Date: January 2, 2018 | Time: 9:48 AM
Location: The Adventurer's Guild – Sylvaris Central District
Perspective: Lucas
The air in the Guild of Sylvaris always felt a bit too thin, beside me, Celia was tapping her foot.
Marcus shifted behind the mahogany counter, his hands trembling as he adjusted his spectacles. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but under our collective gaze.
"I-I really must insist," Marcus stammered, his voice barely a whisper.
"The B-rank request for the Scarred Crater... it's high-graded. Extremely dangerous. The guild guidelines suggest at least three full parties for a subterranean raid of this scale. To go in as a duo... it's almost suicidal."
I leaned forward, my shadow stretching across his desk.
"Marcus, buddy, look at us. Do we look like the type of people who need a babysitter? We're not here to 'participate.' We're here to clear it."
"B-but the risk—"
"Sylvia explicitly mentioned we have special privileges regarding quest scaling," I lied smoothly, catching Celia's smirk out of the corner of my eye.
Marcus blinked, looking like he'd been slapped. "The Guild Master? She... she didn't mention that to me, but—"
Celia stepped closer, "It doesn't matter what she said, accountant. If a few overgrown bugs are enough to stop us, then this world isn't worth living in anyway. Just give us the location."
Marcus let out a long, defeated sigh, his shoulders slumping. "A-alright. If you're truly set on this path... but don't say I didn't warn you."
The Lore of the Scarred Crater
He pulled out a map, his finger tracing a jagged line between the cities of Rinascita and Sylvaris.
"The Scarred Crater," Marcus began, his voice taking on a hushed, reverent tone.
"It's a wound on the face of Celestine. Hundreds of years ago, during the Great Divide, the gods of the Elves and the Demons didn't just lead their armies—they clashed personally. That hole was punched into the earth by a literal divine strike. Since then, it's become a breeding ground for things that shouldn't exist. The deep-earth mana has mutated the local insect life. Lately, they've started climbing. They're attacking the trade bridge above. We need the source neutralized."
"We've sent a party before… but they haven't returned."
I glanced at Celia. "Annoying pests."
"They're probably squishy," Celia replied, her voice dripping with boredom. "I hate squishy things."
"Just wait until you see the green slime they call blood," I teased as we walked toward the teleportation chamber. "It gets everywhere. Smells like you."
"Ew! Lucas, shut up!" she snapped. "If you get guts on my hair, I'm killing you after the monsters."
The Descent
The teleportation circle flared with white light, and a second later, the stagnant guild air was replaced by a biting, high-altitude wind. We stood on the wooden bridge, a massive structure of rope and ancient timber spanning a chasm so deep the bottom was lost in a purple-black haze.
Pulling the climbing cord from my jacket.
I tossed it to Celia. She wrapped the cord around a massive, gnarled tree at the edge of the cliff, then used her Cursed chains to anchor it further, the metal links biting into the wood like fangs.
"After you, 'Sorcerer,'" she mocked, leaning over the ledge.
"You know, I heard these types of insects like to lay eggs," I said, kicking off the edge and rappelling down. "Something about the color white makes them think it's a giant larvae."
"I hate you! So much!" her voice echoed down the crater, followed by the sharp shing of her descending right behind me.
The Heart of the Hive
As we reached the floor, the world changed. The light from above was a distant, mocking pinprick. The walls were narrow—tight enough that I could reach out and touch both sides if I stretched. It was suffocatingly claustrophobic, the air thick with the smell of damp earth and something sweet and sickly, like fermenting fruit.
I summoned my Light Daggers.
Skritch. Skritch.
The sound was everywhere. Above us, behind us, inside the walls.
"Ugh, it's disgusting down here," Celia hissed, her red eyes darting around. "It feels... oily."
Suddenly, the wall 10 feet ahead of us shifted. It wasn't a rock. It was a leg.
A massive, multi-jointed creature pulled itself from a crevice. It was a nightmare of evolution—pale, translucent exoskeleton that showed the pulsing green organs beneath. Its head was a cluster of black, unblinking eyes, and its mandibles clicked with a sound like breaking bones. It moved with a sickening, jittery grace, clinging to the vertical wall as if gravity were a suggestion.
「 Scythe-Mantis Stalker. High-speed wall-running. Uses its smaller offspring as a carpet of distraction while it strikes for the neck. Suggestion: Don't get eaten. It would be embarrassing for my records. 」
"Lucas..." Celia whispered, her voice low and dangerous. "Look down."
