“Nannies are some of the most looked-over specialists in the Shostran Kingdom… to commoners. To have a stranger raise your child for you when there is usually an able-minded parent at home is commonly considered ridiculous, but once again, only to commoners.

To the wealthy elite, the humble nanny is often one of their most important employees. The wealthy do not have time to raise their children themselves due to the demands of nobility or high society, and require an expert to care for their progeny. The progeny who will one day succeed them and build upon their legacy.

Do note that ‘Nanny’ is not referred to as a Class here, though the Class very much exists. To become a nanny, one must obtain the [Child Rearing] Skill and level it up to a suitable level, mostly by working as teachers or in an orphanage. The more children one works around and raises, the faster the Skill levels. And the elite are only interested in those with the absolute highest levels of the Skill as they only want what’s best for their children.

Over time, the nobility has exercised even greater control over their nannies, which has led to more stringency in their training, for better or worse. For example, the practice of training in orphanages is no longer as common, as the elite see working with such downtrodden children as a bad influence. Instead, would-be nannies are trained in elite nannying schools filled with slightly older children of the nobility who don’t actually require high leveled nannies themselves. And even these schools only accept would-be nannies who are pre-qualified by the nobility’s standards.

Thus, even something as humble as nannying has become a noble career in its own right, yet also suffers from nobility-oriented restrictions. Perhaps that is simply what a career field sacrifices in the name of prestige.”

-Memoirs of the previous Head Nanny of the Shostran Royal Family

---

[Command Subordinates]. Come on, hatch faster.

Click lazily moved their mandibles while eyeing the eggs before them.

[Skill level up! Child Rearing (28)]

Several days had passed since the [Dungeon Hound] attack, and in that time, Click was confined to the web fortress and surrounding grounds. With the spiders severely injured, they weren’t going to explore the caverns or pick a fight against the [Dungeon Boars] on the second floor. Everyone simply stayed put in their home while they healed. Since Click didn’t have any injuries themself, the [Spider Army General] spent most of their time practicing their brand new Skills.

[Command Subordinates] You are very useful unborn spiders, who will be even more useful upon hatching.

[Skill level up! Child Rearing (29)]

Click let out a sigh and called up the System menu.

Skill Name	Level	Description
Child Rearing	29	Improves ability to rear children. Know how reared children feel at any moment, and shows of kindness have increased effectiveness on happiness. Be able to more easily dress children in clothing.

When the [Spider Army General] first obtained the perk, they were elated at something that could make raising the next generation easier. And the Skill leveled up at an incredible rate, faster than anything Click had ever seen before! It was perfect, it would’ve brought about a new age for the web, but…

All of these perks are useless! The spider screamed in their head. Feelings? The others feel whatever their instincts tell them to feel, either hungry or bored. And dressing kids? What even is clothing? And that last one… kindness. The most useless perk I’ve gotten so far.

Click crawled out of the central chamber into the alcove and looked out to the other spiders below. They were mostly healed up now and entertaining or feeding themselves with Click’s blessing.

I bet they don’t even realize what I’m doing for them. They’re not smart enough to comprehend the idea of being shown kindness, they probably all see it as how the world works.

Click let out the equivalent of a melancholic sigh.

But I wonder… [Empower Troops].

One of the spiders who was play-wrestling suddenly tossed its sparring partner an additional two inches away. It landed in a tumble, but was otherwise unharmed. The supposed aggressor just stared at its limbs in awe.

Skill Name	Level	Description
Empower Troops	4	Temporarily add a portion of an attribute to the target.

Vague Skill descriptions could go one of two ways. Either they were incredibly open to interpretation and almost anything that fit within its bounds would be valid, or more commonly, only one specific interpretation applied and nothing could be done about it.

[Empower Troops] worked on the second philosophy. As it was, it added a massive portion of Click’s Strength to a single target. Only Strength, none of Click’s other attributes, and only to a single other spider.

Of course, it worked incredibly well with [One Army, One Being], which grouped spiders together such that only a single use of a Skill affected them all. It helped tremendously with reducing the number of calls [Command Subordinates] Click had to use to control the entire tribe. Since the latter Skill had a limit to how often it could be used, it was tremendously helpful early on in their life, and it would continue to be helpful as new eggs would be laid and hatched.

[One Army, One Being], [Empower Troops] Click called out both Skills while facing a larger group of wrestling spiders, about ten of them, and saw as they all began to throw each other around more forcefully than before.

