Silver Spoon Series

Abs felt a tingle as he made contact with the dungeon entrance and then suddenly he found himself in the back of a room filled with a variety of logs. The rest of his party was standing around him. Quickly the two golemoids moved up front and Kerei stepped back with him. Jenny, the member of their party with the most combat experience, moved to the side.

That position left her exposed, but it would also allow her to contribute despite her smaller weapon. Looking at her for a moment, something he found himself doing a lot today, he noticed she seemed to be shaking. She must be eager for the fights ahead. He admired that in her, truthfully he was a little scared himself. He wouldn't have volunteered to go first, but once Kerei had put her hand up he wasn't going to back down. If that kid had the nerve to do this then he couldn't let anyone know he didn't.

The room was fifty meters long and about twenty meters wide. There was a door on the side at the far end that should lead to the next area. Scattered around the room were ten logs, each of which should contain a group of beetles. The new owner of the village, Alan, had explained that each log would have more beetles in it than the last, increasing the challenge as they went.

Abs was extremely nervous here. The beetles were supposed to be quite venomous, and if anyone in his party got bitten, it would be up to him to cure them. He couldn't really cure poison that well yet, he didn't have that talent or a special spell for it, but if he sent in enough vita energy it would serve to neutralize the toxin.

At a signal from Jenny, their tanks moved forward. They knew the first log would have the fewest bugs, but they didn't know how tough a fight it would be yet. Once Klevin got within a couple of meters, four bugs crawled out of a hole. Individually they didn't look imposing, each one was only a few centimeters long, and they had a strange lump on their heads. Together Monos and Klevin edged closer until they were about a meter out. Then, in an impressive display of synchronicity, the four bugs launched themselves into the air.

They had been warned that the bugs could kind of fly, managing mostly to glide. The two golemoids were so focused on their role for this first fight that they didn't even try to avoid the beetles, instead holding their ground. Kerei had the quickest reactions and she sent a fire bolt flying at the bugs, but in her excitement she failed to account for their movement and despite the large size of the bolt and the relatively small targets, she only hit the one in the back. It was fried instantly.

The other three landed, one on Klevin and two on Monos. Jenny was the second one of them to react and she tried to knock the bug that had landed on Klevin. Just after she started to swing her dagger at the beetle, the golemoid realized that his mate was in danger and swung his club to knock the bugs off of her. He was successful in his attack and both beetles ended up smashed on the ground. Unfortunately for Klevin, his movement had thrown off Jenny's aim, and instead of hitting the bug on his arm with the flat of her blade, she sliced right into his bicep.

Fortunately he was made of tough stuff and the cut wasn't too deep, but given the choice of their tank's thick skin, or a bloody gash leading to tasty meat, the beetle on his arm scurried into the cut. Abs had been getting ready to heal the slice, but he wasn't sure what would happen if he did that while the bug was inside. Klevin let out an impressive squeal after he felt the beetle crawling around inside his arm.

"Get it out, get it out! OWWWWW!!!!"

The bug must have found a choicy spot and taken a bite. It wasn't surprising that the otherwise tough man reacted so with venom being pumped into him. As a healer, Abs was able to see his party's health on the side of his vision. If they managed to level up their party array enough, they could all have silhouettes that gave details about their health, but this was better than nothing. Not only had Klevin's total points dropped, but they were now showing green. Abs guessed that meant he had been poisoned as the numbers kept ticking down.

Jenny was eager to fix her mistake and switched her dagger to her left hand before shoving her right hand's fingers into Klevin's cut. That caused him to cry out again, but in just a few moments she pulled them out again, holding a squirming beetle pinched between her thumb and middle finger. Abs could barely make out a piece of Klevin's arm in its mandibles. Jenny threw the bug to the ground and stomped on it.

With the bug gone from the wound, Abs moved up and placed his hands on his injured partymate before casting his minor healing spell. He could cast it from a distance, but he had learned in training it was a little more effective if he was touching the target. The blood trickling out of Klevin's arm stopped, and then the slice started to close. The green on his hitpoints meter also disappeared so it looked like he was all better. Abs let out a sigh of relief, his job was done.

All of them stood there for a moment, taking in what had just happened. Klevin looked embarrassed by his outburst, but everyone else seemed okay. Jenny was wiping the blood on her fingers onto her pants and Monos was looking at her partner. Kerei was giving everyone a look like they were beneath her. That was normal, he guessed.

