Whoa, his magic feels so much stronger now compared to when he tried to attack me earlier. It’s not even comparable, Lily thought to herself, having a flashback to when she interrupted his chanting. “Ughhh…” She gritted her teeth while trying to keep the elite monster trapped in her webs, allowing for a clean shot.

  For a moment, as the red circle around the mage’s hands finally closed, the place fell silent, and the only sounds came from the distressed elite monster, which sensed the intense danger emanating from Claus’s massively boosted spell.

  “METEOR!!!” the mage chanted, his voice echoing across the area like an explosion. Everyone—including the little spider—cheered at the top of their lungs as a massive fire sphere shot from his hands, hoping it would deal significant damage to their foe.

  The attack travelled fast, like an unavoidable missile perfectly aimed at the trapped mosquito. It took only a second to reach its target, exploding on impact like a bomb, releasing a massive heat wave and raising a thick cloud of dust that quickly spread through the surrounding area.

  “Is it over?” Nari wondered quietly, unable to make out any of her surroundings.

  “I t-think so,” Claus replied, breathing heavily. “I embedded all the mana I could into that attack,” he added, his attention shifting toward heavy steps closing in on them.

  Otto’s silhouette appeared right out of the thick cloud of dust and jumped onto his brother’s back, pulling him to the ground. “That was amazing, you did it!” he cheered, clapping excitedly and making Nari laugh.

  Is it dead? Did it work? Lily mused, waiting for the System’s notification as she moved toward the mosquito. “I don’t understand…” she mumbled under her breath. Looking at it, the monster was dead, its massive body scorched and with no apparent signs of life, yet the System remained silent for some reason.

  It was only when she finally got close enough to the monster that she felt it, just like when she had fought the Lesser Mosquito; a faint vibration coursed through the monster’s body and was released into the atmosphere.

  “That same feeling…” Once again, the little spider had no answer as to what had happened, yet for some reason, it left her uneasy.

  [Elite Mosquito defeated.]

  Huh, a lot more points than I expected, Lily thought as she incredulously watched the experience bar fill up quickly.

  In the back of her mind, she had hypothesized that even though it was such a high-ranked monster, the experience gained from it would be shared among everyone who participated in the fight. Still, it was almost as if it all went to her, unless an Elite monster gave massive amounts of experience, no matter what—a theory Lily wanted to test as soon as possible.

  “Lily!” Nari called from nearby, rushing toward the epicenter of the explosion, closely followed by the two brothers, who walked behind at a slower pace, Claus leaning on Otto for support.

  “Hey, is everyone okay?” Lily asked, scanning the out-of-breath humans. “He doesn’t look that fine,” she added, pointing at Claus, who looked pale like a zombie and couldn’t fully stand on his own.

  “I’m good,” Claus replied, waving his hand, “don’t mind me.”

  “Don’t worry, he's just almost out of mana because of that spell,” Nari replied, jokingly patting the mage on his shoulder. “I wish we had some Mana Potions left to give him, but with some rest, he’s gonna be okay,” she added.

  “Potions? That’s so cool!” Lily exclaimed, her eyes sparkling as she spoke.

  “You’re a funny little spider,” the golden-haired girl giggled. “So, what are we going to do with this?” she asked, slapping the elite monster’s motionless body.

  “Uhhh, it’s too big to bring to the city, but we could carve out the most valuable pieces,” Otto replied, pulling a little book out of nowhere, almost as if he had summoned it. Without hesitation, Lily jumped to his side.

  “What’s that?” she wondered.

  “Holy shit…” Otto sighed, his heart almost skipping a beat. “You’re so fast,” he added, taking a deep breath before kneeling to show the little spider what he was looking at. “It’s basically a little handbook on monsters and the materials you can gather from them; quite practical for new adventurers.”

  “Oh, I see,” the little spider replied, taking a good look at the item. “But is it a skill? Like, how did you get it? Could you teach me?”

