I woke up to the feeling of something small licking my cheek and purring, it was an odd sensation I haven't felt in a long time.

I blinked awake, and looked at the small little gray cat, smiling at such an adorable sight, it was very affectionate, and it didn't get scared when I started petting it.

I heard the clicking of talons and claws approaching, and then Sable entered the room that was open, she smiled when she saw me with the kitten, petting it gently.

"You like cats too? She's my kitty Ashy, we found her on the streets and grandpa helped me get her healthy and clean so she could stay with us, she seems to like you too." She gave me a friendly smile, and she approached my bed, reluctantly but I nodded at the implied question.

She relaxed her posture and approached, petting the small kitty who nuzzled her talon lovingly, clearly recognizing her owner.

"I love cats, they're my favorite animal, I don't own a cat because our family is large enough as it is, but I find them to be interesting, adorable and fun little creatures, they're incredibly loving too." The little gray kitty exemplified this clearly by giving her licks on her talon hand, making her giggle.

A soft sleepy moan was heard as Treble stretched his legs in his bed, blinking awake and looking at us. "Huh? Oh hey Sable, morning to you two, seems Ashy took a liking to you huh? She does that sometimes with any of us, seems she chose you today." He yawns wide, making us yawn as well a few seconds later.

"Ashy is the sweetest cat, she even tried to make new friends, and she found a friendly dragon this time, isn't that right my precious Ashy?" A small adorable meow was her answer, translating roughly to mean 'Yes mom.'

"I'm flattered you consider me friendly, it's what I try to be, but I think I know why she approached me... Okay this may seem like a weird request, but touch me on the head or neck, trust me." I encourage with a smile, trying to make the request sound reasonable.

She seems hesitant while Treble just looked on it amusement, but she accepted and put her talon to my neck, gently grabbing onto one side, feeling the coldness, it was not freezing cold, but more like a cool ceramic floor tile, that felt like a big relief during this heat of summer.

"Wow! You're cold, how do you do that?" I shrug at her question.

"That's just how my body is normally, any hotter and I feel discomfort." She smiled, relaxing and caressing my neck and head for a few seconds, then moved her talon away when she realized what she was doing, I giggled at her reaction and slowly went to a sitting position, the cat jumped off and moved to the bed.

I of course still feel the heat, and it affects me more than them, but thanks to my magic I can cool the air around me to a comfortable temperature.

"My refreshing body temperature must be what attracted the cat who was probably laying in the morning sun and got too warm, it got to me to regulate her temperature and cool down." I smiled and patted her a few more times. Such an adorable little kitty...

The cat meowed at me and jumped onto Sable's head, moving to her back to lay down. She thanked me for the cool spot and said she wanted to cuddle with her mom now.

Being able to understand animals was fun, it made me smile knowing I helped her and she was thankful, I now could turn into a cat.

After that I decided may as well get up and share breakfast with the others.

We all washed up and then walked to the kitchen that also was the dinner table and living room, and the others were already there sharing some tea and food, mom and dad shared with Mr. Gruff and little Gilda their meals, explaining their inventory as just a magical ability that kept food prepared, the old griffon shrugged and took it as fact, it's not like griffons had magic.

That was our agreed upon explanation in case anyone got to see our inventory, it was just a magic spell to store things.

I suppose not too far from the truth, unless you were talking to an advanced magic user, they would all believe it.

"Morning you three, it's about time you woke up! come sit and grab some food, we will be sharing our food, have you gotten enough sleep son?" At her question I nodded and took a seat next to the two griffons near my age, once seated we were provided plates and dad handed us two containers of food.

"Morning everyone! thank you mom and yes I did.
Got woken up by the little kitten that Sable adopted, her name is Ashy, wish you could have seen that! She climbed on me and stood on my neck, licking my cheek until I woke up. Cats are just the most adorable pets, isn't that right Sable?" I asked while ruffling her head feathers gently, making the griffon giggle and do the same to me, but having no feathers just means scratched my head, realizing it had no effect she glared at me slightly and stuck her tongue out.

"So unfair... But yes cats are the best! Ashy is really friendly ever since we got her clean and fed, she is the most affectionate kitty." Ashy who has been laying on her back approached and started nuzzling her neck, purring loudly, the griffon returned the gesture with a happy smile. "I love you Ashy, you are my best friend!" The kitty really meant everything for her, and the meowing and purring was confirmation enough, that love was returned in kind, Ashy also loved Sable and considered her a mother.

I suddenly remembered a very distant memory, of looking after two little cats a long time ago. One was black and the other was tabby. I smiled sadly, remembering them, they have passed away so long ago that I thought I would have forgotten, but watching them interact reminded me again.

It was no time for getting emotional, my stomach rumbled with hunger, it was time to eat.

Breakfast proceeded nicely, I divided the meal for the three of us, after all it was all portioned to me who needs a lot more food than griffons or ponies my age, I also would be fine having a smaller portion sometimes, so I separated the two portions into three equal smaller portions, and gave each to the two griffons, they are both delighted to have the food, sniffing and staring at it with excitement, the smell of hot porchetta and potato salad with herbs and mushrooms making our collective mouths water.

After breakfast, and a heartfelt thanks from the griffons, we prepared to go our separate ways, I'll go by myself to check the hardware store, and dad and mom go to the hospital to check the condition of the griffons there, and heal them all, I could always use my telepathy in case I needed some help.

"See you in a few hours mom and dad! Hope your mission goes well, I may be back around noon or maybe a bit longer, depends how easy I'll have it."

"Good luck with that Onyx! You better be careful or I'm grounding you when we are done here!" Mom said and gave me a soft glare, basically telling me to behave. Dad instead simply just wished come good luck, both of them hugged me and I returned the hug with nuzzles.

With our missions clear we went our separate ways.

