Chapter 7. Bonanza

It took some hours and three more journeys back and forth to get everything inside the cave.

Even brought the girl with me too. I just couldn’t leave her there at the mercy of who knows what. I didn’t want that shit in my conscience, what was left of it anyways.

Once I was back on the cave, I happily started examining the spoils of the day:

Two corpses of Shadow Panther. One corpse of Venomous Lebrilope. And one unconscious teenager.

The firsts two were destined to become food, and the third was an opportunity. Or so I hoped.

But please, let me explain:

When it came down to diplomacy and introductions, the most important thing was making an unforgettable first impression. Either being feared or loved was advantageous, but I didn’t need a certificate in marketing to know that ‘the horrible monster’ wasn’t a good title to go walking around. If I had a human body, I could just blend in with the crowd, but looking like this no way that was possible. So, when the time came, and I made my introductions to the people nearby, I needed to make sure my actions would speak louder than my looks.

So, on my way back to the cave, I formulated a four-step-plan in preparation for First Contact.

Step 1. — Improve looks.

Let’s be real; most people won’t kill a bunny at first sight because it’s cute but change that fluffiness with a human-sized spider and I bet their first impulse will be fetching fire. Though I have to confess, I was also a bit selfish in this regard. The other alternative for this part of the plan was going for the ‘meaner looks’ as a deterrent instead, but come on! If wanting to become pretty was now a crime, I declare myself guilty.

Step 2. — Learn to speak.

It’s said that communication is the first barrier between strangers, and that couldn’t be any more fitting to my situation. Currently, one of my more pressing problems was the lack of information and the means to acquire it. I needed to consider the possibility that I may as well be overreacting, after all, I was very paranoid. Perhaps in this world, humans developed differently than the ones on Earth and here spiders were even considered sacred beings that mustn’t be harm. Who knew? Certainly, I didn’t, and I wished to understand how peculiar my existence in this world was so that I could make better plans for my future actions. Thus, to find out, I required learning the language.

Step 3. — Don’t get caught.

This one was self-explanatory. Just the fact that I was considering doing this was a testament to how twisted my morality had become. The two steps mentioned above required the procurement of certain ‘unconventional foods’ to gain those qualities, and it was paramount to the success of the mission that I wasn’t discovered obtaining these specimens.

Step 4. — Use the babies.

And finally, if everything else failed, I would use the creatures at my disposal as a distraction. With any luck, that would give me enough time to run away and live the rest of my days in peaceful solitude.

That was the plan anyway. I never said it would be a good one, but if someone were to get killed and eaten because all of this, it definitely wouldn’t be me.

They were staring at me, or so I thought. I could never be sure with these things.

It had been approximately ten minutes since the last egg hatched, and I was marveling at the mystery of nature from a safe distance. To describe what came out of the eggs as nightmare horrors would be admitting the fact that I was horrible as well, something that although truthful, was difficult to accept due to a matter of pride and self-worth.

These worms were shaped very similarly to how I was before my evolution. Though their skin was black and rough as a rug, and at the front of their bodies, they had a bright red orb that I supposed served as an eye.

Since it would take a while longer until the food was ready for consumption, I decided to make experiments controlling them first.

All right, time to test this thing.

[ Move ]

[ Follow me ]

[ Stop ]

The worms acted as instructed, and after a couple of more tests, it got apparent that the thought behind the order was more important than the words themselves. Still, just as I was getting used to controlling them around, I noticed a flaw in my previous plan. Issuing orders required all of my attention to that specific worm; otherwise, they would wander around the cave and do as they pleased. I could keep these two on a tight leash, and probably even a third one, but any more than that would become a severe burden. If I didn’t trust my instincts to lead all the way, the hell I was going to put my confidence in theirs.

[ Eat ]

I ordered them to start eating from one of the panther’s corpse. The difference in size between them was considerable, and in no doubt, the panther alone would be enough to help them grow.

The other two corpses were for me; after all, I still needed to keep evolving, but since I wasn’t hungry yet, I decided to tend to the girl instead.

