Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 9

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LORD OF THE FIRE SEA

Wow. This sucks.

A lake of magma stretches in front of me as far as I can see. And this time, there’s no path through it.

Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?

I don’t think that’s possible. The layout of the Middle Stratum is pretty much just a single, fairly expansive passage stretching ahead.

It’s more than half a mile wide, though, so I don’t know if “passage” is really the right word.

Anyway, that means I have to cross this magma lake to advance.

Luckily, while there’s no path, there are at least some small islands dotted throughout.

With my jumping strength, I can leap from island to island, or even go by way of the ceiling if I have to.

Man, how would a human ever get past this, though?

I bet they can only survive in the Upper Stratum.

I mean, logically speaking, how could anyone conquer a labyrinth that’s bigger than Hokkaido?

They’d have to be a hero or have some legendary power or something.

I don’t know if that sort of thing even exists here.

Maybe if an administrator took a liking to a beautiful youth and gave them a special ability or something?

Wow, that’d be unfair.

You should give it to me instead!

No dice, huh? Okay, I guess that makes sense.

Whoops. I got a little off track for a second there.

Anyway, yeah, technically, I can get past this, but there’s a problem.

There are tons of monsters lurking inside.

On top of being enormously wide, this magma lake is pretty deep, too.

At its deepest, it can go as deep as six hundred feet.

If there’s that much magma, shouldn’t it cool down and harden or something?

Apparently not. It forms a huge freaking lake.

And in this expansive, deep lake, there are tons of monsters.

I’m supposed to cross this?

Man, what’s up with this labyrinth?

I don’t see how anyone’s supposed to beat it.

Ugh. Well, it’s not like I have any other choice, so I’ll just have to cross it.

I’m sure it’ll work out somehow, right?

Besides, I was able to beat that eel, so I doubt anything else would pose much of a threat. I doubt there are too many monsters around as strong as that.

Even if there are, I’ll just beat them at their own game.

I’ve evolved since I fought the eel, literally and figuratively. My stats have gotten crazy good, my skills have improved, and most importantly, I can use magic now!

Heh-heh-heh, I couldn’t touch monsters while they were in the magma before, but now that I know magic, no hole-up-at-home strategy will work against me!

I’ll snipe you with my magic! Bwa-ha-ha!

I have new skills besides magic, too.

First of all, Evil Eye.

I got my second Evil Eye skill, too. This time, I chose Paralyzing Evil Eye.

Petrification was tempting, too, but it takes a long time for its effects to kick in, and worse, I can’t eat something that’s been petrified.

So instead, I chose paralysis, which renders things immobile much more quickly while keeping them perfectly edible.

I also learned a skill called Magic Warfare.

You can use it to consume MP in exchange for raising stats. I happened to pick it up just by focusing on cycling magical power through my body.

So basically, this is the MP-consumption version of Mental Warfare, which uses SP. But thanks to Height of Occultism, I don’t need to worry about spending my MP.

Even if I keep it active all the time, it recovers more quickly than the rate of consumption.

So at the moment, I’m keeping it active all the time.

As a result, now my stats are even higher.

I’ve also been occasionally activating Mental Warfare with an eye for my amount of Satiation stock, slowly raising its skill level.

If I activate both at once, my stats improve drastically, so I can use that as a trump card for sure.

Satiation is a pretty amazing skill, as it turns out.

I mean, it even stocks automatic recovery.

So my HP and MP stocks have been bolstered in no time.

My MP, especially, is getting to the point where I can’t possibly use it all.

I can activate Magic Warfare, keep both Evil Eyes on nonstop—and even practice magic—and still have plenty of MP to spare.

Height of Occultism is crazy powerful. So is Satiation, which stocks any excess.

Although, I haven’t been able to save as much MP because of the magma damage.

So now that I have magic as a long-range-attack method and my stats are vastly improved, I’m sure I could take down an eel without breaking a sweat.

Which means there’s no reason to be afraid of a little magma lake!

If any small-fry attack me, I’ll just bring ’em down and eat ’em.

Time for my first jump!

I leap over the magma and land on a little island.

It’s a little scary, but I can always retreat to the ceiling if I have to, so I think I can make it work.

I’m still hopping my way across.

Hmm. It’s going so smoothly that it’s actually a little boring.

I haven’t been attacked by a single monster.

Honestly, I was so prepared for a fight that it’s almost more of a letdown than a relief.

No, it’s fine, though. Peace is a good thing.

But if it’s too peaceful, I could run out of SP, so it’d be nice if a monster would attack once in a while. Purely as a food source, of course.

If it’s a tasty monster, so much the better. Like catfish, or catfish, or maybe catfish.

C’mon, can’t one poke its little head out of the magma for me?

Sploosh.

