The Mer Maids looked amazed at their blurry reflections in the water.

“What magic is this?!” Shell exclaimed.

“The scars, they are shrinking!” The other Shell exclaimed as well.

“Magic? - no, a Flesh Mending Potion,” Lady Crimson shook the empty bottle, “A wonderous thing which had helped me too.” She touched the right side of her face, there was only smooth skin there.

“Lady Crimson!” Pearl looked at her with sparkling eyes. “Perhaps you can help with my condition as well?”

“Sorry, Pearl. No potion like that exists.” She gave an apologetic smile to the little mer. “If it did, I would become a millionaire overnight.”

“Aww…“ Pearl sighed in disappointment.

While the Mer were receiving free healthcare the spider King was getting ready to boost pond plants. The Mer had planted them already cutting the work he needed to do in half. He prepared a snorkel and some fins for himself, the pond was not that deep, but he had to get pretty low to reach the plants, hence the need for diving equipment.

First, he used Acclimate to make them resistant to the Dark infused waters. And then he boosted the plants with Unnatural Selection, if left on their own gradually they would mutate into a new variant. But he didn’t need to wait for that.

He poked his head out of the water, Day Sapphire was close nearby, she was observing his actions with obvious interest. To be honest, she was staring at him the entire time, clearly interested in his unique anatomy. Well, now he understood better how other race girls must feel when he was staring at their unusual body anatomy. However, he was rather flattered by her insistent gaze.

He looked at the conveniently close mer, “Day, which plants do you think should I Evolve?”

He looked at him thoughtfully. “The whole plant evolution thing is new to me…” She admitted with clear wonder. “But that somehow would make them better, yes?” She asked to confirm.

“Something like that, yes. But the outcomes tend to be somewhat random.”

“Look at this,” she pointed at the green leaves gently swaying in the otherwise calm water, “MerKelp, our primary food source aside from fish.”

“Sounds useful, let’s see what we get.” He dived to get to the plant. “[Evolve].”

With the already familiar lightshow, the kelp changed into something else. The green ribbon-like strands of the kelp turned pale white. The Spider King touched the white leaves, they were slimy to the touch, but also strangely plump, as if filled with jelly.

Recklessly so, Day Sapphire plucked a leaf to and put it in her mouth shewing it. “Bleh!” She spat it out. “So bitter. It is inedible.”

Well, he could try to mutate the bitterness out of the plant, but before that, “[Harvest: Material].”

[KelpCream x1], He emerged to the surface to investigate the ingredient. The cream was white and silky smooth. Indeed, it didn’t seem edible at all, however, it reminded him the moisturising hand cream; the feel and consistency were exactly like it.

“Hey, Lady Crimson?” He called out the nearby woman who was just idly chilling by the pond. “Check this out.” He swam closer to slap a glob of the cream on her hands.

The Master Alchemist looked at the sloppy mess in her palm with disgust. But then her face turned curious. “Could this be?” She shook the excess off and rubbed the rest on her hands. “Huh?” And then she brought her hands to her face rubbing the cream in gently. “It feels so soothing. What is it?”

It was almost strange that she knew what to do with it, she did so as if by instinct. It seems women just had that natural sense for beauty products.

“KelpCream,” he said the obvious, “I reckon it has moisturising properties.”

“What a wonderful thing!” She touched her face again. “My skin feels so smooth already. Silky Smooth. What a discovery you made!” She looked at him with maddened eyes.

Apparently, moisturising creams didn’t exist in this world. This might be a discovery of the century.

“Well, if you like it so much, I’ll harvest more of it for you. Then you can investigate the full properties of the cream.”

“Yes!” She clapped her hands excitedly. “You do that!”

He harvested as much as he could, killing the plant in the process, however, with the Seed Archive it wasn’t an issue. He named the plant CreamKelp, a boring but convenient name.

“I don’t get it.” Day Sapphire looked at the CreamKelp saplings. “If it can’t be eaten, it’s not valuable. Why are you planting more?”

“I see… since you’re always in the water you don’t get it. But try staying out of it and you’ll know.”

“I would get all dry!” She frowned.

“That’s exactly it. The cream here helps to prevent that. It nourishes the skin restoring it to a pristine state.” Well, that assumption was early but he was positive it was true.

“Oh! I get it.” She nodded.

It seems she understood.

“With this, I could stay on land for days. I could become a land creature, just like you.”

Or maybe she didn’t.

“I don’t think that’s how it works… But perhaps you’re right.” That is if she slathered her entire body with it, theoretically it could work.

