At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

Truth be told, I’m barely spiderlike at all anymore.

Sure, I still use stuff like threads and poison, but I’ve got a lot of other tricks up my sleeve now. They’re not my only weapons like they used to be at the beginning.

A-ha! I just realized! I’ve got it backward!

I’m moving beyond the limits of a spider—that’s what’s going on!

In other words, I’m like a spider celebrity.

It’s not that I’m becoming less spiderlike; it’s that other spiders are falling behind the times.

Is that crazy or what?

Without even realizing it, I’ve been forging a whole new era of spider history!

I always knew I was the best.

Maybe the other spiders just need to follow my example and learn to use magic and Evil Eyes and stuff, no?

Then nobody could say that I’m not spiderlike, that’s for sure.

’Cause I’d be the spider on the cutting edge of what it means to be a spider!

If I become the leading expert on spider potential, I’d truly be the greatest spider of all time!

The other spiders would all look up to me, and they’d even start copying my style. I’m sure of it!

Although, it’s gonna take more than superficial imitation to get as good as I am, so good luck with that, losers.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Nah, just kidding. I’d never let anyone copy me.

I know better than anyone what a huuuge pain in the ass I am.

The last thing I need is for there to be another pain in the ass besides me.

I’m the only celebrity the spider world needs, got it?

I’m not gonna let them turn me into a fad.

SPIDER VS CICADA

When you think about summer, what’s the first image that comes to mind?

Festivals?

Mm-hmm, yup.

Summer festivals sure are nice.

Especially the food stalls, the food stalls, and the food stalls.

Yakisoba, cotton candy, all that stuff, they’ve got such a devilish charm… You know it’s all kinda overpriced, and yet you can’t help buying it anyway.

There’s also going for a swim at the beach, mountain climbing to escape the heat, and all kinds of other good stuff.

But summer’s not all fun and games.

It’s super-hot, for one thing.

And there’s one sound that makes the heat feel even more intense.

“Skreeee, skree, skree, skree!”

That’s right: cicadas.

The chorus of cicada song is emblematic of summer in Japan.

Just hearing that summery song makes it feel like your body temperature is rising.

So when I hear the cries of a cicada, I think, “Ah, summer’s arrived in this world, too.”

I am a spider.

As of yet, I have no name.

Yeah, I’m borrowing the introduction from a famous Soseki novel again. But alas, this is no joke. It’s serious information.

’Cause if being reincarnated in another world wasn’t freaky enough, it’s even freakier that I got reincarnated as a monster, specifically a spider.

This world has concepts like levels and skills, so it’s a fantasy world, not like old-fashioned realism.

So, of course, there are monsters here, too.

And I was reborn as one of those monsters—a spider.

Now, I would love to demand an explanation from the god that made these arrangements.

But no matter how much I complain, it won’t change the fact that I’m a spider now.

Besides, what’s important isn’t what you were born as.

It’s what you make of yourself!

Okay, fine, I’m just trying to sound cool.

Anyway, now that I’m a spider, I realize there are worse things I could’ve been reincarnated as.

Take the beast in front of me, for example.

“Skreeee, skree, skree, skree!”

This eardrum-rending ruckus is coming from, you guessed it, a giant cicada.

Yep.

This is a fantasy world, not old-fashioned realism.

So, of course, there are cicada monsters, too, I guess.

Spiders and cicadas.

One’s a predator; the other is prey.

If you had to pick one, wouldn’t you obviously prefer the spider?

I don’t wanna get eaten, dude!

I wanna be the one doing the eating!

And what happens when a predator encounters prey?

Well, it’s hunting time, obviously!

I’m actually pretty strong, even though I might not look it.

After all, I survived here in the Great Elroe Labyrinth, an enormous kill-or-be-killed dungeon, and escaped in one piece!

Huh? You think I shouldn’t brag until I’ve conquered the whole thing?

Don’t be stupid.

As if any sane living being could conquer that insane place.

It was hard enough for me, a sane spider, to escape at all.

And before you ask, I’m not responding to any questions about the “sane” part, thank you.

“Skreeee, skree, skree, skree!”

Anyway, how am I gonna beat this cicada?

For that matter, is it actually a cicada?

I mean, the thing’s gigantic.

A single tree can’t even support its weight. It’s sitting there with each of its legs curled around a different tree.

Its body has the black luster of a beetle, and its wings refract light in all colors of the rainbow.

Again, it is a cicada… right?

“Skreeee, skree, skree, skree!”

I mean, it doesn’t exactly look like a regular cicada, but it’s making the cicada sound and stuff.

Let’s just call it a cicada and be done with it.

Anyway, every time this giant cicada makes its shrieky song, the bird monsters trying to approach it get blown away.

Like me, they’re trying to hunt that giant cicada—and they’re totally getting the tables turned on them.

Birds losing to a cicada, huh…

Then again, I guess it’s kind of understandable.

When I Appraise the cicada’s stats, I can see why.

<Skreemin LV 10

Status

HP: 1,600/1,600 (green) (details)

MP: 1,235/1,599 (blue) (details)

SP: 1,543/1,543 (yellow) (details)

897/1,566 (red) (details)

Average Offensive Ability: 1,629 (details)

Average Defensive Ability: 1,577 (details)

Average Magical Ability: 1,601 (details)

Average Resistance Ability: 1,574 (details)

Average Speed Ability: 1,556 (details)

Skills

Skill Points: 30,000

Titles: None>

Is the name “Skreemin” supposed to be a joke or what?

More importantly, damn, those stats are high!

Most of its stats are right around the 1,600 mark.

If you’re wondering how strong that is exactly, it’s lower than the greater wyrm I once fought in the Great Elroe Labyrinth but higher than an average wyrm monster.

In other words, it’s on par with a decent-ranking wyrm.

So it’s a wyrm-level cicada. (…Is it a cicada?)

By the way, the bird monsters that keep charging at the cicada and getting knocked back repeatedly have stats that are all less than one hundred.

I dunno why you guys thought attacking that cicada was a good idea!

Anyone with half a brain can see that you’d never be able to beat it.

What’s driving them to do something so stupid?

Is it, like, their pride as a bird species?

Y’know… That “we’re not gonna lose to the likes of a measly insect!” mentality or whatever?

“Skreeee, skree, skree, skree!”

Nah, it’s probably just that the sound is so explosively loud that they’re attacking out of irritation.

I can’t blame ’em for wanting to lodge a complaint or two when someone’s making such a racket on their turf.

By the way, when I say “explosively loud,” I don’t mean it’s as loud as an explosion.

I mean the sound literally explodes.

Every time that giant cicada goes skree, the shockwaves from the sound spread in all directions and knock back anything in range that’s not tied down.

It’s like a sonic bomb.

Yep.

You might think there’s no way sound could produce a shockwave like that, but remember, this is a fantasy world, not old-fashioned realism.

That must be the effect of the giant cicada’s Sound Attack skill.

I guess even though the skill level is low, its high overall stats make up for that.

So every single skree is followed by a big kaboom.

And the damn thing never stops shrieking.

Meaning the explosions don’t stop, either.

I’m guessing it can control the direction of the blasts to an extent because the trees it’s standing on are still intact. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that you can’t carelessly approach something that’s continually setting off explosive blast waves all over the damn place.

This stupid cicada has somehow turned itself into an impregnable fortress.