What’s happening? Lily wondered, all eight eyes closed, her body growing progressively warmer.

  [Evolution will begin in a moment.]

  Lily’s body lit up like a fireplace on a cold night; bright, warm, it gave her a familiar feeling, like being back in her old home, resting under some extra comfy covers, even though she couldn’t possibly be farther away from there.

  She was emitting light and floating a couple of centimeters off the ground; it was almost magical, in a way any passerby would probably take as her doing, but she wasn’t really awake or totally asleep; it was like an in-between state.

  [Evolution completed.]

  Whoa, I feel so much better, Lily thought to herself, eyes still closed as she imagined flying around, a gentle smile on her face. Is this how birds feel—“huh?” In the blink of an eye, the warm light disappeared, and it took that weightless feeling with it, dropping her butt-first onto the rocky terrain. “Ouch,” she muttered under her breath, wriggling like a fish out of water.

  But the sound of her stomach rumbling louder than her complaints soon interrupted her.

  “Ugh, yeah, yeah…” she sighed loudly, looking up toward the ceiling in despair. “Waaait—” The huge missing chunk of a stalactite immediately caught her attention, finally bringing her focus back to what happened just a couple of minutes earlier, “the toad!”

  Lily shot up like a spring, able to think about one single thing: that giant monster she had just slain, who was waiting there ready to be turned into a late-night snack.

  “Ohhh yeah!” She clapped excitedly as she inched closer toward the creature. “The menu for tonight is a giant toad rock-skewer,” she told herself, licking her lips. “Devour.”

  The little spider bit eagerly into the monster's flesh, not even bothering to use her acid to dissolve it as she had with other meals.

  Somehow, the hunger she felt in that moment was bigger than the monster itself.

  Such deliciousness, Lily thought, her cheeks growing redder by the second as she chewed with gusto. “It’s sooo good!” she exclaimed with a mouthful, “even better than the mosquito!”

  She finished eating the monster so fast that it almost seemed like her appetite—and stomach—had evolved together with her.

  That was worth it, she mused as she took the last bite, wishing she had more of that tasty monster to eat while mentally ranking the monsters she had consumed. Just because she couldn’t remember what she used to like didn’t mean she couldn’t discover her preferences in food as a spider.

  [New skill: Water Bolt, acquired thanks to Devour’s special effect.]

  “Score!” Lily excitedly clapped her forelimbs. “Devour, you’ve done it again,” she added, speaking with the skill as if it could actually reply. I need some friends, she thought, mentally facepalming herself from the cringe she felt.

  And while there was definitely time to try and find someone to hang out with, Lily had more pressing problems at the moment. Health-wise, she felt perfectly fine after the evolution, but the tiredness had not gone away one bit.

  Lily set her sights on the ceiling. “Silk Web,” she echoed. The plan was quite simple: build another base to sleep in, hopefully without interruption this time, and then try to finish the quest the next day.

  What she didn’t expect was how much her skill had improved. Not only did it hit its target faster and was easier to control, but it also looked somewhat different, which Lily found hard to describe; it almost seemed like it was a stronger, more durable type of silk—if anyone could even call it that anymore.

  “Whoa!” She was left speechless, wondering if evolution had also affected her other skills, because Devour hadn’t really changed that much, only perhaps becoming slightly faster, but that could also be explained by her increased appetite, at least in Lily’s opinion, “anyway.”

  And just like her web, so did her physical attributes grow stronger, needing much less effort to jump double the distance she could earlier.

  I can’t believe this! Lily thought, even more surprised than before, as she hung upside down from the ceiling.

  While the otherworldly ghost hadn’t said anything about becoming this much stronger after evolving, Lily wondered if maybe it had something to do with the mysterious big plans she mentioned.

  “System, show me my personal information.” Just as she hypothesized, her rank had changed after evolution, going from Lesser to Standard, which also gave her a good chuckle as she thought back to the ghostly woman’s worlds. “You’re not just an ordinary spider, my ass!” Lily laughed.

  Though she was pretty satisfied with her progress, she couldn’t stop wondering how much stronger she could get with the next evolution, and that’s all she thought about while making herself a new base to sleep in.

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  The structure Lily made wasn’t much different from earlier, but not wanting to waste any more precious time she could spend sleeping, she opted for a much more compact space to hole herself up in.

  “Should be fine for now, I guess…" Lily mumbled under her breath, making sure the spiral layers were thick and durable enough in case of more surprises. Then, having gained more control over her skill, barely able to keep her eyes open, she effortlessly wrapped herself in her webs again. “I can’t wait to try out—” she smacked her lips and yawned, “my new skill.”

  The tired spider fell asleep a few seconds later, the first real moment of rest she had in this new world, hopefully the first of many more.

  This time, the night went by without a hitch, thankfully so, because Lily was so tired that she never woke up for even a single second; probably not even someone screaming right by her could have woken her up.

  As quickly as morning came, it went by just as fast, with the little spider still sleeping soundly until the middle of the afternoon, by which time most of the area's diurnal inhabitants were already up.

