The farm was expanding more than just in the amount of fields; over five hundred spiders were working on various tasks. With new births came more exp. [Farming +2500exp].

[Congratulations! You have reached Farming lvl. 3]

[Requirements have been met. Hidden perk unlocked.]

[Perk Evolve obtained.]

“Evolve? This sounds OP.”

He was excited to try the new perk.

“What should I test this on?”

He grabbed a pebble. “Evolve!” Obviously, nothing happened.

“Yeah, as expected. I need to try this on the TopGrape.” He left the throne room and ran towards the fields.

There on the blue web was an innocent and unsuspecting TopGrape vine. “I am about to change your life, plant. Evolve!” He invoked the perk.

“Hah!” He breathed out sharply. “Oh boy.” The fatigue hit like a tsunami and his vision went dark.

…

“Where am I?” He blinked the drowsiness away. “In my bed, huh, but wasn’t I.”

The trustworthy advisor was by his side. “I see, you brought me back. I feel better now, thanks. But what happened to the plant?”

“Plant?” The spider chirped.

“Yeah. Let’s go and see.”

He wobbled out of his bed still unsteady and towards the fields.

There it was, the plant evolved. It changed so much that it stood out from the rest of its kind. The vines were thick like an arm, they were blue like the ropes used to make the webs. It was astonishing that the rope proved to be strong enough to support the plant, or maybe the vine being that thick didn’t need the web anymore at all. On the vine grew equally blue leaves in the shape of triangles and the size of a head.

He tried to pluck the large leaf. “Stubborn aren’t you.” He was unable to. He couldn’t even tear it and it was resistant to bending.

Okay, eventually he tore it off. “This is stronger than cardboard but weaker than plywood.” He tried to compare distant memories in his head; In reality, the leaf was unlike the two. “This will definitely be useful.”

If he managed to straighten them out, he would have thin but sturdy sheets.

“Enough of these leaves, what am I even doing.” The highlight of the plant was bulbous purple fruits growing right under the leaves. They were the size of a melon. “I wonder how will this taste.”

He tried to bite, but was unable to, like a melon it had a shell. “I should have expected this.” He had to cut it in half with a knife. When he stabbed, there was a lot of pressure build-up and the fruit sprayed juices in a jet; the jet hit him directly in the face. He heard his advisor making a short suppressed laugh from behind. Finally, he cut some flesh and right into the mouth it went. “Mmm… This is different.” It tasted like grapes but not quite.

He cut some more to offer to the spider.

Spider? – No. There was a whole platoon of them now.

“I guess you want o try some too. Go ahead, help yourselves.”

Spiders crawled all over the vine-web and began devouring the fruits in gusto. With the knowledge that soon none will be left, he finished the one in his hand.

[You recovered 10MP.]

“Interesting.” He still didn’t have access to a mage class or anything like that, but for some reason, he felt much less wobbly and tired now.

“I am sure I have MP and HP values but for some reason I just can’t invoke my status.” There was no menu for him to access. “I can’t even interact with the system.”

He wondered if he was some sort of exception in this world. Either he didn’t have the full access or there was no proper system yet. “If only there was someone I could ask!” He raised his fists into the air from frustration.

“Do you have a mysterious System? Akashic records? Voice of The Word?” He asked his advisor.

“What. Is. System?” It questioned back.

“Nah. I don’t think you have it…”

He dismissed the small frustration and instead went back to what mattered, which was appreciating the new magical plant he had just evolved.

“You must look after this one. It is precious.”

“Un-Der-Stood.”

“Also, we need more of it.” The fact that all of the fruits were now eaten didn’t help. “So, please wait for the fruits to grow back.”

“Un-Der-Stood.”

…

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He ended up naming the plant PurpleM because it was purple and helped to recover mana points.

The newly acquired perk was so OP, it was a shame not to use it. However, it seemed it had some consequences.

“I was out cold for two days…” He didn’t realise it at first, but this was true.

Regardless, there was this little imaginary spider on his shoulder, whispering sweet words into his ear.

‘Do it, you will be fine.’

‘Use the skill on your spiders.’

‘Evolve them.’

“They’re living creatures what if the perk will harm them.”

‘They will grow stronger!’

“What if they change too much, turn into something twisted.”

‘Twisted? Ha-ha-ha’ the devious imaginary spider began to cackle. “As if they aren’t already…’

He didn’t let it finish and swatted the hallucination away. “No!” The spiders were just too precious.

And anyway, they were already capable of natural evolution. The creatures, not all, but some were already capable of speech.

“However…” There was a suitable candidate.

He went into the fields of BlueDust flowers. He wasn’t here to evolve the deadly flower, which probably wouldn’t go too well anyway. He was here for Johny.

“Hello.” He picked up the not-so-little slug. “You are precious too, but… Johny, you have to evolve.” He gave the slug no choice. “Evolve!” He invoked the perk.

“Bitter vines and rotten fruits!” He swore after he realised it.

His vision began to dim and he was deep in the BlueDust flower field; the field his spiders were unable to access because of the debuff the dust caused.

“Johny! Go get help!” He put the slug down at the same time he collapsed to his knees.

[Warning: Extreme Mana deficiency.]

‘Why did even the Farming perk use MP? It makes no sense!’ He wanted to complain to whoever designed this, but instead passed out.

…

“Uhh! I feel like I just took a shower of rocks.” He complained in a wheezing voice.

His mouth was dry, and his throat hurt. Everything was sore.

