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

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I feel warm, almost like I’m submerged in pleasant water. I drift, wrapped in this warm embrace, and feel at peace. After a while, this comes to an end, and I’m pushed through a tiny hole into the outside world. I feel uneasy about being pushed out of that warm, safe place, but once I’m out, the world seems to open up before me.

This is my oldest memory.

“Your Highness, please come down from there! You’ll catch a cold.”

As I sit at the window, gazing outside, a maid calls out to me. Just as she says, it is quite cold out there. Everything outside is covered in a thick blanket of snow. Watching the snow fall is quite a pleasant way to pass the time, but it seems like I’ve been sitting here for quite some time. Recently, I seem to lose track of time easily when I’m concentrating.

“Alright, there, up we go!”

The maid picks me up and sets me down on the bed. The bed is huge, almost too big for just one person, but there’s already another person here: a very young baby, sleeping pleasantly and soundly. This crib seems to have been custom-made so the two of us could sleep comfortably next to each other.

By now, it should be quite obvious: I am a baby.

It may seem strange for a baby to be able to think so clearly, but I possess all of the faculties that I had in my previous life. I had been a perfectly ordinary, unassuming high school student, but something happened and before I knew it I was suddenly a baby.

It looks like this is reincarnation: the thing where a dead person is reborn as another. This, of course, means that my previous life is over. The last thing I remember was sitting in Japanese Literature. I watched a hole open up in the empty air of the classroom, and then my memories abruptly cut off.

Holes in spacetime do not generally tend to appear on Earth. That’s probably what killed me. Then, for some reason, I was reincarnated with my memories from my previous life.

If you were to ask me if I had any regrets, I really couldn’t say that I didn’t. Far from it, really. I was still in the height of my youth. I wanted to hang out some more with my friends, and I never got the chance to try dating a girl my age. My parents, my grandparents, I died before any of them. I’ve left them with such a heavy burden. I get depressed whenever I think about how I’m never going to see them again.

I’m worried about what happened to everyone else at school after I died. I remember a huge explosion when that crack opened up in the air. It certainly killed me, but what about everyone else? Kyouya and Kanata… my neighbor Hasebe… did everyone die along with me? If I think about it, that’s really scary. That morning, I greeted them like it was no big deal, but now I’ll never be able to see them again.

Ever since I was reincarnated, I’ve been fighting my way through the uneasiness that has been gripping me. Of course I would be uneasy: I was suddenly reborn as a baby, with no knowledge of how I had gotten here. Furthermore, I wasn’t reborn in Japan. I wasn’t even reborn on Earth. This is another world entirely.

This took me a little while to figure out. I didn’t understand anything they were saying, and I haven’t been outside this nursery very much, so there’s many things that it’s taken me a while to learn. At first, I thought that I was in some European country. Then, however, I saw someone use magic, and it was immediately obvious that I had thought wrong.

This world has magic. The first time I saw it was when a high-ranking priest came to bestow a blessing on me. My body was wrapped in a sparkling light, and an overflowing strength welled up within me. You might think that it was a trick, or my imagination, but this was of a level that couldn’t be covered by such a trivial explanation. It would be way too hard to fake what I felt then.

I was excited about the existence of magic as soon as I found out about it. Even still, after the initial excitement faded, I was back to being uneasy. Am I going to be able to make it in a world of magic? I was an extremely ordinary guy in my previous life. Back in Japan, this didn’t cause me any problems, but this world might not tolerate such an ordinary person. Am I going to be able to live up to what’s expected of me? I don’t know, and it’s making me nervous.

I desperately set to learning the local language. Not being able to understand anyone around me was even worse than I had ever imagined. I had no idea what anyone was saying. I never thought I could ever feel so helpless and alone. I felt so isolated, like I was the only person in the world.

The uneasiness from being reborn into another world, from not knowing the language, from not knowing if I’d be able to survive, all of these compounding fears weighed heavily on me. I was saved, though, by the baby girl peacefully sleeping next to me. My sister, born of a different mother. She has no worries at all, sleeping peacefully as if nothing in the world could possibly go wrong. Well, it’s only natural for a baby. Babies can’t do anything without help, and must rely on others to take care of them. A real baby is such a fragile existence. The only reason why I’m so worried is because of all of the memories I’ve brought with me from my previous life.