While taking away her tattered clothes, I found it somewhat peculiar how similar her garments were to those in Earth’s history. She dressed four separate pieces of clothing, a long-sleeved white blouse, black leathered pants and boots and beneath all of that, a single item of underwear that covered all her body, from shoulders to knees.

These aren’t clothes to be out in the woods. Why was she there?

The girl was paled as milk, but there was no indication to think that that was out of the ordinary. If I had to place an age on her, I guessed her to be around fifteen years old. Her face was oval-shaped and of simple traits, though something on her hair was alluring and attracted my attention. It had a mixed color of a black and faint greenish radiance like the carapace of some beetle. My first thought was the use of dyes, but on close inspection, just like her ghost-like appearance, the eerie hair was part of her usual self.

Odd.

Next, I checked her entire body for wounds, but as I’d smelled previously, her left arm was the only source of blood. She had two injuries in it. The first one was located at the elbow, but the marks were shallow and barely grazed her, so no need to worry about them. The second bite, however, seemed severe. The panther’s teeth had landed on her left hand and managed to chop off both the ring and little fingers of it. The wound had stopped bleeding on its own, and all that was left now was a dirty stump. Carefully, I carried the girl towards the water and put her arm and clothes to be washed over by the stream.

What am I doing? Just by bringing her here, I made her life my responsibility. I should have carried her to where the smoke was coming from and left her there. Eventually, someone is going to come searching for her, and then I’ll be fucked. How I’m going to explain this?

Calm down; I need to calm down.

The girl’s breathing, pulse, and temperature were all in the clear. She was going to make a fast recovery as long nothing else happened. Then, for some unknown reason, while thinking about possible threats, my eyes wandered to the pair of worms eating like starving vultures at the back of the cave.

[ Ignore her ]

I ordered, and for a second they stopped swallowing, as if they were confused, but resumed their activity moments later. I just hoped that would be enough.

While waiting for my appetite to kick in, I tried to occupy my mind on other matters.

Archival Inspection Species: Arachnaut Sex: Male Tier: 1 Level: 1 Archival Inspection Species: Arachnaut Sex: Female Tier: 1 Level: 1

I scanned the worms again using the Archival, but no extra information was displayed. I’d the hope that since they were technically my children, I would have access to more details about their attributes and skills, but it seemed that I was wrong. Curiosity was filling me up to find out if the worms had inherited at least one of my two blessings, though I seriously doubted it.

Should I name them?

The thought occurred to me in a spur moment after I’d gone distracted. As I had previously stated, naming things wasn’t amongst my fanciful qualities. I tried, but after half an hour, I gave up, settling to called them Alpha and Beta, according to the respective order in which they came out of the egg.

Alpha finished eating his share before Beta and proceeded to do the same thing some of my siblings did at the time, I included. When the requirements were met, evolving was the only wise choice to pick. Even they could understand that. As expected, the panther provided them with enough biomass to achieve the first evolution milestone.

I had my reservations about how far we could evolve, considering that which each evolution the costs went up.

Both Alpha and Beta retired to opposite corners of the cave before turning into cocoons and beginning their molting process. Seeing such behavior caught me off guard until I remembered the same feeling of discomfort I had when I evolved right next to my other siblings.

[ Arachnid don’t kill arachnid ]

Just to be safe.

I took my eyes away from them and started eating my share, and as always, it was delicious. If I didn’t know better, I would say there was even a mild narcotic mixed with my gastric fluids, making it always taste this good.

Though it hadn’t been long since the last stream of messages flew in sight, I was still getting used to it.

[ Assimilation ] — Ability [ Lesser Venomous Bite ] evolved to [ Venomous Bite ]!

[ Assimilation ] — Ability [ Stealth ] obtained!

[ Assimilation ] — Trait [ Piercing Fangs ] obtained!

Pleased with the results obtained from dinner, I did with their pelts the same thing I did with the boa: washed in the stream. Let it not be said that I like living surrounded by rotting corpses.

And after I was done with the task, I went to sleep.

