Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I’m so glad I didn’t break that thing open. Ok, so, back up. I was just retrieving (killing) another frog that had fallen into my web when I heard a very small thumping, scratching noise coming from the center of my nest. The egg! The thing must be hatching before I could manage to break it!

I ran over and removed the elastic webs covering it, which most definitely were not going to hold the egg together while the baby was trying to break itself out. No, those threads were absolutely going to be effective eventually, trust me. Anyway, I hole up and wait for it to hatch on its own.

And I keep waiting. Right, this egg is ridiculously hard, a baby won’t be able to break it in seconds, I don’t even think that’s true for normal, fragile eggs. How long does it take for an earth chicken to hatch even? Anyway that’s the kind of stupid thoughts I’m using to keep myself entertained until, after some time, a few cracks begin to appear, webbing across the surface of the shell.

 Eventually an opening just big enough for me to help pry the egg open piece by piece opens. Finally, get a hole big enough to drag the creature out with a bit of thread. I quickly wrap up the squealing creature and go to bite it before I realize I’ve never seen this thing before, so I can get a bit of extra proficiency for appraisal. 

<Elroe Kolift    Nameless/Mirei Shinohara>

...huh? I can understand a newly born baby not having a name, but that second thing, that’s clearly a Japanese name. In fact, I recognize this particular name. I never paid much attention to my classmates in Japan, and for most of them I could certainly never come up with their faces. But this Wyrm, who is apparently also a schoolgirl, in front of me made herself very hard to ignore, certainly not for a lack of trying on my part. So she was reincarnated as a monster like me.

 This is so annoying! I wanted to eat her so badly! I guess I still could, technically. Hmmm, no, I may not be the nicest person but eating my former classmate on the spot like this would make me feel way too guilty. Even If she wasn’t exactly the nicest to me when we were classmates. 

Wow, she’s really wailing now. I guess I haven’t moved since appraising her, so I’ve had my fangs poised to bite her while she’s totally helpless in my webs for a little less than a minute now. A couple drops of poison even dripped onto her. I guess screaming and crying is probably a fair enough reaction. I would be too, in her position. Actually, can I even cry? I don't know if my spider body even has lungs to do something like that, I’m kinda jealous she still has a vaguely similar body to how ours used to be. Oh right, I still haven't moved. 

 I back off a little bit so I’m not inches away from biting her face off. What should I do now though? I guess I should tell her what’s going on so she stops crying, but I can't exactly talk, and even if I could, what would I actually say in this situation? Ugh, why did this have to happen? I suck at communicating! I was so much happier just sitting alone in my web not having to deal with anybody. Why did Shinohara have to go and ruin my peace! She hasn’t changed at all since the last time I saw her I guess. 

Maybe I can just kick her out and let her fend for herself. No one could blame me if she dies totally out of my control, and then I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this anymore. I could go right back to my luxurious, easy lifestyle. 

Hmm… Wait, didn’t appraisal say Earth Wyrm Egg when I appraised it the first time? Earth wyrm, sort of like earth dragon, that's basically the same thing right? In a lot of games wyrms are even like lesser dragons, so maybe she’ll end up growing into a real dragon eventually. That doesn’t actually sound too far-fetched now does it?

If I keep her alive here and she knows I was her classmate, maybe she’ll protect me?  Having a dragon to protect me sounds like a pretty sweet deal. It could even be safer than my webs.

 Ok, I’ve made up my mind! I’m going to keep this girl around just in case she can protect me someday, but as far as she knows I’m totally going to be keeping her alive out of the kindness of my heart, okay? okay? okay. 

But now I’m back at square one of trying to actually communicate with her, which is still a problem, but I do have an idea now that I actually want to.

—

Is this spider going to eat me or not?! It was definitely just about to kill me, so what is it backing off for? Does it want to save me for later when it's hungrier? Does it just want to drag this out longer so I suffer more? Is this punishment for Wakaba? I’m sorry! It’s just staring at me, why did I have to be born here? I don’t want to die here! I don’t want to die!

It’s doing something with its webs, is it just ignoring me now? No, there’s a pattern there, is that… kanji?

“Shinohara?”

Chapter Text

“Shinohara?”

My name?! How does this random spider know my name, not to mention japanese?! 

    Maybe they’re like me? That must be it, but still, how do they know my name? I try to ask out loud, but my mouth won’t move properly for me to be able to form words. I can’t move either, so all I can do is nod mutely to confirm I am Shinohara, so please don’t eat me, please and thank you.

 The spider seems to register my nod, and nods back, but then just sort of… stands there. It isn’t asking me anything more or explaining the many things I need explained, so I try to wiggle out of the thread it tied me up in so I can demand it does. I fail completely, but I seemingly stirred the spider into action.

    It crawls a little deeper into the web and drops an obnoxiously colored, absolutely ginormous, wrapped up in webbing,  obviously dead frog right in front of me. 

    EEEEWWW???!! What did it just do that for?! I try to get away from the awful looking frog and its dead eyes, and again, I fail on account of all of the webbing. All I end up doing is thrashing around pointlessly, until the spider walks over and releases the webs covering me, and I can back away… For a whole two feet until I get stuck in the sticky webs covering the floor again, but at least I'm standing on my own feet now.

    The spider tilts its head for a moment at my reaction, before it starts webbing up a word again in hiragana. 

    “Eat”

    What? No! I can’t eat that! It’s a raw frog! Not only that but given the way this thing is colored, it's definitely poisonous. It reminds me of those poison dart frogs way too much to think I’ll survive eating it. Also, it’s gross. 

I make my refusal known by very forcefully shaking my head at the spider. The aggravating thing just stares at me for a while, then goes over to the frog and starts eating it on the spot . I avert my eyes, but I can’t avert my ears from probably the most disturbing sounds I’ve ever heard in my life. Lives, maybe? 

I start thinking, for lack of other things to do, stuck onto the ground while the spider finishes eating. That thing can’t be human. I thought for a moment, because it knew japanese that it was just like me, maybe even a classmate of mine in the same position. But no human would ever act like this awful spider does. 

My classmates… Did I really die then? I haven't really had time to think about all that yet, but I suppose I must’ve. I died and came back to life as some lizard. How could I have died though? Last I remember, I was just sitting in classical literature, valiantly trying not to look at my phone after being embarrassed by Ms. Oka. I can’t think of anything dangerous that could’ve killed me. Maybe a gas explosion or something like that? In that case everyone else died too. 

Either way I’m never going to be seeing Ai and Himi again. Or anyone else; my friends, my parents, even my teachers. I wish I could be back there, maybe this is all just a dream and I’ll wake up soon enough? I hope so. My public humiliation seems like a paradise right now, from where I’m standing.

Against my will, the spider drags me back into reality by tossing aside the now barebones frog and setting itself up to write in those webs again. Right, my grief can wait. I have the rest of my life to mourn. All I have to do now is make sure that the rest of my life is a long time. That starts with paying attention to the monster in front of me. 

“I was Wakaba Hiiro.”

…What? NO!!! Are you kidding me?!! Out of all the people, this witch is who follows me?!! No wonder it seemed like she couldn’t be a human, she never was!! She was always an inhuman monster set out to ruin my life, and she's so determined she even followed me to my second!!! “Eat the frog” of course she’d immediately set out to make me suffer even more, she knew who I was from the beginning. I wouldn’t be surprised if she somehow made this happen from the start, and all of it; dying, being reborn as some lizard, being caught in her web is all her fault. 

…I know I’m being unfair. I was always the one harassing her. She never even did anything to me, other than glare at me like I was a speck of dirt. But she is the one thing from my old life that I don't already miss, after barely a couple minutes. And here she is, in my new life tying me up in webs and throwing awful, disgusting frogs in my face!

I have to leave. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I can’t stay here like this, at her mercy, with nothing to do but think. Thinking isn’t a good thing right now.

I start biting at the thread stuck to my legs and… paws? Feet? Claws? Whatever, I try to separate them so I can get away, but this thread is so damn tough I’m not even having any success trying to chew through it, much less tearing it away. My struggle does get her attention from where she was idling a little bit away, and she walks over to me and does. Something? Regardless, whatever she did freed my legs. That means I can make my way… about three feet to wherever the exit is before my feet get caught again. Goddamnit! I keep biting at it, I know it's pointless, but I have to do something to keep from breaking down completely. 

Wakaba doesn’t immediately free me this time. She crawls back up onto the wall and starts making more words out of thread.

“Watch your step, not all the threads are sticky. You can move fine if you’re careful.”

Then she wanders deliberately around the web a few times, probably showing me where you have to step to not be stuck down. As much as it irks me to have her help me with anything, It does actually work for a little bit. When I pay close attention to where I’m stepping, and where she did, I can make it farther than I did before. 

She frees me again, and the next time I try to wander along the web, I notice the sticky threads are in a specific pattern. I guess that makes sense, if there wasn’t a pattern you’d have to memorize every individual strand, which just seems obviously impractical. 

I hope she learned that the hard way. Imagining Wakaba totally failing to navigate her own web and getting tangled even more than me before she finally figures it out helps a little.

Once I finally reach the edge of the web, where the exit must be, I get caught one more time. It’s not that I misplaced my step this time, I just stumbled while trying to twister my way across the thin strands. I’m starting to understand why spiders need eight legs.

Instead of just freeing me and backing off to let me figure it out like normal, Wakaba wraps me up completely and drags me back to the center of the web.

What? NO! Stop! Let me go! 

    Ignoring my protests, Wakaba destroys all of my hard earned progress and plops me down, right in the center. Once I get her to free me again, I grab the silk she used to form words earlier, and try, with great effort, to form my own. 

“Let me leave.”

“No, you’d die”

What do you care if I die? I’m starting to think that would be better than staying here with you. I don’t care how dangerous it is outside, I’m leaving.

When she stops me from making my way out a second time, tying me up herself, she only barely dodges a bite I make at one of her legs. She stares down at me a long time after that. She opens her mouth slightly a couple times, and I am momentarily reminded of what she was going to do before she realized who I was.

In the end she just leaves me tied up and goes about her business for a little bit, doing absolutely nothing. I never considered the sheer boredom of being a wild animal, there isn’t a single thing to do, even if I could move. 

Soon after, the nest shakes a little, and Wakaba goes to kill whatever poor thing got caught. My body then reminds me that there is one thing I need to do. 

I’m hungry. I’m really, really hungry, and Wakaba just caught something now. She gave me something to eat once before, so maybe I can get her to offer it to me again. But that’d be like begging to her, I really don’t like that idea. I can only hope she’ll just offer it to me again the same way she offered the first.

She drags in another frog. Ugh, maybe not, that’s still just as vile looking. She doesn’t even hesitate before digging in again. I’ll just wait for her to catch something better, then I guess I’ll have to swallow my pride and beg for it. 

---

I miss when I still believed that. My hunger has become painful and impossible to ignore, like a knife buried in my gut. But the sensation of hunger is still overshadowed by the certainty that I’m dying, now. I need to eat, or I will starve to death. 

Wakaba leaves to retrieve the third thing that has shaken the nest since I was born, another goddamn frog, but I’m beyond my limit now. All I can do is mewl out pathetically for food. She gets the idea, and drags the frog toward me, then frees me from my thread prison. Maybe she was waiting for this the whole time. I can’t spare the energy to care.

I bite into the frog, and it's even worse than I expected. It’s horribly bitter, and even physically hurts to eat. It’s definitely the most vile thing I’ve ever tasted, but I can’t stop eating. I have to eat, I have to live!

Once I’m done with the frog, my hunger is more or less sated, but I can’t say I feel better. 

It was, in fact, poisonous. As in, I ate a poisonous creature. I am poisoned now. It might just kill me. I bit the bullet to follow Wakaba’s example. Yet here I am, probably about to die anyway, I almost have to laugh.

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Poison Resistance LV 1].>

Um…Hello?!

Chapter Text

I- what just happened?

    Sure enough, I do feel a bit better now. That doesn’t make any sense though. Where did that voice come from? How did it reduce the poison? I’m so baffled that I snap right out of my depressed state, though the fact I don't feel like death anymore might have something to do with that. 

I might just have been hallucinating, it wouldn’t be too surprising given the situation. 

That doesn’t feel right though, I can’t say this is the first utterly bizarre thing to happen to me today, and I have to believe the rest of it is real. That hunger certainly couldn’t be my imagination. So I have to go back to the source of everything else I know about this situation, not that that's very much. 

God, moving around the thread is so obnoxious without hands. It’s so annoying I end up being more curt than I’d like to avoid doing it longer than I have to.

“What’s up with the voice”

“It announces level ups”

Great. Cool. Helpful.

    She's so impossible! She took forever to start writing; probably deciding whether to even deign to respond to me, like the stuck up princess she is, and then this is what she came up with. Alright Mirei, keep pushing. It’s annoying, but it's not like I have anything to do but pester her.

“Why”

Ugh, that's not as clear as I hoped it would be.

“This world is video game-y We’re both monsters”

Whatever, she got it. She took a good several minutes to answer this time, but at least her answer is almost helpful. 

    So, I was born into a different world with different rules, and I was born as a monster. Sure, whatever, today is already weird enough, there’s nothing that could shock me anymore. Being monsters does explain Wakaba’s size though. She towers wayyy over me, I’m not sure exactly how big I am, but If I was still normal human sized, she would be at least 15 feet tall, and much wider. I could fit my whole body on her abdomen easily. I thought I was just a seriously tiny lizard, but I guess she must be a huge monstrous spider. It suits her.

    Wakaba seems to decide I don’t have anything else to say, and stills, probably asleep. What a slob. How could that guy ever like her? …I know why, but it's grating to think about, so I'm not gonna.

    …I could probably leave now. She’s asleep, I’m freed from the thread, and I can navigate the web well enough if I'm careful. I won't though. The ordeal with the frogs changed my perspective a little. I’m afraid of dying, and I want to live. This isn’t like my old life, I could die easily now, and Wakaba said I would if I left the nest. I didn’t take her seriously before, but I didn’t take her telling me to eat seriously either. So I’m staying here for now, until I can come up with a better option.    

Ugh, everything is so awful! What did I do to deserve any of this? I suppose my relationship with Wakaba could be called bullying, I guess. She totally deserved it though, and the universe seems to agree. I mean, she’s here too. If this is punishment for my past life, then Wakaba has obviously earned her own punishment, probably with that nasty attitude of hers.

 I guess part of that punishment would be me then. We made eachother so much worse that we got stuck together in our next life as a mutual punishment, like a cosmic get along shirt. The mental image would make me laugh under other circumstances.

    Haah, I guess I should sleep too, this was easily the most exhausting day I’ve ever had, and I’m sure this is only the start.

    I’m awoken by trembling through the web. By the time I blearily look over to it, Wakaba is already at the source of the disturbance, apparently alerted a good bit before me. Must be spider instincts or something. I’m too sleepy to really care.

    Soon enough she starts dragging in a trio of dinosaur looking things. Yep, those are monsters all right. 

    She looks like she’s having a little trouble dragging the three of them at once, not a shock, given the sheer body mass of the three of them combined. I might as well help, I want to eat, so I’m going to earn my keep however I can. No way am I going to be surviving on Wakaba’s charity.  

    I’m so much smaller than her, so I didn’t expect to actually be able to do all that much to help, but once I got a hold on the thread with my mouth, the work started going way faster. She actually left a little bit after I joined and started repairing the web where the trio got caught, but it barely slowed me down. Well, it is slowing me down a little, actually. C’mon girl! Heave Ho! 

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Strength LV 1].>

Hmm? I don’t know what that does exactly, but it sounds handy. So am I just permanently  stronger now? I’m already much stronger than I look, apparently.

    Anyway, once I get the trio into a suitable position, I let go of the rope and realize the net attached to it is moving a little. So they're still alive? Well, not for long, because I’m going to be eating them soon. Hmm. I’m getting used to all this a bit too quickly for my liking. Whatever, I hope they're not poisonous at least. 

    Once she’s satisfied with the nest, Wakaba skitters back over and sinks her fangs into one of them. I look on, slightly horrified. The poison in her fangs doesn’t seem to be the fastest acting, but also seems very painful. The dino thrashes around for maybe too long before finally going still with a final shudder. Well, that was awful. Disturbingly, watching that gave me a little glimpse of what very nearly happened to me. I don’t really like what I see. 

    After that, she looks at the remaining two, looks back at me, and gestures to them with one of her legs. The message is clear enough, not that I like it. Me?! Why just these two? Ugh, I probably should be doing it anyway. I was talking about earning my keep earlier, and you could make a case that I can't eat what I don’t kill. I still don't like it, but Wakabas next words seal my fate.

“It will make you stronger”

    Well aren’t you a chatterbox? Never say a word in class, totally ignore me when I come to complain to you, but as soon as you have an unpleasant duty to shove onto me you’re suddenly an absolute butterfly. Ugh, fine, I’ll do it.

    The duo thrashes as I approach, but doesn’t manage to get anywhere. It’s a little weird being on this side of that situation. 

