I slipped out of the squat, grey building, carrying a black duffel bag in one hand, my coat closed tight against the cold wind. It had barely been an hour since I had touched down in the jet; on the other hand, I was more than ready to get moving. I was getting a lot of looks from the staff while they had gone through my clearance to be on-site. Most were just curious, as far as I was able to discern; curiosity and worry appeared quite similarly in auras. A sort of tremulation, a vibration that thrummed through the whole aura, usually pointed in a direction. It seemed whatever reputation I had was continuing to spread. The mess that was my last visit to this facility probably didn't help either.

  I ducked under the spinning blades as I climbed into the helicopter. I dropped into one of the seats after slamming the door closed behind me. It only took a moment to deposit the black duffel bag I had been handed upon arriving at the Yellowknife facility of the White Banner. Once again, I was back in the north, this time without any company and free rein to clear out as many dungeons as I could handle. The Banner had been more than happy to supply me with a significant amount of curatives and restoratives, which were what filled the duffel bag. The very same bag that would be making its way into my [Inventory] as soon as I had a moment alone. I had to keep a few secrets after all.

  The helicopter lifted off as I clasped my harness together and sat back. It would take some time to reach the area of the first dungeon. I pulled out my phone and double-checked the digital map that had been provided for me. I was looking forward to this. Sure, there was the opportunity to continue to grow, but I also had new toys to test and play with. I couldn't help the grin that spread over my face at the thought of the new arsenal of items I had after my exhaustive crafting session.

  It had been more than worth the unintended nap in the end.

  ——-

  I paused briefly, spraying webs onto the ground, using my control over them with [Mana Web Construct] to ensure they landed exactly where I wanted them to. The Ritual of Unmarking was one of a few I had made absolutely certain to memorize before coming back north. Since it was a ritual that didn't need any additional components other than a bit of blood, and would hide me from the sight of any non-System initiated people who might be out hiking trails or the like in the surrounding area. It was also simple enough that I had a sufficient amount of control to do it by rote, rather than pull out the ritual tome for reference and have to make multiple attempts.

  As soon as I confirmed the message, I launched myself from the ground, kicking up a cloud of snow. Two legs became eight while I raced towards the dungeon entrance.

  As far as the data I had been provided with implied this dungeon wasn't anything impressive, it would make a decent warm up if nothing else, though. I didn't slow as the dungeon entrance came into sight; the distorted field that marked its place was situated underneath an outcropping of rock. Web lines latched onto the rock face and propelled me directly towards the entrance at full speed. For a moment, all around me was dark and cold as I passed through the liminal space between our world and the dungeon, then I was once again in the familiar entrance chamber of a dungeon.

  I scuttled forward, eager to crack this dungeon open and move on to the next. It wasn't worth pulling out my new weapon and armour for anything I would find in here. My spider limbs would be more than sufficient here. The first chamber was quite large, dense enough with ice and stone that my arrival went unnoticed for all of three seconds before the fauna of the dungeon caught the scent of me. A line of sightless, rat-shaped beasts tumbled out of the left passage. They were barely the size of a terrier individually, but more than made up for it in numbers and relentless, suicidal aggression. They skittered across the frost-etched rock in a living carpet, gnashing toothy beaks and emitting a noise not unlike an entire box of wind-up toys wound to the breaking point.

  I barely slowed down. I sailed through the mass on a vector designed for maximum carnage. I flattened the first dozen under my own mass, simply crashing into the horde of smaller monsters. [Venomous Strikes] and simple kinetic force did much of the work for me, leaving behind a churned field of dead and twitching bodies, killed outright or in the process of dying. I barely slowed; the fodder weren't worth much more than a few moments of my time.

  I whirled around [Edge Glare]s firing off and tearing through the horde that surrounded me on all sides. The force Spells tore through the monsters as if they were barely there, laying waste to the chamber. I launched myself from the floor of the large stone chamber to the nearest wall. My senses surged outward, mapping out my surroundings as I sought the best path forward to reach the Boss chamber as rapidly as possible.

  Web lines carried me through the chamber and into the next corridor, one that led to something hauntingly familiar. Icy tunnels spread out in every direction in my mind's eye. I could feel them moving within the walls already. The moment I set foot in the tunnels, they began slithering through the ice towards the only living thing in the tunnels. This wasn't the same as my last encounter with these particular monsters, however. I didn't have to look after anyone else; my resources weren't strained with earlier expenditures or the worry of what was to come. This time around, I was free to smite every single one of them with maximum prejudice.

