Chapter 65: Crawl or Raid

Chapter 65: Crawl or Raid

Hannah worked up the nerve to turn to Zarian and admit that she’d made a dumb mistake and he should take over. Obviously, she was too weak to lead an expedition against a Rare Level 40 Dungeon.

She figured she lacked the potential. Or the ability to make her potential greater than the Devouring Librarian Dungeon.

The words tasted bitter in her mouth, and she couldn’t even recall what she was saying exactly. It all came down to thinking it was best to fall under Zarian’s leadership again. He was younger, yes, but he was powerful, clever, and her superior.

“No,” said the demigod. “You’re more than capable enough. Learn from your mistakes and push forward.”

That was that. Zarian had spoken.

Now she had to figure things out from here.

Hannah dumped all her misgivings and cleared her thoughts. She couldn’t, however, control her anxiety. That was okay. Discomfort and fear triggered the nervous system and tapped into the flight and fight response. With a low dose of Level 0 Adrenaline Jolt, she juiced herself further and used her Level 0 Tranquil Mind to focus on finding solutions quickly.

First, she observed the starter area.

It was a simple stone room. There were moldy books laying on the ground in separate spots. A few had their pages torn out. There were some sheets of paper lying about that had ancient, intelligible writing that was faded.

These few odds and ends were likely conjurings of the dungeon as per its interior design. The light sources came from soft, lamp-shaped sconces merged into the wall. The air was filled with the scent of old books. This place was ancient.

There were no enemies. Not yet, at least.

She scanned for runes, weaknesses, traps. The dungeon was loaded with complex secrets and obscuring enchantments. Some spots had obscurants that were worn down. She could pierce through with some effort.

For now, there were no obvious dangers. She triple-checked just in case.

Once satisfied, Hannah turned to preparations.

She went for the simplest means to bolster her chances in clearing the dungeon. She turned to Zarian and made her requests.

He flipped to another page in his grimoire, still reading while listening to her. His smile widened. “Good idea. It’s about time we improve our numbers.”

With a flap of the Parasite Cloak, Zarian dropped ten corpses. One reassembled himself right away.

Loner stood upright with his usual angry glare and fanged rictus grin. Hannah smiled because she knew Loner liked her.

She offered her hand. Loner looked at it.

Then he gave her a polite handshake.

Greetings aside, he glanced around at the starter area before moving to the nearest wall. He leaned against it, bony arms crossed over his ribcage, and watched the one exit leading into a stone hallway.

As for the rest of the corpses, Hannah watched with bated breath as Zarian animated them with his Raise Advancing Skeletons spell. A nefarious dark green tint infused the air around the would-be skeletons.

There were three gnoll bodies, four human bodies, and another two goblins. They all stood up and shedded their flesh like stepping out of clothing. It was a wet and sloppy process. Most of the flesh remained warm and bloody, picked up from the moment they’d died.

Para didn’t let their flesh go to waste. She reached out with hungering threads and tendrils, sweeping flesh off the floor quickly before she cleaned off the remaining flesh that clung to their skeletal bodies. She didn’t stop until they were bone white and ready to serve.

“Their levels?” Hannah asked Zarian.

“All Level 25.”

“Yes, so that confirms one of my theories.” Hannah nodded before freezing when she felt the demigod’s attention on her. She explained: “Their base levels come from a percentage of your Mysticism. I believe with the Overpower trait, your Mysticism is at 323. Regardless of their prior levels, your skeletons gain their levels from 80% of your Mysticism divided by 10 and rounded up to whole numbers.”

“I used the necromancy spell while the black magic grimoire was in the beta skill section,” Zarian admitted. “But I’m overcompensating using Aura Channeler and Basic Aura Manipulation, so it would mostly eliminate the beta debuff.”

“Is that for the skeletons’ starting levels?”

“No, it was to ensure a near 100% success rate of raising them.”

“Ah, I see. Well, now you know. I guess it’s a similar case for the spectral spiders, but they can only grow with your Mysticism while the skeletons have a starting level based on your Mysticism.”

Zarian smiled and thanked her before calling forth more aid. Spectral spiders turned visible on her body, Zarian’s body, on the skeletons, and around the room.

Hannah counted a hundred of them.

“How’s the network signal outside?” Hannah asked.

“Unclear, all static. Dimensional interference, I imagine,” Zarian replied.

