Author's Note

Things get a bit heavier in this chapter, contains violence and gore, and graphic descriptions of wounds.

Chapter 6 The Spider Forest Part 2

Sylf's powerful stomps exploded the eggs like if they were overfilled balloons, the spider inside dying instantly, now mom was a bit stronger than before, and against this spiders she could land the full force of her body, she is adept at jumping too, her legs are very strong, now the dozen eggs got reduced to a puddle of spider juice, and mom was wiping off the nasty fluid on the spiderwebs around the nest.

'The 12 unhatched spiders killed, your party gets 120 EXP LvL 6 Onyx: 259/298. LvL 17 Sylf: 42/2217.'

After she was done she looked at me and I nodded, next up was pulling down the bodies to loot, she simply jumped high enough and grabbed the string of web holding the body and ripped it off the tall branch it was attached to, one by one the bodies fell to the ground below, usually also fell on the nasty spider flavored jello covering the floor, but... I guess beggars can't be choosers, and we are sort of looting long dead bodies, I wonder who are this creatures, they're either rotten or their bodies have liquefied by the spiders eating them that they look just unrecognizable, I think I saw a wing, and most of them have four legs, a few have beaks, another one has horns, huh... I wonder how many races there are in this place, I have no idea what any of this are.

After she gets all of them down we start looking, or more precisely, she does, touching the bodies and the loot being stored in her inventory, which I can reach into from my menu, this time the finds are a lot... Juicier and in a good way!

'Sylf has found 300 gold, 1 darkness gems, 2 fire gems, 2 electricity gems, a level 5 spell book, a level 10 spell book, a level 15 bronze short sword, a large leather saddlebag, and a level 5 stone knife, a "Introduction to blacksmithing weapons and tools" book, and a small polished amethyst' Sylf and I smiled widely while looking at each other.

'Oh my goodness! I can't believe it, mom! We have gotten amazing loot, now I have an actual weapon! Finally, even tho I have no idea how to use it... Huh, maybe you can? Or you want to try to learn magic, wait, you could use magic! You have a level 10 spell book, imagine which amazing spells you can learn from it!' I say in excitement as I take the level 15 sword out of the inventory, and try to use it, but immediately a warning pops up. 'You cannot use a weapon of a level higher than your own without proper training and a skill, you would end up hurting yourself' aw dangit! Well that sucks... I would need to learn with a weaker weapon probably, or a wooden training weapon which I can probably make myself with a branch!

'Yes son I saw, it looks like an amazing set of tools and books, I honestly don't know if I can learn magic, I never tried before but I enjoy seeing your powerful magic being used, it makes me proud and I do want to learn.' She smiled at me and nuzzled my side as she said that, I purred as the affection she gave me made me feel much better, and handed her the level 10 spell book, she opened it with her maw, but as soon as she started reading a bright flash blinded me for a second, when my sight returned a notification appeared on my HUD.

'Sylf has learned Elemental Weapon, spellbook has disappeared'

Sylf had an excited expression on her face, but also looked at me with curiosity. 'what does elemental weapon do? How do I use it?' I giggled a bit and she fake pouted at me then laughed along with me.

'Hahah sorry I just find that excitement without any idea of what you learned, to be quite funny, but elemental weapon is a spell that gives your sword any elemental damage you want when cased, it makes your regular weapon deal elemental damage, and that means more damage! Which is honestly amazing and I'm a bit jealous... But I see, that is how this spell books from the dungeon work, you only learn one spell at random from that level and it disappears after use. Now it's my turn to use a spellbook!

I grab the level 5 spellbook and open it, I try to start reading but I get the information transfered directly to my brain, making the book disappear.

'Onyx has learned Acid Arrow!'

I eagerly nodded to myself, now I had a good spell to use against this spiders, that would be a good combination with my other spells, and Sylf had an awesome one too, I think we were ready, nothing else to do than move to the end of the path we diverted from, so we did, we walked all the way back and kept following the path where the spiders came from, along the way we found spiders, but with our increase in power, and Sylf holding the sword in her maw, she quickly took to it, clumsy and dropping the sword at times, but eventually being able to cut enemy limbs without dropping it and with increased precision.
I was impressed, my mommy was becoming more and more like the other legendary wolf who wielded a sword, you know who I speak of. Maybe someday she will be as big, and wield a massive sword too...

'Sylf has increased her affinity with the sword to apprentice rank, increasing damage dealt and lowering the chance of being disarmed'.

I did not stay behind, using ray of frost I sniped as many spiders as I could hit right in the eyes, saving my mana by using only my weakest spell while occasionally having to back away from a lunging spider.

'Your affinity with magic has increased, you earn the rank of apprentice mage, your spells deal more damage and are easier to aim.'

