“Well,” Cellestra said with a smile, “Judging from their names, it’s not hard to figure out how they came up with yours.”

“It is quite obvious, isn’t it?” I replied.

“Yep.”

“How about your parents?” I asked.

“Brown hair, both of them. My mother’s got blue eyes, whereas my father has green. Though, as you know, I did not inherit these eyes from either of them.”

“That much I was aware of.”

Cellestra smiled at my comment before sighing. “Seems I’m in pretty much the same boat as you. I have no idea what they would say if they saw me. Unfortunately, I can’t visit their village as long as this curse is on me.”

“I’ll help you find a way to get rid of it,” I said with conviction before even thinking twice.

“I…” Cellestra started as she looked down at my thorax. “I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s fine,” I said, trying to cheer her up. “You can tell me their names, for starters.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” The elf snapped back to attention. “Aerlen and Zivea.”

“Beautiful names,” I let out. “Seems they must have had more issues with yours than my parents, though,” I smiled at my joke. It was unfortunate that Cellestra couldn’t see it.

I could, however, see her reaction, which was a smile. “Yeah, I guess so.”

When we entered an area where the trees were more sparse and I looked up to the sky, I noticed that the sun was getting fairly low over the horizon already. We’d already traveled for hours and we still had some more to go. I imagined that we’d get home just shortly before nightfall at this rate.

As we traveled further and silence fell over us once more, I decided to try out what we’d been talking about earlier. I held one of my arms stretched forward and tried to summon water in the same way that I could summon the flame spell that would illuminate my surroundings. I was moderately successful in that a small stream of water was created from my finger which then dripped onto the ground.

“Well, there we have our answer,” Cellestra said.

“So it would seem. This has got to be quite useful.”

“No doubt.”

I was about to hold the stream of water up to my mouth to drink it, when I noticed something large with my thermal vision between nearby shrubberies. I came to a halt and stared at the plants with my spider eyes.

“What is it?” Cellestra asked.

“Saw some movement. I’m gonna check. Make sure to hold on tight.”

I felt Cellestra’s grip on my hair tightening as I skittered over to where I’d seen the movement. When I got close enough to the shrubbery, I could make out a set of tusks that were a key feature of one of the animals I’d already hunted.

Without hesitation, I summoned an earthen spike under the target. I noted that the spell’s strength wasn’t as great as it had been before, but it still seemed enough to finish off this creature. Then again, I was aiming for its weak spot…

You have killed a Large Forest Boar: No experience was awarded.

“Thanks, Elysa. As if I didn’t know that.”

“Huh?” Cellestra asked, confused.

“Oh crap, I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

“You kinda did.”

“That was to my blessing. It provided me with the information that that boar didn’t give me any experience. I sometimes respond to it in my mind. It appears I still have a while to go before I realize I have this new part of me.”

“Probably,” Cellestra replied. “But that can’t be a bad thing.”

“Definitely not. I’m happy there is something like this to get used to in the first place.”

I skittered over to the boar and used my pedipalps to drag it out of the shrubbery. I then proceeded to tear it open and expose its flesh.

“I hope you’re not scared at the sight of blood,” I said as I started tearing away at the meat with my spider head’s teeth.

“I’ll be fine. Besides, there’s not much I can see from up here.”

“Now that you mention it, I’m watching myself eat from a distance. How weird is that?”

I was currently observing how I was tearing small pieces of meat from the boar which were then sucked in by my stomach. The fact that I could observe it was strange in itself, but I could also feel and taste everything.

“Quite,” Cellestra said. “I believe you said you were thirsty. Why not make this even weirder and drink at the same time?”

“That’s not actually a bad idea. Thanks.”

While I was eating, I brought my finger above my elven mouth and started a stream of cold, fresh, water which I eagerly drank. When I had enough I turned my head to the elf behind me.

“You’re right. This does make things even weirder.”

Cellestra giggled.

“Bet you can’t do this,” I said with a smile.

“Afraid I cannot.”

I continued my lunch while watching what I was doing to the boar. It felt nice to finally have something to fill my stomach, but the fact that eating took so much time made me anxious. I wanted to get Cellestra home as soon as possible.

“Sorry for this,” I apologized in earnest after about ten minutes of eating.

“For what, exactly?” Cellestra didn’t seem to realize what I was on about.

“Taking so long. We’ve still got a while to go and I know we’ll be home late as it is.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine. I doubt I’ll get cold with such a coat of fur all around me.”

The elf ran a hand through my hair, which made me close my eyes as I enjoyed her touch. Oh, goddess, when could I tell her?

My feelings remained unchanged. I should probably talk to her about this somewhere soon. I thought it was fair that she’d know how I felt. I just… I didn’t know when would be a good time.

For now, I thought it would be best to shove it aside, at least for a bit while I got used to this body, and how it would affect my plans. Since I could still grow stronger through the devour ability, I figured I should at least put some time into that as well. I could view it as… training.

Training used to be part of my daily routine, but for some reason, I didn’t feel like it would have much of an effect on this body. As weak as I felt overall after some of my power had been sacrificed in order to make my physique look like this, I felt… quite strong in my elven torso. I was confident that what part of me was the same as before I died, was actually stronger than it had been back then.

Wait, why didn’t I just ask?

“Hey, Elysa, do my passive strength skills also work on my elven torso?”

Affirmative.

“Wait. Even the ones that sound like they shouldn’t? Like, layered exoskeleton plating?”

Affirmative.

“Does that mean that my skin is just as tough as my exoskeleton?”

Affirmative.

“How the hell does that even work?”

I heard giggling coming from behind me. “You’re doing it again.”

“What are y— Oh, crap.”

“I have a lot to learn, it seems,” I said as I shook my head.

“It’s funny, though!” Cellestra admitted. “What was that monologue all about?”

“I just checked something with my blessing. It said that my elven parts are just as strong as my spider parts. I have no idea how that works, but my blessing hasn’t ever lied to me. It provided incomplete, or vague information, sure, but it hasn’t lied.”

“So,” Cellestra started, then paused. “You’re saying that a sword to your skin would do nothing?”

“That’s what it looks like. Hold on, let me try something.”

I finished what was left of the boar, minus the meat that I just couldn’t imagine eating, and skittered through the forest once more. In the meantime, I removed the dagger from my back with two of my legs and moved it to my arms. I then removed my multi-barrier spell from myself.

“I know what you’re about to do, just be careful,” The elf said as I unsheathed the golden dagger.

“I’m not going to just plunge it in. What were you expecting?” I said. I realized that might not have been the appropriate response to someone who obviously cared about my safety. I noticed Cellestra didn’t take offense to my words which was a relief.

I held the dagger up to my elven stomach and tried to stab, albeit lightly. I knew gold wasn’t the best metal for weaponry, far from it, but it should be able to at least penetrate elven skin. This dagger, however, seemed to bounce right off my skin. It still indented it slightly, but it just wouldn’t pierce.

I tried stabbing, again and again, applying slightly more force each time but found that none of my attacks would actually wound me.

“This is getting weirder and weirder,” I let out.

“You could say that again,” Cellestra said as she watched what I was doing.

“Skin that is as tough as, or well, tougher than iron, I guess. What’s next?” I asked no one in particular.

Cellestra chuckled. “Probably won’t take too long before we find out.”