Cellestra was about to grab another beetle when I shook my pedipalps in my ‘no’ gesture. She frowned and asked what was wrong.

I moved back to the book and pointed at an N an O and then spelled the word ‘power’ for her again.

“No power?”

I ‘nodded’.

“I see. That must be harsh.”

I repeated my gestures.

“Hold on,” She said as she stood up. “I’m going to make this communicating a bit easier for you.”

She walked to the bookcase and pulled out a sheet of clean paper from a stack that lay on top of some books. She then walked over to the stove and obtained a piece of charcoal. The elf then sat down at the table again and started writing the alphabet in large letters with plenty of space in between each.

In the meantime, I looked at my enhancement options once more.

Enhancement

Cost in EP

Venom

5

Improved Magic Resistance

20

Advanced Magic Resistance

40

Jaws and Teeth

5

Improved Jaws and Teeth

10

Weak Toxin Resistance

3

Toxin Resistance

5

Spider Thread

5

Improved Spider Thread

10

Advanced Spider Thread

20

Extremely Weak Fireball

1

Weak Fireball

3

Extremely Weak Ice Lance

1

Weak Ice Lance

3

Very Weak Mana Reserves

1

Weak Mana Reserves

3

Mana Reserves

5

Very Weak Mana Regeneration

1

Weak Mana Regeneration

3

Mana Regeneration

5

Extremely Weak Physical Barrier

1

Weak Physical Barrier

3

Physical Barrier

5

Language Comprehension - Human

5

Language Comprehension - Dwarven

5

Language Comprehension - Orcish

5

One thing that I had noticed before was that sometimes, with evolutions, you would get a certain skill for free. Right now, I had obtained the ‘magic resistance’ skill without having to spend any Evolution Points on it. I had saved quite some points with that action.

The next thing I had noticed was that even the lowest-tier magic abilities were unavailable. I had a suspicion as to why that was but I decided to ask Elysa anyway.

Current mana reserves are insufficient to cast the selected spell.

Seems I was right about that. In order to cast one of the spells, I’d have to enhance my reserves first.

I also noticed now that my language comprehension enhancements were not cursive. That likely meant I would have been able to choose them with the other evolutions as well. I asked to confirm if that was the case.

Affirmative.

What else did I want to know...?

Could I get new enhancements to appear in any other way than evolutions?

Elysa?

Negative. Certain unique enhancements may be unlocked through special evolutions, which are unlocked through achievements.

Some enhancements may be combined into a single one at later levels, such as venom resistance and poison resistance. Toxin resistance provides resistance to both.

Hmmmmm…

These special evolutions seemed to be quite powerful.

Elysa, is there an evolution that will allow me to speak?

Affirmative. There is one evolution path that allows for speech. You have already unlocked the prerequisite for the first evolution of this path.

Ohhh, interesting. Was that the rainbow evolution path?

It had to be.

That only made me want to go out to hunt even more. If I could talk to Cellestra, I could communicate so much faster and more efficiently. Would she be willing to help me in my quest?

She seemed like a nice person, but helping a spider… it seemed like such a long shot.

I stared at my enhancement screen once more. I had twenty-five points to spend, and I knew my next evolution would most likely be the green option, which would increase my venom potency and resistance to toxins.

If precedence was anything to go by, it would mean I could enhance those for free. If I didn’t spend any points on them now, I could gain quite a bit of value there.

Besides, I was semi-forced into enhancing my magic in this evolution anyway.

It kind of scared me how many Evolution Points I was going to need to enhance all the spells that were in cursive. For both magic resistance enhancements alone, I was going to need a whopping sixty points…

I did a quick calculation in my head…

I would need the insane amount of 130 points to get every skill!

Elysa…

I didn’t dare to ask…

How many points will I have when I hit level 10? If I don’t spend any, that is.

Calculating...

Without spending any Evolution Points, you will have 93 by the time you achieve level 10.

Damn. That would not be enough to get everything. I would have to either make up the difference by acquiring achievements or simply skimp out on a few things…

Hopefully, I would be able to acquire them later down the line once I had the rainbow evolution.

The rainbow evolution also meant I could acquire the lowest skill of each tier and upgrade them later…

I did want to get the offensive magic spells, though. If they were powerful enough to take out creatures that would give me a lot of experience, I would be able to level up quickly.

Besides that, the physical barrier spell felt almost mandatory for me. It was one of the spells I knew from my old life…

Cellestra finished writing the alphabet on paper. This would allow me to communicate at a much faster rate already, as it made clear which letters I wanted to convey in an instant.

She laid it before me on the table. The first thing I spelled out was a simple ‘thank you’.

“No problem Kealyna. It must be hard to live like that.”

I ‘wrote’ ‘yes’.

“Is there anything I can do to help you?” She asked.

What? Did she offer her help just like that?

Was there anything?

I didn’t feel like there was anything she could help me with, right now. I had just found a new short-term goal for myself: Acquire the ability to speak.

I feared that it would be a necessity to get anywhere…

It took me some time to spell out, “Not right now.”

“I see.”

She leaned over forward again. “What would you like to do?”

I would like to go outside, but I first wanted to enhance my abilities, one by one, so I wouldn’t have to go through the pain that I went through before.

I used my pedipalps to point at letters again. “Need few minutes.”

“Sure. Take all the time you need.”

I decided to focus on my offensive magic first. My physical strength and resistance were already as high as they could be, save for my jaws and teeth. I considered enhancing them, but I’d need to find out how strong this magic was first.

If I could kill from afar, I hardly had any use for them.

I decided to enhance my mana reserves and regeneration to the highest I could, before upgrading my fireball to weak and taking the first level of physical barrier.

I enhanced each skill separately. Sometimes the enhancement brought pain, sometimes they brought warmth.

Over the course of a few minutes, I’d enhanced all the skills I wanted.

I had two points left for now. My next points would go into upgrading this physical barrier, just to be safe.

That was a lie.

I wanted this spell badly.

My inner knight was screaming for it!

Come to think of it, I never learned how to use a fireball in my old life. I had just enhanced the ability and… I somehow knew how to make the mana flow specifically for a fireball.

This was crazy. I remember some of the knights that I had trained with had studied for weeks to learn the basics of a fireball, yet I had just learned how to do it within literal seconds.

This blessing was scary in a way.

Everything was now set for me to go out and gather more experience again. I spelled out more words for Cellestra who looked with great curiosity.

“Outside please.”

“You want me to take you back outside?”

I gestured yes, before spelling three more words. “Am I welcome.”

She had forgotten to write down a question mark, but I guessed the intent was clear enough.

“You’re more than welcome Kealyna. If you want me to open the door, just tap the glass I guess. I’m looking forward to your next visit.”

“Same,” I spelled.

It was the truth. I had to honor my vows and live as honestly as I could. I was looking forward to visiting Cellestra again. Even if our communication was crude, it was… nice to talk to someone.

Would she mind if I stayed the night here? I imagined in here it would be much safer than outside in some kind of burrow.

Survival had been one of my priorities. I decided to just ask.

“Can stay night,” I spelled.

“Sure. As long as you don’t go tapping my window when it’s already dark,” She said with a smile.

Be here before nightfall. Got it.

“Thanks,” I wrote again.

“I’m happy to help such an adorable little spider such as you.”

But I’m not a spider!