They were all distracted when the four bugs' bodies disappeared in a whirl and four copper coins were left in their place. Abs had been nominated to collect the small loot. They figured he would be the one less bothered by carrying things during combat. He stuffed them in his pouch and they approached the next log.

Monos and Klevin were even more careful than last time, but when the bugs took off this time, they didn't just stand there. There were five beetles coming for them this time and they struck out with their clubs as they came in. Kerei also sent a firebolt at the same time and once again the party's attacks fouled each other. Monos's club took a direct hit from the firebolt and it fell from her hand, already turning into a cinder.

Klevin hit two with his own swing, but once again one landed on him and two on Monos. Jenny had held back and hesitated before trying to hit the ones on Monos, fearful of a repeat from last time. Before Klevin could recover from his attack to try and help Monos, one of the beetles found the soft fold at her armpit and bit down. Her hitpoints fell and the numbers turned green. She managed to remain calm though and simply bent her forearm back to her shoulder until the now trapped bug went pop. It looked pretty hardcore. Klevin managed to slap the other beetle on her leg with his hand before it could get through her tough skin.

Golemoids had a naturally high constitution and many of them had a rather durable body. After getting their guardian classes this had been enhanced even further. That meant that the hump beetles had to find a soft spot to hope to hurt them. The last remaining beetle on Klevin was having a tough time since it had landed on his shirt, which just added to his protection. Klevin was trying to wipe the bug guts off his hand while Monos casually leaned over and crushed the beetle on her partner's chest.

Once again Abs had to cast minor healing, this time on Monos. If they continued like this, he was going to run out of mana and then they would have to retreat. He looked back at the portal behind them, it seemed to be beckoning them to leave. Doing so after accomplishing so little would definitely seem like a failure.

"Guys, we've got to coordinate better." Abs was surprised to hear himself speak.

"I'm so sorry Klevin, I didn't mean to cut you." Jenny was quick to apologize after he spoke, and it seemed to invite everyone to speak up.

"I am so sorry, love, that I let that one bite you, I should have protected you better." Klevin said to Monos.

Monos answered in her steady gravely voice. "I am fine Klevin, You should be worried about yourself, we are the tanks and are meant to draw their fire. Handle yourself and trust me to take care of myself."

The only one who didn't seem to have anything to say was Kerei. But now that they were talking, they started planning. There was no reason for Kerei to wait until the beetles took flight, it was better for her to use her fire bolt while they were bunched up on the log. They also needed to watch for each other's attacks and give people space. They approached the next log with a little more confidence.

This time seven beetles appeared and Kerei attacked before the two tanks moved forward any more. The beetles saw the ball of fire approaching and scurried away from the impact site. The spell still hit two of them, but it wasn't a great start. Now Klevin and Monos advanced and the beetles were out of position when they entered their flight range. Instead of coming in a single cloud, it was more like a jagged line that floated towards them.

Jenny moved out as soon as they took flight and intercepted two of them in the air with a single attack of her dagger. Monos and Klevin were each able to hit one as well, which left one last beetle to land on their main tank. He didn't panic this time, having learned that the bugs would have to find a weak spot, and instead he used his left hand to smack it as it ran down his thigh.

That fight had gone much better, and it was with real confidence that they moved to the fourth log. This one had ten beetles. Kerei didn't try to hit the bugs while they were on the log this time, instead she tried to time it so that her spell appeared just as the beetles took flight, hoping to catch them clustered. Their coordination was a little off, so it arrived just a moment too late and only three of the bugs got hit, but it also didn't take out Klevin's club or hit Monos' hand. That had to count as a win. Since Monos' one and only club had been turned into charcoal already, she was doing the rest of the dungeon with just her fists.

Those hands turned out to be an effective weapon and she took out one beetle with each hand before a third landed on her arm. Klevin only managed to get one with his club, and another actually landed on the big wooden stick. Jenny took the last two out of the air again. Monos managed to smash her beetle before it hit a weak spot and Klevin simply bonked his club into the ground to knock the beetle off and then he stepped on it.

