episode_0029

“Silphy, let’s run away.”

As soon as the bright red Arachne Queen revealed herself, I said to Silphy, who was beside me.

“What?!”

“That’s not a normal Arachne Queen. It’s a subspecies.”

“But… but…”

Silphy hesitated with a bewildered expression.

I was thinking of abandoning Nigel and running away.

The information conveyed by the narration, except for when it attacks me, is accurate.

That bright red Arachne Queen was no ordinary creature.

I could tell just by Nigel’s shocked expression.

He must have known what an Arachne Queen looked like.

But the way he was fumbling around with his sword drawn clearly showed he was facing something unknown.

Of course, we could all join forces and try to fight.

But fighting without knowing the enemy’s strength was too big of a gamble.

That’s why I thought running away with Silphy was the best option.

And Nigel?

…He can handle himself, right?

But the Arachne Queen was not going to let its prey just walk away.

As I turned to run with Silphy, suddenly the spider webs around us moved rapidly, blocking the path we had come from in an instant.

“You’re blocking the way like this?!”

I quickly drew my sword to try to cut through the web blocking our path.

But instead of cutting through the web, my sword didn’t even pierce it and bounced off.

No matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t even leave a scratch on the tightly woven web.

“How strong is this thing…”

With the path blocked, I had no choice but to turn back towards where Nigel was.

Nigel was already engaged in battle with the Arachne Queen.

Clang!

But even the sword of Silver-ranked adventurer Nigel couldn’t cut through the spider webs of the Arachne Queen like my sword did.

The webs sprayed by the Arachne Queen subspecies had tremendous strength.

Facing an Arachne who used webs as its main weapon, not being able to cut through the webs was fatal.

“What the hell! What is this monster?!”

Nigel dodged the spider webs flying from all directions narrowly, desperately swinging his sword.

But soon, he was caught by the ankle by a web and was pulled up to the ceiling, hanging upside down.

“Aaargh! What are you doing! Help me!”

While Nigel screamed as if his throat was being torn apart, I carefully observed the attacks of the Arachne Queen.

I had tried concentrating magic into my sword before, but cutting through those webs was impossible.

But by watching the movement pattern of the webs, I noticed it was focusing its attacks on one target at a time.

While Nigel was getting tangled in the webs, Silphy and I were not being attacked by the webs.

“Silphy, I have a favor to ask.”

“What?!”

“Could you go forward and try to distract it as much as possible?”

I asked Silphy.

With her agility and flexibility, she might be able to buy us some time by dodging without needing to cut the webs with her sword.

Since the speed of the webs flying towards us was not much different from what we had experienced with other Arachne.

“Aaargh! Aaargh!”

Meanwhile, Nigel, hanging upside down on the ceiling, was getting more and more entangled in the webs.

The Arachne Queen was trying to immobilize him to store its prey.

It was a pitiful sight, but thanks to the Arachne Queen focusing on immobilizing Nigel, we were not being attacked.

“Are… are you okay?”

“Don’t try to cut the webs, just focus on dodging as much as possible. Once you think you’ve drawn enough attention, I’ll figure something out.”

As Nigel was being hung up like a piece of meat, the Arachne Queen was getting ready to immobilize him.

It was a desperate situation, but as long as the Arachne Queen was focused on immobilizing Nigel, we were safe from its attacks.

“Ugh… Ah… I got it!”

With an anxious expression, Silphy nodded her head and ran towards Arachne Queen and Nigel.

Now, what should I do…?

Swoosh! Swoosh!

As Silphy rushed forward towards Arachne Queen, spider threads began to fly towards her.

At the same time, the movement of the spider threads that bound Nigel tightly to create a shield clearly stopped.

This confirmed it.

The creature can only shoot spider threads at one target at a time.

Although it could momentarily change targets, like blocking the path and then attacking Nigel again, it generally does not attack multiple targets simultaneously.

“Hey! Don’t just stand there, come quickly and untie me first!”

Hanging upside down from the ceiling, Nigel shouted at me with his hands and feet tied tightly by the spider threads.

Despite struggling, his limbs were immobile, maintaining the shield-like state.

Even if I untied him, it wouldn’t be much help, so I left him aside.

I pondered how to approach Arachne Queen and deliver a blow.

Meanwhile, Silphy was skillfully dodging the spider threads flying from all directions, drawing the creature’s attention.

