Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

Trudge, trudge.

My footsteps are heavy. I ran as fast as I could until my legs gave out, but I’m still in serious shock. My precious home is gone! I thought nothing could shake me anymore, since not even becoming a spider and having to eat terrible food could disturb my iron heart, but now I feel like my soul’s been ripped out. 

Aahhhh, I knew the day was going to come when I would have to leave my home, and I was planning on preparing myself for it, but now that it’s actually happened the shock is way worse than I had thought. I thought that I was going to have a little more time, so this is a really serious blow. I had wanted to stay put at least until I hit level 10!

Mmmngh. Mmmmmnnnghhhh. MmmmmmMMMMMNNNNN… GAH!

Right!! The time for hesitation is over, the time for action is now. Let’s shift gears.

First things first: figure out my next step. I have three options:

Find another place in the dungeon to build a new nest;

Wander around the dungeon like I’m doing now;

Look for the exit.

That’s all I can come up with on such short notice. Option 1 is probably the best in terms of safety, but I think I’m going to rule it out.

My home was amazing, almost like a dream. All of my basic necessities were completely taken care of, and I barely had to work for it. It was a perfect paradise, wasn’t it? But maybe keeping myself sitting idly in there was making me weak, both physically and emotionally.

Since my home made hunting so easy, I was slowly turning into a good-for-nothing idiot who didn’t know how to deal with unexpected situations. This time, though, I’m going to be mindful of that. As I am now, if anything comes crashing through my next web, I’m just going to have to run away again.

That absolutely won’t do. If all I can do is run, then I’m going to have to deal with moments of frustration and sadness like this forever. When those people burned down my home, they lit a smoldering feeling in my heart. I am not going to be the kind of person that runs away from things. Yeah, that’s unforgivable.

All I could think about while my home was burning around me was how there was nothing I could do but flee. Yeah, that’s right, I had always been thinking that I would run away if something dangerous came. But now, now that I’ve run away? I’m so full of regret and shame that I want to tear myself apart. Could I do something like this again? Absolutely not, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.

What’s really making my blood boil is that my home wasn’t just some convenient place for me to live. It was near and dear to my heart. It might sound a little cliche, but I really felt like I belonged there.

Back on Earth, I really didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. My home was falling apart, and I never really fit in at school. Games were great, but ultimately they were just fiction. I didn’t really have anywhere to belong, so I adopted a rebellious, “fuck you, who needs to belong anyway” sort of attitude.

My home was something that I made, for my own sake, without worrying about what anyone else might think. It was a place just for me.

It was taken from me, and it felt like they were plundering my very existence. If I were to surrender here, I’d never be able to be proud of myself again. Why the hell was I thinking that just being able to live was bliss? That’s the philosophy of a naive idiot who grew up in a peaceful Japan. Living without pride isn’t living at all! I’m going to carve this deep into my soul.

My home was stolen from me. My pride has been wounded. I will become stronger, and I will redeem myself. Secluding myself in a new home and sticking to the safe hunting methods is no longer good enough. I need to get some real combat experience.

The two options I have left are either wandering around the dungeon or searching for the exit. It’s not like it’s much of a choice though, those two things aren’t very different. After all, I have no idea where the exit actually is, so I’d be wandering around the dungeon anyway.

First off, I know way too little about this dungeon. I may have been born and raised in here, but I don’t even know its name. I don’t know how big it is, don’t know the difficulty level, and don’t even have a vague idea of its layout. There are way too many things I don’t know.

Hm? Weren’t there other things I was complaining I didn’t know about…? Ah! Right, right, back when I picked up [Appraisal]! I couldn’t raise [Appraisal]s level any further while I was still in my home, but now that I’m outside I might be able to! If I can get its level up, it might start being a little more useful, so I’m going to start appraising everything I come across. Let’s begin!

{Labyrinth Wall}

{Labyrinth Wall}

{Labyrinth Ceiling}

Ah, as useless as ever. Hmm, well, if I keep this up and appraise everything I come across, I should be accumulating proficiency points. Ugh, having all of this information pouring into my brain is a pretty bad feeling, though. I’m just going to have to suffer until I get used to it, huh…

Back when I appraised that huge crowd of monsters, did I get hit by this same kind of bad feeling? Hmm, I don’t think so… Maybe the raw shock of seeing so many monsters overwhelmed the weird feelings that [Appraisal] caused. Well, whatever. For now, I’ll be wandering around the dungeon and appraising everything I can see.

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

Today is another blissfully lazy day. Ahhh, my home is so luxurious! Food just wanders right into my lap and my webs keep the riffraff out, so I can sleep peacefully even in this dangerous dungeon. I’ve covered the hard stone floor with a fluffy bed of threads, so sleeping is super comfortable. My daily routine basically just consists of lazing around and spinning thread. Ahh, bliss.

Thinking about it, my previous life was quite hectic! I didn’t think much about it at the time, but, seriously, only four hours of sleep? I woke up super early to go to school, and stayed up playing video games until I could barely stay up at all. That was my life, huh… I really loved playing games, but now that I look back on it, I wonder if maybe I was doing it because I felt like I had to.

I was one of the top players in that MMO, even though I was only a free player! I might have felt like I needed to live up to my reputation, and that might have pushed me past my capacity. Living up to other people’s expectations, though? What a joke! That’s just raw self-conceit. I don’t really give a shit about other people. I mean, well, that’s what I thought, but maybe even I had some faint traces of human emotion, even if I’m only finding out about it in hindsight.

