《Experience Points have reached a set threshold. The individual Small Lesser Taratect has leveled up from LV7 to LV8》 《All basic ability values have increased》 《Skill Proficiency Level-Up Bonus acquired》 《Proficiency has reached a set threshold. Skill 「Pain Resistance LV1」 has become 「Pain Resistance LV2」》 《Skill Points have been acquired》 《Experience Points have reached a set threshold. The individual Small Lesser Taratect has leveled up from LV8 to LV9》 《All basic ability values have increased》 《Skill Proficiency Level-Up Bonus acquired》 《Proficiency has reached a set threshold. Skill 「Poison Fang LV5」 has become 「Poison Fang LV6」》 《Proficiency has reached a set threshold. Skill 「Dark Vision LV9」 has become 「Dark Vision LV10」》 《Conditions have been met. From Skill 「Dark Vision LV10」, Skill 「Visual Range Expansion LV1」 has been derived》 《Skill Points have been acquired》 Wow, that's a ton of stuff.
It seems like gaining way more Experience Points when you beat someone stronger than yourself is universal across worlds.
I jumped up two whole levels at once.
The snake really was a tough opponent.
If I'd fought it head-on, I wouldn't have had a one-in-a-thousand chance of winning.
Powerful body.
High defense covered in hard scales.
Judging from the way it hit the web, its speed must have been pretty fast too.
At worst, it might have been faster than me.
And then there was the poison — snakes are synonymous with it.
This thing almost certainly had venom, no question.
Honestly, even with it caught in my web, my odds were barely fifty-fifty.
The molting that came with the level-up healed my wounds, but my HP had been drained to a dangerously low point.
My stamina was on its last legs too — that was way too close.
Which means the payoff was equally huge, I guess.
When I'd been hunting Geji like crazy, I figured I'd hit LV8 soon, but I never expected to jump all the way to 9.
The level-up is great, but the skill level-ups are just as big a deal.
Pain Resistance going up is nothing but good, and Poison Fang is one of my trump cards right alongside Spider Silk.
The higher Poison Fang gets, the stronger my offense becomes.
Actually, let's be real — my only real offensive option right now is basically Poison Fang.
If I ran into an opponent with high Poison Resistance, I'd be in trouble.
Then there's the thing I'm most curious about from this level-up: Dark Vision.
Hmm.
Now that I think about it, it makes sense that I'd have it.
Obviously no sunlight reaches the inside of this Dungeon.
There's nothing that could serve as a light source, and when you think about it, it should be pitch black out here.
But my vision had been perfectly clear — everything looked like it was merely dimly lit.
To find out that was thanks to a Skill was a bit of a surprise.
I always assumed it was just a racial trait.
Anyway, with Dark Vision leveling up, my vision had changed too.
What used to be dim was now bright.
The scenery around me was crisp and crystal clear.
It seems like LV10 is the maximum for Skill levels.
Otherwise, this level of brightness wouldn't make sense.
Well, it's also possible that Dark Vision just happened to cap at 10.
And whether it's a bonus from Dark Vision hitting LV10 or not, I picked up a new Skill called Visual Range Expansion.
That sounds nice, but honestly, I have no idea what it does.
I thought it might widen my field of view based on the name, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
I've had plenty of Skills before where the name alone didn't tell me the effect, and this is more of the same.
It'd be great if I could use Appraisal on Skills at times like this, but I can't.
Apparently, the condition for Appraisal is that you can only Appraise things that are "visible to the eye."
All the Skill-related info is fed to me by the Voice of Heaven (tentative).
Since Skills aren't visible, I can't Appraise them.
The Appraisal results appear as text inside my head, so it counts as "visible" — at least, that's what I've been told.
If my Appraisal Skill level goes up, maybe it'll start showing Skills in my Status too, and then I'd be able to Appraise them.
Until then, there's nothing I can do — I'll just have to leave the Skills with unknown effects alone.
Anyway, since I managed to take down such a big prize, time to dig in.
First, let me rebuild a makeshift nest so I don't get ambushed by other Monsters while eating.
Considering the snake's enormous body, there's no way I can finish it in one sitting, so I might as well set up camp here until it's all gone.
That means I'll build it a bit more carefully than usual.
《Proficiency has reached a set threshold. Skill 「Spider Silk LV6」 has become 「Spider Silk LV7」》 Good things really do come in bunches.
The Spider Silk Skill, which had been stubbornly refusing to level up, finally went up.
Was it because I used it like crazy during the fight with the snake?
Either way, this means both Poison Fang and Spider Silk — my two main combat Skills — leveled up at the same time.
Honestly, those Skill upgrades contribute more to my fighting ability than the basic stat boosts from the level-up alone.
I'm feeling great, so time to eat in high spirits.
But first, I need to strip off this thing's scales.
Even I can't eat through scales this ridiculously hard.
I'll have to remove them before I can get to the meat underneath.
Scales removed!
Ugh… that was exhausting.
It was way harder than I expected.
The scales were tough and refused to come off, so it took forever.
The red stamina gauge — which had been fully restored by the level-up — was down by about a quarter.
That's how labor-intensive the job was.
But now I can eat without worrying!
Alright, let's dig in.
Whoa — bitter!
Insanely bitter.
When something's this bitter, that means it's the taste of poison, right?
How incredibly venomous was this thing if the meat tasted this awful?
If it had bitten me, I'd have been in serious trouble.
《Proficiency has reached a set threshold. Skill 「Poison Resistance LV5」 has become 「Poison Resistance LV6」》 Yep.
The taste is terrible, but in terms of Skill growth, this meal is absolutely delicious.