A sound woke her.

  Beeping, insistent, over and over in her ear.

  Something was poking her shoulder. Sharp jabs, rhythmic.

  She opened her eyes.

  Red light filled her vision. The HUD floating there, alarm red and flashing.

  The spider stood on her chest with one leg extended, stabbing her shoulder repeatedly.

  Okay. I'm up. Stop.

  She sat up and the spider scuttled off.

  Then the smell hit her.

  Oh god.

  Awful, worse than before. It filled the small space and made her eyes water.

  Coming from her body.

  She looked down. Black viscous fluid had pooled around where she'd been lying, thick and sticky, the source of the stench.

  I smell like a corpse. Great. Perfect.

  She forced herself past it and checked the HUD.

  [ALERT: MULTIPLE INDIVIDUALS DETECTED]

  [DISTANCE: 400 METERS]

  [MAINTAIN SILENCE]

  She glanced at the window. Still covered with branches. Through the gaps she saw darkness, complete night.

  Good. Harder to find me in the dark.

  She dismissed the alert.

  Her mind cleared as sleep fog lifted.

  A decision formed, hard and clear.

  I'm too weak.

  The soldiers' abilities flashed through her mind. That speed, that strength, rocks floating through the air.

  And she was an engineer. Level one in a proving ground designed for warriors.

  I need to get stronger. Fast. Or I'm dead.

  Security first.

  "Hey. The window up there. Can you put those threads across it? The cutting ones?"

  The spider's eyes glowed acknowledgment.

  "Anyone tries to get in, I want them shredded."

  The spider climbed and reached the window. Threads extended from its mouth, invisible, weaving them in layers across the opening.

  Safer. Not safe. But safer.

  She activated the HUD and focused on Tera.

  "What's wrong with my body? Why do I smell like I'm rotting?"

  Text appeared, conversational like before.

  Yes rotting, but adapting. Your body's still adjusting to this world.

  "Still? I thought the evolution fixed everything."

  It fixed the critical systems. Organs. Lungs. Cardiovascular. But there's more to survival than that.

  She waited and let Tera continue.

  This planet has its own ecosystem. Bacteria. Viruses. Microorganisms you've never encountered. Your Earth immune system had zero defenses against them.

  "So my body is what, building new defenses?"

  Exactly. Fast. Violent process. Your immune system is being completely restructured.

  She looked at the black fluid again and tried not to gag.

  "And this stuff?"

  That's everything your body doesn't need anymore. Earth bacteria your immune system was designed to fight. Antibodies for diseases that don't exist here. Toxins from Earth's atmosphere accumulated in your tissues over years. Heavy metals. Pollutants. Industrial chemicals. All being purged.

  Years of garbage. Just sitting in my body. And now it's all coming out at once.

  "How long does this last?"

  Hard to say. Most of it should be done. But you'll probably smell bad for a while.

  Wonderful.

  "The people here. You said they look human but aren't. What does that mean?"

  Their evolution took a different path. Similar starting point but different pressures. Different environment. Their internal biology is more efficient. More advanced in specific ways. Stronger cardiovascular system. More resilient organs. Better cellular regeneration.

  "So I'm becoming like them."

  You're becoming something that can survive here. The nanobots are adapting your biology to match the local baseline. Whether that makes you human or something else is debatable.

  She processed that and let it sink in.

  I'm changing. On a fundamental level. Becoming something different.

  The thought should have terrified her. Maybe it would have before, but now it just felt necessary.

  Can't survive as I was. So I have to change. Simple.

  She accepted it, the smell, the changes, all of it.

  Nothing I can do about it anyway. Move forward or die.

  Her mind shifted and focused on what she could control.

  Survival, strength, exploiting this system.

  The system didn't want her here, had tried to trap her at zero, and would kill her if it knew she was evolving.

  But Tera had hacked it and given her a chance.

  So how do I use it?

  She thought about the soldiers and how they evolved.

  Combat. Battles. Killing. They get stronger by fighting. By winning. By surviving situations where they could die.

  Then something clicked, an idea forming.

  Wait.

  I'm not a warrior.

  The thought expanded and grew, connecting to other thoughts.

  I don't evolve through combat.

  The spider repair. That gave me sixty percent. Not fighting. Not killing. Engineering.

  Understanding technology. Taking control of systems. Creating things.

  Excitement surged.

  That's it. That's how I exploit this.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Warriors evolve through battle. Through blood.

  I evolve through engineering. Through understanding. Through creation.

  The path forward suddenly seemed clear. Obvious.

  I don't need to fight them. I need to out-engineer this place.

  Hope sparked, first real hope since waking up here.

  I can do this. I actually have a chance.

  But she needed tools. The information downloads were the key. When those blue threads connected to the spider, she got everything, complete understanding and total knowledge.

  For about a minute before her brain couldn't hold it anymore and purged everything.