But, now, in my new life, I have nothing meaningful to do at all! I feel like I’ve finally thrown off my shackles. When I started out, I was a little worried that I’d go crazy from all the free time, but it looks like I was just overthinking things. Sure, I might not have MMOs to occupy my free time, but it’s not like I’m bored out of my skull.

Somehow, it looks like my standards of happiness are a little bit lower compared to other people’s. Seriously, just being alive is great! I don’t have to worry about food or shelter, which is extremely great! I would be perfectly content living my entire life like this. I don’t really know how long spiders live, though.

Unfortunately, as much as I would hope otherwise, it’s basically guaranteed that something is going to force me out of my home. It could be some unexpected event, a change in the environment, or something awful breaking through my nest. I don’t know just what it will be, but I know it’s got to be coming. It’s inevitable. I should make sure I’m ready.

Yeah, okay! I said it! I said I would get myself ready! But this is way! Too! Soon!

Before my panicked eyes, one of the entrances to my home is catching fire. I had been gradually drifting off to sleep, but suddenly I saw flames start to rise. The home I had put so much effort into building was slowly being consumed by a sea of flame. Is my much-vaunted invincible thread weak to fire?!

What started the fire, though? That’s easy: a human. Standing before the flames is a human man. A man, holding a torch. A torch that almost certainly was used to set my web ablaze.

This is bad. I can’t really see it through the flames, but behind that man I can make out the forms of even more people. This fire can’t have been an accident. They were totally on a lookout for spiderwebs. If that’s the case, then they must be on the lookout for the spider monster inside it. Me.

If I stay here, I’ve got only two options: be swallowed by the flames or be cornered by the humans. Either way, I wind up dead. Luckily, the flames haven’t reached where I am yet, so I can leave through one of the other entrances. I don’t think the humans would be able to catch up to me if I did that.

I look around my home one last time. I’ve spent most of my life here, since I was reincarnated. I poured my sweat and tears into building it. I discovered so many things here, both good and bad. It had kept me safe for so long! I’ve spent so much time in it that I might even love it even more than I did my room in my previous life.

I take off, running away from the fire, skillfully slipping through my complicated network of spiderwebs. This is it, the last web. Once I pass this, there’s no turning back. Once I pass this, there’s nowhere safe to run to anymore.

Even so, without hesitating, I dive under my final web. I suppress the urge to turn around and look. For now, I must get as far away from here as I can.

And thus, I was driven from my home.

This might be a bit of a digression, but the adventurers that chased me away didn’t burn down my entire nest. The center was left largely unscathed, and in it they found the stockpile of fine silk balls I had been spinning. The adventurers retrieved it from the dungeon, and the clothes made from my silk fetched an absurdly high price. The king of a fairly major country even purchased some of it, which made the news.

I only found out about this much later, of course.

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

Some time has passed since my brother’s attack.

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Spider Thread – LV5] has become [Spider Thread – LV6]>

Thanks to how much I’ve been playing… ahem, practicing with my threads, the skill has leveled up a few times. Ahhh, but it’s been really slow-going, though. Thanks to all that, my home is now completely covered in pure white silk.

My home is completely different from how it was when I first made it. Firstly, there are far more webs now than there were before. When I first built it, I only built webs immediately around this T-junction I’m in now, and they were mostly just composed of nets placed high and low. Now, I’ve got webs stretching all the way out along each passage until the next intersection, and I’ve changed up the composition a bunch. I figured that there must be other creatures out there able to slip past my webs as easily as my dear, departed brother did, I might as well put a ton of them in their way so that they’ll be slowed down a bit. Just that alone makes my home a much safer place.

Doing all that wasn’t enough to raise my skill level, so next I freshened up the walls a bit. I’ve covered them in enough Thread to paint them absolutely white. Don’t think this is just ordinary wallpaper, though! They’re attached to the rest of my webs, so if anything gets caught in a web the wallpaper will come free and wrap up my prey. After many, many failed experiments, I have finally perfected these stupendous traps!

Shortly after I started putting up my wallpaper, my skill level went up by one. After I finished covering the walls, it was time for the finishing touch: carefully stringing invisibly fine threads around the entirety of my home. These threads weren’t the slightest bit sticky, but they snap at the slightest touch. They’re so weak that they’ll snap on their own after a while, just from slight changes in the air currents, and will then eventually stick harmlessly to the wallpaper. I wasn’t able to make a thread this fine before, but it looks like I gained even more control after my [Spider Thread] skill leveled up to five.

The main purpose of these threads is to alert me to any incoming enemies. I’ve attached myself to them, so I’ll feel the vibration is anything even brushes against them. These enemy-detecting threads are my solution to the extremely inconvenient problem of not being able to see behind me, and I’ve strung them up everywhere so that I don’t have to worry in the slightest about surprise attacks from the rear. Eventually, I’d like to figure out how to operate these remotely so that I can start feeling out areas outside my home.

Of course, after I finished all of this, I had completely run out of things to do. I turned to spinning a bunch of silk with no particular goal in mind, which thankfully pushed my skill proficiency over the edge to level six. This now lets me produce thread of unbelievably high quality, which I’ve been using my free time to turn into little balls of silk for later use. If I sold these to humans, I could make a ton of money, you know? Haha, well, I have no idea what their textile industry is even like.

Incidentally, spinning all of this silk did, of course, make me hungry, so I ate all of the pitiful little creatures that wandered helplessly into my webs. They were all, unfortunately, poisonous, which made finishing them off a huge pain thanks to their built-in resistance to my venomous fangs. Once they were caught in my web, though, my victory was all but assured. I’m pretty sure, though, that I wouldn’t be able to win against these guys at all if I didn’t have my webs. I have to bite things over and over to have any effect, and an unrestrained foe would have plenty of time to counterattack while I was busy.