The floor was moving. Hundreds of smaller versions—the size of dogs—were rushing toward us, a sea of chittering legs and snapping jaws.
I flipped my daggers into a reverse grip, the Celestial mana roaring to life. Beside me, Celia dropped into a low crouch, her thorny chains hovering around her like silver snakes ready to strike.
"Don't blink, Celia, one can be on your face"
"Shut up and kill them," she retorted, the air around her darkening with Cursed energy. "I want to see how many I can snap at once."
The swarm hit.
Celia was already a whirlwind of silver and shadow. Her chains erupted from the back of her hair, snapping out like metallic vipers.
"Get! Away! From! Me!" she shrieked, her voice a mix of genuine lethality and pure, unadulterated disgust. Every time a smaller insect leaped, a chain-link whip caught it mid-air, crushing the exoskeleton with a wet crunch.
She used the chains to vault herself off a wall, spinning upside down as thorned vines extended from her palms.
Splat. Squish. Crack.
"Ew, ew, ew! Lucas, one touched my heel! It's sticky!" She landed, immediately wiping her foot on the stone floor while simultaneously decapitating three more.
Alright, my turn to look cool.
The big one—Scythe-Mantis—hissed, its mandibles clicking in a rhythm that sounded suspiciously like a threat. It lunged, its translucent legs blurring.
「 Warning: Target is faster than your current caffeine levels can handle. Suggestion: Be fast. 」
Thanks, System. Super helpful.
"Lightstep II," I muttered.
The world slowed. The 175% speed boost kicked in, my veins humming with Celestial mana. I didn't just move; I flickered. As the Mantis's serrated leg sliced the air where my head had been, I was already behind it.
I whipped out my Light Daggers, the blades humming. I slashed at its joints, but the blade skipped off the reinforced exoskeleton.
「 Analysis: 20%. Surface armor is high-density. You're hitting a tank with a toothpick. Try harder. 」
The Stalker spun with impossible agility, its tail whipping around. I crossed my arms, calling on mana.
A shimmering, golden geometric barrier flared into existence. The tail slammed into it, the impact vibrating through my bones, but the barrier held. The monster seemed confused—Celestial magic didn't taste like the usual mana it fed on.
I didn't give it time to think. I leaped backward, creating distance in the narrow corridor. "System, find me the gap."
「 Analysis: 65%. The creature's underside lacks the chitinous plating. Suggestion: Stop being a coward and get under it. 」
Under it? You want me to go under the giant, acid-dripping bug?
The Mantis lunged again, spitting a glob of neon-green acid. I twisted mid-air, my third skill—Light Magic (Mirrors)—activating. I summoned four crystalline shards of light, positioning them at precise angles around the monster's head.
"Reflect," I commanded.
The light from my daggers bounced off the mirrors, intensifying into a blinding strobe that disoriented the creature. It shrieked, rearing back on its hind legs.
「 Analysis: 100%. Weakness identified: The soft neural cluster behind the second head segment. Also, Celia is about to lose it. Finish it. 」
"Lucas! I'm done with these things!" Celia screamed. She looked like she was about to cry from pure annoyance. She threw her hands out, her red eyes burning.
"Flamma Inferni Vinculum!"
Her chains didn't just rattle; they ignited. Dark, Cursed fire erupted along the metal links, turning her Withering Scar into a cage of burning thorns. The chains lashed out, wrapping around the Stalker's legs and torso, pinning it against the wall. The smell of burning bug meat was somehow worse than the raw stench.
"Now!" she yelled.
I dashed forward, sliding on the slick floor—directly under the pinned beast. I adjusted the mirrors one last time, focusing all my mana into a single point.
"Supernova Reflection."
A beam of concentrated light blasted upward, punching through the soft tissue and blowing the Stalker's brain out through the top of its skull. I followed up with a clean horizontal sweep of my daggers, slicing the head completely off.
The massive body slumped, the Cursed fire flickering out. Seeing their "parent" turned into a glowing heap of charcoal and goo, the remaining smaller insects let out a collective chitter of terror and vanished into the crevices of the walls.
Silence returned to the crater, broken only by the sound of something wet dripping.
I stood up, panting. I looked down.
I was covered—head to toe—in thick, neon-green slime. It was warm. It was vibrating. It was... everywhere.
"System," I whispered, my soul leaving my body.
