Chapter 4

Earth
Gatineau Park Dungeon, Quebec
August 12, 2019
11:41 EDT

While the first level was fairly well lit, the second was in complete darkness. Luckily, we came prepared and each carried a few light globes. Light globes are clear crystalline spheres that light up when you channel mana into them. They’re quite durable, so you can channel mana into them and then throw them to light up an area. Or drop them at your feet if you’re under attack. A fully charged light globe can stay active for around ten minutes before needing to be recharged.

We lit up our light globes and didn’t make it more than ten feet before seeing signs of what we would be facing on this level. The walls were covered in spider webs. We continued on and a couple of minutes later came across a massive chamber. I wanted to see what we were getting into.

“Charge up your light globes and throw them around the chamber.”

Each of us threw a light globe around the chamber, and as they flew we could see the room take shape. It was oval shaped and was even more covered in webs than the tunnel leading here was. All around the room I could see holes in the webbing that reminded me of funnel webs I had seen when growing up. They were usually found in grass and were wide at one end, and narrower in the other, similar to a funnel. After making the web, the spider would wait at the narrow end waiting for prey to wander into the opposite end. When they felt prey walking on their web, they would strike.

Thankfully the ceiling was bare, so we wouldn’t have to worry about spiders dropping on top of us. The funnels stopped about halfway up the wall, but there were a lot of them. In the center of the room, there was a funnel web that dwarfed the ones around the room. I didn’t see any other large openings around the room, so the tunnel to the third level is probably through there.

“Looks like we’re dealing with funnel web spiders. If I were a betting man, I’d bet that we’ll find the third level under that huge funnel in the middle,” I said, pointing at it. “Everyone ready?”

“Let’s go. The sooner we get through this level, the better. I hate spiders,” Anja complained. Everyone else was ready so we got started.

“Alright, let’s see if we can’t bait a bunch of spiders out into the open. I’ll take this side, and you take the other side, Mace. Anja, Sonja, keep an eye out. Make sure nothing comes up behind us. Anja, use Stealth if you need to, I doubt we’ll need Precognition in this room.”

Stealth is the other skill Anja learned during her evaluation. It allows her to blend into the shadows, making it harder for things to perceive her. She used it a few times in the first level of the dungeon, and unless you were looking for her, you couldn’t see her. It drains mana while active, but she can maintain it for a good 60 seconds or so at a time. As she gets stronger, she’ll be able to maintain it even longer.

Mason and I slowly inched forward. We were walking on a floor of solid rock, but there were webs attached to it at various points When I was directly in front of one of the funnels, I turned my shield towards it, ready to block an attack from a spider. I used the blunt end of my spear and ran it along the strands of silk and a large dog-sized spider shot out of the funnel. I managed to spin my spear around in time, causing it to impale itself on it, the spear going right through it’s cephalothorax.

It screeched as it died, and that seemed to signal the rest of the spiders to come out of their funnels and attack. Mason saw an opportunity to leap in to a bunch of grouped up spiders, so he took it. When he landed, blood and spider parts went flying around him.

I put my booted foot on the spider I killed and yanked my spear free. Just before it came free, I saw a spider leaping towards me out of the corner of my eye. Before I could react, I felt the fletching of an arrow brush the back of my head and pierce the spider between the eyes, killing it instantly. It was still flying through the air, so I had to raise my shield to block it. It hit the shield and fell to the ground.

I gave Sonja a quick nod and looked for the closest spider. I saw one and used Barbed Spear. My spear doubled in length and impaled the spider. My aim was off, so I hit its abdomen rather than its thorax. I pulled on the spear and it shortened to its regular length, pulling the spider along with it. When it got close, I stepped forward and used Shield Bash, stunning it and doing a small amount of damage. Taking advantage of the stun, I yanked my spear free and pierced it through its head.

