Test Summoning: Apocalypse

The trip out to Silk Caverns was uneventful. Situated two kilometers outside of Vialina, the dungeon was near a well-patrolled road and popular with Advancement 1 and 2 parties. It was both a good location to train and the spider silk obtained within was always in demand.

The day also started off bright when we stopped by Exterminator's Excitement and Armond had my order ready. The craftsmanship was exceptional on the MASER crystal array as was the bronze harness the smithing apprentice made for me. The apprentice showed his talent when he even added a small clamping system to make it easy to insert and adjust the mirror lenses. It wouldn't work for the fine applications a LASER manufactured on Earth could do, but I didn't need to cut industrial tooling with it. All that was left for me was to melt down some sand and use the lens molds to make the mirrors. Then we'd hook up the Advancement 2 mana batteries and spend the remaining time before the apocalypse charging the array.

Getting the silk to charge the giant tuning crystal was going to be the most dangerous part of the project. Given its popularity, we had never gone into the dungeon in prior loops. All we had to go on was the guide provided on the back of our Guild ID cards. As Aoto proved in the arena, an Advancement 0 going against Advancement 1 monsters was a huge risk. Monster Advancement was measured similarly to how the high striker measured contestants. When a new dungeon or monster was located, a high Advancement scouting team, usually 10 or greater, would go in to evaluate it. They would then literally huck a measuring crystal at a monster and run away. The crystal was tied to a long string which they'd reel back in to check how strong it was.

The upside was all a team had to do was check the first monster in a dungeon since dungeons only ever had a single Attunement. The monsters roaming around in the wilderness were a different story, though they could be estimated based on how close a ley line or nexus was. The downside was, like with the high striker, no one knew the rating. Monsters, like people, could range from duds to powerful. The Red Speckled Stomper was Advancement 1, but it was rated at 118%.

Monsters in dungeons wouldn't get a formal rating unless they had been captured for the arena to use. Lower Advancement dungeons had excellent intel. New dungeons or higher rating ones not so much.

We arrived at Silk Caverns around 6Af. This cavern was basically a hole in the ground surrounded by dual cages with a cover to keep people from climbing over. A drainage ditch was cut in around the perimeter like a moat to keep the cavern from flooding during heavy rains. This one didn't have an item retrieval drum, indicating the drop items inside weren't bulky. Anyone bringing in pole arms could simply slip them through the gaps in the fence.

Just outside the entrance to the fenced in area was a small inn. The inn served as a station for the Guild employee to manage party entrance and sleeping space. The sleeping space was not just for the Guild employee. It had a small kitchen, food storage and a dozen beds. The beds were for the support staff the Guild provided for Exterminators, room for the party exiting the dungeon so they didn't have to travel back at night and the assigned retrieval team in case the party failed to exit by 7Af.

The four of us slid up to the window and I tapped the little bell. A minute after it rang, an internal door opened up and a badger-clan woman appeared with a slate. She looked at me a moment before examining the rest of my party. "I never would have guessed you'd make it out to Silk Caverns. I heard the king has the heroes training in the army dungeons."

"Not me," I said. "He sent me out as a free agent to remind the public the heroes are in town."

The Guild employee snorted. "You can just say the king, Grand Creator save him, didn't want you weighing the others down and kicked you out. Now, IDs please."

I sighed once more. Even though I had gotten famous and was literally the only human running around town, the Guild still wanted to see my ID. We handed over our ugly faces and got checked in.

"You're good. You need to be careful in there since you haven't Advanced. You sure you want to do this?" the Guild employee asked.

"I'm fine. It needs to be done," I replied with a shrug.

The employee shook her head. "I won't even ask. I know you four are odd when I heard you were spotted lugging a big, worthless control crystal around. Everything's set. You're free to wait inside the inn until the other party leaves. You can go in and set up camp after."

We bade the employee farewell and started to head toward the interior of the inn when I heard someone shout. "Hey! It's dickless and his crew!"

I turned and saw the cougar-clan woman I bumped into at the guild and her party exiting the dungeon. I gave them a wave. "How you doing, mangy? And the three stooges also look well."

The four of them let out a hearty chuckle. The cougar-clan woman then spoke. "Good to see you. I noticed you haven't Advanced yet. You sure you want to go in there and fight the spiders?"

"No!" Tizek shouted.