My instincts must kick in or something, because as soon as I decide to go for it, I naturally go for the neck without even thinking. Blood fills my mouth, but I don't let go. My jaws are clamped down hard enough to crush this thing’s windpipe, but I’m trying to get this over with sooner than that. So I put up a paw on its head and thrash my head around as hard as I can. Something tears, and I end up with its throat in my mouth, separate from the rest of its body. Yup, it sure is dead. One more to go.

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV 1 to LV 2>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

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

<Skill points acquired.>

<Condition satisfied. Acquired title [Foul Feeder]>

<Acquired skills [Poison Resistance LV 1] [Rot Resistance LV 1] as a result of Title [Foul Feeder]>

<[Poison Resistance LV 1] has been incorporated into Skill [Poison Resistance LV 1]>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Resistance LV 1] has become [Poison Resistance LV 2]

Woah! Hold on, slow down! Shit, what did it say? It said a lot, and it was enough to overwhelm me. Plus I was distracted by my skin splitting and shedding off of me at the same time. Which I can only assume is part of the process.

 I can see what she meant by gamelike, and that it’d make me stronger now. I definitely heard the voice announce that I leveled up, which even I know is how you get stronger in a video game, despite my limited experience. So killing the dino-thing gave me enough… I think it said experience? To level up.

 Wakaba also stripped off her exoskeleton at the same time, so she must have gotten part of the credit for killing it for making the trap. I wonder what her level is? It must be higher, she's obviously been around longer than I’ve been. Not that I’m going to ask her. Voluntarily having to deal with Wakaba is for emergencies only. What else happened… damnit, I can't remember, oh whatever, I need to eat.

I am now realizing that the dinos were, in fact, poisonous. My resistance is keeping me from feeling like death, but it’s still far from pleasant. Also, apparently Wakaba’s venom must have some effects that liquify flesh a little, because the things I killed myself were much tougher than I was used to. I really had to just thrash my head around to get a chunk out of them, sort of like the movements dogs make when they play tug-o-war.

    Like a dog. Hah. Sometimes the reality of this situation hits me out of nowhere. I just have to remind myself that it's this or nothing at all. I’m not going to die.

    And so it went on like that for a while. I don’t know how long without the sun to measure, but it was enough time for me to level up one more time by killing trapped prey, which is now officially my job, apparently. I also leveled up my strength skill, and my acid and poison resistances. I swear I must be the only thing on this planet with no poison. 

I started to grow, if not content with, then used to life in the web, with my spidery roommate. 

    Apparently, I can't even have that much. A wall of fire is racing across the webs that had until now seemed just about invincible. Through the flames I see several silhouettes very familiar to what I know from my old life. Humans! All I can really do is stand there, transfixed, while emotions I can’t even begin to describe or keep track of swirl through me. 

    They’re cut off though, by Wakaba rushing around me to use her front legs to scoop me onto her back, and then run incredibly, unbelievably fast out of the web. 

Away from the first humans I’ve seen in this world. Away from comfort, and belonging, and dignity, and I don’t even know if I’m talking about humans or the web anymore. 

Something inside me that has been building up since I was first born burst from the pressure. 

THIS ISN’T FAIR! Can’t I have anything good happen to me?! I don’t CARE what I did in my past life, I don’t deserve ANY of this!! 

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Anger LV 1]>

    The divine peanut gallery wastes no time to gamify my deep seated emotional turmoil. 

Yeah, I am angry, and there's nothing I can do about it, and that just makes me angrier. 

We had a chance to go with those humans, to, even if as only pets, rejoin human society. I don’t jump off her back though, because now that my panic is bleeding out of me, watching the ruddy firelight fade away into the distance, I know she made the right call. I don’t know who she thinks she is; scooping me up like I’m a prized possession for her to grab before she runs, but we are monsters. They burned our nest, knowing that there would be a monster inside. They would have killed us. Humans are our enemies now. All what we used to be is, is another kind of enemy. 

 I'm not mad at Wakaba. Instead, I’m mad at everything. Every single thing is the subject of my ire. I resent the entire world. That makes sense though, the only thing I could possibly imagine being in my corner, is her.

She eventually slows to a stop, and I can jump off of her back. It's not easy to read Wakabas body language, with her new spidery body and all. But it’s not the way she's moving I notice, it’s her eyes. I hated her eyes in our past life, they were dull, emotionless, and cold. I couldn’t stand them. That’s not what’s in front of me now. Her eyes now are blazing with feelings that make my own seem like a candle next to a wildfire, so much keener than my own.

Very deliberately, she starts walking forward, and I don’t hesitate to follow.

Chapter Text

We’ve been wandering around for a long time now, but Wakaba hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. I wonder what she’s looking for? I assumed she was looking for a good spot to set up another web, but if that’s it  then I have no idea what actually constitutes a good spot. We’re already a good distance from where the humans were, and a web could be set up literally anywhere in a cave like this.

Oh yeah, we’re inside what looks like a massive cave system. Everywhere you look is either more bland gray rock or another branching tunnel leading into the gloom. It is gloomy too, I can only see about 20 feet in any direction, before it just fades into complete darkness. Looks like I wasn’t missing out on too much, holed up in our web like I was. 

I don’t even know if there’s an aboveground. There are humans, so I assume there must be, but it’s not like I’ve seen it. I assume Wakaba was born down here in the caves too. It’s not like I can ask her though, writing with the thread takes time, and I don’t think she’s going to be stopping for anything.

As soon as I think that, she stops suddenly. Ah, hey! A little warning next time! I actually ended up bumping into her, but she doesn’t look back at me, too focused on some point I can’t see in the darkness, even when I move forward to be next to her.

Suddenly she hisses aggressively at the dark. As soon as I realize she’s looking at something I can't see, she dodges to the side with that insane speed of hers, and something flies right past us both. I startle, and then the second and third shots nail me in the face and side. 

Ah, ow?! Whatever it was covered me in some gunk, probably poison if my experience down here has taught me anything, and starts burning where it hit me, probably acid; again, based on experience. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Acid resistance LV 1] has become [Acid Resistance LV 2]>

Yup, It’s acid.

What’s even shooting at me? I strain my eyes as hard as I can, trying to spot anything, but I can’t see it. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Night Vision LV 5] has become [Night Vision LV 6]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Vision Enhancement LV 1]>

At least until that happens. As my vision clears I spot the source of the agitation.

    It's another goddamn frog. I really don’t like what that might mean for whatever hit me.

Right as I think that, the frog spits out three globs of… something I really don’t want to think about. Wakaba dodges two of them, and I manage to do the same with the third this time. This thing SPAT ON ME?! Ugh, that’s it, I’m definitely going to kill it myself.

I start closing the distance between us despite my pain, the same as Wakaba is in the edge of my sight. She’s not making too much progress getting closer despite her speed, because she’s doing a lot of strafing around to dodge the frogs' spit attacks, and the frog hopping away before she can get close to it. 

    That gives me a chance to get in though! 

Predictably, the frog just jumps away. Less predictably, the frog also swipes out with its tongue, nailing me in one of my hind legs. The impact is enough to send my tiny body flying, and it hurts alot, but my leg can still support my weight fine, so I don’t think I’m injured too badly. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Pain Resistance LV 1]>

    As I get back up, I hear more of the hissing from before, and when I look up I see that she’s not looking at the frog anymore. She's hissing at me?!! What the hell?! What did I do? I just took a hit for you! 

    While I rage internally, the frog sends another salvo my way, and in my distraction, all three shots hit their mark dead on.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Protection LV 1]>

At the same time, Wakaba shifts her position around the frog and lunges at it.

Same as before, the frog jumps back and lashes out with its tongue. Obviously expecting it, she turns her body away, trying to dodge. She can’t quite get her body out of the way completely though, and gets a glancing blow to her back leg and a part of her abdomen for her trouble. 

    I notice that the frog lands very close to some thread laid out on the ground, near the wall. She must have set it up when she was dodging around earlier. And the frog must have jumped away when I lunged at it. 

…Oops. Well it's not like I could have known what she wanted me to do!! Sorry I can’t read your mind princess!! You should have tried to clue me in! There's no way I could have known what she was doing, she can’t get mad at me for trying to fight with her!

    Ugh. I get it now though, so I know what I need to do next. Through the pain of the acid still eating away at me, I line up one more charge and make my move. One last time the frog jumps back and lashes its tongue. She’s quite a bit faster than me, and she got hit anyway. So I don’t bother dodging, I just tuck in my head and turn my shoulder towards where I think I’ll get hit.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Solidity LV 1]>

Then I eat shit for the second time in maybe 10 seconds. It worked though, the frog lands and gets stuck in Wakabas webs, just like I planned. Diligently, she wraps the frog up, binding its mouth shut, and restraining its movement.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Cooperation LV 1]>

    Oh great, thanks, add insult to my numerous injuries. Seriously, the individual hits weren't too bad, but all that acid racks up over time, and even the physical hits from the tongue sting, feeling like it would have left a bruise if I still had skin that could bruise. 

I got off pretty well compared to Wakaba though. She only got hit once in that whole fight, but two of her hind legs are totally busted, and there’s a small part of her back of abdomen that actually has an indent in it. Hardly fatal, but it could have been close with a more solid hit, and it looks like it hurts. 

Hopefully this incident lit a fire under her butt about setting up another nest. We’re both too hurt to take another fight out in the open like this, and based on the things I saw her bring into the web, frogs are hardly the most dangerous things down here.

Right now though, she’s killing the frog before I can get there, not that I’m really complaining. 

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV 3 to LV 4> 

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Pain Resistance LV 1] has become [Pain Resistance LV 2]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Acid Resistance LV 2] has become [Acid Resistance LV 3]>

    Oh, nice. I am no longer as hurt as I was. Apparently shedding my skin comes with a full recovery. That’s some good news. This does bring a thought to the forefront of my mind though.

I leveled up a lot of skills in this fight. Like a lot of them. I’m pretty sure I doubled the amount of skills I have, and most of the ones I had before have leveled up. Twice, in the case of acid resistance. 

    That feels like it should be a good thing, but the fact that fighting seems to be so important to the way this world works doesn’t sit well with me. This is a world centered around violence, and that's the world I’m living in now.

    These sure are thoughts to be having while watching a spider tear into the fresh corpse of a frog, huh. I guess I already knew this world was hostile, so maybe I should just be glad for help when I get into fights, but still, I can’t shake this nagging uneasiness. 

She did set up a web shortly after the fight, like I hoped. She didn’t make it very big at all, probably because of exhaustion. As soon as there were no obvious holes something dangerous could crawl through, Wakaba immediately passed out on the spot. Staying up in a cramped nest like this would be pointless, so I curl up on her back, taking care to avoid her injuries, and follow suit.

I wake up to the sound of movement. Something’s stuck on the nest. Curiously though, Wakaba hasn’t moved at all, she still seems to be sound asleep below me. Normally she notices movement in the web way before I do, she must be really out of it right now. I’m a little worried honestly. 

I hop down and nudge her with my head. Hey, sleeping beauty, you’ve got a level up to get, and work to do on this tiny nest. She stirs very gradually, and glares at me as soon as she sees exactly what woke her up. Haha, that’s a very nice expression; I knew you could show emotion if you tried. Looks like losing your human face was good for you. 

She does get what I’m after eventually, and goes to collect whatever got caught, but Immediately turns around when she sees it. 

Wha- me? You’ve the one who needs to level up, do it yourself princess! Ah- hey! Don’t push me out, if you’re healthy enough to force me to kill it, you’re healthy enough to do it yourself! 

Once I get pushed all the way out of the little nest, I come face to face with some sort of frilled lizard, thoroughly webbed up. A lizard? Oh, is this why she made me do it? I’m not sure what I look like exactly, but I know I’m some sort of reptile, so maybe this is the same species as me. I look down at my feet, very slowly turning to stone, to check an- wait stone?

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Petrification Resistance LV 2] has become [Petrification Resistance LV 3]>

Level three? Wait, that's not important! Uhhh, crap, how do I make it stop, uhh kill it, bite! diediediedie!

I am so not sharing this with Wakaba. Not that it tastes good, not bitter surprisingly, but still definitely kinda weird. And I can see when she pokes around that she got fully healed by a level up, which is arguably more important. But still, I can’t believe she’d just throw me into the line of fire like that! Well actually, I can. This is Wakaba I’m talking about, I just forgot that for a little bit. I thought maybe I could have been wrong about her. Now I have stone feet. 

I need to stick near her anyway, If I don’t want to die, her webs are an in- where is she going?

Why would she be walking away?? Hey! Get back here, Wakaba! We have a new web now, where are you going?!

    Ugh, are you really going to make me chase after you after all that? Hey, slow down!

Chapter Text

This girl is going to be the death of me. I still wish I could stay safe in the web, but I can’t find it in myself to argue anymore.

After she abandoned the little nest, I had to demand that she explain what she was doing. I still can’t really ask her something without her saying something to me first. but that just means I need to get her attention, and I’m never far from the spotlight, even now. I don’t know what I was expecting her response to be, but I definitely wasn’t expecting what I got.

“My home was a crutch. If I keep staying inside all I’ll ever be able to do is run. I won’t run again. I’m going to get strong enough to be able to defend my home and my pride, no matter what.”  

It took her a while, I assume to find the words before she started writing. And write she did; I think that was more words than she ever gave to me when we were students in Heishin High.

    I still don’t agree with her. There’s no reason to care so much about being strong, she can make another home, and it's pointless to die for your pride. It would feel… wrong to try to stop her though. She made her decision and is willing to follow through with it, even at risk to herself, nevermind me. I get the sense I wouldn’t be able to stop her now, anyway. 

All I can do is stick close to her and try to keep her safe. I might not like her too much, but her company is still far better than trying to do this alone. That frog nearly put a hole in her too, so I think it's fair to say she could use my help staying alive out here. Good. I decided before that I refuse to survive on anyone's pity, and I still mean that.

    After a while of walking through unchanging dark tunnels, Wakaba suddenly stops moving again. At least I didn't actually collide with her this time. Little victories. Her night vision must be way better than mine, because as I sidle up next to her it’s obvious she can see something I can’t, even with the skill’s recent level up. Another fight? What's our move, miss spider? 

    Wakaba makes some sort of a gesture at me that would have probably been clearer if she had hands and starts slowly creeping forward, like, really slowly. What are you after, girl? She’s kind of low to the ground too, sort of crawling forward. Oh, are we being sneaky? Got it, staying quiet, creeping forward. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Cooperation LV 1] has become [Cooperation LV 2]>

Guess that means I was right. Soon enough, our prey comes into my range of vision. 

It looks like a centipede, not particularly tough looking, aside from its size. It doesn’t prove to be too tough either, we get up close to it and it folds to one bite from Wakaba. 

It’s gross to eat obviously, actually making me feel a little sick. That doesn’t stop Wakaba from eating way more than her half though. Hey, give that back! I don’t care that you killed it, I’m not going to starve! Besides you didn’t even give me a chance to get at it. I’m gonna kill the next thing myself and you're not getting anything off of me!

Suddenly she dashes around for a moment then stops. Seemingly for no reason, y’know, like a weirdo.

The next time Wakaba spots something is sooner than I expected, and soon enough that I remember what I said to myself. True to my word, I dash forward as soon as I spot the next centipede and crush its head with a paw. I get to eating it while Wakaba climbs down from the wall or something. I guess she was trying to drop onto it from the ceiling since she couldn’t sneak up behind it, since it was facing our direction. Too bad that just means you don’t get anything to eat. She glares at me wrathfully once I finish off the last leg. Ahh, revenge is sweet. 

<[Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Overeating LV 1]> 

<[Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Spite LV 1]>

Wow, rude!

    Wakaba doesn’t bother with sneaking up on the next centipede that pops up, and just bolts toward it as soon as she spots it. I pretty much expected that though, and I follow as fast as I can. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired skill [Running LV 1]>

Even with the help of the new skill, my speed isn’t quite on her level. That doesn’t mean I can’t get a bite in though! Wha- Hey! Don’t carry it up the wall! Cheater! Bul- Cheapskate! Bougie! Somehow, from where she looks down at me up on the wall, all eight of her eyes look smug. We’re going to keep this up for a while, aren’t we?    

There are seriously a lot of centipedes around here. It might not taste good, but nothing down here will. It’s to be expected, given that these centipedes have paralyzing poison, based on the new resistance I got. 

Honestly, if this is how it is outside the web, I don’t think it's that bad. Well, compared to the web, nothing in this life could possibly compare to Japan, but I can never go back there. So everything’s at least a little awful. Right now though, I have a full belly, there’s no weather to be exposed to underground, so I’m pretty comfortable, and I’m honestly having a little fun trying to one up Wakaba. At this point we’re almost running even when there are no centipedes in front of us; neither of us wants to be behind the other when one does show up.

That’s why it’s so startling when the tunnel suddenly opens into a much wider cavern. Both of us manage to come to a stop just before we go flying into a massive hole in the ground. 

I can only see about three feet deep into the hole, even though, based on what I’m hearing, it's actually much deeper than that. What I’m hearing is the scuttling sounds of thousands of centipedes crawling over each other, and completely filling the massive cavern.

