Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Volume Chapter 23

Ahhh, so tired. I’m not gonna be able to keep my eyes open much longer.

I didn’t realize camping without a simple home would be such a pain.

I thought I could stick it out a little longer, but now I might be in real trouble if I don’t come up with a good method of getting some restful sleep soon.

Then again, if it were that easy, I wouldn’t be forcing myself to keep exploring until exhaustion threatened to knock me out.

The earth dragon probably isn’t going to show up at this point, but now my problem is that I’m in the middle of an area chock-full of other strong monsters. There’s no guarantee that one of them won’t just break through a basic web with ease.

But that doesn’t mean I can go ahead and build a more elaborate shelter here.

I don’t want to put down roots in this place. I want to get out of here as soon as possible. It doesn’t make sense to spend a ton of time on a new home.

In which case, it makes more sense to build a simple one, but I have no way of knowing whether that’ll be enough to keep out the monsters that inhabit this area… I’ve been going over the same thoughts again and again and now I’m stuck in a mental loop.

I rack my exhausted brain, trying to figure out what to do.

A simple home might work depending on how I make it, right?

Like, instead of setting it up wherever, I could hide it in a hard-to-find nook or something.

I mean, the rocks around here are pretty angular, but they don’t necessarily make for the safest hiding spots.

Hey, wait a minute. Maybe I don’t have to hide at all?

As long as other monsters can’t mess with me, anywhere is fine, right?

In which case, I might know a good place after all.

So I head there right away. “There” being the ceiling, by way of climbing the wall.

Phew… So high! Man, that was scary. Can I really sleep soundly here?

But I haven’t seen any monsters around these parts that can fly or climb walls.

Aside from the snail-bugs, anyway.

I haven’t seen any bees since coming out into this big space, either, so I figure it might be safe to set up a little home between the ceiling and the wall and sleep there.

And so, without further ado, I start building my web.

Wow, this is seriously high, though. Probably about three hundred feet in the air… How many skyscraper floors would that be?

If I fall, I’ll definitely die.

I mean, I have a lifeline, so there’s probably nothing to worry about, but it’s still scary to work out in the open like this. C’mon, Fear Resistance, get to work already!

Okay, I’m sorry. I spoke too soon.

So don’t sass me like that, all right? Man, that startled me.

Anyway, now the outer frame is complete.

Hmm. This is totally obvious from the outside, though, isn’t it?

If it takes a hit from a long-distance attack like that earth dragon’s breath, it’ll go down, won’t it?

It’s probably best to hide a little somehow.

Maybe I can use the rocks lying around on the ground.

I lower myself back down for a bit and look at the rocks. Hmm. These are way too big.

Can I break them down somehow? Maybe with Cutting Thread or something?

I fasten a thread to the rock, activate Cutting Thread, and pull. Hmm… It scores it a little bit but not enough to do much good.

Maybe I can move it like a saw? Ooh, that seems to work, a little at a time.

My skill level goes up in the process, making my work more efficient.

All right, now I have some diced rock.

I guess I can apply it to the surface of my web as camouflage.

First, I stick thread to the rock firmly, then I climb up the three hundred feet to the nest with the thread still attached.

Okay, now all I have to do is pull it up, and…

Oof! Oh man, that’s heavy! Urrghh… C’mon, put your back into it! Heave-ho!

My Strength skill level increases along the way. Even with the extra level, this thing is still a struggle.

Whoof, this is consuming my immediate stamina and my overall stocked stamina at the same time! What a pain!

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I gained some skills, but I don’t have time to check them out right now!

C’mon, pullll!

Huff…huff… Whew.

Finally, I manage to lift the rock into place.

Whoa, on closer inspection, my red stamina bar actually decreased past the Overeating reserves I had.

So that’s why it was so painful.

Huh? I thought I had come up with a quick method of getting a good night’s sleep, but in retrospect, I actually ended up giving myself more work.

Aw, man, seriously? So much for that. Oh well.

But all the hard work was worth it, since the rock I dragged up and stuck to my nest seems to be hiding me quite effectively.

Now I just need to make a bit of bedding, and…

Done!

Phew. Now, this is paradise.

Ahh, being surrounded by silk makes me feel so much safer. This is the life. Without it, I just can’t sleep soundly.

Oh, gotta check the effects of those new skills before bed.

Ah, so these are the SP versions of Solidity and Strength.

My SP stats, which were 40 each, have increased to 41. Stamina is important, so that’s a sweet deal.

Well then, now that I’ve checked out my new skills, it’s time to sleep off all that hard work!

Since it’s been so long since I had a chance to really bed down, I’ll take this opportunity to snooze to my heart’s content.

