Acclimating to her new eight legged, eight eyed body took around an hour of wandering around in the, to her massive clearing just outside the cave she awoke in. She was waiting for her exoskeleton to harden, she didn’t feel comfortable exploring with such a dent to her defence stat, but she didn’t care much about the overall stat reduction of the desync status effect. She had managed to kill two more hours by experimenting with her skills and webbing the inside of her small cave to make it more comfortable.
Suddenly she felt something nearby, small tremors transmitted through the ground, the skill she couldn’t test by herself was showing its effect. She could tell, seemingly instinctively, that it was a small four-legged animal. It was around the same size as she was, and it was slowly, cautiously approaching the entrance to her cave.
Vanessa knew this was a chance to catch something using her sticky web. She slowly made her way to the opening. She turned around and started to lay her sticky web on top of her already placed structural and stretchy web mesh. After she laid enough sticky web, she retreated back to the depths of her cave and waited for her prey to spring her trap.
She didn’t have to wait long before she felt the creature's cautious steps on the webs at the entrance. She stood perfectly still, the vibration of the webs worked both ways, she didn’t want to give herself away by moving to see what the creature was.
Soon she felt the moment the creature tried to lift its leg off of the patch of sticky web, but it was firmly stuck to the web. Through an oversight on Vanessa’s behalf, the mesh of structural and stretchy web was not stuck down, it raised off of the cave floor and got even more sticky web stuck onto the creature. As it panicked and thrashed around, it wrapped itself in more and more web until it effectively immobilized itself.
She could feel it twitch and shake trying to free itself, she slowly approached, eventually she saw the creature, it was a small brown mouse roughly 8 cm long.
It saw her and increased its efforts to escape its self-made silk coffin, still failing to do so.
When she was in striking distance she attempted just that, but just as her fangs made contact with the mouse’s hide, a lightning bolt of pain shot through her body starting from her fangs.
‘System, what the fuck was that?!’
[Answer: Your fangs currently are too soft to be used.]
[Recommendation: Wait until your exoskeleton hardens to get full use of your fangs.]
‘What? So I can’t eat until my exoskeleton hardens?’
[Answer: Negative. The exoskeleton hardening is an ongoing process. The minimum hardness threshold for piercing the Forest Dormouse’s hide will be met within the next half hour of hardening.]
‘So what should I do in the meantime? What about the mouse?’
[Answer: Analysis shows the Forest Dormouse has less than a ten-percent chance to escape its bindings.]
She sighs internally, ‘thank you system, that will be all.’
[Answer: Acknowledged. Closing connection.]
She grabs the cocooned mouse and drags it outside the cave, to facilitate the rebuilding of her ‘nest’ so to speak she gathers all the remaining web and also rolls it out of the cave.
This time when webbing her cave she lays down sticky web to glue the web to the cave walls, floor, and ceiling. By the time she finished rebuilding her home, her skeleton had hardened enough to pierce the mouse’s hide. Doing so she tested another skill of hers, the weak venom skill, she injected the mouse with a fatal dose, and it twitches and spasms before going still.
[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]
‘2 that’s it?’
[Answer: Experience is awarded based on comparative difficulty to defeat.]
‘Thanks, but that was rhetorical.’
[Answer: Acknowledged. Closing connection.]
‘Wait, don’t go yet, how do I eat this thing?’
[Answer: Your venom is breaking down the muscles and organs of the Forest Dormouse. Use your fangs to pierce the hide and suck the fluid out.]
‘That’s kinda gross, any other way?’
[Answer: Negative. You will have to eat this way until evolution presents an alternative.]
[Expansion: Evolution is unavailable until you reach the adult stage of the Common Tarantula]
‘What? So I have to wait until I’m an adult?’
[Answer: Negative. Upon reaching level 10 you will evolve into the Common Tarantula (Juvenile) stage.]
[Extension: Only the Adult stage will allow you to evolve into a new species, non-adult stages will evolve you into the next growth stage.]
‘Good to know. How many growth stages are there?’
[Answer: There are 4 growth stages. Spiderling, Juvenile, Subadult, and Adult.]
‘So 3 stages to go before I can evolve?’
[Answer: Affirmative.]
‘Thanks, that’s all for now.’
