Chapter 15: the conquest of the middle layer start!

Thoughts in italics

Monologue in normal text

Skills in bold []

System in bold normal text

sounds in bold italics

WARNING:

This fanfiction will contain spoilers from the Light novel, read at your own risk.

Leave your comments, it would help me a lot

thanks for reading

NOTE

As probably some (or maybe not) of you know, my original language is not English, it's Spanish, so English is my second language.

The reason why I'm writing this in English is so that more people can see it and I can improve my knowledge in English, since as you may notice, I'm not a native English speaker.

Anyway, I've been changing several words because I feel they fit better.

The only word I'm sure of is Spinning with Talent, in Spanish it's called hilar con talento.

It's a skill with a weird name that I didn't know how to name it, since its name didn't appear on the skills page when I checked.

The closest word I found was: Threads Manship. I'm not sure whether to go with this one or the one the novel said. It was: Thread Talent. Only this one I didn't find on the skills page, so I'm not sure if it has an evolved form or not.

And I don't want to see the anime again because is very messed up, so if you can help me decide it, it would be a great help.

Anyway, I'll stop bothering you, thanks for reading and enjoy the chapter.

I'm in the Middle Layer! Yay!

I'm gonna start exploring today! Yay!

I don't have my perfect long-range attack (other than my threads) and I can't swim in lava yet, but here I go anyway! Yay!

Ugh... there's no way I can do this unless I motivate myself somehow.

It's been about a week and a half since I first discovered the Middle Layer.

In the meantime, I've been training my skills, and I've become quite strong.

This is what my stats now show.

Small Poison Taratect | Lv 5 | No name

Status:

Hp: 87/87 (Green)

Mp: 172/196 (Blue)

Sp: 78/87 (Yellow) UP 2

87/87 (Red) UP 2

Attack: 96

Defense: 96

Magic: 179

Resistance: 188

Speed: 920 UP 1

Skills:

Skill points: 1450

Man, I've really gotten pretty strong.

I also gained some new skills.

Ever since my beloved and treasured Appraisal-chan started displaying a list of skills I hadn't yet acquired, I've been setting my sights on anything that looks decent, then doing things related to that skill to gain mastery and acquire it naturally.

Call me cheap, but I don't want to waste my skill points unless I have to.

Although I'm pretty sure I could acquire a lot of skills if I wanted to with the points I have, but what's the point, if I can get them for free in the end.

Anyway, thanks to that my repertoire has grown considerably, including some additions I've had my eye on for a while.

Although all of this is probably thanks to the great effect of Pride.

Picked up the missing skills related to Mp and Sp.

That is, Lessened Consumption.

As you probably know, Recovery Speed, of course, accelerates natural recovery.

So, what better way to complement it than with a skill that reduces the amount used.

The good thing is that Lessened Consumption works on both the yellow and red bars.

Specifically speaking, my red Sp has become incredibly difficult to get down, and my yellow Sp decreases much less when I'm running.

I also got the enhanced version of HP Recovery Speed, but I'll tell you how that happened later.

Anyway, I got a new random skill also called Spatial Maneuvering.

I think because I built a house near the roof, I got the ability to climb up and down the wall :D.

As a result, I can jump and stuff like that.

I don't need it, though. I was already able to do those things...

And actually, I don't need it that much. I've managed to get Flight to a good level, I'm still not good at using it in battle, but it works for me.

I guess I'll explain the rest of the skills as they come.

Anyway, the little UP markers seem to indicate skills that have changed since the last time I looked at my Appraisal results.

This time they were: Sp Lessened Consumption, Fear Resistance, Instantaneous and Persistence.

Instantaneous and Persistence are the Sp versions of strength and that type of ability, with the former working on the yellow Sp and the latter on the red.

My speed and SP stats seem to have increased as well.

In this week and a half, I've realized that, like skills, stats can actually increase as well as level up if I focus on training them.

This discovery came to me when I was running around to increase my Skanda skill and I saw that my speed stat had also improved.

Why didn't my stats make any progress before when I was being chased by monsters and stuff? I probably didn't run enough, or my growth rate has increased because of Pride.

It's very hard to say who is responsible, but one thing I can say for sure is that Pride is definitely working.

