Chapter 8

The new monster looked like a spider the size of a minivan, albeit one that was missing a few legs and a middle segment. It had bristly hairs and mandibles and way more than eight eyes, but the overall impression was definitely ‘spider.’

The only saving grace was that he wasn’t getting that gut-wrenching feeling of dread that came from running into something higher level. The gollum-spider cosplayers were surprisingly weak, so much so that the only real threat came from their numbers, but this van-spider thing looked a lot beefier.

It had one big weakness: its size. It was tight in the ravine, there was no way it was turning around. If Luke retreated back into the tunnel, he didn’t even think it would be able to follow. Getting there was going to be a bit trickier. The bipedal monsters were definitely going to try to pen him in so their big pet could tear him apart.

Luke turned and sprinted down the ravine, bowling the one behind him over completely. He kept his feet with barely a stumble and raced away into the darkness. No doubt the lack of light would hurt him more than it hurt the monsters after him, but he needed to reshape the battlefield, or just escape.

Losing one of his swords and the flashlight would be a blow, but it was better than losing his life. Luke retreated, only to find the spider was much faster than he anticipated. He heard the staccato sound of its asymmetric legs pounding on the stone as it rushed forward. Luke glanced over his shoulder as he ran, saw it barreling down on him, and dove for the floor.

The spider ran right over top of him, its legs skidding as it tried to halt its momentum. One of them kicked Luke in the ribs, hard enough to throw him forward and make him curl up in pain. He was sure something had to be broken, but he forced his eyes open. He’d been right about the spider not being able to turn around, but had forgotten that it was a Goddamn spider.

It went straight up the wall and was already maneuvering its bulk around for another pass. “Fuck,” Luke panted, forcing himself to his knees and still holding his ribs. His sword was laying right in front of him. Weakly, he reached out to grab it and looked for the loose biped that wasn’t riding on the spider.

“Hah. Dumbasses,” he said, or at least tried to. The biped he’d knocked over in his attempt to escape had been completely crushed and that snot-like gunk that filled it was smeared down the ravine. “One to go. And one big-ass spider monster.”

Said big-ass spider monster was coming around fast, the last of the bipeds barely clinging to its back while it charged across the wall. Luke had no idea how he was going to kill it, other than stab it with the pointy end. He limped over to where he’d dropped his other sword and scooped it up.

With any luck, it would be easier to crack than the bipeds were, but he wasn’t banking on that. His targets were soft spots like the eyes and maybe the mouth, plus there were some joints in the carapace. Luke could work with that, as long as he finished off the last bipedal monster so he could fight without distractions.

Three days ago, he would never have considered this strategy. Now, he could do a standing leap over an eight-foot wall. It all came down to timing. The spider was bigger, but it wasn’t a higher level. As it charged forward, mandibles clacking, Luke leaped straight up. Sharp pain spiked out from his ribs, but not as bad as he was expecting. He landed on the spider monster’s skull and drove a foot into one of its eyes.

The biped riding along lunged forward to grab Luke. His footing was too unstable to effectively counter attack, but a wild swing was enough to smack the arm to the side. That didn’t stop the biped’s lunge from carrying it into him. It was a good thing they weren’t that heavy, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to flip it around and throw it behind him.

It flopped off the spider’s face and, predictably, was crushed under its rushing legs. Luke spared an idle moment to wonder if he’d still get XP for the two that the spider had crushed. He supposed he’d find out in a minute. He just needed to hang on for a few more seconds and drive a sword into this thing’s brain, or whatever passed for one.

Then the spider went vertical again and it was all Luke could do to hang on. Those hairs were much sharper than he’d expected, each one a little pinprick driving into his hand. One of his swords clattered to the stone, but he kept hold of the other one. For once, the short length worked in his favor, and he drove it into the crease in the monster’s carapace.

He held on for dear life as the spider skittered up the side of the ravine. If not for the sword serving as a handhold, there was no way he would have managed to cling to it. But the sword was there, and he did hang on, and once the spider crested the top of the ravine, he pulled it out and drove it down into one of its eyes.

The spider went berserk, rolling and thrashing. Luke was thrown free in moments and came to a stop thirty feet away on cold stone. He groaned and sat up, only to see the monster bearing down on him, the sword still stuck in its face. Luke was in more pain than he’d ever been in, but he wasn’t going to just lay there and wait to die.

He climbed to his feet, crouched down, and leaped at the spider. The mandibles scraped across his stomach and drew blood, and he had a brief instant to wonder if they’d injected some sort of venom or poison, but there was no time to worry about it now. Both hands closed on the sword, one on the handle and the other on the blade.

And he jerked it back and forth.

The spider crashed to the stone in a massive, echoing thump, its legs twitching and spasming as Luke scrambled whatever was inside its skull. “I. Fucking. Hate. Spiders,” he told it.

