I decided to make my nest between the Lower Layer and the Middle Layer for the time being.
No need to rush.
At this point, the Earth Dragon probably won't come after me, and if I build my nest near the ceiling like I did with the monkeys, it should be hard for anything to reach me. Probably.
Learning from my experience with the monkeys, I'd make this one not a flimsy thing but something sturdy.
The goal was to make it tough enough to survive a boulder thrown by a Giant Ape.
Fortunately, thanks to devouring all those monkeys, I had plenty of Red Stamina in stock.
So with that nest as my base, I'd slowly prepare to conquer the Middle Layer.
Concretely, I was aiming to acquire Fire Resistance and level up the HP Auto-Recovery Skill.
To do that, I'd head into the Middle Layer several times a day, let my HP drop, then retreat, and repeat.
Taking damage meant I was gaining Proficiency in some kind of fire or heat resistance along the way.
I didn't know how long it would take, but eventually I figured I'd get a Skill like Fire Resistance or Heat Resistance.
And when my HP dropped, HP Auto-Recovery would activate, gaining Proficiency there too. Two birds with one stone.
If my defense and recovery outpaced the damage, I should eventually be able to walk around in there.
For the rest of my time, I'd level up other Skills.
Ideally, I'd raise Parallel Thinking and Arithmetic Processing, but I had no idea how to grind Parallel Thinking, so that was on hold.
For Arithmetic Processing, I'd just do some mental math while at it.
Beyond that, I'd raise Poison Synthesis and Thread Manipulation so as not to waste my recovering MP.
Poison Synthesis especially had shown me all sorts of new uses, so I wanted to focus on leveling that up.
Thread Manipulation might not be all that useful in the Middle Layer, though…
It's one of my main Skills, you know…
After that, I'd work on my status-up type Skills.
Especially Idaten, Brute Force, and Toughness — the more you level them, the stronger the growth bonus, so I wanted to prioritize those.
But Idaten would probably go up just from running, and Brute Force from doing squats — wait, no, calf raises or something — but how do you even grind Toughness?
It's a defense Skill, so… take hits?
Hmm.
Maybe I could try whipping myself with Thread Manipulation while I'm at it?
I hate the idea of pain, but I guess I could try it once.
Also, if I was going to camp out here for a while, I needed to secure food.
Right now Overeating kept my stamina from dropping, but eventually I'd have to eat something.
To prepare for that, I needed to scout the surrounding area and lay the groundwork for hunting.
Ideally, I'd even set up some stationary Capture Spider Webs.
A trap for catching prey, with the threads made as inconspicuous as possible.
Yeah, that's a good idea. Adopted.
Even if some powerful Monster that could tear through threads got caught in one by accident, I wouldn't normally be there, so no real harm done.
Decision made — time to get moving.
First up: building My Home.
I climbed up the wall.
After my deathmatch with the monkeys, I'd built up resistance to heights.
It used to be scary enough to raise Fear Resistance, but now I didn't feel a thing.
《Proficiency has reached a certain threshold. Skill "3D Maneuvering LV1" acquired》 Hm?
Got a new Skill, did I?
Let's see.
"3D Maneuvering: Enables three-dimensional movement such as wall-running and ceiling-anchoring."
Oh, nice.
Don't need it.
I could already do all that.
Well, leveling it up might make my movement even smoother, so "don't need it" is a bit harsh, but…
It wasn't exactly a crucial Skill, so I figured I could just leave this one be.
Yep.
With that underwhelming Skill acquired, I got started on My Home.
Phew.
Alright, done.
The finished My Home stretched horizontally, wedged between the ceiling and the wall.
Ideally, I'd have angled the ceiling and wall in a nice balanced slope, but the ceiling around here changed to a slicker rock partway through, making it hard for threads to stick, so I couldn't expand much toward the ceiling side. That's why it ended up shaped like this.
The horizontal spread meant the thickness of each face was a little lacking.
The Giant Ape's rock-Throwing attack I'd been worried about — I probably couldn't fully block that.
But I had reinforced the foundation and prevented collapse.
Now even if a hundred monkeys piled on, it'd hold!
Unless something had a powerful long-range attack like the Giant Ape, breaking through this My Home would be tough.
That said, it still wouldn't hold up against something off the charts like the Earth Dragon, so I couldn't relax completely.
I'd be living here for a while, so I'd put My Home Number Four to good use.
Right, base was set up and my HP was recovered.
Time to head into the Middle Layer again and let them whittle my HP down.
…Saying it out loud really makes it sound like an awful job.
And with that, here I am — the Middle Layer!
It's hot!
Current temperature: unmeasurable!
I don't own a thermometer!
Lava will likely rage across the whole area today!
We've blown right past the "stay indoors" advisory from the weather fairy!
That's the report from the Middle Layer front lines!
Retreating!
Phew.
So hot.
Neither Skill has leveled up yet.
Oh well. No rush.