I walked around the city with my robes on, looking for the right business that had what I needed. It didn't take long after all there wasn't that many stores in the city, inside running the store there was a bored looking middle aged griffon girl, who was reading a magazine while sipping on some tea, she glanced up at me briefly when I entered, then went back to her magazine after looking me over for a few seconds.

"Hey little dragon, I've seen you around town yesterday, wanna buy something?" She asked in a bored tone and went back to reading.

"Hey there, I want to rent your best quality and longest ropes for rappelling, and a good quality harness that fits my size, maybe a helmet, but I doubt you got one that fits my head so nevermind that, I will be needing your help as well to tie the rope safely."

She stops reading and takes a sip of her tea, smiling slightly.

"You've got bits? All of that and my help is gonna cost you a pretty nice sum, I'd say around 100 bits, and if you happen to need an extra rope it's going to be a hundred more, what do you say? I'll even overlook the fact that you're mighty short to be an adult dragon, it's not like anyone cares here but there are still laws ya know?" I gulped, not wanting to get in trouble with the law, but nodded with a small smile, grabbing my bit pouch and feeling around for 3 large coins of 100 each.

I walk over and place them on the counter in front of her, she smiles at seeing the extra bits. "Mighty generous of you little dragon, who would have thought, a dragon who leaves tips? You know since you tipped so well, I'll put in extra effort and even help pull you up if you need my help, with this I can get some newer equipment soon..."

A deal was struck, me and this griffon with mostly average brown and gray colors walked out of her store with the gear in a large, she locked the door behind her and we walked out of the city, heading to the side of the mountain, in a forested area.

"By the way, my name's Onyx and yours?"

"Jan, do you have any family? And do they know you're here endangering your life, looking for a legend?"

"They know I have a mom and a dad, they have full confidence in my abilities, if anything happens and I fall down into the Abyss, I have a few ways to save myself."

"I hope you're right, I don't want to lose my most well paying costumer, you're also remind me of my daughter... Except she's only 5 and you are older clearly, but still you have a mother that will feel awful if you don't return safely to her, so let's be as careful as we can and make sure you get back safe, and hopefully you find what youre looking for"

"Agreed, let's do it, there is no changing my mind now."

We followed the trail made of dirt and approached the Abyssal Abyss as we talked, it was like a giant cleaver came down and separated the mountain in two truly breathtaking.

Thankfully the spot i was looking for was clear, having a large rock that would be ideal as a rappelling point to go down from, I could tell somehow that this was the spot, something down there was calling to me, something ancient and powerful.

"It's here, tie the rope to that large rock over there and secure the harness please." She nodded and got to work, and not much later I was fully prepared, the rope tightly tied around the stone, I tried pulling on it with around twice my weight and it didn't budge, not even a little, good enough for me.

The rope was secured to my harness, and I made sure the rope was clean too, removing any dust on it with a spell, vibrating it in my telekinetic field to loosen the dirty that clung to it.

It was a neat trick I discovered, it was pretty easy to do, sort of like quickly contracting and relaxing a muscle, you could vibrate objects in your telekinetic field pretty quickly without it being damaging to them, like for example this, or a rug, vibrate the dust right off and when used on someone it felt like one of those self pleasuring vibrating machines, need I say more?

I was, back in my old life, a huge nerd that loved to learn useless random facts and as such I knew that dirty climbing ropes were much easier to tear when they grinded against a sharp edge.

"Everything's ready Onyx, remember... Go down slowly and don't take off the harness under any circumstances, if you need slack in your rope just pull thrice quickly and ill drop some more rope, don't try to scream because the wind will blow away your voice and I won't be able to hear, got all that?"

"Yes Jan, so to get pulled up it was 2 quick pulls, right?" At her nod of confirmation I take a deep breath, approaching the edge of the seemingly bottomless gorge, the bottom was so far away I couldn't see it, it was too dark even for my dragon sight.

"If I somehow fall down into the Abyss, I can teleport back, and I can use magic to prevent a deadly fall, just wait for me and please don't worry, I may take longer if I find anything interesting down there, okay?" She looked at be in disbelief but reluctantly nodded.

"Hope you're telling the truth, because you would be the first who can use magic that has tried before, maybe it makes the difference... Good luck now!"

I could see many stones protruding from the rock faces, they looked fairly flimsy and brittle, I tried not to step on them for fear they would break off.

I continued my descent, slowly and carefully, checking to make sure that the rope didn't get caught in a sharp edge, but so far things went smoothly, however the rock face of the mountain was concave, meaning I was being lowered into the air, so to fix that I decided to do something a bit drastic, and swung my body forward against the rock, digging my claws firmly and using them to stab into the stone and slowly make my way down, making sure to keep tension on the rope, it was tricky and I sometimes lost grip, sliding down a few meters, but as I went down I started to feel that sensation from earlier, just stronger and more focused.

It was calling out to me, and I heard it, not much further now, I kept going down lower for another dozen meters, using my claws to make the descent slow and safe.

It was not a voice, it was more of a pulse of energy, or a vibration. Soon I reached a curious sight, I reached a larger rock in which a giant skull was resting, it was much larger than even mom, clearly it belonged to a gigantic creature, it had a single eye socket.

This must have been the Arimaspi, and... I want to keep it's skull, but first more important matters.

I turned around towards the opposite mountain, and covered in rock and debris, i saw the idol, I could reach it if I just jumped over, but I needed some slack, so I pulled three times and felt a few meters of rope being lowered next to me, perfect!

I quickly jumped across and stretched my paws to grab the golden artifact.

And right as my claws came into contact with it, the idol glowed a bright red for a second. I felt a presence, vast and powerful touch my mind gently from within the artifact and I heard a voice clear in my mind.

'A new talon touches my Idol, an ambitious being who risked his life to obtain it from this deadly place. Be careful dragon, the very ground you stand on will fall.' The voice is masculine, sounds like an old man while also sounding regal and proud, with an undertone if sadness, it's not hostile or condescending, showing some worry for me, but I was too focused to form an answer.

