It was supposed to be a day like any other, and for the most part, it had been, until everything changed.

  Lily was enjoying her warm summer afternoon while cheerfully skipping toward a blonde-haired girl, carrying two ice cream cones.

  The girls had spent the better part of the day wandering the city, and now all they could think about was a refreshing treat. But just as she was about to hand over the frozen deliciousness, the area around them began to glow.

  The blonde remained oddly calm; in fact, she even faintly smiled before vanishing into nothingness, a warm yet somewhat bittersweet expression on her face, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

  From Lily’s perspective, it all happened in the blink of an eye; the girl vanished right then and there, leaving only a spreading, blinding wave of light, almost like a shock wave, growing warmer and expanding outward.

  Nobody ever expects their life to be completely shattered in a matter of seconds, or to be hit by a shock wave of light. But that’s precisely what happened to Lily, a sweet human girl, at least for the time being.

  “ANNIE!!!” Lily woke up in a frenzy, her heart pounding fast in her chest, screaming at the top of her lungs. Why am I screaming? Who’s Annie? she mused, unsure of herself. “I can barely see anything,” she mumbled under her breath, heavily disoriented, trying to figure out her whereabouts as she struggled to pick herself up from the cold and damp terrain.

  The place was not only in almost complete darkness, with the minimal source of light coming from dimly glowing moss covering parts of the rocky walls, but it was also nearly silent; the only disturbance being the faint sound of what felt like tiny footsteps, mixed with the background droplets, creating an eerie atmosphere.

  [You’ve been deemed worthy of Reincarnation.]

  “What the…” Lily could’ve sworn she heard an uncanny voice, but in that moment, something else caught her attention.

  [Please choose the form you—]

  “S-SPIDER!!!” she shrieked, terrified by a teeny tiny arachnid crawling on a rock right beside a glowing pair of transparent legs.

  Hers.

  Am I a ghost?! Lily wondered, her gaze quickly shifting to her also-transparent arms. “W-what the hell’s going OOOnnn?!” she wailed, mouth wide open, heart racing uncontrollably yet again. Yup, that’s it, I’m going insane, she thought to herself, the absurdity of the situation sinking in.

  She couldn't make sense of what was happening, and the more she tried, the more confusing it became. The whole experience felt like a dream, or rather, a nightmare.

  [You have chosen the species: Arachnid.]

  “W-what was that? Ugh,” she stuttered under her breath, frantically scouting around the darkness, wondering if she was concussed from the impact and hallucinating things.

  [Reincarnation will begin in a moment.]

  Suddenly, her surroundings lit up with a warm light.

  “Who’s talking?!” Lily blurted out as she frantically stepped back, trying to locate the source of the robotic voice. “What’s happ—” One too many steps later, she couldn’t feel anything below her feet, “why MEEE?!” And she went down like a sack of potatoes, blacking out once she hit solid ground.

  [Reincarnation completed.]

  Once Lily regained consciousness, she felt strangely rested, and more surprisingly, there was no residual pain in her body other than a mild headache, which was quite weird, considering she had fallen from a significant height.

  “Ouch…” Lily whispered under her breath as she reached for her throbbing head, accompanied by weird noises as she spoke, almost like a hissing or even chirping sound, but very faint.

  Even more bizarre, it was almost as if a set of two additional, for lack of better words, hands were applying pressure to her head: two on her forehead, presumably hers, and two on her cheeks.

  Furthermore, it was as if Lily could feel all four—actually, no—she perceived a lot more than four.

  Once she opened her eyes, she froze at the sight of what she was seeing, hoping it was just a hallucination. “W-whaaat?!” she yelled, and once again, weird noises accompanied her voice. “G-gigantic… s-spider… LEEEGS!” Lily wailed at the top of her lungs, frantically jumping away to escape those white, pointy, overgrown limbs.

  While trying to put some safe distance between her and that gigantic-looking spider, she still had no clue of her whereabouts, and to make matters worse, her memory was in shambles; she couldn’t remember anything about herself other than her name and useless trivia.

  No matter how hard she tried to focus, Lily felt at a loss.

  Fortunately, after panicking for what felt like eons, Lily’s vision slowly adjusted, allowing her to make out her surroundings finally. I’m just having a nightmare, she tried convincing herself, thinking it had to be the only logical explanation.

  With her gradually improving vision, she was lucky enough to scout what seemed to be an underground river in the vicinity, and, longing for a drink, she promptly sprinted toward it.

  Is it safe, though? Lily wondered as she approached the clean-looking water source, somehow reaching it much faster than she had anticipated, as if her speed had doubled or even tripled compared to when she had first woken up.