<Elroe gunesohka

LV 17

Status:

HP: 2,331/2,331 (green) (details)

MP: 1,894/1,894 (blue) (details)

SP: 2,119/2,119 (yellow) (details)

: 2,315/2,315 (red) +264 (details)

Average Offensive Ability: 1,999 (details)

Average Defensive Ability: 1,876 (details)

Average Magical Ability: 1,551 (details)

Average Resistance Ability: 1,528 (details)

Average Speed Ability: 1,657 (details)

Skills:

[Fire Wyrm LV 9]

[Imperial Scales LV 2]

[HP Auto-Recovery LV 2]

[MP Auto-Recovery LV 1]

[MP Lessened Consumption LV 1]

[SP Recovery Speed LV 3]

[SP Lessened Consumption LV 3]

[Flame Attack LV 5]

[Flame Enhancement LV 3]

[Destruction Enhancement LV 2]

[Impact Enhancement LV 4]

[Cooperation LV 5]

[Leadership LV 7]

[Hit LV 10]

[Evasion LV 10]

[Probability Correction LV 8]

[Presence Perception LV 4]

[Danger Perception LV 7]

[High-Speed Swimming LV 7]

[Overeating LV 8]

[Impact Resistance LV 6]

[Heat Nullification]

[Longevity LV 1]

[Instantaneous LV 8]

[Persistent LV 9]

[Herculean Strength LV 1]

[Sturdy LV 1]

[Technique User LV 4]

[Protection LV 4]

[Running LV 5]

Skill Points: 11,250

Titles:

[Monster Slayer]

[Monster Slaughterer]

[Commander]

Something came out?!

It’s a wyrm.

It’s way more legit than the eel. A real, 100 percent genuine wyrm.

Judging by its skill set and such, it may be an even-further-evolved form of the eel.

You couldn’t even call this thing a fish. It’s a fire wyrm, plain and simple.

Aah, this is not good!

Imperial Scales is a superior version of Dragon Scales, with a much higher effect.

I didn’t care about its effect of interfering with magic construction and weakening magic’s power, but now it poses a big problem.

The eel’s Dragon Scales probably wouldn’t have been strong enough to dissolve my Height of Occultism–enhanced magic, but this fire wyrm’s Imperial Scales may just do the trick.

Plus the Hit / Probability Correction combo that gave me so much trouble when I fought the eel is still going strong.

Not to mention, now it even has Evasion.

And it’s fully loaded with fire-attribute attacks, my biggest weakness.

But the most dangerous thing of all might be its Cooperation and Leadership skills.

My Detection skill is alerting me about monsters popping out of the magma, one after the other.

Cooperation and Leadership have effects that absolutely live up to their names.

Cooperation improves the ability to work together, and Leadership makes subordinates follow commands.

They’re both skills you get with the title Leader, which is an extra layer of trickiness.

This title has the effect of slightly raising the subordinates’ stats.

I’m completely surrounded by a swarm of monsters.

And the fire wyrm is their boss.

I know I said I could beat an eel no problem, but no one told me something this strong was gonna show!

Body brain!

Yeah, let’s run for it!?

Our decision is immediate. I don’t think I could even beat this freak one-on-one, never mind with a whole army of flunkies.

In that case, running is my only shot.

The footing here is bad—no, it’s the worst—but it’s still my best option.

I jump over to an island opposite the fire wyrm.

Immediately after making the move, Detection informs me the island I was standing on before has gone up in flames.

Oh, geez! I know it was tiny, but still, it got swallowed whole!

I don’t think I can escape across these things.

The fireballs that wyrm spits out are too huge and too powerful.

Even with my new and improved stats, if I get hit with one of those, there’ll be nothing left.

I land on the next island, then immediately leap toward the following.

But while I’m in the air, a bunch of sea horses pop out of the magma and pepper fireballs at me.

It’s like antiaircraft fire.

Countless projectiles fly in a beeline toward me with pinpoint accuracy, as if the sea horses had trained together for this moment.

I’ve seen sea horses in groups before but never working together like this. Thanks to the leadership of the fire wyrm, though, they’re attacking in perfect sync.

I feel like I’m fighting a whole army.

No sense holding anything back.

On top of Magic Warfare, I also invoke Mental Warfare.

Then I shoot an Energy Conferment–enhanced thread toward the ceiling, using it to escape to the ceiling before my modified silk catches fire.

Tons of fireballs pass by directly below me, almost grazing my feet.

But already, a much bigger fireball is zeroing in on my spot on the ceiling. It’s one of the fire wyrm’s.

I race along the ceiling and manage to avoid the missile.

When it connects, the fireball destroys a portion of the cavern, scattering flames and debris everywhere.

If that hit me in the air, even if I still had HP left, I’d plunge into the magma.

The sea horses put up another fusillade.

I avoid most of them and douse the rest with Poison Shot.

Poison Shot has some degree of physical attack power.

If it hits something flying through the air, it can cancel it out.

And since Poison Shot is a simple spell and I have Height of Occultism and a portion of my mind dedicated purely to magic, I can even use it rapid-fire.

