by Okina Baba
Keeping an eye on the giant monkeys, I continue adding more threads.
The freaky ones haven’t moved yet. Maybe they aren’t so interested in collaborating with the regular monkeys?
That’d be nice, but I can’t afford to be optimistic. I have to keep an eye on them at all times.
The primates have apparently given up on flinging rocks.
It didn’t do much anyway, and maybe the collapsed pile of thread is now preventing them from reaching me that way.
So they’ve abandoned the stone throwing and are now simply concentrating on climbing the walls. That works just fine for me. Those rocks were quite a hindrance. They damaged my HP and hampered my movements, so not having to worry about that anymore is one small mercy.
Then, one of the giant monkeys starts moving.
Slowly, it lifts up a boulder. Wait, a boulder?!
It’s hefting the huge thing without any apparent difficulty, but that’s the big boulder I originally cut up for my little home!
I thought it was firmly attached to the ground, but this thing just lifted it up like it’s nothing! Even the tiny slice I made before was wicked heavy!
Okay, what am I going to do about this? Wait, what is it lifting it like that for? No way!
I hurriedly evacuate from my simplified home.
An instant later, the giant rock shoots up like a cannonball and smashes right into it.
When the dust clears, I see that the rock has utterly devastated my web.
You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?
That’s way too much power. If I take a hit from that, there’ll be nothing left of me but a smear on the wall!
Luckily, there are no more boulders like that near the giant monkey. So there won’t be any more crazy cannonballs flying my way.
However, my last line of defense, my simple home, has been annihilated.
From here on out, I’ll have to fight without it. That isn’t good.
Not being able to rely on it for defense is bad enough, but what’s worse is that I no longer have a good foothold.
The only reason I was able to fight off the monkeys so far was that I could be confident in my footing, which helped me focus on attacking.
With that gone, I could easily slip and fall with a single misstep.
Since I’m connected to the ceiling by a thread, I won’t crash straight to the ground, but I’ll still end up totally defenseless.
If I give the monkeys an opportunity, no way they’ll pass it up.
I make up my mind in a snap.
Even if it’s a rush job, I have to make a new thread foothold.
In the meantime, I won’t be able to work on laying more traps elsewhere, but once the monkeys get here, I won’t have time to build anything.
If I don’t make one now, I’ll definitely regret it later.
All right! I’ve made a scaffold big enough for me to stand on!
Now I have a spot to take on the enemy. The second round of this defensive battle is about to begin.
The monkeys are closing in. I continue shooting thread toward them.
For the most part, it’s just like the first round. However, there are a few key differences.
The monkeys know how my thread works now.
They’ve figured out that if they get caught in it, they won’t be able to escape.
And so, the monkeys in the lead are spreading out as far as possible and jumping onto the thread. They’re trying to cover up as much of the sticky trap as possible with their own bodies to help their allies behind them pass more easily.
As a result, quite a few monkeys are now stuck, spread-eagled on the wall. They’re even preparing for another thread-and-monkey bomb by clinging tightly to the rock surface.
Now the next wave proceeds over the path that their comrades have made for them with their bodies.
Like last time, they throw themselves down as soon as my web gets them.
It’s an insanely suicidal strategy. They care more about killing me than about preserving their own lives. But it’s also very thoroughly planned out. These guys are seriously tough.
However, no matter how many countermeasures they try to take, the sacrifices are still reducing their numbers.
No new reinforcements have appeared since the giant monkeys arrived.
At this rate, the monkeys will be wiped out before they can reach me. As long as the giant ones don’t make another move.
I’m still on high alert.
Even as I face off against the regular monkeys, I keep an eye on their evolved brethren at all times.
It’s nerve-racking work. Thanks to that, my Concentration skill level has increased.
Finally, there’s movement from that direction. It’s the lowest-level giant monkey.
The creature does an abrupt about-face and begins marching away.
It would’ve been great if it kept going and just left, but of course, things are never that easy.
The giant monkey turns back in this direction and begins to run in a straight line.
No way!
My intuition sounds an alarm in my brain: Yes way, it tells me. Immediately, I prepare my counterattack.
My prediction is unfortunately correct. The giant lug takes a running start and jumps over the mass of threads and monkeys in a single bound.