Spurred by success, he went to look for another plant to experiment on.

“What is this?” This time he picked a thick leaf floating on the surface. It was just a green leaf, something a frog would like to sit on.

“MerLily,” Day Sapphire named the plant with affection in her voice. “It’s not in the bloom yet, but then they bloom the flowers are extremely beautiful.”

He looked at the plain green leaf, it didn’t look that impressive. But yes, there was a tiny green ball on the side, the early beginnings of what must be a flower later.

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“Let’s give it a shot, [Evolve].”

The plant responded well to magic, the leaf grew wide and large. The green turned to dark grey, not an entirely pleasant colour to look at. The tiny flower bulb soaked the mana from the perk expanding in a sudden growth spurt. The growth resulted in a big black flower. The petals were many and despite the colour surprisingly shiny.

“You were right. The flower is extremely beautiful.” He couldn’t help but admit.

Day Sapphire simply stared in awe at the flower.

“Let’s call it BlackLily.” The name seemed fitting.

He plucked the flower and presented it to Day Sapphire. Surprise flashed across her face only to morph to an extremely wide smile.

“I accept.” She launched herself for a hug.

It was just a flower, but for some reason she was extremely happy about the gesture. Needless to say, the lack of his usual robe made the wet embrace a bit too stimulating.

She needs to learn not to press herself on people so vigorously! “Ahem…” He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Day got the hint and released the Spider King from her embrace. The BlackLily was nested in her blue hair on the side of her head. The flower further complimented the already stunning Mer.

“You like what you see?” She asked cheekily.

That question happened then he was caught staring.

“I do.” He admitted without overthinking it too much. “Mer are very pretty. And shiny too.” It was the obvious truth.

“Then, as the custom demands, here,” she plucked a single scale from her tail, “for you to keep.” She said with a slight blush.

He wasn’t too sure what this was about, but he took the Sapphire Scale regardless. Just as the name implied, it resembled a precious gem, and no doubt was of similar value. Wait… if the Mer could shed their scales like this, this would turn to be a rather lucrative pond. He needed more Mer!

The greed of the Spider King must have been misconstrued because Day Sapphire gazed at him curiously, her pink blush grew even hotter.

“You’re certainly happy with my gift… I didn’t expect that.”

“Huh? Of course I am!” He raised the scale towards the sun, it coloured the incoming sunlight to bask his face in a sapphire blue glimmer. “It is gorgeous.”

“Just like me?”

He nodded… wait why was she fishing for compliments? – he wondered. Wait-wait… were they flirting? – he suddenly realised. He had a wife! He was a loyal husband! Yes! He stiffened at those thoughts, praying silently for forgiveness.

Day Sapphire pouted at him ignoring her question. “But this… BlackLily,” she touched the flower, “has some peculiar effects.”

He wasn’t too sure what she meant by that. “[Inspect]”, he looked at her status.

There in her Passive Perks slot was a new perk, Dark Magic Amplification. She gained it by essentially equipping the BlackLily, some of crafted items did that, but never the plants he evolved; this was the first for him. And another ground-breaking discovery!

“The effect sounds extremely useful,” he read the description the system gave him, “fifty per cent power increase for the Dark spells.”

“But my affinity is Water…”

“Yes, might not be as useful for you. But for the spider mages… they will chirp in happiness after seeing the flower.”

Day Sapphire simply nodded.

“Perhaps I could Imbue and Mutate the flower to grant it Water affinity. But for that I would need Water Spirit Stone.”

“I would like that very much.” Day beamed him a smile. “You should be able to get them in Deep Trench…” She paused realising something. “Oh, I forget you’re not Mer. You can’t breathe underwater.”

“And, if what you said is true, they would never welcome strangers, not even for a simple trade.”

“Unfortunately, it is true…” She paused again. “But if another Mer approached them – it would be different.”

What was she implying? He looked at her asking to elaborate.

The Mer Princess read his puzzled face and did just so. “If you let me, I could return to the Deep Lakes and try it. Also, the pond is still missing the fish. I could help with that too.”

Was she… was she attempting to escape from him? – He couldn’t help but suspect it. Indeed, if he wasn’t so enthralled by the idea of having pretty mermaids in his pond, he would have just released the captured Mer back into their lake. But here he was, keeping and entertaining them as his ‘guests’. He was a flawed man…

However, the Mer Princess seemed like an honourable person. And by the looks of it she enjoyed his company just as much as he enjoyed hers. The Mer Princess's words didn’t sound deceptive.

