Hehehe.
Kuhehehehe.
Uhehehehehe.
Aaah, I can't stop grinning.
Right now I feel like I could fly through the sky.
Literally.
What I'm trying to say is, the Skill I newly acquired through the Evolution of 3D Movement — Spatial Movement — was incredibly high-spec.
3D Movement, as a spider, I could already use without relying on the Skill — stuff like Wall Running and Leap — so it wasn't all that useful. But Spatial Movement is different.
This Skill actually makes aerial double jumps possible!
The sensation is like an invisible platform temporarily materializing in the air.
By kicking off these platforms, I can now move freely through the air.
In the eel battle before my Evolution, I nearly died from a lack of mobility on the ceiling.
After that, I evolved and my Status grew significantly so things improved, but what I reconfirmed during the fire dragon battle is that aerial mobility is essential.
No matter how much I can fight in the air using my threads, it's still limited.
That won't cut it against a flying opponent like a fire dragon.
That's exactly why I had to resort to one of my trump cards — my Illusion Art — to avoid aerial combat during the fire dragon battle.
But with Spatial Movement, that problem is solved.
In fact, rather than just flying with wings or whatever, I can leverage my specialty — speed — so my aerial combat power has increased dramatically.
Now I feel like I could even take on wasps in the air.
That said, aerial mobility isn't some be-all, end-all.
It has a few weaknesses — or rather, drawbacks.
First, activating it consumes Red SP.
Well, that can't be helped.
If such a convenient Skill could be used without any cost, it'd be a total balance breaker.
It could become the natural enemy of anything that flies.
Ideally it would consume MP, which I have plenty of, rather than SP, but I can't be picky.
So, I can't fly indefinitely.
The consumption rate seems proportional to the time the platform exists.
So, creating the platform for just an instant and jumping is the most efficient with the least consumption.
Conversely, if I make a platform and just stand there spacing out in the air, my SP will drain at an alarming rate.
At worst, it could drain so much that I'd literally starve to death while standing there blankly.
Next, the platforms are fairly fragile.
I think it's because my Skill Level is low.
At my current full speed, I punch right through the platform the moment I kick off.
If I kick with full force, rather than moving forward, I end up breaking through the platform and falling straight down.
Of course, when landing on the platform at speed, I break through as well.
So, I have to reduce my speed while in the air.
After breaking through several times during experiments, I've figured out roughly how much I need to slow down to avoid punching through.
It was fine since it was just testing, but if this had been a real battle, I'd have been left defenseless the moment I broke through and would have been taken out.
Seriously, verification is so important.
This is another thing that can't really be helped, but all I can do is hope that raising my Skill Level will make the platforms sturdier.
I think they'll probably improve as the Level goes up, and I hope they'll be able to withstand my top speed before too long.
But since I want to conserve SP as much as possible, the tough part is that I can't grind Proficiency on a regular basis.
Aaah, it really would have been great if it consumed MP instead.
And this is all because those weak Monsters are holed up inside the magma.
At this rate, I can't eat, and I can't earn Experience Points either.
I'm just 1 Level away from being able to evolve, but that 1 Level feels impossibly far away.
If I keep steadily defeating the Monsters on the surface, my Level will eventually go up, but the Experience Points you get from beating weaklings are pretty meager.
Thanks to the Sage of Wisdom, I can see the Experience Points needed for a Level Up.
When I use Appraisal on the Level section, it displays the number required for the next Level Up.
I always check after a fight, and the Experience Points you can earn seem proportional to the opponent's strength.
Seahorses give very little.
Catfish give a normal amount.
Eels give a good amount.
Fire dragons give a lot.
Fire dragons give a ton.
That's the gist of it.
My own strength doesn't matter — it seems like you get a fixed amount of Experience Points based solely on the opponent's strength.
In games, depending on the title, there are even systems where the Experience Points you get from weak enemies decrease as you get stronger.
So, based on the data I've gathered so far, the Experience Points I need for my next Level Up amount to roughly six eels.
Not even defeating a fire dragon would be enough.
Converted to weaklings, the number is downright depressing.
It'd be nice if I could just defeat eels or fire dragons, but I've only seen one fire dragon in that magma lake, and eels are pretty rare too.
Even using Detection, I can't find anything resembling them.
Besides, even if I did find one, I don't think it would come out of the magma.
Eels aren't as bad as catfish, but they won't pick fights with opponents they can't beat either.
On the other hand, a fire dragon might actually attack.
It might just be that particular fire dragon in the magma lake, but if fire dragons are naturally aggressive as a species, then maybe, if I'm lucky, I could take it out along with its subordinates and have a decent meal.
Well, that's only if one's there, though.
A fire dragon?
You think I can just casually fight something like that?
Even when I say I won, that thing outranks me.
Last time was a miracle, and I never want to do that again.
Well, all I can do is hunt weaklings little by little and take it one step at a time.