Chapter 46: 38: Jump and Roll

‘Sound insulation of this treehouse is pretty good, the inside is a bit barren but that’ll change… I don’t think there’s anything important on today’s agenda that needs my full attention. So! I can finally spend some time for myself. There was something Alice wanted. I'll start with that. And that being… inability to jump. I can jump… just not with spider legs… apparently that was what Alice wanted to do during that encounter with the giant. When it did that sweep, she tried to jump over it thinking that she could. Obviously the result is that she received a facefull of dirt and gravel. After all before then, I and by extension she was in a single body having a humanoid elven form who obviously had the anatomy and legs muscles to jump, quite well might I add, they’re almost like a trapeze artists, emulating their unique movement method is no cakewalk.’

‘Any attempts to dissuade her has ended in a failure. She is insistent on it… While it might seem like a trivial problem… it’s not an invalid one either. In precarious situations like the encounter with that giant the mobility to run away or dodge attacks are what’s going to save my life, if it comes to the point where I can’t use stealth to avoid such situations. I’m just unsure whether she's envious that she can’t jump or if it came from sound observation… the former is more likely………’

>Notice. Anatomical limitation disallows muscle tissue to facilitate the method of locomotion related to jumping. Suggested action; educement of ⟨ Kindred ⟩ Branch; 〔 Conjure 〕, subunit « Autonomous Cardiovascular Control » allows administrators to use hemolymphatic fluids to jump.

‘Right on cue as always… Is that a new type of spider…? So it alternates between a passive and new spider… Last improvement was intensified venom, then a new type of spider and now a passive, the next one should be spider right? Let’s see, how about three points to improve Conjure?’

>Revising…

‘Eeeyy, I was right! Anyway that looks good, go ahead. Before we try this out we need to find somewhere that’s open…’

The tree spirit was atop of her oak tree holding a peculiar pose…

‘She hasn’t moved from there for hours now, is she sunbathing…? Is that why she’s T-posing to increase her surface area? Just leaving here alone might not be a good idea… Let’s meet our new friends shall we?’

Combing through her hair, pulling out two hex crawlers…

‘Congratulations you two have been chosen for the experiment.’

She began inducing metamorphoses after setting down the crawlers she chose…

⟨ Conjure ⟩

↳ ‹ Bride of Death (A.Perniciosa) ›1Forming from Perniciēs (meaning ‘to kill/slay outright’) and -ōsus (meaning ‘prone to’ and ‘full of’) it can be translated as ‘Baleful spider’ or the much longer but cooler sounding ‘Spider full of slaughter’. You get to decide which way to call them.

Median legs short compared to lanky front and back legs. They all reach a height taller than its body despite being arched over, shortened. Legs banded with alternating gray and white and its whole body covered tiny granular spots of black dots. Notwithstanding its large body far larger than an average human’s it had small fangs and smaller eyes in disparity to its large oval shaped orb abdomen. On it a single bright pink line with eye-catching red edges. It was the first of Alicia’s Kindred spirit to have such vivid and deep colors. In nature, bright and showy colors like this would be ill advised for hiding. But they also conveyed messages. And this one had much to say about its exceedingly toxic nature…

>Unit evaluation: Bride of Death. Anti personnel specialist.

‘I hope you’re more than just pretty colors… alright next…’

And the other…

⟨ Conjure ⟩

↳ ‹ Mother of the Hunt (A.Venatrix) ›2Much simpler latin word simply meaning ‘Huntress’ but going deeper into it’s etymology can also be translated to ‘Hunting mother’ or ‘Mother of the Hunt’ by the following logic: Venatrix forms from the verb ‘Venor’ (I hunt) to noun ‘Venator’ (Hunter) plus ‘Trix’ (used to make feminine agent noun) to make the word venatrix(Female hunter or simply Huntress). The trix suffix cognates with Sanskrit suffix ‘tri’ from Janitri (Mother). I thought it would be much more memorable to call their Genus(?) as ‘The mother of the Hunt’ rather than just calling them ‘The Huntress’ although admittedly it is a weak connection.

Venatrix on Wiktionary

In opposition to the previous familiar, this one hadn’t grown much in size, from a size being able to envelope itself on and around a finger to a size of basketball. Its cephalothorax is large, possessing numerous eyes but four of them stood out by their sheer size. Pairs of median eyes were large enough to cover most of their face not already claimed by the chelicerae and the fangs. Their pedipalps concealed the colorful and deadly fangs behind itself.

>Unit evaluation: Mother of the Hunt. Reconnaissance, Hunting experts. Specialized sentries.

‘They have those puppy dog eyes… twice as much as a puppy, that should make them twice as cute doesn’t it? They’re big by my standards but small by this world’s standards… I think it’s better for me to not think too much about it…’

‘The crypt weavers were the point defense units if I recall correctly, few of them and some of the newcomers should be enough to secure the area and protect Dryssia while I’m gone.’

Imperceptible message was sent out to her kindred idling in various places calling them up to return.

‘Now for some more…’

⟨ Conjure ⟩

↳ ‹ Bride of Death (A.Perniciosa) ›

↳ ‹ Mother of the Hunt (A.Venatrix) ›

Copious amounts of each of the new types of spiders were created and when she had finished creating more, the crypt weavers returned to her place.

‘Ah! They're a bit intimidating when they just start moving at the same time… Like a disciplined army… that makes me have little peace of mind, barring the initial shock.

One of the hunteresses was waving its legs trying to catch Alicia’s attention.

‘Okay! Time to learn how to jump.’

Going out of their way looking for a suitable location to experiment they found a sparsely vegetated place near hills. Few trees that resided there meant there was ample space.

