While my girls acted like horses with our cart, I walked beside them and regaled them with tales of the old world we came from, but from the perspective of humanity. I had awareness in my first life that some technologies really altered the world's path, forcing it to develop a certain way. Some video games used this truth as a large part of their own storylines.

However, being a Prehistoric person, Dark Age person, Modern person, and Future person, I knew that you had to be even more careful. I'd love to make it so we could get from point A to point B, like our nest to the hermit spider nest, or our nest to the coast or jumi keep, within a few minutes or hours at the absolute most.

I didn't know how to build such machines from raw materials though. I don't think anyone did. Magic was in this world and could replace science-based engines and intricate gear systems, but if I did invent such things, it would be used by enemies. I'd love to build some turrets to protect the nest from invaders, but someone might get inspired, if nothing else, and stories based on the retelling of what they saw would not end well for us, or anyone else.

We didn't really have a choice if we wanted to be smart. I knew of much better techs, but we had to stay primitive. Luckily, my pet spiders reborn as daughters had always trusted me, and that important fact came with them into this new world, and our new forms.

...

Once we got to the stupid forest that was annoyingly far away, nothing looked different. The logging town was still abandoned, no new damage from what I remember, no new cobwebs... actually were there any the first time? No, only farther in. Right? I can't remember.

We left the cart in town near the central well, and wandered in amongst the trees. "Keep an eye out for acorns or pine cones or something else that might be a seed. Do you know what seeds look like?" I had collected a bunch before, but I don't remember if I showed them off and explained what they were.

"Small pieces of plant that are not the plant's color?" Aneis asked. Djraine didn't say anything, but seemed curious if her sister was right.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Some seeds are like that. Some seeds are very big, like coconuts. Some seeds are the same color as the plant, like acorns and pinecones will be. It is a piece of plant, but it is not a broken piece of something bigger, and it does not have the same shape as any main part of the plant it comes from. Also, they're usually a sphere, oval, or cabochon."

"What shapes are those?" Djraine asked me. Aneis was paying attention too.

"I'll just find some and show them to you. But keep your eyes open, and look for funny shapes on plants and point them out to me, and also look at the ground. Seeds naturally fall off of plants and plant themselves from there."

Aneis asked something next. "Like your eggs, parent?"

Aneis had laid eggs in her first life, but I took her away from the eggsac pretty much right away, since I'd have had to kill her otherwise. I wasn't about to keep the eggs too and have a million baby black widows all over my apartment, so I only bothered saving her. I guess because of that though, she didn't have a full grasp of how eggs worked. Then again, if I wasn't a janitor and told by my boss to kill the spider behind the dumpster, I never would have met her to begin with. There would still have been a janitor, or the boss himself. I doubt anyone but me would have rescued a black widow spider to keep as a pet in their house on purpose.

"I'll explain it all much better later. For now, let's mostly look for hermit spiders so we can kill them as fast and safely as possible, and if we happen to also find seeds, then we'll take those with us too."

...

We stayed together, in a triangular pattern if someone were to look at us from a helicopter viewpoint. The hermit spiders we saw were quite small, and all wore seashells which looked to be at least partially damaged. We could collect the shells later, but they really didn't seem like they were worth keeping, for the most part. Killing the creatures was effortless since they were only the size of a hand or housecat.

It was odd... the jumi came complaining, so shouldn't there be some bigger ones capable of killing a human? It wasn't like we all didn't know exactly where the cave nest was, so we just headed that way. No reason to waste any more time, right?

Once we got to it, the webs that I had burned with magic the first time were fully replaced as if nothing had been damaged to begin with, and might be even more inhabited.

"Okay ladies. There are definitely enemies to eat in there, so-"

I didn't have to continue, since Djraine had her weapon ready, which this time was an envenomed tetsubo. Aneis had two daggers made out of chipped stone of some kind, one in each hand, with the "blade" aimed down from her cute pale fists.

I picked up a good-sized rock and threw it towards the nest. Time didn't stop, but it went from normal 150 frames per second to about 15. A translucent blue gump appeared in front of my eyes.

[1475 Kelvins] [Red-Orange] [Ignite]

Wasn't it summarized as Ks before? Whatever. I tried just looking at the "accept" button at the bottom right and blinking. Luckily that worked. The rock caught on fire, and went flying into the cave. Very nice change, since I didn't even bring the lantern with me this time! Apparently the skill's description didn't lie.