Since I have constantly active Appraisal-chan, the display of an UP symbol must mean that the skill or stat in question has increased very recently.

UP automatically disappears shortly after I've seen it, which means that the skills and stats that went up this time must be due to the decisive action I just took.

Heh-heh-heh. It's amazing how much my stats and skills grew all at once, isn't it?

Well, yeah.

That's because I was running at full speed. For my life

Earth Dragon | Lv 26 | Kagna

Stats

Hp: 4,198/4,198 (green)

Mp: 3,339/3,654 (blue)

SP: 2,798/2,798 (yellow)

2,995/3,112 (red)

failed status appraisal

It's a dragon

Unlike araba, this one is a bit short and sturdy. And apparently, it is just as powerful as the other one.

His wings are different from those of Araba.

This guy appeared out of nowhere.

Just as I was getting ready to go hunting as usual, my house suddenly blew up.

The shockwave alone was enough to make me fall, though luckily, I broke my fall with Flight, and that's when I saw the dragon at the edge of my vision.

After that, I ran away at full speed, fleeing towards the Middle Layer, which is the real reason I'm here now.

Hahaha. Yeah, Me kuroko, desperately ran for my life.

But at least that desperation was enough to boost my skills and stats!

Anyway, damn, what's with the dragons and spider web destruction in sight?

That's so scary.

Was the Middle Layer really a lair of earth dragons all along and I never noticed?

That's even scarier.

No, no, no. There's no way there are that many of those horrible things roaming around.

Now I'm remembering the glimpse I had of Appraisal of the State of the Beast.

They were four-digit numbers. That's ridiculous. There's no way I can top that in my current state.

On top of that, even after he used that powerful attack that destroyed my entire house, his Mp and Sp barely decreased.

In other words, he could attack like this without even stopping.

I can't deal with it yet. It's a very horrible monster, but that only motivates me to get stronger and eat them!

Even so, that dragon was different from Araba.

Although this dragon's level was lower, I couldn't Appraisal Araba, so I don't know who is stronger.

But regardless, it's not like I can handle them right now, so I guess it doesn't matter.

I wonder if there is some sort of connection between them, since they are both earth dragons.

Maybe they started out as the same species and evolved apart or something?

Hmm, that could be it.

Dragons are like the definition of a superior race, so it wouldn't be surprising if it had a wide variety of evolutionary options.

Otherwise, maybe each Earth Dragon is its own unique species? That could be too.

Like, there are only a few because of how elite they are, but every individual is hyper strong? That kind of weird stuff.

I mean, hyper strong doesn't even do them credit.

If that's the case, then my chances of encountering others like it are likely to be pretty low, at least...

No, wait a second.

That would mean that I have now been attacked 2 times by creatures that should have an extremely low chance of being encountered.

Does that mean I have ridiculously low luck?

I mean, there are no luck stats or anything like that, but if there were, mine would be extremely low.

I blame D for that.

Although come to think of it, I've had a lot of near-death encounters before, but I always survive in the end, so that means I have some luck, I guess.

Wait a second. Wouldn't someone lucky avoid flirting with death so many times in the first place?

Hmm?

...you know what, forget it. I shouldn't think about those things anymore.

Really, that time I escaped by a hair's breadth. It's a good thing I was about to leave.

I still haven't shaken this run of bad luck.

Yeah, let's go with that.

Still, I'd like to know if I'm right. Could someone please tell me?

Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Prediction Lv 8] has become [Prediction Lv 9].

Hey, nobody asked you!

What's with the too-perfect timing?!

Were you waiting for your chance to make fun of me, System-chan?!

...no...

...yeah, I don't believe you System-chan.

Wow. Well, I got a little bit of revenge.

Yeah, I'm going to ignore the funny System-chan and start slowly advancing through the Middle Layer.

I definitely want to put as much distance between me and that earth dragon as possible.

Anyway, let's check the current situation.

I am surrounded on each side by boiling magma. The range between the ground and the magma is about the same. And I still can't swim in lava.

Still, I just charged forward in panic. I wonder if I'm on the right path.

Well, I have no way of knowing, so I might as well keep it that way.

So, thanks to the replica of Kagna-chan's attack, and the fact that I kept running beyond my limits, my Hp has been reduced a bit, though it's already healed.