Of course, I can’t produce them fast enough to counter every single fireball this army of sea horses chucks at me, but I can at least use it to offset the ones I can’t dodge.

Until a fireball that I can’t dispel comes barreling toward me.

A really, really humongous one.

And it’s from the direction I was headed.

I can’t avoid it on the ceiling, so I let myself fall, landing on a nearby island.

Immediately, a bright-red flower blooms on the ceiling.

I look forward.

That wasn’t the wyrm’s fireball.

Instead, my way forward is blocked by eels.

Not just one, but three.

I’m in checkmate.

Eels at the front gate. A fire wyrm at the rear.

If it were just one eel, I might be able to break through, but getting past a group of three will be virtually impossible.

So I turn back toward the fire wyrm, since there’s only one of those, but it’s closing on me with its army of countless sea horses.

On top of that, it’s accompanied by a fourth eel.

This is bad.

The only way I can survive is by avoiding the enemies’ attacks and reducing their numbers.

Even small-fry like the sea horse can be big trouble in such large numbers.

I have to bring those numbers down if I want to stand a chance.

There’s nothing funny about being assailed by a wall of fireballs!

Right now, the only saving grace is that the fire wyrm’s leadership is actually too perfect.

Basically, the attacks aimed at me are a little too accurate.

There are so many of them that it would be a simple matter to carpet the whole area, leaving me with nowhere to go, but instead, they all target me directly.

As long as I have somewhere to run, I can avoid them.

I sprint off to the side, trying to break through the siege of the fire wyrm and the eels.

As I run, I activate magic.

Poison Magic level 6: Poison Fog.

As the name suggests, it’s a spell that generates a toxic cloud.

It’d be great if I had a spell that would directly attack a wide range in one shot, but this is the only weapon in my arsenal capable of affecting multiple enemies at once.

It’s not as strong as my Deadly Spider Poison, so it won’t drain their HP in an instant, but if they keep breathing it in, the poison will gradually eat away at them.

If I can just keep escaping, this fog should reduce their numbers significantly!

But of course things won’t be so easy.

Some of the sea horses come on land to block my path.

Grr, out of my way!

I swing my scythes toward the standing sea horses.

Each of the scythes bisects a sea horse to my left and the right.

That’s how strong my scythe attack has become with my improved stats.

Swinging my forelegs back, I cut down two more sea horses.

At the same time, I jump straight into the air!

A fireball smashes into the ground where I was standing less than a second ago.

The blast accelerates my body all the more, and I reach the ceiling without using any thread.

But the aftershock alone was enough to decrease my HP significantly.

Catching sight of an eel getting ready to unleash a fireball, I synthesize some Deadly Spider Poison half out of desperation.

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.

<Fearbringer: Acquired skills [Intimidation LV 1] [Heretic Magic LV 1]. Acquisition condition: Induce a certain amount of proficiency in Fear Resistance in others. Effect: Inflicts the heresy attribute effect “Fear” on anyone who sees the holder. Description: A title awarded to those who personify fear.>

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.

<Intimidate: Inflicts the heresy attribute effect “Fear” on surrounding area>

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.

Some kind of cube made up of green lines appears.

Magic brain can make it bigger and smaller, change its shape, and move it to the left and right.

Apparently, it’s nonphysical because it sinks into the ground as well as magma.

It reminds me of selecting a range of objects on a PC. In fact, I think that’s exactly what it is.

Looks like all this spell does is designate a space.?

What good is it, then?

Maybe it’s a preliminary setup thing for the higher-level spells??

Right, that makes sense.

So I guess this is another skill that won’t be any use until it’s a higher level, like Shadow Magic.

Yep.?

Hmm.

Well, I wasn’t expecting it to be useful in combat or anything right off the bat, so what really matters is that I got it for now.

We’ll just have to level it up quickly.

You know what to do, right, magic brain?

Focus on this more than other magic, right??

Yeah. By the way, how many different kinds of magic can you activate at once right now?

Depends on the kind of magic. But Coordinate Designation doesn’t seem too hard, so I think I could do two other spells at the same time as long as they’re simple ones.?

Gotcha. Try and stock up on proficiency while we’re on the move as much as you can, then, ’kay?

Yessir.?

Body brain is still busy with de-scaling.

Makes sense, since there are three eels, and the fire wyrm’s about twice the size of one.

Looks like it’ll be a while before we can do a fire wyrm taste test.

Man, though, I can’t believe I beat a whole gang of monsters led by a super-strong wyrm.

In terms of stats, the fire wyrm was way stronger than me.

My chances didn’t look very good at first.

But I managed to win by paralyzing them and dousing them in poison.

Just goes to show all over again that stats aren’t the only thing that counts.

For example, a spider that specializes in abnormal status conditions can be an extremely difficult monster to deal with, if I do say so myself.

If my stats keep going up and I keep getting better at magic, maybe I’ll become a high-powered all-rounder mega-monster?