The dock of Aurelian Capital was abuzz with spidery chirps. The spiders were moving crates full of freshly spun equipment.

  Sat upon a small stool was the Duke Aurelius. The poor chair creaked and strained under the might of a boulder-like physique.

  So heavy. So heavy!

  The Spider King couldn't help but praise the spidery craftsmanship of the small stool. Any other chair would have broken to splinters and dust already. If anything, it was a small miracle the stool here held as well as it did.

  A legendary stool!

  The legs of the stool cried a battle cry as Aurelius leaned forward, cupping his hands in a conspiratory fashion.

  "Master Spider King, oh-how grateful I am for your generosity. How will I ever repay you."

  The Spider King couldn't help but notice that Duke Aurelius had gained a pound or a... thousand. He was a mountain of fat, a full larder of a person. And yet, he wasn't just an amorphous blob; no, Aurelius was rather shapely and well-rounded – a sign of a great amount of muscle hidden beneath the tallow.

  A boulder of a man!

  '... Dude needs to ease on that Spidery Delishious?' – He thought quietly to himself, opting for a different remark.

  "Duke Aurelius, think nothing of it. After all, the Equipment is there so you can serve the Spidery Cause better."

  "The Spidery Cause, yes ... But, Master, my Aurelian Order is slightly under-leveled for a task as great as this. Is it alright if we do some monster hunting while we're at the Centauri Territory?"

  Creak, Strain, Wobble!

  The twice-reinforced stool spat a creaking string of profanities as Aurelius turned to gesture at the men behind him.

  Unlike the duke, the men behind were all lanky fellows, gaunt even. There was not a shred of fat present within their forms. Their muscles were taunt and wiry, bulging out of thin, pale grey skin. Lean muscles aside, their shape was rather bony and their limbs spindly and elongatedand. There were black circles under their eyes, but the eyes were positively bursting with life. They twitched ever so slightly, scratching around or fidgeting with one thing or another, never able to stay still for so long. A strange kind of gaseous darkness clung to their lanky shapes.

  '... They contrast so starkly with their Duke. Did they go too hard on Spider-Fizz?? Hey, guys, it has negative calories, so go easy on the stuff!' – he didn't voice it either.

  Instead, he made a mental note to put a warning on the labels of the bottles. In small, near imperceptible print of course.

  Warning! Might cause extreme weight loss, jitters, tweaking, billowing dark smoke, and madness.

  "Sure, knock yourselves out at the Centauri Territory. But watch out for the forest monsters, I made them rather... vicious. Not that you have to worry about that with all the new—"

  With those words, a special delivery was rolled out of the Galleon Whale. It was a parcel unable to be fit in any web. A colossal gift of unprecedented girth and weight.

  A super heavy, super round suit of armour!

  The MVP of this conversation breathed a creaking sigh of relief as Aurelius stood to inspect his glorious shell-shaped gift. He touched the cool metal upon which the armour popped open like a chestnut shell. He squeezed his generous proportions inside without a hitch.

  "Wow, it fits like a glove." Indeed it does. "But, does it make me look fat? I worry." Aurelius gave a prince-like twirl; he was like a gem twinkling in the afternoon sun. A very... Very well-rounded gem.

  "No, Aurelius," The Spider King began with a raised eyebrow, "If anything, you're past that point. How do I put this... The armour just brings the best shape out of you! Just a mere sight of your glory would leave a common man feeling defeated. ... Yes, let's just leave it at that."

  "Is that so? Either way, I'm grateful. I was struggling to find fitting armour, you know. Nothing would ever fit! Or it would just feel too light. Or too tight. But with this... I feel Unstoppable!"

  He was unstoppable in plomping his heavy posterior back on the poor oh-so-poor stool. The Duke was twice his weight now... But! The spidery stool persevered. It creaked and groaned, shouting strained curses, yet it held firm. Undefeated.

