Chapter 13

### Summary of the Previous Chapter:

"By the way... Lily, have you ever had any experience with... reproductive activities?"

"Hmm? You mean, have I ever given birth? What, Master, are you curious?"

"(She was just a slime before she met me, but... I am curious... What is this uneasy feeling?)"

"Hehe. No, I haven't. I'm still a young individual."

"R-really?"

* Excerpt from a scrapped idea in the story. Well, it's natural to be curious.

13

The air was frozen.

The only things moving were the flickering flames of the campfire and the shadows they created. Our consciousnesses were rigid, drawn to the sudden intruder.

"Arachne...?"

The word slipped out of my mouth unconsciously.

Arachne.

I had heard of the monster named Arachne while I was in the colony.

It was said to be a monster with the lower body of a giant spider and the upper body of a female monster.

In games, it's common to see monsters that are only half-human, but among the monsters that appear around the colony, Arachne was the only one known to have a human-like appearance.

However, that doesn't mean Arachne could be mistaken for a human.

It's not just because of the ugly spider's lower body. As the description "a giant spider with the upper body of a female monster" suggests, the problem is that the woman on the spider's body is completely monstrous.

Her mouth is split to the ears, with two large fangs protruding from the ends.

Her eyes are round and sunken, with red, bloodshot whites.

Her skin is hard and scaly, and her emaciated body has bones protruding unnaturally.

Even if separated from the lower body, Arachne's corpse could not be mistaken for a human's.

If it had a human-like appearance, some members of the exploration team might have hesitated to hunt Arachne, which could have led to casualties. In fact, there were such cases in the past.

The exploration team was composed of students with cheat abilities. Despite their powerful abilities, they had no experience with real combat and had suffered significant casualties during monster battles while exploring the forest.

Once, the bodies of the students who died in the process turned into undead monsters, and the students who couldn't bring themselves to kill their comrades, who were now undead, suffered further casualties.

However, I had heard that this was not the case with Arachne.

In fact, the students on the exploration team had said that the more human-like Arachne appeared, the more monstrous and repulsive it became.

That was the monster Arachne I knew.

But the one in front of me was completely different from what I had heard.

The woman's face on the white spider's lower body was beautiful, even gentle. She looked like a young girl, and her appearance suggested she was not even twenty years old. Her red eyes, which might have been colored contacts, were the only unusual feature, but they didn't give a monstrous impression.

A thin, sheer fabric, possibly made of spider silk, vaguely outlined her elegant figure. She was slender but well-proportioned, like a work of art designed to seduce men.

Without a doubt, she was a beautiful girl.

Even attached to a spider, that fact didn't fade.

"Hehe..."

Her bright red lips curved into a smile, and her red eyes slowly scanned each of us.

I instinctively understood.

She had come here looking for something.

...But what?

The moment I thought about it, the warning in my mind grew louder.

Her red eyes locked onto me. I saw her eyes narrow.

"...I found you."

Her clear voice sent a shiver down my spine.

I was certain, not logically, but instinctively.

She was the very embodiment of disaster, someone we should never have met.

In other words, a High Monster.

The white spider in front of me was a monster that had exceeded the norm, a monster that had broken the rules.

"Run...!"

My words were cut off and vanished into the air.

"O, ghh... ooooh!?"

Something hit my right side, and my body was pulled with tremendous force.

I tried to stand my ground reflexively, but the pulling force was too strong.

My body, which should have had a normal weight, floated in the air.

At the same time, a bone-chilling sound came from the right side of my body, which was under great strain.

"A, gah...!?"

The pain was so intense that my vision flickered.

"...!"

I couldn't even scream.

Several bones had broken.

The pain was so intense that I couldn't tell where it was coming from.

My consciousness, which was about to slip away, managed to hold on, driven by fear and a sense of danger. I didn't know how long it would last.

I looked down at my body.

A white, sticky substance was attached to my arm and chest.

It stretched out and was connected to the hand of the Arachne holding me.

—Spider silk.

I had been pulled to Arachne by this. The Fire Fang that was killed first must have met the same fate. If Arachne had wanted, I would have become a red stain in the forest.

And the danger was not over.

My life was in the hands of a vicious monster.

Of course, my followers didn't just stand by.

Rose was the first to move to help me, as she was the closest to me.

Arachne had pulled me away, and the distance between us was at least five meters, but for a monster like Rose, that distance was negligible.

When I saw her, she was about to run, axe in hand.

"Let go of—"

In the next instant, Rose was in front of me, as if in slow motion.

"—!?"

I watched in shock as Rose was blown several meters away and slammed into the bushes with a loud crack.

I knew what had happened, but I didn't want to accept it as reality.

The white Arachne holding me had simply stepped forward and extended one of its spider legs.

That was enough to bring down Rose.

I didn't even have the luxury to worry about her.

The white Arachne holding me started to run fiercely.

With my right side injured and unable to move, I could hardly resist. Even if I could move, I couldn't have resisted the one who had taken down Rose in one hit.

The forest scenery, barely visible in the light of the campfire, quickly turned black.