'6 Baby Darkling spiders killed, 600 EXP gained. Onyx reached level 8: 203/429. Sylf LvL 17: 642/2217'

The increase in level revitalized me and filled me with energy, i was less scared as I got more confident in my ranged ability, simply staying back and taking potshots at the flanks of enemies, I stopped and sneaked behind some bushes, signaling mom to do the same, i used inspect on the enemies ahead.

'Inspect leveled to level 2 up, now you can learn weaknesses about creatures you use it on.'

'LvL 10 Juvenile darkling spider, HP 45/45 Perfect Dark vision, Bladed Legs, Multihit to knocked down targets, Lunge.
Weakness to acid, fire and ice, resistance to poison and psychic damage.' I shivered, this bigger spider had more health points and bigger blades legs, probably would be more dangerous to get hit by it, I need to be careful and protect mom.

'Mommm! Use fire on your weapon, they are weak to fire, and make sure they never knock you down or they can use a devastating attack!.' I felt her confirm mentally, and scanned another of the smaller spiders.

'LvL 5 Baby darkling spider, HP 20/20 Dark Vision, Dagger Legs, Small Lunge.
Weakness to acid, fire, ice, resistance to poison.'

At this point I was less scared of the smaller spiders, but they were still about my size, just weaker, and pretty dumb, I was unsure about the juvenile ones, they clearly were stronger, i took aim and fired from cover, the beam of ice took the spiders by surprise, giving us time to charge in.

Sylf rushed forward, her sword alight with fire, and started to slice thru the smaller spiders with ease, killing them in one swing each, but the larger Juvenile spiders were not so easily defeated, one managed to slash at Sylf when she was dispatching the smaller spider, leaving a long cut on her side, they also parried her strikes with their clawed limbs, but they were damaged and burned in the process by the flaming sword, i moved to flank and used acid arrow at the joint of the legs with the spider's thorax, causing half of them to to melt and break off, and my mom took swift advantage, moving out of the way of another attack and bringing her sword down on the head of the spider, cleaving it in half and killing it, now with only 2 other Juveniles, the fight was more one sided, mom was bleeding from her side, but she didn't falter for more than a few seconds, she kept bringing her sword to bear despite the pained expression on her face, and i stayed behind or to the side, seeking weakpoints and blindspots to attack from, the spiders could probably see me, but they couldn't deal with me without turning their backs to my much more deadly companion.

After a few more minutes, our enemies were thinned out to the point only one juvenile darkling was left, it was cornered from both sides, and with a coordinated attack, it was felled easily by spell and blade, the combination of an acid arrow to the face and fire sword to the legs wielded by a large wolf was very strong, being frozen, melted by acid and burned by fire was devastating, I wouldn't to be on the receiving end of this combo.

'3 Juvenile Darkling Spiders slain 1200 EXP, 4 Baby Darkling Spiders 400EXP, total earned 1600 EXP, Onyx has leveled up 3 times, to LvL 11 240/743! Sylf has leveled up to LvL18 25/2661' I felt my mana returning to me instantly after leveling up, and looking at Sylf she also had all her wounds healed, and her energy returned, leveling up was, for now, the best way to obtain both mana, get healed and recover energy.

The path forward widened into a large clearing, the trees were more space and a large circular ruin was in the middle, it was a wide structure, maybe a temple or church of some kind, judging by the large dome, with stone bricks forming the walls and the door was metal, there were holes on the building but they were covered in cobwebs, this was clearly the boss room, despite being stronger now I felt terrified of going in, but mom's strength reassured me and I slowly reached for the rusted door, but it got stuck halfway opened with said rust, mom moved forward and pushed it open all the way for me, inside it was pitch black, I could see but even with my dark vision, I couldn't see the whole interior.

'Wait, I'll go first and burn the cobwebs with my sword, it will keep them from grabbing onto us and slowing us down.' I nodded in response and she headed in first, using her flaming sword to set fire to the thick spiderweb along the floor and walls, I watched with glee as the spiderwebs were burned, leaving behind just slightly dusty purple carpets over stone brick and some wooden furniture, probably seats of the old temple, and some cabinets, after the fire cleared away from the entrance room, I opened cabinets, finding 10 gold coins and 3 holy water bottles, as well as a bag of 5 (100gp each) assortment of gemstones, all while mom kept burning away the spiderwebs until the whole first room was clear.

After grouping up together we headed into the main room, where the altar was, the spiderwebs were covering everything here, and a much stronger sense of foreboding and dread filled the air, I felt like I was being watched, and Sylf clearly felt it too, but still she cleared a path for us using her elemental weapon, the fire consuming the webs very efficiently, and now about a quarter of the room was cleared and we could walk without getting stuck and covered in sticky spidersilk.

