Chapter 76: 1.75 Spider Attack!

“Coffee?” Nira asked as she cocked her head.

“Coffee,” Velariah stated. 

“Hm, I could use another cup of that,” Draco mentioned. 

“Nice one, Velariah. You got them addicted.” I said.

I then sighed. “Come, I’ll show you how it’s made.”

I lowered myself so Nira and Velariah could step on. 

I intended to take Nira first but oh well.

“So that drink is from your old world?” Draco asked as we walked through the plains.

“You got that right. One of the most popular drinks on the planet.” I said with pride.

My mood changed to sadness in an instant. “And I can’t drink it…”

“Why not?” Seralyn asked.

“Heh,” Velariah chuckled.

“Because my spider parts go crazy after drinking it. Honestly, it’s not a nice sight.”

“What do you mean go crazy?” She inquired further. 

“They go all spastic and I can’t control them…” 

“Yikes.”

“Yeah, I’m hoping we can fix that, I really miss drinking it…”

“Whatcha say, Velariah? Shall we make some more?”

“I’d love to. We can finally put these saddlebags to good use.”

The others didn’t seem to understand what the hell was going on. We’d reach the cherry bushes soon enough.

The others remained quiet until we reached the fields and the edge of the forest. I imagined they would need some time to process this as well. I had no doubt that many questions were already in the making. I would have plenty of time to answer those as we went on our journey together. 

I smiled at the prospect. Even though my time in this world has been short, I’d come to adore the companions I traveled and fought together with.

“You see these berries?” I asked as I lowered myself to allow Velariah to hop off. 

I took one in my hand and split it open, showing the two seeds inside to Seralyn and Draco. 

“You take the seeds out, soak them in water, allow them to dry, roast them, and finally you grind them into powder. After that, you pour boiling hot water through a filter with the powder in it. The result is coffee.”

“Interesting…” Draco said as he rubbed his chin. 

I had Nira keep watch over the nearby forest, I still didn’t know if anything could show up here. I heeded Valtheril’s words as best I could, but I still wanted to show my friends the process of coffee-making.

Besides, we could look pretty far into the forest from here. If anything showed up, we would know in time.

I took off my bladed gauntlets and handed them to Nira behind me. I then used my four hands to collect the berries at record speed. Velariah and Seralyn joined me in gathering them. We tossed them in one of Draco’s shields - he was currently holding it up for us. It certainly made collecting them a lot quicker. After filling it, he deposited them in my, now empty, saddlebags. 

We repeated the process over the span of about fifteen minutes before we’d completely filled them.

“Oh, Elly will be delighted to see all this. Wanna bet she is going to be shocked when she sees this many of these berries?” Velariah laughed.

“She is going to need coffee to produce coffee,” I smirked. “At least we have a personal stash. We should be able to last quite a while with this much.”

“Does this mean we will visit you guys for coffee every day?” Seralyn asked us.

“As long as you don’t knock on our door early in the morning, I don’t really mind,” Velariah stated with her arms crossed.

“Sure,” Seralyn chuckled. “I’d hate to interrupt something…”

“Seralyn!” Velariah called out as I covered my face.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist the temptation.”

Despite Velariah’s earlier comments on her behavior, she seemed to have trouble adjusting. 

Old habits die hard, I guess.

Velariah attempted to climb back on my back. She had grossly underestimated the height I stood at, so I had to lower myself to prevent her from embarrassing herself. 

We continued our trip back to Dawnleaf. We’d have some things to do for the rest of the day. We had these beans we would have to turn into proper coffee. I could inform Dworag about possible adjustments to my equipment. I needed some proper vambraces and possibly a helmet. Besides that was some silk production. 

My stomach gurgled again.

First came food, though.

If there was time, we could also look if there were any new quests that we could do. It never hurt to look. 

“Damn, El. That stomach of yours can probably be heard a mile away.”

She then ran a hand over my human abdomen, right above the parts where chitin fused to my body. 

“Where is your stomach anyway?”

“You think I know? I have no idea how spider anatomy works and I don’t intend on cutting myself open. I’ve had this body for less than a month. Actually, how long has it been? It has to be close to a month now, right?”

“Sounds about right,” Velariah commented.

Saying that made me realize something different entirely. Could I ask about that in public? Could I ask with Draco present?

Surely he would not mind leaving us alone for a minute?

“Draco…?” I started.

“Yes, Miss Elania?” He asked.

“Could you leave us for a minute…?” I spoke softly.

“Not a problem.” He walked a fair distance behind us. I saw him look around for a moment, before he decided to start collecting the berries himself and tossing them in what little space his bag had left.

Addicted for sure…

Once I was alone with the ladies, I decided to ask my question.

“So uhm… I was just thinking… I just said how I’ve been here for about a month…”

I sighed. Out with it, Elania.

“What do you do for your… monthly problems?”

“Monthly problems? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Uh, she is a former human, remember?” Velariah said from my back. “I think she is referring to their monthly blood loss.”

