I'm whisked away to an unknown place. I land gracefully on my feet and immediately take stock of my surroundings.
It is dark, very dark. If the Jiongu didn't replace my eyes and make them better I wouldn't be able to see at all. Barely any natural light is piercing through the canopy. The animal that I'm most fitted for is nocturnal or really likes the dark.
I take in the rest of my surroundings. I'm in a forest, trees are everywhere. Good, this is the terrain where I am used to fighting. I look upwards to see what is blocking out the sun so well.
"Honestly I really shouldn't be surprised." I mutter out loud to myself. "I mean, come on! Was I really going to get another animal? Pfft how did I not see this coming? Once I really look at it, there's only one animal for me."
The stuff that's blocking out all of the light so well isn't leaves. It's webs. The entire canopy is covered in innumerable webs.
"What's this?" A scratchy voice comes from above me. The webs shift. "There is prey in our home." The creature talking finally passes through all the webs. "Prey doesn't usually make it this far without being caught in our webs."
I was summoned to the Spider realm.
It is a monstrous spider that is talking, it is easily the size of a horse. It's mostly brown with a shockingly white diamond on the back of it's posterior. Each leg is a thick as my own legs and they're all covered is bristly black hair. The massive spider has six completely black eyes, there's no pupil, there's no iris, just black.
Terrifying, these are the creatures I am best suited for. What does that say about me?
"I am not prey." I boldly call out to the spider. I can't afford to show any weakness.
The spider stops moving towards me. "You say you are not prey?" More spiders appear around me, taking up guard posts on the edge of the clearing. I'm surrounded by spiders of various size, anywhere from the usual size to a small dog up to the horse sized one who I am talking with. This would make a great genjutsu. "Then that means you came here willingly. You've summoned yourself here."
"Yes." This is very dangerous. I'm clearly outnumbered by hundreds -thousands- and I have no idea what they can do. "I wish to be the Spider Summoner."
The nest of spiders is silent. Before there was a rustling, the noise of hundreds of thousands of spiders moving around but now it is pure silence. It is unnerving.
The biggest spider speaks. "You must prove that you are worthy of us. The last who have tried have perished."
"What do you ask of me?" I formally respond. I really don't want to make any of the spiders mad. I'm only going to get one shot at this.
"We have a few tasks that you must do, things that you must prove to us." The rustling is back, the spider are anxious. "We are spiders. Our silks -our webs- are what defines us among the other summons. Show us something like it. If you can't, you die."
That is incredibly lucky. I slowly raise my hands to my sides and let the Jiongu out. I let it form a protective mesh sphere around me. I've never noticed it before, but it could be mistaken for a black web.
I withdraw the Jiongu back into me. "If this isn't enough, I have another I can show you. It makes the elements into webbing."
"Interesting." The giant spider says. "The last one who came to us tried to deceive us with illusions, yet you say you have more than one type of web. That is a rare trait even among my own kind, human. Show us."
"I can make the web either fire, water, lightning, earth or wind. Which do you want to see?" I don't want to surprise them, that could be very bad.
The spiders start to move like crazy, the sound is deafening. "Do not make fire!" The horse sized spider shouts out in its raspy voice. "Never use fire here. Our Nest would burn."
I extend out my ten chakra strings and make them into water whips. I twirl them around, attach them to things. Basically the spiders got a twenty second display of what I can do with them.
"That is sufficient." The biggest spider present says. "We spiders are known for our many limbs and eyes. Do you have either of those traits?"
This is very convenient, maybe I do have a lot in common with spiders. "My webs are my limbs, I can control them to do what I want."
To demonstrate I have the Jiongu pull out one of my kunai and toss it around. I'm taking playing catch with yourself to a new level.
"I can have many eyes, as many as I want. They are not true eyes, it is an illusion." I spawn eyes everywhere on my body. Chest, arms, legs, I even put one in the middle of my forehead.
"That is sufficient." The huge spider sounds excited. I wonder how far the last prospective summoner got. "What can you offer us? Why should we let you be our Summoner? We haven't had a true contract holder for many of your generations, only minor contracts have been made."
What can I offer? What would the spiders want? Sasuke, you better back me up on this.
"I can offer an alliance with the Snakes. Their next Summoner is family in all but blood to me." The forest around me goes quite once again.
"Do you truly offer such a thing? An alliance with the Snakes?" The big spider sounds excited, it's talking faster and the tone of its raspy voice has jumped up half an octave. "To no longer be hunted by them?"
Uh-oh, I didn't know that the snakes hunted the spiders. This could backfire, if I don't deliver they'll kill me. I have no doubt of that.
"I can't promise it will happen soon, or even guarantee that it will at all. All I can do is ask the Snake's new Summoner if he will try to convince them to not hunt you anymore."
Murmurs of spiders rustling about reverberate through the area.
"That is sufficient. Even if it never happens you are willing to face peril for us! To talk to someone as vile as the Snake Summoner! Human, state your name. We will hear it now."
I raise myself up to my full height. "I am Alvarcus Mar."
The horse sized spider comes to stand before me, only an meter away. I stare straight into its big beady black eyes without a hint of fear. Okay so that was total bullshit. I'm definitely a little scared right now. Fine, a lot.
"I am Arachne, Mother of the Spiders. Alvarcus Mar, the Spiders accept you as a Summoner." Arachne reaches up one of her legs to her back and pulls out a massive scroll. "Sign it in blood, and you will be one of us. The Nest will always welcome you home." She tenderly lays the scroll before me.
I unroll it with the utmost care and read over the other names. There are only three others, faded and lost to time. I cut my left palm open and a very small amount of blood pools into it. It should be exactly enough for what I need. The Jiongu is efficient at the very least.
I elegantly write my name and leave behind five bloody fingerprints just like those before me.
"The Contract is complete!" Arachne calls out to the other spiders. "Alvarcus has become our Summoner!"
Other spiders finally approach us, hundreds upon thousands. I stand still and let them wander around me. I even let a few climb on me. One bold shockingly white spider even sits on my head, becoming the world's strangest hat.
In any other situation this would be fuel for my nightmares, but now? I'm not even phased. I know that they will not hurt me, they'll do the opposite. They'll defend me and I'll defend them. The contract must have done something to me, there is no way I could adjust this quickly otherwise.
After a long time, what must have been hours, the spiders start to disperse. Eventually it is just Arachne and I left, the others are going about their lives like normal.
"Come Alvarcus, you must be hungry." Arachne says to me. What do spiders eat again? Mainly insects if memory serves. That is not good. I don't want to eat bugs.
"I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Please don't insist! I don't want to eat gross bugs! "I should be getting back to my realm, to let my friends know that I survived."
"Of course." Oh thank Kami, no bugs for me. "It isn't every day that a new contract is formed like this. Most end in death. Know that the Nest is always open to you." Arachne says to me. "You'll have to visit soon, I'd like to hear about the Human Realm. So much goes on there!"
"Next time we can talk as long as you want." I assure her. "I really should be going. Uh... how do I do that?"
Arachne makes a screeching noise. She's laughing I think. "I'll send you home now." Her front two legs come together like pseudo hands.
POOF
I vanish in a cloud of smoke.
...
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