  She was so quick that she couldn’t stop herself from falling right into the river, which, luckily, was relatively shallow, enabling her to stand right back up.

  “Finally!” she cheered, dipping her hands into the cold liquid, gathering as much of it as possible. But as she attempted to splash her face with it, only a couple of droplets managed to reach her, almost as if she wasn’t able to gather any water at all.

  Huh?

  Looking into the river, a familiar chill went down her spine. “EEEh?!” she shrieked half-confusedly, slipping down headfirst into the water. “HELP!” she cried out, trying to stand up as her feet slid on the slippery floor again. “A HUGE… spider?“

  Suddenly, her shock turned to confusion, then back to shock as she stared into the multitude of eyes—eight of them, to be precise.

  Where’s my face? Lily pondered, scanning the reflective surface, the white spider being the only visible protagonist in frame.

  “What the hell?” she mumbled under her breath, eyes wide open, animatedly moving her head up and down. Why’s that thing mimicking me? she wondered, glancing at the spider, which almost looked cartoonish, with humanoid features like a normal mouth—small, sharp fangs included at its corners.

  Then, suddenly, the realization hit like a ton of bricks. “HUUUh?!” There was no weird spider, or better yet, she was the damn spider! “No, no, NO!” she shrieked like never before, so loudly that it echoed off the rocky walls and throughout the cavern.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The water’s actually poisonous, and I’m hallucinating! She tried finding a logical explanation. Wait, am I gonna die? she wondered, sweating profusely at the possibility. Maybe I’m already dead, yep, that’s it!

  Lily tried to remain calm and collected, but reality painted a completely different picture. Screams and sobs were the only sounds that came out of her mouth as she freaked out internally, staring motionless at her own distorted reflection.

  “You’re not dead…” A disembodied voice echoed in the darkness, its source unknown. It sounded like a faint whisper in the back of her mind, almost like a warm breeze gracing her face.

  Lily immediately fell silent, a silence that lasted less than the blink of an eye, of which she now had too many. “I’m imagining things again!” A second later, she was back to her shenanigans, screaming at the top of her lungs as tears fell unstoppably down her flustered cheeks. “This is it, goodbye, cruel world.”

  “I hope the fall didn’t give you a concussion; it would certainly derail his plans,” the same faint voice whispered again, albeit more clearly, softly chuckling as she spoke. It sounded like a woman's voice.

  “That’s a bit insensitive,” Lily whined under her breath, looking around the shadowy place in search of the culprit, to no avail, as there was nobody in the vicinity. “Who said that?”

  “It was me.”

  “Me who?” Lily gasped. Where’s this voice coming from?! she wondered, covering her eyes, somewhat frightened by the ominous yet elegant voice, yet also curious enough to keep them open.

  Weirdly enough, having two eyes covered did not impair Lily’s vision at all; she could see just as well as before, even better now that she had finally adapted to the glow of the strange flora that clung to the rocky walls.

  “You know you’ve got like waaay more than two eyes, right, little spider?”

  “Ohhh right,” she promptly agreed with the voice’s statement, no thoughts whatsoever behind her multitude of eyeballs. “I almost forgot—” then suddenly, the actual meaning of those words registered in her mind. “That makes no sense AT ALL!!! I’m not a spider!” she blurted out, her tone quite annoyed as she hysterically waved her pointy limbs in the air. “Show yourself,” she demanded, the newfound courage mainly coming from being overwhelmingly annoyed.

  “As you wish.” Out of nowhere, a surprisingly familiar radiant light invaded the dimly lit cavern, making it shine even brighter than before. “Don’t be afraid, little spider,” the disembodied voice said.

  Lily waited a second, terrified to take a peek, but deep inside she knew she had no choice but to comply.

  “Cool, cool,” she promptly blurted out as she stared at the brightly glowing woman who had just appeared right in front of her. Yuuup, I’ve gone crazy; that settles it! She patted herself on the back, slowly moving away from where she stood in search of another deep hole to jump into.

  “You haven’t gone crazy, you’ve just reincarnated into a cute spider,” the woman said, a loving smile appearing on her face.

  “Ah, I see—” She stopped in her tracks. “And how’s that supposed to HELP ME?!” she exclaimed, her voice a mix of disbelief and, weirdly enough, amusement, feeling like the victim of a sick joke.

  “Well, you chose to become a spider,” the woman nonchalantly answered, “so don’t start blaming me now.”

  “Okay, listen here, you crazy spirit, or whatever you’re supposed to be!” She looked up at the ceiling, momentarily distracted by the thousands of stalactites growing from the rocky surface, her eight eyes sparkling, mesmerized by the beauty of it all. Focus! She reminded herself. “Why would someone want to become a spider out of all things?!”

