This forest was beautiful…

Tall trees spread out before me. Their leaves seemed to glow in the sunlight, giving them a magical feel.

It reminded me of home…

My old home, before I was forcefully removed from it.

I had never gone back. Even after I was free from the orphanage, I had never bothered to go back to our old village out of fear of what I would do if I were to visit our old house, where I’d made the only memories that were worth remembering.

I didn’t want to ruin that.

This forest was so similar to the forest our village was located in… It brought back those memories…

But this time, my parents were apparently alive.

Somewhere…

I had no idea where I would even start looking for them. I would have a long way to go before I could even start. Language skills would be one of the more important skills I could pick up.

For now, I was still a small spider.

I didn’t venture out far. I wanted to be able to retreat back to the cave at any moment.

As soon as I’d left the cave, problems began.

How was I going to navigate through this grass?

The first few feet outside the cave were dirt, but beyond that was grass. The issue was that the grass was much taller than I was, and I couldn’t see beyond the first bits.

On the other hand, the grass would provide perfect cover from aerial creatures.

I walked around the outside edges of the cave, but didn’t find anything.

I soon gave up on venturing outside the cave. I didn’t want to get further out than this and put myself at risk, not until at least the next evolution.

I already had some kind of a plan in my mind for later. I would try to find a tree, climb it, and then look around for interesting spots. There might even be insects in and around the tree that I would be able to take on.

I made my way back into the cave until I noticed buzzing coming from behind me.

I turned around to see a wasp coming for me.

I was not going to let that happen.

My eyes were fixated on the creature as it approached. I reared up my hind legs and when it was close enough where I knew I wouldn’t miss it, I jumped.

I pinned the creature mid-air and brought it down to the ground with me as I fell. I made sure to pin down its behind with my legs so that it had no way of stinging me. I then clasped my fangs in the insect’s sides and injected my venom.

I held it down until its wings stopped moving completely.

You have killed a Small Forest Wasp: EXP+22

I was pretty proud of myself. I caught something that wasn’t stationary mid-jump and was able to hold its weapons at bay.

The advantages of an Elven mind.

I left the wasp behind and ventured into the cave once more. I followed the wall to the spider nest and hoped that some more had hatched for the last bits of experience that I needed for my evolution. I ran into a slug in the process, which obviously wasn’t skipped.

After a bit of walking, I arrived at my old nest. It appeared two more spiders had hatched than were cannibalizing the corpses that were spread throughout the area. I repeated the same tricks from before. Walk up to them, jump on them, kill them.

You have killed a Tiny Black Cave Spider: EXP+6

You have killed a Tiny Black Cave Spider: EXP+5

I couldn’t believe that was it. There were still a couple of eggs around that seemed to have infantile spiders in them. Why couldn’t they hatch?

I was frustrated at how close I was to my evolution. Then, something long with many legs showed up.

A centipede made its way over to the spider nest. When it reached one of the corpses, I saw it start eating.

Perfect.

I curved around and behind it, prepared for a jump… and jumped.

I landed on its body behind its head, held its head and body down, and injected my venom. It wriggled to escape, but it would be useless.

It was already dead.

You have killed a Cave Centipede: EXP+5

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 10!

You have been awarded 3 EP.

Level Cap Reached

Evolutions Available!

There we go.

I darted my way back to my hideout. I actually jumped several times, just to get there even faster. I wanted to know what my evolution options were.

When I entered my hideout, I found it occupied… by a slug.

I quickly dispatched the creature.

You have killed a Forest Slug: No experience was earned as the cap has been reached.

Yeah, yeah, I know that.

I spent some time closing the gap with my webs, making sure it was sealed tight, before I asked my blessing to show my evolution options.

Green Forest Jumping Spider

Evolution that specializes in camouflage in forest areas. In addition, poison resistance and venom are improved.

Purple Jumping Spider

Evolution that specializes in web strength and minor magic manipulation. Provides a bonus to magic resistance.

Orange Jumping Spider

Evolution that specializes in defense and strength, offering a mix of both.

I stared at the three evolution options before me.

I stared for a long time.

I had no idea what to choose.

After a while, I had crossed the purple option off my list for two reasons. I did not need the web strength or magic resistance. The other thing was that while magic was attractive, I feared that my mana reserve would be too small to make proper use of the magic that I could use. Besides, I wasn’t sure if my mana reserves would be affected by the evolution. For all I knew, such a thing didn’t exist.

I figured the safer option would be to choose one of the other two and then ask my blessing what enhancements were offered with the other evolutions.

I had seen a ‘green’ option being available twice now, so if the purple option was offered again, I would have an idea of the skills I would be able to enhance in the future.

I imagined that the orange option would include exoskeleton hardening and perhaps the regeneration skill as well.

What about the green one, if anything, that should be the one that I know most about since it appears to be the most similar to my last offered options.

Elysa, what were the possible enhancements for ‘small green forest spider’?

The evolution options for ‘Small Green Forest Spider’ were:

Venom

Very Weak Paralytic Venom

Weak Paralytic Venom*

Paralytic Venom

Weak Toxin Resistance

Toxin Resistance*

*Require the previous ability’s level to unlock

I was almost certain I would get the same options as the previous ones. The venom resistance was quite appealing as well.

So far, I had managed to avoid getting injured. As long as I could avoid it, I wouldn’t need the defense…

On the other hand… defense…

If my armor was tough enough, I wouldn’t have to worry about venom being injected into my body in the first place.

It would be the option that was the most worthy of a knight, though.

Besides, I probably wouldn’t be able to avoid getting injured forever.

My inner Elven knight won the battle. I decided to go for the orange evolution and then check what the skills were that the other two evolutions would have offered me for future references.

Pain started building under my skin, and I soon passed out.

____________________________________________________________________________

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that once more, the world around me had gotten smaller. I would have to find a proper means of measuring myself. I imagined there would be something in the forest that could help.

That would be very low on my priority list, though.

Elysa, show me!

Name: Kealyna

Race: Orange Jumping Spider

Level: 1/10

Experience: 0/40

Evolution Points: 22

Currently Available Enhancements

Enhancement

Cost in EP

Very Weak Regeneration

1

Weak Regeneration

3

Regeneration

5

Improved Regeneration

10

Very Weak Magic Resistance

5

Weak Magic Resistance

10

Jaws and Teeth

5

Improved Jaws and Teeth

10

Exoskeleton Hardening

5

Improved Exoskeleton Hardening

10

Improved Leg and Pedipalp Strengthening

10

Very Weak Spider Thread

1

Weak Spider Thread

3

Very Weak Venom Resistance

1

Weak Toxin Resistance

3

Those were far more options than the first time I’d evolved. The cost also seemed to go up quite a bit at certain levels.

It was a good thing I’d been fairly conservative with my points.

I had picked this evolution for its defensive benefits, so I decided to focus on getting the defensive enhancements first. I picked Exoskeleton Hardening and its Improved version leaving me with seven points left. I also decided to pick Very Weak Venom Resistance, since apparently, that was separate from Very Weak Poison Resistance, and the first two Regeneration levels. I decided to also pick the Very Weak Spider Thread, just to have a bit more safety in my hideout in case anything tried to break in.

I would aim to get the remaining Evolution-related enhancements next.

After making my selections, hellish pain erupted everywhere in my body...