“Huh?” The priestess at duty looked at the nearby circle. “Is this…”

A blinding light flashed inside the temple’s hall, the temple was dedicated to the Holy Light but even then such displays were extremely rare. The priestess shielded her eyes to protect them from blinding brightness.

The flash was over and she blinked away an intrusive spot in her vision, her eyes landed on a party of six rather shaken humans; it was as if they manifested here on the circle out of thin air.

“Ah!” She realised that this was no miracle, such an abrupt appearance meant only one thing, “Ferrystone.”

The consumable item was connected to the Holy Light granting the user the ability to appear or rather Teleport to the temple of the Holy Light. However, the item was extremely hard to produce and so was reserved only for the Emperor’s most trusted servants. Indeed, the men and women in front of her were the most renowned Rogues in the Empire.

“My oh my,” she realised in an instant that something was off, “Are you alright?”

The party of six just stood there extremely tense with faces beyond pale and distant gazes. It looked as if they went to Forever Dark (Hell) and then came back, it was as if they witnessed some unspeakable horror.

“Do you require healing?” She reached with her hand.

*Slap*, the gentle hand was swatted away brutishly. “Get away from me!” the woman shrieked.

This was hardly an appropriate reaction but the woman’s manic shout brought the rest of her buddies back from the bad place their minds undoubtedly had been lingering on.

“Calm down!” Another woman grabbed the panicked one by the shoulders. “We’re safe.”

“We’ve survived! A moment later and… No, we made it!” A man said.

“The Holy Emperor! We must tell him!” Another man exclaimed.

“Tell what? Please tell me what happened?” The priestess was just as eager to know.

“The oracle’s vision, and the ancient text…”

“Yes?! Tell me.”

“It’s worse than described. Much worse. We’re screwed!”

“It’s not just the Calamity, it’s the Giant ‘ENEMY’ Spider”!

The priestess was a learned woman but even so she wasn’t quite following. “???”

“1,000,000 HP!” The still panicking woman exclaimed. “1,000,000 HP!!!” She repeated.

Yes, that was a lot!

The panicked woman wasn’t quite done. “I didn’t sign up for this! We’re all done!” She pushed at the woman trying to calm her. “Let me go! I’m done, I’m out! We better run while we still can.”

A rather rugged-looking man, the calmest of the lot and thus likely the leader, he slapped the panicking woman harshly.

*Slap.*, “You shut up! Do you want to get executed, because that’s how you get executed! All of us will go to the Emperor and we’ll give our honest report, I doubt that otherwise, he would believe us…”

“Ah!” The priestess exclaimed again remembering something. “Our Holiness is rather busy with the preparations for the Summoning Ritual. You’ll have to wait.”

“Priestess,” he pushed past the robed clergywoman, “I’m afraid the Giant ‘ENEMY’ Spider won’t wait so neither shall we. Come!” He urged his still-shaken party.

=====

With the happy spiders comes the happy Spider Kingdom. What are we on about? – The Honey of course! Or whatever it was the Eldrich JellyBees made, no doubt it was more than simple honey but less than some mindbending cosmic ambrosia. This was Eldrich JellyBee Honey, but for convenience's sake let’s just abbreviate it to E-Honey.

So the bees made that, plus other common derivatives like E-Wax and E-Propolis. Both of these had promising qualities to find use in the yet-to-boom spider beauty product line, especially when blended with KelpCream.

Moreover, It turns out that combining the two with Blue Cloth makes a rather convenient item. The FoodSeal came with a property of NoSpoilage, which wasn’t exactly canning or refrigeration but it had its uses. It was able to lock-in the freshness of ready-made meals but also could preserve foodstuffs like cheese, baked goods, and dried meat even longer.

Wrapping raw squirrel and boar meat in it also sort of worked but only to some extent; after a while the unprocessed meat still went kind of stale. But wrapping it and then freezing it using IceShard Plankton, did absolute wonders. Somehow the wax locked in the natural flavours and prevented them to be lost during the destructive freezing process. The term ‘FreshFrozen’ gained entirely new meaning because in this case, the items would indeed remain fresh!

Eldrich JellyBees were wonderful creatures and surely they soon will become an inseparable part of the Spider Kingdom. Interestingly, Johny became quite the beekeeper; in no time at all, the gazebo she lived in was soon surrounded by IronOak Beehives. With some help of Fertility Potion+ the Bee Queen outdid herself and was now a proud queen of a MegaColony of no less than a million bees; a scary number which will only grow.

Of course, Johny was a single individual and couldn’t be expected to tend to all the hives alone. That’s where recently mutated spiders came to the rescue. Yes, it was a BlueDust resistant variant which could only be achieved with Johny’s Mutate.

Overlooking the recent achievements, the Spider King was casually sitting in the gazebo with Johny.

“I guess with all this done, we can go easy on our jelly milking sessions.”

Indeed, the burden for Johny to provide was lesser now.

“What? Nonsense! You Shall Come And Milk Me Daily Like You Always Do.”

