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Something snapped within my chest.
The steel Leviathan moved unhurriedly towards me. If the other mobs looked like regular spiders the size of a family car, their Queen resembled a robot rather than an insect.
Her head and belly appeared to be armored. Her eight legs carried her enormous body across the ceiling with remarkable ease. Now I knew why all that time I hadn’t seen her. The wretched thing had been hanging right above me.
Now I was in trouble.
I had only one way out. I shifted the pick in my hand for a better grip.
I swung and hit the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal
The Widow doubled her step.
I swung and hit the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal
I kept watching her out of the corner of my eye as she was creeping sideways toward me. Only a dozen paces left between us.
I took a swing.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Your tool slipped as you picked at the slab of dark rock.
You’ve received a resource: Twilight Crystal.
As if anyone needed them now!
I took a swing.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
The Widow stopped, tensing like a taut spring. I squeezed my eyes shut. My heart was pounding, about to explode. My hands shook. She was bound to lunge at me.
I took a swing.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
And again.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Come on, you bitch! Don’t drag it out!
I swung and hit the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
The Widow hadn’t lunged at me. She’d done it differently.
You’ve been attacked!
Your feet are bound with Venomous Cobwebs
Effect: -5 pt. Life every 25 sec
Duration: 30 min
Immediately my boots lost 5 pt. Durability. Dammit!
I swung and hit the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
The monster withdrew—apparently waiting for me to pop my clogs. Oops, not really. She tensed again.
I swung and hit the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
You’ve been attacked!
Your shoulders are bound with Venomous Cobwebs
Effect: -5 pt. Life every 25 sec
Duration: 30 min
Minus 7 Durability to my jacket. You bitch! That way I’d walk out of here naked!
You’ve been attacked!
Your hands are bound with Venomous Cobwebs
Effect: -5 pt. Life every 25 sec
Duration: 30 min
Bye, gloves. The sticky whitish threads now entwined most of my body. A few more attacks like these, and I’d look like a friggin’ Egyptian mummy.
I took a swing.
My bag was almost full.
The Widow looked puzzled. She crept closer but she didn’t attack me again quite yet. She was watching me. How I understood her! All that effort on her part had done zilch damage to me, only to my gear. Or had it?
I took a swing.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Come on now! Was my Shrewd Operator asleep or something?
I took a swing.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Your tool slipped as you picked at the slab of dark rock.
You’ve received a resource: Twilight Crystal.
What was I supposed to do with their stupid crystals?
The Widow shifted her position. Still, she seemed reluctant to approach me. Or was this her normal behavior? The other spiders positioned themselves next to the exit. Apparently, they were supposed to attack an entering group en masse while the Widow sat coyly in one corner throwing Venomous Cobwebs over any newcomers. That was the most realistic scenario.
I swung but failed to hit the rock.
You’ve been attacked!
Your feet have been burned with Toxic Saliva
Effect: -2 pt. Energy every 50 sec
Duration: 30 min
You’ve received Burns to both feet.
Effect: -15 pt. Life every 40 sec
So that’s her new tactic, then. My feet felt on fire. I’d once experienced something similar when I’d scalded my hand. Oh, bummer. I shouldn’t have thought about it.
You’ve been attacked!
Your hands have been burned with Toxic Saliva
Effect: -2 pt. Energy every 50 sec
Duration: 30 min
You’ve received Burns to both hands.
Effect: -15 pt. Life every 40 sec
Both my boots and my gloves lost a few more Durability points and were automatically moved into my bag. According to the rules, any injury prevented the use of clothes or armor. Luckily, the rule didn’t apply to weapons and tools.
The game developers had it all covered. An injured player offered work to several professions. A healer would have to heal him or her, an alchemist would have to make a necessary potion while an herbalist would have to find an herb suitable for healing. There had to be even more links to this moneymaking chain. But at least in this particular case, they could forget sponging off me. The moment I left the instance, all the negative effects I’d received were bound to wear off. I remembered it well from the guide book.
My stats kept dwindling. I was overcome by fatigue—and pain, an unbearable and supposedly never-ending agony burning through me.
Dammit! I had very few crystals left in this particular spot. If I tried to move to the next deposit, I could trigger the other spiders.
I took a swing.
A few minutes ago, I’d poured the contents of my bag onto the floor, emptying it completely. A few of the Venomous Cobwebs had already landed on the bag. It wouldn’t survive another attack. In that case, I’d have to bolt for the trolley standing by the opposite wall.
You’ve been attacked!
Your chest has been burned with Toxic Saliva
Effect: -2 pt. Energy every 50 sec
Duration: 30 min
You’ve received a Burn to your chest.
Effect: -15 pt. Life every 40 sec
That was it. My bag was gone. I watched miserably as it crumbled to dust. The gloves and the boots dropped to the ground. My injuries didn’t allow me to put them on.
