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One spider rushed them from the start.

Loner dashed forward and landed a single punch that sent the spider skittering back like a bull rammed into it. The goblin skeleton didn’t let up on the bony fist-pummeling until he turned the spider’s face and torso into mush.

The second spider crept forward more carefully. Loner turned his back on the monster and walked past Gilbert and the girls. He thrust a bony thumb back at the second spider before turning about and leaning coolly against the wall.

Loner remained behind and relaxed while Gilbert led the girls into another haphazard charge.

They suffered some hits – Bianca had her leg kicked and her foot twisted the wrong way. By the time Gilbert and Hannah had the spider pinned and battered, Bianca reentered the fight, hopping on one foot, sword flashing and hacking. She kept screaming about a handsome elf husband and wearing dresses to royal balls.

They defeated another Level 17 stalker. No level up

Gilbert wasn’t sure if this dungeon crawl was a bright idea without more experience. He wanted to see the numbers rise for all this effort.

He didn’t complain, though. He healed up their trio of a party, waited for them all to catch their breath, then pushed on.

Next up came three spiders. This time, Loner distracted two by alternating between them with punches.

Gilbert and the girls fought the third spider with better coordination than the last two fights. Gilbert also recognized the monsters’ combative patterns now. Hannah called out before thrusting spear. Bianca kept her Searing Flash ready for the right moment before they initiated a complete takedown.

The spider died with no one getting injured. Then they immediately crashed down on one of the two remaining spiders and killed it. Loner kept the other occupied and screwed that spider’s day royally.

Loner finished the last one, and Gilbert focused on healing.

Hannah refreshed the enchantments. Things were looking good until Bianca shouted in warning about red dots on the mini-map.

Five enemies were scuttling in their direction fast.

“We can’t,” Hannah gasped.

“We can!” Bianca screamed.

“Lord, if this is the end, then so be it,” Gilbert grunted, rushing forward.

The girls chased after him. Without even having to hear the warning, Gilbert closed his eyes and covered his face with his shield.

“Searing Flash!”

The world became white. Then Gilbert crashed full-tilt with all his weight and speed into a spider.

He felt the spider’s face crunch as his shoulder popped out of the socket from behind the shield. Gilbert roared before he doubled-up on the shield bash and popped his shoulder back in place, his Basic Healing kicking in.

He was still a little blinded from Bianca’s Searing Flash, but the blurry shape in front of him was big enough for his mace to land on something.

Bianca and Loner were the only ones unaffected by Searing Flash. She could avoid the nitty, gritty upfront fighting and hack at the spider’s legs on his shield side. Hannah only joined when she had better vision, then she thrust her spear at the spider to help drive it to its death.

They turned rapidly to their second spider before it could recover from the flash. Bianca did the damndest thing and shouted “Searing Flash!” for the second time.

She’d never done that before. Her skill was so potent she couldn’t normally use it more than once in a major fight. She must’ve leveled up the skill or improved on something.

Gilbert barely covered his face in time before the world turned searing white. His shield ram clipped the next spider’s legs instead of the main body and barreled the creature over.

Unfortunately, he tripped over it and got all tangled up. Once he knew the spider was under him, Gilbert grabbed onto its sharp hairs and shield bashed down at its fanged face.

“Gonna help Loner!” Bianca shouted, dashing by.

“Give me five seconds, Gilbert!” Hannah said, still recovering from the second flash.

Gilbert might not have five seconds, but he kept slamming his shield down like his Extra Life depended on it.

The monster kept thrashing and trying to buck him off. But it was disorientated and in a compromised position, stuck on its back.

Everything was softer on its belly, easier to break and squish. The mouth parts turned into minced mush before Hannah ran in and thrust the thing dead with her sharpened spear.

“If you can get it on its back, the belly is easier to damage!” Gilbert shouted, untangling himself from the curled up legs.

Hannah helped him out. Together, they turned and found Bianca stumbling backward, holding her side with a hand.

Gilbert saw something awful and bloody under her hand as she waved her flashing sword around to ward away the third spider. Worse yet, there were still more spiders after the third when Gilbert was already tired. Hannah looked miserable, yet she set her face to a determined expression anyway.

Let’s go do God’s work, Gilbert thought.

