In the early morning, the female members of the party were putting away the tent. Meanwhile, Martel made some adjustments under the carriage.

“Papa, what are you doing?” Kogane asked curiously.

“I just finished making a secret compartment,” Martel said as he got up and showed her.

“What’s the point?”

“Storage. Behind this false panel is the device that’s powering the barrier we use for camp. As for the rest, it’s for storage. You can’t put a storage bag inside a storage bag unless it is empty. As it would be impractical to carry multiple storage bags, this will store the nonessential items.”

Martel did not need the storage as he had an inventory that could infinitely expand. However, he felt it could be dangerous if he only utilized it. What if one of the girls needed resources that were only on him and he wasn’t around? What if a powerful figure tried to rob them and went on a rampage upon finding no valuables? These two situations were possible, so he decided to make a storage compartment to put nonessential resources in. As for his real valuables, they would naturally stay on him.

...

A short time later, the party eventually continued their way to exit Fallen Hero Forest. At first, there wasn’t much of a problem, which was strange. Up until this point, it was rare to go without seeing the occasional slime at the very least. However, they saw little of anything. The only creature they seemed to run into was the strangely increasing amount of insects. At this point, at the end of Martel’s Smart Map, he found a swampy area that could account for that. However, since there was a surplus of insects, then there should be a surplus of predators.

Martel’s suspicions were soon confirmed as he started to notice traces of webbing. There were three things that Martel noticed from the appearance of these webs. The first was the differing color the webs were as each spider appeared to have a single color. The second thing Martel noticed was the thickness of the webs. While there was some variation, it was much thicker than the normal spiderwebs from Earth. This seemed to imply that the spiders were significantly larger, which made sense because the insects were also significantly larger. The final thing he noticed was that none of the girls seemed to enjoy the sight of the webs.

“Hestia, do you know what type of spider would have created this?” Martel asked.

Hestia frowned. “I cannot be certain as I have never explored this part of the world before. Most of my adventuring was done within the Labyrinth, so my knowledge is slightly lacking. However, based on the colored spider silk, I believe the Rainbow Silk Spider inhabits this place.”

“Anything I need to know about them?”

“No, Sir, they’re just… really big spiders,” Hestia replied as she joined the other girls in a look of displeasure.

The party continued to travel, but the number of webs quickly became incredibly annoying to the girls. Slightly feeling bad, Martel began to use mana manipulation to create a small fire stream, like a flamethrower. Webs wouldn’t burn under fire, but they would shrink and become weaker. This allowed them to traverse the webs without as much contact. Though it took a conscious effort, he could prevent the magical fire from igniting any of the foliage.

Since there were webs, spiders naturally soon followed. They were indeed the Rainbow Silk Spiders that Hestia had described, and they were quite easy to dispatch as they were all Level 0. The only enemies they could have defeated were insects, far weaker than them, so they never leveled up. This was one of the demerits of lower intellect creatures. 

To obtain the System, one either had to be born in the world, granted by a being who had control over the System or kill something that had the System and was worth XP. However, if the creatures did not have sufficient intelligence, they would not realize how the System worked and be less likely to level up. It could also be a problem for those with higher intelligence beings as they knew they had to defeat strong opponents to level up. This meant that many would decide not to level up to stay safe, one reason why there was a significant variation in levels for races, especially humans.

The Rainbow Silk Spiders couldn’t be considered social. They were not extremely territorial, given the amount of food they were receiving. The result of the first altercation involved three separate spiders. The spiders themselves were about the size of a human head and had black bodies striped the same color of their silk on their backs.

Martel utilized Drone and his Heaven Defying Eyes to obtain as much information about it as possible. The only other creature he had done this to was the slime, which he obtained no useful information from. This wasn’t the case for the spider, as he got an incredibly in-depth analysis of it.

“Hestia, do you know of any uses for this spider?” Martel asked.

“There aren’t any particular uses. The poison is only effective against the deceased, to aid in digestion, which has no value. Their silk is the only thing of real value, but also extremely impractical. They are too large and aggressive to farm for their silk, and any silk they have already spun tends to be too dirty and of the sticky type which can’t be utilized for clothing.”

