《Conditions met. Title [Wyrm Slayer] acquired.》
《Due the effect of the title [Wyrm Slayer], skills [Life LV1] and [Wyrm Power LV1] acquired.》
《Conditions met. Title [Fearbringer] acquired.》
《Due to the effect of the title [Fearbringer], skills [Intimidation LV1] and [Heretical Attack LV1] acquired.》
《Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Demon Lord LV1] acquired.》
︙
《Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Taboo LV6] has become [Taboo LV7].]
︙
Having defeated the fire wyrm, we continued moving upward toward the higher levels in order to escape the labyrinth.
Since then, I’ve been activating [Greed] whenever I can to slowly accumulate souls bit by bit.
[Greed] seems to have a range limit—its effectiveness in stealing soul energy decreases the farther the target is.
Also, it appears that when [Greed] is used, Kumoko-chan receives almost no experience from the kill. Because of that, I could only use it in limited scenarios—on monsters that I personally finish off and that are within close range.
...That said, it hasn’t been going so well, which brings us to the current situation.
The newly acquired title [Fearbringer].
This title spreads a fear effect to the surroundings and cannot be toggled ON or OFF.
Since both Kumoko-chan and I obtained it, monsters in the Middle Stratum flee into the magma sea even before they actually see us—just from sensing our presence. As a result, we can barely hunt.
No matter how stealthily we approach, they notice and escape. So lately, our hunting method has been to snipe monsters from extreme long-range while they're on land—killing them before they realize we’re there.
Thanks to that, I’ve obtained the [Assassin] title, and I’ve had to evolve my [Foresight] into full [Future Sight] to make my shots more accurate. I maxed out [High-Speed Processing], developed new applications for [Omniscient] optimized for detecting targets from greater distances… I’ve been racking my brain constantly, forced to come up with ways to make use of all these skills out of sheer necessity.
At least, the silver lining is that my skill levels are rising rapidly. It’s not all bad.
Kumoko-chan looks like she’s saddened by the lack of prey, but I get the feeling it’s less about missed experience and more about the drop in “things she can eat.”
She lives with a kind of appetite that would’ve been unthinkable based on her former life…
…Her past life, huh.
Even I can feel it now—how much I’ve become entrenched in being a monster.
In the early days after reincarnation, I struggled so much with this unfamiliar body. But now, the rejection and discomfort toward not being human anymore have faded away.
The sight of blood and corpses doesn’t make me feel sick anymore. I just see them as food. That alone is proof enough that I’ve changed from the person I was in my past life.
Sometimes I get hit with overwhelming urges, like I’m not myself anymore, my emotions surging like a storm. I lose control and just feel irritated for no reason.
When that happens, I immediately cut off telepathy and focus on spell control.
Otherwise, I’d be afraid I might lash out at Kumoko-chan.
I know that what I’m doing is just putting a lid on something I don’t want to touch, postponing it. I understand that these feelings won’t go away.
But even so, right now—I don’t want to understand.
—That my memories of my past life are fading. That my family’s faces are becoming blurry.
***
We were approaching a massive vertical shaft detected ahead of us when it happened.
From above that shaft, an overwhelming presence descended—so terrifying it could drive one insane.
—My breath caught. My chest hurt. My heart screamed. I was cold. My senses were slipping away.
And yet, I couldn’t look away.
If I let my attention wander even for a moment, I felt like death would come for me. Not even a second of distraction was allowed.
(S-Stop!!)
Kumoko-chan, confused by my telepathic scream, stopped in her tracks. But moments later, she must have sensed it too—her body trembled violently, curling into itself.
Then, from the vertical shaft appeared a monstrous spider—so unimaginably massive, it defied comprehension.
Its legs were like towering skyscrapers—thick and long.
Its body and head were grotesquely swollen to the point that it was impossible to imagine their weight.
Even though it was the same species as Kumoko-chan, the overwhelming presence it radiated made it feel like an entirely different being. Just being near it—without even having its attention—was enough to make me want to run away. To make me believe that suicide might actually be the way to survive.
The massive spider slowly descended down the shaft, crushing the walls as it went. Despite the shaft being wide, its enormous body practically filled it.
Its eyes, smooth and lens-like, looked over a meter wide, gazing only downward—toward the Lower Stratum of the Great Labyrinth. Whether it hadn’t noticed us or just didn’t find us worth acknowledging, it didn’t even glance in our direction.
