The turtle was a pain to take down.
After flipping it over, I bit into it right away, but the little brat retracted into its shell.
I nearly got my fangs clamped shut in there with it.
With my weak little body, there was no way I could drag it out from inside that shell.
So, with no other option, I dripped venom from my fangs through the gaps in the shell — and it came scrambling out in a panic.
Then, while it was writhing there in agony, I chomped down on it.
After that, I ate the whole thing.
First meal of my life without any poison involved.
Well, it was hard, unpleasant to eat, and didn't taste good, but still.
Hmph.
This time I took zero damage.
That's because I managed to dodge every single one of the enemy's attacks.
Though I should note, the turtle was stupid enough to do nothing but charge at me, and it was slow as anything, so dodging was a piece of cake.
It's not like I had some grand epiphany about evasion or anything.
The matchup just happened to be in my favor.
Hmm.
But even accounting for that, I think my speed has gone up.
When I level up, I don't really feel much difference in my other stats, but with speed, I can tell for sure that I've gotten noticeably faster.
Compared to when I fought that frog, I was moving a lot more nimbly this time.
The Elurofelect species seems to be a speed-focused type of Monster.
That said, building around evasion alone isn't really viable either way.
Right.
Speed, and my threads — those are my two greatest weapons.
And the battle style that best combines the two for someone like me is none other than ambush!
Huh?
Cowardly?
There's no such thing as cowardly in a fight where it's life or death!
Besides, it's not like I'm doing anything crazy — just landing a first strike.
It's not even that underhanded.
Well, I suppose most fights are pretty much decided by that first strike anyway.
Huh?
Didn't I say I needed to build up real combat experience?
This counts as perfectly legitimate combat experience!
People in high places just don't understand!
Anyway, even with an ambush, the success rate is probably only around fifty-fifty, right?
These other Monsters haven't survived in a dangerous zone like this for no reason — they've got to be reasonably sensitive to danger too.
I'll just treat ambushes as a nice bonus when they work.
If they fail, I'll judge the situation and improvise from there.
The real problem is that there are things out there like that turtle that can tear through my threads.
To think that the threads I believed were invincible against anything besides fire could actually be ripped apart…
My Spider Silk Skill is Level 6.
That's the highest level out of all my Skills.
Having that broken basically equals defeat.
The turtle was a favorable matchup, so I got lucky.
But if some other Monster shattered my threads — just thinking about it is terrifying.
Bottom line, I've been over-relying on my threads.
From now on, I'll keep in the back of my mind that they could get broken.
After that, I didn't encounter any new Monsters besides the turtle, and I got sleepy, so I called it a day on exploring.
Logged out at my makeshift base and went to sleep.
Come next morning — well, I don't know if it was morning exactly, but I woke up regardless.
Time to resume exploring.
But seriously, this Dungeon is huge.
I've been wandering through this maze area ever since I stumbled in, and there's still no sign of an exit.
My rule is to always go right whenever there's a fork.
I heard somewhere that if you keep your hand on the wall in a maze, you can reach the goal, plus having a consistent pattern makes it easier to remember where I've been.
Worst comes to worst, I can always follow the thread I've been unconsciously trailing behind me and backtrack.
So I've been pushing forward steadily like that, but there's no indication I'm anywhere near the maze's goal.
My Appraisal, which is always running, keeps returning the same thing — dungeon wall, dungeon floor.
I don't know the exact distance I've covered, but I've walked at least several dozen kilometers by now.
Oh man, when I think about it that way, I've come really far.
Back when I was human, walking that distance would've killed me easy.
And — first catch of the day spotted.
Hm, never seen this Monster before.
It's got a gazillion little legs, like a house centipede or something.
Let me Appraise it real quick.
『Elurofelect — Appraisal of Status failed』
Huh?
Failed?
Ah, there's no level listed.
Huh. So Appraisal can actually fail.
First time I've learned that.
Well, so far it hasn't made much of a difference whether it fails or not, so no big deal.
Oh, but wait a second.
It's not because the level gap between us is too big or anything, right?
If that were the case, that centipede thing would have to be way stronger than me.
Hmm?
Doesn't feel that way though.
Maybe level gap and Appraisal failure aren't related?
If so, great. But what if it's one of those situations where the really dangerous ones hide their true strength?
…
No point agonizing over it.
Fortune favors the bold.
Here goes!
Without making a sound, and as fast as I can, I close in on its back.
Ssssss.
Hello there, die!
The ambush succeeded without a hitch.
It succeeded so smoothly I'm almost disappointed.
That whole theory about the centipede secretly being insanely powerful was completely off base.
It couldn't tear through my threads like the turtle, so I had it bound up in no time.
Stabbed it with Poison Fang, and done.
The centipede looked gross, and sure enough, it tasted gross.
On top of that, it must have had some weird poison of its own, because after eating it, I started feeling a little off.
My body felt stiff and sluggish.
Ugh. Ever since I was reborn as a spider, I haven't eaten a single thing that tasted good.
I know it's a first-world problem, but I want to eat something delicious.
Man, if only some instant noodles had fallen down here or something.