"Gah… Ah… Woo-!"
The cries of the spider reverberated throughout the surroundings as she tried her best not to vomit while eating the monster.
"Shiraori! Are you okay? Hold on!" Adam shouted, worried about her.
He grimaced as he pinched his nose in order not to throw up. Despite him eating monsters too, he ate them with [Gluttony], so he didn't need to go through this disgusting process himself.
He went beside the spider and started rubbing her white and soft cheeks.
Shiraori ignored Adam, who was playing with her cheeks in an attempt to comfort her... she was still very dissatisfied as she tossed the remains of the monster with her limbs. "What the hell is this?! Although I expected it to be bad, I didn't know it was this unpalatable!" She shouted, questioning her life decisions.
"Indeed, just the smell alone makes me disgusted." He agreed with the spider, taking an experimental breath of his own.
He looked at the pink and white spider that was about to throw up with pity. He was maintaining Appraisal the whole time, and while Shiraori's HP and SP values were slowly ticking down, her life wasn't actually in any danger.
She turned her head towards him, "Now I'm really jealous of that vortex ability you have..." She said with jealousy in her tone, being envious of his [Gluttony].
Adam smiled wryly at her. "It is an ability from another world- and it is a very dangerous world at that. You should first focus on becoming stronger before you think of going to other worlds." He said.
"On this.... if you want to become a Zana Horowa and leave this dungeon, you need a lot of rot resistance... Otherwise, you will die from your own attacks." He said to her, trying to motivate her by telling her about the consequences of not eating this monster.
Of course, Adam wasn't stingy; he had already imparted some of his knowledge to her, and he advised her to evolve into a Zana Horowa, as it would allow her to get stronger and leave this dungeon.
He also told her the conditions of evolving into that species- which was the main reason they were hunting Elroe Gastruchs currently.
Shaking his head, Adam smiled and patted Shiraori's little head affectionately, "Come on, Spider-chan, it is time to eat!"
The temperature around him froze, and yet still keeping a smile on his face, he raised his hand, ice blades manifesting in the air above the monster.
The projectiles suddenly dropped down, the disgusting monster being cut into countless pieces at his gesture.
"Come on, Shiraori-chan, I'll help you."
Adam said as he continued, raising his other hand, a raging wave of flames manifesting forth from his palms and going towards the Elroe Gastruch, roasting it in the process.
Shiraori instinctively gulped as she looked at the grilled Gastruch. She took a step forward, but her trembling body exposed her nervousness. Even if it was roasted....It was still disgusting!
-But after a bit of time, she steeled herself as she went up to the monster to eat it. Ever since she reincarnated in this dungeon, the only thing she had been eating were monsters she hunted, so while she was disgusted, she would still force herself and eat the Gastruch with her willpower.
'Though..... eating like this in front of Adam...' She was a little ashamed of doing this in front of him. She still has her values, and despite being a spider currently, she is still a lady!
-But she comforted herself with the knowledge that she would eventually get a human form
So no longer thinking of maintaining her image in front of Adam, Shiraori, who had let go of her reservations, opened her mouth and bit down on the monster with fierceness.
"Oh... Whoa...Ugh...."
In the process of reluctant eating, the notification of the system sounded in her mind.
[Rot resistance has leveled up to LV10]
"Finally..." The sound of the system in her mind made her so relieved that her eight eyes glistened as if wanting to cry tears of happiness
"Hm? What's the matter?" Adam asked her as he saw the spider stop.
He poked the spider once again, but there was no response.
"I'm full!" The spider said, dazed as she started heaving, taking deep breaths in exhaustion as if she had run a marathon.
"... You have worked hard." He said to her softly.
With unusually gentle movements, Adam picked up the spider, which was still on the ground. He leaned against a nearby rock, putting the spider on his lap as he started caressing her.
'Seems like my choice was right...' He said in his heart.
In the anime, people usually see the happy-go-lucky attitude of this little spider, but they often ignore the danger and the tribulations she has to face in the dungeon. Now that this is real life and he came here, he understood this point better than anyone.
-The start of other reincarnators in this world was thousands of times better than the little spider.
And because skill points come from the soul... the spider was actually just a normal spider in her previous life, so her fragile and weak soul could only grant her 100 skill points, while other reincarnators could even have up to 100,000.
-Still, it was a pity he didn't have any healing spells. His corruption powers and ice powers aside, even his unique skills from Tensura don't have any usage in healing.
Fortunately, the spider has a natural HP recovery that is high-level, so there is no problem.
Still, seeing Shiraori struggle so much does make him feel lucky that he reincarnated in Honkai Impact and not in an absurd world like this one or Warhammer. The fact of the matter is: the lives of ordinary people in Honkai Impact are quite good, especially if one knows the future and knows which places are the safest.
Adam could have lived like that, but he was obviously not satisfied with living an ordinary life; that was why he took the risk to get close to Raiden Mei.
Recalling their experience in the past few days, although it was easier to level up with Adam's help, the spider still had to face difficulties before leveling up.
"Yosh~! I have full health now!" The spider in his embrace suddenly shouted.
One second she was lying in his embrace, the next moment, she jumped out of his hug, dropped to the ground, and started dancing around out of happiness.
Adam looked at Shiraori doing her signature "Spider dance" with a blank expression on his face.
'Maybe I was overthinking...' He inwardly thought.
The corners of the spider's mouth were curved up in a smile, and as he saw that, the admiration and pity that Adam had for the spider disappeared in an instant. For now, he could only lament that this spider had a wonderful, complex, and yet unstable personality.
"Now that you have recovered, let's continue our hunt." He stood up as he said that with a little helplessness in his voice.
"Oh~Oh~" The spider nodded as if to say she understood.
Of course, as usual, the spider waved two of her limbs excitedly as she was ready to kill more monsters. With this pose, Shiraori followed Adam's figure.
…
..
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A/N:
This was a shorter chapter than usual
Sorry about that, I couldn't really think of anything to add without negatively affecting the chapter's quality
I still hope you enjoyed it, though!