Scarlet Asger

The queen begins stepping outside of the nest, which wouldn’t be possible for a regular breeder, before I get a new message from the System that pushes straight past the hold I have on messages right now.

|Demon Breeder – Variant Subspecies: Arachnid Queen Combat Form – Level 60|

I blink in surprise at that.

Its level just jumped. By seventeen levels. From eating its offspring. Although now that I think about it, they weren’t technically the same species despite being demons and being born of the queen, so it makes sense that the queen would level from killing them.

Still. It ate its offspring. That’s just disgusting.

“Spiders do that all the time, don’t they?” Tar asks. “Eat their offspring, I mean.”

No, from what I’ve learned, they don’t. There are some spiders that eat their siblings upon hatching though. And a lot of different types where the female eats the male after reproduction. Even one or two that has the male eating the female. But none that straight up eat their offspring after hatching them.

“You seem to know a lot about spiders,” Tar mutters with a suspicious tone of voice as I slowly back away from the spider queen in front of me.

Well, spiders are cool creatures. One of my favorites to be honest. Aside from wolves that is. And snakes.

I hear Tar quietly chuckle to himself, likely at the irony of me liking wolves.

Ignoring the tanuki for the moment, I slowly back away from the queen spider – who is now nowhere near as large as she was before. But at the same time, her level is a lot higher than before.

If my math is correct, predator should give me about a dozen or so levels’ worth of stats. Which would put my stats on par with something around level 52 ish. Not including any levels I might’ve gained since the start of this hunt. Then there’s the fact that my capabilities are likely higher as a blood lycan than a regular demon like this one. Even if it is a variant.

Speaking of those levels, now’s a good a time as any to use my free points.

I quickly let the System messages flow free.

{Level 26 Demon Hound defeated. A large EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon ten or more levels below you.} x5

{Level 22 Demon Spawn defeated. An extreme EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon fifteen or more levels below you.} x8

{Level 20 Demon Spawn defeated. An extreme EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon twenty or more levels below you.} x10

{Level 21 Demon Spawn defeated. An extreme EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon fifteen or more levels below you.} x11

{Level 25 Demon Spawn defeated. An extreme EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon fifteen or more levels below you.} x6

{Level 13 Demon Spawn defeated. An enormous EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon twenty five or more levels below you. No EXP is awarded.} x31

{Level 15 Demon Spawn defeated. An enormous EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon twenty five or more levels below you. No EXP is awarded.} x28

{Level 10 Demon Spawn defeated. An enormous EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon twenty five or more levels below you. No EXP is awarded.} x21

{Level 30 Demon Huntsmen defeated. A medium EXP penalty has been extracted for getting assistance in killing a demon ten or more levels below you.} x11

{Level 50 Demon Knight defeated. Bonus EXP is awarded for killing a creature above your level. A small EXP penalty has been extracted for getting a small amount of assistance in killing the demon.} x2

{Level 43 Demon Spawn Variant defeated. Bonus EXP is awarded for killing a creature above your level.} x9

{Congrats, you have leveled up to level 41. Two Free Points have been awarded to you and your stats have been updated.}

…

{Congrats, you have leveled up to level 44. Two Free Points have been awarded to you and your stats have been updated.}

{Twenty five Skill Points are awarded for killing over five hundred demons total.}

{Five Skill Points are awarded for killing a demon knight ten or more levels above you.}

{One Skill Point is awarded for killing a demon.} x11

[Skill ‘Blood Claws’ has leveled up to level 6.]

[Skill ‘Blood Regeneration’ has leveled up to level 2.]

[Skill ‘Blood Siphon’ has leveled up to level 6.]

[Skill ‘Life Drain’ has leveled up to level 7.]

Ooookay, that’s a lot to take in. And by the time the System finishes speaking, the spider queen is already leaping out of the nest straight towards me. So I don’t quite catch some of it, but I do know that there are a lot of things there. And I’m pretty sure I remember hearing level up four times.

So I quickly dodge out of the way, letting the queen slam into the ground where I was at before I run around the nest while opening my status and allocating my free points, wincing slightly when I almost lose my balance from the adjustment. But I manage to keep it, and I quickly close out of my status again without checking anything new.

After turning back around, I find the spider queen hot in pursuit, the thing’s legs repeatedly stabbing into the ground as it runs at an incredible pace.

Well this thing is going to be a massive pain.

As if on cue, the creature lets out a very loud screech that has me instinctively reaching for and grabbing my ears rather roughly to cover them, making me wince in pain. And after a few seconds, I begin to feel liquid coming out of them.

Once the spider stops screeching, I raise my head again while removing my hands from my ears, only to immediately jump out of the way of one of the queen’s claws.

Then I realize – after climbing back to my feet again – that my hands are covered in blood.

I raise my gaze back up from my hand to the demon again who is currently ripping its bladed limb from the soil.

Well that certainly makes one of my weaknesses rather apparent.