Nope.

Nope, nope, nope, nope.

It was horrible, perhaps the most horrible thing I’d ever tasted.

Yuck.

At least it gave me decent experience.

I released the large creature and skittered along the wall, back to the nest. I’d made decent progress yesterday and wanted to continue where I left off. At this rate, I felt like I could take on most smaller creatures that I knew of soon enough.

That would at least give me better chances of survival and, probably, forego survival.

This part of the cave seemed to be no issue for me right now. I had not seen anything that could be more dangerous than the big spider, and I’d already taken that out. I knew that deeper inside the cave there was a snake. I didn’t know whether it moved around, but it appeared it hasn’t been in this area yet.

I haven’t seen it around here, at least.

And I could see pretty damn well, now.

I reached the spider nest and saw that several more eggs had hatched. The newly-born spiders were actually eating the corpses that I’d left behind.

I had unintentionally left bait.

This was just perfect.

It also caused them to be distracted, meaning my goals were even easier to attain.

I started taking out spiders one by one. As it stood, I could easily tear open their frail bodies with my strengthened limbs. I severed heads and impaled abdomens and saw my experience slowly, but steadily rise.

I kept going until I had almost run out of spiders to kill.

Then, something strange happened.

When I jumped and killed one of the last few spiders that were around, I had an extra message pop up.

You have killed a Tiny Black Cave Spider: EXP+7

Achievement Earned: Kin Killer.

Killed 100 of your own species.

You have been awarded 2 EP

I barely read it as I was on the lookout for nearby spiders, but from what I understood, it seemed I earned it because I killed spiders in particular?

That just made me look like a maniac.

I was pretty sure I wasn’t that. I was doing this to survive, to get stronger, in order to see my family that I’d lost many years ago…

I almost got lost in thoughts. I shook off the feelings of melancholy as I continued with the task at hand. I cleanly removed the last few spiders from this world before skittering back up the wall.

Come to think of it, I had actually forgotten to check that that other achievement was.

Elysa, could you explain? I mean, the part about that evolution.

Certain achievements are required for special evolutions that are offered in addition to your normal choices. These will be marked as ‘Special Evolution’

Special Evolution, huh? That could be interesting.

The problem was that I had no idea what the requirements for these achievements were before earning them…

I also didn’t know about my possible future evolutions.

Or did I?

Elysa, can I view the evolutions that will become available to me as soon as I hit the next level cap?

Negative. A certain achievement needs to be earned before this becomes available.

What the hell, Elysa? I thought you were supposed to help me here.

I started to get the feeling that even she was against me.

Though, I guess that without this blessing I was as good as dead, so I couldn’t exactly confirm that.

How was I doing anyway?

Name: Kealyna

Race: Small Brown Jumping Spider

Level: 9/10

Experience: 37/100

Evolution Points: 19

It seems these spiders had given me what I was after.

This new evolution had really paid off. Even with the slower gain of experience, this newfound power was more than enough to bridge the gap.

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However, I had run out of spiders.

I forcefully opened one of the eggs and quickly slayed the squirming creature within.

You have killed a Tiny Black Cave Spider: No experience was awarded

Seems I was right.

I sighed mentally. I would have to wait for them to hatch or go out hunting again.

Hunting it was.

An earth worm and a slug were the first things I found. It appeared those too, gave reduced experience. I reached the cave entrance without running into anything else. Then, something walked up towards the cave and I jumped to the other side of the entrance only to skitter to my hideout as quickly as I could.

I peeked outside and noticed the wolf sniff the air.

Why did that thing have to ruin my plans? I was not getting out of here with that massive creature running around.

I observed it go deeper into the cave and pee against one of the walls.

I waited patiently for it to wander off, but it seemed to have different ideas. It simply walked along the cave walls and kept sniffing. It was almost as if it had caught something’s scent. Eventually, it reached my hole. I was already as far away from the opening as I could and prayed it would leave.

I knew it wouldn’t reach me here.

I saw its snout appear in the opening before it disappeared.

I waited a bit before I peeked outside.

It would seem the monster had gone. I had no idea where it went.

To avoid being ambushed by a large grey wolf, I decided it was better to stay put for a while. Maybe I could explore this blessing a bit further.

Elysa, how exactly do my skills work with regards to evolutions. I noticed my webs have become weaker, will other evolutions have the same effect?

Negative. Skills will not scale down if they are enhanced through Evolution Points. All your current skills besides the threads have been enhanced this way. As such, you cannot lose effectiveness any further.

That was a relief. That meant that I would have to enhance my webs once they could be enhanced and they would never weaken again.

I thought back on my first possible evolutions. I remember the brown cave spider option saying something about regeneration, but I had not seen it available for enhancement.

Do specific evolutions allow for specific enhancements?

Correct. Certain evolutions offer enhancements that other evolutions do not. Choose carefully!

So… Let me see if I got this correct.

Which of my enhancements were specific to the evolution that I picked? Also, which options would I have had if I had picked the ‘Small Brown Cave Spider’ option?

Your current evolution-specific enhancements are:

Excellent Spider Vision

Leg and Pedipalp Strengthening

The evolution enhancements for ‘Small Brown Cave Spider’ were:

Exoskeleton Hardening

Very Weak Regeneration

Weak Regeneration*

*Requires Very Weak Regeneration in order to be enhanced.

I chose this jumping spider evolution mainly because of my eyesight. I had enhanced it further by spending Evolution Points on it. That meant I could never lose this eyesight again. Though, getting better eyes, and stronger legs meant I had gained everything there was for me to acquire with this evolution.

Can evolution-specific enhancements still be acquired after evolving out of that evolution?

Negative.

It was a good thing I checked. This was important information.

In that case, Elysa, could you make evolution-specific enhancements appear more… prominent?

Affirmative. Evolution-specific enhancements will now be shown in cursive.

Neat.

Also, could you show me what skills can be enhanced before I pick an evolution?

Negative.

Damnit.

I thought about all the information that my blessing had just given me and wondered what the best way to go about this would be. I guessed I would simply have to wait until my next evolution to see.

I waited for what felt like hours after that, hoping that the wolf wouldn’t still linger nearby. I crept out of my hiding spot and looked around.

Nothing was out of the ordinary. There was even a snail slowly making its way to the sunlight, which only strengthened my belief.

I quickly took it out and saw my experience rise at a reduced rate once again.

You have killed a Forest Snail: EXP+6

I was getting fairly close to my evolution which had me… excited.

It was messing with my brain. On the one hand, I needed strength to achieve the goal that I had set for myself. On the other hand, I would simply evolve into a different type of spider…

I looked into the cave and saw nothing crawling around. I imagined the wolf might have scared the creepy crawlers off, but I couldn’t be sure. For all I knew, I had completely decimated the local cave population.

I walked up to the cave entrance and looked into the lush forest. Without the darkness obscuring my vision, everything was so clear outside the cave.

My vision was even better than when I was an elf.

I couldn’t believe it.

I could make out details from extreme distances.

The forest called to me.

I decided to venture outside.