Chapter 117: The Mark of Nephila Jurassica
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 117: The Mark of Nephila Jurassica
【Gomodo-Lania LV20】
HP: 5110/5110
MP: 1630/1630
It’s common sense that the more you evolve and the higher your level, the more experience points you need to level up.
Despite that, I had achieved the remarkable feat of jumping straight to level 20.
Of course, half of those levels came from cashing in the nest egg my followers had painstakingly saved up.
Still, the other half was a gift left to me by the Jian Birds.
It seems I still have a ways to go until my next evolution, but this is more than enough progress for now.
The Jian Birds gave an amount of experience that was on a completely different level from beasts of the same level.
They were truly enemies worthy of being called spirit beasts.
Thinking about it that way, I realized just how absurd the amount of experience tied to the Gaegaek Faith had been.
Tus, Pus, and Swish-Swish had leveled up quite a bit, but they were still in their prime growth phase.
Like me when I was a gecko, they leveled up rapidly from just about anything.
This meant that the actual amount of experience they had contributed probably wasn't that much.
All of it combined would barely be enough for a single level for a Gomodo-Lania.
…Did Nephila invest the experience points they gathered to make them grow?
I’ll think about that later.
What I needed to do now was claim the reward right in front of me.
I didn't know for sure, but I had a feeling I’d be able to escape this space soon now that I’d defeated the Jian Birds.
If I were to be kicked out against my will, I’d be leaving behind the precious gift of the Jian Birds.
At the very least, I had to eat them.
I hurriedly began to tear into the two Jian Bird chickens.
Leveling up had restored all my stats, but it didn't fill my stomach.
Consuming calories is always important.
I mindlessly devoured the Jian Birds’ meat.
Crunch.
Chomp.
Gulp.
The taste was unremarkable, with nothing particularly off-putting about it.
It tasted exactly like the chicken I knew.
Perhaps thanks to Hwari’s fire energy, it even had a nicely charred flavor.
Not bad, though they looked hideous.
And so, I finished off the Jian Bird’s meat and obtained the item I had been waiting for.
【Jian Bird's Inner Core】
【Jian Bird's Inner Core】
It was the creature’s inner core.
But something was a little different.
The naming format was different from the inner cores I had seen before.
High-grade, mid-grade, low-grade.
Until now, inner cores had always come with such modifiers.
Sometimes, a word indicating the core’s color would be attached at the end.
It was the same even when I defeated the Cockatrice, which could be called a spirit beast.
The giant imugi that Baek Yeon-yeong caught was no different.
But this one was different.
It possessed an inner core named after itself.
And there was one from each of them.
“Gekek!”
The tougher the battle, the better the reward.
To think I’d get two of these obviously precious inner cores.
“Gekgek.”
I quickly hid the cores.
I didn't eat them right away, instead tucking them into a visible gap between my scales.
The format was different from any inner core I’d seen before.
I couldn't rule out the possibility of eating it and passing out mid-gek.
…The chances of that happening to me, a monster of elixirs, were low, but there was no harm in being cautious.
I was busy gekking away while gnawing on a Jian Bird bone when it happened.
Tap.
My eyes met Nephila’s as she stared at me intently.
“Gekekek!”
Long time no see, spider.
I definitely didn't forget about you because I was distracted by food.
Nephila simply stared at me, her thoughts unreadable.
It was a little embarrassing to be watched like that.
I pushed the skeletal remains of the Jian Bird to the side.
She must have something she wanted to say to me.
Nephila Jurassica suddenly reached a hand toward me.
The way she moved her hand, it looked as if she was trying to pat my head.
I leaned my head forward slightly to meet her halfway.
Of course, she was a thought-form, not a physical being, so there was no way she could actually touch me.
“Gekek?”
And yet, for some reason, I felt a sense of warmth.
She spent a long while fiddling with the Gaegaek hologram.
I didn't know the principle behind it, but it was because Nephila Jurassica and the other followers of Gaegaek had pooled their strength that I was able to win against the Jian Birds.
Nephila, in particular, had even helped me directly in battle.
How many times have I owed you my life?
I bowed my head as a sign of gratitude.
“Gek…”
Nephila smiled brightly.
Although her upper body was human, she didn't speak.
Is it because she’s a thought-form that she can’t talk?
I didn't think so. The Snake Queen had spoken quite fluently.
…Has she not learned how to speak yet?
In a way, that might be natural.
Nephila had lived her entire life as a spider and had only just found a clue to humanization.
She probably hadn't been exposed to humans for very long.
Even if she knew the language of spiders, becoming fluent in human language would be difficult.
Besides, since she knew me as a lizard, she might master my gekking before she learns to speak like a human.
What does it matter if she can’t speak?
I might not know about other people—no, other arthropods—but our spiders can tell what the other is thinking just by looking at their face.
“Gekgek.”
Still, I do kind of want to hear Nephila’s ‘Kieek’ again.
I recalled the first time I met Nephila.
When I climbed a tree to escape the Oviraptor, Nephila Jurassica had greeted me warmly.
She even shared her food with me out of neighborly affection.