Right as the voice said that, I jumped back to the other side, the rock crumbled behind me in quick succession, but there was something else I wanted, I ran to the skull and stored it in my inventory, along with the Idol.

Arimaspi skull added to the inventory. 250kg
Idol of Boreas added to the inventory. 10kg

But as it turns out, the disappearance of such a massive weight seemed to destabilize the rock and that imbalance made the whole thing crack.

Full of terror, I fell down and the extra rope I had asked for still was loose, the fall slowed down for a second but Jan was not strong enough to hold it or had ran out of energy, and I fell like a rock into the depths of the Abyssal Abyss, falling dozens of meters before the rope reached its limit and snapped with my weight as I plummeted into the darkness at terminal velocity.

"NOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo"

Was the last thing Jan heard as the rope slipped from her grasp and unfolded completely, she tried her best to catch it but it was going too fast now, then it ripped at the sharp edge it was caught on where I had just fallen from. The friction was too much for it.

I screamed as loudly as I could as I fell to my imminent death, then remembered I could use magic, and casted slow fall as it was the easiest spell I could think of while falling, it slowed my descent but I was quickly started to be pushed around by the wind. Slamming into the rocks extending from both sides of the mountain as I became lighter.

First one I slammed my side with a rock that protruded and it hurt very little, but then the wind pushed me into the opposite side, where I smacked hard, putting my paws in front to absorb the impact, the only positive is that I managed to stab my claws into the rock and stop myself briefly, before the entire section of rock broke and I fell down again, slower this time thanks to slow fall.

I feel like I have been falling for several seconds now, and still don't see the bottom, the wind becomes much less intense the lower I am, but I also start to get a terrible feeling as something touches my belly, stretch and snap under my weight.

I can see in black and white thanks to my darkvision, but I can barely see the threads I'm hitting on the way down, not more than a faint glimmer of the dust that got caught on them.

I keep falling and breaking more of the threads, but the deeper I go, the denser they get, and at this depth there is almost no wind anymore, only the sound of the wind rushing outside, like the howling of an enormous beast.

As I fall deeper into this gigantic cave, the previous sides of the mountain that were but a few meters apart start to open up into a wider and wider circular cavern, along the walls there are several small pieces of rock that fell down from the sides of the mountain, floating stuck in webbing along the walls of the cavern, and as I went lower I started to feel dread in the pit of my stomach. There are spiders here, nothing else would put webs everywhere like this.

Just in case I had to fight right away I equiped my robes, at least they would stop the cobwebs from touching my sensitive underside while I fell, I really disliked the sensation of threads of sticky spider silk touching me, its gross.

Deciding to be cautious, I used my mixed attack and light spell, my favorite light spell that was extremely overkill and difficult to cast for most, Crown of Stars, it lit up a wide area around me, glinting off the webs covering everything here, seems they were only visible in the light, most likely a strategy to hunt whatever creatures lived in this cave. I really really love this spell, having both bright light above me on all directions while also not blinding me, and being able to attack extremely quickly to anything I deemed a target, sort of like a magical mind aimed very deadly weapon.

Finally reaching the ground, wherein an enormous pile of rock of various sizes was stacked up, I could guess this was all the rock that fell with the constant erosion causes by the strong winds, my slow fall stopped as I touched mostly solid ground, the rocks were not webbed over from what I could see, probably because it was dangerous to be here where-

A large rock the size of half my body fell a few meters away from me with an deafening noise, I gasped and ran away from the opening and the pile of rocks, not wanting to have one fall over me and pancake me, I didn't even see where I was going in my panic.

I didn't have to run for long as the opening of the cave was not too large, but as soon I got outside the area, I stepped in sticky cobweb, much stickier than what I expected, I had to pull hard to get my paw free.

As soon as I did, I felt something shift around me, something I couldn't quite see, but I felt it. I was being watched from the darkness, my eyes narrowed and I looked around to try and find what was here.

From the darkness, I saw pale white legs of spiders approach from all around me, four of them, they were about as tall as me, their leg span was massive, but their bodies weren't that big, similar to a huntsman spider in proportions. They have 8 beady black eyes that tried to look at me, but they recoiled away, covering their eyes with one of their legs as if I was too bright, staying away from the area of light around me, as if scared of it.

I was scared right back, but I tried to keep my cool, I didn't feel as terrified as I did on the first dungeon, and I had better control of my emotions now, still I couldn't move for a while as fear threatened to overwhelm me momentarily, but I reigned it in with cold, calculating logic. I am stronger in every way, I have powerful weapons, magic and scales thick enough to deflect steel blades.

There is no reason to fear, in fact they should fear me.

I could hear them hiss and chitter to eachother, by focusing, I could understand them thanks to my recently obtained perk.

'Looking upon the prey hurts my eyes, its too bright! How can we get close and attack if it hurts to see? Will it not hurt to eat, too?' one of the spiders, the second smallest of them said in a feminine voice.

'You make good point sister, but what options do we have? Going deeper is too dangerous and mother will eat us if we try to eat her new eggsack, it only worked the first time because she was out hunting in the depths, but now... She is in the nest protecting her new clutch!' the larger one answered, sounding distressed by the lack of food, pain of hunger and desperation in its tone.

'The prey, is studying us back, something feels off about it, how can it produce such bright light?' The most observant of the arachnids commented, trying to look at me without going blind, but the others ignored him and kept discussing between themselves.

I decided to scan them, wouldn't hurt to learn more about this species.

Young Abyssal Pale Spider
LvL 20 magical beast 250/250
Gender: female

This large cave spiders rarely see light, they are adapted to live in the perpetual darkness of the caves, where they hunt any animals they can find, when they can't find prey they resort to eating their own young.

They hunt in packs and are extremely fast, they inject acid into their prey to dissolve them from the inside and then slurp the liquefied organs.

