I heaved a deep, mental sigh. “Can evolve,” I wrote.

I was still staring at my… options…

Green Resica

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

Abdomen is enlarged to support more power.

Purple Resica

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

Abdomen is enlarged to support more power.

I only had two options…

And more importantly, the rainbow evolution was gone!

Elysa, what happened to the rainbow evolution?

You have not completed the necessary achievement to unlock the evolution following “Large Rainbow Jumping Spider”.

Shit.

That meant that even if I had picked the evolution before, I would have to find out what that achievement was, and complete it in order to continue my power growth?

That just seemed unfair.

What do I do?

I could try to unlock the necessary achievement, but I had no idea what in the world I would have to do. Even if I did somehow find out what it was, I would probably get stuck again before my next evolution…

I would have to pick one of these two options. I didn’t want to halt my strength gain.

My next question was, which?

If I somehow managed to get the rainbow evolution to pop up again, it would be best to have learned the specific skills from the green evolution.

However…

The only new skill I would gain would be paralytic venom. I had just checked the list of the Large Green Forest Jumping Spider to make sure.

Paralytic venom at this point seemed useless to me.

Whereas if I took the purple evolution, I would likely get an increase in mana reserves and regeneration which I could use to hunt more fish. This would result in a fast experience gain towards my next evolution. I doubted the increased venom levels would have the same effect.

This magic allowed me to take out stronger creatures, at the cost of not being able to use it as much as venom. I imagined that it would also allow me to get the necessary achievements faster.

I would be sacrificing the option to acquire paralytic venom, but as far as I could tell, it would be the better trade-off.

“Kealyna?” Cellestra’s voice came. “Are you okay?”

She looked slightly worried.

I started pointing at letters with my pedipalps. “Was choosing evolution. Had to think.”

“Oh, I see. How exactly does that work?”

“Can choose options,” I wrote again. “Purple evolution is magic. Green is poison. Orange was strength.”

“An interesting blessing...”

I gestured yes. I then continued spelling. “Will choose evolution. Will knock me out for a while.”

“Will you be okay?”

She seemed genuinely worried.

“Will be fine.” I tried to reassure her with that.

“Okay then. I’ll be out for a while. I guess I’ll see you awake at some point.”

I waved at her as she exited the room.

I looked at the book she was reading and saw a picture of a specific plant. If I were to guess, she was going to search for that.

I looked back at my possible evolutions. I had already made up my mind, but I gave them one last look.

What were those names, anyway? Resica? Also, what was up with the larger abdomen? More power? Did it mean bigger magic reserves?

If that was the case, my choice would be even better.

I had already resolved to opt for the purple option.

Let’s do it, Elysa.

A second after confirming it, I felt immense pain. It felt as if my abdomen burst open from the top. I passed out within seconds.

____________________________________________________________________________

When my senses returned, the first thing I felt… was hunger…

I was starving.

What had this evolution done to me?

Ugh, I was dizzy too.

I moved my limbs and stood up. The first thing I saw was Cellestra’s hands. She was reading a book again.

“Welcome back, Kealyna. How are you feeling?”

I saw the paper before me and noticed it had shrunk significantly.

How much had I grown?

I looked at Cellestra’s hands and the rest of my body behind me.

By the goddess, I’d grown at least double my old size. I would barely fit in her hands if she held them open together. My abdomen had grown disproportionately big. It had been as big as my head before, maybe slightly more, but now, it was at least double my head’s size.

I was clearly not a jumping spider anymore.

Maybe I could still jump because of my leg enhancements, but I wasn’t sure.

I was focused on magic at the moment, though.

I used the paper in front of me to convey what I wanted to say. “I am okay. Hungry.”

“Yeah. I noticed your size change when I came back inside. Doesn’t surprise me at all. I got one of the fishes that you caught. I was just in time before a bird took it from me.”

She stood up and walked to the kitchen. She came back with a plate with a red reaperfish on it.

“It’s still raw, but I assume that’s okay for you?”

“It is fine, yes.”

This fish, even raw right now… it was calling to me.

Cellestra placed it on the table and I eagerly started eating;

“By the way,” Cellestra started. “How did you get a mouth like that?”

I spelled the words with one of my legs while I was eating.

“When I level up, get evolution points. Evolution points used to get skills. Allowed me to get mouth with teeth. Did not know how spiders eat.”

“Huh, yeah, spiders do eat in a weird way, don’t they? I can imagine you not knowing about that.”

I nodded with my legs.

The elf turned a page in her book and continued reading. It was funny to see how she could act so nonchalantly when a massive spider was sitting on her table, eating lunch.

I saw her glance over at me and smile. I ignored it and finished eating as quickly as I could. When I was finally full, I took a look at my enhancement options.

Name: Kealyna

Race: Purple Resica

Level: 1/10

Experience: 0/50

Evolution Points: 33

Enhancement

Cost in EP

Venom

5

Improved Venom

10

Improved Magic Resistance

20

Advanced Magic Resistance

40

Strong Magic Resistance

70

Strong Spider Thread

35

Jaws and Teeth

5

Improved Jaws and Teeth

10

Weak Toxin Resistance

3

Toxin Resistance

5

Improved Mana Reserves

10

Improved Mana Regeneration

10

Venom Bolt

5

Fireball

5

Ice lance

5

Water Walking

5

Improved Physical Barrier

10

Very Weak Magical Barrier

1

Weak Magical Barrier

3

Magical Barrier

5

Improved Magical Barrier

10

Weak Healing Light

5

Healing Light

10

Insight of Elysa

150

Language Comprehension - Human

5

Language Comprehension - Dwarven

5

Language Comprehension - Orcish

5

Language Comprehension - Demonic

10

A list that I swore was even bigger than the previous one opened before me.

I went through the list carefully and noted that this evolution had caused a few more spells to show up. That was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. It seemed there was even a spell that would allow me to walk on water.

Oh, and the magic barrier showed up!

Also, what did this venom bolt do, and why could I not enhance it?

The Venom Bolt skill fires a piercing projectile of venom. The potency is based on your current level of the Venom skill. To be able to gain Venom Bolt, you need Venom or a higher level of the Venom skill first.

I see. That made sense.

It appeared there was also a healing skill. That ought to be quite useful!

I had never learned healing magic myself in my old life, but I’d been its recipient more than a few times. Healing spells always provided me with a pleasantly warm feeling when they were cast on me.

And then there was this odd skill.

It was also mighty expensive.

“Insight of Elysa”? What is it?

Insight of Elysa

Your body and soul are strong enough to now be able to support the full power of the goddess’s blessing.

WARNING: Painful

Uhhhhh?

Painful?

But… What does it do?

Insight of Elysa

Your body and soul are strong enough to now be able to support the full power of the goddess’s blessing.

WARNING: Painful

Instead of receiving an answer, the same blue square showed again.

This whole blessing thing was a good thing, right…?

It cost a lot of Evolution points. If anything, that alone would have to mean it was something good.

I also noticed the skill wasn’t in cursive, which would mean it should have popped up if I had picked the other evolution too.

I decided I wanted this. The full power of the goddess’s blessing sounded like it had to be something good.

The pain part, however… well, I was scared.