The other party looked at each other in silent communication for a brief moment before the fox-clan woman in the party spoke in a consoling tone. "Scared of spiders, eh? I was, too, until I fought a few in there. They're not that bad. No venom and just a little creepy."

"It'll be easy," the cougar-clan woman continued. "We left two of the side tunnels untouched. The spiderlings are at the low end of Advancement 1, so you'll be able to damage them. I'd recommend against the princess spider boss."

"Why were you in there anyway?" Void asked as she gestured toward their necklaces. "You guys are Advancement 3."

The otter-clan man clamped a hand on the fox-clan woman. "Erin here is getting married in a couple of months and she wanted to get some spider silk for the dress."

"Oh, you the lucky man?" Lia said, pointing to the last one, the badger clan man.

He gave a huge laugh. "By the Grand Creator, no. Erin's my first cousin. Leave that disgusting practice to the people out in Daulien."

"He's a dud who works in the library," Erin, the fox-clan woman said. "A nice, safe desk job for when the kids come."

"You know, I never caught your name. I'm Oliver," I said, realizing out of all the times I literally ran into them outside the Exterminator's Guild HQ, I never asked their names. Void, Lia and Tizek all introduced themselves as well.

"You already got Erin's name," the cougar-clan woman said. "I'm Tessa. The slippery otter is Reid and the sour badger is Yuri."

"Good to meet you all," I said. "That said, thanks for leaving a few for us. Sorry to cut this short, but we'd like to get started as soon as possible."

We bid farewell to the group and made our way into the dungeon. Like most subterranean dungeons run by the Guild, if there wasn't a natural lighting source like glowing fungus, the Guild installed lighting to help navigate the area. The ample illumination revealed a cavern system similar to what I recall seeing on a trip to Florida Caverns up in the panhandle. The wet, glistening rock was brown with stalactites and stalagmites peppering the ceiling and floor.

The difference between the caverns from home and here were the copious amounts of spiderwebs. These webs weren't appropriate for my project since they were delicate and had no valuable use outside the dungeon.

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The entryway was clear since Tessa's party had cleared it out earlier in the day, leaving little beyond the tapping echo of our boots on the stone floor to keep us company. Void took point to keep an eye out for traps, which the dungeon guide warned us about, with Lia close in behind to jump in for a fight if needed. We knew it wasn't since the monsters here wouldn't respawn for another six hours.

Next in line was Tizek. Or it should have been. He was currently clamped to my back and looking around like a terrified child. He had a slight tremor and I could hear his heavy breathing as he walked close in behind me.

I gave him a reassuring pat on his hand. "Buddy? There aren't any spiders here right now. We'll get to the camp without seeing any."

I saw one of Tizek's scaly hands reach past me and point at the webs. "Where did those come from then?"

I rolled my eyes. "Tessa just got finished telling us she killed the spiders in the entry tunnel. They spun the webs."

"Oh," Tizek said. He continued to remain glued to my back as we made our way to the campsite.

The campsite was situated in a central vaulted cavern much like the one at Mermaid Falls. The main difference is the terrain was slick, uneven rock. The camp itself was on a raised wooden platform under a shelter. It didn't have a bathing area since, starting with Advancement 1, the dungeons this close to Leoren were popular enough where it was nigh impossible to get multiple nights for a reservation.

After dropping off our gear, I convinced the group to head down one of the tunnels Tessa's party hadn't entered. I'd prefer getting some extra buffer stock of the silk in case something went wrong. It was already a huge gamble with the one and only control crystal and I didn't want to make a bigger problem for myself later.

It didn't take long to find our first spider. It was crouching next to a stalagmite about 50 meters away. Seeing it was fairly easy in the light, especially because of its coloration. The spider was about the size of a medium dog and had a white carapace. On the top of its abdomen it had a black hourglass shape. It was like a reverse black widow spider.

"Shouldn't Tizek kill this one? Maybe it'll help him with his fear," Lia suggested as the spider clacked away, oblivious to our presence. Lia was also shaking at the sight of the dog-sized spider.

"I don't want to," Tizek whined as he cowered behind me. I had to admit, seeing a spider that size was creepy. I was never one to turn on the special arachnophobia filter in games back home, but now I understood why it existed.

I pulled out my Guild ID and had Void charge it up. I then went into the menus and found the guide to Silk Caverns. "Huh, this is simple. Tizek? How about I wound it first so it can't do anything?"

