Annoufeel free to suggest chapter names when they dont have one

  A remihat the Fan Fi test submission is just 4 weeks, link below

  https:///posts/fan-fi-2-110591204

  Chapter 151

  Spiders. Of course, it would be spiders. The room looked to have a high ceiling, maybe twenty feet. The strands domihe long room, making seeing to the other side difficult. The webbing also created lots of shadows and ers for spiders to hide in.

  Other thaicky-looking webs vibrating slightly, I could not see a single spider. Maveith also firmed but had bad news with his observation, “I ot see any movement but the thiess of the strands,” he paused, “they have to be very rge spiders.” Shit, that did not even occur to me. The glistening strands were as thick as my wrist.

  “Maybe we should try the other corridor,” I offered to the goliath.

  Maveith sucked on his teeth; his lips were still purple from the blueberries. “This is the third room we have ered. Fourth, if you add the dark room,” he said slowly in sideration. “We ot avoid every room, Eryk. Spiders are not too difficult.”

  “We will check the st corridor first,” I said as a promise. “Then try one of the rooms.”

  We returo the Y interse and followed the other corridor. Maveith immediately got excited as roached the end of the corridor. I was focused ohick, bck, oily pools scattered through a long wide room. The refleg river of light from the ceiling made the pools seem to move. Maveith’s excitement was due to the gold statue at the room’s far end. I don’t think the dungeon could have been more obvious that it was a trap. My eyes focused oatue, an elf wielding a sword.

  The statue was gold, and there were no monsters in sight. It would be easy to get close, move it into my dimensional space, and leave. This robably a safe room, too. That made sense, as only a safe room would have a golden statue. Maveith bumped me as he stepped past into the room. My eyes looked up at the goliath to yell at him f to get to the statue first. As soon as my focus left the statue, a fog lifted from my mind.

  I grabbed the baaveith’s leather armor and yanked him hard, pulling him out of the room. He had only taken a siep inside, and I was fortunate he had not expected my yank. Unfortunately, he stepped bato my boot, which caused me to fall backward, followed by Maveith. Having a rge, odorous goliath fall on top of you is unpleasant.

  His weight khe air from me, and I ressed into the floor unfortably. “Maveith,” I grunted, “it is a trap. The statue is affeg your mind! Do not look at it!”

  When Maveith removed his siderable weight from me, I focused on the chamber floor, healing my khat had been strained from his weight. The oil slicks on the floor were stretg toward us in amorphous limbs. They reached the archway to the room and fttened against an invisible barrier, uo leave.

  “What the hell is that!” I said while scuttling bad standing. I reminded Maveith, “Do not look at the statue.” If I had been alone, I might have walked into the room oblivious to the danger.

  Maveith shielded his eyes to just look down at the roiling bck ooze. “I do not know. Maybe an ooze. Never heard of a bck ooze before.” The bck estic mass gave up trying to pass into the corridor auro its puddle further in the chamber. I ted seven of the creatures, and two attacked Maveith as soon as he had entered.

  I recalled my time in the sewers of Macha, “Are they the same thing as slimes? We saw those in the sewers of Macha.”

  Maveith shook his head, turning away from the room. “Slimes are harmless in parison to oozes. Oozes move faster, and ohey grapple you, they climb over your body and force themselves into every orifi your body. Then they digest you for the i.”

  Imagining dying that way was not pleasant. “I think we will er this room either. Spider room?” I asked the gray-skinned man, and he gave a curt nod. We quickly returo the st room.

  Nothing had ged in the fifteen minutes we had been gone. We both stood there, and I sidered all the rooms we had entered so far. Every room was extremely dangerous for the unsuspeg dungeon delver. I was beginning to have doubts about our survivability. It only took one mistake, and it would be the end for us.

  I took out an apple and tried to throw it into the room. When it passed the archway, it fell rapidly to the stone floor and rolled a few feet, toug the anchor point of one of the strands. All the strands vibrated slightly quicker before settling.

  Maveith was staring at the apple. I expined, “You ake attacks unless you are in the room, and the dungeoures ot leave the room. But do not hold me to that. I know truly little about dungeons.”

  “You have killed every dungeoure you have fought,” Maveith said supportively. “I am gd it is you that I am trapped with.” I winced as trapped seemed like the correct word, and I felt guilty that I was thinking of Maveith as my taste tester for dungeon produce.

  “I have been in a dungeon room once where the exit was sealed behind me, Maveith. I do not know if we should ehis room without knowing what we are fag,” I said.

  I was wishing I still had that goblin. I did have another living creature in my dimensional ste, the elf griffon rider. I knew she was still alive but on the brink of death. For the first time I thought about possibly healing her and trying to vince her to help. Of course, she was likely to try to kill me first, and then Maveith would also knoerful my dimensional space was.

