Velariah was quite bold, holding my hand like that. I didn’t mind the gesture per se, in fact, I liked it, it made me regret getting these gauntlets. No, I was scared we’d run into Seralyn. It would be typical for my luck to run into her when holding hands with Velariah.

The relief I experienced when we reached the field outside the gates was unparalleled.

I wished I could be a bit more like Seralyn. Her careless attitude was something I could only aspire to. Not that I wanted to be like her, at all. Just a bit would be helpful.

“Would this be a good time to tell you I got ten more spools from the tailor?” Velariah grinned as she sat down on the grass, after we’d put some distance between the checkpoint and ourselves.

“Dunno, you wanna risk getting wrapped up by accident?” I asked sarcastically.

I almost immediately recognized I’d made a mistake.

“That sounds lovely, actually.” She grinned.

I knew it.

I sighed. “I don’t even know how that would work. I should probably try it some day on smaller ‘Prey’.”

“Why not practice it now? And no, I don’t mean on me.” She grinned again.

I took off my gauntlets, all four of them, and laid them in the grass some distance in front of me. I carefully laid my spear down as well and turned to the elf.

“What would you suggest I practice on, then?”

“Something small. How are you faring in your reserve department?”

“Uh, it’s getting a bit better now. I felt slightly drained before. Do you have some water with you by any chance?”

“Sure.” She took out a canteen from her pack and handed it to me.

“It’s not alcohol, is it?” I grinned.

She shook her head. “Wouldn’t do that to you, El.”

I looked at her with a frown.

“Okay, maybe I would. Not this time though, I swear!”

I screwed open the cap and sniffed. Then, I drank its contents in their entirety.

“Hmm.” I could hear Velariah wonder audibly. “I guess too small wouldn’t work either, considering the size of your legs. I doubt something as small as a rabbit is going to be doable.”

“I am good, but that’s pushing it a bit far, indeed.” I praised myself.

“Heh. Let’s see if they have anything here that I can borrow.”

She ran off in the direction of the checkpoint.

I tapped my leg on my spinnerets and started a thread of silk.

“Now what?” I asked myself.

I confirmed once more that I had no idea what I was actually doing.

I imagined I would have to attach the thread to something and then rotate said something around with a couple of legs.

Being half spider was such a hassle.

I tried passing the thread to different legs. I found out that the small claws at the end were excellent for it.

There was one issue.

One thread at a time would turn wrapping something up into a full-time job.

Wasn’t there a way to spread the silk into many small threads? If I could turn my spinnerets into a biological shotgun and spread many small threads over a large area I imagined I could wrap things up at many times the normal speed.

Maybe I could?

My silk seemed to adjust its properties to what I wanted them to be.

Velariah returned with several objects while I was thinking hard. I almost didn’t even notice her.

It appeared she ‘borrowed’ a small stool and a chest plate.

“Would these work, you think?” She asked me.

“Uh, I think they would. I was just thinking of a more effective way to wrap things.”

“Oh?” Velariah said curiously.

“I’m not quite sure if it will work. Could you grab my spear and hold it close to my rear?”

“Sure!” She said in anticipation, as she grabbed my spear and did what I asked.

‘Spread out web, please!’ I pleaded my spider half. I pushed and apparently shot out silk at high speed.

“Hey!” Velariah called behind me.

Uh-oh, that didn’t sound good.

“I thought we said no wrapping me up. Now, I don’t mind if you do, but please warn me!”

“What happened?” I asked as I turned my head.

I lowered my rear so I could actually see what was going on.

Okay. The good news was that the silk was spread out with very thin lines as I had intended. The bad news is that I had hit Velariah instead of the spear’s shaft.

“Oh. I didn’t know I could shoot webs out like that. That’s pretty neat, I guess.”

“Very funny.” Velariah brought the spear up to her belly horizontally and held it against the silk before cutting herself loose with her knife.

“Okay. So, it seems whatever you had in mind actually works. At least, I assume this is what you had in mind.”

“I did.”