  The Spider King couldn't help but feel impressed with spidery craftmanship once again – both the chair and the armour. The quality here was hard to beat!

  All hail the spidery craftsmanship!

  "Now, Duke Aurelius, I must bid you farewell. I've got some old friends to catch up."

  "Yes, of course, Master. I wouldn't dare to take any more of your time. And I assure you we will put the spidery equipment to good use."

  To hit a proper farewell Duke Aurelius shifted to stand from the stool. The hero of all stools made the roar of a dragon. It was shouting 'I will not be beaten! Not now not ever!'.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  The Spider King gestured for Aurelius to remain seated – simple pleasantries weren't needed since the two here were friends.

  The legendary hero of all stools gave a silent thanks.

  Thus, with a smile and a wave, the Spider King left Aurelius to sort the rest of the delivery. The next destination was the Crimson Alchemist's mega workshop factory thing, or rather, her home.

  It has been a while since he last saw the red-haired woman. She was pregnant at the time, but now... Well, the child was born. Actually, it was a while ago.

  The report said the baby was healthy, and all was well. But he hadn't yet seen the love child of a spider and a human. He was curious, to say the least.

  Also, feeling like it was forever since he'd visited the Aurelian Capital, he opted for a casual stroll. ShadowWalk didn't seem appropriate.

  It was good to see how the city had developed. And it changed in so many ways.

  The streets were paved in meticulously carved kobold bricks. At every dozen paces or so, there was a FireAgave Juice lantern. After two dozen paces, there was a bench, somewhat spidery in its appearance. Its design resembled a web suspended by two branches. Thinking about it, there were a lot of benches around. All spidery magnificent in their appearance, and all Reinforced+ for some unknown reason. Clearly some distant cousins of the legendary stool.

  But... There are so many benches!

  "The citizens here must live relaxed lives," he remarked to himself.

  And it was true, most of the benches were full of portly fellows, lounging and snacking at their leisure. Judging from the high-quality waxed wrapper and its signature blue colour, it was clear where all those snacks came from.

  Thank you Spidery Delishious?!

  Ordering food for takeaway produced a degree of trash in the form of disposable packaging. And yet, the streets were sparkling clean; no burger wrappers or drink bottles littered the area around the benches. The spiders were to thank. Of course!

  A bundle of spindly appendages and cloth scuttered between the benches. Not only did the spider collect the used packaging for recycling, but he was also an entrepreneur of sorts. On his back, inside his spidery backpack, he had a wide variety of treats. More burgers, more drinks, and even some dessert.

  A somewhat tubby dude waved at the spider, a shiny coin in his hand. "Spider, One Mega-Mini order of MaxUber-Pettite Delight Combo please. I am on a diet you see."

  Mr Tubby Mc Obese flipped a coin in the air. The gold glinted in the afternoon sun. The design of the coin was familiar – a spidery piece with a wyrm framing it.

  The coin was snatched by the spider. He chirped a jovial line of '[MerchantPouch], making the coin disappear at the touch of his spidery claw. Then the spider reached into his backpack, retrieving the order for the 'dieting(?)' man.

  The Order was:

  12 Mega-Mini burgers all MaxUber-Petite. Plus an entire bucket of SlimFry Deminitive Fries. The EarthRoot Fries were tiny but the bucket was... Macro-Cosmo sized.

  It all came with a teeny-tiny drink, canned in a deceptively small potion bottle. A formidable vortex of darkness swirled within the diminutive potion bottle. It looked extra sus...

  "GalaxyGas FizzPop, our newest brew! The encompassing void of the entire cosmos in a single gulp! Drink, Feel, Be Free!" It chirped a promotional tune.

  Then the spider proceeded pushing the extra sus bottle into the tubby dude's sweaty palm.

  "Huh, but I haven't ordered it." The sweaty arm pushed it away, struggling not to topple the stack of burgers in his lap.

  "A gift for my bestest customer!" The spidery claw insisted.