Lost in thought, I looked at Nephila and noticed her smile had vanished.
What’s wrong?
…Did she somehow realize I was fabricating the past?
No. Nephila wasn't the kind of spider to get angry over something so trivial.
Then there must be another reason for her sudden mood change.
Nephila was staring intently at something.
I swallowed hard and followed her gaze.
It traveled across the floor and, at some point, landed on my body.
I realized Nephila was looking at the area around my neck.
Is there something on me?
I lowered my head to check, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
The item the Snake Queen gave me was also fine.
…
It finally dawned on me.
Nephila Jurassica had seen it.
The mark of the Snake Queen.
In other words, the fact that I had become a married man.
“Gekgek.”
It’s a misunderstanding.
I can explain everything.
Thud!
Nephila’s third leg slammed hard against the ground.
…Aren’t you a thought-form?
Why did the ground just crack?
“Gekekek…”
I wish she would say something. Her silence was even more terrifying.
Just give me a ‘Kieek’.
Nephila drew closer.
She lowered her head and did the same thing I had just done.
That is, she looked down at her own chest.
Then she raised her head again to look at the mark on my chest.
And once more, she lowered her head to look at her own chest.
Nephila Jurassica’s face grew redder and redder.
I didn't know why, but I had a feeling that provoking her right now would be a very bad idea.
“…Youuuu.”
I couldn't believe my ears.
A sound had come from Nephila’s lips, which had been sealed until now.
Her speech was a little slurred, but it was clearly a word with meaning.
It seemed certain that she was angry because of me.
But why was she looking at her own chest while saying that?
Was she asking for an item like that for herself?
“Gekekekek.”
Surely she wasn't comparing the Snake Queen’s Internal Energy Pouch with her own.
For one, Nephila had never even seen the Snake Queen.
…Or has she?
Didn't these guys sometimes figure out what I was doing even when they were far away?
As a priestess, wouldn't Nephila be able to perceive things better than a regular follower?
I finally understood.
The reason for Nephila’s pout.
She was about to scold the Divine Beast of Gaegaek, who had been mesmerized by an Internal Energy Pouch.
“You…”
No, this is a misunderstanding.
It was true that I sometimes found myself staring blankly at the Snake Queen’s Internal Energy Pouch.
But there were no ulterior motives behind that action.
When you see something incredibly large, doesn't your gaze naturally drift toward it?
It was like that.
An irresistible force of nature.
“Kekek…”
But I couldn't exactly explain that out loud.
I swallowed my words, but it seemed Nephila, the Priestess of Gaegaek, had read my thoughts anyway.
Her face turned even redder, and her eyebrows shot up.
Thwip.
Nephila grabbed me with one hand.
…There was no way she could actually grab me, but I felt as if I had been caught.
Shhhk.
The clothes she was wearing, an unfamiliar black fabric, began to disappear.
“Gek!”
I let out a startled gek.
I quickly raised my forelegs to cover my eyes.
But unfortunately, the gaps between my claws were unavoidable.
With no other choice, I had to observe Nephila closely through those gaps.
But all I could see was her face.
Of course.
Her expression seemed to say just that.
Through the gaps, Nephila Jurassica showed me a pouting face.
Fwip!
And at the same time, she shot a web.
…She’s shooting a web at me?
Come to think of it, didn't her status mention something about an appetite?
“Ge-ek!”
I yelped in alarm, and in that instant, the web hit its target.
The target was the mark of the Snake Queen that I was wearing.
Nephila’s web, as if it were silk thread, began to embroider a new design onto the Snake Queen’s mark.
The upper part of her vanished clothing became black dye, and her web became white dye.
In the end, a new decoration was added to the Snake Queen’s mark.
It was a single black lizard.
One that was tightly bound in spiderwebs.
Nephila nodded, as if she was finally satisfied.
It seemed to be her way of marking her territory.
She knew the mark was helpful to me, so she would allow me to wear it, but she was also asserting her own stake in it.
So that when others saw it, they wouldn't just think of me as the Snake Queen’s companion, but also as the Divine Beast of Gaegaek.
She’s a priestess for a reason.
…But why did she have to draw a lizard tied up in spiderwebs?
It completely lacks the dignity of a divine beast.
Nephila stared at me intently.
Nephila Jurassica wore an expression of deep contemplation.
Does she have another worry?
She looked at me, drool dripping from her mouth.
Is she hungry?
“…Gek?”
Looking closely, I saw a spiderweb beneath my legs.
It was the leftover web from her drawing.
But it was positioned in such a way that it looked as if my legs were tied.
…Nephila, you wouldn't, right?
“Gekekek!”
The moment Nephila was about to pounce on me.
Shwoooop!
My body was slowly sucked up toward the ceiling.
I knew instinctively.
I was escaping from this place.
Nephila clicked her legs together in disappointment.
Then, Nephila Jurassica broke into a wide grin.
It seemed she knew I was about to escape and was just playing a prank on me.
It was also a small act of revenge for me being so captivated by the Internal Energy Pouch.
…….
That’s what I choose to believe.
“Gekek!”