"Ugh," Rose woke up, slowly and painfully. She tried to clutch her head but her arms were trapped. The was a brief moment of confusion before reality coalesced around her. She wasn't in her own bed. Instead her body was pressed between the two dark elven girls she had spent the evening with.
Am I in heaven? She briefly wondered.
Velatha had hooked one of her legs between Rose's and was using the shorter girl like a pillow. Behind her, she could also feel one of Liscura's arms wrapped around her midsection. Something furry was also pressed against her legs.
She was well and truly stuck. She didn't mind her predicament too much, however. It was much more comfortable than her bed.
It took a few minutes until Velatha woke up. After a long yawn, she looked down at Rose and smiled.
"Slept well?" She asked.
"Yes but I could do without the hangover," she mumbled.
She heard a chuckle from behind and felt the entire bed shift. "It is part of the experience," Liscura said. "What is a good party without the consequences?"
"I bet you can't even feel anything with your monstrous poison resistance," Velatha laughed. "Alchemists I swear …" She rolled away from Rose with a sigh.
"Are you expected at work?" Liscura asked.
"It's my free day," she clarified. She tried to find the edge of the massive bed but all she could see was an island of cushions surrounded by thousands of shimmering threads. Rose was at the center of a massive spider's web. "Wait … you sleep in a giant … web?"
"Yes, I am mostly spider by volume after all."
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We shared an improvised breakfast with Rose before getting out of bed. Vel still had some bread and jams stored in her necklace. With her hangover cured, Rose was much livelier as well. Since it was her free day, she offered to show us around town and the morning passed by strangely quickly. Rose knew her way around the town like the back of her hand.
Around mid-day we found our way to the place in front of the guild. After lunch, Vasati found us, or more precisely Rose, and promptly kidnapped her.
"There you are," the sun elf said with a big grin on her face.
"Vasati!" Rose almost jumped out of her seat.
"So, how was the evening? Enjoyed yourselves?"
"The performances were very enjoyable," I said. "The company as well."
"And how was the spider-back ride Rose?"
"Wha- Wha? I don't …" Rose stammered and turned almost as red as her hair.
"You looked pretty out of it," Vel said, "You probably don't remember."
"I made sure she wasn't in any danger," I added.
"Heh, you healers are always so dutiful," Vasati smiled. "I'll take her off your hands now, if you don't mind that is."
"She's all yours," I said with a teasing smile.
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Vel and I went back to the warehouse. As enjoyable as the change of pace had been, we were still on a schedule and it was time for me to molt again. The day before Rose's invitation, Vel and I had discussed which of the evolutions I should pick. The Divine-aligned option was the most obvious choice. Psychic magic, as useful as it was, didn't compare to an improvement to my ability to put up defenses and heal allies.
But Vel had asked another important question: Was there a way to pick both? I hadn't thought it was possible, it went against the common sense rules of the system, but my status screen was proof that the rules weren't as inflexible as I thought I knew. After all, two primary classes weren't usually possible.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
And so I searched through the perk list for something and found one.
Keystone Evolution (Cost: 64 ES 48 ES)
Requires: Rare Monster Class
Two evolutions can be selected at ranks 5, 10, and 15 of a monster body skill.
Warning: Keystone evolutions are more strenuous on the body.
The last line of the description had given me a pause. While I had more or less mastered the art of molting, it was far from a pleasant process. This promised to make it even more so.
"Hopefully, it's not too bad …" I sighed.
Purchased Keystone Evolution for 24 ES
Raised Skill Arachne Body to rank 4, level 80 for 20 ES (+80 levels)
"So you picked it?" Vel asked, uncertainty plain on her face. "Are you sure about it?"
"Yes. I have a feeling it will be worth it."
"Let's get it over with then," she took a deep breath. "We managed your first molt and we had no idea what we were doing, it can't be worse than that."
"Starting now," I said as I picked the two evolutions and confirmed my choice with the system.
As usual, the itch started but it built up much faster than before. After only ten minutes, I had laid down my head in Vel's lap to get some reprieve from the unbearable sensation. Even with everything distributed between all my mental partitions, it was still so strong.
It continued for thirty more minutes. Vel held me close the whole time, running her hand through my hair and whispering reassuring words. I kept myself distracted by examining the changes the evolution brought with my healing spells. The gem on my back changed shape again, the amethyst displaced the two existing gems to form three equally sized parts. Unexpectedly, the citrine grew in the middle rather than shaping them into creating quarters. The largest source of the itch seemed to be the multitude of improvements applied to my new carapace. With two evolutions at once, the changes needed some additional work to mesh together well.
When the new exoskeleton finished forming, I breathed a sigh of relief as the itch dropped back to normal levels. With a flick of my hand, a void scalpel split open the useless outer shell and I felt the pressure lessen.
"It's … much … better … now," I said between breaths. "The worst … part is … over."
"I'll take care of unwrapping you," Vel gave me a gentle kiss. "Just don't doze off, alright?"
"I can … okay," I said as she lowered my head onto a pillow. I summoned a few catalysts and they started to spray a light mist in the air to prevent the two layers of exoskeleton from fusing accidentally.
Vel, also an expert in spider molts, went to work. I watched her through my sphere as she precisely cut into my old exoskeleton with a void scalpel. Her technique was much more elegant than mine. Where I would have simply pushed large parts away with Psychokinesis, she cut smaller panels off one by one. She made short order of my abdomen and quickly moved onto my legs. There, she used the same technique as last time and cut them open vertically. Then, a simple flex of my legs was enough to help things along. To free up my thorax, she separated the top part first then I rolled on my back and she expertly disassembled the bottom. Finally, I handled the small remaining part around my pedipalps by myself.
"Thank Gaia it's only every five ranks," I said.
I was too tired to drag myself into the web so I just rolled back into place. Vel went to sit next to me but I pulled her into a tight hug. "I don't know what I'd do without you." She nestled into the crook of my neck and we drifted off to sleep together.
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After a few hours of sleep, I felt much better. I was still covered in sweat, however. Usually, I would have used some water magic to clean it off but I wanted something a bit more relaxing. We have already visited the bath once when we got back from our last mission and the owners had been very accommodating of my issues.
So we went back. On the way there, I noticed that my black fur had taken on a slight rainbow sheen when looked at from the right angle. I hadn't paid all that much attention after my previous molts but it was likely the various evolutions had influenced it since the main colors were green, blue, purple, and orange.
Once at the bath house, we paid our entry fee and the owner led me through the service area into the pool. With some help from Vel, I cleaned my newly formed exoskeleton. It was still slightly soft from the molt so we avoided using too much soap, mostly out of an abundance of caution.
We stepped into the steaming water pool where I let my behind float along the slow currents. I allowed myself to relay, I was finally ready to evolve all of my classes and we had more than a week left before the caravan left. Things had gone, mostly, according to plan and in ten days, we'd leave home behind.
One more step towards saving everyone.