Everything was black, then Jon felt a sensation like floating. "Am I…. Still alive? What's going on? Where am I?" He thought to himself in the blackness. Jon tried to move but it was difficult. He couldn't even seem to open his eyes much and even when he could he couldn't really see anything. Was it dark where he was? It didn't feel cold, nor did it really feel that warm. Every so often Jon would hear something, a knocking or clicking or tapping sort of sound.

Movement got a bit easier with time and effort. "Fingers… I can feel my hands. Am I… in some sort of liquid? It feels like I'm sloshing in a fluid. What exactly is going on? Last thing I remember is getting bit by a spider and everything going dark and cold." Jon reached till he felt some sort of object. Something soft and somewhat malleable, surrounding him on all sides. "What the hell?! I gotta get out of here."

Jon picked a spot and pushed till he broke free. He felt his body land on the floor but he still could not see. Opening his eyes was still difficult to manage and everything was fuzzy. Jon coughed out some slimy crap and was breathing now, but doing so was also difficult. Jon focused on breathing till it wasn't so difficult anymore. "Man, I'm sooooo hungry. I'd kill for a steak right about now."

Something is slid in front of Jon and he hears a pattern of clicking and clacking. "Not sure why but it feels like I'm being offered food." He thinks to himself as he drags his way to the blur and bites into it. Liquid pours into his mouth and he drinks it quickly. "My taste buds must not be working because I can't taste anything. Even water has more flavor than this."

Jon gets his fill of liquid and pulls away from his meal. He tries to rub his eyes clean so he can see better but "Wait… My face feels kinda strange." Jon blinks. "Wait, how many eyes do I have? On that note how many hands? I lifted my right hand but I still feel one on the ground. One second… one, two, three, I have four hands? Eight eyes…" Jon clears his eyes and just a bit in front of him is a spider, the size of a damn horse. It looks like a super sized version of the same kind of spider as Achilles. "Sweet Jesus!" He nearly jumps back.

Jon then sees a puddle to the side and crawls his way to it to see his reflection. There's just enough light to do so. "I look like some sort of spider human hybrid! To top that off I'm a chubby little toddler! The armor like chitin looks like theirs. Wait… I should have another set of limbs" Jon sat himself up and felt around his body. He had a set of small spider-like limbs on his body. Down on his waist by his hips. Nice and pointed.

"Okay… okay… so I'm dreaming right? No, it feels too real. I… I died? That spider bite killed me and now I'm some strange armored spider person. That… that's the best explanation I've got right now. Great, minus my memory I'm starting from scratch basically. Better than going to hell I guess. I'll have to work these tiny toddler limbs till they are strong enough to walk on, until then I'm stuck crawling around and getting whatever food mamma spider brings us. Wait… what was I drinking from just now?"

Jon looked over to the drained corpse of a deer. There was more than one, and even other animals. The animals were all being drained of blood by the brood of black armored spiders. "I've got a lot of siblings this time around. I see some are older but none at the same age as the mom. They must leave the nest once they are big and strong enough to. I've got a couple dozen siblings just here alone. Learning all those names is going to be a pain. The patterns of clicks and clacks feels like a language, meaning I'll have to learn to speak spider. What a pain in the ass. Least I'm not suck at that desk job I guess."

Jon started to feel tired, he only just got up and he already felt ready to pass out. Jon layed down, and let himself fall asleep. When he woke, he woke up with a start. "Ahhh! Wait… what… where am I? Last thing I remember I got bit by a spider and… wait… I remember crawling out an egg." Jon sat up and looked into the puddle again. "Right, I'm some sort of monster now." Jon starts to roll around and try to work his arms and legs. "Gotta get mobile as soon as possible. Learn to speak properly."

Jon got hungry again quickly and moved to a captured animal to feed. "It tastes awful but it has to be done to keep living." Unfortunately it didn't take much longer working his limbs to get tired again. "Toddlers take lots of naps, I'll have to live with my physical limitations for now. Slowly working past them." He slowly doses off again, once more waking up with a start.

"What the, where… right. I died and hatched as a monster. I can't seem to maintain my memories in this new life outside the hatching very well. Toddlers don't start keeping long term memories till they reach a set age. I'm going to forget everything about this new life outside of hatching and my mission to get into moving shape every time I take a nap. This means I'll be unable to properly keep time for my first couple years. Luckily my memories of my past life are still mostly intact. Some of my early memories that were mostly vague anyway seem to have faded completely. I've got nothing from before I was five available."