As we trembled and held our breath, hidden behind rocks to avoid being noticed, something else charged in to challenge the monster.
A fire dragon—the biggest one we’d seen in the Middle Stratum. No, not a mere dragon. A Fire Dragon.
With wings like a bat, bones wrapped in membrane, it flew straight at the monstrous spider, hurling fireballs. Behind it, a horde of other monsters followed, launching a barrage of attacks to support it.
Fire dragon’s massive frame cut through the air at incredible speed. A rain of fireballs exploded against the spider’s body.
But… to the spider monster, none of it seemed to hurt. Not one attack seemed to cause it the slightest discomfort.
And then, with a single counterattack—it ended.
A flash of black lightning.
A heartbeat later, a shockwave roared through the air.
Being lightweight monsters, Kumoko-chan and I were blown back by the blinding explosion, rolling across the ground and flung meters away.
We didn’t fall into the magma, but even just the aftermath of the blast shaved off some of our HP.
Kumoko-chan raised her flipped-over body and looked toward the explosion’s origin.
There, a crater stretched out—immense, far beyond reason.
The horde of monsters that had been there only moments ago… was gone. Not even remains. Nothing but a barren crater, magma slowly trickling in and beginning to pool into a new magma lake.
Seemingly satisfied with the removal of its annoyances, the spider monster turned and continued descending deeper into the shaft.
Seeing that, even while my mind nearly shattered from fear, I felt both relief and… rage.
Relief that we had survived by pure chance. That we weren’t caught up in it.
Despair at how powerless I was. Anger at the unreachable strength of the monster above all monsters.
That dark, seething fury began to blot out even the fear.
It melted my soft, fragile heart and dragged me deeper, farther down.
To protect the weak me.
To ensure the weak me could keep living.
—And perhaps that was the final scream of the weak me, as she broke beyond repair.
By the time the monstrous spider had vanished into the depths of the vertical shaft and its presence had completely faded, a pained roar echoed throughout the area.
Rising from the newly formed sea of magma was the figure of the fire dragon that had been confronting the spider monster. One of its wings was completely crushed, yet it had survived the massive explosion and now raged with fury.
Its heavily wounded body began to regenerate rapidly. Except for the wing that had been destroyed down to its base, the rest of its body returned to an unscathed state.
And then—it turned its fury toward us.
A roar imbued with the force of intimidation.
Hearing that thunderous sound, we braced ourselves and activated our skills at full power.
Kumoko-chan unleashed her [Evil Eyes], along with [Magic Warfare], [Mental Warfare], and [Wyrm Power].
I also activated [Magic Warfare] and [Wyrm Power], and even [Mental Warfare]—which I’d been avoiding due to its SP consumption. I pushed the sensory capabilities of [Omniscient] to their maximum, rotating my thoughts at high speed to avoid missing even the most trivial of information.
All my Parallel Minds, now at LV4, synchronized and focused, concentrating solely on building increasingly advanced spells.
And then—
the battle began.
Fire Dragon Rend – LV 20
Status
HP: 3520 / 3701 (Green)
MP: 2744 / 3122 (Blue)
SP: 3698 / 3698 (Yellow)
1634 / 3665 (Red)Average Attack Ability: 3281
Average Defense Ability: 3009
Average Magic Ability: 2645
Average Resistance Ability: 2601
Average Speed Ability: 3175Skills
Fire Dragon LV1 / Imperial Scale LV8 / HP Rapid Recovery LV3 / MP Rapid Recovery LV6 / MP Lessened Consumption LV6 / Magic Power Perception LV5 / Magic Power Operation LV4 / SP Rapid Recovery LV1 / SP Minimized Consumption LV1 / Magic Power Attack LV4 / Flame Attack LV9 / Flame Enhancement LV7 / Destruction Enhancement LV6 / Cutting Enhancement LV2 / Piercing Enhancement LV2 / Impact Super-Enhancement LV2 / Cooperation LV10 / Command LV2 / Spatial Maneuvering LV4 / Hit LV10 / Evasion LV10 / Probability Super-Correction LV5 / Presence Perception LV10 / Danger Perception LV10 / Heat Perception LV3 / Flight LV7 / High-Speed Swimming LV10 / Fire Magic LV4 / Cutting Resistance LV1 / Piercing Resistance LV1 / Impact Super-Resistance LV1 / Heat Nullification / Status Condition Resistance LV1 / Longevity LV5 / Magic Hoard LV4 / Instant Body LV5 / Endurance LV5 / Herculean Strength LV5 / Sturdy LV5 / Monk LV4 / Talisman LV3 / Rapid Movement LV5 / Satiation LV2Skill Points: 30,050
Titles
Monster Slayer / Monster Slaughterer / Commander / Dragon / Champion
The moment we realized that battle was inevitable, I used [Appraisal] on the enemy. Its stats were clearly superior to ours, and it had far more skills than any monster we’d faced until now.
