I shook the mice awake with a literal explosion as the fireball impacted in their center. Three blue squares popped up immediately.

I didn’t have time to read them, as two mice still lived. They seemed to have caught some part of the blast, but they yet lived.

And they seemed angry.

Good thing I was prepared for this.

As soon as they had recovered, they charged at me. I feigned retreat and jumped up above the web.

Both of the mice seemed to have fallen for my trap. I imagined part of the success was thanks to the fireball completely taking them by surprise.

Either way, I had two mice stuck in my stronger webs. They struggled, but I knew they were not getting out of that.

I finished them off by cutting into their necks with my strong legs.

I took some time to read the messages now that it was quiet.

It appeared that the mice had started giving reduced experience, which was quite a bit of a bummer, but I couldn’t complain. All that had still given me a level, so I was happy. There were only four levels to go until my next evolution, and I still had plenty of time left this day to work towards it.

I did stay in the burrow for a while to recover my lost mana. In the meantime, I moved the mice that were stuck in the web and laid them on their charred allies.

I also took another look at my available enhancements.

I’d already reduced the immense list from before by quite a bit. I had plenty of points that I could spend on the actual spells. I decided to do just that. I got the highest level physical barrier and ice lance. I also decided to get the next level of spider thread while I was at it.

I did this over the course of several minutes, of course. I had learned my lesson.

With all those enhancements being forced upon my body, I saw the list before me shrink to a fraction of what it was before. I would have smiled at the sight if I could. It made me feel like I had accomplished something.

I was still slightly worried over the fact that all of these new enhancements were very much focused on offense. This evolution didn’t seem to put any emphasis on defense from physical attacks besides the barrier spell.

Speaking of barrier spell…

I cast the new level of the physical barrier that I’d just acquired and felt the ever-so-familiar magic surround and envelop my spidery body.

I could feel this one was much stronger than the previous one I had already. I would still have to be careful, but I knew I could take a few hits with this.

I tried casting the magic barrier that I knew, but its mana requirement to cast was far too high. I was going to have to rely on that showing up in my enhancement list at some point.

I finished my preparations and exited the burrow.

I then continued my hunt for experience.

Then I ran into something.

Or rather, it ran into me.

A jumping spider, smaller than the size I’d been in my previous evolution skittered up to me and stood still. I was about to jump on it to kill it when something odd happened.

Some kind of ‘flap’ rose from the spider’s abdomen. It had all kinds of colorful patterns. Red, blue, green, and purple were all present and they reflected the sunlight, giving it a somewhat magical feel.

The spider before me raised its third set of legs up in the air and started moving from left to right.

What was it doing?

Wait a second…

This was a mating ritual, wasn’t it?

I mean, the colors were beautiful and all, but I wasn’t that kind of spider.

In fact, I wasn’t a spider at all!

After observing this spider’s antics for a while, it started approaching me.

How about... no?

As soon as it dared step close to me, I gripped it with my pedipalp and quickly finished it off with my legs.

Well, that was interesting…

I felt… gross. I’d almost been violated by a spider. Not that he stood any chance of beating me, but still… just it trying to woo me made me feel disgusted.

At least the Evolution Points were welcome.

I wouldn’t let it get to me, though. I had better things to do right now. Unfortunately, most of that was simply killing other creatures. I’d been thinking about these achievements I’d been getting, but found that it was hard to figure out exactly what I could get and what achievements would be important for powerful future evolutions. 

If only I could find out about the requirements…

I shook it off for now as I continued my hunting trip.

I didn’t want to stray too far from Cellestra’s home, but the sound of running water caught my attention.

Water would always attract animals. I would have to be careful, but if there was any place to run into other animals, it would be near a water source.

I followed the sound, running through some vegetation that was in my path, before ending up near a small stream of water. I stayed at a safe distance, hidden in the nearby ferns, as I observed two wolves drink from the stream.

Bingo.

While I was not going to try taking on wolves, it proved my hypothesis. I could use this as a spot to ambush unsuspecting animals.

I observed the wolves walk away and stayed low for a while, hoping something would show up. When nothing did after an hour or so of boredom, I decided to get something to drink, myself.

When I approached the body of water, I could see several fish following the water’s currents.

I was going to go fishing…

They were bound to give experience. I mean, there were fish in there that were over twice my size.

One of the fish noticed me and jumped out of the water.

I was quick to react and jumped to the side.

This fish was denser than a rock.

It had gotten itself on land. Now what?

I saw the completely red fish flopping about as it was slowly moving back to the water.

Oh, no you don’t.

I skittered to the large fish and noticed it had a mouth full of sharp teeth. It was also quite large. Not quite large enough to eat me, but I imagined that if I accidentally fell into the water, it might just be able to do a lot of damage to me.

On land, however…

I gripped it with my pedipalps and felt the fish struggling to get back to the water. I had other plans. I dragged it the opposite way. It required all my strength, but I felt the fish’s struggling die down after a while as it suffocated.

Small?

If this one was already over twice my size, how big would a large one be?

I wondered how this fish tasted…

I wasn’t hungry, though. Maybe Cellestra would be able to cook it into something?

Hmmm, roasted fish sounded delicious. I was certainly going to take this back to Cellestra.

How was I going to get it back to her home, though?

I thought for a moment and decided to simply drag behind me, connected to a thread. I imagined some dirt shouldn’t be a problem.

I was curious how she would react.

It wasn’t like I was a cat dragging in something absolutely useless. This fish seemed like it would be divine when cooked properly.

I kept my eyes wide open as I started my return trip to the elf’s forest home.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything as a bird swooped in and stole my fish right from behind me.

As soon as it grabbed the fish from me, I fired a fireball out of pure anger.

That fish was for Cellestra you damned bird!

I fired another fireball. Unfortunately, both missed.

I cursed at the bird as it flew off with my gift. I then sighed and decided to try to catch another one.

I wanted fish…