Arachnoid Unleashed

1- Mysterious Dungeon

In a place where a vast, turquoise ocean meets a luscious green land, a group of five adventurers consisting of a dwarf, two humans, and two eleves, were travelling on their way home after several months of exhausting dungeon exploration and adventurous expeditions. 

One of them is a 22 yr old mage and an average adventurer human named Philip. He came from a small but a well known family of mages that lives on the edge of the far East of Tamorian Empire. They have created a huge protective formation magic circle that could easily detect nearby beasts which was the main reason why their family was quite well known among mages. 

People thought that the magic circle keeps the beast away, doing its job in protecting them. But unbeknownst to them, it was actually Philip's family that hunts and slaughter the beasts down for the trade routes' and citizen's safety. It was a job assigned to their family by the emperor for generations. 

Philip got quite a lot of money from doing explorations and expeditions so it wasn't really a problem of his. It was actually the amount of experiences he had which was worrying him that was why he was working so hard; for soon, it'll be his turn to take his father's position as the guardian of the East Coast. 

"Aaaahhh.." Philip sighed a breath of relief; inhaling the fresh air while taking in the mesmerizing view of the turquoise ocean. 

"Man, it's good to be finally back and feel this cold gentle breeze once again. Right, Keeve?"

"Ohh, you're damn right it is." Keeve turned to Philip and grinned. 

"It's waaaayy better than those dark and smelly dungeons where we guys went in, for sure." he added. 

Keeve was the only dwarf in the group. Judging by his big goldish hammerlike weapon and the perfectly round 

shield on his back, one could tell that his role was of that of a tank.

Another voice butted in laughing behind Keeve. 

"You shouldn't be complaining, shorty. Wasn't it just your smell? Haha." 

Keeve's face quickly turned sour as he frowned at Vul'elandor; the elven marksman behind him.

"Hah! Well, at least I face dem beasts head on. Unlike you who keeps on shooting arrows from behind like a freaked out whore." 

Sella, a female Elf Druid and Tom, a human swordsman laughed at Keeves retort. 

"Screw you!" Vul'elandor angrily said. Crossing his arms with his scrunched up eyebrows.

Philip was watching them and couldn't help but smile. 

As they finally arrived at the village, they went inside a small inn. 

"Hooooo! You can never really get enough of this place's smell. The good and delicious cooked food plus the real beds." Tom blurted out, satisfied. 

"Don't forget the warm mead and ale. Whohaha!" Keeve said as he gulped down a whole mug of mead in one go.

They were having fun and laughing away their past tiring days with good food and drinks when they suddenly heard heavy footsteps heading their way. 

"Ah, you're finally back Philip. You need to go and see father. He wants to talk to you." 

Philip turned to the man's direction and saw a member of his family. It was actually his younger brother. Another mage but is still under the family elders' intensive and strict training.

"Alright. I'll go meet him now." Philip replied.

His younger brother just nodded. 

"Gotta go now. Take care you guys" He told his friends before heading off outside.

He walked towards a small tower located on a cliff which oversees the whole village and coast. On the outside, the tower may look small in size but it is utterly different when you go inside. The tower had many tunnels and rooms built underground and around the mountain with several balconies that face towards the coast. 

He got into the tower and found it partially empty. With only his father, younger brother, and a few mage elders around. 

"You're back." 

A voice spoke and the sound of footsteps could be heard echoing through the floor, approaching from one of the side tunnels.

Philip turned to the man who spoke and respectfully performed a mage formal bow. 

"This mage greets the Higher Visor." he said.

Higher Visor is a title given to an authority in charge of the tower and maintaining of the magic formation circle.

"Ahhh, c'mon now. There's nobody around but us and you just got back. Was it three months? Maybe four?" 

His father sighed.

"This job of maintaining the formation really gets on my sense of time. But hey, let's not be formal. Can't your father get a hug?" He told philip as he grinned at him. 

Philip smiled and grinned back.

"I see. In that case, you look like shit old man. Do you just read books and experiment on magic all day long? Your skills haven't gotten dulled yet, have they?

He then hugged his father tight.

"Haha! Just because you've been out killing beasts and having all sorts of experiences outside doesn't mean you could get all cocky little brat. My level is still higher than yours—wait, what's your level now? " his father asked. 

