Chapter 2: Starting out

“Though I say survive… For now there’s nothing to really look out for… I think?”
Managing to look around while struggling a bit in an unfamiliar body, he takes in his surroundings in greater detail.

“I think I'm on top of an oak tree, and from the looks of it this is very crowded forest with multiple types of trees and plant life, ones I can identify are Hornbeam, Hawthorn. There are some others that I don’t know. Vines, bushes, moss, shrubs and wildflowers are plentiful.”

It was quiet and serene among the verdant greens.

“Still even if it’s safe for now, that doesn’t mean it will be like that forever. First I need to survey the surroundings for points of interest while I’m at it  look out for source of water, shelter and food… food?”

If the spider had the ability to convey facial expressions, right now it would have the image of grimace painted on it for the fact that spiders preyed on bugs had just dawned upon him.

“... That’s right, Hawthorn has edible berries and leaves, I don’t have to eat bugs right...?”
…
Still reality didn’t change for his sole convenience...

“Thinking about it won’t help me, for now let’s put the food problem on the backburner. Then water… find some sort of stream or a river… no… river is too dangerous, I’m sure spiders can’t swim, not the common anyway species. Maybe some of the plants will have dew on them come morning. As for shelter, I think I can dig a burrow under the roots of trees, hopefully the soil is loose enough, I don’t have tools for doing groundwork.
Now before heading out… I’d best use up those points first. My odds of survival are higher with them spent compared to without them spent. The available skills are, Stealth, Presence Detection, Power, Constitution, Finesse, Agile, Olfactory and Principle of magic.


Power, Constitution, Agile, Finesse and Principle of magic should correspond to the stats of Strength, Vitality, Agility, Dexterity and Magic.
It’s only a guess since I can’t really know what they do, unless I commit a point to them. Which leaves Olfactory, Presence detection and Stealth.
Still just to make sure one point into… Agile seems okay.”

When focusing on one of the available skills with a commitment, feeling akin to a spine chill and goosebumps fills his body.
“Strange, I thought it would be warmth again?”

“As for the verdict...

◊ Agility 16 (F)* 

… yeah… that’s not very much. Is it because of my small size?
In that case I’ll have to avoid direct confrontations to prevent it devolving into a numbers game where the greater number is just better than the lesser one. Then something to help me with that would be Stealth. Now do I put all my eggs in one basket and fully develop this? Obviously there’s risks attached to it, even so I think it’s better to specialize into something rather than trying to spread out too thin. Pursuing raw statistic numbers right now doesn’t seem to be very effective, seeing as how a level 1 skill didn’t budge it much.

There’s still the possibility of exponential growth as it’s level increases but right now I don’t have the resources to test out my theory. For now, if I assume level 5 is a median rank, being above average at 7 should carve out a nice niche for me.

As for the remaining points maybe one more into Agile for good measure to know if it’s good.

◊ Agility 19 (F)*

I can’t even tell the difference. Hope that stealth does better otherwise it’s going to be a long day.

At least it’s what I thought it to be. Last 2 points in presence detection… So I don’t carelessly wander into some animal’s den or a nest.

Well, then… let’s go explore I guess… Stealth doesn’t need to be activated right? Hopefully it’s like a passive skill.  I still have to be careful not to be seen, the skill is half as effective then. Time to be real sneaky beaky like.”

As he crawled down the tree, his movements were already much more efficient, cohesive and smooth. Almost as if it was natural, for a human with a spider’s body.
Augmented and corrected by the Skill Agile his motor skills were incomparable to his previous blunderings. This fact goes unnoticed by the person himself.

As he reaches the forest floor of litter of leaves, branches and vegetation a thought comes to his mind.
“How am I going to find my directions anyway? I can’t be just going around aimlessly… I should mark some places as landmarks… Hm… If I had something like a chalk or… Wait what am I thinking? I can just use a silk as breadcrumbs to find my way back. It shouldn’t be too visible so let’s make it thin...”

With a near imperceptible thread of silk guiding his path travelled a spider proceeds to delve into the forest.

Taking in the sights of the forest flora and fauna, he was on a skittish exploration. Carefully taking notes of bugs; equated in his mind as potentially ‘edible’ materials like, crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, mosquitoes while also looking out for predators. Lizards, Other spiders, Birds, Centipedes all of them in varying sizes.
“What’s with this place? Why is everything so large? This is place is teeming with danger, nuh uh. I’m gonna dig myself a hole and just sit in it forever… I would've if not for starvation…

They’re not that numerous but that’s still not very safe you know… At least I found a small rivulet so I’m not dying of thirst.”
There were other unusual things he encountered as well. Green skinned brutish creatures with oversized heads and sizable canine teeth with the height of children, huge insects of varying species, a wolf with the size of a horse, a lizard large as a passenger bus, Massive wild boars with thick curved tusks, long enough to impale an adult human and then some.
“There was also that weird batlike thing incessantly screeching like a banshee in the sky. For now the things I confirmed are, there’s this gigantic mountain off in the distance, A lake to the west (or the direction where the sun is setting to.) and strange masked men with blue skin to the east… I don’t know if they’re intelligent or not, but they were using simple tools and that’s already civilized in this place.
I think that’s enough for today. It’s almost dusk, night can’t be that far behind it, I need to find shelter.”

Skittering back, following his own trail of silk, he returns to the tree he started from. Soon nights falls accompanied with the song of crickets. Crawling back up the tree, reaching one of its highest branches, he contemplates his future course of actions.

“Hunting for food is not an option, there’s too many predators here. I don’t want to be the next lunch for some bug, not yet. I guess I could try catching something after I weave a web… Hope my engineering courses taught me something…”

Gentle glow of the moon bathes the grey spider.

“This planet has two satellites. One is significantly larger than the other and has ring of some sort.”

A slight mist settles...

“I wonder if I can suck on those berries I saw in the bush earlier… No wait the hawthorn leaves, I can definitely eat those.”

A quiet night falls upon the lush forest...