Since its average speed exceeded even Kumoko-chan’s, escaping would be difficult. On top of that, with its high magic resistance and the powerful spell disruption effect of [Imperial Scale], it was likely that my magic wouldn’t even reach it.
But we couldn’t afford to run now.
A being born strong could never understand the despair of those without power.
It would never know a life of crying in weakness, trembling in the shadows, or suffering from thirst.
—Which is why I take.
By stealing from the strong and devouring them, I can become stronger.
Because I am... greedy.
If I don’t clutch power tightly in my hands, I’m too scared to go on.
So, dear hateful dragon—
Give me everything you have, won’t you?
The fire dragon spat a ball of flame.
It may have been a test shot, a light probing attack, but for us it could easily be a fatal blow. Kumoko-chan evaded it with full-powered leaps.
I intercepted the fireball with magic, but weaker spells couldn’t cancel it out. To stop it, I had to use a large amount of MP, which began steadily draining.
Then came the next strike, hidden behind the barrage that obscured our vision.
The fire dragon’s massive tail, wreathed in flame, whipped toward us.
Kumoko-chan barely dodged it, but the grazing flames burned both of us.
I immediately used Water Magic and Healing Magic to extinguish the flames and heal the burns, but that only sped up the rate at which my MP depleted.
And the attack didn’t stop there.
A follow-up swing from the tail’s impact, a spinning sweep, claws slashing horizontally from the spin, a body slam from the follow-through, then a close-range flurry of claw strikes slashing downwards.
Kumoko-chan just barely avoided every single one, while I could do nothing but focus on blocking the aftershocks.
Maybe because all of its attacks were dodged, the fire dragon grew wary, retreating slightly to observe us.
We used that brief opening to recover, but our situation was steadily worsening.
Close-range attacks were out of the question—its entire body was engulfed in flame thanks to [Flame Enhancement], making contact impossible. Even counters by Kumoko-chan as she slipped past were not viable.
Long-range magic was severely weakened by both the [Wrathful Scale] skill and the flames covering its body, leaving us able to deal only minor damage.
Still, clinging to the faint hope that something would get through, I repeatedly cast paralyzing spells with increased power. But with its [Status Condition Resistance] and innate racial resistances, I didn’t even get a sense that the magic had any effect.
Despite having one wing crushed, the fire dragon began to float into the air with its massive body.
Then from its mouth, a glow began to leak.
Seeing Kumoko-chan forming a massive sphere of venom, I understood her intent and layered a water sphere around it, forming a dense mass of liquid. Together, we dove into it.
A colossal breath attack scoured the land.
The infernal breath swept over the ground in a massive swath, melting everything it touched and transforming the rocky floor into a sea of magma.
It hit our combined sphere of venom and water as well, instantly vaporizing it.
But in that split second, we escaped to the ceiling and survived.
Below us lay a sea of fire. With the fire dragon in flight pursuing us, we had no more places to run.
But it’s too soon to give up.
(I’ll make the footing! Jump, Kumoko-chan!)
The fire dragon’s flame bullets came flying.
Sensing the explosions behind us, I calculated our fall trajectory.
Then, to blind it, I fired a rapid volley of spells at the dragon’s face as it lunged to bite. We passed by it in a near miss.
Below us was nothing but magma. Before we could fall into it, I combined evolved [Flood Magic] and [Heavy Magic] to create floating water mirrors as footholds in midair.
The water mirrors, reinforced to withstand the full weight of a falling body, hovered in the air.
Even though they were fragile and could be shattered with a swipe or a body slam from the fire dragon, I kept making more each time one was destroyed, never allowing our footholds to disappear.
And thus, the second round—an aerial battle—began.
The Fire Dragon shattered the water mirrors as it closed in on us.
