A clear blue sky.
Lush green trees.
Overflowing red blood.
Yep.
The outside is amazing.
Inside the labyrinth, it was all darkness and rocks with no color variation.
The Middle Layer was gorgeous in its own way, but it was even more brutal than this.
Coming out here like this — seeing the blue of the sky, the green of the plants — these are the first things I've ever seen since I was born into this world.
Huh?
Blood?
I've seen plenty of that, thank you very much.
There were Monsters inside the labyrinth that bled green, you know.
That green and the green I'm looking at now — I think their value is completely different.
Huh?
So what about the blood?
Don't worry about it.
A certain soldier who got a little too ambitious just ended up looking like a mosaic. That's all.
And… yep. I'm surrounded.
After breaking through the checkpoint, the next thing was a fortress.
Well, that was a surprise.
How many Monsters come pouring out of the labyrinth anyway?
But if they went to the trouble of building a fortress, maybe they come out pretty frequently?
Well, more accurately, it "was" built.
I kind of… smashed it.
Hehe.
Well, yeah.
Because, y'know?
If I'm attacked, I'm gonna fight back.
If that counterattack hits the fortress, it's gonna break.
See? I didn't do anything wrong.
I plead innocent.
So please stop squeezing me like that.
Man, that fortress was fragile, though.
If this were Alaba, that level of magic would barely leave a scratch.
It might be unfair to compare, but still — having it crumble from just a little magical barrage? What's up with that?
The earthquake resistance is laughable.
Well, I guess it doesn't have earthquake resistance.
From all over the collapsed fortress, blood from the people who got buried underneath is flowing out.
I can't be bothered to dig them up and eat them from here, though.
I've already eaten plenty and I'm stuffed.
Nah.
I'll just leave them.
My Level went up by three again, there's no one left to bother me, and now I can finally take a leisurely stroll.
Alright then, let's go see the outside world for the first time.
Hmm.
Which way should I go?
Beyond the fortress, there's a pretty big road.
If I follow it, I should end up at a town or something.
Let me use Spatial Maneuver to get a bird's-eye view.
Looking around from above.
Ohh.
I can see something that looks like a town down the road.
It's surprisingly close.
Off the road to the right is open plains.
To the left, the plains continue for a bit, then gradually more trees appear until it becomes a forest.
And if I look behind me, the plains go on for a while, then turn into forest, and beyond that I can see mountains.
They said this connects continent to continent, so I was expecting the exit to be near the ocean, but it looks like it's actually inland.
Maybe the sea is beyond those mountains I can see in the distance?
What should I do?
I'll pass on going to the town, I think.
I won't hold back if they attack me, but I'm not such a monster that I'd massacre defenseless civilians.
Besides, regular civilians probably wouldn't give me much Experience Points anyway.
I'm curious about human food, but I don't want to cause unnecessary trouble here.
I mean, I already smashed the fortress, so it might be too late for that, but if I worry about it, I lose!
So then — right to the plains, left to the forest, or behind me to the mountains?
Let's go with the mountains.
When I say mountains, they don't look all that high.
Maybe a thousand meters above sea level, give or take?
I'm thinking there might be an ocean on the other side, so I'll take a sightseeing detour and meander that way.
There might be Monsters in the mountains that don't live in the labyrinth, too.
Deer, bears, wild boar.
Compared to labyrinth Monsters, those sound way more delicious, don't they?
And with any luck, I might get to enjoy some mountain delicacies as well.
Mushrooms, fruits.
Worrying about poisonous mushrooms is so last season.
Thanks to the status ailment resistance I got from the Title "Champion," I'm totally fine.
It consolidated all my resistances — including nullification of sleep and whatnot — and evolved straight into full status ailment immunity.
Hehehe.
Poison or no poison, there's nothing the current me can't eat!
Still, would raw mushrooms actually taste good?
I'd definitely want to cook those over a fire.
Once I reach the ocean, I'd like to enjoy some seafood too.
Not those fake sea creatures from the Middle Layer — actual, legit shellfish and fish.
Oh, by the way, about the so-called Four Divine Beasts (lol) that the Summoner used — the pufferfish, aka the Water Dragon — yeah, it was definitely a pufferfish.
The meat was tasty, but the poisonous parts were no joke.
It would've been nice if I could remove the poison, but with this spider body, I can't do anything that delicate.
If I evolve into an Arachne, I'll get hands and maybe be able to cook.
In my previous life, I pretty much only ate instant food, but I can manage simple cooking at least.
Well, that's still a ways off, though.
Cooking, huh.
If I learn fire magic, I should be able to handle simple stuff.
I'm still weak to fire, as always, so acquiring fire magic requires a hefty chunk of Skill Points.
Well, can't be helped.
I can't waste precious Skill Points just for cooking, so I'll watch someone use fire magic somewhere and learn it the hard way.
Once I reach the ocean, there's a Swimming skill and all, so maybe I'll swim until I can acquire that.
I also want to experiment with how far Spatial Maneuver works underwater.
I probably won't drown.
In my previous life, I was bad at moving my body in general, so I wasn't much of a swimmer, but I wasn't completely hopeless either.
I have no idea whether spiders can swim, though.
I'm sure it'll be fine.
Probably. Most likely. Definitely.
With that settled — let's go!
Setting off with a spring in my step.
Destination: mountain delicacies and ocean delicacies!