  Writing in sand was useless, temporary, and one rain would wash it all away.

  She needed something permanent that she could reference and build from.

  Her eyes went to the spider.

  The printer.

  It makes things. Complex things. From raw materials.

  "Can you make paper? Sheets I can write on?"

  The spider's eyes changed color. Processing.

  Cellulose-based material. Simple compound. Raw materials available. Confirmed.

  Yes.

  "I need twenty sheets. Big ones. Like..." She gestured with her hands. Eighteen by twenty-four inches roughly.

  The spider climbed to the window, slipped through the nano thread grid, and disappeared into the darkness.

  She waited.

  Time passed. Maybe half an hour. She sat in the dim blue glow and listened to distant sounds filtering through the forest, explosions, gunfire, other people fighting and dying.

  And I'm hiding in a hole making paper. They'd laugh if they knew.

  The spider returned with a sac attached to its back, bulging with material. It dropped through the window and set the sac down carefully.

  Wood pulp ground fine.

  Its mouth opened and the printing process began.

  She watched, fascinated, as material extruded in thin layers with each layer compressed, pressed, and shaped. The first sheet took form, white, thick and clean edges.

  Then the second. The spider worked with no wasted movement, no errors.

  Twenty sheets stacked neatly when finished.

  Her HUD updated.

  [ACHIEVEMENT: MATERIAL SYNTHESIS]

  [EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 0.2%]

  Point-two percent. Just for making paper.

  Small number but real and measurable.

  Every bit counts. Keep going.

  She picked up one of the sheets and ran her fingers across it, smooth, slightly textured, perfect for writing.

  Okay. Now I need something to write with.

  Blood was obvious, she had plenty of it, but blood dried, coagulated, and became useless for writing after minutes.

  "My blood. Can you turn it into ink? Something that stays liquid? Doesn't dry out?"

  The spider paused as its eyes shifted and became gentle lights with a soft glow illuminating the workspace.

  It approached the black viscous fluid on the ground, extended one leg, and touched the surface.

  Eyes changed to yellow. Analyzing.

  Combination viable. Blood plus viscous discharge. Chemical structures compatible. Will produce functional ink.

  She stared at the black fluid.

  I'm going to make ink from my own blood and the rot coming out of my body.

  A laugh tried to escape. She caught it.

  This is my life now. Making art supplies from bodily fluids.

  Why not. Nothing else makes sense. Might as well lean into the insanity.

  But she needed containers, ways to mix and store, and a pen that could hold ink and deliver it to paper.

  "I need some tools. A board. Flat and hard. This size. Foldable." She gestured. "To write on. And two small containers. For mixing and storing."

  She sketched in the sand and showed rough dimensions.

  The spider worked as material extruded. The board formed first, flat, rigid, perfect size.

  [EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 0.4%]

  Two small containers followed, bowl-shaped with smooth interior surfaces.

  [EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 1%]

  She tested the board and set paper on it, firm and stable.

  Good. This'll work.

  Now the complicated part.

  The pen.

  She knelt in the sand and started drawing. This needed precision, a barrel to hold, a chamber inside for ink, a nib at the tip, and most importantly, a suction mechanism that could draw ink up from a container when the pen was dipped.

  Moving parts with exact tolerances, if the measurements were wrong, it wouldn't function.

  She drew cross-sections that showed how the chamber connected to the nib, how the feed system would work, and the exact angle of the nib's point.

  The paper had been simple, the spider understood cellulose, compression of plant fibers, basic chemistry.

  The ink would be mixing and combining substances, also chemistry.

  But the pen was engineering, mechanical function with form and function inseparable, every measurement was critical.

  She labeled parts, wrote dimensions, and made sure everything was clear.

  The spider studied her drawings for a short moment, then began.

  The pen took shape slowly, barrel, internal chamber, feed mechanism, nib.

  She held her breath.

  It finished and set the pen down gently.

  [ACHIEVEMENT: PRECISION MECHANICAL DEVICE]

  [EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 5%]

  [PRINTING MATERIAL: 10% REMAINING]

  She noticed the warning, ten percent material left. The spider had used the destroyed spider units to make everything: the board, the containers, the pen, all the same material as the nano threads.

  Only ten percent left. Can't waste it.

  She picked it up and tested the weight and balance, it felt right in her hand.

  Please work.

  The ink next.

  She grabbed one of the containers and scooped black viscous fluid. It stuck to her fingers, cold and revolting. She dumped it in.

  She unwrapped the nano thread from her wrist, the test thread she'd kept.

  She pressed it to her palm and drew it across her skin.

  Clean cut, sharp, barely any pain.

  Improved body. Pain tolerance way up.

  Blood welled, dark red. She held her hand over the container and watched it drip and mix with the black fluid.

  They didn't combine well, blood floating on top, separated.

  The spider climbed into the container, right into the mixture.