  "Sorry, I can't. I'm on a diet." He shook his head regretfully, his quadruple chin quivering like a stack of jelly.

  "Rest easy. It's all gas, it has no calories."

  "No calories you say?"

  "Negative calories only! It's made out of concentrated void gas. Very delicious too!"

  "Oh?!"

  Mr Tubby Mc Obese, his eyes sparkling with curiosity and his gourmand mouth already salivating, uncorked the tiny potion with great interest. The potion hissed at the air as if speaking an ancient and forbidden curse.

  GalaxyGas FizzPop: "F'ht-agn... ?Y'og-g... ?E'n-tr'o-p'y..."

  The potion clearly spoke, uttering something rather Eldrich. Although the tubby man paid no mind, simply taking the gasy potion in one gulp.

  Unbelievably everyone just ignored an obviously speaking potion!

  "Bu-uuu-urp, Beltch, " the tubby man roared like a void drake, belching inky shadows out. "It has quite a kick! And its taste is... Amazing!"

  "A diet drink for a dieting man!" The spider chirped in a giddy note.

  Mr Tubby might not have realised it, but the Spider King couldn't help but notice. The number of chins hanging by his neck decreased to three! It just shrunk to non-existence. Indeed, amazing!

  And yet, as if to offset the miraculous effect, the tubby man bit into his MegaMini Burger, a task of a dozen chomps, and he had all twelve of them plus an entire bucket of SlimFries... He ate them with great gusto, much like a starved cosmic beast would.

  All into the void that was his belly!

  Similar scenes played out throughout the street: Aurelian people finding joy in spidery temptations and the spiders giddily serving their delights.

  Thinking nothing much of it, the Spider King continued down the brick-paved road.

  The nearby buildings had caught his attention. Something new was replacing the old. The ancient and crumbling Aurelian architecture was pushed out by something spidery. Rotten wood and crumbling stone gave way to webbish design of IronOak and spiderish weaves of iconic blue-and-purple.

  The new buildings weren't in the shape of boring rectangles. They were rounded and elliptical like arachnid cocoons. Some were stacked, having multiple levels, and others were big, like large domes. The roofs of the cocoons were tiled with triangular tiles, all purple and made out of a type of magical plant. The windows were circular, framed by the finest IronOak frames. The skeleton frame of cocoons was woven out of hardened blue rope, a substitute for spider thread. And the circular walls were draped in BlueCloth. Despite it being thin, the cloth was super strong, reinforced, and water and dirt-repellant.

  The buildings looked positively spiderish, and their round design complimented the much-improved shape of the Aurelian people. But more importantly, no building was quite the same. They all were made slightly different: varied in shape or size, built in several levels, constructed in different weaves or patterns. It looked very chaotic, but there was a certain beauty to it.

  A spidery city full of corrupted humans. Ir was quite a sight!

  Feeling happy about the improvements, the Spider King continued down the brick-paved path.

  A large web-weaved structure came into his sight. Its size was monumental, rivalling even the Aurelian Palace. The structure had many darkened spires, all billowing dark-infused gas. Massive metal vats of mindboggling proportions jutted from its sides. Spidery cocoons were nested in a large clump, forming many levels. The gigantic building was an amalgamation of spidery cloth and drow metal, a mixture of blue and dark colours.

  This was the Crimson Alchemist's HyperMega Factory Workshop – the industrial marvel of the Aurelian Capital. This was the place where the Monster Realm brewed its potions and drinks alike.

  The factory workshop was crammed full of spiders; even at a distance, it was possible to hear their happy chirps. It was one of the tunes they chirped during work. A ballad born from their love of work.

  The inner workings of the structure were to his interest, but first, he wanted to see the owner – the fiery-haired Lady Crimson, the GrandMaster of potions and alchemy alike.

  But the real interest was the child she bestowed upon this world – the first-ever spider-human hybrid!