“Now what?” She asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” I sighed. “I doubt a spear is something I can wrap up. That stool doesn’t really seem easy either. Let’s try doing this with that chest plate?”

“So what do you want with this spear?” She asked.

“Well, I imagined that spear could be one of my legs. If I can spread threads over such a large area, I imagined I’d wrap the ‘net’ around whatever is below me.”

“I think I see where you’re going.”

“Problem is that I have no idea where to position my legs, so I’m going to ask for your help with it while I practice. ”

Velariah giggled.

“What?” I asked with a smile.

“I like how you’re taking this so seriously.”

I shrugged. “I guess so. Figured I might as well find out the limits of this body.”

“Alright. So how do you want to do this?” Velariah asked.

“I imagine it would be good for you to hold up the chest piece in position while I try to guide my legs around it. This way I can try to get familiar with the movements I’d have to make.”

“Doesn’t sound like a bad plan. So, I start here, I assume?” She held the chest piece behind my rear.

“I was actually thinking of having it under me. I’m going to see if I can repeat what I did to you earlier, with one of my legs catching the spray this time around.”

I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I couldn’t believe I was enjoying doing this.

Velariah held the chest plate under my midsection and I took a hold of it with two legs, one on each side. I figured I would need four legs to stand on, which were going to be the two furthest to the front and then the second pair from my back. This left my second pair from the front to hold on to the chest plate and the pair furthest back to take hold of the silk and guide it.

My head was spinning from the number of movements I was going to have to make to get this done.

I guessed practice would make things work out. I honestly hoped this was like riding a bike, once you learned it, you wouldn’t ever forget.

“Here goes nothing,” I said as I held one leg close to my spinnerets.

In the same way I did before, I shot out the silk and found it sticking to my leg.

I brought the leg forward and ran into the first issue already: my other leg was in the way.

“Uhhhh, I guess we’d have to move that chest plate further behind.”

I released the armor piece and Velariah brought it behind my last legs, where I grabbed it again with my ‘grabbing’ legs.

“What a hassle.” Velariah chuckled.

“I may have thought the same thing more than once,” I commented.

This really was a hassle.

I tried bringing the web to the armor piece again and managed to attach it to the armor piece.

I paused, thinking about how to proceed from here. It would be nice if I could actually see what was going on...

“Now what?” Velariah asked impatiently.

“You think I know what I’m doing? Think again.” I said, slightly frustrated. “Rotating would be the way to go, but I’m not sure how to go about it.”

“Let me help you.” She said as she let go of the chest plate.

She walked to my other side and grabbed hold of the unused leg.

“I would assume you use this one to rotate, no?”

She guided it up to my practice prey and used it to hook onto the chest plate. She then moved it so that the armor piece would turn around.

I needed her help at first, but soon I found myself able to replicate the motions and managed to start cocooning the chest plate by myself. It started out slowly but I managed to increase speed over time.

“Looking good, El.” Velariah praised me.

I used the two legs that I held the prey with to move it to the left. After several more rotations, I moved it all the way to the right again.

I had turned myself into an old typewriter. All I was missing was the stereotypical ‘ding’ sound.

So I needed three legs just to rotate prey under my body. The fourth served to pull more silk out of my spinnerets and bring it up to the prey.

Fascinating.

“Is it my turn yet?” Velariah asked.

“You have some weird fetishes, you know that?” I laughed.

“Hehe, just kidding.”

Or was she?

I stopped the production of threads and brought my handiwork forward so that I could observe it. It turned out I’d done a fairly decent job at completely wrapping up this piece of armor. The threads were extremely thin and spread out over a large area, but with this many layers, it still made for amazing constraints.

“Not bad for the first time,” I said.

Velariah joined me in observing and poked a finger at the silk after I lifted the piece up with my hands.

“You didn’t use sticky threads?” Velariah asked.

“Hah, I’m glad you asked.” I put on a big smile. “You see, what I did was: I made the first part sticky and then only made certain parts sticky. I finished with a layer of non-sticky silk, so I could easily hold it.”

“I’m impressed.” Velariah smiled as well. “You’ll turn into a proper spider one day.”

