So this is how it feels to get eaten. It’s quite painful… and cold, the alien thought.

The feeling of those giant sharp teeth grinding through his body is still fresh from his mind. Each bite felt like getting squashed in the middle of two walls-- and spiked ones at that. His Stage III body integrity, able to deflect normal strikes from a longsword, was rendered useless against such a beating. In the end, he was still made of a malleable, soft, easily tearable flesh, and the sad reality of him still being a weakling felt like a slap to his face.

“G-guru, ru…”

Darkness greeted him upon the opening of his eyes. Well, he would have been more surprised if there was light here, he’s inside that spider’s stomach after all. He’s floating on what he can only guess as the monster’s gastric juices, it slowly melting him as the time goes by.

Well, at least he can still feel something. That means he’s still alive, barely as though he may be. And that’s good! That way, he can enjoy the feeling of his body slowly melting and liquefying, coupled with its side effect mind-numbing pain.

Isn’t that great?

“Turu…”

No, it’s not. Like he’s going to give up this early in his life. One measly super-predator monster isn’t enough to deter him. One of his mantras is that there’s always a solution to any problem, and if it really doesn’t have one, then he’ll just have to make one himself.

First and foremost, he assessed the situation. This was already done a while ago, and he confirmed that he is indeed inside its stomach. Second would be checking his inventory. His case is missing, but he knows that he let go of it before he got eaten. It must be somewhere in the forest. His weapons are… rendered useless at the moment, seeing as his tentacles can barely even move.

He also doubts that his gastric juices would be effective to this one. It’s a big monster, so it must have a much more powerful digestive system. This only leaves him with one offensive ability, and that’s... his mouth.

He tries biting the nearest surface he can touch. It’s hard, at least harder than his body. His teeth can’t bite through…

“S-Suru…!”

Another try. He needs to bite harder! Again. Again.

“Ruru!”

This is the only ticket to his way out. Either he makes the monster throw him up outside, or he eats it from the inside. Whichever happens first doesn’t matter. All he wants is to get out. And get out he’ll do.

Meanwhile, on the outside, Sylph was congratulating her pet for a job well done. She flew up to its head and patted it with her tiny hands. It’s doubtful if the gigantic monster can even feel her, but it looked elated nonetheless.

“Good girl, Elsie. How did that weird thing taste?” the fae lightly giggled in the end.

The spider lets out a series of screech.

“Ooh, tomato? That’s interesting.” Sylph kept to herself how the giant spider even knows what tomatoes taste like. “Well, you can go back to your sleep now. I can handle the rest~.”

The ‘rest’ is actually nothing, but the bestial monster doesn’t have to know that. The green haired fairy watched as her pet lumbered back to its habitat, deep down the northern forest of Yggdrasil. It made quite the mess along the way, toppling over some trees here and there.

The humongous spider, or better know as ‘Elsie’, is the apex predator of Yggdrasil. The monster had been living here even when Yggdrasil itself was still nothing but a mere sapling. Elsie had been helping the previous guardians of this forest for generations, and recently, her. Sure, Sylph already lived for a long time even before becoming a guardian herself, but she’s still pretty sure that Elsie is far older than her.

It’s a mystery how no humans know about this monstrosity. Same to her, if they just know that a beast like Elsie is living here, this forest would have been ranked much higher than a ‘D’.

Over her time looking over Yggdrasil, Sylph started treating the ancient monster as if it’s her pet and even named her. Elsie didn’t seem to mind and was actually happy about it.

Sylph let out a deep sigh. “Well, there goes my entertainment.” she lazily flew up to her home, wanting nothing but to sleep.

How long had he been doing this already? Two, three hours? It felt like forever to him. Even after biting anything that he can touch, it doesn’t even seem to faze this spider. How much time does he have till he gets fully digested?

He’s starting to feel numb, and the fatigue is quickly settling in. It won’t be long till he meets his demise…

“Duru…”

No. The answer must be here somewhere. He just can’t… see it…

“Turu…?”

That’s right! This is a monster’s stomach, so there must be other ‘foods’ in here! He’ll be able to recuperate some of his strength, and with luck, he may even reach Stage IV!

He started swimming around. He already scanned out the surface, and there’s nothing floating here beside him. Still, there must be something on the bottom. After a quick dive, his barely working tentacles were able to grab something that feels organic, even though it does feel a little bit squishy after being doused in here for a long time.

He didn’t waste a second. Fully opening his circular mouth, he eats this unknown thing in one gulp.

It was probably a trio of corpses merged together. Still, 612 isn’t enough. If he remembers correctly, he has a total of 2,120 DNA. From what he has learned back in his world, Stage II’s requirement is 400 DNA, while Stage III’s is 1000 DNA. As for Stage IV, it’s 2500 DNA. So, he still needs 380 DNA…

That Juvenile spiders gave 204 DNA each. So he needs to find two more to finally reach the next stage. Even better, he finds something that gives more DNA.

He quickly dove back ‘underwater’ once again. He can’t see anything, and he felt like one of his tentacles was missing already. Still, he never stopped. Deeper and deeper, until his one remaining tentacle touched something.

He didn’t even wait to get back on the surface. Desperate, he began to eat it on the spot, even lapping up some of the spider’s gastric juices in the process.

The humongous spider’s eyes snapped back awake. Pain coursed through its whole body. Its blissful sleep was turned into a nightmare in mere seconds. It frantically stood up and began smashing its body to anything, even rolling on the ground in a vain attempt to stop whatever was causing this to the monster.

Trees were blown away, the land was leveled, but its bloodcurdling screech never stopped. No matter what it did, the stinging feeling from within its body never left. It didn’t understand what’s happening. It can’t see anyone nearby that might be causing this pain, and it doesn’t think that this is a mental magic attack of some kind. Elsie would have noticed from a mile away if that was the case, and crushed whoever dared to even think about it.

So this didn’t make sense to the monster. It can’t see anyone, can’t feel anything, and yet this pain wouldn’t stop. Elsie’s cries of anguish eventually began to die down, along with its body. It fell on the ground, with some of its leg twitching for the very last time.

On a certain part of its stomach, something tries poking out from inside. It dented higher and higher, until something finally burst out. There stood a triumphant familiar alien, all covered in blood, gore, and yellow gastric juices.

“Wuru!” it saluted with its recently regenerated tentacle and made a happy noise.