I used another Stamina stone and downed another elixir. I had only one left now. I heaved a sigh. Now I had to make a dash for the trolley.
I looked up. My torturess wasn’t in a hurry. She seemed to be watching me with curiosity.
All right. I took in a deep breath, let the air out, then darted.
Darted probably wasn’t the right word. Hobbled was more like it. Stooped like an old man, I limped toward the trolley—my last chance and my saving grace as I thought—struggling to overcome the agonizing pain and losing precious Energy points.
Come on now! I was almost there! I ran around a particularly large heap of bones, steel and cobwebs: the ancient arena of a major battle. What was I saying? This was only stage scenery! This was a game, dammit! But why oh why did it hurt so much?
I glanced up at the rock ceiling. The Widow followed me closely. You bitch!
I stepped it up. Faster! Faster! Move it!
My haste played a bad trick on me. I stumbled over a skeleton and collapsed to the floor right in the middle of the room. The deafening clangor of deformed suits of armor echoed off the walls. Someone’s radio helmet rattled across the floor like an old tin bucket. Like a child, I squeezed my eyes shut and shrank my head into my shoulders.
The wretched piece of metal seemed to rattle forever. But I was still in one piece. The helmet rolled in between some rocks and came to a halt. Silence hung in the cave.
I glanced up. The Widow was right there, tensed and ready to spit at me again. I had to be quick.
Gingerly I raised my head. The spiders hung motionlessly in their cobwebs. That was good. That was very good! That was exactly what we needed.
I scrambled to my feet, trying not to stumble against any of the steel junk lying around. The trolley was about twenty paces away. Never mind. I’d make it. Come what may!
My chest was heavy. I was dangerously low on oxygen. No wonder. My Energy levels were dropping fast. The Stamina stone couldn’t handle all the numerous poisons the wretched Widow had cast on me. I gulped down my last elixir. That was a bit better.
I went for it. I’d never forget those last twenty paces.
Gasping, I took a swing with my pick.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Come on, Operator, man! Do it!
I swung and hit the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Come on, bro!
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Come on, you bastard!
You’ve been attacked!
Your back has been bound with Venomous Cobwebs
Effect: -5 pt. Life every 25 sec
Duration: 30 min
Yeah, yeah. Sorry, spider lady, but you’re wrong. Your cobwebs can’t stop me anymore. Shame about the jacket. But I was long past caring about such details.
The trolley began filling with crystals. The Widow hurled a few more cobwebs at me. Then she quieted down—probably waiting for me to pop my clogs. You preprogrammed bitch!
I swung and hit the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
I couldn’t do it for much longer. This nightmare seemed to never end. My movements slowed down. I’d never felt so bad in my life. I didn’t even want to think about the consequences. All I wanted was to get out of this cave. The pain was mind-boggling. Bright circles span before my eyes. My hands were shaking. My legs felt leaden. I was on the brink of fainting. I stubbornly shook my head and took another swing.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
A few more swings, and I was going to die right there. That was it. I closed my eyes and drew in a strained breath. I swung.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
I glanced at my torturess. I didn’t care anymore.
Wait a sec. What was that? Something was wrong. Something was going on. Until that moment, the Widow had been sitting still after her last cobweb attack. But I’d never seen anything like what was happening to her now. Her gigantic steel body was vibrating silently—no, not silently. I could hear the sound it made: disgusting and barely audible, as if someone was rubbing two pieces of foam plastic together.
My body hair stood on end.
What happened next was something I must have subconsciously feared all along. I heard a similar sound coming from the entrance, only louder—more aggressive. And it was louder for a reason. This unbearable rustle consisted of many separate sounds.
I turned round, already knowing what I was going to see. I was right. The Widow must have got tired of watching me, so she’d called her little helpers. All fifteen spiders were slowly climbing down their webs.
I watched helplessly as the giant spiders approached, moving faster and faster. That was it. End of game for me. With a strange clarity I thought that it might have been better for me to receive a few lashes of Slayer’s whip. It wouldn’t have been as bad.
Oh, no. I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I got a better grip on my pick and struggled to take a swing. And another. And again. My Energy was at zero. Three spiders had already lunged at me, about to stab me with their sharp spearlike legs. I might have time for just one more stone.
I invested the last of my strength into the swing. Then I tensed my back, expecting to turn into a shapeless lump of flesh. The sharp edge of my pick dug into the rock.
You’ve received a resource: Gray Crystal.
Your tool slipped as you picked at the slab of dark rock.
You’ve received a resource: Twilight Crystal.
You’ve received +1 to your skill.
Congratulations! Your professional level has grown! You're an Experienced Digger now!
We’re sorry to inform you that the game rules don’t allow you to remain a group member.
Reason: the profession level of the group’s leader has to be equal to or above yours.
You’ve received a fine! You are removed from the group and will now be transported to your chosen resurrection point.
With any questions or complaints, please contact Support. Thank you.