Secrets Out

While everyone was staring at Lachlan, Adam was secretly whispering to the spider, "Do you want to join me?" The spiders responded by rubbings its head against Adam's leg, and although he wasn't sure, it seemed as though it was smiling.

A dark blue light went off, similar to when Jack tamed his lizard, they already knew that Adam was taming the spider, of course, due to their focus being somewhere else no one could stop him. The light engulfed everyone, and it was only seconds after that it dispersed.

After the light dispersed just like Jack, Adam was on the ground rolling around grabbing onto his back, he almost looked like he was attempted to rip his back off. He got his nail and was clawing at his back in pain, he then grabbed onto his shirt and took it off.

As Adam lifted up his shirt everyone understood why he was in so much pain. It seemed the tattoo for the Spider Queen chose to be there, and it was massive, taking up half of the space on his back. It stretched from his shoulders to the centre of the back.

The tattoo was a spider, it looked almost like spiderman except Adam couldn't take it off, not to mention that this tattoo summoned a real giant spider. Aside from that, there wasn't much to it, no special designs or anything which Adam was slightly hoping for.

Analysing Adam, Lachlan knew that he had tamed the spider, and was quite glad they got another companion, however, he was beginning to think of himself as a burden. It was understandable for Sarah to not have tamed anything, she was still a baby. Chloe still couldn't accept what was happening, but she had the practical skills to make sure everyone works together, suppose that's what taking care of 4 kids does to you.

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Name: Adam Wilson (Human)

Age: 19 (Adolescence)

Soul Contracts: 1/5

Compatibility: Arachnids (High), Insects (Low)

STR: 14, AGI: 13, VIT: 11

INT: 15, PER: 11, WIL: 12

Weakness: Inexperienced, Easily Distracted

Strengths: Mild Poison, Stick On Any Surface

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Staring at the stats and looking at the strengths for some reason gave Lachlan some relief. After all, he didn't want his brother to start laying eggs that hatch into spiders. It was also relieving to know that they had another fighter, as much as Chloe resented it.

He also noticed a slight difference in the strengths. While it was understandable for Adam to not have strong poison due to his compatibility. It seemed as though he picked up a trait that didn't show on the spider.

Even though it was common knowledge that spiders can climb up walls, it seemed as though his eyes didn't find it necessary to show this. He could also determine after analysing both Jack and Adam, that they did become slightly stronger after taming.

It seems as though they either take one stat point for any of their tamed beasts' stats that are above 20. Or that they just get 5% of the stats, which meant they weren't too far from getting stronger again.

Adam quickly walked over to Lachlan and stood by his side before summoning the spider, "Summon Shadow". Turns out he decided to call the spider shadow, that was probably what he was whispering to it.

Unlike the other summons we've had so far, Adam's summoning didn't cause his tattoo to emit light. Rather it caused his shadow to expand in front of him before a Spider slowly crawled out of the shadow.

"Analyse," Lachlan muttered.

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Name: Shadow (Desert Spider Queen)

Age: Adolescence

Attribute: Darkness

Level: 1

STR: 31, AGI: 35, VIT: 40

INT: 25, PER: 21, WIL: 17

Weakness: Low Resistance to Fire

Strengths: Strong Poison, able to lay eggs and control hordes of Spider Queen Soldiers

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It seemed as though one of its weaknesses has disappeared after levelling up its strength. Lachlan already knew that strength increased the physical defence, which meant the higher the strength stat the more dangerous a beast would be.

Of course, even with that Lachlan knew he wouldn't be able to get out of this without an explanation. As they could still get their asses handed to them by Alfredo, especially after seeing the way he fights.

"Care to explain yourself boy," Alfredo said in a deep booming voice, he was curious as to why the boy did that, or more importantly, how he knew. There were many mysteries to this new world, he wanted to know them all.

"I made it grow stronger and bigger," Lachlan explained childishly, he knew that it wasn't the answer Alfredo was looking for but wanted to see if he would accept it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Alfredo frowned and asked, "I can see that much. But why and how did you know that it would grow up?"

Lachlan sighed and readied himself.

Deciding that it was time to inform everybody of his unique ability he began explaining, "It's my eyes. I'm not sure how but they give me a bunch of information whenever I say a keyword, analyse. The information it gives is similar to a status screen seen in games, it has your strength, agility, vitality, intelligence, perception, and willpower in numeric form. It also shows what the individual's species is, how old they are, and the strengths and weaknesses," Lachlan explained it rather rushed but everyone could still understand him.

However, after hearing what Lachlan said, everyone was stunned, unsure of how they should go about it. This wasn't something any of them had to deal with.

Jack and Adam, on the other hand, seemed to be enlightened.

"So that's what you were muttering beneath your breath when you saw the Rocky!" They both exclaimed. They always thought it was odd but never put too much thought into it, just thinking it was one of Lachlan's childish behaviours coming through.

Chloe also came to the sudden realisation about Lachlan's abilities as she remembered Lachlan mucking around with a scorpion that same day, "How long have you had this ability?" She asked.

