I carried Cellestra through the forest, avoiding vegetation where I could. There were several stinging nettles that didn’t affect me in the slightest, but the elf’s ankles were exposed so I was avoiding them where I could.

Despite all that, I still skittered through the forest at a brisk pace. I would have liked Cellestra to talk some, but she remained mostly quiet. It was probably the smarter option.

I did notice that after a while of traveling, and her becoming more used to how my movements worked, she started slowly moving her hands through my hair. From the forward-facing look in her eyes, she was doing it absent-mindedly.

I couldn’t help but enjoy it as I traveled for a few hours. When I got near the area where I’d last seen the humans, I slowed down, and lowered my abdomen as low as I could to at least prevent it from being spotted too easily. I doubted anything would spot me first though. I had four pairs of eyes, and thermal vision to my advantage.

“I assume this is around where you saw them last?” Cellestra asked quietly.

I nodded with my limbs.

“Alright, if that’s the case, could you let me off, please?” She continued with a low voice.

Without objection, I fully lowered my body so she could step off. She then followed closely beside me and we scoured through the nearby area, looking for any tracks.

It didn’t take long before we found some. We reached the exact site where they’d made camp when I had seen them earlier, and there were footprints nearby.

Once more, the level of detail that this new vision brought with it was a boon. As much as being a spider wasn’t preferable, these eyes were far better than my old ones. Better vision wasn’t so bad, I guessed.

Maybe it was a sign of slowly coming to terms that this was going to be a part of my new life.

I quickly pushed away the thoughts as I followed a specific track. I didn’t want to be distracted while I followed this track further south. Cellestra, without saying a word, followed me as I went. The footsteps went through vegetation in a seemingly straight line. The person to whom these belonged didn’t seem to care.

Fortunately for me, it didn’t make a difference. I could still see them clearly. Cellestra wisely walked around a few nettles while I kept tracking them.

We had to walk for about thirty minutes, but eventually, Cellestra stopped me dead in my tracks with a hand on my head. She pushed a finger against her lips indicating for me to be silent. It appeared her elven ears had picked up something.

Apparently, my hearing had gotten worse with my new form.

The elf walked forward while motioning me to stay put. She crouched forward through the dense vegetation that was in this area. If there were humans here, I guessed I was lucky for her to have such sharp hearing. I would probably be hidden from them where I was.

I kept a close eye on the elf until she reached a few bushes and a tree. She knelt behind said tree and glanced at me, before I saw her attention shift to the sounds that she was apparently hearing. She remained there for a good twenty minutes before she slowly crept back to where I was waiting, my body as low to the forest floor as it could get.

“It’s humans,” Cellestra whispered. “There are four of them, and from what I can hear, one of them is not a bandit. I couldn’t see them, but I think they have a slave with them. As far as I can tell, anyway.”

A slave? A human slave?

“Do you think you can immobilize all four of them?” Cellestra whispered. “From what I heard, there are several groups of scouts in the forest, making sure no guards can foil their plans. Assuming that is true, there shouldn’t be anyone nearby.”

If that was the case, I shouldn’t have too many issues overpowering these humans and restraining them with my thread manipulation skill. Even if they were to run, I would be far faster than them anyway.

I replied to her with a nod of my pedipalps. I would first catch and restrain them. We would then see what to do with them.

I had set my mind to do this. Now, it was time to pull through.

“Are you okay?” Cellestra asked, seemingly concerned.

I nodded, which caused her to ask another question. “Are you ready?”

Yes. It was time to get this done.

I nodded once more before skittering forward through the vegetation. Soon enough, three humans sitting around a campfire, with one human standing up, came into view.

The three humans that sat on the ground were, much like the humans I’d met earlier, drinking and feasting around a campfire, while the fourth stood, facing away from them and me.

The standing human seemed to be wearing nothing but rags and had a short, wooden spear with a metal tip. I could clearly see a slave collar around his neck. I’d, unfortunately, run into more than a few of those in my old world.

The others were at least somewhat armored with chain armor and a variety of weapons. One of them had a crossbow next to him in the dirt, while the others seemed to have swords in scabbards strapped to their belts. It was easy to see that these men were part of the bandit group that I’d seen earlier. Their unclean, bearded faces, behavior, and similar armor, were more than enough confirmation for me. It didn’t take long for the first human to notice me.

From there, things happened in a matter of seconds.

One of the humans saw me and his face went pale while he stood up and reached for the pre-loaded crossbow that sat in the dirt next to him. The other sitting humans stood up in reaction to the first man standing up and looked over at me as well. Despite the first man’s shaky hands, he found the will to somewhat aim the crossbow at the human who’d been standing the entire time, and released the bolt which pierced into his calf.

“Slave, stay here!” He yelled with a crack in his voice as he dropped the crossbow and jolted away in the other direction, joined by his two companions.

The human in rags screamed in pain and turned his head to face me. His face, too, went pale when he saw me. I saw him try to move his uninjured leg, but it refused to move. It was the effect of the slave collar, I knew it. This poor guy wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.

Wait, did I just view a human as ‘poor’?

I mean, he was a slave, but he was still a human…

I immediately ignored it and jumped forward, landing close to the slave. He raised his spear, ready to stab me, but I ignored him. Instead, I gave chase to the three scoundrels that ran away.

It only took me a few seconds to catch up to them. I had my eyes fixated on the bandit who’d shot the slave. Everything this guy had done was dishonorable. He didn’t deserve to get out of this alive.

I fired threads at all three of them at the same time, which connected to their backs and then to the ground, causing them to trip and fall. The two still-armed humans unsheathed their swords, but my rage was directed at the third.

I summoned more threads to keep the two humans down, while I jumped on the last, pinning him down with my legs, and rolling him over to force him to face me.

I forced him to look at my massive spider face and saw him shiver as all the blood drained from his face. I then stabbed him in the chest with my legs, easily piercing his armor and inflicting lethal wounds.

This guy deserved nothing but death. He was lucky that I was a knight in my old life or I would have given him the suffering he deserved. His screams of pain and fear soon died down as his life ebbed away.

You have killed a Human Bandit: EXP+436

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 2!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

I ignored the message, but did take notice that this apparently gave experience. I then turned my attention to the other two humans. They had their swords drawn, but were shaking. They had obviously never seen something like me before.

“Stay back, you monster!” One of them said with a voice that was just as shaky as their body. He stabbed his sword in the air in my direction, trying to scare me off.

I summoned more silk and bound his arms to his body. I did the same for the other bandit and watched as their eyes showed even more shock at what was going on. When the other human was about to open his mouth to speak, I summoned thick threads around both of their mouths and wrapped them around their heads, muting them. I then wrapped up their feet, completely immobilizing them, before summoning two threads which I connected to them as I walked back to where Cellestra was waiting, the humans in tow.

I left the dead human for the scavengers.

Let us see what these three remaining humans knew.