An affectionate tendril wrapped around his neck and shoulder. Perhaps it wasn’t exactly affectionate because…

“Or Is That You Don’t Like My Jelly Anymore? Is E-Honey better?” She tightened her tendril.

“Of course not. It doesn’t even compare.” It was a simple truth.

The tendril loosened only to tighten yet again.

“How about the Eldrich RoyalJelly?”

“…” That was a real contender. “Gah! You’re strangling me.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oops!” The pressure lessened. “I Didn’t Realise, Sorry.” It seems she wasn’t doing it on purpose, only subconsciously. “…” Yet still, she looked at him expecting a clear answer.

Well, the two substances came close but considering the way they were produced he had a clear preference.

“I like your jelly better.” He said the obvious.

Johny launched herself to hug him. Was his preference really this important? Judging by her blissful expression – yes. Well, even if an Eldrich Slug, Johny still was a woman, the idea of some insect besting her must have hurt her pride.

“Correct Answer!” She nuzzled closer. “I Permit You To Drink It Straight From The Source. This Is Your Reward.” She puffed her chest up invitingly.

Admittedly he didn’t yet have breakfast, and who could say no to some delicious jelly, but drinking it straight from the jug… That seemed a bit too much, no?

“It’s Best Served Fresh. Dig In.” She jiggled one of her six.

In reality, this was an offer hard to refuse, and he had no reason to. This was just Breakfast!

[Expert Milking Technique activated], with that the jelly Quality went +1.

“Yum!” He exclaimed between the suckles. “It does taste better!” It was almost strange, he could sense another +1 coming for no apparent reason.

She patted his head. “Drink Up My King, With Bees Here, You Don’t Need To Restrain Anymore.”

She was right, right up till now, he was rationing the Jelly giving most of his personal allotment to either his wife or the deserving spiders, but now…

*Suckle, *Suckle, *Suckle.

“There’s Another Thing I Must Tell.” Her expression turned serious.

“Huh?” He looked up.

“No, Don’t Stop.” She pressed his head back on. “It’s Best If I Show You.”

[Eldrich Telepathy activated]

A strong feeling assaulted his mind. It was pure unadulterated PLEASURE.

“Oops, Not That,” Johny wriggled her tentacles in embarrassment, *ahem*, “this.”

In an instant, he lost his sense of self and his mind was pulled to some distant place. He was looking through the eyes of someone else, presumably an unsuspecting Slug Jelly user. This wasn’t the first time Johny felt it important to share the information she had gathered, yet still, such experiences felt odd. And this time especially was extremely clear and crisp, he felt completely ‘inside’ someone else’s head; no doubt, recent and excessive jelly intake heightened his ability for Telepathy.

Interestingly, men and women had a different feel about them, they always did. He got the sense that the person here was a woman. That assumption was only reaffirmed by the sight of two feminine hands working diligently to draw an unfamiliar glyph. Since he was inside the person's head, the vision came with an attached sense of sound, but also emotions: he got a hint of high urgency but also pride. Whatever they were so meticulously working on was very important.

“I’ve Been Observing For A While,” Johny interjected. “They’re Drawing a Summoning Circle.” She read the question marks rising in Spider King's head. “You Wonder What The Circle Is For? They Are Summoning A Hero.”

That was worrisome, but also very exciting.

“From what I’ve gathered: They’ve Been at It For Days And Will Be There For Days To Come. The Summoning Ritual Seems To Be An Extremely Allaborate Affair.”

Of course it was, they’re summoning a soul from another world.

“Oh!” Johny exclaimed in his mind. “So That’s What The Hero Is.” Curious she prodded deeper into Spider King’s brain.

His vision of their target blurred and distorted. “Hey!”

“Sorry, I’ve Lost Concentration. It Seems You Know About This Hero More Than I Do. How Come?”

“It’s because I’ve also been summoned here, remember?” Albeit on a whim of a chaotic deity.

After all, this wasn't something he was keeping a secret of, but he didn’t boast about it either.

“I See…”

The connection quality on the Summoning Apprentice, that’s what she was, dropped again; it went from 4k HD to a measly 240p. And he was rather intrigued by the design of the magic circle but a curious eldrich tendril reached to probe his mind instead, thus lowering the quality to an unacceptable level.

“Johny!” He felt like complaining.

Better, it could be done both ways. Wanting to teach her a lesson he jabbed his proverbial tendril to probe the depths of her mind. Surprisingly her mind was left completely unguarded and he went a lot deeper than he should have or wanted to…

[Eldrich Telepathy deactivated], it cut abruptly; she was the one to do it.

*Pop*, he freed his lips from the telepathy enchanting juice jug. “Jonny, WTF!” He exclaimed at the images he had just seen.

“Not My Fault! You Went Too Deep!” She wriggled in panic.

What he saw there, deep in her mind, wasn’t a type of eldrich horror, but an extensive archive of memory images and memory videos. The memories belonged to the humans Johny spied on in her free time, and for activities and acts depicted in that archive… well, let’s just say they were of extremely private nature.

