CRACK.
Lucian's eyes widened as he looked down, then a grin crossed his face as the leg of the spider crunched under the impact.
Without any delay Lucian kicked down on the leg completely breaking it off the body and used the force of the kick to jump back, as he touched down he cut the thread of spider silk still attached to him.
The spider queen howled and screeched its massive body hitting the walls as it barrelled out of control.
Lucian grinned seeing his opportunity when the entire cavern suddenly went dark.
"Shit," Lucian cursed and pulled his bag around, he reached in and felt his mood grow dull, one of the lamps broke leaving him with only three.
He pulled one out and ripped off the seal, a spark of flame left his fingertips and caught the wick, he chuckled in relief when the wick started to burn without a problem.
The flame wasn't nearly as bright as a torch or the flame from the previous exploded lamp, but over the past weeks Lucian grew used to fighting with little to no light, as long as he could make out the outline of the spider queen he would be fine.
Lucian pressed the lamp against one of the walls where it caught onto the web providing a better distribution of light into the dull room.
Lucian hurriedly turned hoping the opportunity hadn't passed, but he turned to see the spider queen only a dozen feet away from him and charging like a wild bull.
Lucian stood his ground and at the last second he ducked barrelling out of the way, the spider queen went straight into the wall its head smashing into the oil lamp.
"Ah… come on," he groaned as the flame went out,, he brought his fingers forward and shot another fireball at the spider queen, it hit and instantly the entire head of the spider queen erupted into flames.
It went into a mad frenzy, as pained shrieks echoed, its abdomen started to twitch and spray webs all over the place.
Lucian dodged repeatedly, he tried avoiding the webs as much as possible, but they covered so much of the floor that if it continued for a minute, he'd have a hard time walking.
As the spider queen barrelled towards the water, Lucian followed at its side as he tried to combine two of the katas, 'Sharpness' and 'Slice'.
He became a beacon of concentration as he tried to adjust his body, he managed to come up with methods to execute one technique after the other, but never to put them together.
As he followed after the spider queen he allowed the sharpness to grow and combined it into the slice, he took a deep breath and shifted the weight to the tip of the blade, and it streaked down leaving a trail across the air, it came down on the abdomen of the spider queen and sunk right through the tough exterior and continued down.
Lucian jumped back as a bunch of fluids spilled from the abdomen along with not only a chunk of the abdomen, but the rearmost right leg plopped down on the ground.
The spider howled louder than ever before as it crashed into the body of water.
Lucian sucked in a queasy breath as he felt a level of exhaustion he never experienced before wash over his body, he looked at the system hoping to get the notification of becoming an [Adapt Swordsman].
But after a few seconds it didn't show, he sighed wondering what he had done wrong, and pulled out another lamp.
He pulled off the seal and got to work trying to light the wick, but after five tries it refused to light up, that's when he heard something, a loud rage-induced screech, rocking the entire cavern.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE," the spider queen screeched in fury and desperation.
Lucian turned to the noise and threw the lamp along with another fireball, it exploded into a shower of flames falling all over the webs and even hitting the spider queen.
If a spider could limp that is exactly what the spider queen did, as it crawled forward, five of its red eyes looked to have been melted away leaving only three that weren't in any good condition.
Lucian climbed to his feet, it was their final bout and he was ready to see the end of this dungeon.
He picked up his sword and ran to meet the spider queen, it threw out one of its remaining front legs, but Lucian jumped, and his body spun like a top, 'Whirlwind'.
His aim was the spider's eyes with a single deadly spin he got the final three eyes.
Lucian stumbled to the ground and jumped back putting some distance between him and the spider queen, but it seemed there was no need, the loss of its remaining eyes seemed to do it in.
"Scree.e.ee.e.e," it released a mournful cry and crumbled rolling onto its back.
Lucian stumbled around making his way to the spider queen, he raised his sword and charged at its head pushing the blade straight through.
---
Entry 401: The Journal of a Slothful Prince
I knew it in that moment…
I knew it when those messages started to appear, and the silver gate opened…
That my life would forever be changed, and that there was no going back…
I wonder if one day I shall regret stepping through that gate…
---
[You have cleared a dungeon: The Spiders Lair]
[You have killed a (monstrous) Spider]
[The rest of the Sloth comes to its end]
[You have activated the player features]
[You have activated the inventory]
[You have activated the NPC function]
[For clearing an E-class dungeon you have earned 3000 exp]
[A special reward has been activated]
---
Lucian was bombarded by a series of messages on the system, he didn't even understand what half of them meant.
A ripple appeared in the air in front of him, and soon the ripples spread out forming a gigantic silver pool suspended in the air.
Lucian recalled the vision he had of a silver pool, it looked identical to the one before him.
"Come," the voice sounded, this time it was not in his head but out in the air and clearer than ever before.
Lucian climbed to his feet and stepped closer, taking one small step at a time, when he reached the silver pool he could see his reflection as clear as day, his clothes were torn in several places and he was bleeding from multiple places, though his body was numb.
If he had to guess, he would say that it was because he got hit with so much web, that there was no avoiding the effect of the paralytic toxin that laced the web.
His mask was stained with blood and dirt and so too were his clothes, he reached out and pressed his palm on the rippling pool.
The moment his hand met his reflection he felt like the whole world was warping, suddenly he wasn't the one approaching the pool he became the reflection he saw within…
He was sinking and he was sinking fast he could do nothing to stop the fall, it was like trying to fight gravity, there was just no winning.
As the world swam in all directions Lucian blinked and found all those sensations to have strangely disappeared.
The room around was pure white, it seem infinite yet small, he climbed to his feet and turned around, to be greeted by an apparition of a woman.
"Welcome home Sloth," she greeted.