Chapter 5: Drago!

After all, this world looked exactly like the world from Kumoko's story!

But, Elliot wondered, why is she following me? And she's only Level 1... Does that mean she just hatched?

He knew he probably couldn't just ditch her, though. In the original story, Kumoko had that special gifted skill called "Godspeed." Every reincarnated person got one unique gifted skill, and Godspeed gave her extra movement speed equal to her level multiplied by 100.

Adding that to her base speed gave her a ridiculously high base speed stat of 348.

And yeah, that was her base speed.

With his own pathetic speed stat of 10, Elliot had no chance of outrunning her easily.

"Well, this makes things tricky," Elliot thought, shaking his head internally.

Unless he used his [Heavy Rock Nirvana] skill later to reach his adult form and gain the ability to fly, he probably couldn't beat Kumoko in a race.

"D-Drago! Drago!"

"Can you understand me, Drago...?"

Kumoko called out as she scurried after him.

She was being cautious. What if this wasn't another reincarnated person, but just a real Earth Dragon? It might turn around and attack her. So, she kept a safe distance.

"Drago... c-could you maybe let me tag along?"

She was getting pretty hungry now, her SP constantly ticking down. If he didn't respond soon, she'd have to go find food on her own.

Seeing this, Elliot knew letting this drag on wasn't a good idea.

In the original story, this little spider ended up basically conquering the entire Great Elroe Labyrinth. She had plot armor thicker than his rock scales and was destined to become a high-level monster.

And him? With his system, he was bound to get strong too. But one mountain can't hold two dragons, as the saying goes. Once they both got high-level, they were bound to clash eventually, maybe even fight to the death.

Cooperating seemed like the better option. Besides, his own speed was terrible. Teaming up with the super-fast Kumoko could make things easier for him too.

With that decided, Elliot glanced back at her and gave a slight nod, acknowledging her.

"Ah! So you are a reincarnated person too! That's great!"

A wide smile spread across Kumoko's... well, spider face. She worried that smiling might look creepy in her spider form, so instead, she did a little happy dance with her front legs, waving them around excitedly.

Just then, a notification popped up on Elliot's interface: a friend request. It was from Kumoko.

Adding someone as a friend apparently turned off friendly fire between them and enabled a party chat function, though it had a limited range.

Elliot accepted.

They were officially teammates.

"So, Drago, what's the plan now?" Kumoko scurried up closer to Elliot. Next to him, she looked tiny, like comparing a baby to an adult. 

It couldn't be helped; even young Earth Dragons were much bigger than spiders. Now that they were allies, his [Dragon Might] aura no longer affected her.

Elliot thought for a moment, then used a claw to start scratching words onto the dusty cave floor.

--MAKE NEST WITH WEB FIRST. WAIT FOR PREY--

After writing, Elliot looked at Kumoko. He remembered that in the story, Kumoko used her web-spinning ability to catch her first prey. They could just repeat that strategy now.

But Kumoko just looked confused. "Drago, just talk! Say something, Drago!"

"..." Elliot gave her the draconic equivalent of an eye-roll.

'Seriously? I haven't unlocked the ability to speak human language yet, you dope!'

….

It wasn't that Elliot couldn't make sounds Earth Dragons could definitely roar. But mimicking human speech? That took a lot of effort right now. So, Elliot wasn't about to start making garbled noises like this babbling spider.

Somehow, the little spider seemed able to use her vocal organs to make sounds pretty close to human speech.

Actually, there was a skill in the skill list called [Language Comprehension]. Learning it would let him understand and speak with anyone, whether they were giants, elves, insects, birds, or beasts.

But it cost 500 skill points! Way too expensive for something not essential right now. Elliot hadn't even considered learning it. Total pass.

Once he reached Level 15, he'd be able to use his [Heavy Rock Nirvana] skill to switch freely between a human-like form and his adult dragon form, which would also grant him the ability to speak properly. Why waste 500 skill points now when he could save them for something better?

