not going to let the Insectoid die,> Samantha said, immediately, as the massive spider rushed towards me.

Evolved Spider (Level 78)

It wasn’t that I was scared. I had faced much worse than the giant spider, and I had survived.

But this was a question of capabilities. I had no idea how I could kill a spider that was likely D-rank and level 78, without the appropriate weapons.

An F-rank sword wouldn’t cut it (no pun intended). I had considered using the Insectoid’s claws and arms, but those were also F-rank.

Don’t underestimate yourself, Samantha said. Trust me.

I dry swallowed, and then followed Samantha’s combat shadow.

The first thing I did was I split everything, including my floating points, and the mana floating around my body, between Strength and Physical Defense.

Then, I tossed the insectoid away from the Evolved Spider, and I rushed directly towards the Spider.

I avoided the legs that stabbed towards me, slicing futilely at the hairy black legs with Tino’s Sword.

Eventually, the spider seemed to tire of trying and failing to stab me. Its head lunged towards me, fangs dripping with venom.

Unlike the Lamia Impression, the spider had a relatively small mouth, considering the size of the rest of its body. It wasn’t a mouth in the normal sense of the word. It was basically a dark hole. I couldn’t see any teeth or tongue from where I stood.

From the way the spider used its legs, I would hazard a guess that it was more accustomed to shredding apart its prey with its legs before devouring its meal.

I let the spider’s fangs approach me, and then I grabbed the spider’s fangs with my left hand, lifting myself up and pulling myself into the spider’s tube-like mouth.

The moment I did, I realized why Samantha had insisted I put so many points into my Physical Defense.

The mouth was dripping in venom that burned my skin on contact, and it was currently touching every inch of my body.

I had around 150 points in Physical Defense, and I could tell I needed each and every point.

I was caught in the spider’s tube-like mouth, It wasn’t clear if this was where the spider wanted me, or if it just couldn’t fit me further down its mouth. My feet extended awkwardly out of the spider’s mouth, and I could feel the spider’s legs stabbing into my own legs.

There was very little room to maneuver—my elbows could barely extend out from my body, and I couldn’t see anything except for what I could make out with Mana Sensing.

But I didn’t need to see anything, because I could still “see” Samantha’s combat shadow guiding me forward.

I drew Tino’s sword, and stabbed it up, through the softer membranes that made up the spider’s mouth-tube, up towards the spider’s head, where I guessed its brain was.

My sword met considerable resistance, but I managed to push it through, and a dense spray of blood fell onto me, and just a second later, I felt the spider’s body collapsing to the ground, and the tube around my shoulders relaxed, slightly.

But apparently I wasn’t done yet—I followed the combat shadow up the feeding tube of the spider, and the tube grew narrower and narrower around me, but after traveling about a yard or two, I was able to stab once again, carving out a space on the inside of the spider’s internal organs, and then I thrust an arm through various gooey membranes until I had an Evolved Spider Core in my hands.

Then, I compressed my body, and I allowed gravity and the slick mixture of blood and venom around me to pull me down, back out the spider’s feeding tube, landing in a puddle of dissolved earth and grass.

I could see the Insectoid flapping away and trying to escape, but I ignored it, focusing first on harvesting the most valuable parts of this spider.

I had already collected the Evolved Spider Core, but ironically that was not at all useful to me at the moment.

Anything that I collected on the Infinite Tower’s floors was not actually real—the Tower Store would allow me to trade it for points, but I wouldn’t be able to take it out of the Tower afterwards.

On the flip side, anything that I bought in the Tower can be used on the various floors, as well as in the real world, when I return.

Samantha had explained to me that it was a common mistake to continually upgrade your equipment every time you reach the store.

If you do that, you would end up with a set of F-rank equipment, and then E-rank equipment. But by the time you see the prices for C-rank equipment, you would likely realize that it would have required you to save up every point in order to afford C-rank equipment.

So the way around that was to make your own weapons.

I certainly wasn’t a blacksmith, but I was able to pull out the two fangs from the spider’s mouth, which I figured I could use as knives. I also hacked off a few limbs with Tino’s sword, which was painfully difficult.

I took some extra spider strands that the spider had sprayed everywhere, and used them to tie a bunch of the limbs and my own F-ranked sword together like a bundle of sticks.

Once I had several limbs and a sword tied together and slung over my back, I chased after that last Insectoid, wielding a spider’s fang in my left hand and a serrated spider’s limb with a pointy end on the other.

Due to its injuries, the Insectoid hadn’t been able to go far. I waited until I had reached full mana again, and then I killed it, with my floating points put into Luck for good measure.

I appeared in a white hallway, staring down five goblins. Their equipment immediately made it obvious that they were a diversified team. There was a shield warrior, a swordsman, an archer, a mage, and a sorcerer, all standing in my way.

Even though I knew that they were illusions, I was surprised to realize they looked just as real as I would expect fantasy creatures to appear. They had pale green skin, wide, beady eyes, and a look of fear and anticipation as they watched me. They shifted nervously, talking quickly to themselves—“Sorcerer, Mage, and archer first. Shield, ready.”

A quick Identify revealed that their levels were all 39. Judging from their aura, I could tell that they were all F-rank.

Samantha said.

Right. You consider getting eaten by an Evolved Spider easy?

Samantha said, as if that explained everything.

I cast another glance over them, stepping to my left to avoid an arrow and fireball that flew past my head.

They all wore F-rank equipment. It all looked rather uninspiring. A shield, a helmet, a sword, a wand, a sorcerer’s tome…

And then I caught sight of something that looked genuinely exciting. An Interdimensional Pouch, F-rank, at the magician’s belt.

I split all my mana between Agility and Luck, and a second later, the battle was over.

It was almost sad, how easy it was. I had a D-rank spider’s limb which cut through their skin and armor with ease. With my heightened Agility, it felt as though I was just walking up to them and stabbing them in slow motion.

I surveyed the bodies around me thoughtfully.

I had only knocked the Shield Warrior unconscious. This gave me the chance to collect the loot.

Originally, I had been excited about an F-rank Interdimensional Pouch, but I quickly realized how spoiled I was in that regard. F-rank pouches were capable of holding one cubic foot of space. This was, in effect, nothing.

The pouch came with some health and mana potions inside, which took up most of the space.

I pried the massive shield away from the unconscious Shield Warrior’s hands, and by turning it upside down, I had a sort of platform that could hold all the loot that I was going to collect.

One of the ways of making points in the Tower was selling things. Samantha really didn’t want me wasting any points or items.

Once I had everything set up, I killed the last shield warrior, which triggered the win conditions for the floor and I appeared on the next stage.