“Heh, I’ll get there,” I confirmed.

I was amazed at how much progress I’d made, both physically and mentally. Velariah had been of huge importance to me when it came to coming to terms. I even started liking the things this body could do. Did that make me weird?

I guess being half spider was pretty weird in its own right.

I handed the chest piece to Velariah who took it with hesitation, probably wondering what she was going to do with it. I used the little time I bought myself to look around to see if anybody was nearby, or approaching. When that wasn’t the case I quickly grabbed Velariah’s back with my two front legs and pushed her to the ground with the set of legs behind that.

I made sure her fall was broken and then let myself fall next to her.

“Awfully straightforward, aren’t you Elania?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea.” I giggled. “I just liked the look in your eyes when you fell. Besides,” I took the chest plate and tossed it to the side. “There’s still some time to kill. Might as well make sure this new carapace is hardened out properly.”

“Hmmm, just don’t fall asleep again,” Velariah said.

“I thought you did, too?”

“Yeah, well, we don’t talk about that.”

I giggled.

The red glow was barely visible. It made me sad to know this day would be at an end in a few hours.

I had a great time with the elf today. My heart opened up to her more and more and I was getting addicted to the feeling.

I’d almost hate to adventure further, almost.

Velariah took off a glove and took my hand.

“What a beautiful day.” She said, looking up to the sky, before looking at me. “Almost as beautiful as you.”

Such a cliché.

“Succubus,” I answered with as much of a neutral expression as I could.

Velariah laughed.

I laid my head on my arms and relaxed once more.

“What a weird day. Even though we were taking it easy, we still did quite a bit, eh?” I said.

“Yeah, I enjoyed myself. We got some money too. Today was just perfect.”

“I’m actually surprised we didn’t run into Seralyn, I was half expecting her to ruin the mood.”

“Don’t tell me you’re worried about her.” Velariah half-joked.

“Nah, I just wonder what she has been up to.”

“Probably got herself drunk and went to bed.” The elf said.

“Guess we will see tomorrow then?” I replied.

“Well, as long as she isn’t here, I’m fine with wherever she is,” Velariah said, shifting herself closer to me.

I turned my head to face her to find hers right next to me. Before I knew it, she had her mouth on mine. My legs grabbed her in reaction, and I enjoyed the moment while it lasted.

She broke away and smiled while looking into my eyes.

“We’re going way too fast, Vel,” I stated.

“Maybe so, but do you mind?” She asked in response.

I didn’t know what to say to that. Instead, I simply hugged her side, closed my eyes, and felt the sunlight, being absorbed by my body, before it faded too dim.

I don’t think I minded at all. Still, I didn’t want Velariah to expect too much from me. I think she has realized that by now. She was pretty withholding as of late. I was happy as she was.

I was glad I overcame the first hurdle. Since then, I’ve been nothing but happy in Velariah’s presence.

I wondered if we should tell the others, and if so, how.

Maybe they already knew? I think Seralyn did, I wasn’t sure about Nira or Draco.

I think we laid there for another two hours before Velariah shifted her body, trying to get out from under my legs. She yawned.

“I think it’s about time we head back.” The elf said, looking at the sky.

I looked up to see the sky completely red.

“I’m going to drop this armor piece off and then we can head home and get something to eat.” She looked at me. “Unless you want to have dinner at the guild, of course.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine with eating at home. Any ideas what Elly is cooking today?”

“No idea, but I’m sure you’ll like it.”

“Probably.”

Velariah picked up her glove and equipped it again, before picking up the cocooned chest plate and the stool that we didn’t end up using.

I put on my dropped pieces of armor and picked up my spear before joining Velariah on her way to the checkpoint.

“You think they will be happy to see all that silk?” I asked, looking at the piece of armor in her hand.

“Allina will probably have a look at it. I wonder if it’s going to be useful for them when it’s this thin.” She shrugged. “Can’t hurt to try, though.”

“Fair enough,” I answered.

We reached the barracks near the checkpoint and Velariah entered. This would only take a few seconds.

