I entered the hollow like a pilgrim.
The tunnel narrowed first — stone pulling inward, pressing tight. The light from the spring behind me faded completely, swallowed by walls choked in webbing long petrified.
But the thread still tugged.
Faint. Persistent.
And then — I emerged.
Not into another chamber.
Not into a den.
But a cathedral of silk.
The walls had vanished.
This hollow was massive — a pocket beneath the dungeon's roots where stone had cracked and been carved by something ancient. The ceiling soared above like the inside of a dead beast's skull — curved, ribbed, webbed with a thousand threads that glittered in the dark like starlight caught midfall.
All of it silent.
Still.
Dead silk.
No mana pulse.
No glow.
Just threads hardened into fossil.
But they hadn't broken.
They held.
In the center of this forgotten nest…
…was a web.
A real one.
Suspended between four titanic stone pillars — natural or carved, I could not tell. The web spanned the whole breadth of the hollow, slanted slightly, twisted like a loom left half-woven.
And in its center…
…a single strand of living silk.
Shimmering.
Thin as a hair.
Taut.
Still alive.
Not just left behind.
Maintained.
By what?
Or… by whom?
I slithered closer.
My own threads pulsed faintly — resonating with the weave before me. Not like prey. Not like predator.
Like kin.
And as I stared into that central thread, I saw something:
A bundle.
Wrapped in web. Curled tight. Suspended like a jewel in a center spiral.
It wasn't large.It wasn't glowing.
But I felt it.
Like the scarf. Like Tamm.
Something was inside.
I climbed the pillar.
Slow.
Careful.
The moment I touched the web—
THRUM.
The thread sang.
A resonance.
Not a word — but a call.
Something opened inside me.
[Skill Awakened: Internal Cocoon – Memory Weave Storage]
[You may now preserve items, beings, or cores in a suspended stasis. Digest later. Or… awaken.][Capacity: 1 (Larval Limit)]
[Thread Signature Recognized: Divine Silk]
[Instinct Triggered: Preservation – Ancient Threadbound Imprint Detected]
I can… store it?
Like with Tamm's memory. But more.
Not just consume. Not just remember.
I could protect.Hold.Keep.
Even if broken.
Even if dying.
Even if… forgotten.
I reached for the cocoon.
Not to eat it.
To save it.
But just as my silk brushed the central thread—
It moved.
Just a twitch.
A ripple.
The cocoon pulsed faintly, as if a breath stirred within it.
And then I heard her.
Not through the air.
Not through sound.
Through thread.
"So... he returns... to feed."
The voice was soft.
Dusty.Worn with time.Yet beneath it… an endless hunger.
"Not the devourer I left... But something new."
I froze.
Her name whispered itself into my mind, carved by instinct and resonance:
Arachnia.
The Weaver.
The Gluttonous.
Goddess of Silk and Thread Eternal.
I had bitten her once.
But this…This was what remained.
Her cocoon twitched again.
"Hunger. Thread. Mercy…"
"You carry what I left behind."
"You preserve. Not devour."
I didn't respond.
Couldn't.
She wasn't truly speaking.
She was remembering — through me.
Through what I'd become.
"If this thread is to wake again… it must be spun anew."
"Will you carry me, little hunger?"
A choice.
Not forced.
Not driven by evolution.Not by skill tree.Not by fate.
A true choice.
[Divine Residue Detected: Dormant Core – Arachnia, Weaver of Gluttony]
[Request: Preservation in Internal Cocoon? Y/N]
[Warning: Larval Body Capacity May Be Strained]
[Note: Preservation is reversible. Awakening… is not.]
I looked at her.
At the dying goddess.Her cocoon, tattered.Her silk, stilled.Her threads, forgotten.
But not gone.
"You gave me hunger," I whispered. "Let me give you… a thread of tomorrow."
And I chose:
Preserve.
The web pulsed once.
The cocoon dimmed.
Then it vanished — drawn into the space within me where no space should exist.
She was not devoured.
She was carried.
And something shifted in my threads.