  Everyone looked at Lily as if she had just said something weird, half-wondering whether she was trying to make a joke or was actually serious. “It’s just a guide. You can buy it in bookstores, and uh, sometimes they even hand them out to try to get people interested in adventuring,” Otto told her.

  “Where did you pull it out from then?!” she exclaimed, thoroughly scanning him. “You don’t have pockets!” she added.

  All the humans had a good chuckle, then Nari pointed at a teeny tiny bag attached to the guy’s belt. “It's thanks to that little thing,” she said.

  “THAT little bag?!” Lily was even more flabbergasted. “How can anything fit into it? The guide alone is at least twice its size!”

  “Well, uh…” Nari furrowed her brows. “A master crafter has blessed it, so it just looks tiny from the outside, but it can actually carry lots of things. And the capacity depends on how strong the person who blessed it was,” she added, “it’s what we call: Personal Inventory, all adventurers have one!”

  “Whoaaa, there are so many cool things in this world!” Lily exclaimed, clapping her forelimbs in excitement. “And what about the System, how does that work for everyone else?”

  The humans looked somewhat confused by the little spider's question. “The System?” Claus asked sarcastically, almost as if he was about to laugh.

  “What’s that?” Nari wondered, raising one eyebrow. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it,” she added, crossing her arms as she tried to think back.

  “Could it maybe be like a monster-only thing?” Otto joined the conversation.

  “I’m not sure…” Lily replied, somewhat taken aback.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Can we please just get it on with gathering the useful materials from that thing and go back to the city?” Claus interrupted them, giving the scorched monster a couple of kicks. “I’m tired, and I’m also starving,” he sighed loudly, nudging his friends to stop talking and move.

  “What about Lily? We should split the materials with her—”

  “What does a spider even need crafting materials for?!” Claus blurted out, cutting off Nari on the spot.

  “I don’t know, but what I do know is that we’d all be dead if it weren’t for her!” Nari retorted, shutting up the mage for good.

  “Guys, it’s fine, he’s right, I wouldn’t really know what to do with materials anyway,” Lily said. “However, once you’re done gathering the things you need from it, the rest is definitely gonna make for a tasty meal,” she added, licking her lips.

  Everyone—especially Claus—gulped loudly in response to Lily’s words. Sure, the little spider looked cute, but they didn’t expect her to have an appetite much, much, much bigger than her own size.

  “Oookay,” Otto chuckled, “I’ll deal with the monster, but it’s gonna take a while,” he added. “It’s probably a good idea to find a decent spot for the night and leave early in the morning,” he said, noticing that the crystals in the area were starting to dim progressively one after the other.

  “You want to sleep here?!” Claus retorted, his voice cracking at the thought of being attacked by something while sleeping. “Hell no, we don’t even have a tent or—”

  “About that…” Lily promptly interrupted him. “Let me take care of it!” And before anyone could reply, with the help of her web, she jumped toward the ceiling in search of the perfect spot.

  “I don’t even want to know…” the mage sighed as he sat down.

  While Otto worked on retrieving the materials, focusing on the rare ones usually gathered from elite and higher rank monsters, Lily found a cozy nook close by and built a lair for the group to spend the night in safely.

  Took longer than I expected, but it should be good enough for the night, Lily thought to herself as she oversaw her creation, making sure the humans had enough space to sleep in comfortably, and even made web covers for each one of them.

  Everything was going well; the monster was dead, the group was fine, the base was ready, and at that point, the last problem remaining to take care of was Lily’s spacious stomach, which kept growling louder by the second.

  “Ugh…” the little spider mumbled under her breath while walking back toward the humans, wondering if Otto had finished gathering the materials from the elite monster so she could finally eat the rest of it.

  “Hey, you’re back,” Nari cheered.

  “Yeah, I just finished buil—“ A new smell suddenly cut her off. “What’s this?” It took her only a moment to notice that Nari and Claus were sitting around a little campfire, close to which they had a variety of vegetables and juicy-looking meats waiting to be eaten.

