My ribs screamed at me as I ducked low under the whistling tail of the monstrous snake. Every movement sent pain lancing through my side; I couldn't afford to stop or slow down. Fractions of a second counted in a battle of life and death. They were the difference between life and death, as thin as a sheet of paper dividing victory from defeat.

  I lashed out with my blade, feeling it bite into what felt like flesh after a moment of resistance, then the snake was on me, and we went down in a tangle of limbs and tail. The snake-like monster seemed to be everywhere as I thrashed on the ground, trying to extricate myself from its grip. I lashed out blindly with my dagger, it bit into the root body of the serpent, it dug in deeply after a moment of resistance, as if the tough vine-like exterior was just that, like an outer shell, and there was soft flesh beneath.

  I thrashed wildly, inflicting dozens of wounds on the much larger creature. Panic began to boil in my gut, however, when I realized I was no closer to extricating myself from it. In fact, I could feel coils beginning to tighten around my lower body, constricting my legs.

  Not good.

  I continued to thrash as I wracked my brain for an answer; every ounce of struggle I could muster now made it harder for the serpent to completely lock down my movements. The moment I wasn't able to move anymore, this battle would be over. Its maw would tear into my soft throat, and that would be the end, the end of the fight, the end of my life, of everything. I let out a roar as the crushing strength of the monster's coils reached my ribs and screaming agony boiled through my torso. My dagger bit into its serpentine body over and over again. It wasn't enough.

  I only had one card left to play. My strength and speed had been overcome by the beast, crushing me to death, and I just couldn't do enough damage with the single dagger I had; I lacked the skill to use it effectively. One last option. One I'd worried about using.

  I pushed with every last shred of my will towards activating [Hollow Web Metamorphosis].

  It was like fumbling for a light switch in the dark. For a long moment, there was nothing for my mind to seize on, like fingers scrabbling along the wall, missing by feet or inches, it didn't matter. Then, like fingers brushing the edge of the outlet cover, I found it. The sensation was strange; it was like finding a wrinkle in my mind that had never been there before, yet the precise moment I made mental contact with it, I knew exactly what it was and what lay beyond it.

  The change was nearly instantaneous. Energy surged through my battered body, my senses screamed, howling through my mind, making it almost impossible to think. It was as if my senses had become a cacophony that had been designed specifically to overstimulate and overwhelm my mind. Some part of me knew that wasn't the case, but the rest of me wanted to close my eyes and crawl into a hole until the new sensations stopped.

  Suddenly, I could see almost the entirety of my surroundings, nearly three hundred and sixty degrees of vision. I could see the massive serpent root I'd been battling from various angles, but I wasn't able to focus on a particular angle. I felt large, much larger than I did as a human. What I was able to see of my new form confirmed what I felt, though I was Massive. Capital M. At least by the standards of normal spiders, even the Australian ones. I had at least twelve feet of leg span, maybe a little more.

  Panic surged through me as I realized my mistake. I had no idea how to move or fight like this; I had precious little understanding of fighting as a human. As a massive spider, I would be like a fish on dry land. My pedipalps churned as my vision flicked, all of it, every angle, with an unnatural degree of focus, flicked directly to the serpent root as it slithered back.

  Pedipalps, apparently, I had those now.

  I pushed my half panicking inner monologue to the side; concerns over my current anatomy could be dealt with later, assuming I lived through this.

  The serpent root seemed unsure, almost afraid; it had retreated almost a dozen feet beyond the reach of my spider limbs. It began to coil in on itself defensively, however.

  I watched in horror as I recognized the posture it was taking, the serpent root coiled on itself, preparing to launch itself at me, the same way its smaller brethren attacked from a distance when their target was out of direct reach. The moment seemed to stretch on and on as the serpent coiled itself tighter and tighter, like a spring under a massive load. The serpent uncoiled violently, sending its bulk hurtling towards me like a meteor. It was going to bury me in its weight and then crush me with its coils if it could. My human eyes wouldn't have been able to follow the movement, too little time to become accustomed to the speed at which battles like this took place. My spider eyes, however, had no such issue tracking the monster and reporting back in 4k HD, that I was currently fucked.

  My subconscious mind roared to the front, and instinct took the reins. Eight legs skittered across the ground as my vision blurred, unprepared for the speed with which my new body moved. It was as if there was a disconnect between the different parts of my body; nothing acted quite in harmony with the rest. I found myself nearly twenty feet to the left of where I had been watching as the serpent root sailed harmlessly through the air where I had been only a moment before. I lifted my forelegs to stare at them as if they were my hands.