Thanks to all of that poison, though, my [Poison Resistance] skill leveled up to five, and my [Poison Fang] leveled up to four. I don’t know if it’s thanks to [Poison Resistance], but I’m starting to get used to the bitter taste of this meat.

Let’s see, so far I’ve caught three {Elroe Randanel}s, one {Elroe Pekatot}, one {Elroe Basilisk}, and one, uh, {Finjegoat}. All of them got caught in my web, and I dispatched them all with my [Poison Fang]. The three Randanels showed up at the same time, which caught me a little off guard, but thanks to my amazing web-weaving skills I caught and killed them all quite easily. The Pekatot looked kind of like a penguin and a pelican had a baby, and that baby had weird monkey-like arms. The Finjegoat looked kind of like a bee, but it was super huge, nearly three meters long! It nearly filled up the entire hallway. Of course, thanks to that, it got tangled up in even more of my webs.

The most dangerous of them all was the Basilisk. It was a huge, lizard-like monster that, true to its name, had a petrification attack. Just like in the fairy tale, it hit me with its petrifying gaze and turned one of my front legs to stone. Luckily, the rate at which the petrification spread was very low, so I was able to kill it off before it became too much of a problem, but that was still the most formidable prey I’ve caught so far. Until I leveled up and shed my skin, I had to live with a petrified leg. Sure, picking up the [Petrification Resistance] skill may have made this a net plus, but this was even more dangerous than the frog was!

Ah, I may have perhaps glossed over it just now, but I did, in fact, level up. I did so three times, in fact! I am now level five. The skills that I know I have are [Poison Fang – LV4], [Spider Thread – LV6], [Appraisal – LV2], [Taboo – LV1], [Heresy Magic – LV1], [Poison Resistance – LV5], [Acid Resistance – LV2], [Decay Resistance – LV1], and [Petrification Resistance – LV1]. Even though I went up three levels, my skills have barely gone up! [Appraisal] hasn’t even budged from level two. It looks like I might have overestimated how many bonus proficiency points I got on level up.

I missed this when I first leveled up, but it looks like I gain skill points whenever I gain a level, although it doesn’t look like I get very many. I got really excited when the “Voice of Heaven” said I got skill points, but I was left seriously disappointed when I tried to actually spend them. I racked my brain, trying every convenient RPG skill I could think of like “Item Box” or “Automatic Regeneration”, but I couldn’t pick up any of them. I couldn’t even find out if they truly existed! Every time I asked, the only response I got back from the “Voice of Heaven” was “Insufficient skill points.”

Looks like plan “buy every skill and become undefeatable” is a no-go: picking up skills might be a little harder than I thought.

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

Somehow, I managed to get through my brother’s unexpected invasion. Oh my god. I am so glad that he was such an idiot. A serious fight would have been seriously dangerous.

I’m starting to get a feel for my own strengths. If this were actually a game, I could pull up my stats, but instead I’m fumbling around, trying to figure things out objectively. I’ve already determined that my best weapons are my thread and my venomous fangs: I tangle up my foe in my thread, and then put an end to them with my fangs. Unfortunately, my invincible secret combo technique might not actually work on some foes. I’m pretty screwed if that’s the case.

This applies not just to me, but to every other spider monster: thread and poison are our most important weapons. That idiot I just fought didn’t understand it at all. In a battle between spiders, whoever immobilizes their opponent wins, so the core of my strategy was to stick a thread to them and get them all tangled up. The result is this train wreck. Why the hell did you throw yourself at me without any sort of plan? You’re stupid! You’re an idiot! You’re going to get yourself killed! Heh, well, that already happened.

I’m actually kind of impressed that a guy this stupid survived for so long. I’ve been thinking that it’s far too dangerous for me to venture too far out from my home, so how the hell did this guy manage to survive for so long with all those monsters out there? Ah, well, thinking about it too hard won’t get me anywhere, because this guy is already dead, heh heh.

Hmm, what fate shall befall this jerk, whose corpse litters my territory? You should know this already. I’m hungry. The thought of eating a spider might be kind of gross, but I already put that kind of thinking aside when I had to eat that first frog. Hmm? He’s my brother? So what? It’s already been well established that my species is cannibalistic.

That said, let’s dig in.

Phew, I’m full. This might sound weird, but that was definitely a bit tastier than the frogs. Hmm, is it really that after all? The frog’s meat was both poisonous and acidic, was that why it was so bitter? Well, spider meat is still poisonous, so it was still pretty gross, but at least it wasn’t quite as bad as a frog.

As I came to this conclusion, the mechanical voice of the “Voice of Heaven” resounded in my head.

<Condition satisfied. Acquired Title [Foul Feeder(TL.1)].>

<Acquired skills [Poison Resistance – LV1] [Rot Resistance – LV1] as a result of Title [Foul Feeder].>

<Skill [Poison Resistance – LV1] has been integrated into [Poison Resistance – LV3].>

<Condition satisfied. Acquired Title [Foul Feeder].>

<Acquired skills [Taboo – LV1] [Heresy Magic – LV1] as a result of Title [Foul Feeder]>[

What?! What the hell is this? I’m usually surprised whenever I hear the “Voice of Heaven”, but this time I’m not just surprised, I’m dumbfounded. Ah, let’s take some time and calm myself down. Lately, I’ve taken to spinning thread into little white balls to soothe my nerves. Ahh, that’s better.