And so, good night!

Ahh, what a nice rest. Yep. I sure slept, all right.

But what’s this, now?

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I planned on sleeping a little more, so why do I suddenly feel so wide awake?

Hmm? It feels like all the hair on my body is standing on end. That can’t be good.

I stick my head out from behind the rock to peer down below.

LV 8Status:HP: 165/168 (green)MP: 38/38 (blue)SP: 127/127 (yellow): 109/118 (red)Status Appraisal Failed>

…

A group of monkeys has gathered in battle formation right below me. I’d say there are about fifty of them.

Huh? You’re kidding me, right?

These guys are definitely aware that I’m up here.

Why?!

I thought my rock camouflage was perfect. I even looked at it from the ground myself to be sure.

At a glance, it looks like nothing more than a bit of rock that’s slightly jutting out from the wall.

So why?!

The only reason I can think of has to do with the monkey of the same species I defeated before.

Did it do something to me? Like leaving a special scent on me or something? I have no idea.

But either way, those monkeys are lying in wait for me.

Some of them are even getting ready to climb up the wall. In fact, they’ve already started.

Oh, shit!

Climbing a sheer rock wall is apparently difficult even for the monkeys, as their ascent is pretty slow.

At this rate, I should have a few minutes before the first ones get to me. I have to take action while I still have the chance.

The best move here is probably to escape along the ceiling.

There’s obviously no way I’m going to beat such a large group of monkey monsters.

All right, time to head for the hills, then.

Huh? The color of the ceiling is different here? No way! Why is it so slippery?!

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My thread is barely even sticking to it! Oh no…

The nature of the rock that makes up the ceiling changes drastically just a few feet away from the wall. It’s so smooth and slippery that not even my stickiest threads stay attached, never mind my legs.

At this rate, the ceiling won’t work as an escape route.

I’ll just have to run sideways along the wall, then.

They’ll probably try to chase me, but that’ll just be a contest of persistence.

Okay, let’s— WHONK! Huh?! What was that?! A rock?!

Crap, these guys are throwing rocks at me?!

Wait, how’re they even able to reach when the ceiling is so high up?!

Whoa, another one?!

I quickly take refuge behind the rock covering my home to escape. Another stone hits the place I was moments ago.

Considering how far they had to come, the rocks don’t have too much power behind them by the time they reach where I am.

However, if one of them hits me while I’m clinging to the wall, it’ll probably knock me down.

Judging by the fact that the projectiles always land where I just was, those monkeys probably have the Throw skill, the Hit skill, or maybe even both.

A cold chill of dread runs through me.

I can’t get away like this. What am I going to do? Really, I only have one option. I have to fight back.

Luckily, even though it’s a simple one, I do have a home base here.

My only choice is to strengthen it as much as I can before the first monkey arrives and stave them off from within.

If we all have to cling to the wall during the fight, unlike the time with the bees, my opponents won’t have any advantage.

If anything, since I have my web to serve as both a foothold and a fortress, I’m the one with a leg up this time.

I have no choice but to try.

First, I scatter more threads. Then I stick them to the wall with Thread Control.

It’s a basic tactic, but it should make it harder for them to climb.

Since I have to keep avoiding the stones hurtling at me, it’s hard to get much work done. And in the process, the first wave of monkeys has made it about halfway up the wall.

Shit. They’re climbing faster than I expected.

There’s no way I can stop all of them with the threads I’ve just set up.

Now what?

Ah, maybe there’s something I can use to attack them first?

I do have Throw and Hit, so if I have anything to throw at them…

Oh! There is one thing. I can’t throw it, but I can drop it!

I poke my head out from behind the rock and activate Poison Synthesis.

Obviously, I’m not making Weak Poison. I use the toxin I’ve been honing throughout my whole life as a spider: my ultra-potent Spider Poison.

A sphere of venom appears before my eyes, and gravity pulls it down.

The monkey climbing the wall can’t avoid it.

The poison hits it right in the face, and it shrieks in agony as it falls.

This could work!

Quickly, I confirm my MP consumption. It only used up 1 point. In other words, I can launch up to 40 shots with full MP. With the amount I’ve already spent on Thread Control, that leaves me about 25 shots.

If they all hit, I could take out around half the monkey forces!

I immediately drop a second shot. Another hit, another monkey down.

Time to move onto the next one. Now this is a strategy I should count on whenever possible.

My skill level just rose, but I can’t check on that right now.

Spider Poison is probably stronger than whatever new venom I just got, anyway.

I succeed in knocking down a fair number of the monkeys, but they’re starting to react accordingly. They’re avoiding the area directly below my nest and climbing up on either side instead.

