It was around noon- if my understanding of the sun's position... the sun. It wasn't actually Sol, but some other star. I wonder what it's name was? Anyway, the star was straight up in the sky, so it must be mid-day. Anyway, I thought I should look around for some other insect-type creature of some kind that would be able to help out with our military needs in some way. Ambush, traps, camoflauge... something. I thought I might be able to turn them into a drider since my abilities seemed pretty well-suited for that. I left everyone else at home. Djraine wanted to expand the cave through the dirt area and see if it could expand downard, and I was fully supportive. It was always good to support your children in whatever they do, unless it was cruel, of course.

That was probably why I had died in the hospital bed without anyone visiting me. My family hadn't supported me or cared about what I did, or when they did it was condescendingly or aggressive about the timeframe and expectations. Sure, I had people I had been genetically linked to, but since they were abusive and unsupportive, I had disowned them. To be lonely and depressed all the time was better than being actively mistreated. I tried to find friends somewhere to compensate for it, but I was only annoying and probably drove those people from me, just as my family drove me away. I could make sure my children in this world didn't get the same treatment from me. If they were doing something that I couldn't imagine would succeed, I'd still support them. Why tell someone they would fail and shut them down and break their self-confidence? If I supported them and they failed, they might find a different way and succeed that time. Most inventions were either serendipitous or done over countless failures, so why should I think anything else would work any other way when learning without validated research? If one of my children was failing at something and I knew the right way to do it, I would still encourage and support them, but also nudge them towards the correct path by asking questions and letting them answer, so they feel like it was entirely their own accomplishment and be even more confident, and come up with even better things than I was aware of.

I left my lantern in the cave on its alcove, and brought my hoe with me. I needed it to find a stick of the right thickness to affix the hoe head to so when the shaft broke, I could replace it right away. I wanted to bring one of the legitimate weapons we had looted from the corpses of the things that attacked our neighbors, but our torsos weren't the same exact size and shape, so it wouldn't work. The morning star was heavy, and without something to properly affix it to, it would be annoying to carry. I really wanted to bring it with me, though! Leaving the real weapons in the hands of my children, or at least where they were able to get them if the need arose would be fine. I caked some half dry mud onto the hoe since I was really curious about leveling that ability. What could it do at its new level? "Information dirt attack level one".

When I started designing new weapons, which I guess I could do right away with wood... I think I would have to make sure that the elemental attacks I was learning could be used in conjunction with them. Good for me that I memorized different unrealistic weapons from various games and anime that might actually work in this world because of magic. In the real... okay this was the real world too, I guess... on Earth, the weapons couldn't work because they'd be unwieldy and so clunky that it couldn't be used. It's like the art teams just went overboard and didn't think about physics. Ah well, they were interesting to look at and that was the point, I guess. They were good references for what I could realistically use here, though!

...

I had followed the stream along its flow, and eventually it came to about a foot of grass that looked suspiciously like the grass on the other side of the forest where the village farms were. I didn't know if that grass was just a forest border grass or what, but, it was definitely the same stuff. It became patchy and the dirt started mixing with sand, which expanded out as a sandy beach. Looking at the shape of the sand, it looked like it was low tide, and there were lots of shells exposed. There were crabs barely smaller than king crabs wandering around, picking at the shells. I sat back and watched their behavior to see what they would do. One of them picked up some shells similar to scallop shells but with the beautiful multicolored mother-of-pearl of an abalone shell. The crab picked one of the shells up and placed it on its back, and it seemed to stay there. How it stayed in place as anyone's guess. I started walking towards it, and it didn't seem to care.

I picked up the creature in both hands, looking at it. It flailed its legs pointlessly in the air, trying to run away. The crab was very soft and I felt my hands start to get stuck in the creature as its own weight pushed itself down onto my thumb knuckles. I tried putting it down, but it was really sticky and I couldn't let go. Sorry creature, but I have to get you off of me! I shook my hands until my fingers were released from it. It's skin, or... I can't consider it chitin, but whatever it was made of, it felt like it was made of warm but semi-hardened caramel and I was really glad I kept my fingers from getting encased.

There were a few other caramel crabs of various colors. All of them looked semi-transparent for the first inch of their bodies but then red, gray, or blue beneath that. Their legs of course were just the color- walking around on unstable anything wasn't a thing that was going to happen, so it was good that at least their legs were hard. This might be a creature I could turn into a drider! I wasn't expecting a beach or some strange otherworldly poor replica of a hermit crab, but it had the instinct to build hard armor. I could teach it to be a blacksmith... now to find one of these things to turn. I don't want to just kill something and bring it back and birth a new brood, but to just add a single individual, but I also wanted to make sure it was the smartest of the bunch.

It was going to take me awhile to figure out which crab was smarter than the others, that was for sure. Luckily there was enough sunlight left in the day to be able to stick around for a few hours. In my bored research, I had an itch on my abdomen, and I rubbed it with my back legs. It felt rough on the sides... I hadn't noticed that before, but I did feel little tiny bumps under the hair. I wondered... were these my utricating hairs like the tarantulas had? I was part prehistoric wolf spider, or something that looked like one. The fossils we had found showed spiders of the size I was, or close to it, but they had a different shape than I had at the time. I must have been a species not discovered. Well, most species are forgotten and don't leave fossil evidence so it shouldn't surprise anyone. After watching for awhile, I think I figured out which one I'd take. I picked up the thing and brought it with me so it was away from the others so I didn't get accidental spray in something I didn't intend. I guess it didn't actually matter, but we still shouldn't grow our numbers to a point we can't feed everyone. One new drider. That's it.

The crab started trying to run back to the water and shells, but I ran in front of it and rubbed my hairs, trying to fling them at it and infect it with my Plague Bearer abilities. I failed, but I was able to run around a bit more, herding it to stay in place. It sat down. I heard the shells clack on a rock below it that had only slightly stuck out of the sand. I was getting anxious, and that was what reminded me- a tarantula doesn't fling hairs or even have the ability unless it's frightened- now I should rub! I did. A lot. Probably too much, actually. But I felt the bumps raise, and my sides get rubbed raw by my own legs. I looked at the crab, and it looked like at least a few of the hairs hit and got stuck in it. I don't think the hairs penetrated its internal structure like utricating hairs did to humans, but I hoped it didn't matter. Hopefully the caramel-like outside would break down the hairs, or get infected by it, and turn the creature. It would take some time, I expected.

I left the creature there, hoping that once it became a drider it would join my hive-mind and I could call it home. I was confident. I wondered if I could find anything else...