A very large spider was slowly walking the domed roof and the wall on the other side of the temple, as we were distracted burning away the lair of the boss, the being was extremely stealthy for something so big and terrifying, it made no noise as it skittered down the wall and silently approached us, but soon it was close enough to be inside my dark vision range, and I yelled out.

"Spider! BIG, ITS THE BOSS, GET READY MOM!." i screamed in panic but I kept my cool, backing away instinctively, I used inspect at the same time, mom moved to my side and held the sword at a ready position. The spider was as tall as mom, the legs were much longer, the body was pitch black with green markings around the legs, thorax and abdomen, forming strange patterns.

'Broodmother Darkling Spider, Dungeon Boss, LvL18
Skills: Perfect Dark Vision, Soundless Step, Webweaver, Poisonous bite, Multi attack on targets stuck on webs, Psychic screech.
Weaknesses and resistances: Weak to Acid, Weak to fire, Weak to Ice, resistant to Psychic, Immune to poison.
HP: 150/150
MP:cannot use magic.
Stamina: 200

'Mom! I hate to ask this, but you should take charge and while it focuses you, I will attack from the side or the back, please make sure you don't get bitten, we don't have antidotes for it's poison...' she can feel the worry in my voice through our mental link, and I can feel her fear, but the strongest emotion is determination, she is determined to fight to the death to protect both of us, and I will make sure that it never gets to that point, I will protect her even if it means I have to go face to face and bite the spider right in the... Ass? Oh that gave me an idea.

While Sylf headed straight at the spider, growling angrily and brandishing her flaming sword, I sneakily approached the spider from behind, once it locked into melee with mom, spider legs parrying and slashing, and my mom barely able to parry the spider's attacks, I ran directly while charging my frost breath, and bit into the spinnerets, releasing the full power of my ice in it's web making organs, completely destroying them, the spider screeched a piercing and terrible scream.
'Broodmother takes 25 points of damage, critical hit!, Webweaver skill neutralized' 125/150
'Onyx and Sylf take 4 points of Psychic damage.'
Onyx: 92/96
Sylf: 116/120.'

'It... It worked! Ugh, I didn't expect that nasty scream, I felt pain in my brain directly, somehow, W-WAIT WHA-'. I didn't finish my sentence as one of the back spider legs came quite hard from above and stomped on the middle of my body, making my head smack directly against the stone floor, the impact was so strong I felt my ribs crack, and blood instantly rushed to my mouth, and the only reason my spine wasn't severed was that It came at an angle, I now felt what those spiders felt when mom stomped on them, I cried out in a choked gasp of agony, the spider then started to turn to face me, i let out a mental cry for help.
'Onyx has taken 58 points of damage. 34/96'
'Warning, internal bleeding detected, you will take periodic damage until your health is restored'

Mom heard my cry and came to the rescue as I limped away from the monster, my limbs were not broken but walking made my ribs stab into my organs, not sure which but even with the adrenaline, the pain was unbearable, I could barely stay conscious, mom jumped and landed on top of the spider, and with a loud battle cry that sounded like a howl, stabbed the giant spider right on the middle, the wound sizzling as the fire cooked the inside of the arachnid, but she has to take the sword out as the spider began to jump around trying to dislodge her, and she risked losing her sword by leaving it stabbed there.
She then slashed another leg off at the second join, making it useless, and reducing the ability of jumping and running of the boss.
'Broodmother boss has taken 30 damage, critical hit! 95/150.'
'Broodmother has taken 15 damage, leg destroyed, speed and jumping ability reduced by 12%! 80/150.'
The monster let out another horrible screech, a much louder one, this time I felt as if my brain had needles piercing from all sides, my purple bioluminescent blood poured from my ears and eyes, as well as my mouth from the internal bleeding, I let out a choked sob, then spit the blood in my throat and maw, I had never tasted my blood before, it brought very old memory of those fizzy sour candies I used to enjoy as a human child.

'Onyx and Sylf take 10 psychic damage! Onyx is in critical condition! 24/96. Sylf 106/120'.

With my barely conscious mind I mentally pulled a health potion of my inventory and opened, chugging it clumsily, at least my maw, throat and stomach were intact, I downed the potion as fast as I could, before I would start choking with blood again, I felt my insides quickly repairing themselves, it felt amazing, having my fully intact internal organs again, the pain in my head also stopped, and i felt fully able to fight again.
'Onyx has regained 60 health points. 84/96'
Meanwhile the spider dueled against my raging wolf mother, both hitting and parrying, dodging and stabbing each other with powerful slashes and blows.