[Answer: Acknowledged. Closing connection]
Vanessa sighed, content to her fate of essentially eating through a straw. She mentally pulled her face as she stuck her fangs into the now liquified rodent. She was surprised there was no taste to speak of. ‘It’s not bad, but it’s not good either’.
After finishing her first meal in this new world, she did some thinking, as she painfully found out an unhardened exoskeleton is a huge inconvenience. She was definitely going to wait out the hardening process. She began formulating a goal to complete in this world, she pursues her memories, though remembering nothing about her previous life made it hard to define something she likes. The possibilities were endless, though alongside her system issued goal of spreading her knowledge, adding to it would be vital, and then it hit her. Her personal goal in this world will be to read as many books as she can get her hands… legs… pedipalps on.
To fulfil her goal, she will need to be able to communicate with the other races.
‘System, are there any evolutions that would let me speak?’
[Answer: Negative. There are now evolutions that would allow you to speak verbally]
‘How I’m I supposed to spread my otherworldly knowledge if I can’t speak to the races?’
Once again, the system falls silent in response to a question it couldn't predict.
[Answer: An Exception has been made. Evolution paths have been opened, you may now access magic focused evolutions.]
[Extension: New acquisitions have been unlocked.]
[Extension: Magic focused evolutions require you to have access to mana and an elemental alignment.]
‘What element alignments are there?’
[Answer: There are 8 main element alignments. Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Light, Void, Demonic and Holy.]
[Extension: Non-aligned magic can be used passively or actively.]
‘Is there not any sort of item storage magic?’
[Answer: Affirmative. Storage is a non-aligned magic.]
‘What’s non-aligned magic?’
[Answer: Magic that can be used by anyone who knows it, regardless of elemental alignment]
She opens the status and immediately opens the acquisitions menu.
‘There aren’t any elements’
[Answer: Affirmative. Altering elemental affinity before having the magic circuit to make the changes can cause abnormal effects.]
‘What kind of abnormal effects?’
[Answer: Example: Obtaining the fire affinity before the necessary acquisitions may cause you to spontaneously combust.]
‘Sounds unappealing, to say the least. So what method of communication did you devise for me to use?’
[Answer: Non-aligned magic telepathy was selected as an alternative communication method.]
[Extension: Non-aligned magic telepathy will be unlocked alongside Magical Affinity].
‘OK thanks that's all for now.l’
[Answer: Acknowledged. Closing connection.]
Vanessa decided she will wait in the cave for her exoskeleton to harden, after that she will go hunting to gain some experience.
took around an hour of wandering around in the, to her massive clearing
"...around in the, to her, massive clearing"
She grabs the cocooned mouse and drags it outside the cave, to facilitate the rebuilding of her ‘nest’ so to speak she gathers all the remaining web and also rolls it out of the cave.
Sudden switch to present tense.
she pursues her memories
"Perused" maybe?
[Answer: Negative. There are now evolutions
"are no evolutions"
Will we ever find out why she was reincarnated as a Tarantula? There are so many stories out there, that's Reincarnated as a ... which never answer this question.
Thanks for the chapter.
Ah, I realize now that I didn't mention it specifically, but she was reincarnated to speed up the development of the world by spreading her otherworldly knowledge.
I allude to it in this sentence, but don't expand upon it.
The possibilities were endless, though alongside her system issued goal of spreading her knowledge, adding to it would be vital, and then it hit her.
Sorry!
@Chemical-Spider I understand the goal as the reason she was reincarnated, but why a insect with no way to communicate, (at first), and also, seen as a dangerous creature that should be killed or avoided on sight? It seems, if the system did this, it pretty dumb. If a god did it, they probably don't really care for mortals or the goal itself.
It would have been a safer option to reincarnate them as a humanoid if the goal was to progress the world faster.
@IGLXenix I don't intend for the system to be omniscient, It's really just a database with basic intelligence. The administrators are the ones that decided she reincarnates as a tarantula.
But over all, it's just a bit of a twist of the norm that requires me to problem-solve in my own story. Keeps it interesting for me as well (as long as I remember what I've done, I can avoid tripping myself up.)
@Chemical-Spider I see, it's cool. I'll think of it as either the administrators are board and wanted entertainment at the expense of the MC, or, they picked a race for her out of a bag. (I'm leaning on the second option as it's more fun and funny.)
@IGLXenix It's both now, you've just made that cannon. The administrators picked her species by pulling names out of a hat.