Show Me Your Stats!-Chapter 144

Janus didn’t even question Ayra’s vague explanation that she had found the spiders’ location through search magic. Thankfully for her, most people—including dragons—didn’t know much about magic.

They mounted their horses again and headed into the forest where the spiders had fled, but before long, they had to dismount.

“This is bad... It’s going to be tough to go further on horseback.”

The horses stamped and snorted violently in front of the webs. Stirred by the earthquake, the excited spider swarm had scattered sticky threads across the entire [N O V E L I G H T] path. The webs were so large that they even snared birds and rabbits, which struggled helplessly where they hung.

After a moment of hesitation, Ayra began untying the reins. They were going to be wandering the forest for several days—she couldn’t leave the horses tied up here. Given their intelligence and resistance to cold, they would survive just fine in the forest. If needed later, she could either find them with Pebble’s tracking ability or rely on Janus’s keen dragon sense of smell.

Janus, watching silently as Ayra worked, finally asked:

“Do we really have to let them go?”

“Hm? What if we don’t?”

She wondered if he was suggesting selling them off in the next city, but instead, Janus smacked his lips and looked at the horses. One of them suddenly foamed at the mouth.

“Let’s just catch one and roast it right here.”

Ignoring his suggestion, Ayra let the horses go free. Despite Janus appearing human, the horses must have sensed his bestial greed, because the moment the reins came off, they bolted like lightning. After handing Janus a bundle of jerky, Ayra walked toward the spider silk, curiosity lighting up her face.

“Ooh... So this is the spider silk?”

She pulled out a thin pair of gloves from her subspace and carefully touched the web. According to Gretel, these monsters spun enormous amounts of silk, and the reality matched the description. The threads had the same tensile strength and elasticity as ordinary spider silk but were multiple times thicker and longer.

“Fascinating...”

While Janus quietly chewed on his jerky to satisfy his hunger, Ayra crouched down and studied the webs for a long time before standing back up. Glancing around, she turned to Janus, who stood idly nearby.

“Janus, could you break me off a long branch? About... this long.”

She spread her arms to show about a meter in length. Her plan was to collect visible spider silk while she was here in the forest—for research samples, to disrupt Sobletz’s soldiers when they inevitably followed to track the spiders, and to test out potential silk production.

“That’s easy.”

Stuffing the remaining jerky into his mouth, Janus sprang up on the spot. In an instant, he leapt several meters into the air and hung from a branch. A loud crack followed by the crash of snow piled on the tree came tumbling down. As snow poured down her collar, Ayra squealed and jumped on the spot. Moments later, Janus landed on the ground with a thud, holding a branch the height of a grown man and as thick as an arm.

“This one good?”

“Yeah. Just need to strip the twigs off and it’ll be perfect. Is it heavy?”

Ayra shivered as she pulled up her collar and asked. Janus casually stripped the twigs bare with his hands, the wood snapping off with cracking sounds, then swung the branch lightly through the air.

“Not really.”

“Alright, then...”

Ayra pulled out her magical amplifier. Janus recognized the artifact from their battle in the lakeside village and eyed it with curiosity. Ayra opened the amplifier and poured in a fistful, then another, and then a third handful of mana stones. Though powerful, the device consumed mana stones at a terrifying rate—an absolute glutton.

Soon, the amplifier’s intricate mechanisms began ticking softly. Chains wrapped around Ayra’s arm with a metallic clink, securing it tightly as her magic activated.

A cold breeze swept through, and the scattered spider silk began to lift gently into the air. It swirled overhead in large loops before coiling tightly around the long branch Janus held.

Ayra walked onward, gathering up every visible strand of silk and winding them around the branch. After an hour, the branch had swollen like cotton candy. Satisfied, she tucked it into her subspace. Janus went off to break another branch, and Ayra continued using her magic to collect silk as they moved.

How long had they walked? When they had completed three massive balls of silk, Janus asked:

“So, when are you going to get your revenge on that guy? Can I watch?”

Ayra, long accustomed to the dragon’s indifferent, tactless mindset—treating vengeance for murdered family as mere entertainment—replied offhandedly.

“I don’t know. I’m still figuring out how.”

