“What is the matter?” Cellestra asked.

“Looking to complete achievement. Gives extra evolution points. Not sure if works.”

 

“Hmm,” Cellestra thought aloud. “What do you need to do for that?”

“Not sure. Got one when killed three fish with one spell. Hoping to get one when killing multiple herbivores with one spell.”

“I see. Well, I’m willing to help out with that, but is it okay if I ask for some of your venom in return?”

I nodded with my pedipalps.

Cellestra smiled. “Thank you, Kealyna.”

She pulled out a small glass tube from her belt and uncorked it. She held it up for me and I placed my fangs in it and released my venom. I used up all my reserves. She probably had better use for it than me.

“Well, that’s a lot easier than usual,” She said with a giggle.

I let go of the tube when I was out of venom and the elf recorked it before walking over to the kitchen and putting it away in one of the cabinets.

From another cabinet, she pulled a wound, woven basket with a lid.

“I’m going to see what I can find out there. You were fishing again, right?”

I nodded.

“Would you like to continue with that while I search the area?”

I didn’t want her to do that specifically for me… but if she was in the area anyway, why not?

It shouldn’t affect my experience, as long as she didn’t have a hand in making it easier, right?

I nodded with my limbs again.

“Alright,” Cellestra replied. “Is there anything you want for dinner in particular?”

She was asking me what I wanted for dinner? I wasn’t actually hungry, like, at all.

I decided to spell it out for her. “Not hungry.”

“Ah, of course. Spiders don’t have to eat as often. It seems you’re no exception, even if you’re not, you know... a spider.”

 

I didn’t know how to reply. I was glad she said it like that.

She put the basket around her elbow and opened her palms. I skittered on them and she led us both outside once more. She placed me on the grass and I followed her as she walked to the stream.

The fish I’d killed before was already gone, likely eaten by other fish, or even the wolves that seemed to live nearby.

She knelt down next to the water and filled a canteen with the crystal clear liquid before taking a few sips.

“Well,” She said as she closed the metal canteen. “I’ll be nearby looking for whatever small herbivores I can find. You need to kill them with one spell, right? I assume you will be using that fireball that you showed earlier?”

As long as the creatures didn’t move and were close to one another, I assumed a fireball would work best due to its explosion radius. I could even get a higher-rank fireball spell if I wanted to, to ensure everything would die in one hit, but that was a bit of a gamble.

I did have a few more points to spend than I otherwise would have had. I was not entirely sure this would work considering I had already killed three mice in one hit earlier.

I had high hopes, though.

I would have to check how many points I could spend and on which spells I would spend them.

For now, it was time to continue my fishing trip.

Even though Cellestra was nearby, I was still on full alert for any approaching danger. I started with my usual lure, and soon killed a curious carnivorous fish.

 

 

I repeated the same actions as before. I simply waited until there were multiple fish eating its corpse, lined up, and started firing spells. I killed multiple fish this way, and killed two in one hit several times. I wasn’t fortunate enough to get three kills with my ice lance, but I did have an interesting message pop up after some kills and another level.

Yes! I’d gotten another 10 Evolution Points!

I was hoping this type of achievement would show up sooner or later. It appeared my initial assessment of killing multiple of the same species was correct!

I cheered in my mind, when I saw a larger reaperfish approach the slowly growing pile of dead fish.

I was instantly focused on the prey before me. I waited until the fish stopped moving to eat, lined up my ice lance spell, and fired!

The spell impaled the fish’s side, but didn’t outright kill it. Instead, it swam away in panic, leaving behind a trail of blood.

The blood that it left behind seemed to get the attention of the reaperfish that were currently cannibalizing the pile. Their attention shifted, and they followed the larger fish downstream.

Well, damn.

Apparently the bigger the fish, the tastier the blood was.

 

Or something weird like that.

With the reaperfish swimming off, the stream before me became calm. I only saw some of the large goldfish lazily swim about.

I wondered why the reaperfish didn’t actually try to eat them.

 

I tried luring one with the knotted line of silk, but it seemed uninterested.

Stupid fish.

I also noticed that despite my larger abdomen, I started to feel my magic run out. I had enough mana left for about two more spells before I would start to run dry.

I decided to save my mana for whatever Cellestra would come up with. If she did manage to find a large number of small herbivores, I wanted to enhance my fireball spell and pray for the best.

With that thought in mind, I started looking for the elf. The last time I saw her, she was in the nearby vegetation

I found her knelt near the roots of a tree and skittered up to her.

Cellestra turned her head and gasped.

Oops.

“You scared me, Kealyna. Don’t go sneaking up on me like that.”

I guess I was kind of scary when showing up unexpectedly.

“You done fishing?” She continued with a smile.

I nodded with my front two limbs. I couldn’t really talk to her besides yes or no when I didn’t have the paper with me…

Scratching came from the inside of the basket that was near her on the ground and I tried to imagine what she’d caught. I also noticed a trickle of blood running down one of her fingers. I pointed at it, causing her attention to switch to it.

“Oh, this? Had a mouse bite me. Don’t worry about it.”

I saw her start to tap dirt with her hands.

“These mice are herbivorous, but they have a nasty bite if you disturb their sleep.”

I had noticed that, yes.

Her comment also gave me the confirmation that three herbivores in one hit wouldn’t be enough to trigger an achievement. Otherwise, I’d have already gotten one.

Poor mice. I was going to use them in an experiment…

I wasn’t against killing. I had killed my fair share of all kinds of creatures, including humans and other elves, but at the moment it felt like everything I did was for personal gain instead of protecting those I was supposed to protect.

From Cellestra’s earlier story, she confirmed that dungeons also existed in this world. I knew dungeon creatures were soulless. Maybe I should try to kill creatures in one of those once I got the strength?

I watched her as she continued tapping the dirt. Soon enough a mouse ran out of a hole in the ground. Cellestra quickly grabbed it by its sides and put it in the basket before closing the lid again.

She then continued to disturb the burrow.

“I was pretty sure there was another in there...” She said softly.

I simply waited and looked at her working.

It didn’t take long for another mouse to run out.

“Gotcha!” Cellestra exclaimed as she took hold of it. “Do you think eleven mice are enough?”

Eleven? How effective was she at catching these little rodents?

I imagined that was more than enough.

I nodded with my limbs again.

She stood up and spoke again. “Well, then. I hope you’re right about this.”

So do I.

I followed her back to her home as she continued talking. “How do you want to do this? Shall I put them unconscious to make it easy to get them close together?”

She looked down behind her where I “nodded” as I walked.

How would she knock them out?

I was curious.

It wasn’t long before I found out how exactly she did it. She had some herbs that she heated in a small frying pan while adding some liquid from one of her potions to it. The smoking herbs were then put in the basket and soon enough, the squirming inside stopped.

“Let’s go outside, shall we? Using fireballs inside isn’t exactly a good idea,” She said with a smile.

I wanted to smile too.

Damn you spider body!