Weeping over web

Luckily the torches the other had were still lit. Robhardt bent over and stuck his into the ground, Claire followed him and placed hers down as well and readied her rapier. Angela had already dropped hers and it was beginning to flicker as it was about to sniff out.

Teyo pulled out the hatchet. He had deliberately left behind his sheild bracelet in hopes that he would seem rather plain. His demeanor betrayed that, which was hard for him to hide. He wished then that he'd just have a second set of gear for queuing without friends. He kept his knife on his hip and just readied himself. Robhardt pulled his sledgehammer off of his back. The pair stood in the front of the ladies a good distance away from one another. Teyo looked back and then threw his hands up and began a countdown. At the end of it he took a deep breath and yelled into the cave.

A few moments passed and everyone stood in silence as Teyos yell echoed into the cave. The silence had an eerie calm to it and then Teyo began to see the glint of eyes in the shadows moving. Teyo activated his Discern Ingredients, he noticed from where he stood a wall of red which created a sense of little depth. The red moved in some areas but as for finding any specific targets it was of no use. The group began to hear skittering and the sounds of stones turning over or falling. Claire and Angela began to look left and right slowly stepping closer to one another. Teyo tried to pin point the sounds but the volume began to grow, it started slow but now it was certain.

" They're surrounding us!" Teyo yelled out.

" Chiten. Armory."

Teyo looked over at the elder male gentleman who activated a skill. A moment afterwards a swarm of small beetles seemed to crawl out of his clothes and cover every inch of his skin. After a few seconds he was clad in a complete sheen black suit of beetle like armor. His head grew a set of horns on both sides that stuck out like antlersand two beetles flew from his chest up to his cheeks and spread their wings over his eyes. Teyo watched the man's transformation with a child like glee.

" Sooo cool! He's like a Beetle Ranger"

Robhardt looked over at him and then called out to everyone. " Back to back, Ladies, Please watch above!" The women and Teyo all looked up and they saw a few sets of shimmering eyes stare down at them. Teyo pulled the snuffed torch from the side of his boot. The baton stick sized torch quickly became lit by the one at their feet. Teyo threw the stick up in the air catching it when it came back down.However as it neared the ceiling they all saw the spiders that had clung above. Just above them were at least five spiders the size of basketball's with legs that were long and stretched out clinging to a webbing. A few of them began to slide down on webs they began to spin.

As they decended spiders began to swarm from the sides the quick skitters on the stone and the hissing all became one large swarm of sounds coming from all directions. Angela threw out a yo-yo in front of her only for it to bounce off the side of a spider coming backwards in a slow roll towards her. The yoyo now needed to be rewound. She quickly began to wrap it back up. Claire held he Rapier out waving it between targets to keep them at bay. The spider's came close to the point that they were barely in the torch light but coming closer seemed difficult to them. Teyo waved out the torch in front of him the spiders in front of him hissed and backed away.

" Thats right they don't like the fire, Stay in the torchlight" Teyo yelled out, a moment later the sound of wind being broken and a splatter of juice sprayed above the heads of the group. Robhardt swung his large ornate sledgehammer bursting a spider like a balloon. As the spider's guts hit the ground the rest of the spiders began to stir into a frenzy jumping and spraying web at the ground around the group. Teyo stepped forward and began to chop overhand at the spiders, Angela had nearly become neutered, her yoyo skills were poor and she had already had to try and wind her yoyo a few times. Claire started to wave around her rapier wildly essentially slapping the spiders. Fortunately for her the legs of the creatures were rather thin and she accidentally cut quite a few off. Angela picked up her torch which had gone out and lit it again on the torch in the ground. She quickly became a bystander.

Robhardt grew pretty brazen he rushed forward with Teyo but didn't stop at the edge of the light. He swung his hammer low and heavily twirling wind at the surrounding spiders, killing a few with each swing. There were a few that grabbed a hold of his legs and tried to bite down only it seemed they couldn't break his arm or open. He kicked his legs out sending them flying before proceeding to cleave into a few more. Eventually most of the spider began to attack him because he was out of the torch light's more harshly lit center. Teyo chopped downward over and over but didn't get to far out, without a shirt he felt very vulnerable.

After a few minutes of attrition eventually the swarm of spider were killed, the few that remained began to flee, jumping over and into the more rocky sections or climbing up and away into the cave. Two and the girls were all pretty heavily panting. Robhardt came back to the group, covered in a green blood with bits of spider flesh covering him. A second later he dismissed his armor which began return into his robes. Some of the bugs that had been held in place by others had fallen to the floor dead. He then placed his sledgehammer on his back. Teyo looked at the old man who he now held a good respect for. He was shorter than Teyo probably around six foot tall but he was brawny and had scruffy facial hair with a salt and pepper color to it. Angela and Claire both looked at the old man happily and bowed. Teyo just put out his hand for a fist bump. They bumped fists and then the old man spoke.

" I'm an Entomancer. What are your classes?"

