Maddy stood in the middle of the shattered nursery, surrounded by broken shells and torn webs. Her hands trembled as system windows bloomed before her eyes.
She read the list slowly, her breath catching with each new line skipping the traits she had already gained, focusing only on what was new.
CHOMP!
[System Notice]
[You have ingested an object containing traits.]
[Trait Acquired: Silk Production]
[You can generate webbing from your mouth, limbs, or tail like extensions. Silk strength, elasticity, and volume scale with your intent and stamina.]
[Trait Acquired: Arachnid Poly-Limb Cognition]
[Grants simultaneous, independent control over multiple limbs or limb equivalents without loss of coordination.]
[Trait Acquired: Lightning Resistance]
[Grants complete immunity to lightning element damage. Electric attacks cannot harm, paralyze, or disrupt your body.]
[Trait Acquired: Improved Reflexes]
[Enhances nerve response speed and reaction time. Greatly reduces delay between thought and movement.]
[Trait Acquired: Extreme Adhesion]
[Microscopic hook-like hairs form along your limbs, allowing: wall walking, ceiling crawling, and vertical sprinting. Adhesion can be toggled on or off at will to prevent accidental sticking.]
[Trait Acquired: Compound Vision]
[Multiple eyes grant near 360° vision, exceptional motion detection, and reduced blind spots. Slightly weaker depth perception at long range.]
[Trait Acquired: Lightning Element (Basic)]
[Grants natural affinity with Lightning, enhancing control over Lightning based abilities and increasing resistance to Lightning aligned attacks.]
[Suzerain Spider Body Parts]
[You may now manifest any portion of the Suzerain Spider's anatomy—arms, legs, or the entire physical form with perfect precision. These examples are not limiting; any part can be used.]
But then her eyes locked onto the final notification. The words seemed to tremble on the screen, each letter pressing against her chest until a choked sob escaped her throat.
She had known.
When she read the Suzerain Spider's Monsterpedia entry earlier, a small, dangerous hope had already taken root. Her vision blurred. Her fingers trembled as they hovered in front of the glowing text.
"N-no mate… I… I can…"
Maddy couldn't hold back her tears. They streamed down her face, and heavy sobs broke through her chest, making her words come out uneven and unclear, her whole body trembling.
"I can f-finally…"
The last trait glowed in her eyes as she stared at it. None of the inherited traits she had gained mattered this much to her life.
Maddy collapsed to her knees, her fingers digging into the stone floor. The silence of the cave was broken only by her ragged, uneven gasps.
"…G-give birth?"
[Trait Acquired: Suzerain Spider's Reproductive Ability]
[A specialized internal brood organ forms within your body. You may give birth to any monster type offspring without the need for a mate.]
In her past life, she had been a hollow shell in the eyes of the man who claimed to love her. She remembered the doctors' offices, the cold needles, the pitying looks from strangers, and the terrifying, escalating rage of her husband. To him, she wasn't a person; she was a broken machine that refused to produce an heir. He had beaten her, screamed that she was "useless," and eventually, he had ended her life because she couldn't give him the one thing he demanded.
She had been killed for the crime of a "failed" woman.
Then she had woken up as a worm. A lowly, disgusting, beige worm. She had crawled through dirt and fought with every ounce of her soul just to see another day. She had been forced to eat the corpses of monsters and even the woman she tried to save, carrying the weight of a borrowed face just to survive.
And now, the universe or whatever cruel god had brought her here had handed back the very thing that had been used to justify her destruction.
[Apply these traits to yourself, or store them?]
Maddy still couldn't believe the Suzerain Spider's reproductive ability. She remained on the ground, tears streaming, her broken sobs trembling with every heartbeat. Then Sephiran's baby babble reached her ears—the incomprehensible, gurgling noises somehow felt like exactly what she needed. She looked down at him; he smiled, and at that, Maddy's chest loosened. She smiled back, feeling a flicker of hope.
"Sephiran…"
She undid her heavens crib, letting it vanish, and Sephiran crawled straight into her arms. To her surprise, his tiny hands wiped away the remaining tears on her cheeks.
Maddy hugged him close, her chest tightening with realization. Sephiran was the baby of the woman whose body she now wore. But to her, he was truly hers. He was the dream she had always longed for—and now, finally, she had him for real.
Slowly, she stood, cradling him in her arms. She wiped the last of her tears and steeled her heart.
"Sephiran… I'll make sure you have someone to play with, to argue with, to love and even hate. You'll finally have siblings… a dozen."
Maddy smiled down at him, then turned back to the floating system prompt.
"Of course, Lucy… I'll definitely… apply these traits."
[Response: By your command… applying all ingested traits directly to your body.]
Initializing…
Maddy held Sephiran close, her heart finally feeling full as the system finished its work.
Poof!
[Done.]
A strange, shifting heat bloomed in the center of her chest and spread downward. It wasn't the caffeine like buzz from before; it was a deep, structural ache, like her very DNA was being rewritten. She felt her hips shift slightly and a new, pulsing rhythm synchronize with her heartbeat.
"Ugh... okay, that's a lot. It feels like my body is trying to figure out if I'm a human, a spider, a God or a Swiss Army knife."
Suddenly, a notification flashed with a golden border, more ornate than any she had seen before.
[System Notice!]
[Condition has been met… ]
[A Unique Evolution Path has been unlocked.]