So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 1

by Okina Baba

  Wow, really? So this place is named the Lower Stratum? Wait, so there’s a layer even lower than this?

  So there are lots of strong monsters here, too… I almost wish it didn’t tell me that. Still, I’m surprised to learn there’s a lower level than this.

  All I can picture is a hellish place crawling with super-powerful monsters.

  I mean, it’s the lowest level of the biggest labyrinth in the world!

  Monsters always get stronger the farther down you go in a dungeon, and if this Lower Stratum has reasonably strong monsters already, the Bottom Stratum can only be worse.

  A whole bunch of enemies in the same league as that earth dragon… Just imagining it is horrifying.

  Although I do have one more thought.

  Most likely, the area I was in before was the Upper Stratum. There were humans exploring up there, after all, so it’s probably connected to the outside world.

  In which case, I might’ve been closer to the exit than I thought.

  But I guess that doesn’t matter now.

  At any rate, I have to escape from this stratum.

  And once I get out of here, there’s still the Middle Stratum, too. Hopefully, this path is connected to the next floor up. I sure don’t want to go down to the Bottom Stratum.

  Oh, another bee bit the dust. They’re probably gonna lose, then. This praying mantis thing sure is strong. Probably even stronger than the snake.

  Which is strange, considering that the snake seemed like a boss monster to me before…

  It obviously doesn’t compare to the dragon by any stretch of the imagination, but this mantis monster still seems intense.

  The snake is rapidly dropping in my mental rankings. What if it’s a relative weakling by the standards of the Lower Stratum?

  Well, it may be too early to judge something like that. It’s possible that the mantis is just exceptionally strong, after all. At least, that’s what I think at the moment.

  Just as the praying mantis cuts down the third bee, a totally unexpected fate befalls it.

  More specifically, a giant spider appears out of nowhere and crushes it in its jaws.

  Huh? Wait…what?

 

  Oh, wow. It’s my super-evolved form.

  Seriously?

 

  Oooh. So if I keep evolving, I’ll end up like that?

  It’s still small compared to the giant mama spider I saw before, but it does look to be around thirty feet long. It dwarfs the praying mantis.

  Wait, it bit that thing and killed it without even whipping out any thread, didn’t it?

  Does that mean it has crazy-high strength? My strength stat is still only 21… How many times do I have to evolve before I get to that?

  Well, at any rate, it’s time to take my leave before it finds me. This is one battle I won’t win.

  Yes, one thing is abundantly clear:

  The Lower Stratum is insane.

  What about it, you ask? Exactly what you just saw!

  My life depends on my Stealth skill even more now.

  Maybe I was too hasty with my decision? Should I have tried breaking through the bees’ territory after all?

  But at least I don’t feel the same sense of impending doom that I did around that dragon.

  Besides, even the bees could beat some of the monsters here, so it’s not entirely unbelievable for me to survive.

  Sure, the mantis and that big ol’ spider seem strong, but other than them, maybe I can handle the rest? Well, if I see monsters I think I can take, I’ll go ahead and eat them. Otherwise I’ll proceed in stealth mode.

  As of now, my red stamina gauge still hasn’t decreased.

  If I can trust that display, then there’s no need to panic. I can just take my time until I’m sure I’ve found prey I can handle.

  Plus, I want to avoid messing up and drawing attention from any dragon-class beasts.

  I scuttle along sneakily.

  Occasionally, I stop to watch some other monsters duke it out, but I don’t want to get involved, so I always hurry on before long.

  Man, the Lower Stratum is wild. I thought that praying mantis seemed strong, but turns out that’s about middling at best down here.

  Besides the big spider that devoured the mantis, there’s a big lion-looking thing with wings, a giant snake that looks like the evolution of the species I encountered before, and all kinds of other crazy monsters.

  Unreal.

  To avoid getting involved with any of that, I’ve been sneaking along as stealthily as possible, which is working for me so far.

  I mean, if I get caught even once, it’s probably game over.

  So I try to keep pushing ahead without stopping for sleep, but that catches up with me eventually, and my unyielding red stamina bar finally starts decreasing again.

  I still haven’t figured out why it wasn’t going down, but in any case, now I’m on a time limit again. I have to eat before this number goes from 38 to 0, or else.

  I say that, but I haven’t encountered anything I think I could beat, so I decide to go to bed for the day.

  I’ll be honest—I can barely sleep at all.

  Up until now, I’ve always slept in at least a simple home, but I don’t want to risk standing out more, so I go to sleep without cover for the first time in my spider life.

  I’m nervous the entire time, so I don’t get a very deep rest.

  It’s not too terrible, but if I continue without a good night’s sleep like this, I know it’ll eventually come back to haunt me.

  Then again, in my previous life, my average night’s sleep was about four hours, so I’ll probably be okay for a while.

  So sleep is more or less all right for the time being, but food is becoming a real problem.

