I couldn't react in time, and the scythe struck one of my front legs—the one I tried to use to shield myself. I didn't feel much pain thanks to "Pain Resistance," but it was still unpleasant.

  Half of my leg was sliced off.

  Shit! You bitch! Without thinking, I edited my defense and speed to 5,000 and immediately turned to flee the hole. I could have killed that spider—but what if it was Kumoko?

  Tsk!

  The moment I left the hole, the spider emerged.

  She looked simir to me, except her two front legs were bdes. She was also slightly smaller than me. How do I confirm this spider isn't Kumoko? There's no way to be sure!

  Well, thinking about it, if Kumoko was born at the same time as me, she shouldn't be this strong. Could she really be evolving faster than me—even after I destroyed an entire finjicote nest?

  Impossible.

  So I started waving my legs in a strange way. In a way a normal spider wouldn't. If I do this, she'll know I'm trying to communicate.

  But the spider simply stared at me with her bck eyes for a while—then attacked.

  I dodged and moved back.

  I kept trying to communicate. I even wrote something on the ground, but the spider had no interest in reading it. The only thing she wanted was to kill me. This definitely isn't Kumoko.

  After reaching that conclusion, I waited for her to attack.

  I removed the edit from my defense and shifted it to strength.

  The spider leapt at me and tried to ssh me with her "bdes," but I dodged and struck her with one of my side legs. I hit the side of her body, sending her crashing into the wall.

  The wall cracked, and her hardened body was severely damaged.

  I approached and struck her repeatedly within seconds, completely destroying her body.

  [ "Small Taratect LV8" became "Small Taratect LV9" ]

  At least killing that spider was good for something. But who was she?

  I didn't know there were spiders that evolved this much around here.

  However, during my exploration, I was surprised by how many highly evolved spiders I encountered.

  And unfortunately, none of them were Kumoko.

  ####

  After killing some spiders that were definitely not my sisters, I finally found a suitable pce to build a new home and used my web to construct it. Once I finished, I threw myself onto the ground.

  I y on my back, legs up, staring at the rocks above.

  Ah, this is so boring.

  I couldn't find the pce Kumoko used to descend to the Lower Stratum, and I couldn't find another monster nest or anything fun to do.

  I only killed spiders and a few monsters I ran into.

  Aren't there way too few monsters here?

  I remember that at the beginning of the story—at least until around chapter 30—it felt like there were many more monsters in this area. Did those spiders kill most of them? They're far too strong for the Upper Stratum.

  There must be more of them out there.

  Huff~~

  I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to get some sleep.

  But the moment I did, I was startled by the ground beneath me shaking.

  It was shaking violently.

  My eyes snapped open, and I froze.

  'It's getting closer. Shit, it's getting closer.' I began to feel nervous—this isn't normal. If the ground is shaking like this, it has to be something huge. Should a monster like that even exist here?

  I've seen rats, bats, lizards… but none of them could make the ground tremble like this.

  'Should I go out and take a look?'

  I don't have vision of the outside, so I'd have to step out to see.

  After thinking for a moment, I decided to leave—very carefully.

  Then the ground stopped shaking. Did it stop moving?

  Slowly, I removed my web and peeked outside.

  The moment I did, I froze.

  I could see the back of a massive monster.

  I used "Appraisal" on it—and became even more armed.

  Earth Drake (Variant) LV28

  StatusHP: 4,800MP: 1,200SP: 3,545/3,600

  Average Offense Ability: 1,750Average Defense Ability: 2,300Average Magic Ability: 900Average Resistance Ability: 1,600Average Speed Ability: 850

  Skills

  Stat & Ability SkillsHP Auto-Recovery LV3 ? MP Auto-Recovery LV1 ? Strength LV5 ? Solidity LV6 ? Skanda LV3 ? Stamina LV5

  Attack SkillsEarth Attribute Attack LV4 ? Impact Enhancement LV3 ? Armor Break LV2

  Enhancement SkillsEarth Enhancement LV4 ? Defense Enhancement LV4 ? Magic Defense Enhancement LV3

  Active SkillsEarth Manipution LV4 ? Seismic Wave LV3 ? Rock Spike LV4 ? Stone Wall LV3 ? Stone Armor LV4 ? Crushing Bite LV5 ? Heavy Charge LV3

  Leadership SkillsIntimidation LV3

  Perception SkillsDetection LV4 ? Vibration Detection LV4 ? Hit LV3 ? Concentration LV2

  Magic SkillsEarth Magic LV4

  Resistance SkillsEarth Resistance LV5 ? Physical Resistance LV4 ? Impact Resistance LV4 ? Poison Resistance LV3 ? Paralysis Resistance LV2 ? Fear Resistance LV3 ? Pain Mitigation LV4

  Passive SkillsNatural Recovery LV2 ? Tremor Sense LV3 ? Scale Harden LV3

  Other SkillsTerritorial Instinct LV4 ? Battle Instinct LV3

  'This thing… shouldn't be here. No—this thing shouldn't even exist. What do you mean a variant? Are you kidding me? There's nothing like this in the original story!'

  Or is there? I didn't read far enough to know!

  'Damn it.'

  Wait… why am I so nervous? Its stats aren't even that absurd! I'll be fine, right?

  But seriously… look at the number of skills it has.

  Not even I have that many.

  ParodyGirl