Alastair awoke from a weird sensation; it felt as if something was relentlessly brushing across his skin. He opened his eyes. It was dark, but, to his surprise, the obvious lack of light didn’t seem to hinder his vision a great deal. Upon taking a closer look at his surroundings, Alastair’s eyes widened in shock as realisation flashed through his mind. Involuntarily, he took a step back.

The whole place was flooded with spiders. Tens of thousands of gigantic arachnids formed some sort of a black river that flowed somewhere into the distance, their motions were so in sync and harmonic that they seemed to resemble a single colossal organism rather than a separate group of smaller beings. ‘Shit!’ Without much thought, Alastair began to move across the current, in mind he had only one goal - to get as far away from this horrid place as he possibly could. He began to jump from spider to spider, oddly enough, the hairy eight-legged creatures seemed to ignore him as they continued their endless parade. His movements were quick and limber as he dashed forward towards his freedom. To a human body, such manoeuvres should have been quite difficult, if possible at all, but to him, they seemed rather natural and straightforward, which the man reasonably attributed to an adrenalin rush.

After what seemed like an eternity, Alastair was finally able to free himself from this abomination as he landed on all eight onto a huge blade of grass that seemed to extend somewhere towards the horizon. He released a heavy sigh of relief and extended his hand towards his forehead before dropping it back down in apparent disbelief; the hand wasn’t his. In fact, he seriously doubted whether that limb was even a hand to begin with, it bore a greater resemblance to a leg, more specifically, the leg of a spider. In his mind, Alastair’s face paled in fear.

“It can’t be,” he thought frantically, “that goddamned voice, did he reincarnate me as a fucking spider?!”

As this crazy thought rushed through his head, Alastair began anxiously looking around, hoping to find even the tiniest of clues to dismiss the idea. To his utter dismay, the more he noticed, the more reason he had to believe that it was indeed true - he has turned into a spider.

“Shit!” He exclaimed in his head, agitated, “I fucking knew it, that God was up to no good!”

After a few minutes of ranting, Alastair finally released a long deep breath, calming himself down. He found himself to be in quite the predicament and clarity of mind was paramount for successful survival.

“Alright, let’s see what we’ve got to work with,” Alastair carefully examined his vicinity. At the moment, he was located in the middle of an immensely long blade of grass spanning approximately 15 meters in both visible directions. With his clear sight which extended to almost 360 degrees with no obvious blind spots, he could tell that this, by far, was not the biggest plant around.

Confused, he blinked. “Since when did grass become so large?” He wondered in his head before his eyes sparked with understanding, “Wait a second, it isn’t the grass that is abnormally big, it is I who is just too tiny!” Alastair’s body shook in annoyance, “Well, I guess that’s another problem added to the list, for now, I will have to switch to centimetres for convenience’s sake.”

The man, now a spider, gloomily continued his exploration. After a lengthy period of time, he finally nodded to himself in apparent satisfaction, he was now ready to make his first steps in this new magical world. Having figured out several important nuances about his newfound body, Alastair was confident in his ability to at least get away from any danger as long as it didn’t exceed his own level, but that, unfortunately, he would have to leave up to luck. The spider quickly traversed the plains in a search for a hideout, survival without a base was out of the question.

By the time he was able to locate and secure a suitable cavity somewhere behind the bark of a small tree, the first rays of dawning sunlight have already made their appearance, signifying the beginning of a new day. Inside the hole, Alastair instinctively curled his body into a hairy ball as the feeling of tiredness began to hang over him with unbearable weight, all eight of his eyes began to slowly lose vision and, before he could notice, everything faded to black.

The following evening, Alastair woke up to the unpleasant feeling of weakness and fatigue that was gradually permeating through his entire being. Slowly, with evident unwillingness, the spider exited his newfound aperture as his hazy eyes began to take in the surroundings. Sunlight was nowhere to be seen.

‘Shit. I feel like I’m going to die,’ he thought with discontent, ‘I haven’t eaten a thing ever since I can remember… I have to go find something, or else this may as well be the end of my journey in this world.’

Stolen novel; please report.

He began moving. At first, his strides were heavy and unsteady, but gradually they sped up until he was running at full speed; he had to eat something quickly and simply setting up a web wasn’t going to do the job. After an hour of aimless wandering, when he was already barely able to stand on his legs, he finally noticed something that caught his interest. ‘Found you!’ He exclaimed in his head as the lost feeling of power began to rise with him. Stealthily, he began to approach a lone ant that seemed to have strayed away from the main group. “I don’t know if this will be enough to satiate my hunger, but if there is one ant here, then I’m sure that there must inevitably be more nearby.” He thought as he neared his prey; “Here goes nothing.”

