After the earth dragon left, I waited a generous amount of time and kept an even more than excessive watch on my surroundings.
Even doing all that, I still couldn't let my guard down.
I couldn't, but nothing starts if you don't take action.
I extended my threads toward the bee that had been left restrained where it was, using Thread Manipulation.
Ugh, my back hurts.
But it seems there's no problem with producing threads.
The threads slowly and carefully extended until they finally connected with the bee.
The bee was still struggling, but at this point that didn't matter anymore.
Before I accidentally attracted other Monsters, I needed to reel it in quickly.
Every time I pulled, my wounds throbbed with pain.
The pain was terrible, but my HP wasn't dropping any further, so I wanted to believe I was fine.
I finally retrieved the bee.
I immediately drove in my Poison Fang and ended its life.
Thinking about how my Poison Fang worked without issue even against a Monster that used poison, my Poison Fang and Poison Resistance Skill levels were probably quite high compared to other Monsters.
Well, right now none of that mattered.
The real question was what to do from here on.
Honestly, I thought exploring this area was suicidal.
If there were other abominations like that earth dragon around, there was no way I'd survive no matter what.
That was a no-go.
I'd crossed plenty of dangerous bridges before, but that was on a completely different level.
Whatever anyone says, I was proud that I could hold my own in a fight.
Sure, I'd been roaming the Dungeon and using ambush tactics now, but my original style was building a nest and fighting from a defensive position.
Just like I'd been able to defeat the snake even in my makeshift home, if I built a nest with serious defensive strategy in mind, very few Monsters would be able to break through.
That's how it should have been.
That thing would have broken through even that.
And it would have done so while humming a tune.
That thing had that kind of power.
Threads, Poison Fang, ambush, speed.
Even my specialties were nothing but cheap tricks in the face of that.
And even those cheap tricks would be scattered before overwhelming power.
I could easily imagine that scene.
That was the second Monster I'd encountered since being born as a spider that I had absolutely no chance of beating.
For the record, the first was My Mother—the giant spider.
No chance of winning was a problem, but more than that, the fact that it was faster than me was the real issue.
Even if it broke through my nest, I'd have time to escape during the process.
My stomach would probably be churning at the time, but ultimately I should be able to escape with my life.
With my speed, that should be doable.
But that thing surpassed even my escape speed.
I couldn't win by fighting.
I couldn't escape either.
Truly, once it set its sights on you, it was game over.
What an unreasonable existence.
If I'd known something like that was around, I'd have been better off charging straight through the snake, consequences be damned.
And on top of everything else, who knew if that was the only one in this area.
I'm scared.
More than ever before, death was right on my doorstep.
I was surprised that I still had the capacity to feel fear.
After all those chaotic experiences where I hadn't felt nervousness or fear, I'd thought those emotions had been left behind somewhere long ago.
This situation made me realize the truth.
All the dangers until now were just that—inconsequential, not even worth feeling scared over.
It wasn't that my emotions had dried up. There just hadn't been any need to feel that way.
Ha ha.
I figured this out way too late.
I wish I'd realized it before ending up in this mess.
Maybe then I could have been a little more aware of the danger.
I'll stop with the regrets here.
Let me think about what I should do to survive.
First, secure a safe location.
It wouldn't help against the earth dragon, but I'd build my nest around this rocky area.
In my current state, I wasn't well enough to move far.
Since it had come to this, I wouldn't hold back.
I'd make my third My Home right here.
And ideally, I'd lure in weak Monsters like bees and take them out.
Aiming to heal my injuries through leveling up.
Nothing would work until these injuries healed.
In my current state, even a puny Monster could finish me off with a light nudge.
Natural healing wasn't something I should count on.
At this point, I should have gotten the Auto HP Recovery Skill.
No point in regretting it now.
I needed to gracefully accept that and shift my mindset.
For now, I'd make this my goal and build a base.
Honestly, building a base here wasn't the wisest move.
The more of a base I built, the more conspicuous it'd become, and if a powerful Monster on the level of the earth dragon found it, I'd be done for.
But in my current injured state, there was no other path available.
From here on, I just had to bet on my luck.
For now, I'd aim to level up.
After the level up healed my wounds, I'd think about escaping this dangerous area.
Break through the bee army and go up, or explore further below at my own risk.
Either way looked like hell.
But having fallen this far to rock bottom, when it came down to it, there were only two choices: live or die.
Live by luck, or die by misfortune.
Right now, the scale was tilted heavily toward death.
Would I keep falling, or turn it around?
To turn it around, I had to act.
Fortunately, I had a source of stamina for building the nest.
Even a single bee was quite large, so it was a huge help as food.
I'd put all the stamina I could get from this one into nest-building.
After that, it all came down to my skill and my luck.