    Wakaba reels back, seemingly stunned in shock, but I immediately turn and bolt the other way. Those centipedes have a paralyzing bite. If one hits me I’m doomed, and there are wayyy too many to fend off in there. I’m not abandoning Wakaba, though, so I turn to see if she’s following. I do see her following, but I also see the swarm of centipedes, alarmingly hot on her tail. They’re moving about as fast as she is. I can’t move that fast.

    As soon as she catches up with me, I jump onto her back while she keeps up speed. 

She stumbles very slightly when I do, but it’s still enough to make my heart stop. From where I’m perched on her back I get a terrifying view of the centipedes, clambering unbelievably fast over each other's backs, the collective mass of them filling the tunnel nearly to the roof. It’s obvious from here that we aren’t gaining ground, and she can’t run forever. 

The fear makes it feel like there’s a little pebble caught in my throat. I need to stop them. The pebble gets a little bigger. I’m not doing anything right now. The feeling expands deeper into my chest. I need to throw something or- It feels less like it's caught, and more like pressure, something welling up from somewhere deeper within me than I knew I had. Then it comes out, a beam of something I can’t place flies out of my mouth and crashes into the ranks of the centipedes, killing at least a dozen all at once. The centipedes on the others backs crash to the ground and block the path for the others, and my second beam destroys anyone still able to give chase. 

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV 4 to LV 5>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Cooperation LV 2] has become [Cooperation LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Night Vision LV 6] has become [Night Vision LV 7]>

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

<Skill points acquired.>

<Condition satisfied. Acquired title [Monster Slayer]>

<Acquired skills [Strength LV 1] [Solidity LV 1] as a result of Title [Monster Slayer]>

<[Strength LV 1] has been incorporated into Skill [Strength LV 1]>

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

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

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!! What?? I- how? What even?? What??!!

    While I’m busy trying to make sense of literally anything, Wakaba keeps running to get as far away from the centipedes as she can, but slows down to a more manageable pace now that their momentum is broken. I stay on her, in case those centipedes are more persistent than I think. That means I’m not moving, and can focus on parsing out whatever that was.

    First up, I shot something from my mouth. Whatever it was was powerful too, it took out a whole swath of centipedes at once. Why and what and how? I think the answer comes from the announcement that I did pay attention to this time, Thank You Very Much. One skill I’ve never heard of before and didn’t know I had, leveled up. Earth Wyrm. Another word for dragon. You’d think a dragon would breathe fire, but I’ve heard of some things that split them up into elemental subspecies or whatever some nerds come up with. That’s what's going on here apparently, it must be why the “Earth” modifier is tacked on there. I’d expect a dragon to be bigger, but I was only born like a week and a half ago. So I died and was reborn as a baby dragon. What even is my life. How is this real?

    There’s one more thing bothering me. My “fire breath” is obviously fantasy-y, and the only other thing I’ve seen that would be nearly as impossible in my old world is the skill system. So logically my fire breath is a skill, [Earth Wyrm LV 2] I assume. That bothers me a little. Until now, I assumed that skills were something you had more than something you did or used, so I hadn’t been paying much attention to the skill announcements. I’ve got to keep a closer eye on that now. I don’t want some random ability popping up out of nowhere, or worse, dying with an unused ability that could have saved me.

    Eventually Wakaba slumps down, obviously exhausted, but gets to work building a small nest almost immediately. I feel a little bad, but I really can’t do anything to help her, after I get off of her back. 

So instead I decide to test out my breath attack again. I only manage three shots before I feel too tired to form another one. Hmm… tired isn’t exactly the right word. I could still sprint around or do physical work with no problem. My issue now isn’t energy, it's… something else I’m draining whenever I do that. Ughh, why is being a wild animal more confusing than being an entire human person.

    Wakaba finishes her web around now, and seems weirdly uninterested in me shooting beams of pure energy out of my mouth. She’s still producing threads while she finishes up her web, and I tug at it to ask for more that I can use. 

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“You are a baby dragon, I assumed you would have a breath attack.”

“You knew?”

“You just realized?”

This pretentious little shit! “You just realized?” Shut upppp. Excuse me for not knowing everything Princess.

“How would you know?” 

Yeah, I’m still talking to her. I’m bored and lonely, get off my back. 

“Appraisal”

“?”

“It’s an Isekai staple.”  

I DON'T KNOW THAT YOU GIGANTIC NERD.

“Explain”

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Creature Training LV 1]>

Is that a skill I need to intentionally use? I’ll keep that in mind.

…

…

“No” 

EXCUSE ME?

And with that, Wakaba turns away from me and lays down in her web. Antisocial prick. I guess some things never change. 

She’s going to be the death of me, assuming I don’t kill her first.

Chapter Text

So what now? Ummm, Oh! I did get that skill when I was talking with Wakaba, I need to test out any new skills I get. …How do I do that? It was called creature training, so I assume I need a creature to train. I do have one creature here, but I’m actually not sure this will work on her. If this skill is normally meant to be used on random monsters, Wakaba might end up being too smart for it to work.

    Meant to be used on unintelligent monsters… Could this skill help with communication? Based on the name, and how other skills work in this world, I’m assuming this skill lets you get a monster to fight for you. Most monsters are too dumb to comprehend languge, based on what I’ve seen so far, so this skill might provide some way to communicate without it. 

    Well, maybe. It could also just make taming animals the normal way a little quicker, but still. I have to try now. Just in case. Using threads to form words like we’ve been doing is so incredibly annoying, I really can’t blame Wakaba for shutting me down earlier if there was no short explanation. That was a lie, I can and I do, but like, I get it. 

    Ok so… train! Creature training! Hear me! Yeah this isn’t working. I guessed it was a longshot. Or maybe I just need to touch her or something, it wouldn’t be weirder than anything else I’ve been doing.

    As soon as I put a paw on the lazing form of Wakaba and focus on the creature training skill, I feel something start to flow out of me and into her. At least, until it’s suddenly rejected and Wakaba snaps up, glaring at me balefully. I guess using a skill like that randomly is pretty rude, isn’t it? I can’t really make myself feel too guilty right now though, just call it payback.

“What was that?”

“Testing a new skill, creature training”

    Her glare changes a little bit, and after a moment she reaches up and touches my head with one of her legs. A similar feeling to before courses out of her this time, and flows into me. She has creature training too? 

Ah, being on the receiving end makes it pretty clear what the skill actually does. This would let her control me. I don’t know how exactly I know that, but I’m sure I’m right. I can shake it off easily though. I’m pretty sure the only way for me to be controlled would be to consciously decide to let her in.

Out of curiosity I reach out with the skill again, and find that it’s the same on her end. She doesn’t pull away this time.

I wasn’t wrong. Using and receiving the skill at the same time instinctually gives you a pretty clear view of its intricacies. It’s a one way bond, but if we both use it that's not really a problem, and using it on eachother could cancel out the brainwashing effect. She must know that too. 

Neither of us let the other in though, because being the one to allow it first would be risking being taken over. How much do I really trust her?

…Not enough for that.

I back off a little. We’ve kinda just been staring into eachothers eyes for uncomfortably long now, so I look away, weirdly flustered.

I hope she knows I didn’t know what the skill did and wasn’t trying to actually take over her, but I can’t make myself ask for thread right now. So instead I just lay down to sleep and try not to think about her. It doesn’t work.

I awaken to frantic movement from my only neighbor. Why, though? All I see when I look around is Wakaba adding to her webs, seemingly panicked. No sign of something that could have spooked her though.

Well, at least, not for a little bit.

A few moments later, an absolutely massive snake slithers into view. It’s obvious at a glance that this is the most dangerous monster I’ve seen yet. Oh yeah, that’s terrifying. 

I can see Wakaba starting to back away, even considering the web between us and the snake. Fair enough, I’m right behind you, girl. Our movement must have alerted the snake somehow though. As soon as we start moving, the massive thing lunges straight for us, and is only stopped by the web in its path. But unlike every other monster caught in Wakaba’s threads, the snake thrashes powerfully, tearing straight through. 

It’s being slowed down though, so we might be able to use this chance to escape. Orrr you could be Wakaba and charge straight at it. Sometimes I seriously think this girl has a death wish; it should be obvious that this thing is too strong for either of us! You almost got squashed by one hit from a frog! 

Wakaba is latched onto the snake’s head, with her fangs stuck in it and pumping it full of poison, while also making more threads to replace the ones the snake is tearing through with its thrashing. The same thrashing that’s also letting it slam her into the roof and walls, and can’t be easy to hold on through, even for a spider. If I don't want her to die here, then I need to stop the snake from moving its head. 

I don’t think I can do that physically. I’m stronger than I look, but this snake is exactly as strong as it looks, so I really don’t think I’m a match for it. There is one thing I can do though!

I aim a shot of my new dragon breath attack at its face, trying to goad it to slam at me instead of the spider on its back. The shot chips a couple scales off, and seems to have considerable punch. The snake doesn’t even seem to realize I did anything though; Wakabas poison must seriously hurt. 

So I just have to hurt it more then. I aim my next shot carefully, I only have three of them and can’t afford to miss. 1.. 2… and

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Hit LV 1]>

Gotcha.

    The snake reels back with a loud screech, roaring in pain. Once it gets ahold of itself again it doesn’t even seem to notice Wakaba anymore, too busy staring down at me with its one remaining eye.

    Eeek! Maybe hurry up with that poison Wakaba! This is what I was after though. It should be aiming its slams at me now, so she can do her work with the poison easier. Except the snake doesn’t slam me, instead opting to open its mouth. Oh yeah. Snakes usually bite, don't they?

    I dodge backward as the snake makes its first lunge, only succeeding thanks to the web keeping it in place, and pull the same trick for the second, even as the webs tear under the pressure. The snake is unbelievably fast for its massive size though, and the third bite nails me in the back and comes out the front.  

    It hurts. It hurts so much I can barely think, but If I lose my senses now I’ll die for sure.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Pain Resistance LV 1] has become [Pain Resistance LV 2>

Instinctually, I will the wound to close itself and the poison to slow. It’s draining like nothing else, but a dragon's will is enough to force both to obey.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Poison Resistance LV 3] has become [Poison Resistance LV 4>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Persistent LV 1]>

The snake opens its mouth again, but I shoot my final breath attack down its gullet before it can make another lunge at me. It reels back, but it doesn’t stay down. C’mon! Die already! The snake’s poison is way too strong for me to be able to sustain sacrificing my energy like this forever.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [LIfe LV 1]>

After far too long for my tastes, but probably less than 5 seconds after being bitten, the massive beast collapses under the weight of Wakabas poison and finally stills. 

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV 5 to LV 6>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison resistance LV 4] has become [Poison resistance LV 5]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Solidity LV 2] has become [Solidity LV 3]>

<Skill points acquired.>

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV 6 to LV 7>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

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

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Pain resistance LV 2] has become [Pain resistance LV 3]>

<Skill points acquired.>

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV 7 to LV 8>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Cooperation LV 3] has become [Cooperation LV 4]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Earth wyrm LV 2] has become [Earth wyrm LV 3]>

<Skill points acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [HP-Auto Recovery]>

Good lord. I decide to pay attention to my skills, then you drop this bullshit on me? Ugh, at least the level ups fully restored me, I think I definitely would have died there if they hadn’t. No thanks to SOMEONE! 

    When I go to glare at Wakaba for recklessly throwing herself at a monster obviously outside of our combined weight class, I find her staring at me with slightly widened eyes from atop the corpse of the snake. Yeah, I know, I’m amazing. You can thank me by not fucking doing that again. 

    Ahh, but I just need to bask in victory for a minute. We’re both alive, I got stronger, and we trashed something way stronger than I thought we’d ever need to deal with. I’m so amazing. I didn't die. I think that definitely merits repeating.

    Out of the corner of my eye, I see Wakaba bustling around to fix up the nest. Jeeez, does she ever take breaks? Who knew Wakaba of all people was such a workaholic? Well, maybe. I bet if I could make thread myself she would just sit in the nest and demand I do the hard part, then eat all the food.

Oh, speaking of food, we had that whole thing going with who could eat the centipedes first, I’ve got to get to this snake before she does. 

Chapter Text

I didn’t get to it in time. Well I did get to the snake, but its scales were ridiculously hard, so I had to remove them first, and by the time I was done with that she had finished the nest and ran back over. At least I got a few bites in before she did.

---

It’s been a couple of days since we first brought down the snake, and I think we’ve both long since lost our sense of competition about eating it. There’s just a lot of snake and only so much stomach between us. My overeating skill even went up a level. 

It seems like Wakaba is unwilling to leave any food behind though, so we’ve been staying in one place for the first time in a while. It looks like finishing all the food before moving is going to be a serious task though.

The snake is pretty much gone, but in the time it took to finish it, a pile of monster corpses at least as big as it was, if not bigger, has accumulated. These webs are no joke.  

Even as I ponder this, the web starts shaking near one of the entrances, and she begrudgingly goes to handle it. Jeez, even if she wants to get out, we might seriously be stuck here from having too much food to eat, not that I’m complaining. I like being safe and having lots of food, personally. Apparently, I’m alone in that though.

Anyway, I’ve gotten a job to do now. I’m supposed to drag the monsters in, the dinosaur trio in this case, while she fixes up the web to minimize time without protection, then bite them without killing them once I have them inside.

 Surprisingly, Wakaba actually sort of explained why when I asked her. Apparently, her poison fangs are a skill, so she wants to do most of the killing for the sake of proficiency. I need to get at least one attack of some sort in before that though, so I get the experience from the monsters too. She didn’t say it in that many words, but I got it. It makes sense in theory, even if I haven’t leveled up to prove it yet.

Now that the snake’s all the way gone, we can eat these on the spot again instead of just dragging them onto the pile. Well, I would do that. Is it just me or have I been doing a lot of dragging around monster corpses recently? 

She can’t be that much weaker than me, maybe I should make her help me sometimes. Like, she's so much bigger than I am, look at her she's… Asleep?

Wakaba? I’m not exactly unused to Wakaba sometimes being asleep when I don’t expect it. There’s no sun and not much to do, so we both do end up napping fairly often. This feels weird though, too sudden. I mean she was just doing work, the third dinosaur thing is even still alive. Oh, that's definitely weird.

I nudge at her with my snout. Hey, get up Wakaba. She doesn’t wake up. Even when I nudge her hard enough to almost flip her all the way over.

I can feel my tail swishing nervously behind me. This doesn’t feel like normal sleep. What if she doesn’t get up? 

Wait, no, no. No need to panic. When I nuzzle into her I can still feel a… not exactly a heartbeat, and not exactly breathing either. Either way, there’s movement beneath her exoskeleton. She’s still plenty alive. 

What’s wrong then? Did all the poison finally catch up with her or something? Did she really just fall asleep weirdly soundly? Is this just some weird spider thing I don’t know about maybe? 

When I nuzzle back up to feel her not-quite-pulse again I notice something even more alarming. I’ve been living around her for a fair amount of time by now, and I’m familiar enough with the sound of her just resting and being alive. Enough to know that is not the sound I’m hearing now. Too much shifting and cracking. Too irregular.

What’s happening? What’s wrong with her? She’s got to be fine, I can’t deal with all of this on my own! All I can do is anxiously circle around her, fussing over my totally unchanging spider.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Fear Resistance LV 1]>

I’m definitely panicking, but I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do here. Whatever's going on with her, there really isn’t any obvious cause to it. She just randomly dropped… not dead. I can still feel her moving about, curled up to her like I am; She's not dead yet. No, she’s not going to die at all, not like this. I won’t let it happen. 

Just let me Ignore the fact that there’s nothing I can do.

…

After way, WAY too long with nothing to do but pace and worry, she finally stirs again. Jeez, don't scare me like that! Hey, where are you going now?! Don’t ignore me after a stunt like that!

And then, ignoring me, she ate the entire pile of monsters. The one that was bigger than the snake that took us both days to eat. She did this in minutes. I can't tell if it’s fascinating or horrifying, but either way, I couldn’t look away. It wouldn't have helped with the noises anyway. I’ll be merciful and not describe the scene further. 

…

After that revolting display and resulting emotional whiplash, there was really only one thing I could ask, maybe minus a couple of expletives.

“What was that”

“Evolved”

What? She evolved? Like a p*kemon? That’s a thing? Should I be wary of that? Like, could that happen to me without warning?

“How”

“Lv 10”

Expressive as always. So you evolve at level ten? Maybe I should be aware of that, I got up to level 8 a little bit ago, we might have to start preparations once I hit level nine. It’s probably automatic too, so I won’t know when to expect it. Wait, is it? Just doing something major like that without checking in at all is totally something she’d do.

“Automatically”

She shakes her head no. 

I knew it. Not a thought to spare for me. Jeez, why was I so worried about this princess, huh? Huh, well, I’m stuck with her anyway, might as well try to stop this from happening again.

“You should have warned me, that was scary”

She considers me for a long moment after that. I don’t know what she’s thinking for a moment and she makes a movement that might be a nod, or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. Immediately after, she turns and leaves the web.