“Oh.”

“Their?” I asked with a confused face.

Velariah shook her head. “Elves don’t have such a thing.”

“You gotta be kidding me. That’s unfair as hell.”

Velariah grinned. “Anyhow.” She continued. “I imagine you want to know how they deal with it?”

I nodded. 

“The question is: how does it work for you?”

The hell am I supposed to know that?

“Waitwaitwaitwait,” Seralyn interjected. “Do you even have… you know…?”

I nodded slightly.

“What the fuck?” She said in disbelief.

“That was my first reaction too,” I sighed. “Anyway, what do I do?”

“Are you sure you need to do anything?” Velariah asked. “For all you know, you don’t have to deal with it either, or maybe you lay eggs, who knows?”

Lay eggs? How would that work?

Why was I even thinking about that? The mere thought was ridiculous. 

Though, I guess it had its advantages?

I saw Nira turn around as far as she could with a beet-red face.

“Hold on a sec. Don’t tell me—” I looked at her back and wings. She held them in front of her face.

I could see her nod.

Okay then. Another mystery was solved.

Was eating omelets something that was frowned upon in harpy culture? Who knew?

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, El.” Velariah continued. “It’s not like you’re going to ruin the bed, anyway, I think.”

“If you do need something to absorb the blood, I think the best material to use would be your very own silk. And no, I don’t mean to be funny here.” Seralyn said.

She had a very good point there. 

“Thanks, guys…” I said softly.

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I was happy to have shared info on my old life. I could finally talk about things normally…

Hiding everything didn’t seem to be my style. There were still things I simply couldn’t share, but at least I could be honest about things now. 

I sighed deeply.

“I’ll get Draco,” Seralyn said before she walked in his direction.

Velariah hugged me from behind, putting her hands on my belly. 

“You’re doing fine, El. I’m happy to see you get more confident.”

I guess she had a point. Things were beginning to feel more natural to me. My skill in both body and conversation was growing steadily. If only I could stop getting embarrassed at the mention of Velariah and I’s relationship…

There was always room for improvement, it seemed.

“Thank you, Velariah. I think I have you to thank for that.” I said with my soft voice.

“Anything for you, El…” 

“How can you say that with Nira right behind you?”

“Tee-hee. Just teasing you.” She grinned. “That’s part of my training for you...”

I sighed again and looked at Nira. She was still looking away, hiding behind her wings, still holding on to my weapons. 

It was quite hilarious to see. Was this how Velariah and Seralyn felt about me too?

I felt something impact on my back, it was small but noticeable. It was as if a pebble was thrown at the carapace behind Velariah. It seemed the elf had noticed it as well as she turned around to see.

“Uh, El, you’re not going to believe this.”

“Hm?” 

“There’s a spider on your back.”

“Get it off me!” I yelled. “You know I hate spiders!”

“I don’t,” She said with a neutral voice. “Besides, this one is kind of cute.”

“I don’t care! Get it off!”

“But look at it!” Velariah said as she held up the palms of her hands at my side. 

I looked at them to see a spider, about the size of one of her palms, sitting on them. The first thing I noticed about it was two large eyes in the center and two smaller ones to the outside. Its entire body was covered with fuzzy hairs. It held its pedipalps in such a way that it made me think it was about to politely ask me a question, something like ‘Could I please go to the bathroom?’

“It’s a jumping spider,” Velariah said. “These things can jump insane distances, hence the name. They are one of the somewhat cute spider species, well besides you, that is.”

“Vel…” I said, still cowering in fear. 

The spider looked at me with an inquisitive gaze. Was it even capable of thinking?

“It seems to be fascinated by you.” Velariah continued.

“VEL, I HATE SPIDERS!” I shouted. 

Seralyn and Draco walked up and checked out the commotion I was causing.

“That’s quite something for you to say,” Seralyn said. “What’s with the shouting? Wait, is that—”

She looked at the spider in Velariah’s hands. 

Velariah burst into laughter and turned around.

“El, think for a second.”

“I don’t need to think! Get it away!”

“You would turn down an expert?” 

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked in fear and anger.

I wanted to push the spider away but I didn’t dare to get my hands that close to it. What if it jumped on my hands…

“You could probably learn quite a lot from it,” Velariah explained. 

While it was true that I thought about observing spiders before to get an idea of how they moved and did things, I didn’t imagine such a huge spider. 

Velariah retracted her arms, removing the monster from my sight which caused me to sigh in relief.

“I’m keeping it.” The elf said softly.

“What?” I asked, flabbergasted. 

“As a pet. You have your puppy, I have my spider.”

“What the, that’s- WHATEVER!” I threw my hands up in the air, all four of them, to express my emotions. I almost lost my spear in the process.

I couldn’t believe she was doing this.

“You better take good care of it. I don’t have any idea how to take care of pets like those, it’s all up to you.”

“I’ll be fine.” She said.