  I have to find a meal in this monster madhouse somehow.

  That worries me, but it turns out to be pretty easy to get ahold of some food.

  Suspiciously easy, in fact.

  It’s weird, honestly. The monsters here are freakishly strong. But among them are still some weaker guys like the kind I’ve seen in the Upper Stratum.

  The snakes are one example. Man, I never thought the day would come when I’d refer to those snakes as weak.

  The point is, I’m very curious as to what these puny monsters are eating.

  I mean, if you’re too weak to eat, you’re just gonna become the main course yourself, right? That’s what “survival of the fittest” is all about, really.

  And that’s certainly how my time in this dungeon has been so far. But some of these guys are even on the chubbier side. The bees must have targeted them as their main source of food.

  So, after observing the various weak monsters for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that they all have one thing in common.

  They’re all poisonous.

  It’s like a revelation. I have natural Poison Resistance, so I eat that kind of thing without a problem, but most normal creatures won’t eat something poisonous.

  These guys are weak, but since they’re toxic, other monsters won’t eat them unless they have Poison Resistance themselves.

  By that logic, even if a monster does find me, I might be spared for the same reason.

  Still, there’s no point in risking it as long as I can just keep sneaking along covertly.

  Anyway, I’ve discovered that these weak monsters have two main sources of food.

  One is other small-fry. That seems to be the most common method: fighting and eating one another.

  So I figured I’d just wait for a moment when there aren’t any badasses around and take out a weakling with a surprise attack myself.

  Then there’s the other thing, the food source they resort to only when they’re truly desperate.

 

  This creature is sh
aped sort of like a flat black insect.

  Actually, it resembles an insect, but it kind of acts like a snail. These things stick to the walls of the labyrinth and crawl along slowly in a very snail-like movement. I decide to call them snail-bugs.

  There are tons of these snail-bugs in the Lower Stratum.

  Anytime I look at the wall, I always spot at least one. That’s how many there are.

  Why don’t the other monsters eat them? There are so many of them! That’s what I thought, foolishly, before I ate one myself.

  Oh, yes, I was foolish.

  I should’ve at least prepared myself a little more before attempting to eat one. But there’s no use wallowing in regret now.

  Only after eating one did I truly understand why they are a last resort.

  That’s right, I did it. I ate one.

  I used a thread to pull it off the wall, and I finished it off with my poison bite, never realizing how truly horrific the creature was.

  If only there exists a skill that would let me go back in time and stop myself before I ever tried.

  It was unbelievably disgusting.

  The taste was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in either world.

  Since my rebirth as an arachnid, I’ve eaten all kinds of revolting meals, but this took the grossest, most disgusting cake.

  It was so nasty that I actually lost some HP from eating it.

  You definitely can’t call that thing food.

  Eating it even made my Rot Resistance skill go up, so that should clue you in as to how unfit it is for consumption.

  If I didn’t firmly believe in not leaving waste behind, I wouldn’t have even tried to finish it.

  Anyway, that’s how I discovered that technically, I can get food whenever I want. It just happens to involve a lot of suffering.

  But I mean, if it comes down to eating something so disgusting it makes me want to die or actually, literally dying of starvation, I would have to choose the former.

  So if things get truly desperate, I will eat a snail-bug again.

  …I fervently hope that it never comes to that, though.

  At any rate, I’m doing my best to forget the whole thing and move on.

  The mazelike zone in the upper area was full of branching paths, but this one is just one long passageway.

  It’s nice that I didn’t risk getting lost, but if this path connects to the Bottom Stratum, how am I ever going to get back?

  Well, there’s no point in thinking about that.

  I’m sure it’s connected to the Middle Stratum! At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

  Now my red stamina gauge is starting to get a little low.

  Although I survived eating the snail-bug last time, I really want to leave that as an absolute last resort.

  Even now, I can see a few of them creeping along the walls, but that’s not whetting my appetite.

  I mean, those things are so gross that even other monsters don’t want to eat them.

  Which is why I want to find a more normal meal while I still have some stamina to spare.

  As far as a poisonous monster can be considered normal, anyway.

  I mean, I’ve been eating poisonous stuff for a while now, so it’s a little late to get hung up on that. It’s not like I don’t want to eat something tastier—it just isn’t an option… I miss cup ramen.

  Okay, front check, all clear! Back check, all clear! No dangerous species in sight! Nice, nice.

 

 

 

  In front of me is one of those close-knit monster trios. These guys really do travel in threes no matter what.

  However, as I probably should’ve expected for the Lower Stratum, their levels are pretty high. If this species also evolves at level 10, then they’re getting close. Not that they’ll ever live to see that future.

  I sneak around behind them to catch them unawares. Then, it’s time to debut my new weapon: the casting net!

  What, is that name too straightforward?