Once more, Abs had nothing to do but pick up the coins, still a copper from each. He could get used to this life of collecting loot, but it hadn't escaped his notice that the number of beetles was climbing fast. He did a little math and guessed that the final wave would have around fifty beetles. That many could be a serious challenge. He didn't speak up though, figuring that the others would also realize the problem.

They managed two more logs before the party ran into trouble. Kerei and the tank couple had gotten the timing down and she was taking out five or six bugs with her fire bolt. The three melee types were getting another five or six out of the air. With the sixth log that had left only eight beetles to land on them, and they were able to crush all but one before it bit Klevin.

The problem was that the next wave had twenty-five beetles and more than half landed. Monos took multiple bites and Klevin took one to his ankle. Afterwards it took Abs three castings to cure them all which had required him to wait a little bit for his mana to regenerate. They had to stop again for another discussion. This time it was Kerei who spoke up with the best suggestion, deigning to talk to them.

"Why not move back when the bugs take off? If they can't actually fly, then that means they shouldn't be able to float all the way to you. Then you can just stomp them."

It was so simple that at first they rejected her idea, but after thinking for a moment they all agreed that it was the obvious solution. For the eighth log they faced more than thirty beetles, but when Monos and Klevin retreated in the face of their flying attack, it turned out that most couldn't reach them. Only five managed the distance but they were easily intercepted in the air. Kerei's fire bolt also took out five from their initial launch, so over twenty beetles were left, now crawling at them.

This was much less of a threat than having them fly all at once. Instead it became a stomp party, and any beetles that managed to get on a shoe were kicked off, only to be smashed when they inevitably made their way back over. That fight ended up with no injuries, and even Abs and Kerei got to help smush.

Having hit their groove, they eagerly moved onto log nine, there was just one more after this. Unfortunately they paid for their confidence. The first part of the plan went fine, but as they started kicking off the few bugs that managed to get on their shoe, one of the beetles got some extra height and ended up coasting all the way over to the tenth and previously undisturbed log. Almost fifty bugs emerged from that one, as Abs had expected, and even though no one was in range, they launched themselves towards the party.

Smashing twenty bugs or even thirty bugs wasn't a big deal, but more than seventy at once was an issue. There were so many that it was whole clumps of beetles that were climbing on their feet and they were unable to kick them off anymore. Things were looking grim and Abs was desperate to help. On a sudden inspiration, he cast his gust spell. He aimed for the legs of their tanks that were being enveloped in chitinus bugs.

A blast of wind erupted over the ground and it blew not only the majority of the bugs off of his partymates, but also blew those on the ground back quite a bit. Keire decided to use more of her mana and targeted them while many were disoriented and some were even stuck on their backs. Her blast took out more than ten of them. The best part for Abs was that the gust spell took only a fraction of the mana that even a fire bolt did. He was easily able to repeat the attack whenever the densest part of the swarm hit.

The rest of the fight ended up being fairly tame and only Monos and Klevin needed any healing. Abs got away with only a single spell on each. After counting out their loot, this room had netted them over two hundred coppers. With a ten to one exchange rate between gold, silver, and copper, that was just over two gold coins worth. Things were looking much better than when they had first entered the dungeon.

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Monos was riding a dragon of terror. She had at first been excited to receive class stones, but their training had started to drive into her head that this gift had thorns. They were going to be putting themselves in danger. Her wonderful partner Klevin was eager for the opportunity and so she did her best to seem excited as well.

When their group had 'volunteered' to enter first, her nerves had really started to ratchet up. The thing about Monos though, was that when she got scared, her body started shutting down, slowing her speech and movements. When Klevin had been cut and bitten in the first fight she was downright terrified, which only escalated more when she herself was bitten. It had hurt so bad and she didn't even know where on her arm it had happened. Monos had bent her elbow to try and find it which had somehow ended up squishing her attacker.

As the room went on, though, she started to get a handle on things. The hectic ending with the double log almost caused her to go catatonic afterwards, but Klevin rested a comforting hand on her shoulder and it managed to let her regain her composure. After looting all the coins, they made their way into the other room. Here there were two apple trees and a stairwell going down. Each tree had five brightly colored birds on them.