Did she just… run away from the first sign of confrontation?

It was probably the latter, then.

I guess I’ve got to follow her. I mentally heave a sigh, as I chase after her, and I would never admit that I fail to keep a little bit of fondness out of my tone. Buried in all the exasperation and annoyance that is.

Chapter Text

I feel like I’m on a palanquin. A little while after we started walking again, Wakaba pulled me up onto her back to ride. When we ran into some prey in the halls the first time, she told me to watch her back, so I’m actually riding backward right now. It’s honestly a really good setup, weird that we never thought of it before. We can watch out in both directions while walking so we don’t have to worry about sneak attacks, and we collectively have Wakaba’s speed and my breath attacks. I guess that makes me less royalty and more mounted turret, but you know, a girl can dream.

Oh, speaking of Wakabas speed, I think that was what the whole evolution debacle actually did. It feels like it increased a lot from what it used to be, around about double. I could sort of hold my own in a race with her before, I didn’t, because I’d definitely lose, but I could’ve competed. Not anymore though.

Isn’t that the stuff of nightmares, too? An absolutely gigantic spider that moves almost too fast to keep track of. I feel like that should definitely be giving me shivers. Can I even get those anymore? I miss being human, I have no idea how my body works anymore. I miss other humans too. 

I wonder what happened to the people I knew? Maybe Ai and Himi died too. If they got reincarnated too I hope I can find them, having real friends with me. Would make everything so much better. I don’t know if they're safe either.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Night Vision LV 7] has become [Night Vision LV 8]>

Hmm? Oh, nice. I guess I don't really have much to do anymore except look into the darkness. My thoughts can run away from me a lot more too. 

I wonder if actively trying to see as far as I can into the dark as I can would speed that up at all?

…

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

Hey, not what I was looking for, but it’s still something! This is one that definitely just passively makes my eyesight a little better. It makes for some higher-fidelity rocks, I guess. Also gore sometimes, but mostly just rocks.

…Okay maybe it's not that good.

—

Suddenly, she comes to a complete stop. That's pretty much the only way she can tell me that she’s spotted something interesting ahead. In this case, a little mouse-looking monster. It doesn’t last very long.

Wakaba calls it for the “night” and sets up a little web to rest. Before we actually settle down to sleep, She extends a single strand outwards and starts moving it around somehow. I guess she got a new skill, or maybe just realized she could do that the whole time. I don’t really know what you could do with that, but it’s still kind of interesting.

While I’m watching her, she gradually moves the strand closer to me. I don’t really know why, but I brush it off when it gets close to my face. It sort of wiggles, but doesn't really move away very much. It doesn’t move on any of my other attempts to swat it away either. 

When I glare in Wakaba’s general direction I finally realize what she’s doing. She’s dangling a string in front of me like a cat. And my reaction was to swat at it with one paw. Like a cat.

This little..! I can’t believe her! Treating me like a pet! You pompous little shit! Obnoxious princess! Uggh, seriously? I can’t believe I fell for that!

I huff and curl up to sleep, glaring at her the whole time. I am sooo getting back at her for that.

…

…I’m still human on the inside… aren’t I?

—

In the morning, after Wakaba fiddles around with her thread some more, which I very pointedly do not look at, I climb back on top of her and we set off for the day. 

I’m feeling kind of nervous as we wander around today. I feel like something bad is coming, but I don’t know why. Or maybe I’m just hungry. If we end up bumping into some super dangerous monster, I hope it's at least big. I’m almost missing the snake, at least I was full for a while after that. 

Ugggh, I want human food again. I want to be human again. What I’d give just to see a human face.

Just as I think that, I start hearing footsteps from just outside the range of my vision, and after a moment I spot some human faces. About six of them. They all have weapons drawn and are running directly at us with obvious hostile intent.

I hate everything by the way. 

As soon as I see them, I get Wakaba’s attention with a couple of smacks with my tail. She turns, sees, and then immediately bolts full speed in the other direction.

Despite Wakaba’s serious speed, the humans manage to just about keep pace with her. The situation is similar to the centipedes from before, but when I go to fire off a shot of my breath, I hesitate, seeing a human face. It's a different thing to attack a human, before it was just monsters who were going to kill us anyway. Well, I guess these humans are also going to kill us and might catch us if I don’t do anything.

I decide to aim for their legs. It's better for slowing them down anyway. I shoot my first breath attack, aiming for the leader's foot. The humans start shouting in a language I don’t recognize, slightly panicked, even though I totally missed. Aiming for their feet is a bad idea then, they’re too small and are moving constantly when my targets are running. Higher on their legs then. I can’t afford to waste shots, I only have the four.

I aim my next two shots at their knees and thighs. Somehow, even though the breath attacks move way too fast for dodging to be at all reasonable, he manages to dodge them anyway. They do slow the guy down though, and the first one even hits the guy behind him, “Lekin” if their shouting is to be believed.

You’re supposed to aim for the center of mass right? I feel like I heard that somewhere once. It makes it so you have to move around more to get out of the way. Maybe hips then.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Hit LV 1] has become [Hit LV 2]>

Ooh no. I’m so sorry dude.

Well, that guy’s not doing any chasing anymore. With their leader down for the count the humans slow down a lot, we should be able to get away fine if nothing terrible happens.

Immediately, several terrible things happen all at once. A snake comes barreling out of another nearby tunnel, obviously locked onto us. At the same time, I feel something slashing into me from the side. It gets mostly repelled by my scales, but it does manage to leave a cut, and it’s still surprisingly painful. The unexpected impact also knocks me off of Wakabas back and sends me sprawling. As I hop back up, I see the problem, problems, actually. That stupid dinosaur trio popped up in Wakaba’s path and hit me from behind. Well, from the front, relatively speaking. That doesn’t make the situation any less awful though.

Behind me, I’ve got a snake closing in, and maybe humans behind that. Ahead of me, I have the monster trio blocking my path forward and separating me from Wakaba. They seem focused on me, if she were to start running again she would definitely get away. On top of all of that, I have both a gash on my side and some poison in my system from the initial cheap shot. It looks like she took a hit too. Great.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Concentration LV 1]>

Immediately, Wakaba pounces on the closest dino, trying to give me an opening, the other two charge me, and I start using my skill to heal myself. She quickly wraps up the monster she snuck up on, but one of the monsters after me takes notice and moves to attack her while she’s distracted, the other keeps on me. I use my tail to smack that one away, getting another slash to the side for my trouble, and pounce at the one going after Wakaba.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Cooperation LV 4] has become [Cooperation LV 5]>

I managed to knock it over, into its buddy which Wakaba had, admittedly cleverly, also made sticky on the outside to serve as a trap. I take a bite to the ear anyway, but I can get my teeth around its throat and fire off a breath attack at point blank.

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV8  to LV9 >

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison resistance LV 5] has become [Poison resistance LV 6]>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Pain resistance LV 3] has become [Pain resistance LV 4]>

<Skill points acquired.>

 I thought I only had four shots with my breath attack but I guess I’ve gotten stronger since I tested it out. The level-up came at a good time too. That poison was stacking up way too quickly for my liking. My healing can only take me so far. 

The heavy sound of the snake from deeper in the caves reminds me that this isn’t any time to relax, right as Wakaba scoops me back up and starts running at top speed again. It looks like she killed the other two while I was busy. I watch her back and very pointedly don’t think about having gotten away safely. I’ve learned my lesson, okay universe? I’m not going to get cocky this time. I can be humble if I really try, I’m just amazing like that.

The universe, being a bitch, apparently took that opportunity to put a hole in front of Wakaba, and throw both of us into it.

Come ooon! I said I was gonna be humble! See if I ever consider that again. 

My inner voice is weirdly jokey for someone flying into a seemingly endless pit, but for some reason, I just don’t feel too worried. For myself at least, and I saw Wakaba catch herself with a thread. The reason I’m not terrified becomes a lot more clear when I actually slam into the ground. Right, Earth Dragon. I guess it makes sense that the ground wouldn’t hurt me. I have nothing to fear from the earth. I stand back up, totally fine.

Looking up, Wakaba seems alright too. She made a sort of bungee cord to deal with the fall for herself. There are some kind of bee monsters hovering around her, but they end up being easy enough to shoot down with the energy I got back from the level-up earlier. So we settle ourselves into an alcove where they can’t fit without too much trouble.  

While Wakaba is setting up a web between the rocks, I’m thinking that this would probably make a nice place to evolve. The main issue with evolution seems to be the food, and these bees are each pretty huge and don’t seem to be all that individually strong. It's probably as good a place as any. Either way, I need to grab those bees and bring them back in here before…

Before that. A snake wandered into the cavern while I was thinking. It shouldn’t be able to get us as we are, but this still sucks! Pleeease don’t eat all the bees, snake. I really want those.

The snake never got a chance to eat anything.

Chapter Text

One moment there was a snake in front of me, and in the next- No, that's not quite right. It was all the same moment. The snake slithered toward the bee and it was dead, all at once. It was torn apart, faster than it could possibly react, faster than I could even process, by a Dragon. 

It honestly looks more wolfish, with no wings and a lean appearance, but there was no doubt in my mind about what it was that was in front of me. Maybe because I’m a baby dragon myself, I instinctively recognize my own kind, but something about that thought is absurd.

Even disregarding its size and how fast it obviously is, I can tell from its aura alone that this creature isn’t like me. Everything about it is on a different order of magnitude from me, if I ever got in its way I’d be dead before I could even realize I was in danger. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 1] has become [Fear Resistance LV 2]>

So it’s fear then. I guess there must also be some awe, admiration, and desire in my tangled bundle of emotions, but yeah, mortal terror is probably the biggest one. Especially when it turns its fierce, piercing eyes directly onto the two of us.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 2] has become [Fear Resistance LV 3]>

Well maybe I was wrong, I certainly realize I’m in danger. It’s not like it makes a difference though. We don’t stand a chance if it attacks. None of our attacks could possibly dent it, and it’s way too fast to possibly escape. No fight or flight; we’re out of options. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 3] has become [Fear Resistance LV 4]>

I hate this. 

I HATE THIS!

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 4] has become [Fear Resistance LV 5]>

It’s probably only a couple of seconds until the Dragon turns and walks away, but it’s still wayyy too long. I immediately collapse when I lose sight of it, and from the soft sound behind me, I’m not the only one. 

I don’t know how long we just sit there, trying to recover from staring down certain death.

She pulls herself together first, and starts reaching out threads for the felled bees scattered on the ground, and turns to me once she’s actually grabbed them. 

…Oh, pulling. Why, though? We can’t stay here. Um, how do I… right, I need thread.

“Run”

“Up, need stamina”

“I can’t climb”

“With web”

Oh, um, okay. Ok, I get it, extend the web to the floor we came from to escape the dragon completely. Right, so, pull the bees in.

It’s so hard to think right now. I think I might be in shock. I’m going to bed.

—

I awaken to Wakaba very rudely shaking me awake, and going down herself as soon as I get up. I guess she wants to sleep in shifts to keep watch then. Looks like she was doing more than keeping watch, though. She’s obviously been busy with the nest while I was sleeping.

It doesn't really cover much more than it did before in terms of actual protection, but thick cords span out from the nook we initially settled in, connecting to a large boulder, making both sturdy foundations and scaffolding for future construction.

If this is a day's work though, and she’s trying to get to the top of the pit, that’s… a couple of weeks, maybe a month, that we’ll be stuck here. I don’t think this plan is wrong though. I see Wakaba’s point, if we stay on the ground we either go where the dragon went or where it came from. Absolutely not. Hmm… well, I guess my plan to evolve here is still on track, then. And I definitely need to get on that. 

Evolution gets me one step closer to being a dragon, like the one that came by here. I knew that already, but seeing the final product in front of me like that was something else entirely. That incredible, terrifying strength. I wouldn’t have to worry about anything if I was that strong, I could defend myself and Wakaba from anything and everything. I wouldn’t be stuck, completely helpless in the face of my doom again. I won’t be that helpless anymore, I can’t let that happen. I have to evolve.

It's kind of easier said than done though. If I aim it right, I can manage to knock a bee out of the air with every breath, but that only nets me six bees before I have to recharge, and it takes me about five minutes to build up enough for a seventh, a little over ten for the eighth, by my estimate.

I tried to go out and fight without sniping them down, but I got ganged up on too much for comfort and had to back off. I can take one sting well enough, and they have real trouble even hitting me at my size. I think I could probably take down a bee from the ground. Problem is, they only seem to move in squads of four or five. I did get one bee when I tried it, and I healed off the damage from a sting easily enough, but I don’t want to get in over my head. Maybe I could go for any weaker ground-based monsters that wander by?

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [MP Recovery Speed LV 1]>

Or that could happen! I assume that means I’ll get more shots now?

I stop knocking bees down after about ten. There’s really no place to put it, and I don’t want the smell to attract scavengers before we have a place to stockpile food in the web. I already collected enough that Wakaba looks vaguely baffled when she awakens and sees the pile. Heh-heh. I’m amazing, I know.

—

Things stay the same for a while, we sleep in shifts, I shoot down bees, and Wakaba gradually builds up the web and also shoots down bees. Apparently, she figured out a new trick with her threads, and she can swing it like a flail to knock things out of the air. Frustratingly she can obviously use it way more than I can use my breath, and levels up herself after a couple of days, way before I could have.

It’s good that she did level up though. Apparently, she doesn’t really have any other means of healing, because she had a couple slashes from the dino monsters right up until then. It’s kind of concerning honestly, I could have brushed a wound like that off in minutes, but it took her days to deal with it. Noted, I really should take hits for her when I can, it means wayyy less to me, despite the size difference. It’s kinda weird for the little guy to be taking hits, but whatever.

After around a week, Wakaba constructed the nest up to about a quarter of the way up to the top. She’s probably going to have to do more work for less height the higher up we get, trying to fight against gravity and all, but I think we’ll still be out in less than a month. Plenty of time to evolve, even if it is going slowly now. I just hope that Dragon doesn’t pass by here again before we can get out. It might not ever retrace its steps in a maze of this scale, I don’t think we ever have, but I can’t help but worry.

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kolift has increased from LV9  to LV10 >

Nice!

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [HP Auto-Recovery LV 1] has become [HP Auto-Recovery LV 2]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [MP Recovery Speed LV 2] has become [MP Recovery Speed LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Hit LV 2] has become [Hit LV 3]>

<Skill points acquired.>

<Condition Satisfied. Individual Elroe Kolift can now evolve.>

<There are multiple options for evolution. Please choose from the following.

•  Elroe Kokorit
•  Fenerush

>

Um…

What? Wait, what do I do here? What the hell is a Fenerush? HEY! What are those? What does that mean, Voice?! 

What the hell? What’s the point in giving me a choice if I can’t know what I’m choosing? Especially if it's irreversible and very important! Uh, well, umm… 

I’ll go tell Wakaba what's going on while I put this off. 

“I have a choice for evolution”

“What are they?”

“Nothing intelligible, “Elroe Kokorit” and “Fenerush”

She pauses for a long moment, looking at the names I wrote up, before she suddenly perks up excitedly, tapping her feet in enthusiasm. I really don’t get why though, this is definitely a bad thing. After a moment, she starts moving the thread around again.

“Elroe Kokorit: A small earth wyrm endemic to the Great Elroe Labyrinth.”

“Fenerush: A domesticated horse-like earth wyrm.” 

Woah, is she just pulling descriptions of the choices out of the air?

“How?”

“Appraisal.”

Oh. This again.

I wonder if Ms. Princess here is feeling more reasonable today. She can move threads around much easier with her new trick, so she doesn’t have any excuse this time.

“What is that?”

“Choose Kokorit” 

WOOOW! Ignoring me and bossing me around. What an absolute bitch! I’ll remember that, Wakaba. See what happens when you ask me anything.

She actually flinches back a little and avoids the glare I send her, turning towards nothing in particular. I want to yell at her sooo bad. If she ever does something like this again, I am going to bite her. It's the closest I can get.

I’m not evolving yet either. I would choose Fenerush just because she told me not to, but it's obviously much worse, and more importantly, I’d probably have to carry her if I did. Horse-like and all that. I can’t do it right away either, though. Not after she ordered me like that. I’m definitely waiting to evolve until it’ll be inconvenient for her. That’ll show her.

God, I love being petty.

Chapter Text

I am currently taking my shift for watch. Or, more accurately, I am taking Mirei’s shift. After randomly putting off actually evolving foreeeeever, she suddenly had the brilliant idea to do it right before I would normally be going to sleep, and I just can’t help but feel like she won’t take my watch in exchange.

Has she somehow managed to get even more annoying since we were in school? Hmm, Maybe not, actually, but I really do have to thank whatever god reincarnated her without the ability to talk. But wait! Actually not; because whatever god that did that is probably the same one who reincarnated me as a spider! What the hell, god?! No way am I thanking you for anything, I want a refund! 

