Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Volume Chapter 14

I check how much HP I have left.

The green bar is getting desperately low.

I’m just barely alive. Hanging on by a thread.

How am I going to survive?

I have no idea.

How did it come to this?

Even after evolving, I was still depending on surprise attacks to fight, as usual.

I rose from level 1 to level 2 in a flash.

Apparently, the amount of experience needed for leveling up wasn’t cumulative.

Since I had evolved and gained a level, I thought this might be a good time to develop new tactics and get new skills with my skill points.

It turned out that I’d accumulated a decent number of points, so I was able to get two skills.

The first was Thread Control.

Just as its name suggests, it allowed me to manipulate my thread.

By consuming MP to invoke it, I could move my thread however I wanted. It was a wonderful ability that was perfect for me, since my spider thread is my chief weapon.

However, at level 1, the thread hardly twitched.

Dammit!

Well, it was still better than magic skills that I didn’t know how to use at all, and it should come in handy once the skill level went up.

The second skill…well, that one was a huge mistake.

For someone like me who relies on surprise attacks, enemy detection is of the utmost importance.

Not only for letting me get the jump on other monsters but for making sure I don’t fall victim to a surprise attack myself.

That’s why I acquired a skill called Detection.

Since I got a huge headache whenever I used it, I decided to semipermanently deactivate it for the time being.

And so, I continued my exploration.

Appraisal! Finally! Now I was getting somewhere!

Assuming that the maximum level really was 10, it should be ready to actually help now! Probably!

I held my breath as I checked my self-Appraisal results.

LV 2NamelessStatus:HP: 36/36 (green)MP: 36/36 (blue)SP: 36/36 (yellow): 34/36 (red)Average Offensive Ability: 19Average Defensive Ability: 19Average Magical Ability: 18Average Resistance Ability: 18Average Speed Ability: 348>

…What…was…that…?!

What? Whaaat? Whaaaaat?!

Who are you?! You’re not the Appraisal I know! My Appraisal was always more of a useless child who was always disappointing me! It wasn’t a cool, capable beauty like whoever did this!

Where did my real Appraisal go?!

And what was I supposed to do with the Useless! complaint I secretly prepared?!

I was supposed to get my hopes up, find that all I got was a super-pointless new feature, and grumble about it!

Why would you betray me like this?!

Tell me, damn you!

Huff…huff…huff…!

Whoops—got a little worked up there.

I took a deep breath to calm down. Huh…haah…huff. Okay, all better!

Ahh…

Wasn’t this a bit too much of an evolution for my Appraisal skill? The difference was way too extreme…

But this was what I wanted Appraisal to do in the first place.

I wasn’t expecting such a sudden about-face, though.

It was like if a fellow nerd from middle school had the nerve to suddenly revamp their image in high school.

And yes, I’m aware that that’s a really weird comparison.

Anyway, this new and improved Appraisal was actually amazing. I could now read my stats, once a total mystery, at a simple glance. There were even hard numbers, which was sure to come in handy from here on out.

But there was one little problem. Was it just me, or were my stats super-low?

I didn’t have anything to compare them to, so I wasn’t sure how bad they were, but they sure didn’t seem as high as they should for someone who’d reached level 10 and evolved once already.

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And then there was the matter of that speed stat.

My speed was ten times higher than my other skills. Weird, right? I know I tend to spec speed, but this is ridiculous.

Well, well, well.

Now I just wanted to compare my stats with those of other monsters.

Although, based on my results so far, the probability that I’d succeed in Appraising their stats wasn’t very high.

In fact, I had yet to succeed at Appraising anything beyond another monster’s level even once.

But since my skill level had risen, it was possible that my success rate went up, too. It was worth a try, at least.

I went on the prowl for monsters and finally found one that looked sort of like a mouse. All right, Appraisal time!

Ah… Just as I’d suspected, Appraising other creatures’ stats was still too hard. Oh well.

Swish, swish, swish… Fwump! Spin, spin, spin. Chomp!

Ooooh. Poison Fang for the win!

Now that I knew how weak my stats were, it was no exaggeration to say that I had no way of attacking without my bite.

So the level of my first and only attack, Poison Fang, was really important.

Anyway, that was just about enough searching for the day.

I fashioned a simple little web on the spot.

Now that my safety was secured, I could eat the mouse…or not. I wasn’t actually very hungry. It wasn’t that I couldn’t eat, but I figured it was better to save it for the morning, when I would probably be hungrier.