As expected, its movements were suspicious earlier, so my eyes weren’t deceiving me.

But if I delay too long, it could be dangerous.

It would be helpful if the narration could provide some insight into the creature’s weakness at a time like this.

Of course, it doesn’t come to help when you need it the most.

Should I try to attack Arachne Queen while Silphy distracts it?

No, that would be difficult.

The creature prioritizes targets that approach it.

The reason Silphy became the target was that it perceived her as more threatening than the already neutralized Nigel.

This meant that even if Silphy bought time with various acrobatics, the moment I rushed in, there was a high chance of being attacked by the spider threads.

It would be more certain to think of a way to cut through those annoying spider threads.

Is there some way, any way to cut through those spider threads?

If only I could cut through those spider threads…

Then, a scene popped into my mind.

It was a rumor that circulated among the villagers after defending Dyne Village from the undead attack.

─They say that when he flew through the sky and swung his sword down, a huge hole was pierced in the ground.

─I heard that every time he swung his sword, a fiery blaze erupted.

In reality, I had never done such a thing, but the rumor spread, distorted, and exaggerated.

But now that I think about it, isn’t it entirely possible?

The possibilities of magic are endless.

The technique manifested depending on whether you concentrated magic on the tip of the sword or filled the entire sword and released it.

Milena even showed a fascinating skill by finely adjusting the flow of magic in the sword to delay the actual strike.

It felt like just yesterday when the narration criticized me for having ‘catastrophic adaptability.’

Yet, I still hadn’t properly utilized my control over magic.

Even though the spider threads had near-immunity to physical damage, they were still just spider threads.

If I could engulf the sword in flames, wouldn’t I be able to cut through Arachne Queen’s tough spider threads?

I have to try.

After all, this is another world.

“Aaahhh!”

Silphy, who had been dodging the spider threads like a gymnast, screamed.

Human concentration tends to decrease over time.

No matter how adventurers gain stamina through magic conversion, if their concentration drops, they are bound to be pierced.

A spider web wrapped around one ankle of the Arachne Queen.

Her body was floating in the air, facing the ceiling.

She must have decided to hang upside down like Nigel.

And next in line was me.

“Please….”

I took a deep breath, focused my mind, and carefully channeled magic into the sword.

This time, simply channeling magic and changing the location where it gathers was not enough.

What would it take to make flames spew out of the sword?

Controlling magic in the first place required high concentration and imagination.

Feeling the magic around me, actually feeling it, imagining the desired form of magic while maintaining concentration.

What I wanted now was for the magic applied to the sword to turn into flames and burn.

I envisioned a fierce flame burning so intensely that it could burn anything.

And imagined the hot magic being emitted through the surface of the sword.

Unlike the sword’s blade, the emitted magic did not stray far from the sword’s surface but lingered.

No, it’s not enough.

Visualize it in more detail.

More vividly.

Fwoosh─!

That was the moment.

Suddenly, a fierce flame began to burn from the sword I was holding.

The flame rose without dispersing like oil on a blade.

Immediately, I swung the flaming sword towards the spider web blocking my path.

The spider web, which was previously impossible to cut, was unbelievably sliced smoothly.

Moreover, the spot where the spider web was cut was melted by the flaming magic, even affecting the surrounding spider webs.

I momentarily worried that the fire would spread uncontrollably in this place full of spider webs, but it didn’t.

Since the source of the flame was the magic from me, I could control it with my will to prevent the fire from spreading too much.

“What, what?! You could do that too?”

Nigel, who saw my flaming sword, looked surprised while hanging upside down from the ceiling.

“If you can do that, hurry up and save me!”

Geez, so noisy.

Even if I save you, you’re the last one.

Swoosh-!

Perhaps feeling threatened, the Arachne Queen shot spider webs at me without even approaching.

I swept away the incoming spider webs with my flaming sword and charged towards the creature with a massive body.

Now that the once powerful spider webs were neutralized, there were no weapons that could threaten me.

Soon, the Arachne Queen, instead of shooting spider webs at me, hastily built a wall of spider webs in front of her to block my charge.

“Let’s turn you into a spider barbecue!”

However, no matter how many layers of walls she built with spider webs, a spider web was still a spider web.

I raised my flaming sword and pierced through the wall of spider webs in an instant, finally thrusting the sword into the head of the Arachne Queen.