Aaanyway, despite Shinohara being… herself, I still think snatching her egg is going to be plenty worth it, in the end. Why do I say that? Because her stats are totally unfair! I can’t appraise her right now, all I get is <Evolution in progress> but I can hardly forget what I saw when it did work. Around triple my non-speed stats, quadruple in the case of defense? She was barely a third of my size, and she hasn’t even fully evolved yet! Am I really just that weak?!

I know my speed is high and all, but having only that makes me feel like I’m constantly skating on paper thin ice. Especially after watching her take so many slashes and bites that might have crippled me with no trouble. Seriously, she gets autoheal?! How is that fair?!! 

Jeez… still, she did take those hits for me, so despite my internal monologue, I’m having trouble actually staying mad at her. Risking her life for mine… no matter how annoying she might be, might have been before, it all seems so small in comparison to something like that. It’s not like I owe her anything, obviously! There’s no way she could ever have survived a day without me to be her sensei. We’re definitely fully even. Definitely. 

No debts, no mushy feelings! Just keep building upwards, out of the tunnel and away from the…

Dragon.

I feel a cold wave of dread wash over my body, completely out of nowhere, though I have no doubt about what the source of it is. He's back. Earth dragon Araba.

No! No, no no! Now, of all times?!! I might have tried to escape if I was alone, but Shinohara’s soundly unconscious in her evolution right now, so I’m stuck in place, facing my worst fear completely alone. All I can possibly do is vainly hope that it will decide to ignore us like it did the last time. But any hope I could possibly muster is completely shattered when the beast opens its terrible maw. 

Since that time we had to escape from those centipedes, I’ve grown very used to the feeling of power gathering for a breath attack. If I still had hair I’m sure it would make it stand on end. But this isn’t Mirei’s comforting support. It might be similar in nature, but they’re nothing alike. This is pure power, on a scale I can barely comprehend, aimed directly at my nest below me.

 Please be okay, Shinohara.

…

The power that’s been building up reaches some tipping point, and the world turns sideways.

Chapter Text

When I come to, the first thing I can process is the smell of dust. It always smells a little earthy in the labyrinth, I mean obviously, it's in the earth. But there's a difference between that and the smell of kicked-up dust and gravel; something obviously happened, maybe a fight?

 But when I try to open my eyes to check it out, I get nothing back. Then I process the weight pressing in on me. It feels almost like I’m in my egg again. I try wiggling around to dislodge myself from wherever I ended up, but I’m pretty firmly pinned down. Alright then, I’m doing this the hard way. Planting my paws into the ground, I ready myself to force my way out. 3, 2, 1, and, shove! The rubble that was covering me rolls off and falls out of the way, letting me stick my head out to get a lay of the land. 

…What the hell happened here?! I’m still in the same pit as I was when I started evolving, but it’s barely recognizable. A heavy coat of dust hangs in the air, where the bees float around seemingly dazed, and huge shattered boulders are scattered about everywhere, centering on a ginormous crater in the side of one of the walls. It’s right where the nest was, but all that remains of the nest itself is rubble and destroyed scraps of web scattered about at random.

Where’s Wakaba?!! I need to find her Right Now. It’s obvious something destroyed the web and partly collapsed the wall. Wakaba must have survived though, I can’t believe she wouldn’t see whatever did this coming, and I know she would have found some way to survive. She must have. So I start digging through the rubble to try to find her. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 5] has become [Fear Resistance LV 6]>

As I go, I start discovering quite a bit of web that actually escaped relatively intact, and just collapsed in one piece with the rest of the wall. I think that would be the place with the best chance of Wakaba surviving, so that's where I keep digging for her. 

And that’s ultimately where I find her, completely covered by thread, looking much smaller than I remember, and with a couple legs in bad condition, probably from a fall or falling rocks, but thankfully perfectly alive. 

“ What happened?”

“Dragon came back.”

Oh. Oh, no. While I was evolving, seriously? What are the chances of that?! Oh, god, I could have died if it had aimed its breath attack differently. 

Jeez, it was a breath attack that did this much damage? Mine couldn’t even crack the stone, but what the dragon left looks almost like a meteorite impact.

Even if it hadn’t aimed differently, I would have gotten crushed flat by the rubble without my earth wyrm resistance. 

I’m so stupid! What was I thinking, waiting around because of spite, when either of us could die at any moment? I almost got the both of us killed! Who is supposed to be the entitled princess between the two of us?

 You know what? No, no more stalling, I’ll die or she will If I hesitate; right now I’m being beaten over the head with that lesson. I’m not such a terrible student that I won't learn from this.

I reach out with creature training again. She looks startled for just a moment before she reaches out in kind. This time though, I let her in. The odd sensation flows from where her claw is reaching up to touch my forehead and flows down through the rest of my body. I let it diffuse through me before it eventually congeals and settles into the center of my chest, just behind my breastbone. I can dimly feel her surprise, and after a slightly uncomfortably long moment of hesitation, she lets me in too. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Creature Training LV 1] has become [Creature Training LV 2]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Divinity Expansion LV 1]>

Well, that’s it then. It’s almost anticlimactic, ultimately. After just a moment, I “hear” the first communication through our new bond. 

Eat 

Oh right, I’m more or less starving to death. I almost forgot. Luckily the bees were stored kind of off to the side, and it looks like most of them only got a little crushed. I could probably shoot down more if I need to anyway. 

While I’m tackling the massive pile of bee corpses, I get a chance to actually think for the first time since I woke up. First off, this pile looks less massive than it did before, but that’s because I’m bigger, not everything else being smaller. For whatever reason, I grew when I evolved, even though Wakaba didn’t. Maybe that's just as big as her species gets? Anyway, I’m now about the same size as her, maybe a little bigger. It’s probably possible she could still carry me, but I think I would be too heavy for that to be practical long-term anymore. Damnit. 

It also looks like the creature training thing works, if a little bit worse than I expected. Maybe it’s just because of its low level, maybe it’s just by nature, but it feels like it can only really handle direct requests or commands. Complex or abstract concepts seem like they’re too much for it to translate into wordless meaning. It’s possible to express some fairly complex things, but everything has to be “phrased” as a direct command.

It’s still definitely useful to have though, especially since we have to go into the tunnels now; we’re not risking angering the dragon a third time, and we’re definitely not staying here. Creature training is enough to confirm that with Wakaba. None of our ways forward are really good. If we’re not staying in place or going up, we're either going where the dragon came from or where it went. So we desperately need to have a quick way to communicate, especially now that I can’t ride her.

Eugh, for once I’m glad this is only in my head. That definitely would have been the wrong way to have come out. For that to have come out. Damnit!

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Poison resistance LV 6] has become [Poison resistance LV 7]>

Thank you, God, for the distraction. I’m most of the way through the Beepile™ by now, a feat that I’m not exactly sure how I should feel about having managed in under five minutes, but at least I don’t feel hungry anymore. And I do have the excuse of evolution for having finished the whole thing.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Overeating LV 3] has become [Overeating LV 4]>

 Alright then bitch, earlier thanks revoked.

I guess we should get going now? Okay, the order of business according to what I’m getting from creature training is: 1. I carry Wakaba for a bit, since her legs are shot from the collapse, and I’m big enough for it now. 2. We get as far away from the dragon as we possibly can. 3. We find some prey so she can level up and heal. 

Creature training can’t really express reasoning, so I’m guessing as far as that goes, but I don’t think I’m wrong. It’s definitely annoying that I have to carry her though.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Creature Training LV 2] has become [Creature Training LV 3]>

Oh, that's handy. You level up quickly, don’t you? Okay, nice. There’s definitely a marked difference in how much can be communicated through the skill, so this could definitely be really good soon enough.

Dashing around to test my new speed before I set out into the wild, I can tell evolution really did make me a lot faster, and probably stronger too. I’m certainly not a dragon yet, but this isn’t a bad first step. Besides, I definitely need any strength I can get. Especially now that I've run out of things to stall with. So I pick Wakaba up onto my back, and set out, sneakily, while we’re still in dragon territory.

—

I’m starting to think we’ll have more problems than dragons down here. It seems like every few feet there’s a new monster more dangerous and powerful than the last. We’ve gotten lucky so far, there are lots of little nooks to hide in, and usually the monsters are too distracted tearing each other apart to spot us. All this skirting around has gotten my stealth skill up to level 3 too, it seems like it’s going up weirdly fast, even if it is still a concerningly low level.

All that is beside the point anyway, even if we can slide past all the dangerous monsters without getting killed, there are still a couple of problems. 1. Wakaba’s legs are hurt, which is arguably the worst part of her to get hurt, so she can’t really help me fight right now. 2. She needs to level up to heal, which means we have to pick a fight to get experience. And 3, We need to eat, so we can’t stall for long.

Using creature training to bring this up with Wakaba, we settle on a plan: try to find a safe way back up where we came from, and, in case there isn’t any way up, look out for any monsters I might be able to manage myself.

 That last bit is a real problem, even thinking about the beasties on the top floor, there’s a concerningly low number that I actually have the means to take out without her thread or poison. 

… Well, actually, that was before my evolution, I’m not exactly sure how strong I am now. So it might be easier than I think, but I definitely don’t want to risk taking a fight too big for me.

---

We ran out of luck. 

It turns out there are some weaker monsters from above bumbling about down here, but weaker really doesn’t mean weak down in the depths. 

Right now, at the worst possible time, we find ourselves in the crosshairs of a snake. Stupid level three stealth wasn’t enough to get by it.  I managed to drop Wakaba behind me, after she used creature training to keep me from running. Apparently this thing is as fast as she is. But I really don't know how I’m supposed to win this fight. All I can do is hope my evolution was enough.

The snake opens its mouth for an initial strike. Absolutely not, breath attack number one is spent keeping that in check. 

The snake rears back powerfully, much more than it did the last time I pulled that trick. After just a moment of hesitation, and with wordless urging from Wakaba, I rush forward to push my advantage.

Or try, at least. I usually bite when on the offensive, but this thing is just the wrong shape for that. All I can do is try to swipe at it with my claws, but that feels odd and weak. My body is low and flat, and my limbs are a little stubby and can’t get the force behind them I want. I don’t bounce off, but I only barely manage to break the snake's scales. 

Watch the tail

Wakaba’s belated warning comes through just as the snake's tail catches me with a wide sweep and sends me flying into the nearest wall. Actually hitting the wall doesn’t hurt, but the impact from the tail really did, even that is worse than anything I had to deal with as a human.

On top of that, I’m not exactly in the best position; having not landed on my feet. 

Roll

What are you, backseat fighting? I’ve got it, don’t distract me. Anyway I roll to the side, just before the snake slams down where I just was.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Cooperation LV 6] has become [Cooperation LV 7]>

Yeah sure whatever. I get back to my feet, and immediately get knocked away before I can even move. So this is just going to keep happening then.

Getting back up this time gets me in front of the charging snake’s maw.

Instinctively, I brace for it, using the energy that powers my breath to slide under my skin and harden it like rock. Which is apparently something I can do. With that, its fangs don't pierce through me, but the one that hits leaves a shallow gash into my side, a definitely poisoned gash from the feel of it. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Pain resistance LV 5] has become [Pain resistance LV 6]>

I immediately jump back and start healing it away, but that damn tail knocks me into a wall before I can collect myself. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Impact Resistance LV 1]>

It’s too large and too fast to dodge. How can something that big be so fast? It’s so unfair! 

All I can manage to do is try to survive the snake's constant strikes. None of my counter-attacks are strong enough to do significant damage, but that's if I can find an opportunity at all, which I almost never can, too busy defending. Meanwhile the snake just throws out strikes that widdle my energy down when I desperately try to heal the damage away. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Pain resistance LV 6] has become [Pain resistance LV 7]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Poison resistance LV 7] has become [Poison resistance LV 8]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Solidity LV 3] has become [Solidity LV 4]>

The droning of skill level ups doesn’t manage to do anything to turn the tables. Out of the corner of my eye I can see wakaba setting up a trap, but I know it’s not enough. Nothing that can be set up this quickly can keep a snake for long, especially with her broken legs. 

I really might die here.

All of this struggling to survive, and I go out here. To this stupid snake, pointless and helpless. It’s unfair! It’s so unfair! I don’t want to die!

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 6] has become [Fear Resistance LV 7]>

No, I’m not doing it. I’m going to kill this stupid, irritating snake right here. I’ll tear it apart. I refuse I’ll kill it It’s so unfair I’ll a take it all out on I’ll kill it I want to kill dodge strike kill dodge block kill strike-

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Anger LV 1] has become [Anger LV 2]>

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 1 to LV 2>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Concentration LV 2] has become [Concentration LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Hit LV 4] has become [Hit LV 5]>

<Skill points acquired.>

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 2  to LV 3>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Life LV 2] has become [Life LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Persistent LV 2] has become [Persistent LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Pain resistance LV 7] has become [Pain resistance LV 8]>

<Skill points acquired.>

<Condition satisfied. Acquired title [Guardian].>

<Acquired skills [Iron Defense LV 1] [Shieldsmanship LV 1] as a result of title [Guardian].>

Stop 

Wha..? 

Oh. The snake’s dead. And Wakaba’s healed now. …What the hell just happened to me?

Chapter Text

We didn't get to eat the snake.

I practically had to drag her away from it, but the last time we killed one of these, it took at least a week to eat our way through the whole thing. We don't have that sort of time anymore. With our overeating levels as high as they are, we don't even have enough time to eat our fill once. A huge carcass like this is going to attract way more attention than we can afford, way too fast to consider sticking around.

But more importantly to me, is how the hell I even managed to kill it. Something obviously happened, and I went completely berserk. The last clear thoughts I remember having were rage at the idea I might die down here, and a certainty that I needed to be stronger to kill the snake. I also remember, just barely, the culprit of my state during the fight.

[Anger LV 2]

It leveled up a little bit after my sense of reason first started fraying. I must have instinctively activated it at some point, which is honestly kind of scary. That skill seriously messed with my head. I came back to my senses after she used creature training to force me to stop and turn off my skills, but I still felt some lingering, deep-seated hatred for anything and everything for minutes after, even if I had my reason back. I just know that if I keep that skill active for too long, I'll lose the ability to come back again. That isn't the kind of thing I want to be able to activate on accident.

It's not without its benefits, though. I'm fairly certain that skill single-handedly turned the fight with the snake from being beaten up to literally tearing it apart. A skill like that could easily save my life again. That just leaves the question of whether losing myself to it or dying would be worse.

---

I never got an answer to that question, but we have to keep moving anyway. After a little while of walking down a single, perfectly straight tunnel, it empties into a huge cavern, so wide you can't see wall to wall. It's seriously awe-inspiring to look at. And I can already tell that it's also going to take forever to cross.

It's seriously strange how quickly being in mortal danger becomes totally banal. Despite the absurdly powerful monsters lurking all around us and the possibility of death at any moment, we're still just skirting the right wall of a huge dark cavern, occasionally killing some poisonous monsters to eat, and taking shifts to keep watch over the web at night. There's nothing really happening to interrupt that routine. So basically , I'm bored.

… I wonder what Ai and Himi are doing right now? Did they die too, if that really is what happened to me? Maybe not, I don't know for sure what it was that sent me here. They might even be mourning me back in Japan right now. If I could spare the emotional energy, I'm sure I would be mourning them, right along with the rest of my old life.

What if they did die with us, though? That would mean they got reincarnated too, right? I've got to think they would be reincarnated in better circumstances. Like statistically, it would be hard to be in a worse situation than I am now. … Unless they're alone. God, I just wish I could talk to them! to know what happened to them, and also because I just want to see my best friends again!

You know what? I made up my mind, if we ever manage to get to safety, I'm doing whatever I can to find them, no holds barred. My other classmates too. I'll take back every piece of my old life I can get my hands on. A queen needs her subjects, after all .

---

It looks like Wakaba found a potential food source. I didn't notice the black bugs covering parts of the walls in the dimness, but they're apparently plentiful enough to keep us fed without having to seek out fights.

She froze up after taking a bite, is there something wrong with it? Oh, never mind, she's passing it over to me. Might as well try it for myself.

---

Wakaba has a double watch tonight. As punishment for the bug incident. Get web spinning, princess, you have a long night ahead of you!

After the web was all the way constructed, I spotted Wakaba making some weird gesture out of the corner of my eye. Is that a pool of poison? Did you, like, learn a new trick or something? You can just splash some poison out?

It's not a very strong poison either…

Kinda useless.

---

And yet another new trick! I don't know how Wakaba's getting these things when we're not really fighting that hard, but I'm definitely not going to complain. Apparently she can use her thread like razor wire and cut things up now. With the way she can control the silk, that could actually be a pretty serious weapon.

Not immediately though; it looks like it's still pretty dull, so she's practicing to sharpen it up. Well, to raise her skill level, which would sharpen the thread. Just swinging silk at a rock wouldn't really have any effect on its sharpness in a rational world, but any logic from my human life was thrown out the window the moment I was reborn as a dragon, of all things.

Distracted by thoughts of home, I totally fail to notice the monkey until it's already spotted us and started charging forward. A monster catching us totally off guard like this without any preparations is incredibly dangerous, and also soundly my job to deal with.