That’s when I realized. I have all of this experience from before, so I should undoubtedly be stronger, mentally, than my sister. Yet why was she sleeping so peacefully, when I was so burdened by worry? I’m this kid’s big brother, and an older brother shouldn’t make his little sister worry. I need to be an awesome big brother that she can look up to.

I may have just been putting on a brave face for my sister, but I found myself worrying less and less. My troubles haven’t all gone away, but now I have something to hold on to: I want to protect my helpless little sister.

I’ve focused on learning the language and, little by little, have come to understand what people are saying around me. I wanted to be able to move around as soon as I could, so I flailed my little baby limbs around to gain strength. Thanks to that, I learned to crawl far earlier than most babies. I kept my motivation up by remembering that I was going to be the kind of older brother that my sister was going to want to brag about.

Thus begins the story of the fourth prince of the Analeit Kingdom, Schlain Zagan Analeit.

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

---

Beating that turtle was tough! Even after I managed to flip it over, I tried to bite it to death, but that jerk retreated into its shell! I almost got my fangs pinched off when it sucked its head in. Of course, with my pathetic strength, I had no way to yank it back out, so I had to kind of just let poison dribble from my fangs into the head hole. That certainly got its attention! It shot its head back out of its shell, thrashing wildly, and I sunk my fangs into its helpless neck.

Then, I got to see what turtle tastes like. It was the first time ever since I was reborn that I’d gotten to taste meat that wasn’t poisonous! It was chewy, and didn’t taste very good.

Umf. I didn’t get hurt this time! I was able to dodge every single one of my opponent’s attacks. Of course, that turtle just kept charging me over and over like an idiot, and it’s not like it was very fast at all, so I had all the time in the world to get out of the way. It’s not like I’m some grand master at evasion, I just faced an opponent that was perfect for me.

Hmmmm. Although, I kind of feel like I’m definitely faster than I was before. I know that all of my stats go up when I level, but I really don’t feel much of an effect on most of them. My speed, though, has definitely and notably increased. Compared to when I was fighting the frog, I’m way faster. Looks like us Taratects are extremely specialized in speed! Nevertheless, fighting purely via evasion is impossible.

Yeah! My speed and my threads are my greatest weapons. With these two, there’s one strategy that’s exactly tailored to me: sneak attacks!

Hm? That’s cowardly? Cowardice means jack shit in a life-or-death fight! Think of this like a preemptive strike. That’s not cowardice at all! Well, a preemptive strike does tend to decide the course of a battle.

What? I’m not going to get any useful combat experience? This is most certainly combat! You upon your lofty throne could not possibly understand it!

Well, I say that I’m going to try sneak attacks, but there’s only like a fifty-fifty chance I can actually pull it off, right? We’re in a danger zone! The other monsters aren’t just blithely wandering through, they’re going to be on the lookout for danger. If I can actually pull off a sneak attack, I stand to gain a lot… probably. If it fails, though, then I’m going to have to make a lot of really snappy decisions based on how the situation unfolds.

The big problem is any other monsters that could rip off my threads like the turtle did. Seriously, the threads I had thought were impervious to all but flame can be torn off? My [Spider thread] skill is level six. It’s the highest skill I have! Tearing through my thread basically equals defeating me. I’m really glad that turtle was such a good match with the rest of my abilities. Other monsters, though. Just the thought of other web-ripping monsters is terrible. Granted, I may have been over-relying on my threads a little bit. I’m going to keep this idea at the edge of my thoughts from now on.

After that, I wandered through the labyrinth for a bit, but didn’t find any other monsters. I’m getting sleepy, so I’m calling it for today. Time to retire to my simple home.

Ah, the breaking of the dawn! …Well, uh, I don’t actually know if it’s morning or not, but, uh, I’m awake now. Resuming my explorations. Seriously, though, this dungeon really is extremely huge. I’ve been wandering around ever since I got myself lost in this labyrinthine section, and there’s no sign of escape. Whenever I hit an intersection, I always take the rightmost fork. I remember hearing that keeping your right hand on the dungeon’s wall is a great way to keep yourself from getting lost. It’s easier to retrace your steps if you’re following a rule, anyway. Plus, I can always follow the trail of silk that I keep unconsciously leaving behind me as I walk.

