I’m honestly not sure if it was a good idea to tell her.

Even if Lin is giving me a really excited look. One that screams, I want to swarm someone with bugs.

Wait.

 Wasn’t she the one that told me to not share things like this with Ai, for this exact reason?

Ai continues oblivious of my thoughts, “Okay. With this, we definitely have a stronger chance of holding our ground. However, we will still need to leave here. There will be too many eyes here and would be extremely risky.”

With a glance at Lin, they both begin pulling up stones from the center and corners of the hut. They lift out of the respective holes, what appears to be backpacks. It’s clearly an emergency pack they prepared earlier.

Lin with a low voice, “Ai came up with this idea to keep everything in a bag to hurry, in an emergency. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to use this so soon, though.”

In the corner of my eye, I can barely read the lips of Ai.

I think she said something like “Finally.” I’m glad she can put this behind her.

As they continue gathering items, I walk out the house.

Welcoming me from the opposite wall is the spider woman, who I assume to be Gong.

Being able to finally to get a good look at her, I’m able to see what she really looks like.

She has an angled chin, yellow greenish eyes, a small nose, and pale skin that appears almost greyish. Two lines of black chitin along her face, match her wiry, but shiny black hair.

Honestly, she seems like a combination of dangerously sexy and very, very poor.

Covered in what is essentially ragged clothing, the shape her clothes take reveals she is overly endowed.

Where her human and spider body connects, appears to be connected at the thighs. Her legs are the pedipalps. In fact, her body reminds me of an anime I watched, with an Arachne type character.

Regarding her spider side, her body initially appears to be black, shiny, and smooth, but upon closer inspection appears to have smoothed down fine hairs all along her body.

The size of it is close to the size of a first-generation Hummer.

From the little I can see underneath her body, there seem to be larger hairs. All across her body, both human and spider, there are dense, artistic patches of webbing. It reminds me of tattoos a bit.

Honestly, while I’m normally scared of small spiders, her being large makes it not as bad…

Ooo, that’s pretty cool. I think her spider feet have tiny paws.

Tiny Paws!

Oh. I’m right next to her.

Without realizing it, I seem to have gotten extremely close to her and have been just staring at her feet. I hear a small sniff above me.

It is also at this time, that I see she is leaning right above me, her generous cleavage right next to my face. As I look up at her, she arches her back, allowing me to see everything due to her loose clothing. Subconsciously, I can’t help but gulp at the sight.

“Oops, my bad… did I distract you a little?” she says with a massive shit-eating grin.

Leaning in close, next to my ear, she takes a long sniff and then nibbles on my ear. I stumble backward, a little in fear, but mostly in surprise at the stimulation. Annnd I should probably learn to avoid the giant, sexy spider lady. She’s dangerous. In more ways than one.

She slowly climbs down to the ground, now holding a smug, happy smirk. Her carefree and lighthearted voice floats down, as she helps me to my feet “Well, well, well. Look who’s actually a big shot.” With a small voice, she leans in, “Both healing and taming. Aren’t those some big abilities for someone like yourself? People have been taken for faaarr less.”

Ah. Shit. Is this blackmailing? I think this is where she blackmails me.

With a finger on my chest, she twirls it in circles before landing it on my chin, raising it for me to look directly in her eyes. “I wonder if your taming ability might work on me, as well?”

She smirks, but is clearly waiting for an answer. “Uh, no… not to my knowledge.”

I can see her nose tilt slightly and then a hint of relief.

With a slight pout, she continues, “Pity. I would have liked to be a little more connected with you.”

It is at this point that Ai and Lin have come out. Seeing me and Gong together out here, Ai’s eyes quickly squint, but then relax. She’s clearly come to another internal conclusion. Both she and Lin cautiously approach.

Turning to Ai and Lin. “If you don’t have anywhere to go, you can come to my humble abode. I have plenty of room, assuming that you can pay, of course. It should come to…”

She pauses, staring at me, “2 coppers per person. Only requirement though, he has to come with you,” pointing at me.

