The Mysterious Game (5)

"From the venom spreading out of the fangs that pierced its flesh, this spirit beast can no longer endure. It loses its life as the price for underestimating its opponent and lowering its guard."

Agares muttered like a documentary narrator as he watched every step of the struggle. The fox pinned beneath the enormous, grotesque black spider kept resisting, but in the end it failed to break free.

As the poison strong enough to dissolve its organs spread farther and farther, the fox’s movements grew stiff and sluggish.

"Now then, which will you choose this time?"

While that was happening, the next set of options appeared, and he had to choose his next action. This time, I selected number 2. A fox this large seemed worth trying on for size.

"Huh?"

But he had no choice but to pause. The window that followed displayed a fairly low number alongside the word compatibility.

He hadn’t expected there to be conditions like compatibility at all.

"In the end, choice is your own, you know. Sometimes you must take a risk, or give up an advantage."

"So there are conditions?"

Agares offered a tip, but I couldn’t press it immediately and fell into thought. Since he wasn’t being told what standards or conditions existed, he would have to figure them out himself.

No matter how you look at it, 45% is way too low.

In the end, I changed my decision and chose number 1, Devour. At the same time, I regretted not having seen the goblins’ compatibility. From now on, I resolved to check the compatibility of every target and learn the for myself.

"Your avatar devours nourishment from its prey and stores it within its body."

The avatar injected poison through the fangs it had driven in, then sucked up every last bit of the dissolved organs and fluids.

The fox’s corpse shriveled in an instant until only skin and bones remained, and the avatar replenished its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠health with the absorbed nutrients while storing the excess inside its own body.

"And now, what will you do next?"

Once the devouring was done, Agares asked what I wanted to do next. I naturally narrowed the view. Looking at the bite marks left on the corpse, it was clear that this fox spirit was the one that had attacked and killed the humans on the road.

Since I had caught the culprit, if I kept heading in the same direction, I might run into the humans after all.

"This."

But just as I began to the screen, a new exclamation mark appeared. It hovered right in front of me, pointing toward the large crack between rocks where the fox spirit had been growling moments earlier.

Come to think of it, there was definitely something there. Otherwise, the fox wouldn’t have been so fixated on that spot.

"Can you feel it? The presence of a small thing brimming with fear. Your avatar rules fear. If there is anything that trembles upon seeing you, you never let it escape."

When I restored the screen and looked in that direction, Agares said with a laugh. There was no reason to hesitate, so I moved the avatar toward the gap.

Ah...

It was coming. It was drawing near. Cold, biting black armor; red eyes that pierced and froze; black fangs that crushed bone and flesh and drove through them.

It looked as if someone had taken primal terror itself and given it shape.

She held her breath so she wouldn’t be found, but 300 points of Insight was a power no such measure could hide from.

Curled up inside the narrow crack in the rocks, she squeezed her eyes shut.

The fox that had harmed people and tried to kill her was clearly a powerful predator. That horrifying spider that had suddenly appeared and swallowed such a fox whole was the same. But then, and now, even when she had still been in the village, she had been nothing more than the weakest prey, forced to take the blows.

This is so damn sickening.

Feeling the spider’s approach, she clenched her teeth so hard they chattered violently without meaning to.

Living as the weak was exhausting. So was trembling in fear, never knowing when you might die. Above all, she was afraid of losing everything again and again.

In this vicious world, the act of gaining something was not something a fallen weakling like her was allowed.

"N-no, let go!"

Soon she opened her eyes and thrashed in panic as tentacles coiled around her body. But a girl like her, nothing more than a human, could never shove away tentacles that had already subdued even a giant fox spirit.

In the end, she was dragged out by force from the crack where she had hidden and left dangling in the air, struggling uselessly.

Upside down, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her face went pale. At the last moment, she remembered the fox spirit melting under the bite of the fangs and sucking in everything around it.

Terrified she might end up the same way, she didn’t even have time to worry about her flipped skirt as she stared only at the spider’s fangs, shaking hard.

"Aaah!"

The spider soon moved its tentacles and lowered her to the ground. No—threw her down was more accurate. She hit the earth with a thud and trembled from the pain stabbing through her body.

"I-I hate this..."

But being released from the tentacles did not mean she had escaped the spider.

Using its front legs, the spider flipped her body upright and pinned her in place, then shoved its face forward until it was as big as her entire upper body.

Eight red eyes without pupils, eyes that gave off no hint of emotion, and enormous fangs swayed before her face, close enough to make her reel.

"P-please. Please, spare me."

She pleaded to the enormous monster in a trembling voice, tears spilling from her wide eyes, unsure whether it could even understand human speech.

Crying and begging to be spared. Surrendering all initiative to the other side and asking for mercy. It was all so familiar, and so miserable.

But up until now, no strong one had ever shown mercy after hearing those words. The villagers had beaten the pleading mother and daughter, bound them, and driven them out. The raging fox spirit had never regained its senses, even after receiving a living sacrifice.

There was no way this monstrous spider would save her, either.

By then, the hope ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in her eyes had already vanished. Begging to be spared was nothing more than a groveling plea that had come out of habit.

But she had no idea what the spider was looking at, or what it intended to do.

"This time, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the compatibility came out high. Do you know why? A human girl who looks so flimsy has a higher compatibility than that rampaging spirit beast with its sturdy body. What is the difference?"

"There are a lot of differences. It’s not easy to pick out exactly which one."

Someone beyond the spider, someone she could not even begin to guess at. He was sorting out his thoughts while having a conversation that was not quite a conversation with Agares.

He didn’t know what story she had lived through. Only that this girl trembling and crying to be spared was terrified, and that she seemed worn down somehow. Those two things were all he could tell.

Even if he wanted to ask, it was impossible. The avatar didn’t have the human language function.

I need to confirm what this Essence Infusion skill actually does.

In the end, he made his decision. On the human girl Lena he had just encountered, he would infuse the essence of his avatar, Ascalas.

Essence Infusion is definitely tied to factions.

He had a strong feeling that this was connected to the faction Agares kept mentioning. Soon, the avatar raised its sharp, pointed fangs and thrust them toward the girl.

"Kyaaaah! Mmph..."

As the spider’s fangs, larger than her own face, rushed toward her, Lena shut her eyes tightly and thrashed in a scream. But the moment something began to drip into her mouth, she snapped her eyes open and coughed.

"Uph..."

The fangs did not pierce her body. Instead, from inches away, they let drop bead after bead of something dark violet into her mouth.

I-it’s sweet.

She tried desperately not to eat what was flowing from the fangs, but the mysterious liquid that touched her tongue, even just a little, was unbelievably sweet. For a girl who had almost never tasted sweet foods, it was so intense she opened her mouth without thinking and stuck out her tongue.

"Haa..."

Dazed by the sweetness filling her mouth, her eyes began to blur. Not swallowing it was the last line she had left, but in the end, with a gulp, she crossed the line.

Lena was already swallowing the drops as they fell. The hot, sweet essence sliding down her throat was the very condensed power of the spider’s magic.

She had craved it and hated it, and that was why the human girl, entranced by it, stopped resisting and drank with all her might.

"More, more please. More..."

Before she realized it, she had completely lost her senses. When the front leg pinning her down vanished, she rose on her own and clung to the spider’s fangs.

Like a hamster drinking water from a bottle, she gripped the fangs with both hands and drank the essence as it dripped.

"..."

And he, watching all this from beyond the screen, had gone a little rigid. The sight of the girl hanging from the spider’s mouth, drunk with ecstasy as she licked the fangs, was shocking enough to freeze him in place.