A Soldier's Life - 171 - Surprise Webbing

Chapter 171 Surprise Webbing

We had three unexplored corridors from the safe room, but we were following the note left by Castile. The corridor was unremarkable, a cookie cutter of all three dungeon levels. It was a short walk before we reached a room with large, elaborate webs crisscrossing the ceiling. The floor was stone with small patches of emerald grass that danced with the river of lights above. Large bulbous man-sized white sacs dotted the webs.

I was in disbelief. Could those cocoons contain the remains of Castile and her group? My common sense told me there was no way they would have fallen to spiders. I tensed up, realizing for the first time that maybe the kettle of souls was gone. Castile could already be dead. I shook off the negative thoughts and scanned the room, looking for movement. My heart rate was elevated as I tried to figure out what we were dealing with.

The webbing indicated spiders, and I was not a fan of spiders. “Maveith, do you see anything?” 

“The floor is coated in webbing. Fighting with our boots sticking to the floor will be difficult.” I glanced at the floor, and I had completely missed it. Konstantin would have berated me for getting distracted by having my focus not account for everything. The silvery green had camouflaged strands of thick spider webbing blended in. As I studied the floor, Maveith speculated, “I count four cocoons. Maybe the spiders are in there.”

“You don’t think those are people? Castile’s group?” I wondered aloud, returning my focus to the ceiling.

Maveith seemed to consider, “No. Too small. They are smaller than legionnaire armor, only half the length of a person.” I nodded at his assessment after studying it for a time. The cocoons were forty feet in the air, near the ceiling, and the flowing lights around them seemed to create an illusion that they were bigger than they looked.

“Are we going to enter?” Maveith asked, getting anxious for some action. Or maybe he wanted to reunite with the others.

I considered our options. “Go ahead. Take a few small steps and step back out when something stirs. I will watch you from the corridor.” Maveith didn’t mind being used as bait and didn’t hesitate. He stepped into the room, taking small steps to draw out the enemy. His foot made a sticky-tearing sound on his fourth step, just five feet from me.  The cocoons vibrated above him on their suspended cables, and he tried to step back but struggled as his boot resisted the sticky strands now attached to them.

Four glossy black spiders emerged from the cocoons and immediately shot strands of thread at Maveith. The thin spider silk did not look dangerous or capable of restraining the goliath. Maveith had made it back to within a step of the corridor. His boots had dozens of sticky strands attached to them, making walking difficult. He twirled his hammer to intercept the incoming threads. The strands quickly wrapped around the hammer’s head, forming a mini cocoon, reminding me of cotton candy at a carnival.

Then, all of a sudden, Maveith grunted unhappily. “They are trying to steal my hammer, Eryk.” As Maveith pulled the handle, the entire webbing network on the ceiling flexed, and the cocoons and spiders bobbed. I stepped into the room and cut the attached line above the hammer. My black blade severed the spider strands with ease.

“Back into the corridor,” I ordered the goliath, and we both retreated, and I freed his boots of the strands dragging behind him. The four spiders repelled down the floor. Their glossy black chitin legs tapping on thudding on the floor. The spiders did not approach us but seemed very agitated by our presence. “Why do you think they are not attacking us?” I asked Maveith.

Maveith’s boots still made a sticky adhesive sound as he walked. He was also having trouble peeling the spider cocoon off the head of his hammer. “I don’t know. Maybe they only have raged attacks? They do look fragile.” He noted with some contempt.

Maveith’s observation was astute. The ebony spiders were not large and looked fragile, with spindly legs and an oversized abdomen. Their heads were small, and the fangs were barely noticeable. So, these spiders worked to incapacitate their prey before moving in for the kill. There were just four spiders as well. I wanted to find Castile, so we needed to conquer this room. “Maveith, can you get two if we rush them? The two on the right?”

Maveith’s response was an uncharacteristic roar as he rushed into the room. I guess the spiders had angered him by trying to take his hammer. I rushed behind him. A few steps into the room, my feet became entangled with the strands on the floor, making walking difficult. Maveith’s hammer slammed into the first spider.