In the meantime, I got a lot of attention from the guards. They were eying my new weapons with curiosity. None of them dared to speak to me about it, though. I was a bit disappointed at that. I wasn’t that intimidating, was I?

Velariah exited the building and started walking towards the village. I joined up with her and cast a gaze behind me. The guards were still staring. I chuckled at the sight.

“I wonder if any of them will try to copy your weapons,” Velariah said.

“Let them. They will find out it’s going to be completely useless for them. Conventional weapons would be the way to go for the common soldier. There’s a reason they are what they are.”

“How did the weapons in your world look, again?” The elf asked.

“You mean back when we were in the same time period that you guys are in right now?”

She nodded.

“Practically the same. It’s one of the reasons why I have no doubt that anyone trying to copy me will fail. I’m not sure if these things existed back in our world. If they did, they weren’t widespread, probably for good reason.”

“That’s a pretty solid conclusion if you ask me. Having knowledge of both worlds sure helps out with that, doesn’t it?”

“Not always,” I said. “Many things are different here.”

“Yeah, I thought so.”

The rest of the way home was quiet. It didn’t take long before we arrived at her mansion. Soon, Elly was helping her out of her armor again, as I took off my own and deposited my new equipment in the corner.

I wondered what Valtheril would think of these. I imagined he would be fascinated. He was easily intrigued by things I did, I doubted this would be an exception.

Elly told us she wasn’t prepared for dinner but would quickly get something going. In the meantime, I asked Velariah if she knew what Seralyn’s inherity was. I’d been wondering for a while now.

“Ranged weapon accuracy, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now,” Velariah answered.

“That is indeed something I’ve thought of before. Hard to miss, honestly.”

“Nice pun, Elania.”

“Oops, I hadn’t even noticed.” I grinned.

That made me wonder if handing a crude gun to Seralyn would turn her into the ultimate killing machine. Older guns had a huge accuracy problem, after all.

I shuddered at the thought.

That would be devastating, indeed.

Perhaps that would be a terrible idea.

That would surely spell trouble for our party. There was no doubt we’d draw attention.

“How would her evolved inherity act?” I asked.

If it was only her accuracy that increased, and not the power of her projectiles, I imagined she would be outclassed by many other weapon users after they had gathered enough power.

“As far as I know,” Velariah started. “She is going to get increased penetration power on her projectiles, in addition to being able to infuse them with magic.”

“So, is there any difference between ranged weapon users then?” I asked.

“There’s plenty. Seralyn just got lucky. Archer inherities usually all evolve in the same way, she just got the extra benefit of having far higher accuracy than others. There are a few other interesting split-offs from the mainstream though. For example, there are archers that, after evolving, can shoot one arrow which splits into three mid-flight, each of these will follow the original arrow’s trajectory and have the same properties.”

“That sounds… pretty strong, except if it misses,” I said.

“Exactly, this is why Seralyn’s is generally considered to be one of the stronger ones. There’s also archers who get increased power on their projectiles if they are very close to their targets, but why would you want to be close with a ranged weapon?”

“Doesn’t strike me as incredibly useful,” I said.

Unless they had a shotgun, that was. I imagined they would be able to do terrible damage from up close with a weapon like that. Even a simple blunderbuss could wreak havoc.

Seralyn was considered to be more of a sniper, shoot from afar, type of archer, which would fit our party much better than the ‘up close and personal’ type.

I was looking forward to what she could do later on.

She may not be the easiest person to be around, she was pretty far from Draco’s personality, but she was reliable and useful in a fight. She was smart too. Her little plan with that troll warlord turned out to be a great way to finish him.

“Do we have everything set for if we go out on that quest tomorrow?” I asked. “Should we get more anti-venom potions, you think?”

“Not a bad idea, we could work on that while Elly is preparing dinner.”

I nodded and shoved two chairs away from the table.

Velariah ran upstairs. I was really curious about all the things they had up there. Surely she wouldn’t mind me sniffing around?

If only I could fit through the door. It was a recurring theme that annoyed me to no end.

I shrugged.

It annoyed me, but I could live with that one downside.

I would simply wait.