“Hey, Kealyna?” Cellestra called my name with her usual soft voice as she looked down into my eyes.

“Hm?”

“Think there’s something we can do to secure the nest? I’d like to have it secured so we can make it a bit more lively inside. Maybe make some traps or something?”

“Hmm,” I hummed. “I could maybe make some sort of perimeter wall around the nest with webs to mark the territory using trees. Problem is, people would be able to pass that by climbing trees if they really wanted to.”

An unsettling thought entered my mind. There was always an option, but I wasn’t so sure about it…

“What’s the matter?” Cellestra asked, noticing the change in my demeanor.

“There’s a skill that I just… didn’t want to take,” I said before heaving a deep sigh as we entered the forest. “It allows me to lay eggs and spawn spiderlings that I can command. I reckon I can use them to keep… well, anything at bay.”

“I can definitely see why you didn’t bother to take that,” The brunette replied. “Sounds pretty uncomfortable.”

“Yup, but I would like to turn this into a nice home as well… Honestly, I’m conflicted,” I said before sighing again.

“Otherwise, maybe chop down trees above a certain height?” Cellestra quickly offered a different suggestion.

“Perhaps. I don’t know if it will be as useful as the other thing I could do. You know, as an extra layer of security.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t want to, but if it means I can keep our new home safe,” I paused for a second before continuing quietly. “I might consider it.”

The purple-eyed elf didn’t speak any more, and instead, softly patted my back to comfort me. She kept doing it until we ultimately reached our shelter where I opened the curtain to step inside before helping Cellestra off my back and out of her armor. She then let herself fall into the comfortable webs with a smile.

“Mana exhaustion sucks, doesn’t it?” I said as I placed my lower head in its designated hole.

“It does. Though, I’ve only experienced it maybe twice in my life.”

I laid down next to her, my head down and my arms stretched out above my head.

“How about you?” Cellestra asked.

“Hasn't happened to me much. That is, as long as you don’t count the times in my new life. I suppose I didn’t even have time to feel the exhaustion kick in the last time it happened to me.”

“How did you prevent it?” She asked, intrigued as she turned her head.

“I died.”

“Oh,” She let out. “I’m sorry.”

I chuckled. “No need to be. I thought it was amusing.”

I patted Cellestra’s head, causing her to smile as well as I reached for the pillow with one of my legs which I then put under our heads.

“Let’s take that nap, shall we?” I suggested.

The brunette closed her eyes and smiled as she turned to her side to hug me. I twisted my torso as much as I could to welcome her embrace, my hands in her hair as her head was under my chin.

“Sounds good,” Cellestra said as I felt her breathing slow and her body relax. I allowed mine to do the same and soon felt my upper body become numb and fade away as we fell asleep.

In the meantime, I was left wondering what to do regarding our home’s safety, I liked Cellestra’s idea of cutting trees and spinning nets around my nest, but I couldn’t simply desecrate the forest like that. At the very least, I’d have to talk to Soranir.

And then the spiderlings…

Perhaps I should step over my fears and awkwardness and just look at the ability in a different way. To have some minions that could serve as scouts, perhaps even a light fighting force, didn’t sound so bad.

Perhaps I just might…

I had plenty of points left, even after acquiring the new ability from the dungeon, given I did gain a bunch in return for an achievement.

I waited and wondered for a while, allowing us both some much-needed rest. If I was going to take this skill, I had a few questions about it. What was that one message that I saw when I inspected the ability for the first time again?

Other enhancements? I know the other evolution seemed powerful in that it could keep upgrading the spiderlings, but I’d not chosen that for obvious reasons. The message said something about enhancements and I assumed this was about the three that were on my list, but it left me wondering, was there another way to improve them?

Elysa?

…

Elysa?

What?

How do you not have an answer for that?

What the fuck? None of this made any sense — I didn’t possess the control version of the devour ability so it shouldn’t affect me, it shouldn’t show up either. Then there was the error and… I tried to take a closer look at the words after the error and at the end, but they kept warping, making them illegible.

The same twisted, corrupted word appeared over and over again, sending shivers down my spine. If I ignored those, it appeared I’d gotten a new skill, but it was one I shouldn’t have. This all felt wrong, terribly, terribly wrong.

The first thing I could think of was Elysa. I wanted to ask her if she knew what was going on. I feared the evil I felt at the obelisk had somehow seeped into me. Even now, I could feel it clawing away in the back of my mind, suppressed, but it was there. I felt it was somehow messing with my blessing and prayed the goddess could help me.

I placed a pedipalp and two legs around Cellestra, wanting her to comfort me as I didn’t know what was happening. I waited for a few hours, until the end of the afternoon, before I decided to wake her and tell her about what had happened.

“By the goddess, Kealyna, that sounds horrifying.”

I nodded slowly.

“And you look seriously ill. Did you at least get some rest?”

I nodded again and responded with a meek yes.

She took me in for a hug and patted my back.

“Let’s go to the shrines tomorrow. You talk to Elysa, I talk to Nilene. Hopefully, they have some answers. Let’s not worry about it too much until then, okay?”

“Okay,” I said as I was recovering my confidence, thanks to her.

“Let’s go see Elira,” She then suggested. “I’m sure that will cheer you up.”

I managed to chuckle again.

“Yeah. You’re right,” I replied.

Cellestra pulled out the linen bag from her backpack and started moving her armor from the webs into it piece by piece. Once she was done, we stepped into the outside world and made our way over to the farm again.

My father was sitting at the table, which seemed to be normal for him around this time. I assumed my mother was cooking, and Elira, well…

The energetic little girl came running at me as soon as she saw me, or in this case, heard me walk onto the gravel as she was facing away.

“Sis!” She said loudly as she hugged me and Cellestra stepped off. “I heard you had your adventurer trial today! Tell me about it, please!”

I patted her head and giggled as her mere presence did exactly what Cellestra had hoped it would. I felt a hundred times better already and was looking forward to talking about all that happened in the proving grounds.

“Okay,” I said as I lifted her with my pedipalps, walked over to one of the chairs, and placed her on it. “But let me say hi to dad first.”

I turned my head to my father and asked him how he was doing.

“Pretty good,” He said. “And I’m about to hear your dungeon adventure for a second time. By all means, don’t leave us waiting.”

Cellestra giggled and I couldn’t contain my laughter either.

“Okay then. Let’s see. Where to start…?”