Chapter Eighty-Nine

Chapter Eighty-Nine

The new day brings a new delver, and thankfully not of the scythemaw variety. It feels weird to have the old ratkin delving, but it sure looks like thats what Old Staiven is planning to do. Looks like hes warming up by checking the herbs in the back yard first.

Whats your secret he grumbles to himself as he gathers quite a bit of ochredill, and I mentally smile at that with equal parts humor and relief. Looks like the master alchemist wasnt able to recreate the bottled lightning, despite knowing what its made of. I wonder if its a magic thing, a dungeon thing, a me thing, or a Queen thing? Either way, I might be able to start giving small vials of it away as rewards occasionally. Even if he cant recreate it, and I dont think he tried to drink it, it seems like the kind of thing to be a rare reward at most.

The aged ratkin looks over at the maze for a few long seconds, before shaking his head and turning back to the house. I wonder if he doesnt like his chances against Tiny, or if he wants to do something different from the gnome. Either way, he pauses on my porch to look at the notice board and the various hanging signs for quests.

Such a strange dungeon, he says to himself as he takes his time to read the notices and consider the quests.

Hey Teemo, mind asking him whats up?

My Voice has no problem with that, and soon the rat pops out of a shortcut near Old Staiven.

Rhondas teacher, right?

The ratkin looks confused for a moment before smiling and looking at Teemo. I had forgotten the dungeon had a Voice. I was a bit more interested in the leftover traps from Neverrest than in socializing last time.

Teemo smiles at that. Thing really appreciated the help with those, too. Hes gotten a lot better with the runework, as well.

I should think so. He seemed a rather focused hand. Has he had any breakthroughs with lifedrinking?

My Voice deflates a little and shakes his head. Not really. Hes learned a lot about taking enchants apart from studying it, but no real progress on easily nullifying it.

I hope hes not too hard on himself. Countless mages, clerics, artificers, and more have tried to find a counter to that foul enchantment, but none have succeeded.

Heh, but none of them have the Boss giving them weird ideas to try for it.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøv€l-B1n.

Staiven laughs at that. Those weird ideas are partially why Im here, actually. Im out of that lightning essence tincture, and was hoping to get more, and maybe get a look at whatever other alchemical oddities I might be able to get my hands on.

Where would I most easily find a widow? he asks the leader after some small talk, and the elf shrugs.

You could just come with us for a bit. Theres an access tunnel that goes down to the caverns, which is where we want to mine. Theres a branch that leads off to the spider lair from there, so you should be able to spot one without too much difficulty.

I think Ill do just that, thank you. He joins their party and they head deeper, fighting my various spawns in the tunnels. They go fairly slowly, but Old Staiven doesnt seem to mind. I bet he gets a lot of his metals from these guys or if not these guys, whoever these guys sell the ore to.

They part ways as the tunnel splits, with the miners going deeper and Staiven looking down the winding tunnel that leads to my spider lair. He takes a few minutes to prepare himself, and even ties a few bits of leather to his staff. I can see theyre some kind of rune or something, but I dont know what they actually do. I could ask Thing, but I dont want to interrupt them and I kinda want to be surprised.

Staiven takes his time creeping down the tunnel, hoping to have some element of surprise on his side, or at least to not get the attention of more than one. Luckily for him, theres only one in the tunnel right now anyway. They spot each other at the same time, and each freezes for a moment, before they both spring into action.

The widow scurries up a wall and soon along the ceiling, hoping to use height to her advantage, but the ratkin tracks her without fail. He points his staff and shouts to send a beam of yellow magic at her. Fumble!

The widow immediately loses her footing, but manages to stick the landing and keep coming at him along the floor for a few moments, before she tosses a line of silk at him. He dodges out of the way and it hits the wall, before the spider pulls on it and uses the force to propel herself at him.

Woah! he exclaims and gets his staff in the way of her fangs. Repulse! he shouts and sends her backward before she can overpower him. He follows the motion with a whirl of his staff, one of the tied-on runes flashing. Blizzard!

Wind and snow buffet the spider, forcing her to hunker down and giving the delver time to breathe and pull out a flask. He lets the blizzard end as he throws the flask, and swings his staff in an arc as a familiar attack shoots from it. Wind blade!

The widow dodges the blade, but that puts her in the perfect position for the flask. It gets split by the blade, and spills oil over the large spider. She doesnt have any issues with her footing as she warily circles Old Staiven, looking for an opening. He pulls out a pouch and tosses it against the top of the tunnel, sending little pink particles around.

The spider flinches back from the movement, but after a few moments, she resumes her circling. It doesnt take long for it to become clear something is weird about the particles, as her motions become sluggish and her stance uncertain. Thats all Staiven needs to finish the fight with the old classic.

Fireball! The impact sends the spider onto her back, and the oil ensures he quickly gets his experience. Snuff! he shouts and leans on his staff as the fire poofs out, leaving a crispy outside on the widow, but I dont think much heat actually transferred too deeply inside. It better not have, if he wants the venom he said he was after.

Huff whew! Never seen them jump like that before, he says to himself as he catches his breath, then walks to the dead widow. And, if I did it right he says as he leans his staff against the wall and grabs her fangs, then carefully pulls. He grins as they slide out easily, along with a bit of the mandible and the venom sack. Perfect! Cook them just right, and the venom sacks will slide right out. He smiles before chuckling at himself and gathering his staff. I guess hes gotten pretty used to Rhonda being around to learn stuff.

Itll be a nice change of pace for him, I imagine, to be able to talk with someone who can teach him a thing or two. Queen is done preparing the solution that should grow the quartz pickups, so the two can talk shop in the public lab soon.