  The first ice wraith emerged from the tunnel wall just below where I myself was perched. The familiar icy bones that made up its body tinkling lightly as they shifted in and out of the ice, its head on a swivel. Hunting. Searching. And yet utterly unable to find the prey it was searching for. I could feel the confusion in its aura; it was absolutely certain this was where it had intended to appear, that its prey should have been here. I felt the moment confusion turned to worry. Turned to fear. The animalistic, primal realization that it was not the predator.

  Unfortunately for my hapless prey, it didn’t have the senses to penetrate the stealth effect offered by [Ambush Predator].

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  An [Edge Glare] ripped into the tunnel wall, preventing the wraith from escaping as my forelegs closed on the monster, its icy crystalline bones crackling and breaking under the blows. More wraiths emerged from the walls, ceiling and floor of the tunnel as I discarded the broken remnants of the first wraith.

  I take it back, this is better than just a warm up. I’m going to enjoy this. I murmured darkly to Vipera in the back of my mind. She echoed my sentiments with an equal amount of venom.

  ——-

  I slaughtered dozens of wraiths as I battled my way through the tunnels. It was completely unlike the last time in a similar environment. I was significantly stronger than I had been then, as was Vipera. I also was not operating under several handicaps the way I had been last time. There was no one I had to look after other than myself and Vipera; there was also plenty of room in the tunnels this time. More than enough to spread out, so to speak. This dungeon also wasn't being boosted the way the last one had been; it wasn't nearly as developed, being that there were only a few chambers, nor did it have any other changes due to an increased mana density. I was already outside the boss room.

  I skittered into the Boss chamber without a concern. I could feel its aura long before I had physically reached the chamber. It simply wasn't a threat to me, not in any realistic terms. The Boss was a mass of writhing frost and bone, somewhere between a serpent and a centipede, but swollen to the size of a subway train as if it were the next logical step in the evolutionary chain of the ice wraiths in the previous chamber. Its skull was an erratic chain of jawbones stitched together by ice that crackled and reformed with every movement, fangs overlapping in a perpetual ice-rimed sneer. Glaring yellow and beady blue lights tracked my movement with a steady, hateful focus. It didn't wait for the fight to come to it. It burst from its mound at the center of the room, screaming, a wail so painfully high it cracked the frost on the ceiling and sent a ripple through the air that rattled my chitin.

  I dropped low, prepping for a counter charge, and let fly with an [Edge Glare]. The Spell carved a straight, sizzling path through the Boss's upper jaw, shattering several of its bone fangs and making it rear back howling in unfocused rage. I blasted away from the ground, propelled by the full force of my physical stats, legs extended, ready to tear into the monster. Chitin clashed with ice; the bones of the monster gave way under the battering assault of my arachnid limbs as we clashed. The monster howled, the sound of glass shattering. Vipera materialized around me, leaping outward to latch on to the monster. It seemed she wasn't willing to remain a bystander.

  The massive size of the boss monster was a significant disadvantage for it, without the stats to be able to keep up physically. In a battle like this, size had its advantages, but only so long as the disadvantages could be mitigated. Increased size offered more mass to resist incoming attacks, more weight to put behind attacks. On the other hand, being larger also meant being a bigger target, and it didn't necessarily mean increased defences either. [Edge Glare]'s carved deep into its bones as we battled back and forth across the icy cavern that formed the boss chamber.

  While it wasn't much of a threat, that didn't mean I could simply exterminate it outright either. Even as I watched, I could see the frost creeping up the length of its various bones, knitting the severed or broken sections back together with fresh ice. It was healing nearly as fast as Vipera and I were damaging it. I hissed in annoyance. This was going to require a decisive blow to bring it to an end. I dislodged myself from the monster's body with a hop, gliding through the air. The moment I made contact with the wall, I shot off. I zig-zagged around the chamber, leaving webs trailing behind with every movement. Webs that twisted and branched like gnarled roots reaching through the air. The twisted spider web I weaved reached for its prey, dozens and dozens of strands latched onto the massive ice wraith. Some froze, and some shattered; others held their grip and were joined by others. More and more, moment by moment.

