Chapter 18: Hidden Goals

Chapter 18: Hidden Goals

As I head back to the room, Gong moves in behind me.

Leaning in, with a conspiratorial whisper, Hey hey you.

Pausing for a moment, I look back at her. What I see is a spider-lady, with an unreadable smile, but her slight fidgeting demonstrate that she is excited about something.

Seeing no response, she slowly raises a finger up to my eye level. Like a comically slow torpedo, she circles it toward my face, ultimately landing on my cheek.

Hey.

I stare at her in slight disapproval. This seems to change nothing for her, as she just pokes my cheek again. Audibly sighing, I humor her.

Whats on your mind, Gong?

Continuing with the sly atmosphere, she moves her mouth right next to my ear.

You want to see my secret dungeon? My heart jumps.

O-oh

I see her nose tilt a bit and a gesugao (evil) smile crosses her lips. Mmmm I know youre going to looove it. Heading out ahead of me, she takes a path to a deeper area.

Well.

This is suspicious as fuck. To be frank, though, I really want to know what this is going to be. That was just ambiguous enough to not know if thats sarcasm or if it was an innuendo. That doesnt give me any actual choice, but to go check it out.

For added effect, she doesnt look back as we travel.

As we head deeper and deeper into the caverns, there are noticeably fewer lights. So much so, that I can barely see my dark colored shirt. However, what I can see is the light glistening off of Gongs ample human butt.

It takes quite a bit of effort to not pay attention to it, as it is surprisingly the shiniest thing around.

After a few minutes of walking down this downward sloping tunnel, she finally begins speaking. Ive been doing this for a while, but Im still building it out further. As you can see, there are still a lot of areas I need to work on.

I can see the shadow of her arm wave towards the walls.

I cant see anything. It just looks like dark, lumpy walls.

Ive really been considering your ability, the taming one, I mean. Her voice sounds simultaneously studious and excited. If you want to have an insect army why not use spiders? Many spiders have what is it called? Venomous properties. It also wouldnt be strange for a spider to be in an area. Great spies or information transportation. They can also carry quite a lot of weight and move quickly.

She pauses and looks back at me. When I was younger, I imagined myself like the mythical spider demi-human queens. Being able to control large amounts of spiders and influencing spider spirit beasts Ive always wanted to have the same ability. She looks back and forwards, down into the tunnels.

Ive been making a lot of progress, as you can probably see. With your help, I can probably take it to another level.

Mana: 141658/141658 (163840)

Taming Maintenance 1 mana/ 1 human biomass insects, no cultivation 1 mana/ 1 human biomass arachnids, no cultivation 50 mana/1 human biomass bacterium, no cultivation

Transferred Gifts:

Passive Scan: Max

Active Scan: Max (Increased Strain)

Healing Aura: Level 3 Exp: 159/160

Beneficial Taming: Level 12 Exp: 1712/20480 rounded down

1 xp per 1 human sized biomass no cultivation, tamed

Current Direct Tames

No cultivation/no contract Cockroach 1 under 1 human biomass Insect Horde 88 human biomasses worth (212 cubic meters) Spider Horde - 22,094 human biomasses worth (53,027 cubic meters) Bacterium 11586 under 1 human biomass

Healing Constitution

Proficient Languages: Common Speech (English)

Literate Languages: Common Speech

Wow okay, thats a lot to parse. Overall, it looks like Ive grown a lot from that. Ill figure out more of what this means when I get back.

With a red face and apologetic tone, Gong quickly bows, Im so sorry for putting you in this situation I got way too excited about what could be done with these children and didnt consider what would happen if they were hostile to you.

She continues, Since theyve never caused any problems for me, I forgot that I might have to think about that with others.

Man, Im still not accustomed to people bowing to me. Honestly, I will have to get used to doing that myself, since Im sure Im going to make plenty of mistakes myself.

Its okay, Gong. You can get up. I can understand not thinking of that, since it has always just been you in this large space. I wave behind us, referencing this immense cavern system.

Still, I was the one telling you to be more aware and cautious, but Im the one who put you in danger. Sorry about that

After a second more of the bow, she lifts her head. So, did you do something to the chil-spiders? I noticed something changed. Wait.

Her eyes widen in realization. No way. You didnt tame all of them at once, right?!

I quickly nod, affirming her thoughts. She seems to process this slightly in shock.

With a shake of the head, Well, at least this proves I had a connection with them. I could feel when their allegiance switched to you. Though it feels like I still have a connection to them.

Her words give me pause, as I wonder if I can make their connection stronger. Hey Gong, Im going to try something let me know how this feels to you.

Time to see if I can make this dream of hers a reality