20 020 – The First Web

The night soon passed, and with dawn came the sounds of the forest coming to life with the new day.

Lucian climbed out of his tent as the chirping birds made it impossible for him to remain in his trance any longer.

He looked out to the vast lake where numerous beasts were gathering, birds and eagles swarmed the forest canopy keeping steady eyes on the water.

Predatory beasts and beasts of prey walked a set distance away from each other, with none disturbing the sanctity of the lake.

Several beasts walked right past Lucian as he sat on the banks, they looked on at him with predatory gazes, but a slight pulse of aura from Diego sent them scattering, creating a small empty area around their group of three that no creature dared to disturb.

A few hours passed before the creatures started to scatter, some predators hot on the tails of their favourite game.

'Well at least those beasts are eating well,' he inwardly groaned as he sat off to the side and lifted his mask a little to take a bite of some dry bread and tried to resist the urge to spit it out.

"Master coachman, head into the noble estate today and gather some fresh supplies so that we may enjoy a decent meal this evening and tomorrow morning, that shall be your duty every day until we leave this place," he ordered.

"As you wish my prince," the coachman answered with a deep bow.

After emptying out his flask with warm tea Lucian filled it with water from the lake and made his way to the dungeon portal.

"My prince," Diego called out.

"Oh, not this again Diego," Lucian sighed as he turned to look at him, "If this is going to be a repeat of what we spoke of yesterday then save your breath," he said pointedly.

Diego frowned and slowly shook his, "… be careful once you enter, the creatures of the dungeon are merely one part of the dangers, the environment can change a lot, and there have been those that hold deadly traps within,"

"Although rare, there have been occurrences when even orange-cored adventures fell to a trap in an E-rank dungeon,"

"No matter how much you know of the dungeons never let your guard down for a second or it shall be the death of you," Diego advised, despite looking at Lucian like he was already a dead man.

Lucian nodded in appreciation of the advice, before grabbing his bag of supplies and stepping into the grey portal.

Lucian's vision swam with spots of darkness as he passed through the portal, it was like walking through a thick veil of goop, when his foot found solid ground.

He stepped forward and tried to look around only to be met with a dense darkness, he reached into the bag to pull out a torch, and as he pulled it out his elbow hit a stone wall.

Lucian met a bit of resistance when he pulled his arm away from the wall, he quickly released a plume of transparent energy and a spark hit the torch causing it to light up.

The flames flickered to life and brought the tight space of a cavern into view, thick and aged cobwebs covered the walls, making the tight space feel even more cramped.

But the most important detail of all was the clacking sounds that suddenly echoed through the space, he looked to the webs and saw almost a dozen spiders almost as long as his arm creeping along the webs as their eight beady red eyes fixed on him.

Lucian ripped his arm free of the web that was holding onto him and gave the interior of the dungeon one final look before stepping back through the entrance.

---

Diego watched as his prince stepped through the portal, he was certain he would soon be returning to his original post on the royal guard any day now.

But barely a minute passed when he saw a flaming torch come out of the portal along with the prince he was charged to protect, and he couldn't help but wonder why he was surprised to see his prince return so soon.

He was after all the lazy prince; the real surprise should have been that he actually stepped into the portal without someone pushing him into the pit.

"How was your trip my prince?" he asked.

Lucian waved the torch a little before looking up at Diego with a raised brow, "Wipe off that smug tone of yours would you, and for the record, it was very insightful," Lucian grumbled as he walked into the shade of a tree and sat down.

He grabbed his elbow that still had a few strands of web attached to it and placed the web on his skin.

After a few minutes he felt a bit of numbness spread through his fingers, as his skin turned a little red like he got a sudden rash.

Spiders were known for their webs used to trap prey, but there were also many breeds that coated their webs in a paralytic poison, the poison a spider used would never be lethal.

When prey is caught in their web, spiders would inject them with a toxin that would liquify the insides of their body, and for that toxin to spread the prey needed to be alive otherwise the toxin wouldn't spread very well.

The paralytic poison was meant to make the job easier for the spider, nothing more.

'Ten minutes,' Lucian noted, that was how long it took for the toxin to take effect, he praised himself for being sensible enough to get out of there immediately, if he got caught up in those webs it would have been bad news.

Immediately he started brainstorming on how to deal with the spiders at the entrance, there were two obstacles he found, first the space was too cramped so he couldn't use his sword, he'd have to use the daggers which was fine, most of the sword kata's could be translated to a dagger.

The main problem was the webs, it was impossible to avoid getting caught in them, the space was too cramped and the webs were really tough to break.

He considered using fireballs to lite up the webs, but he didn't have the energy reserves, also he had to come up with a method to deflect any webs that the spiders themselves might sling at him.

'Dammit this is so much work,' Lucian sighed in exhaustion after a couple of minutes of thinking.

"I'll try again tomorrow," he announced to Diego and returned to the tents taking the rest of the day to rest in a deep trance.

'… find me…' the voice returned in the midst of the day, '… you're close…' it added before fading away.

Lucian scampered out of the tent and took a hard look around the lake, a few birds were diving in and coming out with fresh fish in their claws, but there was nothing out of the normal.

'I really hope that I'm just going crazy,' Lucian thought as he yawned and plopped down on the edge of the lake, the coachman was already back from his trip to gather supplies, and five fishing rods were cast across the lake.

The coachman was lying down in the shade, his hat pulled over his face, his breathing was slow as if asleep.

It was then that one of the lines started to bounce, and with each passing second the line started to grow stiff.

Lucian looked at the resting coachman and felt like it would be hypocritical of him to disturb the man's sleep, and just as the rod started to get pulled towards the water Lucian grabbed a hold of it and gave it a yank.

He was immediately met with a bout of increased resistance, but as he held the rod his body moved like he had done this a hundred times before, the rod bent and curled as a tug of war was fought between Lucian and a fish.

The fish whipped its tail back and forth creating loud splashes on the surface of the water, but minute by minute the fish lost its ground when a large snow-coloured pelican came swooping down and took the defeated fish into its large maw.

Its pouch sagged as the fishes' weight acted on it, "Oh no you don't!" Lucian shouted and yanked on the line, pulling the pelican and the fish together.

The pelican seemed to realise its mistake and tried to give up its catch when Lucian pulled one of his daggers from his thigh and threw it like a pinwheel, it cut through the pelican's neck and its body hit the water before skidding to a halt at Lucian's feet.

Lucian picked up the bird and the fish and turned to find both Diego and the coachman watching the show with interest, "We got some fresh meat for dinner," he announced tossing the pelican to Diego and the fish to the coachman.

"I'm sure you guys know how to clean up the meat," he passed on the tasks to them before returning to his tent.