Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
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Aaaaahh, I’m hungryyyyy, but nothing’s gotten caught in my web so I can’t eat! I’ve got no other way to fix this, so I’m just going to lie down and try to conserve my energy. Hey! This is definitely not just me being lazy again.
I thought I was going to be able to sleep as much as I wanted, but I’m rather rudely woken up when one of the threads I had attached to my webs started to vibrate. Did I catch something?! My fleeting joy turns to impatience in an instant. Since I’m connected to my webs, I can tell what’s happening to them just by feeling their vibrations, but this is a kind of vibration I’ve never felt before.
Something is touching my web, that’s for certain, but it’s definitely not caught in it. It’s almost… like… something’s walking on it?
Impossible. Sure, I was prepared for the possibility that there might be some strong creatures that could break right through my webs, but I hadn’t even thought to imagine that something could just casually walk around on them like it was nothing!
I freeze up under these unexpected circumstances, and fail to react in time. Something has already slipped through my webs and is encroaching upon my territory. This is bad. I already decided that I was going to run away if something broke through my webs, but now I find myself face to face with this guy. I was too careless. I wasn’t 100% awake yet and got thrown way off-kilter by this unexpected thing happening. For the first time since I built my home, I feel danger.
{Small Lesser Taratekt}
The thing before me is another spider monster, just like me. It looks like, since we’re the same species, it can move through my webs easily.
Hello, Brother. Well, rather, you’re probably my sibling, but I don’t really know if you’re my brother or sister or whatever. This is the tearful reunion of two siblings separated at birth! Except a little more life-threatening.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, slow down. I just met this guy, there’s no guarantee that he’s actually my enemy! Sure, the other spiders may have been eating each other as soon as we were all born, but maybe now our familial bond will kick in.
Rustle, rustle. Hissss!
Ah, yeah, this guy’s an enemy. He’s just posturing though, not attacking yet. It seems like he’s looking back and forth, taking in the layout of the place.
What should I do? I don’t think running away will work. We’re the same species, after all, and probably thus have the same sort of physical abilities. I’ve stayed alive thus far thanks to my speed at running away, but if this guy is as fast as I am then there’s no way that’s going to work. Even if I do manage to run away, I won’t even be safe then! There are countless monsters lurking around out there, outside of the safety of my home. I’m already super hungry, so if I exhausted myself by running away at top speed I would be in serious danger outside. Even if I managed to get away safely, and even if I still had barely enough energy to build a new home, I’d still have to find a good place to put it, and wandering around exhaustedly is straight-up suicidal. Running away is a terrible idea.
Well then! It looks like my only option is to beat this guy. How should I do that? Can I even win? It feels like I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here. We’re the same species, so our physical ability should be roughly the same… that is, if our levels are the same.
This guy was born at about the same time I was, so I’m guessing that there can’t be that much of a difference between us. We’re probably no more than one level apart, tops. This guy, though, has probably been wandering around outside while I’ve been staying in my home, so he’s probably got at least one level on me.
Worst-case scenario, this guy might not actually be my sibling, and is instead a grizzled veteran born long ago. If that’s the case, his level is absolutely going to be way higher than mine. If he’s been alive long enough to reach the point where he can walk around unhindered, then I have zero chance at all.
Whatever the case, this is going to be a life-or-death battle. I shouldn’t worry much about this guy’s level at this point, all I can do is try my best. If that’s not good enough, well, it’s been fun, but that’s the end of my short little spider life. Dying would suck, but I know first-hand that reincarnation exists, so I’ve got hope that there’s another world after this one.
All right, I’ve prepared myself. Time to focus on this battle. Clear my thoughts, focus only on my enemy. My foe seems to have finished his preparations as well. He shifts his weight backwards a little bit, as if preparing to leap.
Exactly as I predicted, he jumps high into the air. As he plunges down at me, holding the claws on his forelegs high, I give him a pitying look. I step back quickly, firing threads at my mid-air opponent. This guy has made a serious mistake. Not only is he flying through the air, unable to dodge, but he chose to attack with his claws instead of his much more powerful venomous fangs. Don’t get me wrong, our claw attacks aren’t that bad. Their main use, though, should really be to restrain a foe, and not a primary weapon. As spiders, our chief weapons are our poison and our thread. Against a scrub like this who doesn’t even understand that, there’s no way I can lose.
I snare my brother easily with my threads as he soars over me. Entangled, he crashes to the ground. I waste no time in running up to him.
Chomp!
I bite him again and again with my envenomed fangs. It seems like he’s got [Poison Resistance] like I do, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ve got him all tied up, so my victory is assured. I’ve got all the time in the world to pump him so full of toxins that it exceeds his resistance.
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Fang – LV2] has become [Poison Fang – LV3]>
Thanks to all of the venom I’ve injected into this guy, my skill leveled up. At about the same time, my brother’s life finally faded away. Brother, I will never forget you! You were the first fool to break into my home.
APM - Translation 