“Morning” Kaden stretched not quite ready to get out of bed. “How are you doing this morning Spider Princess?” Opening his eyes only to suddenly see something falling on top of him.

“That is a terrible name”, dropping down from the celling landing on top of him. “I prefer something more ferocious, perhaps The Grimoire of Death or The Black Book. Now those names will strike fear in the hearts of my enemies!” Sofia pinned him down using two of the eight legs opening and closing Grimoire as if it were a mouth.

Kaden was uncharacteristically calm while several extremely sharp fangs where snapping menacingly inches away from his face. “You don’t have any enemies.” He reminded her.

She lifted one of the legs used to pin him down and poked him in the chest with it three times while saying. “Not yet, but”. Sofia standing on four of her hind legs while raising the other four up into the air. “All shall one day come to know and fear The Black Grimoire of Death.” Her voice sounding almost exaggerated.

“Why? Is it because you’re going to pin them to their bed first thing in the morning, force them to listen to terrible puns, bad jokes and the worst titles a villain could ever come up with.” Kaden teased her; his face and tone maintaining a façade of genuine curiosity.

Squinting at him from inside the Grimoire, letting only a second pass. “I CRUSH YOU!” She yelled as all eight of her legs clamped around a now suffocating Kaden.

“Hurts… Can’t breathe” he managed to get out.

“Don’t be a baby, I am not even using a quarter of my strength”, she eased off a little finally letting him go. “That’s what you get for challenging The Mighty Black Death!” Her spider legs doing a little victory dance.

“Ok O-mighty-one, since you can now climb ceilings with your amazing spider powers. I was thinking we go and absorb more things and acquire more of an edge.” It had only just occurred to Kaden he need to gain more of an understanding of his unique ability.

“Tried it, didn’t work” Her voice cut in.

“Tried what?” A less than happy feeling surfacing in him.

“I got bored while you slept so I went for a walk; and before you say anything don’t worry, I made sure no one saw me.” Her voice made it sound as if a book connected to eight spider legs complete with a sharp set of fangs, going for a stroll in the middle of a jungle village at night was just the most normal thing in the world. She must have heard his thoughts because before he could say anything, “don’t interrupt, I tried to absorb some more Spine-back remains, a chair and a few other things laying around and nothing happened. Well absorbing the chair helped me reinforce my cover a little. You can feel how solid it is. Actually I was waiting for you to notice and say something but you never did.” Her voice sounded a little disappointed at that last statement but she continued. “I think it only works when I get a feeling about something I should absorb. I think absorbing random things doesn’t always work or at least give me nothing beneficial.”

“You did what last night!” Kaden’s tone was a mixture of surprise and outrage.

“I went for a walk; weren’t you listening. Anyway I tried absorbing a shirt someone just left hanging on some rope and nothing happened. So I went to the place where everyone eats, thinking I would just look around. Then I saw the chair and if you remember I wanted that oak chair back at the fort so I decided to absorb it and now I have this lovely reinforced cover.” Kaden struggled to think of how to respond to what she just told him.

Sighing… “Sofia, you can’t just go around absorbing stuff that belongs to different people. Or at least different friendly people. When they find their things have suddenly gone missing they will grow suspicious. Think about what would happen if you got caught or hurt.” His voice almost sounding like a parent.

“Fine”, she conceded in a not so happy voice.

“All right”, Kaden decided to change the subject. “So far we know that I can enter and exit books and paper. We know I can store a few things in the Grimoire as long as what is stored isn’t alive. We know that I can learn and replicate anything you see perfectly. Finally we can absorb things and possibly incorporate them into the Grimoire. Am I missing anything?”

“You can’t keep your thoughts to yourself, you forgot that.” She added.

“Right, I can send my thoughts to you and you can hear them.” Ignoring her playful remark. “Let me ask, what about the Phinsis toxin and the Mothers-bane venom? Are you able to make more?”