I continue to steadily step through these labyrinthine corridors, but there’s no sign of the exit. I keep [Appraisal] running in the background, but all it’s saying is the usual: {labyrinth wall} and {labyrinth floor}. I don’t really have any accurate way to measure my distance, but if I were to low-ball an estimate, I’d say I’ve walked several dozen kilometers so far. Ugh, now that I’m thinking about it, that really is seriously far! If I were still a human, walking this kind of distance would just straight-up kill me.

Ah, here comes today’s first prey. Oooh, and it’s a kind I’ve never seen before! It looks kind of like a centipede, with its many rustling legs. First off: [Appraisal].

{Elro Ferekt – failed to appraise statistics}

Hm? Failed? Ahhh, the level is missing! Huh, looks like [Appraisal] can fail! It’s my first time seeing this happen. Well, it’s not like it failing gave me any less information than what I usually get, so it doesn’t really matter for now.

Ah, wait, hold on, hold on. Could it maybe have failed because our levels are too different? If that’s the case, this centipede would have to be way stronger than me. Hmmm? I’m not really getting that kind of feeling off of it, though… maybe level differences don’t have any effect on [Appraisal] at all? That’s all well and good, but if it’s really just a case where it’s hiding its true skill…?

…Man, even if I keep waffling, there isn’t really any excuse. Being a woman is all about courage, right? Are we going to do this?!

Without making a noise, I quietly creep behind my foe. Slide, slide, slide. Greetings! Die!

My sneak attack was a complete success. It was such a complete success that it was almost an anticlimax. All of that worrying I had been doing about the centipede being crazy tough was all in my head. It wasn’t able to rip apart my webs like the turtle could, so I was able to tie it up without any problems. Then I bit it with my [Poison Fang] until it stopped moving.

You’d think you know how disgusting centipedes would taste just from looking at them, but this is seriously gross. On top of that, it’s got some weird poison, so after eating it I feel kind of weird. My entire body feels kind of… stiff.

Argh! Ever since I was reborn as a spider, I haven’t gotten to eat a single delicious thing! This is seriously a first-world problem, but I want tastier food. Aaaaah, someone, anyone, even a Cup Noodle will do!

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

---

Ahh, it feels good to be back up to full. Oh man, I had completely forgotten that leveling up comes with a full heal attached.

Well, I don’t think I’ll be able to rely on level ups all the time. I just leveled, so it’s probably going to be a while before I do so again. If I let myself get as injured as I just did every time I fight, it’s pretty obvious that my wounds are just going to keep piling up. Hmm, if I hide away in a simple home like this every time I get wounded, maybe…

Yeah, no, that’s not happening. That would just be reverting back to old habits.

…I say that, but I really need to figure out how I’m solving this problem. I just leveled up, but it’s not like I suddenly got way stronger. I’m fully aware of my own weaknesses as a fighter, so I really think that I can find a way to win if I just put my mind to it. Suicidally diving straight into combat without a plan would be like diving straight into the Sanzu River(TL.1). …Hm, now that I think about it, I died, and was reincarnated, but I don’t recall crossing that river…

Well, in the end, do I have any other options? Ideally, I’d like to never get wounded ever, but I am, alas, not afforded that luxury. Not only that, but I can’t guarantee that I’m even going to win my next battle!

That frog fight was one bad move away from being extremely awful. What would I have done if the frog hadn’t jumped into my web? I really don’t want to think about it. It’s hard enough to just barely survive a life-or-death struggle like that, let alone trying to do so without taking any damage at all. That’s a hurdle I don’t think I’d be able to clear.

Hmm, well, wait. That might not be a good line of thinking. Isn’t getting hit extremely dangerous? I don’t think my paper-thin defenses are going to be able to stand up to anything in a real fight. Yeah, this is seriously bad.

Compared to all the other monsters I’ve encountered so far, these frogs don’t seem to even be particularly dangerous.

