I cut open the Bison, exposing the still-warm at, and I used my pedipalps to tear off small pieces, one of which imdiately disappeared into my lower jaws.
“Save so for the others, will you?” Cellestra said with a smirk as she approached, the five spiderlings following close behind her.
“I’m uh… just making sure the quality is good.”
She giggled.
“Terrible, terrible lie.”
“I know right.”
Shayla, as expected, was the first one to approach , and was focusing intently on what I was doing to this beast’s corpse. I tore off an extra small piece of at and held it in front of her face.
“Here, try it.”
She accepted my gesture and took the flesh with her own pedipalps. For a mont I was worried that she couldn’t eat it in the sa way I did – Cellestra had explained how spiders ate – but she brought it to where her mouth would be, and a few second later, she turned to
with expectation glowing in her large, red eyes.
“You like it?”
She nodded wildly.
“That’s great to hear. Go get your sisters and let’s have a feast, shall we?”
She nodded and skittered to the others, just as Cellestra walked up to
with the largest smile.
“They are truly sothing else.”
“I know,” I said softly. “I just… I feel my heart lting whenever I watch them do, well, anything really.”
I continued eating while talking to Cellestra at the sa ti.
“I feared this could happen, but not in this way, not even close.”
“Hey,” Cellestra said softly as she leaned against my side, her arm around my back. “You’re happy, I can see that, and that’s the most important thing.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I know. I an, just look at them. If this doesn’t make you smile, then I don’t know what will.”
“You certainly make an interesting bunch.”
I grinned and continued filling my stomach, but I withheld from eating too much as I intended to venture further into the dungeon soon, where I would have access to even more delicious at. As for the spiderlings, well, I let them eat as much as they wanted. At midnight I would be taxed a certain amount of mana, and the less it was the better.
Co to think of it, I hadn’t noticed anything last night. It was probably because I was asleep, but still. It hadn’t been enough for
to notice it in the morning. I must have already regenerated all of it by then already.
“So,” I said. “What should be the next step when it cos to training the little ones?”
“I feel bad for suggesting it, but I think it may be wise to expose them, at least a little bit, to so danger, just so they don’t rush in again as they did with that anteater.”
I sighed deeply. “I know. I should. I’m just, I don’t want to have them deal with that just yet. I’d just feel bad for hatching them, and then throwing them into danger the very next day.”
“You’re afraid they’ll hate you?” She asked.
“Hate?” I shook my head. “No, not hate, but I fear it will leave them with a scar. I promised myself I’d give them a better start than I had, rember?”
“True.”
“So, I think I may have them take down another anteater and then head ho. I hope we can get through the grass without being ambushed.”
“I was going to suggest taking this pelt with us, but it seems it's kind of ruined now,” Cellestra suddenly said.
“Ugh. I’d completely forgotten about that.” I hit my forehead with my palm. “That would have been the smart thing to do.”
“Oh well,” She continued. “We can always get more. Not like it's hard for us to take down one of these beasts. Say, you think the carpenters are already working on that fence?”
“Still feels a bit early to . He said they’d co by in the afternoon.” I let out a small chuckle. “And I kind of don’t want to scare them by having five gigantic spiders follow
into the nest.”
“You even see that guy?” Cellestra asked, grinning. “Doesn’t look to
he would be scared by much.”
“That’s… a good point. I just hope Elle will be able to contain herself. He didn’t seem like a hugging person.”
“Just tell her and she’ll listen.”
“Never hug strangers,” I said. “Solid advice.” I hugged her back with my free arm, resting my head against hers as I watched everyone eat. “I’m thinking of a few other things we can do while we’re down here, considering it’s still early.”
“What other things do you have in mind?”
“None. That’s why I’m thinking about what we can do. It doesn’t really help that they don’t have any special skills to speak of yet. There’s very little I can have them do without having them put themselves in danger, and you know how I feel about that.”
“I an, if that’s the case, why don’t you just have them take down more anteaters and have them at least try to get abilities? I an, who knows?”
“Might just do that. Have them get a bit of experience before putting them up against more serious opponents.”
“And then hit the second floor tomorrow?” Cellestra asked.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I’d like to see how they hold up against a pack of wolves. That should be a good opportunity for growth. Anything beyond that, I don’t feel comfortable with.”
“What happened to the idea of having them eat creatures from the third floor?”
“That will co after that, as a reward of sorts. Can’t have them get lazy now, can we?”
“I like that idea,” She replied with a giggle.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “We’ll kind of have to get there as soon as we can.”
“Don’t stress out too much, Kealyna. That’s not healthy.”
“Eh, I’m trying, but I can’t help it. Co,” I said, breaking the hug. “Let’s have them take down so anteaters.”
Cellestra hopped onto my back and I called the spiderlings to follow
back to the dungeon entrance. They’d been enjoying their al, and I felt bad to interrupt them, but we had to keep things going.
We encountered a single lioness on the way back, but I’d seen it coming from a distance when the breeze caused the grass that it was hiding in to lower. I was able to take it down from afar with a single ice lance and noted the increase of power of the spell once more.
After that, we spent a few hours near the exit, where I had the spiders kill anteater after anteater, and consu them. Over ti, they beca more fluid in their motions and more coordinated in their attacks. Once more, they exceeded my expectations, and at the end of it all, I decided to just give them so freedom by asking them a question.
“Do you want to try to take on sothing more dangerous? You know what that ans, right?”
Faerith imdiately nodded wildly while the others seed to be thinking. Amarys eventually nodded with her pedipalps, and then repeated it, answering both questions.
“Alright, if you’re confident you can do it, I’ll leave you to it. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching over you.”
I watched Amarys, Faerith, and Myria nod, while Elle and Shayla looked intrigued.
“The next target is one of the creatures I killed in the grass. It’s called a lioness and they will try to pounce on you when you least expect it, so be wary of your surroundings. You lead the way, Amarys. I’ll follow close behind you.”
“Think this is a good idea?” Cellestra asked from my back.
“I wanted to give them so freedom,” I said. “So they don’t feel like I pressure them into doing things. This was their choice, and I think they will be fine.”
“I see.”
Amarys guided the others into the grassland, and I watched as they slowly advanced, knowing full well from the little encounter I had earlier that these beasts could hide anywhere. She orchestrated them to skitter in so kind of circle formation so that they had eyes watching all around them.
I was impressed by the display of advanced tactics. Not only would they be able to see danger coming from every direction, but it also protected their most vulnerable parts.
They started moving as one, and eventually, I saw so of the vegetation rustle and imdiately focused on it. Within the next second or two, a lioness pounced from its hiding spot, aiming for Myria.
Unfortunately for it, the spider was faster. She had her front four legs in the air and imdiately brought them down onto her ambusher, forcing it to the ground where Amarys and Faerith helped her with keeping it down after breaking formation. From there, with its body pinned helplessly, it was just a matter of ti until the spiderlings’ venom proved fatal.
Your Spiderlings have killed a Steppe Lioness.
Sohow, I could tell that they knew it was dead, for as soon as the ssage showed up for , they ignored the animal and moved back into formation.
“Well,” I let out, filled with pride. “They never cease to amaze .”
“Not gonna lie,” Cellestra said. “That’s nothing short of impressive.”
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