I continued walking in the direction of the village, Draco and Seralyn joining me in my march. The archer was still grinning at our earlier interactions. 

I had to admit I was at least a bit curious if there was anything I could still learn. It was likely there were still improvements to be made to my walking.

Jumping spider, she said? 

Maybe I could improve my jumping?

No! I didn’t want to observe that monster.

I secretly hoped it would jump out of her hands, back into the forest. 

Please tell me it would jump away. Please don’t tell me I attract them or something. 

How was this elf even going to keep it?

I held on to her with one set of arms, considering she was too busy cupping her new pet in her hands. I prayed she wouldn’t release it on my arm. I might just knock her off of me in a reflex. 

I sighed again as I shoved aside my thoughts and approached the village. 

Nira hopped off as soon as we found ourselves on the cobblestone roads again. We decided to eat first before we worked on our ‘loot’.

Thinking about loot made me wonder if this dungeon would provide something good in terms of herbs and such soon. We had this huge scorpion stinger that Draco carved from the scorpion after my talk to Arch. I wondered how much it would be worth?

Besides that, there didn’t seem to be any items worth consideration. The squirrel’s fur was brittle, the once-living mushrooms were just that, they held no value. Their horns were too weak as well, Velariah could splinter them easily with a weak slash. The mantises turned out to be completely useless too. None of their parts were used in anything.

Shame, but then again, what could one expect from a low-tier dungeon?

Not much it seemed. I hoped that would improve over time. If nothing else, there was always the large amount of Corium that one could obtain. I wondered who the next person would be to evolve their inherity, and how long it would take.

We entered the guild hall. It seemed to be just past lunchtime. The place was still filled with a wide variety of elves and humans, of which, many left shortly after we entered. I even saw a group of dwarves. I’d not seen any others besides Dworag. I wondered if those were the supposed ‘artisans’ that Valtheril was supposed to gather from the other town.

They stared at me as I approached my usual spot.

Yep, always the same when new people laid eyes upon me. 

During lunch, Velariah had placed the jumping spider in the middle of the table. It kept staring at me with its creepy, large eyes. It made me shudder multiple times as I worked on quickly getting rid of all the food that was served about ten minutes after ordering.

Seralyn had a hard time hiding her smile and suppressed laughter as she observed me cower in fear before the monstrous creature before me.

“One day, you’ll overcome your fear of spiders,” Velariah said.

“You’re going to give me a heart attack trying to get rid of it this way. What if it jumps at me? I’ll die, for real.” I replied with a shaky voice.

“Exposure to your fears is the best way to get rid of them.” She replied.

I didn’t reply further, I stuffed my mouth again with whatever was on my plate, I had no idea.

One time, I even ducked preemptively. The spider on the table seemed to rub its pedipalps together, and I took it as a signal it was going to jump at me. Both of the elves grinned after that. Nira seemed unfazed and Draco appeared to look at me with… pity?

I wanted to believe Velariah did this with the best intentions, but I had a hard time accepting that. My heart could only bear so much. It was working overtime, only to fuel my brain with more awareness of the danger so close to my hands as I ate. I was certain my blood pressure was reaching dangerous levels, and I hadn’t even had coffee…

Draco delivered the massive scorpion tail to the Lore keeper and was rewarded with a couple of gold coins, it looked like. It turned out to be four and I told him to divide it between Seralyn, Nira, and himself. I could make plenty of gold with my own abilities. I hated to set them back when I could make that amount of gold within minutes.

We took a quick look at the quest board but found nothing of note. A few simple gathering quests were all that was left. They weren’t even high-tier, and they certainly didn’t have rewards that were interesting enough to even consider taking them.

I was more than happy to leave the guild hall after finishing up. Velariah at least held her new pet cupped in her hands where it couldn’t suddenly jump on me to kill me.

How could I, being part massive spider, still be afraid of comparatively tiny and harmless spiders such as these? The answer eluded me. Perhaps I suffered from some kind of childhood trauma? Not that I’d ever find out about that.

I wish I had Velariah’s confidence in these matters, I really did.

We reached her mansion and Elly opened the doors for all of us. We left our weapons in the corner, neatly placing them against the wall. Elly helped Velariah out of her armor as I took off my own. Draco didn’t appear to be bothered to take his off and Seralyn, well, Seralyn’s armor could be worn casually without it getting too uncomfortable.

Gray practically went crazy as we entered the dining area. He started jumping against everyone and received more than his share of attention from our party members. I took some time to pet and show my love to him as well. Coming home to a loving animal did wonders for the spirit.

I had Elly gather a large bowl as Velariah removed the saddlebags from my rear and placed them on the table.

When she returned she was quite shocked to see that many coffee cherries in the now-opened bags.

Poor Elly.

At least we had some extra manpower to work through all this, this time around.

Meanwhile, Velariah had placed this spider on the table staring me down, observing every action that I made. It didn’t care for anyone else. It was completely fixated on me.

It gave me the creeps.

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