So all that was left was to sleep. Oh, and one more thing.

Nyoooom. Tug, tug. Bloop.

No, I wasn’t doing anything obscene. I was practicing my Thread Control.

As a result of my training, I had discovered that I could only control one thread at a time. It moved at about the speed of a snail, too. As long as the thread was touching my body, though, the range in which I could control it was actually pretty large. And the MP consumption was fairly insignificant. The more you know!

For the time being, though, it didn’t have much potential to be helpful in battle.

So, before bed, I figured I’d use up some MP to practice more and see if I could raise the skill level. If I did that, the limitations should improve, too.

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Since Appraisal turned out to be a late bloomer, Thread Control could probably become useful by level 6 or so, too.

Although it might take a while to get there.

Anyway, once its level was a little higher, there were some things I wanted to try.

For one thing, I was hoping to bring back my abandoned project of enemy detection thread, since my Detection skill turned out to be useless. Dreaming big, I know.

And they say a watched pot never boils!

Nyoooom. Tug, tug, tug. Blooooop.

With the increased level, the thread’s range of motion improved a little.

It still wasn’t enough to be useful in a pinch, but it was visible progress, so maybe it’d reach the point of practicality earlier than I expected.

I still had plenty of MP, so I decided to keep pushing for more proficiency.

Yaaawn… Ahhh, that was a good night’s sleep.

In the end, I had stuck with my practice until I was almost entirely out of MP, and I’d managed to raise my Thread Control skill to level 3.

I had actually planned to keep grinding proficiency until my MP was completely gone, but as I started running low, I got a bad feeling about that.

I couldn’t tell you why, exactly, but my instincts told me it would be dangerous to have no MP, so I decided to stop before I hit that point.

After one night’s sleep, my MP fully recovered.

Great. In that case, it should be fine to practice Thread Control before bed every night.

Hey, wait a minute. Since I was already fully recovered, couldn’t I do it in the morning, too?

I didn’t normally use my MP anyway, so if it was going to recover over time, why not let it accumulate while I hunted?

Yeah. That seemed more efficient to me.

If anything went wrong, I could just switch to once a day starting tomorrow, but I figured I might as well try.

And so, I practiced Thread Control. When my MP was just about depleted…

…there was a message from the Divine Voice (temp.).

Nice, nice. Easy enough.

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Since my MP was getting low, I couldn’t check how much the range of movement had improved, but I figured level 4 should make for decent growth.

It probably still wouldn’t be any use in combat, but maybe I could at least experiment with making protective clothes with it in my temporary home or something. I was starting to look forward to the evening.

Anyway, it was breakfast time. Luckily, I still had that mouse monster from the day before, so my main course was good to go.

Hmm. Crap.

Eating didn’t recover my MP at all. I kind of figured as much, but still.

However, ever since my evolution, I’d been in good shape.

This was a sign of good things to come. It was like the universe was telling me that it was my time to shine.

Heh-heh-heh. Nothing can stop me now! Hee-hee.

All I had to do was keep getting stronger and making my way through the labyrinth.

I knew this dungeon was unnecessarily huge, so finding the exit was more of a long-term goal.

Anyway, it was time for another day of being my best self! Ha-ha.

Doot-dee-doo… I explored the maze in a great mood.

I mean, with the great shape I was in, none of the monsters in the area could hold a candle to me.

As long as I noticed them before they noticed me, I could beat just about anyone with a surprise attack!

And if not, well, at this point, I might be strong enough to win a fair fight, right?

My evolution probably made me a lot stronger, and my skill levels were getting pretty high, so I probably wouldn’t embarrass myself like that time with the frog.

I mean, I wouldn’t say I was certain I would win, but my confidence was building that I could hold my own, at least.

The thing with the Detection skill was kind of a shame, but still, I was feeling a little chipper thanks to evolving, so…

Come at me, bro! Just kidding.

Huh?

Why did I have such an ominous feeling all of a sudden?

It was like my instincts were screaming at me to get out of there immediately.

I turned around slowly.

Not far down the long, straight path I’d been following, a group of men dressed like adventurers were chasing me.

Oh crap. Humans!

And they were unmistakably locked on to me!

But it was probably nothing my newly evolved self couldn’t handle, right?

Yeah right, idiot!

What do you mean, level 29?!

