Lucian climbed down the rope into the final part of the dungeon, his gear bag clinked and rattled as the oil lamps bumped against each other.
It took him five tries to fix the problem with the lamps, but he couldn't be certain that it would work, he didn't have a lot of material on hand and neither did the close by noble estate and villagers, most of their excess goods were sold in the city.
Lucian put together four lamps and hoped that at least one would work when he got out on the other side.
He took a breath and went down into frigid waters, a thousand shivers ran through his body as he pushed himself under, with the rope in hand he began to swim across the ceiling tapping the roof as he looked for any changes.
It was pitch black and all he had to rely on was his sense of feeling, every second in that water was terrifying, if there were snakes or any other creatures inside, he did not know and was almost helpless, if he lost the rope he would be helpless to turn back.
After about a minute of searching he turned back, his lungs were getting tight.
As his head came out of the water he was greeted by the shimmering sapphire-coloured stalactite that hung over him, it was reflecting the torchlight, giving the crack a dull glow.
After catching his breath Lucian sunk back down and began his search, making slow progress, as his body grew accustomed to the cold water his mind grew restless about how long the lamps could stay submerged.
Two hours slowly passed by, and the time was excruciating for Lucian his worries grew, and his body was starting to freeze in the cold.
By that time he came to the conclusion that if he wanted to find the entrance to the next layer he would have to dedicate all his breath to make it as far as possible giving up on return, if not he might as well give up right there and return to the surface.
Lucian pulled himself up and returned to the last room, where he sat next to the torch for a couple of hours trying to warm himself up.
When he finished he climbed back down and jumped into the water, he grabbed a hold of the rope and picked a direction before charging forward giving it his all.
The seconds ticked by with Lucian smacking the roof of this underground pond, begging to find someplace where his hand would meet empty air, as the seconds went by a minute quickly passed, his brain was screaming at him to turn back, but he pushed forward, his kicks and peddles gradually weakened when he let out his breath.
The bubbles raced out of his mouth and out the sides of the mask, Lucian looked back in the direction of the rope only to be met with darkness, a darkness he recognised to be the end, there was no exit in sight.
As the seconds passed by his lungs begged him to breathe but he knew what would follow so he held out until the pressure in his lungs won out.
As he sank expecting the frigid waters to burn through his lungs the cold refreshing sensation of air flooded his body.
Lucian's eyes opened wide with shock and surprise as he took in breath after breath even as he floated in the water, he looked around for the source of the miracle when he reach for his face and touched the mask.
'It can't be, can it?!' he thought with awe as he touched the mask, it had that self-repair array and the one that allowed it to grow perfectly in accordance with his face, so a water filtering function wasn't out of the question.
With that revelation he laughed heartily and moved around for a little while trying to find the rope, he lost hold of it when he thought he was dead, it took a few minutes before he found the rope, and started exploring the pond in earnest.
After ten minutes he tried to hit the ceiling when his hand left the water and found empty air, Lucian reached into the bag and pulled out another steel rod, he tied the rope to it before climbing out of the water.
He didn't know what waited for him on the other side, but he knew that he needed a way back and that every second on the other side mattered so he couldn't waste a second of it.
He emerged from the water as quietly as possible where he smacked the rod into the ground anchoring the rope and securing his exit.
Then he swung his bag to the side and grabbed one of the lamps, he ripped off the seal and let his energy flow into his fingers when his senses kicked in.
Lucian drew his sword from his sheath and moved straight into a 'parry', he immediately felt a jolt of force slam into him, he stopped the worst from happening with the parry, but his feet dragged through the mud as he was pushed back a dozen feet.
Lucian paused focusing on his hearing, when another blow came at him, he managed to parry again, when another hit took him on the side.
He felt something thick and rough connect with his ribs, and then the sensation of warm blood greeted him as he tumbled back into a wall, he tried to step forward when he felt something pulling him back.
'Dammit,' Lucian grimaced he threw the lamp in the air where he could hear the spider, and flicked his fingers, a spark of fire shot forward.
Boom.
The lamp shattered and burst into flames illuminating the room and giving Lucian his first look at the spider queen.
"Screeeee," it screeched and scampered as the flames licked its body, seeing his opportunity Lucian used the form of 'Sharpness' as he pulled his sword free and slashed at the webs holding him in place.
As the flames started to die down it revealed the spacious room making it perfect for a sword, Lucian stepped forward and rubbed his wound it was the first time that any spider was able to so easily pierce his clothes.
"Time to end this," he muttered as he inspected the spider, while on all eight of its legs, it reached his chest, and its legs were as thick as logs with a very rough look to it, it reminded him of a club.
The spider dunked its body into the water to put out the flames, when it came back and looked at Lucian who was charging at it, it bore its fangs as a layer of froth leaked from its mouth.
It propped itself on its front legs and curled its body bringing up its abdomen, Lucian had seen this trick too many times before when the spiders would fire their silk at him.
But despite recognising it he still got caught by the string of web, he moved his leg forward and allowed it to catch onto his boots, then he retreated and started to do a dozen cartwheels a second as he pulled away from the spider.
One of the most important things he learnt was that the spiders have a limit to how much silk they produce, and once they fire the silk they practically open the door to all their reserves.
Thus, the wild motions of spinning and cartwheeling, allowed him to pull way more silk out, and remove one of the spider's greatest weapons.
After a few minutes, the spider grew furious with chasing him and cut the thread, and without delay, he copied the spider severing the large ball of silk he gathered from the spider.
"Now then let's begin," he dashed forward with his sword in one hand he felt the ground beneath his feet and dashed straight in for a 'slice', the spider queen blocked the blow with one of its legs giving Lucian a moment of pause when all he managed was to leave a scratch on its legs.
The spider queen stood up using its four rear legs and extended the four front legs, it looked almost human with its stance, like a four-armed humanoid, the moment it blocked Lucian's attack with two of its legs, it brought down the other two.
Lucian saw the two massive club-like legs coming down and ducked under the blow and executed a pierce onto the abdomen of the spider queen.
The blade hit the abdomen and sunk in only a quarter of an inch before it stopped, the spider queen squealed and tried to hit him with its other two legs.
Lucian dashed backwards barely escaping the blow when a thread of web came hurtling at him, with no way to dodge it caught him on the leg, this time the spider caught onto the thread with its front legs, not allowing Lucian to repeat his previous manoeuvre and it yanked him back.
Lucian was pulled through the air with a trajectory that would get him impaled on the fangs of the spider.
"You asked for this!" Lucian shouted as he shifted his body around finding his centre of gravity, he held the sword forward and curled his body into a fetal position.
'Sword Cycle'
As he rotated through the air he let all that momentum enter the sword and spun to meet the spider queen, 'sword cycle' was one of the hardest and most impractical kata's, but against the web-slinging spiders, it was incredible.
The spider queen realised its mistake at the last second and crossed two of its legs over its head.
When the sword hit those thick legs, it sent vibrations coursing through Lirian's body as the blade started to bend backwards.
CRACK.