The entrance to the Spider Nest was a hole in the basement of a condemned water treatment plant in Sector 3. It breathed moist, warm air that smelled of ammonia and rotting silk.
[Dungeon: The Spider Nest][Type: Hive][Recommended Level: 8-12]
Elian stood at the edge, tightening the straps on his new tool belt. He had spent his last 2,000 credits on High-Grade Mana Potions. He looked like a walking pharmacy, with blue vials strapped to his chest, belt, and thighs.
"Are you sure about this?" Elian whispered. "If the Queen wakes up fully, she's Level 15. She'll melt me."
Trust the code, the Ghost replied, his voice calm and clinical. The glitch relies on the 'Swarm Protocol'. If the drone eggs are destroyed in the specific Fibonacci sequence, the Queen's AI freezes in a loop. She tries to replace the drones instantly, but the mana cost forces them to spawn with 1 HP and 0 Defense.
"Infinite glass cannons," Elian muttered. "And if I miss a beat?"
Then the loop breaks, the Queen enrages, and you become plant food.
"Encouraging. Let's go."
The Hatchery
Elian bypassed the worker drones in the upper tunnels using a combination of [Blueprint Sight] to spot their vibration tremors and simple stealth. He wasn't here for the trash mobs.
He reached the Hatchery deep in the bowels of the dungeon.
It was a cavernous dome lined with glowing, pulsating sacs. Thousands of them. In the center, suspended by thick cables of webbing, slept the Brood Queen. She was massive, the size of a bus, her chitinous legs twitching in her sleep.
Elian stood at the entrance of a narrow tunnel leading into the chamber. This was his choke point.
"Time to renovate," Elian said.
He placed his hands on the tunnel walls.
[Class Skill: Edit Mode]
He didn't just block the tunnel; he redesigned it.
He pulled the stone from the floor, raising it to waist height to create a barricade. He narrowed the tunnel opening until it was barely wide enough for one spider to squeeze through at a time. He fused the loose rocks into a seamless, reinforced bunker.
[Structure Created: The Kill Box][Defense Rating: B-]
"One more thing," Elian murmured.
He pulled a spool of copper wire from his bag. He wrapped it around the entrance of his bunker, embedding it into the stone using [Fuse]. He connected the ends to his Portable Mana Generator.
"Electrified threshold," Elian noted. "Low voltage, but enough to stun."
He chugged a mana potion. The blue liquid tasted like battery acid and mint.
[Mana Restored: 100%]
"Alright, Ghost. Give me the sequence."
Target the Egg Clusters. Sector 4, then Sector 1, then Sector 8.
Elian picked up a rock. He cast [Mana Thread] on it.
He swung the rock like a yo-yo, sending it flying into the room.
Smash. A cluster of purple eggs on the left wall burst. Smash. A cluster on the right. Smash. A cluster near the ceiling.
The room went silent.
Then, a low, guttural shriek echoed from the massive spider in the center. The Queen didn't wake up fully—her eyes remained glazed—but her abdomen began to spasm violently.
[System Warning: Spawn Logic Error.][Emergency Reproduction Cycle Initiated.]
The remaining thousands of eggs began to crack simultaneously.
"Here we go," Elian breathed, stepping behind his barricade.
A sea of black shapes erupted from the eggs. Hatchlings. They were the size of dogs, with razor-sharp mandibles.
Normally, they would be Level 3. Today, they were glitches.
[Enemy: Malformed Hatchling][Level: ?][HP: 1/1]
They screeched and flooded toward the only source of fresh meat: Elian.
The wave hit the bunker.
SCREEE!
The first spider tried to squeeze through the narrow gap Elian had built. It lunged.
Elian didn't even swing hard. He just poked it with his Rot-Iron Blade.
Pop.
The spider dissolved into pixels.
[Experience Gained.]
The second one came. Poke. Pop. The third. Poke. Pop.
It was rhythmic. It was easy.
"This is broken," Elian laughed, stabbing through the hole. "This is completely broken!"
[Experience Gained.][Experience Gained.][Experience Gained.]
The XP log was scrolling so fast it was a blur.
But then the wave grew. The pressure of thousands of spiders pushing from behind began to crack the stone barricade.
Don't stop, the Ghost warned. If the flow stops, they pile up.
Elian stabbed faster. His arm burned. The stamina drain from the Cursed Sword was kicking in.
[Stamina: 40%]
"I can't keep this up forever!" Elian grunted, skewering two spiders at once.
Improvise, Architect. You don't have to kill them with a sword. They have 1 HP. Anything kills them.
Elian looked at his mana generator. He looked at the copper wire.
"Of course."
He kicked the generator to MAX OUPUT.
ZZZ-ZRAK!
The copper wire framing the entrance flared with blue electricity.
The next spider touched the wire. ZAP. It exploded. The one behind it touched the ash. ZAP. Exploded.
It became an automated assembly line of death. Elian just stood there, watching them run into the wire and vanish into XP particles.