I shower them with as much poison as I can before they all make it out of my range.

Nice, nice. The monkeys are dropping like flies.

But a lot of them have still escaped to the sides. The poison bombs aren’t going to work anymore at this rate. I’m worried about how little MP I have left, anyway, so maybe this is for the best.

I extend some silk toward the monkeys that shifted sideways.

This fight is only just getting started.

The monkeys are still climbing the wall.

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I’m using Thread Control to lay down sticky threads on the wall directly in their path.

This is bad. I don’t have enough MP. I might’ve used too much for Poison Synthesis.

If it comes down to it, though, I could probably just apply the threads manually without using Thread Control.

Another stone comes flying in my direction, so I quickly take cover behind the rock.

The monkeys still on the ground are chucking stones incessantly. Even if one hits me, it won’t be a fatal injury by any means, but it’s still super-annoying.

The closest monkeys rush right into my sticky zone.

Of course, they get trapped in place immediately.

That should buy me some time, because if the monkeys in the lead stop moving, it ought to cause a bottleneck for— Geh?!

Those assholes are using their own allies as footholds to keep climbing!

There’s still more of the sticky buffer zone left, but at this rate, they’ll break through way faster than I expected!

Dammit! I have no time to think now.

I aim toward a particularly large group of monkeys and fire a casting net. I leave the hapless victims to seal their own fates.

The more they struggle, the more they’ll get tangled, until it’s impossible for them to move at all. The resulting lump of monkeys and webbing will create a worthy obstacle in the middle of the path.

As a general rule, once the monkeys are caught, I can afford to put them out of my mind. After all, their stats seem too low for them to escape from my threads.

This time, I’m not using Thread Control.

My basic strategy is to immobilize all the monkeys with only my sticky thread.

After that, I can take my time in finishing them off.

I launch a second casting net. Again, several monkeys are ensnared.

As I’m about to fire off the third net, a rock comes flying at me. I dodge it in a panic.

These guys are way too good at working together.

On top of that, they’re getting cautious of my casting nets and moving even farther to the left and right. Now I can only catch one or two with each trap.

These guys are way smarter than any monsters I’ve fought before!

If they’re this smart, why aren’t they noticing that I’m not nearly big enough to be worth their while as prey?! What are they hoping to get out of beating a tiny spider like me?!

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But these guys are clearly coming at me with the desire to defeat me at all costs.

C’mon, give it a rest. I can’t deal with this level of fervor directed toward me, all right? You should devote all that passion to something else. Like ______, for example (fill in the blank yourself).

I keep pumping out thread everywhere while I rant at the attackers pointlessly in my mind.

Since they’ve scattered so far to the sides, I have to try and spread my webbing far and wide.

I’m trying to be as sparing with Thread Control as possible. If I run out of MP in this situation, this’ll get hairy.

Why don’t I just stay inside my simple home? Well, because I’m three hundred feet above the ground.

My threads are definitely strong, but they aren’t invincible. They’re weak to fire, for one thing, and that earth dragon blew them away like nothing.

While my webs boast high defense, they can still be broken by anything with attack power that exceeds it.

I don’t think the monkeys will be able to do that.

If I were on the ground, I obviously would’ve simply chosen to hole up inside. But this isn’t the ground.

If a monkey attacks my little web and gets stuck to it…

…then its weight will obviously be added to it.

And if that happens multiple times, my home may not be able to handle the load…

This simple shelter doesn’t have a foundation anchoring it down. It’s just attached to the wall and ceiling with some sticky thread.

It can bear my weight and that of the rock without much trouble. But I don’t know how much more it can take beyond that.

I consider expanding it and increasing its stability, but instead I decide to try and keep the monkeys from getting any closer. My logic is that even expanding my web would only increase the possible load it can bear by so much.

Still, it would be good enough for the number of monkeys…

Or it would have been, in the beginning.

Why only at that time, you ask? Because the number of monkeys isn’t decreasing at all!

I thought maybe I just failed to finish off the ones I hit with poison, but their corpses are piled up at the bottom of the wall. So it isn’t like they’ve been revived or anything.

No, it’s just that there are more monkeys than there were initially.

They must’ve called for reinforcements. Ha-ha… I don’t know where they’re all coming from, but their numbers are definitely increasing. There were only fifty or so at first, but now there’s easily twice as many. And that number is still rising. Not being able to see an end to this marathon isn’t exactly reassuring.

What am I gonna do? Seriously, what now? Not only is my MP drained, now my red stamina bar is starting to get too low for comfort.