Even if you count me as being level 12 total, that’s still more than double!!

And six humans around that level?! I didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell!

Run!

Ah, a fork in the road.

Right or left? Let’s go with…right… Wait, hmm?

I glanced down the path on the left.

Are you for real?!

It was a lower level than the snake I fought before, but still, how was I supposed to beat one of those if it wasn’t wrapped in webs?!

Oh god, a snake in front of me and humans behind me?!

And both parties were totally staring right at me!!

Run away! Down the passage on the right! No way was I taking on a deadly human-monster combo!

What idiot was all, “Come at me, bro”?! Me, that’s who!

Nope! No way!

That snake was more like a boss battle than an ordinary mob!

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Are you telling me those guys spawned just as often as normal monsters?!

And why were humans choosing now to chase me?!

Waaaaah!

What were all those noises behind meee?! Too fast! How were they able to keep up with me?! My speed was 348, you know!

I thought that was the one area where I was better than other monsters! Who the hell did they think they were, keeping up with me like that?!

Geh?! More monsters in front of me?!

Whaaaat?! Of all the times for this stupid trio to show up!

If it was only one, I could’ve just slipped right past it! How was I supposed to sneak past a row of three?!

Wh-what am I gonna do?! Come on! Oh god, I don’t even have time to thiiiiink!

Okay! Sink or swim!

Still running at top speed, I skittered up the wall!

Yoooooooo! I did it! I actually did it!

Wall running successful! I made it over the three monsters!

I heard a commotion behind me, but I didn’t look back!

I didn’t know how much time those three would buy me, but I had to make a break for it while I had the chance!

Sorry about that, you guys. This was just another instance of survival of the fittest. Now, sacrifice yourselves to become my meat shields!

Bwa-ha-ha!

By using those monsters, I successfully made it out alive! I probably should have said a little prayer for them as thanks… Wait, huh?

A break…in the path?

Wait, wait, wait—another pitfall like the centipede nest?!

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Waaah! No, no, no! I’m running way too fast to stop in time!

Aaaaaah!

I was suddenly hurtling headlong into empty space.

Huh? Oh, wow, what a terribly deep and wide hole. You’d probably die if you fell in here.

Wait, falling?! I was falling! Noooooo!

Bungee jumping without a cord? You’ve gotta be kidding me! Wait, a cord? Cord!

Come on, spider thread, work with me!

I shot out some thread and attached it to the wall!

All right, I’m saved— Whoof!

Ow, that really hurt.

I had stopped falling, but the recoil slammed my body into the wall at top speed.

Man, though, I thought I was gonna die.

Getting chased by a snake and escaping only to fall off a cliff? Not cool.

Maybe I was being punished for getting so full of myself…

Oh, I get it. All right, I repent. I’ve seen the error of my ways, so can that loud, disturbing buzzing I keep hearing stop now, please?

Bees.

It was a group of those giant bee monsters that I’d seen only once before. And there was a whole swarm flying around in this hole.

Um… Hello there…

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I’m sorry! Please forgive me! For the love of god, don’t look at me!

There was only one way for me to get away from the bees that were coming to attack me.

And that way was down!

I dove again! I was falling, but not like before!

I made the thread attached to the wall more elastic and used it to go down safely like a real bungee jumper. After bouncing two or three times, I latched on to the wall and attached a new thread.

Geronimoooo!

I repeated this process a few more times to get down.

All right, I reached the ground!

But the bees were still swarming around above me. I forced my exhausted body to start running again. I had to get out of there as fast as I could.

But I was a few steps too late.

A bee landed on me. Then, I felt a sharp pain in my back.

?!?!?!?!

Ow! It stabbed me!

And something was flooding into my body from the wound, too! Poison!

I didn’t have any way to combat something that was attached to my back.

Wait, there was one way.

I still had hardly any MP left, but there was no time to worry about that!

I used Thread Control to manipulate my thread and attach it to the bee on my back. Then I wound the thread around it to constrict the monster.

Heave-ho!

I grasped the thread and yanked the bee from my back, slamming it to the ground like a judo master!

I wanted to finish it off right there, but running away was more important!

I hid myself in the shadow of a rock up against the wall. The giant bees shouldn’t be able to get at me in the small space.

Sure enough, after buzzing around and scoping the situation out for a while, the handful of bees that were chasing me gave up and flew away.

I had survived, somehow.