“I see. Well, I’m still going to harvest it for Expertise. Who knows, I might even find a use for it.”

Hestia and the others nodded in understanding as he had already explained that he was grinding his Expertise. If they knew how much he was grinding his Expertise, they would be flabbergasted and think him to be a madman. His soul bodies, which were multitasking, were grinding twenty-four-seven as they did not require sleep. He could do this efficiently as he could bypass the mental fatigue that came with it thanks to his other abilities.

Martel quickly harvested the bodies in an extremely efficient manner. He was no stranger to the concept, both in theory and practice, and quickly segregated the different parts. It was then that he hesitated upon looking at our particular group of spider parts.

“Master, is something wrong?” Laelynn asked as she had noticed his hesitation.

Martel made a bitter smile as he shook his head. “No. You see, one of my Talents allows me to Devour things and incorporate them. According to the System, there is something here that I can Devour.”

“Does that mean you have to eat it?” Hestia asked with an expression of discomfort.

“No, I don’t have to eat it. However, the possibility of actually obtaining something goes up if I do. I’m going to try to Devour it through touch and eating it, seeing as we have more than one sample and will get more as we progress.” Martel decided to pick up one of the spider glands and devour it with a thought. 

The gland eventually appeared to dry and shrivel up until it broke apart into dust. It was an interesting feeling for Martel as he had not utilized this before. He felt as if there was something within him, but nothing substantial occurred.

Next, Martel directly swallowed a silk gland and used Devour. Martel felt the difference when he did so. Firstly, it seemed as though the energy, or essence, that he was trying to absorb couldn’t escape his stomach. In contrast, some of the energy had when absorbed by his fingertips, explaining the efficiency problem. Overall, it seemed to be 3 to 5 times more efficient. Still, there were many variables involved, including his Expertise with Devour, what he was trying to Devour, and what it would result in. Once again, he felt as if something had changed, but it hadn’t manifested into anything.

The girls all made grimacing expressions when they saw him swallow the silk gland.

“What? You know, in my world, spiders can be considered a delicacy in some places.”

“I’ll pass.” Hestia quickly replied while the other girls all nodded.

The party continued to slay spiders that were on their path. Martel wasn’t worried about over-hunting the many-colored spiders as they were taking a single path through a vast territory that was rarely entered by others. Eventually, they fell into a set pattern of slowly moving forward while Martel remained behind to harvest the spoils quickly. Eventually, Martel began to get annoyed as nothing had yet to come from the devouring so many silk glands. However, the feeling he had continued to grow, which encouraged him to keep going. Once they had traveled three-quarters of their path, the feeling that Martel felt suddenly became complete. The next thing Martel realized, he suddenly saw a message in his vision.

 

Martel’s eyebrow twitched at the last part, but overall, he was extremely content with this new mutation. Silk came out at a reasonably fast pace from underneath his fingernails and could utilize Ki to manipulate them and created a small patch of silk. When he noticed that his Tailoring Expertise had increased, he was happy. It seemed as though he would soon have another product in his store.

The girls, who all watched in fascination, were so transfixed with Martel’s display that none of them discovered the large shadow that quietly scuttled amongst the trees before it stopped above Martel. Nor did they notice the legs that made up a net made of webbing that positioned itself above him, poised and waiting for an opportunity.

With a swift and experienced motion, the legs quickly descended atop Martel’s head.

“Sir!”/“Master!”/“Papa!” The girls shouted when a giant spider body had suddenly descended on where Martel was; emphasis on ‘was.’

“I missed?” A voice suddenly said in disbelief. “Kyaaa!” The voice suddenly screamed as the spider body was suddenly hoisted into the air.

Marte had Gale Stepped out of the way, embarrassingly at the last second, as he had let his guard down. From his hands extended a bunch of silk extended from his fingers that he had controlled with his Ki to tie up the sudden intruder, a near subconscious response. It was then that the party got a good look at the assailant.