"It's not that bad," Lia said with a brief hitch in her voice. She clearly didn't believe her own words.

"We'll back you up," Void added. She was far more comfortable with the spider in the distance.

"How are you going to wound it?" Tizek asked.

"According to the guide, the spider's joints are weak. I'll shoot an arrow into a couple of legs to keep it from moving around too much. Then you can crush it with your mace. I bet you'd feel better squishing a spider." I strung my bow and prepared an arrow. If he didn't want to, I'd still draw it in. It would be a good idea to pull them one at a time if we ran into groups.

I heard Tizek swallow hard. "I'll try."

"I'll stand out in front and draw it to me. Lia? Void? Please stand back so Tizek has some incentive to fight it. Otherwise, I'm going to get eaten and I'll have to start this mess all over from the castle basement," I said.

Void pulled her rapier. "I don't think so. I'll keep close to keep that from happening. I want to keep my memories." Lia also unstrapped her sword and got ready.

I took a few steps forward and shrugged out of Tizek's grip. I then drew my arrow and took aim at the spider. I took careful aim at a joint between the foreleg and the front section I figured had a fancy scientific name I didn't know. I was a physicist, not an arachnologist. I loosed the arrow and watched it streak toward the target.

With a thunk, the arrow impacted in the joint. The spider screamed with a loud hiss with an undertone of electric kettle whine. It then started to charge at me, dripping white ichor as it moved on its seven good legs. Damn, it was fast.

I only had time to get a second arrow off, which even with my extensive experience and calm only skipped harmlessly off its exoskeleton. Hitting a pissed off arachnid charging you wasn't easy.

"Any moment now, Tizek," I said as it moved closer. Then it jumped 25 meters and tackled me. I had a large spider on me trying to eat my face while I was pushing it back. Its fangs clamped down hard on my forearm bracer. Nasty saliva began to drain over the armor while I noticed a pain in the back of my head at my neck just under the helmet.

"My lord!" Tizek shouted. I also heard Lia and Void let out screams of panic as I fought back the bug monster. None of us were expecting it to leap with a bad leg like it had.

I was about to shout for someone to get it off me when a mace head streaked into view and slammed into the side of the spider's multi-eyed face. A boot containing the foot of a giant lizard then pounded into the monster and pushed it back. A massive war-cry followed with Tizek pushing the arachnid back with alternating strikes with his buckler and mace. He ended up pummeling the creature into a misty white goo which flew all over the cavern.

"It's dead," I said as I hefted myself up. I looked at my health bar and saw 20% missing which had turned an ugly grey. Thankfully it wasn't black since those took forever to clear. I was also dropping slowly from the bleeding from the wound I took to the back of my head. "Mind pausing beating the dead spider and heal me?"

Tizek turned back and his eyes went wide. He rushed over and cast his basic healing spell a few times. Unfortunately, it didn't do much for the trauma and I now had a bad headache. This world had an unusual healing. The world's ambient mana induced a minor healing factor. Short of losing a limb, wounds would close up with only minor scarring which could be completely cleared if you got to them fast enough with a tonic. Assuming you properly set the bone or sewed the laceration of course. You'd be more susceptible to damage though.

"I wasn't expecting that," Void said. "I'm sorry we didn't react sooner."

I waved them off. "Part of the learning process. I'm the fool for going out front without an Advancement. Now we know these things can jump."

"I'm definitely not interested in seeing the boss," Lia muttered. She was still in shock from the speed of the battle.

"No doubt," I said as my vision blurred. I was going to have a hard time hitting anything until the wound repaired itself. "Shit, guess I'm going to be useless for the rest of our trip."

Tizek lowered his head in shame. "In my first duty as your knight, I have failed."

I sighed. "Buddy, I lived. Failure is an opportunity to learn. You managed to get over your fear of spiders. Maybe I'll have to put myself in mortal danger every time."

"Don't you dare!" Void shouted a little too vigorously. She clamped her muzzle with her hands when she realized her emotional outburst.

"I wasn't serious," I backpedaled. "In any case, you managed to get a kill. The next few will still be scary, but you'll get more accustomed to it. Was crushing its carapace difficult?"

Tizek looked down at the battered spider remains and then at his ichor covered mace. "It felt easy."

"They are low-rated Advancement 1," I said. "Hard for me, easy for you. You ready to get a few more?"

Tizek nodded. "I will try."

