Chapter 3

Out of respect for our companions in the room next to us, the ladies and I refrained from engaging in any sexual activities. We felt we had seen some progress with how Kat’ilth’ana had been reacting to the group and me. Not only that, we thought that rescuing her might have gained a positive reaction from her. The last thing we needed was to be set back in all that progress by having her overhear our activities. That said, neither Amenthia nor Entivala attempted to dress in a way to hamper it. They wore their underwear, but I had to try and ignore the sensation of their bare breasts pressing into my sides.

I at least tried to maintain some decorum by wearing pants to bed, to prevent them from being enticed, but I could tell that just proximity to me and my touch was getting to them. We eventually went to sleep, though it did take some time for my body to calm down enough for me to surrender to sleep. My dreams were free of messages from anyone, as well as free from the darker manifestations of my fears. Normally, sleeping with Amenthia and Entivala kept things like that at bay, but lately my worries of what could be coming had begun to break through the comfort my lovers gave me.

I knew that nothing would stop me from protecting them, even if it meant my life. I knew they felt the same in regard to me, though I hated the idea of that coming to pass. There were times that I worried that perhaps the speed with which we had been moving was too fast. That we had allowed our lust to push us forward before the love we spoke of had time to grow naturally. However, when I would look over at them and see the look in their eyes, all I saw was love. Sure, there were times that lust filled their eyes, but between it all was love and adoration. I had never had such feelings in my past life; had only wished it would happen.

As I woke the next morning, I noticed that there was a unique sensation pulling me out of my sleep. As I became more aware of what was going on, I realized what the sensation was and opened my eyes. Before me were Amenthia and Entivala. No longer next to me, but instead lying on my legs. My pants were no longer at my waist, but rather bundled around my ankles. They had also freed me of my underwear and were taking turns enjoying my morning erection. They were whispering to one another as they would take turns sucking and licking my shaft. At times, they would both lick a side of it, while other times, it was one sucking my dick as the other would concentrate on my balls.

It took a little while before they noticed that I was awake and looking at them. Both of them blushed at getting caught, but they didn’t stop what they were doing.

“Sorry, Pathios,” Amenthia said, while Enti took her turn. “We really were trying to be good, but this morning we saw it and figured if we were quiet, maybe we could at least suck it.”

Amenthia took her turn while Enti said, “Please don’t be mad. You were so amazing yesterday, and you know how much it affects us to see you be heroic like that.”

I was about to reply when I felt a familiar sensation begin building. Enti saw my reaction and went down to assist Amenthia and, a few moments later, I began to unload into Amenthia’s mouth. She swallowed a few shots of it before she held the rest in her mouth. She showed me how much she still had in her mouth before pulling Entivala into a kiss, giving the elf her share of my spend. When they were done, both had a look of happiness on their faces and smiled at me. I had been surprised that I hadn’t made any sound, given how intense it had felt.

“Thank you, my loves,” I said to them both softly. “Your attentions were both pleasurable and appreciated. When we are able to be truly alone, I will make sure to spend ample time doing the same to both of you. For now, let’s get ready to have our morning meal and then head towards the south western forest.”

We got dressed and checked to see if the others were up before we went downstairs. They weren’t in their room and we found them a few minutes later, sitting in the dining room. It looked like Kat’ilth’ana hadn’t slept well at all, despite not being in the room with us. Cassandra, on the other hand, looked to be happy and well rested. I didn’t want to press Kat’ilth’ana, as she looked irritable and confused. I felt that we made some progress yesterday and I didn’t want to cause any loss to that progress.

We made our orders and ate in relative silence. When our meal was completed, we began discussing the plan for today.

“We will get the rest of our gear and head to the southwestern forest. Since that is where people have been reported missing or narrowly escaping an attack by our targets. I would think it is a lot like what we thwarted last night as we were returning to the village. However, I would not be surprised if we are assaulted by groups of Arachni instead of a lone spider. So, we need to be ready to face groups of enemies and we will have to watch one another’s back if we are to succeed.”

