I sighed as I scrubbed the dirt and blood off my legs. The flexibility of all these joints never ceased to amaze me. I could put all my feet down in front of my body if I wanted to. It certainly helped when it came to cleaning them. I made sure to scrub them as much as I could before I worked on the parts of my abdomen that I could reach.

I couldn’t reach all the way to the upper backside and I sighed again.

Maybe I would need Velariah to help me with that someday…

Maybe my legs could reach it?

I unplugged the stopper to let the dirty water drain. After that, I put it back to allow the tub to fill with clean water once more.

Whelp, time to experiment in the bath, I guess.

I pulled my abdomen up and stuck some silk to the edge of the tub. I turned around, grabbed the threads and held them in the water. This would be my first step.

I had remembered that the properties of the silk would be adjusted to how I wanted it to be and I had wanted it to be water-resistant. I had no idea if it would work or whether something like that was unattainable.

I held the silk in water and saw that it held itself together without issues.

Great, that was that out of the way at least.

I took the silk and wrapped a sponge around my furthest back leg. If this worked, I hoped I could do the other side with the second furthest back leg, considering I was missing the furthest back.

What a hassle.

I grabbed my leg like a broom and started scrubbing my behind. I chuckled at the thought of it. A broom would have quite a bit more surface area than a sponge though.

Maybe I should cover my leg with sponges entirely and use it like a windshield wiper?

That made me chuckle again.

I never would have imagined I could laugh at this body.

While I was scrubbing with the sponge on my leg, I got the genius idea to see if I could reach my spinnerets with my leg. It made me realize that this was probably how spiders spun threads in the first place.

I should have thought of it sooner.

I guided the leg slightly with my arms. I wasn’t completely used to moving it like that and had some trouble guiding it to where it needed to go. I did manage to hit the spinnerets with it and pushed some silk out. I then moved the leg in front of my body and found a thread connecting it to my behind.

Sweet, it actually worked.

That’s going to make things a lot easier.

I clenched and stopped the creation of silk before I shaped the thread into a ball and tossed it outside the tub. I brought forward my legs again and bound the sponge to my second furthest leg on my left side.

Surprisingly, I still managed to reach everywhere I wanted to reach.

This spider girl is getting the hang of life, it seems. I smiled at my small successes.

I was starting to get awfully familiar with this body of mine. It actually made me wonder if I still feared spiders as much as I did back on Earth. I imagined I would be far less freaked out by their weird movements now that I had to move in the same manner.

Then again, those hellspiders were just nasty.

Small ones I would probably be able to live with at this point.

I made sure to clean the area where the two arrows had hit me. I rolled around after cleaning my behind in its entirety and repeated the same process for the underside. This always seemed to be easier than the top side due to how far I was able to bend forward. In the meantime, I scrubbed my human body clean with one of my free hands.

I cleaned the carapace where my legs were connected and the part below my human body. As I was cleaning down there I noticed that my private parts were not where they were before. It seemed there was now a vertical black groove in my carapace. I was confused and tried exploring the area.

Yeah, that was weird. Did that happen after molting or something?

It seemed that my private area had been sucked inward inside my carapace, nothing could be seen from the outside anymore, even if hairs were covering the area. To some degree, I was thankful because I couldn’t accidentally flash anyone anymore. On the other hand, it got me slightly worried as to why it happened. Did it mean they would disappear or something? That would be quite a shock for Velariah if we got to that stage.

I felt my embarrassment rise again.

Why the hell was I thinking about that stuff?

I made sure to rinse with plenty of water, trying to focus on something else entirely. I unplugged the stopper again.

When the filthy water was drained for the second time, it was time to fill up the tub and relax at last.

At least I thought I was going to relax. A knock on the door ruined my experience.

“How’s it going in there Elania?” Velariah’s voice sounded.

“I’m gonna be here for a while. Why, you wanna join?” I taunted her with an evil smile.

If only she could see me.

“I would love to, you gonna open the door?” She sounded hopeful.

“Nope. Maybe some other time.”

“Awwwww, you’re mean!” I could practically hear her pout.

Tee-hee.

“Anyways, you up for a round of that game of yours with Elly after you’re done?” Velariah asked.

“Sure, should be fun.” I replied.

