Edward absorbed the blood essence of the fallen tarantula. Counting this one he had benefitted from the blood essence of three tarantulas in quick succession. Even before he had killed the giant black widow, his powers had already started to improve, his teleportation range increasing as well as his physical abilities. His acceleration was faster as well, though it was hard to notice while fighting against fast enemies.

Edward was enjoying a power rush toward the next stage. People would have been shocked out of their wits if they learned how little time he had spent to reach this point. Most adventurers lingered at the awaken stage never reaching the predator level.

To reach the predator stage it normally took years for adventurers who were actually aiming for it, ready to take more dangerous contracts and hunt more powerful beasts instead of choosing safety and standard contracts. Additionally, once one reached the predator stage, it was usual to give up on adventuring. Successful adventurers were already quite old by that time, and their newly acquired status afforded them enough money to live comfortably.

For the noble families, it was easier to reach this stage thanks to the help of elixirs and mercenaries hunting beasts. However, it came with a cost. Once at the predator stage, they became buried with responsibilities and couldn’t just leave to hunt monsters anymore. They wouldn’t receive any help from their families at this point. The family masters at the patriarch stage weren’t eager to see a rival raising to their level unless they were looking for a successor.

And even if someone somehow managed to avoid those drawbacks, there was still the problem of the monsters’ availability. Monsters able to use auras were supposed to be rare, no more than two or three would reside in a region, each with their own territory. To successfully hunt numerous monsters like those, one would have to travel a lot. This meant exploring uncharted territory, which took time and was especially dangerous since monsters could display unexpected abilities. To compensate for the level of danger one could hire helpers, but that meant sharing the blood essence as well, decreasing the rate of progress to the next stage.

Additionally, other towns also had their own eager people hunting for such monsters, decreasing their population even further. Encountering such monsters repeatedly like Edward wasn’t something normal, and only demonstrated how crazy this surge was. Without Edward’s involvement in the region, there was a good chance that Gobéliard would have already been on the verge of destruction.

However, Edward’s happiness didn’t last long. He had been able to survive and become stronger even with five giant tarantulas against him, but two had managed to escape and he still had no idea how to deal with the Arachne. Tarantulas weren’t actually suited for prolonged battles, their strong point was setting ambushes. The fact that they escaped meant that Edward couldn’t relax. At any time they could form a portal under his feet. And since they had a longer teleportation range than him, though restricted to the webs only, he couldn’t outrun them. It would be really bothersome if they employed hit-and-run tactics.

As for the Arachne, he didn’t have enough information to gauge its power. All he knew was that she was able to order the tarantulas around and that she was moving crazily fast, acting perfectly normal even in a dense mana area. At this point Edward’s acceleration wouldn’t give him any advantage, it was only a prerequisite to fight it. It was hard to judge if his recent power-ups would be enough to deal with this opponent when he didn’t have a point of comparison to judge its power.

Edward didn’t linger anymore, he didn’t run further away to escape but instead tried to run around what he thought was the portal location. The fight had made him lose his orientation, and with everything covered in webs, he had no landmarks to retrace his location. He was hoping that by running parallel to the portal he would stumble on another one of those web ropes, showing him the way toward the portal and the origin point of the spiders.

He needed some time to think about his approach and rushing blindly hoping for the best, wasn’t the wisest move. That’s why after moving sufficiently far away from the battle locations with the tarantulas, Edward hid in a tree, using the same method as before. He gutted the tree, dispersed the cut wood, settled inside the empty trunk, and close the entrance behind him. From the outside, it was simply another ordinary tree covered in spiderwebs.

Now that he was relatively safe and that he had time to think, Edward planned his next move. He had no guarantee of winning against the Arachne so he had to proceed carefully. The best would be to destroy the portal while avoiding the fight. However, such a thing appeared improbable at best. Such an important location would be tightly guarded. It was vacant of any guards when Edward reached it only because the Arachne was waiting for him.