Yeah, I’m well aware that they are extremely dangerous to me; I fought one just now! If you just look at them, though, they don’t look dangerous at all. If you ignored all of the bright “hey I’m poisonous don’t eat me” markings, these things wouldn’t be even the slightest bit threatening. Heck, if it didn’t have the poison going for it, there’s a ton of things out there that could just straight-up crush it through raw, superior strength. Yet, with one single hit from that tongue, I was brought to the brink of death.

If I ran into anything stronger, would I be able to take any of their attacks without dying at all?

No way. If I got hit by anything that strong, I’d be lucky if an injury is all I got.

What should I do? I don’t have a single countermeasure. My defenses are all but useless! I should absolutely be working under the assumption that I am going to die if I get hit at all. So, shouldn’t I just dodge everything that comes at me? It’s so simple! Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Just like one of my impossible games!

In my previous life, my dodging skills in video games were straight-up godly. I only got to that point, though, because of the many, many hours of practice I put in. Let me be perfectly clear, though: I learned through failure. I died a ton before I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I would charge in and survive as long as I could, just so that I could memorize a little more of the enemy’s attack patterns. Once I had eventually gotten it down, though, then I could pull off my dodge-focused gimmick character with my eyes closed. Conversely, though: if it’s an enemy I hadn’t seen before, I had to start back at square one.

You really could compare the way I am now to my MMO playstyle. Just like back then, I’ve effectively got almost all of my stat points dumped into speed, a few into damage, and the rest left at their starting values. With paper-thin defenses and no way to deal with a threat at range, it really isn’t a very practical way to build a non-gimmick character. Now, of course, I have to put up with this ridiculously disadvantageous build in real life.

First off, there’s tons of ways that reality doesn’t quite match up with a game. Let’s take moving, for instance. In a game, all I needed to do was move my fingers a little bit to push a button, but in reality I have to move my entire body! My field of view is also way more constrained in reality than what I could see on my monitor. Most importantly, though: unlike in a game, I’m constantly terrified that a fight might end in my painful death.

Hm? It doesn’t seem like I’ve been terrified, you say? Don’t be ridicul… oh, hm, have I really not…? Hmmm? Let’s, uh, let’s forget about that last bit.

Yeah. In any event, this reality is very different than a game. I’m not going to be able to play the same kind of dodge gimmick character, since there’s no way I’m going to be able to die over and over to make it work. Of course, I say there’s no way I can make it work, but, really, I don’t have any other ideas.

Ummf. Really, I have too few cards in my hand of skills. I’ve got [Spider Thread], which is very versatile, but [Poison Fang] has basically just one way to use it. [Appraisal]… well, I continue to hold out hope that [Appraisal] will be useful once I get its level up! My Resistances are certainly useful, but that’s mostly because my basic defenses are so weak. All that’s left are the two skills I don’t have any idea how to use: [Heresy Magic] and [Taboo].

The “Magic” part of [Heresy Magic] brings to mind images of long-ranged spell attacks, but I have no idea how to use it. Aaaagh, I seriously need a tutorial! Seriously, if you’re going to give me a skill, at least tell me how to use it! In a lot of fantasy settings, isn’t just focusing on a spell enough to cast it? Man, it would be great if it were that easy. Ahhhhh… ha. Well, it’s not like complaining is going to make an explanation appear.

I peek out from behind a crag.

{Small Rock Turtle – LV 2}

Yeah. It’s a turtle with a rock on its back. It’s certainly quite large, but I don’t think it’s any much larger than a Galapagos tortoise. Really, compared to the other things I’ve seen so far, this really doesn’t make a strong impression. Oh, wait, didn’t its name say “Small”? Is this a… baby?

{Small Rock Turtle: The juvenile form of a Rock Turtle.}

Ah, is that the case? I see! This is a child, you say? I definitely do not want to meet its mother.

Well, then, shall we get started? It doesn’t seem like my opponent’s noticed me just yet… so! Let’s get right in with a sneak attack!

I leap out from behind my crag and charge in at full speed. I leap onto the turtle’s rocky shell, and stick it with my [Spider Thread]!

Nwhooa! It threw me off! My threads still managed to get attached quite firmly, though. The turtle’s stuck in plac— aaaaAAAAAAAH!

