Leander rolled to the side, as the spider leg went down where he had once stood. The ground cracked, the soil shifting. And it reveled stone under it.

The blonde healer had no time to think about the meaning and implications behind a stone floor under the soil. He was too busy creating the biggest stone golem he had ever created.

All the extra mana that Belle had given him had run out by the time he had created the lower half. And, seeing as Belle was now living in the forest by the farm, he couldn't take more mana out of her.

He took out the hourglass and turned it around so that the sand could recharge. To take in all the residue mana in the air and turn it into its own.

Leander felt the boost come, and he ran out of the way of another leg strike. He began to make the torso. Stone was appearing like flowing water, flowing up, and building a sculpted torso. Leander then turned the inside of the torso into titanium so that it won't crack from a spider leg so easily.

A spider leg missed his head by a couple of centimeters, and Leander's back was to the barrier that guarded the lower ranked adventurers. He heard gasps, and he looked up. The barrier was cracked, but the spider's leg was stuck in it. With it repairing itself around the appendage.

Leander saw his chance. He didn't care that the golem was incomplete. He would be its eyes and ears. Leander ran to the golem and had it lift him up, so it could place him on its head.

The healer pulsed some mana through the golem, making it go towards the spider. Then, Leander had the golem take the spider's head in its massive, clawed, hands and to begin applying pressure.

The barrier shook as the spider began to trash around. The golem kept on trying to pop the head like a balloon. All the while, Leander kept on working on the head.

The spider was bashed into the barrier, and the golem got a mouth. With its other hand, the golem took a leg and tore it off the body of the spider. And the golem got ears.

"Open its belly up!" Leander commanded, glad that he no longer needed to waste mana to command the golem.

The golem let go of the head, and tore into the spider's belly. That, it seems, had been the wrong thing to do. Because, out of the belly, came numerous smaller spiders that crawled up the golem without a care in the world, their eyes zeroed in on Leander.

"Lower me down," Leander commanded, and the golem picked him up and placed him on the ground. Undisturbed that there were spiders biting him, every so often.

Leander had faced this before with the big rat. It seems like an eternity ago. Spiders hated fire, and an archer was the perfect crowd control specialist.

Leander made a raised platform around himself, and forced it to go up. Then, he began to let loose fireball barrages like he was giving out candy.

He felt the mana running out of him, but grit his teeth and turned around the hourglass. Leander felt the mana feeling him up again, and he continued to burn the spiders.

The final spider snuck up on him. Using his blind spot for cover. And bit his leg. Leander hit it with his staff and vowed to either get himself a mace or a dagger, in the near future.

The spider remained with its teeth in Leander's leg. Leander augmented his leg and kicked at the spider, sending it flying towards the barrier that separated the higher ranked adventurers from him.

One last fireball barrage took care of the critter, and Leander had the platform lower itself down just as the golem finished eating the giant spider.

Leander did not pay any attention to the glowing golem, for he was too busy using his A ranked healing spell to stop the bleeding of his leg and to get the poison out.

He felt faint. With a thud, Leander fell on the ground, his body going into shock and the barrier he had kept up going down. He might have heard the scream that tried to warn him to get out of there, for the other spider was charging at him. He might have seen Morris running at the spider with a raised axe, attempting to make it there in time.

But, he was too far gone. The poison numbed his senses and forced him into unconsciousness. The golem was watching all that happen. If he had been the golem of before, before he ate the spider, he would have stayed still and done nothing.

But the golem had evolved into a boss mob, missing only a name. And its dungeon core was in trouble. The golem leapt down on the spider and forced it down with its bulk. Then, it proceeded to pummel its head. Careful not to hit anywhere near the belly.

The spider died, but the spiders in its belly did not. The belly of the boss mob began to wiggle, like something was trying to get out of it.

"Burn," the voice of the golem boomed. "Spider...burn."

Jean understood, then, and began to fire fireball barrages at the spider, one after the other. The golem opened its mouth, and ate a couple of them.

The adventurers watched as the golem glowed a bright orange, and then opened its mouth and began to pour out a wave of flame down on the belly of the spider.

Everyone was uneasy. Few dungeon cores could create mobs that evolved by fighting other mobs. For Leander to be one of them meant that he could do anything, one day.

The dust of the spider settled, and the golem stood, head banging on the ceiling of the tunnel. It pointed at the trashing Leander, and Valerie carefully ran pass the giant construction.

She found that, most of the poison was out of Leander's system. But, the poison itself had been too potent for Leander's body. Had he not been a dungeon core, it would have killed him.

As Valerie worked, there was something new that took a hold of the adventurers. A new respect for their guild master. Who had defeated a boss mob by himself and protected the weakest among them.

Dorian went and undid the barrier that separated the lower ranked adventurers from the fray. There was a girl who ran past him and went to kneel by Leander. She took the guild master's hand in hers, and began to pray silently.