Monos was pretty sure she had seen such birds kept as pets before, but Silver Spoon had warned them that these ones were terrors. They were quite a bit bigger than the beetles and could truly fly, but at least they were just as delicate. The plan was simple, Kerei would try and take one out while it was still on the tree and continue to do so if they stayed away. Once the birds came at them, it was up to Klevin, Jenny, and herself to take them out. If things looked bad, Abs was gonna try his gust spell again.

The two trees were separated by most of the room so they hoped to tackle the small flocks of noisy creatures separately. Monos and her partner stepped in front of the group and they got ready. That was Kerei's signal to try and blast one of the birds. She picked one near the trunk of the tree, but it saw the fire coming and was able to fly to a different branch. She repeated her attack on a different bird and it too was able to avoid it easily.

With their first idea not working, they decided to go with brute force. Monos started to feel her body locking up again, but a glance at her confident lover next to her was enough to settle her down. She still didn't have a weapon, but her fists should be able to smash one of these delicate and pretty birds. Before moving forward they had a quick discussion about whether they should advance all together, or leave the mages behind. They should be safer at a distance, but if the birds went after them it would be hard to react in time.

In the end, they decided to go together. Safety in numbers and all that. Klevin confidently stepped forward and Monos followed next to him. She couldn't let him down, he was too important to her. When they were about five meters away, the five birds finally attacked. There was no coordination like with the beetles, they each simply tore towards them screeching for their flesh.

Jenny, their peppy young neighbor, had the easiest time with her high dexterity. She managed to hit one of the birds as it flapped around her head. As they had been told, these budgerigars couldn't take a hit and it cratered to the ground after getting sliced in its wing. Kerei, however, was having a hard time, her bolt wasn't fast enough to hit the nimble targets. Wary of bottoming out her mana, she simply tucked in close behind Klevin and tried to shield herself.

Klevin was swinging away with his club, but he wasn't having much luck either. His attacks were enough to keep the birds from getting to him, but he wasn't able to make contact either. Monos herself was having some trouble, but using her fists seemed to allow her to track the birds a little better. She hadn't connected yet, but she had grazed one as it went by.

As everyone else struggled, Jenny was able to hit a second bird. The first was still thrashing on the ground, not dead, but unable to fly. Abs seemed annoyed by its squawking and ran over to finish it off with a stomp. Seeing the healer act reminded her of his spell.

"Abs, do you think your gust will work here as well?"

He wasn't doing anything else with his mana since everyone was able to keep the birds off so far, so he gave it a try. It wasn't as effective as it was against the beetles, probably because the birds were larger and heavier, but it was enough to freeze one of them in the air as it fought the force of the wind. That gave Klevin the opening he needed to smack it with his club. Soon after, Monos finally connected with a solid punch and one of the remaining birds disappeared in a puff of feathers.

The final one fell quickly as it was too busy dodging Klevin's club to avoid Jenny's dagger. Each of these birds soon disappeared in a whirlwind and left behind a coin. Silver this time. Abs added it to his pouch and they advanced on the second tree. This one only had five birds in it as well, so they felt that they would be able to handle it with no problem. They had a strategy worked out and it had already proven effective.

Kerei was rushing along on a lightning bolt of adrenaline. First she had been given class stones, then she had been put in a group with Jenny. That girl was super hot, and smart, and amazing. Kerei had seen how the slightly older girl looked at some of the other women in the village, so she had a pretty good clue that she had an actual shot with her.

She saw getting partied up with her as a sign of fate. She would show Jenny how awesome Kerei could be and then maybe Jenny would look at her in that special way as well. When that man Alan had asked for volunteers, she saw an opportunity to stand out. She knew Jenny would no doubt want to volunteer, but she wanted to make it look like her idea. Thrusting her arm in the air, she watched Jenny out of the side of her eyes to see her reaction. She wasn't disappointed, when she saw Kerei with her hand in the air Jenny couldn't take her eyes off of her. It was working!

Once inside the dungeon she had tried to show off with her flames. Who wouldn't be impressed by someone who could shoot fire around. Her first few attempts didn't go so well, though, and she actually managed to burn up one of her teammates' clubs. Oops! She was so embarrassed that when the group started discussing strategy, she couldn't muster up the courage to say anything. Her earlier confidence had faded, and now she was afraid to look at Jenny, not wanting to see the disappointment in her eyes.