Then, those terrifyingly powerful legs launch it right toward me.
Finishing my preparations just in time, I fling a casting net toward the goliath as it closes in.
Unable to dodge in midair, it becomes caught in the web.
Luckily, the impact of the net shifts the creature’s trajectory slightly downward.
It sails forward and crashes into the wall right beneath me.
With a loud thunk, it sticks to the threads on the wall and falls still. Even so, it quickly regains consciousness and starts struggling furiously to escape.
Adding more gluey strands to hinder it, I activate Poison Synthesis at the same time to create some Spider Poison and drop it toward that enormous mouth.
The giant monkey shrieks in agony as my one-two combo connects.
I’m a little alarmed that a single shot of Spider Poison isn’t enough to kill it, but all the same I go ahead and synthesize a second dose.
The ball of venom lands beautifully right between those horrific jaws.
Leveling up is proof that my humongous foe has breathed its last.
I hurriedly peel off my molted skin. There’s no time to be relieved.
As soon as I turn back toward the invading monkeys, I see another one of the giants. Using its partner’s jump as a diversion, this one has been clambering up along the same route as the regular monkeys.
How can it be so fast?!
It was on the ground just a moment ago, but now it’s practically on top of me. The huge monkey mercilessly crushes the smaller ones in its path as it approaches.
With its impressive speed and grip, it’ll complete its journey in the blink of an eye.
I hurriedly launch a thread in its direction.
The giant monkey dodges it effortlessly, despite hanging off a sheer wall.
But it dodges into an area where there’s no path of monkeys to tread on.
The only thing waiting there is a solid field of my webbing.
The giant monkey adheres to it in no time flat.
Immediately, it struggles to tear the thread away, but even its power can’t rip through my silk so easily.
But as it tries to deal with its tra
p, the wall itself starts to produce disturbing crumbling sounds.
Of course, I can’t let that slide. I waste no time in covering the creature’s body in thread.
That should hold it for a while. With that handled, I whirl back to search for the third giant monkey.
Since the second one has made its move, I have no doubt that the third one will be quick to follow.
Sure enough, my prediction is correct.
I spot the third one in no time.
It’s coming right toward me, its huge mouth already wide open.
?!?!
What was I thinking, assuming that I practically had this in the bag?
I react without thinking, moving purely on instinct.
Namely, I jump out of the way, off my foothold into empty space.
Even then, I can’t dodge it completely, and the massive jaws crush all of my right legs as well as part of my abdomen.
My HP plummets.
Overwhelmed with pain, I flicker in and out of consciousness.
But if I pass out now, I’ll never wake up again.
I hurriedly launch a thread in midair. It latches on to the wall, stopping my fall.
However, the rebound smashes me against the stone, nearly knocking me out for a moment.
Clenching my fangs, I force myself to stay awake.
Probably with help from my new skill, I manage to hang on to consciousness.
My line of sight swivels upward, toward the web foothold where I had been a moment ago.
The third giant monkey has totally destroyed the scaffold and is now caught in the remains.
Well, of course it is. I didn’t make an ordinary foothold. Just in case, I built it so it could serve as a trap if necessary. Although I didn’t expect it to be destroyed in a single blow.
I struggle upward.
Since half of my legs are out of commission, I use Thread Control to help pull myself up.
I ascend past the thrashing giant monkey.
Using Thread Control, I restrain my adversary, holding its large maw open with webbing.
Then I synthesize some Spider Poison and send it right down the thing’s gullet.
I level up and molt once more.
Whew. I thought I was gonna die. That was a really close call. If I hadn’t leveled up with that kill, I might’ve actually died this time.
But I made it.
The second giant monkey is getting close to escaping its restraints, so I slather it with more thread. The rest of the army hasn’t gotten as far as I feared, since their evolved compatriots trampled the path they went to such great pains to create.
In fact, their cooperation is in shambles and has given way to total chaos.
There’s no more rock artillery, and their numbers have decreased considerably.
Huh? Wait, at this point, can’t I just escape instead of going out of my way to wipe them all out?
No, it’d be silly to get this far and then just run away. If I do that, then there was no point in leaving my home in the first place. How could I run away now, when I swore never to do it again?
The very last monkey is caught in my silk right before me.