[Divine Core Secured – Slumbering Weave]
[Arachnia's Cocoon added to Internal Storage]
[New Evolution Tree Fragment Unlocked: Threadbound Godling]
[Current Cocoon Limit: Reached (1/1)]
[Passive Trait Gained: Divine Thread Sensitivity Lv.1]
I exhaled.
Or something like it.
The moment I chose Preserve—
—The world shattered.
Not with noise.
With pressure.
Like something vast, buried beneath stone and silence, had opened one eye inside my chest.
And I was the vessel.
The silk hollow howled.
The webs shook — threads that had slept for centuries suddenly hummed, vibrating like the strings of a snapped harp. Dust exploded from the stone. The ground cracked. The very air thickened, folding in on itself like a cocoon pulling shut.
And my body—
My silk lit up.
Mana.
I'd felt fragments before — a glimmer from a leaf, a glow from moss, a flicker from the centipede's gland.
But this?
This was a torrent.
[Warning: External Mana Surge Detected – Overload Imminent][Trait: Divine Thread Sensitivity – Ascending to Lv.2][Hunger Core Reacting – Evolution Threshold Surpassed: 24% → 41%]
It felt like my very thread was unraveling and reweaving itself.
My mandibles clenched. My vision split. I saw with my eyes, my thread, my instinct. The silk inside me pulsed with heat — not burning, but forging.
And then—
A voice.
Not from outside.From inside.
But not mine.
Not the system.
Her.
"So loud, your little soul… You squirm like an infant wrapped in armor."
She laughed.
Low. Dry.Not unkind.
"You carry hunger. I am gluttony. Of course you found me."
My breath caught.
I tried to speak, but my threads twitched too fast. My vision glitched — not just darkness and light, but memories, layered images: webs reaching into stars, cities wrapped in cocoons, teeth like temples, temples like teeth.
"Still trembling?" she asked."You do not belong here, little thread. You are not of this world."
"Where were you… reborn?"
I answered without thinking.
"Tokyo. Japan. I—I was human. Before."
The pressure shifted.
Something in the cocoon within me coiled tighter. The web trembled again — but differently, as if adjusting for weight it hadn't held in eons.
"A human…" she whispered."From beyond. One with a soul not spun by this loom."
"Fascinating."
A beat.
Then her voice grew colder.
Not angry.
Just… remembering.
"I am Arachnia. Weaver of the Third Silk. Gluttony. Spinner of the Famine Moon."
"Once, I wrapped kingdoms in hunger. Once, I devoured the Sea of Bells."
"Then the Alliance came. Cloaked in prophecy. Glowing like midday lies."
"They called themselves heroes. Seven of them. Seven who bore sins they did not understand."
"I fought them. I warned them."
"But they called me beast. Demon. Thread-born horror."
"And so they cut me."
Her voice faded, but the silk inside my chest trembled still — like memory was alive in it, and still bleeding.
I swallowed.
Or tried.
"And now?" I asked. "You're… alive?"
"Dormant," she replied. "Fragmented. I am not whole. I am not goddess. Not yet."
"But you…"
Her voice turned strange then.
Not proud.Not cold.
Something between wonder and warning.
"You are not thread-born. And yet you weave.""You are not divine. And yet you preserve.""Your silk binds mercy. Your bite carries memory.""You are wrong. But… perhaps necessary."
Then—
A pause.
And finally—
"Little soul of beyond… shall we spin a world together?"
[Divine Resonance Confirmed]
[You have accepted: Hidden Pact – Cocoon of Gluttony]
[Path Unlocked: Threadbound Godling (Larval Tier)]
[New Skill Acquired: Cocoon Weaving (Divine)]
[Special Trait Gained: Hunger Echo – You may evolve with the memories of those you preserve]
[System Advisory: Evolution Surge Unstable – Cocoon Form Possible]
My body glowed.
Not with light.
With threads.
Coiling around me. Binding. Folding. Stretching. Preparing.
But the transformation didn't begin.
Not yet.
Not fully.
Arachnia's voice whispered one last time:
"Grow strong, little hunger."
"This world has forgotten the feel of silk on its throat."
"Let us remind them."
And the hollow went quiet again.
Only my breath remained.And the scarf.And the scent of threads not yet cut.