It took us a few minutes to clean up all the spiders and allowed us to test our skills some more. Sonja was especially good at killing them, either with her bow or her katana. One of the skills she got is a toggled ability called Windblade. While toggled, it allows her to project her melee attacks forward as sharp blades of wind. The blades dissipate after about 30 feet, but they easily cut through swathes of spiders. As long as one of us wasn’t in the way, she was even better than Mason at killing them.

It seemed like we weren’t going to be attacked by the floor boss of this level right away, so we walked around the room picking up all the mana crystal shards. We got about 43 total, which means we killed 43 in spiders. Every creature killed in a dungeon is guaranteed to drop a Mana Crystal Shard, Mana Gem or Mana Crystal. Regular dungeon creatures, like the bats, wolves and spiders that are killed drop Mana Crystal Shards, floor bosses drop Mana Gems, and dungeon bosses drop Mana Crystals. The shards that we’ve collected are only used in enchantments when they’re ground up into a powder. 20 of these ones sell for about 1 credit, which isn’t a whole lot, though there are higher quality ones that sell for a whole lot more. The mana gem on the other hand, will probably sell for 10 credits, depending on how much mana it can store. Mana Gems are usually used in jewelry or in other equipment to allow people to store a greater amount of mana. Whenever they’re full on mana, they can transfer it to a Mana Gem for use later on.

Mana Crystals are larger than Mana Gems, and are much more expensive. They’re usually used in machines that are built to draw in ambient mana, or allow the user to channel mana into them to power said machinery. You’ll often find them in cars and generators, acting like rechargeable batteries. They can also be cut up into smaller pieces, though they tend to lose some of their efficiency.

Mana gemmed equipment would be particularly good for Ben and Anja, since they both use a lot of mana. Ben with his Auras, and Anja with Precognition and Stealth. If they ran out of mana in combat, they could siphon power from a mana gem to replenish a bit of mana and continue using their skills.

We took a few minutes so everyone could regenerate all their mana. When everyone was ready, I channeled mana into two more light globes. I threw one about 20 feet in front of the large funnel in the ground in front of us. The spider didn’t come out of its hole, so I threw the other globe into the funnel. That got its attention and it barreled out.

I started running at it with Mason and Anja following close by. When I got within about 20 feet, I used Barbed Spear to get greater reach and impaled the spider’s thorax. I pulled on it which launched me at the spider. It had some pretty nasty fangs and looked like it wanted to bite me. I wasn’t going to give it the chance. When I got in range, I used Shield Bash to stun it.

Rather than take the time to pull my spear free, I let it go and took my xiphos out of its scabbard. I hacked at the spider’s front left leg but was surprised when I didn’t go right through it. The spider didn’t like that one bit and tried biting me again. I blocked its attempt with my shield and gave its front left leg another hack. This time it cut right through and the spider screeched in pain.

The spider reared up on its back four legs and used its three remaining front legs to try to knock me over. I fell to one knee while staying under my shield and was amazed to see that the leg I had severed was slowly regenerating. Everyone else wasn’t idle at this point. Sonja was peppering it with arrows and Mason and Anja were attacking its body. Compared to the other spiders which were quite weak, this one had a very durable carapace.

“Ben, activate Aura of Flame. Mace, Anja, go for it’s legs!” I shouted.

I doubted it would be able to regenerate a leg if the end was cauterized, and this was our opportunity to find out. The ends of our weapons caught fire. Mace must have hurt it which cause it to turn towards him. I got up and hacked at another of its legs. I was also amazed to see that the blade of my spear that was still stuck in the spider’s carapace had caught on fire too. We had each managed to cut off one of its legs while we were affected by Aura of Flame. It now only had four healthy legs left and was struggling to stay standing.

Anja decided to try to finish the fight. She put away her katana and drew her stilettos. She jumped up on the spider causing it to collapse on the floor, unable to lift its own weight and that of Anja on, only four legs. Anja proceeded to stab the spider anywhere she could, which wasn’t easy with the thrashing it was doing trying to force her off it. Mason and I continued to hack at its body while Sonja peppered it with arrows whenever she had an opening. Eventually it stopped thrashing, laboring to move. Anja moved up its thorax and thrust her stilettos through its eyes and into its brain, finally killing it.

