Silk

The dead spider got stuck halfway through the passage.

In the end, Alice decided to just stretch as much as possible the silk strand binding her to the dead monster’s abdomen, finally managing to dump her bound arm into the glowing pool.

Within a few minutes, the silk had started sloughing off, consumed by the hungry microorganisms in the water, finally giving her a degree of freedom.

She thoroughly washed her inflamed stump, still feeling the numbing sensation starting to suffuse her right arm. Strangely enough, it didn’t seem to be particularly strong despite her wounds having been quite soaked by the dripping fangs of the massive arachnid.

I wonder if it just isn’t a particularly effective venom, or if I’m somewhat immune to it. Not gonna investigate it right now though.

After that, Alice quickly inspected herself, finding a good number of new bruises taking the spot of the fading ones. Her residual limb had also been affected by the rough treatment, the wound had opened once more and there was a bad gash where the rough sides of the carapace had bit into her soft flesh.

She sat down on her stone seat with a huff, she felt weak and quite overwhelmed.

“That was bad, again, not as bad as before but I’ve once again been very lucky. I need more safeguards for the antechamber, and my territory in general. I need to be able to see in there without using my power. At the very least, I proved I can use it faster when under pressure, it’s still not fast enough though! I need it to be a second nature. So, I must also train while doing everything else”.

The tired girl put her face in her hand, only to feel a ticklish sensation on her nose, she looked down and only then noticed that she was still holding the thin pearlescent line of silk that had been attached to the glob of liquid silk. A small smile appeared on her tired face.

“At least I have found a way to go down, haven’t I?”

Over the following hours, Alice undertook the very sorry task of unclogging her only way out of the base, and she did so by breaking down the dead spider into its many components.

When she had finally sorted all the pieces near the pool, her stomach was emptier than ever, the vacant look in her eyes telling more of the experience than a thousand words.

She had managed to get all of the creature’s legs, their metal encased ‘talons’ would surely prove extremely useful as crafting material or even as weapons. She had also ripped away the two sharp fangs of the spider, taking care not to touch them directly and, instead, wrapping them up in the discarded cloth of her first footwraps.

Finally, she had unsuccessfully tried to gather more silk from the abdomen of the monster.

At first, she had tried pulling on the already extruded strand, only resulting in some disgusting ripping sounds from the insides of the carapace; in the end, after psyching herself up for more than half an hour, she broke through the chitinous shell of the monster, only to find an unusable glob of condensed silk. That, in more ways than one, had been very hard to digest for the ichor-covered girl.

After cleaning herself up in the glowing water, she dragged all the unusable parts of the monster into the center of the pool, its light now a veritable flare in the darkness as the glimmers started consuming the remains.

“I wonder if…” Alice whispered to herself, staring at the small heap of severed limbs she had piled close by until, with a dubious expression, she took one of the legs of the spider—in particular the one she had stabbed through its eye—and also submerged it in water.

After that, with her stomach growling, she went back into the antechamber, grabbing her damaged prosthesis and all the dead screechlings that she had tossed on the ground before the fight.

In the center of the cave, she placed one of the two crab legs she had left, filled to the brim with pool water and spider remains. It would hopefully last until she came back to the area.

Skinning things with one hand wasn’t easy.

Over the course of one hour, five out of the eleven screechlings she had collected were chucked into the pond, their foul-smelling insides having contaminated their white and stringy flesh.

The rest, she had managed to more or less butcher, their small and slimy chunks of meat now sat in a small pile on the wide stalagmite stump she had chosen as a kitchen top. She gave them a long and pained look.

Do I really have to do this? I’m basically eating a rat raw.

Had I appeared anywhere else in these damn caves; I could have been eating sashimi right now!

With a dismayed expression on her face, Alice raised her remaining club, soon starting to pulp the meat into a very mushy tartare that would be more easily digested by her stomach.

When she was done, Alice closed her eyes, focusing on her inner mind and retreating into herself, finding solace in the marvelous workings of her own body.

While still in that trance, she numbed as much as possible her entire mouth before she started swallowing the gory paste, focusing less on the nature of it and more on the effect it had on her own body. She felt it as it went down her esophagus and into her stomach, the acids breaking down the meat into the fats and proteins she would need to survive.

Over a span of many hours, Alice used the occasion to improve her control on her own body and cells. She followed and controlled the digestive process, trying to increase its efficiency. Knowing how difficult was finding regular meals in her situation, the young woman experimented on increasing or reducing the speed of her digestion until she finally found a good compromise for her body.