Kumoko-chan darted around in all directions, sometimes leaping, sometimes shooting out threads to pull herself away. With that nimble movement, she thoroughly outmaneuvered the Fire Dragon, whose speed was high but turning radius poor.
But at this rate, it was just a repeat of our ground battle, and we still hadn't landed a decisive blow.
As I began to feel the pressure mounting, Kumoko-chan formed a small poisonous orb in front of her.
She hurled it at the Fire Dragon again and again.
Even though it had no effect, the poison evaporated on contact with the dragon’s flaming body.
Seeing that, I realized what Kumoko-chan wanted from me.
(...Got it! I’ll make a super-sized one. But I won’t be able to make any footholds, so be careful!)
Kumoko-chan nodded at my words.
She started luring the Fire Dragon as close as possible, dodging at the last second so the limited footholds wouldn’t be destroyed. While watching her move with precise timing, I focused entirely on constructing an enormous spell.
The output: maximum volume.
A magic spell meant to wash everything away with sheer mass.
To make sure it hit, I predicted the Fire Dragon’s movement with razor-sharp focus.
Time seemed to slow down for the Fire Dragon and Kumoko-chan.
But my thoughts and spell construction raced ahead, and just as the enemy had no room to dodge, the spell was unleashed.
—Be crushed.
A massive torrent of water magic surged forth like a tsunami.
The overwhelming wave swallowed the Fire Dragon, smashing its body under immense pressure and weight.
The flames cloaking its body tried to evaporate the water, but even a blazing inferno couldn’t hold back a tsunami—it peeled away the fire wrapped around its form.
As the deluge mercilessly battered its body and broke its posture, the Fire Dragon surfaced from the water, stripped of its flames and frozen in place. Kumoko-chan leapt off a foothold toward it.
Sensing the danger but unable to react beyond a twitch, the Fire Dragon met death in the form of a scythe strike.
The corrosive blow shattered its face, erasing both eyes and even crushing its horns.
Blinded and robbed of its balance, the Fire Dragon spiraled downward and crashed into the magma.
Despite its head being blown apart, the dragon’s vitality was incredible—it still hadn’t completely run out of HP, barely hanging on.
Unless it's instantly killed, a dragon can rapidly regenerate via its [Longevity].
That’s why I was preparing a follow-up to finish it off for sure—but Kumoko-chan’s magic activated first.
[Abyss Magic: Hell Gate].
An ultimate-tier dark magic with the power to obliterate even the soul, something I had no affinity for. Kumoko-chan had apparently been constructing it since before the aerial battle even began, ready to cast it at a moment’s notice. She had waited all this time for the right opportunity—the moment when the Fire Dragon was trapped and motionless in the magma—and now she released it.
A gaping black hole opened at the place where the Fire Dragon had fallen.
It swallowed all light, warping the scenery like a stain torn into the world itself.
The black void devoured magma, air, and even light, dragging everything in with increasing force—until it abruptly shrank and vanished without a trace.
What remained was a collapsed crater, and a mangled Fire Dragon—its flesh torn away, bones exposed in countless places.
Still alive…!
But perhaps that final endurance was its last. The Fire Dragon, completely drained of HP, MP, and SP, took a single step forward before collapsing.
Death was now just a matter of time.
We approached the dying Fire Dragon.
Sensing our presence, it pushed its broken body past its limits for one final attack, trying to bite us.
But we dodged nimbly—and delivered the finishing blows to its face.
Kumoko-chan used a corrosive strike.
I hit it with compressed magic.
The successive blows, landed on a dragon already on the verge of death and stripped of all defenses, completely annihilated its head—and with that, its HP dropped to zero.
And then—
︙
《Experience has reached the required level. Individual, Mari Cocoon has leveled up from LV 19 to LV 20》
《Conditions met. Individual, Mari Cocoon is now eligible for evolution》
︙
《Conditions met. Title [Dragon Slayer] acquired》
《Due to the effect of the title [Dragon Slayer], skills [Ultimate Life LV 1] and [Dragon Power LV 1] acquired》
︙
We survived.
Not by running away—but by dragging that life down with us. We had overcome a single despair.
Ahaha. We made it again. We got stronger again.
Again—
Again—
Still—Still————————We can get even stronger.
—
———
——————————
————————————————————Ahaha♪
《Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Taboo LV 7] has become [Taboo LV 8]》
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