“As a mother, I must say that the state of education in the Shostran Kingdom is in need of refinement. That isn’t to say that the wonderful schools in the capital are doing a bad job, mind you, but I mean education as a whole.

  There are a lot of young men coming into town from out in the wilderness. I mean, they don’t call it the wilderness, since they’re technically from civilization, but it’s still just a rural village! Where was I? Oh right, these young men. They work alongside the men and women who grew up in the capital under your expert tutelage, but they have their own ways of doing things.

  Huh, is it more effective? That’s not what I’m talking about, I’m saying they’re different, and they’re throwing off the established order of things! That’s why I propose that all of the schools in the Kingdom teach the same things. They have to follow the same format if we want everyone to learn the same, so they can do the same job!

  What do you mean, you can’t control what other schools teach? And so what if those kids are taught by their parents or some volunteer schoolmarm? It’s your duty to your Kingdom to raise the next generation, and I don’t want my dear son Jadelyin to be working alongside someone who doesn’t know how things are supposed to be done! If you won’t do it, I’ll bring this to the King Himself!”

  -Notes from the Parent Teacher Association meeting at Saint Coteslia Elementary School

  Why was nobody doing this? Click thought to themself as they chased a small group of jumping bugs towards their web.

  The sticky silk structure was built low, so the final push had to be very light, lest the insects go all the way over. Doing so wasn’t too difficult, however. It only took Click two tries to realize it.

  The spider took a deep breath and admired their handiwork. A dozen bugs sat in their web while their brethrens’ were all just about empty. What did they expect, building so close to each other and just sitting there?

  Well, no matter. Click flexed their mandibles in a facsimile of a smile and walked over to their meal. Before they could climb up and grab what was rightfully theirs, they were thrown by a powerful shove.

  No, a shove wasn’t what threw them; it was a tidal wave of spiders! As Click got back up, they saw empty nets in the distance, with their previous occupants now climbing all over Click’s. Legs shuffled over each other as insects squirmed, being quickly wrapped up and devoured by hungry maws.

  [Experience +3 | Next Level: 9/50]

  [Experience +3 | Next Level: 12/50]

  [Experience +3 | Next Level: 15/50]

  …

  [Level up!]

  The notifications were the only thing keeping Click from going over and biting the first spider they could get their venomous mandibles on.

  But as the viciously lazy thieves devoured Click’s hard earned feast, they noticed something… or rather, a lack of something. The webs that the freeloaders had constructed lie completely empty. Of both meals, and their weavers. In other words, it was free real estate.

  Click scurried on over to the closest abandoned web and gave it a good, hard look. It was big, but its weaves prioritized taking up space instead of making good use of it. That wouldn’t do. It only took two or three extra strands of spider silk, but the net was widened and heightened to be able to catch airborne insects. Whoever had first weaved the net had done all of the hard work, this was more akin to putting a bow on top. Though that bow was much easier to place than it was when they first started.

  [Skill level up! Silk Spinning (5)]

  The spider looked over to its old net, and saw that their brethren had resorted to fighting each other for what was left. Click would’ve made a scoffing noise if they had the appropriate vocal chords, but instead resorted to making a single click with their mandibles.

  Click quickly put aside the negative feelings, and after a quick run, their new net was filled with just as many bugs as the last one. They marveled at the results of their hard work, and got ready to jump in with the captured bugs. But Click wasn’t the only one admiring the work.

  The spider turned their eyes to their old net to see their brethren watching the net fill up intently. The slightly bigger web held exactly the same number of morsels as the last one did, but the spiders simply stood watching.

  Click’s eyes and mandibles flashed a fierce warning. One that was entirely ignored as all gazes were locked on the web. A lone insect idly flew through the air, and in an attempt to mate with one of the others of its species stuck in the sticky silk, got caught up in the same trap.

  Click knew what was about to happen. They felt it deep in their gut, and hoped that they were wrong. They were right. It was the straw that broke the spider’s back, and a swarm of legs and hungry fangs jumped down and ran at the newly successful net.

  The lone spider responsible for the captured food opened their mandibles and let out the closest imitation to a scream it could muster, some primal expression of its unyielding rage and indignation. They jumped into the throng and began to bite.

  The stampede didn’t care much, and granted one mercy in that it threw Click off to the side rather than trample them to death.

  Click fell to their belly in defeat as they watched as their hard work was devoured right before their eyes. All of that time and effort spent, and once again, nothing to show for it.

  [Experience +3 | Next Level: 17/55]

  [Experience +3 | Next Level: 20/55]

  [Experience +3 | Next Level: 23/55]

  …

  [Level up!]

  Experience? But how? Click thought to themselves. All they did was chase the insects into somebody else's web! They knew that chasing one of those bugs didn’t count for anything after that one physically gifted spider ate the one Click was pursuing. And this particular web only had one or two strands that were actually from Click. The rest were woven by…

  One of the spiders in the throng ever so slightly enlarged, and used their new advantage to push one of their brethren off the web.

  Maybe experience was doled out to anyone who contributed to a web? But in that case…

  Click quickly ran over to the other silken nets. These ones were woven very close to each other, so with only a few strings, they could be turned into a single web. And that was just what Click did. And this time, the Spider wasn’t worried, for one very simple reason.

  Click knew what would make their brethren attack. Click had felt the urge themself, after all. Right as that last insect landed on the net, some kind of mental switch was flipped that made Click want to run over and gorge themselves on every single insect they could get their hands on. It wasn’t based on the raw number of bugs, since both nets had the same amount, but the second didn’t trigger the swarm until it went above it. The only difference between the webs was their size. So it was the density of the bugs that triggered it.

  Click didn’t have a word to describe “density.” They didn’t have any words for that matter. But the concept was easy enough to understand; how closely stuff was squished together. And the spider now knew exactly how squished together things needed to be before their brethren ran over. Click would just have to underfill it.

  [Skill level up! Silk Spinning (6)]

  [Skill level up! Silk Spinning (7)]

  [Skill level up! Silk Spinning (8)]

  A few more minutes later, and the spider was ready to collapse. Their mega-net was filled to the brim with insects, but with plenty of space between them. The other spiders looked over, but stayed on Click’s old net, looking over with a mix of jealousy and hunger. Yet, they did not move. They waited.

  They waited while Click slowly made his way up the miniature mega-structure and took his first bite. The lone spider savored their meal and scuttled over to the next. And the next. Their energy was returning to them, and with it, a feeling of glee.

  [Experience +5 | Next Level: 10/60]

  [Experience +5 | Next Level: 15/60]

  [Experience +5 | Next Level: 20/60]

  …

  These nets used to be theirs, but it wasn’t Click’s fault they’d made such a terrible trade deal.

  [Level up!]