Kat’ilth’ana grimaced with mild irritation and asked, “Why should we even bother? Shouldn’t you be trying to get further into the Dungeon?”

“It is true that the goal should be to progress in the Dungeon,” I said with a nod. “That said, we have taken a quest from the Guild to deal with this and so we will attempt to fulfill it to the best of our ability. Not just for the reward, but first and foremost because we need to protect these people.”

Kat’ilth’ana looked at me strangely, as if she were trying to see if I was being truthful or just saying it to make her think I cared. Nothing I had said was changing her mind, but I was certain my actions had done. With the discussion over, we made our way back upstairs and armed ourselves. I checked the charge on my sword and was pleased to see all three gems were glowing. I suspected that I would be using all of my charges before this quest was done. Fully armed and ready for the day, we left our rooms and the inn.

It took us ten minutes to get to the southern gate of the village and a quick glance at the floor map told me we would be another hour or two before we reached the edge of our target forest. I wasn’t at all surprised to see a lack of creatures between the village and the forest. I was starting to think that the Arachni were using them to make themselves stronger. Because we had arrived after their attacks had begun, I had no way to gauge the difference. As we neared the edge of the woods, I had Entivala bring up her map display so that we could have an idea of what we were walking into. Due to the dense nature of this particular forest, it made it extremely difficult to tell anything.

“Everyone keep sharp and look everywhere, “I said as I drew my blade from its scabbard. “These things could be in a bush, up in the trees, or even buried in the dirt. Spiders are both resourceful and insidious that way.”

Everyone nodded silently, even Kat’ilth’ana, which surprised me. Slowly I started moving into the edge of the woods, with Kat’ilth’ana, Amenthia and Enti in the center, with Cassandra bringing up the rear. I kept my eyes moving around, darting to any area an unexpected sound originated from. Due to the density of trees, the forest was rather dark and ominous despite it being mid-morning. The forest itself was kidney shaped and was around ten kilometers in length. It was smaller than the last one, but we needed to comb every meter to be sure we didn’t miss anything. We used our standard movement pattern for when we were grinding for drops.

Over the next few hours, we went through almost a third of the forest, but only came across two “??” of Kobolds and a pack of wolves. My gut told me we were on the right track because there were too few mobs for the distance we had covered. I had wondered if this floor had been more thinly infested than the first two, but Cassandra assured me that there had been far more when she had been here with her previous Pact house. I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach. To be able to get rid of so many mobs, plus the respawns, meant that the Arachni could have a significant force. I began to question if we might be in over our heads.

I had noticed there were signs of us approaching our quarry. Wisps of webbing dangled from the trees overhead, far too large to be made by a normal sized spider. I gestured to them and everyone saw and nodded in response. We continued along our path slowly, but still didn’t run across any further signs. We located a safe zone within the forest and made our way there. We were fortunate to find it unoccupied and we set up to have our mid-day meal.

I shook my head, “We should have come across some more signs by now. Something to lead us towards them. Instead, it feels like they are out of reach. Hiding in the shadows, watching us in order to find a way to successfully attack.”

“That would mean an intelligence that is far higher than they should have,” Cassandra replied. “The Arachni that I came across were a bit of a challenge, but no more intelligent than any of the fauna you might run into. It doesn’t seem possible for them to have this drastic a change.”

“Normally I would agree with you,” Amenthia said with a frustrated sigh. “The problem is that they could have changed that much. “T” was manipulated in some way allowing it to subtly get strong enough to survive an attack by adventurers. Thus, instead of dying and a dragon being respawned, it grew unnaturally powerful.”

I nodded, “I was thinking the same thing, my dear. Perhaps the Arachni on this floor have a queen and she has been the one who was altered? Thus, the changes would carry over to any of her new brood. Perhaps instead of being solitary like most arachnids, they have been trained to have more of an ant or bee mentality. A queen who has her drones carry out her will?”