As betrayed by the voice, the assailant was a female. The lower body was precisely that of an enormous spider. The front of the sternum was in the form of a female human attached at the hip. The only non-human features being the six tiny additional eyes on her forehead and her lower legs, which appeared to merge with her spider legs in shape. The human part of her was that of a young mature woman with a seductive charm. Her hair was black and cut short while her eyes were completely red, but darkening shades to separate the sclera, pupil, and Iris. Her clothing was nothing more than something akin to a bikini made out of her silk. 

“Well, this is surprising,” Martel said as he had never come into contact with such a creature before.

“Ku, you think these pitiful strings can trap me?” The spider-girl asked as she began to squirm. “I’ll snap these trivial bindings in a -mph. What’s with this? What did you do?” She continued before her serious face soon turned into one of panic as a slight blush could be seen on her cheeks and the cheeks of Martel’s party.

Martel couldn’t help but embarrassingly smile. His restraining her was nearly a subconscious action, so he naturally tied her up in a matter he had much practice in. Thanks to his wives, especially Miyuki and Caelia, he had mostly practiced a particular type of binding technique. However, bondage could be considered the correct term. It seemed a little too efficient as every move the spider-girl seemed to cause the silk to more strongly bind and... Irritate her.

“What sorcery is this?” The spider-girl asked in disbelief as her struggling was quickly stifled.

“So, who knows what this young lady is?” Martel asked.

“I do.” Kogane quickly said. “She is a therianthrope, a subcategory of Demihuman. You see, it’s theorized that demihumans came into existence when beasts from the north managed to cross the natural barrier, took human form, and procreated with humans. With enough human ancestry, their descendants’ typical forms are that we now associate with demihumans, features like mine. Some demihumans have more of their beast traits than those associated with Demihumans. These are distinguished as therianthropes.”

“I see,” Martel said with a nod.

“Hey, are you just going to leave me hanging?” The spider-girl suddenly said, exasperated.

“Oh, yes, we need to figure out what to do with you,” Martel said as he took out Drone, and his eyes flashed.

The spider-girl, who had seen him do this before he dissected the other spiders, suddenly took on an expression of slight panic. “You!… Are you going to cut open and dissect my body? Are you going to make me watch as my intestines fall, and my blood dyes the ground? Are you going to tear off my legs? Are you going to *smack* Ouch!” She continued with an ever-increasing delirious expression before Martel’s flicked coin knocked her out of it.

“Enough with your drivel, there are children present,” Martel replied before he broke out and smiled as he lowered her just above the ground and attached the silk to the trees. “As for what we’re going to do with you…”

“You couldn’t possibly?” She said as she began to reel back, what little she could in her bindings, as she gritted her teeth. “You… You may take my body, but will never have my heart! *smack* Ouch!” She shouted as another coin struck her forehead.

“I’m serious,” Martel replied as he brought out a piece of Contract Paper.

“... I don’t think I want her joining us,” Hestia said as the others dully nodded, all with dead eyes.

“Papa, you can’t force someone to be a slave,” Kogane added.

“You’re right, but she is a criminal slave. Even though she didn’t mean to kill me, she still assaulted me. While that wouldn’t be enough to keep her as a slave for long, she assaulted many people before me. Because I captured her, I have the right to do this.” Martel said as he walked up to her.

The spider-girl tried to move back, but the shock of previously foreign stimulant stopped her, and her face soon became resigned as Martel performed the slavery magic.

“Well, a couple of months is enough,” Martel said as he finalized the magic before he quickly cut her down and extended his hand. “Welcome to the party, Arachne.”

Arachne hesitated for a moment before she reached out and shook his hand. “Aren’t you being a little too friendly? Don’t you humans find me disgusting?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong with your appearance. I think you are attractive.”

A dumbfounded expression came across Arachne’s face. “You… Are you one of those leg fetishists I’ve heard about? *smack* Ouch! Careful! You’ll poke out one of my eyes!”

[Not with the amount of mana I’m spending.] “Well then, you should stop making such remarks. Tell me where you came from.”

Arachne frowned for a moment before she relented. “There’s a large forest between the demihuman territory and the draconids that took root in the mountains above. My kind lives in a part of the forest and some of the caves below. I… I left because my poison, the strength of which defines our social standing, was too weak, and I got tired of the persecution.”