“I feel like I am a hundred and twenty-five.”

Despite that, he rose from his bed.

“I see, you managed to recover me successfully. Thanks” He bowed to his ever-dependable advisor. “Where is Johny?”

“Johny?” Spider turned his head as if not sure.

“Yeah, Johny the slug. Where did you think all that sweet slug jelly come from?” He crossed his arms unhappily suspecting that his advisor was trying to play a jest on him.

The spider, however, did the equivalent of a spider ‘I don’t know’ shrug.

“Anyway, off to the fields!”

His legs felt shaky, and the short trip was exhausting, but he had to see it. And oh how unprepared he was for the sight.

“I… Just… Johny is this you?” He couldn’t believe it. “Are you even Okay?”

Let’s be honest, slugs aren’t the prettiest creatures in the world; this one isn’t different. The evolution enhanced this natural slug ‘charm’. If he had access to the system it would probably tell that Johny had negative 100 charm status.

He stared at the transformed slug wishing that the sight would be censored.

Johny was as big as him now, and still very much transparent and a slug. Some of the organs were not transparent and he could see exactly what and were made this slug tick. The slug had tiny arms with three fingers for each hand, and on its belly were rows of teets to dispense that sweet slug jelly. Most importantly, it had something akin to a face now, and it was deep into the uncanny valley territory; from the top of Johny’s head stretched two tentacles with big green eyes staring right into the soul of his.

“I’m. Okay.”

The slug replied. THE SLUG REPLIED! “No way! You can speak?”

“I’m. Okay.” It repeated. “I’m. Okay. I’m. Okay. I’m. Okay.” It repeated again and again.

Despite the otherwise unorthodox appearance, the voice was pleasant. The tone was sweet and mellow. With practice, Johny could be an excellent singer.

“I’m glad this worked well. So… umm… Do you mind if I…” It was not proper but. “Milk you.” He had to taste that jelly.

“Okay.” Johny puffed the underside proudly.

The jelly sacks expanded and then contracted to leak the substance.

Some things are not meant to be spoken or written, or even thought about. What matters is that he now had no less than six jugs of slug jelly. He scooped some with his finger and gave a taste.

“Noice!” It was the same old jelly, the one everyone loved so much.

Probably for the best, if the recipe worked, why change it. Now of course, with the bigger slug, he will have more jelly.

As expected the spiders were already waiting for his return; the jelly was that popular.

A little tiny spider, a baby one, offered him PurpleM fruit as a trade.

“Aren’t you cute?” He cut the fruit and ate it.

The +10 mana recovery made his throbbing headache so much better.

“This might be the cure I needed. I need more.” He patted the little farmer. “Wait if the fruits are back, how long was I out?”

“Six. Days.” Another farmer replied politely.

“Six days? How I am even alive?!” He grabbed for his head. “No, isn’t it high time to check on Kobolds? Did the Lamia return?” He began to panic.

“Trading. Expedition. Return. Soon.” The spider informed him.

“And the Lamia?”

The farmer did a spider shrug.

“I guess, there is nothing to worry about…” True or not he tried to calm down.

The little baby farmer was back with more fruit.

“Oh, thanks.” He nibbled at the fruits, his head clearer with each bite.

“If the Lamia come back, shouldn't we, greet their delegation?” he asked rhetorically. “I better do the prep now, I don’t want to mess this up.”

He began to brainstorm on what he needed to make this a success. Forgetting all the pots of slug jelly he left for the throne room. The throne room of course was just a shack with a flimsy chair.

“That won’t do.” This was long overdue for an upgrade.

Luckily he won’t need to do it alone. He had the builders and his advisor for help. With him supervising the spiders began working. The old building, including his bedroom, was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.

The structure was still very much like a spider nest but it was now the largest building in the entire village. The outside didn’t look like much, just an oval dome, but the inside was a different matter. He had wooden floors, columns and even some decorations. The builders managed to incorporate triangular PurpleM leaves into the wall, which made a nice blue wallpaper. From the ceiling hung by ropes were hanging dried TomFruit shells, they were purely decorative. There was even a rug, if you could call it such, it was ropes woven together to make a sturdy sheet-like mat, it stretched from the entrance all the way to the throne. It wasn't the purple carpet the royalty would use, no, it was better; more suited for the spiders and their legs.

The throne, however, was still just a chair. That one he wanted to craft himself. In his mind, he imagined a large throne clad in obsidian chip mosaic. He wanted to make it spooky, imposing even. Being friendly and welcoming was all good, but the king shouldn’t be seen as weak and he was the Kng of Spiders so the throne had to be appropriate. Of course, there won’t be any skulls littering the base of the throne or anything like that.

In the end, he settled for a simple design. First, using the pieces of obsidian eggshells he made a sphere, which was very much like the eggs the spiders were born just many times bigger. Inside that sphere, in the opening, he constructed a throne. It was large and jagged making it appear as if carved directly from crystal. It came out a bit too dark with all that glass-like obsidian, to change it he layered the inside of the sphere with blue leaf wallpaper and embroidered the seat of the throne in cloth.

He sat down on the completed throne.

“I call this the King’s Egg.” He named the throne.

A few builders who were doing the remaining bits and bobs chirped to him in small cheers to help to celebrate.

“Hmm… I need to practise this. Let's hold a mock audience. My subjects, gather!” He instructed.

The builders looked at him inquisitively and then ran outside.

“No, don’t run away… They ran to invite everyone didn’t they?”

It was hard to be a king.