Thiiis caaave suuucks!

Nothing but walking, walking, and walking, with some spooky noises occasionally to scare the shit out of me!

We've managed to increase the levels of quite a few of our skills, but I'm also exhausted!

And we haven't even managed to level up yet!

Losing the herbivore title really did mess us up badly. Right now, moss is our main- no, only source of XP, because wolves are so rare down here.

Although, I have a feeling things won't be so quiet for much longer.

Why?

Oh, I don't know, just those huge spider webs we keep walking past.

It seems we've gotten pretty far from the forest area, and have made it to an area more in line with what you'd think of when you think about a cave in a fantasy world.

Should we turn back? I don't know…

Judging by the size of the spider webs… the spiders probably aren't a normal size.

I really wish insight allowed us to see more than just something's name and level.

You’d think the level would be a good indicator for how strong something is, but it's not, really.

When something evolves, its level resets back to one, but it's stats stay the same, as proven by us every time we’ve evolved.

So you can't really tell if something is strong or not just by its level. Something with a high level could be really weak if it hasn't evolved at all yet, and something with a low level could be a really strong monster that just evolved.

Although, I don't think I need to see a giant spider’s stats to know I don't want to mess with one… seriously, who would?

I wasn't a fan of regular sized spiders back in my old life. Giant ones are not something I want to see.

But Gloria called me a wimp when I begged her to turn around and leave once we saw the spider webs…

But I'm not a wimp! She's the weird one for not being scared!

Spiders probably aren't any faster than wolves… I hope.

They shouldn't be, right?

Wolves hunt their prey by chasing them, so they have to be fast, but spiders just make webs.

So they won't be fast.

I hope.

Luckily, there's a lot more dirt in this part of the cave from what I can see, so we’ll be able to dig little holes as panic shelters every so often.

And since we’re faster than them (hopefully), we’ll be able to run back to the nearest hole if we ever encounter one, which I hope we don't.

But with how many webs I'm seeing, I doubt we'll get that lucky.

Yuck…

How do the humans in this world deal with spiders this big?

I get that humans in this world are probably all Olympic athlete level strength at least, but still, arachnophobia is still a thing, right?

I'm so glad I don't have arachnophobia…

That said, I could hardly handle spiders the size of a coin, I think I might instantly pass out of I see a giant one…

Wait, maybe it's not even spiders?

I've just been assuming it's spiders cause of the webs, but maybe something else makes webs in this world?

Maybe some kind of monkey, like a spider monkey but with its name taken literally!

Maybe?

…

Nope. That's a spider.

That's a giant fucking spider.

Ah, of course it's a spider. It was silly of me to try to convince myself it wouldn't be one.

[It doesn't know we see it. I'm gonna go for it!]

{What?!}

Gloria begins running at the spider, surprising it.

{No, Gloria, no! I've put up with you up until now, but this is too far!}

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[Let me do my thing, I got this!~]

{No! I’m not letting you get us killed, even if I have to steal the body from you!}

[Don’t do that! If you do that, we’ll definitely die!]

{Well, what am I supposed to do?!}

[Just sit back and watch!]

Gloria leaps forward, gashing the spider’s back as we land on it.

It thrashes around, trying to attack us, but Gloria digs our claws into its back.

[Hahaha! This is fun!]

She continues clawing it over and over with one claw while digging into it and holding on with the other.

Ugh, I can't watch…

I didn't know spider blood looked like this…

[Take this!]

Letting go of the now gaping wound in the spider’s back, Gloria slides forward towards its head, shoving our claws into the intersection of its midsection and head.

{Never do that again.}

[Whyyyyy?]

{Because it was scary!}

[But we won!]

{But it was scary!}

[You're such a wimp.]

{Please, just don't do that again.}

[Whatever. I'll try, I guess.]

Good enough for now.

It's been a little while since Gloria attacked and killed that spider. The adrenaline has mostly died down now.

We've just been hanging out here in a little hole, since there was a patch of dirt right next to the spider.

Now, we're starting to get hungry.

And that's much worse than usual.

Why? Because there's a spider corpse right outside.

Gloria is going to eat the spider corpse.

And I can't stop her.

I've tried thinking of anything that could work, but it's no use.

We're both about equal when it comes to forcefully taking over the body, so if I try that it'll just lead to the situation we had before. When we got the soul defense skill.

So yeah, not interested in doing that again.

There really is no way for me to stop her…

Maybe the spider tastes good. Ha ha. Ha.

Ahhh, I really don't want to eat spider meat…

Blehg. Yep. Spider meat’s gross.

But Gloria's just absolutely digging into it.

Was she even ever human? I don't think I knew anyone who would do this!

Well, I guess I didn't know that many people, but still.

None of the people I did know would happily kill and eat a giant spider!

I mean, I guess it's normal in other parts of the world?

Can't really ask Gloria if that's the case though, thanks to our no prying rule.

[Pwah! Delicious!]

{You're crazy.}

[Anyway, let's keep going.]

{Deeper into the spider infested cave? Yeah, no, I don't think so.}

[Where else are we supposed to go?]

{That small path we saw a while ago seems promising.}

[You mean the super small one we could barely fit into?]

{Yeah! That one.}

[That seems dangerous.]

{It's less dangerous than a cave full of giant spiders!}

[No way! Those spiders are barely a threat at all!]

{Could you take two at once?}

[Probably.]

{Three?}

[Maybe…]

{And four?}

[Do you really think we’ll encounter four at once?]

{You never know. I'm telling you, the other path is better.}

[Are you sure? Once we go in, we won't be able to turn around unless there's a wider area at the end of it.]

{I’d rather get stuck in there than get killed by a spider!}

[Really?]

{I, uh… Y-yes!}

[You don't sound very sure of yourself~]

{I'm sure, I'm sure!}

[Alright, if you say so.]

So here we are. Before us, a small opening in the cave wall.

A small stream of water trickles out of it, breaking the eerie silence of the cave.

Oh man, I'm getting nervous now…

No! I have to be sure of myself!

If I'm not, I'll keep letting Gloria bully me and push me around!

And I cannot let that happen!

{Let's go!}

[Mhm.]

Gloria squeezes her way into the tunnel, and begins slowly making her way forward.

The tunnel is narrow and dark, so we can't see anything at all.

Due to this loss of sight, it almost feels like our other senses are working to an even greater degree than usual.

The sound of the stream of water beneath us.

The feeling of cold rock on our feet.

And the disgusting, dank smell of the cave.

We've been walking for a little while now.

Not too long, probably no longer than six minutes.

It seems this tunnel is sloping upwards slightly, which I guess explains the running water.

I wonder if the water is what carved out this tunnel in the first place?

Anyway, it seems like this'll take a while, so I'll work on soul manipulation. It's been a while, so I might as well.

This is odd.

The type of rock has slowly been changing as we make our way further and further down the tunnel.

We began in an area of entirely gray stone, but it seems to be getting more sandy-yellow.

Maybe that's what it is?

I don't know, I'm no geologist, so I'm not sure if this is normal or not.

Hmm.

Well, I guess I'll get back to soul manipulation now.

I think we’re getting close to the end now.

I hear a different sound than normal up ahead. Probably from the source of the water.

The rocks around us are very sandy-yellow now, by the way. The gray tint that remained before is entirely gone now.

[I see the exit!]

Here we are!

Now, I just have to hope what's out here is better than the spiders.

Or, at the very least, less bad.