Adon moved dozens of sparks of Mana from his antennae to his Silk Spinner. Back and forth. Under his belly and over his back. A repeated pattern that only increased in complexity as he kept adding more sparks from the core of orange light within him.

He managed to divide his focus enough to keep the sparks moving on the exterior of his body and delve again into the darkness where his source of power was.

The orange light was noticeably dimmer than when he had started. Adon could tell he was running through his energy—though he would perhaps still have most of it if he tried to pull back the sparks from the outside and return them whence they had come.

But that would mean stopping. It was hard to make himself stop. In fact, Adon wanted to push himself further. Add more sparks. Juggle harder and faster until—until what?

Just a little longer, he told himself. He felt he was on the verge of being able to move on to something more advanced. He did not know quite what this feeling was telling him he would be able to do next, but by now he at least knew his instincts were usually trustworthy.

Adon’s eyes unfocused as he gave himself over completely to manipulating the sparks of Mana circulating all over his body. Goldie was doing something above him in the web that involved pacing back and forth. Distracting. Right now, he needed to focus all his attention on this one thing. He needed to give his all, and perhaps become great at this one thing.

Adon felt a trance-like state coming over him as he manipulated Mana, and he let it happen. His exercise was all there was in the universe for some indeterminate time. It might have been seconds, hours, or days.

Then a sensation in his side pulled him out of his focus.

Hey! he thought. Who’s doing that?

Adon focused on seeing through his eyes again, rather than using his senses purely for Mana Manipulation. Of course it was Goldie. Poking him in the side with the tiny hairs on the ends of her feet. Gentle but insistent.

He activated Telepathy without stopping the sparks of Mana from circulating. He couldn’t help taking some pride in the fact that he hadn’t lost a single spark despite the interruption. This was despite the fact that he controlled more of them now than ever. He had continued adding more of them to juggle through the duration of his trance.

He was tired, but very satisfied.

What’s up, Goldie? he sent. He couldn’t help noticing that even his inner voice was exhausted.

Rest. You need rest. Goldie’s tone was blunter than Adon had ever remembered it being. Rest so you can heal.

Adon looked around and realized that it was dark. Not just getting dark, fading gently into nightfall. Pitch dark.

He wanted to ask what time it was, but he knew Goldie would not be wearing a watch.

It got late, he sent instead.

Yes. He could tell Goldie was suppressing the urge to laugh at his response.

He controlled his own desire to ask her if she had been pacing around earlier, trying to get him to talk to her—or maybe trying to get him to rest instead of continuing his magical exercises. He felt fine—aside from some mild exhaustion from focusing for hours at a time.

Then his stomach growled slightly.

The caterpillar and the spider looked at each other.

Plenty of food up there. Goldie tilted her head back up at the area of her web that she had given over to caterpillar food storage.

Adon felt guilty for not talking to her more after he awakened. He hadn’t realized that hours would fly by—or maybe he had.

Thank you so much again for getting it for me, Goldie, he transmitted.

Well, someone in that palace likes you, she thought back.

She’s actually jealous, Adon thought—but was careful not to send.

One day, you should talk to the Princess, too, he replied instead.

It makes sense she would be a little jealous, he told himself. Goldie has lived her entire months-long life in this garden, and she’s never spoken to a single soul except me. It must seem terribly unfair that I’ve had twice as much social interaction as she had, in the short time I’ve been alive.

He wanted to say something about that, but Goldie was already walking back up the web toward where Adon’s food supply was.

I hope Goldie has been getting enough to eat, he thought. She went to get that plant matter to take care of me, but I’m pretty sure she can’t actually eat fruits and vegetables like I can. Caterpillars, it seemed, were built to be able to eat just about anything, or so Adon had found so far.

Adon returned as many of the sparks he had been juggling to the orange orb as he could. He thought that would allow him to recharge much more quickly than just letting them dissipate.

Then he began following after Goldie. Trying to outpace her in order to catch up, he quickly realized that he had not yet learned the sticky versus non-stick thread pattern of the web. To Adon’s chagrin, the spider had to walk back and gently pluck him from among the stickier threads after he got himself hopelessly tangled up.

Then she carried him the rest of the way, dismissing his meek protests that he wanted to keep trying web walking until he got it right.

Later, Adon. Later. You will have time.

The way she held him reminded him of being cradled by his mother when he was a baby in his last life. Adon realized that there was no chance, based on Goldie’s body language, that she was angry with him at all. Perhaps she had been a bit lonely, in the last few hours, with no one to talk to.

Fortunately, he was highly capable of holding a conversation while eating with Telepathy.

He told her all about his progress with Mana Manipulation while he filled his stomach. She praised his hard work but warned him not to push himself too hard.

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You are still caterpillar, and right now, recovering from serious wounds, she thought. You will have plenty of time to become wizard.

Adon couldn’t help thinking that Goldie probably thought that herself earlier on, and then she went through her Evolution and closed some of those options off—but he avoided transmitting that thought. Even for someone who lacked many social graces, there were some things one just did not say.

Then it was time to rest. Before he allowed his mind to fade into that dim space between sleep and wakefulness that passed for a bug’s sleep, Adon decided to revisit his Status. It had been a while, and the next time he needed to refresh his memory on it, he might be in the heat of battle.

User: Adon, Mystic Toxic Butterfly Larva

Age: 6 days

Sex: Male

Status

Health: 66/100(!)

Mana: 285/355

Strength: 94(!)

