“I would say I could get you a mirror, but you could just bend forward to see yourself with your other eyes,” Cellestra said as she stood up, walked to her front door, and locked it.

“True,” I said. “Though, I can’t see the back of my head properly… my elven head that is. A mirror there might be useful. I can use my rear eyes to look at the back of my head that way.”

I shook my head with a smile. “By the goddess, just talking about this is confusing.”

“You think she is watching us in that realm of hers, and just laughing her ass off at what you’re going through?” Cellestra said, a sly smile on her face.

“She most certainly finds this amusing. I’m willing to bet on that. Anyway, are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

I lowered myself so that Cellestra would have an easier time getting on. I noticed her staring for a second before she seemed to realize what was going on.

“Uh, are you sure?” She asked.

I nodded. “The dungeon is still an hour or so away from here. If you were to walk it would probably be three or even four. You know…”

“You like to get to it as fast as possible,” Cellestra spoke my thoughts. “As always. I don’t blame you for that.”

She accepted my gesture and stepped on top of my thorax before I lifted her and set out to get to the dungeon. In the meantime, I cast my multi-barrier spell.

“By the way,” I started as soon as we’d left the clearing. “Do tell me what you know about dungeons. It seems some things work differently here. For example, slave magic in my old world didn’t require a separate orb. The command magic was infused in the key.”

“I don’t know what I could tell you that you don’t already know,” Cellestra started. “Dungeons are filled with traps, enemies, and loot. One can find all kinds of money, weapons, armor, crafting reagents such as herbs and rare mushrooms, and those spell scrolls, of course.”

“Yeah, I had that figured out. I mean, do you have any in-depth knowledge about dungeons? My blessing mentioned that certain doors cannot be closed as long as there are foreign entities inside the dungeon.”

“A way out must always remain open. That’s what I know of it.”

“Any idea why?” I asked. “Like what are dungeons even? Why do they attract people with riches? If they are intent on killing people, why not lock them in there?”

“Because they seem to gain something from people being inside the dungeon. I have no idea what it is, but they don’t seem to be intent on killing people all the time. As for why they can’t block the entrance or anything,”—Cellestra shook her head—“I am also clueless. Forgive me, I just don’t have that kind of information stored up.”

I shrugged. “It’s fine. I know my way around this dungeon. At least I do for the first floor. The second floor was… uncomfortable to say the least. I was more than a bit creeped out by the skeletons that were scattered around. The utter darkness on that floor didn’t help either.”

“We don’t have to go that far if you’re uncomfortable with it.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, but I’m not sure if there is treasure on the first floor. I found that scroll in some kind of old storage building. Unless there’s anything down in the murky water of the swamp, I don’t see anywhere it could be.”

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Cellestra said as she started moving her hands through my spider hair again.

“You’re having an awful lot of fun back there aren’t you?”

“I can’t help it!” Cellestra pouted. “You’re so fluffy!”

I grinned sheepishly and saw my face grow red thanks to my lower set of eyes. I allowed my mind to wander off as things went quiet. I could see Cellestra try out different patterns of braiding my spider hair, which, while not nearly as long as my elven hair, was still long enough to make some smaller braids.

I was wondering how it was possible that since I’d gotten this elven part on top of my head, I hadn’t been nearly as concerned about my feelings as before. Was it because I knew this meant that there were now options beyond friendship?

I wanted to believe there was that option. I’d never felt this happy before in either of my lives, and I wanted to hold on to it. The way Cellestra was tenderly working on my hair, and the smile that was on her face as she worked… it made my heart melt.

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Did she already know anything about how I felt? When I was still a spider, it was impossible to read my facial expressions. Right now though…

I wasn’t conflicted about my feelings anymore. I now knew exactly what it was. Thanks to this final evolution, a completely new world had opened. Now I was left to struggle with how to understand and convey my feelings… I hoped with all my heart that Cellestra would… could feel the same about me.

But for now, I was enjoying her mere presence and voice. It was enough for me at the moment.

Cellestra worked on my hair while I skittered to the dungeon. As if to taunt me, we came across a boar and a deer. I would have hunted them for food if it wasn’t for the fact that I planned to eat some creatures in the dungeon. I didn’t want to have my stomach filled before that as I didn’t know how much of a certain creature I had to eat to trigger this new skill.

Time seemed to pass quickly when I watched Cellestra’s smile. It didn’t take nearly as long as I’d expected to reach the dungeon entrance. The guardian tree that I’d killed still lay dead nearby, most of its trunk and branches burnt to coal.

“You did quite a number on that tree I see,” Cellestra said as we walked past the creature.

“Yep. It was probably my hardest battle. The thing was resistant to magic until I found a way to weaken it and expose some kind of orb beneath its trunk. Once I’d shattered that orb its magic barrier fell. From there on out it was a simple matter of turning it into firewood.”

“What an odd creature. Did your blessing say what it was called exactly?”

“A guardian tree. I’m sure it was because it was guarding the dungeon. I think it got angry because I killed a deer nearby or something. Nasty being even put up a barrier around this clearing that prevented me from fleeing.”

“That”—Cellestra looked shocked—“Must have been terrifying.”

I nodded. “It was at first since I didn’t know a way to kill it.”

“Anyway,” I continued, “Better cast your barrier spell. I’m going to avoid the trap that I know of, but it’s better to make sure.”

The elf nodded and cast her barrier spell. I then made my way through the dirt mound and into the stone hallway leading down. I summoned a flame spell before me to illuminate the area.

“Impressive,” Cellestra said while gazing at the walls.

“If you think this is impressive, you should see that lost city on the second floor. It looked like once upon a time, it was a grand, bustling city. I wonder if it ever was or whether it had always been this way. Dungeons seem to be quite weird.”

A minute or two later, we ran into our first enemy. A Giant King Cobra barred our way and tilted its head backward to spit a spray of venom at me. I knew its attack pattern and summoned an ice wall to block the attack.

After successfully blocking the spray of venom, and watching it drip off of the shield, I summoned a high-velocity ice lance to strike the giant snake. It pierced its scales, but only partially. I summoned another, and then another, aiming for its broad ‘shoulders’. They were soon bleeding because of my attacks, but the creature wasn’t about to lie down and die.

Instead, it slithered up to me. I stood at the ready until it came in range before I unleashed my front four legs on the creature, creating lacerations and then pinning it to the ground, where I impaled its head with one of my legs.

You have killed a Titan Cave King Cobra: No experience was awarded.

I wasn’t happy how this had seemed harder than before, but the creature was dead nonetheless. I hoped the giant toad and crocolisk creatures would be easier. I imagined they were, as they had more obvious weak spots than this snake. Its scales were quite tough.

I imagined that next time, I’d be better off using lightning arc.

“You okay back there?” I asked Cellestra. I had tried to keep my rear as still as possible during this short fight.

“I’m okay. No need to worry. I still have this barrier, after all.”

“Fair enough,” I replied.

I looked at the cobra and lifted my legs from its corpse. I moved my pedipalps to it and used them to tear away the scales as I brought my spider mouth closer.

“It’s time to find out how giant broad-shouldered snake tastes.”