  “So tasty…” Lily mumbled in her sleep, drooling all over her pristine webs. She had a big smile plastered on her face until she suddenly woke up screaming like a banshee, scaring two teeny-tiny spiders that had crawled up and taken refuge in her layer right after she fell asleep. “Ice cream?”

  Her taste buds were aching for that sweet frozen dessert deliciousness, so much so that her biggest worry wasn’t that she had woken up screaming again without any explanation; instead, she was trying to figure out how to make some ice cream for herself.

  “Wait, for how long did I sleep?” Lily whispered under her breath, letting out an even bigger yawn.

  [You have slept for 15 hours.]

  “Whaaat?! You could have woken me up earlier!” she yelled.

  [Noted.]

  Lily huffed and puffed toward the ceiling until two unlikely visitors caught her attention. “Oh, hey!” She promptly jumped out of her webs, landing near the trembling critters who were hugging each other for comfort. “I’m so sorry. Did I scare you guys?”

  One of the tiny monsters only stared back at her in confusion, while the other couldn’t muster the courage to move a millimeter because it was so frightened.

  Not even these little guys can understand me, Lily thought, wondering why none of the creatures similar to her could communicate back.

  Sure, animals like the mosquito and the toad were different species, but she was a spider, just like the little two critters, so it only made sense for them to be able to speak with her, at least these two, who looked much more aware than the little one she had met when she first reincarnated.

  “You two can stay here as long as you want,” she told them, hoping they could at least catch her vibe as she cut an opening in her web and nimbly left her lair, “bye-bye.”

  Though she had eaten an entire gigantic toad the night before, having slept through the morning, Lily woke up quite hungry, but she had cooked up a great plan to kill two birds—or ants—with one stone.

  “Doing the quest AND eating those ants, I’m a genius!” she exclaimed as she sprinted toward one of the quest zones, following the System’s translucent map in hopes of finally finding some of the infamous Lesser Rock Ants, since she had taken care of the one she believed was the main culprit in their disappearance.

  The cave was teeming with life wherever she went, even more than yesterday when she passed the same places. To Lily, it didn’t really matter that they were all monsters she couldn’t communicate with, because they made her feel a little less lonely. Who knew, maybe one day she could gain a skill or something to bridge the gaps in their understanding.

  “System, can you please—”

  Before Lily could finish her sentence, the System was already on the task, as if it had understood her intentions before she could voice them.

  [Lesser Rock Ant detected.]

  Right, I’m not used to the fact that you can read my thoughts, Lily mused while scanning the area below. “But where exactly?” Her eyes immediately locked onto a small ant, like an automated defense system. “Finally!”

  Using her web to gain momentum, Lily launched herself toward her target like a missile, not giving it even a moment to realize what was going on before crushing it under her strength.

  [Lesser Rock Ant defeated.]

  “Hell yeah, that’s how we used to do it back in my—” She froze as a flashback hit her. “Who’s that?” Lily’s eyes suddenly grew shinier. Someone from my past? Lily wondered, unable to stop a tear from running down her cheek, yet unaware of why she felt sad at the same time she should have been happy to have remembered something.

  The more she fought and gained experience, the more fragments of Lily’s memory resurfaced.

  Without wasting any more time, she bit into the slain monster with her Devour skill, hoping to gain something from it as she had with the other monsters, to no avail.

  “Onto the next one,” she mumbled under her breath, shooting a web toward another ant, pulling it close, needing only one bite to finish it off; it was as easy as eating cereal for the little spider.

  [Lesser Rock Ant defeated.]

  The difference in strength between Lily and her target was astronomical, so much so that all the ants nearby immediately recognized the danger she posed and tried to escape underground, only for the last one to be caught by one of Lily’s incredibly fast webs, pulled away from its friends like a scene from a horror movie.

  The little spider was grinning from ear to ear as it watched the monster try to escape. “Come to mama.” But all the ant's efforts were in vain, as Lily easily crushed it with a powerful punch so strong that it even cracked the floor beneath it.

  [Lesser Rock Ant defeated.]

  “Okay, uhhh, not to be mean, but being updated after every weak monster is kind of annoying,” she mumbled, trying to sound as lovely as possible. “Maybe let’s just keep it on for the important stuff.” She waited for a response, but nothing came. “Please don’t be pissed at meee now.”

  [Noted.]

  Hmmm, the robotic voice doesn’t really help, but hey, at least you replied, she thought as she walked toward the tiny opening where the ants’ friends had fled. “The hole is about half my size, so I can’t really fit inside, but I wonder if maybe…” Lily scratched her forehead with one hand, then lifted the other. “Water Bolt.” A ball of water formed at the tip of her pointy limb, making her giggle.

  The most remarkable thing was that she could make it change size depending on how much focus she put into it, as if it were second nature. Using her other hand, she could even make a second one at the same time.

  “Could it work?” As she aimed at the hole the ants had made with one hand, her fingertips were already tingling. “Water Bolt.”