Agility: 97(!)

Perception: 98(!)

Dexterity: 95(!)

Constitution: 101(!)

Intelligence: 175(!)

Will: 180(!)

Charisma: 91(!)

Skills: Identify, Impeccable Memory, Mana Manipulation I, Past Life Connection, Shed Skin, Spine Shot II, Spiritual Sight

Evolution Points: 1387

Biomass: 65/75

Some interesting changes. His species name had changed—and he had a name now, recognized by the System. Was that just because he introduced himself to Goldie by name? No one else had used his name in his whole life so far.

More importantly, all the magic practice was starting to pay off. The System had recognized him as a “Mystic Toxic Butterfly Larva.” It sounded like something Adon would not personally want to mess with, which was never a bad thing. Putting Mana back where he got it from seemed to have successfully partially recharged it. His Stats were all significantly higher than he remembered. Based on his Biomass, he was getting bigger and bigger.

But most interesting to him right now was the second to last line in his Status.

Holy crap, that’s a lot of Evolution Points, he thought. He couldn’t remember ever having this many at once.

He immediately checked whether “Specialized Chrysalis Evolution” was available, but it was still out of his price range. That was fine, because Adon didn’t want to Evolve just yet. But he was beginning to wonder just how much it would cost.

1500 Evolution Points? 1600? A nice, round 2000? More than that?

He would save as much as he had to save to avoid the dreaded “Standard Chrysalis Evolution” option, he knew. Given how much more the specialized version cost, the difference might be even greater than the distinction between flying first class versus flying coach. It could be more like the difference between flying first class and trying to cling to the side of an airplane.

In this life, he was going to be someone special. Someone who others looked up to, no matter how small he was. Someone who could make friends—his body felt a little warmer as he thought of Goldie—and protect them. His mind flickered over the various enemies he had faced over the course of his life.

This garden is a brutal place, he thought drowsily. I never really understood, as a human, how crazy the insect world really is.

He sank into that state of semi-consciousness that for him had replaced sleep.

For some number of hours, Adon was lost to the world. As the first flickers of morning light began to shine down on the web, however, he came immediately to himself. His mind returned to where it had been before he began drifting off.

Evolution Points, he thought. How to use them. Should I use them now or wait?

Although he was typically inclined to spend points as he earned them—with the exception of the time when he would inevitably have to save for Evolution—right now, he thought he should hold off. His focus was magic at the moment. That would definitely be where he wanted to spend the bulk of his points.

But he had already felt himself reaching some natural breakthrough in magic the previous night. When he crossed over that threshold, he thought he would better know where he needed to spend his newfound wealth.

And as much as he hated to let his Evolution Points sit and languish, he was not planning to go anywhere anytime soon. As he got up and walked over to eat more fruit and vegetable leavings, he could feel his body remained stiff and slightly sore in several places from the venom. Clearly he still needed more time to recover, and Goldie’s web was easily the safest place he knew.

Before I leave, I will definitely spend those points, Adon thought. But right now, I just need to eat and dive right back into magic.

Adon walked over and began stuffing his face with fruit and vegetable chunks. This time, he appreciated the flavors as he had not yesterday, when he was so tired. Sweet bursts of juice from cucumber and apple chunks. The heartier flavors of potato peelings.

Yesterday, he had gorged himself mindlessly. Today, he feasted with gusto—until he slipped into a feeding trance.

Munch munch. Chomp chomp. Gobble gobble. Gulp.

Before Adon knew it, almost all of the caterpillar food was gone.

When he came to, Goldie was looking at him and shaking slightly. Like she was laughing.

Adon activated Telepathy. Good morning, he sent. Thanks for breakfast!

My pleasure, Goldie replied. You know we will need to go and get the rest if you want to eat more of Princess’s gift?

Yes, I do, Adon transmitted. Was something funny?

Most of the time, I forget you are caterpillar, Goldie thought. Except when you eat.

I guess you don’t eat like this, he sent back sheepishly.

I could not if I wanted to, Goldie thought instantly. I would die! I think. Never seen a spider try it. For caterpillar, normal and healthy. Growing big and strong. Larger than me almost now!

That made Adon feel a bit better. “Normal and healthy.” “Big and strong.” Encouraging words. The spider seemed to understand by this point that his weight was a sensitive subject for Adon.

He and Goldie chatted a bit more about how the web was doing. They agreed that he might be strong enough to go out and gather more of the food tomorrow, and Goldie encouraged him to spend the day working on magic.

By the time the sun was truly up, Adon was resuming where he had left off the previous evening. There was a little process of working his way up to the height of his earlier level of Mana activity. This was not something he wanted to take slowly.

By the time Adon took his next walk through the garden, he wanted to have magic—real magic, not just Telepathy or some limited ability to enhance his body—as his ally. Then the other insects, the lizards, and perhaps even birds would have to fear him.

He started to mix the juggling of sparks all over his body with enhancement of specific areas. First his already powerful mandibles. Then his chest, where he’d taken the worst of his bites. Then the legs. He felt all of a sudden as if he could leap into the air. Tackle a bird out of the sky.

There were setbacks. As he enhanced one body part after another, he lost a few of the sparks he was juggling. But he kept going. Pulled more power from his core and tried again.

As he persisted, there were fewer and fewer mistakes. Fewer lost bits of energy. His Mana became more responsive, more intuitive, more instantaneously obedient to his Will.

And Adon felt some wall inside himself begin to crumble. A feeling of power surged through him.