  I had moved.

  I had gotten out of the way.

  I struggled to understand how. It should be impossible for me to control eight separate legs at the same time with enough coordination to move like that. I took a step to the right and watched as my legs rippled to answer the demands of my mind. Black chitin glittered like polished black armour in the light as my legs settled into position. It seemed my new body had some instincts of its own baked into it; perhaps it would move as I willed it to.

  I laughed, the sound came out as a strange halting hiss. Sounds were hard, apparently.

  Instead of worrying about the mechanics of vocal communication as a spider large enough to give most people a phobia, I focused on my enemy. My spider limbs carried me forward with a grace that was foreign to me. I could sense the faintest tremors in the ground as I moved. I could sense the movements of the serpent root through the vibrations in the ground, barely needing to look to confirm that it was coiling itself again, preparing.

  As my foe launched itself once again, I skittered to the side, though not nearly as far as last time. This time, I turned ninety degrees as the serpent flew past and launched my own bulk at the creature with as much might as my arachnid limbs could muster. I bowled into the monster like a runaway train, and we went down in a tangle of limbs and tail. On instinct, I lashed out with my spider limbs, their razor-sharp tips, shaped like spears, punched into the monster's body with ease. My limbs left gaping puncture wounds in the creature's body that gushed almost cerulean blood. Rolling to the top, I pinned the monster down with my forelegs, punching through its body directly into the ground a few feet below its head. The strength of the creature as it thrashed strained my limbs, the chitin of my spider limbs creaking under the strain. The beast was monstrously strong. Running on pure instinct, my mandibles, or what I thought of as my mandibles, lunged forward, fangs exposed. My fangs sank deeply into the monster just below its skull. There was a strange flexing sensation along my mandibles, followed rapidly by a feeling of tension and release as my venom poured out of my fangs and into the body of my enemy. The serpent thrashed desperately in my grip as my venom flowed into its body. It screeched and hissed in agony.

  The last struggles of the monster seemed to go on for ages; in reality, it was barely a handful of moments before the monster dropped to the ground limp, and a familiar and welcome screen appeared.

  I let out a ragged hiss, raising my forelegs in victory before I sagged on top of the body of my foe, my legs splaying out around me as the adrenaline of the fight fled my body. It seemed even my spider body wasn't immune to its effects. I was exhausted, but the sense of victory and accomplishment was a heady mix. Briefly looking at my status sheet, I decided to go a different route than I had been on this time. I hadn't even known that the [Serpent root Sentinel] was there until it had struck the other monster. I couldn't risk being taken by surprise like that. There was no one to bail me out if I ended up in an ambush situation I couldn't contend with on my own. Better to be aware of it and avoid the whole situation. In that spirit, I dumped all six of my free points directly into perception and considered it points well spent, especially when I saw the way my strength and dexterity values had jumped.

  Immediately, I pulled up screens for my status sheet and the two things in combination I thought were responsible for the large jump.

  It was the only thing that made sense. I gained a base 25% boost to my strength and dexterity based on my bloodline and its inherent purity. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that if my bloodline purity were lower, the stat boost I got from it would be proportionally lower as well. The description provided for [Hollow Web Metamorphosis] flat-out said that it enhanced bloodline related effects. This had to be a case of the two bonuses stacking, multiplying each other. So when I was in spider form, like I currently was, instead of getting 25%, I got 50%. It was ridiculous, frankly. The gamer in me wanted to scream that it was broken, very OP. At the same time, however, I was absolutely not going to complain about something that benefited me.

  This combination of things made my spider form ridiculously potent for my level. Taking the way my stats were being spread out due to the [Soul-Sheer] as my current average, in this form, I was gaining seven points across my stats and three free points. For a total of ten points per level. That meant I had an entire level and then some in extra stats, most of it in my strength. I couldn't help the hissing chuckle that escaped me when I thought of what my stats might look like if I made it up to the lofty heights of something like level fifty. Assuming stat gains kept working the same at higher levels as they did now. I didn't have enough information to make any assumptions, far too many questions and far too few answers was my new normal. Other people or creatures with a different distribution were also a concern. Something or someone that put everything into strength would certainly be slower and more fragile, but if they ever got their hands on you, it would be bad, very bad. A certain amount of generalization was very likely to be necessary, but specialization did have perks the further it was taken. My attention drifted from my musing as another increasingly familiar and welcome screen appeared in my vision.