They are vulnerable to bright light and sunlight, they go blind temporarily if they stare into bright light and take time to recover.

This beasts are social animals and tend to think more than the average arachnid, using tactics more than just attacking mindlessly, they can adapt to changing situations, sometimes fleeing from dangerous opponents or calling for backup.

Vulnerabilities: Slashing (leg joints), bludgeoning, piercing (eyes), Fire.

Damage Immunities: Acid.

Damage resistances: Poison, cold, psychic.

Senses: enhanced hearing, perfect Darkvision, enhanced olfaction, enhanced vibration sensing.

Conditions: Starving.

Starving: this creatures will try to hunt prey that they normally wouldn't as they have no other option, they also are less likely to flee, and their attacks are less coordinated than they normally would be, as the lack of food affects their intelligence negatively. -2 INT

Perks

Perfect Darkvision: this creature's eyes can see in complete darkness as far as a regular creature can see on the surface, however if it were to look into bright light it would lose the ability to see far in darkness for a few hours.

Web Walking: can walk on cobwebs without getting stuck or slowed, and can climb on firm enough webs, allowing it to walk on walls or even ceilings if they are properly covered in its webs.

Inject Acid: when a creature is immobilized, it will use it's fangs to inject an extremely powerful digestive acid that dissolves living tissue, turning muscles, organs and blood into a soupy and thick fluid that the spider then drinks up, using it's specialized straw-like mouth, this attack can cause death if the target is not immune to acid.

Frightful presence: this being causes anyone who is weaker than it to become frightened and unable to move, unless they have enough wisdom to rationalize their fear, individuals who are of a higher level will be immune to this effect unless they already are afraid of spiders.

Swarm tactics: this spiders work as a team to restrain, immobilize and neutralize prey.

Spear legs: the legs of this spiders are reinforced and pointed enough to pierce most light armor, they can deal devastating piercing damage on unprotected targets.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
20 30 16 10(-2) 10 8

I managed to gather my courage, using the speak with animals spell, to try to negotiate a deal that this beings, they were just hungry and I think I had something to give them in return.

"Excuse me, you are all hungry right? I don't think you should eat me, I will fight back but I have food for you that is more delicious." I open my inventory and take out the frozen dead body of that damn unicorn that almost killed me that I've kept frozen in my inventory ever since, placing it on the ground I start to thaw it with magic, the spiders shocked I talked to them start discussing among themselves again.

'The prey is seeking to offer us food in exchange for its life, it also implies it's dangerous, I am inclined to agree on the last part, it may look small, but that energy, that bright glow is too strong, no weak creature can glow so bright!' the smaller spider, that sounds male in its voice exclaims.

'Brother, you were always a coward like all males, what is stopping us from killing the prey and eating it and it's offer of food? Or better yet, eating the food it offered, and then saving the prey for later! Once it's dead, it will glow no more, and we can wrap it for when we are again hungry, mother will not come looking for food this way, she hunts in the depths, where larger and deadlier prey live.' The largest spider exclaimed with disdain in its tone, its fangs dripping digestive acid.

'I have to agree with her, we need all the food we can get, and males are always cowardly, the only good thing they do is impregnate, then become food to make the egg. We will accept the offering of the prey, then we will eat it too, we need to snuff out it's light, it's too painful.' Another female added with a similar tone.

'Then I will not fight alongside you sisters, I don't appreciate the disrespect, not like this, not now.' He said tiredly, and with that the smaller spider turned and walked back into the darkness. Seems he has had enough of them, I won't be going after him then, may even leave him the food.

I prepare mentally for combat, using my telekinesis to grab and store the corpse I was gonna offer them, storing it back in my inventory, it was thankfully not fully thawed yet.

"Wise choice, now you get to live, the rest however..." I use Blur on myself to become harder to hit, my form shimmers like an illusion, making my silhouette harder to identify, then prepare to do a short ranged teleport spell as well as another much worse spell that requires me to touch the creature to cast. -10 mana 306/316

"Will die in agonizing pain." I blink right on top of the largest spider, it screeches in shock and tries to get me off, but I'm digging my claws firmly in place, finishing the casting of a nasty necromantic spell. -10 mana 296/316

Once the spell is ready, my claws dug into its chitin transmit the disease, one of them glowing greenish black as the spell activated.

Seizures start to rack the body of the spider, at first it was a slight tremble as it tried to dislodge me from its back, but then the shaking started, full body uncontrollable shaking that wouldn't stop, I teleport away, blasting it with an upcast fireball of fourth tier and because of its seizures it is unable to dodge the flaming projectile, it's heightened dexterity is useless thanks to the disease wrecking its nervous system. -45 mana 251/316

Pale Spider has taken 70 damage and is set on fire! 180/250

"KKHRRAAAAAAAAAAAA" it flailed around as it seized and burnt at the same time.

'SISTER! I will make this thing pay for hurting you, big sister, I will eat you alive prey, you will scream for hours!'

Taking advantage of my surprise attack, and the stunned enemy, I ignored the loud agonizing screeching of the large spider, and the fact I could understand them and focused on the others.

They should have not tried to betray me if they wanted to live, I offered them food, and they chose death.

I maintain my Crown of Stars unused to keep them blinded, giving me a huge advantage, the fact the cobwebs in the ground burned completely away with the fireball also was incredibly helpful, even if the ground was on fire and my paws burned painfully with every step I took, I ignored that small pain and focused on attacking, and without the webs on the ground, the spiders couldn't sense me, they were blind, they could still smell me, but smell is slower.

Onyx has taken 2 fire damage. 272/274

One target was weakened, but I had to weaken them all to ensure my victory. And that's what I focused on doing now, I ran towards the next spider, and it attacked in turn, not shocked anymore, lunging at me despite being blinded, but it was not fast enough, not while blinded, I prepared a trap for it, using the Contagion spell again, this time with a different gift.