Willing herself to do better, she improved quite a bit by the time they finished with the bugs. She had ended up killing more than her fair share. She still wasn't able to look over at Jenny, having to rely on glimpses at the corner of her vision. She looked really good as she cut those beetles down in the air. Her smooth, strong arms could move so gracefully.

The second room sent Kerei's rising confidence plummeting once again. They had devised a strategy that relied on her, but then she failed. The birds were just too fast for her to hit. She spent most of those fights hiding behind Monos and Klevin, furiously waving her arms around to keep the birds from eating her. This final room was her last chance to impress Jenny. They had one final team meeting at the top of the stairs. She finally had an excuse to stare as Jenny led the discussion.

"Okay, so there's just one more enemy left, it's supposed to be a big ant. At least this one can't fly. I figure that Klevin and Monos should be able to keep its attention and I will try to get behind it to stab it in the back. Kerei…" Omg, she said her name! "...you should be able to hit this one with your fire bolts. Keep your line clear so you don't accidentally hit one of us…" She did her best not to blush at that rebuke, "...and everyone just be careful. Abs will stay back so he can heal us if needed, but this is it! One more fight and we can say we finished the whole thing, and then think of the loot!"

Jenny was so cool! The stairs were real stairs, not a portal, so they would have to actually walk down them. Klevin went first with Monos behind. She had ripped a branch off of one of the trees to use as a club, but then she had let it drop to the ground before announcing that she felt more comfortable with her fists. Kerei thought that was kinda brutal, but that's why she chose a mage class, right? Once everyone reached the bottom of the stairs, they got in formation. This room was much bigger than the ones above, almost fifty meters across and just as long.

The stairs had put them at one end of the room at the top of a slight incline. The boss ant was in the middle, in a slight depression. There were a few bushes scattered around the space and two trees of some kind in one of the far corners. Everything looked good for their plan, and so they went for it.

With a yell, Klevin charged forward with Monos right behind, urging him on with her stoic presence. Kerei watched as Jenny ran out to the side and then did her best to move surreptitiously to the area behind the boss. That wasn't easy to do since there wasn't much cover, but the ant seemed to be focused on the large, screaming, golemoid who was charging straight at it. Kerei took a chance to identify the thing.

Beast: Giant Ant (Uncommon) level 5

It didn't give a lot of information, but she noticed right away that its level was much higher than the previous enemies. She had been expecting it, but it still set her heart racing. The term giant here was relative, it was only the size of a large dog, but its mandibles were quite scary looking. They seemed sharp and were big enough to bite off even one of Monos' thick arms.

It took a bit for the two sides to meet. Klevin had learned some caution from their encounters, and so while he was charging the boss, he didn't simply run up and try to beat it with his club. He kept his weapon out in front of him, wary of the ant biting him. His job was more distraction and the occasional strike if there was an opening.

Monos was right there beside him, without a club of her own, she was planning mostly on being a shield for Klevin. Jenny was getting in position and so far it seemed the boss was unaware of her, or at least uninterested. Abs was where he was supposed to be, several meters back, safe, but ready to do his thing if needed. It was Kerei who needed to get in the proper place.

Now that she knew where everyone else was going to be, she moved so that no one would be hit by her fire bolts if they took an inopportune step. Klevin was waving his club in the ant's face, and the boss was gamely trying to bite it. The thing looked like it had enough mass that it could push the tanks around if it got more physical, but it didn't seem interested at the moment.

Taking careful aim, Kerei summoned the mana and sent a fire bolt screaming toward the ant. It noticed the attack coming, but unlike the beetles and birds, it was too big and slow to get out of the way. It hit the ant, but other than a little scorching, it didn't seem to do much. It might not be able to dodge her spell, but it was durable enough to absorb the hit. Jenny took the opportunity to attack.

She jumped in and thrust her small dagger at the ant's big bulbous abdomen. The blade sank in to the hilt and the boss seemed to screech in pain. Its head arched into the air, which gave Klevin the opportunity to thump it with his club. It didn't seem to have much effect, so he attempted to hit it even harder a second time. The boss managed to refocus in time to knock the blow away and it started to spin toward Jenny.

Klevin yelled again and tried to recapture its attention with another whack of his club. The thing hardly seemed to feel it, the chitin on its head and thorax must be thick. Kerei also added another fire bolt to his attack which seemed enough to distract it from their rogue in the back. However, it turned out that the ant was still focused on her, it just was using a different attack.

