Spider 23:
Appraisal-san: < ????? ?????????? LV9 Status: Appraisal Failed >
Knqhb09t94bny9v8qg98nq!?
A giant snake just appeared and it is clearly locked onto me!
It lunges straight at me, but luckily, I manage to dodge.
It's LV9 and clearly very fast and strong, I don't stand a chance in a straight fight! Nai wa!
And since it had the element of surprise, I'm in an even worse position!
I better retreat into a small crack to escape.
Wait, no.
Inner Critic: Didn't you finally understand your fighting style, Hiiro?
Yeah! I am not running away! Nai wa!
The snake is ripping through the simple web tent I was just in.
It is strong enough to tear them but some of my thread is still on it, slowing it down.
That's it!
The snake lunges at me again, I dodge while leaving thread behind for it to crash into.
We do this dance a couple more times and vala, the snake's mouth is sealed shut by my web, you can't eat me now.
Ha ha!
Then the snake slapped me with its tail right into the wall.
Gasp!...Oww...
That really hurts!
Oh god! I...I can't do this anymore...Nai wa...
But no, the fight ain't over! I will die if I give up now!
The snake is about to body slam me.
Not on my watch! Eat this!
I leap straight at it and bite down hard.
At the same time, I am producing thread hoping it will further slow or even restrain the snake in due time.
The snake then tries to shake me off but I hold on tightly with my legs and mouth.
Come on! Just die already!
Between the wall crash, producing thread and rodeoing the snake, I can feel my strength leaving me.
No! I won't let go! Nai wa!
After what feels like forever, the snake finally drops dead from my Poison.
I level up and my wounds recover.
My mouth finally lets go of the scales I somehow managed to puncture and...
Hell yeah! I did it! I beat the snake!
Even when you're weak, you can still fight!
I feel so proud of myself for not running and actually fighting back!
If only those middle school bullies can see me now, doing something they are too privileged to ever hope to do, being actually brave in the face of death!
I start stupidly dancing around to celebrate.
Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip-
Nai wa...
Before I knew it, it had been a few 'weeks' since my first boss battle.
And the excitement has long since faded and been replaced by awkwardness.
Why you ask? Because I have too much food now! Nai wa!
No seriously, I made a home that was supposed to be temporary so I can eat the snake.
But I end up catching a lot of prey while struggling to finish eating the snake.
I am not even finished with the last quarter of the snake and I already have a mountain of Monsters to eat afterward.
I really don't want to waste food, but I feel like I am regressing back into a hikikomori by staying here.
In my past life as a minimalist, I never wasted any food I started eating and that carried over to this life I guess.
On the bright side, I jumped from LV7 straight to LV9 from killing the snake alone, and the mountain of Monsters means I am close to LV10 right?
Mountain in Japanese is yama, didn't I have a classmate with that in their name?
Oh right! Fanboy! His actual name is Shun...something Yama...whatever.
I guess he was technically a friend of mine, being part of the Good Boy Trio and all, not that he knew who I really was nor did I really care about him as much as I did the other two.
Not to be rude, but he was definitely at the bottom of my friend rankings, still a friend though.
The things I remember about him is that time in the park where he 'indirectly' saved me and how he wanted to be just as good at that MMO as Skanda, aka me.
He was the most normal person on my friend list, that's for sure.
But I guess he wasn't really that normal, normal people probably would look the other way from mild bullying and not dedicate so much time into games.
Still, I was jealous of him for being way more normal than me and actually being Kyouya's friend, hanging out with him and what not.
That's probably why I ended up calling him Fanboy, an insult about his 'immaturity'.
Inner Critic: Wow Hiiro, you're so 'mature' yourself.
Indeed, totally not like another loser brat.
Nai wa, just thinking about having anything in common with Showoff makes me want to kill myself on the spot.
Just then, my thread starts vibrating.
Nai wa. More prey, hooray.
Oh hey, that rhyme.
Inner Critic: Darn it, Hiiro! You were so close to getting a four rhyme combo!
Can ya really blame me for being bad at rhyming when that's a common flaw, Inner Critic?
An accidental three rhyme combo is a big deal for me, y'know?
Anyway, I stop forcing myself to eat despite my full stomach and go to check on my web.
It turns out to be ????? ????????s, three of them dino Monsters.
I guess these guys really do travel in threes.
Nai wa, even more food than I thought.
I further restrain them, build a new cobweb and drag them back into my nest.
Oof!
Dragging all three at once was a mistake, I feel sore and my HP actually went down.
I know I am the one to blame for my stupid decision, but I end up taking my anger out on the prey instead by blaming and killing them.
Inner Critic: You are so petty, Hiiro.
Divine Voice: "Experience has the required level.
Individual Smaller Lesser ???????? has increased from LV9 to LV10.
All basic Stats have increased.
Skill Proficiency level up bonus acquired.
Skill Points acquired.
Condition satisfied.
Individual Smaller Lesser ???????? can now evolve."
Oh hey, I levelled up.
But looks like none of my Skills levelled up this time, eh whatever...
Wait, evolve!? Like those pocket monsters can?
"There are multiple options for Evolution.
Please choose from the following:
Lesser ????????
Small ????????"
Wow wow wow! Slow down!
This sounds like a really important turning point in my new spider life!
I cannot halfarse this!
Um, let's see...
I think lesser means I will stay as this species and grow some more.
And small means I will become a superior species but remain immature.
Hopefully? I mean, I have nothing but the names to work with here.
Hm...
I will go with Small ???????? then.
For one, I don't want to accidentally become too big to fit in the tunnels around the labyrinth.
And two, who wants to evolve into a lesser anything anyway?
Sounds more like an insult than anything else.
"Individual Small Lesser ???????? will evolve into Small ????????."
Wait, hang on! I am not rea...dy...
Zzzzzzz...