I Should Have Read the Manual
The food storage in the corner of the nest.
The moment the humans trapped inside spiderweb cocoons entered my field of vision, my mind began spinning through a tangle of calculations.
I needed to analyze the situation.
The cold laws of survival Drake had drilled into me until my ears were raw flashed through my head.
I need to retreat right now.
That was the correct answer.
I was merely a Rookie Hero, and inside that place swarmed a Queen—an upper-tier magical beast—along with soldier Arachne whose hides even steel swords couldn't pierce. Charging in to save people here was something only a heroism-addled idiot would do. Moreover, because of the Arachne's habit of injecting paralysis poison for long-term storage, those people were merely in suspended animation—they wouldn't die within the next few hours. The highest-probability survival formula was for me to slip out quickly and request support from the Management Bureau.
I understood it perfectly with my head. Coldly. Rationally.
But what if, while I was gone requesting support, those Arachne offered those people as food to the Queen or tore into them as snacks? Then wouldn't I ultimately be the coward who abandoned people I could have saved right before my eyes, all to preserve my own skin?
The moment that thought landed, my feet simply refused to move. Those desperate eyes peering through the gaps in the cocoons—eyes caked with tears and snot, staring at me in pure terror—clamped heavy weights around my ankles.
The deliberation didn't last long. A minute or two at most.
I roughly raked my disheveled hair back.
"Ah, for real."
Screw it.
"Let's just save them."
The moment the thought ended, my body moved on instinct. That was the kind of human Zick was.
"Crazy! The hero's gone insane!"
Drake, watching the screen, clutched his head and screamed.
"Why are you going in there?! Just get out! Did you eat the survival skills I taught you with your rice?!"
"Hero!"
Noah clasped his hands together, his face gone pale, while Gerard held a rigid silence with a hardened expression. Ainz's eyes, too, had sunk heavy unlike usual.
Whether their insides burned or not, Zick on the screen was already stealthily slipping into the food storage.
If he didn't hurry, the bait would run out and the lured Arachne would return.
I quickly approached the pile of cocoons and sliced through the sticky spider silk with a sharp dagger.
Slice. Slash.
The people trapped inside tumbled to the floor. Seven in total—a mix of herb gatherers and low-rank adventurers. The moment I saw their dazed state from the poison, Noah's lessons came flooding back.
First aid and detoxification.
There was no time to carefully prepare an antidote in this rush. Following what Drake had taught me, I squeezed the juice of Blue Flower Herb—which neutralized paralysis poison—from the plants I'd gathered in the forest and forced it into their mouths. Then, as Noah had instructed, I applied emergency pressure techniques that stimulated the vital points.
"Guh—kuh-hack!"
The effect was certain. People began gasping roughly as their focus returned. When one adventurer who came to his senses tried to scream in shock, I quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Quiet. If you scream, we all become spider food."
"W-who are you?"
"I'm a hero. I came to save you all, so quietly listen to what I say."
The sense of security the word "hero" provided was tremendous. The extreme terror in people's eyes instantly transformed into hope.
But the real problem started now.
"We need to get out right now. I've lured the spiders on the nest's outskirts elsewhere, so the escape route should be safe. Just run quietly."
A man among the hostages who looked like an adventurer grabbed my clothes and whispered with a deathly pale face.
"B-but Hero. This forest doesn't only have Arachne. There are other ferocious magical beasts everywhere—if we go alone, we'll become someone else's food along the way. Even if it's dangerous, maybe we should all…"
The man's words had a point. I myself had had to squeeze out every stealth technique I knew just to avoid the eyes of other magical beasts when entering this forest. But I shook my head.
"Don't worry. I checked on my way here—the zone we're in right now is complete Arachne territory. With spider packs the size of carriages standing guard with eyes wide open, would other magical beasts stick around? Most of them have already become spider food or fled outside the territory."
Even so, when the anxiety on people's faces didn't fade, I rummaged through my belongings and pulled out several leather pouches Reno had packed for me, pressing them into their hands.
"If you're still uneasy, take these. They're herb pouches that give off a stench magical beasts instinctively avoid. Any small magical beasts that might still be left in this forest won't dare come near with these."
Then I drew the sharp dagger Drake had given me as a secondary weapon from my waist and handed it to the adventurer.
"And take this."
"This is?"
"If—and this is a real if—you run into one or two starving ones outside the territory, stab them in the eyes with this and run. It's pretty sharp."
The man looked back and forth between the heavy dagger and the herb pouches with eyes full of gratitude.
"Even if you're a Hero, if you hand over your weapon you'll be in trouble alone! Those soldiers over there!"
I tapped the steel sword at my waist—my main weapon—and forced a leisurely smile.
"Don't worry. My main weapon is right here, perfectly fine, so don't worry about me and just go. I'm a hero, remember? Being a hero is a position where you get treated well precisely so you can do dangerous jobs like this. Plus I've got a secret magic tool, so stop worrying and just run."
