The next morning came and Jelin found it to be the best waking experience he had had in the new world.  He and the girls had to untangle themselves from each other like the previous morning.  Following that, though, instead of everyone rushing to the webs to grab breakfast, they headed to the water and started washing themselves.  Some cool water to drink followed by the closet approximation to a bath they could manage made for a refreshing start to the day.  With the widespread webs catching more breakfast than they'd ever had made Jelin feel like they would all be able to get a lot more work done than otherwise.

After breakfast, the arachnae continues with the outer perimeter webs, Conk continued to bring in sticks and logs, Claw disappeared claiming she was going hunting, Queenie continued to rest and heal, the skeleton rat existed, and Jelin began sorting through the wood pile and placing them where he planned to use them appropriately.  His plan was to try and make them into the main home's walls with the trees as corner pillars, fill the cracks with mud and dirt, tightly layer a web on each side of the wall for support and stability, then have webbing wrapped around it tightly as extra insurance.  The downside was that that would only work to about a meter high at most.

It wasn't a perfect plan for walls but it should at least be sturdy enough to handle some force in case something ever came into their territory.  For the rest of the height on the walls he intended to just have it be multiple layers of thick webbing similar to how he intended to their roofing.  Originally, he wasn't even going to bother with trying to make it quite as house-like but then he thought about it further and realized full walls and a roof would help hold in heat when it got cold and protect them from future storms.  It would still take at least two days, as far as he could tell, to fully finish making the central first room.

Around noon Claw came back with some extra cuts and scratches as if she had been in a tough fight.

<I need help dragging prey.>

Jelin wasn't sure if he could help as much as he wished but he didn't want to interrupt the arachnae in their work so he called Conk over and let Claw lead them off.  After a few minutes they came up to the dead bodies of two fairly large predators of some sort.  Each was slightly larger than he was and looked like a strange mix between a hyena and wolverine.  Trying to [Inspect] them only told him that they were predators of the area.  Even with all three of them it was awkward to try and drag both bodies back and in only three times the amount of time it took to get there, they finally managed to drag both bodies back to the clearing in their territory.

Conk immediately ran over to the nearest arachne, probably Scar, and then came back with some webs in her hands.  Jelin didn't even have time to ask what was going on before she started to try and wipe some of Claw's nastier cuts.  Jelin stopped her as soon as he realized what she was doing.

<Wait.  Go use the water to help clean the blood.>

They both looked at him for a moment before Conk nodded in understanding.  She grabbed Claw's hand and started dragging her towards the water while Jelin stared after them.  A plan began to form in his head as thoughts about the situation swirled around.  When he started looking around again he realized that he had gotten lost in his thoughts for so long that everyone had already gathered to eat.  As the all tore into their meals, he made sure some pieces of several different parts were kept back for Queenie.  He figured that a little bit of heart, liver, eye, and brain would all provide slightly different nutrients to help her recover even faster.

As they were finishing their meal he saw Legs grabbing something from both of the hearts and walking over to him.  He tilted his head in curiosity as she handed over what she was holding.  In his hands were what appeared to be two small crystal orbs that weren't even the size of his fingernail.  Something about them seemed appetizing and after a few moments he realized that they were monster cores.  A mix of his natural dungeon knowledge, monster instincts, and the subconscious traces of the system's higher access told him that a monster eating monster cores gained strength and reached evolution faster.  The plans he had started thinking of just before the meal started to feel even more complete now.

<Thank you.  Let's save these for later, though.  While I'm thinking about it, let's find a place to store these.  From now on if anyone finds some cores make sure they get put in our storage.  Also, I'm sure some of you are getting close to your evolutions.  Even if you feel you can, I want you to hold back and not evolve yet.  I have some ideas that can make all of you even stronger as long as you don't evolve.>

<But we have to evolve to get stronger...?>

<No you don't.  There are ways to get stronger without evolving.  I'm also not telling you to never evolve again, just to wait.>

<Why wait, though?>

<Hmm.  Let's say you feel you can evolve and do so immediately.  You get to choose if you want to grow up one stage and be a little better at making webs or become like...err...what was the boss arachne's name...Allie.  What would you choose?>

<<Like Allie!>>

The practical shouting from all of them at once made him stumble a little but he shook his head clear of the momentary ringing and continued with his explanation.

<That's bad.  It would make all of you stronger right now, yes, but then you couldn't get stronger after that any more.  You all want to be able to keep getting even stronger until even Allie would seem weak, right?  So before you evolve you need to learn things first.  After you learn and do certain things, then you can evolve.>

He saw them all thinking through what he told them even if they didn't entirely believe it yet.

<Don't worry.  It might take a little time and some extra work but I'm going to help you all become much stronger than Allie could ever be!  Trust me.>

They still seemed a little skeptical but accepted what he said and soon went back to doing what they had been doing originally.  By the time night came, the perimeter webs were finally done.  Using the last bit of daytime left he gave an initial demonstration of what he was trying to do for the walls and then urged them all to settle down for the night early.  They might have been able to get a little more work done but he wanted to start having some time set aside for teaching them every night from now on.  He even made sure that Queenie could hear him through the link as well.  He ignored the skeleton rat, though.

<You all did a good job today again.  From now on I want us to try and go to bed a little early so I can try and teach you things before we fall asleep, okay?  Tonight we'll talk about getting stronger and what that actually means.  I know you all want to get stronger but do any of you know what kind of strength you want?  There are different types of strength, after all.>

<There are different types of strength?>

<Of course.  I'll use myself as an example.  When we were trying to escape I could barely even defeat a rat by myself.  What I had, though, was a strength of leadership and a strength of knowledge.  I knew when the best times to rest would be so that you could all fight without collapsing in exhaustion.  I knew certain ways to help treat your wounds so you could recover faster and be stronger again.  I was able to point out where you should go, who you should fight, and the timing for it.  It's a different kind of strength than just being able to hit your enemy until they die but it's a strength that helped us escape still.

Conk also seems to have a slightly different kind of strength.  So far she's the best one of us when it comes to healing.  Right now she doesn't have enough knowledge or skill for it to be her true strength but if she wants to then she could become a truly strong healer some day.  While some of you may become strong in a way that you can kill an enemy or prey in one hit, a strong healer has a different kind of strength. 

Imagine you had to fight Allie right now.  None of you could win that fight, right?  Even if all of you tried to attack her at once it would be close at best.  Now let's say you have a strong healer with you.  It would still be hard to hurt Allie but every time she hurt you the healer would make it better again.  None of you would be able to die.  Eventually you would beat Allie and be able to walk away with no injuries.  All because you had a strong healer.  See?  Different kinds of strength.  Some kinds of strength require having others help you but make everyone much much stronger instead of just a little stronger.

I'm not saying Conk has to be a healer, mind you.  I want you all to choose for yourselves what the best way to be strong will be.  In order to choose like that, though, you have to first learn about it.  This is why I want you all to wait until you learn some things before you evolve.  The more things you know, the more things you can do and better.  Doing more and better things makes you more powerful.  Thus, knowledge is power.>

<I'll do it!>

The sudden exclamation from Conk after his little teaching speech left him confused for a while.  Finally, he turned to her for clarification since he wasn't sure what, exactly, she was getting excited about.

<Umm...you'll do what?>

<Be a healer.  I like helping.  You said being a healer will make me strong.  I'll do it!>

<I see.  Well, let's at least get our new home started tomorrow, first.  If we can spare some time, I'll try and help you start learning to be a strong healer.  For now, though, it's time for sleep.  Good night, ladies.>