Martel tilted his head when he heard her mention how weak her poison was, but let her continue.

“It took me a while, but I eventually made my way into this forest. I ran into some humans before, and they all found me disgusting.”

“Where did you learn the Curse spell?” Martel asked. He had noticed that several of the bandits he had read into were under the Curse’s effect, Pact. The caster and target of the Pact spell would have a set of conditions to be followed before they agreed to be affected by the Curse. While it functioned similarly to the Contract Paper, it wasn’t as good and could be dispelled. The Curse could even include death because both sides would agree to the punishment entailed before fully accepting it.

“Just because we live in the woods doesn’t mean we’re not intelligent,” Arachne replied, slightly miffed. “We naturally know magic.”

“I see. Since Demihumans originate from beasts from the domain of beasts, where do you, a spider, fit in?”

“Well, from the old records I read, the idea that the land is split between three distinctly beasts, reptiles, and humanoids is somewhat of a misnomer. Even though it is difficult to pass the barrier, it is possible, which results in small amounts of all species being in all lands. The reason why they’re known as the land of beasts and reptiles is that those are predominant.”

“I understand. Now, why did you decide to attack me?”

Arachne snorted. “You were dissecting my subordinates, why else?”

“Fair enough. Wait, could you talk to them?”

“Talk is not correct. Demihumans can convey intent to others in the species family they are a part of. For example, that little fox girl should be able to converse with canine animals and monsters.” Aracnie replied, which prompted Kogane to nod in affirmation.

“Good to know. Well then, I guess we’re good to go.”

The other girls weekly nodded and quickly continued on the path they came. It seemed they wanted to exit the forest as quickly as possible. Even Cali seemed to desire a quick exit as she gave him an emotionless wink at his latest’ capture’.

Martel ignored it and quickly went through the notifications he got.

Keeping this in mind that Aracne qualified as a mount, Martel followed the party as they continued out of Fallen Hero Forest. Surprisingly, Arachne was somewhat proactive fighting against the spiders that she had previously called her subordinates. Martel asked her why, and she replied in a way that seemed self-demeaning. “Because the strong decide the fate of the weak.”

Martel didn’t reply, but he completely agreed with her statement. It was the very reason he was getting stronger. So long as there were people stronger than him, there was always the danger that he would not control his own life and protect the people he cared about.

...

Eventually, they made their way out of the forest, much to the relief of the girls who had enough dealing with insects and spiders. Tara and the carriage were waiting outside, and the girls finally gave a breath of relaxation. Everyone got into the carriage and made their way towards the central city of Sussex, Chichester.

After they all got settled in, Martel turned up to look at Arachne. “Are you aware of your Talent?”

“I have a Talent?” Arachne replied in surprise. “My kind is not particularly religious, so we never had the opportunity to visit one of the human churches.”

“Do you have no way to check?”

“The only ones who worship the humanoid goddesses are the humanoids. Demihumans don’t fall under that category, so it isn’t common. They created the entire System and affected the whole world, but that doesn’t mean that we want their churches or iconography in our regions.”

“I understand. Well, you can check your Status freely now.”

“Really? Let me see.” She said as she began to go through her Status. A few seconds later, her jaw suddenly dropped, and Martel knew why, given what she told him about how her species hierarchy worked.

 

“The reason why your poison is so weak is most likely because of this trait. It started at the lowest possible point, but you can probably reach the highest.” Martel said.

“With this… With this, I can finally get back at all those annoying flies.”

“Crystal, given that we were so busy to begin this expedition, we never had the time to awaken your Soul Armament, so you and Arachne will do that now.”

“I got it.” Crystal happily replied as she had been envious of the other’s Soul Armaments.

Arachne was slightly confused but became excited when she learned about it. The two of them quickly entered a state of meditation, and they tried to condense their Soul Armament.

Time quickly passed, and they already began to show signs of a successful condensing. Martel was once again surprised that they would be successful, but he didn’t want to question it. The first to condense her Soul Armament was Crystal.

