I teleported to the Lower Layer.
Three Earth Dragons stood before me.
Kaguna, Geele, and Fuito — all three.
Based on my Appraisal, none of them had increased in Level since I last checked.
Their Status values had barely changed either.
Only two or three points had gone up by a single digit.
Quite a bit of time had passed since I last confirmed their stats, but their growth was minimal.
Not a single Skill had changed either.
This wasn't so much that the Earth Dragons grew slowly — more that my growth speed was just absurd.
I'd always thought I didn't have anything that qualified as a proper cheat beyond having Idaten, but maybe my growth potential was the real cheat all along.
Well, anyway — last time, I'd been forced to flee from Kaguna and Geele's combo. But with my current level of growth, I could take them even with Fuito joining the trio.
No, scratch that — I'd win with ease.
The main reasons I'd retreated before were a lack of firepower and insufficient defense.
I couldn't deal meaningful damage to Kaguna, and one solid hit was enough to put me in serious danger thanks to my paper-thin durability. That was why I'd been forced to withdraw against Kaguna's defense and Geele's speed working in tandem.
But now, after evolving and integrating the Queen, both my Stats and Skills had skyrocketed. There was nothing left to lose to.
So this time, I decided to fight all three Earth Dragons using nothing but close combat — no magic.
It wasn't just me getting cocky.
My body after evolving into an Arachne was fundamentally different from my previous spider form.
I needed to do a test run and get a proper sense of what this body could do.
Well, okay, maybe it was a little bit cocky.
Against weaker opponents with zero chance of losing, I needed to thoroughly understand how things had changed. Otherwise, when I eventually faced someone at my level or above, doubt would linger — and I couldn't afford that.
To avoid that, I had to verify my Arachne body's capabilities in actual combat conditions.
And the only candidates were these three Earth Dragons.
The Earth Dragons in the deepest layer were busy fighting the Demon King.
The Demon King was out of the question entirely.
Any of the weaker Monsters would die before I could properly test anything, so they were useless.
Water Dragons had potential, but fighting in the special environment of the ocean wouldn't make for a good verification.
So, with the criteria being opponents who had some real strength and weren't subject to environmental advantages, these three were the obvious pick.
The Earth Dragons froze in place when I teleported in, then gradually steeled themselves and shifted into combat stances.
Hmm.
They understood from my aura alone that they couldn't win — and yet I could feel their resolve to fight regardless.
Just like Araba, Earth Dragons in general seemed to overflow with bushido spirit.
I'll never understand that.
They arranged themselves with Kaguna at the center, Geele on the front line, and Fuito providing rear support.
Geele, who excelled in speed and had balanced overall strength, served as the physical attacker. Kaguna, specialized in defense, acted as the wall. And Fuito, who was mediocre at everything, hung back in a support role.
If Fuito had been suited for the backline in terms of raw power, the balance would've been perfect.
Fuito would eventually become the same all-rounder type as Araba, but right now, he felt more like a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
Geele was the first to charge, swinging the blade that grew from his hand at me.
Yep.
He was fast, sure, but with my current Stats, I could dodge with plenty of room to spare.
Combined with Thought Super Acceleration and Future Prediction, he might as well have been standing still.
I easily dodged the strike aimed at my humanoid half.
Thinking about the purpose of this fight, I didn't dodge by the skin of my teeth — I made sure to output a decent amount of speed and evade with confidence.
And that's when my humanoid torso lurched.
Whoa.
The moment I accelerated, my body was yanked in the opposite direction of movement, and when I stopped, the recoil made me wobble.
Ugh, that felt awful.
Right — I'd need to brace properly when moving around. Rookie mistake.
I was still mentally scolding myself when Kaguna's breath attack came hurtling toward me.
This time, I focused the force at the junction between my humanoid and spider halves when I moved.
There.
No wobble this time — clean movement.
I'd extended both arms to the sides for balance while doing it, but honestly, I probably didn't even need to. Balance came naturally now.
Geele desperately chased after me, launching attack after attack.
Geele's Speed was 4,123.
That dwarfed most Monsters out there, but against mine — a full order of magnitude higher — he couldn't even come close.
This time, I lured the incoming blade close enough to be nearly impossible to dodge, then evaded at the last moment.
No issues.
I countered with a slash aimed at my humanoid neck, ducking the humanoid portion just enough to let it pass.
Yep. The humanoid part was quite flexible.
I wasn't sure if it matched a ballet dancer or gymnast, but my body was soft enough to move freely atop the spider body.
If I wanted to, I could probably lie my human torso flat on its back on top of the spider body.
From that position, I'd be able to move the body the same way as if I were in full spider form.
Well, that would defeat the whole point of being an Arachne, though.
I caught Geele's blade bare-handed.
The classic sword-catching technique.
Then, using sheer force, I snapped the blade in half.
As Geele froze in shock, I shot thread from my fingertips and wrapped him up.
I swung him around and hurled him away.
Right toward Kaguna.
The two dragons crashed into each other, tangled up and tumbling across the ground.
Before either could recover, I closed in on Fuito — the one who hadn't been able to do anything until now.
An inexperienced dragon couldn't possibly react to my speed. My piercing hand sank deep into his body.
Hmm.
So my piercing strikes had enough offensive power to penetrate scales and deal real damage.
From there, I extended threads further into Fuito's body.
The threads tore him apart from the inside, snuffing out his life.
That was... vicious.
And terrifyingly convenient.
Geele was still thrashing, unable to break free from the thread. Kaguna was getting back on his feet.
I wrapped thread around Kaguna.
Thread imbued with the Slashing attribute — and I pulled.
Guh, tough.
As expected from the defense specialist.
But even so, it was only a matter of being "a little" tough. Gradually, the thread sliced through his scales, reached the flesh, and finally tore through Kaguna's body.
As for the last one standing — Geele — I took advantage of his inability to move and punched him senseless.
One-two.
Right straight.
Hook.
Before I knew it, he'd stopped breathing.
Yep.
Conclusion: Having hands is really convenient.
I'd also discovered the downside that I needed to brace during high-speed movement — so all in all, it was quite a productive verification.