The turtle snapped my threads and is charging straight at me!

Wha?! Retreat! Retreat! I jump to the side right before it hits.

Crash!!

The turtle charges forward until it hits the wall with a spectacular impact. Whoooooah. If I had gotten hit by that, I’d have gotten pancaked, right? Really, this is the first time I’ve seen a foe that can tear through my webs. This is bad, right?!

The turtle spins around to face me. Another charge! I dodge it! Crash! Another! I dodge! Crash!! Another!! Agh! That’s enough!!

As I dodge the latest charge, I leave a thread behind to catch the turtle’s leg. It trips and falls, but the momentum from its charge sends it tumbling. It lands on its back! Like this, you’re going to have a hard time getting back up, aren’t you, turtle? Heh, as if I would even let you try.

Chomp!

Sure, if I had gotten hit, I’d have died… but if I don’t get hit, there’s no problem!

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

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

My skill leveled. With this, it’ll be a little bit easier to take down the next frog I come across. To be quite honest, if I didn’t already have resistance, I think I would have gone over my maximum HP.

That was close! My body is practically in tatters. I got hit by that frog’s spit twice and his tongue once, and just like that I’m on the brink of death. That tongue attack, though. Way too dangerous. A good chunk of my abdomen was straight-up caved in by the impact, and the sheer force of it rendered a few of my legs useless.

It’s not like I walked into this unprepared or anything. I already knew that a straight-up fight against another monster was going to be way less likely to work than luring them into my webs. Even still, somewhere, in a hopelessly naive corner of my heart, I had thought that I’d be able to win it anyway. I’m way too exhausted now.

Well, I don’t think I’m going to be able to get very far with my body in this state. I should build a very basic home here, and focus on letting my wounds heal.

I leave the slain frog where it is, and start to weave my webs. Ow. Just moving around causes pain to stab through my body.

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Pain Resistance – LV1]>

Oh? A new skill? Ahh, it feels like the pain is lessening just a little bit. It’s still extremely painful, though. This is a pretty useful skill, though, you know? If I somehow manage to keep on living, even in this state, I’ll keep getting proficiency. Small favors, huh.

Hoooof. At any rate, my basic home’s done. Now I can finally rest. If I were any other kind of monster, I’d be wiped out if something happened to come along.

Ahhhh, well, I’ve still got my hard-won prey here to eat. Let’s dig in.

I just barely scraped through my first real fight. Eh? What about that fight with my brother? I can’t really call that a fight, you know. Doesn’t count. Getting some real combat experience has made one thing pretty freaking obvious, though.

I’m WEEEEEAK!

Yeah. It’s not just that I as an individual am weak, but I think the entire species of Small Lesser Taratects are weak. Well, we are an inferior breed, after all. Our attacks are weak, and our defenses fragile. Our one good quality seems to be our speed, but even that isn’t good enough for me to be able to dodge all of that frog’s saliva attacks. Looks like my base stats aren’t even close to a low-level frog’s.

I hadn’t really had any problems killing enemies until now, thanks to my spiderweb traps. This straight-up fight, though, was a mess. I’m really starting to understand just how much I was using my home as a crutch.

Even so, one thing is very clear. Frontal assaults are impossible. If I have to fight head-on, everything hinges on my ability to snare my foe with my [Spider Thread]. My only other real option is trying to get in close and bite them with my [Poison Fang], but my low stats make that impossible. I’d be cut down before I could get in a single attack.

With my speed, I can dance around my foe and strike when they slip up. I could also lay traps as I dodge and bait them into it, like I did just now. These will be the foundation of my strategy. Ooh, if I have enough forewarning, I could set traps in advance and lure them in.

Now that I think about it, I’m not at all suited to go against these frogs. With all of those ranged attacks, they’re like a machine gun emplacement. There’s no real need for them to move, so they’re not going to jump into a trap of their own accord. Ugh, it really sucks not having a long-ranged attack. I could theoretically throw my threads at them, but the range is short and, worse, it might make them more mindful of my threads. I’ll just keep that one in reserve. I should really come up with a good countermeasure for long-ranged attacks before I have to face them again.