She better be sooo grateful that I'm so wonderful and strong and nice... She's definitely not, though; I could picture her face in this situation. It's not like it ever changes.

Alright. First things first, I use that trick I picked up in the fight with the snake to harden my scales like rock, using that energy from my breath. Is it magic? I bet it's magic. 2: Charge toward the also charging monkey; keep it focused on me. 3: Brake hard with my front legs, and swing my whole body using the force of the charge, lashing my tail like a whip into the monkey's side.

My tail is just as long as the rest of my body, so I thought I could use it as my main weapon to keep the rest of my body with all the important parts away from the fight. It would've worked too, if I didn't way overshoot and hit the monkey with the very base, taking a fist to the back at the same time .

Owwww… This thing is a lot stronger than it looks. Not that that's saying too much, since it really just looks like a dopey monkey. It's probably a little smaller than me weight-wise too. Because of the slight weight difference, the monkey went down harder than I did when we clashed, but I think we're at around the same level of strength.

That's not the most flattering, but it's the first time that's happened in the lower stratum. I wonder how this thing survives down here without poison. At least I assume it doesn't have poison? It is a monkey, after all . Actually, no, I don't put poisonous monkeys past this cavern in the slightest. This one still doesn't look like it, though.

Anyway, while I was idly thinking about stupid things, a new habit that's become worryingly common—must be the isolation getting to me—I brawled with the monkey for a few seconds, and I was winning fairly decisively. It still seems like our strength is about the same, but I'm just a lot smarter. Just having common sense alone is a pretty significant advantage in a more-or-less fair fight. Having basic strategy can keep me from getting hit by a dumb, slow monster like this one. That is, assuming I don't fuck up my attacks like before. Anyway, that only matters so much when Wakaba can just tie it down while it's distracted with me, and promptly finish it off. Good job, Wakaba.

---

I was right! It wasn't poisonous. It was extremely nasty in a whole different way, though, and I don't even know why this time. Haah… I miss Japanese food.

---

It's been a little while since the monkey kerfuffle, and we're both starting to get tired for the day. It's very strange to base your sense of time on when you get tired or wake up and nothing else. I have no idea how much time has really passed since I hatched. Even beyond the lack of sun, the constant routine of waking up, fighting, eating, walking, and bedding down is making time blend together, and keeps us too busy to keep track of the days.

For this day, though, we find a spot in the shade of some jagged rocks near the wall, make a web for some shelter, and Wakaba lays down to sleep while I take first watch, as always.

Just the usual routine. I don't feel like we'll have any major surprises to deal with in the near future.

Chapter Text

I know these watches are necessary. There are a good deal of monsters down here in the pit that could tear through some webs, so we need to know if one is nearby, in case we need to skedaddle when it gets too close. This isn’t just theory either. We have done some skedaddling already.

That doesn’t mean I’m not bored out of my goddamn mind. If we were to play eye spy down here, the answer could only be “rocks” or maybe “impending doom” if you’re feeling fancy. And I have to remain vigilant, so I can’t even get lost in thought like I’ve grown accustomed to since hatching down here. It’s not like there’s much else to do, without my phone or shows or music or anything else to occupy me.

Can’t exactly chatter away either. Even if I could form those sorts of sounds, I don’t know if this princess here would deign to dignify my presence, even in circumstances like this. Maybe she would have, though. Humans are social creatures and all, I don’t think anyone could go completely without human interaction for long without getting desperate. 

Neither of us is exactly human anymore though, are we?

It’s odd that I don’t know whether or not she would talk to me. I trust her with my life and even my sanity. I’d do almost anything to keep her safe, risk or give my life, but I can’t exactly say that I know her. My impressions of her from when I could have learned aren’t the most flattering, either. I only picked up calling her princess in my head after I died, but it still fits well, to my eyes.

Heh, if she’s a princess does that make me the dragon? I guess her webs are kind of like a tower. That’s an interesting twist on the fairy tale, the dragon curled up, protecting the tower with the princess inside.

I kick at a stone. I want to be a princess.

I was definitely remaining vigilant while I was thinking these thoughts; I only let the monkey hit the web because it couldn’t ever break through the silk, and Wakaba will never know otherwise. 

She was also asleep at this point, so she will never have proof that I almost jumped out of my skin when it made contact. Which I didn’t. Anyway, that reaction I didn’t have was totally unnecessary anyway, the threads didn’t even bend at the impact, taking the full force charge without flexing at all. It would take tens of times that force to actually damage the silk. 

It was plenty to alert Wakaba’s keen spider senses enough to rouse her, though. Ignore the weak monkey monster Wakaba. Yeah, I’ll save it for breakfast, don’t worry. Go back to sleep, unless you want to take over watch. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Creature Training LV 3] has become [Creature Training LV 4]>

Creature training can’t (couldn’t? I’ll test it later) manage to translate the concept of “unless”, but I imagine she would have ignored it anyway. I don’t have to tell her to go back to sleep twice. Meanwhile, I start trying to deal with webbing containing a surly monster using two paws and no spinnerets, not exactly an easy feat, but I don’t have a lot to do.

I’m honestly kind of grateful to have A Task to do. What have I become? Boredom really can drive you to dark places… Don’t think about it, Meirei, just deal with the monkey.

Right as the creature with its neck in my jaws finally stops wiggling, and more importantly breathing, another small tremor runs through the web. Don’t look at me like that, it’s not like you got back to sleep already. Just deal with it.

Another of the same monkeys to bring in, and so soon after the other one? I can deal with it the same way as the other one, but it’s kind of odd. Maybe this was a pair that got split up. Or it could just be a coincidence. Isn’t that some sort of saying, a quote from some old movie maybe? Once is happenst- two more shudders run through the nest in quick succession, even before the second monkey takes its last breath. 

It’s monkeys, as basically anyone could guess, two at once this time. Are we just in monkey central right now? It kinda reminds me of the centipedes, an area full of nothing but a whole lot of weak monsters. That was a lot of free food, at least until…

When I go to fetch the newest victims, I find the eyes of six more monkeys staring back at me. Never mind what I said before, Wakaba. You should get up, now.

Should we run? No? Oh right, they can’t break the web. I don’t need to be so jumpy. 

I still can’t tell Wakaba this, and I am not asking for silk right now, but I feel like we should run anyway. It’s idiotic to want to run out of our shelter when enemies that it could fend off show up, but still, something feels …bad, about staying here. Some gut instinct tells me it’s dangerous, and I have to flee. I can’t blame a spider for not wanting to leave her web, though.

The newest arrivals have stopped charging in so recklessly. I guess it makes sense for monkeys to be smart for monsters, but it's very inconvenient right now. You’re all really not going to let us just pick you off one by one until we can get out safely? Pleeease, for me? 

They don’t do that. Instead, they hang around close to, but not touching the web, baring their fangs at us and occasionally roaring. With them being so close, I find myself unable to get to the two that are already caught. Whenever I get too close to the edges, they rush forward and try to grab me, obviously intent on dragging me out of the nest and into the mob. 

Wakaba uses that trick she picked up recently to splash some poison on them from a small distance. They went down quickly, but in the time that exchange took, the monkey crowd had started to multiply. There have to be at least 20 now, enough to completely surround the nest. Running is a lost cause by now, there’s no way out that wouldn’t get us immediately caught.

We should still be safe in our shelter, but I can’t help but feel like our only lifeboat just drifted away.

How long will these monkeys stick around? We can’t just stay holed up in here forever. We need to eat and more importantly, if something strong notices the commotion and attacks while we’re still surrounded, we’re in big trouble.

Even now, more monkeys are joining the crowd, and we’re now up to officially too many. More than 50 at this point. 

Suddenly, one moves forward and grabs a hold of the thread, seemingly futilely, at least until others gather behind it, grabbing on to whatever part of the monkey they can hold on to, and then being grabbed by others behind them. And they all start pulling back together, and the web bends with them. 

Wakaba gets her head together faster than me and kills the monkey holding on at the front with a quick splash of poison. Unfortunately, one of the most important traits of spider silk comes back to bite us. It’s sticky. The monster never needed to hold on, and it wasn’t going to live anyway. 

With one final heave, the air fills with the cracking and tearing of the monkey’s body as it’s pulled apart, and a twang like a broken guitar string as a part of the web goes with it. 

Fuck.

And now the ship has started sinking, the lifeboat long gone.

Wakaba quickly snaps out a rough plan through creature training. While she gets to reinforcing and expanding the nest, I use dragon breath to keep monkeys from grabbing hold of her by blowing away any that get too close. We need to build faster than the ever-expanding swarm of monkeys can destroy it. 

We can’t just keep stalling for time forever, Wakaba! Even as I mentally complain at her, I shoot down the closest monkey. One shot does the job and kills the monkey instantly. If only I had as much probably-magic as the monkeys have numbers. 

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Cooperation LV 7] has become [Cooperation LV 8]>

You need to come up with a better plan, Wakaba. I’m going to run out of breath soon enough.

And even more problematically, despite the much faster culling, the monkey's numbers are still swelling, faster than before, even. 

As the monkeys’ numbers continue to grow, clusters of them form, each being just enough to snap threads off of our only layer of protection. By now, there are enough of them to form three clusters attacking the web from every angle. 

There are only two of us, and we were already busy with just one. We can’t be in three places at once, and we can’t stop them all. I hear a snap from somewhere behind me, but I’m too busy covering Wakaba and stopping new clusters from forming to look. 

Wherever we aren’t, there are monkeys there, tearing up our defenses. Wakaba is still making headway; tearing down the silk takes much more effort than putting it up, but I just don’t see the point. All this hunkering down like this is going to drive us into a corner soon enough.

Suddenly I get another idea from Wakaba. She’s running low on the energy she needs to make the web, so it’s time to switch gears to culling as many monsters as possible from the safety of our newly reinforced buffer.

As I’m comprehending that, Wakaba is already dousing the crowds in poison from a slightly elevated foothold she was just making earlier, where the monkeys wouldn’t be able to easily reach her, even without my covering fire.

That means I can turn my focus to the monkeys on the other half of the web, leaving no blindspots for monkeys to hide in. 

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 3  to LV 4>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Concentration LV 3] has become [Concentration LV 4]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Night Vision LV 9] has become [Night Vision LV 10]>

<Condition Satisfied. Skill [Vision Expansion LV 1] has been derived from skill [Night Vision LV 10]>

<Skill points acquired.>

Oh, there’s that too. I guess she has more energy for the web now.

Let the record show that I never doubted her for a moment. 

Anyway, I should probably stop gawking like a tool and start massacring. It’s easy enough to do, one breath is more than enough to bring down a monkey assuming it hits, and the monkeys are in such a thick crowd that it would really be harder to miss. 

It is kind of awkward though, there are so many targets that trying to wipe them out like this feels like trying to clean up spilled rice one grain at a time. Sure, it will probably work eventually, especially when I don’t really have to worry about running out of energy/probably-magic/breath when the regular level-ups will top me off, but I feel like there has to be a better way to do this. 

As I think that, some instinct tells me to hold my breath and let pressure build up in my chest, like the forces of an earthquake building up in grinding plates before they slip and send shockwaves crashing through the bedrock. And just the same, a wave that could hopefully be just as devastating as an earthquake one day is sent crashing out of me, mowing down an entire row of stupid monkeys in its way and slamming into the cavern wall where it… barely makes a dent. 

So this is just going to keep happening with my dragon things, isn’t it? ( My dragon things, god my life is so weird.) I just spontaneously discover new things I can do as I need them. And I know that I couldn’t have done that this entire time. I tried holding in my breath before when I first realized I had it; it just shot the inside of my mouth and rattled my brain around inside my skull. 

It’s probably the earth wyrm skill leveling up that nets me these new abilities, but it’s not like knowing that does me much good. I don’t really have any way of knowing what each level-up actually means, just that I have *something* new.

I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth or anything though. The new and improved dragon earth-not-fire breath mows down most of my side of the web with only a couple of sweeps. Not without cost though. The larger breaths seem to be much more draining and I end up running out of energy (magic energy? No that sounds dumb) after only those couple. 

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 4 to LV 5>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Hit LV 5] has become [Hit LV 6]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [MP Recovery Speed LV 3] has become [MP Recovery Speed LV 4]>

<Skill points acquired.>

At least for a couple of seconds. But it's just as well because the monkeys started to retreat around the same time. 

Nice! We killed enough of them to scare ‘em off! 

…or not.

In the shadows (Metaphorically, there’s no light to cast any shadows) of the jagged rocks, I can spot the (also metaphorically) gleaming eyes of the monkeys. They’re apparently just taking cover for the time being, maybe to wait for reinforcements. When I cautiously take an experimental step outside the protection of the web the whole gestalt of them lunges forward, intent on dragging me into their territory. Determined to stay out of their territory, I step back in, and they back off again.

Back to phase one, Wakaba?

Wait no, no question marks, that's not how creature training works. 

Back to phase one, Wakaba.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Creature Training LV 4] has become [Creature Training LV 5]>

Yeah, sure, thanks. Anyway, we both get back to phase one; her expanding the nest after separating from a venom-soaked thread (I guess she found a better way to deal with big crowds too.), and I with protecting her from getting dragged away while she does that. 

Or, we try too, at least. When Wakaba gets within a monkeys grabbing radius of the edge of the web, the entire hoard comes rushing for her all at once, more than I can deal with, and they force her to back off, and then follow suit before we can kill them.

Damn, intelligent, learning-and-planning monkeys. They have us forced into a kind of stalemate, not a position you want to be in when the enemy is the only one getting reinforcements. But it’s not like we can go on the offensive either, with all of them hunkered down behind the rocks scattered around. I guess we could technically use Wakaba to draw them out and I could pick them off one at a time, but that would put her at risk. If she gets pulled out, we’re both just dead, so that's not really a plan to actually consider. 

We’re not exactly in a perfect stalemate, she can still slowly expand the web from safe deep in the web. But like, Slowly . And that just leaves me to look around twitchily, feeling like a rubber band stretched to its absolute limit, with nothing to do to release the building tension.

By now the crowd is more than double the number of corpses scattering the ground and continuing to build. Why are they even still coming, why are they here in the first place? Even if we haven’t done too much damage to the swarm, it should be obvious to monsters this clever that we’re way too dangerous for our size to be worth hunting for food. It’s like they have a grudge against us specifically.

When the tipping point is finally reached, several things happen at once. A new, much larger, and more dangerous-looking monkey monster stumbles its way out of the gloom. (also metaphorical, perfect night vision and all) The entire massive swarm of monkeys falls onto us at once, and, utterly bafflingly, Wakaba tells me not to kill any of the smaller monkeys. 

I don’t understand it, and my first instinct is that she’s going to get the both of us killed. But still, it was barely minutes ago I learned to always trust her plans. Wakaba knows what she’s doing, and she needs my help to pull it off. So against the urging of my instincts and any sort of logic, as far as I can tell, I still myself. The rubber band is pulled even more taunt, and the seismic plates refuse to slip.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Cooperation LV 8] has become [Cooperation LV 9]>

Wakaba seems ready to kill monkeys for me. She pulled multiple threads through a pool of very deadly poison and managed to make multiple envenomed whips which eat through the monkeys tearing at the web from every direction. In fact, she seems more focused on taking out monkeys than protecting the web. We have plenty of buffers, and we’ll be able to retreat for a while, but it makes me nervous. Maybe she thinks we can just clear them all out before they can break through the web? But then why would she tell me not to attack them?! 

While I’m panicking, I spot something horrifying out of the corner of my eye. The larger monster that arrived moments ago casually rips a boulder larger than it, and ergo the both of us combined, out of the ground and lifts it above its head. I don’t process what exactly that implies for a moment, until it pulls its hands back behind it slightly, like a stretch… or a windup.

Oh, hell no.

Immediately, so panicked that it wraps back around to being calm and calculating, I shoot the beast once in the shoulder, making it fumble and try to readjust its grip on the boulder, and in the time that buys me, hit it dead in the chest with a full power charged shot.

The force of the attack blasts a bloody crater over the monster's sternum. It staggers back powerfully and sets the bolder down at its side. It’s wounded and disarmed, but unfortunately not at all dead, despite taking an attack that would blow away whole swathes of its lesser versions to the chest, very literally.

Considering the strength it’s already demonstrated, its aliveness bothers me deeply. Wakaba “said” not to kill the little monkeys specifically, so I assume I can remedy that without ruining her plans, whatever they may be. So I fire a third breath.

I might have been premature thinking about what Wakaba would get mad at me for though, because the newly unencumbered monkey dodges my attack with alarming ease and speed. If this thing closes the distance to us, a web barrier won't mean a thing. That boulder, if I hadn’t stopped it from being thrown, would have demolished the nest all on its own. 

That’s when Wakaba deigns to make her plan clear with creature training, late as always. God, I wish I could complain at you. She tells me to only flash activate [Anger] in the moments when I need the physical boost, in the swing, not the followthrough. And implicitly she tells me: “You’ll need it.”

So it’s my job to charge out of safety and fight the über powerful monster head-on. Of course. 