Also, knowing the inherent problems of raw meat, she closely surveyed and reinforced the entire gastrointestinal system; directing and empowering her white cells to slaughter all the organisms that even hinted at being a bacteria or parasite.

Alice lost herself in the sensations of her body, its continuous flow and everchanging stability.

Many hours had passed when she finally went back to her usual consciousness, immediately bombarded by a throng of painful sensations.

Her body felt cold and stiff; trying to move her limbs was like getting bitten by innumerable ants, while her mouth had a lingering metallic taste that instantly had her gagging and heaving. Each and every little sensation was then tied together into a lovely bundle of discomfort by the mind-shattering headache that was squeezing her brain into a pulp.

She had overused her ability. And by a lot.

She instantly elected to ignore the rest of the bats, the skins she had collected were stacked on the top, while the disgusting mess of bones and insides was left on the ground to be discarded later on.

Stumbling, Alice squeezed herself into her ‘bedroom’ while clutching her pained head, soon giving into the fatigue that had been steadily increasing throughout her waking. She closed her eyes, slowly drifting into a silent and dreamless sleep.

When she woke up again, her headache all but gone, the pool was still shimmering as the remains of the spider got slowly consumed by the hungry microorganisms floating in the fluid.

She squeezed out of the alcove and went to work.

The first thing Alice did, after drinking and relieving herself, was clean up the mess she had left on her worktop the day before.

While the innards of the creatures went into the pool, she kept a good amount of the bloody bones and sinew, stashing them into the remaining crab leg as future fuel for the torch. Then, she splashed the glowing water on the bloody trails and pools all over the cave, hoping the organisms would live long enough to cleanse the stone.

When she felt the cave was tidy enough, she moved the palisade and went into the antechamber, checking on the still active torch and collecting some of the shards of stone that littered the floor. She was starting to exhaust her supply.

As she was searching for good pieces through the rubble, her eye caught the glint of metal under the loose rocks. Clearing up the spot, she found its source. Her poor smartphone.

The device was fried, its upper half cleanly bitten through and with evident signs of an electrical short where the phone was intact.

“And you still had some juice” she muttered sadly. “I guess you did your job, huh?”

She still took it back with the rest of the rocks.

The day passed in a frenzy of activities. Alice used most of the loose rubble in the antechamber to wall off the opening to the underwater bore, electing not to use it despite the clean water source it would provide. She felt sick at the sole thought of going back inside the smooth tunnel that had brought her so much pain.

When she was done, Alice retreated back into her home, sat on the usual stone seat, and commenced the arduous task of crafting as many useful tools as possible.

She started from the skins of the screechlings, which she once again reduced to long strips and braided together with the older ones, soon forming a twelve meter-long rope that she hoped would be useful while hunting.

Next, as the pool turned flesh into light, Alice started working on the white bones of the salamander, splintering some with the club and grinding down others on the stone floor, until, after many painful mistakes, in front of her proud eyes laid many smooth and lightweight tools of her creation.

She had managed to replace the rough and brittle limestone knifes of the past with a polished and sharp one made from one of the humeri of the amphibian, it would be her primary weapon since its lighter weight and slightly longer reach would probably allow her to dodge any attack with more ease.

After that, Alice had honed the many ribs of the creature into thin spikes that she could throw at her enemies as a distraction, they were probably too light to be able to actually penetrate anything.

Finally, she had used some of the smaller shards and bones to make a number of needles she hoped would be useful in the future, once she found a way to prepare the hides of the creatures she killed. She definitely wanted to find some new clothes.

While working, Alice incessantly trained her power, focusing on her well of magical energy over and over again until the procedure felt almost automatic to her, the barrier always ready to open at her whim.

As soon as she was finished, Alice glanced at her hand, seeing it blistered and bloodied from her toiling; the thin, white scar on her index finger, gotten from an ill-fated attempt at carving a walking stick on a hiking trip, was now almost invisible under the fresher cuts.

“Hemostasis” she said, feeling the power course through her veins, her open wounds and scrapes turning into fresh scabs, under which her cells produced new skin at an accelerated pace. She smiled.

“Now I just need to improve even more. Next focus is gonna be on the adrenaline. I want to be able to use it at the slightest hint of a fight. Not now though. I need a nap.”

She retreated once more to her den and promptly fell asleep.

You have reached Level 6 in the Biomancer Class.

[…]

You have reached Level 8 in the Biomancer Class.

The connection to your power has been amplified. You have learned the skill Basic Biomagical Instincts. You are granted more insight on matters of magic and flesh.

Nice.

*****

This chapter is officially sponsored by James Walsh. Thank you for the support!