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Probably because I’ve been spinning threads this whole time.

If I run out of stamina, it’s all over. I won’t be able to produce any more.

So I have to avoid that, no matter what.

I prepare a Morning Spider.

My target is the monkey that’s closest to me.

I give it a toss, and it hits the mark.

Next, I let the stickiness of the thread do the work and yank it up toward me.

Quickly, I restrain the monkey as it tries to struggle. Then I strike with Poison Fang.

In the process, a rock hits me.

Ouch! But I only lost 5 HP.

As I expected, there isn’t much power in the missiles by the time they reach me. It hurts, but I ignore it with the help of Pain Nullification and Pain Mitigation.

The monkey soon draws its last breath thanks to my venom.

Time to eat!

I make quick work of the meal. I have to finish as soon as possible and return to the battlefront.

The monkeys are still struggling in my sticky threads. Most of them are so ensnared that they’re essentially immobilized, but their bodies are forming a path for the rest of their comrades. Slowly but surely, the other monkeys are drawing closer.

I’ve managed to recover some of my stamina, but it’s probably safe to assume that I won’t have that chance again.

So it’s all the more important that I eat every last bite to serve as fuel for the rest of the battle!

Whew! All gone!

I get the feeling that only increased the monkeys’ murderous rage toward me, but it’s too late for that now!

I am the predator! Nobody’s gonna make prey out of me!

I spray threads all over the place.

Since I’m focusing as hard as I am, my Concentration skill even levels up.

But I don’t care about that at the moment. If I let down my guard even for a second at this point, I’m screwed.

There are tons of monkeys piled up below me, covered in thread.

And yet their numbers aren’t decreasing. In fact, there are even more of them.

The number of immobilized monkeys is increasing, sure, but their reinforcements have been swelling faster.

It’s as if all the monkeys in the area are gathering right here.

I only have 2 MP left.

I don’t know what negative effects there may be when my MP reaches 0, so I can’t use it anymore, just to be safe. That means I can’t use Thread Control now, either.

But at the moment, that isn’t too big of an issue.

Because the monkey vanguard is right before me now.

They’ve closed the distance between us to the point where Thread Control isn’t even necessary.

I produce another thread. Another monkey gets caught and tangled in it.

And what it does next is utterly ridiculous.

It jumps.

The monkey crashes to the ground with a dull thud. From this height, not even a monster has any hope of surviving the fall.

Given the choice between dying or getting stuck in the path of their comrades and hindering their progress, these freaking monkeys actually choose death.

Unbelievable.

I can’t help but shiver at this disturbing thought process.

I had faintly hoped that if I kept countering them, the monkeys would eventually give up, but clearly that’s not going to happen. These monkeys won’t stop until they get to me. The only two ways this can end are if they kill me or if I kill all of them.

A stone flies at me. But I can’t even avoid it anymore. I don’t have a second to spare.

The stone hits my body, and my HP decreases. But thanks to Pain Nullification and Pain Mitigation, I’m able to ignore it.

I entrust the HP I’ve lost to my Auto-Recovery skill.

Even as the stone hits me, I keep streaming out more thread.

It’s my only chance of surviving this situation.

Part of me was disdainful of these monkeys before. I mean, they were nothing compared to that earth dragon.

Certainly, most opponents have nothing on that insanely powerful thing.

But that doesn’t mean I can look down on them.

What an idiot I’ve been. Did I forget how weak I am myself? Compared to me, just about anything could be a formidable enemy. What made me think I could take on small-fry so easily? Not to mention that even though I’m weaker than these guys, they’re coming at me with such determination that not even death deters them.

Given all that, there’s no reason I should’ve expected to be able to skate through this without any problems.

So now, I have to summon my resolve and face this with everything I have.

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Another stone strikes my body.

It’s only one short moment. For just a single moment, I’m startled by the impact.

In that moment, a monkey catches one of my legs. More than half of its body is bound up in thread, yet it reaches out with its free right arm.

My leg emits a not-very-pleasant cracking sound.

Trying to endure the crushing pain, I manage to jab my poison fangs into the hand on my leg.

At around the same time that the monkey’s strength expires, half of my leg is torn off.

It hurts. It’s incredibly painful, and I can feel it despite my Pain Mitigation.

Since it’s only part of my leg, maybe HP Auto-Recovery will fix it? Hopefully it’ll recover if I level up, at least.

But I have no time to worry about my lost limb right now.

That attack has stolen too much of my precious time.

Another monkey will arrive any second now.

I make another thread. Now I’m starting to panic. My stamina is running low again.

My thread connects with a monkey, which jumps out into empty space.