  “You’re just in time for dinner,” the golden-haired girl replied, nudging Lily to sit beside her. “We weren’t sure about your tastes, so uh… Claus also cooked some big chunks of the mosquito for you.”

  “Aww, thank you!” Lily exclaimed.

  The mage suddenly looked flustered, his cheeks bright red. “Whatever,” Claus retorted, looking the other way. “But thanks for earlier,” he whispered under his breath.

  “We all did our part today, no need to thank me,” Lily stated. “But where did you get all this stuff from?” she asked, looking at the nicely seared vegetables and

  “Oh, I always bring lots of stuff for cooking just in case,” the golden-haired girl replied, “and anyway, the inventory also keeps ingredients fresh for a long time.” She tapped the tiny bag by her side.

  “So cool!” Lily exclaimed. “That thing is even better than I thought.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing,” Otto chuckled. “Mine still has space even after storing the materials from that huge thing,” he added.

  “Wait, does that mean you’re done? Can we eat?” she asked Otto, unable to look away from the food, captured by its delicious smell.

  “Yeah, I think I gathered the most important parts from it,” he replied, giving her a thumbs-up. “I think we should get a nice reward for this stuff, at least according to the guide…”

  Lily cheered, only to be interrupted again by her growling stomach.

  “I think that’s our signal,” Nari giggled, nudging everyone to sit by the campfire.

  “Don’t have to tell me twice,” Otto replied, plopping down beside her, promptly followed by Lily, who could barely contain herself from jumping over the meal.

  “Enjoy your meal, everyone!” Nari exclaimed.

  Everyone grabbed something and sank their teeth into it, with the little spider taking the biggest bite out of them all, surprising the humans by just how much food she could eat at once, even though she was so small.

  Lily squealed on the spot, taking another big bite before even having swallowed the first one. “It’s sooo good!!!” she exclaimed with a mouthful, causing Nari and Otto to laugh.

  The dinner went by without a hitch and was mostly silent, as everyone focused on eating as much as they could, happily munching without a care.

  At least until Lily decided to test a personal theory.

  “Devour,” she mumbled under her breath, catching Claus’s attention, who kept a watchful eye on her.

  “What are you doing?” he blurted out, furrowing his brows.

  “Oh, this?” Lily replied, showing off her glowing fangs. “It’s my Devour.”

  “What does it do?” the mage wondered.

  “Oh, uhhh…” The little spider took another big bite. “Sometimes it gives me new skills from monsters I eat,” she mumbled with a mouthful. “But I’ve never tried it with cooked ones.”

  “Skills? What do you mean?” Nari stared at the little spider with a questioning expression splattered over her face.

  “Uh, like the magic attacks? Like his fiery thingy,” Lily replied, pointing at Claus.

  “HUUUh?!” Needless to say, they were all shocked.

  “You mean to say you gain spells from eating monsters?!” Nari exclaimed.

  “And why do you keep calling them skills?!” Claus shrieked, his voice getting higher with every word.

  “Yeah, Devour sometimes lets me learn abilities that the monsters used to have,” she replied in a serious tone. “And well, that’s just how the System calls them.”

  “I can’t believe this, it takes me weeks to learn and perfect new spells…” Claus sighed loudly.

  “You can learn new sk—uh, I mean—spells? That’s cool,” Lily cheered, her tone totally sincere. “I wonder if I could also do that…”

  “I don’t see why not,” Otto replied.

  “Yeah, you seem pretty skilled with magic,” Nari continued, trying to hide a giggle.

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

  But before the golden-haired girl could say anything else, the little spider cut her off. “It worked!” Lily clapped her hands, catching them by surprise. “Armament,” she chanted, causing her forelimbs to shine just as the mosquitoes did earlier during the fight.

  Claus was at a loss for words, his jaw on the floor, while the other two humans clapped excitedly, staring at Lily with sparkling eyes.