--YOU GOING OR NOT?--

He wrote again.

"Going, of course I'm going!"

"Wait right here for me~!"

Kumoko lifted her front two legs in a wave, then zipped off in a blur.

While she was gone setting up her web trap, Elliot checked his own skill list.

Two new skills had appeared.

[Rock Burst LV 1]

[Starfell Stone LV 1]

In this world, besides actively learning and upgrading skills with points, you could also automatically gain some skills by leveling up or meeting certain conditions. 

For example, when Kumoko ate her siblings, she got the [Kin Eater] title and two bonus skills. 

Getting bitten by something poisonous might grant [Poison Resistance]. Spending too long in a hot area could grant [Heat Resistance], and so on.

However, to actively level up skills whenever you wanted, you still needed skill points. This was where reincarnated people had a huge advantage. 

Not only did they seem to get more points, but they also got that extra gifted skill. That's why most reincarnators could easily dominate the native creatures.

Elliot clicked on the new skills to check their effects.

[Rock Burst]: Active Skill. Detonate nearby earth-element objects, causing high Area of Effect damage. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

[Starfell Stone]: Active Skill. Use the power of the earth to create an earth-element construct, dealing damage to enemies in a small area upon creation. Max 3 constructs can exist at once.

After reading the descriptions, Elliot understood. His skills really were coming from other game worlds. And these two new skills he got from leveling up? They were practically designed to be used together one created earth constructs, the other detonated them.

Perfect!

Sure, this labyrinth was full of rocks, but when fighting enemies, if the first explosion didn't kill them, he might run out of nearby rocks for a second blast, which would be awkward. 

But with the [Starfell Stone] skill, he could create his own earth-element 'bombs' whenever he needed them.

Both [Rock Burst] and [Starfell Stone] seemed very much worth upgrading.

But after thinking it over, he decided to spend his 200 skill points upgrading [Earth Core] to LV 3 instead.

It wasn't that the other two skills weren't good, but [Earth Core] felt like the most core skill for his build.

Besides, even though Kumoko had that amazing speed skill, Godspeed, her base HP at Level 1 was only 30.

You heard right. That poor kid's starting health was ridiculously low. That was why leveling up was so painful for her in the original story. 

A single scratch from almost any monster could nearly kill her, forcing her to rely entirely on her insane speed to dodge and weave around enemies.

Upgrading [Earth Core] to Level 3 unlocked the ability to grant the shield to teammates. With Elliot's current HP, he could instantly give her a shield worth over a hundred points, preventing her from getting one-shotted.

Another reason was that Elliot didn't want his skill set to become too cluttered. Later in the story, Kumoko ended up with nearly a hundred different skills, which looked impressive but was actually overwhelming. 

In real fights, she only used a handful of them effectively. Skill points needed to be spent wisely, focusing on key abilities. Spreading them too thin meant regretting it later when he ran out.

"B-Drago! Help!"

"I... I think I poked a frog's nest!"

Just as Elliot was analyzing his skills, Kumoko came scrambling back in a panic.

"?" Elliot tilted his head. From the sound of it, she'd attracted more than just one frog?

He remembered the first monster Kumoko killed in the story was indeed a frog. 

These frog monsters were poisonous, and their poison caused damage over time. Usually, normal poison just dealt a fixed amount of damage per tick, which wouldn't bother Elliot much. 

Deadly poison, however, dealt damage based on a percentage of max HP that kind needed attention. 

But these frogs? Their poison was pretty weak, probably even weaker than Kumoko's own poison bite.

Thinking this, Elliot simply started walking towards the spot where Kumoko was setting up her web.

"Wait... Wait! Those frogs are Level 4! There are like, four or five of them! And they're poisonous!" Kumoko quickly warned him.

Four or five?

Isn't that even better? More EXP.

Elliot remained unfazed, continuing forward with his heavy, steady steps.