Spider 34:
Welcome back to my vlog of my wildlife survival series.
It's been who knows how long.
And I am now LV5 with a bunch of new and improved Skills.
The self harm thing is a lot more useful than I thought.
My Resistance, Defence and other related Skills all went up considerably from that.
Being in pain sucks, but I can definitely wholeheartedly say it is worth it now.
It's a great way to train both offensive and defensive Stats and Skills at the same time.
I even got some new type of Skills, Attribute Enhancement Skills, which buff the damage dealt when using those Attributes.
In particular, I now have [Impact Enhancement], [Cutting Enhancement] and [Poison Enhancement].
The most important development is that I finally have [Fire Resistance LV1].
Combined with my [HP Auto-Recovery], I no longer take damage from being in the Middle Stratum.
Still, they are not good enough for me to actually heal over time there, so I would have to rely on the Level-Up-Recovery to, well, heal.
[Parallel Thinking], [Arithmetic Proficiency] and [Heresy Resistance] are not strong enough for me to use [Detection] yet.
So no Magic to cover for my lack of ranged attacks for now.
By the way, [Athletics] maxed out and became [Gymnastics].
Seriously, my movement feels so easy, fluid and seamless, I might just really become the best dancer ever at this rate, heh.
I also got two new Skills, [Energy Conferment] and [Mental Warfare].
[Energy Conferment] consumes SP to strengthen objects, allowing me to create thread that can last a short amount of time in the Middle Stratum before combusting into flames.
[Mental Warfare] also uses SP overtime, but it is to increase my physical Stats instead.
These might come in handy in a pinch.
Getting stronger is good and all, but part of me is getting bored staying here.
I guess I am getting impatient, and now I fancy a meal.
Maybe I should try hunting for food instead of waiting for them to come?
Yeah, let's do that. I need combat experience too after all.
I am confident in my current strength to be able to survive against small fries here in proper head-to-head fights.
I do have my amazing Poison Cutting thread whips to use now.
And the [Whip Mastery] Skill, which buffs my technique in using any whip weaponries, which includes my threads, to top things off!
Also also, remember that I have the Enhancement Skills to further buff my thread whips!
I am so strong now! Ha ha!
Inner Critic: Don't get ahead of yourself, Hiiro.
Right, Inner Critic, I don't want another disaster to happen.
Just as I left my fourth house, it got destroyed by an earthly, does that make sense?, beam of destruction.
The falling debris destroyed the giant gravesilk I made for all the Monsters I killed here, even the hated revenge monkeys, which I had to work so hard to overcome my hatred to build.
What the hell just happened!?
Turn to look at where the blast came from.
It was another Earth Dragon!? A purple one this time.
Memories of That hit me like truck-kun and I immediately ran for the hills and towards the Middle Stratum.
Anything! Anything but this! Nai wa!
Y2gncr9t3q9vn873tgn9q0t89n0ut49v!
...Ha ha ha!
Time to take this place over!
This is now Hiiro's territory!
...Nai wa, I need to hype myself up to even try this.
I still don't have any ranged attacks to use here.
But I ain't staying in the Lower Stratum to be killed! Nai wa!
Still, am I even going the right way?
Am I seriously going to have to actually explore this scorching imitation of hell for the exit to the Upper Stratum?
Nai wa, better buckle up for the long road ahead then.
Even with [Fire Resistance], this place is still so hot!
Like, my legs hurt from touching the ground!
It's searing! I feel like I am burning!
I wouldn't be able to do this without [Pain Mitigation]. Nai wa.
Man, I miss air conditioners from my past life.
I want some ice cream, or a cool drink, fruit juice would be nice right about now.
Eh!? Something just popped out of the magma.
It's that lavahorse again, or maybe it's a different one but who cares, and it shoots fireballs at me but I dodge them with ease.
Ha! You thought! Gotta go fast!
I have gotten super fast now thanks to [Pride], [Skanda] and my training.
In fact, I laser focused hard on Speed since it is the most useful and important Stat in my professional gamer opinion.
With [Skanda LV10], you can't hit me, lol!
Inner Critic: But you can't hit it either, Hiiro.
Yeah, Inner Critic, this is awkward, both players are in a stalemate.