Paying no attention to his fate, I launch the next one.

The moment I hear that voice, I quickly evacuate into my simplified home.

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It’s good timing, but there’s a disadvantage to it, too.

Molting.

I hurriedly peel off my old skin. My torn leg has recovered without a problem. Tossing the husk aside, I immediately return to the front lines. Even the short time that molting takes could be fatal in this situation.

Just as I’d expected, a monkey has gotten stuck to my modest web.

They’ve reached my final line of defense.

When I leveled up, my MP and SP both refilled, but it might be too little, too late.

No, wait. I can still do this.

I extend a leg outside my simple home.

A monkey grabs it immediately, but what does that matter?

I spray out as much thread as I can, forming a huge clump of webbing.

Then I pour everything I have into activating Thread Control. Little by little, my power permeates into the threads.

Since my skill level has gone up, the number of fibers I can control at once has increased considerably.

Of course, I can’t control the entirety of this big cluster, but that’s fine.

Still, given the huge number I’m trying to manipulate, my recovered MP is disappearing again at an alarming speed.

Then, my captured leg makes another awful sound.

At the same time, my entire body is dragged out of my home.

More monkey arms reach in from outside.

I manage to keep my head free, but now my body’s been caught.

The monkeys are merciless, trying to crush me with all their strength.

My HP is rapidly decreasing, and intense pain tears through me.

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Just as I hear the Divine Voice (temp.), my threads are ready.

I use all the power I have left to manipulate the thread. Following my commands, the webbed lump detaches from the wall and falls. Naturally, the monkeys stuck there fall with it.

With a load roar, the wall of yarn and the entangled monkeys go crashing down toward the remaining invaders below.

I’ve succeeded in slaughtering a multitude of monkeys all at once.

Thanks to the molting procedure of leveling up, my captured body and leg are freed from the monkeys’ grasp.

All they hold now are two layers of my old skin.

My enormous thread bomb took care of most of the monkeys, but the ones that were attached to my simple home are still alive.

Even so, they’re already trapped in my web.

I add more thread to immobilize them and then finish them off decisively with my poison.

When the last one stops moving, I breathe a sigh of relief.

It isn’t quite over yet, but I made it through the first wave.

My heart wants to relax, but I whip it into shape. No, it isn’t over yet. The monkeys haven’t all been wiped out. I can’t let my guard down until every last one has been annihilated.

I immediately exit my web and survey the situation below.

A dreadful spectacle greets my eyes.

I see the remains of the enemies who’d smashed into the ground, tangled in my threads, and the others who’d been crushed beneath them.

And among this gruesome carnage, I spot the survivors, who still haven’t lost their will to fight.

I immediately start laying more threads on the wall.

The monkeys haven’t given up yet. The moment they’re ready, they’ll come after me again.

Before that happens, I have to make preparations of my own.

Reinforcements are still coming. Seriously, how many of them are there…? Give me a break already.

And among those new enemies is something I really didn’t want to see.

A mouth like a giant crocodile’s. And inside that mouth, a countless number of fiendish, sawlike teeth. A height nearly double that of the monkeys I’ve fought off so far. A much thicker body, too. Freakish, deformed, giant monkeys.

It’s the monster I first saw when I entered this wide-open area.

The monkeys’ species name was anogratch. I should’ve noticed the similar name. That giant monkey is the evolved form of these guys.

And now several of them have shown up as horrible reinforcements for the monkeys.

There are three of them, mingling with the other kinds.

Their levels are lower than the first one I saw, but they’re still superior evolved monsters, so I can’t let my guard down just because of that. Besides, even the regular monkeys are fierce fighters, so their evolved forms can’t possibly be weak. They look horrifying, too, so it’s probably safe to assume they’re way stronger than the monkeys.

Sure, they probably don’t hold a candle to the earth dragon, but they’re still stronger than my current opponents, and there are three of them.

The difficulty of this area has jumped up again.

I freeze in fear, but only for a second.

As the surviving monkeys start making their move, my mind is dragged back to reality.

Giving a wide berth to the fallen lump of thread, the monkeys start climbing the walls from the far left and right again.

Judging by their movement, they’re clearly being wary of my thread now. These guys are tough customers.

Keeping an eye on the giant monkeys, I continue adding more threads.

The freaky ones haven’t moved yet. Maybe they aren’t so interested in collaborating with the regular monkeys?

That’d be nice, but I can’t afford to be optimistic. I have to keep an eye on them at all times.

The primates have apparently given up on flinging rocks.

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It didn’t do much anyway, and maybe the collapsed pile of thread is now preventing them from reaching me that way.

