The adjustments took several hours to complete. Nieven took the lead on the project while his two apprentices took turns helping him and attending the front counter. Vel and I watched as the new armor was slowly modified to fit my new frame. The old armor was progressively scrapped and used to reinforce the new one around the arms.

Instead of a single hole through which I could push both arms through, they had instead created two with a piece of armor between them. With the spare leather, they added reinforcements around the neck and waist as well. The skirt was good protection but my lower body was less protected than before due to my inability to wear reinforced pants underneath. Malonne, who had adjusted the under-armor, fashioned an under-skirt out of silk reinforced fabric to improve protection there as well.

"This looks very good on you," Vel said with a big smile.

I moved all my arms to test their range of motion. The armor had no issues and the enchantments were as strong as ever from what I could see.

"It fits even better than the old one," I said with my own smile.

"Good job everyone," Nieven congratulated his two apprentices.

"Hell yeah," Malonne jumped in joy. "We're the best."

"Do I owe you anything?" I asked Nieven.

"Nothing," he waved me off. "I got plenty of inspiration from that armor of yours. And it looks like my apprentices did as well. Make good use of it!"

"Thank you and I will."

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After we left the leatherworker, I suggested to Vel we pay Saida a visit to get my elemental gems cut then retire to our little love nest for the rest of the day. Saida's workshop was on the opposite end of the village so we took our time to get there and on the way there, we stopped by a few workshops to see what they offered.

My weapons were in good working order but the smith and bowyer were happy to exchange some of our salvaged materials for more immediately useful supplies. I got a set of replacement strings for my bow and a small field maintenance kit. Since I could create arrows with my skills, I didn't bother stocking up on them. From the smith I traded a whetstone kit to maintain my glaive.

When we reached the runesmith, Saida was waiting for us at the front.

"Sorry," she cringed, "I don't have the space inside to accommodate you."

I waved her off. I had expected most buildings to be a challenge to enter from the outset. It had been a pleasant surprise that so many workshops had enough open floor space.

"We won't be long then." I summoned the three gems from my amulet. "I'd like to have those cut and enchanted to fit into my bracer."

"Hmmm," Saida examined them, "from a Gem Back Turtle?"

"Yes. I found one during my trial. We didn't have someone to cut them in Niu."

"Lucky find," she nodded. "I can take care of them today. Those gems are usually enchanted to give attribute bonuses, two each for this size. Air would be agility and endurance, then vitality and a defense bonus for Earth, and mana capacity and recovery with Water."

"Works for me. I recall you wanted to examine these?" I gestured with my gauntleted hand. "Do you mind doing a home delivery? And you can examine the items at the same time."

"I'm free for an hour or so after lunch tomorrow," she offered.

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I looked at Vel and she gave it a nod.

"Perfect for us," I said. "See you tomorrow."

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Before returning to the house, we took a small detour to the bath house. I expected it to be less crowded in the middle of the afternoon than later in the day when everyone finished their day. Asril wasn't built on top of a natural hot spring like Niu but a regular one. With the ubiquitous availability of enchantments, it wasn't much of a problem but it meant that guests had to donate some of their own mana to the facility to heat the water up.

Before that, I needed to be able to enter.

The large double doors at the entrance easily let me through and the receptionist welcomed Vel and I with a big smile. The problem was accessing the baths themselves. Usually, guests would need to go through the vestibule to change out of their clothes but the doors there were too narrow.

Instead, the man called for someone else, a young teenager, who led us through the service entrance. This one was wide enough to accommodate carts sometimes used for construction work or seasonal cleaning. I waved Vel a temporary goodbye as she entered the changing room.

"Can I ask a question?" the girl asked.

"Sure," I smiled.

"How is it to have …" She gestured at my spider half. "It must be super inconvenient but … I also think it looks awesome." She was blushing a bit by the end.

"It's certainly inconvenient but I'm getting used to it," I said. "It has some advantages, now that I've mastered walking with eight legs, I can handle any terrain and even run on walls. But I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The ritual that transformed me was … painful. More than anything I've ever felt. I'm glad I passed out at the beginning. It also used to kill two thirds of people who attempted it on a good day."

"Shit … sorry I asked."

"I don't mind," I ruffled her hair. "I've made my peace with it."

"And … uh … your girlfriend doesn't mind?"

"Oh no … she loves it," I laughed.

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The baths were, as I had hoped, mostly empty. I met back up with Vel near one of the lower pools. The air was thick with moisture and I was once again glad my fur was hydrophobic, otherwise I would have likely doubled in weight from all the water.

Vel had already started to clean herself.

"It's been a while …" I said wistfully.

"It has," Vel smiled. "Help me with my hair?"

I helpfully obliged. With my four hands, it was a piece of cake and Vel enjoyed the complimentary head massage as well.

"Now … onto you," she said.

I lowered myself down to the ground and Vel brought the bucket of toiletries closer. I started with my body while Vel took care of my hair. It felt even better than usual.

Once we were done with my upper half, I started to conjure water into several empty buckets that were laying about. Vel used a small knife to create flakes of soap that we could dissolve in the water. Then, used a sponge to scrub off my carapace. I did the same with the parts I could access, namely my lower back and the area near my pedipalps. I could also use a leg to hold a sponge and wash some area though they had trouble reaching the top of my abdomen and thorax.

Overall, it took three quarters of an hour to thoroughly wash every nook and cranny of my spider half.

"Well … that was some work," Vel puffed out.

"I think that a splash of water will be fine most of the time," I said.

"Let's go relax for a bit," she said.

We went to the nearby pool and I gently lowered myself down in the water, which was pleasantly warm, but my abdomen refused to sink lower than half-way through. It looked like I was too buoyant to be able to fully submerge myself. The opening on the underside of my body that normally led to my lungs had sealed itself and I wasn't the worse for wear. A quick diagnosis with a spell showed that my body could operate this way for several hours without any issues.

"So you float …" Vel said.

"Looks like it," I shrugged. "Not too much of a problem here, the water is shallow enough that it doesn’t make much of a difference."

I leaned against the edge of the pool and Vel scooted closer. I pulled her close for a hug with my pedipalps.

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We stayed an hour or so in the baths until the evening crowd started to show up.

Vel went back through the changing room and I sneaked out through the service entrance. I took some time there to dry myself up and summon my clothes back on.

I felt like the three days of relative normalcy had helped a lot with all the stress that we had built up. Every day that passed, I felt a little less high strung. It didn't mean I had forgotten about our families and friends, on the contrary, our resolve to save them was still there but it was tempered.

We arrived back at the central square in time for supper. The Windmire Wanderers arrived one by one and we had some light conversation about our respective days. Most of them had simply walked around the village or talked with people in the common areas.

The village didn’t really have a tavern where they could go have a drink or spend their earnings. Though Gwynn had been foolish enough to bet with one of the elders while playing Monarchs, the local equivalent of chess, and got trounced.

After the meal. Vel and I retired to our shared web.