“Cool, Elly and I will have dinner in a while. You’re not interested, right?”

“I’m fine.” I answered. “You guys go ahead.”

I was going to enjoy my time in this tub. If only I could spend all day in it.

Wait, I technically could. Who was stopping me?

Well, eventually Velariah would probably get angry but I’d see then.

For now, relaxing was the name of the game.

Relaxing I did. I leaned against the side of the tub as the water slowly filled it. I turned off the water when it was about full and just let all my worries go.

If only my behind didn’t float. It would have made it slightly easier to get a comfortable position. I switched to my back and held two hands down on the ground as I laid two hands under my head, closed my eyes and relaxed.

I could fall asleep like this.

I don’t know how long I stayed like that. It was probably a long time because I felt like I woke up to knocking coming from the door.

“Elania, you okay in there? It’s been almost three hours.” Velariah sounded anxious.

“Huh, yeah, I’m alright. I’ll be with you in a bit.”

I shook my head rapidly. I had almost fallen asleep.

I turned my body around and looked at my hands.

Yeap, that was the result of almost three hours of bathing. They were wrinkly beyond recognition.

I unplugged the stopper and let the water drain. I stepped out of the tub and moved to the next stage: my hair; my long, red hair.

I still had to get used to seeing so much red in the mirror. My eyes and hair used to be entirely different colors and I could still hardly believe that I was looking at myself. I combed the wet hair thoroughly before I got most of the water out with a towel. After that, I combed it some more and allowed it to dry naturally.

I wondered if this world had some kind of blow dryer?

I used the remaining towels to dry the rest of my body while I picked out a new set of clothes from the paper bags. After I was dried I put them on and unlocked the door. Velariah and Elly were already waiting at the table when I was finished.

“Hope I didn’t make you guys wait for too long.” I haphazardly apologized.

“You did, but I forgive you.” Velariah teased.

“I’m going to need your help creating the game again. I don’t remember half of the possible rolls.’’ She continued, as she handed me a couple of pieces of paper and a pencil.

“Have you explained the game to Elly?” I asked.

“Yep.” She smiled as she put five dice on the table.

“Did she?” I looked at Elly, who nodded.

“You don’t trust me or what?” Velariah pouted.

“Not really. I know how much you like to win. I know you’d do anything to achieve victory.” I grinned.

‘’Hey!’’ She let out.

Elly giggled and watched as I drew the lines and specified the possible combinations on a separate piece of paper, complete with drawings of the dice sides next to it.

It took some time to set up but finally we could play.

It seemed my luck had finally returned, as I completely smashed both of them in the first round. They had to cross off their yahtzees whereas I didn’t. That made victory almost inevitable for me! I even managed to get the bonus points from the top half. This evening was already successful, even if I was going to lose the following rounds.

Ah, seeing Velariah’s face like that was priceless.

The rest of the evening turned into a race between me and Elly. We each won rounds back and forth. Velariah turned up short, even in the one round she did roll a Yahtzee. She was elevated beyond relief upon throwing it, but soon Elly and I rolled one as well.

Her face got even more priceless as the evening progressed.

After five rounds and totaling the scores, it did turn out that Elly won by a slim margin. She had seemed to enjoy the game just as much as Velariah had the first time.

The elf in question seemed to not have a great time. Her visage told me everything I needed to know.

Poor Vel.

We should do this sometime with the others too. Turn it into a nice evening of fun and games, maybe get this world’s variant of snacks and drinks to go with it too. I could even try to teach them some other games, such as Ludo and Monopoly, although, I guess Monopoly would be quite hard, I didn’t know all the values by heart and I’d need a lot of paper.

Chess was another game that came to mind. Although it wasn’t a game for me, I was thinking maybe Valtheril would love it. I believe, in history, the game used to be played by nobles and the likes. Combining that with the fact that the chess pieces closely resembled everything in the modern army here, I concluded it may be fun for him to try.

Grandmaster Valtheril. I chuckled at the thought.

“Are you laughing at me again, El? You’re mean!”

“Actually, I wasn’t, but if you want to believe I was, go ahead.” I smiled.

She pouted again. She was so cute when she was angry!

“Awww, poor Vel.”

I called her Vel because Elly had just gone to the kitchen to make some tea.