I want to switch roles. 

I really can't afford to waste time bemoaning my fate while the big fella approaches, so I bemoan my fate without wasting time; simultaneously charging forward to fight. 

I need to get out, kill the big man, and dive back into cover before the monkey gestalt tears me to pieces, that's the best chance of survival. Iḿ definitely going to need [Anger] for that. 

Unexpectedly, though, the small monkeys don't look like they’re going to cause me trouble. Sure, they turned to me as I ran out of the web, but as soon as it was clear I was going towards the big guy, they turned their attention back to her. Maybe they wrote me off as basically dead already. Stay safe in there, Wakaba.

Even with [Anger], the monkey is faster than me. But speed hardly seems to be my natural specialty. In our first exchange the monkey claws into my side, and I think I actually see sparks fly from its nails and my scales. 

At the same time, I swing my tail towards its already wounded chest, but it turns its side to face me so I hit it in its unbroken ribs. Worse, it grabs a hold of my tail in the same motion. Better, it uses that grasp on my tail to slam me into the ground. 

That would have hurt a lot if I was anything but an earth dragon, but as it stands, the only injury it gave me was where its claws dug into my tail. I turn that to my advantage by sitting up much faster than it expects and landing a breath attack with no charge directly into its face. 

It recoils powerfully, letting go of my tail and grabbing at its face, maybe blinded. I right myself and try to lunge after it. While I follow after it, my vision goes white in agony as my back is slashed down to the bone, completely out of nowhere.

I back away quickly, frantically trying to heal myself while processing what the hell just happened. What happened, was another large monkey, another two, actually, that were either hiding somewhere or just arrived. One of them caught me without [Anger] active and tore up my back with one swipe, cutting down to and even through bone. 

So I have to fight 3 vs 1? 2 vs 1 actually, thankfully that cheap shot I got in did actually destroy the monkey's eyes, though it’s not dead and still seems raring for a fight. So 2.5 vs 1? Whatever, it's unfair, is the idea.

As I jump back into the fight, my mind is split three ways, one actually focusing on the deeply unfair fight, one trying as hard as it can to not go insane from the influence of [Anger], about as hard a fight as the one with the monkeys, and one keeping an eye out for even more monsters appearing to kill me. 

Even though it leaves me open to a sneak attack, I can’t afford to just keep up [Anger] constantly, this fight is going to take time to play out. Now that I know to actively resist its influence and turn it off while I’m using it, I can slow it enough to stay sane through a whole fight, but just one of those things won’t be enough. I’m already going to be seeing red by the end of this, or more realistically, the middle of this.  

The two monkeys left with working eyes flank me from either side, because of course they do. They try to attack at the same time, but the blind one actually gets in their way by charging into the fight based on sound alone. I should wait to kill that one last.

The one uninterrupted monkey charges in with a claw swipe, as seems to be typical for these guys. I dodge to the side- it doesn’t work but at least I tried- and fire a shot of breath toward it. It dodges to the side, successfully. Now I have some opened claw wounds and nothing to show for it. God, this sucks.

The monkey stalled by the blind one attacks from behind, but I have an idea. I need to end this fast, so I just take the attack and sweep at its legs with my tail to knock it down. I bite it in the throat, but before I can finish the job, the other bastard knocks me off and into the wall. 

My gut twists, I’ve been healing too much, and I’m out of energy for it now. Based on how hungry I am. 

My head’s starting to slip, no more pussyfooting around, I need to hurry up and kill these things.

I fire my breath at the closest monkey, then bite down on its leg as hard as I can. I immediately taste blood and the enemy delightfully howls in pain. I let out my breath, quickly this time so the other doesn’t knock me off first.

The same one I’m latching on stomps down onto my back, I hear a wet crack as a couple of ribs break, and pain bursts out from the area, and immediately, the other claws into the same spot, it doesn’t make it down to bone this time, only nearly to muscle with anger active.

The hit throws me away, back into the wall. Oh right, I can’t really heal now.

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 4 to LV 5>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Pain resistance LV 8] has become [Pain resistance LV 9]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Iron Defense LV 1] has become [Iron Defense LV 2]>

<Skill points acquired.>

Oh, Wakaba’s murdering too, now can get back to tearing them apart. I try to charge the monkey whose leg I injured -I think I can see its ankle bone- but I get interrupted. Asshole, I’ll kill you first then. I bite down hard on its hand coming at me. 

If this bitch will claw me I’ll just tear it limb from limb. Its claws tear at my cheeks and tongue, I’m tasting my blood as much as it.

It lifts me up and bites down. Even piercing my lungs. My mind goes white. I can’t think. For a moment. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Piercing Resistance LV 1]>

I’ll heal. Its throat is mine now, I’ll strangle this piece of shit to death. From here. Stupid beady eyes staring me down, I’ll rip them out of your skull myself. It spits me out and howls, So loud, you’ll finally shut up when I kill you one eye. 

No eye swings at one eye that's my kill. I’ll kill you that's mine. Ill pop you’re head with my breath like a blood filled watermelon balloon.

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 5 to LV 6>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

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

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [HP Auto-Recovery LV 2] has become [HP Auto-Recovery LV 3]>

<Skill points acquired.>

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 6 to LV 7>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

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

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Hit LV 6] has become [Hit LV 7]>

<Skill points acquired.>

Bad leg carves up my back he dies first. I get flung away, huge gashes down my body its fault, cut it into pieces.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Cutting Resistance LV 1]>

I shoot at it then bite down it lifts me up again, closer to its face, I’ll take the one eye left. I hear ribs crack. I claw its arms to shreds. It grabs more of my body and pulls. My spine comes in two it has my legs in the other hand I can’t think. 

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Pain Resistance LV 9] has become [Pain Nullification]>

<Condition Satisfied. Skill [Pain Mitigation LV 1] has been derived from skill [Pain Nullification]>

I blow his brain into pieces through his bad eye. 

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 7 to LV 8>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Iron Defense LV 2] has become [Iron Defense LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 7] has become [Fear Resistance LV 8]>

<Skill points acquired.>

Bad leg left. Kill kill kill kill Kill KIll KILl KILL!!

…

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual elroe kokorit has increased from LV 8 to LV 9>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Anger LV 2] has become [Anger LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Strength LV 2] has become [Strength LV 3]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [HP Auto-Recovery LV 3] has become [HP Auto-Recovery LV 4]>

<Skill points acquired.>

Calm Down

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Heresy Resistance LV 1]>

I’ll show you.. Whose calm…. I’ll kill…

Ugh, urgh, bleagch.

I’m Shinohara Meirei, I’m a reincarnated human, two and two is four. And I just came back to reality to the sensation of ripping out a monkey's windpipe with my teeth.

God, do I ever hate using that skill. And I’m fairly sure it leveled up at the end there, too. Joy.

Aaah, at least we’re still alive. Wait, are we? How are you doing Wakaba? 

The very large web I had originally left behind is now only a tattered fraction of what it once was, nearly hidden in the piles of monkey corpses and soon-to-be corpses, bound in silk. Wakaba putters around them, making said soon-to-be-corpses into plain old regular corpses.

The bloody spider legs and other errant pieces of spider scattered about make it pretty clear this encounter was no cakewalk for her either. But she’s alive and safe and that's what matters.

Hip-hip hooooraaayyyyy…

I am going to lie perfectly still for several minutes and stew in my exhaustion now. Please do not interrupt me. 

Chapter Text

Of course, she interrupts my stewing in exhaustion. She wandered off somewhere once the monkeys were all dead, and she must have found something, to be demanding I come and check it out so emphatically.

I can almost feel her excitement radiating through our bond formed by [Creature Training]. It’s actually pretty contagious, I don’t know what she found, but my own excitement and curiosity quickly override any lingering exhaustion. 

Quickly, I hop to my feet and start trotting over to where Wakaba is. Huh, I wasn’t really paying attention earlier, but I still knew exactly where she was without having to look for her.

I still can’t actually see her, but I definitely know where she is. I never noticed that was a part of our bond before. 

Hey, is it… hotter than normal? Since when did the temperature ever change in this maze? And is that... Oh! I see what’s got her so excited!

The path leads up! It’s been so long since we fell that I half forgot this is where we were going—back up to the top!

We race up to the top, aaaand it's a hellscape. It's a hellscape. Fire and brimstone as far as the eye can see. I can almost feel her utter disappointment beside me.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Creature Training LV 5] has become [Creature Training LV 6]>

Or, maybe I can actually feel it? I don’t really care about that right now, though, because, like, I’m basically on fire just standing here.

Wakaba will actually be lit on fire once that thread burns up to her abdomen. I’m just going to stomp that out real quick.

So, like, what do we do? This doesn’t exactly look traversable, and the only other way is back toward the monkeys and the dragons.

Either way, it seems like it's asking for trouble. that is, asking for death. I think death is definitely a kind of trouble. 

Oh hey, speaking of trouble, here comes a new monster. It looks kind of like a weird, huge, seahorse. and it dies after exactly one uncharged breath.

Well, at least the monsters up here are manageable, but that's kind of cold comfort. Or maybe a hot comfort; I think cold would probably be a good thing right now.

She backs off and makes her way down the slope toward the chamber full of monkey corpses. Yeah, I figured that was coming. So, are we looking for another way up?

… No, I guess not. She’s getting all worked up now. She "says" that we’re finding a way to get through. For now, though, I just need to protect her while she evolves.

That was fast! But I guess I already knew that. I’m level nine, right? She was always a couple of levels ahead of me, so she’s definitely at least level ten.

Mowing down an entire army is pretty good for leveling up quickly, it seems.

We got lucky timing-wise again, too. With the monkey massacre and all, we have more than enough food for evolution.

Aaand there she goes, sweet dreams. Try to actually get stronger this time, kay?

Evolution is definitely less alarming now, even if it is much more dangerous down here in the depths. 

She even forwent an elaborate web so I could pick her up and book it if anything too strong pops up; it's more like a cocoon, wrapped tightly around her and only barely attached to the rocks.

While I wait, I keep myself busy by gathering up all the monkeys into a neat little pile. or at least as neat as a haphazard collection of corpses can be. It’s not actually all that little either.

Either way, it’ll all be in one place when she wakes up, bar one of the large monkeys, which I snack on in the process. I killed ‘em; they’re totally mine to eat, as little as I really want to.

However nasty they might be, starving is worse.

---

I wonder where all the monsters are? We have a lot of food here, and the fight was hardly subtle, so I was kind of expecting more trouble than this. But no, I don’t even hear anything in the distance.

Maybe it's like the centipedes, and only monkeys lived in this part of the maze. In that case, it might take a while for anything to wander over here, since we killed everything and all.

That could be a problem, actually. I’ll probably evolve soon myself, and I doubt this one pile will last for two evolutions.

We should probably start stocking up on monsters for my evolution as soon as she wakes up, so it might actually be better if some monsters did appear.

Not right now, with her out of commission, but soon. Well, as long as we can actually kill them.

Ohh, maybe I can hunt the monsters in that lava place. The one I saw didn’t make it seem like they’re all that dangerous, but it was about as big as me. More or less ideal prey. Yeah, we should start on that as soon as she wakes up.

It’s nice to be the one making plans for once. Normally all the planning comes from Wakaba being bossy (and really smart, apparently).

I learned my lesson earlier, though. No more letting my thoughts wander too far while I’m supposed to be standing guard.

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Concentration LV 4] has become [Concentration LV 5]>

Yeah, exactly.

---

I’m finally hearing some sounds from the cocoon. Jeez, evolution really does take way too long. Especially since she still doesn't appear to have changed much when I check her out while she's eating.

She’s definitely still the same size as before, and I wasn’t watching the process this time, so I can’t say for sure she hasn’t changed at all, but it looks that way to me. 

Oh, wait, actually she has these little purple balls running across her back and joints, and I’m fairly confident those weren’t there before.

It’s a little underwhelming, to be honest. Is there any reason her evolutions seem so much less spectacular than mine? Maybe it’s that I’m a dragon, or I could just be- "40,000 SKILL POINTS?!" Oh my god what?

---

I am immediately filled with regret. For a moment there, after appraising Shinohara and seeing that ridiculous stockpile of skill points she apparently had just lying around (40,500! That’s absurd! What has she just been sitting on that this whole time? And how does she even have that much in the first place?! Was she just born with 400 times the skill points I was?! No wayyyy.) I got so mad I forgot who I was for a second and used telepathy, which I got from maxing out cooperation, to yell at her.

I got a whole three words out before panicking and clamming up again! Now I’m panicking even more because I don’t know what to do.

Umm, what if I don’t do anything? Yeah! I said everything I wanted to; there’s no reason we can’t just continue our way.

Her demands to explain everything don’t really matter, right?

I pretend I do not see it.

Ugh, I’m not going to be able to ignore this, am I? No wayyyy. Seriously no wayyyy!

Technically, this is a good thing; if I ignore the incredible unfairness of it all that is.

Shinohara could get much stronger here, and her being strong benefits me too. But to take advantage of this, I actually need to explain things to her. No wayyyy.

---

I will bite you, Wakaba. Answer my goddamn questions. What. The hell. Did that mean? 

Are you?? Put down the thread, Wakaba; I know full well you have telepathy!! Just answer the same way you gave me the questions! Wakkabaaaaaa!!

"You can buy skills"

Oh, gee, thanks! That explains everything!! Just tell me out loud, my god!...

She just shook her head right there, didn’t she. 

Ooooooh, this girl is testing me. Fine then! Make your own life harder! Just actually explain already!

… Telling me to wait is awfully bold of you, you know. Fine! But this better be good.

[Ultimate Life] [Ultimate Magic] [Ultimate Movement] [Fortune] [Fortitude] [Stronghold] [Deva] [Sanctum] [Skanda]

[Wrath] [Perseverance] [Envy] 

[Appraisal] 

…I assume this is supposed to mean something. Explain. Don’t give me that look, it's your fault we’re here, you could have brought this up at any time. 

"Skills you can get with skill points, most important"

Show me all of them. If I can get skills by "buying" them, I want to know all my options. Let me do some window shopping here.

"Too many" 

Fine, then. She must have gotten this from [Appraisal] right? So I’ll just get it for myself so I don’t have to deal with her. 

<Number of skill points currently in possession: 40,500. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Appraisal LV 1]: 1,500. Acquire skill?>

Gimme. 

<[Appraisal LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 39,000.>

Finally, some progress. So I just… Appraise?

<Spider>

              .                   ,                  ?                              ‽                                     !                                                                                              ,          ¿                             -                       -                                      )                                       )            -                     !!!                              ,                    ,                          -                                        .          ,                   .                              ,              ?      ,                ,          -    !                              ?      .        (                         i               )   ,                   .   ,               ‘         ,                  .     !       ,            .

OWWW?! What the hell was that?! As soon as I used it, my head felt like an overinflated balloon about to pop. How are you supposed to deal with that?

Even now that I've stopped actively using it, it still feels like I have an awful hangover, and I didn’t even get to be drunk first.

Did I do something wrong? I need to ask Wakaba.

Wait, hold on. Now that I know how it works, can I just...

<Number of skill points currently in possession: 39,000. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Telepathy]: 100. Acquire skill?>

<[Telepathy] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 38,900.>

YES!! IT WORKED! This is by far the best thing to happen to me in this life. FINALLY, I can talk again!

"Hey, look what I bought! I bet you thought I wouldn’t realize [Telepathy] is a skill if you didn’t tell me. Well, TOO BAD, you’re not silencing me! I also bought Appraisal, so I wouldn’t have to deal with your obstinate bullshit, but can you tell me how to deal with that headache that you get when you use it? I don’t know if it's more painful than waiting for you to deign to explain anything, but even just being comparable really says a lot. Ugh, why do you keep using threads like that? Seriously, it’s like we're standing right next to each other, and you’re like, "We should send up smoke signals." Like what’s the proooblem, I know you have it too. You started this whole encounter by showing me that. What, did you buy Telepathy just so you could never use it out of pure spite or something? I have it now, so I know there’s no reason not to use it. It’s not like it’s exhausting or anything, so just use it already!!! Actually, this might even be less exhausting than regular talking face-to-face, it’s not like I have to take a breath at any point. No, I will not be quiet. You got your graveyard silence for months already; now it’s Shinohara time. Hey, can you answer me already? The headache from appraisal! How do I get rid of it? Weren’t you even paying attention? I guess a stuck up princess like you would never need to pay attention to the peasants below her. Your new body suits you well, you know.`` 

---

My regret has only continued to grow.

---

"Keep using it"

"Seriously? Are you just being petty right now? C’mon, I need to know how you used it enough to level it up. Then I can get the information I need without having to go through you. And I know you’d like that, as much as someone like you could like anything."

" It gets easier to deal with"

"Ok, ok fine, I’ll try it. This better work though"

<Spider>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Faint Resistance LV 1]>

The skill couldn’t do enough. At least I assume as much, after gradually coming back to consciousness, sprawled out on the stone ground. 

"It wasn’t-"

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Pain Mitigation LV 1] has become [Pain Mitigation LV 2]>

Owwww, ow, ow.