“Of course,” he agreed without much hesitation, “I would welcome your help. Thank you, Day Sapphire.” He bowed to her deeply or tried to since he was still in the water.

“Really?” She seemed surprised by that reply. “Then, would you allow me to take a few things to bring home? For trade that is.”

“Of course!” He repeated. “Please advertise our wares and get as many Spirit Stones as you can.”

“Would it be…” She began somewhat cautious. “Would it be agreeable for me to invite more ‘guests’ to stay here in the Spider Kingdom?”

“Please do!” He liked where this was going. “And get some Mer Men too.”

She gave him an odd look. “I don’t know… I’ll try. But it’s Maids I’m after.”

Thinking about it the three Mer were already subservient to her. It was likely that the princess here was after more servants and not guests or roommates.

Either way, it works out. “But surely you’ll need guards, get some Mer Warriors too.”

“No…” She shook her head. “You will protect me.” She said so knowingly.

Yeah, she was right, and there were spiders too.

Day gave him a quizzical look “But why do you insist on Mer Men?”

Telling her that his original plan of breeding the SapphireScales never died down was not the best of ideas. “It would be sad to see all these Mer Maids without mates and babies. I want a healthy population, for centuries to come.” It a sense it was true, that’s why the spiders were working diligently to finish rerouting the rivers to make the massive lake.

“Babies…” She blushed fixating on the word. “We’ve just started…”

He gave her a peculiar look. Indeed, perhaps the pond here was not the best place for the young Mer.

“Surely, we will work hard to improve conditions here. I’m sure the lake the spiders are making will be safe for babies.” He reasoned.

“Oh, you meant later. I see…”

He nodded. “So, please get some happy Mer couples if you can. I promise to treat them well.”

“I’ll see what I can do…”

“Of course, no pressure. It must be scary to go to some unknown land.” He admitted that point.

“No… it’s much safer here than in the Deep Lakes. No frogmen, right?” She asked as if to confirm.

“No frogmen, none at all!” He made a mental note to never invite them here.

As if fate itself was listening to their conversation, the Galleon Whale was flying right above the pond, conveniently here to collect the Princess for her Quest for more SapphireScale.

“Look at that, we better get ready then.” He swam to the shore of the pond.

…

The third time was the lucky charm, finally, the ship contained dangerously endowed Centauri. However, it was not the Cream Cheese Cavalry. The Centauri here were clearly slaves, they looked famished and carried clear signs of torment and abuse.

“You poor girls!” He scanned the rescues dreading to imagine what they looked like when the Centauri Champion had found them. The spiders on the ship had tended to their wounds, but that was just the beginning of the recovery.

One of the Centauri walked ahead of the herd. And no mistake, the centauri was a man! He was old carrying grey hair and many scars, but still, he was a male.

“The Legendary Spider King, I presume.” The Old Centauri bowed deeply and gallantly, a pose of respect only a Centauri could achieve. “I was told we will be welcome here.”

“You were told right. You are. All of you.”

The man gave him a weak but genuine smile. Relief flashed on his face, perhaps because he finally relaxed, or because he was just tired, the Old Centauri stumbled on his legs, almost falling over.

The Spider King reached to steady the Old Centauri. “Come, you must rest.” He led the man and the herd followed.

He took a better look at the Centauri, the man he was supporting was clearly the oldest, but the rest of them were mostly young, or rather young adults. Actually, the herd was mostly women, just like Centauri Champion told him before: most men had died while fighting. But aside from the Old Centauri there were a bunch of young Centauri boys, surely, they’ll grow into magnificent stallions soon enough. If this world was anything like the previous one, one stud was enough for fifty mares; nature was wonderful like that. Surely from here on the Centauri will increase in numbers.

He guided them to the Centauri Camp, a place claimed and inhabited by local Centauri. The Centauri met their kind with excited nickers. What followed was a happy reunion. Soon an improvised celebration swept the entire camp.

The Spider King overlooked the gathering casually from the sidelines. He was surprised at the great gusto the Centauri ate the AshenClover; the plant clearly was their favourite food.

That was when he remembered leaving a bunch of rabbits to expand the Clover Garden. He hasn’t checked on them for quite a while, but seeing the quantity of the clover here the rabbits must have been successful. Perhaps, checking up on them was entirely unnecessary.

Also, his presence here was not needed either. So he went back to the Galleon Whale, the ship was in need to be prepared for the next expedition: The Mer Princess Quest for More Mer.