'Mom, I'm fine, I drank a health potion, I'll go back to helping, sorry for letting you down!' I said mentally as I sniped the spider on one of its legs that was using to parry Sylf's blows, which caused the limb to slow down and not be able to parry the flaming sword, which connected with the second joint, slicing the leg off in one hit, I smirked at this, revenge was ice cream, and I really was enjoying this one, the spider was outmatched, but we couldn't let our guard down.

'Broodmother took 15 damage, leg destroyed, speed reduced by 12%. 65/150.'

'Stay back son, keep using your spells, it's working, don't risk your life again, you are far too small for melee combat, despite you being far stronger than a normal pup, you have very short reach!' Mom Sylf mentally told me, I knew she was right, what I did before was stupid, I was no melee fighter, I was a caster, and despite my breath attack working better at short distances, i couldn't fight physically against this giant monster.

I mentally acknowledged her words and focused fully, I saw another opening, and fired an acid arrow at the top of the thorax, acid splashed on the spiders eyes.

'Broodmother Darkling took 12 damage 53/150, critical hit, target is blinded.'

Causing it to recoil and try to wipe it's eyes with its legs, which was a really bad idea when you're fighting a pissed off wolf the size of a large pony, mom moved sideways and her sword to stab into the base of a fang, cutting the mandible of the spider, and breaking off one of the fangs, stabbing deep into the venom sack and causing the venom to spill out on the ground, the burning effect cauterizing the wound and causing the spider to back off, now it would have a much harder time biting, but the vapours of the venom coating the sword flew into Sylf's mouth and eyes, causing her great pain too, yet she only blinked her eyes clean, the damage was minimal, but still hurt.

'Broodmother Darkling took 20 damage and has lost its ability to inflict deadly poisoning 33/150'
'Sylf has taken 10 damage. 96/120.'
'Warning, boss has entered berserker mode.'

My eyes widened in terror, but before I could start to form a mental command, the boss glowed a bright red, and seemed to recover it's full speed, it lunged at mom much faster than it had before, and grabbed her with all it's remaining legs, then bit down on her with it's remaining fang right on mom's neck, in return, mom stabbed it multiple times directly in its delicate underside, but mom was crushed under the weight of the giant spider.

'Sylf has been poisoned severely! Sylf has taken
78 points of damage 18/120 Warning, Sylf is in critical condition, internal bleeding detected, severe poisoning and internal bleeding make a deadly combination, target takes 20 damage per minute.'

There was blood, not only spider blood, angrily used ray of frost many times until the spider stopped twitching, mom was crying out in agony under the spider, if I pushed the spider off, I risked dealing more damage to her, and at her current health she would die, but then a desperate idea came to mind.

'Broodmother Darkling has taken 33 damage and has been slain'.

I thought about storing the boss in my inventory, and it just barely, I calculated it weighted about 130kg, after I did that, I got a closer look Sylf's broken body, the smell of blood was strong, her ribcage was crushed and flattened, with organs coming falling out, and her legs were broken, her neck had a deep puncture wound that leaked blood and a green fluid, blood was flowing out of her maw and ears, her eyes were half closed and she was on the verge of death, i desperately took the potion out of my inventory, but right as i did, she instantly was fine, it was as if i had imagined her on the verge of death, she just got up like she had been having a nap, i blinked, my eyes full of tears that ran down my face and i sobbed against her now restored chest and body, crying like the baby i was, the adrenaline was wearing off and my adult mind was not able to take control, so i let my toddler mind take control.

'Your party has killed the Broodmother Darkling Spider Boss, and earned 5000 EXP, Onyx has leveled up 4 times LvL15 1254/1540. Sylf has leveled up to LvL 19 2364/3194'.

'Son? a-are you okay? h-how am I alive? I was... sure I would die, I could feel my life slipping away... I-im sorry I couldn't react in time, my legs were feeling heavy already, that monster was much stronger than it seemed, I let my guard down and you almost lost your new mom... I-im so sorry!' Sylf couldn't hold it anymore and cried along with me, we embraced and stayed sobbing and crying loudly together, trying to bring comfort to each other, this was a horrible nightmare, far more painful and realistic than any nightmare neither of us had, we did our best, and yet we both were so close to dying, after feeling a bit better in mother's embrace, I fell asleep, and so did she, our bodies were not tired, but the mental strain of fighting to the death, and almost dying were worse than many days without sleep.

'Congratulations! your party has completed the Starter Dungeon and survived, you have unclaimed rewards, you have gained the Spell Sniper feat and can learn an extra cantrip, Sylf has gained proficiency with longswords, and has gained the Grappler feat.
Your Party will be now transported to your previous location in the material plane.'