"Clean. Use the cleaning function. Now."
「 Error 404: Maid Protocol not found. I am an advanced AI, not a wet-vac. Deal with it, slime-boy. 」
"You literal piece of—"
"LUCAS!"
I turned. Celia was standing there, her lower lip trembling. She had a single, dime-sized drop of green goo on her pristine white hair and a smudge on her cheek.
"Look at my hair!" she wailed, her eyes welled up with tears.
"It's ruined! It's disgusting! I can smell it! I'm going to vomit, I'm actually going to die!"
I looked at her. Then I looked at myself—basically a human glow-stick. A slow, mischievous grin spread across my face.
"Oh, you think that's bad?" I reached down, scooped up a handful of the viscous sludge, and held it out. "Check out this texture, sis. It's like... jelly. But sentient."
"Don't you dare," she hissed, backing away. "Lucas, if you touch me, I will use a Forbidden Curse. I swear to the Gods—"
Fwip.
I flicked a glob of it at her. It landed right on her shoulder with a sickening thwack.
Celia froze. Her face went from pale to a shade of red that rivaled her eyes.
"You... you... BASTARD!"
She lunged, not with magic, but with her bare hands, grabbing a clump of goo off the floor and hurling it at my face. "Taste it! See how you like it!"
"Hey! Watch the eyes!" I laughed, ducking and weaving as we devolved into a full-blown goo-fight in the middle of a monster-infested crater.
Eventually, we both slumped against the cave wall, panting and covered in green filth.
"Okay, okay," I wheezed, wiping my forehead. "Truce."
"I hate you," she pouted, trying to pick the slime out of her hair. "I'm telling Kaiser you tried to kill me with goo."
"He'll probably just laugh." I stood up, focusing my mana. This time, I didn't ask the system. I tapped into my Elemental Magic.
"Water Torrent. Gale Burst."
A pressurized stream of water swirled around us, scrubbing the goo away, followed immediately by a warm blast of air that dried our clothes and hair in seconds.
Celia shook her head, her white hair falling back into its perfect, fluffy shape. She checked her reflection in one of my lingering light mirrors and huffed.
"Better. But you're still buying me dessert after this."
"Deal," I said, my expression hardening as I looked deeper into the tunnel. The path ahead was dark, and the "suspicious noises" Marcus mentioned were getting louder.
"But let's finish the job first. I'm picking up something bigger than bugs down there."
We stepped forward, side-by-side, the light of my daggers cutting a path into the unknown.
I watched Celia walk back to the heap of mangled chitin and cooling green slime. She nudged a twitching leg with the toe of her boot, her expression unreadable.
"Ascend," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the dripping sounds of the cave.
Wait, what?
"Uh, Celia? What are you doing? Checking for a pulse or just being weird?" I asked, leaning against the damp wall.
She didn't look back. "Just making sure it's going where it belongs, Lucas."
Bro, What does 'ascend' even mean in this context? The only thing that bug is ascending to is the great compost heap in the sky.
「 Correction: Based on her mana fluctuations, she's probably just making sure it's dead enough to not bite her again. Also, you look like a dork standing there. Move. 」
"Shut up, System."
We pushed deeper. The narrow walls of the corridor started to widen, but not in a way that felt "roomy." It felt exposed. Massive, thick strands of webbing began to crisscross the path—silky, translucent ropes that looked strong enough to trip a horse.
The sound followed us: a rhythmic click-clack-click, like thousands of knitting needles hitting stone.
This is some straight-up horror vibes, I mused.
If a giant spider jumps out…
System, give me some light before I walk into a face-full of spider spit. And hit the vision upgrade.
「 Request acknowledged. Daggers set to 'High Beam.' Activating Visionary Sight: Perfect Dark Vision. 」
The blades in my hands pulsed, the Celestial light sharpening into a focused, steady glow. My eyes adjusted instantly; the pitch-black abyss ahead shifted into a high-contrast, monochrome landscape. The tunnel sloped sharply downward, vanishing into a massive cavern that smelled like a graveyard.
"So," I said, as we ducked under a particularly sticky-looking string. "After we finish this bug-extermination gig... dinner? I'm thinking fried chicken. Something crispy. Definitely not green."
Celia let out a small, dry laugh. "Chicken? How mundane. I want something rich. Roasted venison. Or maybe just a very large cake."
"A cake? For dinner? You're such a child."