“You better make it up to me tonight!” She was still pouting.

“Yeah, yeah, you can sleep in my room.”

“Yay!” She clapped her hands excitedly.

I rolled my eyes in response.

Elly returned with three cups of tea on a platter, together with sugar and a milk pourer.

Seriously, even the cheapest stuff from a supermarket on Earth would beat this, but I wasn’t going to comment on it. After all, this was Elly’s only weak spot, I didn’t want her to feel bad.

“Do we have everything we need in case we go to the dungeon tomorrow?” I asked between sips.

“Hmmm…” Velariah thought aloud. “I think we do. I still have plenty of potions. We got fancy new weapons. I think a silver tier dungeon should be a piece of cake, especially with Nira there to back us up.”

“Great.” I said. “By the way, you didn’t evolve your inherity by any chance, did you? I am not sure yet how exactly it works. Like, how clear is it when you do evolve it?”

“Oh, believe me, you will know when you do. I have evolved it twice so far, but it doesn’t really show in combat yet. I have yet to gain an actual skill.” Velariah explained.

“Huh, then what did you evolve?” I frowned.

“Basically, quality of life stuff. My sword stays sharp and it can’t be chipped or broken.”

“That… actually sounds pretty strong to me.” I answered.

“It is.” Velariah spoke. “It’s extremely useful, but I can’t wait to finally get a skill.”

Yeah, I guessed having a skill would make a huge difference in combat. I wondered what kind of skill she would get. Would it be some kind of weaker version of what Valtheril had? One could only hope she would someday be as strong as her father.

I finished the mediocre tea and decided to call it a day. I bid goodnight to Elly, put the chairs back to where I was previously standing at the table and moved into the bathroom. Velariah followed me like a fly to honey.

I wondered how she would react to what I had in mind.

I hoped I had the guts to go through with it…

I took off my shirt again and put it in the sink where my tag was still waiting. The white-haired elf put her clothes on top of them while I rearranged the pillows. They had turned into a messy spread and I quickly tossed them back together before I let myself sink into them.

“You know, this really isn’t so bad.” I said as Velariah took off her socks.

“What is?” She asked.

“You know, this body and sleeping like this. I don’t miss a bed as much as I thought I would. This is a genius solution to my problem. It’s quite comfortable too.”

“See, I told you your body was not a problem.” She smiled.

“You never said that.” I retorted.

“Strange. I thought I did. Oh well.” She shrugged.

She let herself fall into the pillows as well.

“It never was a problem for me, though.” She smiled as she looked into my eyes.

Oh, she was flirting again.

“I got that notion, yes.” I smiled back.

“I wasn’t lying when I said I think you’re cute, you know?” She seemed to say in defense.

“It’s alright, Vel, I think you’re cute too.”

I rolled my human body to the side and prepared to take her in for a hug. She seemed to be a step ahead of me as she was already moving closer. I took her in for one and turned off the light with a free set of hands.

Hmmm, this actually felt really nice.

It seemed Velariah had also taken a bath. The scent of roses was almost overwhelming when her hair was this close.

“Hold on.” I said softly.

I started to shift my body to my side. It wasn’t an easy task. I had to put several more pillows under my midsection if I wanted to roll to my side. After several minutes of trial and error, I managed to get my body on my side without being uncomfortable. The legs on my right passed under the pillows that Velariah lay on and appeared behind her. The legs on my left joined my arms in the hug and held her legs and her back.

“You done playing?” The elf asked quietly.

I think she was getting annoyed by all the moving I did.

“Yeah, I’m comfortable now.” I whispered back.

I took her in for a hug once more and had my spider limbs join in too. I caressed her back with my feet slowly in affection.

“El, that tickles.” She giggled.

“Oops.” I smiled.

I doubted she could see me, but I had the biggest smile on my face.

“Good night, Vel.” I whispered as I hugged her.

“Good night, Elania.” She whispered back.

My heart started pounding in my chest again as I could feel her breathing mere inches away from my face. I had more or less expected her to make the first move, but it seemed she still respected my words from before.

I waited several minutes with a pounding heart, building up confidence.

I very slowly moved my face closer to hers. Hopefully, she wouldn’t notice.

Then, I put my lips on hers and kissed her.