So they’ve abandoned the stone throwing and are now simply concentrating on climbing the walls. That works just fine for me. Those rocks were quite a hindrance. They damaged my HP and hampered my movements, so not having to worry about that anymore is one small mercy.

Then, one of the giant monkeys starts moving.

Slowly, it lifts up a boulder. Wait, a boulder?!

It’s hefting the huge thing without any apparent difficulty, but that’s the big boulder I originally cut up for my little home!

I thought it was firmly attached to the ground, but this thing just lifted it up like it’s nothing! Even the tiny slice I made before was wicked heavy!

Okay, what am I going to do about this? Wait, what is it lifting it like that for? No way!

I hurriedly evacuate from my simplified home.

An instant later, the giant rock shoots up like a cannonball and smashes right into it.

When the dust clears, I see that the rock has utterly devastated my web.

You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?

That’s way too much power. If I take a hit from that, there’ll be nothing left of me but a smear on the wall!

Luckily, there are no more boulders like that near the giant monkey. So there won’t be any more crazy cannonballs flying my way.

However, my last line of defense, my simple home, has been annihilated.

From here on out, I’ll have to fight without it. That isn’t good.

Not being able to rely on it for defense is bad enough, but what’s worse is that I no longer have a good foothold.

The only reason I was able to fight off the monkeys so far was that I could be confident in my footing, which helped me focus on attacking.

With that gone, I could easily slip and fall with a single misstep.

Since I’m connected to the ceiling by a thread, I won’t crash straight to the ground, but I’ll still end up totally defenseless.

If I give the monkeys an opportunity, no way they’ll pass it up.

I make up my mind in a snap.

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Even if it’s a rush job, I have to make a new thread foothold.

In the meantime, I won’t be able to work on laying more traps elsewhere, but once the monkeys get here, I won’t have time to build anything.

If I don’t make one now, I’ll definitely regret it later.

All right! I’ve made a scaffold big enough for me to stand on!

Now I have a spot to take on the enemy. The second round of this defensive battle is about to begin.

The monkeys are closing in. I continue shooting thread toward them.

For the most part, it’s just like the first round. However, there are a few key differences.

The monkeys know how my thread works now.

They’ve figured out that if they get caught in it, they won’t be able to escape.

And so, the monkeys in the lead are spreading out as far as possible and jumping onto the thread. They’re trying to cover up as much of the sticky trap as possible with their own bodies to help their allies behind them pass more easily.

As a result, quite a few monkeys are now stuck, spread-eagled on the wall. They’re even preparing for another thread-and-monkey bomb by clinging tightly to the rock surface.

Now the next wave proceeds over the path that their comrades have made for them with their bodies.

Like last time, they throw themselves down as soon as my web gets them.

It’s an insanely suicidal strategy. They care more about killing me than about preserving their own lives. But it’s also very thoroughly planned out. These guys are seriously tough.

However, no matter how many countermeasures they try to take, the sacrifices are still reducing their numbers.

No new reinforcements have appeared since the giant monkeys arrived.

At this rate, the monkeys will be wiped out before they can reach me. As long as the giant ones don’t make another move.

I’m still on high alert.

Even as I face off against the regular monkeys, I keep an eye on their evolved brethren at all times.

It’s nerve-racking work. Thanks to that, my Concentration skill level has increased.

Finally, there’s movement from that direction. It’s the lowest-level giant monkey.

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The creature does an abrupt about-face and begins marching away.

It would’ve been great if it kept going and just left, but of course, things are never that easy.

The giant monkey turns back in this direction and begins to run in a straight line.

No way!

My intuition sounds an alarm in my brain: Yes way, it tells me. Immediately, I prepare my counterattack.

My prediction is unfortunately correct. The giant lug takes a running start and jumps over the mass of threads and monkeys in a single bound.

Then, those terrifyingly powerful legs launch it right toward me.

Finishing my preparations just in time, I fling a casting net toward the goliath as it closes in.

Unable to dodge in midair, it becomes caught in the web.

Luckily, the impact of the net shifts the creature’s trajectory slightly downward.

It sails forward and crashes into the wall right beneath me.

With a loud thunk, it sticks to the threads on the wall and falls still. Even so, it quickly regains consciousness and starts struggling furiously to escape.

Adding more gluey strands to hinder it, I activate Poison Synthesis at the same time to create some Spider Poison and drop it toward that enormous mouth.

The giant monkey shrieks in agony as my one-two combo connects.

I’m a little alarmed that a single shot of Spider Poison isn’t enough to kill it, but all the same I go ahead and synthesize a second dose.

The ball of venom lands beautifully right between those horrific jaws.