"It has more calories than your greasy chicken, 'Hero.'"
Suddenly, the click-clack stopped.
Celia and I moved in perfect sync, diving behind a jagged rock formation as a shadow stretched across the cavern floor. I felt my heart hammer against my ribs—not out of fear, but that sharp, electric spike of adrenaline.
I peered over the edge of the rock.
It wasn't just a spider. It was... something else.
The lower half was a nightmare of obsidian legs and a bloated abdomen, but emerging from the thorax was the upper torso of a woman—pale, greyish skin, and arms that ended in elongated, scythe-like claws. Her hair was a matted mess of webbing and filth, and six bulbous, black eyes dotted her forehead, blinking independently.
She reached out with a clawed hand, snatching a stray drone insect that was scurrying by. She didn't bite it. She just... squeezed.
What in the dark-souls-hell is that?
「 [Target: Arachne Matriarch - Rank B+] 」the System chimed, its tone unusually sharp.
「 [She is the 'Mother' of this sector. High intelligence, lethal neurotoxins, and a very bad attitude. Suggestion: Don't get hugged.] 」
I whispered to Celia, "It's a Matriarch. She's the boss."
Celia's red eyes were fixed on the creature. "She's disgusting. Look at how she moves... it's insulting."
We followed at a distance, sticking to the shadows as the crater opened up into a massive, hollowed-out dome. My breath hitched. The ceiling was draped in a sea of thick, white webs, and hanging from them like morbid Christmas ornaments were cocoons. Dozens of them.
Some were small. Some were the size of men.
"The missing C-rank party," I muttered, my jaw tightening. Marcus hadn't been exaggerating.
In the center of the room, the Matriarch approached a fresh cocoon. With a delicate, sickening movement, she sliced the webbing open.
A man tumbled out—his armor was cracked, his face a mask of pure terror. He was conscious.
"Please..." he gasped, his voice a broken wreck. "Help... someone..."
The Matriarch leaned down, her human-like face inches from his. She didn't kill him. She tilted her head, and a long, needle-like tongue flicked out, piercing the side of his neck.
The man's body jerked. His eyes rolled back, and thick, neon-green saliva began to leak from his mouth, bubbling as the neurotoxin turned his insides while he was still alive. He tried to scream, but the sound was just a wet, gurgling choked noise.
Then came the sound. Thousands of tiny skritches.
From the shadows of the eggs littering the floor, hundreds of spiderlings—no bigger than dinner plates—swarmed forward. They didn't wait for him to die. They began to climb over his twitching legs, their tiny mandibles nipping at his flesh.
I started to stand up, my daggers flaring. "We have to—"
A cold, firm hand clamped onto my shoulder. Celia pulled me back down behind the rock, her grip like iron.
"He's already gone, Lucas," she said, her voice devoid of any warmth. "Look at the green in his eyes. The poison has already reached his brain. If you jump out now, you're just dying for a corpse."
"He's screaming, Celia."
"He's a warning," she countered, her red eyes reflecting the dim light of the eggs.
"We don't win by being 'heroes' for the dead. We win by being the monsters that kill the Mother. Prioritize the target. We need a way to hit her hard before the swarm realizes we're here."
I looked back at the man. His hand reached out one last time before a wave of spiderlings covered his face.
Damn it.
I gripped my daggers. Celia was right. The cold, hard logic of this world was a bitter pill, but I wasn't going to let that man's death be for nothing.
System, analyze the web structural integrity. I want to know exactly how much fire it takes to bring this whole ceiling down on her head.
「 Calculating... Analysis at 45%. Warning: If you burn the ceiling, you're trapped in here with her. 」
"Good," I muttered. "I don't want her escaping anyway."
The Matriarch didn't just crawl; she vibrated, her many eyes locking onto us with a predatory gleam that made my skin crawl.
"Lucas, stay ready," Celia hissed, her chains already beginning to uncoil like metallic snakes from her back.
Bro, I'm literally holding daggers of light. I am the definition of ready, I thought, though my heart was doing a drum solo against my ribs.
The Matriarch moved. It wasn't a lunge; it was a blur. Suddenly, the air was filled with a high-pitched thrumming sound. I didn't see the strings until they caught the light of my daggers—nearly invisible, silver filaments stretched across the air like razor wire.
Celia ducked, a string whistling over her head and slicing a jagged line into the stone wall behind her. She adapted instantly, her chains whipping out to deflect the next volley.
