A New Companion

Evan and Sakura entered the adjoining room through the door they managed to open. It was lit to have about as much light as twilight, if they were outside, so it was lit a bit dim. It took the two a few minutes to properly acclimate to the low light level, and when they did they found themselves in a room roughly 40 feet long, 30 feet wide, and about 35 feet high. For the most part, the room was pretty barren. They could make a few pieces of furniture along the walls to the right and left and in the corners before them. The center of the room had a figure that had a humanoid torso but its lower body was more akin to a spider's abdomen and legs. The figure had a clear feminine structure to it, going by the outline of the torso, and each of its clear spider legs was almost half as thick as Evan's own legs.

"Oh, thank goodness," came an elegant female voice with a slightly posh accent after the two had been in the room for more than 8 seconds, "I was worried I would be stuck in here for an eternity. What is the state of the passage you just came from?"

"Deadend," said Evan, "the way we entered through closed behind us, and no hints as to open it from this side came with that. Excuse my forwardness, but it looks like some aspects of your figure wouldn't fit through that passage even if we could open the door."

"Oh, that won't be a problem, sweetie," said the figure in the semi-dark.

"I mean no offense," said Sakura, "but we're not able to see in the dark, do you know a means for illuminating the area?"

"Not really," said the figure, "my kind are adapted to seeing in environments with diminished light."

Evan reached into his bag and pulled out one of his torches and handed it to Sakura, "Hold this for a moment, if you please," she took the torch as he retrieved his flint and steel and struck next to the torch a few times before the sparks lit the torch. The light pouring from the torch was enough to illuminate a few extra feet, including their new companion, and Evan took the torch back from Sakura with his thanks.

The extra figure in the room was clearly a woman a little taller than both of them, she had six spider legs on her spider's abdomen and just her two arms, her very human-like head actually had four sets of green eyes that were halfway between being those of a human's and spiders, she was wearing an elegant silk shirt that hung down about a foot past her waist and took her unique body design into account. Her abdomen and legs were a deep umbra in color, with tasteful patches of white and light brown in various places. She had a small belt of pouches made from leather and silk slung over her shoulder like a bandolier, she also had a scholar's bag over her shoulder. Her attire did little to conceal her impressive set of FF-Cup breasts. She also had what looked like a staff in her left hand. Her hands and arms had an appearance similar to that of a human, her skin tone was a bit paler compared to Evan's, almost a moon-white.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but what are are you, exactly?"

"I suppose my kind isn't all that well-known where you live," said the spider woman, "I am an Archnae, and my name is Rilshara. And you are?"

"My name is Evan," said Evan, "my home is the small town the entrance to this dungeon appeared in a few months ago," he gave a courteous bow, or at least he thought it was a courteous bow.

"My name is Sakura," said Sakura, "I'm a Kobold that had a similar experience to yourself."

"What were you ladies doing before you ended up here," inquired Evan with mild curiosity.

"I was preparing the wood for a bridge that was damaged recently when I suddenly found myself in the chamber, you," she turned her head to indicate Evan, "found me in."

"I had just finished up some measurements and was heading to my next appointment when I suddenly found myself here," said Rilshara.

"Okay, I think I have an idea of how things work," said Evan, "so hear me out, whatever power is present in this dungeon has the ability to summon monsters, much like yourselves..."

"I take an offense to that designation," said both of the monster girls at the same time with indignation in their voices.

"Sorry, that's just how humans and elves have you all classified. Anyway, moving on, after randomly selecting its summons, the dungeon plops them down in a random room, this produces the effect that the dungeon is generating encounters for everyone who enters this place, and since everything is randomized, that means it's almost impossible to predict the required skill level for any given area. Not to mention the odd puzzles that have a strange lean to them. We literally had to pass through a door where the answer to the riddle was a slang term for a very intimate act between lovers, and the riddle itself wasn't exactly something the one translating would be comfortable saying to their companions."

"Usually with dungeons that seem to have a mind of their own," said Rilshara, "they use their resources to build their defenses, including the monsters that inhabit them, but from what you just said this dungeon spends resources on puzzles and traps then spends who knows how much energy to teleport a random, likely unwilling, subject from a random point in the world just to drop them into a room within the dungeon then set things up so anyone who willingly enters the place is forced to randomly encounter someone who is more confused about the subject than anything else."

"That sounds about right," said Evan, "let's see about solving the puzzle for this room so we can get to the next room. I have an uneasy feeling about the nature of this place. Everyone who has entered before me returned after a week or so and looked drained in several ways."

"So, we should stay on the alert as much as possible, and rest up when we can," said Sakura.