Leveling up is proof that my humongous foe has breathed its last.

I hurriedly peel off my molted skin. There’s no time to be relieved.

As soon as I turn back toward the invading monkeys, I see another one of the giants. Using its partner’s jump as a diversion, this one has been clambering up along the same route as the regular monkeys.

How can it be so fast?!

It was on the ground just a moment ago, but now it’s practically on top of me. The huge monkey mercilessly crushes the smaller ones in its path as it approaches.

With its impressive speed and grip, it’ll complete its journey in the blink of an eye.

I hurriedly launch a thread in its direction.

The giant monkey dodges it effortlessly, despite hanging off a sheer wall.

But it dodges into an area where there’s no path of monkeys to tread on.

The only thing waiting there is a solid field of my webbing.

The giant monkey adheres to it in no time flat.

Immediately, it struggles to tear the thread away, but even its power can’t rip through my silk so easily.

But as it tries to deal with its trap, the wall itself starts to produce disturbing crumbling sounds.

Of course, I can’t let that slide. I waste no time in covering the creature’s body in thread.

That should hold it for a while. With that handled, I whirl back to search for the third giant monkey.

Since the second one has made its move, I have no doubt that the third one will be quick to follow.

Sure enough, my prediction is correct.

I spot the third one in no time.

It’s coming right toward me, its huge mouth already wide open.

?!?!

What was I thinking, assuming that I practically had this in the bag?

I react without thinking, moving purely on instinct.

Namely, I jump out of the way, off my foothold into empty space.

Even then, I can’t dodge it completely, and the massive jaws crush all of my right legs as well as part of my abdomen.

My HP plummets.

Overwhelmed with pain, I flicker in and out of consciousness.

But if I pass out now, I’ll never wake up again.

I hurriedly launch a thread in midair. It latches on to the wall, stopping my fall.

However, the rebound smashes me against the stone, nearly knocking me out for a moment.

Clenching my fangs, I force myself to stay awake.

Probably with help from my new skill, I manage to hang on to consciousness.

My line of sight swivels upward, toward the web foothold where I had been a moment ago.

The third giant monkey has totally destroyed the scaffold and is now caught in the remains.

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Well, of course it is. I didn’t make an ordinary foothold. Just in case, I built it so it could serve as a trap if necessary. Although I didn’t expect it to be destroyed in a single blow.

I struggle upward.

Since half of my legs are out of commission, I use Thread Control to help pull myself up.

I ascend past the thrashing giant monkey.

Using Thread Control, I restrain my adversary, holding its large maw open with webbing.

Then I synthesize some Spider Poison and send it right down the thing’s gullet.

I level up and molt once more.

Whew. I thought I was gonna die. That was a really close call. If I hadn’t leveled up with that kill, I might’ve actually died this time.

But I made it.

The second giant monkey is getting close to escaping its restraints, so I slather it with more thread. The rest of the army hasn’t gotten as far as I feared, since their evolved compatriots trampled the path they went to such great pains to create.

In fact, their cooperation is in shambles and has given way to total chaos.

There’s no more rock artillery, and their numbers have decreased considerably.

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Huh? Wait, at this point, can’t I just escape instead of going out of my way to wipe them all out?

No, it’d be silly to get this far and then just run away. If I do that, then there was no point in leaving my home in the first place. How could I run away now, when I swore never to do it again?

The very last monkey is caught in my silk right before me.

Its outstretched hand falls just short of reaching me.

I wrap more thread around the hand, rendering it totally motionless.

Then I look around.

Nothing but more trapped monkeys, as far as the eye can see. There isn’t a single one that can move freely.

Just to be sure, I take a long look around the ground below, but there are no more reinforcements.

Straining my ears, I can’t hear anything else coming, either.

Finally, I’ve immobilized all my attackers.

It’s tempting to relax now that I’ve apparently won, but I can’t let my guard down just yet.

They can’t move anymore, but I haven’t killed them.

Below me, I can see more wrapped-up monkeys than I care to count. Among them are the conspicuously larger shapes of the giant monkeys. The last one of those is still struggling to tear through the threads entrapping it.

In reality, it’s probably strong enough to actually break out. Not right away, but if I leave it to its own devices, it’ll free itself sooner or later.

Which was why I kept adding more threads to restrain it whenever it came close to doing so.

And so, I intercepted the charging monkeys while keeping the giant one in check.

It was a lot harder than I expected. Good thing I didn’t let my guard down after I killed the first two.

Since restraining the last one took more effort than I thought it would, my MP and SP are getting low.

The only reason I’m keeping it alive is that I simply don’t have time to go and finish it off.