Alright, hm, she said “title”. Those are like bonuses you get when you meet some special requirements and earn an achievement, right? That’s probably it, but, uh, these are pretty gross. Disgraceful, even. [Foul Feeder]? That’s insulting! [Kin Eater]? That’s straight-up awful! Can other people see these? Maybe someone with high [Appraisal] skill can. Wow. Man, if anyone saw these I’d be done in an instant. Well, I’m a monster, so I’d probably be attacked long before anyone bothered looking at my titles.

Putting aside how awful these titles are, aren’t they kind of unbelievable? In a single moment I got four skills! Four! I already had [Poison Resistance], but the “Voice of Heaven” made it sound like the new skill got rolled into my previous skill’s proficiency rating. Ahhh, I really wish I had an easy way to check, not knowing for sure is super inconvenient! I need to get [Appraisal]’s level up.

I’m way more interested in the other three skills.[Rot Resistance] is pretty understandable, I think. I’d probably raise its level by eating decaying or rotting things, although I can’t ever see myself wanting to. The other two skills are the problematic ones.

[Taboo]? That’s certainly the name of the skill, but I have literally zero clue what it does. I can’t even make a wild guess! Hello? GMs? Can I get an explanation, please? If I don’t know what this does, I can’t use it!

[Heresy Magic] is the same problem. I have no idea how to use this! What should I do, chant some sort of dark incantation? I’m a spider! I can’t speak! All I can do is make this raspy sort of noise by grinding my teeth together. Man, even if I could talk I have no idea what the incantation even is, so it’s not like that would fix any of my problems.

Just to test it out, I clear my mind and concentrate on the words [Heresy Magic]. ………yep, nothing’s happening. I can’t use this!

Ugh! I thought that getting all of these skills and titles was going to be great, but the only useful thing I got out of it was [Rot Resistance]! Well, I guess my [Poison Resistance] may have gotten a proficiency boost, even if it didn’t go up in level. …now that I think about it, those were both from [Foul Feeder], weren’t they? [Kin Eater], what good are you?!

Ah, I just realized, if you earn [Kin Eater] by eating a family member, all of my siblings who survived that battle back when we were born probably have that title too. Hmm, but if that’s the case then that idiot I just killed should have had that title too. I guess the [Kin Eater] title doesn’t really have much effect on combat ability, then, so it wouldn’t matter that I can’t figure out how to use it. Ahh, I see! This must be because it was so easy to acquire. If it’s easy to get, its effect will be low.

Still, finding about this title system is pretty huge! Earning a bunch of titles might be a very efficient way to pick up a bunch of skills. I don’t really know what new titles I can acquire, or how I might go about earning them, but let’s try a bunch of different things to check!

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

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.

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

I’ve got some thread wound around my forelegs. It stretches when I pull them apart, and snaps back together when I relax. Awesome. It’s stretchy like rubber, just as I was hoping.

What am I doing? Glad you asked. Ever since I found out that my [Spider Thread] has a skill associated with it, I’ve been trying various experiments to raise my proficiency. Until now, I haven’t really been trying to use my threads for anything but building webs and tying up my prey, so I truly had no idea what these were capable of.

Hm? What happened to going outside and leveling up, you say? Haha, as if. I may have gotten a little bit excited immediately after I leveled up, but after I calmed down I realized how foolish it was. Think about it: I’m a girl who’s only good at video games. Do you seriously think I’d be good in a real fight? As if. I might have a monster’s body, but I still barely know how to move it.

There’s a world of difference between playing a game and actually moving my body. For starters, a game character doesn’t get tired, while a real body runs out of stamina if you move too much. Back on Earth, for instance, I was a very frail girl who got tired just walking to and from school. If I had to fight a monster with real, natural-born monster instincts, I think it would be very difficult for me to win, wouldn’t it?

Therefore, my current plan of letting prey get stuck in my webs has a much higher chance of success. Compared to aimlessly wandering around the dungeon, this is not only safer but far more efficient as well. I’m sure there may come a time where I have to leave my home, but I first want to get my level up a bit until I have a much bigger margin of error. I may have played an absurdly specialized character in that MMO, but in other RPGs, I usually prefer to do a bunch of early grinding to get my levels up. That way, I can just steamroll every boss in my way while I whistle a jaunty tune. Now that it’s my own, precious life, I’d much rather play it safe until I think I’m strong enough to beat everything easily.

So, as part of my plan to safely get my level up, I’m trying to raise the level of my [Spider Thread] skill. My thread is my lifeline, right? If I hadn’t made my home, I’d still be lost wandering around the dungeon. The thought sends shivers down my spine. I wouldn’t have been able to survive like that, would I? I wouldn’t have any safe place to rest, nor would I be able to catch any prey. I owe this pleasant lifestyle entirely to my wonderful silk.

Thus, I think leveling up my thread is my best course of action. I don’t know how it might change as I gain more levels, but I can’t think of any downsides. Just spinning more thread didn’t seem to raise my skill at all, so I’ve been trying various experiments to see what its properties are. I’ve tried to see if I have any control over its various properties, like its thickness, adhesiveness, strength, and elasticity.

Controlling the thickness was extremely simple: if I think about spinning thin thread, thin thread comes out. I can’t make it so fine you can’t see it, but I can make it about the thickness of a human hair. In the dim light of the dungeon, such a thin thread should be almost impossible to see. I did a little test on its strength, and as expected it gets a lot less resilient as it gets thinner. Ah, well, it can’t be helped. It’s only natural that a thin thread would be more fragile than a thick one. Hopefully, when my skill level goes up, the threads will get stronger.

