Three highly evolved spiders stood in the room shrouded by darkness. Set right in the centre, the Dark Flame burned in the brazier. The fire provided almost no illumination, instead it bestowed the nearby spiders a Darkvision perk, allowing them to see in darkness.

They were the elites of the elites, the most noteworthy spiders of them all, the trio were: Trusty Advisor, Spider ArchMage and Lord G Bling. Even if they were the progeny of the first spider and thus shared a lot of memories, the paths they took to get here were different, all three were unique spiders with their own special set of perks and skills.

At first glance, the Trusty Advisor looked like the least remarkable out of the three. He wore simple blue robes without much flare and embellish, and the spidery features were rather tame. The spider was a somewhat tamer version of a spider warrior. The spider was six feet tall, had six spidery legs, his torso was somewhat slim, the two arms were long with spindly fingers, and atop the neck was the iconic spider head with mandibles and four yellow eyes; to put it simply, the features were unremarkable for a spider. However, the simple appearance was deceptive. The spider here was exceptionally cunning and intelligent, he ran the Spider Kingdom singlehandedly. He supervised the MegaFarm and guided the spiders in their evolutions. But also he dealt with affairs concerning Lamia, Drow, Kobolds and Centauri.

The second spider physically resembled the Trusty Advisor but was obviously a mage. The Spider ArchMage wore black robes, a thin veil of shadows obscured the more detailed features of the robes and the spider himself. As it is typical for a mage he also had a pointy black hat and a staff in his hand. The staff was carved out of IronOak and its tip was adorned with a large crystal, Mana Crystal: Dark. This spider was at the pinnacle of the magic research, and the highest level Dark mage in the entire realm. He was the one responsible for creating (by accident) Spider-Non-Nomicon, inventing the SoulStone and perfecting the Reincarnate ritual. Many other spiders worked under his guidance to develop new spells and magical items.

The last spider was the flashiest of the three. Coming from the warrior-mage stock he was taller and broader than the two, but that wasn’t the most eye-catching difference. The spider wore an extravagant robe embroidered in gold thread and encrusted with many small gems. Thick gold chains dangled from his neck, his spidery fingers were adorned with multiple rings and his wrists with bracelets. Lord G Bling, was warrior-mage who, by the direction of the Trusty Advisor, later became a merchant in his life, and then the Lord to rule over Humans. He managed the trade in the Aurelian Dutchy, supervised the puppeted duke, and handled other human-spider affairs.

The three spiders had gathered here in secrecy to discuss the spidery matters of the Monster Realm.

“It has been a while, Lord G Bling.” The Trusty Advisor greeted the other spider with a tap on the shoulder.

“We’ve missed you here.” The Spider Archmage did much the same. “Welcome back.”

“It’s good to be back.” Lord G Bling chirped happily at the welcoming reception. “Now, shall I go first?”

The spiders nodded.

“Everything is going according to the plan.” The spider grinned stretching his mandibles wide. “The humans are hopelessly stuck in our web where escape is no longer possible. We control their food supply and most of the critical industry. The Covenant of The Black Hand had fled the territory, and we looted their magical secrets.”

“That was a great boon.” The Spider ArchMage tapped the crystal on the staff. “Thanks again.”

Lord G Bling nodded. “As of now, with my wife’s help, we have fully monopolised the alchemy industry as well. Hence, we control food, trade, magic, potions and soon the military too. The entirety of the Aurelian Dutchy is under our web. Which brings us to phase two of the Trusty Advisor’s plan: bringing humans and spiders closer, teaching them the ways of the Monster Realm and the Monster System. Duke Aurelius had set a good example embracing it fully, soon the rest of them will follow.”

The other two spiders grinned happy at the news.

The spider wasn’t yet finished. “To speed up the process we started to recruit the small humans. We’ve found that young minds are more receptive to the spidery influence. The conversion will take time, but soon they’ll learn to love the Spider King as we spiders do. It is only a matter of time.”

“Very well.” The Spider ArchMage chirped happily. “And how is your personal experiment going on? Any success?”

“Yes!” The Lord G Bling chirped all too excited to share the recent breakthrough. “It was our King who gave a hand. My wife is now an Alchemical Vesel, and I can transform into a more compatible spider variant. Hence, as of today, I’m pleased to inform you that a spider-human hybrid is on its way.”

