134 The Spider's Natural Enemy

Do you know of the spider's natural enemy?

Ah, of course, fire is excluded.

Spiders in the natural world do not deliberately seek out flames.

Returning to the subject—spiders' natural enemies.

I do not know the details thoroughly, but I recall there are two types.

I learned this while watching a documentary during an online game session.

Looking back, I should have paid closer attention to that program.

Who would have thought I’d end up becoming a spider?

If I had known more about spider ecology, perhaps I could have used that knowledge to my advantage.

Another digression.

One of the spider's natural enemies is the bee.

After transferring from my upper-level home, I arrived at a familiar vertical burrow.

Looking upward, the same swarm of bees as before.

I never expected to return here.

Wouldn't have thought so just a moment ago.

This place holds various traumas.

The greatest trauma remains being obliterated by the Earth Dragon in one fell swoop—but there were other near-fatal incidents too.

Looking back, this might be the first place I ever consciously experienced death.

A bee stung me—right there—then the countdown to death began.

Puncture!

Yes, like that.

Wait—gah!?

Stung!

H-hey, what kind of move is that? Attacking mid-moment of reflection?

Read the air, would you!?

I restrain the bee—its stinger still embedded in my back—using thread as before, then hurl it off my back in one motion.

A dull thud. The bee’s HP drops by about seventy percent.

I sever it with a cutting attribute applied to the thread.

Ah, now that’s what I’m talking about.

So, even I—possessing detection ability—am being ambushed from behind.

Well, HP is barely reduced, and automatic recovery has fully restored it already.

Back then, I’ve been near death from this exact attack.

Had a hole torn in my back. At that time, I didn’t have HP auto-recovery. I had no choice but to undergo level-up shedding—or die.

Blast!

Again?!

Pain reduction is high, so it barely hurts. But it’s still annoying.

Too tired to throw anymore. I’ll just cut it down with the thread I’m controlling.

Ah—what goes around comes around, huh?

Impressive. You managed to strike from behind without triggering my danger sense.

Wait—could it be you don’t register as a threat at all?

Damage is practically nonexistent. Whether it counts as dangerous… that’s debatable.

Ah—so the current bees aren't even registered as threats at all.

Well, they’re only recognized as food, so that’s not inaccurate.

Bwah!

Cut it out already!

No, seriously, isn’t that excessive?

Why can you so easily get behind me despite having no stealth ability?

Even discounting my own lapse, that’s still suspicious.

Wait—aren’t bees the natural predators of spiders?

Could there be some off-system hidden compatibility modifier at work?

No, that can’t be.

Regardless, no damage doesn’t mean it’s not annoying.

I’ll grant you courage to face my intimidation-plus-terror combo unflinchingly, but you picked the wrong opponent.

Therefore, extermination begins—!

Spatial mobility: leap into the air.

Cast magic at visible bees. Slash apart those approaching.

Wow.

Back when it was easy to defeat them with just a home, I'm in an invincible state now.

Fuhahaha!

Behold!

They're like garbage, these bees!

Hm?

A bee I've never seen before has appeared.

Let me see...

『General Finj Goreat LV4

Status

HP: 371/371 (Green)

MP: 299/299 (Blue)

SP: 366/366 (Yellow)

ATK: 301/361 (Red)

Average Attack: 200 (Details)

Average Defense: 160 (Details)

Average Magic: 139 (Details)

Average Resistance: 143 (Details)

Average Speed: 215 (Details)

Skills

"Poison Stinger LV9", "Pierce Enhancement LV3", "Poison Boost LV3", "High-Speed Flight LV2", "Coordination LV6", "Command LV6", "Dark Vision LV7", "Poison Resistance LV6"

Skill Points: 900』

Hoh.

This is the next tier above the Captain Bee, then.

Yes.

Despite low stats, its skills are well-developed.

Among monsters with similar stats, it’s likely on the stronger end, isn’t it?

Well, frankly, its stats are too low to be a threat to me.

When I first fell into this vertical shaft, most of my stats were barely in the low teens.

If I’d encountered this back then, even using my home base might’ve been risky.

But—

my current strength is no longer comparable to that time!

In concrete terms, it’s about a hundredfold difference!

It’s troublesome—just seeing the stat gap, I’m already that much stronger.

If I factor in skills, it’s not even a hundredfold anymore.

I’ll admit, my growth rate is extraordinary.

Thus, despite the theatrics of their entrance, I dismissed the general bee swiftly.

Then, more of the same appeared in overwhelming numbers.

Ah—this is becoming truly like a beehive, then.

Indeed, something resembling a structure is visible up above.

Not an object. A building, perhaps?

Expected, given the size of the hive—three meters tall, after all.

Huge.

Yes.

I’ve hunted enough bees. Food reserves are sufficient. We’ll call it a day here.

It’s more efficient to leave them undisturbed for now than to annihilate them entirely.

With that, I withdrew, retrieving the corpses that had fallen to the ground.

I left the swarm of attacking general bees hovering in the air as I descended to the surface.

Using spatial maneuvering, I landed like a ninja—swift and silent.

Settled.

But I sensed the activation of my danger detection.

Not bees.

They pose no threat.

I locate the source of the danger.

Two natural predators exist for spiders.

One is a spider that hunts spiders exclusively.

In my vision, a spider-like monster revealed its form.