The next day, after a hearty breakfast, some sorely-needed mutual cuddling between Lone and Soph, and Lone's new daily magic practice, the two of them were now trekking into the forest again. Of course, Soph had swapped out with Sophie before they left home.

Lone's 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-six.

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

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 large just entered our Mana Sensing's range. The queen, maybe? 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 rank up."

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."

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. A searing pain assaulted his body as he jumped to the side. Now directly in front of him was a massive creature easily the size of a mini-van, and in its mouth was one of his 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. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2. The host has developed the passive skill: Poison Resistance.

"Fuck... poison?" Lone muttered as he 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 - ripped off.

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 into 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 - a spot he'd aptly named the tail merger - stung so strongly that it felt like a thousand wasps had attacked it all at once.

He willed a bit of his mana into increasing the speed of his Basic Regeneration. Within seconds, his ninth tail had started to regrow and the numbness and agony that had spread through his body like a wildfire receded.

'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 Lone's severed tail and tried it's 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 that had entered her mouth, resulting in it snapping off like it was made of paper.

Lone hurriedly dropped his weapon and dodged to the side as a leg came swinging for his face.

Reaching into his Dimensional Storage, he 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 back-up 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 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 such a hope that gave him bravery despite the threat of his exposed tails being ripped out again or that heinous poison flowing through his veins once more.

With a menacing hiss, the spider queen 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 lungs in one swift motion, but his shield had managed to deflect the creature's massive fangs.

Lone 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 longed 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 laced in poison?! 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 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 took his greatshield back into his body and then charged at the spider. "Die, you bitch!" he shouted and he jumped on its head then shoved his hand in 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, in his Dimensional Storage, 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 with the legs in the way. Do that first, please."

Sophie hated spiders, but 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 then she teleported away.