“Since we didn’t absorb the entire Phinsis I can’t create more. What we used earlier was all that I had. I can create more Mothers-bane venom and I did when I absorbed some of the Spine-back remains but not with the chair or shirt.”

“What happened when you absorbed the shirt?” he asked.

“Nothing, it just disappeared. I think something did happen but I am not sure what” she responded.

Thinking for a moment, “I think our best course of action is still to acquire as much knowledge as possible. I will see if I can get Padvor to teach us more about healing, perhaps I can get him to show me how he makes those life-drops. I also want to hunt and let you absorb more creatures but I think we will need to put that off for now as it is a bit too risky.”

The legs and fangs extruding out from the Grimoire disappeared back into nothingness. If anyone were to spot it now they would just see an ordinary pocket sized journal. Kaden safely tucking Sofia away in his front side pocket and went over to join the rest for breakfast.

Breakfast with the entire village was lively as always. Padvor sitting on a stool this morning was chatting away happily about testing the substance Kaden had brought back. He had only used a single drop on a colony of ants and had seen some amazing results.

“Those ants can normally carry five thousand times their own body weight. A single drop introduced into the colony’s water supply… well it would be better to just show you the results.” After breakfast the two of them went over to see the result of Padvor’s experiment. “They look the same as before but looks can be deceiving.” He picked up nearby metal pot and placed in on top of an ant before letting it go. Remarkably an ant that should have been crushed simply moved the pot aside before going about its own business. “I have no idea just how much they have been enhanced. I don’t believe we will experience the same dramatic results as these ants since we are a different species.” Padvor continued after taking a short pause to let all of the information sink into his young companion. “I don’t think it is a good idea for anyone to directly take the substance. It is after all a much stronger version then even the Saint-mothers produce. There is no telling what would happen if a human were to take even the tiniest drop. I still want to run a few more experiments on different species but I think it would be best if we use a diluted version of substance mixed in with a few various other ingredients. I dare hope this may even make us as strong as some of the elites champions from the tribes. We still wouldn’t be a match in open combat but if it’s just running away; why anything is possible.”

Kaden understanding his meaning, “are old kingdom weapons that strong?”

“They are indeed. It is the single biggest reason why the Legion is losing; that and if the tribes unite, Rakan would be significantly outnumbered.” They finished their conversation when Padvor agreed to teach Kaden how to create the life-drops and other methods used to heal when he had the time.

The only good thing resulting from the Spine-back attack was the abundance of resources. The thick leathery hide used to make armor and clothing, the sharp spines on their backs were used for arrow heads and spear points, and finally their meat was extremely nutritious.

In the following weeks Kaden had wandered around the village helping out where he could. Due to this and thanks to Sofia’s help, he had managed to pick up and become proficient with a wide variety of skills. Using what he had learnt and the little knowledge of clothing he possessed from his old world, Kaden went to work creating several sets of comfortable and combat ready clothing.

It took him a few days but he had created several well-fitting pants, a long sleeveless coat with a hood, a couple of short coats, shirts and shoes.

The shoes were particularly unique as Kaden had molded them individually around each of his toes adding metal and tiny claws to the front half of his feet. These modifications afforded him more protection, provided additional grip and would help to confuse any pursuers searching for human tracks.

All of his clothing had two particular traits in common. First most everything had hidden pockets attached everywhere, including a reinforced one over his heart for Sofia. Second he ensured everything was dyed in various patterns of green and brown to help camouflage himself in the Jungle.

The next morning Kaden put on a set of his new clothes smiling to himself feeling like he could take on the world. “I look good!” he muttered to himself.

“You look ridiculous”, Sofia’s familiar voice spoke at the same time.

“That’s because you don’t know what style is”, he responded.

“Judging from what you’re wearing, neither do you.” She teased.

Kaden couldn’t think of a retort so he simply sighed. “Padvor said he wanted to test his new strengthening serum today. Let’s go see if he is ready.” He finished speaking; closing the door behind him.