The spell was ready, and my claw glowed a dangerous black and dark green, the spider tried to hit me again with it's front legs, this time I let it, one of its legs hit me square in the chest, it was strong, definitively would have a big bruise over there tomorrow.

Onyx has taken 10 damage! 262/274

I smirked, grabbing the spiders leg, the same one it had stabbed me with and touching it with my glowing claw, digging into its thick armor slightly, the disease will slowly started to spread from its leg now, I pulled out Sylf's longsword from the inventory, using it to parry the rest of the strikes, I didn't need to get hit again, the spider was already sick, I just had to wait for the disease to take effect as this one wasn't as fast as causing Seizures, it affected the bloodstream and it took a while to start.

The other spiders joined in, one of them significantly weaker and slower but the other one was at full strength. The only advantage I had against it was that it was blinded, all of them were.

I dodged, weaved and jumped around their attacks, getting the occasional stab that connected, causing some damage but not able to pierce my silver scales.

Onyx has taken 8 damage! 254/274
Onyx has taken 10 damage! 244/274
Onyx has taken 13 damage! 231/274

I groaned in pain, those impacts tore up skin and muscle under my scales, thankfully it was no further than superficial damage.

Pale Spider has taken 6 fire damage! 174/250

By now the first spider, still trembling and shaking with seizures, went back to attack, but the attacks were slow enough to dodge easily, I decided I needed to do something about it so without thinking it twice, I misty stepped on top of the charred largest spider, it was slightly blackened from the burns of the powerful fireball, the hairs were burnt completely off, it need to put it out of its misery and quick. -10 mana 241/316

I run in, dodging it's legs trying to stomp me, and jump on top of her head, she can't do anything to me here, and the other spiders can't risk attacking or they would just stab their ally, I snarl and stab the longsword into her eyes, again and again, piercing them one by one as fast and hard as my arms can move, bright yellow ichor splashes out with each stab, the pieces of eye like gelatin being chunked by the enchanted blade.

Critical hit! Pale Spider has taken 80 damage! 94/250

"Haahahah! do you really think... that I would just be easy prey? Oh you poor naïve, disgusting insect, you made a big fucking mistake!" I store the longsword after trying to wipe it clean on the body of the spider, while it still struggled to get me off, and pulled out my warhammer.

The only response I got was incoherent screeching that almost left me deaf, it knew it was going to die.

"The reason I attempted to be diplomatic was not a perceived self inferiority, I just wanted to be cordial and save myself from having to dirty my scales with your nasty ichor, ugh... it's acid!" I winced as I realized the ichor that splashed on my face was eating away at my scales, slowly but it still wasn't pleasant, thankfully it didn't do more than leave burn marks on my scales, the real acid of this beasts was in their acid glands above their fangs. Having touched one gave me extensive knowledge on its anatomy thanks to my Animal Form perk.

"But planning to betray me, and thinking I couldn't understand you? Should have listened to the little male." I say shaking my head, taking a towel from my inventory and cleaning myself. All the while the spider under me runs around and jumps, tries to climb but I keep my grip on it.

'KHRRAAAAAA! GET OFF ME! I'm going to fill you with acid until you melt and drink your insides to heal my eyes! Help me sisters please, get it off me! p-please kill it!' I could hear the fear and despair in its voice, yet it didn't surrender, it still wanted to kill me, there would be no mercy for them.

"Now you feel what your prey feels when you are hunting them. The three of you will die today." I exclaim so they can all hear me, lifting one of the legs of the spider forcefully with my telekinesis and pulling to its limit, it was clearly not expecting that because it didn't react in time, using my telekinesis I send the hammer down and break it at the middle joint, and more of its acidic blood comes gushing out of the fractured leg, now its nothing more than twisted and torn spider meat and pieces of exoskeleton.

My eyes glow with indigo energy, grabbing another leg and simply break it by pulling it the wrong way, sometimes switching to using the hammer instead.

Slowly smashing all the legs to pieces, the weak gurgling sounds and wet cracking of exoskeleton being the only sound in the room, until it stops making any sounds at all, all 8 spider legs ripped off, crushed into paste or twisted at varios angles strewn around.

Pale Spider has taken 94 damage and is slain!

Onyx has earned 3000 Exp 27804/49196

You have become proficient using a Warhammer or maul

I snort at the attempts of the other spiders to remove me, sturdy shields blocking every attack, by now the spider had died from the physical trauma anyways. I hit back against their attacks with my warhammer, damaging their legs in the process, breaking some of their joints, they were furious but with their biggest and strongest dead, they had no real chance of victory.

Pale Spider has taken 15 damage and crippled their leg! 235/250

Pale Spider has taken 17 damage and crippled their leg! 233/250

They stopped their leg stabbing attack after breaking one leg each, as I matched them with my hammer, the steel wins against chitin and bug flesh, they were vulnerable to bludgeoning because of their exoskeleton, it was brittle and when it broke, it damaged the flesh under it.

Now I felt significantly more comfortable using my hammer, even being able to throw it or swing it with my magic.

'Retreat! We can't win! We will die, brother was right!' The smallest of the remaining spiders chattered to the rest, stepping back and trying to skitter into the shadows.

I couldn't let them, not after they had my scent and not after they had tried to slay me, this has to end now, I had a feeling there was something here I want and when I want something, I will fight to get it.

"I'm sorry, but you already have sealed your fate, so please, get back here and die, or I'm going to you." By now the smaller spider was starting to bleed from all of its joints, eyes and mouth, and it knew, that is why it decided to call for a retreat.

I could not let them escape, a spell formed in my mind, a powerful spell that would give them pause, it didn't take too long, just seconds to cast, and before they could escape the light, I blasted them with a chained lightning, arching between the two of them. -30

Pale Spider took 65 damage! 170/250
Pale spider took 120 damage! 113/250

Turns out the yellow ichor leaking from the smaller one was very conductive because it fried it particularly hard, leaving it's white exterior blackened and charred, as well as stunning it for a while.

