Lonely Attack on the Different World (WN)

Chapter 445

Day 102 – Morning, Dungeon, the EntranceTrying a shallow mid-tier dungeon is almost pointless, but going alone into a deep one would get me scolded, and even though Slime-san’s supposed to be looking after me, I keep getting small dungeons that don’t even reach 50 floors. There’s only one solution: 『Tehe~, I did an oopsie!』 If it’s just an innocent dungeon mix-up, surely everyone will understand. It’s only reasonable to assume that I’m innocent in such a situation. That’s the brilliance of this plan. So I went to what looked like the deepest dungeon by sheer, unfortunate coincidence… but maybe I actually got the wrong dungeon I was planning to get wrong?

「That’s weeird, this is a restricted-access dungeon, but I’m definitely sensing human presence here? Mid-battle, or more like mid-defeat? They’re making tons of ruckus while running around with monsters, kind of like a very cheerful game of tag, so in a way they seem like they are super getting along with monsters? If it progresses into an orgy, I might consider joining in, but if it’s a Middle-Aged Man and monsters in a meat-and-drink paradise, I wouldn’t mind flooding the dungeon after poisoning everything inside, even if it would eat into my profits! Or maybe flood it with oils and then light it up?」

(Jiggle-Jiggle)

I dash into a sprint. For now I slice just the monsters blocking my path without slowing down, making my way towards the 20th floor where I felt the presence, using only swift attacks and surprise tactics. Still the upper floors, but there are quite a number of monsters. Did whoever is on the 20th floor just rush straight down, skipping fights? The battle is already over, but someone’s still alive, what is going on?

And just as I reach the 20th floor, there is a spider in my face. Damn, you gotta smoke the spiders, or they are a huge pain to deal with. It’s not even about monster type or skill effects, they’re just naturally formidable creatures. They are very famous for weaving webs to hunt their prey, but in reality, nearly half of all spider species don’t use webs for hunting, they just go out and catch their meals, meaning they’re fast and strong. On top of that, many of them are venomous, they’ve got compound eyes with no blind spots, and can sense vibrations, making ambushes pretty much impossible. Their eight legs each end in claws, and their mouthparts, those scythe-shaped chelicerae, are razor sharp which they use to inject venom into their prey.

And then there’s the thread. Spider silk has five times the tensile strength of steel at the same thickness and double the elasticity of nylon. Theoretically, a web made with threads the thickness of a pencil could catch a jet plane. Their sticky threads can be used for traps, but also grant excellent mobility in midair, an absurdly troublesome ability for an already dangerous creature.

But what’s really scary is that they are smart. A spider’s brain is usually located in the cephalothorax, but the volume of their brain relative to their body is huge. In some species, the central nervous system takes up 80% of their body volume and extends even into the legs. In others, during their larval stage, their brains are so big they inflate their entire body, they possess a neural architecture that makes them collective brain-organisms. Whether they use webs or not, most spiders have massive brains, so their decision-making and processing speed is genuinely terrifying. Now imagine that turned into a monster, with skill and magic. Fighting one without fumigating it first means you are dumber than a spider.

The body alone is about the size of a carriage, but with those long legs it fills the entire corridor of the floor. That massive spider lunges at me, its huge jaw wide open with scythe-like chelicerae aiming to pierce from both sides. Its instantaneous reaction, speed, and leaping power, is what makes it so scary. But the moment it jumped, it’s all over.

I use Air Walk to leap into the air and vault over the spider’s head, then go into freefall. Whoever has the high ground wins, spiders’ natural enemy is the wasp, you know? Some species like jumping spiders can attack prey above them, but once they’re mid-air, they can’t jump again. It tries to reel in its web from its spinnerets to brake and retreat, but too slow. It might work if it caught me off guard, but when expected, it’s just a bungee cord.

Then I crush its head, destroying it. Spiders are structurally helpless against attacks from behind, so when enlarged this actually becomes a huge disadvantage?

「Heyyy, spider’s meal-san~. Well, I stole you from the spider but it’s not like I’m gonna eat you or anything, so don’t worry, okay? I mean, eating in the cannibalistic, human-eating kind of way is off the table, but if a pretty lady went『Eat me ❤』 then, as a Highschool Boy, I wouldn’t exactly oppose the idea, but I’m not touching a spider meal-san, all wrapped up in sticky thread, filthy and tattered? If anything, I’m more the type who does the feeding, you know? Like, have some of my mushroom? Hup! (*Chomp*)」

She is weakened from the poison, but her life is in no danger.