Oh wait, that guy is running low on MP.
I guess those fireballs use MP like [Poison Synthesis].
I dodge the last fireball and the lavahorse leaves the magma to chase me on foot.
You can walk on land!? Seahorses ain't supposed to be able to do that! Nai wa!
But my panic soon subsided as I realised it is very slow on land.
Wow, just wow, what an idiot, you should have just ran away.
Talk about bad AI, but that means I can lure them to land, kill them and eat them.
The future is looking much brighter now, not as bright as the Middle Stratum but still.
I simply use my superior Speed to get on its back and use [Poison Enhancement]-boosted [Deadly Poison Attack] on my claws on it.
Oh yeah, did I mention [Poison Attack] maxed out and-Hot hot hot hot hot!
Why didn't I see that coming?! Mr Lavahorse was literally bathing in magma!
Luckily for me, the lavahorse died while I was distracted by the searing heat.
Then right after two more lavahorses show up and start attacking me!
I was worried they were like the revenge monkeys, swarming me while working together.
But it seems like they just happened to be nearby, and they are not working together well.
I mean, shooting at the same time at the same spot is kind of a waste.
Dodging is so easy I am actually getting bored here.
Maybe I can throw rocks at them like the revenge monkeys did with me?
Then while I was losing focus, I barely dodged the next fireballs.
I lost some HP from the slash damage.
Nevermind! I am dead if I get hit directly! Better focus on dodging 100%!
So I did, and waited patiently for them to run out of MP, come on land and kill them.
I lost a lot of HP from their body heat but thankfully, I got a level up to 6.
Side note, I have to wait a while for the lavahorses to cool down before I can eat them.
If that isn't bad enough, they taste gross and I feel like I am chewing on a tire.
Nai wa, this sucks.
It's been a while since I started my Middle Stratum playthrough, and it's been a pain in the ass.
Not every Monster makes landfall after running out of MP, which means I end up wasting time and energy dodging their attacks for nothing.
Some start on land and retreat into the magma when I have the advantage.
For the first time, I am complaining about them not being smooth-brained jerks that attack me no matter what.
But then again, I would feel bad about attacking Monsters that are nice and leave me alone.
As for sleep, it's uncomfortable, both because it's too hot and I can't cover myself in silk or hug a Kirby plushie because they will burn up.
It's like, no, literally sleeping without a blanket, I just don't feel safe without it.
I don't get to sleep very often either, since finding an ideal hiding place here is hard.
At least my [Exhaustion Resistance] is rising from my lack of sleep.
Heh...Nai wa...
Things are manageable for now, I guess.
But it's only a matter of time until I run into something too strong for me to survive against.
Can I even deal with it? I still don't have Magic because [Detection] is still too strong.
I really want to use Magic, it will make things so much easier.
With that said, [Poison Synthesis] is pretty much the closest thing I have to Magic.
I can avoid hurting myself with contact Fire damage by throwing balls of Poison on burning enemies instead.
I learnt that when fighting some red doggos that can set themselves on Fire, forcing me to think on my feet and come up with that solution.
Why didn't I come up with that sooner?
Inner Critic: Say it with me everyone, Hiiro is a dumbass bitch!
Shut the fuck up already, Inner Critic!
Speaking of dogs, no offence to dog lovers but I just don't like them so I don't feel guilty for killing them red doggos at all.
Why, you ask? It's a story from a long time ago.
Back in my elementary school days, I encountered a big dog on my way home from school.
It approached me and I got scared and ran for my life.
It chased me as it wasn't on a leash.
I then tripped and fell face first, which really hurted.
But I was more concerned about the dog catching up to me.
I got up in time just to find the dog right next to me.
I was so scared at that moment I thought I was gonna faint, and actually peed myself.
But it wasn't hostile, in fact it was concerned about my injuries.
Turns out it thought we were playing tag.
So I embarrassed and hurted myself as well as felt the fear of death over nothing.
Nai wa...
And that's why I don't like dogs, even though I eventually went on to take in a stray puppy in my middle school days which I called Fluffy.
But nevermind that, it's not like I actually cared about that silly little thing that ran into traffic on its own.