Normally, because I'm a kawaii spider, the heat of this place would be constantly causing me enough damage to cancel my Hp Recovery Speed, but thanks to a little trick, I managed to advance them pretty quickly.

You see, I realized that at the rate I was going, I wasn't going to be able to turn into a lava-swimming spider, so I summoned my thread and let it burn until it reached my butt and started burning.

Thanks to Gluttony and a little bit of luck, I was able to get the Fire Resistance, but it's not like I was satisfied with that, no sir.

I did it again and again and again. When I saw that my thread was taking a long time to burn, I would stick it in the lava and wait and then run away.

Thanks to that, I got the Flame Resistance and the evolved form of Hp Recovery Speed, Hp Rapid Recovery.

It was painful, but also thanks to that, my Pain Mitigation skill became Pain Super-Mitigation.

So, it was worth it. Very much so.

In fact, I'm walking around near the magma, hoping to level up my Flame Resistance faster. Right now, I can't afford to do that crazy trick to level it up faster.

Although I still prefer freezing climates to this, but swimming in lava sounds like fun.

And I have no idea how long it will take to get out of here.

Judging by the other layers I've visited so far; this place is probably as big as others.

This is the biggest maze in the world, after all.

It connects two continents and everything, so it could easily take days to traverse the Middle Layer.

I have a long way to go, but I've been forced to start this journey in a hurry, which is not a good sign.

Well, I guess I'd better get going.

Fuah, this heat feels pretty good.

Ever since I was reborn as a spider, I've lived in a fairly comfortable temperature. It was never too hot or too cold, you know? When the environment suddenly changed it was very depressing.

Although it's good that I managed to get the Flame Resistance, at first it was quite uncomfortable and several times I wanted to run out of here and not come back. But I have a goal and I need to get through here to achieve it, so I stuck it out and did it!

Although it still feels a bit uncomfortable to walk around here.

Oh, hey, look, a wild monster has appeared.

Elroe Gunerush | Lv 5 | No name

Stats:

Hp: 159/159 (Green)

Mp: 145/145 (Blue)

Sp: 145/145 (Yellow)

116/145 (Red)

Attack: 83

Defense: 81

Magic: 79

Resistance: 77

Speed: 88

Failed status appraisal

Mwe-he-he-he-he-he-he-he. Now that Appraisal-chan is level 9, it even lets me see the enemy's attack power and stuff!

Wah, this is the best!

Actually, I forgot to mention, thanks to Flame Resistance I can now use my thread for a period of time before it burns out, but honestly, this is a good opportunity to train and not have to rely on my thread, so I won't use it unless I have to.

Now that I get a good look at it, this is the same type of monster I saw when I first got to Middle Layer. The thing that looks like a sea horse.

Just like the one I saw the first day, my prey is swimming in magma.

Nai wa! I want to do it too!

He doesn't seem to have noticed me yet, so I could ignore him if I wanted to, but I have to walk past him.

Should I attack him directly or use a sneak attack without my threads? Hmm...

Oh. While I was busy thinking of some strategy, I guess he noticed me.

Like last time, a fireball shot out from the magma.

Yah! I dodged it.

Hmpf. I'm not sure how much it will hurt me but I'd rather not risk it.

The good thing is that it's not fast enough to give me.

This brings me back to the time when I couldn't even dodge the spit attacks of those frogs, but now I'm stronger, my speed is incredibly high, and I have the Evasion skill and everything else.

I now have divine agility that would be the envy of any game character!

Even if a hit would leave me badly damaged or just plain damaged, it doesn't matter if it never hits me!

Still...

Neither of us has the advantage in this step.

I mean, even if those fireballs managed to hit me, they wouldn't kill me.

But since I've banned myself from using my threads unless it's an extreme case, I have no way to attack him.

This would qualify as a bit of an extreme case, if it weren't for one thing.

He will eventually run out of MP. Those fireballs apparently use a lot of MP.

Once his Mp runs out, he won't be able to fire any more of those fireballs.

I mean, I know all my opponent's information while we're fighting.

All right, we avoided the last fireball. With that, he's out of MP.

The seahorse's next move will change the outcome of this battle, so...

What will you do seahorse?

Oh look, it crawled out of the magma.