「Aah… h-help… them… p-please… everyone’s surrounded by so many spiders…」

「Ah, they’re all dead, you know?」

Spider Meal-san, desperate and pleading with an exhaustion clearly visible in her face, froze in shock. Her expression changed to the one of devastation, and with grief etched across her face, she let out a wailing sob, breaking into a bitter choking cry.

「N-no way, ah, aaaaah, nooooo (*Mmf, ahm*) Fmgmg.」

「Well, I said 『they’re all dead』but by『they』it is spiders that are meant here, if you are curious about people, they I confirmed three survivors, don’t know their exact condition, but no died. Except the spiders? They all expired. Wait, were you on the spiders’ side? Even though you’re Spider’s Meal-san?」

She started sobbing and wailing so I had to shut her up, and while I was thinking that just one mushroom might not be enough, she opened her mouth wide, so as a Highschool Boy, I reflexively stuffed it in. Only four survivors in total. Guess I didn’t make it in time for the rest.

I sprinted all the way here, barely made it, but it was worth it. Yep, Flat Gaze. This is what you’d call a pretty intense Flat Gaze. So powerful, that I could feel it piercing me even while she was chewing on a mushroom.

「(*Munch munch, munch munch, munch munch, gulp*) Fuuu… Okay, first of all, I’m not with the spiders! Why would I care about them! I obviously thought you meant people! Everyone… all three of them… they’re really safe? Really?」

She tearfully clung to a desperate hope she could barely believe in, inching toward me, but she was still wrapped up like a cocoon in spider silk, so she just went rolling along the ground. It actually looks kinda fun?

「Don’t just watch, stop me! Why are you just silently watching me roll away?! And what’s with that 『Huh?』 face, you seriously look like someone who was watching me roll around like I was fun and then got all surprised when I complained! Who the hell gets turned into spider food, rolled up like a threadball, and enjoys rolling around?! Nobody!!」

I mean, she looked like a snowman, which was kind of funny, and then she suddenly started rolling with such glee, so I of course assumed it was her hobby or something. I mean, who wouldn’t?

「So, um, the everyone who’s not a spider? Yeah, they all got caught and wrapped up in spider web, but everyone looked pretty happy with mushrooms in their mouths, so I thought I shouldn’t bother them, and then they started rolling too, rolling all the way over here, so I assumed it was like some sort of enthusiast circle or something? I mean, wouldn’t you usually think so?」

「You would not! What kind of circle would that even be?! And none of us were having fun rolling around in this situation! Wait, what actually happened to all the spiders?!」

「Oh, yeah, they all tragically died after accidentally bumping their heads on my shoulder guard, so while the circle members are fine, all the spiders have passed on. Rest in peace? My condolences, I guess?」

「You don’t have to offer condolences! I already told you, the spiders weren’t our friends! And why the hell would spiders die from bumping their heads on a shoulder guard?!」

「Uh, cause it’s spiky?」

「…The shoulder guard?」

「Yeah.」

「………Why did they end up bumping on that spiky shoulder guard?」

「Well, I kind of launched it, and it stabbed? Kind off?」

「…All of them? All those spiders?」

「I happened to have exactly 24 units, so it was kinda perfect, so I sent them off and they kind of got stabbed? So, like, an accident?」

「YOU are the one who did that! How is that an accident?! Why are you offering condolences like you weren’t involved?! You’re clearly the culprit, you stabbed twenty-four of them in a row! That’s not even remotely an accident, you just went stabby-stabby and now you’re acting like it was some random unfortunate event, why?!」

「Well, a lot of people misunderstand this, but shields and armor are defensive gear, you know? So, like, I’m not at fault?」

「Then why! How is that a defensive piece of gear when it can pierce through those tough spiders? They got absolutely skewered!」

「No, look, I first sniped them with the shoulder guard and then stabbed them, so it’s fine? Yeah, only skewered them after making a hole first? Mostly?」

「If you’re sniping with a shoulder guard, it’s not defensive gear anymore! And since it just flies, it also has zero commitment to defense, it’s totally on offense! And 『mostly』 still means you just stabbed some of them directly!」

Rolling, rolling, opening the Gate, I rolled the cocoon out onto the surface. Behind me, Slime-san came bouncing, rolling the rest of the cocoons along with a soft bouncy sound. Now I have all four of them lined up, what do I do with this though?

