So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 6 Read online

  Copyright

  So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 6

  Okina Baba

  Translation by Jenny McKeon

  Cover art by Tsukasa Kiryu

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  KUMO DESUGA, NANIKA? Vol. 6

  ©Okina Baba, Tsukasa Kiryu 2017

  First published in Japan in 2017 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2019 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Baba, Okina, author. | Kiryu, Tsukasa, illustrator. | McKeon, Jenny, translator.

  Title: So I’m a spider, so what? / Okina Baba ; illustration by Tsukasa Kiryu ; translation by Jenny McKeon.

  Other titles: Kumo desuga nanika. English | So I am a spider, so what?

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2017–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017034911 | ISBN 9780316412896 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442886 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442909 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442916 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975301941 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975301965 (v. 6 : pbk.)

  Subjects: CYAC: Magic—Fiction. | Spiders—Fiction. | Monsters—Fiction. | Prisons—Fiction. | Escapes—Fiction. | Fantasy.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.O44 So 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017034911

  ISBNs: 978-1-9753-0196-5 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-0197-2 (ebook)

  E3-20190724-JV-NF-ORI

  REPORT ON THE NIGHTMARE OF THE LABYRINTH

  The Nightmare of the Labyrinth (henceforth referred to as “the Nightmare”) is a dangerous spider monster estimated to be legendary-class.

  The first reported sighting of the Nightmare was in year 841 of the Kingdom Calendar in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.

  When abnormal behavior broke out among the monsters in the labyrinth, Ohts requested the help of their allies in the Renxandt Empire in finding and resolving the source of the problem.

  Accepting the request, the Empire sent a group of knights into the labyrinth to investigate, where they happened upon the Nightmare.

  Based on a judgment call made by the labyrinth guide and the knight captain, this force immediately retreated without engaging in combat.

  Not long after, the knight captain called for reinforcements.

  In response, the Empire dispatched an elite squad, led by the summoned knight Buirimus.

  The team engaged in battle with the Nightmare, leaving only Buirimus alive.

  Later, the Nightmare appeared outside the Great Elroe Labyrinth.

  It destroyed the Elroe fortress in Ohts.

  For some time after that, its whereabouts were unknown.

  Right around this period of time, a queen taratect broke through the bedrock and emerged from the Great Elroe Labyrinth as if summoned by the Nightmare.

  The queen taratect destroyed Mt. Uine with a single breath attack, then returned to the labyrinth.

  The exact connection between this queen taratect’s actions and the Nightmare is unknown.

  The next sighting of the Nightmare occurred the following year, Kingdom Calendar 842, appearing in what was Keren County of Sariella.

  After creating a nest near the town at the center of Keren County, the Nightmare resided there for some time.

  During its stay, there are accounts that claim the Nightmare healed sick or injured villagers, culled the robbers who were running rampant at that time, and chased away nearby monsters.

  The humans who benefited from this likened the Nightmare to the Goddess’s Divine Beast, a mythical spider of legend, and began to spread praise of the monster throughout Sariella, possibly as a form of propaganda.

  This behavior was a complete turnaround from the Nightmare’s obliteration of the Empire’s elite force and the destruction of the fortress in Ohts.

  However, based on the fact that the citizens who lived near the Nightmare for so long were not harmed, combined with the existence of official statements by the former lord of the territory, most believe this account of events to be true.

  It was around this time that Ohts took issue with Sariella.

  Ohts stated that it was inexcusable for Sariella to worship the Nightmare as a divine creature after it had caused direct harm to Ohts and demanded they hand over the monster.

  Sariella rejected this demand.

  Tensions between the countries mounted.

  Being followers of the Word of God, the Ohts Kingdom always held enmity against the Goddess-worshipping Sariella, but this incident caused their relationship to worsen all at once.

  To make matters worse, the diplomat who had been sent to negotiate regarding the Nightmare suddenly died of unexplained causes.

  There are those who believe the Nightmare was responsible for the death, but the veracity of this claim cannot be determined.

  Others suggest that Sariella assassinated the diplomat.

  With this incident as the final straw, the countries went to war.

  The battle took place at Zatona Plain and is now known as the Tragedy of Zatona.

  Sariella had a force of forty-two thousand soldiers.

  Ohts had backup from the Empire and other countries that follow the Word of God, for a total of fifty-three thousand soldiers.

  On this occasion, the Nightmare followed the Sariella Army to Zatona Plain as an ally and launched a magical attack against the Ohts Army.

  It is said that this attack obliterated 10 percent of the Ohts Alliance Army.

  As they were literally “obliterated,” no corpses remained, indicating the scale and power of the Nightmare’s attack.

  This single attack crushed the morale of the Ohts Alliance, putting them in an unfavorable position.

  However, no further records exist in our land of what occurred at the Tragedy of Zatona.