The other one recovered fast, so I used a misty step to reposition on top of it and, digging my claws onto its abdomen, I held onto it. It trashed around, trying to get me off.

'NO NO NO NOOOO-!' it screeched in alarm and it tried to shake me off, but it was useless, I held onto it with not only my claws but my magic, pushing myself like a magnet to metal, there is no escape.

I raised my warhammer high, and brought it down as hard as I could on the top of its head to silence it.

Critical hit! Pale Spider took 34 damage! 136/250

The first hit broke a good portion of chitin with a wet crunch, yellow nasty ichor splashed up so I had to close my eyes to shield them from getting burnt, switching to my blindsight.

Critical hit! Pale Spider took 32 damage! 104/250
Critical hit! Pale Spider took 44 damage! 60/250

The third hit completely destroyed the chitin, exposing the spider's sensitive eyes, brains and other organs on its head.

Critical hit! Pale Spider took 60 damage and is slain!
Onyx has earned 3000 Exp! 30804/49196

The fourth and final hit exploded its eyes and brain and tore off the fangs and mouth, turning them in nothing more than a thick, chunky substance dripping to the floor, the acid glands, the ground started to sizzle and vapors from the acid drifted into the air.

Acidic ichor splashed everywhere, a puddle of it forming under, the spider didn't have a head anymore when I was done. I felt disgusted at the sight but I had one more target on the list.

Its legs twitched before they started curling into a ball like spiders usually do when they die. Damn monstrosities, I hate spiders, specially giant ones that try to eat me.

I wiped my face clean of the acidic Ichor, then opened my eyes and looked for the last spider, couldn't see it anywhere, that was worrying.

I jumped off from the corpse of this spider and went to were I had stunned it earlier, I was glad I chose to cast Contagion on it, the ichor staining the floor from the disease that causes constant bleeding, it left a clear trail for me to follow.

I smiled and ran after it at full speed, it would not escape me, no way! I tracked it deeper into the cave, I had to burn more cobwebs along the way to proceed using firebolts, it seemed to have ran into an area thick with denser cobwebs, the blood was held in the webs themselves.

While I pursued my magic started to return moderately fast, the cave was narrower here, the walls were covered in a silvery black ore that shone in the light, I groaned in annoyance, cobwebs touching my body all over was disgusting.

This was probably an ambush, I decided it wasn't worth pursuing that one, it was going to die anyways from the disease. I instead decided to focus on the large amount of shining sparkling ore on the walls of the cavern next to me, what the heck was this?! Couldn't hurt to gather some.

I didn't have a pickaxe, but the Warhammer could definitively work as a regular hammer in a pinch, I started smashing the ore, breaking chunks off from the rock, they were protruding out so it was easy to gather.

I spent a few hours gathering it all, ending up with various sizes of chunks of ore, they were beautiful, I checked the inventory.

30 ??? ore chunk (small 1kg)
20 ??? ore chunk (medium 5kg)
8 ??? ore chunk (large 8kg)

Stamina at 50%

Panting with exhaustion I decided it was not a bad idea to learn, I used inspect on a large chunk I had gathered, holding it in my claw.

Mithral ore chunk (large)
Weight: 8kg
This ore can be processed into Mithril, a metal lighter than steel but with similar properties, providing also resistance to magic. The process to turn this ore usable is similar to Steel Smelting, only an advanced level blacksmith can produce good quality Mithril.

I went back to the larger cavern from earlier, gathering so much ore made me forget all about the damn spider who got away, maybe I could find more ore in the large area of the mine? It would be wonderful.

I walked back, making sure to burn as much of the cobwebs as I could, I wanted to burn it all off, but that would take too long, so I focused on the stuff on the ground. Making sure the fire burned out before walking in, had already burned my webbed paws enough, I would have blisters that will take a full day to go away...

All this nasty spider blood was disgusting too! Not to mention the smell. Only saving grace was my robes working as a rain coat, liquids slid right off.

I heard the sound of skittering, a new enemy? clearly a spider by the number of steps, it was reluctant in its steps, almost shy and approached the area carefully. Then I saw it in my area of light, it was covering its eyes, and stayed still, chittering to me in its spidery tongue.

'Greetings oh bright one. I have seen what you have done with my sisters, I heard your words, and I want to say that I fear you greatly, you are a male like me, yes?' The pale spider asked, its tone fearful but curious, its posture the least threatening it could produce, legs relaxed and body flat to the ground. It still looked pretty scary if I didn't rationalize it, but it was clearly more scared of me than me of it.

"I am a male, yes. The reason I killed them is because they were planning on killing me, and no offense, but I really really don't like your kind, however you I have a gift for you." I answered him, it? with honesty, then took the half frozen body of the dead pony taking up space in the inventory, but I kept its head, who knows? It could make a killer Nightmare Night decoration in the future... The body on the other hand was useless to me, better to give it a proper use as spider food.

'You are the strongest male I've seen, my kind's males are smaller, weaker and more cowardly than the females, we usually end up as food for them after we do our role. You are not like that, you are deadly and I respect that.
Ever since I first saw you from afar, I felt a sense of dread similar to when I gazed at mother for the first time, of a terror without equal, a deadly and efficient hunter, I apologize for ever calling you prey, my sisters, I just followed the pack, big sister was the leader, but now I'm alone, and I have more food than I had in many cycles. Thank you for the generous gift, hunter. I promise I will never try to attack you or any who is with you again if you come back.' It chittered softly, its voice shaky with fear.

"Mother, you say? one of your sisters escaped deeper into the tunnel that is covered in webs, I felt it was an ambush so I did not follow, is that the direction that I can find your mother? And tell me more about her, What makes her such a dangerous and terrifying being?" While I spoke, i defrosted his food, waiting for him to explain and not interrupting.