Haaagh. I’ve got way too many problems. I’ve come face to face with my weaknesses… my enormous pile of weaknesses. Well, I can’t really give up here, now, can I. If I just wanted to live, I could build a new home and hide there. But that won’t do at all. I’ve decided that I will live proudly! I’m not going to take the easy way out like that.

But, for now, I should take it easy. How long will it take for these injuries to heal? …Rather, are they even going to heal on their own? Maaaan, I wish I actually was a game character. Then I could heal all of my injuries with one night’s rest.

Regardless, time to sleep. Today was exhausting, and I need to get plenty of rest if I want to have any chance of getting better. So, with that, good night.

Zzzzz. Hmmm? Aaahhhhhhh, I slept well! …I say that, but it really feels less like I slept and more like I just passed out. Ergh, everything’s still sore. I guess injuries this severe aren’t going to heal themselves overnight.

Yaaaaaw– OWOWOWOW! I tried to stretch as I usually do, but moving my legs sent spears of pain running through them. Uuugh, my middle two right legs have it the worst. If I’m not careful, are they going to break off? Man, I’m really starting to get worried about my prospects for recovery.

Tap, tap.

Hm? My webs are vibrating… wait. Whoa! Even this basic web managed to catch something overnight! Man, the vibrations along my web usually wake me up as soon as something gets caught, but it looks like I was out absolutely cold. Maybe it’s because of how beat up I am.

{Elroe Basilisk – LV 4}

Whoa, if it isn’t the petrifying lizard. Looks like I’ve caught yet another dangerous creature. What should I do… That thing has a petrifying gaze, so even though I’ve got it immobilized, it can still turn me to stone if our eyes meet. With such awful injuries, wouldn’t petrification be extra-awful? …Well, it’s not like I’m going to set my all-important prey free.

Blink.

Ah, shoot, it opened its eyes! Nnngh! The ends of my legs are turning to stone! Aaaagh, fine! If it’s come to this, I have no choice!

Chomp!

Thanks to [Petrification Resistance], the rate of petrification is slow, but losing my one good foreleg is extremely bad. If I can’t stop it before that happens, walking is going to be next to impossible. Please, I beg of you, die! While my leg can still move!

Slump.

As if in response to my prayers, strength leaves the basilisk’s body while my leg is only half-fossilized. Ummmmf, walking on this isn’t going to be impossible, but damn, it’s going to be tough.

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual Small Lesser Taratect has increased from LV5 to LV6.>

Oh? Ohhh?! What godly timing!!

<All basic attributes have increased.>

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Fang – LV4] has become [Poison Fang – LV5]>

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

<Skill points acquired.>

Okay, okay! Two skills leveled up, which is great. But that’s not why I’m happy…!

The skin starts to peel off my body. I’m molting. Thanks to this miraculous level-up, I’m literally shedding my injuries away! Even the huge dent in my abdomen that I was worried about has been completely fixed! Ya-HAAA! Basilisk, thank you! Thank you! Now, time to eat!

Even if I can’t just sleep at an inn to get my hit points back, leveling up is almost as good.

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

---

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

Aha, that leveled up pretty quickly! Not very much time has passed since I started spamming [Appraisal] everywhere. This got way easier once I stopped being such a shut-in… Man, I’ve got some serious mixed feelings about this.

Well, regardless, it leveled! This is the best thing I could have hoped for. Now then, now then, what shall level three reveal? I immediately try to appraise myself.

{Small Lesser Taratect – LV 5 – no name}

It’s showing my level! Yaaaay… …hahhh. Well, a plus is a plus, but… at what point is this skill going to actually be useful?

Mmm. Really, I have no idea how strong my species is supposed to be. Compared to everything else in this dungeon, how strong is a {Small Lesser Taratect}?

As soon as I finished that thought, new information popped into my brain.

{Small Lesser Taratect: A Taratect hatchling of an inferior breed.}

What… was that? Did… did I just appraise the name of my species, which I got from [Appraisal]? Did I just double-appraise?! Oooh. Did I just discover a really important little trick to this skill? Let’s test it, let’s test it! I activate [Appraisal] once again.

