From the corner of his eye, Ben saw two blurs leaping from the wall toward Anne and Jamal. Before he could react, Michael used [Quickslash], cutting the spider flying toward Jamal in two. At the same time, Anne sidestepped with lightning speed and delivered a brutal elbow strike that sent the second beast crashing to the ground.

  Stone-Skin Spider. Young. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Uncommon Challenge.

  The spider was about half a meter large. Its skin was nearly indistinguishable from the cave walls. As Ben swung to finish it off, he understood where the name came from: he cut deep into its body, but it took significantly more force than expected. Very different from the bats on the previous level, where every hit had been lethal.

  “I hate spiders,” Jamal cursed.

  Ben nodded emphatically.

  “They’re almost invisible to me,” Anne said anxiously.

  “To me too. I think we’ll have to rely on Jamal’s [Guardian’s Sense] and Michael’s [Perceptive Mind] to avoid walking into traps,” Ben said.

  Allison kneeled beside the two corpses and carefully stabbed at their mandibles. “I’m not an expert, but this looks like venom to me.”

  Ben thought for a minute. He hadn’t been poisoned at all since the System appeared, so he didn’t know whether [Resilient Body] worked against it. Better to test it now.

  “I want to see how bad this venom is, and whether my perk protects against it.”

  Allison raised an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”

  Ben knelt beside her, took her knife—still bearing a drop of venom—and without further explanation, made a shallow cut on his arm.

  “You idiot!” his mother shouted and slapped him on the shoulder.

  Anne shook her head. “Did we not just talk about this?”

  Ben smiled and sat down. At first, nothing happened. After half a minute, he felt a burning sensation in his arm. Another minute later, his heart fluttered—but it passed quickly, so he wasn’t sure if it was the venom or just nerves. Then, nothing.

  He explained what he’d felt. Allison, still fuming, went back to the corpses and examined them further.

  “Again, not a biologist, but I think they have at least four times as much venom in a bite. Not sure how much more they can produce.”

  “So, one thing’s clear—we don’t want to get bitten. The pain could be debilitating, even if it doesn’t affect the heart,” Ben said. “Jamal leads with his shield. Michael stays close to the front and warns us. If things go south, I’ll push ahead and hope I can recover after the fight. Sound good?”

  “Just don’t be an idiot,” Allison snapped, still angry.

  Ben nodded and let it go.

  Their pace slowed to a crawl. Twice more they were ambushed—once by two spiders, once by three—but they managed to dispatch them both times without taking damage. Anne’s fast, close-combat style proved especially effective.

  After 90 minutes, the corridor widened, and they saw a full-blown cavern ahead.

  Michael carefully scouted and returned. “No spiders. Rare scorpion. Size of mole. Resource protector.”

  Ben turned to the others. “Not sure if we need to clear it, but should we go in?”

  “I don’t want to come back later,” Anne said.

  “If it’s just one ground-based enemy, we should be fine,” Allison agreed.

  Michael and Jamal nodded.

  “Great. Mom, how far out can you spread your roots?”

  “About ten meters, maybe.”

  After Michael confirmed the scorpion’s position, Ben laid out the plan. “We rush in. Mom casts roots as soon as possible. Jamal uses his shield to buy time. Michael and Anne flank. I’ll use [Cleave] the moment I get a clean hit—I don’t want to take any risks.”

  They crept to the cavern entrance. When it became clear they couldn’t hide further, the four melee fighters charged while Allison stayed back, casting [Growth Caller], the uncommon version of her first perk.

  The scorpion was at least two meters long—probably more with its raised tail. Its silvery, shimmering stinger waved threateningly overhead. Its reddish exoskeleton looked tough.

  Giant Iron-Pincer Scorpion. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Rare Challenge & Resource Protector.

  The plan worked. Allison’s roots held the beast long enough for them to close in. Though its stinger was still mobile, Jamal dodged the first strike and blocked the second. Anne landed a vicious heel kick to its back, cracking the armor. Michael struck the opening with his sword.

  Based on his experience with the mole, Ben decided to channel four Body points into his attack. He managed a deep wound near the head just as the scorpion broke free. The damage wasn’t lethal—but it was enough. With its exoskeleton compromised and its body wounded, the creature didn’t recover and died moments later.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “That was almost easy!” Jamal exclaimed.

  “Looks like Level Two is still very doable,” Ben said with a smile. He felt truly relieved.

  They rested while Ben recovered his attributes and harvested materials.

  Anne handled the scorpion, collecting the core and the metallic tail stinger.

  Meanwhile, Michael and Jamal used the available pickaxes and buckets to mine the back wall.

  They found:

  Coal. Mundane Ore. Tier 1. Common mining resource.

  “Now we just need a proper blacksmith’s workshop and we can start producing our own gear!” Allison said happily.

  As they dug deeper, Jamal called out. “Look at this.”

  He pointed to a new ore. It shimmered slightly, and Ben felt a faint Energy pressure from it—like other Energy-based phenomena.