I had two spiders shooting a spray of dense webbing at me. My air shield intercepted the attack, the spider silk pooling on in the air in a white mass. The spiders didn’t understand what was happening and moved closer to me. My black blade lashed out, stabbing deep into one spider.

The second spider tried to flee. I lunged awkwardly in a slash but only caught three legs of the spider. It was crippled, oozing blue blood, and struggled to get away. I looked over to Maveith, who was struggling. His second spider had pulled itself back toward the ceiling and spewed a webbing stream at the goliath. The goliath was angry but getting slowed as the strands started layering him, restricting his movement. “Maveith, use your skinning knife. Don’t get captured.”

I struggled to pursue my crippled spider, my legion boots covered in strands that stretched but would not yield. It was unnecessary as it slowed from blood loss and put up no fight when my blade pierced it. Maveith had freed himself in the meantime. This had been a difficult room, and we had underestimated the threat of the spiders.

I got within range of the last suspended spider. It thought itself safe at a dozen feet above us, but I just rotated my dimensional cube to reach it and remove its head. The dead spider slowly descended to the floor, leaking its blue blood, while its spinneret slowly released out thread.

The stone reward chest was visible, signaling we had completed the room. It was a challenge to traverse the sticky floor. Maveith’s small runic knife was the best weapon to cut away the strands. My non-runic knife quickly got gummed up, its edge becoming useless unless it was cleaned. My black blade worked as well, but it was awkward. I met Maveith at the chest, which yielded only a few silver coins and a single potion.

I turned the potion to read the script. “It says hover, Maveith. Or maybe levitate? I can confirm in the dreamscape. I am going to use the collector. Is there anything harvestable? The spinnerets?”

“Maybe. I can try.” Maveith took his skinning knife and moved to try his best to harvest the spider. I remember Delmar was skilled in extracting them intact.

I struggled to walk across the sticky floor to each spider. The collector worked on each spider, giving a minor essence of coordination. While Maveith worked, I tried to figure out what the spiders ate. The floor was stone with tufts of emerald grass scattered across the floor. I kneeled to study the grass. It reflected the light, giving it a shimmering appearance. I tried to pick one and immediately regretted it. The grass was flexible like grass but was sharp like a knife. A long cut was on my palm and bled freely on the floor. “Shit, that smarts.” I hissed.

Maveith looked up on alert, “Is there a problem?”

“The grass is sharp and tough. Maybe it is fuel for the spiders to make their webbing.” It was a wild guess on my part, but it made sense in this dungeon ecosystem. I stomped my way to Maveith, and he successfully collected two spinnerets. His first attempt was a failure as he cut it with a knife, rupturing the sac, and the spider he smashed with his hammer had a split sac. I added the two sacs to my storage.

We moved across the sticky floor to the only other exit from the room. Once we reached the corridor, we used Maveith’s runic skinning knife to clean our boots. My legs and most of Maveith’s body had remnants of the spider silk. I decided we could clean it later in a safe room.

This corridor was much longer and curved to the right, making seeing more than fifty feet in front of you difficult. Eventually, the corridor opened into a massive room. It looked like an entire forest had been transplanted into the dungeon. The ceiling even seemed brighter, giving the trees something to reach for as they extended high above us, creating a green canopy. Remembering the phase spiders, I was hesitant to enter.

“I can’t see any other exits,” Maveith’s voice intoned over me. This forest made it difficult to see anything. The sound of an axe on wood suddenly sounded deep in the wooded area. Maveith and I looked at each other. A second axe sounded in response. A terrible rhythm sounded as the two axes competed against each other in different tempos.

I was hopeful that those axes could belong to legionaries. Maveith was also craning his neck, trying to see past the trunks of trees. A familiar voice rang out over the chopping, “Stay away from the knots; it will be too hard to split with our hand axes.”

“That sounded like Firth,” Maveith said expectantly.

I nodded and listened for a while to confirm but only heard axe strikes. “Let’s go, Maveith. Be prepared to retreat, though.” We moved into the chamber, moving silently toward the other side. Grunts and the thudding of axes got louder. A bloody Konstantin was harvesting a massive black bear in a small clearing. Firth, Wylie, and Mateo were cutting up branches.

