It took me several hours to be able to walk without tripping over my own limbs. The best was I figured out was to move each limb one by one, alternating sides. Everything else felt unnecessarily clumsy. I managed to explore the ritual room at the same time.

  The room itself was built in the same style as the rest of the ruins. The high ceiling arch reminded me of some old cathedrals I had visited. The spider iconography was much more pronounced than outside, most of the finishing touches were engraved with webs and the like.

  At the center was the ritual circle. When I examined it, the magic seemed to be gone for good. Parts of the carvings had even burned out. I resolved to destroy it completely before we left. I didn't want some adventurer stumbling upon it and turning themselves inside-out with an incomplete ritual.

  A dozen or so meters from the circle, there was a stone altar. Nothing particular about it, except for the enchantments. It looked like the altar would work with the key enchantment in my ritual bracer. With my perception sphere, I had a good idea of where the opening was. The ritual room was a dozen meters shorter than it appeared from the outside.

  Vel had prepared another meal for us while I stumbled around. Finding a way to sit down was harder than I thought, my legs took an absurd amount of space on the floor no matter how I tried. In the end, I curled them inwards.

  Vel leaned against me again. I took the bowl she offered and pulled her closer with my arms.

  "Do we have enough provisions to stay here a while?" I asked.

  "With what's in your amulet, we have more than enough."

  "I feel we'll get sick of lizard meat before we run out."

  "Probably."

  After the meal, I pulled out all of my enchanted items out of the amulet and put them back on. It felt a bit naked without them on. Then I did something else I had been putting off for a while. There were a lot system notifications pending in the back of my mind which I had ignored until now.

  A lot had happened.

  It was a lot to take in.

  "You forgot to mention you killed the alpha," I said.

  "I … didn't really think about it," she mumbled, "I was more worried about you."

  "I just checked, I got twenty-six levels from the kill."

  "That's so many. I ignored the box. I was too worried about you."

  I pulled her closer against me and kissed her cheek.

  "Maybe you should check," I said, "Gaia interfered and I have a new perk from her. She also gave me a class."

  "Another class?"

  "I haven't looked at my status yet. I got the High Priestess class from Gaia, and the Arachne class from … well … being turned into a half-spider."

  "How does this keep happening to you?" She laughed.

  "Maybe it happened to you too this time," I poked her in the ribs.

  "Fine, I'll check," she closed her eyes.

  I did the same and brought up my status screen.

  Bound Items

  Equipped Items

  Spell Slots

  Divine Spells

  Attributes

  Perks

  Classes (5/∞)

  General Skills (28/42)

  Resistances

  Mutations [Arachne (Rank 1)]

  Sub-Species: [Arachne Hatchling]

  I was surprised to see that Arachne had been added to my list of races, next to Dark Elf, instead of replacing it outright. I wondered what would happen if a human went through the ritual, and it worked, would they be a human-spider hybrid?

  I brought up the descriptions for both of my new classes.

  I had a feeling the high priestess class was a requirement to undergo the ritual and it was why Gaia had given it to me, she had wanted me to survive for some reason. She had said that Lolth was one of her previous identities, one that likely hadn't been worshipped for a long time if the state of this temple was any indication.

  Maybe it was simply for her entertainment but she didn't really give that impression when she appeared before me. She had seemed more like a mother who wanted her child to succeed. She had given me a second chance at life after all.

  I shook my head. It was best not to dwell on it. What happened, happened. I wouldn't rely on a convenient deus ex machina saving my ass at every turn.

  Next, I took a look at what the Blessing of Lolth and the other new perks did.

  "I take back everything I said," I mumbled, "Gaia is the best goddess."

  "I agree," Vel said right next to me, "she gave me the same blessing as you. The Alpha gave me enough levels to almost catch up with you. And she also gave me the High Priestess class for some reason."

  "Don't try to think too hard about it," I shrugged, "she probably has her own reasons. I don't think she has a master plan for us, she just took the opportunity to tip the scale in our favor for some reason."

  "Well, I won't complain. I can finally upgrade my class."

  "Nice," I grinned.

  While Vel took care of her class upgrades, I turned towards my own. The new Class Synthesis perk opened up some interesting possibilities. I could combine all of my current classes into one, this would make leveling faster at the cost of some skill slots. But then, I would be leaving the advantage that Gestalt brought to the table.

  The other option would be to embrace the spirit of Multiclass and use Synthesis to add more classes to my current kit. I could combine Magus with other combat classes, Druid and Psychic with an arcane full caster, High Priestess with other divine classes, and leave Arachne alone. Leveling the equivalent of eight or more classes for the price of two was very tempting.

  Decisions, decisions.