"I've had it for just over a year. However, it was different before this whole evolution. It used to only show what the species were, age, special characteristics, and the grade potential. Which I believe is what determined how strong everything got after the evolution," Lachlan explained.

"Wowowo, you keep mentioning evolution, what evolution?" This time it was Alfredo's turn to ask a question, he quickly noticed Lachlan's use of the word evolution, certainly a word most people wouldn't use to explain the collision.

"You all know of the massive celestial body that was going to crash into Earth, right?" Lachlan asked, to which everyone nodded. Some of them even shuddered at the thought of it, as it was what brought upon this hell.

"Well, that wasn't a celestial body that destroys planets but rather a celestial body that forces them to undergo a massive evolution, which is what Earth experienced," Lachlan explained, he himself found it difficult to accept let alone everyone else.

Alfredo continued asking questions, wanting to find out more, "You mentioned Grade Potential determines how strong beast is going to be. What were humans?" He didn't notice any significant difference with their bodies which certainly meant they weren't stronger.

Lachlan frowned at this question, after all, it was hard to admit that their species, which was on top, was now likely near the bottom, "Humanity had 8 Grade Potential, which is incredibly low. Species such as Sperm Whales, Silverback Gorillas, and Barbary Lions all had 2nd Grade Potential, which seemed to be the highest potential an animal could have".

"Animal?" Alfredo questioned with curiosity, he seemed rather good at picking out details Lachlan says and asking about them.

"Indeed, animal. The only thing that had a Higher-Grade Potential was the Earth, which had 1st Grade Potential," Lachlan explained.

Everyone was shocked as they were continued to be berated with information which doesn't seem real.

"So why hasn't human experienced any change?" Alfredo asked. He was curious about it and since it seems Lachlan might have the answer it didn't hurt to try.

"Well I'm not sure," Alfredo was disappointed at the answer he received, "But humans have experienced a rather big change".

Alfredo looked at Lachlan for an explanation, "You can tame these beasts which surround us, of course, there are limitations".

"What type?" Alfredo asked.

"People are only compatible with certain beasts. You, for example, are compatible with dogs and wolves, which gives you the ability to tame them and gain a fraction of their strengths," Lachlan explained.

"So that's why I seem to be able to smell clearer!" Alfredo shouted in realisation. It all began to make sense to him, "Do I have anything else?" He asked with excitement in his voice.

"You also have a strong bite, but it's up to you whether or not you want to bite any of these beasts," Lachlan said jokingly. Alfredo was pleased with the answer and began to think of ways to incorporate these strengths with his fighting, the strong bite being his primary focus.

Finally, Chloe asked a question, "Why do you have special eyes and not any of your siblings?". She was curious as to what made Lachlan so special to be the only one amongst all his siblings to have those eyes.

Lachlan hesitated and frowned, unsure whether he should reveal that information. Deciding not to, he instead lied, "I don't know, maybe it has to do with the year I was born on, the location of my birth, I just really don't know".

Although Chloe didn't like that answer, she could only accept it and just say it was fate. Because in her eyes it didn't seem like Lachlan was lying, and if he was he has certainly become a pro. What she didn't realise was that Lachlan's been slightly lying to them every day, whenever they caught him saying analyse or just acting rather strange when staring at something.

Chloe walked up to Lachlan, handed Sarah over to Jack and hugging Lachlan, muttering words quietly so that only the two of them could hear, "It must have been tough, holding in such a secret. But it's okay, although you're different you're still my son and not some monster". She wanted to reassure Lachlan that he was still family, even if he was different.

Lachlan felt relief when he heard his mother say that, although he didn't say anything, he nodded and hugged back, and that nod was all Chloe needed.

"Ahem," Alfredo interrupted this touching moment and began to explain what's going to happen, "Now that that's out of the way, go eat, rest, and use the restroom should you need to. Don't hold it in, I probably won't be stopping if you need to go".

Alfredo walked off to the restroom, the rest of them quickly brought out some snacks to eat. Alfredo came back and joined in, after which Lachlan and Adam went to the bathroom, then Chloe who was holding Sarah and Jack. This was to prevent anyone without a beast getting hurt.

After their break, everyone got back into the car and they began their journey to Marla, where they'll rest for the night and refuel the car.

When Alfredo started the car he looked back to Lachlan, "Here's some advice for ya boy, make sure not to tell that secret to too many people. And to only tell it to people you can trust".

"Why?" Lachlan asked. He thought that his eyes would do some good for the world if he spread the word.

"Certain people in this world would want to power for themselves, even if it means disecting you to get to it. The only time when it's a good idea to spread your secret is when you have enough strength to protect you and your family," Alfredo explained.

"What's my family got to do with this?" Lachlan asked. The eyes were in his body and none of his family had the ability.

"Because those people I talked about would target your family, as its the easiest way to get someone to obey them," Alfredo explained, a slight hint of hatred could be heard from his voice.

"Alright," Lachlan nodded. He would wait till his strong enough to tell his secret.