Conversely, making the thread thicker makes it way stronger. The thickest thread I can produce is nearly two centimeters in diameter. It’s almost like a rope, isn’t it? Well, two centimeters is about all I can produce under normal circumstances, but if I braid a bunch of it together I can get a much thicker cord. That takes time, though.

My adhesion experiments went… poorly. It’s true that there are both sticky and non-sticky kinds of spider thread, but the real reason why spiders don’t get stuck in it is because they know what they’re doing. I can move around my webs just fine on instinct, but when I tried to figure things out manually, I somehow managed to tie my entire body up. Ahhhhh, yeah. It’s only natural that things would get tangled up when trying to learn how to use different kinds of thread, but it’s my own stupidity that got me tied up.

Ahh, I was too impatient. I hadn’t yet noticed that I could reduce the stickiness of my threads after I spun them, and I almost died thanks to getting caught in my own trap. That would have been way, way, way too dumb of a way to go out. Thanks to a stroke of divine inspiration, I realized that, as long as the thread’s still attached to my butt, I can change its properties. After I disentangled myself, I tested to see if I could change the properties of a thread after I’d cut it, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case.

After I pulled myself together, I experimented with the thread’s strength. While I did confirm that thin threads are weak and thick threads are strong, I have no idea what the maximum strength of these threads actually are. How could this be, you ask? When I crank the strength up to the max, I’m completely and utterly incapable of breaking it with my own strength. Even scarier, I can’t slice or bite through it. Anything that gets caught up in this thread will probably be stuck there forever. Ah, well, there might be monsters that are strong enough to tear through it, so I shouldn’t be too overconfident.

Last but not least, the results of my elasticity test: this stretchy, bouncy thread that I’ve got wrapped around my forelegs. Yeah. This rubbery thread is going to be super useful. If I could find suitable rocks to attach to it, I could make a simple slingshot, and I’m sure I’ll come up with many other uses for it.

I’m quite satisfied with my experimental results. However, even after all that, my skill level didn’t go up at all. Plus, I found out about a huge issue with my silk-spinning that I can’t ignore: making these threads consumes my energy like mad. As a result, even though it’s been barely any time since I killed that frog, I’m already exceedingly hungry. It’s not like my fuel efficiency is terrible, but if I’m going to be spinning such large quantities of thread in the future, I’m definitely going to need to eat a bigger lunch first.

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

It had been an extremely ordinary day. All I expected to do was go to school, hang out with my friends, go home, play some games, take a bath, and go to sleep. That, at least, was how it was supposed to go.

I walked to school, rubbing sleep out of my eyes. I stayed up way too late last night playing an MMO, and I was paying the price this morning. I had somehow managed to get into a party with Baldy, and I completely lost track of time as we farmed dungeon after dungeon.

Baldy, by the way, was a kind of famous character in the MMO that I played. He was a quiet, older gentleman with a bald head who pushed the limits of what can be accomplished as a free-to-play character. He completely ignored status and romance, focusing instead on raising his physical ability to its extreme. He was a ridiculously amazing player, too, able to dance around the front lines of a battle without breaking a sweat. On top of that, he barely ever said a word in chat. His quiet, almost manly playstyle made him very popular with other players. I finally managed to get into a party with him, so it was only natural that I got a little too excited and stayed up way too late.

I arrive at school, stifling a yawn as I enter the classroom.

“Hey,” says my classmate Kyouya as I get to my desk.

“Oh, hey,” I reply.

“Yo!” says Kanata, “Whoa, what’s up? You look awful.”

Kyouya Sasajima and Kanata Ooshima were two of my classmates. We played a bunch of the same MMOs, so we were pretty good friends.

“Oh, yeah, check this out. Last night I got into a party with Baldy.”

“Whoa, seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously,” I reply. “I stayed up waaay too late playing with him.”

“Wow, I’m jealous. That was after I quit?” asked Kanata. We’d been playing together, but he had to go to bed and logged out well before I did. “Fuck, if I knew that was going to happen I would have stayed on a little longer.”

Kanata seemed really upset with himself, but in truth we never would have seen Baldy without him. We needed another person to fill the slot Kanata had left, and Baldy answered our messages in LFG.

“So, you really saw Baldy, huh? What’s he like?” asked Kyouya.

Memories of Baldy’s gallant figure flashed through my mind. “That man cannot be human,” I said. “Can you believe that he was able to advance while completely dodging the Bezebel Witch’s spells?”

The Bezebel Witch was a particularly nasty boss found in high-level dungeons. She was known for firing out a ludicrous barrage of magic attacks. The forums keep calling it a bullet hell. The worst part about this boss is that she never stopped firing. Attackers would be hit by wave after unceasing wave of magic blasts. Ordinarily, what you would try to do is either massively buff your magic resistance and try to whittle her down via suicide attacks, or set up a super-defensive front-line and fire equally large swarms of magic back at her.

Baldy, on the other hand, dodged every blast, got close, and killed her with melee damage. This was completely and utterly unexpected. My mouth actually hung open as I watched him go.

“Wow, that’s Baldy for you. I guess that’s why people call him Idaten(TL.1),” said Kyouya.

“Man, you have to have serious skill to pull off a crazy stunt like that,” said Kanata, tapping his arm. Certainly, I know that if I had the same stats and gear that Baldy had, I wouldn’t be able to do anything like that. “Man, I want to get better!”

