“You forgot what I said earlier, didn’t you?” Cellestra said with a sly smile. “It’s in the opposite direction of the village the traders went to.”

“In that case,” I said as I started walking southeast, “The easiest way to get there is to follow the road wouldn’t you say?”

“Correct.”

I crossed my arms as I walked towards the edge of the clearing where I halted for a few seconds, looking back at Cellestra’s house with my rearmost eyes one last time, before stepping into the forest.

“I do wonder what kind of reactions I’ll get. Hopefully, it’s not similar to that of those guards when I first appeared before them.”

“Hmmm,” Cellestra hummed. “I don’t think it will be considering your new addition. Now that you can speak, I reckon you can at least persuade them, or delay them enough to reach the temple.”

“You think so? Don’t you think I look intimidating?”

Cellestra nodded. “You sure do. Reactions of fear are to be expected. I do think that if you were to wear armor, you would come across as more of a threat than you do now.”

“Interesting. I hadn’t even thought about that, but it makes sense.”

I chuckled. “And here I was thinking about using a sword.” I paused for a second, looking down at my pedipalps and frontmost set of legs. “Although, I think a sword may not be the best option for me anymore. These extra additions give me such a large reach. I think a halberd or something might be better suited.”

Cellestra closed her eyes, smiled, and shook her head. “Always with the serious talk.”

“Hey, now that I have hands, I intend to make use of them. What better use than making sure to hone my weapon skills.”

I could see Cellestra grin at my remark. We both went silent for a while as I crossed through the green and brown of the forest. My mind wandered off to a few days ago. I couldn’t believe my time in this world had only been so short. So much had happened.

Two scenes played out in my head. One of them was where I’d hugged Cellestra’s hand when I’d been about the same size as it. Back then, she had actually invited me to hug her hand. I wondered if the events of last night made me recall this instance in particular. It also made me meditate on whether she would allow me to do it again on the same whim, considering I was far more humanoid now.

The other scene that I saw vividly as if it was yesterday, was where she’d called me an adorable spider. Just the thought of that filled me with warmth. The way I’d reacted back then when I said ‘I’m not a spider’ was something I was not likely to repeat. If Cellestra called me an adorable little spider right now, it would probably fill me with happiness…

Even though I wasn’t so little anymore…

It did give me hope she’d be able to see past the spider part.

I noticed the elf on my back touching the soft wolf fur with one of her hands, while running her fingers through some of my spider hair with the other. She was looking back and forth between the two at the same time, putting a smirk on my face.

“You’re not thinking about pelting me, are you?”

She shook her head but didn’t seem fazed by the question. “No, I wasn’t. I don’t think I even could if I wanted to. I’m just curious why you’re this soft. I mean, your hair is softer than this fur. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

“Glad you enjoy,” I let out without even realizing what I was saying.

“Hmmm,” The elf hummed. “I guess it does give me something to keep myself occupied with seeing as I’m not walking.”

I chuckled and shook my head.

“Speaking of occupied,” I started as an idea formed in my head (heads?). “As you don’t have much to do, do you think we can practice magic while traveling? I mean, my spells may be weaker now, but there’s still this lightning arc spell that shouldn’t be affected much. Actually… hold on.”

I got a bit too much ahead of myself. While it was true the lightning arc was still the most powerful spell in my arsenal, I’d already determined that it needed a target in order to be cast.

I raised my pedipalps and tried casting the spell on the dirt before me without standing still.

It was as I had expected. The spell could not be used without a target…

“Never mind… I need to hit something with it or it won’t fire.”

“That’s a shame,” Cellestra answered. “But there are still other spells that work, right? I’m happy to learn anything.”

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I thought for a second while looking at my list of skills. The flame beam spell had many of the same properties as the lightning arc. However, this one could be cast without a target. The downside of this spell was that I didn’t think it would be a good idea to use it in the forest like this. There were far too many trees and vegetation in the area.

I decided to just ask Cellestra.

“Hmm. Is there a specific spell you’ve seen me use that you’d like to know?”

“That stone out of the ground looked pretty neat,” Cellestra said.

“Earthen spike,” I replied. “Yeah. I have to agree there. It’s incredibly powerful when it hits weak spots. Remember that you cannot use it on rocky surfaces.”

“Let’s try that one, if you want.”

I nodded as Cellestra placed her hands on my back to send her mana through me. I started to wonder if this magic thing was some form of excuse from me to have her do this, but quickly disregarded it. I gathered Cellestra’s mana flows and redirected them into the spell that I cast to my right.

A stone spike erupted from the ground. It didn’t hit anything as it was merely used for practice, but the sudden eruption did cause mild shock in Cellestra as I could feel her startle in reaction to the spell.

Her eyes remained locked on the spike as I continued walking. Seconds later, the spike sank back into the ground, causing Cellestra to turn her head back to my rearmost eyes.

“Surprised?” I asked, referring to her reaction.

“A little bit, yes. I knew it was coming and I was still taken aback by it. I think I was a little too focused.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” I replied. “Did you get any insight on the spell?”

“Yeah, I did. It doesn’t seem to be the most complicated spell. It feels easier than the barrier spell you’ve taught me.”

“I wonder if it’s because of my power sacrifice…” I said.

The elf on my back shrugged. “No idea. It still seems powerful to me.”

“This new ability that I have… I wonder if it can give me spells. Moreover, I wonder if I can teach you those as well. Imagine.”

“That would be…” Cellestra paused. “Quite the shocker. That would make you the best teacher of magic in the entire world.”

“I reckon it does, huh?” I let out.

We walked for hours, during which we kept practicing the earthen spike spell thoroughly. After Cellestra was confident she’d be able to cast it on her own, she did so. I was smart enough to make sure we both had our barrier spells up as she went to work, but no accidents occurred. At the end of it all, she had one extra spell in her arsenal and a huge smile on her face.

“Thank you so much,” She said, filled with obvious glee. “I missed practicing like this.”

“You mean with me, or in general?”

“Both, I guess,” Cellestra said with a smile. “I’ve not been able to practice any new spells until you came around, but doing it with you is a wonderful experience in itself.”

I closed my eyes as I took in her kind words. Not much later, I saw the road appear before my spider eyes. This part of the forest did not seem to have hills to either side of it. I could see why those bandits had specifically picked that one spot to ambush.

I skittered up to the road and followed it, noticing it was already late afternoon.

“Hey, Cellestra. Do you think it’s actually a good idea to follow the road like this? What if we run into people?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. On one hand, we could scare people off, but on the other hand, we can try to get friendly with them as we did with the guards, and have positive news regarding you spread.”

“I guess I’ll opt for that. There’s no way I’ll stay hidden, so I might as well make sure first impressions are good.”

The elf nodded. “I think that would be the best way to go about this.”

I cast a gaze to the horizon. The road and the forest stretched out as far as I could see, with no end in sight. The sun was starting to descend and I knew the evening would fall before we exited this forest. I hadn’t walked at the same pace I had when I went to see Cellestra for the first time after waking up as an Arachne, partially because of our magic training.

I imagined we would have to start thinking about how we were going to spend the night soon…