might not be that many monsters on this piece and that they were simply well coordinated to drive intruders out.

The vegetation was soon thick enough to make it annoying and he understood better what they had suffered through when they had fled. He spotted one of them hacking angrily at the vegetation with his axe, clearly still angry at the suffering it had inflicted upon him. He debated using a fire spell, but he didn’t know how flammable things were and who knew where the others they were supposed to rescue were.

So they made their way towards the center in silence as the others slowly cleared away the worst of it as they went deeper. Of course Ilyz didn’t mind, these paltry thornes couldn’t pierce his skin. He was fairly certain that a group of monsters would be upon them soon and he discreetly cast some scouting spells like detect life. It seemed that they would indeed be in trouble soon enough.

Ilyz simply stopped and started chanting, slowly moving in the small cleared space with matching movements. Obviously it didn’t do anything more than add a layer of mystique to his act but it did get the group to stop. He hurried his pace a bit as his timing had been slightly off. He actually cast the spell and held it in his hand as he spoke.

“Gather close to me.” He ordered and they moved to stand all around him. They were close enough now that they could all hear the scuttling of the numerous legs approaching them. Spiders, the smallest bigger than his hands, while some were as big as dogs. The adventurer’s showed clear panic and horror while the warriors were only apprehensive. They trusted him enough to know how this would most probably go.

The spell expanded into a protective bubble around them, tinged red and orange. Everyone had drawn their weapons but they were clearly surrounded and the amount of monsters was simply too much to hold much hope. The only way if Ilyz hadn’t been here would have been to run away as soon as they started hearing the scuttling. Now? They waited with baited breath as the horde approached and started hitting on the protective shield.

They prodded it at first, the small ones nibbling it or poking it with their legs. Clearly these monsters were smart enough to prod the spell instead of throwing themselves at it without knowing what it did. It soon escalated into a full out assault as they tried to break the bubble. Ilyz was honestly having fun but he knew the others were not. The spiders were slowly piling upon each other to try and find a weak spot. It didn’t take long for the whole bubble to be covered by them.

“That’s it? How do we get out?” One of the adventurers said, clearly on edge. Ilyz faked concentration as he continued to murmur ‘words of power’. In response he started chanting louder until he screamed the last word.

The bubble of protection seemed to contract in on itself slightly as they all noticed smoke by now. The monsters on the barrier were burning up. Suddenly the barrier exploded outwards. The adventurers looked around surprised as everything in a twenty meter radius had become ash. All of the spiders were gone. They slowly turned to look at Ilyz, clearly impressed.

One of the warriors helped him up as Ilyz got down on a knee for a second. They were trying to hide it but even the warriors were rather impressed. Ilyz got up and let go of the warrior helping him stand, showing him it was alright now. He waited for a beat longer before he asked them to continue to lead them to the cave. The group continued their trekk through the rough vegetation.

Ilyz still spotted a few spiders spotting them but they always scuttled away. A warrior did notice it too once, but the others thought it was his nerves making him see things as no one else had noticed anything.

It didn’t take them that long to find the cave after that. The adventurers had recognized some of the surroundings as they had gotten closer to the center of the piece. The entrance to the cave was clear to see, but stone and dirt was all that one could see instead of a passage into the deeper parts of the Piece.

Ilyz decided the others could do some of the work as he instead went around and set up protective spells while the others worked. It took them a long time to excavate enough to pass. But soon they could crawl through it if they wanted. Of course Ilyz told them to enlarge it more. If they had to run out, they didn’t want to have to crawl one by one. That was just stupid. They were all tired except for Ilyz now and so they took a break before they continued to excavate.

They ended up putting up a camp as night slowly fell as they were still working. Everyone was nervous in the camp, only the small glowing runes encircling their camp putting their nerves at ease. Of course Ilyz new it was all for show. He would have to manually cast the spells if anything crossed the threshold, but he was fairly sure the spiders wouldn’t try something. He had even seen a spider trying to understand what the runes did and he had killed it discreetly when it had tried to cross.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He was fairly confident in his assessment by now. The spiders were a hive-mind entity rather than independent monsters acting together. The spiders that hadn’t been there the first time clearly knew he was dangerous now even if they hadn’t witnessed it themselves. He wondered how long the queen or whatever was in control would leave them alone.

Morning soon came and the camp woke up slowly. Ilyz had killed a dozen small trespassers that night without anyone else noticing. He had also noticed there were no other forms of life except the spiders and plants on this Piece so far. Which was concerning. Maybe they had killed off everything, but then how were they sustaining themselves now?

