Spider 29:
Inner Critic: Status report, Hiiro.
I ran into another set of those dino trio, and used a new technique of mine, Casting Net, to defeat them.
I then might have repeated the mistake of dragging all three of those Monsters at the same time.
Inner Critic: Hiiro, you dumb dumb.
Anyway, I got a new Title, [Poison Master], and got [Poison Magic] and [Poison Synthesis] from it.
I still can't use Magic, so let's just ignore [Poison Magic].
I then dramatically posed while yelling [Poison Synthesis], ready to say 'That's how life goes.' as nothing happened.
But it did work, a menu appeared in my head.
I can make [Weak Poison] and [Spider Venom LV8].
It just creates a ball of whatever Poison I choose and it sticks to the limb I summoned it with.
Well, not really stick as it is hovering near my limb, until I 'drop' or 'throw' it.
No real idea how I am supposed to store it for later without a bottle and it uses MP so I can't spam it either, would be nice to create a bunch of Poison for use later.
Moving on, I made my way to a huge enclosed space unlike the tunnels, so big that my render distance can't reach the other side.
Scary, I could very well get lost in here with the lack of landmarks, so I stuck close to the wall while I was exploring.
Still, part of me is amazed by the scale of this chamber.
In my past life, I remember watching shows about relatively unexplored places around Earth.
I watched a channel about that topic and about wildlife all the time when I was a stupid kid who wanted to go on a grand adventure around the world and even to space.
Though as I grew up, I stopped caring cause they were so far removed from my life.
Honestly, I have no idea why I even bothered watching them anymore, force of habit I guess.
But now? I can't afford to be aloof and ignore them now that I am living in these places.
To think that I would never experience this if those Humans hadn't chased me out of my home and into the Lower Stratum.
Then all of my traumas hit me.
Hell no! Those bastards will pay!
I am gonna wrap them up and drag them through the labyrinth!
Have them experience all my pain before I kill them slowly and painfully with Poison!
Huff...huff...whew...
No, don't think about it. Nai wa.
Inner Critic: Don't lose yourself to hatred, Hiiro.
Yeah, you're right, Inner Critic.
Who wants to be a Monster hated by everyone, loved by no one?
I then saw a big monkey with a crocodile-like mouth pass by, followed by a huge pack of smaller, more-normal-looking monkeys.
I immediately hid myself to wait for them to pass.
It was scary, they are that strong and still hunt in packs.
It's like the centipede army, but way, way worse.
On the bright side, Appraisal-san appraising them levelled up her to LV7.
Now I can see my Skills and the HP, MP, SP and EP of enemies.
A huge upgrade, a far cry from the useless child Appraisal-san once was!
And since I can see my Skills, I can double appraise them to figure out what they do.
Turns out [Overeating] lets me stock up extra EP as surplus, though I can't actually see how much I have.
I am also supposed to gain weight from it but I don't feel any fatter, so it's a pretty good Skill.
Inner Critic: You are just worried about getting fat, Hiiro.
Yes...I am, Inner Critic.
[Strength] and [Solidity] adds to my Attack and Defence Stats respectively.
Then I found an amazing Skill I didn't realise I have, [Skanda].
It also adds to my Speed Stat, while increasing the growth of my Speed at each level up, explaining my absurdly high Speed compared to my other Stats.
And how fitting that is called [Skanda], my username online in my past life.
This must be my reincarnation bonus or something.
Still, that means I got lucky, I ain't supposed to be this fast.
Not sure how I feel about this, being given strength instead of being strong on my own.
But I will just be grateful and take whatever help I can get at this point.
I noticed another Skill called [n%I=W], which cannot be appraised for whatever reason.
That's creepy, here hoping it's not a negative Skill or even a bug in the system or something.
Then there is [Taboo], which is at LV2 now.
Apparently, I am not to raise its level no matter what, so learning that it went from LV1 to 2 without me knowing how or when is freaky.
Let's just ignore it.
Inner Critic: Running away again, Hiiro?
Yes, shut up, Inner Critic.
[Desire] apparently increases the growth rate of my Skills by a slight amount.
The name is kind of weird, but I guess it makes sense as it helps with the desire to grow.
[Rest] makes the target burn their SP slightly faster, a very misleading name if you ask me.