"I'll go out front this time," Lia suggested and stepped forward. "We can't have you getting slowly eaten in here. It wouldn't be good for the spiders' health."

"Har har," I snarked. At least someone was having a good time at my expense. "Now someone get the mana core out so this gross drool can evaporate."

Tizek volunteered to get the core out and after he did, the spider vanished and a coil of spider silk formed from its mist. Based on the size of it, we'd need to kill around 50 spiders to make the array with enough left for spare coils.

The others and I agreed and we let Lia go forward with Void close behind to keep an eye out for traps. She ended up finding one, which proved to be a strange mat of webs. Void suggested it was one of the trap door spiders she read about in the guide. Lia's strategy was to use her Stalwart ability and let the spider jump out and slam into her. I objected to the strategy, which was overruled when it was pointed out I just let myself be used as a chew toy by a giant spider.

Lia held her greatsword with one hand on the grip and the other at the end of the tip like a makeshift barricade. She then toed a trip web just outside the trapdoor. The door flung open and a hairy white spider the size of a Great Dane launched from the gap at her. Its mandibles found purchase on the sword while the body ran hard into the immovable object that was Lia.

The spider folded partly into itself when it slammed into the Lia-wall with Lia only sliding backwards slightly from the impact. The arachnid didn't give up its attack even with its impact wounds and kept trying to bite through the wooden greatsword blade.

Lia huffed when a leg kicked out and struck her in the chest. It prompted Void to come in to help with Tizek slower to respond. The three showed their lack of coordination as they smacked on the twitching spider. We hadn't drilled in this sort of combat and they had gotten used to weak monsters like the mannows back at Mermaid Falls.

Void hacked off one of the spider's front legs and sent it flopping to the ground. The spider didn't like that much and released to turn to the object of its ire. When the spider released Lia's sword to engage Void, Lia took advantage of the lapse to slam the pommel of her sword into the side of the arachnid's head. I could hear the chitin cracking from back where I waited.

Tizek continued to waffle about going into the fight and only darted in with a half-hearted swing of his mace. Even with his weak effort, his physical enhancements from his high rating helped send the spider off-balance when his mace connected with a rear leg.

The downside of destabilizing the spider was it threw its attack off. Void was preparing to parry a strike to her torso when the monster lurched down. Its mandible managed to find the gap in her leg armor at her waist, causing Void to scream out in pain. I wanted desperately to help, but between the chaos of the fight and my concussion, I'd just as likely hit one of my friends with an arrow as the spider.

The scream snapped Tizek to fight through his arachnophobia. He gripped the spider's crippled rear leg and pulled. He managed to drag the spider away from Void long enough to give her chance to hobble backwards. Lia then used the opening to take a heavy downward chop along the spot between the front and back sections of the spider. A loud crack echoed out through the caverns when the sword impacted the chitin, sending the spider to the ground. Lia followed it up with a second strike to the top of the head, finally breaching the spider's armor. A third finished it off.

Tizek rushed over to heal Void while I moved at a wobbly pace to keep her upright. I looked down at the wound. "How much grey did you get from that?"

"None," Void responded. She flexed her leg after Tizek finished casting his healing spell. I could see her fur ripped out and her freshly healed pink skin showing underneath. "It was just a graze."

"Baby," I commented after seeing the minimal damage.

She snorted. "Not all of us are hundreds of years old."

"Lia? Tizek? You two unscathed?" I asked.

Lia adjusted her armor. "Just a little rattled and a small bit of health is gone. Nothing to worry about."

"I failed again," Tizek mumbled as he stared down at the dead spider.

"Buddy, you're not going to overcome a phobia with just two instances. It'll take a while."

"We also could have done that better," Lia added. "I think I could have pushed back with a pommel strike to keep it focused on me."

"And Tizek and I should have circled it from behind instead of fighting it from the front," Void added. She turned to me. "Has your head cleared enough to draw them in?"

My fuzziness still remained as did my tremble in my arm. "I can hit the spider but not anywhere critical."

"I think that will still work," Lia stated. "Just getting their attention will give me time to get used to how fast they move."

"Alright, let's see if we can get another one isolated to practice your teamwork," I said. I adjusted my bow and bade Lia to lead on. It was going to be a long, miserable evening. As much as I'd like to rest, we had to get as much spider silk as possible. I had no idea if my plan would work and I couldn't stop to let a mild concussion clear. Too much was riding on this project to waste time.