"Welcome back," the guild attendant said, the same red haired woman as last time. "And congratulations on reaching rank six," she winked at me with a smile. Was she flirting with me?
"Eh, thanks," I answered. "We've completed both missions," I handed her the papers.
"Perfect," she grinned. "Here is your reward for the extermination mission," she placed several silver Dini on the counter. "And here's the receipt for the bulbs, same place as last time."
"Thank you," I stored the money and went to the back and dropped off our stock of Sundew Bulbs.
It was the same as the last time. The attendant there examined the bulbs and confirmed that everything was in order. He signed the receipt and joined back up with Vel in the common area. She had already acquired the sign-up sheets for the caravan escort and filled them up. I took a quick look to check everything was in order, we were both participating as backline support since our ability to heal was much more important than combat. I handed the signed receipt to Vel and she lined up in the queue.
I took a seat at an out of the way table while I waited for her. As usual, the guild hall was busy. Several groups of adventurers were the various job boards, talking quietly among themselves, likely debating on which jobs to choose. Other parties were seated at the tables scattered around the place, talking animatedly, enjoying food and drinks.
A few waitresses walked around the tables, ferrying refreshments and dishes around. The guild didn't manage the three small restaurants inside the hall. Instead, it seems they were rented out for a short while, likely to the food vendors that sold their wares outside, as the food seemed to change every time Vel and I visited. The service crew didn't, however.
"Can I get you something?" One of the waitresses asked. She was a sun elf with honey colored hair and dark brown eyes.
"Three of the chef's special and two small tankards of honey plum wine, please," I requested.
"Coming right up," she said enthusiastically.
Vel and I hadn't yet eaten in the guild hall, too many sights to see outside, but the menu of that day looked particularly interesting. While I waited, I spent the essence required to unlock the next tier of evolution for Arachne Body and reviewed what was at my disposal.
Raised Skill Arachne Body to rank 3, level 60 for 15 ES (+60 levels)
Current Evolutions
Arachne Hatchling (Selected at Rank 1)
Bonuses: 20% increased skill experience gain for all Arachne class skills
Quartz Arachne (Selected at Rank 2)
Mana Core (5000 MP, 200% MP/h), Magic Gland (+5% Conversion Efficiency)
Emerald Arachne (Selected at Rank 3)
Mana Core (7500 MP, 300% MP/h), Magic Gland (+10% Conversion Efficiency), Elemental Emerald (+10% Nature Spell Power)
Available Evolutions for Rank 4
Amethyst Arachne
The Amethyst Arachne is a specialist of Psychic Magic. In addition to improvements to their existing organs, they gain a Mind Amethyst on their exoskeleton which improves the potency of their psychic spells. Their exoskeleton is more resistant to magical attacks and gains an increased innate resistance to illusions and mind altering spells.
Bonuses:
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Mana Core (10000 MP, 400% MP/h), Magic Gland (+15% Conversion Efficiency), Mind Amethyst (+10% Psychic Spell Power)
Sapphire Arachne
The Sapphire Arachne is a specialist of Arcane Magic. In addition to improvements to their existing organs, they gain a Mana Sapphire on their exoskeleton which improves the potency of their arcane spells. Their exoskeleton is more resistant to magical attacks and can absorb part of their mana.
Bonuses:
Mana Core (10000 MP, 400% MP/h), Magic Gland (+15% Conversion Efficiency), Mana Sapphire (+10% Arcane Spell Power)
Citrine Arachne
The Citrine Arachne is a specialist of Divine Magic. In addition to improvements to their existing organs, they gain a Divine Citrine on their exoskeleton which improves the potency of their divine spells. Their exoskeleton is more resistant to magical attacks and gains minor bonuses from their chosen domains.
Bonuses:
Mana Core (10000 MP, 400% MP/h), Magic Gland (+15% Conversion Efficiency), Divine Citrine (+10% Divine Spell Power)
Copper Arachne
The Copper Arachne is a specialist of martial combat, their exoskeleton is reinforced against attacks by a special layer underneath that softens blunt attacks and prevents piercing attacks from going through.