Her enemy was a lord of a far wealthier, larger territory than Solar, but if it was just a matter of killing him, that wouldn’t be a problem. Ayra could think of dozens of ways to kill Jumenie Orseng right now. But what she truly wanted... was for that vile man to know who was coming for him, why, and to suffer every moment of it.

Lost in thought, she didn’t realize that the amplifier had run out of mana stones. The sun was already setting, the temperature dropping fast—but thankfully, it was far less cold than Solar, and no snow was falling, making it more bearable. With her chilled fingers, Ayra fumbled to refill the amplifier.

Then Janus suddenly lifted his head.

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“Hm? I smell spiders nearby.”

Checking the map, she saw he was right—blue dots were scattered all around. Soon, spiders began to emerge from the shadows of the dense forest. Each was the size of two adult human heads put together, clicking their fangs menacingly. Ayra gasped and covered her mouth in awe.

“Gasp—aren’t they... kind of cute?”

Janus, who had been slowly drawing his sword, froze and turned to stare at her. Meeting his gaze, Ayra hastily clarified.

“I don’t mean cute cute—it's just that, like, even within the same species, animals can look different depending on the region. Like how Solar horses have much thicker coats than Bolni horses.”

Judging by his face, he didn’t seem convinced. Janus raised an eyebrow silently, and Ayra added,

“Like, northern Ocampanias are smaller and rounder with lighter coloring compared to southern ones, right? So they look cuter by comparison. Southern silk spiders are huge and flashy like poisonous spiders. See what I mean?”

“Not really.”

“...”

“And just for the record, I never actually said anything.”

Shrugging, the dragon paused, then—perhaps because he was trying to court her—made a rare attempt at kindness.

“Well, you know... maybe there are people who find northern silk spiders cuter than the southern ones. Human tastes are pretty diverse. And, uh... I think you’re cuter than all those ‘normal’ humans with their boring tastes.”

Even though Janus had made an effort to be considerate—or perhaps comforting—Ayra didn’t feel particularly happy about it...

“Didn’t you say you were collecting the spiders? Then we’re not supposed to kill them, right?”

“Right. Just wait a moment. I brought something they’ll like.”

While Ayra rummaged through her subspace, the silk spiders, provoked by intruders in their territory, began spitting sticky threads. In an instant, the entire area was engulfed. Janus raised his sword and slashed away the incoming webs.

“Aha, found it—”

Just as she triumphantly exclaimed, Ayra was suddenly knocked flat on her back. Janus had tripped her. The moment she fell, a spider zipped right through the spot where her head had just been. Looking up, she realized spiders had taken over the trees above. There were so many that the branches sagged under their weight.

Unbothered, Ayra lay there and closely observed the spiders’ cephalothoraxes and spinnerets. Satisfied that they weren’t much different from southern silk spiders, she tossed the vial sloshing with liquid.

Being a subspecies of magical beasts, silk spiders were much more intelligent than ordinary spiders. One raised its forelegs and swatted the bottle away. The vial shattered with a crack, and a grayish powder burst out. Carried by the wind, the powder spread among the spiders. Soon, they began to collapse, one by one, as if dead.

“A sedative?”

“More like a sleeping agent.”

Ayra tried to sit up but only managed to twitch. She had fallen directly onto the web-covered ground, and her robe was stuck in the mess. Luckily, she’d worn her hood, so her hair wasn’t caught.

Knowing the effects wouldn’t last long, Ayra carefully lifted a spider with magic. She cautiously tried placing it into her subspace.

Subspace was fatal to living creatures. Though easy to access—existing in a separate dimension—it would inexplicably kill anything alive in a short time. Decades ago, a few foolish but brave mages had entered subspace themselves. According to their testimonies, their magic drained rapidly, and once depleted, their cells aged at terrifying speed.

No matter how hardy the creature, it wouldn’t last long. In the sterilized environment of subspace, only magical beasts survived. This applied to their subspecies too, though some died more easily due to environmental shifts, so Ayra was slightly anxious.

She closed the subspace after putting the spider in. Even the slowest deaths usually happened within five minutes, so she waited ten just to be sure before opening it again. The spider was fine.

With a sigh of relief, Ayra bundled several of the spiders into a pre-prepared mesh bag and placed it into the subspace. Then she froze. A sudden thought made her slowly turn to look at Janus, who stood nearby with a disinterested expression. Their eyes met, and Janus raised an eyebrow.

“What?”