And he's charging at me.

What an idiot. If I ran out of mp, I'd have to make a strategic retreat immediately.

From my point of view, his running is suuuper slow, so I dodge him with relative ease.

Then I cling to the seahorse's back, piercing it with a venomous claw.

Hmm, apparently his body is kind of hot, it's a pity he has Flame Resistance and that little bit of heat didn't even tickle me.

Well, in any case, the deadly poison killed the seahorse in no time.

Phew, I managed to win my first match without much trouble.

(Later)

Fireballs pass through me, tracing arcs in the air.

Two at a time. But even so, dodging them is relatively simple.

Looking ahead, I see 2 cute little seahorses.

Apparently, this place is infested with them.

They do not gather together, in flocks, but wander about individually doing as they please.

Still, every once in a while, they end up close to each other and attack me simultaneously.

Well, as long as they're not in hordes like those monkeys, no problem.

They don't cooperate very well, probably because they're usually pretty solitary. It's like they're just throwing random fireballs.

If they weren't, this could have been a tough fight.

All I have to do is avoid getting hit.

Even if they hit, the damage I'd take wouldn't be much but I'd rather not risk it and focus on dodging.

On top of that, dodging missiles is simple on its own, but I'm doing it in the middle of a magma field.

Even with my incredible Flame Resistance, if I were to accidentally fall into the lava, I doubt I would survive or come out of it unscathed.

So even while avoiding fireballs, I have to keep a close eye on the ground beneath my feet.

I feel like I'm on my last heart in a hellish game of bullets.

Except that my real life is at stake.

It really sucks not having a way to defend myself right now.

My threads currently take about 1 hour to burn with my current Flame Resistance level, they burn faster near magma.

While it is true that I can use them, I have explicitly forbidden myself in this area not to use them, as it is a great opportunity to test myself.

So, they can attack me as much as they want, all I can do is dodge them. Like a fish in a barrel.

But that's only until they run out of PM.

Once that happens, the seahorses will go to the shore.

That is correct. They choose to abandon their advantageous position and come down to my level voluntarily.

How gentlemanly and stupid. They're such knuckleheads.

Even now, the first seahorse has run out of MP and is approaching me.

It helps that I gained the new skills Destruction Enhancement and Cutting Enhancement in my previous knowledge quest.

Destruction Enhancement: As the name implies, it increases my destructive power. The meaning is a bit vague, but I assume it's a skill that generally increases my attack power.

Cutting Enhancement: Same type, only limited to cutting attacks.

The second seahorse crawls out of the magma at the perfect moment, so I finish him off the same way.

Experience has reached the required level. The individual Little Poison Taratect has been raised from Lv 5 to Lv 6.

All basic attributes have increased

Skill Proficiency bonus per level up acquired

Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Enhancement Lv 2] has become [Poison Enhancement Lv 3].

Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Evasion Lv 3] has become [Evasion Lv 4].

Skill points acquired

Oh, I've leveled up!

I'm very thankful for this, as I was getting bored of nothing interesting happening.

I can beat these seahorses easily once they come ashore, but it gets kind of boring.

It was interesting the first few times, but after fighting a bunch of them, you lose interest.

Although it would be great if my Flame Resistance and/or my Hp Rapid Recovery would advance faster so I could make things easier, but of course, the world isn't that kind.

Flame Resistance is still at level 4 and Hp Rapid Recovery hasn't improved either.

I mean, it's understandable that being upgraded versions they take longer to upload and even more so when I can't use my old method to upload faster due to my current situation.

And more if we add the fact that my species is naturally weak to fire, so it is not more difficult to raise it in the convenient ways.

And my Hp Rapid Recovery is such a handy skill that it naturally takes a long time to grow.

I mean, auto-recovery is an ability you wouldn't normally have until near the end of a game anyway.

I'm lucky I was able to get them without spending any skill points.

It's probably too much to ask for her to level up quickly naturally, I also have to remember that having her is a blessing.

In fact, without Hp Auto-Recovery and Hp Rapid Recovery, I wouldn't even have been able to consider a trip through the Middle Layer.

I mean, how could I?

Entering an area where you constantly take damage without a self-recovery ability would be a suicide mission.

