Elysa, don’t accidentally cause me to evolve. I’m merely checking my options right now.

I was currently staring at my blue squares as the elf was working on what I assumed would be her dinner in the oven. I hoped my venom wouldn’t spoil her meal, but then again, I reckon cooking it properly would nullify it.

Besides, it appeared she could use magic.

She should be fine.

This rainbow jumping spider evolution was the only new one that had popped up. It was also by far the most interesting one I had seen so far.

There was only one downside to it.

And that was, that in theory, it would be more valuable to put this off as long as possible.

The reason for that was simply because picking up other evolutions would grant me access to more different enhancements. All these enhancements could then be improved to the same level through the rainbow spider evolution option.

It seemed that the power of that evolution would increase the more different types of evolutions I’d been through.

And I was confident that the option would show up again. I had gotten the green and purple options twice in a row, and the green one three times.

So I would pick one of the other two.

The question was, which?

Before all this bad luck I’d experienced, I would have likely picked the green one.

However… getting hit by a magical attack which, indirectly, almost resulted in my death had me wondering. There seemed to be more benefits to the purple option this time around. I, for one, assumed that the mana reserve increase it offered now would be better than before.

With the purple option also came an increase to magic resistance, seemingly for free. This would be very much welcome as the magic resistance enhancements were quite expensive.

Then there was the language skill.

None of these evolutions specifically listed them, but if I had to gamble on one of them offering the skill, it’d be the evolution that specialized in magic.

For all I knew, they could either both offer it, or none would.

Elysa, do my skills influence my evolution options?

That, at least, was confirmation that I had not missed out on any evolutions by not leveling certain enhancements.

I may have missed out on a special evolution or two, but I had to admit that this rainbow evolution seemed quite powerful in itself.

I see.

What made me unlock the rainbow evolution?

Oh, so it was a good thing I’d killed my own mother…

Or whatever she was. She certainly wasn’t my mother.

And then there was this hawk…

I wasn’t going to try to kill one again anytime soon. That was more of a…

I didn’t even know what to call it. Coincidence?

That didn’t quite feel right…

I waited as the elf ate her… dinner?

What time was it?

I looked at the window and noticed darkness creeping in. It was certainly already evening.

After her dinner, the elf went about with what seemed to be her profession. She stirred the pot on the stove every now and then, and added a log two or three times. When she was finished with her mixture, she poured a green-looking liquid on a flat plate and set it on the table.

She then pointed at it, then at me, before shaking her head.

Yeah, I wasn’t going to try to eat that, either way.

She performed a few more actions that seemed to be the work of an alchemist. She mixed different liquids together with care and then dripped a few drops in the liquid on the plate.

After that, she walked to the bookshelf and searched for a tome which she then started reading.

I skittered over to her hand and peeked over it to see if I could read any of the text.

The answer was no.

These letters… they didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t read a single word.

The elf giggled and ran her finger over my back, stroking the hairs that were on my body.

I, in the meantime, was wondering if this so-called language skill would also allow me to read.

That might be an extremely important factor in my search. Although, I guess it would be hard to come by any texts.

After some time of reading, the elf bookmarked her current page with a piece of paper and closed it. She then made a gesture that wasn’t too hard to understand.

She put both hands together, placed them at the side of her head, and tilted her head while closing her eyes.

She was going to sleep.

Fortunately for me, she didn’t put me back in my cage. Instead, she simply left me behind as she went through the door before closing it again.

I should go to sleep as well. I had the perfect way to fall asleep at my disposal, too. How fortunate.

Before confirming my evolution, I made sure to enhance my regeneration by another level, bringing my evolution points down to 15. It was still a decent amount, but enhancements started getting more expensive at higher levels.

A pleasant warmth flowed through my body as the skill was increased.

I then prayed to the goddess that this language skill would appear in my enhancements.

I’d finally found someone I could communicate with and well… she didn’t seem afraid of me. That helped, I guess.

Maybe she could help me with my quest.

I still had a long way to go, though. I wondered how big I would be after this evolution.

I went through my enhancement options one last time to make sure I’d gotten all my evolution-specific ones. After that, I confirmed that I wanted to go for the large purple jumping spider evolution.

I felt a sharp pain starting from my abdomen ripple across my body. Fortunately, I didn’t have to experience it for long, as within seconds, I was knocked out cold.

____________________________________________________________________________

When I awoke, the first thing I noticed was a figure looming over me.

I shook my body and forced my vision to focus. I noticed the purple-eyes elf’s face up close.

I felt a finger poke my rear.

She looked… worried? Surprised?

I could imagine both.

I stood up and heard her mutter some more words.

I’m fine, I’m fine!

I raised my pedipalps and made the vertical gestures again. She looked relieved after that.

I was happy she seemed to realize that it was still me. I mean, I had changed color completely, after all.

And size…

I seemed to be quite a bit bigger now.

She leaned back in her chair again and started talking in disbelief. I couldn’t understand a word. I decided to check my skills and possible enhancements in the meantime.

The list that opened in the blue square before me was enormous. It took me a while to get to the bottom of it.

Once I got to the bottom though…

I cheered in my mind and confirmed that I wanted to enhance the Elven language comprehension. I then started dancing,

My legs…

It seemed they had regrown completely.

I was filled with joy, right before I felt as if lightning shot through my head. I promptly stopped dancing in shock and stood still again, facing the elf who was just finished talking to herself.

The elf sighed as she leaned forward again.

“What an odd little spider you are, aren’t you?”