“Wonderful!”, “Congratulations!”, the two spiders chirped giddily at the news.

“However…” Lord G Bling began only to pause. “It remains to be seen if the child would carry the oath we do. And it’s unlikely it will share our ancestral memories.”

“Even so, this is a great success.” The Spider Advisor chirped to dismiss such worries. “You could just teach the child, like you said you do the small humans, no?”

“Indeed, you’re right.” Lord G Bling agreed.

“Ah!” Spider ArchMage exclaimed suddenly. “That reminds me. The Wisp, overjoyed by the new sapient race, bestowed the Ashen Rabbits with a peculiar boon, Blessing of The Great Ancestral Wisp. I’m mentioning it, because you will find the effects desirable. It boosts growth, fertility, health, and most importantly it lessens the time needed for the individual to mature. I assume the blessing is there to give a push for new races.”

“I see…” Lord G Bling Chirped with interest. “Then I shall visit the Wisp and beseech it to bestow the blessing upon our child.”

“Yes,” the mage ruffled under his robe to show peculiar stones, “crystals filled with squirrel souls. Give them to the Wisp. I’m sure they will like it.”

Lorg G Bling took the crystals without hesitation.

“Which nicely brings us to my report.” Spider Arch Mage clapped his spidery hands together. “With the help of the Crystal Spider and the Darkness Spider the research on Mana Crystal: Dark is complete. This resource is rather scarce, but it is powerful, with its completion we can use it to power Dark magical devices without the need for a mage. Moreover, the Spider SoulStone is working as intended. The spider souls, even if far removed from the Monster Realm, are reaching the Soul Well no problem.”

It sounded all good, but the Spider ArchMage’s face soured for a moment.

“However, there were unforeseen issues. The well still pulls souls in its vicinity, and not just spiders. Every day it fills itself with squirrels and other minor souls. And just to remind you, it has only a capacity of 10000. Hence why we developed this.” He pulled an already familiar crystal. “The Dark SoulStone, not to be mistaken with the Spider SoulStone.” The spider version was more powerful, worked at a distance and was attuned to store only spider souls. “This little thing requires Dark Spirit Stones to make, but without it, I wouldn’t be able to extract the junk souls out of the well. That still leaves us with the many spider souls accumulating in the well. The spiders who died of old age…”

“Yes, I am also aware of the issue.” The Trusty Advisor confirmed. “But didn’t we all agree that we want to serve in death as we do in living? Spider ArchMage, you can make spider constructs, use the souls to power the spells, or just convert them to mana, you can do anything really.”

“Yes-yes. ”The Spider ArchMage clacked his mandibles excitedly. “But I was thinking of something grander, something Spidery Magnificent. I want to make a supermassive construct, a walking Spider Fortress! Normally, this would be impossible but with thousands of souls coming to help, I think I could pull it off.”

All three spiders clacked their mandibles excitedly.

“Sounds wonderful and shiny! Everyone would be so impressed!” Lord G Bling said with the sparkly eyes of an excited kid.

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“This is a perfect way to honour the dead spider souls. And they would still have a job and purpose, and a home of sorts. Lord G Bling, what is the name of that structure you told me about? – the one where humans put the old wealthy humans to spend the remainder of their time in rest and comfort.

“The retirement home?” The spider chirped remembering.

“Yes, the Spider Fortress will be the Retirement Home for the old spider souls. A splendid idea Spider ArchMage, let’s do that.”

“I’ll need a lot of resources: Kobold Bricks, Glem, Corrundum, IronOak Wood. And at least a thousand spider crafters, no, make it two, we’ll be working overnight.

“Consider it done!” The Trusty Advisor agreed readily.

…

After some time, the Galleon Whale once again returned from the Demon Realm. The Spider King was standing there at ready, keen to receive the newest report. And by the distinct lack of a set of lethal weapons which would otherwise be there to threaten him, it was obvious that Centauri were still missing.

“Huh, did something happen?” He wondered what the reason was. Since the misunderstanding about the origin of SapphireScale was cleared, he had sent the message for them to come back.

A hatch on the side of the ship opened and a bunch of spiders emerged. A small spider ran straight up to him, likely to give him the report. He listened the spider chirp energetically to conclude the happenings.