She climbed off the corpse of the dead spider as it started to disappear, being absorbed back into the dungeon. Anja picked up the mana gem and we all spread out to pick up all the light globes. It took us a few minutes to find all of them, since by now some had lost power, and some got kicked around during all the fighting. Once we retrieved them all, we walked into the funnel the floor boss came out of, which was conveniently lit up by the light globe I threw in there to get the spider’s attention. I picked it up and we walked through a short tunnel leading to some stairs. When we arrived at the bottom of the stairs, another waygate lit up, saving our progress.

None of us had leveled on that floor since there weren’t nearly as many monsters as the first one. We did do a lot of fighting, so we did take a short break to take another drink and grab a snack. It is important to stay hydrated, after all.

We continued on after our break and could easily detect a change in humidity on this level. It was also noticeably warmer, though still just as dark as the previous level, which meant the light globes were staying out. We walked through the winding tunnel for quite a while before it finally opened into small chamber. Curled up on the ground were a small number of massively overgrown snakes. Judging by the color and pattern, and my limited knowledge of snakes, I thought they were Black Rat Snakes. With them being curled up, I couldn’t guess at how long they were, but they were definitely big enough to swallow a human whole, after constricting them to death.

Unfortunately the light caused them to stir, not giving us any time to plan. I dropped my light globe over to the side and slowly moved in with my shield out in front, and my spear at the ready. As if I passed some sort of invisible line, the closest snake suddenly shot forward. I raised my shield to block it, but the force threw me back a couple of feet. It did allow both Mason and Anja to sever its head with their combined efforts, leaving two snakes.

Sonja was firing arrows at the one in the back, which kept it focused on her, allowing the rest of us to deal with the other one. I led the way to see if this snake would do the same thing. Apparently it wasn’t going to take the bait and it tried circling us instead. I kept my shield facing its head and the others stayed behind me, waiting for it to strike. It seemed content to just circle us and then I realized what it was doing. I used Barbed Spear followed by Shield Bash to stun it.

Seeing me move in, Ben activated Aura of Flame, and Mason and Anja took advantage if it being stunned. I pulled out my xiphos and hacked at it. It tried to constrict Ben and myself, but we managed to sever it in a number of places before it could do any damage. I looked over to see how Sonja was doing and was surprised to see a gory mass of flesh and bones rather than a large snake. She had her katana in her hand, so it appears that Windblade made short work of it.

We picked up the mana crystal shards and continued on. There ended up being seven more rooms to go through before we reached the floor boss. The amount of snakes in each room varied, but we didn’t have any trouble. All they could really do is strike and try to constrict. The first I could easily block with my shield, even if it did tend to send me flying more often than not. The second was just situational awareness.

It took us ten minutes or so of walking before we finally arrived at the chamber with the floor boss in it. It was very dark, so we all threw our light globes to see if we could get an idea of its layout. Unfortunately, the room was a lot bigger than the spider chamber on the previous floor as the furthest light globe didn’t go more than halfway across the room. What we could see, however, is a ten foot wide bridge made out of stone, that crosses over a pretty big body of water. If this level continued on with the pattern of the other levels, where the floor boss was a bigger version of regular creatures, then we were facing a snake. With the amount of water in this room, and only one way to cross, I’m guessing a water snake.

I lit up two more light globes and handed them to Mace, one at a time. “Hey Mace, throw these as far as you can on either side of the bridge.”

“Got it.”

His throws went a lot further than I was expecting them to, but I guess that is a result of his perks. He threw them hard enough for them to bounce off the back wall of the chamber and land in the water. Still, they did the job and allowed us to see the room a lot better. I didn’t see anything move when he threw the globes, so I figured the snake was submerged under water.