Jon settled into a new pattern. Wake, work out limbs and roll around, eat, stretch out more, nap, repeat. Every time having to remind himself of what is going on. Every time again having to come to terms with his new life. Slowly Jon started to learn the spider language, and started to stand upright and walk. Wobbly at first but with time he was walking around properly like a two year old. However by his best estimate he was only a year old from hatching.

Already having lived once gave him a head start on moving, but talking was still difficult. Jon could only speak just over a half dozen words or so in spider talk and with some effort could make human sounds of English words but it hurt to do so. He noticed that no one seemed to have a name. "Mother, brother, sister, daughter, son." Everyone was only known by their relationship to others. If anyone has a name it isn't being used. Eventually Jon would ask about that, but for now he had to keep working. In addition to those words of relation, Jon knew "food" and "sleep".

Jon kept up his routine. Eating, moving, sleeping, learning. Although it would take years, eventually he'd be able to be independent. But for now he was stuck as a toddler, a hatchling, dependent on his new spider mother for food. But he was walking now, he could do something more strenuous to help increase his strength quicker. He was napping less often and could get more done. However, meals increased to twice between naps.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"I've learned quite a bit of spider talk now, but I'm still unable to remember anything from my new life outside hatching and my mission to become independent. Bits of my old life are slipping away, but nothing important from what I can tell. I'm going to waddle to one of my brood siblings who share my hatch day. Wrestle a bit, this type of play will increase my strength of body and strength of familial bond."

Jon waddles over to one of his brood siblings and play tackles them to wrestle. Rolling around and play fighting with them. Jon actually enjoyed it, in his last life he didn't really have anybsiblings. At least not any he got along with. This would be part of his new rotation now. One of his exercises he did to get his body ready as soon as possible. "Forget the small stuff, the crap that won't help. Focus on the task at hand and hold on only to the important memories. Most of my old life was mundane anyway. I'm not sure what this new life and new world has in-store for me, but I'm excited to find out."

Jon woke up with a start once again after a nap. "Where…. Right… right. This is getting tiresome. I know I'm making progress, but I can't remember the exact process. I know I've been exercising, wrestling with siblings. Only because I've been doing it over and over. Even with trying to speedrun life my size is an issue. I'll have to wait till I've grown big and strong enough to hunt on my own before I exit the cave area. I'll have to increase my workout regimen and feeding. Even with that there are some limits I can't simply brute force. These things take time. Why don't we have names I wonder? Is it because there are too many of us? Or maybe names are earned. I'll have to ask."

"How long have I been at this now? One year, maybe two? My grasp of the spider language is now enough to have an actual conversation. At least to an extent." Jon gets up after a feeding and walks over to the mother spider and taps at her. "Yes?" The mother asks. Jon then responds with "I've never heard anyone use names. It's always sister, brother, daughter, son, mother. Do none of us have names?"

The mother thinks for a bit. "Names are something for those that are special, unique. Unlike those that tend to hunt us we do not need names to tell one another apart. So most of the time when one of us is named it's because another creature gives us one. For example, although we are spiders, to be exact we are "Black Iron Spiders". This is a name others use to identify us and how we are different from other types of spider. I have a name, given to me by a hunter. Alitha Aradae. "

Jon nodded as he listened to his spider mom, but something clicked in the back of his mind. "Black Iron Spider… that was the name of one of the monster types in Creatures and Catacombs. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Could it be a coincidence, or maybe I'm not the first to come here and a fan of the game named these spiders after the ones in the books."

The mother spider continues "You are unique among my children, none of my brood has been like you. Your appearance looks blended with that of the hunters, it reminds me of our progenitor goddess, Arachne. Perhaps I should name you, in her honor." She then uses some sort of spell to be able to change the language she is speaking to what sounds like English. "Hatchling. In the common language of the hunters I name thee, Racknar Aradae!" With the words spoken Jon felt an energy envelope him and enter his very soul as if the name was etched into his very being. No more was he Jon Doe, no more was he nameless. He was, Racknar Aradae.

When Racknar woke from his latest nap, he was surprised to find a new memory had remained solid. The memory of being named was concrete in his mind. Although he could sense a gap from then on. How many days had passed since then, not even he knew. How old was he now in his new life? He only knew he had yet to reach past his third year to overcome his memory issues. Even when the issue was solved Racknar couldn't exactly leave the nest any time soon. It would be years before he was ready to try to leave or hunt on his own.