The two ran in at the same time and gave the spider hell. Bianca had some breathing room to circle around and hack at the spider’s back legs. Then Gilbert tucked down and trucked forward, ramming his shield into the spider’s leg joints before pushing with all his Strength to flip it over.

Hannah shoved her spear into its mouth. Bianca hacked at the legs from one side, while Gilbert bashed at them from the other with his mace. They closed in on the belly once they disabled the legs.

The third spider died.

With no break, Gilbert and the girls hit the fourth spider. The humans were slow, bloodied, and lethargic. Bianca had bite wounds on her side. She needed healing badly.

Yet, she kept pushing. She said those two words of hers with some emphasis:

“Searing Flash!”

This time, Gilbert twisted around and covered his face with his shield and his forearm. He was still blinded a little, but less so than before. Hannah had followed his example. While the spiders suffered severe blindness, the trio banded against the fourth and beat down on it like savages.

Technique went out the window.

They just struck and struck and struck until the thing was dead.

Loner watched them, the fifth spider laying dead behind him. The encounter ended with a delirious cry that may or may not have come from Gilbert.

Bianca fell over. Gilbert crashed down next to her, hands over her wounded side. He used his Basic Healing.

The spider bite became a nonissue.

The poison remained a problem. It kept coursing through her body, leaving its damaging mark throughout her flesh.

Bianca’s face was as red as blood as she suffered. Gilbert kept her alive through it all, pumping his Basic Healing even while he felt wrung out.

Something had to give, and that turned out to be the poison. Bianca sweated some of it out. She vomited the rest to the side. Gilbert looked down in disgust at the bloody vomit and tiny chunks of congealed poison.

This was some hardcore shit.

“I’m alive,” Bianca said, coughing and sputtering.

“This is hell,” Hannah said.

“I leveled up, personally and with my healing,” Gilbert muttered. “I finally got some fucking levels.”

“Same,” Bianca moaned.

“I can choose a class now,” Hannah added.

Gilbert felt chills down his spine. Bianca looked horrible, but she sat upright and wide-eyed.

Classes were game changers. Depending on what Hannah picked, she could go from a magical mortal to a magical beast of a woman. Just like Naomi.

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“I’m checking my options. It’s … extensive. There’s an epic class that caught my eye. However, it looks like more of a utility support class. Runic Enchantress Novice.”

“Do you like it?” Bianca asked.

“Yes,” Hannah said. “I’ll receive one uncommon trait and one rare trait. My Basic Enchantment will change to Enchantment. And I’ll have two skill choices, but I doubt any of them will be very combat oriented.”

Gilbert groaned. They needed more combat stuff. But an epic class like that sounded like a good fit for Hannah.

Bianca, despite her condition, said the most logical thing. “What do you mean it won’t be very combat oriented? Zarian called you amazing. He loves your enchanting. Why not do more of the same, but way better with an epic class?”

Gilbert looked at his weapons. They held up damn well because of Hannah’s Basic Enchantment. How better would they be when she had an epic class to back it?

“Yeah, what Bianca said. Make that class count,” Gilbert drawled.

Hannah picked the Runic Enchantress Novice class. Gilbert and the girls rested while Loner watched over them. Gilbert provided more healing once he recovered his aura.

Hannah took some time to get a handle on her new traits and skills. They sounded brainy and complicated.

Once she was ready, Hannah laid some runes on Gilbert’s mace and lit it on fire. He didn’t even feel the heat, but Hannah swore it would work as a major weakness against the spiders.

Next, Hannah tinkered with Bianca’s magic flashy sword and said it could now give light-damage on contact.

“Zarian was right. You are awesome,” Gilbert said, feeling like a young boy again.

He was never a geek growing up, more of a jock or playboy. But even he had once thought it was cool to wield flaming weapons.

Then Bianca activated her sword, and it shone with a contained intensity clinging to the blade. It looked like a curved lightsaber now.

Gilbert’s fire mace felt less impressive. He didn’t let that drag down his rising mood.

In fact, Gilbert felt a new fire burn in his gut. I want to get my class!

The next spiders Gilbert and the girls met received a way harder and badder beating than the spiders before them. Gilbert and the girls still took some licks of their own, but they bounced back faster and with more vigor.

As things improved, Gilbert started to wonder if he and the girls could catch up to Naomi. She wouldn’t be able to play all high and mighty over the three of them anymore if they were all on the same level.

