Chapter 5

"Warning, dungeon approaching. Dungeon merge is imminent." The voice snapped me out of a deep slumber. I blinked and looked around confused standing up from the throne. "Warning, dungeon approaching. Dungeon merge is imminent." The voice in my head repeated itself.

"I get it. What is the situation?" I closed my eyes and the map of the dungeon appeared. There were a lot more than 2 rooms now. The dungeon had 6 rooms total, each smaller than the throne room and connected in a row by small corridors. "Just how much work have they gotten done since I fell asleep?" I asked out loud.

"Over the past month, mining has been operating at a smooth steady pace."

"Wait, a month? What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, shocked.

"You have been resting for a month." The voice was as monotone as ever.

"Why did you let me sleep that long?" I asked angrily. There was no response. I hissed angrily and looked around. The miners and cleaner came scurrying into the main room and toward the throne. I noticed a small pile of mana crystals next to me. None of them were as big as the first ones I had but there was enough to get 2 or 3 more spiders here. I scooped them up and scurried over to the spawning room.

"Alright, let's get a few more warriors here." As I spoke I tossed all of the crystals into the altar and closed my eyes. After selecting the warrior's icon in my brain I asked, "How many can I spawn?"

"With current funds, 3 warriors is the most you can spawn." I selected one more tank, a surveillance spider, and one of the poison spiders. The poison spider was about 3 feet tall and purple. They looked the most spider-like of all the summons I had called forth so far. The only main difference was it had two holes above its fangs that could be used to spray poison out of them, not to mention that their fangs literally dripped with poison. The surveillance spider was about the size of my fist and had eyes that covered both its head and body. It was incredibly fast and agile with the same ability as the trap spider of being able to blend into its surroundings.

I sent them all out on their way to the rooms and closed my eyes. With the map, I could clearly see the dungeon rooms and where each of my spiders was located. I had the tanks in the third room at the entrance to the second to both limit the movement and number of forces that would come in. In the second room, I ordered the poison spider to place itself on the ceiling above the door with orders to release the poison at the first sign of intruders. The trap spider had, in my sleep, prepared a trap in each of the rooms where the floor would cave in with stone spikes in the whole. Plus it had carved a small trapdoor and tunnel system in each room so that it would act like a trapdoor spider and pick off unsuspecting prey. And in the very first room, I had ordered the surveillance spider watch for the intruder's identity. Once everyone was in position I waited.

"So how much longer?" I asked the voice.

"Impact within 1 minute." We waited in silence for about a minute before the whole dungeon shook with an eerily crunching sound. The sound is what I would imagine a car accident would sound in slow motion, each noise was enchanted and individual from the rest. It was more startling than if there had been alarm bells ringing. I closed my eyes again and saw the first room on the map was flashing red.

"Would you like to see through the surveillance spider?" The voice asked.

"Yes." Next to the map, a small box opened similar to a computer screen. Like I was looking through a security camera I saw the first room through the eyes of the spider. The room was about the same size as the spawning room, and on the far end of it was the familiar black swirling vortex of a dungeon entrance. "So what now?" Almost as if responding to my question the vortex pulsed and a goblin stepped through. The goblin was about 3 feet tall with grayish-green skin. It was completely bald with awkwardly long pointed ears and flopped to each side of its head. Its eyes were small black pinpoints that sat about its long nose. The goblin was a mouth breather and showed its sharp teeth with each breath. In its hands, it was holding a stone hammer. The goblin was squinting hard looking around the room as more goblins started to step out of the vortex. Each of them looked about the same, but some had stone spears instead of hammers.

Some of my anxiety went away and the goblins shuffled through the room making their way to the next. While I had fought many goblins during my time as a dungeon raider, and I knew how vicious and sneaky they could be, they could not hold a candle to the tanks I had summoned. There was some part of me that felt bad for what was to come.

Around 20 goblins filled the room before they decided to move into the second. The surveillance spider slowly and silently moved into the hall between the two rooms, never letting the portal out of its eyes.

The goblins filed 2 by 2 through the hall into the second room. Shrieks and screams could be heard even from the spawning room as the poison spider sprayed the front groups with poison before scuttling back into the third room.

"Well that takes care of a handful of the goblins, let's go see how the tanks will fare." I was about to open my eyes when a blur of motion in the tunnel caught my eye. I looked closely as a goblin in the rear vanished without a sound. A small smile spread across my lips as the trapdoor spider lunged from its hidden trap grabbing the rearmost goblin around the neck with its fangs silencing it before it could make a sound then dragging it into the darkness. Some of the rear goblins noticed their comrades missing and screamed incoherently to the front causing panic.

I opened my eyes with satisfaction and headed toward the door of the spawning room. Immediately the two miners blocked my way making clicking noises while feelings of concern flooded me.

"Hey, hey" I winced from the overflow of emotions. "I'll be fine. I just want to go see what's going to happen. I can't pull the surveillance spider away in case something bigger comes through." My words did not seem to sway them. "I'm strong. I can take care of myself." I flexed my arms and abs at them to no avail. Now that I think about it, I don't actually have any weapons. Maybe their concerns were valid after all. "Hey, what can I do about weapons?" I asked the voice. After a moment of silence, I got a response.

"You can create stone weapons."

"How?" As if in response the miner spiders struck their chiseled legs together looking at me expectantly. I smiled at that. They were kinda cute after all. "Alright, guys. Do you think you can make me a small hammer and a shield out of stone?" I pictured a hammer that was about the length of my forearm and a shield big enough to cover my chest. A flood of happiness came from them as they spread to work grinding the weapons directly from the wall. Agitation came from the cleaner spider as bits of rock flew everywhere. I did my best not to look at it. Within seconds the weapons were complete. I picked them up. The shield was a little on the heavy side, and I think they intentionally made it larger than I had asked for, but it would work fine. The hammer on the other hand was perfect. It fit my hand nicely and was balanced. It could easily cave in a few heads.

"Thanks, guys." I felt their gratitude as I made my way to the tanks. Even before I reached them I could smell the metallic scent of blood as it filled the stagnant rooms, and hear the shrill sounds of goblins yelling and what sounded like bones breaking.