“Want to grind out a few more levels after school?” I ask.

“Yeah, definitely!”

“Me too. Let’s find a particularly nasty place and train a bunch.”

“Hm?” I said as I rummaged around in my bag, trying to find my pencil case. I realized, a bit too late, that I had taken it out so that I could write down a few notes as I was playing last night and never put it back. “Ah, crap…”

“What’s wrong?” asked Yuika Hasebe, who was sitting next to me in class.

“I forgot my pencil!”

“Oh no, sorry to hear that. Would you like to borrow mine?” she asked, holding up a spare mechanical pencil.

I took it, gladly. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“You owe me one!”

“Haha, okay,” I said, smiling wryly.

That promise was not one I would be able to keep.

It happened in the middle of literature class, while I was fighting valiantly against falling asleep. Our very short teacher, who we affectionately called Oka-chan, was standing at the front of the class, textbook in one hand, reciting some sort of classical poem. Most of the class was reading along in their own textbooks.

In an effort to stay awake, I forced myself to look up. In the row in front of me, I saw Rihoko(TL.2), another one of my classmates. Rihoko wasn’t her real name, but she looked like a horror so we abbreviated that–Real Horror Child, Rihoko for short(TL.3). She was extremely gaunt, deathly pale, always wore a gloomy expression, and was generally a creepy sort of girl. I felt bad thinking about her like that, but there wasn’t really any polite way to put it. As if she was mocking my efforts to stay awake, Rihoko was fast asleep at her desk. I made myself look away.

That’s when it happened.

It was kind of like a fissure, floating in the empty air in the middle of the classroom, that nobody seemed to have noticed but me. It was hard to describe it as anything else but a crack in space. It was growing, too, and looked like it was going to split open at any moment. I saw it spreading through the air above me, but couldn’t do anything but stare blankly at it. Even if I had reacted differently, I don’t think there’s anything I could have done about what happened next.

In an instant, the space around us shattered in a blast of glorious light, and I was enveloped by blinding pain. That’s when I — no, we — died.

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

While I was lazing about in my home(TL.1), my threads started to vibrate. It looks like I’ve caught my second victim! Good timing, too, I was just starting to get hungry. I approach my prey with a skip in my step. …Honestly, though, a skipping spider is a little bit too surreal.

Last time, I was a little too careless and walked straight into my opponent’s counterattack. This time, I approach much more cautiously. Now then, what do we have here?

{Elroe Frog}

Oh, my stars and garters! Ain’t this another frog? How in the heck’d this happen?! Ain’t there a right pile of other monsters in this here dungeon?! Why’d I get the lousy luck of seeing this sucker twice?!

Haah, haah, hah. I dropped into my fake Southern accent, didn’t I. Seriously, why’d th…

Splash!

NOOOOOOOOOO!

While I was busy doing my one-man standup routine the frog spewed acid on me. I can’t believe it took me two lives to figure this out: I am a huge idiot!

Ahh, yeah, the pain helped me calm down a little bit. This time, my [Acid Resistance] level didn’t go up, so I guess my skill proficiency wasn’t raised enough. Well, that’s okay for now.

I wrap the helpless frog up in my silk until it can’t move an inch, and bite it. Crunch. Just like last time, this frog doesn’t die from one bite; perhaps they have poison resistance. Even still, the frog grows weaker as it struggles against its bonds. I quickly drag it into my home, then spend some time fixing my broken webs.

All right, all done here. I turn my attention back to the frog as it rolls around helplessly on the floor. Looks like one bite isn’t going to cut it.

Crunch!

I bite it again. Last time I wound up biting the frog over and over, but if you think about it that’s probably not necessary. My fangs are coated in venom, so biting it a couple times and letting my venom do the work is just fine.

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Fang – LV1] has become [Poison Fang – LV2]>

Oh! A skill leveled up! And it’s one I’ve never seen before, too. The frog stopped moving almost immediately after my skill leveled, which was a little bit surprising. Ah, but this makes sense: if my [Poison Fang] skill increased, then my poison must have gotten stronger as well. That’s very nice!

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual Small Lesser Taratect has increased from LV1 to LV2.>

Hm?

Hmmmmm?

Ah! Something feels weird!

Uh?! What’s this?! My skin is peeling off! Am I molting? I’m molting!

<All basic attributes have increased.>

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Resistance – LV2] has become [Poison Resistance – LV3].>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Spider Thread – LV3] has become [Spider Thread – LV4].>

<Skill points acquired.>

Mmmm! No! W, wait up! That sounded really important! I was busy, and you were mumbling at me when I wasn’t paying attention! Please, say it again! One more time!

Silence.

Oof. Seriously? Ah, no, no, let’s keep calm and try to remember. She said “level up,” right? I wasn’t hearing things? Aaah, I really wasn’t paying attention, since I was unexpectedly shedding all of my skin at the time! No, wait, now that I think about it, isn’t spontaneously molting kind of unusual to begin with? I wonder if this is an effect of leveling up. Did my body change at all?

For now, let’s get the rest of this dead skin off of me. Whoa, check out this huge wound that was on my back! That must be from when I got hit by that frog’s acid earlier. I couldn’t see it at the time, but this looks really serious. Hm? Now that I’m thinking about being able to see things, it looks like that hole in my field of vision got repaired! Ohhh! I must get fully healed when I level up!

Yep. This is, without a doubt, leveling up. I feel so light and refreshed, like everything is in perfect harmony. This must have been caused by gaining experience after killing the frog, yeah? Ah, right, the frog, I should be eating. Multitasking, right.