'Mother, the mother of the brood, she is the one who lays our eggs, and hunts for us when we are too small to hunt, she tries her best to hunt in the depths, but she sometimes comes back carrying nothing. If she comes back without food more than three times, that means she will start to eat us, she always leaves some of us alive, me and my sisters, and sometimes we also eat her eggs or the freshly hatched.' I nodded, it made sense for spiders to be cannibalistic, disgusting creatures.

'Mother does not like it when we do that, so she tries to eat us as soon as she sees us near her nest. Mother is that way yes, heading further and down into another tunnel, she can not come up here, as she is too big to enter, but me and her others from previous clutches are still small enough come up here.' So there are larger spiders other than the big momma huh? Good to know, I had a feeling this ones were just too weak.

'The depths are just further down from mother's nest, a cave large enough for her to walk comfortably or stretch her legs, it's full of colorful rock and even some faintly shining crystals along the walls.' That could be... Either gemstones or more minerals! This place looks extremely promising, so many more riches awaited if we could clear out the spiders... I gestured for him to continue.

'Even further down, the space opens up and there are colorful forests and many prey animals, big juicy but dangerous worms, and other deadlier and faster prey that mother hunts, I haven't really seen them myself but we heard stories passed down from older generations. There is much more than I don't know about, I apologize bright hunter.'

"It's fine, you have given me plenty of useful information, here take this and leave me now, I want to explore the rest of this cave for myself, but thank you for the helpful information, consider this your reward!" I throw the now completely thawed corpse in front of him with telekinesis. Then turn around and leave.

'Thank you and good fortune in your future hunts.' it chattered one last time before stabbing it's leg through and dragging the dead body away, didn't see it but I could hear it, I went over to the edge of the cave where I hadn't been yet.

I checked the walls, finding a bit extra ore, this time I think it was silver, because it had a different glow to it, and there was just a few chunks. I kept searching the same spot but didn't find more. It was really heavy, was silver this heavy?

4 ??? Ore chunk (small) added to the inventory

"Inspect"

Platinum ore chunk (small) 5kg
Rare metal found in small quantities, more valuable and heavier than gold. It doesn't rust or tarnish.

"Oh! Shiny~ I'm gonna grow my hoard with platinum coins, can't wait! I'm coming back here with proper mining gear later because I really wanna grab some more of this, oddly enough there are no gemstones, but there sure is a lot of metals... Wouldn't hurt to pay the orphanage a few thousand bits as a form of tax..." I couldn't help but talk out loud, now that I was alone and feeling pretty excited.

'You truly embody the spirit of ambition I so highly value, Onyx I congratulate you on your find, not even I was aware of the riches deep down here. I did sense, in my instincts that Griffonstone is a land of great fortune, but I didn't expect it to be in the form of precious and rare metals, and they belong to you, because you found them. You can do whatever you want with them, is what I believe.'

I jumped a bit in surprise when he started talking, having forgotten about the fact that this artifact connected my mind to a god.

'Oh! Y-you must be mister Boreas, god of freedom, wind and ambition right? S-sorry for not replying earlier when you spoke to me, but I was too focused and barely registered... I am glad I got to your Idol, but what should I do with it now? I mean I got all the way down here and I got sidetracked... When I could have simply teleported back, its just that my sense of curiosity got the best of me.'

'Indeed I am, worry not about what happened, I spoke to you on a bad time and I apologize, and you have recovered my artifact, you have earned yourself the right of asking for a favor of me.' My eyes widened, I was really granted a free wish from a god?! Fuck yes! But... as much as I want that, Its not what I'm here for.

'As much as I would love to ask for a wish for myself, I want more than anything to help Griffonstone, this nation, to prosper like it used to prosper, do you think you could give them another chance mister Boreas sir? I just want the world to be better.' I asked in a hopeful tone, while I headed towards the exit of the cave, or at least the nearest point to it where I wouldn't be crushed by falling rock. There I could hear the howling of the wind again and the occasional falling stone, I dismissed my radiant orbiting star crown with a thought, and they dissolved into golden sparks, there was enough light from outside here.

Boreas was silent for a few minutes, thinking to himself, then he answered 'I... I did have a fondness for them, and I still do. Even after their failure and the decadence they have fallen into, I still want them to succeed, but they are stagnant, they need change and soon.'

'So I will do this, I will guide them but I need a griffon who is young, ambitions and capable enough to lead them all, to be their king, but who? I will need you to do me a big favor, gather all the griffons from the city and call them to the door to the castle, from there you will stand at the highest point and raise the idol, with my powers I will examine them all to find the most promising ruler, I can feel you are a kind soul, and I know you worry about them all, and not just them, but everyone.'

I nod at that, smiling at his answer. 'I'll do what you ask lord Boreas, and yes I do care, that is why I have come here after overhearing some griffon refugees that had to leave the city because they couldn't earn enough to live, I want to make a difference...'

'That's very noble of you, then when I'm choosing, I will also look for someone who shares your values... are you not sent by Faust by any chance? You seem like you would be her chosen, still a dragon of course, I saw the glint in your eyes when you realized you found those metals.' I could feel him let out a hearty chuckle in my mind.

'About Faust... Its been a long time since I met that old mare, before we ascended you know we used to be close friends? If you happen to talk to her, tell her I hope she is doing well, and that she should visit sometime.' His tone shifted to reminiscing and slightly nostalgic.

'Oh that maybe could be arranged, i'm not her chosen, but my father actually became her chosen! so... Maybe its not so out of the question for the two of you to be able to communicate, we have an amulet blessed by her, and dad has a direct connection, so even if your consciousness is bound to this Idol, you can still connect.' I reassure him with a smile, and feel he is also smiling now.