[Skill level up! Empower Troops (5)]

The original target, who was apparently drunk on confidence, tried to stand tall as the spider it threw earlier charged and knocked it down.

Apparently [Empower Troops] only worked on a single target at a time, on top of its other restrictions.

Click figured it would get stronger with more level ups and perks, but in the meantime was stuck with this. It still had its uses. Namely with empowering the elites as they were making killing blows, or to throw off enemies who expected weaker attacks before an empowerment.

Speaking of which, perhaps it was time the spiders delivered a killing blow to their currently greatest enemy? The hounds were a powerful threat together, but they were all tied together by their leader, Howl. If the spiders could take him out with a quick killing blow, they would be safe… safer. But the safest they would have ever been.

[Command Subordinates]! Shadow Spiders, come with me! We’re going to pay someone a little visit!

---

It didn’t take long to head out. The [Juvenile Dungeon Hounds] watching the web fortress were mainly on the lookout for large groups, or at least the larger spiders. So when a squad of the shadow-cloaked arachnids snuck out in single file, the hounds didn’t even notice them, let alone Click who haphazardly snuck out alongside their much more subtle brethren.

The actual process of finding the hounds took longer, however. When they ran after the battle, Click didn’t get the chance to track them down. It wasn’t as if they had any kind of home base before the battle anyway, they were all scattered, essentially fodder for the spiders whenever they performed their hunts. Oh, how the tables had turned.

But they wouldn’t stay that way for long if Click had a say.

But where were they? Beyond those watching the web fortress from a distance, there were barely any hounds actually prowling the cavern. With how many survivors there were, such a large grouping of them was bound to be obvious!

Soon enough however, Click found the answer.

Over there, an [Adult Dungeon Hound]! Exclaimed Click in their head and through their Skill to the other spiders. Follow it!

The [Shadow Spiders] did as instructed, and jumped between boulders and stalagmites to stay out of view of the single hound. They kept it up for several minutes in pursuit of the predator as it made its lackadaisical way forward, past a corner, and into…

What’s that? It’s a wall of small rocks.

Click and a few of the others slowly walked over to the wall, a structure made up of several smaller rocks and boulders rolled beside and on top of each other. The structure reached to about twice the height of an [Adult Dungeon Hound] and perfectly blocked the view of whatever was inside. The surface was covered in a slimy substance that kept the structure from immediately falling apart.

One of the spiders tried climbing the wall to get a peek over it, but as they made it halfway up, the rocks began to shift and the structure began to collapse.

Well, only a few of the stones loudly fell, but one of them struck the climbing spider right in the thorax and sent it sprawling to the ground.

Five damage?! Click exclaimed in their head while checking the spider’s stat sheet. What shoddy engineering, what kind of wall collapses when a spider tries to climb on top of it? What kind of idiot designed this?

A quick series of howls echoed out from within the walls followed by footsteps.

It was designed that way. The noise the falling rocks make is an alarm! [Command Subordinates], let’s get out of here!

Click shouted the command via the Skill and the spiders quickly fled before they could garner any more attention.

Thankfully, the few hounds who appeared took a quick uninterested look at the small section of broken wall and began to roll up stones and lift them up with their mouths to patch the hole.

So they really are all hiding in there, no wonder it was so hard to find them at first. Click’s look of frustration slowly softened, and their mandibles grew into a smile. But now that they have a proper base, that means they aren’t likely to move, so I can plan my own long-term attacks against them. But who needs to do that when there’s an alternative?

---

Several minutes were all Click needed to put their plan into action. In all honesty, it wasn’t very complicated, but it made good use of one hole in the hounds’ defenses that any spider could easily exploit.

One of the [Shadow Spiders] was able to piece things together as they all approached the hounds’ fortress, and quickly jumped in excitement. Another spider quickly caught it before it could fall off the stalactite it was currently standing on. Upside down.

If we can’t take them head-on, then we’ll come in from the ceiling! Besides, we’re only looking for their leader, Howl. If we kill him, the others won’t know what to do and we can take them out whenever we please. But… where is he?

Click was close to the front of the group and had the best view of the base. They saw many of the [Dungeon Hounds] milling about, sleeping, eating armored beatles, or just playing. Most of them were juveniles with the occasional smattering of adults, but only those two. The lone figure that towered over everyone else was missing. Or at least, Click couldn’t find him.

I’m going to get close, he has to be-

Before Click could make it any further, a leathery wing struck and sent them flying backwards. One of the [Shadow Spiders] catching the lead arachnid was the only thing that saved them from falling and going splat.