  Yes.

  Yes, I would.

  I accepted the prompt without a thought, already wondering just what I might get from the first boss mob I'd faced. A soft thump accompanied my acceptance of the loot. I froze, and my thoughts of loot ground to a halt as I realized that the loot hadn't gone into my bag like it should have. Skittering along that train of thought, I realized I had no idea what happened to my clothes or other items when I'd transformed. I eyed my surroundings with urgency, searching for my possessions. A cursory search showed that they were nowhere to be found.

  If this were a game, my items would be stored in some sort of extra inventory while I was transformed, maybe that's what happened? I mused. It wasn't worth panicking yet, though my heart had skipped a beat a few times in the last few minutes.

  I turned my focus inward, the way I had when I had wanted to activate [Hollow Web Metamorphosis]. It took several minutes for me to reach a state of mind where I could examine things properly. The mind was a strange place where whims and wishes could change the shape of everything all at once. I mustered my focus, visualizing what I was searching for. In my mind's eye, I saw a series of three nodes connected by thick glowing lines. These were the bloodline skills that were available to me. [Hollow Web Metamorphosis], [Authority of the Hollow Web], and [Web walker's Grace].

  I focused on the node that represented my transformation skill, mentally pushing and pulling at it. It refused to budge like a massive boulder rooted to the ground by a combination of gravity and years of the sedentary behaviour common to big ass rocks. After several long minutes, I surrendered to the stubbornness of the node; it simply wouldn't react, no matter how much mental force I applied to it. Instead, I shifted tactics, trying to gaze into the node to see what was contained within. Knowledge flared in my mind, every item that had been on my person when I'd transformed, and even what had been in my storage bag, laid out almost as if it was on some sort of mental spreadsheet for easy browsing.

  Progress at least.

  I focused on the list, trying to access that inventory, and felt as if my mental probe had bounced off something. It was as if the ability itself was actively resisting me and my attempts to make it do what I wanted it to do, like it knew I was trying to make it do something that went outside of its normal functions. I was not going to be denied here. I bent the entirety of my will upon the skill, on the idea that it should act as a general inventory for me, that I should be able to access it whenever I wanted with no restrictions.

  I lay there unmoving for several long minutes as I battled with the skill, before I felt something buckle. The resistance vanished, and a new screen popped open in front of me. I grinned, mentally, my spider features really weren't very expressive. I was starting to enjoy all these screens; the sense of progress was nice. It kept me focused, driving forward.

  I felt exhilarated as I read the message. I really had been able to pick up a new skill. I hadn't been at all certain it was possible, just that it was worth trying. I was still trying to make sense of how this strange place I found myself in worked.

  Have to know what the rules are, if I want to tie them in knots later.

  I picked up the new item that had dropped from the [Serpent Root Sentinel] without a thought, despite the spear-like shape; it seemed my spider limbs were perfectly adept at manipulating smaller items, almost like there was some sort of adhesive around the tips that could be engaged or disengaged at will. It wasn't worth worrying about at the moment; if I thought about it too much, I'd probably mess something up. With things like this, it was probably best to just let the odd form of muscle memory this body had do things like that for me.

  I let out a hiss as I stared at the window attached to the new dagger. This was one hell of a big upgrade over my [Root Fang]. The damn thing had four different effects. Toxic Edge was just a straight upgrade over my [Root Fang]'s ability to inflict [Root Venom]. On top of that, this dagger also applied a bleed; two Dots for the price of one was always a good deal. The attack speed was nice as well, but it wasn't the real jewel: a ten percent increase to my strength while I was wielding it? That was huge. All in all, this unique piece of gear seemed right on par for the challenge of killing a boss monster, even if it had almost killed me multiple times. It wasn't much use to me as a spider, but as a man? Oh boy, oh boy, I was going to get some serious use out of it. Raising the dagger, I willed it into [Inventory], the air rippled around my foreleg, and I pushed the dagger through the strange ripple in the air. It didn't feel like much of anything, but there was a small ping of feedback in my mind confirming that the dagger was now in my inventory.

  Now that that was taken care of, my mind turned towards the current situation, and immediately ground to a halt when I realized there hadn't been any quest notifications like when I had found the growth. Surely if I had killed the boss of this area, that quest would have updated? Which meant, to my rapidly growing concern, the [Serpent Root Sentinel] was not the last boss of this chamber; there was something else out there.