Chapter 7-Foe Turned Friend?

"S-Stay away!" Frantically releasing pheromones around himself, Jared intently watches as the spider ignores his pleas and inches closer to him. 

Moving laterally around Jared, the spider comes down from its web, landing on the cave floor to the right of Jared. Lifting two of its front legs, the spider rears up onto its back legs, revealing horrifying black fangs. A light green liquid slowly dripped down to the edge of the fangs coming from the red "gums" to where the fangs are attached. 

'Oh god, this thing is disgusting- AHHH!' "Yelling" out inside of his mind, Jared watches as the spider leaps towards him, sinking its fangs into the middle section of his thorax.

*CLANG*

Or at least, it tried to. A distinct metallic noise is released as the spiders' fangs clash with Jared's exoskeleton, failing to pierce through. The spider hisses menacingly, trying again to puncture its prey.

"HAHA, you SUCK," releasing that message as a pheromone, Jared suddenly hisses a bit in pain as he feels a few drops of venom from the spider sizzling on his back. Wrath filling his entire being, Jared makes a snap decision. Reaching his head down, he bites the tip of his leg off, freeing himself from the web, before turning around and lunging at the unexpecting spider.

*PSH*

Landing a solid bite on the spiders' abdomen, his newly reinforced mandibles easily puncture its exoskeleton, causing a massive wound. Yellowish liquid seeped out of the wound and into Jared's mouth; he was surprised to find the taste delicious. Unfortunately, due to that second of hesitation, the spider leaps away, climbing up its web and hiding in the corner of the cave, out of Jared's reach. 

'Oh, come on, that's not fair! How am I supposed to reach you!?' Complaining to himself, Jared paces around the cave, keeping an eye on the spider and making sure that he doesn't walk into any more webs. Luckily, one of his legs missing its tip isn't too big of a deal, as he's got five others to support him.

"Get down here!" 

[Pheromone Production proficiency has increased due to use. 4/10]

Watching the spider some more, he notices a light blue glow from the gums around its fangs. As the blue light pulses in circular motions around each fang, more of the green venom seems to be created, dripping down the fang continuously at an increased rate.

'Wait, is that magic?' Watching the blue light intently, Jared subconsciously tries to emulate the movement in his mind. 'Well, some ants make formic acid, don't they? So if I were to...' While thinking this, Jared notices a blue light begins to glow around the last section of his body, near where he imagined his... butt would be. As he gradually gets used to controlling the light, he turns around, pointing his butt into the air towards the spider's face.

'Okay, now... push!' With the sudden excitement of controlling the mana, Jared pushes out like he was trying to poop. With this motion, along with the swirling mana, he feels a swelling of something inside of his body. Coursing through his "veins," this swelling moves in line with his pushing motion. As a greenish-blue glob is suddenly shot out of his behind towards the spider, he receives a notification from the system.

[Congratulations you have learned the skill "Minor Acid Shot*"]

Feeling a sort of energy drain from his body, Jared turns around just in time to see the glob land squarely onto the spider's face, covering its eyes and letting off steam while sizzling.

The spider releases a horrible hissing noise as the acid digs into its face, but refusing to come down because of Jared, it cannot clean the goo off in time.

Watching the disgusting scene, Jared is oddly excited by his new ability, watching in rapture as the spider's hisses gradually slow down before its legs curl up and its body falls to the ground. With the death of the spider, Jared receives a notification from the System while noticing that all of the webs in the area are gradually dissipating into mana. He also notices that behind where the spider was hiding against the wall, a small hole is located, dug into the cave wall.

[Low Arachnid has been killed]

[First Kill Bonus: 20 Growth Points]

[Consume the body to sate your hunger and gain Growth Points for your evolution!]

'Nice! I killed that damn spider. That's what you get for trying to eat me, you pig!' Laughing to himself, Jared ignores the body for a minute, walking up to the cave wall below where the spider was previously. 'Wonder what's in here.' Slowly scaling the wall, Jared eventually finds himself peaking into the small hole. 

"Hey, little buddy." He releases the message gently, eyeing the little spiderling in front of him. "I won't hurt you, come here!" Snickering evilly to himself, he watches as the baby spider slowly creeps its way towards him.

'Okay, it's actually pretty cute.' With oversized eyes, light brown fur, and fangs that seemed too small for its body, Jared made a quick decision not immediately to kill the baby. As it shuffles closer to his head, Jared reaches out one of his antennae, leaving it an inch or two away from the spiderling.

"Come, touch it!" Releasing the pheromones once again, he urges the spider to touch his antennae. 'Okay, that sounded a little creepy, but- HEY!'

"STOP THAT!" Looking back at the little spider, he watches as it jumps towards his antennae, grabbing onto it with its two front legs and trying to sink its fangs into it. "I said STOP!" 

'Ugh, this thing doesn't listen; how about this- 'Hive Control'! Trying out his new skill seemed to do the trick. The little spiderling stopped trying to bite him, its little eyes looking up at him, seemingly in fear.

'Uhh, I guess that didn't-'

["Hive Control" was accepted; Female Minor Arachnid has joined your hive.]

['Hive Control Proficiency has increased due to use. 1/10]

[You may name the newest member of your Hive. Please think of the name.]