After waking up fully revitalized, the elf and I were communicating as she had a breakfast consisting of leftovers from dinner the night before.

I had already told her that I would be more than happy to help with her learning spells.

“Thank you so much, Kealyna,” She said, relieved.

“One issue,” I continued writing.

Her facial expression went from happy to worried within seconds.

“Spells from blessing appear to work differently. I can cast physical barrier spell. Spell works differently from what I knew in old life. Not sure if you can learn.”

“Different flow of mana?” She asked.

I gestured yes.

“Hmmm, that’s… odd. Rose taught me a very important skill early on to help me out. It allows me to trace the magic in other people as they perform the spell. If I can use that on you while you cast, I could perhaps recreate the spell. It takes some time, and it may need multiple days and many casts to get done correctly, but I hope it works.”

“Same.”

“What spells can you currently learn, anyway?” Cellestra asked.

“Need to see how many evolution points I have when ready to evolve. Reason I want achievements. Have to see when I have points.”

“I see,” She said softly. “In that case, I’m helping you help me.”

She had a point there. Her words made me feel a little less guilty.

I wondered how that spell worked, though. I had never heard of anything like it. Mana manipulation was the basic requirement to cast any kind of magic, but being able to see it… It was… odd to say the least.

Speaking of spells, now that I could see the requirements for the nearest evolution, it had me doubting what I should do regarding my next evolution.

I put it off for now. I’d first try to get these achievements and see how many evolution points they would get. After that, I could calculate and read through things properly.

Cellestra finished her breakfast. She took her jar and fed the last two beetles to the tarantula before heading out with me.

She would try to catch more beetles while I would focus on trying to catch birds near the stream.

Cellestra started combing the area while I skittered up the closest tree to the water. I required a branch that could support a web and would still be easily visible from birds above. I needed them to react to bait, after all.

I connected a thread to the top of the branch before allowing myself to rappel down while producing silk from my behind. I repeated this several times until I had the basics of a net set up. I then connected the threads with horizontal lines.

I was intrigued, but not entirely surprised by how this thread supported my weight without issue. I tested its strength and found it was stronger than ever before. This would easily hold any non-gigantic bird.

 

Leveling it all the way to advanced had been a smart move.

With the trap set, I had to get some bait.

I lured one of the reaperfish out of the stream and dragged it behind me with a line of silk as I climbed the tree again. I then impaled its side with a leg in order to draw blood before leaving it hanging in front of the net.

This had to be the perfect bait.

Now, I just hoped that whatever would come for this fish wouldn’t completely destroy my web. I would hate to remake it entirely.

Did normal spiders ever think about that? I’d destroyed a fair amount of webs by accident when I was an elf.

I moved on top of the overarching branch.

Now, the waiting began…

And I waited…

And waited…

I even pulled on the thread every now and then to make the fish look more appetizing to predators.

Eventually, the fish caught something’s interest.

I saw movement in the skies as a white and grey bird showed up. The bird in question flew straight into my trap. It managed to snatch the fish, but it got stuck in my webs and struggled to break free.

Not gonna happen.

I moved down onto the web and used an ice lance to impale the bird. I imagined that would be the fastest way to kill it without destroying my web.

That was some decent experience too.

Well, one down, three more to go.

I tore away at the webs to free the gull. I dragged it down to the surface and dumped it into the stream where the reaperfish would simply get rid of it for me.

The fish it had tried to snatch was still usable as bait. I created a new thread and placed it in its position again, before repairing the small part of my web that had been destroyed.

These threads were quite strong.

I waited again, and saw Cellestra search near the tree in which I was waiting for prey.

She looked at the web and I saw her eyes trail up until they found me.

“Damn, Kealyna. Wouldn’t want to run into that. That’s going to make for the worst hair day ever.”

I would have chuckled at her comment if I could. For now, I simply grinned mentally.

I waved at her with one of my legs, earning a smile. She then continued her search for beetles. I saw she already had a few in the jar she carried with her.

Bad hair day, huh?

I felt my mind wander off as I waited on the branch. I’d gotten a fair amount of spider webs in my hair in my old life.

My platinum blonde hair…

I missed it.

 

I felt myself become sad as I started to reminisce about the past. I snapped myself back to my current life as I noticed another gull approach the fish. Like the first one, it snatched the fish, before getting entangled in the webs. It still managed to eat the fish even as it struggled to break free.

Glutton.

Oh well, it would be its last meal anyway. It had better be worth it.

Although, I would need new bait now.

I descended in the web once more and finished the gull off with a point-blank ice lance to the chest.

 

“Going well I see,” I heard Cellestra comment as I freed the bird’s corpse.

 

This was certainly going well. I would need two more birds now.

I might even hit the level cap with these birds… That would be two birds with one stone.

Hehe.

That was a terrible joke...

I dropped the bird to the ground and repaired the web once again. I then lured another fish out of the water. I couldn’t be bothered to use a thread so I cast the physical barrier spell on me before dipping a leg in the water.

I was still a great jumper. This fish never imagined it would miss me.

Moments later, I had new bait.

 

And a bit of experience, too.

 

I strung up the fish again after creating a wound and simply lay down on the branch again.

I had to admit that jumping spiders seemed much more interesting than weavers. Simply sitting around all day and waiting for prey to come to you was so boring…

That one jumping spider that I ran into could even be considered cute…

Jumping spiders surely weren’t as creepy as most other spiders…

I waited and waited…

No other birds passed by in what felt like hours.

Eventually, I’d given up on my current bait still being effective. I decided to get fresh bait. Hopefully, that would work.

I removed the old fish and tossed it into the water after catching a new one first.

 

I strung up the new fish and went back to my spot on the branch.

“How are things looking here?” I heard Cellestra call out as she approached once more.

She walked out of the vegetation onto the grass and sat down next to my web.

“How many birds have you caught?” She asked.

I held up two legs.

At least numbers were easy to do without paper.

She held up the glass jar which had a fair amount of beetles in them already. It was filled up for about a quarter of its capacity.

“Got a bunch of beetles already. I’m just taking a break and wanted to see how you did this.”

She paused for a second and looked at the net I’d created.

“Honestly, spider threads strong enough to hold birds… you should be proud of that. I haven’t heard anything your size being capable of that.”

That made it sound like there were giant spiders out there.

I shuddered.

I wasn’t looking forward to meeting those.