Chapter [3?]: Along Came a Spider.

A colossal spider with far too many eyes, legs as long as Jennifer was tall, and pincers that were the size of her hands stood over her. The spider’s thick carapace looked to be made of black and gold metal like a tank. The spider was large enough to ride. Or eat her.

She fully awoke in an instant, frozen in terror. Woozle was still sleeping on her stomach, but she did not know where her little spider was. She contemplated if she could grab her familiar and run. Only moving her eyes, she was able to see the seven-legged spider walking around on the dean’s desk. Beads of cold sweat formed on her skin and her heart pumped adrenaline through her body. Looking at the giant spider in front of her, she knew she had no chance in a fight.

Realizing she had been holding her breath, she focused on breathing out and in. The weird thing was, she smelled bacon and eggs. Woozle was waking up, stretching out his paws and giving a big yawn. Although it was still one of the cutest things she had ever seen, she couldn’t coo over him.

The titan of a spider transferred the weight of its bulk without a sound from one leg to another, it rotated in place. The silent predator’s two front legs were holding a tray of food. She did not even look at the food as the giant spider moved.

The spider’s legs were segmented and hairless. Every part of the arachnid was metallic ore, including its face, which came with six large black eyes that shined. Or maybe they glowed. Below the eyes were two mandibles that were as thick as her thigh, ending in pincers that would count as short swords. One quick bite from this spider would remove a limb, no question asked.

Jennifer whispered, “Woozle, is a massive metal spider serving me breakfast in bed?” Her voice cracked even though she did not want to show any fear.

Woozle blinked and turned his head, seeing the spider for the first time. All was silent for a few heart beats.

Too many heart beats passed, she was not being attacked by the massive metallic spider. Fearing the spider would attack her if she was not watching, she took a chance, taking her eyes away from the beast, and looked around. The spider Jennifer rescued yesterday was standing on the dean’s desk manically moving around animatedly.

The door to the dean’s office was closed. How did the immense spider even get into the room? She was not allowed to be in the dean’s office, let alone sleeping in the room. In her mind, this could not end well.

Woozle went from unmoving cuddle buddy to full jet lynx mode and attempted to attack the metal spider. “Run, Kid. I’ll hold this thing off for as long as I can,” Woozle shouted, sounding desperate. Woozle’s claws could not do any damage to the spider, and his teeth could not bite into the spider’s metal carapace. Jennifer knew that Every second the lynx attacked would buy her time. Each heartbeat Woozle attacked faster, he had started with the part of the spider’s head that connected to the front mandibles. Even here, his mouth was too small to get into the Spider. He moved to the underside of the arachnid, his jets roaring with power with arachnid him and his claws digging claws up. He was unable to even leave a mark. She remembered the saying, eat or be eaten.

“Is that breakfast for me?” Her words came out in a near whisper as she slowly sat up, never taking her eyes off the metallic spider.

The spider bobbed its body up and down, knocking Woozle to the ground. The familiar bounced, coming up me moved to one of the legs of the spider. The giant spider slowly and gently handed Jennifer the tray with eggs, bacon, and home-style fries.

Jennifer took the tray that held her first real meal since coming to school. The sandwich from the turtle was just a snack. She had not realized just how much she wanted to eat. Woozle was pushing on one of the spider’s legs. If he was able to move the much larger one it would have been away from Jennifer. Picking up the silverware, she went for the potatoes with a fork. Before taking the first bite of food, she remembered her manners. “Oh, right. Thank you for the food.”

“Woozle, you can stop now. I don’t think we’re in danger.” But Jennifer still eyed the very scary spider.

With a huff, Woozle landed next to her, standing at attention on all four legs facing the giant spider. He reminded her more of a guard dog about to attack then the purring creature that had slept on her all night.

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She was still not sure what was going on, but with slow deliberate care, she started eating and placed a piece of bacon to Woozle. He did not move on the bit of meat. Woozle continued to watch the arachnid. Only after she gave Woozle a few head scratches did he pick off the bacon in his front paws and he sat on his haunches. When he did eat the bacon, it was while grumbling too low for her to hear.

