Seeing as a spider was in itself quite hard to get used to, though Lewis took to it better than he did walking, he was quite grateful for it, the 360 vision had saved him from many sneaky wolves even while they may be quite a bit smaller than him and hardly dangerous a few bites from their jaws at least from the bigger ones could break through his carapace, luckily he healed fast though, he also discovered direwolves who the normal wolves often followed were a thing, though most weren't as big as game of thrones showed but larger than wolves nonetheless, most of the creatures in the forest were similar to their earth counterparts though he found they could grow normal then the normality on earth, there were even some who grew abnormally large even for here and their skin harder, some even began to use elemental magic.
Of course lewis had only fought a few of these though only wolves and direwolves, it seems more prominent in them, and the ones who had developed abnormally he found magical cores inside of them, eating them had proved fruitful as it added power to his own core, and absorbing their souls he had gained an affinity for wind, earth and fire magic in the few days since he gained the ‘spider’ body though no new skills as he had only feasted on wolves and they were also the only ones who dared try and enter his tunnels.
Lewis found himself the apex predator of this forest, well one of them, he wasn't sure how well he would stand up to bears, especially ones touched by magic, Lewis also found that absorbing souls increased his spiritual power, while some of the larger and more sentient creatures he had found often tried to resist his taking their souls and he struggled with some of them or even downright couldnt take them but found his increase of spiritual power made it easier for him to take the souls of the more resistant creatures.
Once a creature was dead there were tops 10 minutes before the soul begins to wander, to where? He didn't know but he could take souls of the dead easily, or souls of the recently dead, he had come across ghost like apparitions which he theorised were souls of human that stuck around too long or came back for whatever, unfortunately he couldnt talk to them as they perceived him as a threat and flew off somewhere whenever he attempted to approach, a downside of his new form, he is a lot less approachable.
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Lewis leaped through the tall trees, jumping from one to another, quietly following the group of goblins that he had found wandering the forest in their loincloths hunting horned rabbits and they even caught a fire boar, the black colouration of his strong steel-like carapace all but cancelling out his visibility and fusing him with the night, his stealth skills gained from the mouse and added to from the spider itself made it all but silent making his way through the forest even he was massive, the size of a horse in fact, he had originally though even with the sneak skill he would make a loud noise doing such an activity but ‘I guess I underestimated it’ he thought with a shrug.
The goblins led Lewis to a small village, a goblin village obviously by the primitive way it was build, though Lewis could assume that was the level all buildings were at in this world, he highly doubted it, a group of 6 buildings some larger than others their placement had no order, there was a small wooden fence of crudely whittled stakes sticking out of the ground, with nothing binding them together either, the goblins seemed to have one large fire that they cooked their food on, he was slightly surprised they knew how to do that but quickly he mentally berated himself for underestimating the inhabitants of this new world, doing such during battle could prove fatal.
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Lewis watched their leader, a slightly more human looking goblin who stood taller with less of a savage look to him, and while the goblins had browned murky yellow eyes, this ones were more of a clear yellow, he could see the difference in intelligence between the two types of monster by both the way he carried himself, held his weapon and the difference was easily seen in his eyes.
The goblins had numbers at around mid 20s though he couldnt see those inside he did pick up voices, grunting and panting in one of the larger buildings and he could guess what was going on inside, while he could smell rotting meat in another of the poorly constructed shacks, the buildings were made of wood, straw and mud, most were small with the smallest being the size of a garden shed and the largest being the size of a medium sized cabin.
Lewis then decided he would be killing them, their souls may offer some more insight into this world, now how to go about doing it, he could always just charge in and kill them all, their primitive stone spears were nothing compared to the teeth of a direwolf in the forest, and they took a few bites to break his natural armour so they couldnt do much to him at all unless they targeted his eyes or mouth but he doubted that they were smart enough to think of that, the only real threat would be their leader whom he assumed is probably a hobgoblin, so he would be his first target.
Quickly Lewis jumped from the tree he was hiding behind passing straight over their meager defences as his pointed legs created deep indentations in the ground, all the goblins turned to look at him and the doors of some of the shacks opened revealing many curious ugly faces and quickly the forest green complexion they sported changed to a pale jade as they blanched from fear and he even began to smell urine, disgusted with a sneer of contempt lewis began cleaving his way towards the hobgoblin all goblins in his path being either flung away from the force of his blows or bisected by the blades on his front two legs, blood was painting the grounds as he moved and he quickly reached the hobgoblin who as Lewis expected was smart enough to aim for his weak points.
The hobgoblin thrust his spear towards lewis eyes but the shaft was cut in two by Lewis front leg and the evolved goblin revealed an expression of horror before blood spurted from where the monsters head had been just a few moments prior.
Lewis made short work of the rest of the goblins, and then absorbed their souls learning a lot about the surrounding area and got a basic spear proficiency skill as well as the goblin language and 38 years worth of memories, turns out none of the goblins were aged over 4 with the hobgoblin being an exception at 6 years old, he than searched the shacks.
Searching them lewis found most empty with a few shitty made straw beds, one of them contained rancid meat and the catch they got from hunting before Lewis followed them here, he left it believing it contaminated, even if he was probably resistant to the stuff he wouldn't eat it, just because he's now a spider doesn't mean he no longer had standards.
Entering the last house he found 3 girls in ripped and torn rags, their bodies filled with cuts and bruises, they were tied up against the wall, none of them seemed to notice him as they stared of into space with blank misty eyes, they lay covered in blood and mud as well as their own piss, shit and copious amounts of smelly and slimy bodily fluids that stuck to the floor, lewis felt a great pity for them swell up inside him before it went away, he had seen this before, quite a bit in the war, mentally sighing lewis put them out of their misery plucking their souls from their bodies and consuming them, causing their already limped forms to lose the last signs of life in their eyes, Lewis spent then spent the next 3 hours reliving the lives of the girls, the horror and fear at being raped was awful, Lewis had been tortured before but this was the most vile thing he had ever experience, one of the girls was from nobility, she had been kidnapped from a raid on a caravan while the other two were villagers, the noble was aged 13 while the other two were 16 and 21.
Lewis came out of the experience feeling sick but he got himself together quickly though now very unwell, he wrapped the nobles body in his silk and dragged her outside before setting the shack alight creating a ball of flames in the liquefying poison gland in his mouth before firing it at the shack, he than dragged the wrapped up body back home, he would have uses for her.