"I don't wanna make you look so bad old man. But I'm actually at the level 16 already." he replied, smirking.

"Oh my, the little one really worked hard huh? Well, You've got such an admirable skills. Look at that, reaching level 16 at your current age. Impressive." his father praised.

But then the old man smiled in a cheeky manner.

"But still not enough to beat your old man. I've reached level 29 last month." 

Philip was instantly amazed upon hearing it and felt genuinely proud of his father. 

'Did he really leveled up to 19 by just reading spells and cultivating? That's really quite impressive. A true genius mage, indeed.'

he thought. 

'But well, that's the only thing he can do; reading spells and cultivating. It's not like he can leave the tower and stop maintaining the watch.' philip frowned upon the thought of his turn getting his father's position soon.

'Damn, it's gonna be a pain in the ass for sure.'

Suddenly, a subtle earthquake was felt. His father noticed the sudden change on his face and began explaining the current situation.

"Ah, yes. It has been happening randomly a lot of times since the last two months. We've been trying to detect the location of the epicenter which was causing the tremors but to no avail."

He then sighed.

"I probably need to go and do more checks. You can go read and cultivate. We will start our training again tomorrow." 

The old man waived his right hand; ushering towards Philip and went down the stairs leading to the tunnels.

Philip shrugged and went out to take a rest, enjoying the rest of his night with his team.

Two months went by of him and his team training everyday and going out on local hunt quests. At what seems like a normal morning like any other previous days that have passed, a sudden strong earthquake shook a whole mountain without a warning. The magic formation quickly alerted everyone in the tower. Everyone rushed off, getting their own sets of gear. One is Philip's father who had a serious expression on his face, wearing his full battlemage gear. He went out with another two mage elders and found Philip and his team, ready with their gears on. 

"Follow me." his father told them and so they did.

As they were tracking the source, It was getting harder and more difficult for them to move due to the earthquake's aggressiveness. They find it hard to stand, let alone run towards the source. But after persevering, they finally reached their destination. The group was utterly shocked and baffled at the strange sight in front of them.

Before their eyes was a gigantic hole beside the beach leading towards the mountains. It was so huge in size that a giant could very well fit in. At the end of it was a big mysterious door protected by a red glowing barrier. It was emitting an ominous and suffocating aura. 

"I couldn't sense any danger coming from the mana around the barrier." Philip's father said.

"But I can't really tell if it's completely harmless. I've never seen or heard of a red barrier. It's not even recorded in the books of our library's previous generation." he added as he was carefully inspecting the site using his magic. His facial expression was clearly confused and puzzled. 

"We must report this to the capital and wait for more professionals to be dispatched so they could test this as well. But we can't really afford to waste time and just wait here doing nothing." 

He paused for a while before speaking again.

"This aura certainly isn't dangerous to people with magic."

The plants around them started loosing it's colors as if the life force was being sucked out of them.

"But as for the normal living things without magic, it isn't the case. It was corrupting the life force out of the nature around it." 

Philip's face was immediately painted with concern and asked, 

"Then what should we do?"

Keeve suddenly butted in, his voice a little panicky.

"We don't have much time. Look! The trees and plants around us are loosing their colors, even the sand."

"Calm down now boy. We'll have to disable the barrier this instant." an elder replied.

"But once we do, we have to prepare for whatever is behind this door." another elder said.

"So, it's a risk." Sella said. Her thumb and point finger touching her chin, analyzing the situation they're in. 

"Elders, help disable this barrier. We'll take care of whatever's on the other side." Philip's father commanded.

The elders gathered with him. They had spread their arms forward as they began to chant a disabling barrier spell.

Soon, the red barrier began to sizzle violently and had attack the elders by corrupting their mana. A shockwave was produced which caused all of them to be pushed back far away with such a strong force. 

"Damn, that hurts." Vul'elandor cursed under his breath.

They all groaned in pain as they rose from the floor, dusting off their slightly dirtied clothes. They checked if everyone's alright. 

"We did it." Sella said upon seeing that the barrier has been dispelled. 

They carefully approached the door and upon touching it, the door begun to slowly open. The temperature instantly dropped. And with one last glance towards each other, they all nodded. 

But unbeknownst to Philip, walking through this strange and mysterious door will completely alter his fate....

Forever.