The next day, after a hearty breakfast, enduring some lovely cuddling to help Soph, as she put it ‘recharge’, and post completing his new daily magic practice, Lone left the fort with Soph in tow.

The two of them were now trekking into the forest again. Of course, Soph had swapped out with Sophie before they left home.

While she had no aversion to spiders like her colder side, Soph just didn’t have the same battle-senses or quick decision-making skills Sophie did.

She had promised to work on that, but for now, she let her more physically able self handle adventuring with Lone.

Lone had no issues with this. As much as he’d love to have the shy yet bubbly Soph around while slaughtering magical spiders, sadly, Sophie was, in fact, the much wiser choice.

She didn’t much like his sense of humour when he tried to tease her or make small talk. He’d crack her shell eventually though, he told himself. A challenge, to be sure, but one that he would happily rise to.

On the topic of his magic, Crude Waterball, Crude Boulder, and his Crude Wind Blade, had all reached advanced-level-two while his relevant resistances had gone up to intermediate-level-two.

"Crude Fireball," Lone said after his internal chanting was completed. The next second, a Manasilk spider's head was engulfed in flames. Less a moment later and its body was slumping down onto the leafy forest floor below it.

Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 3. Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 4.

Lone immediately stowed the monster's corpse away in his Dimensional Storage before he turned to Sophie. "Which direction now?"

A massive frown was on the girl's face beneath her helmet. "There are no small spiders nearby, however, something with a massive amount of mana that is also very… big just entered our Mana Sensing's range. The queen, maybe? It has a similar anatomy to the smaller ones we have been dealing with thus far, only much, much larger. Should we run?"

Lone shook his head and made a split second decision. "I want to fight her assuming she's come to avenge her babies. She might be able to push me to F-rank."

Sophie shrugged. "We do not even want to see such a creature. Unsummon us if you are going to fight it. Simply summon us again if you wish to flee, we shall teleport you away instantly. It is fast, but we are confident we are faster."

Lone nodded. "Will do. Unsummon Sophie Vladimirovich." With those three words, the armoured girl seemingly disappeared from existence.

"Bone Armour," Lone muttered, resulting in everything bar his tails being wrapped in pure-white bones.

Lone had yet to fight even one of the smaller Manasilk Spiders properly, so he wasn't going to risk fighting the queen without his armour like he had done with the powerful orc from the other day.

He stood perfectly still as he held his steel swordspear a bit nervously. 'Where is it? Maybe I should have asked Sophie that before I unsummoned her... But then again, it's a spider, so it could be anywhere right now... I can't see it, but sti- Shit!'

Almost instinctively, Lone tried to move out of the way as alarm bells sounded off in his mind. Something instinctual had told him to dodge.

Perhaps his Evasion Mastery, perhaps his gut, perhaps something Golden Foxkin related. It could have been anything.

That last option was unlikely though. Lone had looked into the race of his species he happened to be a part of. There were so many legends regarding what they capable of it was a bit disorienting, really.

Enough so that he had to dismiss damn-near all of it all made up stories used to help mystify the race of foxkin that had disappeared one hundred years ago.

Regardless, Lone had failed to follow the feeling in time and was struck by something. a searing pain assaulted his body as he jumped to the side.

Directly in front of him could be seen a massive creature easily the size of a mini-van, and in its mouth was one of Lone’s nine tails.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Evasion Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Evasion Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Evasion Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

‘So it was Evasion Mastery. I swear, I need to stop overthinking this kinda shit,’ Lone thought before suddenly the searing pain didn’t go away with the help of Basic Regeneration as it should have. No, it only spread even further through his body.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

‘Yeah, I am kinda pissing myself here? Why isn’t the pain going away?’ Lone questioned internally as he backed away from the towering beast that was salivating as it slowly crept closer towards him.

The host has developed the passive skill: Poison Resistance.

“You bitch! You poisoned me!” Lone exclaimed in shock.

It made complete sense when he thought about it but he was annoyed that a creature that clearly vastly outclassed him physically had decided to secrete its venom into his system when it had also ripped one of his tails clean off.

As Lone tried his best to ignore the hot pain coursing through his veins on top of the uncomfortable and gnawing sensation that it was to have one of his tails - essentially a limb – torn from his body.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 7. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Poison Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Poison Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Poison Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.

The notifications were getting in the way, so Lone dedicated a portion of his concentration to actively ignoring them as he kept a firm eye on the lumbering monster that was eating his tail like a snack while it stared at him.

The point where all of his tails converged at his hip stung so strongly that it felt like 1,000 wasps had attacked it all at once. Physical Pain Resistance helped, of course, but just because it helped resist the pain, that didn’t mean it was suddenly gone or anything.

He willed a bit of his mana into increasing the speed of his Basic Regeneration. That would reduce the pain.

Within seconds, his ninth tail had started to regrow and the numbness and agony that had spread through his body like a wildfire receded a bit.

'Basic Regen can purge poison?' Lone would have normally spent some time thinking over this new discovery, but the spider queen in front of him had almost finished her snack, so he had to act now.

"Lightning Bolt!" he cast as he began chanting the needed magic lines for Crude Fireball in his mind.

With a crisp crackling of the air, a beautiful bolt of blue energy jumped from Lone's open palm and landed perfectly on one of the monster's many dozen eyes.

"Kiiiiiii!" the beast screeched in pain as it dropped what was left of Lone's severed tail and then tried its best to shield its burst eyeball with one of its many legs.

Its movements were sluggish, and a lot of the monster's muscles were cramping up due to the lightning that was still bouncing around in its body.

Lone didn't stand still as the massive spider tried to fight the nerve damage and temporary paralysis.

