The Spider Queen

Chapter 31: A Shocking Gift

(Later at night)

Sophie after two hours of intense torture was then taken to a large hall where her father and Jack were waiting to greet her. Katarina had tried to talk to her on the way, but Sophie resolutely turned her head and refused to communicate.

Two freaking hours of her body feeling like it was burning up from the inside!

You don’t get to pretend that nothing happened!

What made it worse was apparently there was only one poison scheduled for the session, but the effects seemed to wear off too early so Katarina decided to give her another dose.

The hall was large and spacious and her father cheerful waved towards her so Sophie walked up to him with a grin. There was a human shaped capsule laying down on the floor that was partially open, and Jack was adjusting the settings on the side of the device.

There were various types of scanning technology which could analyse the genetic code, cultivation potential, mana or even offspring viability of individuals. Of course, these technologies were only used publicly on the commoners in annual aptitude tests.

The nobility treated their personal data as a highly guarded secret.

T-341 capsule was a new product launched by the Nexus megacorporation that could break down every hidden genetic secret of an organism placed inside. The information was very thorough with only a 0.2% chance of error.

What made this device so appealing was that the data gathered was stored on the device itself rather than uploaded to the virtual hub which prevented hackers from accessing it remotely.

The experience of being strapped to a bed and injected with unknown poison was still fresh in Sophie’s mind so she hesitated slightly before making her way inside the capsule.

“Have no fear sweetie, the scanner is painless and will only take a couple of minutes,” her father reassured her with a gentle smile.

Katarina gave her a small wave as the capsule door shut and locked her away from the world outside. Sophie was surprisingly comfortable as padded cushions lined the capsule’s walls which meant that it felt like a sofa.

[Beginning full body scan]

Several holes opened up on the ceiling of the capsule and bright beams streamed out and entered her body. Sophie gritted her teeth but could sense no pain… if anything the light was warm and relaxing.

Outside the capsule, Jack was furiously tapping out a string of commands on the input section and recording the fluctuating data numbers.

“This is simply amazing!” he exclaimed in awe.

“Sir, your daughter’s body is unlike anything I have ever seen before”

Rokan said nothing, but a twisted grimace of pain flashed across his face. Why had her mother just abandoned them all those years ago?

[Scanning complete…. recording and compiling all data into summary form]

The capsule door swung open and Sophie stood up while unsteadily swaying from side to side, fortunately the duke was there to hold her upright.

“Well what did the scan reveal about my body?” Sophie asked curiously.

She was aware of certain aspects of her transformation, but it would be foolish to claim that she knew all her new abilities. The duke was quite interested as well and turned towards Jack who was still mulling over the report.

“Firstly, the device provided physical data on your body. There was no species matching your mother’s genetic material on the record, so the device just recorded the differences between a typical human body and the data obtained,” Jack explained with an excited tone.

“The most obvious differences are the four spider appendages on your back, fanged teeth, golden eyes and pointed ears. These are all exterior differences that anyone can observe at an initial glance.”

“What is truly fascinating is that you have several internal differences that separate you from a normal human!”

“There seems to be multiple unknown organs in your body that the scanner was unable to determine the function of, and your mouth contains two glands which can secrete a hazardous fluid of acidic origin.”

Sophie could not help but pause in shock and run her fingers along the sides of her fangs. She had not thought about it before, but her teeth really were sharp. As Jack continued to list all the genetic differences between her and a normal human, a small trace of worry bloomed in her heart.

What if her dad thought she was a freak?

“Princess are you okay?” her father asked in a worried tone.

She did not dare to look up to see the expression on his face but glanced up briefly and froze in shock.

There was no trace of revulsion or disgust.

The duke was looking at her with the same eyes of love and care that he had before the results of the body scan.

“Yeah…I…I’m fine daddy,” Sophie said in a tearful voice.

She walked forward and gave her dad a big hug which the duke quickly returned, and the father daughter pair quietly stood with their arms wrapped around each other.

“Now on to the cultivation and mana aptitude!” Jack continued.

His lack of social awareness broke up a bonding moment between father and daughter which made the duke very unhappy, but he forced himself to listen and not scold his death guard.

“The cultivation aptitude has risen from the previous grade E to grade A which places the young miss in the top one percentage of humanity.”

Sophie beamed and had to stop herself from shouting out loud in joy.

This was it! The cultivation talent that would allow her to soar to the heavens….

Cultivation and mana potential were both measured in six grades of A to F with each grade having a narrow range of values. An ordinary person with a decent amount of cultivation potential would be grade C or D. Excellent individuals would be grade B while the true geniuses would be grade A and the rumored grade S.

The rest were considered trash and a waste of time to gift them cultivation resources. This may sound cruel but in the dangerous universe, it was unwise to share limited resources with those that would not be able to utilise them.

Cultivation and mana potential measured the absorption of the body to qi and mana respectively which meant that low potential individuals would take more resources to reach the same level of a higher-grade person.

“Her mana potential has somehow dropped from grade E to grade F which means there is a 0% chance of spell casting capabilities.”

The following statement from Jack placed a sudden douse of cold water on Sophie’s celebratory mood.

Damn it.

She had been thinking that if her mana potential had increased… then why not just become a spellcaster and safely relax in the backline of fights. No need to get mercilessly destroyed in a duel when you have the cannon fodder… cough cough… the cultivators to ensure your safety.

Rokan gave a short laugh when he saw his daughter scowling while muttering fiercely to herself under her breathe. She seemed to be unaware that her high level of cultivation father could hear every word and was now planning on drastically intensifying the training.

“Good work, now delete the data from the device because I have no doubt that my daughter’s outstanding talent may make her a target,” he ordered.

Jack quickly entered a series of fast paced commands into the capsule and deleted every trace of the data from the body scan.

Sophie let out a small sigh of relief and began to seriously contemplate how to incorporate her newfound abilities and powers into an effective combat style.

While the lack of mana present in her body did leave her slightly disappointed…

….. there was nothing she could do about it for now.

Katarina and her father started discussing ways to modify her training regime in the upcoming months.

“Please excuse me lord duke,” Jack bowed solemnly and left the room.

Rokan waved his hands in casual acknowledgement then resumed his training conversation with Katarina as he had the intent of increasing the amount of practice fights.

Sophie almost wanted to faint when she overheard his cheerful tone.

More fights?! She could barely strand after one morning of practice sessions!

Jack strolled out of the room with a confident stride and soon arrived at the holodeck where he carefully pulled out a small device after disabling the monitoring cameras in the room. He spoke softly into a communicator and then sent out a small package of data to an unknown location.

At that time, no one had noticed that Jack had exited the room with a small information drive hidden deep in his pockets.

And that night…. a certain noble house received a shocking gift.