 

Crystal was slightly disappointed when she saw that her Soul Armament was the lowest tear and level, but Martel quietly consoled her. Though he didn’t tell her, in the future, once he condensed enough Soul Fruits, he could also give her Soul Armaments the ability to evolve. This was not something that required him to have direct access to the Soul Armaments, as he had with his wives, but was an inherent ability of his Crown of Origin. He had to keep this in absolute secret to those who knew about Soul Armaments as he could be treated as a Soul Armament powerup factory.

A short time later, Arachne also condensed her Soul Armament, of which she was delighted with.

 

Martel took a deep breath when he read the description for Arachne’s Soul Armament. She was perfect for reconnaissance, spying, and assassination. 

Arachne was delighted with her new ability and ran out of mana playing with it. Like all the others, she continued to train as the party made their way towards the city.

...

 The sun was beginning to set as Martel, and the party began to set up camp as they were still half a day’s travel from Chichester. After Martel had created the barrier, and while the girls were setting up the camp, Martel pulled Arachne aside and handed her a storage bag.

“Arachne, this storage bag has some necessities, including gold. Besides that, I also included toxicology books and an appropriate station for you. You should be dealing with poisons and create only non-lethal so that you do not risk your own life trying to improve your poison. Once we’ve updated your Stats a bit, then we can start working towards deadly poisons.”

Poisons work somewhat unique compared to other substances in the world. There were two sources for poison, natural and magical. Natural poisons existed by creatures who had the necessary body parts to create poison, and magic was not involved. In this case, the target’s CON decides how likely they are to resist the poison altogether or basic resistance. Their vitality dictates how quickly they’re able to recover from it. Only a minimal amount of Curse Resistance would be applied.

The only drawbacks to natural poisons were unchangeable by species and then separated the birth. An example of this would be the Arachnoid species that Arachne was part of. They all had a natural poison that would be decided from birth, the range of which could vary, but it would be unchangeable. This was part of why the strength of the poison decided one social standing as a newborn’s poison could have the potential to strike down the most potent foe.

Magical poisons belonged to those who generate poison magically. Because Arachne’s Evolving Poison would take in additional poisons, it would quickly fall into this category, as would a poison dragon. In this instance, Curse Resistance would come into full play while CON and VIT were massively diminished. 

These two poison sources made it relatively lethal because it would be challenging to have the necessary stats to defend against both. 

Arachne used her mind to glance at the contents of the space bag, and she was astonished at what she saw. Martel wasn’t the first human she’d come across, but he was different from them. Those who saw her were either disgusted by her appearance or feared her. However, he simply teased her at most. For Arachne, the way he treated her made her reevaluate humans as a whole.

Additionally, she was quite surprised at how generous he was being given that she was only temporarily his slave. Going beyond the primary required treatment for a slave could be used as bargaining to increase their work length. However, should such a situation occur, the owner would have to deal with the slave; care for an increased contract time. However, Martel did not do this but freely offered it. Arachne desired strength above all else, but previously had no method to achieve it. Being ostracized by the world, Martel’s help touched a part of her she did not know existed.

With conflicted emotions, she looked back up at Martel. “I overheard the girls talking. Is it true that you are the Shield Hero?”

Martel simply nodded as the shield left his ring and appeared on his arm before returning it. “For now, keep it a secret.”

The conflicted expression came to Arachne's face before she flashed with a look of resolve and took a deep breath. “Thank you for the valuable gift, Patriarch.”

Martel nodded, only a little surprised at the new title, though he simply thought it was her expressing her respect for him. “Let me know if you need more. While I’m not thrilled about using poison, I’m not against it. It’s a good card to have. Well, the girls are wrapping up the tent, but I believe it will be a little awkward for you to join them.”

“That’s fine, I’m used to being alone.” She said as she walked towards a couple of trees.

“No problem. By the way, that thing attached to one of the books is light. It seems like you’d be a night person, so I included that.”

“Thanks. Say, do you think you could make me a bed?” She asked as she pointed towards the two trees.

Martel tilted his head. “Can’t you do that?”

Arachne made a slightly embarrassed expression. “I can, but it’s inconvenient for me compared to you. My work is far ruffer and not as intricate. Of course, you do not have to either.”