Not noticing the impending danger, the ant continued crawling around; occasionally it would stop to inspect a leaf or a stick, but would soon always leave, apparently not satisfied with the findings.

Feee! A shrill sound momentarily tore through the air.

At the very last moment, the ant seemed to have felt something and suddenly stopped in an attempt to discern the hazard, but it was already too late, before he could possibly react, Alastair’s fangs ripped through the air and pierced the creature’s soft body, inflicting heavy injuries. The ant shook uncontrollably as its body began writhing in visible pain, but Alastair did not care; he ruthlessly bit the ant again and again until the latter was finally unable to move after which the spider proceeded to devour the body whole.

When his teeth sunk into the raw flesh, Alastair was pleasantly surprised. The taste that followed wasn't nearly as terrible as he had at first anticipated, on the contrary, it gave gave him a feeling of indescribable satisfaction as it gradually slid down his throat. The spider breathed out in pleasure.

[Beep!]

[The host has successfully consumed the flesh of an unidentified insectoid species.]

[A new sequence of DNA has been registered, analysing…]

[Analysis successful, the host is now able to undergo partial evolution to gain the following features:

— Neurotoxic Venom: It was found that the consumed insectoid possess mild neurotoxic venom that is capable of incapacitating victims of mass under 1.8 grams and dealing noticeable damage to victims of mass under 3 grams, damage to heavier victims is negligible. Damage to victims with resistance to poisons is negligible. Upon evolution, the host’s venom potency increases by a factor of 1.1. Requires 2 points of vitality, time of evolution: 2 hours.

— High muscle density: It was found that the consumed insectoid possesses superior muscle density. Upon evolution, the host’s strength increases by a factor of 3, the host’s agility increases by a factor of 2, the host’s vitality consumption increases by a factor of 3. Requires 5 points of vitality, time of evolution: 7 hours.

— Second stomach: It was found that the consumed insectoid possess two distinct stomachs. Upon evolution, the host is able to grow a second stomach, the host’s maximum vitality increases by a factor of 1.7, the host's agility decreases by a factor of 1.1. Requires 8 points of vitality, time of evolution: 10 hours.]

A sudden mechanical voice rang through his mind as transparent text began appearing before him. Surprised, Alastair stopped chewing.

‘What is this?’ he thought in confusion, ‘Could this be the little gift that God was telling me about?’ Alastair narrowed his eyes, ‘Now that I think about it, he did say something regarding the power of evolution, I will need to take a closer look at this…’

‘Information!’ The spider commanded in his mind as he tried to communicate with the weird icon that appeared before him. No response. ‘Help!’ He tried for a second time, again to no avail. Alastair frowned in apparent annoyance, ‘Damn it, it doesn’t work, alright, let’s try something else, I remember it mentioned some sort of statistics. Statistics!’

[Beep!] This time, to his surprise, the response was immediate.

[Calculating the host’s statistics…]

[Successful!]

[Statistics:

The following statistics are based on the average human adult, this standard can be altered in system settings.

Species: Unidentified arachnid

Status: Infancy stage, healthy

Strength: 0.0002

Agility: 0.0933

Intellect: 0.009 (+1.6)

Vitality: 3.5/6 (-1 per day, increases when the host consumes food)

Mana: 0

Mass: 0.7 grams

Skills:

— Mild Poison: The host possesses weak poison which is able to inflict noticeable damage to targets with mass below 3 grams, damage to heavier targets or targets with poison resistance is negligible.

— Cobweb: The host possesses the ability to weave web, the length and density are directly proportional to the host’s vitality.

— Regeneration: The host possesses the ability to regenerate a lost limb or heal most injuries given sufficient vitality.

— Hibernation: The host possesses the ability to enter a low activity mode. Upon activation, the host loses the ability to move, all statistics are drastically reduced, vitality consumption decreases by a factor of 10.]

‘Interesting, so this is how I am at the moment,’ Alastair pondered as he took another bite from the dead ant, ‘unsurprisingly, I am quite weak, but that’s a given, considering my current body and status.’ He thought, ‘With the power of evolution and enough luck, I should be able to increase my strength in no time.’ A creepy smile surfaced on his inhuman face as he began looking around, ‘Hehe, the ant colony must be nearby; once I find it, gathering enough vitality to begin my first evolution will be an easy task.’