Atlas swallowed hard, forcing herself to stay calm as the last of the grotesque spiders vanished inside the lord's now grotesque corpse. She felt bile rise in her throat but kept her face neutral.
[Quite a show, wouldn't you say?]
Atlas flinched, her grip tightening on her staff. "Kelsey… what the hell was that?" she whispered, her voice low, laced with unease. "You did this?"
[Whoa—Hold up! Let's all take a deep breath and ask ourselves the main question here.]
"Okay—"
[Why the f—k would I kill a man for you? We just met yesterday, girl. Don't get ahead of yourself.]
"…Okay. That actually makes a lot of sense."
[Thank you.]
"…I actually hate you right now for not taking the shot," she stated plainly.
[What?]
"Yeah. I thought that's what you girls do. Girl power! Remember?"
[Remember what?]
"He... he didn't know," one of the kneeling warriors, pale and trembling, mustered the courage to speak.
Atlas's gaze snapped to him. "Didn't know what?"
The warrior swallowed hard, looking nervously at his companions. "The dungeon. He stumbled upon it. It wasn't supposed to exist. It—it was buried deep in the outskirts of the domain."
Atlas narrowed her eyes, her curiosity piqued. "Dungeon? What kind of dungeon?"
The warrior shook his head quickly. "We don't know. No one knows. The lord… he was exploring, as he always does. That's when we found it—the entrance buried beneath rubble. At first, it seemed like nothing… but when we went inside—"
The female caster interrupted, her voice trembling. "Spiders. Hundreds of them. They came from the shadows, swarming us." She shuddered at the memory. "We lost so many… barely escaped with our lives."
Atlas stepped closer, her tone sharp. "How did he survive?"
The caster's eyes flickered with fear. "He fought through them. With what little was left of us, we managed to escape the horde, but that's when we ran into her…"
"Her?"
"The Spider Queen," the caster whispered, her voice barely audible. "She was waiting at the exit, monstrous and… intelligent. She cornered us, injected something into him before we managed to get away."
Atlas felt a chill run through her.
"We—we didn't know what she did to him," the warrior added quickly. "He seemed fine at first… but then the coughing started."
Atlas's mind raced. The lord had encountered an ancient and dangerous ruin. Worse yet, whatever the Spider Queen had injected into him had clearly been growing inside him, waiting to hatch.
"He was going to livestream about it," the caster blurted out suddenly, as though realizing the importance of the detail. "He thought he could get some fame… talk about how he discovered an unknown dungeon. On our way to show the entrance, we stumbled upon the skeleton and goblin fight—"
"Wait a minute… you know about the livestream?" Atlas asked in awe.
"Y—Yes…?" The caster replied, sharing glances with her teammates in confusion.
"A minute, please," she turned her back to them. "Uhh… they are summons, alright?" she whispered to Kelsey.
[Yeah…?]
"What's with all of you acting like it's normal for NPCs to know the specs of a player?" she blurted in surprise.
[Do you really think this is a game?]
"Maybe…?" she replied uncertainly.
[There are no NPCs and players, Atlas. We are all one.]
"Okay. Calling me by my name for the first time, super weird. I'll keep in mind next time that you're an NPC too." She turned back to the captives.
[What?]
Atlas raised an eyebrow. "So, he wanted an audience?"
The warrior nodded, looking ashamed. "Yeah. He thought it was going to be an easy kill—something for show. He didn't expect to be captured."
[We could always finish what he started.]
"Tsk. Shut up!"
"I'm sorry, Milady! Please spare this pathetic servant," the warrior quickly kowtowed in fear.
"N—No, not you… Oh god," she face-palmed herself.
"Please spare us!"
"Show mercy!"
"Mercy, Milady!"
She glanced over at the lord's remains one last time before addressing the captives. "You're coming with me. Show me this dungeon entrance. If anything else tries to crawl out of it, I'll make sure you're the first ones it eats."
They all paled but nodded quickly, knowing they had little choice in the matter.
As her skeletons moved into formation, escorting the frightened humans, Atlas couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the beginning. Whatever lay within that dungeon wasn't content with merely killing—it was spreading. If the Spider Queen had her way, the entire domain might be next.
[Spider Queen vs. Goblin Queen. Place your bets!]
"Shut up!"
[We should also drop by to claim his domain.]
"How's that even possible? We can't enter without the lord's approval. You saw what happened with the goblins," Atlas stated.
[Yeah, but he's dead. The barriers will be down until he respawns 24 hours later to reactivate them.]
"It's actually nice having you around," Atlas grinned at the thought of absorbing another's domain on the second day of the global holiday.
[Wh—What's with that smile? What are you thinking?]
"What?"
[Nothing—At this point, you'll never get a good sleep.]
"Yeah, I know. This is the burden of a true leader. Right, boys?" she asked out loud.
Clank! Clank!
The skeleton troop drew their weapons and slammed the side of their blades on their chest plates twice.
[Wow… what is this? Are you sure you don't want to reconsider building an undead empire?]
"My goal of building an empire of all races doesn't mean I'll be discarding my trusty skeleton warriors. No matter what, they'll always be the soldiers, my guards, and the builders. I'll find something fitting for every other race I acquire."
[Wow. Is this you being emotional right now? I think I'll need more tissues over here.]
She smiled softly, "And you? What do you want from me? I know you've been making stories up."
[Have I?]
"Yeah, and you really suck at it," she laughed.
[Well… it's not like you could do anything for me at the moment. You still have a long way to go.]
"We—We're here!" the caster's trembling voice came from ahead.