What about catching up to Zarian?

Gilbert couldn’t imagine it.

Naomi was more within reach. She needed Zarian’s help just like everybody else. Hell, Gilbert imagined she was taking things slowly and leaning on her skeleton minions way more if she was on her own.

***

Naomi realized a few hours into the spider dungeon exercise that punching the monsters in the heads while using Mind Spike did way more damage. She theorized that the direct transfer of psychic energy to the target eliminated waste and increased killing potency.

Or maybe the Star System was a freak and liked to reward daring actions.

Naomi didn’t care enough to dig further into the how and why. She was having fun committing full-tilt to the insanity.

She ran up the wall and kicked into a backflip over a charging spider. The creature extended its legs up on the wall, raising up to follow her ascent and downward arc.

When Naomi landed behind the spider, she bolted at it with more speed than her pre-system body could ever fathom.

The spiders had a bad habit of staying in one spot while rotating around. They also liked to lift their legs up and bare their fangs before springing into attack, as if to make her hesitate with fear alone.

Naomi laughed in their faces and punched them right in their milky white eyes.

Her Mind Spike struck one hundred percent. The spider didn’t scream, but Naomi imagined it would if it could talk as the spider’s brain melted inside of its head.

Then Naomi followed up with another punch to complete the one-two combo down the middle. Another burst of brain-violating energy turned the insides of the spider’s head into bloody mush.

Just like that, it collapsed. Naomi was already on the move as another spider lunged at her from behind.

She jumped into a cartwheel, which should’ve been impractical. But her body was strong and quick, mighty and light. She stuck the landing perfectly like a superhuman gymnast even though she had never trained gymnastics.

She didn’t feel the same fear as she would before. Having so much Willpower protected her emotions, her ego, her mentality. Especially when she had Tranquil Mind activated.

Sometimes she didn’t even need it.

She was the perfect killer. She was Zarian’s right-hand woman. She admired the young man even if he was an insufferable idiot sometimes.

He valued her toughness, her wildness, her loyalty. He valued how she was a bit of a freak with a mean streak a mile long when given a reason to go on the attack.

She really was a devil dog, his devil dog.

Hell, her nature showed with how her minions acted around her. The skeletons did nothing but distract the extra spiders. They gave her plenty of time to dash, lunge, flip around, and punch spider brains into bloody goop.

Whomp! Mind Spike!

Whomp! Mind Spike!

Whomp! Mind Spike!

She still had her pistol, gun belt, and extra magazines. She hadn’t felt the need to draw them for a while now. Chances were, they wouldn’t do very well against these monsters.

Her body and abilities were deadlier than a gun.

Her fists were bloody, the skin scraped raw. Her arms hurt from the impacts on hard monster carapaces. Her body was on fire from moving constantly.

Sometimes she would take too many risks and come out with some mean scrapes. She had no healer. She bled red like any human. Still, she punched. Still, she kept killing.

She only took breaks where it was obvious her aura ran low. That was a pain because it took her a while to recover. She lacked heavily in the Mysticism stat, relying more on Willpower, Strength, and Agility. The skeletons became more useful during her breaks when she needed to recover aura.

Then she was back to the action.

When she leveled up, she stopped to celebrate with a little saucy dance, her hips swinging! That one felt deserved. Hell, her two skills had gone up in levels, too.

Tranquil Mind had been a good friend, especially when she learned to flicker it on and off. Mind Spike was her hero even if it meant her fists were growing numb from repeat impacts.

Saving her fists from further abuse, Naomi threw out kicks she’d learned from kickboxing lessons a while ago. It wasn’t as sharp and crisp as her punches. It was riskier, too.

But her kicks landed harder.

Sometimes, it delivered one-shot kills with her Mind Spike. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.

She treated the giant spiders like the bugs they were and squashed them under her. That remained the case until someone new interrupted her pest control work and celebratory dances.

“My dear, you have to be the most dashing human I’ve seen at your level,” said a suave, smooth, deep voice to Naomi’s left.

She whirled around, bloody fists raised. Her shoes were gone, torn apart after all they’d gone through.

She’d clenched her toes in anticipation of kicking someone in the head and blasting their brains out of their ears and nostrils. Her minions gathered around her, ready to support.

She waited as a man walked out from a shadowy side passage. He was different from any man or creature Naomi had ever seen.

