So I'm a Spider, So What?, Vol. 2

by Okina Baba

  Paying no attention to how much MP it consumes, I maximize the amount.

  Instantly, a huge ball of poison far bigger than I am appears and drops.

  The giant glob of poison collides with the eel’s fireball and bursts in midair.

  The majority is evaporated, but what’s left falls down like rain.

  There may not be much, but it’s still my Deadly Spider Poison.

  Even that tiny amount manages to bring down several of the weakling sea horses.

  Perfect.

  I scurry along the ceiling before the next fireball arrives.

  As I move, I synthesize more Deadly Spider Poison, spraying it everywhere.

  The fire wyrm and the eels hesitate. Maybe they’re afraid to disperse the lethal concoction with their fireballs.

  They frantically scramble to avoid the falling poison.

  The Poison Fog is taking effect, too; one by one, more of the sea horses fall.

  Hey, this is going pretty well. If I just keep scattering poison as I run, maybe I can get away.

 

 

 

 

 

  Wha…?!

  Shoot. I’m molting.

  If this happens while I’m on the ceiling, it’ll slow me way down.

  Sure enough, as soon as the peeling husk stops me in my tracks, an eel lands a direct hit on me with a fireball.

  Ow! Hot! I’m gonna die!

  I’m falling.

  Luckily, there’s an island directly beneath me.

  Safe! I managed to avoid landing in the magma. Lucky me.

  Good thing that shot came from an eel and not the fire wyrm. Otherwise, I’d have gone up in smoke on the spot.

  Still, one hit from the eel’s fireball has me living on Perseverance.

  It’s already drained my usually excessive stock of MP in half.

  I never imagined that molting, after helping me out so many times, would screw me over like that.

  But I survived!

  A giant figure approaches, interrupting my relief.

  One of the eels is charging me, its body covered in flames.

  I’d escape, but there’s no time.

  I use Rot Attack on one of my scythes.

  Immediately, intense pain runs through the leg, but I ignore it.

  Just barely dodging to the side of the charging eel, I raise my Rot-infused scythe and chop away.

  Despite the eel’s Dragon Scales, the scythe slices through with no resistance.

  Rot Attack really is terrifying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I can’t believe I killed an eel in one blow.

  Pieces of its body sink into the magma.

  Part of it stays intact, of course, but the areas where it was cut collapse as if they’ve turned to sand.

  Meanwhile, thanks to my molting, my self-destructed scythe is fully recovered.

  Now there are three eels and the fire wyrm left.

  Thanks to the Poison Fog, most of the sea horses have been downed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Oh. When the last sea horse went down, I leveled up and gained some kind of title.

  Maybe I can do this?

  I activate Cursed Evil Eye and Paralyzing Evil Eye in four eyes each.

  Matching the number of remaining opponents perfectly.

  Apparently, this makes the fire dragon and the eels uncomfortable as they start frantically shooting fireballs at me.

  I run.

  Two of the eels pursue.

  It’s like a pincer attack, with one on either side.

  That’s not gonna work on me now!

  I dodge with a vertical leap.

  But it seems the fire dragon anticipated that.

  A fireball homes in on me while I’m in midair.

  Guess my patterns were getting predictable.

  That sucks, but nobody said I can’t move while airborne!

  I create some shock-enhanced thread and smack myself with it before it burns up.

  The shock runs through my body.

  The resultant impact sends me soaring.

  Ha! With this little trick, I can practically fly—

  —as long as I don’t mind taking a chunk out of my own HP anyway!

  Its target gone, the fireball lobs uselessly through empty space.

  I watch it with satisfaction even as I tailspin, then use some thread to land properly on the ceiling this time.

  By now, the eels have fallen victim to my Paralyzing Evil Eye, floating totally stiff in the water.

  All that’s left now is the fire dragon.

  Possibly in a last-ditch effort, the fire dragon’s body erupts in flames as it charges.

  I counter with more magic.

  My newly acquired Poison Magic level-7 spell, Paralysis Shot.

  Game, set, match.

  Once the effects of Paralyzing Evil Eye have set in, the victim will remain paralyzed as long as you keep looking at them.

  Paralysis Shot, on the other hand, wears off gradually, but that’s not a problem as long as I keep my Paralyzing Evil Eye on them.

  Now that I’ve paralyzed the fire dragon, I’ve won. I can boil it, mash it, stick it in a stew…whatever.

  No matter how high its stats may be, they’re no match for my ability to inflict status conditions.

  Now that I’ve captured it so beautifully, it’d be a waste to just let it sink into the magma.

  There’s nothing I can do about the sea horses and the eel that already sank, but I can’t let any more valuable food go to waste.

  Using some spider thread and a great deal of elbow grease, I manage to yank my prey onto land.

  What a pain. The thread kept catching fire, so I had to keep making more and repeating the process.

  Now then, I guess I should finish off these losers.

  First, the eels.

  Since they’re already paralyzed, I go ahead and toss some Deadly Spider Poison right down the first one’s gullet.

  Despite its paralysis, the eel gives a final shudder before its strength runs out.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Watching this, the other eels’ faces contort in fear.

  Don’t you worry. The suffering will only last a moment.

  I pop more poison into the second eel’s mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I got a title. Man, it’s another creepy-sounding one.

  Geez, going by titles alone, everyone’s gonna think I’m some kinda crazy person.

  Oh wait, I’m a spider, not a person.

  Well, I’ll check it out later.

  Same with this Wyrm Slayer title or whatever.

  For now, I have to finish my business with these guys.

  So here, third eel, I have a special present for you.

  I worked really hard to make this, so you’d better appreciate it. C’mon, say “Ahh.”