But I didn’t come out unscathed. I couldn’t see it with my own eyes, but I knew there was a huge hole in my back.

I only had 6 HP left. The other 30 had been lost in that single attack. It wasn’t surprising. I knew that my defense was somewhat low. If anything, I was grateful to my spider body for being tenacious enough to survive that awful wound at all.

I was lucky that I had high Poison Resistance, too.

That thing had definitely injected me with poison when it stung me.

I had no way of knowing how much of the damage I’d taken was from poison and how much was from the needle, so I didn’t know if my skill had canceled the poison out completely. Still, I had no doubt that if it weren’t for Poison Resistance, I would’ve been dead already.

I probably wouldn’t be able to move for a while with this wound. I didn’t even know whether it would heal on its own at all.

Meaning the ideal situation would be to level up and fully recover like last time.

That being the case, I really wanted to go and get that bee I’d caught and thrown off me, both for food and experience points.

But coming out from under here seemed like a bad idea.

Maybe I could stick some thread to it with Thread Control and pull it over here a little at a time?

Suddenly, I had another sense of foreboding.

I carefully peeked out from the shadow of the rock.

There, I saw the tied-up bee struggling on the ground. And beyond it, the shape of another monster approaching it, slowly but surely.

The snake. Did it chase me all that way?!

No, probably not. It was the same level but probably a different individual.

Crap.

There might be quite a few of those snakes around, then, even though they were like boss monsters from my point of view.

If they found me while I was this badly injured, no way was I getting out alive.

The snake slithered lazily toward the bee.

I’m begging you… You can have the bee—just please don’t notice me.

But in the end, the reptile didn’t do anything to the bee.

Or, to be more exact, it couldn’t.

Something ripped through its body at a terrible speed.

Huh? Did my eyes deceive me?

To my view, whatever it was had shredded the snake as easily as so much paper. You know, the snake protected by those super-hard scales. The one just about as fast as I was. And it had no time to react.

There it was, calm as could be.

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Contrary to its name, it looked more like a wolf.

It had four feet that trod on the ground.

A long tail.

No wings.

What I saw there was an imposingly majestic dragon.

Oh god. My spider’s instincts, my human logic, and the cry of my soul all screamed the same thing in unison.

Not a chance. There’s no way you could ever beat an opponent like that.

In fact, I couldn’t even call it an opponent in the first place. From that thing’s point of view, I was nothing more than bait.

Not even prey. I’d be eaten the moment I entered its line of sight.

That was how extreme the difference between us was.

Its high level was barely worth thinking about.

Regardless of level, that thing was out of my league.

The earth dragon Araba started chewing up the scattered bits of the snake, one by one.

I desperately tried to silence my breathing.

Shut up! I’m begging you, just keep it down! What am I gonna do if that thing notices me?!

Once it was done devouring the snake, the dragon ambled away without so much as a glance at the bee.

Th…thank god.

I had no idea whether it didn’t notice me or if it did but didn’t care, but either way, I was alive.

By this time, I had already had more than my share of near-death experiences, but that was almost certainly the worst yet.

Even just remembering it now is scary.

No way. If that thing was wandering in this vicinity, I had to get away, stat.

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I looked around.

I was at the bottom of the hole I’d fallen down. It seemed to be somewhere around three hundred feet in diameter.

The depth was probably even more than that. I couldn’t really tell how high the cliff was.

Above me, a huge swarm of bees covered the area like a ceiling.

I was relieved that they were far away enough that my Appraisal skill didn’t kick in.

If it had, Appraising a horde like that at once might have knocked me out.

But if I wanted to return to the area I came from, I would have to go past that swarm.

While climbing a sheer cliff, no less.

Not happening.

I couldn’t fight anything off while I was clinging sideways to a cliff.

I wouldn’t be able to move quickly or even aim my thread properly.

My strength was fighting in confined places.

The bees, on the other hand, could fly around freely in the air.

There was no way I could win.

But exploring a place that was home to that beast would be a suicide mission, too.

There were a few different passages connected to the bottom of the pit.

Should I risk going down a different path from the one that thing went into?

I couldn’t. With an injury this severe, encountering any monster at all would spell my doom, even if it wasn’t that dragon.

Uh-oh. This might be the end of the line.

So here I am.

Where did I go wrong?

How am I going to survive?

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I can’t let it end in a place like this.

I don’t want to die.

And so, I start planning.