  Its mouth opened and a different substance emerged, viscous, reddish, a catalyst of some kind.

  The fluids merged, combined, and became uniform, true ink.

  [ACHIEVEMENT: COMPLEX MATERIAL SYNTHESIS]

  [EVOLUTION PROGRESS: +15%]

  Ten percent. For ink.

  The spider transferred ink to the second container, the clean one, ready for use.

  She loaded the pen and dipped the nib in ink. The suction mechanism engaged, she felt it pull and draw ink up into the chamber.

  Her hand trembled slightly.

  Pressed nib to paper.

  Drew a line.

  Smooth, dark red, clear, no breaks, no splotches.

  It works. Actually works.

  Relief washed through her.

  I made something. From nothing. And it works.

  The spider did something unexpected, two of its eyes detached and came free from its head. It extended webbing from its mouth and stuck the eyes to the ceiling above the workspace.

  They glowed with soft white light illumination.

  Thank you.

  She positioned clean paper on the board and held the pen, ready.

  The spider approached and stopped in front of her.

  She knew what came next.

  She extended her fingers and blue threads emerged from all five, glowing faint in the darkness.

  Reached for the spider.

  Contact.

  The world exploded.

  Information flooded in, overwhelming, all at once, every component laid bare, every connection, every material, every function.

  The skeleton, the framework, the quantum processor, the power source, the printing mechanism, software architecture, programming language, command structure.

  Everything.

  Her hand moved without thought as the pen glided across paper, drew, and wrote with perfect lines and exact angles.

  The skeleton appeared, side view first with every bone structure, every joint, every connection point, the framework that gave the spider its shape.

  The information kept flowing and she could see it all crystal clear, how each piece connected, how the structure worked.

  Her hand moved to a new section of the same sheet, top view, the skeleton from above, how the legs attached to the central body, the spacing, the angles.

  Another section showed bottom view, the underside structure, where the printing mechanism mounted, where the power core sat.

  She could feel more information available, deeper layers, programming, software, how the nanobots communicated, but her hand stayed focused and documented the skeleton, the physical structure, one step at a time.

  Measurements appeared around the drawings, notations in alien script she understood perfectly with dimensions, angles, and material densities.

  Five minutes she stayed connected, drawing the skeletal structure from every angle.

  The information was perfect, like reading from a schematic burned into her mind.

  Her hand added one final view, isometric projection, a three-dimensional representation showing depth and perspective as her mind translated space to lines automatically.

  Then the pressure started building in her skull, a warning.

  Not yet. Little more. Just a little more.

  She pushed and drew faster, one more section, the power distribution schematic.

  Blood ran from her nose. She felt it and ignored it.

  There, Finished.

  She pulled away and disconnected.

  Pain hit like a hammer, sharp, immediate, and brutal.

  Pressure in her skull, like her brain was expanding against bone that couldn't give. The information started dissolving, knowledge turning to fragments, fragments to nothing.

  She sat back hard, breathing ragged with blood on her lips and the copper taste thick in her mouth.

  The pain peaked, held, then started fading.

  Took a full minute before it subsided to bearable levels.

  She wiped blood from her face and looked at the paper.

  Oh.

  The skeleton was there, complete and perfect with multiple views at technical schematic quality, like something printed from professional CAD software.

  Notations surrounded the drawings, dense and detailed with specifications she didn't remember writing.

  I drew this. While connected. My hand just... knew.

  She didn't remember the information anymore and couldn't recall the programming structure or the material compositions, it was gone.

  But the proof was right there, documented and permanent.

  Last time I could only hold the connection for one or two minutes.

  This time I lasted five. Maybe more. And I could feel it. I could have stayed longer if I pushed harder.

  I'm getting stronger. Each level makes the capacity bigger.

  Her HUD flashed, insistent and bright.

  [EVOLUTION TO LEVEL 2 AVAILABLE]

  [ACTIVATE: YES / NO]

  Joy exploded through her. Pure. Overwhelming. Unrestrained.

  She wanted to scream, to shout, to laugh.

  She kept it silent, grinned in the darkness with fists clenched, shaking with excitement.

  Yes. Level two. I made it.

  She stared at the message, ready to activate.

  Then paused.

  Last time I evolved, the pain was brutal. And I'm going to have to do this over and over. Every level. Multiple times.

  She looked at the nineteen blank sheets and at the spider's complex systems waiting to be documented.

  If I'm going to survive this, I need to be smart about it. Prepare.

  She looked around and found a piece of broken branch near the wall, maybe six inches long, thick enough.

  She wiped it clean as she could, put it between her teeth, bit down, and tested it.

  Can't bite through my tongue. Not an option.

  She positioned herself with her back against the wall and braced.

  She looked at the spider one more time, at the completed schematic, at the work waiting.

  This is going to hurt. But it's worth it.

  Every level makes me stronger. Keeps me alive longer.