With time and effort Racknar kept trying to improve his body, shedding his chitin in a molt process before eating it. It sounds gross to think about but the material contains vital nutrients and his siblings do the same as well. He could now retain memories more solidly and estimated he was about three or so years old now. Aware that he was missing chunks of his old life and those memories, Racknar was confident he didn't lose anything important. After all, if it mattered he would have fought harder to keep them. His grasp on the spider language kept expanding and he felt fluent in his new language. Racknar had also practiced speaking English with his new body but it hurt his throat to do so and some sounds were difficult to make with his new body. With time and effort that too could be overcome. Till then it was a simple rotation.

Racknar was now eating three full meals a day and only sleeping once a day, so keeping track of time was now easier. Although spiders didn't celibate the anniversary of hatching, Racknar kept track of his the best he could. From what he could tell, he hatched in the early spring. Hatching happened the same time of the year with every new brood, and one had been hatched since his own. If one were to use the same kind of calendar as his first life, Racknar's hatching day would be in either April or May. Based on various information gathered his best guess was May the seventh. The date was now September the nineteenth of the third year of his new life. Nineteen dash zero nine dash zero three. "I never did like the American habit of putting the month first."

Fourteen dash twelve dash zero three, Racknar does his best to maintain track of time in his own way while working his body and mind. Working together with siblings that were from the brood before him Racknar now takes part in group hunts a bit ahead of the rest of his brood siblings. From what he can tell, Racknar is about two years ahead of where he would be without a head start. These hunts would be added to his workouts. Having thumbs and human knowledge to his advantage Racknar starts to build and use simple tools. Improvising sticks, stones, and webs he produces from web sacks in his arms to make weapons and other useful things that are put to use to aid him and his spider kin. He had already gained a reputation among his siblings now. He was Racknar Aradae, Hunter-Arachnid, smartest of the Aradae broods.

Zero six dash zero one dash zero four, using memories of martial arts and weapon combat Racknar practices with weapons and proper hand to hand tactics. Though with only siblings to test it on he can never be sure how good he's getting. Having two extra arms and a set of staby spider limbs does give Racknar some advantages over others. These new exercises are added to the rotation of hunting for exercise. Racknar also funds a large enough pond near the nest to swim in for exercise. Having already learned how in his last life and having already worked his body to be ready the process of learning to swim again was fast and easy. It was nice to not have to struggle for something for once.

Twelve dash zero seven dash zero four, Racknar molts again not long after his fourth hatching anniversary and works to build himself further. Eight dash ten dash zero four, the last hunt was most successful, the use of traps built by Racknar near the nest captured an entire family of deer. Twenty dash zero three dash zero five, and Racknar starts finding it hard to track the time without making a written mark someplace thanks to how monotonous the cycle of hunting and practice has gotten. It was time to find something new to mix it up with. Nine dash zero eight dash zero five, climbing and web practice is going well for Racknar, but now he struggles to fit everything into the day. Thanks to the ease of getting food with web traps however, hunting is now more of an every third day sort of thing since the group eats what the group catches and others get their own food.

Zero seven zero five zero five, Racknar's fifth hatching anniversary, he molts again and is bigger than ever. Now matching the size expected from a human five year old. His siblings however are closer to the size of small horses. Eventually they would rival rhinos or elephants in size and be ready to hunt solo and leave the nest. For now some of his brood siblings from his hatch cycle have joined his hunting party. This includes Racknar's favorite sparring partner and closest sister who Racknar has taken to calling "Hops" due to her ability to jump surpassing her siblings. Maybe it was because he favored her and this helped her build her legs up more then the rest and gave her an edge over the others. "Alright Hops, I'll take point. You follow my lead. A small team of five and we can get food enough for half the new broods nest." Racknar states. Hops nods and says "I'll follow your lead Racknar. Any of us would. We consider you second to mother Alitha Aradae despite your young age." The two hunt together successfully.

Once some deer are captured and brought back to the nest in web cocoons, Racknar's siblings start to liquify their catches to drink. Racknar however doesn't like the taste of the liquid so he instead starts to rip his catch limb from limb and skinning it before starting to crunch the poor creature bones and all. The loud crunching sound doesn't even bother his siblings as Racknar tossed the parts he'd rather not eat into a pile he planned to discard later. Though the raw meat and bone wasn't exactly the best tasting thing it was better than the liquid remains. The pre-digested slush tasted like vomit to the humanoid spiderling.