Day 2: 

The two of us continued to walk along the sandy ground, not talking about much. I was a bit preoccupied with thoughts of the future. We didn’t have any plans or goals in mind when we set off. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t been aware of that, but having a ‘final destination’ seemed like a good idea now. It was better than wandering around aimlessly.

After racking my mind for ideas the only goal that came to mind was finding my family. 

The first step in that would be finding out if it was even possible. 

To find them, I’d need a boat. But because no machines had worked since the blue-black room, It would need to be a row/sailboat, and one big enough to hold the spider.  I doubted there were a lot of sailboats that large, or captains willing to take her. We also didn’t have anything to give in return,  money wouldn’t have value anymore. 

And finally, as a product of our hasted leave, I had absolutely no idea where we were. I knew leaving was a stupid idea, but at least I should have at least prepared properly. 

“I blame that entirely on you,” I complained to the spider, “You’re warping my mind with your impatience, you monster”.

 I said it as a joke, but it was somewhat disturbing. 

I wasn’t just feeling her emotions, I was also absorbing some of her characteristics. It also wasn’t just me changing, She was also noticing changes in herself. Not as many as I had, but she assumed that was because she had only lived a week before meeting me, a fact I still couldn’t wrap my head around properly. 

The spider, tired of the silence, spat out a question *Your home didn’t have sand right? It was dirt, grass and a lot more plants? Why is there a difference between two different places?* 

She was always good when it came to questions.

She had been a tremendously fast learner, so I wasn’t too worried about giving a more in-depth explanation. To do so, I needed to build up her knowledge of the rotation of the earth around the sun, along with a tone of other bits of geography to explain. I wasn’t as well versed in geogrify, but I could remember the basics, and fill in the rest with physics. Luckily, she could tell when I wasn’t able to explain further and would redirect the questions.

She eventually moved on to a different subject but had a bit of difficulty actually asking the question. I knew there was something she had been hesitating to say for a while, but decided to wait for her to ask.

*Erm, so you walk pretty slowly, and I was wondering if it would be easier if I was just walking for you?* 

After hearing that,  I made the obvious choice to make fun of her, “You’re asking if I can crawl on your back and ride you?”

I could feel her irritation, but I’ve gotten better at differentiating between her emotions and mine. Though, in the end, making fun of her was a double-edged sword, since even if I could tell it was her irritation that I was feeling, I was still feeling it. Like phantom pain, you know that your arm’s gone, but that doesn’t stop it from hurting.

But despite that, It was still fun to make fun of her, since I could easily tell where a soft spot was. It was easier than with others, since it was easy I could tell if certain things were going too far, so I wasn’t walking on eggshells.

*Say that again, and you’ll be crawling behind me.” 

“Yeah yeah. But, if you're fine with it, It would make life easier.”

…

…

…

 

Usually, when moving on something for a while, it gets uncomfortable, a horse's gallop, the swaying of a boat, or the bumps on the road when you drive become noticeable. But apparently, not with the spider. Since she had so many more legs, there was no bumping up and down, nor would she sway from side to side. Her body was so unmoving that I was even able to just put the bag on her back without fear of it sliding off. 

As she continued to walk, I got to enjoy the scenery more. The sun stood overhead beaming scorchingly bight bright, the only reason I hadn’t taken off my shirt was that I’d almost certainly get sunburn. Luckily, I didn’t need to watch out for monsters, since my steed would notice it first anyway, so I decided to put on the sunglasses, which I had taken with me.

 ‘Why did I bring sunglasses and no sunscreen?’ 

With the sunglasses blocking out the bright light, I twiddled my glasses in my fingers.

It was a miracle that they were still in one piece after everything that had happened, with only a few smaller scratches on the sides of the lenses. Since I needed them to read or see anything in detail, it would become an issue if I were they were to break. 

The spider heard some things I had accidentally sent to her and became curious.

*How wide do you see? You said that you can’t see behind you, so is it only in front of you?*

“No, I can see… a bit more than half of the space around me. Oh actualy, how much of what you see is in your peripheral?”

*Peripheral?*

It had been a while since the last time she hadn’t understood a ‘word’ I had ‘said’, which meant she didn’t have any concept of the word at all. 

“You don’t have a peripheral!? It's a, erm, space in your vision that you only half see, out of the centre of your gaze,” She understood the explanation, but it still confused her. 

*You don’t see everything you see? Isn’t that weird?*

“Not, It's not like I’m seeing it properly anyway, it’s just out of focus. Does that mean that you see everything with the same focus?” that seemed like an amazing ability, not needing to focus on one individual thing. 

*yes… Well, I do Focus on things, but it doesn’t change what it looks like, I just notice things more.”

…

…

…

Even more time passed, the sun now slowly glided down the sky, and the air started to cool. I, wanting to stretch my legs, had come down from the spider's back and was lightly jogging beside The spider. I wouldn’t be able to do so for too much longer, but it was nice to move anyway. But as I did, I received a familiar feeling from her. There was a monster. 