“No, it’s fine,” Martel said before he proceeded to make a large hammock as it would increase his Tailoring Expertise. Once he finished, he turned to look at Arachne and found she seemed a little disappointed. “Is it not to your liking?”

“Hm? Oh, no, it is. Thank you.” Arachne said.

“Good. Hestia volunteered to make dinner again. Anything I should tell her?”

“No, anything other than insects will be lovely. No matter how good they are, having nothing but insects can make a spider sick.”

Martel nodded before he left.

Arachne climbed on the hammock and tested it out. [He didn’t make it like before… Wait, what am I thinking? Why did I ask him to make my bed? It should be fine. He shouldn’t know what it means for an Arachnoid.] She thought as her cheeks took on a slight blush, rare considering her typical serious expression. Shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts, she withdrew a book and quickly became immersed.

...

Once again, the food was quite delicious. Hestia mentioned how spoiled they were. Martel could bring out portable cooking instruments from Earth and infinitely store fresh food in his inventory. Typical travelers would not have anywhere as much luxury as space bags were relatively rare to the average person and too small to carry everything. In other words, it was quite a luxury.

After dinner, everyone cleaned up while Arachne went back to her book in her bed. Martel rested in the carriage while utilizing the silk to grind his tailoring. The other girls began to chat in the tent. Because the previous day was tiring and they had to get up early, they could not chat, which they were making up for now.

“Hestia, dinner was really good,” Kogane said with a smile.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Hestia replied. “It’s nice being able to cook for so many people.”

“The food was delicious,” Laelynn added. “It’s so nice being able to have so many meals every day.”

[Wow, she’s had it rough.] Several girls thought as he looked at her beaming smile.

“Cali, what are you doing?” Crystal asked when she noticed Cali was writing in a notepad.

“Collection list,” Cali replied.

“For what?” Crystal asked as she and the other girls looked over it in curiosity and were surprised by what they saw. It was essentially a bullet point list, but they all saw that their name and race above each bullet point. As to why they could read the English Cali was writing, it was because they knew it as Common. Given that many of the heroes shared a basic understanding of English, it was quickly learned to help facilitate communication and was adopted amongst all the humanoid races.

“Cali, what is this list for?” Hestia asked, a little nervous as to what it might entail.

A glint flashed in Cali’s eye. “Harem. Elf slot, Dwarf slot, Kitsune slot.” She said as she pointed at them, respectively.

Even with her broken sentences, she managed to get her point across. Hestia and Crystal seemed a bit embarrassed, Kogane seemed unfazed, and Laelynn seemed confused.

“Okay, why are you making this list?” Hestia continued to prod.

“Report.”

“Who are you reporting to,” Hestia asked, with a bit of vigilance.

“Secret.”

If Martel were there, he would have chopped her forehead and said ‘at least be subtle about it.’ However, the ever so slight curve in Cali’s eyes that no one noticed betrayed that she was teasing them.

After a little more small talk, the girls eventually went to bed. The only exception was Cali, who still sat up looking towards the direction of the carriage.

“Cali, what’s wrong?” Crystal asked.

“Martel lonely. No one to hug to sleep.” Cali replied. 

Due to Hestia’s protest of himself and Cali regularly sleeping together, Martel had expressed that she should sleep together with the girls. If Martel had seen what happened earlier, he probably would’ve changed his mind.

“He’ll be fine, go to sleep,” Hestia replied.

“Master will be lonely?” Laelynn muttered to herself as she settled down to sleep.

...

Several hours went by, but Laelynn had yet to fall asleep. The revelation that Martel was lonely bothered her so much that sleep would not come to her. Finally, she got out of bed and quietly made her way out of the tent towards the carriage. She wasn’t noticed except for Cali, who didn’t require sleep. Arachne, who awoke when she felt the vibration on the non-sticky webbing that her Soul Armament spiders placed as an alert system, noticed her leave. Both of them noted but did nothing.

Quietly, Laelynn made her way into the carriage and snuggled up next to Martel. She was a little nervous and embarrassed as she had never taken the initiative to be close to anyone before. However, she calmed down quickly. It was as if his presence, his smell, helped her to relax and fall asleep.

End of Day 83