Evolutions, evolutions everywhere. Click looked down from the web fortress’ alcove at the army of spiders gathered below. The veterans stood tall with the newer generation surrounding them. Before, they were all smaller, utterly diminutive creatures compared to their longer-lived brethren. But now?

They were still smaller, especially compared to the largest of the older generation. But they had grown. And it was a very familiar sight to Click, who remembered the veterans having taken the same paths of growth to reach their current forms.

Many of the [Web Spiders] became [Adult Web Spiders], which hosted the same mix of Skills and attribute distribution as their pre-evolution, but with larger numbers attached to them. That was it, actually. They didn’t have any new Skills, so it was mostly the same as before.

Click wanted to use [Command Subordinates] to tell them what to evolve into next time, but there were problems with that. First of all, Click didn’t know what they would be evolving into, or when they would go through an evolution. And there came the second problem. Evolution came after getting enough level ups through experience gain, and experience was gained by killing enemies. In battle. Evolution could very well happen while in the middle of a battle. And from Click’s experience, you couldn’t wait on an evolution. It would lock up all of your Skills and System-oriented abilities, leaving you powerless until you made a decision. Even if it was a bad one.

Click had experienced it before, and had thankfully gotten out of it both alive and with a good evolution choice, but the [Spider Army Commander] didn’t want to risk it with any of their troops. So for now, Click was content to let them evolve as they saw fit. Though, the spider considered commanding everyone to try and evolve into something that wasn’t just a bigger version of their current form.

But beyond the [Web Spiders] were the various hybrid evolutions, the spiders who had experienced both web weaving and combat, and had found they enjoyed both of them. Before, they were mostly [Webslinger Spiders] and [Shadow Spiders], but they were now different. Bigger, stronger, and… yes, different.

[Shadow Spiders] had transformed into [Umbral Shadow Spiders] and [Envenomed Shadow Spiders].

Members of the first new evolution were slightly larger than the already tiny [Shadow Spiders], but unlike their pre-evolution, they held themselves much differently. It wasn’t like their previous fidgety attempts at stealth, dark-chitin colored spiders running through dark terrain. These creatures looked to be truly one with the shadows. The very darkness around them, cast by the larger veterans standing between the [Umbral Shadow Spiders] and the fungal sources of luminescence, bent and wavered as they touched the new evolution. The shadows wrapped around and swaddled them like a protective blanket.

And just as well that they obtained such a Skill, as it went hand in hand with two of their others.

Hmm, those descriptions are different.

Click realized that they hadn’t checked most of the other spiders’ Skills in a long while, and even then only did so when there was an obvious change.

Right, each Skill gets a new Perk for every ten levels it goes up. And it looks like these are the perks for levels ten and twenty.

Most of these spiders had a wide range of levels for both of those Skills, but they were all between ten and twenty five.

Beyond the [Umbral Shadow Spiders], there were also the [Envenomed Shadow Spiders], arachnids who were apparently now greater experts at wielding toxins. Their mandibles had elongated and the substance that dripped from them was a slightly different shade. An ugly purple. Ugly for whoever got it in their veins, that was.

The new Skill they had sounded vague, which in Click’s experience meant that it was pretty limited rather than all-applying, but the spider was certain it at least applied to venom.

The [Webslinger Spiders] also went through changes, some of them turning into larger variants of themselves a la [Weblord Spiders]. While the name sounded extremely impressive, their actual changes… weren’t as much. But there was one new Skill.

As it was, the Skill looked pretty standard, but it might grow stronger with new Perks or once Click thought of a new usage.

There were also [Puppeteer Spiders], which didn’t look too intimidating, but the Skill they gained immediately gave Click some good ideas.

On the surface, it sounded pretty vague, but Click figured it could at least trip up a particularly strong or fast enemy. And just like [Multi-Orifice Excretion], Perks might make it even better.

That wasn’t the last of the evolutions and changes, however.

Many of the previous [Hunter Spiders] were now [Bruiser Spiders], their own bodies having grown to begin to match the larger of the veterans. Still, the largest of this new batch stood only half as tall as Bored, but that wasn’t something to be scoffed at for a spider.

The rest of the purely [Hunter Spiders] evolved into [Adult Hunter Spiders]. They weren’t as large as the [Bruiser Spiders], or even had the specialized Skills they or any other evolution did, but they made up for it in versatility.

…Supposedly.

The only benefit this evolution had was that their attributes beyond Body grew at a decently fast rate, not that it actually meant much.

Click used [Observation] to look at everyone’s attributes, and they were… standard. While everyone’s Body was much larger, they still weren’t enough to match against a [Dungeon Hound], let alone their [Alpha] leader.

Click.

Click hadn’t expressed their frustration like that in a while, despite how stressful things were. They apparently only saved it for the seemingly dumb annoyances rather than the serious ones. This time? It was about attributes.

The numbers just made no sense! Sure, they made sense when it came to comparisons, but beyond that? Double the Body attribute didn’t mean double the strength. Two spiders whose Body added up to the Body of an enemy had less overall strength than that enemy.

Click was certain there was a kind of pattern to how it all worked, but with their limited understanding of math, they weren’t able to even get a start on figuring it out. All they did know was that all of their numbers were less than any of the [Dungeon Hounds], let alone the monsters who lived on the second floor.

Thus, the lead spider stopped caring about attributes in terms of their numbers. Those numbers were useless without the right context of how they worked.

Oh well, but at least I know one way of balancing out the scale; throwing more spiders at the problem! And I have enough spiders.

Click looked back at their brethren gathered before them, then towards the further parts of the fortress and the remnants of the spiders’ corpses being buried. Chunks of chitin, splotches of ichor, and legs. So many stray legs ripped by fang and claw.

Well, maybe I don’t have as many spiders as I used to. Click felt their mandibles droop. Is this how it works? I trade the lives of my troops to make the survivors stronger? Is it even a worthwhile exchange? I feel like I’m being cheated here. I’ll need more soldiers at this rate. Wait… more? The outpost!

Memories of the small lookout tower the spiders set up sprung to the lead spider’s mind, and with a quick call to [Command Subordinates], the Spider went running towards the site with a contingent of [Umbral Shadow Spiders].

Rather than ride on top of Bored, who was still chewing through its well-deserved meal, the [Spider Army Commander] chose to make one of the newly evolved stealth spiders their mount. They were still weakened, despite the level ups and evolutions, and it would be best to avoid a fight with any stray [Dungeon Hounds].

A few [Webslinger Spider] variants launched streams of silk to the hanging canopy above, and the spiders made their way to the top.

Click was surprised the structure was still in one piece. This outpost would have been an easy target for the hounds, given how it was essentially unguarded. They would’ve ripped it to shreds and killed everyone inside, just like they were planning to do to the main fortress.

The lead spider froze as soon as they set foot inside the canopy. The spiders behind them did the same as their eyes focused on what lay inside.

Every single arachnid stationed in the hanging outpost was dead.

Their corpses were in one piece, but their legs were curled up in that unmistakable death pose.

Click’s gaze went just past them towards the sizeable pile they were obscuring.

[Command Subordinates], move them out of the way.

The nearest [Umbral Shadow Spider] hesitated before complying, and Click let out a sigh as they realized what had killed everyone there.

Eggs. Spider eggs.

Vnator

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