Jer Patch
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Chapter 44: It’s a trap
🕑 Added 2025-03-22 02:00:05 +0000 UTCTime to find a way past this door, without a specialization or bond with a single crystal type.
“Here we go,” I said, my voice sounding weird in the cavern. I held the knowledge crystal up to the dark archway. The crystal in my hand flashed a weird color, then the old man appeared.
“It is time for you to leave the dungeon. You have learned all that you need to. The final task is simple. Open the archway and leave through the tunnel. Be warned, beasts lurk in the beyond. We recommend you leave as quickly and quietly as possible.”
The old man rubbed his face.
“May the songs guide you, and someday may your story rest here with the others.” Then the image flickered away.
The archway glowed with a swirl of all four types, gold, silver, green, and blue. I touched it with a hand and energy raced up my arm. The hair all over my body stood up. It felt like I’d put a battery on my tongue. Four different voices whispered, layered over each other, like talking in the room next door.
I sent my intention to leave. That I needed the door to open.
They all sent back one message.
The door doesn’t open.
I pressed my hand harder to the material, getting annoyed. I needed to leave this dungeon. The crystal warmed beneath my fingers and my fingers sunk into the surface, like how I shaped fire crystals.
This time I sent my intention to move through the crystal, to reach the other side.
This time they urged me forward. To join them and tell them my name.
I resisted the draw to answer with my name, even as the voice repeated the message. To join and give them my name. Again and again.
My fingers reached the other side first. Cold air hit them and I jerked the rest of me through the toffee-like substance.
Darkness greeted me, along with notifications, as the voices snapped off.
[You have gained insight into Crystal Singing and Attunement - I. Crystal Singing and Attunement - II: By singing you can find and resonate with mana crystals. You can connect and manipulate the elemental presence inside each mana crystal, as well as hear the voices within.]
[Congratulations, you have completed the Hidden Crystal Dungeon. You have earned the title: Songweaver. Songweaver: Increased sensitivity to all nearby crystals or sources of mana.]
The sound of something scraping a stone forced me to close the notifications and stretch out my senses. They felt a little rusty, and the immediate feedback made my hand reach for my knife. Creatures lived all around the tunnel. The crystal archway at my back wasn’t even visible, but I felt a humming from within. It wasn’t physical.
Triggering my stealth, I waited to see what had noticed my appearance.
Wait.
I shouldn’t have been able to grab my knife. The knowledge stone from the old man was gone.
Something scurried by in the distance, the movement in the air the only sign of its passage. A steady drip of water against the stone made it hard to focus beyond that. I didn’t dare light up my crystal, and was thankful that I’d left the lantern behind.
The tunnel only led in one direction, so I crept that way, repeating the warning from the Elder.
Beasts lurk in the tunnel.
A smile came to my lips, and anticipation raced through my body. Beasts meant food, and I could use a good meal.
My mouth watered, but I forced myself to ignore it.
The rush of air moving by didn’t reveal anything, but, at the edges of my senses, something buzzed. It almost tickled, and I hadn’t a clue of what it meant. I crept down the tunnel, taking baby steps as I focused on my surroundings. Everything inside me screamed to not draw attention to myself. It felt like a force pressing down on me.
My dark vision didn’t help. There wasn’t a spec of light to base anything off of.
I sniffed quietly, trying to smell whatever lived in the cavern. Mold, dirt, and something hairy.
I could work with that. My focus switched to the hairy scent before I stepped forward again. It felt like an old trail. The next step reached the edges of something. Prey gathered off to one side on the farthest my radar touched. Another step cleared nothing up, and I paused. The creatures lay over one another, though a few moved around.
Maybe a pack of cats or something like that? Though, bears also lived in caves.
I tried to step forward again, but my toe hit a hard surface. Carefully, I reached out with my hands, finding a rough boulder blocking the way. The air current came from the right of it, so I headed in that direction. Three more steps, and then I needed to turn again.
Water dripped from the ceiling splashing somewhere close by, a steady beat in the background. Each step brought me closer to the cluster of prey. The scent trail I followed led me around another pointed boulder sticking up from the ground.
The sound of water lessened.
Something wispy touched my face, and I froze.
Air shifted ahead of me, and I waited for anything to happen. The cluster of prey stayed where they were.
I let out a sigh and took another step.
As I lifted my left foot up, it felt like I’d stepped in chewing gum. I jerked my foot up, snapping whatever it was. My knee touched something crossing the path between the wall and the other side.
It felt sticky.
A chorus of chittering sounds erupted from the direction of the cluster of prey.
I ignored the pressure to stay in darkness and flared the crystal tip of my knife.
Trails of some white substance, like threads, stretched from one side of the tunnel to the other.
I blinked twice, then swore inside my head.
Spiders!
Dark shapes darted across the tunnel beyond the threads.
I raised my spear, trying to spot somewhere to go besides straight ahead. Behind me, the short tunnel to the archway didn’t have any branches leading off of it.