With the help of the Shadowling Fairy the spiders obtained permission to set a permanent outpost from the Forest Spirit. The spirit in question didn’t mind the spiders at all, actually, it even attempted to recruit them to serve the Dark Forest. There was certainly something with the forest spirits and their like for his spiders; first there was the Wisp and now the Dark Forest Spirit. His spiders must be really cute! Of course, the recruitment was out of the question, however, the idea of loaning or hiring the spiders as some sort of mercenaries was an appealing one. Surely the Dark aligned spiders would blend perfectly in the shadowy environment of the Dark Forest.

Before all of this, the Centauri had rescued three more Mer. But also, they stumbled upon some alarming rumours, something they could not ignore, hence their current absence. The Centauri Champion caught wind of the location of possible Centauri slaves, the people who failed to flee Centauri Castle and ended up as captives. The Cream Cheese Cavalry was on their way to rescue them. Not an entirely smart idea but considering the rash nature of the Centauri Champion it was understandable.

“Tell them they have my support.” Yes, the spiders will help the Centauri on their quest.

He smiled at the idea of more Centauri, surely, Bareth would be happy too. And perhaps they’ll snatch a male or two, a stud to keep the population going. With those ideas, he went inside to meet the rescued Mer. Disappointingly so, all three were girls. That made him curse his luck. Also, they weren’t in the best of shape.

The first one had a fresh nasty scar running across her face and blinding one eye. The second one had a pink gash on the entirety of the length of her undertail. The third was famished, but otherwise unharmed; she was the smallest of the two and clearly a juvenile Mer. Unlike the Day Sapphire the three Mer were excessively shivering and trembling in the large tank, no doubt still terrified by the spiders. The best medicine here was to bring them to the pond where the Mer Princess could explain to them that there was nothing to fear. The spiders helped him wheel the large tank to the pond, that, and carry the various aquatic plants to seed at the bottom of it.

Just as he reached the nearby waters an enthusiastic Mer jumped out of the water to greet him.

“Hello, my King. What is that you brought me?”

“Your roommates. Please be kind to them.”

“Oh, thank you! I was getting bored of being all alone.”

Yeah, the pond was somewhat boring, hence all the plants the spiders just brought.

However, first, he wanted to address a certain matter. “While I’m here…” A light ray from the Rainbow Shell hit his eye, he moved his head slightly. “I would like to…” It was shining on his face again. “… to ask you a peculiar question.” He tried to move away from the shimmering light, but it just kept finding him.

“Oh?!” Day Sapphire began expectantly. “Ask away and I’ll obey.” She flashed her shells at him again.

“I was thinking…” he shielded his eyes, “Are Mer just like Lamia? All women exclusively, that is?” Knowing his luck that might just be the case.

“Huh? No, we have Mer Men.”

He sighed, “That’s a relief.” A light flashed across his face as if begging for attention.

Day Sapphire looked at the large tank to wave at her kin who were clearly spying on the conversation.

“But it is unlikely that our men would be captured by frogmen. You see, while we tend to our plants, they hunt in the Deep Trench. And also, Mer Men are better fighters too and less likely to end up captured by a frogmen raid.”

“That’s something interesting I learned today.” He finally looked at the annoying source of rainbow light. Surprisingly, the light disappeared as if it had never been there.

“I filled up since we last met. Do you like what you see?” She said so while puffing her chest.

Indeed, she gained some weight, but it would be rude to comment on that, so he deflected the question with one of his own. “Since we have more Mer now, I grow curious. Why don’t you tell me more about your land?”

The Mer was happy to oblige.

He learned that three massive lakes formed a formation better known as Deep Lakes, each having a city of its own. As the name implies the lakes were very deep and also there was an even deeper trench, a narrow fissure on the very bottom. Deep Trench spawned monsters of various kinds: some were tasty and useful, others were dangerous and poisonous. It was rumoured that somewhere in the oppressive darkness of the Deep Trench there was a Water magic source, but it was a dangerous place to descend so it was never properly confirmed.

Rumours aside, Mer lived peaceful and quiet lives. Mer women farmed the Kelp and Clams, and Mer men hunted for fish and monsters. They were solely an aquatic race, so the Demon Lord never saw much use of them, so they were mostly left alone. And everything was fine, but then the frog tribes had attacked. They came from swamps and invaded the Deep Lakes at the promise of easy bounty. The frogmen were more numerous and better equipped. Soon the SapphireScales were being hunted like animals, their meat and scales harvested and traded out for alcohol or weapons.