"They're sharp! Don't let them touch you!"
I tried to blink away using Lightstep II, but the Matriarch was smarter than the bugs. She had pre-threaded the area. As I pivoted, a string I hadn't seen caught me across the left shoulder.
It didn't just cut; it burned.
"Agh—!" I stumbled, my vision blurring instantly. A dark, sickly purple hue began to spread from the wound.
「 Warning: Neurotoxin detected. Heart rate: 160 BPM. You're currently dying. 」
"Lucas!" Celia's voice was sharp with a panic. She slammed her fist into the ground, sending a wave of Cursed thorns toward the boss to keep it back.
"Are you okay?! Talk to me!"
"Fine!" I wheezed, clenching my teeth. My heart felt like it was trying to exit through my throat. "Just... give me a second!"
The Matriarch hissed, a terrifyingly human-like smirk twisting her face as she saw me falter. She ignored my thorns and went straight for Celia, her scythe-claws clashing against Celia's chains. Celia was a whirlwind of rage, her chains glowing with a dark, necrotic energy as she parried a dozen strikes at once.
"Get. Away. From. Him!" Celia roared. She found an opening and lunged forward, her fist connecting squarely with the Matriarch's grey jaw.
CRACK.
But the smirk didn't leave the monster's face. As Celia's hand made contact, the Matriarch's strings wrapped around Celia's wrist like a tightening noose, jerking her violently toward those clicking mandibles.
"System," I growled, my hand hovering over my glowing shoulder. "Full heal. Now. Use Divine Protection: Poison Nullification and Adaptive Venom Synthesis."
「 Acknowledged. Initiating 'Please Don't Die' protocol. Mana consumption: Significant. 」
A surge of golden, Celestial mana flooded my system. The burning in my shoulder vanished, replaced by a cool, numbing sensation as the poison was neutralized and converted into raw energy. I felt the surge hit my daggers.
"Let her go!"
I didn't walk; I evaporated. With Lightstep II at max output, I became a streak of white light. I appeared in the Matriarch's blind spot, my mirrors manifesting in a circular formation around her.
"Reflect: Omni-Directional Execution!"
The mirrors caught the light of my daggers, bouncing the blades into a thousand directions at once. I moved through the light, my daggers a blur of silver. I carved through her obsidian legs, then her thorax, literally slicing the Matriarch into segments.
She let out a soul-piercing shriek, her body falling apart, but in her death throes, she tilted her head back and spat a massive glob of concentrated green bile directly at my chest.
"Not today!" Celia's voice rang out. Her chains, freed from the monster's grip, lashed upward. They wrapped around the Matriarch's neck, the cursed thorns digging deep into the grey flesh.
"Chill," Celia commanded.
She didn't just use her chains. She infused them with Elemental Ice. The moisture in the air crystallized instantly. The frost raced up the chains, turning the Matriarch's neck—and the remaining pieces of her body—into a brittle, frozen statue. The poison glob she'd spat froze mid-air and shattered like glass before it could hit me.
The cavern went silent. The frozen head of the Matriarch tipped over and hit the floor, shattering into a thousand icy shards.
I stood there, panting, my daggers slowly dimming. Celia retracted her chains, her chest heaving as she wiped a streak of monster guts from her cheek. She looked at me, her red eyes softening just a fraction.
I held out my hand. She looked at it for a second, then gave me a firm, satisfying fist-bump.
"The pests," she muttered, looking at the carnage.
"Yeah," I laughed breathlessly. "Just another day at the office."
I glanced at my HUD.
[Current Time: 11:32 AM]
The nest was a ruin. I snapped my fingers, sending a small spark of fire into the remaining webs and eggs. The dry silk caught instantly, a cleansing orange flame sweeping through the ceiling and floor, turning the nightmare into ash.
As the smoke cleared, we saw the tunnel didn't end here. It sloped even further down, glowing with a faint, crystalline blue light from deep within the earth.
「 Notification: Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! You've survived a B+ Rank encounter. Your stats have increased. You are now officially 15% less of a loser. 」
You bronze kid shut up.
I smiled, feeling the new strength humming under my skin. I looked at Celia, who was already staring into the depths, her red eyes narrowed with curiosity.
"Only getting stronger from here," I said, my voice echoing in the growing dark.
"Then let's go," she replied, her chains rattling softly.
We stepped over the charred remains of the Matriarch and descended into the blue glow.