Bonuses:
Hardened Carapace (+10% HP), Reactive Mesh (-20% Physical Damage),
Healing Gland (+20% HP/h), Adrenal Gland (+10% SP, +10% SP/h)
There were three options for the two remaining ranks. There was likely nothing preventing me from continuing to pick the last of the crystal evolutions once the skill reached rank six but there would likely be more interesting choices unlocked by the class evolution. The real question was on which of the magic types I wanted to focus.
Arcane magic was an integral part of my arsenal so the Sapphire evolution was almost mandatory. The real choice was between Amethyst and Citrine. The first would complete the set from the Mystic Witch class in case there were any synergies down the line. The second was an improvement to my ability to heal and support which, I had a feeling, would be needed while escorting the caravan.
While I was musing on the question, Vel came back.
"All done," Vel pushed a stool closer to me and leaned into me as she sat down. "We are part of the caravan escort which leaves in two weeks."
"Looks like we have plenty of time then," I hugged her. "I've ordered us some food, it looked appetizing."
"Oh, what is it?" She asked, curious.
"You'll see," I just said, keeping the mystery.
A few minutes later, the sun elf came back with our order. She was balancing two trays in her arms with surprising grace.
"Here we go ladies, three chef's special and two honey plum wines," she placed everything on the table in front of us. "That'll be twenty copper for everything."
"Thanks for everything," I pulled two of the twelve-sided copper from my necklace and dropped them on the tray.
"Enjoy your meal," the waitress gave us a jaunty wave.
Vel looked at the chef's special with interest. It was something close to a curry rice from back on earth, the circular bowl had a triangle of rice surrounded by three different curries. One had small diced vegetables, the second had red meat, and the third had shrimps.
"Woah," Vel said in a low voice as the first spoonful hit her mouth. "It's spicy but also very flavorful."
"Yeah," I confirmed as I took my own bite. "Totally worth the copper," I said smugly.
----------------------------------------
After an excellent meal at the guild hall, Vel and I made our way back to the place the guild had reserved for us. The building looked untouched from the outside and my sphere couldn't detect anything suspicious inside either, no spells or out of place objects. Maybe I was a bit paranoid. The rogues we had met had looked shady at first glance but it seemed that they kept to the guild's honor code since the whole ambush had seemed more of an elaborate hazing done in good faith rather than a genuine attempt at theft.
Still, to satisfy my paranoia, I spent an hour setting up the strongest wards I could muster while I spun my web and prepared the floor for molting. Once the thick carpet of web was in place, I got ready to start the process. I would go with the obvious choice of the Sapphire evolution first.
"Ready?" I asked Vel.
"Yes," she nodded.
I selected the evolution. The process started the same way it had the other two times, with an itching sensation under my carapace. I knew that it was during that phase that the new exoskeleton formed underneath the existing one. I monitored the process with a diagnostic spell. Last molt, it had taken around twenty minutes, this time it looked like it would increase to at least thirty. The improvements to existing organs like the Mana Core and Magic gland looked to be particularly intensive.
The addition of the new Mana Sapphire was interesting. It grew next to the existing Emerald then the two gems changed and formed two halves of a circle. I assumed that the more I added the larger that particular cluster of organs would grow.
After roughly half an hour of itching, my new carapace was fully formed and ready to see the light of day. I helped it a long a bit by slicing open my old abdomen to relieve the pressure. With some help from Vel, we managed to safely split my old carapace in two halves up to where my elven body joined up.
Unlike last time, where we dealt with each segment of each leg individually, Vel sliced along the length with a void scalpel, leaving a thin layer of carapace in place to avoid hurting me, then I split the entire thing open at once with a flex of my muscles. It was much quicker and efficient that way.
After two hours, I was free but tired.
"Let's go take a nap," I said as I picked Vel up in a bridal carry. "I need some rest." I carried us both into the web covered in pillows and settled down into the comfortable nest.