  While the webs tightened their grip and dragged the monster towards the ground, I crashed down on the monster's neck from above. My eyes shimmered with the magical glow that preceded a pair of overcharged [Edge Glare]s. It was as if the chamber were the stand, and I was the guillotine blade. The Spells tore through the monster's neck and sent its massive head tumbling to the ground with the sound of a thousand shattered plates.

  ——-

  Brandon Kostick slipped into the monitoring center at a casual stroll, hands buried in his pockets, a light dusting of snow melting in his hair. What awaited him was an odd sight; most of the monitoring center was a flurry of activity as analysts and coordinators moved back and forth around the room, checking and relaying information. The flurry of activity wasn't anything unusual; it was much like any other monitoring center the Banner utilized. What was unusual was the group of a dozen analysts and coordinators that were grouped around and hovering over a group of three monitors. He couldn't see what was on the screen from where he stood, thanks to the press of bodies that surrounded the screens.

  Brandon glanced around. Everything else seemed to be as it should be; no one was panicking. The dozens of monitors that he could see all seemed to be showing the normal readouts he would expect to see. Even the large monitor on the far side was more or less as expected. The main screen constantly depicted a war map of North America. One that indicated the location of every dungeon the Banner could detect, as well as a small tag indicating projected strength and other relevant data. It wasn't uncommon for there to be dozens and dozens of red markers indicating active dungeons on the main screen at any given time, especially these days. Originally, the north had been nearly overrun by the number of dungeons that had been appearing. Brandon's gaze fell on the area of the map he knew best, the area surrounding the Yellow Knife facility he often worked out of. The only different thing was the distinct lack of red on the main screen surrounding the area he knew the Yellowknife facility resided in.

  He sauntered up to the group hovering over the monitors. He was curious what had snatched up their attention like this.

  "He's been going at it like a machine for the last 12 hours."

  “Has he even taken a break yet?”

  “The man is a monster,”

  “Five dungeons in twelve hours, isn’t that some kind of record?”

  Brandon’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he caught bits of the conversation amongst the analysts. Brandon smirked and leaned over the shoulder of a junior tech, making the man flinch so hard he nearly dropped his stylus. “What’s the show, boys and girls? Found a new breed of world-ending pestilence?” he asked, voice pitched low and companionable, as if he were one of them instead of the guy who could pencil in their next dozen weekends with overtime.

  The techs shuffled, a few ducking their heads. One of the older ones—Dwyer, if Brandon remembered right—spun in his chair, and gestured at the center monitor. “Uh, just running a comp check on the Kaesor deployment,” he said. “You know, see if the projection models are holding up. Not a big deal.” He hesitated, then added, “You want to see?”

  Brandon squinted at the monitor as Dwyer clicked through a few windows. The center of the display showed a series of satellite overlays, each time-stamped and mapped onto a terrain model of the northern provinces. Where most dungeons blinked red, here a scatter of dots winked from red to grey, then finally to green, like a slow-motion fireworks show.

  “Five in twelve?” Brandon asked, jaw working slightly. “That actually checks out? That’s what, one every—”

  "Two and a half hours, factoring transit times." Another tech's voice was dry, almost in awe, "There's no cooldown period between runs. He's not even switching to human for the commutes, just 'spidering' the whole way. The only reason we see him at all are the upgraded lenses; he's used some sort of ritual to prevent any non-initiated people from catching sight of him." She scrolled the kill log with two fingers, as if petting a nervous animal. "The only time he slows down at all is when he's inside."

  Kostick watched the map, the way the blue arrow—Kaesor’s last ping—sat motionless at the edge of another red dot. He knew what that meant. “He’s resting?”

  "We aren't actually sure. The drones and satellite feed lost track of him a few minutes ago. They're waiting at the entrances now, rather than trying to keep up with him, of the surrounding dungeons, so we can confirm the entrance." Dywer took over the explanation, gesturing to a monitor that was displaying half a dozen drone feeds. "Or possibly exit after the fact."

  Brandon Kostick just shook his head. He'd thought the man was somewhat impressive after their brief initial meeting. It seemed he was going to have to revise that opinion upwards. Significantly.

  "Keep an eye on him, and keep me up to date." Brandon passed a glance at Dwyer, "Just don't slack off on everything else, yeah?" He let out a snort before he turned away. Dwyer could keep the rest of the techs in line.

  "Well, hopefully Kaesor stays a few days this time, my workload will get quite a bit lighter."