Considering how the Arachne has dispatched the tarantulas to kill me, I doubt it will chase after me by itself. It is too proud and full of itself for that menial task. Also, it is a sentient monster, it knows how important the portal is while also knowing that normal spiders won’t be able to stop me. I doubt it will take the risk to leave the portal’s location without knowing where I am.

However, I can use this pride as well. If I make it wait a few days, it should grow impatient. The moment it learns my location it will rush to kill me. Guarding a spot for days is a dull job and not one fitted for prideful individuals. Edward sighed. If I had Leyla with me, I could have set a timer on those bombs. Hid them inside a nest and stealthily come near the portal, using the explosion as a distraction to lure the Arachne out. But I have no idea how to set a timer so I have no choice but to drop this idea.

Then if a fight is inevitable, I need to put all the advantages to my side. Killing those tarantulas made me grow in power. I should see if I can improve the density of my aura blades further. I have time to improve myself, the more I make the Arachne wait, the more impatient it will grow, and the more likely it is that it makes a mistake.

Also, I do not need to fight it in its territory. I’m currently in their domain and everything is covered with spiderwebs. I don’t know its powers, but I’m pretty sure it will advantage it in some way or the other. I can still use this idea about destroying a nest. I have no timer, but at least it will clear an area of webs. I can let it come to me and deal with the portal later once the fight is done.

And if it comes to the worst and I realize I won’t be able to defeat it, then it will give me an escape path. With my aura steps I can fly, I just need a hole in the webs covering the canopy.

Anyway, if I’m not able to defeat it, it is better if I flee. Staying there will be too dangerous and I would only manage to delay the spiders without dealing with the heart of the problem.

Knowing what he needed to do, Edward’s heart was at peace. He single-mindedly focused on improving the density of his aura blades, forgetting all else. He repeatedly summoned his aura blades and fueled them with aura while preventing their growth until he was about to lose control before repeating the process once again. He didn’t dare to risk actually losing control and generating an aura blast. Although he was hidden, he was still in enemy territory. Making the Arachne impatient so that it chased him after he blew up a nest was a good idea, but he didn’t want to display his location early, that wouldn’t bring him any advantages.

Time passed as Edward continued his training. Since he felt that he was still making progress and that he could still increase his aura density, he kept doing it. When he needed to move after staying cloistered inside the tree-confined space, he probed his surroundings with his aura. With the webs in the way he wasn’t able to sense much, but he could still roughly detect if a squadron of wolf spiders was in the area or not. When the way was clear, he teleported directly outside, being careful not to touch any webs. In mid-air he formed aura steps and did a few laps around the tree before teleporting back into his hideout, not displacing the entrance by an inch and not leaving any traces behind.

He wasn’t sure how much time went by. It was hard to keep up with the passage of time in an environment where everything looked the same and where the sun could barely pierce through the webs hiding the sky.

However, what Edward knew, was that he did sleep several times, feeling the fatigue catch up to him after intense training sessions. Considering that he could easily spend a day without sleep while still not getting tired it meant that his training lasted several days, maybe even more than a week.

He was also surprised by how much time he could spend without eating. He hadn’t taken many provisions with him. Leyla’s bombs already took some space, and he couldn’t carry too much since it became cumbersome. Moreover, it ran the risk of getting destroyed while he was fighting. The few supplies that he did have had long ran dry.

I know killing monsters and absorbing their essence is slowly turning me into a superhuman, but still. I have never tested how long I can last without food but I didn’t expect I could not eat for days without consequences. By now I thought I would have to roast a spider or two to satiate my hunger.

Edward had only occasionally skipped a meal while he was busy hunting monsters, but he did like eating and he didn’t usually skip meals, more than happy to sample the different recipes from this world. I guess absorbing the Tarantula’s blood essence must have helped with that. After hall, it is a bit as if I was drinking their blood in a way. Edward shuddered internally, disgusted by the idea of sipping the blood of giant spiders as if he had turned into some kind of giant mosquito.

As his training continued, his progress started to slow down until he reached a bottleneck. Okay, that’s it. I won’t achieve any more progress staying here. I need a different angle of approach or more aura to make any progress. It’s time to go. With how much time has passed, I bet this Arachne must be seething with impatience.