  True Iron. Energy-infused Ore. Tier 1. Uncommon mining resource.

  “This is exciting. I’m sure this will help crafters build stronger weapons and armor.”

  They only managed to gather a few kilos of True Iron, but they were thrilled by the discovery.

  They were in high spirits.

  After a short while, they were back in the cavern with the portal to the first level and made their way down the second path. They resumed the same cautious formation they had used to explore the other branch.

  While their approach was the same, and the environment was unchanged, the danger level was not.

  They had barely made it a few minutes down the path when they triggered the first spider ambush. It was just three of the young variant, but at this point they had been in the dungeon for many hours, and it was only the beginning of a continuous onslaught.

  One hour later, they had killed close to thirty spiders and were nearing what looked like a small cavern. When Michael turned back to update them from his usual scouting position, Ben saw movement behind their teammate. At the same time, Jamal roared his [Taunt], reacting to the danger he sensed for his friend. But he was too far away. The three spiders closing in on Michael were undeterred.

  The team sprinted forward, Ben and Anne the fastest. While Jamal’s [Taunt] hadn’t affected the spiders, it had warned Michael, who dodged and weaved while retreating toward his team. He managed to kill one of the spiders, but another bit him in his relatively unprotected leg. He screamed in pain and fell to one knee. In that moment, Ben reached him and swung his axe at the spider with a solid hit, then bypassed Michael to interpose himself between his friend and the third attacker.

  When he looked up, he saw that more of the monsters had been alerted by the fight and were making their way out of the cavern to join the attack. Anne took care of one of them quickly, just as Jamal appeared beside him and they closed ranks.

  "Healing potion administered!" Allison yelled from behind.

  Hopeful that his quiet friend would be fine, Ben focused on the battle ahead.

  It looked like they were facing another half-dozen spiders. One leapt at him from the left. He brought his axe up, impaled the beast with the spike on top, and smashed it to the ground, breaking some of its legs. Anne finished it off with a quick kick.

  Unfortunately, she lost her balance as another spider attacked her from the side. She managed to catch herself, but not before the creature bit her arm, leaving a nasty, bleeding wound despite her [Hardened Skin] perk. She stumbled back, turning pale.

  "Mom, potion for Anne!" Ben shouted as he leapt at the spider, cutting it apart before it could strike again.

  Jamal roared his [Taunt] again, and the remaining four spiders focused on him. Two were caught in roots emerging from the stone below and were crushed.

  Jamal disoriented one with a shield bash and cut it down. Ben finished the last spider.

  When he turned around, Allison was holding a potion flask to Anne’s mouth.

  "How are you?" he asked Michael, who was sitting with his back against the corridor wall, looking ragged.

  "OK. Need to recover."

  "Did the poison affect your heart?" Jamal asked.

  Michael nodded and closed his eyes to rest.

  Ben turned to his mother and Anne. Anne gave him a weak smile and a thumbs up. "The potion works quite well. But this venom hurts like hell, I can tell you that much."

  Ben nodded sympathetically. "Take all the time you need."

  He left Jamal with the others and checked the cavern ahead. It was relatively small, empty, and a dead end. He returned and stood vigil over the group as they rested.

  "Mom, how many more potions do we have?"

  "Two. If we manage not to get surprised anymore, we should be fine. Otherwise, this could get nasty."

  Ben nodded. "This part of the second level is intense. I have to believe we’re getting close to the end."

  They weren’t close to the end.

  Another hour after resuming, they were down another potion—this time for Jamal—and the constant fighting, combined with having been on their feet for close to 24 hours, was taking its toll. But no one wanted to give up or sleep in the dungeon. The hope that the next corner would lead to the end kept them pushing forward, though the breaks they took after each fight grew longer.

  They came to another cavern. Michael returned from scouting. "Large, curved, can’t see the end. About a dozen spiders visible."

  "This feels like it could be the end. And it feels like there are more than a dozen spiders in there. Most likely a rare variant again." The others nodded at Ben’s comment. "We agreed to see this through. We have plenty of practice now. Let’s pull them to the cavern entrance. Jamal, try to time your [Taunt] so a large number are on the ground. Mom, let’s try the trick again where the crow distracts the leader as long as possible."

  They approached the cavern. The moment they appeared, the spiders ran and leapt toward them. The initial clash went well, but seconds later, three spiders leapt at Anne simultaneously. She managed to strike one down, Jamal pushed another aside with his shield, but the third bit her, its venom dripping mandibles tearing into her. Allison closed the formation gap with a well-timed casting of [Growth Caller], catching and eliminating four spiders.

  As Ben repositioned to cover Anne, he saw another wave of spiders approaching, and behind them, around the curve of the cavern, came their leader.

  Stone-Skin Spider. Leader. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Epic Challenge.

  The monster was huge. Easily two meters tall and four meters wide.

  Damn. Epic, not rare. Fear threatened to grip him, but he managed to stay [Calm].

  Allison’s crow attacked the beast but was swiped from the air in seconds.

  "Taunt, roots! I push forward until Anne is back, then close up with me!"