Teyo's eyes opened wide " I'm a Scarecrow class." Robhardt looked at him a grumbled a deep " Hmm"

" Fencer! "

" String Artist.."

Robhardt nodded with each reply. Teyo began to search over the corpse's of the spider's for materials and then Rob spoke out. " It's not in the guts it's in their fangs"

Teyo looked up at him confused, he then opened the mouth of the closet spider corpse. After yanking out a large dang he looked closer. Sure enough there was a small gem inside of the fangs, about the size of a few week grown long finger nail that curved into the fang. Teyo squinted in confusion. " Interesting. You've fought them before? " Teyo asked as he went around and began to harvest them. Looking around Teyo noticed that while he had only killed around 7, while Rob had easily killed over ten. The girls stood in front of a pile of no more than five but the severed legs easily made it confusing to count.

Rob also went around grabbing the entire faces off the spiders carcasses. He plucked the fangs and threw them away. Most of his kills were left in a splattered state. The girls stood around watching and then Teyo came over to help them. After everyone harvested their gems Teyo began to look closer at the corpes for ingredients. Upon closer inspection he noticed that these spiders were of the same kind he used in his dishes. He looked around a gathered a bunch of web and wrapped it around his now unlit torch like a giant ball of cotton candy. He noticed that the legs and eyes of the spiders were the more vibrant colored materials, but the blood of them all shimmered a violent purple.

Teyo gathered a bunch of the parts into a pile and then holding the gems in his hand he checked to see what it's worth was.

Dull Experience gem Fragment 1/4

He smiled they weren't hard to kill realistically but he had an idea. " I'll make a deal with you guys. I can give us dark vision so we don't have to use these torches, if you give me your small spider gems."

Rob and the girls all looked at Teyo surprised.

" How would you do that? And do you mean all of my gems? " Rob asked clutching far more than the rest of the group had.

The ladies both seemed to just pause and listen. " Yes, all of these spider gems. The other thing you're paying for is the understanding. I know it is unfair to ask for generosity but think of it as you buying a meal for the ladies as well, and feast on the knowledge."

Rob raised his brow and looked over at the girls. " Hmmm... Alright I'll bite." He stepped forwards and handed over the gems the Claire then did the same. Teyo looked at his hand now full with approximately 5 gems worth of experience. He did well to hide his emotions.

" Okay help me find a green grass like herb here. It looks like a weed and is usually around places that are wet, we also need to find a sponge like moss, it should be near a pond somewhere here. Once we have those we can make something to eat."

Angela grew rosey cheeks. " No way. I am not eating moss, weeds, or spider's. You are crazy" Claire nodded in unison " Yea seriously give my gems back."

Teyo clenched his fist tight around the gems. " No, like I said your paying for the knowledge as well, I don't care if you don't want to eat."

Claire was about to start arguing with him when Rob put his hand out in front of her.

" Let's be patient. Don't worry he can't leave with the gem's, and if he's wrong I'm sure he wouldn't be brazen enough to try and fool us with a... strange meal. Okay let's find this moss and weeds."

Claire looked at Rob and although she was still against it she agreed afterwards the group began to look around. Teyo knew that if the continued along the main path they would eventually reach the pond area. Teyo laid out his cooking materials across a sheet of webbing and then rolled it up like a carpet. It held barely. After a few minutes of not finding really anything the group pushed on keeping their eyes open along the way. After walking for awhile keeping a normal pace the group ended up finding a few of the weeds. Teyo's mouth salivated under the rough sac on his head. The spice of the cave weeds made him writhe in anticipation.

Soon after walking for close to a half hour the group was down to their second to last torch. One that Angela had put out earlier. The other was Teyo's large cotton candy stick of webbing. They quickly pushed on until they came upon a small pond where Teyo immediately tensed up. He dropped the carpet rollf spider parts and then drew his axe. Everyone else followed in his footsteps. Rob activated his Chiton Armory skill and became the dark beetle armoured fellow once again. Looking at his closer Teyo noticed that the armor was made of small clicking beetles that interlocked with one another. It gave him an idea. Claire and Angela also pulled out their weapons however this time Claire held the torch in her second hand, freeing Angela to rewind her yoyo if necessary.

Rob looked over at Teyo noticing the pond that he had mentioned earlier. " Hey kid. How many times have you done this level?"

" This is my third. There's usually a sort of mini boss here. And it seems there's always a pond. It's similar."

Rob shook his head at the girls. In a gentle way it meant that he believed Teyo, Claire nodded back as if to acknowledge Rob.

Teyo looked around the pond. The more he stared and tried to find the target for combat, he couldn't. Nothing seemed to be here. He took mental note trying to decipher the difference of enemies and how the difficulty with a group of Hard mode players would effect the dungeon. After a moment he had an epiphany. He looked over at the group and then put away his hatchet. He stepped forward to the ponds edge the whole while looking around. He bent over and scraped some moss off of a stone spire at it's edge. He gave it a sniff and then waved everyone over.

" Come on, it's safe."