Each of my fumbling steps in the dark had put only a little distance between it and me. Now that I had light, I could be back at the archway in only a few steps, but that wouldn’t do me any good.
The chittering drew closer.
My heart pounded as I cut at the webbing in front of me, removing the barrier. The crystal tip quickly burned it away.
Dozens of spiders the size of dinner plates crawled out of the pitch black, staying in the shadowy areas out of the direct light from my crystal. I used Insight.
[Cavern Spider, Level 34, Prey, Unknown.]
A sharp sting came front behind, me but I saw nothing over my shoulder. Something hit my armor, but didn’t pierce my skin. The scales rose under my clothing, providing a solid barrier.
I swung my spear out at a creature who skittered by too close, but it dove behind a rock faster than expected. Still, it stayed out of direct sight of the glowing light.
Something sticking out of my arm flickered in the dimness. That weird sensation of something hitting me came from behind again, rolling up my lower back.
A few spiders ducked around the boulder behind me as I turned.
I held my arm up, to get a better look.
Narrow needle-like hairs stuck out of my clothes. I brushed the spear tip over them and they dissolved into nothing.
[Poison hairs.]
A sudden barrage of needles flew at me and I dove behind a boulder.
[Your poison resistance has failed.]
That wasn’t good.
Hiding here wasn’t helping. Just going with it, I dodged around the boulder, causing a wave of spiders to flee.
I sprinted down the tunnel, spiders racing before me like a wave, trying to keep out of the light. One didn’t make it and it ran into a rock, scratching at its eyes. More and more webbing crossed the path in front of me, but there weren’t any other paths to take. That weird tingling feeling appeared on my radar again, and I slowed down as I cut the next piece of webbing with my crystal.
Beyond this, the webbing covered the floor and walls in the white glittering substance, but it didn’t cross the path.
[Your poison resistance has failed.]
The notification came again, though it didn’t feel like I’d taken any damage. Yet the very tips of my fingers felt cold. Almost numb, though it didn’t spread any farther than that. At least, not yet.
That had to be the poison.
The chittering echoed down the rocky tunnel behind me, and I spun about, flashing my spear tip. They dove back out of sight.
Something ahead kept drawing my attention. Four, no, five of whatever it was created a circle farther down the tunnel, past the webbed floor.
Then one of the five turned closer to me.
The tunnel twisted in the distance, blocking my sightline, and I couldn’t figure out what it was.
A faint vibration came from the webbing and the chittering behind me suddenly cut off. Silence took over the tunnel, along with the sound of water in the far distance.
I twisted to look over my shoulder as my prey sense made it clear the spiders rapidly retreated. A few lagged behind the others, still stalking me.
Fear crept up my spine, and I spotted a jagged outcropping of rock behind a boulder. I headed in that direction as the spiders scurried away. The crack in the wall wasn’t big, and after flashing my crystal tip inside I found it empty. I shoved myself into the space, dimming my light.
Yet, the two spiders still nearby suddenly froze instead of chasing me into the crack.
A bluish glow came from farther down the tunnel, in the direction I had to go.
The light reminded me of something important.
A large, eight-legged creature scurried passed my hiding spot.
It took all of my willpower to not move a muscle.
Two hairy legs stretched out in front of me, along with long sharp fangs. Six more legs surrounded the body that had to be as big as I was, or bigger. The blue light came from a fist-sized blue crystal embedded in its back, right behind six eyes.
I immediately triggered Insight, trying to figure out how that was possible.
[The Healing Maw, Level 44, Predator, Unknown.]
The spider didn’t glance in my direction. Instead, it darted forward, white webbing flashing in the light. It snagged something, dragging it back with its front two legs.
One of the smaller spiders tried to untangle itself from the webbing, but the Maw bit down on it. It stopped moving.
The Maw turned out of my sight, carrying its findings over its head with two legs.
I waited several moments after the blue faded light vanished from my sight. The tingling sensation continued down the tunnel to the far reaches, near the other four.
Slumping back into the crack, I let out a shallow breath.
That sensation was crystals, including the one on the back of the spider. I could only hope all of them weren’t attached to spiders.
The chittering didn’t come back, though I remained hidden in the stone crack. The numb feeling in the very tips of my fingers stubbornly faded after I waited for what seemed like hours, though was probably only a few minutes, trying to come up with a plan.
I needed a plan to deal with the giant spider and get the hell out of this tunnel. Given its level, I didn’t know how any crystal singers made it out of the tunnel. The webbing made being sneaky impossible, even if it was your focus.
If I had a massive lantern, that might work, given that the small spiders hated the light. I wasn’t sure if the gigantic spider had the same weakness.
The blue crystal in its back came to mind. Even its name listed the healing crystal. The spider could somehow use it. Talk about a challenge, but did that mean it was intelligent?
Still, I didn’t think something called the Healing Maw would want to sit down and chat about anything but food.