  Whatever! Even I can’t come up with a clever name for every single thing, okay?

  I was rather pleased with myself when I thought of the name for the Morning Spider, though.

  But just because I did it once doesn’t mean you should expect me to bust out high-quality puns every single time!

  Anyway, casting net, go!

  Now, don’t go thinking this is some ordinary old net. This new equipment…hmm, it really does need a better name, doesn’t it…? Oh, right, the explanation.

  Yeah, yeah. So when I first throw this thing, it’s just a clump of thread, but as soon as it reaches its target— Bam! It opens up into a spiderweb and wraps up the victim!

  This weapon is a dream team of delicate web-spinning work and careful manipulation with Thread Control!

  All three monsters get tangled in the net in no time.

  Ha-ha-ha! Now, that’s a catch!

  As usual, I finish them off with my Poison Fang skill. Chomp!

 

 

  Oh? Ooh? Here come some new titles! Poison, poison, and more poison!

  So, Poison Synthesis and Poison Magic, huh?

  As usual, I have no idea how to use magic-related skills, so I’ll ignore that for now.

  More magic manure for me, I guess.

  As for Poison Synthesis, I don’t really know what that does, either.

  Does that mean poison making? But I’m a spider, so I already create that on my own, right?

  Okay, enough about that. I can spend more time investigating my skills later.

  I have to finish off the other two monsters and dispose of the trio.

  And so: Chomp, chomp.

 

  Oh? Ooh? Ooooh? Did the forecast today call for a downpour of poison? Well, you won’t catch me complaining.

  If 10 is the highest level, then 8 must be pretty darn toxic, right?

  It sure works well, even on other poison users.

  This is even better than the new title.

  All right. Now that I’ve finished off the three monsters, I carry them into the shadows of a nearby rock.

  Oof, with my crappy stats, it’s tough to carry three monsters like this. Maybe I should’ve carried them one by one.

  Wait, huh? Didn’t I do something like this before?

  And didn’t I regret not carrying them one at a time back then, too?

  Hmm? Don’t ask me! That doesn’t ring a bell at all! I have a great memory, okay? That never happened—that’s all! Got it?! Good.

  Anyway, I decide to test out my new Poison Synthesis skill a bit while I eat.

  Except I can’t figure out how to use it, so all I can do is experiment at random.

  And so: Poison Synthesis! I think, pray—and would’ve whispered if I had a mouth that could form words.

  Somehow, this actually does something.

  Like with Appraisal, it’s as though text is displayed in my head.

 

  What’s this, now?

  Oh, hey. If this is being displayed in my mind, then Appraisal ought to work on it.

 

 

 

  Hmm. So Spider Poison is just my original poison?

  So doesn’t that mean that by acquiring Poison Synthesis level 1, I just gained the ability to make Weak Poison?

  I select Weak Poison to test it out.

  A ball of liquid appears in the air in front of me, then drops to the ground an
d forms a puddle.

  Aw, man. Do I need to have a container for this or something? Just for kicks, I Appraise the puddle.

 

  Yep. It really is Weak Poison. All righty then.

  In other words, Poison Synthesis is a skill that can produce poison without needing any materials or anything, then?

  This might’ve been useful if I were still a human, but I’m a spider, sooo…

  Well, depending on how I use it, it could still come in handy.

  Hmm. I guess producing poison at no cost is a neat trick.

  No, wait, what?

  My MP has gone down. So it wasn’t at no cost, after all.

  Ah, that just makes things even more questionable.

  As the skill level goes up, the kinds of poison I can make may increase or something, but since I can already make my super-strength Spider Poison, well… I’m not really feeling this ability.

  But I’ll probably find a use for it eventually. If nothing else, it’s still better than those unusable magic skills, right?

  THE SECOND PRINCE

  Sue and Klevea were facing off in front of me, practice swords in hand.

  Taking advantage of Sue’s small physique, Klevea easily deflected her sword as my sister charged.

  Sue still kept attacking resolutely, but Klevea’s precise defense warded her off easily.

  The petite girl attacked with all her might, but the muscular Klevea’s swordsmanship was more reminiscent of an elegantly flowing river.

  In both appearance and movement, the two of them were total opposites.

  Sue certainly couldn’t be considered weak, but compared to Klevea’s extensive experience in real battle, her skill was bound to fall short.

  This was particularly unsurprising given that Klevea had Sword Mastery, the advanced version of Swordsmanship, at level 7.

  Sue’s Swordsmanship skill was at level 6. So, according to a simple calculation, that was an 11-level difference.

  There was no way to compensate for a disparity like that.

  Still, there were many times when simple stats could at least prolong a battle.

  Sue was invoking both Magic Warfare and Mental Warfare at the same time.

  These were skills that could consume MP and SP to raise base stats, and since Sue had so much MP, the improvement Magic Warfare afforded her was nothing to sneeze at.