  How was it? Oh, so delicious that you died? That’s sweet.

  Information brain, you’re scary!

  Nice one! Keep it up!

  Oh, you guys are back?

  Yep. I don’t think we need to be at max synchronization level anymore.

  “Max synchronization level” is a name I randomly coined for a Parallel Minds technique.

  Like the name implies, it lets me sync all of my separate minds so we can act as one without the slightest lag.

  Basically, it’s like having a single mind that can do three different things at once.

  I guess the only real downside is I can’t have conversations among my selves when we’re synced up.

  We won more easily than I expected.

  Yeah, I didn’t think it was gonna go this well, either.

  Maybe I’ve gotten even stronger than I thought.

  Thanks to the new attack methods that magic enables, the range of strategies I can employ is much wider now.

  Above all, now I know just how powerful status conditions like poison and paralysis can be.

  Damn, dude.

  I guess there’s no way to avoid paralysis no matter how strong you are.

  Like this fire wyrm here.

  Good thing that fire wyrm was so stupid.

  Yeah, if I were him, I’d have run away when things went south.

  Totally. Why wouldn’t you retreat when your losses start getting that heavy?

  I suppose it was a muscle head who didn’t know when to withdraw, just like the sea horses.

  Maybe it’s because it never got into such a pinch before?

  Ohhh, maybe.

  Yeah, it probably didn’t think it would lose.

  Exactly. I feel kinda bad now, so let’s finish it off.

  And so I give the fire wyrm what may have been its first (and certainly last) taste of defeat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Okay, body brain!

  Yeah, yeah. I’ve got some boring work ahead of me.

  Yep. I’m counting on you to de-scale these things.

  It’s nice to be able to foist work like this off on someone else now.

  Meanwhile, I’ll take a look at the effects of the skills and titles I acquired.

  Starting with this Demon Lord skill.

  Man, what’s that supposed to mean?

 

  Ooh. That’s a pretty sweet skill. Thanks, Demon Lord.

  Next, let’s check out these titles.

 

 

  Whoa! Wyrm Slayer’s nice and all, but the effect of Fearbringer is crazy!

  So just looking at me is fear inducing now?

  That’s not good!

  I mean, it’s great for enemies and all, but making everyone else scared of me isn’t helpful in the least!

  There’s no way to turn titles on and off, is there?

  Hoo, boy. Does this mean cowardly monsters like catfish are gonna run away as soon as they lay eyes on me?

  Aw, man. Well, guess there’s nothing I can do, since I’ve already got it.

  Okay, shake it off. Time to look at the other skills.

  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them on the list before, but I don’t remember the effects at all.

  Ugh. I have the worst memory ever.

  Should I grab the Memory skill or something? Oh, whatever.

 

  Hmm? Hmm. I don’t get it.

  It seems to be the kind of skill that you have to activate, so I’ll give it a try.

  Oh? It looks like my stats went up a little.

  And I lost a little MP and SP.

  Guess this skill consumes a bit of MP and SP to raise my stats.

  Unlike Magic Warfare and Mental Warfare, it also raises my magic stats.

  Since it’s level 1, it doesn’t do much, but it might become pretty powerful if I level it up by keeping it on all the time.

  The combination of Magic Warfare and Mental Warfare already has a pretty potent effect, but if you add Wyrm Power on top of that…

  Niiice. Yes waaay.

 

  You too, huh?

  Unlike the title, I can at least turn this off and on, but wouldn’t the combination of the two make pretty much any monster that sees me turn tail and run instantly?

  Oh well. I can’t turn the title off anyway, so I may as well keep this on all the time.

  It doesn’t seem to cost anything, in any case.

 

  Oh, great.

 

  This isn’t just a “mental attack” anymore!

  This is waaay creepy.


  I’ll have to try it out soon. Yep.

  So Wyrm Slayer just ended up being a minor stat boost.

  And Fearbringer… I’m not sure whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, on the whole.

  It could be really good, but it could also be really bad.

  Well, that’s it for titles.

  I have a bunch of skill points now.

  And since I leveled up so much, I have quite a few.

  Now I can get that skill I wanted!

  Hee-hee. I didn’t think I’d be getting it so soon.

 

  There it is. Spatial Magic is a staple of cheating.

  I’m sure I won’t be able to use the kind of spells I want right away, since it’ll start at level 1, but thanks to Ruler of Wisdom, my magic skills level up really quickly.

  If I work hard at it, it should get to a useful level in no time.

  Heh-heh-heh. I’ve got high expectations for you, Spatial Magic. I expect Teleport to be on my desk by Monday!

  I mean, it’s gotta exist, right?

  What’s Spatial Magic if not stuff like Teleport, Item Box, and hosting a villa in another dimension?!

  There might be an Item Box–type skill that lets you store objects in another dimension, but I’m not in the habit of carrying stuff around in the first place, so it wouldn’t be much use to me.

  A villa would be nice, but given that’s probably really high-level if it exists at all, I don’t think I’ll get it anytime soon.

  But then there’s Teleport. A wonderful spell that moves you to a different area in an instant.

  If I can get Teleportation, I won’t need to traipse all over the Middle Stratum anymore!

  Thanks to Professor Wisdom, I have a map of the Upper Stratum!

  If I can get it to work with the map, then I bet I could use Teleport to get there in a blink!

  All right, Divine Voice (temp.)!

  Spatial Magic, please!

 

  Hell yeah!

  <[Spatial Magic LV 1] acquired. Remaining skill points: 0.>

  Okay. Let’s try out the level-1 spell right away.

  Magic brain!

  Aye, aye, sir!

  Magic brain activates the level-1 Spatial Magic spell posthaste.

  The level-1 spell is called Coordinate Designation.