After finishing the food, Jennifer looked around the room once more, this time with a much slower heart rate. There were small details in the room Jennifer had not noticed before. For one, the office was overall smaller than she had first thought. In front of one of the bookshelves was a table with many pictures on it. She didn’t know who a hologram would have pictures of, but the people in the frames had smiles on their faces. All the other walls were either bookshelves or windows.

The spider she rescued was still dancing on the professor’s desk. Jennifer guessed the little spider was attempting to mime or communicate with the larger spider. The motions were irregular but graceful in a way only a spider could move.

She felt the need to break the silence in the room, but did not know what to say. But then she remembered she was not supposed to be in this room at all. “Hello, my name is Jennifer. I know I was not supposed to sleep here, but this seemed like a good spot.” It was not a good explanation, but it was something. Hopefully, something would be better than nothing.

The spider did not seem to move or make any sounds in reply.

A notification came up in her menus, which she opened with a mental command.

New quest offer from Grandmother Spider: Accept Rover as a pet, reward perks, Pet Armored Colossal Trapdoor Spider, trait Speak With Spiders. Difficulty unknown. This quest line is not currently active. This quest has not been completed in {redacted}.

Jennifer looked over at the extremely animated spider she rescued yesterday. She would never have guessed his name was Rover. With a smile on her lips, she accepted the quest.

Congratulations, you have been given the free trait Speak With Spiders. No need to write on a web.

Congratulations, this is the first time this quest has been given and accepted in {redacted} time. The bonus trait Gathering has been added to the pet, Rover.

With a voice that did not come from her mouth, the giant spider said, “Are you sure about this, dearie? This one is just a fragment and seems kinda slow.” The system had added a voice-over for the spider using Speak With Spiders, rather than downloading the information into her brain. The seven-legged spider appeared from a trapdoor beside Jennifer. Rover was gesticulating, so there was no voice over for her pet. The small spider was trying to communicate with her, but she did not understand what he was trying to communicate with her. She laid her hand flat before her new pet, and Rover did not hesitate to climb onto her hand. With her other hand, she gave a one finger petting to her now official pet spider.

Jennifer reviewed her situation. She now had a pet seven-legged Giant, Armored, Trapdoor, Gathering Spider, as well as a Miniature, Giant, Jet Powered, Lynx-shark, a Mop, the clothes she was wearing, and a few quests. She felt the need to be doing something. Looking at her quests, she knew where she wanted to go.

Woozle came up to Jennifer’s hand that was holding the spider, with his nose sniffing. The spider turned to face the lynx continuing to wave his legs around.

She looked at the tiny armored spider, “Why can I understand you and not Rover?”

“He’s too young. Probably only hatched a day or two ago. So, he’s hard to understand. But in less than a month, he’ll be fully understandable.” The much larger spider spoke with obvious affection in her voice.

Jennifer appreciated the voice-over system’s ability to add affection into the voice of a monstrous spider.

Taking a deep breath, she thought about all she needed to do. This was a strange place, but even here, there were things that needed to get done. She didn’t want to spend another night in the dean’s office, so she would need to find a place to stay for tonight. She also needed to get letters of recommendation from a parallel, the mayor of a nearby town, and a shop owner for her to be accepted into the university. This place of learning had been the only place she knew. She would need to leave. Feeling the pressure of her situation, Jennifer asked in a flat voice, “How do I get to town? There is a town nearby right?”

The massive spider said nothing but pointed. On her mini map, a spider graphic appeared with a note explaining that the town was ten km away.

She thanked the giant armored spider and placed the small spider on her right shoulder. The lynx landed on her left shoulder and climbed into the hood of her cloak. Jennifer brought up her traits again to make sure her navigation skill was active, waved goodbye to the much larger spider, and marched out of the dean’s office as a woman with a quest.