Lin speaks up “Why would you want to bring Big Brother James? He’s just a friend that is helping us out a bit.” Both my and Ai’s heads snap to Lin, but with a look to each other, it is clear she is saying that to protect me.

Though she’s not completely wrong. Frankly, if Gong wanted to take us out, she would have no problem doing so. Gong busts out laughing “Hahahaha, that’s amazing… I never thought I see something like this.”

Lowering her voice, she whispers to us “No need to worry too much, I overheard what happened in your area and thought that you could help to heal some old wounds of mine, if you were able to heal hers,” gesturing to Ai.

“As you can probably already tell, this is a pretty enormous deal, but I’m not really sure who else to turn to… especially being what I am.” Ai and Lin faces turn to looks of pity at her. It appears this is also a world where people discriminate against demi-humans. Why did that have the be the aspect held in common with fantasy worlds?

“Not only that, but if you actually can tame creatures, that will make my own home safer to live in. So, it’s really beneficial for us both, if you are willing.”

Ai is clearly anxious, quickly responding, “That seems like it’s fair… if that’s okay with you,” she directs the last portion to me. I can’t help but smile at her attempt to keep a handle on the situation, but also to keep my opinions in the decision. With a nod, I consent.

Seeing my affirmation, Gong looks to be getting strangely excited about this. “Awesome! Let’s goooo… cough… I mean, let’s head out.”

That’s actually adorable.

Before we head out, Lin sighs and runs up to me, smothering me in a huge, tight hug.

Okay, a little too tight. She’s pretty strong now. “Thank you, James. You really don’t know how much all of this meant to us.” 

As she separates slightly from me, her arms still wrap around my back, watering eyes looking deeply into mine, with our faces close, conveying her immense gratefulness.

Almost immediately, I feel soft hands gently pry Lin away.

Ai gives a slight bow and while still holding onto Lin “I agree completely. You’ve helped far more than you know. Let’s bury… him and move quickly though; Gong is looking antsy and we are losing a lot of light” gesturing at Gong, whose image has shifted from a mysterious demi-human stranger to a happy, but impatient little kid.

In what appears to be a quiet and solemn moment, we open up one hole in the house and place the scum’s body within. Lin and Ai place a rock on top of the hole, covering it up. I neither push them on this or probe further.

Both Ai and Lin seem to have additional bags, with large amounts of books, from who knows where, on their backs. When I ask them if they want me to carry it, they decline, seemingly happy about their improved strength. They never expected to bring these with them, due to their weight, if they ever had to leave. I can feel Ai and Lin’s eyes on me as we head out. It’s a prickly feeling that I can’t quite place.

Soon after, we leave with Gong.

Leading us down alleys, she leads us deeper and deeper into a darker sector of the alleyways.

As we travel through these areas, I see Lin’s and Ai’s faces grow more confused. It appears even they aren’t familiar with this area. Moving next to Ai, who seems to be the information holder of the duo, I ask her some questions. “So, where do you think her home is?”

Looking briefly at me, she whispers, “She has to be living in The Depths… oh right, you wouldn’t know what that is.”

Sighing, “The area we’ve just come from is called the Alley’s, with our specific section called the Ways. It is somewhat close to the main commercial and residential areas. The Depths are the areas where most of the demi humans live and work. There are a lot of abandoned housing and workshops out here, since there aren’t many reasons to come out this far away from the major city centers.”

She takes a breath.

“For a demi-human like her, she probably has to live deep in the Depths to stay safe. This is a tolerant city, allowing demi-humans to live freely within the city and even expand its borders. Because of that, we have an enormous population of them. However, even now they get crushed as fodder for local gangs or clans. Even we don’t go near the Depths when certain groups ‘go hunting’.”

A little dismal from this piece of information, I can’t help but feel for Gong and her people. If this is how they are treated by normal humans in a “positive” environment, I can’t imagine what it is like when cultivators actively go after them. When I become stronger… I’ll make a place for them. A place they can be safe and not be hunted down.

Live life normally.

I just have to get to that point first.