{Taratect: A species of spider-like monster.}

It worked! This is amazing! If [Appraisal] spits out some new word that I don’t know yet, I can appraise it! Ahaa!! Sure, the explanation is pretty short, and it’s definitely not giving me all of the information, but if I keep leveling this up, it’s going to be crazy good, isn’t it?! Just appraising one thing will let me pull up fact after fact! Ha-HA! Mister [Appraisal], I’m sorry for saying you were useless! I will put my full efforts into leveling you up!

Now then, once my [Appraisal]-driven high wore off, I eventually became aware of two fairly important problems. Specifically: I’m hungry! And tired! That’s basically it. It makes sense though; I fled my home at top speed and have been wandering the dungeon ever since, so it’s only natural that I could use a snack and some sleep.

It’s not like I can’t deal with it for a little while longer, but eventually I will need to eat something and find someplace to sleep. Both of these tasks share the same stumbling block though: other monsters. If I want to eat, I need to find a monster, kill it, and eat it. Conversely, if I want to sleep, I need to find a place where monsters can’t find me. This is a real catch-22. Mmm.

Ah! There might be a solution to both of these problems: when it’s time for me to go to sleep, I’ll put together a much simpler home and sleep in that. That will kill two birds with one stone: I’ll be able to sleep in relative safety, and if a monster blunders in and gets stuck, I’ll get breakfast for free.

It’s just that… a little while ago, I said that I wanted to do as much hunting for my food as I could manage. Building a simple home to sleep in is basically mandatory, but while I’m awake I really should try to find a battle. Ultimately, my temporary home shouldn’t be for the purposes of hunting. It should pretty much just be a safe place to get some sleep. Ah, well, if something gets caught in my web, I’m not going to refuse to eat it, haha.

Until then, let’s keep wandering around the dungeon in search of a monster!

Found one!

{Elroe Frog – LV 3}

It seems that I’m destined to find nothing but frogs: at the end of the hallway I’ve been sneaking through, I can see yet another one of the things. It’s got its back turned to me, at the moment, and it doesn’t look like it’s noticed me yet. Could I maybe kill it with a sneak attack?

Of course, as soon as I think that, it spots me. Tch.

Hisssssss!

I start off with intimidation.

Ptoo!

Wha-!? Hey, you, don’t just suddenly shoot your acid at me! I was barely able to dodge that!

Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!

Don’t keep shooting!! Ahh, aaah, ooof! I can’t dodge all of these! Ow! Oww! I’ve got some resistance now, so this doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it did the first time, but this! Still! Hurtsss! You jerk, how was I supposed to know you were this aggressive when you weren’t stuck in a web?!

Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!

Wait, wait! Gaaah! Another one got through to me! This is bad! The way things are going, this is going to be extremely one-sided! I’ve got only one option: suicide rush!!

Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!

Hah, as if you can hit me again with the same attack! I’ve seen through your moves: your limit is three shots at a time! Don’t take me too lightly, frog! I possess the analytic eye of a true gamer, and was once compared to the great Idaten! I dodge the poison spit as I rush in, then swing my claws down at the frog!

Grr, as I expected, it manages to dodge, but as it jumps out of the way it lashes out at me with its tongue!

Splat!

OWW! The tongue strikes me with crushing force. And, of course! It’s covered in acid too! Not only was this a heavy blow, I’m feeling a sizzling pain! Ohhhh, this is a serious wound. If I had a health bar, it would be flashing bright red right now. If I take one more hit like that, I’m done for.

Heh, it’s not like that’s going to happen, though.

I’ve already won.

After all, before the frog jumped away, I’d laced the surroundings with my webs.

It’s quite simple, really. As I was dodging the acid spit attacks, I was trailing threads out onto the ground behind me. Usually, if I’m not careful, I wind up unconsciously dropping thread onto the ground behind me as I walk. This time, though, I made use of it. I made the silk that I was spewing out very sticky, and forced the frog to jump onto it. My claw attack was specifically aimed to force it to dodge towards my trap. I didn’t expect it to counter-attack in midair, though.

The frog lands and immediately gets stuck. Mercilessly, I wrap it up tightly with more and more thread, until there was only one thing left to do.

Chomp!

I have just won (albeit by a very slim margin) my first actual fight.

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.