Some ways off Alice attempted her jump… to Alicia it felt like the wind was knocked out of her and a brief period of sense of impending doom set in. Her vision was completely functional as she saw enough to know that she was spinning but to her felt as if the world went dark for a second. Next thing she knew, her face was planted firmly in the ground sliding against the soil. Somehow she was turned upside down.

You are reading story Reincarnated as a Spider (Draft/Writing practice) at novel35.com

Incoherently flailing around she managed to turn rightside up coughing and gagging, spitting out the slightly moist dirt out of her mouth:

Managing to look around she was right in front of the tree.

>Notice. Act of jumping achieved by rush of Hemolymphatic fluids rushing to lower extremities. Hydraulic pressure causing limbs to snap open with force. Enabling ability to jump.

Administrator discomfort caused by lack of vital fluid flow to the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system from excessive force applied. Acclimation to G-Force and low oxygen environment underway… standby.

‘Oh I just casually had a heart attack AND I almost fainted. Excellent. Next time I’ll know from what I’m DYING FROM!’

⟨ Mirror Image ⟩

…

After some time mimicking the Huntress’s method Alice was improving quickly.

Her progress was accelerated by Alicia’s feedback based on her observation and breakdown.

And in a short amount of time Alice reached sufficient competency…

Alice was just simply elated to have been able to jump… Ground was littered in broken branches from previous failures. Alicia took some time to heal and reattach them with Floraekinesis…

After managing to learn how to jump, two spent more time exploring other methods of movement… one of which was a series of energetic flick flack flips. It wasn’t faster than just scurrying… on an even ground. However down hill it was much faster. The other one was rolling… almost in a cartwheel motion… again it wasn’t faster than sprinting on even ground but down hill it was the fastest. It’s only drawback was that the slope or the hill needed to have minimal obstructions whereas the flips could be done in rockier and more uneven terrain. Difference between the two methods of movement was that one was done laterally while the other was done horizontally… 

>Notice. Genomic mapping of Subject ‘Thunder goat (Caprinae Tornitua)’ has finished successfully. New conjuration option available.

‘Does that mean what I think it does…?’

‘Nice… I don’t know what I’ll conjure these goats for but It’s good to have the option. Hm hm… Well I think that’s enough for today… We’ve made pretty good progress for just a single day.’

While leisurely making her way back one of the huntresses from back home came to them leaping from one tree to another, until it landed in front of her.

It’s median legs waved in the air, in patterns as if it was one of the ground control crew guiding a plane to land while it reported. Sometimes moving from side to side in almost a dancelike motion.

Giving up on conveying the message it instead directly sent imagery based on its memory to Alicia.

‘He looks familiar… isn’t that the wolf we saved? What does he want now I wonder… Wait… I just got an idea… If I can take him into kindred… I should be able to make more wolves eventually right?’

>Affirmation.

‘Great. Because most of my spiders… aren’t very uhm… PR friendly. Wolves are just bigger, wilder dogs. And since people are divided into cat or a dog person I should be able to win over at least half the people I meet…

I heard lithilines were just humanoid felines so if I can get them too… I can take over the world! or something like that.’

Only two entities knew of Alicia’s farfetched fantasy at that time… One was bedazzled while the other was calculating the chance of  success… Frighteningly it was much higher than anyone could ever have anticipated just not by the way she envisioned… No one knew how much though, and the exact number was lost in time as Alicia herself forgot about it and didn’t ask for the chance of success. And only one entity in precision knew just how close she was to world domination… Fortunately for the world Alicia would never go through with the plan and Alma wasn’t the type to point it out tactlessly…

Auratic

Anyway this chapter introduces everyone's favorite spider the jumping spider as well as the most toxic spider so far. The Brides of death are based on Latrodectus Hasseltii or Red back spiders and the Fiddleback spiders. They are one of the most venomous in the world or Medically significant species. They can deliver the strongest of Alicia’s venoms including Neurotoxic, Necrotoxic and Withering venoms.

Here's the real life Redback spider which inspired the Brides of Death.

While the mothers of the hunt are  based on Jumping spiders in general. They are the most alert, mobile and persistent hunters of Alicia’s spiders. Their inherently quick wittedness and unusually social traits combined with their insatiable curiosity and sharp eyesight make for excellent sentries and recon units. With their skillset they can become either Vigilant sentinels or relentless Bloodhounds tracking their prey for their master. If you find them staring at you but the next moment you can’t find them… it’s too late for you.

I tried to demonstrate the feeling of using a jumping spider's method of jumping on a primarily a human subject. Because spider anatomy disallows for standard jumping like, rabbits, crickets and kangaroos they found a interesting solution to their limitations. By draining their whole upper body of their 'blood', which rushes to their legs and snaps them open causing them to jump. Imagine all the blood draining from your head, brain and heart only to pool into your legs... Can't be a comfortable experience, but these guys do this on a regular basis. Many of the jumping spiders aranaeaphagous or they primarily prey on other web building spiders. But they won't attack Alicia kind but given how cunning and opportunistic they are... they'll pounce on pretty much anything... You just wonder what's going on behind those large eyes... Maybe it's formulating a plan on how to kill you.

Hyllus Giganteus the jumping spider that physically inspired the Huntresses.

Don't worry real life jumping spiders are harmless to humans. Here's how you can even get one and take care of it. Don't do sponges though. They show remarkable intelligence despite their meager size and scientists & independent owners even managed to train them to some degree of success.

I almost forgot but Alice and Alicia rolls and flips are based on real methods of movement. From Golden wheel spider's (Carparachne aureoflava) roll from to the sick flip tricks of the Moroccan flip flapper Also called (Cebrennus rechenbergi).

You guys like centaurs right? I'll get to them after I find an adequate answer to this question...

And I'm pretty sure this guy married a centaur so you can ask a real one:

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