  “Yeah, that was a bit surprising even for me, but that’s what you told the System,” the woman raised her index finger, circling it around in the air as she spoke.

  “System? What are you talking about?” Lily rebutted. “When did I ever—” Suddenly, flashbacks of when she woke up in the cave the first time resurfaced. “Wait, that voice… it said something about reincarnation…”

  “That voice is the System! You’re already starting to understand,” the woman hastily clapped, almost overjoyed by Lily’s answer.

  “And I—” Her eyes widened in sheer shock, “a-and I freaked out because I saw a tiny spider crawling on a rock.”

  “Exactly—wait, you what now?” The woman took a quick step back, her bright smile immediately turning into a frown.

  “Let me get this straight.” She took a deep, deep breath, then rolled her eyes—all eight of them. “This uhhh… System turned me into a spider because I blurted it out loud?” Though Lily tried to keep calm, the absurdity of the situation caused her to burst out laughing, almost maniacally, as she slowly began coming to terms with the possibility that she wasn’t dreaming at all. I’m dead, there’s no other way.

  “I’ve already told you that you’re not dead. Well, not anymore at least,” the spirit rebutted.

  Did you just read my thoughts? Lily wondered, causing the woman to nod back in response. “What do you mean, not anymore?”

  “Well, something happened to you, but now you’re here, reincarnated into this magical world,” the woman replied with a big smile plastered on her face, probably a bit over exaggerated for that moment.

  “What exactly? Why don’t I remember it, then?” Lily asked.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much,” the ghost replied, “it seems like you just forgot details about your personal life and things like that. I guess that’s why you’re a bit confused—uh, anyways—let's just call it a side-effect of reincarnation.”

  “Is that why I keep feeling like something’s missing?” she wondered, loneliness growing inside of her.

  The woman hesitated for a moment before nodding. “You will understand and maybe even remember in time. He has big plans for you,” she said.

  “B-big plans for me?” Lily asked, the spirit’s words catching her by surprise. “Who’s he? Who are you talking about?”

  “As I said, you will understand in time. For now, your only task is to level up and evolve, and to do that, you will have to fight,” the otherworldly spirit explained, gently tapping Lily’s head as she spoke, a touch that felt real, like the woman actually was there.

  “F-fight? In this weird arachnid body?” She raised four of her eight limbs in the air, visibly frustrated by the whole ordeal. “I’ve never fought once in my life!” she admitted, or at least she thought so, as she couldn’t actually remember.

  “Well, you’re not just an ordinary spider,” the woman replied, her body growing more transparent by the second, “and since the System chose you for reincarnation, we do not doubt that you can thrive here.”

  “W-what’s happening to you?” Lily blurted out, attempting to grab the ghostly woman, to no avail, as her limbs went right through her spiritual frame, unlike a couple of moments ago when she felt her taps.

  “Truthtfully, your reincarnation was a bit of a surprise, and he sent me to check on you, but now I’m needed elsewhere,” the woman admitted, “so I’ll be gone for a while.” And just like that, just as easily as it appeared earlier, the spirit disappeared into nothingness.

  “W-wait, don’t go!” Lily stood there motionless. “Why…” Having been left alone once again, a sudden feeling of despair overtook her. “You damn spirit—thing—lady! This conversation is NOT OVER!!!” she shouted, shaking her fists in the air.

  Without prior memories, Lily felt defeated and alone in this dark underground location. Still, she knew she couldn’t give up this opportunity, yet, somehow, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was forgetting something significant.

  Truth to be told, huh? Then why do I feel like I don’t even know half of it? Lily wondered as she looked down upon her pointy limbs.

  Who was that otherworldly woman talking about? And what plans did he have for Lily?

  It all felt so weird, like a mystery that would soon unravel, but despite the unusual predicament she found herself in, Lily’s overwhelming curiosity motivated her to heed the ghost woman’s instructions and fight to evolve; at the end of the day, she didn’t really have better options anyway.

  However, there was one issue, a quite problematic one: who was she supposed to fight?

  Where were all the monsters? Such a huge cave should have been teeming with life, yet it felt eerily empty. Apart from the occasional small critters crawling around the rocky walls, Lily was alone.

  “Huh, weird...” she mumbled under her breath, scouting around the area in search of someone, or something interesting. I can see so far away, she thought to herself, gaining a sudden confidence boost.

  Lily was pretty surprised to be able to see that well, as usually spiders, even though they had many eyes, weren’t exactly known for having excellent sight and mostly relied on vibrations.

  I can do this; I have to believe in myself.

  [Warning.]