I think my brain must be tender or something, because the telepathy and the level-up both felt like a bright light being shone directly into my eyes. My head keeps pulsing violently, like something is in there and wants out very badly.

I hear some odd noises in front of me, and glance up to see Wakaba fidgeting nervously. Huh, her eyes look genuinely concerned; I guess she really wasn’t expecting that. I’m kind of surprised.

Just. Give me a second.

I lay down on my belly and cover my eyes and ears with my paws. I need a little bit to recover.

Fortunately, whatever this is doesn't last too long. After several minutes of suffering and listening to Wakaba making vaguely worried noises, picking back up at one point seemingly at random, it’s reduced to a dull pounding. God, I would kill for some aspirin.

Wakaba had already left a couple of messages while I was down. 

"That never happened to me"

"How much did it cost for you; 100 for me. It might be badly suited to you"

Woah, Wakaba asking the questions, never thought I’d live to see the day.

"Fif-ow-fifteen hundred"

I could use thread to keep talking without aggravating my headache. There's no way I’m ever going to, though.

Anyway, it looks like I was right, she really wasn’t expecting that.

And it also seems like we’ve got the cause of my current state. My brain must not be built for this skill, like putting a circle in a square hole. I don’t know why Wakaba would be different, but fine.

Irritatingly, this means I have no choice but to use her appraisal, because I don’t think I’m ever going to activate that skill again.

"Why did you pick out those -ow- skills in particular?" 

Instead of actually explaining herself, she just lists out the descriptions appraisal gave her for all the skills, and how much they cost, and even replaces appraisal with [Danger Perception] and [Technique Perception].

It didn’t take her long at all, she’s extremely dexterous with her threads now. So she just chooses to take forever to respond to me, got it.

Either way, it seems like I have some decisions to make.

That middle row seems seriously powerful; my eye is immediately drawn to [Wrath] in particular. Multiplying all my stats by ten definitely seems ridiculously good, but a little note she left next to it makes me hesitate.

"Wrath>Anger, maybe the backlash is too"

If [Wrath] is like anger, and if it’s too much for me to deal with, all that strength will probably end up being turned on Wakaba, and I’ll be lost forever.

I don’t know if any of that is true, but it's not a risk worth taking. No reward is worth that. No wrath for me. I can barely control its (maybe) lesser version.

Next to it though, [Perseverance], as long as MP is maintained, survive on 1 HP. I’ve gathered from looking at these descriptions that MP is the actual name for what powers my breath; finally figured that out.

The way that skill is worded intrigues me, though. 

"Do you think -ow- Perseverance costs MP?"

"I assume it will"

"But what if -ow- what if it doesn’t?"

…

I’m not gonna risk turning that up.

<Number of skill points currently in possession: 38,900. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Perseverance]: 15000. Acquire skill?>

Go for it.

<[Perseverance] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 23,900.>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Acquired Skill [Taboo LV 1]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Taboo LV 1] has become [Taboo LV 2]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Taboo LV 2] has become [Taboo LV 3]>

Ow! What the hell?

<Condition satisfied. Acquired title [Ruler of Perseverance].>

<Acquired skills [Heresy Nullification] [Conviction] as a result of title [Ruler of Perseverance].>

Uh, that sounded bad; what was that?

"What the hell, did you see that?"

"Already happened to me."

"And you didn’t bother to warn me about whatever that was?" 

…

"Yeah, who do I think I’m talking to, of course you didn’t."

Whatever, Wakaba being like That is hardly big news, and this doesn’t seem like an immediate problem.

The rest of my skill points should go into those first eight; they definitely seem necessary to get early. She was right to put those first.

Ultimate magic first, in case perseverance does cost MP, then the cheapest ones, assuming those suit me the best. I think that’s probably the best plan.

<[Ultimate Magic LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 18,900.>

<[Stronghold LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 17,900.>

<Skill [Solidity LV 4] has been integrated into [Stronghold LV 1]>

<[Ultimate Life LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 15,900.>

<Skill [Life LV 3] has been integrated into [Ultimate Life LV 1]>

<[Sanctum LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 13,900.>

<Skill [Protection LV 3] has been integrated into [Sanctum LV 1]>

<[Fortitude LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 10,900.>

<Skill [Strength LV 2] has been integrated into [Fortitude LV 1]>

<[Skanda LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 900.>

<Skill [Running LV 2] has been integrated into [Skanda LV 1]>

I can’t afford any more of those. I guess I could get the pseudo-appraisal she suggested with what I have left.

<[Danger Perception LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 800.>

<[Technique Perception LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 300.>

Technique perception allows you to sense when your opponent is using skills and what kind they are. So appraisal was never really necessary, I guess.

I should probably save these last few... Or I could get magic perception and manipulation on a special request from Wakaba. Sure, why not? Whatever you say.

<[Magic Power Perception LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 200.>

<[Magic Power Operation LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 100.>

Oh, come on, Wakaba, get me something for 100 skill points, I’ve gotta finish it.

Wow, fancy.

<[Heavy Evil Eye LV 1] Acquired. Remaining skill points: 0.>

There we are; that feels good somehow. I got a whole flood of new abilities, I can finally talk again, and my head stopped pounding right around when I started buying things. I feel like a whole new dragon, even without having shed my skin.

It doesn’t even matter that the plan now is to walk straight into hell; right now, I feel like I can take hell on head-to-head.

Chapter Text

Over time, I’ve noticed that a big difference between the two of us, in a fight at least, is that our objectives are usually the exact opposite. I’m an infighter, always trying to get as close to my opponent as I can. I do best when I can get right up in their face and brawl, even though my strongest attack, my breath, is ranged. It’s even more powerful at point-blank, after all. And I can deal with any scrapes I get closing the distance. But Wakaba spends most of her energy staying as far away as she can get from her enemies. She’s very careful to avoid any attack that comes her way, and bides her time until one of them gives her an opening to destroy them with one absurdly damaging attack of her own. Or if her opponent is defensive, whittles them down from a distance with her ranged abilities, though they’re much weaker.

So naturally that means that when we fight each other, the factor that decides victory is who can stay at the range that they prefer and keep the other away from theirs.

So to win right now, all I have to do is get close to her, and then it's smooth sailing. Obviously, that’s easier said than done, though. I can deal with weak magic flying my way well enough, I don’t even really bother to dodge that, trusting my recovery and defense to handle it, but the whips coated in deadly poison, those are an issue.

Right as I get into their range, I fire a breath, both to distract Wakaba enough for me to dive past the tips of the whips -where they move the fastest-, and to force her to keep zigzagging as she backs away from me; I could never hope to catch her if she retreated in a straight line, given the difference in our speeds.

Two of the three threads do miss in her haste to dodge, but the third comes toward me fast enough to be unavoidable. So I don’t avoid it, being timid won’t work at all against Wakaba. I need to keep closing the distance, and I have a new plan.

As I dive towards her, I curve my body towards the incoming thread. Managing to angle my body just right, I intercept it before it can build up too much speed and have it strike me at an odd angle. The result is that the whip hits my scales, but fails to slice through, and the poison in it doesn’t get into my body. Good, I would have lost if it did. 

Seemingly not expecting that, Wakaba is still in my path, and I dart forwards to bite her upper leg… And I have to whip my head away before I chomp down on a glob of poison instead. It still splashes over my face, and some of it stings badly as it gets beneath my closed eyelids. I strike out blindly before-

Stop.

Damn it. I didn’t think I was already that hurt. Danger sense is still too fuzzy with stuff like this.

That was the closest I’ve gotten to winning a spar in a little while now. When we started doing this, I almost always won, but she’s seemingly been advancing way faster than I have. Probably [Pride]’s influence. Still, I was getting my hopes up that I would be able to pull it off again this time. 

These sparring sessions were Wakaba’s idea. It turned out that she was too weak to fire for us to dive into the middle stratum right away like I planned, so we had to chill out (or well, the opposite of chill, technically. Roast?) here for a while until she could train her HP recovery and fire resistance high enough to survive indefinitely in the middle stratum. So she came up with the idea for us to do mock fights, both to kill some time, and to train our combat skills. Skills capital S, the supernatural kind, and also just our actual combat sense and strategy.

The rules are basically: no [Anger], it's not the time or place for it. I lose if I’m surviving on perseverance (which does use MP, unfortunately), and I win if I can hit Wakaba once. I don’t even have to deal damage. Wakaba didn’t come up with that particular rule, but I decided it was true when I did actually hit her without dealing damage, and she didn’t deny it fast enough.

I think she’s still bitter about that one, actually; she started using her whips after that, even though they won’t work at all in the middle stratum. So it's probably not a great idea to get used to having them. She practices with them anyway, almost certainly just because she doesn’t want me to beat her.

Mostly because of that, I’m now using life exchange to heal back up from technically zero health and trying to cry the poison out of my eyes, shaking my head to fling it away.

“Ah jeez, on my face, seriously? You got it in my eyes too; I’m totally blaming you if I go blind from this, and I will make you take care of me.”

I’m also complaining the whole time, naturally.

As I do that, though, I feel a soft pressure over my head and around my eyes. It takes me a moment to realize that she must have made something like an especially soft towel with her silk, and put it over my face to help dry off some of the poison. When I eventually just barely squint my eyes open, I can see that the cloth she made is still largely connected to her, and she’s using what's left of her MP to move it around and help actively dry me off.

I’m a little surprised, even though this isn’t exactly the first time she's done something like this. Usually with thread. One time, when I was low on SP after one of our bouts, she even made something like a bandage, so I wouldn’t lose more HP to bleeding. It wasn’t really necessary, I would’ve healed quickly anyway, but still.

I don’t know if she was listening to my complaints or just thought it was a thing she should do, not like she’ll tell me, but it seems uncharacteristically thoughtful. It’s not like I’m actually mad, or even all that annoyed about the injuries. I agreed to the rules after all. Maybe she’s changing a little.

…Maybe I just didn’t understand her like I thought. Maybe I don’t.

“…Thanks.”

---

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual Elroe kokorit has increased from LV 9 to LV 10>

<All basic attributes have increased.> 

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Earth Wyrm LV 4] has become [Earth Wyrm LV 5]>

<Proficiency has reached the required threshold. Skill [Iron Defense LV 3] has become [Iron Defense LV 4]>

Oh! Wakaba must have snared something in her traps, I was just trying to work on leveling up some of my skills on my own. Alright then, what are my evolution options?

…

Hmm, that's not good.

“Hey, Wakaba, whatever you just did, I hit level ten just now.” 

… 

“Yeah, the problem is I can’t actually evolve anyway. The divine voice announcement thing didn’t say anything about it, it was basically just like a normal level-up. I don’t know what’s up with it. You see anything with appraisal?” 

…

“I’ll just take that as a no.”

This could be really bad, I don’t think it's just that I evolve at later levels, because every evolution so far has been at level ten, and Wakaba evolved when she hit ten this time just fine. I can only hope this isn’t as far as evolution goes for me, I’m still too weak to be at the top of my game. 

“Anyway, even if you don’t see anything, do you know something I don’t and just feel like not mentioning it? Some crucial tidbit of information you were just sort of sitting on for a while now? I wouldn’t think I would have to ask, but…”

…

“It’s a yes or no question, Wakaba. I’m not letting you out of this, especially not when it concerns me. I don’t plan on getting killed because of your reticent bullshit. ”

“…I have a guess”

“Seriously? C’mon Wakaba! Alright, what do you know?” 

“You got bigger and stronger when you evolved”

“…Yeah? That's not really a theory?”

“Maybe I evolved sideways”

“Sideways? Wakaba, what the hell are you even talking about.”

Wakaba hit the ground in front of her, visibly frustrated, like I was the one being difficult. After a long moment, she used her thread to create something like a chart.

Greater Lesser Taratect(LV ??) → Greater Taratect(LV ??) → Greater poison Taratect(LV ??)

                  ↑                                               ↑                                              ↑

   Lesser Taratect(LV ??)            →         Taratect(LV ??)      →        Poison Taratect(LV ??)

                  ↑                                               ↑                                              ↑                        

Small Lesser Taratect(LV 10)    →    Small Taratect(LV 10)   →   Small Poison Taratect(LV 10)

                                                                                                             Current

It took me a little bit to parse all that, but it did click after a bit.

“Do you mean that stronger evolutions need to hit a higher level to evolve more, and you've been evolving to be different rather than stronger, so the threshold has stayed at ten for you? That’s not that hard to explain, you know.”

She looked away from me at that last comment, and I don’t think I can read her spidery body language very well yet, because she looked almost… ashamed?

---

“ —want to keep as many skills active as I can, maybe using as many skills as I can at once will train my parallel thoughts skill up better than just keeping appraisal active. It might not, though, just activating skills doesn’t really seem to take much mental effort. Unless it should, and I’m super special and impressive for being able to keep so many active at once! Yeah, probably not.—”

What did I just wake up to? 

The thoughts being broadcasted into my brain are unmistakably Wakaba’s, but the contents are so baffling that it takes me minutes to comprehend what I’m hearing. Even after I do, I’m so blown away that I could only lay there, completely stunned.

“—wish I could get that evil eye that Earthworm-chan has, I bet I could totally do hypergravity training with it. It would be awesome to have a “release restraints” moment every time I got into a fight. “Just this once, I’ll go all out!” Except I don’t want to get hurt, so I’d probably do that every fight. That might make it lose its impact a little. That probably wouldn’t stop me from saying it, though. Well, I wouldn’t actually be saying it out loud, but you know what I mean.”

“Who are you talking to?” 

“AAH!!”

As soon as I finally recover from my shock, I desperately scrape my thoughts together and make my presence known. Immediately, Wakaba jumps a solid ten feet straight into the air in an honestly pretty impressive vertical leap. 

“Ow.”

“Since when was she awake?! And what was she talking about right there? Was she talking to me? Maybe she was just going crazy and hearing voices talking to no one. It’s not like this environment would be particularly hard to go crazy in, hell, maybe I am and that wasn’t actually her. So I definitely don’t have to acknowledge the actual question, right?

Ughhh, that's not true, is it, was I accidentally using telepathy? Seriously, how does that even happen? What is this, a mediocre fanfiction? Wait, what if I’m still doing it?”

“You are.”

Normally I would have more to say about… all of that, but I’m still kind of stunned. Any recovery I made mentally before was quickly counteracted by even more astonishment. 

But as the silence stretches on after she finally turns the telepathy skill off, my thoughts have more time to settle, and what I heard gets measured up against my previous experiences with Wakaba. And gradually, one thing emerges from my overactive mind.

Absolute glee.

“Eheheheheheh… hahahAHAHA! AAAAHAAAAAA!”

I might be losing my mind a little.

She is such a huge dork. As soon as I process everything, I end up actually rolling on the floor laughing. How the hell did everyone think she was so regal and dignified, just the thought sends me into another fit.

I might never recover. As soon as I start to calm down a little, I remember her anime references, or think back to my memories of her acting all haughty and snubbing the people trying to talk to her, and I crack up even harder than before.  

“Haaah… aagh… This is… the best thing… to ever happen to me.”

Somehow, even though telepathy doesn't have anything to do with my breath, I’m still wheezing and gasping trying to speak through my laughter. Wakaba stays resolutely silent, which unfortunately also cracks me up even more. It takes me several minutes to mostly recover, though I still end up giggling through my words.

“I’m sorry Wakaba, you’re done. There’s no saving face from this, I know what I heard.”

“Do you still want me to use that evil eye on you?”

Improbably, Wakaba extends out a thread to respond with it, which, instead of frustrating me like it usually would, just sends me back into a giggling fit.

“No, girl, seriously. You don’t have to do that. You’re a huge dork to me forever now, I’m sorry, you’re never recovering from this. You’re free now.”

She keeps moving the thread.

“GIRL! That’s enough, I’m not gonna read it, you can swallow your pride now. Just talk to me, okay? I already heard you. Should I use it on you or not? 

Seriously, just tell me, I know you can.”

“…”

“You’re going to have to use telepathy eventually, you know, thread will burn in the middle stratum.”

Saying this, I pointedly turn away from where she was constructing her response. 

…

…

…

“On… you.”

“What?”

“The eye… weights are for strength… so… you have stats… and… you… it only works… through sight… I couldn’t… you could take it… off easy.”

“…What??”

“…”

“Do you mean use the evil eye on myself?”

“Mhm”

Wakaba did actually end up using telepathy, which was sort of surprising, honestly. But what I didn’t expect was how she would sound. She was quiet and timid and weirdly incoherent. She wasn’t any more dignified than earlier, tripping over herself like she was, and she was somehow both as taciturn as normal and took much longer than she needed to get her point across.

I think she meant to use my evil eye on myself because I would get more benefit out of it, but it seemed like she couldn’t actually say that.

It was completely out of character for her, no matter what frame of reference I was using. It ended up totally reframing my perception of her, and a bunch of small oddities and suspicions that have been gradually building up for a long time now suddenly slot neatly into the new frame. 

“Wakaba… are you just that shy?”

“…mhm”

“Oh, fuck me.”