Chapter 26: Do spiders burn?

Is there anything else besides rolly pollies? I was asking myself this severe question as it had already been what felt like weeks since I reincarnated here, and all I had been killing and eating had been rolly pollies. Their taste is bitter and sour. They taste the same as expired milk left over outside in a hot summer. And, yet, I'm about to eat another one of these bastards, as there is nothing else down this path but these bugs. I quickly pinch one of the insects with my left claw and finish the job with my tail attack.

These monsters are so easy to kill it bores me to death. Unlike humans, these creatures don't express feelings or emotions, so I don't even enjoy killing them. If they moved or something, that would be enough to satisfy me, but I am now bored. When it comes to water, my species barely needs it to survive. This is a plus because I haven't seen any water nearby, so if I needed some, I would surely die. Despite not seeing any use of the skill Appraisal, I continue to use it on everything I see around me. I have a thesis that says this skill's level might go up if I use the skill enough times. Just in sync, she spoke to me.

"Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill Appraisal has increased from level one to level two." I knew it; now let's check it out. Is it more useful now? Appraisal! "Big Rock"... Ahhhhh! I am gonna break whoever made this skill so garbage! I hate it! It does nothing, even at level two. "Small scorpion, Big wall, Small wall, tiny rock." Baaaahhh! Fine, this is fine. Indeed, at level three, things will get better. Let's keep our patience up. I kept walking more until I saw an end to the cave path I was on.

This ain't it, is it? There's no other path other than to go back to the spiders. Who in their right mind would do that? Me, of course. I knew I had limited time to take down the spiders now. If there's no exit down this path and my only option is the spiders, I must run through them and hurry, as the rollies might not be enough to sustain me here indefinitely. This kind of challenge is what I live for, so this is how my journey begins. I must face an S-tier boss from the get-go. The difficulty has just ramped up to the extreme in minutes, but that's alright. I will give those spiders hell!

I had just gathered enough courage to fight a spider when I suddenly lost consciousness. I was now back in the dark shell once more. What the heck? I lost that fast? I didn't even get to blink against my first confirmed victim, and it killed me. But wait, if I died, then why am I back here? Is my species some kind of cheater creature, or what? The divine voice then spoke. "Small Scorpion has used up one out of three lives, two remaining." So, I have lives? If this was a video game, that would make sense. Like Mario in his video game, I have consumed one and got two more tries.

Instead of charging head-on into the spiders, it is wise to observe them first. Judging by what I know, spiders can move between their webs at lightning speed, so stepping into them isn't intelligent; however, I can't attack from afar either. What are my options, then? Should I give up and surrender to Mr. Administrator? No, screw him. I took advantage of him, not the other way around. Entertain him, aye? I see how he would see this impossible struggle as entertaining as I would enjoy watching someone else in my dilemma.

My strengths are my poison tail and my extreme claw strength. My stealth could be better, so how do I catch a spider then? If I could pinch them on their face or bottom, they would be done, but how do I do that? As soon as I said this, the spiders began to fight each other. At first, I couldn't make it out, but then I saw what they were fighting over. It was my corpse. The spider that killed me was fighting over my dead carcass. Their fight lasted a few minutes, and the match ended with a draw. Their fight showed me their weakness, tho.

Spiders are weak to fire and/or another spider's web. My new mission was getting fire. If I somehow got a fire going, I could one-shot one of them and possibly their whole nest, but how do I build a fire in this cave? There are no twigs or wood around here, only dried... Eureka! There are tons of flammable, rolly, polly-dried skins. I got the fuel now, the biggest issue at hand. How do I start a fire down here? I started trying random things, grabbing rocks and hitting them against each other, rubbing the skins hard enough to see if they warmed up, and all other stuff. Nothing, nada, no luck. The skins weren't igniting with any methods I could think of. And then, when I was about to give up. I angrily closed my pincher with so much power a tiny spark came off it.

What the heck? I can do that? If only I knew, I have been trying all other random shit for hours now. This is embarrassing. And so I acquired fire. It wasn't all that powerful, but when I dropped a burning skin into a spider web, this one caught on fire fast. "Waaaaarrghh ahhhhgg nyaahhg!" The spider squealed while burning, trapped on its own bonfire web. Scream! Scream some more, show me that it pains you to die. It makes this first real down all the more enjoyable. Once the spider stopped moving, the divine voice spoke.

"Proficiency has reached the required level. Small scorpion has increased from level one to level two. Proficiency has reached the required level. Small scorpion has increased from level two to level three. All basic attributes have increased." Just as planned. As the spider was higher than me, the XP it gave me was way more than all those bugs I had been slaughtering. I increased my level twice with a single spider. So easy loot doesn't have much worth, but something that takes more thinking and effort does. Makes sense from a balancing perspective. We would want to make it more challenging to level up.

Monster Encyclopedia: Small Lesser Spider

- Small Tarantula -

Name: Nameless

Age: 1

HP: 250/250

SP: 300/300

MP: 150/150

Strength: 450/450

Damage Output: Up to 900 {Fang bite}

Defense: 300

Speed: 550

Skills: Speed level 1, strength level 1, silk control level 1, detection level 2, night vision level 8, enhanced vision level 5, poison synthesis level 1.

Information: Tarantulas are the lesser versions of the spider family. They specialize in trap attacks and are deadly monsters if the user fights one without access to fire. They like to live in any cave system worldwide, and since they're good generalists, they are usually present in every biome and cave. Their danger level is C, which drops to F if the enemy party has access to fire.