'You are full of surprises young Onyx, you have given this old griffon a reason to smile again. Maybe when I grow stronger once again, I'll still grand you a wish if you so choose.' I nodded and offered a soft thank you, starting to prepare for a teleport, I would go to the rock I used to descend here so I started to remember as much detail as I could of it, while also channeling the runic formulae, and 10 seconds later, I was ready, wisps of indigo energy like embers from a fire, rose around me and with a crack of energy I appeared on the surface, right where I envisioned.

Next thing I know, I'm wrapped in the fluffy arms and chest of a lady griffon considerably larger than me, her warm fluffy chest puffed up with a mixture of relief and anger.

"Oh its so good to see you back alive! But... you've made me sit here, alone for over three hours! you irresponsible, stupid, careless... It's been painful you know? I'm angry but I'm mostly hurt." My ears lowered as she explained how she felt.

"When the rope snapped I expected you to teleport up here right away, b-but you didn't! you... you made me think you were dead! I've been here crying thinking I had heard you fall to your death, do you have any idea how that feels?!" She slapped me across the snout gently, making me wince, but not at the slap, but at realizing I had forgotten about her, thinking she was just going to go home, turns out she did care.

I've been a prick to her, I've caused her to suffer emotional distress. I needed to make up for it.

"I'm sorry... I just fell to the bottom of the chasm, and from there things got hectic, look, is there any way I could compensate you? This is your business, right? Maybe I could have some higher quality equipment and things shipped over from Equestria so you can rent or sell? Anything you want really, I'll get it for you."

Her eyes lit up at this, but she glared at me.

"Tell me at least you got what you were looking for... And then it's a deal." I nodded and pulled out the Idol of Boreas from my inventory, it was a bit dirty but intact, as a magical artifact it couldn't be damaged or destroyed by normal means.

Her eyes sparkled with awe and I stored it back.

"Of course, what kind of dragon you take me for? I always keep my word... I did tell you I could take some extra time and I did. Still sorry I'll compensate you with better gear, I'll have it shipped for you directly to your store in a few months."

"You... You actually found it! The Idol of Boreas! What do you plan to do with it?" I smiled and patted her head, she looked in disbelief at me for doing that and relaxed, starting to enjoy it.

"I'm going to do what Boreas told me to do, restore this nation to it's previous glory, no, it will be much better than it used to be, much happier." She gives me a hug again and I feel she isn't angry anymore, she unties the rope and I take off the harness and give it to her, I had kept it on after the rope snapped, only discarding the piece of rope still attached to me, but a harness didn't get in my way at all and it was tightly adjusted to my body anyways, I even forgot I had it on.

"Thank you... Alright I forgive you! Just because you aren't keeping the Idol to yourself, but you're saying Boreas spoke to you though it? I thought only... Only the king could speak to him, you just be really special!" I shook my head.

"Nah, I'm not special, it's just that he was grateful that I got back his artifact, he also worried and felt bad about not being able to help your kind for so long, so I will help him help you, gather your family and your friends, tell everyone you know to go tomorrow at noon, to gather near the door to the castle in the upper branch heading to it."

"What for? Why do we all need to be there?"

"Once there, your god Boreas will choose a new King or Queen to guide your people, someone that has the mettle to become the future ruler and that will bring prosperity to the nation, spread the word, I will do the same." She nodded with a smile, despite having been crying before she was feeling truly motivated now, she then flew off into the city ahead of me.

"By the way you stink! Go take a shower!" She yelled at me as she flew out of earshot.

I smirked and just walked back at a quick trot. Yeah I really need a shower, and some rest.

Pale Spider bled to death! 3000 Exp earned.
Onyx 33804/49196

Finally, seems the disease took it's course to the end. Now I wouldn't have to worry about coming back to spider attacks, I really need to design a new fire spell, something that can work as a flamethrower for cases like this, fireball is too gentle, to brief and doesn't burn for long enough.

I shake my head, thinking about crimes against spiders can wait for later.

I climb up the path towards the city again, it's a wonderful day outside, green grass and wildflowers, the sky slightly cloudy and pleasant just like I enjoy it.

I walk up to the guards at the door, who greet me with a wave, this are the two guys I've given the bits to, and they're both happy to see me.

"Good evening lads! I need you to do me a favor, tell your friends and family tomorrow at noon the must stand in front of the castle, outside of it, can you trust me to do this? You'll see why it's important, because trust me, it is!" They look at me and then each other, then nod slowly, confused but willing to trust me.

I head inside and then, thinking about what I have to do next, oh he's check on my parents, need to know if they were able to help the griffons at the hospital, and there is an easy way to do this.

'Hello you two, remember me? I hope I ain't interrupting anything, my objective is complete, what's your situation? Over.'

'Onyyyx! You've been gone for a long time and I couldn't reach you earlier, are you okay? What a relief to hear your voice again!' Mom's voice sounds happy, I could imagine her tail wagging.

'Heey son! Your mother's right, what took you so long? We were really worried! But there's good news, we found the hospital and managed to heal everyone who was sick or seriously hurt, it took almost all of my magic and stamina, I'm... Really exhausted but still conscious, I learned to pace myself this time, you're right about trying to keep your mana high.' His voice indeed sounds really tired, like he's about to fall asleep, but he sounds happy, satisfied and relaxed.

'Oh you wouldn't believe what happened to me! I found it, I got the Idol of Boreas, and went on a little adventure of my own after falling all the way down to the bottom of the Abyss, I got a few amazing things from there, turns out there are huge cave systems down there. It's insane... Incredible!'

'Something tells me you had to fight your way out of that place, we will have words once you're here young drake, and you'll tell me exactly what happened. Come to the orphanage, we just got here and I'm giving your father a massage* it's the least I can do after all his work and effort.' She doesn't exactly sound angry but she is definitively not asking me that, she's ordering me and I know when to obey my mother.

'Ill be there in a few minutes, then I'll tell you everything.' And with that I cut the communication and headed to where she told me with a purpose, yeah, it's all coming together.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! This chapter deviates slightly from the shows version and takes place over a decade earlier than it would in the show.