"But Hero…"
"No more time to talk! Everyone, run now!"
Without giving them a chance to argue further, I burst forcefully out of the food storage.
Operation name: Bait.
I immediately picked up a large rock rolling on the ground. Then I threw it with all my strength toward the ornate spiderweb throne in the center of the cavern.
Thwack!
It hit the Queen Arachne's grotesque white cheek dead-on.
"Hey! You spider-human hybrid bastard! Looking at your face makes me lose my appetite!"
The taunt was perfect.
"Kyaaaaaaaah!"
The Queen let out a shredding scream, and in that instant every Arachne eye inside the nest turned blood-red. A creature that had insulted their noble Queen. The entire command structure of the nest had marked me as the top-priority kill target.
Soldier Arachne pivoted toward me, their spear-like legs gleaming. Glancing back, I saw the people from the food storage desperately fleeing toward the cave entrance in that opening.
Good. They're escaping hard. Now I just need to hold out well here.
Arachne are sensitive to vibration but dull in smell and sight. I immediately pulled out Drake's special smoke bomb from my pocket and detonated it on the floor.
Whoooosh!
In an instant the entire nest was blanketed in thick gray smoke.
"Kigigik?!"
With their vision completely blocked, the Arachne instinctively began relying on the vibrations of the spiderwebs laid everywhere. But that was their fatal mistake. When dozens of spiders stamped their feet all at once in the smoke, the webs on the nest floor shook violently, spreading mad vibrations in every direction. Having lost the direction of the vibrations, the spiders couldn't tell who was the invader and who was a comrade, and began colliding with each other in chaos.
Seizing the opening of total confusion, I activated my stealth technique and completely hid my body in their darkness. Then, avoiding the blind vibrations, I precisely stabbed the joints and eyes of ordinary Arachne wandering through the smoke with my sword, rapidly reducing their numbers.
I needed to buy time. Until the people completely escaped the forest.
Thoroughly calculated movements. The essence of techniques learned from my comrades. It was a perfect diversion tactic that even the party members watching from the hideout couldn't help but admire.
Finally, enough time had passed.
"That should be enough for everyone to have escaped."
I stealthily moved to near the cave exit at the edge of the smoke, then pulled out the magic tool Old Man Ainz had given me from my pocket. A smooth crystal orb faintly glowing with blue light. It was my lifeline and cheat key, said to have spatial transfer magic cast on it.
I boldly raised my middle finger toward the dozens of spider packs and the soldier Arachne approaching from afar as they cleared the smoke.
"Nice meeting you, and let's never meet again, you spider bastards!"
Then I forcefully injected mana into the magic tool.
But nothing happened.
No portal. No blue flash. No warping of space. The blue crystal orb simply kept cold silence in my hand.
"Huh?"
I pushed mana in deeper once more. No response.
Wait.
"Huh? Why isn't it working?"
I pushed mana in again, but still no response.
"Hey! You scrap metal lump!"
Cold sweat poured down like rain. In that moment when my mind was turning white, a memory from just before leaving the hideout flashed through a corner of my brain like a revolving lantern.
'Here's a crystal orb. I'll explain how to operate it, so listen carefully…'
'Ah, come on, old man! I may not look it, but I've got experience—you just roughly shove mana in and it turns on by itself, right?'
'Hmm? The principle itself is simple, but…'
'Okay! Received and understood!'
My bad habit from my previous life was the problem. The bad habit of never even glancing at the manual when buying new electronics and just pressing the power button first. I'd thought that like in games, just injecting mana would make it flash and activate as the golden rule—but reality was cold. I only then realized that I didn't know a single thing about how to rub or twist this damn crystal orb to get it started. The usage method I knew was completely wrong.
In a creaking voice, I slowly raised my head.
Inside the cave where the smoke had cleared: dozens of ordinary Arachne. Soldier specimens clad in massive outer shells. And even the Queen whose cheek I'd slapped. Those hundreds of grotesque eyes were all staring straight at me alone.
A suffocating silence settled over the entire nest.
I forced up the corners of my mouth that were twitching and grinned.
"How about we call it a draw?"
"Kyaaaaaaaaaah!"
A magical beast's cry filled with rage rang out as if to collapse the cave, and hundreds of legs charged toward me like a storm. I sprinted toward the forest without looking back.
"Hero, save meeeee!"
It was the moment the quiet of the empire's outer forest was shattered by my desperate scream.
At that same time, a heavy silence flowed through the space of the party members quietly watching the crystal orb screen at the hideout.
"That idiot…"
Unable to hold back any longer, Gerard pressed a hand to his forehead and shook his head. At the pathetic sight of their leader who had gone out as a hero only to turn a magic tool into scrap metal without reading the manual, Gerard let out a deep sigh and roughly rubbed his forehead.