「「「「「…………」」」」

「What?」

「What do you mean, 『what』? Why are you just rolling us out instead of freeing from the webs, and now even standing there with that 『hmm, what do I do now~』 face?!」

「Stop it, he saved us.」

「Thank you… very much.」

「You rescued us. You have our gratitude.」

Turns out, they were adventurers who had just arrived to the Frontier. They’d come by stagecoach, but apparently a group of male adventurers among the passengers kidnapped a little girl and ran into the Dungeon. The women apparently followed them and nearly got eaten by spiders? The guys who’d lured them in, intending to assault and devour them were instead attacked and devoured by the spiders first. 「Those kidnappers, were their brains rotten or something? Why would they run into a Dungeon? And then they got eaten? As adventurers? That’s way too dumb?」

「Even those guys had monster-repelling gear and powder, but on the 20th floor, it had little effect, so the monsters just kept swarmed…」

「We too shouldn’t have been defeated so one-sidedly on just the 20th floor… but we couldn’t do anything.」

「We had anti-paralysis gear too, but it was useless… And even though they were fully armed, they couldn’t do a thing either…」

Let’s see, their gear was 『Abnormal Status Effect Reduction (Petty)』and 『Poison Resistance (Tiny)』, wait, 『Tiny』 exists?! That’s rare in its own way. And 『reduction』instead of actual『resistance』, super uncommon. But reducing status effects isn’t nullifying them, so eventually you’re going down. And this Dungeon is deep. Even on the same floor number, deeper dungeons have far higher enemy quality and quantity compared to shallow ones. But out in the outer regions, dungeons are usually shallow. So without any idea, they went chasing into a deep frontier dungeon and predictably got swarmed by monsters they can’t beat.

If only they’d made it to the town and taken the guild’s safety training, they might’ve upgraded their gear first. But they run with their outside’s common sense into a dungeon restricted for entry for how dangerous it is even by the frontier’s standards. Yeah, the town’s aunties have stronger everyday clothes than these guys’ gear. And they themselves are weaker than the aunties, only in level 25 to 30… wait, that’s around my level. Huh. Is that okay?

「This Dungeon is especially deep. You need a group of level 100+ just to get official clearance. Under level 30 you wouldn’t get permission to enter even a standard dungeon here. Also, if you don’t upgrade to frontier-appropriate gear, adventuring itself would be impossible. With your current stuff you’d be in real danger even on the very outskirts of the Evil Forest. Like, in real danger danger.」

「Ah, thank you. We just arrived and didn’t have any info yet… wait, isn’t your gear just clothes? And a stick?」

「Hold on, you’re the one in casual clothes! And your level is… wait, should I not ask that?」

「Ah, me? I’m Lv 24? Pretty sure I’m finally about to hit Lv 25 any minute now! (*smug look*)」

「「「「「You’re the one in danger!!」」」」 「Why are you casually going in and out of a place that bans anyone under Lv 100?!」 「And this is an Overlimit Dungeon restricted to transcenders over Lv 100, and you are walking around dressed like that!」 「「「Wait, how did you even get to the 20th floor and wipe out all the spiders?! Uh… was it that shoulder guard?」」」

Well, this『Aegis Shoulder Link Guards – ViT PoW 50% UP, Automatic Defense, Physical/Magic Defense (EX), Full Reflection, Absorption, Shield Slash, Shield Bash, Magic Attack, +ATT, +DEF』 had started as six linked shields after upgrading it with mithril, three on each side. But then I gave in to temptation and tweaked with it a bit more, it went up to twelve, after which I gave in to further temptations until I finally had twenty four linked pieces! It was my first time controlling all 24 simultaneously in combat, but stabbing stuff with them was way easier than using them for defense. I mean, if you just want to wipe out enemies without any friendly fire, funnels(should guard) are seriously handy.

「Wait, the gloves and boots are just leather, and everything else is cloth, and you’re carrying a stick… but that shoulder guard is some crazy super premium-tier gear!」

「Wait, you blew your entire equipment budget on one item?! Normally you’d go all in on the weapon, oh, wait, you are using it as a weapon!」

「It was insane, those things were zigzagging through the air, shooting spiders down, slicing them to pieces, stabbing them left and right!」

「…You liar! That wasn’t an accident at all! Who in the world calls shooting, slicing, and finally stabbing something to death a tragic accident?!」

Hmm, rolling them all the way back to town sounds like a pain. I wonder if they reach there if I just kicked them really hard? Or maybe they can self propel themselves if I just link them up four wheeler style with a magic-powered engine?