Okay, so, let’s try to remember everything, in order. The first line was definitely about my level going up. I started to molt immediately after that, so I really wasn’t paying that much attention while the “Voice of Heaven” kept mumbling. Remember, remember… ah! Skills! There was something about my skills going up, right? Not just once, but two at a time right? …what’s up with that?

Oh! Right! There was something right before the skills. Something about… bonus proficiencies? Ah! Right! Bonus proficiencies from leveling up, or basically bonus points that I get for free whenever I level! That would explain why two skills leveled up simultaneously.

The skills that went up were, hm…

and… [Spider Thread]? Hmm, even my silk is from a skill, huh…? I only really found out about it when I leveled, though. Hmm, if I just keep spinning thread, this is going to be super easy to level up. This is great information!

Also, when I leveled, I was fully healed. It feels kind of like my stats have gone up too. But the most important thing is that I get bonus skill proficiency when I level! I don’t know how much I get, but since I got ranks in two different skills at the same time, it’s probably a pretty decent amount, right? Looks like getting levels is a pretty efficient way of getting skill ranks as well.

Levels, though. I was kind of hoping that they existed since I found out about skills, but they seriously exist! This world really is like a game, though I try not to treat it as such. Living my life as if I were in a game is kind of a scary concept, you know? It might be a bit too late, though. I can’t help but already be a little bit excited about all of this. After all, I’m a gamer down to my core.

Umf. Let’s forget about skill points for now, since there’s really no point in me worrying if I can get more of them.

[Acid Resistance], huh. I got that through an entirely different method than when I picked up [Appraisal]. [Acid Resistance] does what it says: it makes me more resilient to acid. I got it when that annoying frog shot his acid spit all over me.

That saliva attack was probably both acid-type and poison-type. When I got hit by it, I took acid damage, which led to automatically acquiring the [Acid Resistance] skill. Was it because I took damage in general, or was it because it had an “acid” attribute? I also can’t tell if it’s because I took a certain amount of damage, or because I kept taking acid damage, or even if it was just a certain amount of time after I took the first attack.

Well, what’s important here is that once I take damage of a particular type, I start to gain resistance to it. It might sting for a bit, but if I can endure it, I’ll get a new skill out of it. If I took a fire attack, I’d get [fire resistance], right? When I’m thinking about my defense strategies, I should make sure I think about acquiring new resistances. If I see a new attack that doesn’t look like it will straight-up kill me, should I let myself get hit by it? Hmm, no, getting hurt sucks, and there’s no guarantee I’ll gain a new resistance after just one attack. Ah, it’s not just because I don’t like pain: it’s always better not to take any unnecessary risks.

I got [Acid Resistance] when I got hit by that frog’s attack, but my [Poison Resistance] leveled up as well. If what the, uh, “Voice of Heaven” said was true, then I had [Poison Resistance] from the start. Well, that makes sense: I’m a spider, and I use poison, so of course I should have resistance. Do I have any other natural skills like that? I don’t think I have any way to check! If the “Voice of Heaven” hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t even know that I have [Poison Resistance] to begin with! There’s probably loads of other spider skills that I don’t know that I have.

Ahh, this is a mystery… what else could I have? I might have some sort of “Poison Strike” skill. It would be great if I could know for sure, but, y’know, I have no way to check.

Just to test, I whisper “Character Statistics” to myself, but there’s no response. Maybe if [Appraisal]’s level were higher, I could check. …Wait. [Appraisal]’s level… level as in… proficiency, maybe? Ah, is this a way for me to level [Appraisal] up?

Proficiency means the degree to which someone has mastered a skill, right? If [Appraisal] uses the same system as my resistance skills, then becoming more proficient at it will cause it to level up. Thus, if I use it a bunch, I should get better at it, and it will level up, right? Haha! I thought that since I bought it with skill points I’d have to spend more skill points to level it up, but I might have jumped to conclusions!

I immediately start spamming [Appraisal] on everything I can see. Tons of useless information like “wall” and “floor” starts pouring into my brain. Ah, this is a pretty terrible feeling, like I’m getting drunk on this deluge of information.

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Appraisal – LV 1] has become [Appraisal – LV 2]>

WORTH IT! Woohoo! It’s just one level, but it worked! This is a huge step forward. Trembling a little bit, I Appraise myself.

{Small Lesser Taratect – no name}

Ohhh! Now it’s even displaying my species! As before there’s not very much information at all, but it’s way better than the generic “spider” label I got out of it before.

But, hm. I’m not just “small”, but also “lesser”, huh… it’s like I’m inferior, or something. What a downer! I was so happy after I got [Appraisal] to finally level up, but, seriously, “lesser”? I didn’t have any high hopes or anything, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to be lesser! Ugh, well, since I was such a loser in my previous life, I guess it’s only natural that this would carry forward.

…Well then, time to Appraise everything else and get its level up even higher!

It’s not leveling up. I’ve used it on every single wall and crag and rock I can see, and its level hasn’t even gone up once. On top of that, where [Appraisal] had said “wall” before, now it says “labyrinth wall”, which is… not particularly helpful. That’s not the important part though: why isn’t this leveling up at all?!

Hmmmm. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that maybe Appraising something multiple times doesn’t cause me to gain any proficiency. That’s probably the case, otherwise it would be way too easy for me to grind it out in the safety of my home. Just to be sure, I Appraise everything around me again, but, sure enough, the level doesn’t go up, almost like I’m not actually getting more proficient.

