Friendship

After turning me around she had an even stronger grip onto me restricting my movement further. From then on only my hands and feet had complete freedom of movement. Meanwhile my head could move a little degrees of in either direction.

The only thing I've been able to see ever since she turned me around was her pale purplish skin. From my peripherals however, it seems we had been moving the entire time ever since she snatched me right out of the air. The sides were a kind of blurry seemed to head towards where she snatched me up.

'Just how fast is she?'

Every once in a while I could feel her hand stroking the back of my head while carrying me. Her light giggles also sounded in my ears every once in a wild though it was mostly masked by the low sound of wind whizzing by us.

"We're almost there now! Aren't you excited for your new home?" She spoke as if she had just adopted a pet.

Moments later my vision darkened quite a bit as we entered a cave, but I quickly got used to it as my pupils expanded quickly. She had finally let me go onto a hammock made of her silk at the very end of the cave. Upon sitting up I notice how small the cave was, compared to her anyway. It could at most fit another one of her before it completely ran out of space. She sat in the very middle of the area leaving very little room on either side while staring at me.

"So, what's your name boy? I don't mind letting you keep it!"

"I-It's Ip Cheng... Um, what about you?"

"My name is... Li Lian, I'm so glad I found you! I finally have someone to be together with! Hold on one moment I have to do something before you even try to escape again." Finishing her sentence she raised her index finger and a faint plume of purple gas exited it and going straight into my chest.

'She seemed to hesitate in her name. Is there a meaning behind it??!?! Probably not, I might just be over thinking being captured and all.'

Instantly I began patting the area of my chest it entered through, "Wh-What did you do to me!?"

"Oh it's just a little something so I can keep my eye on you. Since you're here now I'll take care of you and your needs, so you won't need this anymore." Waving her hand the sword along with the sheath along my waist flew over to her.

"..."

'Well shit, even if I did escape now some random beast could probably take me out!'

When she got ahold of the sword it seemed to be enveloped by a seamless, formless, and almost colorless mass. Yet the next second it disappeared and one of the rings I just noticed was on her fingers glowed for a moment.

"Why don't you start conversations anymore? When we first met you were much livelier, is it because of my current form? I could change back if you'd like that better, I wouldn't want to scare you too much after all!"

Her huge abdomen quickly shrunk into her back as her back six legs were pulled into from where they protruded. The two front legs began to become thicker and fleshier. Her pelvis which was the connector of her spider parts changed color to match the rest of her fleshy tone. The pale purple skin from her arachnid form changed hue into a more natural skin tone though still extremely pale, close to bordering a white hue.

"Do you perhaps feel better when speaking with me now?" She stood in front of me looking like an elegant woman, with her hands both cupping each other in front of her body.

At least that's what it would of feel like if she still wasn't naked.

"It's not that your form bothers me, but I've just never seen someone like you before... and because you could probably kill me without any effort while keeping me captive here."

"Oh don't worry, I won't hurt you besides you're the first person I've seen in 17 years and I don't know when the next one will come. It seems the people who were hunting me forgot about my existence. After they sent that last group 17 years ago they never sent another."

'How could they simply forget about your existence?!'

"Um, what happened to those people who tried to kill you?"

"Them? Well I ate them of course, but look! They all had spatial rings! Maybe when you can use it I'll give you one, but right now I'm going to keep all seven of them." She turned her hands showing me seven rings on her fingers.

Each ring had a small stone embedded in them. The size of the stones weren't equal and neither were the colors. Even the materials of each ring was different.

'So those are spatial rings? They don't look too different to normal rings. Wait, she ate them? I think I heard her almost say she was going to save me as food earlier. Perhaps it's better to not ask about that.'

"Oh I see, do I have to stay in this cave for the rest of my life?"

"Of course not! You'll be with me all the time, but it's getting dark so go to sleep. I made the hammock just for you!"

'Wait, she made it for me? How long had she known that I was going to be coming?' Just having that though me shiver a bit.

"Oh thank you.."

Laying down on in the hammock I start sorting out my options.

'Should I keep trying to escape? I still have two invisibility and qi strengthening inscriptions although I don't have a weapon.

She sent some kind of gas inside me to "keep track of me" and even if I managed to escape, the beasts roaming the forest will probably get me.

Should I just stay with her and do what she says? It doesn't seem that bad, except for the part where I have to leave my entire life and everything I was doing behind. Yeah, that's not an option I can take.

Maybe I can somehow convince her to come back with me to the sect and just hope nobody will discover her. She has a human form too so it shouldn't be hard for her to blend in and maybe she'll enjoy the world of humans. I just gotta hope she agrees first.'

…

While opening my eyes I think about what to do during the day some more practice with my footwork would probably be good or maybe with the sword. As the scene before me sets in I remember everything that happened, but looking around I saw no sign of her.

I got out of bed and started walking towards the entrance to see my surroundings, but as I got close a silhouette could be seen entering from the entrance way.

"Good morning, I got you breakfast although I don't really know how to cook like you humans do I tried my best. I might of eaten half of it though I got a little hungry, sorry!" Tossing over whatever she had in her hand towards me

"Thank you for trying at least." I said trying to be cordial

"It's the least I could do to accommodate my guest." She said flashing a smile at me.

Picking up the food I realize that its some kind of meat and a little burnt, but besides that it's not too bad looks wise. Taking the first bite it really wasn't bad, well I mean at least it wasn't raw.

"The foods.. not bad."

"Thank you."

"So um.. Li Lian, what are you?"

"Me? I'm a Man-Faced Spider or at least that's what you humans used to call me."

"I can see why, how long have you been staying here?"

"Around 16 years, I had moved after the attack 17 years ago and found this place. It was nice and quiet so I chose to live here, but I've been feeling lonely as of late and you came at the perfect time. Now it's my turn to ask questions hmm.. lets see.. Ah I know! Why did you come so deep into the woods?"

"Well I just wanted to find some thing that could put up a bit of a fight so I could get two qi strands to the next cultivation level."

"If you want I could help you gain more as well as get you to the next level. If you so wish for it probably even next stage, but that won't be instantaneous though."

"You can?"

"Of course I can, especially with the contents of these spatial rings you'll get there quicker than others. But I have heard that using these to skip past early stages can weaken your foundation or something like that."

'Hmm, weakening the foundation. Usually protagonists would try to have as stable a foundation as possible, especially for those which come from absolutely nothing. Isn't this route what villains' usually take?'

Lifting up her hand and opening up her palms one of the rings give a small glimmer as a shiny blue rock appears in her hands

"See this? This is called a spirit stone and contains qi strands you can absorb directly into your body, like this." As she does so the blue color and luster quickly fades from the rock until it loses it all and crumbles into dust.

'Hey I've seen this one before! Although it was only in my mind when I was reading.'

"This was just a low-grade one, but it seems they also had a few mid-grade ones as well. As for getting to the next stage I'll help you when you get there then you can start using these storage rings.

From what I can tell your talent sucks so it's completely fine if you use this! The only problem is that in the future if you make it to a high level you'll have a little more work to do. Of course you still try to make up for the use of external help after a bit if you want to stabilize your foundation."

'Wow, thanks for boosting my morale. It makes sense though no protagonists usually have such low talent at least for long. Even if they do they still have some kind of crutch to lean on.'

Finishing up my last few bites I asked "So what do you have in mind that we do?"

"...Umm.. I don't know, I didn't think this far ahead. I was worrying more about when I would be able make a friend then what to do with one." She looked perplexed and put on a thinking like face.

"How about coming back with me then?"