The other monkeys kept coming at me, so I didn’t have the chance.

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And to make things even harder, the giant monkey was smack in the middle of its allies’ route to me.

If I tried to go and finish it off, I’d walk right into a sea of enemies.

So obviously I wasn’t going to do something suicidal.

What I was most afraid of was the regular monkeys assisting the giant one.

If the cooperative efforts of the regular guys came together with the strength of their hulking companion, it was very possible that they could break through my bonds.

But luckily, they make no attempt to do so.

Despite their tendency to prioritize efficiency over their own lives, they chose to not take the strategy with the most obvious advantage: helping the giant monkey escape and attacking me together.

I’m relieved and all, but the behavioral principles of these monkeys is a total mystery to me. Although really, it’s not like I understood this crazy attack in the first place. There’s no way just eating me would be enough to attack so desperately, so I have no idea what their motive is.

The only explanation I can think of is that they’re trying to avenge the first monkey that I killed and ate, but does that reason explain the lengths they went to? Hmm.

Oh well. There’s no point getting hung up on that. I have no way of knowing what some monsters are thinking.

Anyway, I go to finish off the giant monkey.

Naturally, I don’t quite have the guts to go up and bite such a dangerous creature directly.

So, like the other two, I use Poison Synthesis to drop some Spider Poison into its mouth from above.

After eating two of my poison attacks (literally), the thing finally stills.

With the biggest threat out of the way, I can go about taking out the other monkeys with my bite, one by one.

Even Poison Fang uses a tiny amount of SP, but I’ve never had to worry about that before.

The cost is incredibly low, so I haven’t been in a situation where it threatened to use up my SP.

But this time, there are just way too many targets. Even Poison Fang will deplete SP eventually.

So I have to stop partway through to eat and restore some stamina.

Rendered immobile by my webbing, the monkeys are still desperate to put up some kind of resistance, so they shriek at me threateningly when I approach. I sense a hint of fear in their cries, too, but what do I care about that?

They’re the ones who picked a fight with me, so they should’ve been prepared to die themselves.

You’re not gonna catch me losing any sleep over killing something that tried to kill me first.

So I ignore their struggles and finish them off.

Oh hey, I got a title. Another disturbing one, at that.

That’s also my second title to come with Heretic Magic. This has to be some attempt at shaming me. I’m not that much of a heretic! Honest!

For now, I decide that checking out my new skills can wait until later.

I leveled up a whole bunch of times during the battle and gained a crapload of skills anyway, so it’s probably better to check them out all at once.

As I mechanically finish off all the monkeys, my level rises again.

Oh, huh. Level 10 already? That’s fast!

I mean, I did level up quite a bit during battle, but I can already evolve again?!

Hmm?

I was expecting Taratect sans small to be an option, but small poison taratect?

Is that a race that’s ultra-specialized in poisons or something?

Well, I should probably put this off for later, too. I don’t want to evolve until I can guarantee my safety. At the very least, I have to finish off all the other monkeys.

Hmm? More titles?

It’s another dicey one, too.

Is this an advanced version of Monster Slayer? And why did Strength and Solidity get integrated into different skills?

I have to remember to check all this later.

In the meantime, I go through the monkey-disposal routine.

Poison Fang, Poison Fang, occasionally pausing for a snack or adding more threads.

Until finally, I’m the only creature left alive in the area.

I won.

Now it’s finally over, for real this time.

All the strength drains from my body at once. However, there’s one emotion that bubbles up more than simple fatigue.

I survived! Whoo-hoo!

Look at me! I’m alive! I’m aliiive!

When I made my narrow getaway from the earth dragon’s onslaught, I was overwhelmed with fear.

But I was a little bit frustrated, too.

I made an oath when I was driven out of my home in the Upper Stratum. I swore to live with pride from that moment on. But I’ve been breaking that promise over and over ever since.

I had no pride. I just kept running away so that I could survive.

I don’t think that was the wrong decision. If I hadn’t fled those times, I wouldn’t be alive now.

But even if it was the right choice, the fact remains that I threw away my dignity and fled.

Always running, always scared, always frustrated with myself.

But this time, I stood my ground and lived to tell the tale.

Admittedly, that was because I didn’t have the option of escaping.

But still, I stood my ground and won the battle.

This is my first fair-and-square victory since arriving in the Lower Stratum.

I’m pumped.

Right now, I feel like I can take on anything that might come my way.

Ha-ha-ha!

Heroes, demon lords, whoever or whatever, come at me!

Ah, no earth dragons though, please.

Once again, I take a moment to bask in the joy of my victory.

I’m aliiiiiive!