Its outstretched hand falls just short of reaching me.
I wrap more thread around the hand, rendering it totally motionless.
Then I look around.
Nothing but more trapped monkeys, as far as the eye can see. There isn’t a single one that can move freely.
Just to be sure, I take a long look around the ground below, but there are no more reinforcements.
Straining my ears, I can’t hear anything else coming, either.
Finally, I’ve immobilized all my attackers.
It’s tempting to relax now that I’ve apparently won, but I can’t let my guard down just yet.
They can’t move anymore, but I haven’t killed them.
Below me, I can see more wrapped-up monkeys than I care to count. Among them are the conspicuously larger shapes of the giant monkeys. The last one of those is still struggling to tear through the threads entrapping it.
In reality, it’s probably strong enough to actually break out. Not right away, but if I leave it to its own devices, it’ll free itself sooner or later.
Which was why I kept adding more threads to restrain it whenever it came close to doing so.
And so, I intercepted the charging monkeys while keeping the giant one in check.
It was a lot harder than I expected. Good thing I didn’t let my guard down after I killed the first two.
Since restraining the last one took more effort than I thought it would, my MP and SP are getting low.
The only reason I’m keeping it alive is that I simply don’t have time to go and finish it off.
The other monkeys kept coming at me, so I didn’t have the chance.
And to make things even harder, the giant monkey was smack in the middle of its allies’ route to me.
If I tried to go and finish it off, I’d walk right into a sea of enemies.
So obviously I wasn’t going to do something suicidal.
What I was most afraid of was the regular monkeys assisting the giant one.
If the cooperative efforts of the regular guys came together with the strength of their hulking companion, it was very possible that they could break through my bonds.
But luckily, they make no attempt to do so.
Despite their tendency to prioritize efficiency over their own lives, they chose to not take the strategy with the most obvious advantage: helping the giant monkey escape and attacking me together.
I’m relieved and all, but the behavioral principles of these monkeys is a total mystery to me. Although really, it’s not like I understood this crazy attack in the first place. There’s no way just eating me would be enough to attack so desperately, so I have no idea what their motive is.
The only explanation I can think of is that they’re trying to avenge the first monkey that I killed and ate, but does that reason explain the lengths they went to? Hmm.
Oh well. There’s no point getting hung up on that. I have no way of knowing what some monsters are thinking.
Anyway, I go to finish off the giant monkey.
Naturally, I don’t quite have the guts to go up and bite such a dangerous creature directly.
So, like the other two, I use Poison Synthesis to drop some Spider Poison into its mouth from above.
After eating two of my poison attacks (literally), the thing finally stills.
With the biggest threat out of the way, I can go about taking out the other monkeys with my bite, one by one.
Even Poison Fang uses a tiny amount of SP, but I’ve never had to worry about that before.
The cost is incredibly low, so I haven’t been in a situation where it threatened to use up my SP.
But this time, there are just way too many targets. Even Poison Fang will deplete SP eventually.
So I have to stop partway through to eat and restore some stamina.
Rendered immobile by my webbing, the monkeys are still desperate to put up some kind of resistance, so they shriek at me threateningly when I approach. I sense a hint of fear in their cries, too, but what do I care about that?
They’re the ones who picked a fight with me, so they should’ve been prepared to die themselves.
You’re not gonna catch me losing any sleep over killing something that tried to kill me first.
So I ignore their struggles and finish them off.
Oh hey, I got a title. Another disturbing one, at that.
That’s also my second title to come with Heretic Magic. This has to be some attempt at shaming me. I’m not that much of a heretic! Honest!
For now, I decide that checking out my new skills can wait until later.
I leveled up a whole bunch of times during the battle and gained a crapload of skills anyway, so it’s probably better to check them out all at once.
As I mechanically finish off all the monkeys, my level rises again.
Oh, huh. Level 10 already? That’s fast!
I mean, I did level up quite a bit during battle, but I can already evolve again?!
• Taratect
• Small poison taratect
>
Hmm?
I was expecting Taratect sans small to be an option, but small poison taratect?
Is that a race that’s ultra-specialized in poisons or something?
Well, I should probably put this off for later, too. I don’t want to evolve until I can guarantee my safety. At the very least, I have to finish off all the other monkeys.