I didn’t see anyone else, but Konstantin was a part of Castile’s group. Firth, Wylie, and Mateo had been together with Felix. I signaled Maveith to remain while I approached the group. Maybe I could surprise Konstantin. My armor rasped as I moved, but the axe strikes echoed in the woods, covering my movement.

Konstantin suddenly whistled, and everyone froze, including me. I was maybe twenty feet from Konstantin with his back turned. Firth asked, “What is it? You think that annoying goblin is back?”

Konstantin slowly turned around, and I hid myself. “I thought I heard something,” he said. “And there is something foul in the air, yet there is no wind.” The men suddenly dropped their axes, and I heard swords being drawn.

So much for surprising them, “Well, if you think I smell foul, then I will just leave,” I said, stepping out from cover.

Mateo had a huge grin on his face, “Is that a virgin dryad or Eryk? I hear that both are pretty rare in dungeons.” His eyes slowly got wide, “What in Pluto’s realm happened to your armor?” My armor did look to be in a miserable state as it was warped, charred, and had spider webbing.

Konstantin was cautious, still holding his bloody skinning knife in one hand and his runic weapon in the other. Firth nodded like my appearance was just natural. Wylie was breaking into a smile to match Mateo. Konstantin asked, “Where are the others you were charged with?”

“Maveith!” I called the goliath forward. “Brutus and the Scholar got separated when we entered. We have been wandering for days.” Maveith came through the trees, getting the others to relax, but happy faces abounded.

“Wandering, eh?” the always skeptical Konstantin noted.

I ignored his suspicion, “Is Castile and the others nearby?”

Firth answered for the group, “Adrian, Blaze, and Castile are in the safe room. We are gathering wood for cooking and harvesting the shadow bear.”

“What about Felix?” I inquired.

Smiles faded, and Mateo responded, “He didn’t make it. The first room we tried…” He didn’t finish. Felix and Mateo were good friends, and they were my roommates when I joined the company in Formica. I felt the pain of loss as a knot formed in my stomach.

Soon, Konstantin was pressing me for information, and I reported what I knew, “We saw Brutus, Kolm, Donte, Linus, Flavius, and the Scholar. We couldn’t reach them because they were on the other side of a massive earth drake. They said Cyrus, Remus, and Soren were killed by the summoner outside the dungeon. They think the summoner is now wandering the dungeon with us.”

“That would explain the goblin,” Firth said. “It must be one of his scouts.” I didn’t correct him and gave Maveith a look to be quiet on the subject of the goblin.

My news could have been met better. Konstantin processed what I said, not looking happy. He looked at everything harvested so far, “We need to inform Castile. Let’s focus on wood; we can always return to kill the bear again, but we need the wood to cook it.”

Mateo whined, nervous, “I don’t want to fight the shadow bear again.”

Wylie patted him on the back, “At least there was a healing potion for you after the fight.”

“Was it a hard fight?” Maveith asked interested.

Konstantin said dismissively, “It can move between shadows, and Castile’s shadow chains had no effect on it. This is our second time killing the beast. Mateo just made the mistake of having his back to a shadow.” Mateo winced nearby at the memory.

Firth appraised us, “The meat tastes a little smokey but is edible.” Firth was inspecting our rather small packs, probably thinking we did not have a lot of food.

“Maveith, help Konstantin with the bear. Show him your new runic knife.” I said, smirking, knowing Konstantin would be jealous even if he didn’t show it. “We should definitely take everything we can.”

As we started working together, Mateo approached and gave me a hug, “Just wanted to make sure you were real and not a figment of my imagination. I am sure you have a story about why you look like a fiery dragon swallowed you and shit you out.”

It was odd talking with everyone after so long. Konstantin kept eyeing me suspiciously. He was trying to figure out how the goliath and I had survived for so long. Even on this first level of the dungeon, the rooms were dangerous. 

We were finally loaded with wood and bear meat and started off toward the safe room, where I would reunite with Castile and the others.