The group got back to enlarging the passage. It only took about an hour until Ilyz was satisfied with the opening. They could run out two or maybe three at a time which should be good enough. Obviously it wasn’t the largest and could be blocked, but it should be more than enough with him there.

As they went inside a large caverne greeted them. The torches lit up the place with their ever changing flames, casting dancing shadows in the darker corners. It didn’t take long for them to stumble upon what had probably been the travelers camp. Supplies had been abandoned along with their tents and even some bags. There were a few spider bodies but no human blood that he could see. It looked like they had run away from here.

Deeper, apparently. As they explored a bit more he found himself face to face with a wall of what he believed was plasteel. He hadn’t seen anything quite like it in years. He touched the unfamiliar material and thought back to a time when the planet had still been whole, when greed hadn’t destroyed everything.

He ran his fake elven hand along it as he dusted off the wall where there was text. The word ‘Hangar’ was clear to everyone. It almost made him want to make a hole in the wall and see if they couldn’t explore the facility, but that wasn’t why they were here. It was why he was though, but it would have to wait for a bit.

Instead they continued deeper into the cave as more and more spider corpses littered their way. It didn’t take long for them to see the first body, then a second. One of the adventurers was crying while another one comforted him. The last one had a determined look on his face as he looked around for clues, because the cave actually split up into three different paths.

“Master Ilyz, what do you think?” One of the warriors asked him.

“I think what happened here is fairly clear.” I responded as I nodded towards the two corpses.

“Do you think the others made it?” He asked and I saw the adventurers were clearly listening.

“I think it would be unwise to hope for them to be alive-” One of the adventurers was coming up to him clearly ready to argue and Ilyz held up his hand to forestall his argument before continuing.

“But we should nonetheless act like they are. I say this only to prepare you for the most likely outcome.” He finished with a small nod towards the group of three that was keeping themselves slightly a part now.

“Master Ilyz, do you know where they went?” One of the adventurers asked him and he thought for a second. He examined the three separate paths. He was rather surprised, because the spiders had actually cleaned up one of the tunnels. He would have been fooled too if they hadn’t forgotten to clean up a few spider legs that had been buried under a thin layer of dirt. He had felt the faint mana-signature from a few of the severed monster legs.

It was clear they had a lair deeped down. The issue was that it was hard to guess their numbers and he didn’t want to display too much power. Did he truly want to take that risk? Did he want to tell them where to go? Maybe this was an opportunity to make them leave.

“I’m afraid only death awaits us if we dare to delve deeper.” He said loud enough for everyone, looking at the three entrances.

“No. I refuse to give up on our friends.” One of the adventurers shook her head.

“Yeah, we can’t just leave them here. What if they are right around the bend? Huddled in a fortified cave or something?” Another one of them argued. Ilyz paused and thought about it for a moment. Maybe there was a better way for everyone to get what they wanted.He gestured to the lead warrior of his escort who came closer.

“You do have a guide with you to go home, do you not?” Ilyz asked him and the warrior caught on to what he wanted to do instantly.

“You cannot seriously consider it master Ilyz. We were sent to protect you.” He argued in a hushed voice.

“I will be safe my friend.” He said as he pulled up his amulet. The warrior looked at him confused.

“This is an artifact which can send me home at any moment, should my life be in danger.” He explained.

“And you would risk such a powerful artifact for some random travelers? You are too generous. They do not deserve your kindness.” The warrior almost spat at the end.

“It is a valuable artifact, but I am not risking anything in truth. Even should I end up using it, I will be able to recharge it.” Ilyz said simply to convince the warrior. The amulet obviously wasn’t magical, but if the warriors weren’t here, he could use more power without raising suspicion back home.

It was clear the warrior didn’t want to leave him here, but didn’t truly have any good argument against it. Ilyz simply called over the others and told him the same, and that they were to return immediately. It took him over an hour to argue with them, stubborn as they were, but they did end up agreeing despite their best efforts. The adventurers had caught on by now and it wasn’t like they could hide it in the echoey environment.

“You cannot be serious. We need all the help we can get!” One of them said, looking straight at Ilyz.

“Their lives are not yours to risk, traveler.” Ilyz replied coldly before turning to the other two adventurers.

“You are asking for much and I did not think I would have to remind you of what we have already done for you. We will explore deeper, but we will not risk the precious lives of the warriors of the village. Their death could mean the death of hundreds of others who depend on them. Do you truly dare to ask them to take that risk for you? Strangers?” He looked at the three of them and saw them hang their heads.

“I didn’t think so.” He said as the two groups split up. They were now only four to go deeper the warriors made their ways back to the surface.