The real issue was that the Mer, unlike the frogmen, never traded much with the surface races. And now they were paying the price.

“Surely I could help with that.” The Spider King offered.

“It would never work. The Mer ever more so are cautious of other races. They would never welcome you.” She shot him down straight away. “Anyway, let's welcome the new guests. Welcome!” As if to deflect from the uncomfortable realities she waved at the large tank again.

The Mer were released into the pond, they looked at Day Sapphire and then at the Spider King, remaining somewhat cautious. However, after seeing the two interacting with each other so casually, the biggest of their fears were dispelled.

The plan was to leave them in Day’s care, yet it would be rude not to introduce himself. “Hello and welcome to the Monster Realm. I am the ruler here, the Spider King.” He said his line. “Please tell me your names.”

They looked at each other with a tinge of confusion.

“Only royalty possesses names.” The one with a scar across her face replied while looking at Day Sapphire.

“So how do I address you?”

“We’re Maids, you can call us as such.”

Mer… Maids… “Mermaids?” he asked to confirm.

“Yes, Mer Maids.”

Yeah, by this point he wasn’t surprised by the lack of proper names. “But how do I tell you apart? I can’t call all three of you just as Maids.”

“Well, we do have nicknames.”

“Then tell me those.” They should have done so from the beginning.

The Mer in question squirmed uncomfortably in the water. “I am Shell.”

“Nice to meet you, Shell.“ He looked at the other Mer. “And you?”

“I’m also Shell.”

He looked at the third fully expecting her to also be nicknamed Shell.

The little Mer hid behind one of Shells, displaying her shy character. “I am… I am Pearl, I guess.”

“Shell, Shell and Pearl, pretty names for pretty Mer Maids.”

Pearl shook her head in protest. “I’m not a Maid yet.”

Ah, a Maid as in the ordinary System profession! He understood it better now.

Pearl continued in a meek voice “I’m an Apprentice Gatherer.”

“A very useful profession, well done.” He praised the girl. “Your skill will come in handy.”

With those words, the kid disappeared behind the other Mer completely. So Shy!

“Anyway, let me initiate you fully. Here have these gifts.” He took out the Rainbow Shells out of the inventory. “Please put these on.”

The Mer were quick to realise what to do with the gifted items.

“They’re very pretty. Thank you!”

“Thank you, but why?”

“…”

“Ahem…” He didn’t want to point at their nakedness. “It’s a custom we have here in the Spider Kingdom. Please wear it at all times.”

The two Mer were smiling contently but the little one had a clear frown on her face. Unfortunately, for mysterious reasons the shell just refused to stick; the needed magic just wasn’t there yet. Don’t worry kid, you will grow!

It was an easy fix. “Sorry, I’ll tell the spiders to modify the shells so that they fit.”

At that comment Pearl attempted to flee deeper into the pond, only to be stopped by Shell and Shell.

Good call! He wasn’t done with them yet. “Now May I have your hands please.”

The Mer looked at Day for reassurance, she simply nodded for them to obey.

Surrounded by Mer he collected the hands in a buddle, like in a moment before the cheer part of the pep talk. “Welcome to the Monster System.” He granted them the access.

The looks on the Mer faces was truly a precious sight. Curious eyes studied his face more closely.

“Anyway, please enjoy your stay. Get some rest and your health back up. Day, please tell them in and outs of the system. Explain to them the perks and changes.”

Changes such as losing their Profession but gaining access to multiple Jobs instead, plus a skill tree and the potential to evolve.

Just before he was about to leave. “Actually, I’ll fetch someone to tend to your scars. She has some experience with that.”

With those final words, he left the Mer to chat between themselves.

“Okay girls, please check my status with Inspect.” She said so while puffing up her chest.

“[Inspect]”, “[Inspect]”, “[Inspect]”, they did just so.

“As you can see, I’m the only princess here. That means I’m in charge of this pond. Any objections?”

There was none.

“And it’s clear to me now, the Spider King had brought you here to serve me. Any objections?”

It was only natural; the princess needed her maids.

“Okay, let’s get working and spruce this pond up.” She clapped her hands eyeing the many plants which needed planting. “And while we're at it, I’ll tell you all about that charming man you just met.”

Indeed, they were curious about his mysterious power.