They hadn't noticed, but there was a small stinger on the back of its abdomen, and when Jenny moved forward to stab it again, the ant maneuvered its bulby backend into her and the stinger went through her shirt and into her abdomen. Kerei couldn't see it from where she was, but Jenny's agonized scream let everyone know that it was shooting venom into her body. She collapsed backwards onto the ground, convulsing.

Abs leapt into action, casting a healing spell even as he made his way around the fight to get to Jenny herself. Kerei didn't know if he was going to try and pull her away or just give more healing. The ant turned to finish off its downed opponent, but Monos used her best weapon, her body, to pin it down. She jumped on its head, careful to get behind the mandibles so it couldn't bite her, and did her best to hold it in place.

Her second class was perception based, not strength, but golemoids were a naturally strong race. The ant was no slouch either, and the two engaged in an epic back and forth. Klevin took the opportunity to wail on the ant's thorax. No single blow was that critical, but the sheer number of times that club came down on the hard shell finally caused it to crack. Desperate to save Jenny, Kerei sent another fire bolt as well, but she targeted the abdomen since the head and thorax were currently covered in her team.

This actually was more effective, her flames this time lingered on the numerous small hairs growing on the bulbous part of the ant. Abs now had hands on Jenny, and it looked like he was both pulling her away and giving her another dose of minor healing at the same time.

Monos was starting to lose in her fight against the ant, it was steadily pushing her away, but Klevin just kept whaling away at the ants cracked thorax and in a final viscous blow, he smashed open the exoskeleton at the same time he snapped his club in half. In a continued disregard for gore, Monos took one of her hands off of the ants head, and shoved it into the hole her partner made and started squishing whatever she could.

This drove the boss crazy and it started bucking wildly. Monos had one hand clamped firmly on its head and the other inside of it, so she wasn't going anywhere. After only a few moments she must have done enough damage and the ant collapsed, legs twitching. Kerei was so freaked out by how close Jenny had been to dying that she just stood there as everything settled.

Monos stood up and calmly looked at her jellied-organ covered hand, before trying to wipe the mess off on a nearby bush. She wasn't having much success, so she finally just used the front of her shirt. Klevin had been staring at his broken club, but finally regained his senses and gave his partner a huge hug, getting the ant's insides on his clothes as well. Abs was helping Jenny up, his healing spells had finally restored her enough to stand.

Seeing her stand, Kerei noticed that Jenny's shirt was torn open, exposing her well toned stomach. She felt herself getting a little flushed as she did her best not to stare. Seeing that Jenny was safe, Kerei was finally able to force herself to walk over to the rest of the group. As she did, it dawned on her that they had done it. They had finished the dungeon!

Klevin embraced the love of his life, hardly able to believe that they had done it. Monos was and continued to be the most incredible person he had ever met. He was continuously astounded that she found him tolerable enough to spend her time with him. Finding out that they had been given stones together, and then watching her as she stoically awesomed her way through the dungeon, even after losing her weapon had inspired him to get his shit together.

He had been putting on a brave front until Jenny slipped up and sliced him on his arm. Then the bug crawled inside him! The poison had hit him like a log, he felt weak and fatigued, and was having trouble moving. Only the adrenaline of having a bug eating his muscles from the inside was enough to keep him going. Abs' healing had felt like an ice cube on a beesting, soothing the pain.

Whenever he started to panic, he just turned and looked at the strong, proud, brave woman next to him and he was able to force himself forward. Once he even felt the need to physically touch her to remind himself of what real grit was. But now that was all over, they had done it.

The boss was doing the whirly spinny thing where it turned into loot. Left behind was two gold coins, and two pieces of equipment. One was a shiny sword, identify said it was a rapier. It was long and narrow, it almost looked like a toothpick. It had a sharp looking point on the end of the blade, and Jenny let out a cry of delight before cradling it. She had to be careful as the sides were edged as well.

The other set of equipment was a pair of leather bracers. They looked sized to fit either Monos or himself, but it was easy to make the decision. Both of them had lost their weapons, but she was the better warrior of the two of them. Klevin picked them up and handed them over to Monos, who fastened them onto her forearms. After flexing a little, a look of joy shone from her eyes. That was all the reward he needed.