From the information we got, each dungeon ended in a shared rest area. Once everyone cleared the second dungeon, we could meet up and form the raid group.
Pretty simple when you looked at it like that.
Getting through the actual dungeons, especially on Legendary, was going to be a little more complicated.
Everyone had food, tea, potions, and just about everything else we could get our hands on.
We had spent two weeks preparing.
So if we could do this, now was the time.
My group ended up being me, Jane, Merlin, Sheral, and Zach.
As much as I was 'scared' to be near her, I needed Jane as an ally. The other groups were solid in their own right, so I didn't feel like I was taking anything from them.
And well…
Maybe I wanted to force myself near her.
That was something I could spend time mulling over during our first rest.
Preferably after we killed everything that might interrupt me.
Usually we would have to bring everything we needed, but the checkpoints gave us another option. Once we cleared and activated one, I could arrange a trip back to the guild bank for supplies.
It felt a little cheap.
Definitely worth it though.
I had already tried reaching one of the rest areas before we cleared anything, and the spell failed outright.
Apparently there were limits to what I could get away with.
My group was the first to enter.
The moment we agreed to enter the Spider Queen's Abode, a chill ran down my spine.
Every fucking inch of everything was covered in spiders, spiderwebs, or spider eggs.
The ceiling was barely visible beneath layers of white silk, and the walls seemed to move whenever our light passed over them.
I wasn't a damn arachnophobe, but at some point a man had to put his foot down.
Carefully.
Because there were spiders there too.
Sadly, I still had to act like a leader, so instead of complaining I turned to Sheral.
"Can you help with… all this?"
[Protection from Inconvenience]
Loose threads slipped away from my collar, and the little crawling sensations immediately stopped.
Such a nice spell.
"Thank you, Sheral."
"Of course. Wouldn't want you dealing with an inconvenience."
"Mhmmm."
I looked down the narrow passage ahead.
"You wanna lead the way, Merlin?"
"Well, yah."
He didn't sound particularly happy about the spider theme either, but he accepted his fate and started walking.
The passage opened into a cave with almost nothing in it.
There was still silk everywhere, but the floor was mostly clear. No moving shapes, no obvious nests, and nothing standing around waiting for us to kill it.
Naturally, that worried me more.
Mobs out in the open were fine.
Nothing?
That was where things got annoying.
"Will you do the honors, Jane?"
"...Sure, Tero."
There was something in her tone that I decided to ignore.
Roots curled together in front of her, slowly forming a small Ent. It stepped into the room, walked toward the center, then turned to look back at us.
Nothing happened.
We waited.
The Ent waited too.
"...Fine," Merlin said.
He stepped past it with his staff ready.
Again, nothing.
For a moment I thought we were being too careful.
Then something caught the light from my ring.
A thread.
It stretched from the wall to Merlin's boot, so thin I could barely follow it.
"There's something on your boot, Merlin!"
"Huh…"
The thread snapped tight.
Merlin went off his feet so violently that his staff struck the floor before he did.
At the same time, balls of webbing shot out of the corners.
A golden barrier formed around him just before they landed.
The impacts were loud enough to make me flinch.
Zach moved first.
Cold rolled through the room, frost crawling over the floor and climbing the walls. Merlin shot upright inside Sheral's barrier, already reaching out with his magic.
I was only a second behind them.
Running into the protected space, I attached a binding around Sheral's waist and pulled her toward us.
"Little warning!" she snapped as she stumbled inside.
"Sorry!"
I was learning that my damage wasn't anything particularly special anymore.
But damage was secondary if I could control where everyone was.
Although apparently that required me to remember where everyone actually was.
"Tero!"
Jane.
She was still behind us.
I turned just in time to see a spider about the size of a black bear descend from above the entrance.
Its legs caught the silk around her shoulders, and another layer wrapped across her body before she could bring her staff up.
I had thought being at the back meant being safe.
Clearly, the spiders had a different opinion.
More of them appeared along the walls.