He had a presence about him that was … powerful. The atmosphere felt a little suffocating, even. Her breathing became a struggle.

Naomi relied on her Tranquil Mind even more.

“It’s okay. I understand your reactions. You haven’t seen my kind before, I imagine.” The strange, monstrous man bowed. “My name is Ekri the Tailor, and I am a fine tailor.”

“You have eight eyes, spider fangs, and a spider’s butt,” Naomi said, matter-of-fact. “If you’re a tailor, call me the Star Core Queen.”

“Oh, ho, ho! I may have fangs, but you are the one who bites the hardest, my dear.”

Ekri spread six arms wide. He had pale white skin, from what Naomi could tell based on the color of his face and hands.

The rest of him was dressed all dapper in a three-piece suit and polished shoes. Somehow, his outfit worked out well with his six arms. Behind him, the coat split where a miniature web-maker extended like a ballooned-up tail.

“What … are you?” Naomi asked.

“A drider, my dear, of the evil alignment, fortunately and unfortunately.” Ekri moved his hands into a blur and suddenly conjured a thick rope swing made of spiderwebs attached to the ceiling.

He sat comfortably, legs crossed at the knee, one foot pushing him back and forth idly. He folded his six hands on his knee and smiled at her.

“I’m busy killing your cousins.” Naomi shifted aggressively. “You got a problem with that or what?”

“Well, they’re very distant cousins attached to the System’s machinations, the dungeons, I mean. And besides, they only have half my charm and none of the looks, so I don’t blame you. Though you must humor me before I let you continue.”

Ekri swung back and forth on his makeshift spider web swing.

Naomi tensed up even more. Her minions braced themselves.

With a huff, she asked, “What do you want?”

“I wish to see you strut,” Ekri said. “Just imagine, would you, that I fashioned you an unbelievable dress. One that would capture your dynamic likeness, your wild eccentricities, your primal urges. Imagine, would you, the perfect dress made for you. Or for someone you fancy that would love to see it on you.”

Naomi chewed on what he was saying. Then she barked out with a laugh.

This situation was ridiculous.

Her nerves were stretched taut even with the Tranquil Mind skill, so the laugh was warranted to ease her up. She felt even bolder now while at a clear disadvantage.

“What if I don’t?”

“Well, I’ll do the usual evil thing and turn you into a pretty dress. My client in Castle Grimrock pays extra for that sort of thing even though I find it such a bore.”

Naomi froze for a split second, not out of fear but realization. If she’d heard correctly, Ekri’s client at Castle Grimrock could be one of two people. Either Foodie or the Grimrock Warlock.

Foodie didn’t strike Naomi as the dress-up doll type.

So it had to be the wicked mother.

“You got yourself a deal if you can tell me more about this client of yours,” Naomi said, ignoring the threat of becoming a dress. All she could think about was gaining more ground on the main quest, their big future operation to kill a warlock and free a legendary cook. “Fair warning, I’ve never done much runway modeling. I’m more of a military woman.”

“Great! Start with your standard march. Then I shall coach you. In fact, consider this as free training. You’ll be surprised by how well the art of stylish walking translates to murder and combat. Now, let us begin!”

Ekri clapped his hands like he was turning on the lights and signaling the start of an act. The spotlight was on Naomi, so she played her role.

Naomi marched for Ekri the Tailor without interruptions. When he saw enough, he coached her on walking with more style.

Her strides gradually changed into something so goofy and extravagant, Naomi struggled. For the first time in a while, Naomi felt embarrassed while others were watching.

The skeletons couldn’t talk. Yet she felt their empty eye sockets judging her. They better not rattle up a tale and tattle to Zarian and the others. Or Naomi would turn their bones into broth.

I’m just making myself all goofy to help with the main quest. This has nothing to do with me wanting to have a killer walk that’ll make Bianca jealous and steal more attention my way. No siree! This ain’t no ego thing. This is all for the cause! And look, I’m getting better at this!

Naomi caught one minion laughing in her direction. She ran over and kicked him so hard she knocked his head off. Then she ran back to strutting like a peacock as Ekri coached her further.

The minions didn’t laugh in her direction again.

She kept monitoring them periodically. As long as the skeletons were standing, Zarian was fine. He was probably having an easier time than her and the other party members.