Yes, I know I have Gluttony but even she has her limits, I haven't tried eating an attack yet but it would be interesting.

Anyway, I'm not interested in killing myself, so without Hp Auto-Recovery, I'd probably still be walking around in the Lower Layer looking for another pit to climb.

Is it the Lower Layer with those dragons? Nope, nai Waaaaaa. I'd be dead in no time.

I'm actually making pretty good progress on clearing the Middle Layer.

I've encountered several types of monsters besides those seahorses, but none of them were a big problem.

If he wasn't at a disadvantage in this arena, he could easily beat them all.

However, the handicap I have here is quite inconvenient.

First of all, the magma. The giant hot sea of this place.

Since I can't swim in it yet, when faced with a monster immersed in magma, all I can do is throw pebbles at it.

Since I have the Throw skill and all, I thought I'd mimic those few monkeys I faced, but it doesn't do much damage at all.

And since I'm forbidden to use my threads, unless an enemy comes to land, I can do something to him, otherwise I'm basically useless.

It would be nice if all monsters acted like seahorses and hit land as soon as they run out of mana, but some just stay in magma or run away.

The worst ones are the ones that start on land, but fester in the magma when I get them where I want them.

Sometimes I feel like removing my own restraint, but I hold it in.

And more that I now have Threads Manship, which increases the power of any thread-related move.

Although I've still allowed myself to practice a bit with my thread to see how durable it is in these places.

In relatively safe places, my thread lasts an hour before it starts to burn, near the lava 30 minutes and in the lava, it burns in about 30 seconds.

In itself, my thread is not a problem, the real problem is the thread I often unconsciously produce.

Every time I move, I automatically spin the silk, and as I go near the magma, it goes into it and ignites.

The lit thread acts like a wick, which reaches my ass and starts to heat up.

The first time it happened, I freaked out, I mean, there was literally a fire lit in my ass.

My Hp went down quite a few points because of that, and using Poison Synthesis I turned it off and then ate some rocks and regenerated my Hp.

But that happened for the first time on the second day I came to explore the Middle Layer, but, as you know, I managed to use it to my advantage in order to get my Flame Resistance.

But now it takes me a while to realize that my ass is on fire and I keep using Poison Synthesis to turn it off and Gluttony to recover life.

Even though it's good for me to increase my resistance, it's not good for me right now, because if my Hp drops too low and an enemy manages to surprise attack me while I'm recovering, it'll be the end of me.

I also can't make bedding, because if I fall asleep and I'm covered by my yarn, it eventually burns and I burn myself too.

The same thing happens if I try to build a network here.

But I managed to sleep in the shade of some rocks.

I didn't sleep very well, though.

Not in this hell, where anything can take me by surprise with a fiery attack.

I may be bold, but even I have my limits.

Still, I have yet to get a good night's sleep.

I don't sleep very often, as you can imagine, but I've been trying to rest whenever I can find a suitable hiding place.

On the plus side, even though this is the worst area for a spider right now, the monsters are much weaker.

In terms of threat, the ones I've found so far aren't too far off from the ones I found in Top Layer.

There are probably some relatively strong monsters around here, like the snakes that live in the regions above, but so far, all the creatures I've encountered haven't been much of a problem.

The biggest difference between the threats here and in the Top Layer is the way they use their environment.

That's what makes these relatively weak monsters dangerous.

Since I don't have many recovery options, counting, I only have Heal and Gluttony, just getting a scratch puts me in trouble.

I still have to see if I can eat enemy attacks.

Also, they've all been pretty manageable so far because they're insignificant, but it's still possible (very possible) that there are some Lower Layer class ones here as well.

The terrain alone is a challenge for me, so if that kind of opponent shows up...

I just need to get stronger quickly.

Heck, if only I could use magic, this would all change.

But to use magic, I have to quell the effects of Detection. Which might be an even more formidable enemy than this horrifying terrain.

I mean, I've even managed to find a way to endure and even enjoy this terrain, but I still don't have anything for Detection.

In any case, it is not likely to solve the Detection problem in the near future.

Argh, I really want to use magic!

1234

I hope you all enjoyed

Capítulo 15: Chapter 15: the conquest of the middle layer start!

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Capítulo 15: Chapter 15: the conquest of the middle layer start!

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