Hannah nodded. She’d figured that would happen. The pressure on her shoulders increased. They wouldn’t want to stay too long in the dungeon.

After a while, the core exuded more light before taking on an immense shape that filled up the starter area. Hannah backed up. The spectral spiders scrambled to the far corners.

The light solidified into graceful spider legs, a spider body, a feminine pale face, and platinum white hair that fell like a waterfall. The monstrous spider woman had a serene and restful expression before she opened all eight of her pale eyes.

Reiki of the White Silk Dancers looked down at Hannah and gave a monstrous fanged smile.

“Hannah,” Reiki hissed in greeting. Then she turned around. “Zarian.”

“Reiki, hello.” Zarian sported a big grin before looking at Hannah. “I didn’t know you would do that.”

Hannah was breathing hard from the excitement and exertion of the complex work it took to prepare for the dungeon crawl. She soaked in the extra aura Roller sent out in waves, helping to replenish what she’d spent. With these preparations out of the way, they should be ready now.

The System interjected with something Hannah had never seen before. She’d only heard about it from Zarian.

<ALERT!>

Another red notification popped up.

<Unusual sequence outside of Lesser World Parameters has stressed the local dungeon subsystem deviation allowance. White Spider Dungeon Boss Reiki of the White Silk Dancers should not be inside the Devouring Librarian Dungeon without initiation or proper support for Dungeon vs Dungeon World Events.>

“Um, Zarian, I think I did something I wasn’t supposed to,” Hannah said nervously.

“Must we say it?” he asked, before both he and Para said, “Atta girl,” together in one monstrous voice.

<Solution found! White Spider Dungeon Boss Reiki of the White Silk Dancers will be destroyed! In Ten! Nine! Eight!>

“Oh, please, no!” Hannah shouted.

All the skeletons rattled in nervousness except for Loner. The Runic Enforcer charged up vibration magic into his fists, as if he was going to punch the notification and save Reiki.

The spider boss didn’t look bothered. She raised her head, accepting her fate.

Hannah wanted to scream. Instead, she held it in and watched Zarian act. He hopped on Reiki’s back and wrapped her up with the Parasite Cloak.

He looked up defiantly at the red notification and said, “No, System. You destroy Reiki, and I’ll do something you’ll regret. Remember, I alone am the Honored Outsider.”

Hannah thought of Zarian as a demigod, but right now she was doubtful. He was still closer to mortal than god. The System could destroy him.

Then Hannah saw another amazing sight.

The System replied with a gold notification box:

<Troubleshooting for an amicable solution! Scanning. Scanning. Solution found!>

<Patching Lesser World. Patch complete for Corma, the World of Castles and Caverns. Dungeon boss summonings are enabled with a reduced power form while inside other dungeons that aren’t a part of Dungeon vs Dungeon World Events. Enjoy your crawl!>

Hannah was flabbergasted. She’d known about the gold notifications. She’d known that Zarian was treated especially well by the Star System.

But seeing was believing, and she couldn’t wrap her mind around it all that instant. Instead, she turned and watched Reiki transform into a smaller and more humanoid form. Zarian ended up dropping off of her by the time she was done.

“Hm, weaker, but okay,” Reiki said, standing as a tall woman with three pairs of arms and a single pair of legs.

She had a miniature spider’s abdomen sticking out from the small of her back, spinnerette tip at the ready. She was also naked, but she didn’t have the anatomy of a human. Instead, she had a feminine insectoid figure while pushing several inches above six feet.

Her hair was beautiful and long, reaching down to her knees. Somehow, even with the eight pale eyes and face of spider fangs and mandibles, she looked more pristine and glamorous than most humans.

She reminded Hannah of the drider Naomi had described, Ekri the Tailor. But feminine and alluring.

Hannah, the skeletons, and the spectral spiders marveled at Reiki’s humanoid form. The spiders did their dance in several concentric circles around the dungeon boss. It was as if they were worshiping a spider deity, and Reiki seemed to enjoy being the center of attention.

Zarian chuckled as he glanced over at Hannah, who was slowly recovering from her stupefied state. He asked, “Are we ready to crawl a Rare Level 40 Dungeon now?”

“Is this a crawl?” Hannah asked, looking at the many assets at her disposal. She didn’t realize she would have this much help. And other than Roller, these summons truly came from Zarian.

“Or is this a raid?” Hannah added.

“Does it matter?”

No, it didn’t.