Kumodesu

Good morning.

I woke up after a restful sleep inside my cocoon. The first thing I did was check everything to make sure nothing was amiss.

I went to the storage room, brought out a few pieces of meat, and started making breakfast for myself.

After enjoying a delicious breakfast, I didn't leave right away. Instead, I began thoroughly examining the contents of this room.

Since yesterday, I'd only been eating and sleeping.

This large room contains a total of seven smaller rooms inside, corresponding to the seven entrance doors. One of them is the food storage room.

I headed to the next room to investigate its interior.

No danger.

I kicked the door open.

Oops, sorry for being rough, but I had no choice.

This is... a library, huh?

I found a lot of books, but I didn't have the ability to understand the language of this world.

Ah, isn't this the perfect opportunity for me to learn?

I had postponed this once already, but if I don't study now, there's no way I'll figure out what happened here. Judging from the devastation in the village, this place was clearly attacked. I need more information about what caused that attack.

If a huge village full of people couldn't withstand it, then a lone spider like me could die anytime without even knowing it.

I need to be prepared.

But where do I start?

I don't even know the basic alphabet, so how can I learn anything?

Oh, wait... doesn't [Appraisal] have the ability to translate?

I gave it a try, and sure enough, everything I appraised was translated into Japanese—but it couldn't translate things the other way around, from Japanese into this world's language.

Hold on. Why Japanese?

Could it be that the system automatically translates everything into my previous language?

That doesn't matter now. What's important is how to learn the language of this world.

After thinking for a while, I came up with an idea.

First, I'd use Appraisal to translate a book, then match each word to identify the corresponding characters and break them down into basic phonetic units. I'd use Appraisal again to verify whether I got it right.

Oh, I really am a genius.

I randomly picked a book and began appraising it.

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That's the title and the author. Wait a second… that surname sounds familiar???

It's the same surname as that noble I found traces of before.

So this person is also a noble?

Why are all these nobles crawling into a dungeon instead of enjoying a peaceful life in the kingdom? And now they've all perished.

Naaawww, whatever. I should just focus on my own stuff.

Then I began matching the characters.

But how am I supposed to write this down?

I don't have hands.

After some thought, I used my drill leg to scratch out some rough marks on the ground.

I managed to sketch out a few basic letters, but I wasn't sure if they were correct, since I was relying on spacing to break the words.

Something feels off...

My handwriting used to be very neat, but with the current conditions, I just have to accept this.

I started combining the letters in order and used Appraisal on them.

Ah... it didn't work??

Was my writing unclear? Or did I split the words incorrectly?

I tried again.

Still didn't work.

Again...

And again...

And again...

Finally.

Appraisal successfully recognized the characters I had written.

But... it translated it wrong????

How could this happen?

I put in so much effort...

Ah well, I need to stay calm.

The fact that Appraisal worked proves that my individual character breakdowns are correct, but when combined, more strokes might be needed to form a new word.

I see now.

But how do I figure out how many strokes each letter has?

I resumed testing.

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Nai wa~

Why did it turn into "fish"??

I thought slight changes in stroke would cause slight variations in meaning, but it changed the entire character.

Still, that's a valuable discovery.

I noted it down on the floor.

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Another weird, nonsensical translation, and the characters are mixed.

I recorded this attempt too and continued experimenting.

Again.

Again.

The once pristine floor is now covered in my scratch marks.

Again.

Again.

Ngoaaa!

Finally succeeded.

Just the title alone took me over 30 minutes.

But I did it, and I also memorized many letters and special strokes. I'd say that's a worthy trade-off.

Let's keep going.

I spent who knows how long copying the contents of the first book.

After writing for half a day, I had only copied a few pages.

But now I've basically mastered the entire alphabet of this world. That means the first step in this learning process is complete.

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Oh, so you can even gain skills from studying.

[Memory], huh? Hmmm, I feel like my brain has gained a few more wrinkles, and I also remembered a few things from my past life.

Like... I had a younger sister...

Wait.

How could I have forgotten that?

Something really was wrong with my brain before.

Oh, judging by the time, it's already noon. I should eat something.

Even though I'm a spider now, I still follow the three-meal-a-day routine like a human. Sometimes I eat more when I'm really hungry.

I left the library, went to the storage room, grabbed a few pieces of meat, then returned to the library to eat while studying.

After a few more hours, my pace picked up. I'd managed to write out half the book.

While copying, I diligently reviewed the letters I'd learned.

Studying must always go hand-in-hand with review to be effective.

