Back on Earth Jack had never eaten insects. He knew they had proteins and it was a delicasy yet he had never gone for a cricket or grasshopper. Now he was being asked to eat a spider.
"Firstly what skill do you think I'll get?" he squeaked.
"A web ability or itchy venom," she said.
Jack was waking up and down on the table, his thinking slime-cap on. Now, he had a special bond with Ms Snuffles: they're both monsters and both have experience in being caged.
But if he didn't eat her, she'll likely die anyway. So it's more of a euthanasia with benefits because Ms Snuffles will forever live on in Jack.
He looked at the spider again.
[Ms Snuffles, the Ivy Spider]
"Hey that wasn't there before," he said to the system.
[Information is added based on the Host's emotional attachment and focus.]
[Skills: Itchy Web]
Staring at the creature, its blue and red legs curled in fear, its multiple eyes pleading, Jack was torn. As much as he wanted to prove this theory to himself, and to unlock that coveted scroll, eating this thing felt too personal.
"Can I just eat its leg?" Jack bargained, not realizing how utterly bizarre that sounded. "Maybe that's enough."
Solana burst into laughter, a high-pitched cackle that made some loose herbs fall from the shelves.
"Are you seriously worried about a monster Jack? Do you think any of them would save you if you were in a web?" she said, her tone shifting to that of a seasoned lecturer, trying to impart a harsh but necessary truth.
"Monsters are just like elves," she said with a matter-of-fact shrug. "Except elves can speak."
Her emerald eyes met his, "Ms Snuffles would love to eat you."
Looking at the spider one last time. Jack decided to do it. With a shaky tentacle he wrapped it around the spider and brought it inside him.
The spider was essentially trapped in a ball of jello.
"Blood absorption," he thought.
He needed to use that skill to absorb the spiders blood otherwise he was basically just storing it in a jello inside of him.
His slime core tingled. And green blood flowed from the spider to his core. He started to shake. The feeling of the spider dying inside him was unpleasant.
[System has detected a wandering soul from Ms .Snuffles.]
A pop-up window appeared.
[Would Host like to make a Slime Pact with Ms. Snuffles's wandering soul.]
"What? What does that do?"
[Slime Pact will be used to bind Ms Snuffles as a magic weapon.]
"That doesn't sound possible, Ms Snuffles isn't a weapon."
[Blood Forging and Moonlight Infusion will be used to create a slime vessel and embed the wandering soul within. The final result will be a Magic Weapon named Ms Snuffles.]
[Host will have to use 1000 points to upgrade Blood-forging and Moonlight Infusion to level 2 to store an extra weapon.]
Solana had a notepad. She was writing something while staring intently at Jack. The woman was so focused on the absorption process that her orange hair was practically smoking with anticipation.
[Yes/No]
That would leave Jack with 0 points. Not something he would like to risk. But the opportunity to create a spider weapon? It was insane, and something that Solana would probably drool over, maybe enough to finally let him peek at all the tests from that evolution theory scroll.
"Yes," he said to his system.
Jack's jelly insides churned violently. A bizarre alchemy began. The green blood from the spider seemed to multiply, swirling through Jack's body, not just coloring it a sickly shade but rewriting something fundamental. One of his tentacles popped out.
A blue goo was being oozed out of his tip, slowly forming the silhouette of a small spider. But instead of itchy blue and red legs, it was made out of shimmering blue slime, almost transparent.
[Ms Snuffles]
[Species: Sanquislisme Slime Spider (Host's)]
[Level: 8 (Host's Level)]
[Skills: Slime Tentacle, Itchy Web, Blood Absorption, Blood Forging, Moonlight Infusion, Heal Mucus]
[Title: Jack Der Quiver's loyal weapon.]
It had the same skills he had! Jack's eyes bulged when he saw the last skill.
"Can it heal me?" he asked the system, intrigued.
[Yes. It is not a part of you. It is your summon.]
"You created a slime of the spider? Fascinating!" Solana's gasped.
She dropped her quill.
Jack could feel emotions coming from the spider. Hunger, excitement and some strange feeling akin to 'love'. Or at least he thought it was love, but it could just be the slime's version of a belly rub.
"This isn't what I predicted," Solana shook her head.
She took a deep breath and looked at the scroll one more. Then she eyed the spider.
"You're not a blood slime. Wait of course not!"
Her eyes went wide. She ran over to Jack and her hands trembled as she examined Jack.
"What are you?"
Her sudden intensity made Jack quiver. Her face was practically in his face, in his personal space. Her breath was hot against his skin and it smelled like honey.
"Hey you're a bit too-"
She licked him.
Her tongue was rough. And also.
"What?!" He asked. She had just licked him. What kind of weird elf magic was this? Was she just like Aria? Is she going to bite him next.
"Please don't bite me I taste bad," Jack said.
In response, she licked him again over and over until she dipped her tongue in his core. Jack felt weird but in a good way. Like a massage. He tried to stop her but it was just too good.
"Stop... Li-Licking... me..." he said while shaking.
This licking made him feel a dizzy rush of emotions, a dizzying cocktail of pure energy.
Then she stopped.
"You're part Blood, part Magical Weapon, part Heal," she said, her breath quickening.
Her moss-green eyes were wide, darting back and forth between Jack and his little blue spider companion, her mind processing information at a speed that seemed to make the air crackle.
"But... this can't be right," she stammered. She scrambled back to her workbench, shoving aside bubbling potions and scattered herbs to grab a blank piece of parchment. With trembling hands, she started to sketch, her charcoal stick flying across the page in frantic, overlapping strokes.
Jack wobbled over, still feeling the tingle of her tongue, and looked at her crude drawing. It was a diagram of him, but it was a mess.
"What are you doing?"
She didn't answer. She drew lines from "Blood" to a crude drawing of a vampire. Then a line from "Weapon" to an elf with a bow. Finally a line from "Heal" to a priestess. Then she drew a big circle around Jack's diagram, with little question marks all around.
"You are a..." She tapped the drawing, "The first Tri-hybrid."
The words didn't fully connect at first in Jack's mind. Tri-hybrid? It sounded like one of those fancy words from the biology textbooks he used to read.
Sensing his confusion, Solana elaborated, her voice now a hushed, reverent whisper.
"Hybrids are born from parents from two different species. But there can't be two father. And Hybrids can't breed with other Hybrids. So a Tri-Hybrid should be impossible."
Jack looked at the spider, who looked back at him as confused.
"Jack do you know what this makes you?" Her moss-green eyes widened in manic excitement.
"The God of Slime!"