I stood there for a moment staring at the blue square before me, not caring about the many ants that still climbed my body. I let it sink in that I was now one step closer to heading out to start my actual quest.

I then snapped back to the present and cast a gust of wind that blew all the ants off of my body. I left them and ran away from the heap, searching the surroundings for the footsteps and then checking what direction they went.

I considered following them again, but ultimately decided against it. I had other things that would take priority. If I got discovered, I might make things worse for myself and Cellestra.

Thus, I skittered back home as fast as I could, following the stream. This time I did remember to get something for Cellestra that she could have as dinner. Since it would be pointless for her to cook for me as I needed too much, I decided to hunt something fairly small. Rabbits were pretty common in this area, if you could spot them, and my eyes did just that.

I hunted several rabbits by hitting them with threads and keeping them in place. I finished them off with lightning arc as it didn’t damage their bodies. I then strapped them onto my abdomen with threads and continued. I managed to hunt four of them, and I reckoned that would be plenty for the coming days.

I then realized I’d probably be starving again after this next evolution. That made me decide to try to hunt something bigger which I could eat right after waking up. I kept following the stream until I knew I was getting close to Cellestra’s home, before I headed into the forest to see what I could find.

As I neared Cellestra’s house, I managed to spot a large boar. Upon seeing me, it initiated a charge almost instantly.

Seeing the beast charge me in wild rage gave me an idea.

I summoned an earthen wall that was erected in front of me right before the beast was about to hit me. Unable to change course, the beast impacted the wall at top speed. As it did, I felt a portion of my mana being ripped out of my body. It wasn’t too much, but it was noticeable, and it felt unnatural.

You have killed a Large Forest Boar: No experience was awarded.

Apparently, the impact had killed the creature, but at the moment, I was wondering what happened with my mana there. Elysa?

The Earthen Elemental Wall spell will block attacks of any magnitude. However, depending on the energy behind the attacks, the spell may draw additional mana to maintain the integrity of the wall.

Crap. That meant that I couldn’t use this spell recklessly. In my opinion, the earthen wall had seemed like the most powerful of all elemental walls, but this little downside was just now revealed to me.

I canceled the spell and the wall disappeared. I looked at the creature that had killed itself against it. Its head was covered in blood, I was positive it had broken its skull and more, but that wouldn’t matter. I didn’t intend to eat any of that.

I summoned some threads and fastened the creature to my rear and started dragging it back to Cellestra’s house. It wasn’t far out anymore. Within a minute or ten, I arrived back home.

I noticed that in the few hours I’d been gone, Cellestra had taken down the makeshift shelter. The panels had disappeared, but the logs were still there and rested against the wall, next to the window.

The door was closed. I dropped off the large boar in the middle of the clearing and brought the rabbits with me as I walked to the window and tapped on the glass. A tired-looking elf soon appeared in the doorframe.

My heart broke upon seeing her. She looked terrible. A yawn coming from the brunette only made it all the more clear that she’d had a terrible night. I feared it was the nightmares again.

Without even realizing what I did, I skittered up to her, placed my pedipalps on her shoulders, and cast healing light.

“Thank you, Kealyna...” Cellestra spoke softly. “But it’s a bit late for that now. I do appreciate the gesture, though.”

I realized what I was doing and quickly let go. I couldn’t help it. My body acted all on its own. To quickly change the subject, I pointed to the rabbits strapped to my abdomen with my front legs.

It took a moment for Cellestra to realize what was going on, likely due to her fatigue, but I did see a slight smile appear when she noticed the critters.

“You brought those for me?”

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I nodded with my pedipalps.

“Thank you so much,” She said, her voice happy, but still slow. I then saw her eyes move over to the boar in the center of the clearing. “And you got something for yourself as well, I see. Did you manage to get what you needed for your evolution?”

I nodded again. Thankfully, she was only asking simple yes or no questions. I had no way of saying anything else without the paper. At least my next evolution would be the last one where I’d have to make use of that. I couldn’t wait to finally get the speech skill.

It hadn’t even been that long since I was reincarnated as a spider and unable to speak, but it felt like it had been ages. To think I never was one to talk…

“One step closer to your goals then, I guess,” Cellestra said.

I nodded again.

Cellestra walked over to my abdomen and removed the rabbits, taking them in her hands.

“If you don’t mind...” She started. “I’ll go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I’m absolutely beat.”

I wanted to tell her that it was fine, that I didn’t mind, but at the moment, all I could do was move my front two limbs up and down.

“I’ll be looking forward to what you look like after,” She said with a slight smile. “I’ll see you in a few hours then.”

With that, she waved with one hand. I waved back and she went back inside.

I skittered a fair distance away from her door and laid myself down in the grass. I took one last look at my enhancement options and at my available evolution points. I appeared to have a whopping 972 points with which I couldn’t get much worthy of interest. I reckoned I could always take the last levels in healing light and magic resistance if my new evolution didn’t offer any new spells. There was no point in sitting on these points all the time when I could still get something that could be of some use.

I checked my evolution options after that, to make sure I’d select the option that would grant me that ability that could give me new enhancements, and more evolution points to go with it. It was called Iridescent Queen Kizerain. The name sounded somewhat nice. At least it was far better than the Tiny Brown Cave Spider that I had been at some point.

I sighed mentally as I recalled my first few days. I quickly confirmed my choice of evolution. I wasn’t interested in either of the others at all.

Pain soon shot through my body. It made my mind go blank before I passed out.

____________________________________________________________________________

Once again, there was grogginess and lethargy. This time, there was a terrible headache to go with it as well. This just kept getting better.

I tried moving my legs but failed. The best I could do was twitch something before I had to give up on trying to move them.

It seemed I’d be here for a bit.

My vision cleared up much slower than usual, but I did hear a familiar voice.

“Kealyna?”

Just hearing her voice made me give up on trying to move my limbs. If she was here, everything would be okay.

“Can you move?” She asked.

I didn’t even bother with trying to move. My body just wouldn’t respond.

“It’s okay. Don’t force yourself.”

Silence followed for a while. My eyes were still blurry, which started to frustrate me as it was taking ages before I could see anything.

“In case you want to know, yes you are bigger once more. I’d say you’re a solid fifteen feet right now, maybe a bit more. You’re completely white now, save for your eyes, of course, and you have a giant transparent pattern on your abdomen. It looks kind of like a snowflake when it is against a window. It’s quite pretty, I have to admit.”

Her words made me wish I could see what I looked like right now, but it seemed I was forced to wait.

“As I said, it’s transparent, but I can clearly see colors underneath it. It’s as if there are streams of all different colors swirling underneath it. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s… beautiful.”

Her words filled me with warmth. It seemed she’d gotten some good rest, and was in a good mood. She had no idea how much she’d just lifted my own mood by calling something about my body beautiful.