[Level Up!][You are now Level 5.]
[Level Up!][You are now Level 6.]
The light of leveling up flashed around him again and again, refilling his mana and stamina instantly.
"It's an AFK farm," Elian grinned maniacally. "I built an AFK farm in real life."
The Anomaly
An hour passed.
The pile of loot—monster cores and chitin—was clogging the entrance. Elian had to periodically use [Edit Mode] to open a "drainage hatch" in the floor to flush the debris away.
[You are now Level 9.]
He was close. Just one more level to hit the target for the Exam.
But the dungeon was groaning. The walls were vibrating. The glitch was putting too much strain on the instance.
[System Alert: Anomaly Detected.][Spawn Rate Exceeds Logic Parameters.][Initiating Counter-Measure.]
The Queen screamed. This time, it wasn't a sleep-scream. She woke up.
Her eight eyes snapped open, glowing a furious red. She looked at her dead children. She looked at the little stone bunker. She looked at Elian.
[Boss: Brood Queen (Enraged)][Status: Mutating]
She didn't charge. instead, she began to eat the remaining eggs. Her body swelled, her chitin turning from black to a pulsating, volatile crimson.
Run, Kaelen said. Now.
"I need Level 10!" Elian yelled.
She is evolving into a Bio-Bomb. She is going to self-destruct to clear the instance. Run!
Elian scrambled backward, grabbing his generator. He turned to the tunnel behind him.
BOOM.
The Queen exploded.
It wasn't fire. It was a shockwave of pressurized acid and mana. It obliterated the Hatchery instantly.
Elian dove behind a bend in the tunnel just as the green tidal wave of acid slammed into the walls.
[Shield Construction!]
He slammed his hands on the floor. [Edit Mode]. He pulled the floor up into a ramp, sealing the tunnel completely just as the acid hit.
HISSSSS.
The stone wall sizzled. Green liquid began to eat through his barricade.
"Go, go, go!"
Elian sprinted up the tunnel. The dungeon was collapsing. The ceiling was falling in chunks. The "Counter-Measure" wasn't just killing the mobs; it was deleting the dungeon.
He reached the surface exit—the hole in the water treatment plant. He leaped for the ladder just as the floor beneath him crumbled into a void of data and darkness.
He climbed. The ladder shook.
He burst out into the cool night air of Sector 3, rolling onto the concrete floor of the plant.
Below him, the hole sealed itself. The dungeon entrance vanished, replaced by a flat concrete slab.
[Dungeon Instance: The Spider Nest has been forcibly closed for maintenance.]
Elian lay on his back, gasping for air. His clothes were singed. His new tool belt was smoking.
But a golden light enveloped him one last time.
[Congratulations! You survived a Dungeon Collapse.][Bonus Experience Awarded.]
[Level Up!][You are now Level 11.]
Elian laughed. It was a breathless, jagged sound.
He sat up and checked his stats.
[Name: Elian Vance][Class: Dungeon Architect][Level: 11][Strength: 18][Agility: 25][Intelligence: 40][Mana: 250/250]
[New Skill Unlocked: Material Synthesis.][Description: You can combine two materials to create a hybrid material with shared properties.]
He was ready.
"Level 11," Elian whispered. "I'm not a rat anymore. I'm a contender."
He stood up and dusted himself off. He needed a shower. He needed sleep. And he needed to register for the Exam.
As Elian walked out of the abandoned plant, he saw a figure standing by the gate.
It was a woman. She was leaning against a sleek, black motorcycle. She wore the red-and-black leather armor of the Blood-Rose Guild.
Elian's heart stopped.
Sera.
She wasn't looking at him. She was looking at a holographic map, seemingly lost. She looked healed, though there was a new, nasty scar on her neck—likely from the mana shock he had subjected her to.
Elian pulled his hood down. He was covered in spider guts and soot. He didn't look like the trench-coated mystery man from the tomb.
He tried to walk past her, keeping his head down.
"Hey," she called out.
Elian froze. His hand twitched toward his sword.
"Yeah?" he grunted, changing his voice to a rougher, lower register.
Sera looked at him. Her eyes scanned his dirty face, his cheap gear. She wrinkled her nose.
"You see a guy come through here? Tall? Wearing a trench coat? Smells like ozone?"
Elian shrugged. "Only rats and spiders down here, lady. And me."
Sera stared at him for a second longer. It was the longest second of Elian's life.
Then, she sighed, disappointed. "Whatever. Useless Vulture."
She mounted her bike and revved the engine. "If you see him... tell him the Blood-Rose sends their regards."
She sped off into the night.
Elian watched her tail lights fade. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"She's hunting me," Elian realized.
She will be at the Exam, the Ghost noted. The Blood-Rose Guild always scouts the new recruits.
"Great," Elian muttered, walking into the shadows. "So I have to pass the deadliest exam in history, save the rookies from a cultist, and avoid my ex-partner who wants to skin me alive."
He grinned.
"Sounds like a plan."