  “I will go first and draw out the spiders,” Maveith said, gripping the handle of his hammer tightly. Before I could ge his mind, he ehe room, and nothing happehe massive goliath slowly sed the maze of webbing. We could not see to the far side of the chamber. Maveith stepped forward and grasped the apple on the floor while remaining alert. He tugged on it, and the skin of the apple peeled off, remaining oicky strand.

  The work of strands started to dance. Maveith was frantically searg for the spiders, as was I. A loud snap and one of the strands shed toward Maveith. He dodged to his right only to step into another. It stuck to his arm, hampering his movement. The left wall started to move and quickly became reizable as a massive gray spider, its ber than a horse. The spider’s body shifted rapidly from the dark gray stone of the wall to an ominous bck as it scuttled toward Maveith.

  The spider seemed too big for this room as Maveith attempted to free himself. Clig sounds as the spider’s legs ced oone drew my attention from sing the rest of the room. I did not see any other movement and was hoping this was the only spider. I stepped into the room and removed the spider’s head before it could get close to Maveith. I could not risk Maveith getting poisoned and being incapacitated. My aether had bottomed out, but the spider’s resistance was not severe.

  The spider colpsed, and blue viscous blood oozed out of its missing head. Maveith grurying to free his arm, but he clearly noticed the dying spider that was just te from him. The legs were twitg as it leaked a puddle on the floor. I used the elven runic dagger to cut Maveith free easily. He was clearly speechless from the demonstration of my power.

  “Anything useful to harvest on the spider?” I asked the goliath casually.

  “Eryk, did you? How you?” He stuttered to find the words. I gave him time to puzzle everything and got to work.

  I pulled the essence collector out from the minimal pack I was carrying. I approached the spider to a dumbfounded Maveith and used the collector. The dense, blue smoke rapidly formed a glossy bck apex essence. Aether eling. Maveith was still stunned, so I started looking for the reward chest. Of course, it was barely visible through the maze of crisscrossing webbing.

  I used the elven dagger to cut away strands. When it tacted the strands, it reminded me of a hot koug pstic, easily burning through. The room was about thirty by sixty, and I was fused. Every dungeon room I had ever been in had something for the creature to eat. As I cleared this room to reach the chest, there was nothing but webbing.

  The chest was rge, three feet long, but still solid stone. Once again, I shattered it with the pommel of the dagger, eagerly anticipating the loot. I could see how the danger and lure of treasure could be appealing. A shiny, short sword sat among the silver s. The hilt was designed in the image of a spider with the legs spying out to make the guard, and all along the bde were little etgs of spiders. It looked like they had hatched at the hilt and run down both sides of the twenty-four-inch bde.

  “Twenty silver s, Maveith, and a dungeon bde,” I stood and turo face my panion, who was still processing what had just happened. “Maveith, is there anything we harvest from the spider?” I repeated my question.

  Maveith tore his eyes from me to look at it, “It is a gargantuan spider. Non-poisonous, so no venom sacs.” He stared back at it, realizing the fangs were goh the head. “The spis. But I am not familiar with harvesting them.” I shrugged. Delmar had harvested the spis in my first dungeon. “Eryk, do you have void magic?” Maveith’s deep voice questioned me.

  “Would that be a problem?” I asked, her firming nor denying. Void magic seemed to be eople thought my power came from after seeing it.

  Maveith seemed to sider, “Void mages are reguted just as much as neancers.” He stated, not answering my question. “I think all void mages ielhian Empire o be in service to the Emperor.”

  “Well, you keep my secret?” I asked, still not him the plete truth.

  “I am not Telhian,” the rge man stated.

  I hinking that was the best I was going to get from him. “I only do this once,” I poi the spider. “It takes me about two hours to recover enough aether to do it again.” Maybe I was giving him too muformation, but we were going to be fighting together for a time in this dungeon.

  Maveith’s mind was still turning, “Is that how you killed the female manticore?” His eyes suddenly went wide, “And the wyvern!” It had only taken Maveith mio piece everything together.

  “Yes. Do you want this short sword?” I held up the spider-themed on. “What do you think the spider was eating to stay alive?”

  Maveith’s focus gradually came back to the versation, “Gargantuan spiders hibernate for years. If there are any egg sacs here, we should destroy them. This one was just an adolest; they get much rger after years of molting.”

  We searched the room but did not find any egg saolted exoskeletons. The room also had s. It looked like we were not going to solve the mystery of the spider chamber. I sent the spider bde to my dimensional space after Maveith deed it.

  I was a little unhappy that Maveith appeared more wary about me as we left. “We should rest. We head back to the safe room where we entered,” I suggested.

  “We stop and collect more blueberries,” Maveith nodded, lig his lips.

  Two elven children were seated among the bushes as roached the room. The shapeshifters had been revived. It had been over a day since we had killed them. “Maveith, I still need about an hour before I do my trick again.”

  The two elves walked to the entrahe girl’s eyes narrowing at me accusatorily. “Looks like they are back to py again.”

  I was pletely taken off guard, “Wait, you remember us?”

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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