[Command Subordinates], attack! Attack that… bat?

That was what [Observation] told Click. They even recognized it from the dungeon raid and how they’d swooped down from the ceiling to attack the intruders. But they’d almost all died, and this must have been one of the few survivors.

The spiders sprung into action and made quick work of the flying creature. While the spiders were in its domain, the bat was no match for the expert webwork and stealth that let the shadowy figures sneak up and deliver several lethal blows in quick succession.

Before the bat could drop to the ground, Click commanded the others to grab its corpse and fasten it to the ceiling. They didn’t want to alert the hounds and tempt them into looking up.

Alright, now that that’s taken care of, let’s move forward and get a better look at the hounds! Come on, I-

Click didn’t get attacked this time. They’d learned their lesson and looked carefully ahead before moving. And it saved their life. Everyone’s lives.

Some distance in front of them, right above the center of the hounds’ base, was a colony of bats. While so few of them survived the dungeon raid that any spider could count them with their legs, what lay ahead was… more. More like the number of [Dungeon Hounds] present.

Dozens, maybe even a hundred bats, lay sleeping. They hung upside down in listless slumber, with even a small nudge or disturbance enough to temporarily wake one of them up before sleep took them once more. But those few seconds of wakefulness would be all they would need to see Click and the others. Maybe the [Shadow Spiders] could have taken them on while on the ground, but on the ceiling? In their natural territory? It was suicide.

Looks like we aren’t going to be able to take out Howl this way. Did he set everyone up here on purpose, knowing that the bats would offer aerial protection from us? Is he really that smart?!

Click was beginning to worry.

In the meantime, one of the bats rustled around and dropped something. Something warm, semi-solid, and smelly. It fell down from the ceiling, through the air, and onto the head of one of the hounds.

It let out a pitiful whimper as the guano struck it perfectly, and some of the other hounds walked over. They began to lick the substance from its head as if they hadn’t eaten in days, like it was some kind of rare delicacy.

Oh, that’s disgusting! Why can’t they stick to flies?! Oh… that’s why they set up here. Because they think the bat poop tastes good. Huh.

Click turned around and began to walk away, their face entirely blank and mind too fried to process anything more. The other spiders followed.

That idiot is a genius and he doesn’t even know it.

---

Well, at least you all can’t do anything stupid. Because you can’t do anything yet, ha! Click laughed to themselves while curled up next to the eggs. The enclosed space of the web fortress’ inner chamber gave the [Spider Army General] a feeling of safety. Just like Howl’s idiot-made, genius-proof base, the web fortress was just as impenetrable. It helped ease their mind off of the bigger worries.

But forgetting was only a temporary fix, from what Click understood. What they really wanted to do was share their woes with someone, anyone, so that they might take some of the burden. Of course, that would never happen. Click was the only one who could actually lift the tribe’s burdens and nobody else came close. But to share the worry… that would be enough.

Might as well share it with you all. Click gazed upon the eggs with a half-sleepy expression and called forth [Command Subordinates].

We’ve got a strong enemy, stronger than we’ve ever faced before. Well, there were the invaders, who came long before you were ever laid, but they left us alone as long as we did the same. Except for those three, but they were weaker than the current threat.

Howl. That’s his name. An [Alpha Adult Dungeon Hound]. A very strong one who can command the other hounds, and even tried to attack us! He almost won and killed us all, except for some really dumb luck. I don’t want to have to rely on dumb luck, I need strength. The tribe needs strength. To do that, we have to head to the second floor of this place and fight the creatures down there, but there’s a small problem.

The hounds are watching us. If I take a fighting force down there, the hounds will just attack us. And by us, I mean you. You’re all sitting… eggs. I feel like there should be something to compare this to, but whatever. If I leave to make the tribe stronger, you all die, and I need you to give us the edge on numbers to really fight back! I know it’s only a gamble rather than an inevitability, but it’s one I don’t feel comfortable taking.

So can you all hatch faster?

…

Please?

[Skill level up! Child Rearing (30)]

[Skill Perk unlocked for Command Subordinates!]

Skill Name	Level	Description
Child Rearing	30	Improves ability to rear children. Know how reared children feel at any moment, and shows of kindness have increased effectiveness on happiness. Be able to more easily dress children in clothing. Hastened gestation.

Hastened… what?

The eggs began to shake. Harder than they ever had in the past.

They were close to hatching.