After thinking for a moment, I waited for the dragon's next attack, and once again it hurled flames in my direction.
'Is that the only attack it has?' I mocked as I ran and dodged it.
Then I did it.
I ran toward it at full speed and jumped.
I flew toward the dragon's face, and it couldn't keep up with my movements. It reacted on instinct and opened its mouth to try to bite me, but I shot a large amount of webbing at its face.
Then I hung from my thread and swung, landing right behind it.
'Ah, crap!'
I almost fell into the lava, but I ran along its body and quickly reached the top of its head. The dragon used its fire to destroy my web.
'It's going to dive back into the lava.'
Before it could do that, I switched the edit I had made to my defense to strength, and the edit I had made to my speed to defense. I set both my strength and defense to 10,000—the limit.
Then I formed a kind of "hammer" with my legs and swung downward, striking its head with all my strength.
Even with my defense very high, I still lost a bit of HP. And my SP…
89 / 245
If I launch another attack like that, I'll definitely pass out.
The dragon staggered from my attack, and its HP dropped to 0. I definitely destroyed its brain. Before it could fall into the lava, I changed the edit on my strength back to speed and jumped away.
I almost fell into the lava pit!
'What a waste,' I thought as I watched the dragon's body sink into the lava. It had so many skills.
I tried shooting my web at it and editing my strength to pull it out, but I couldn't. My web isn't as strong as I expected.
Huff…
After letting out a disappointed sigh, I looked to the right and saw more monsters appearing.
After killing two fish and another seahorse, I finally reached Level 10.
[ Small Poison Taratect can evolve ]
And to my surprise, I have three different evolution paths.
'This is…'
####
The first thing I noticed was that I unlocked the evolution path to Zoa Ele, just like Kumoko.
I don't know how, since I don't have nearly as many skills as Kumoko. Maybe it's because I killed those anomalies and the amount of EXP I received was extremely high.
And the other two evolution paths are…
Strange.
They're definitely evolution paths connected to those anomalies that appeared in the labyrinth. This only proves that my system isn't the same as Kumoko's.
Is that why the Seven Deadly Sins skills can't be purchased?
But the system behaves exactly the same…
'Urgh, what a headache.'
The first evolution path is:
[ Abyss Anomaly Taratect ]
I asked the system for the characteristics of this race, and it only showed me some of its skills.
[ Abyss Thread LV1 ]
Threads made from void energy that:
• Drain energy
• Reduce stats
[ System Corruption LV1 ]
Attacks can corrupt enemy skills.
[ Space Step LV1 ]
Short-distance spatial movement.
After reading those skills, I thought:
'Isn't this insanely cool? Aren't these abilities incredible? The other evolution must definitely be just as powerful!'
So I checked the skills of the next evolution…
[ Sovereign Archive Taratect ]
[ Skill Forge LV1 ]
Allows combining skills to create new ones.
[ Skill Extract LV1 ]
Allows extracting and storing skills from enemies. These skills can be given to anyone.
'Urgh… Even though it only has two abilities, they're extremely powerful. Now I'm unsure which evolution I should choose.'
I looked around and searched for a suitable place to build my home.
After searching for a while, I found one. It was a hole high up in the wall. No monster would probably attack me there.
I climbed up the wall and entered the hole. Fortunately, it's fairly deep.
I created a protective barrier with my web just to be safe and opened the system again.
'But if I evolve into one of these two, will I still be able to reach the Arachne evolution path? I want a human form.'
Well, I doubt the system would troll me like that, right? It knows I want a human form in the future.
Probably either of these evolutions will eventually lead to a human-like appearance.
Even if it's only half of my body, like Arachne.
'And honestly… I'm worried. Most of the spiders in this labyrinth—if not all of them—are female. What if I end up being a woman like Kumoko? Is there any way to find out?'
I even tried, but couldn't.
'So what do I do? Which evolution should I choose?'
####
After thinking for several minutes, I decided to evolve into [ Abyss Anomaly Taratect ].
The system didn't show its appearance, so I'm quite curious. Judging by the name, I imagine I'll probably turn black, right?
I sighed and selected my new evolution.
As soon as I did, two system messages appeared.
[ The skill "Editing LV2" became "Editing LV3" ]
[ The skill "Editing LV3" became "Editing LV4" ]
When I saw those two messages, my heart started racing. But soon after, I fell into deep darkness.
However, this time it was different from what I expected.
Normally I would just fall asleep and wake up after the evolution finished.
But now… I'm awake.
I'm still in my spider form. I'm still a [ Small Poison Taratect ].
'Where is this place?'
It was a completely dark place. I could feel that the ground was wet, even though I couldn't see anything.
As I looked around, I began to hear footsteps.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Step.
The footsteps kept getting closer, and I began to feel nervous.
I tried editing my stats, but the system window wouldn't open. I can't access the system here.
Step.
Step.
When the footsteps stopped beside me, I froze.
I couldn't see anything in the darkness, but I knew someone was there.
Then I woke up inside the dungeon.
[ Congratulations on your new special evolution! ]
[ "Small Poison Taratect" evolved into "Abyss Anomaly Taratect" ]
####
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