Finally. 

It had taken nearly the entire day to find anything out here. 

She told me what she could see, two lizard things, something she had previously fought by herself. Pulled my sword, which had been fastened to my belt, and stretched my arms. My legs were a bit tired, but not that tired. There was no tension like the last fight, This time we knew exactly what we were up against, or at least, she did. 

“Let's try something similar to with the mantises, get used to fighting together?” I suggested, which she seemed to agree with. 

While I hadn’t lied, we were both aware there was another reason I wanted to try that formation again. I really, Really wanted to try the sword out. 

Our pace slowed down, in hopes not to startle the lizards, but they somehow noticed the 14-foot behemoth behind me anyway. I would have thought they’d run the moment they noticed us, but surprisingly they turned to fight. Their scaled hide, while not as camouflaged as the mantises, still blended well with the sandy earth.

Standing a little under half my height, they looked like overblown house pets instead of something more fitting of their size, like a Komodo dragon. And despite the row of sharp serrated teeth sitting in their mouths, their faces were cute.

Not even remotely nervous this time, I slowly inched forward, the spider not moving, trying to avoid the monsters running away before we managed to engage. I widened my stance a little and tried finding a position to grip the short-sword. I had been practising a little before but wasn’t quite able to get a proper position. Before I could properly find a form, the lizards Charged me. At that moment, I lounged to my left and pulled my body out of the path of the first lizard. As I did that, I kept my body low and swung the sword from my hip across. The cut got a direct hit just below its neck, slicing through its scales and drawing blood. The attack left it startled, giving me the room to twist around letting my arm direct its charge. As it landed, The spider stood ready and slammed one of her legs through its torso. While she did that, I was glaring at the other lizard.

But I was barely even thinking about the monster in front of me, instead my thoughts lay elsewhere. 

“How the hell did I do that?” 

I hadn’t planned that, It wasn’t a conscious decision, instead just an automatic response. Somehow, the spider had even understood what I intended to do, which was why she was ready for it. ‘Maybe it’s because I have a sword in my hand?’ 

Yeah, and when I pick up a pen, I become Leonardo da Vinci.

*In front of you!* the spider yelled, more frenzied. 

The lizard, instead of trying to escape, rushed at me. Being completely unprepared, I fumbled backwards a little while trying to flail my sword in front of me. But the thing had aimed for my ankle instead, and bit into it and pulled my leg towards it. I nearly fell to the ground but managed to hold my ground and swung my sword towards its head. It immediately let go, making distance between us. But the fight ended somewhat anticlimactic, as the spider jumped towards the thing and slammed one of her legs into it, killing it.

*You need to focus, you could have gotten yourself killed!*

I was surprised by how nonchalant I was towards the subject. Not all too long ago I would avoid anything that might be dangerous, but now, somehow, I got distracted while fighting. Even though the thing was directly in front of me. 

The thought left me completely stunned. As I stood there attempting to find why I was suddenly so unfocused, my attention was pulled to another focus, a window had opened up in front of me. And a voice that had only sounded one other time. 

/Level has reached [10]/

/You have undecided [1] normal skill(s)/

 

/Choose (1)/

/Hollow weapon/

/Focus/

/Redirect/

/PinPoint/

Similar to how I chose my class a couple of months ago, I was able to open descriptions for each skill

/Hollow weapon/

The user gains the ability to summon a weapon of their choosing. The summoned weapon’s stats are scaled by the amount of mana used to summon it.  

 

/Focus/

The user becomes highly focused on a goal of their choosing. The focus is only stopped when the user experiences pain, or they achieve the chosen goal. 

 

/Redirect/ 

The user gains the ability to change the direction of moving objects. Doing so takes a physical toll based on the force behind the object and the degree to which the object is being redirected. 

 

/PinPoint/

The user is shown the flaws and weak spots in an object. The stability of the object affects the mana usage. 

I stared blankly at the descriptions for a while. Somehow I still wasn’t used to stuff like that. 

*What happened?* the spider was surprisingly concerned, but as her words woke me her concern faded. 

“Sorry, Not sure why I… I got a choice of skills for levelling up.”

Her frustration disappeared in an instant, getting replaced with curiosity. 

*What are the choices?!* 

She wasn’t only curious, but also excited. I wasn’t too surprised by that, since she loved fights, not only partaking in them but everything that could be used in one.

I retold her what they said word for word, opening the floodgates. She started to suggest ideas on how they might work, and what I could use them for in different scenarios. But none of her points directed me to an actual choice, and I was completely blank on the subject, so I decided to leave it be. All I needed to do was decide that, and the window closed by itself. But that didn’t stop her from coming up with ideas.  She did stop sharing them though, seemingly noticing that I was a bit out of it. Actually, I was probably out of it because of blood loss. While I did tie up my leg, it still very much hurt, and the yellow fabric I had used to cover it was now dyed red. 

“Is it fine if you carry me again?” 

*What, is baby too tired after getting themselves hurt?*

“HEY… you know what fair, definitely was my fault.”