At the same time, my consciousness, overwhelmed by the pain, was swallowed by the darkness.

"Master—!"

The last thing I saw was Lily's face, reaching out to me, on the verge of tears.

***

I had been unconscious for about an hour.

The bubbles of consciousness burst at the surface, separating dream from reality.

Awakening came with a chill.

I opened my eyes.

The moment I remembered what had happened before I lost consciousness, I sat up abruptly.

Immediately, a wave of intense pain hit my right side, and I groaned.

"Ugh... gah, haa... g, u, uuuu..."

After regaining my breath, I checked my body.

I felt faint.

The right side of my upper body, where the remnants of my shirt were stuck, was in a terrible state.

The outline of my wrist was wrong.

One of my fingers was pointing in the wrong direction.

My ribs, which are said to be easily broken, were predictably painful.

My ankle seemed to be sprained, and there was a dull, throbbing pain.

Perhaps I had passed the worst of it while unconscious, and now the pain was partially numbed, which was fortunate.

I couldn't move my body properly.

Even if I could, there was nothing I could do.

The moment I realized this, my body shivered.

...It was cold.

Very, very cold.

—Lily.

—Rose.

They were not nearby.

I couldn't feel their presence, which I had always sensed through the bond.

I never thought it would feel so lonely without them.

"...Damn. Don't be afraid."

I scolded my trembling heart.

I had a responsibility as Lily and Rose's master.

They must be worried.

I had to get back to them as soon as possible.

At least, being alive was a stroke of luck. Considering the possibility that I could have lost my life while unconscious, the current situation was far from the worst.

It was a comforting thought, but it helped me avoid a panic attack.

Encouraging my shrinking heart, I tried to observe my surroundings.

"Where am I...?"

"A place inside my nest."

A seductive female voice answered my mutter.

I turned around sharply.

A girl with long, fine white hair was looking down at me from nearby.

"You...?"

She rested her cheek on her pure white, fluffy spider legs and looked at me with a playful gaze.

No doubt.

She was the Arachne who had attacked me before I lost consciousness.

"Nest...?"

I looked around.

Now that she mentioned it, I wasn't lying directly on the ground.

There was a bumpy but walkable floor beneath me. It was a makeshift floor made of spider silk spread over gathered tree trunks. It was indeed a floor.

The space was about the size of a small gymnasium, quite large.

I was lying in a corner that was barely flat. Perhaps it was a consideration for the injured. If so, the consideration was fundamentally wrong.

The pillars were natural trees, and there were no walls, but there was a ceiling, and it seemed that all these structures were supported by spider silk.

Spider silk hung from the ceiling, and at the end were cocoon-like objects. Inside the cocoons, red light flickered, faintly illuminating the entire nest.

It seemed I had been brought to the Arachne's nest.

And I was here alone.

The situation was hopeless.

"You... what did you do to me...?"

Facing the Arachne, I cleared my throat.

Forcing my jaw to move despite the fear, I asked.

"No, rather. What happened to Lily and Rose?"

"Hmm. You're more concerned about your followers than yourself."

The girl on the spider laughed pleasantly.

"Rest assured. I have no interest in the lives of such insignificant beings. I want only one person."

"...Me?"

"Indeed."

It seemed I wouldn't be killed immediately.

Thinking about it, the fact that I wasn't killed on the spot and was brought here suggested there was a reason.

I couldn't help but hope it wasn't a cruel reason like "she wanted to eat me calmly in her nest." If that were the case, I had no way to resist.

"Why me?"

"Don't you understand?"

Gathering my remaining courage, I asked, and the Arachne countered.

"How could you not understand? You know what I am, don't you?"

"...What are you talking about?"

Even if she said that, this was the first time I had encountered an Arachne.

If it was a unique individual like the one in front of me, I wouldn't forget it.

Not only in appearance but in presence, it was overwhelming.

I had never encountered this creature before.

There was no way I could know what it was.

That's right, there was no way...

"...Wait a moment."

A possibility occurred to me, but I immediately dismissed it as impossible.

However, I couldn't deceive my own senses.

It was a special power rooted in my instincts, a power only I possessed.

"Could you be... my cheat ability's...?"

"Hmm? I don't know much about your cheat ability..."

The white girl on the spider closed one red eye.

"But I think it's probably as you suspect."

With a delighted tone, as if the world was the most delightful thing, the girl responded to my shock.

"Hey, 'Master'"

Her bright red lips lovingly formed a single word.

"That's ridiculous..."

No matter how much I denied it, the reality didn't change.

The monster in front of me was the target of my cheat ability, Monster Tame.

In other words, it was a follower monster.

◆ The summary of the previous chapter is routine, but the story is reaching the climax of the first chapter.

◆ The white spider is a personal preference of the author, but they do exist in reality.

For example, the Azuchi spider, which is quite beautiful.

...But, since it's still a spider, those who dislike them shouldn't Google it.

In the story, the spider has white fur and a slightly round appearance.

◆ The next update is scheduled for January 11th (Saturday).