No, he instead gripped his swordspear with both of his hands and then lunged at the beast. "Pierce!" he yelled, activating the ability of his skill, Swordspear Mastery.

With a soul-wrenching growl, the Manasilk Spider Queen managed to open her mouth and clamp down on the large blade that was coming straight for her head.

She closed her jaw immediately upon catching the end of Lone's weapon, resulting in it snapping off like it was made of paper.

He quickly dropped his weapon and dodged to the side as a leg swiped at his head, clearly intent on taking it clean off.

Reaching into his Dimensional Storage, Lone pulled out another swordspear identical to the last one.

Naturally, Lone had expected his weapon to get damaged during a fight, so he had prepared several backup ones just in case such a situation ever arose.

Lone pirouetted and slashed the massive monster's belly with his swordspear. It couldn't block him this time, but to Lone's horror, his weapon barely grazed the beast.

"What fucking rank are you?!" Lone asked fully not expecting an answer as he jumped away.

'Lightning Bolt worked, but my swordspear's fuckin' less than useless. I can maybe hurt her with it if I can stab her from the inside, but fuck getting inside of her. I'd sooner talk to that hero again than jump in a mouth that has fangs the size of my hand all laced with a deadly numbing poison,' Lone decided.

"Alright! Come at me, you big bitch!" Lone taunted the monster as he used his Bone Armour ability to create a shield.

A towering greatshield the size of his body was formed out of his own bones in front of him as he held it with both hands. He didn't strictly need to touch it since it was connected to his armour, but it helped him steel himself mentally for the coming assault.

'Only ten more seconds and I'll be done chanting...' Lone thought to encourage himself.

He was really hoping that the Crude Fireball would make the damned thing's head just explode. It was this faint hope that gave him some modicum of bravery despite the threat of his exposed tails being ripped out again or that heinous poison flowing through his veins once more.

Hell, the creepy car-sized spider could kill him with a single move if it really wanted to.

With a menacing hiss, the massive arachnid scuttled along the ground straight towards Lone. In less than a second, it had closed the distance and then swiped at him with two of its front legs while also attempting to bite his head off.

Evasion Mastery moved Lone's body for him, forcing his spine to arch back. The two furry limbs of the monster pierced his armour and internal organs in one swift motion, but his shield had managed to deflect the creature's massive fangs.

‘Strong limbs, weak jaw. Noted,’ Lone thought rapidly.

He then clenched his teeth as he poured even more of his MP into his Basic Regeneration. In a stroke of luck, his armour tightly clamped around the two sharp legs that were lodged in his body, so the Manasilk Spider Queen wasn't going anywhere fast.

'Shit! Sure, it can't move, but neither can I! Also, were the thing's fucking limbs covered in poison or something?! I can still move my tails, but what goo-, wait, my tails?' Lone felt two more spider legs enter his abdomen and more of its toxic poison began violently assaulting his body. "Fuck it! I've got nothing to lose right now!"

Lone gave in to his rage and desperation. His eight remaining tails all rapidly descended onto the spider's body in a seemingly insane attempt to penetrate her exceedingly thick skin.

'So fucking what if they do nothing?! Attack my tails, not me! I only need another five seconds!' Lone yelled internally, but the very next second, he almost went deaf as an ear-piercing screech sounded off from the creature's massive mouth.

He couldn't see most of the spider queen due to his massive shield blocking his vision, but the tips of his tails felt wet... They felt... sticky.

With a single massive tug, the Manasilk Spider queen retreated backwards, resulting in the ends of her four legs that were embedded in his armour being severed from the sheer force.

Moving his shield slightly, Lone was amazed to see green blood covering the ends of his tails as well as eight noticeably large holes on the monster's body. "No way..."

"Kiiiii!" The beast sounded scared and very reluctant to attack once more.

Seeing this, Lone's dropped his thoughts regarding his tails and immediately cast another spell to prevent her from fleeing. "Lightning Bolt!"

Much like before, the magic was far too fast for the monster to dodge it, so she ended up having her muscles spasm wildly as she struggled to stand on her six remaining healthy legs.

Lone didn't let this opportunity pass him up. He absorbed the bone greatshield back into his body and then charged at the spider.

"Die, you bitch!" he shouted, and he jumped on its head and then shoved his hand into her mouth. "Crude Fireball!"

Immense pain attacked his mind as he felt the Manasilk Spider Queen's fangs bury deeply into his arm, but he ignored that and dedicated all of his attention to boosting Basic Regeneration. "If you ain't dead yet, I swear to fucking God, I'mma blast you with Mental Destruction!"

Luckily, he didn't have to follow through on his threat. A few seconds passed, and the beast's grasp on his arm weakened as the life in its eyes disappeared.

Lone heaved a heavy sigh of relief. He felt like death itself, but he had won. He stored the monster's body, his broken weapon, and what was left of his severed tail, then he summoned Sophie.

"Finished, are you? I was expecting you to lo-" Sophie's words came to a halt when she saw the state that Lone was in.

One of his tails was missing, his bone armour was painted red with his own blood, four unidentifiable things were stuck in his torso, and - perhaps what had hit the girl the hardest, he was barely even able to stand as his body shook and convulsed. "What happened?"

"I fucking won, that's what," Lone said very roughly. "Bring us back home, would you? I need to lie down. Oh, I also need you to rip out these legs for me. I can't heal my lungs or intestines or any of my other innards with the legs in the way. Do that first, please."

Sophie hated spiders, he knew this, she knew this, Soph knew this. Still, she nodded regardless. Without wasting even a moment, she dug her armoured hand into his wound and ripped what was left of a leg out the moment he cancelled his Bone Armour.

After repeating that process three more times, she slung Lone's uninjured arm over her shoulder and then she teleported away.