  The battlefield was in chaos, and more importantly, there are so few survivors who know what truly happened, so it is impossible to record the truth in our history.

  Some say the Nightmare began attacking indiscriminately, while others say it was fighting something or someone else, but the reality of the situation is unclear.

  All that is known for sure is the Nightmare’s rampage resulted in massive losses for both armies.

  MISERY LOVES COMPANY

  Not a single cloud in the sky.

&
nbsp; The sun beams down warmly, while a gentle breeze keeps things from getting too hot.

  Weather can’t get any better than this.

  It’s the perfect day for a picnic!

  “Wooo… Wooo…”

  But sadly, reality isn’t so kind.

  In spite of the perfect weather, the dense forest all around keeps the sunlight from reaching us.

  And then there’s the infant—or rather, baby—who’s already knocking on death’s door.

  Her wheezing breath is starting to sound a little weird, but we shouldn’t pay that any mind.

  While we’re at it, let’s ignore the fact that she’s toddling along this mountain path despite being a literal baby.

  A baby walking along with a deathly look on her face sounds like something out of a horror movie, right? I mean, it’s not exactly the kind of thing you’d normally expect to see.

  But of course, this baby who’s currently marching along to rave reviews is no ordinary baby.

  She’s a reincarnation like me, and as a bonus, she’s also a Progenitor vampire.

  By the way, her stats look something like this:

 
  Status: HP: 23/37 (green) (details)

  SP: 0/86 (yellow) (details)

  Average Offensive Ability: 34 (details)

  Average Magical Ability: 59 (details)

  Average Speed Ability: 33 (details)

  MP: 3/62 (blue) (details) : 19/86 (red) (details)

  Average Defensive Ability: 41 (details)

  Average Resistance Ability: 61 (details)

  Skills:

  [Vampire LV 2] [Undying Body LV 1] [HP Auto-Recovery LV 4] [MP Recovery Speed LV 2]

  [MP Lessened Consumption LV 1] [SP Recovery Speed LV 3] [SP Lessened Consumption LV 3] [Magic Power Perception LV 3]

  [Magic Power Operation LV 3] [Presence Detection LV 4] [Magic Warfare LV 1] [Mental Warfare LV 1]

  [Stealth LV 4] [Silence LV 2] [Kin Control LV 1] [Telepathy LV 7]

  [Concentration LV 5] [Arithmetic Processing LV 2] [Memory LV 3] [Parallel Thinking LV 5]

  [Prediction LV 2] [Appraisal LV 3] [Water Magic LV 1] [Ice Magic LV 1]

  [Rot Resistance LV 1] [Status Condition Resistance LV 5] [Fear Resistance LV 5] [Night Vision LV 7]

  [Five Senses Enhancement LV 4] [Life LV 2] [Magic Mass LV 3] [Instantaneous LV 4]

  [Persistent LV 4] [Strength LV 2] [Solidity LV 2] [Technique User LV 3]

  [Protection LV 3] [Running LV 2] [Spite LV 4] [n% I = W]

  Skill Points: 73,800

  Titles:

  [Vampire] [Progenitor] [Originator] [Foul Feeder]

  >

  She’s still a baby, yet her stats already rival that of a weak creature.

  She has tons of skills, too.

  Probably not enough battle-focused ones to actually beat a monster in combat, but still.

  That’s a pretty astounding rate of growth!

  I guess maybe this is proof that the sooner you start educating a gifted child, the better.

  That’s right. I’m in charge of educating Vampy now.

  First of all, I want to make it clear I’m not doing any of this to be mean.

  At a glance, it seems like she could fall at any moment, but she doesn’t stop toddling along.

  She can’t.

  Because my thread is wrapped around her limbs, forcing her to keep walking like a puppet.

  Heh-heh. She might be at her limits, but with this method, she can bust right through them and continue training!

  Do you want to get stronger but lack the willpower to stick with it when the going gets tough? Then this is the perfect training method for you!

  If you sign up now, your first lesson is free!

  So yeah, I’m walking her like this to raise her physical stats and skills.

  Physically, she’s still a baby, so even simply being puppeted around is pretty significant exercise for her, which means her stats and skills will go up at a decent rate.

  After all, she normally wouldn’t even be able to walk at this age.

  It’s possible only because she’s a reincarnation, plus she has the benefit of extraordinary stats.

  That covers the physical aspect, but of course I’ve got magic on lock, too.

  I had her use skill points to acquire Water Magic and Ice Magic for something to practice on. Plus, she’s also using Magic Warfare as she walks to improve her magic stats.

  Why am I training Vampy in the first place, you ask? Because I’m bored as hell on this journey, of course.

  Currently, we’re making our way toward the capital of Sariella.

