I cut open the Bison, exposing the still-warm meat, and I used my pedipalps to tear off small pieces, one of which immediately disappeared into my lower jaws.

“Save some for the others, will you?” Cellestra said with a smirk as she approached, the five spiderlings following close behind her.

“I’m uh… just making sure the quality is good.”

She giggled.

“Terrible, terrible lie.”

“I know right.”

Shayla, as expected, was the first one to approach me, and was focusing intently on what I was doing to this beast’s corpse. I tore off an extra small piece of meat and held it in front of her face.

“Here, try it.”

She accepted my gesture and took the flesh with her own pedipalps. For a moment I was worried that she couldn’t eat it in the same way I did – Cellestra had explained how spiders ate – but she brought it to where her mouth would be, and a few second later, she turned to me with expectation glowing in her large, red eyes.

“You like it?”

She nodded wildly.

“That’s great to hear. Go get your sisters and let’s have a feast, shall we?”

She nodded and skittered to the others, just as Cellestra walked up to me with the largest smile.

“They are truly something else.”

“I know,” I said softly. “I just… I feel my heart melting whenever I watch them do, well, anything really.”

I continued eating while talking to Cellestra at the same time.

“I feared this could happen, but not in this way, not even close.”

“Hey,” Cellestra said softly as she leaned against my side, her arm around my back. “You’re happy, I can see that, and that’s the most important thing.”

“I know,” I whispered. “I know. I mean, just look at them. If this doesn’t make you smile, then I don’t know what will.”

“You certainly make an interesting bunch.”

I grinned and continued filling my stomach, but I withheld from eating too much as I intended to venture further into the dungeon soon, where I would have access to even more delicious meat. As for the spiderlings, well, I let them eat as much as they wanted. At midnight I would be taxed a certain amount of mana, and the less it was the better.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t noticed anything last night. It was probably because I was asleep, but still. It hadn’t been enough for me to notice it in the morning. I must have already regenerated all of it by then already.

“So,” I said. “What should be the next step when it comes to training the little ones?”

“I feel bad for suggesting it, but I think it may be wise to expose them, at least a little bit, to some danger, just so they don’t rush in again as they did with that anteater.”

I sighed deeply. “I know. I should. I’m just, I don’t want to have them deal with that just yet. I’d just feel bad for hatching them, and then throwing them into danger the very next day.”

“You’re afraid they’ll hate you?” She asked.

“Hate?” I shook my head. “No, not hate, but I fear it will leave them with a scar. I promised myself I’d give them a better start than I had, remember?”

“True.”

“So, I think I may have them take down another anteater and then head home. I hope we can get through the grass without being ambushed.”

“I was going to suggest taking this pelt with us, but it seems it's kind of ruined now,” Cellestra suddenly said.

“Ugh. I’d completely forgotten about that.” I hit my forehead with my palm. “That would have been the smart thing to do.”

“Oh well,” She continued. “We can always get more. Not like it's hard for us to take down one of these beasts. Say, you think the carpenters are already working on that fence?”

“Still feels a bit early to me. He said they’d come by in the afternoon.” I let out a small chuckle. “And I kind of don’t want to scare them by having five gigantic spiders follow me into the nest.”

“You even see that guy?” Cellestra asked, grinning. “Doesn’t look to me he would be scared by much.”

“That’s… a good point. I just hope Elle will be able to contain herself. He didn’t seem like a hugging person.”

“Just tell her and she’ll listen.”

“Never hug strangers,” I said. “Solid advice.” I hugged her back with my free arm, resting my head against hers as I watched everyone eat. “I’m thinking of a few other things we can do while we’re down here, considering it’s still early.”

“What other things do you have in mind?”

“None. That’s why I’m thinking about what we can do. It doesn’t really help that they don’t have any special skills to speak of yet. There’s very little I can have them do without having them put themselves in danger, and you know how I feel about that.”

“I mean, if that’s the case, why don’t you just have them take down more anteaters and have them at least try to get abilities? I mean, who knows?”

“Might just do that. Have them get a bit of experience before putting them up against more serious opponents.”

“And then hit the second floor tomorrow?” Cellestra asked.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I’d like to see how they hold up against a pack of wolves. That should be a good opportunity for growth. Anything beyond that, I don’t feel comfortable with.”

“What happened to the idea of having them eat creatures from the third floor?”

“That will come after that, as a reward of sorts. Can’t have them get lazy now, can we?”

“I like that idea,” She replied with a giggle.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “We’ll kind of have to get there as soon as we can.”

“Don’t stress out too much, Kealyna. That’s not healthy.”

“Eh, I’m trying, but I can’t help it. Come,” I said, breaking the hug. “Let’s have them take down some anteaters.”

Cellestra hopped onto my back and I called the spiderlings to follow me back to the dungeon entrance. They’d been enjoying their meal, and I felt bad to interrupt them, but we had to keep things going.

We encountered a single lioness on the way back, but I’d seen it coming from a distance when the breeze caused the grass that it was hiding in to lower. I was able to take it down from afar with a single ice lance and noted the increase of power of the spell once more.

After that, we spent a few hours near the exit, where I had the spiders kill anteater after anteater, and consume them. Over time, they became more fluid in their motions and more coordinated in their attacks. Once more, they exceeded my expectations, and at the end of it all, I decided to just give them some freedom by asking them a question.

“Do you want to try to take on something more dangerous? You know what that means, right?”

Faerith immediately nodded wildly while the others seemed to be thinking. Amarys eventually nodded with her pedipalps, and then repeated it, answering both questions.

“Alright, if you’re confident you can do it, I’ll leave you to it. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching over you.”

I watched Amarys, Faerith, and Myria nod, while Elle and Shayla looked intrigued.

“The next target is one of the creatures I killed in the grass. It’s called a lioness and they will try to pounce on you when you least expect it, so be wary of your surroundings. You lead the way, Amarys. I’ll follow close behind you.”

“Think this is a good idea?” Cellestra asked from my back.

“I wanted to give them some freedom,” I said. “So they don’t feel like I pressure them into doing things. This was their choice, and I think they will be fine.”

“I see.”

Amarys guided the others into the grassland, and I watched as they slowly advanced, knowing full well from the little encounter I had earlier that these beasts could hide anywhere. She orchestrated them to skitter in some kind of circle formation so that they had eyes watching all around them.

I was impressed by the display of advanced tactics. Not only would they be able to see danger coming from every direction, but it also protected their most vulnerable parts.

They started moving as one, and eventually, I saw some of the vegetation rustle and immediately focused on it. Within the next second or two, a lioness pounced from its hiding spot, aiming for Myria.

Unfortunately for it, the spider was faster. She had her front four legs in the air and immediately brought them down onto her ambusher, forcing it to the ground where Amarys and Faerith helped her with keeping it down after breaking formation. From there, with its body pinned helplessly, it was just a matter of time until the spiderlings’ venom proved fatal.

Somehow, I could tell that they knew it was dead, for as soon as the message showed up for me, they ignored the animal and moved back into formation.

“Well,” I let out, filled with pride. “They never cease to amaze me.”

“Not gonna lie,” Cellestra said. “That’s nothing short of impressive.”