It was like watching an octopus change colors. What I had thought was pale stone developed legs, then eyes, then far too many moving parts.
They had let the Ent walk through.
They had waited for Merlin.
Then they waited for the rest of us to run after him.
And thats a fucked up recepie for disaster.
A flash of light showed beneath the webbing around Jane as she activated her equipment ward.
Six seconds wasn't very long, but it was something.
"Sheral, cover Jane!"
"I see her!"
A second golden bubble expanded around the cocoon, forcing the spider's legs away from her.
Only then did I start casting.
I was far from a fire mage, but who didn't like a room full of fire?
The spiders, hopefully.
Flames spread across the silk-covered wall, and the nearest spider dropped before it could finish wrapping another ball of web.
Zach formed a massive sphere of ice above his staff.
For a moment it hung there, perfectly still.
Then it exploded.
Hundreds of thin needles tore across the room.
Maybe thousands.
They struck walls, spiders, silk, and unfortunately quite a lot of the fire I had just made.
Steam swallowed half the cave.
Great.
Excellent coordination.
Still, it worked.
Spiders fell from the walls, legs scraping against the ice as they tried to find somewhere to stand.
Merlin caught the ones that kept moving.
One lifted clear off the ground.
Its body twisted one way, its head another.
I decided to look at the next target instead.
A spider near the entrance tried retreating up the wall, only for Jane's Ent to catch it with both hands and drag it down.
Then, almost as quickly as it started, the room went quiet.
Mostly quiet.
There was still a lot of burning.
I lowered my staff and looked around.
About twelve mobs.
That was what we had just spent all that mana on.
We hadn't identified them properly, tested their defenses, or figured out which attacks were actually effective.
We had panicked and thrown enough magic into the room that the distinction stopped mattering.
A total win on the battlefield but astonishing loss in the 'war' of the dungeon.
Mages were strong as long as they had mana, and we had just burned a good chunk of ours in the first room.
Across the cave, Sheral lowered the barrier around Jane.
The remains of the webbing slumped to the floor, and Jane stepped out with her staff held tightly in one hand.
She looked fine.
Thankfully.
"Jeez, guys. Gonna make me blush."
Her voice was light, but she wasn't smiling much.
Getting trapped by a spider after watching everyone run away from you probably didn't feel great.
"Are you okay…" I started.
It came out so quietly I doubted she even heard it.
"You good, Jane?" Merlin asked, already walking over.
"Yah. Ward caught it."
He brushed a strand of silk off her shoulder and leaned closer to check the fastening beneath it.
And there it was.
That same image from the village, only now it was Merlin.
It took almost nothing. Him standing close, her looking up at him, nothing weird about it.
But still, my mind happily filled in the rest.
I knew how little sense it made.
Merlin was checking whether she was hurt, and hell, I had just tried to ask the same thing.
Except I hadn't managed to say it loudly enough for her to hear, and he had walked over like a normal fucking person.
Apparently that was enough to bother me.
Jane said something I didn't catch, and he laughed.
What was funny?
Why did I need to know?
I looked down at my staff and adjusted my grip.
I wanted her to look past him. Ask if I was okay, maybe. Something small that would let me stop feeling like this.
Which was ridiculous considering she was the one we had left wrapped in a spiderweb.
Still wanted it though.
It had been like this since the village.
A man stood beside her, and suddenly I was wondering how well she knew him. Whether she liked him. Whether they had already—
Enough.
I checked the entrance.
Nothing moving.
That was useful. I could do useful.
Behind me, Merlin asked her to move her shoulder, making sure nothing had caught beneath the robe.
I caught myself listening for how she answered.
God, I hated that.
"You alright, man?" Zach asked.
"Yah. Just thinking about how much mana we wasted."
Easy answer.
Also true, which helped.
He nodded and looked around the room.
Nobody else seemed to notice anything.
Usually they didn't.
I turned back once Jane had stepped away from Merlin, then immediately felt worse for having waited.
"Alright," I said, making sure my voice carried this time. "How are we looking on mana after that?"