  But given the fact that I’m now a half-human, half-spider arachne and all, I’m sure my arrival is going to cause a huge racket.

  Also, Vampy’s faithful servant, Mera, is a vampire, too, so there’d be trouble if people figured that out.

  To top it all off, the elves seem to be after Vampy’s life for some reason.

  That should explain why we’re trying to escape unwanted attention by traveling through the forests and mountains and whatnot.

  If you were stuck traipsing through trees and stuff every waking moment, you’d be bored out of your mind, too!

  As a way of killing time along the way, I’m mentoring Vampy.

  All I have to do is make her walk, so it’s pretty easy!

  Unfortunately, she looks like she might really hit her limit soon, so I’d better stop for now.

  Her MP, SP, and even her HP have started to drop.

  I release the thread that is holding her up. Immediately, she collapses, exactly the way a puppet would tumble down if someone cut its strings.

  Yikes, she landed headfirst, too. Is she all right?

  The baby bloodsucker lies facedown without so much as a twitch, and Mera rushes over in a panic. “My lady?! My lady! Can you hear me, miss?!”

  Mera lifts her tiny body, faces her upward, and shakes her a little.

  No response. She’s totally passed out.

  He quickly checks to see if she’s breathing.

  Come on. She’s alive, okay?

  I stopped right before crossing the line that would actually kill her, ya get me?

  I mean, yeah, maybe her eyes have rolled back and her mouth is frothing a little, but she’s fiiine. Don’t worry so much.

  As Mera continues to administer emergency care, I carry on.

  Next order of business: preparing food!

  I gather up some sticks lying around, add my thread to the pile, and start a fire.

  Unless its resistance is boosted, my thread burns very easily.

  That caused me a lot of trouble in the Middle Stratum back in the Great Elroe Labyrinth, but depending on the situation, sometimes a weakness can also be a strength.

  Once the fire is lit, I use Spatial Magic to pull a frying pan and some ingredients out of Spatial Storage and get ready.

  Heh-heh-heh. Now that I’m an arachne with human hands, I can finally cook for real!

  Unfortunately, all I knew how to do in my old life was heat things in the microwave or boil water, so I can’t make anything too fancy.

  There aren’t any microwaves or cup ramen in this world, so my old cooking techniques aren’t even useful here.

  What’s that?

  Using a microwave or boiling water isn’t a proper cooking technique, you say?

  That’s just, like, your opinion, all right?

  As far as I’m concerned, those are the fundamentals of cooking.

  By the way, the cooking supplies are things I’ve borrowed from Vampy’s former home.

  The place was burning up, so I helped myself to some ingredients and other household goods.

  That might sound like looting to you, but the lord and lady of the house were dead, and their next of kin—the baby—allowed it, meaning no problem here.

  I got permission from Mera and Vampy, all right?

  And yet I still wound up getting some skill called Us
urp.

  It’s unreasonable, if you ask me.

  Anyway, putting all that aside, I produce some meat from Spatial Storage, pop it on the frying pan, and start cooking.

  Just don’t ask what kind of meat it is, okay?

  I know it looks, like, super-poisonous, but don’t think too much on it.

  I add seasoning more or less at random and serve the cooked meat on some plates.

  Voilà.

  Vampy wakes up right as I’m finishing, so I hand her a plate.

  I offer Mera a plate, too, then get back to cooking.

  This time, the meat I’m cooking looks like proper food, not the poisonous kind.

  As it starts to smell pretty good, Vampy’s eyes dart between the meat in the frying pan and the gross-looking stuff on her plate.

  Cut it out. This one’s for me, okay?

  You’re not supposed to stare at other people’s stuff so enviously.

  “Lady White, might I ask you to produce some proper food for the young miss as well?” Mera asks politely.

  “White” is a nickname the Demon Lord gave me of her own accord.

  Kind of a weird name, but it feels pointless to complain about it now, so I’ve just kind of been letting it happen.

  Forget that, though. Right now, I should be responding to Mera.

  Ummm…

  Hang on a minute.

  Just a moment, please!

  I wish people wouldn’t talk to me out of nowhere like that.

  My communication skills are so low that I never know how to respond!

  Oh boy. Seriously, what do I do now?

  Okay, calm down.

  At times like this, you’re supposed to count prime numbers, right?

  One, two, three… Argh!

  That’s all wrong!

  One’s not even a prime number!

  Uhhh, what did he ask me again?

  Right, he wants me to share some poison-free food with Vampy, right?

  But I’m not giving her poisonous food to be mean-spirited, you know.

  As they can probably tell from the color, Mera’s and the baby’s food does indeed contain poison.

  But that’s just to raise their poison resistance.

  If they keep eating it, their resistance will go up, and they’ll even get the Foul Feeder title.

  The one little downside is that it tastes pretty bad, but that’s it. So there’s no reason not to eat it!