It died sometime while he was speaking, and he let out a huge groan as he slumped backwards. That was all of them, he hoped. It was at least everything from the initial group and their pet tank. Maybe pet wasn’t the right word, considering it had technically killed two of the bipeds itself.

[You have slain Cave Gripper (lvl 5). 25 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Cave Gripper (lvl 6). 36 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Cave Gripper (lvl 5). 25 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Cave Gripper (lvl 6). 36 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Cave Gripper (lvl 4). 16 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Mutant Grip Dropper (lvl 9). 82 XP awarded.]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Sword Mastery (1) skill. 25 XP awarded.]

“Jesus Christ that was intense. How am I not dead?”

“Your increased stamina has reinforced your body and sped up your natural regeneration,” System said.

“Holy fuck! Don’t do that!” If Luke wasn’t so beaten up, he’d have jumped out of his skin.

“My apologies. I thought that question was directed at me.”

“No. Just… just thinking out loud. But since you’re here, can you tell me if that big spider thing poisoned me?” Luke asked.

“You have no status ailments currently afflicting you” System told him.

“Oh good, so I’m not going to die from my kidneys melting. I always appreciate not dying from that.”

“Indeed. That would be an especially painful way to go.”

Luke craned his neck to look at System. “You have no sense of humor, do you?”

“I’m afraid not,” System told him. It almost sounded apologetic, but Luke figured he was just imagining it.

“Hey, something I’ve been wondering. This whole status screen. How come I don’t have HP or mana or anything?”

“I did not design the system,” System said. “I merely administer it. HP is how your culture measures your health, correct?”

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

“Your brother mentioned it many times. He asked a similar question once, but I was unable to answer it to his satisfaction.”

“Figures. So I have no HP, but I’m pretty fucked up right now. How long will it be until I’m back to full health with my 8 stamina?”

“I could not tell you. As I said, the system does not measure this. I merely know if something is alive or if it’s dead. If it dies, I know what killed it so that XP can be awarded appropriately.”

“Speaking of,” Luke said sourly. “How the hell did I not gain even a single level from killing that thing? It’s huge. Plus I got XP from five of its buddies, er, handlers? Whatever they were.”

“You needed 403 XP to reach level 8, but only obtained 220 XP from this fight. It was not enough to increase your level.”

“Oh for the love… I can do basic math! Why weren’t they worth more XP than that! Shouldn’t I get some sort of multiplier for fighting them six-on-one?”

“Apologies, Luke. The XP system does not have a provision for that, I’m afraid. XP is awarded based on the level of the being that is slain divided by the number of creatures that assisted in killing it. No other factors are considered.”

“Cheap ass bullshit system,” he muttered. “This was a bust. I’m getting out of here before something else shows up and punches my ticket.”

“Are you sure?” System asked. “You are only a few feet from your goal.”

“I am? How close?”

System raised an ethereal hand and pointed off to the side. “Your brother’s final resting place is right there. You would likely be able to see it through the darkness with a few more points of perception.”

“Great,” Luke groaned out as he sat up. “Is there anything else here?”

“Apologies. I am not able to answer that question.”

“Right, no, of course not.”

Surprisingly, Luke felt much better than he had any right to. His ribs still hurt, and his shirt was stained with blood from where the spider tank monster’s mandibles had sliced into his stomach, but considering how much he’d been tossed around, he felt pretty good. It hurt to walk, but not so much that he felt bed-ridden.

Slowly, he climbed to his feet and looked around. His sword was still shoved through the spider’s eye, so he retrieved that first. Then he made his way back to the mouth of the ravine and climbed down the slope to retrieve his flashlight and the scraps of goblin cloth he was using in place of sheaths. One of them had been caught under the stampede of spider legs and was ruined, but he salvaged the other and wrapped both swords together.

Back up at the top, he shined the flashlight around the cave until he found what he was looking for. There was a tiny nook in the wall, one that he probably would have missed without an actual light source and System pointing him in the right direction. Inside was a skeleton in rotting clothes, jeans and sneakers and a t-shirt.

If that weren’t proof enough, it was wearing a leather jacket identical to Luke’s. They’d bought them at the same time, a kind of brotherly bonding thing. Curt hadn’t worn his very often. He’d always said it wasn’t his style, plus he looked like a dork in it.

Tears formed in the corner of Luke’s eyes as he stood before his brother’s skeleton. “Damnit,” he whispered. “You were supposed to be good at this shit. Why are you dead?”

Just as he was about to turn the flashlight back off and walk away, he saw something carved into the stone near the body. Luke leaned forward and read, there in English, the words, ‘Do Not Enter. Fort Impregnable Personnel Only.’