If that’s true, then in order to level [Appraisal], I’m going to need to Appraise things that are outside my home, huh… Didn’t I Appraise a bunch of monsters back when it was still level one? I must have gotten a bunch of proficiency back then.

Going outside, though… what a pain. I have such a nice home here, why should I force myself to go out? It’s way better to just stay here, living safely in my little web, although I guess I’m not going to get any skill ranks like this. I guess there’s pros and cons, but all of the danger that I might face outside is a pretty serious con.

Yeah. I’ve decided. Let’s stay here for a little bit longer and enjoy this lazy lifestyle until I’m sick of it. It’s not like the hand of God will come down upon me if I slack off a little, right?

Zzzzz. Yaaaaawn! Ahhh, I slept a ton! Did I oversleep? I’m feeling a little sluggish. Ahh, well, sleeping without a care in the world is the best!

How long did I sleep? Well, in my previous life I tended to sleep for about four hours a day. This, though, feels more like the time where I passed out from lack of sleep and slept through an entire day. It’s hard to tell, though… humans and spiders are very different creatures, so I don’t really have any way to figure out how long I was actually asleep. Yeahhh, I want a clock.

How long has it even been since I was born? I’ve got a vague sense that it’s been two, maybe three days, but since I’m in a dungeon it’s not like I can use daylight to tell.

I don’t even know what kind of calendar this world uses! Maybe one day isn’t actually twenty-four hours. On Earth, a year is the length of time it takes the planet to go around the sun, and a day is the time it takes for it to spin around its axis. Does this planet have exactly the same size and mass of Earth, and does it spin around its star at the same rate? It’s pretty unlikely. Ah, well, that’s just the explanation according to science, but in this magical parallel world, it’s not entirely impossible that we’re operating under entirely different laws of physics.

It’s not like I can really verify it either way, though. If I ever leave this place someday I might look into it, but for now I’ll just enjoy this lackadaisical lifestyle to the fullest. …Well, maybe instead of lazing about, I should try thinking about some of the unanswered questions I’ve collected until now.

First off, how did I die? Ah, hm, now that I think about it, I’ve basically just been assuming that I’m dead. I’ve been working under the assumption that I suddenly died and was reincarnated as a spider, but I don’t actually remember dying.

Hm?

The last thing I remember was being in Japanese Lit. Our teacher, Oka(TL.1), was in the middle of reading something aloud, right? I was drowsily nodding off, then suddenly there was a blast of blinding pain, then I don’t remember anything after that. If I did die, it was most likely because of all of that pain, but I don’t know what could have hurt so bad to begin with.

Well, the most likely theory is that I died from that mysterious pain, then I was reincarnated as a spider. If I didn’t die, I could… merely be possessing this spider while my real body is comatose in a hospital bed? Oh, and this one’s even crazier, but it could be that I’m a completely different person with a copy of my old memories, and my original self is still stuck in literature class.

Hmmm, I’m sure that if I kept thinking I could come up with even crazier ideas. If I wasn’t really me, how would I prove it? I could try saying incomprehensible things like “I am me, therefore I am me,” or whatever… It’s hard to believe, but reincarnation is the simplest explanation I’ve come up with, so I’m going to stick with that for now. “I think, therefore I am,” right? Let’s just assume that I’m me.

Next up, this body that I’m in. A spider’s body is surprisingly convenient! I’m not having any trouble moving around on my eight legs, and it’s actually way easier for me to move around as a spider than as a human. I can run along walls, and, absurdly, can even walk along the ceiling. I’ve got a few weaknesses, though. I don’t have hands, and I can’t look behind me without turning around.

Not having hands is a real pity. I could use my front legs to grip things, but it’s really a poor substitute. I won’t have anywhere near the same precision or finesse that I did with my human hands. Plus, my legs each end in a single sharp claw, and there’s no way something so dangerous could be used in place of a finger. It’s a shame, but I’ll be able to manage somehow.

There’s only one really big problem: I can’t see what’s behind me.

This is extremely dangerous. Spiders don’t have necks, so my head is attached directly to the rest of my body and can’t turn independently. I’ve got plenty of eyes, so my field of view is actually quite large even if I can’t turn my head, but I’ve got no way to see what’s behind me at all. I’m incredibly vulnerable to a surprise attack.

I might try using my threads as a countermeasure. Since I can’t see behind me, I’ll need to rely on some other sense, and if I can keep threads spread out behind me, I could use my sense of touch to tell if there’s something behind me. Ahh, well, easier said than done. I need more practice with my threads. I’m safely hiding in my home, so I don’t really need an early-warning system, but better safe than sorry.

Lastly, skills. There’s a million little things I want cleared up, but for now let’s just focus on the big one: what the heck is a “skill”?

If I’m using game logic, a skill is some kind of ability or technique. The kinds of actions you can perform are based on the skills you have, so as you acquire more skills you can do more things. However, I don’t know if this world treats skills the same way, so I shouldn’t make any assumptions.

My first priority is figuring out what skills I have, and what skills I can acquire.

I have three skills that I know about: [Appraisal – LV 1], [Acid Resistance – LV 2], and [Poison Resistance – LV 2]. I bought [Appraisal] with skill points. Those are a mystery too, huh. I spent all of my points on [Appraisal], but I have no idea how to get more. If this were a game, I’d get more when I leveled up, but I don’t know if this world even has things like levels. It could be that I’ll get more as time passes.

Worst-case scenario? Never getting any more. Skill points may just be something an individual is born with, and you only get to spend them once. Ahh, that would be shockingly awful.

I hope that’s not true!