162 Dear Diary, Moved in.

My home is complete!

This time, my home is an ambitious design — a forest entirely enclosed.

I wrapped the entire forest, roughly a hundred meters in diameter, with thread, then transformed it directly into my home.

From a distance, it might look like a massive white cocoon.

But I built it in a single night — how are the townspeople reacting?

Creating a nest of this scale should be impossible to miss.

Using my千里眼 to observe the scene.

Hmm?

Hnn?

Hmm.

Can't tell what's going on.

Still haven't noticed, perhaps?

But they’ll surely notice eventually. For now, wait and observe.

Phew.

It’s been a while since I built something this large — my SP has dropped significantly.

I retrieve food stored in the air vault and eat.

Delicious.

For now, I’ll make this my base. The Elrow Great Labyrinth can be abandoned. That should be fine.

That place over there is still usable, so it’s less of a sale and more like a vacation villa.

If anything happens, we’ll retreat there.

There are people who might pursue us, so having multiple bases can’t hurt.

For now, I’ll take it easy and observe the city.

No one’s coming.

Why?

I can see a small disturbance in the city.

Soldiers, adventurers—everyone is bustling.

But they’re not preparing for battle.

More like reinforcing surveillance to observe the situation.

What’s going on?

If a dangerous monster is settled right near the city, they’d deal with it immediately.

What are they waiting for?

Are they just complacent?

Or did the Vampire Child’s mother yesterday plant some strange idea in their heads?

Was it Lady Syra?

She and the Vampire Child arrived in the city sometime yesterday evening.

As expected, they entered the largest mansion first.

The servants bowed their heads. They’re definitely residents of that mansion.

Which means she’s the wife of the city’s power holder.

The wife of the power holder—high influence. She was helped yesterday, and I, the spider, appeared as a spiderweb.

Ah… huh…

A chain of associations, aren’t we?

I can almost see the punchline.

She was unusually insistent when we parted yesterday. Maybe she’s already planted strange ideas in her husband’s mind, persuading him not to go on the extermination mission?

Plausible.

No.

It’s not confirmed yet.

She’s probably just observing for now.

This is the preparation phase. That’s how it works.

Wait a little longer and soldiers or adventurers will surely come swarming.

Welcome them.

Experience gain will be abundant.

Makes sense, right?

Three days have passed.

No movement in the town.

Why?

Soldiers have increased in number, establishing their base at the nearest outpost to my lair. Adventurers occasionally come to scout the vicinity.

That’s all.

Soldiers remain on alert but take no further action. Adventurers approach to a certain point and then retreat.

Why do they retreat at that point!?

No choice but to attack and destroy a nearby bandit group.

There are bandits capable of targeting the temporary mayor’s wife and children, so the local security is clearly poor.

Out here, they’re everywhere.

I detected them through awareness, launched a surprise assault on their hideout.

Deliciously satisfying.

Experience-wise, and usefulness-wise.

But the taste was terrible.

They stank, after all.

One had a skill that made them odorless—slightly better, but still unpleasant.

The knights I ate before should have been fairly palatable. Humans vary greatly in flavor depending on the individual.

Still, for someone like me who’s accustomed to toxins, a little stench is tolerable.

Leveling up while eliminating thieves. Skill points reached five thousand.

Now I can acquire another broken skill!

I was excited—yet the required skill points had increased.

Strange.

It should have been five thousand for healing, but somehow the number had risen to six thousand.

Did I misread?

Other broken skills remain out of reach for now.

Lust and chastity: 10,000 points.

Wrath: 15,000. Greed: 20,000. Compassion: 11,000.

Envy: 50,000. Humility: 100,000.

Not immortal, but not worth taking either.

Ah, if it's a Vampire Child's skill points, part of it can be taken.

Still, hoarding that much is frankly exhausting.

So, since there's no choice, I took the Demon King's skill instead.

[Demon King: All stats and all resistances increase.]

Now I'm officially one of the Demon King's allies.

Yeeeeeah.

Though, having it doesn't mean much—it's just a skill.

The Demon King title is required for real power.

The skill itself is merely a high-performance enhancement.

There are a few others out there who have this skill too, even if not the true Demon King.

Incidentally, the stat increases were each 100.

Slight.

No, you’re just assuming that because my base stats are high. A skill that increases all stats by 100 each is supposed to be quite powerful, really.

Moreover, resistance also increases.

It should be an overpowered skill under normal circumstances.

The hero’s matching ability likely has the same effect.

Judging from past human stats, humans seem inherently weak.

The strongest human I’ve seen was an older mage accompanying a knight—his magic-related stats barely reached four digits.

I’ve never seen anyone else with four-digit stats.

If a 100-point stat boost is applied to all attributes, it would drastically change the balance.

Among weak humans, that alone would be enough to stand out.

And the skill’s potential grows further with level increases.

But conversely, that’s all it is.

A effect so minor I barely notice it becomes extraordinary in human terms.

I guess I’ve quietly turned into something monstrous without realizing it.