A scream woke me up on the next morning.

“Al’ajansa da p’o!” She constantly shouted.

Not surprisingly, the girl had taken shelter atop a big stone and was trying to fend off Beta with a long stick. Apparently, the order I gave them last night was still in effect, and both Alpha and Beta were ignoring the girl to the point they would even try walking over her as if she was just part of the environment.

I allowed this encounter to happen this way because I wanted to see the girl’s reactions to us, and the results were just as I feared.

Now that I knew my assumptions weren’t unfounded, and that our common sense was somewhat similar, I could start deciding what to do with her.

I had two options.

One, returning her to where the smoke was coming from, and hope for the best. Or two, leave no witnesses and still wish for the best.

I decided to do neither.

Simply put, I still needed to gather more information. The consequences for either of the two options were unclear. If I could get away with leaving the girl alive, that was fine by me. But on the other hand, I didn’t want to become some sporting trophy for anyone who heard the story from her. Killing her, however, could still bring me troubles.

Deciding what to do next, I activated [Stealth] to sneak all the way around the cave’s wall and get myself behind her. This moment would have been an excellent opportunity for a ‘boo’ joke, but my current mood was somewhat somber for the humor. Instead, I quickly lunged two of my legs forward around her neck, and choke her out after causing a syncope.

Shit, I almost broke her neck.

The difference of strength between the two of us was abysmal. Comparing the girl’s soft skin and my exoskeleton was pointless. If I didn’t kill her by accident just now, only was because I knew very well how fragile humans are.

Though, I guess is good knowing that the anatomy is still the same.

I placed the girl on the ground and steadfastly left the cave. Before leaving, I ordered Alpha to stand in front of her so, in case she woke up before I returned, she wouldn’t just run away.

Beta, who was also now a full arachnaut, came with me to check the direction where the smoke was coming from yesterday. We rushed jumping between the tree twigs, heading north. This time, however, there was no smoke in sight.

We arrive around ten minutes later to an open path, carved in the middle of the forest. The woods around here were chopped off, and the dirt was covered with gravel. The idea was simple; this was a road. In it, there was a convoy of three caravans, scorched to a black crisp. Bodies of dead horses and other people scattered all around, with the indication a fight had broken out in this place. But against what? What creature could do this?

Just naturally, the questions were starting to pile up; this wasn’t what I’d expected to find.

There was a forth caravan some meters away from my position that I had missed. Unlike the others, this one wasn’t burnt, but one of the iron wheels had come off, causing the cart to crash into the woods. In a close inspection, the fire had been at least hot enough to melt part of the wheel, bulging it.

Somethings were starting to make sense, though. The girl wearing unfitting clothes running deep into the forest was one of them.

I counted six human bodies in total, and one pair of horses for each wagon, all of them dead.

As bad as the scenery was, corpses rotting under the sun, dark stained patches of blood sunk into the ground, and the smell of burnt flesh and hair, I did not puke. I was revolted, certainly, but also intrigued to investigate what the hell had happened here.

Even from a very young age, I was accustomed to scenes like this. Perhaps it was the murder of my parents when I was little that made me this way. I wouldn’t say that witnessing a traumatic event will turn every child into a psychopath, but it broadened my view of the real world.

Seeing this carnage, the memory of my parents bleeding out on the street crossed my mind in a flash. I remembered something inside my head stirred back then. That the gears in my brain started moving, and the bubble I knew for world shattered, revealing a crueler and scarier place.

Perhaps that was also the reason why I graduated in medicine and later chose to specialize in surgery. The strange girl who always sat at the front of the class and had a fascination with blood? Well, that was me. Cutting a person open and holding their lives in my hands? That was a power like any other.

I remembered I even got teased on numerous occasions by my other classmates using my name in puns mixing it with the words ‘morgue’ and ‘organ,’ though they stopped after they realized I was rather fond of the nicknames. Now in retrospect, I think they were afraid of me. After all, ordinary people wouldn’t do many of the things I did at the time.

And certainly, they wouldn’t consider what would come next.