“It’s All For Research Purposes!” She said defensively.

If so, she was ‘researching’ some rather extreme and unsavoury things; very hardcore!

“Stop! I Don’t Need Telepathy To Know What You’re Thinking Now.”

“…”

“Will You Think Less Of Me Now, That You Saw It?” She said disheartened.

“No, of course not! We all have our preferences.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” He nodded honestly. “I’m sorry I went into your forbidden folder. I shouldn't have.”

“Think Nothing Of It, Forget it.” She waved it off.

“I’ll try.” He smiled.

A tendril reached towards his face. “You Have Some Jelly Stuck. Here, All Better.” She wiped it off and put the subject back on track. “Do You Think You Can Replicate The Circle?”

This was the question of the day. “No.” He admitted. “It’s too complex.”

“I Thought So.”

“Perhaps if we got a chance to study the full blueprint maybe then the spiders could come up with something. But anyway, I don’t think it's worth the trouble.”

“Agreed, We Already Have Our Hero.”

What Johny must have been referring to was herself, after all, she was detrimental in taking down the Darkness. Plus there were a plethora of other things only she could do.

“I couldn’t agree more. You’re the best Hero we could ever wish for. I’m sure the spiders would agree.”

The already tight tentacles wrapped around him tighter.

“I Was Talking About You, Silly. But I’ll Take The Compliment.”

=====

Excited but also panicked voices had reached the depts of the Spidery Temple.

“It’s there! It’s there! The day had finally come!” An Apprentice Cherub exclaimed while running around excitedly.

“Really?”

“No way!”

The other apprentices ran outside to see what the hustle and bustle was about.

“Huh?” Elisabeth, the lead angel of the temple fluttered her wings in slight confusion. “What are they so excited about?” There was only one way to find out.

She stepped out of the obsidian black temple and stretched her wings ready to take flight.

“[Calestial Wings]”, she activated the perk and soared towards the sky.

She didn’t have to fly high, just as she got slightly above the buildings, there in a distant horizon, she saw it – the miracle manifest.

“How beautiful! How magnificent! How RADIANT!” She was exhilarated.

A spider most grand and most magnificent was walking up to the Aurelian Capital. By now the many resident spiders were associated with luck and prosperity, and the sudden appearance of the spider so big was clearly a good omen.

“We’re truly blessed. How wonderful!”

Obviously, she was not the only one to think so. Right here, just outside the walls, there were already a massive group of pious revellers kneeling and praying fervently. The giant spider had gathered the attention of the resident spiders as well.

“Spidery Magnificent!”, “So well made!”, “I wish I was there to craft it!”, they chirped so and such.

“Well made? To craft it?” Elisabeth questioned the words giving a better look at the supermassive spider. “Oh, it has a fortress on its back… and is it made out of metal? I thought it was alive, and not a building, [Inspect]”

She checked, and according to the system the humongous spider was something called a construct, and since it had HP it must be a living creature.

“But… Giant ‘ENEMY’ Spider?” She pondered the name. “That’s no enemy, if anything it should be FRIEND!” She fluttered her wings to get closer to the construct.

The closer she got the more she was impressed by the actual size of the spider. Huge, humongous, giant, massive – all were an understatement of its real size.

Once she was close enough, “Hello, o’ glorious spider friend!” She greeted while still in the air.

No reply came, and she began to worry that perhaps the spider struggled to hear her. But then, *Clank*, a hatch opened on the side of its spider head and a small spider emerged.

“Come in!” It chirped invitingly.

She expected to be invited to the citadel on its back, but not the actual head of the spidery construct, that was something outside her imagination.

“Ahem, yeah sure! Thank you!” Somewhat flustered she flew even closer.

Perhaps it was unsightly for someone her age, but she felt giddy and full of excitement, much like a young girl would. She went through the hatch wondering what sort of wonders and miracles happened inside the giant spidery head.

“What could this FRIEND want?” She pondered, after all, miracles happened for a reason.

The Elizabeth was due in for some shock, but that is for another time. The walking citadel stopped right outside the walls of the capital where throngs of people were already surrounding it. There were no illusions and no tricks, the walking fortress was clearly a weapon meant for mass destruction, yet the Aurelian people welcomed it with cheers and awe-struck gazes. For them, this was living proof that spiders were really quite something. But that was the most tame reaction.

The wilder side of the Aurelian Capital recognised the spider citadel as some sort of demi-god and soon it became an avatar of their faith, a spidery messiah sent by the Dark Flame. Unbeknown to the zealous and a tad bit delusional worshipers, the sacred Dark Flame, the one in the large Lantern positioned in the centre of the Spider Temple, it soaked up their prayers growing bigger and shining with even more power.

Perhaps it was only the wind or the crackling of burning AgaveJuice, but if one listened very carefully they could hear words coming from the core of the purple flame.

“Spiders…” it crackled very subtly.