Eugene was always a simple man who lived a decidedly average life. His strangest hobby could be said to be reading novels online instead of playing online games like the rest of the people his age.
Having just the reached the grand old age of 22 he was on his way back from another soul crushing day working at the office. It was horrendous; they worked him like a slave all day only to pay him so little he couldn't even afford fuel for his car and was forced to walk.
He had just gotten to the bridge at about the halfway point when a bizarre dark cloud appeared above him in the otherwise clear sky.
Bang! Many lightning bolts rained down from the sky as they strangely began to group together as if they had all reached an agreement to hit the same point.
Unfortunately for him Eugene happened to be standing at that exact spot. Electricity began to flow through his entire body as he couldn't help but unleash a scream of agony.
"AHHH!" Screamed Eugene as his skin began to char and emit a smell like burnt toast. However as a healthy young man in the prime of his life he miraculously clung onto life.
"I'm... I'm alive. I can't belive it. Screw you lightning I survived... but I'm feeling a little... dizzy"
At this moment Eugene began to stumble. Moving back and forth erratically as even keeping his eyes open was a challenge with his severe injuries.
"But it doesn't matter because I survived in the end"
Sadly for Eugene it did matter as he slipped on a banana peel that someone carelessly left on the floor and directly went over the railing of the bridge. One look down to the river below told Eugene that he was done for.
"YOU HAVE GOT BE KIDDIN-"
CRASH!
Even if he fell into water such a height was enough to break nearly every bone in his body. Still Eugene fought against the raging current to try and surface but his struggles were in vain as he was unable to resist the overwhelming power of nature.
His mad flailing slowed as his oxygen deprived cells could not take it any longer. His mind slowed as his eyes fogged over.
'I can't believe I survived lightning just to die to a banana peel. How pathetic. I wonder... what's next for me? Heaven? Hell?'
Suddenly a flash of pure white light enveloped Eugene's body as he closed his eyes for what he thought to be the last time.
A wave of relief washed over him as the pain that assaulted every nerve in his body suddenly vanished and was instead replaced with the familiar sensation of standing on the ground.
Cautiously Eugene opened his eight eyes and was horrified to see more than a dozen spiders the same size as him. Terrified he moved his eight legs and began to back away.
'What the hell is going on? Why are there so many human sized spiders? Are they going to eat me? How did I even-. Wait a minute... eight eyes... eight legs. There's no way.'
Finally Eugene looked down and saw a brown leg with countless tiny hairs covering the surface.
'Did I reincarnate? Like all those novels I read? But why did it have to be a spider? They are disgusting and creepy but I suppose I don't have much of a choice in the matter. Anyway enough getting sidetracked if I got reincarnated surely I got some kind of awesome cheat skill or system right. Hmm... I guess I'll try the classic. Status'
Instantly a holographic blue screen appeared in front of Eugene.
[Status]
[Name: Eugene Cross]
[Race: Trapdoor spider]
[Rank: Unranked]
[Level: 1]
[Xp: 0/100]
[Skills: Web production Lv1, Bite Lv1, Dig Lv1, Appraisal Lv1]
[Stats]
Health: 30/30
Vitality: 3
Strength: 2
Agility: 5
Spirit: 10
[Free atribute points: 0]
[Skill points: 0]
'A Trapdoor spider? I think I saw those in a documentary once. They live in burrows in the ground and wait at the entrance which is like a trapdoor before quickly bursting out and dragging prey back inside once detected with webbing.'
At that moment Eugene's thoughts left the holographic panel and he once again realised he was underground - presumably in a burrow - surrounded by over a dozen spiders his size and two triple his size.
Gulp! Those two spiders emitted an oppressive aura that made Eugene wonder how they were the same species.
'Wait that's right I have the appraisal skill let's use it on those two'
'Appraisal'
[Status]
[Name: ??]
[Race: Ambush spider]
[Rank: Rank 1]
[Level: ??]
The results of the appraisal were the same for both spiders and was rather unhelpful. However it was clear that they were bigger and much stronger than the rest of the spiders in the burrow which could only mean that they were mommy and daddy spider.
Suddenly the two spiders began to move towards Eugene and the other spiders. They slowly moved their large legs as they dragged the corpse of a mouse over to the small spiders.
'Is this parental love? From a spider? I never thought I'd see a day where I turn into a spider let alone one where I have parents nice and intelligent enough to feed their children for free.'
Growl! Having not eaten anything since his rebirth Eugene's stomach began to make strange noises as it demanded to be fed.
Cautiously, Eugene joined the rest of his siblings and approached the corpse. The rest of his siblings immediately places their tube like mouth and began to drink the already liquefied insides of the mouse.
'That's disgusting. They're drinking it like a god damn smoothie'
Growl!
'Ugh. I guess I really don't have a choice do I'
As he thought this he began to eat. The liquid organs of the mouse flowed through his mouth and eventually reached his taste buds.
'Eww- Wait that's actually not that bad. It really does taste a bit like a smoothie'
With those thoughts Eugene redouble his efforts and contained to drain the insides of the mouse every day.
After he and his siblings consumed half of the mouse they were all finally satiated.
Trying to keep his mind occupied Eugene once again began to look around the dark, cramped burrow. Well, it was only cramped because there were so many spiders in it and could actually be considered rather spacious.
It was mostly empty other than the half eaten remains of the mouth and the large amount of webbing that covered the entrance.
'Ahh that must be the webs that vibrate whenever prey steps on the webbing outside the den'
Crash!
At that moment there was a loud crash as one of Eugene's sibling fell to the ground after tangling himself in the webbing leaking from his rear end.
'What the hell. How much of an idiot is that guy? Aren't you meant to have like basic spider instincts or something. How am I doing better than you when I've lived with two legs for so long?'
Reluctantly Eugene began to approach his unfortunately sibling.
'Appraisal'
[Status]
[Name: None]
[Race: Trapdoor spider]
[Rank: Unranked]
[Level: 1]
'Hmm it seems this truly must be my sibling. How am I related to such a fool? But no name huh? I suppose I'll call you Webster because you sure like to use webs'
Thinking this Eugene began to look for ways to free his brother.
'I suppose the bite skill might work. I mean they are only level 1 webs'
Eugene then placed his fangs directly into the stick webbing and tried to use his sharp fangs to cut through the webbing.
'Nearly there. Come on now'
Then it happened. He tripped and landed face first in the webs. Struggling violently he attempted to pull himself free. But if that worked so easily the primary hunting method of spiders would simply be useless and they would have gone extinct long ago.
'Damn you Webster. Why did I try to help you. Now I look like a fool too'
Realising that his struggle was pointless he stopped and began to glare at Webster. However Webster was just dumbly looking forward like he was in deep though.
"HISS" Webster began to make a loud hissing noise which drew the attention of the rest of the spiders in the burrow. This caused one pale white spider to walk over with eyes full of mockery.
'Appraisal'
[Status]
[Name: None]
[Race: Trapdoor spider (variant)]
[Rank: Unranked]
[Level: 1]
After staring at the two fools for almost a minute whilst making clacking sounds that seemed almost like laughter the spider began producing threads and placed them over its legs like gloves. It then used its legs to pull apart the webbing that entangled both Webster and Eugene.
'Is that non sticky webs? Oh my God. I forgot spiders could do that. I am such an idiot'
Eugene stood up and then immediately hit Webster in the head with his leg.
'I hate this guy. It's all because of you that I made a fool of myself'
Webster stumbled from the unexpected attack and was so scared that he ended up producing more webbing.
'Seriously. Again!?'