[HP Auto-Recovery] can actually heal wounds that wouldn't normally heal on their own, so that's nice to know.
Poison from [Poison Synthesis] can apparently be customised, which I didn't know.
[Throw] helps with the accuracy and power of throwing sheet, while [Hit] helps with accuracy in general.
And here is an important one, [Detection] combines all Perception Skills and there are nine of them.
Gee, no wonder my brain can't handle it, it's literally nine information intensive Skills in one package.
[Vision Expansion] widens the range of visible light, so I guess I can see UV and IR light now, though I haven't seen any new colours yet.
Part of me is very excited to see a new colour, but how would one go about naming a new colour?
Or maybe the people of this world already have names for them.
And finally, [Rot Resistance] isn't just for rotten food, Rot-type attacks actually exist.
Rot is the Attribute that regulates the decay of death.
Yikes, that's scarier than I thought.
I mean, this is death we are talking about here, not some silly rotten food.
As for everything else, they either are self-explanatory enough, things I already understand or Magic, which I can't use.
I ain't gonna be able to call myself Magical Kumoko anytime soon.
Get it? Kumoko means spider girl so it's Magical Spider Girl...
Yeah nevermind, I don't think even Moonie, who likes magical girls, would like that pun.
Actually, I just remember that our class pet spider is called Kumoko.
So the name is taken too, so nevermind again.
Something else I have learnt thanks to Appraisal-san hitting LV7 is that most small fries actually have better Stats than me.
Then the strong Monsters have Stats in the triple digits, nearing 1000 sometimes.
And I bet That has Stats in the quadruple digits.
Good thing I have been using surprise attacks instead of fighting head on.
I am the smallest fry here after all.
Ha ha, how utterly hopeless.
After some time, I got a new Title, [Thread User], which gave me [Cutting Thread] and got [Thread Control] to LV6.
I can basically turn my thread into razor wires, which should be useful at higher levels.
Imagine swinging a super thin and hard-to-see thread around with [Thread Control] and cutting my enemies to pieces with [Cutting Thread].
So cool! So edgy!
After practising on a pill bug's corpse, who was definitely crying tears of joy in the afterlife over how its death helped me, I got attacked by one of those normaller-looking monkeys.
It was a scary fight, it dodged my first attack, some webbing I threw at it.
Then it closed the gap, continuing to dodge the webbing I was throwing at it, and punched where I was.
I dodged, barely, and continued to do so as the monkey tried to kill me with a barrage of punches.
I got [Evasion] from the fight by the way.
Helps with dodging, the opposite of [Hit] if you think in terms of accuracy and evasion stats like you can find in some RPGs.
Back to the fight, it then got fed up and went for a big swing with both arms, the end lag gave me the time to launch webbing from my butt to tie up its arm.
In my moment of celebration, it swung the thread and me around.
I detached from my thread and landed with minimal fall damage while the monkey tangled itself up with its frailing.
It screamed as it died, which scared me.
What if its friends come to get revenge?
But it's been a long while and that hasn't happened yet so I think I am in the clear.
Make sense, considering their numbers, losing one of their own doesn't mean much.
Still, the thought of not caring about a friend or even a family member's death is kind of sad.
Honestly, why is reality such a depressing place?
The monkey tasted funky, really makes you appreciate beef, pork and such.
The first time a Monster got the jump on me in the Lower Stratum and I almost died.
Unless you count That...
Nope! That never happened! Nai wa!
Anyway, after finally deciding to get a good night's sleep, I made a simple nest high up along a wall, I even camouflaged it with a large rock to hide it.
In the terrifying process of building so high up, my [Fear Resistance] levelled up at the worst time possible, the announcement scaring me as I was complaining about [Fear Resistance] not actually reducing the fear I feel, just helping me to act the way I want without hindrance like how [Pain Nullification] works.
Heh, ironic.
It took a lot of work to cut out the rock and lift it up here.
I am already exhausted from not sleeping for so long, and I can't feel my body at all after dragging the rock up here.
I even got the SP and EP version of [Strength] / [Solidity], being [Instantaneous] and [Persistent] respectively.
But it is all worth it, I am finally surrounded by my silk after so long.
Of course, I made another little Kirby plushie to snuggle with.
This place is like paradise, I can finally sleep safely.
Inner critic: Good night, Hii...
Zzzzzzzzz...