Chapter 67: Insufferable Devil
The dungeon crawl sped up. Hannah relied on the advancing skeletons and spectral spiders more. She hadn’t exploited her command list for Zarian’s heavy artillery support just yet.
She saved the big guns for later.
Zarian remained just fine and always willing to help. When he wasn’t needed, he studied in the background. The spider scouts found multiple traps and marked them each with a glowing x made of blue arcane webbing.
Hannah scanned each marked trap. She broke their runic makeup into simple components and sifted for information that would tell her what the traps were made for. Then she disabled them for safety.
The traps centered on classic game-designs: pitfalls, wall spikes, falling ceiling, arrow launchers, sweeping wall blades, guillotines, and more. Hannah scanned so many traps she’d learned a couple of new runes out of the experience.
Beyond the trapped hallways were more fights with bookworms. Hannah and the others had a personal system going that spared her from wasting more Co-Opt Bombs.
Instead, she crept near the edge of the new room filled with bookworms. She changed her gauntlet settings from kinetic force to force lightning.
Holding onto her gauntlet’s back with her other hand, Hannah let it rip, unleashing controlled coils and arcs of lightning in branching torrents where she pointed her palm. She swept left and right, eliciting painful rustles from the bookworms, lighting them on fire and electrocuting them in equal measure.
The opening salvo filled the latest challenge room with the scent of burning pages and covers. The dungeon’s anti-fire procedures kicked in to control the blazes.