I was surprised when Kat’ilth’ana spoke up and said, “I don’t know about whatever these arachnids you are speaking about are. However, these Arachni do have a drone mentality, so your supposition is not out of the realm of possibility.”

I glanced over and saw her staring back at me; a neutral look was on her face. I nodded in acknowledgment, knowing that anything I would say could cause her to react negatively. She surprised me again by nodding back and then returning to her meal.

Just as we were finishing, I noticed a red dot appear and then disappear on Enti’s map. It was for the briefest of moments, so I believed that it had been a trick of the mind. Then I saw two more flash and then disappear. I gestured to gather their attention, pressing a finger to my lips, and pointing to Entivala’s map display. We watched for a moment or two before the briefest of flashes occurred again. From their positions, I would assume that there were two or three circling the safe zone.

We got our weapons ready and were about to attack when we felt the ground begin to give way underneath us. We had only moments before we fell into a dark tunnel beneath us and landed with a painful thud. I landed on my back and got the wind knocked out of me. Amenthia landed hard on her side, but the others were able to land in a way that allowed them to still be upright. It was a good thing, as well, since we had less than a second to react before two Arachni attacked us. Enti cast a fireball down the tunnel she was facing, striking the large spider as well as two behind it before it continued down the tunnel.

The fur on their bodies caught fire and the creatures uttered strange cries of pain. Kat’ilth’ana cast some of her own innate magic and sealed the tunnel with vines, barring our enemies from entering. Amenthia had been able to get up and began shooting arrows at the burning arachnids and, one after one, they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“Well,” I exclaimed as I tried to catch my breath. “I think we know how they are capturing people and taking out the monsters that usually are here.”

I picked up my sword and turned to nod at Kat’ilth’ana. She nodded in response and I thought I saw the hint of a blush on her cheeks. I chalked it up to her being a bit flush from the adrenaline and I once again took point. I could hear the Arachni banging against the wall of vines and I knew that we would not have long before they would break through. I started down the open tunnel keeping my eye out for possible surprise attacks. I knew that Enti and Amenthia would collect the drops as we went so, I didn’t bother gathering anything as I went by.

Despite my lower perception, I activated my map for a second to see if there would be an overlay of the possible tunnels. I was happy to find that some of the tunnels appeared on the map, but it still wasn’t very much information to go with.

“Pathios, you let me figure out our path,” Enti said from behind me. “You just focus on keeping us alive. This could get ugly for us really fast.”

I nodded and slowly pressed forward. We moved in a tight formation and I followed the directions given by Entivala. I was surprised by one instance where Kat’ilth’ana spoke up and suggested we go down the opposite path when we arrived at a fork. As we passed, she had brushed against one of the many roots sticking out along the tunnel walls and was able to sense along the root path. The path Entivala showed was set with a strap that would place us in a cave in. There were two Arachni waiting for us down that path, as well.

The path she suggested would have a few more enemies, but they were in a larger cavern that would give us room to maneuver better. I looked back at her and nodded as we turned to go down her suggested path. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had been dishonest, but my gut was telling me she was focusing on her own survival rather than on my demise. Her words proved true as we came across a cavern with alcoves along the upper walls. Kat’ilth’ana moved along a nearby wall to her left and touched one of the roots having out of it.

“There are two enemies up there,” she whispered, gesturing to a large alcove just above us. “Those two over there house one each, but I cannot tell if there are any on the other side of the room.”

I nodded and looked at the others, who all nodded in return. Enti began to draw her mana, causing a spark to flash in her hand. Slowly the spark grew and became an ember the size of a baseball. As she prepared her spell, Amenthia prepared her bow, grabbing two arrows. One, she held in her hand while the other was nocked, ready to be unleashed at the first sign of our foes. With another nod Entivala threw her fireball up into the first alcove. It exploded in a blast of yellows and reds that illuminated the area, as the screams of their targets filled the air. A moment later, two very charred Arachni fell from their hiding spot, landing on the ground with a thud. A second later, they curled up and disappeared in a puff of black smoke.