Doing two things at once is a bit overwhelming, but for the sake of blending into society later, I'll push through.

Yaaa huuu.

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Another new skill.

Parallel Thinking, huh?

Does this mean I can now think about two things at the same time?

Hmmm...

It really feels like the system is favoring me. Every time I need a skill, it just gives it to me. And this has happened quite a few times.

I'm pretty suspicious about it, but since the system is providing, I've got no complaints.

Oh right, I've always had the goddess of luck on my side, muhahahaaaaa.

After testing it out a bit, I really could think about two things at once, although it still wasn't very stable. Probably because the skill is still at a low level. Still, it's very useful.

Thanks to this new skill, studying became much easier. Now I could write proficiently and understand the meanings of the characters to a reasonable degree.

But there was still one problem... I didn't know how to read.

Yes.

Even though I could write fluently, I still couldn't read.

I laid there thinking for a while but couldn't come up with a good solution.

Unless someone shows up to teach me…

Haizzz.

Why is a spider like me so obsessed with this anyway??

I deserve an award for my excellence.

I tried browsing through the skill shop to see if there was anything that could help, but since I didn't know the exact effects, I could only guess from the skill names.

Suddenly, I saw a familiar-looking skill.

Scan?

I think I saw it alongside [Appraisal] before.

I wasn't sure what it did, but the price was cheap, so I decided to buy it.

Alright, time to activate it.

Turning it on.

Aa... aa... aaa... aa...

Pain.

Turn it off, turn it off.

What the hell was that?

Just in that brief moment, it felt like a huge amount of information poured into my head—it almost exploded. The information came from everything around me. It was like the world had been converted into data and shoved into my brain.

Compared to [Appraisal], [Scan] provides more detailed information, but it's uncontrollable and overly meticulous, making it quite excessive.

Even though I didn't want to, I was forced to absorb this redundant information.

But that just means this is exactly the skill I need to solve my problem.

When I looked at the characters and scanned them with [Scan], I could see nearly everything about them, including how to pronounce them.

A lot of the stuff I had previously struggled to figure out was now being presented to me with crystal clarity.

Now I just need to remember this information and practice until it's second nature.

But... this headache is not pleasant.

I feel like I've been through this before, but I can't remember when.

If I want to know, I'll have to try again.

It's okay.

Just for a few seconds.

I took a deep breath.

One.

Two…

Activate.

Aaaa...aaaaa... aaaa.

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Turn it off, turn it off.

I remember now.

This feels exactly like when that snake hit me with a soul attack for the first time.

No mistake.

That feeling.

But why did using just one skill cause the other two to level up too?

Oh, maybe because [Scan] pours a massive amount of information into my brain, which ends up affecting those two other skills.

Thinking about it, all three skills are somewhat related.

That's the only conclusion I can draw.

If that's the case, this skill is super convenient for leveling up the other two.

But I really don't like the pain.

Strange, I already have the [Soul Attack Resistance] skill, so why does it still hurt?

Oh, wait—that's not it.

This pain isn't coming from my soul.

I remember that my resistance level is already quite high, so something like [Scan] shouldn't be able to hurt me…

The problem is that my spider brain can't keep up with the load.

Only now do I realize that although I have soul resistance, I don't have any resistance on the physical side.

Maybe I need both to be fully protected?

So how do I get that resistance skill now?

Self-harm?

No, no.

I'm not into that.

It's really hard for me to do something like that to myself.

I discarded that extreme option and tried to come up with another way.

Maybe I can go outside and find something to hit me?

No no.

That's basically the same thing. I might as well just slam myself into a wall—probably safer.

After a while of agonizing over it, I decided I had no choice but to bash myself into the wall.

I left the library, picked a nice spot on the wall, and began my experiment.

I didn't activate any defensive skills and just charged headfirst into the wall.

First hit.

Ow ow ow.

Along with the pain, I was bounced backward.

Sure enough, this pain is different.

It's not like I haven't felt pain before. In fact, during that battle between dragon and snake, I almost died three times and had my body torn apart twice.

But back then, my mind was focused solely on surviving, so the pain didn't register much.

Now that I'm relaxed and fully focused on this, the pain feels much more intense.

I calmed myself a bit and tried again.

I need to finish this quickly.

I just need the resistance skill.

And so, one hit, two hits, three hits…

Until hit number fifty-seven…

Finally, I received the resistance skill.

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Finally!

Now I just need to keep using [Scan], and the other skills will level up on their own.

In the end, I managed to learn how to read and got quite a few skill level-ups in the process.

I am indeed a genius, hah.