Kumodesu

One...

Two...

Activate.

Aaaa...aaa..aaaa.

Turn it off, turn it off.

I'm still in the middle of practicing with the [Scan] skill. Using one skill that helps three others improve proficiency is honestly a huge bargain, so I have to keep going no matter what.

But each use comes with pain.

Skills can't level up with a single use, so sometimes it gets quite discouraging. For now, I can only maintain the skill for about five seconds per use because of the pain, but once [Pain Resistance] reaches mid-level, I think the pain will gradually lessen.

I must persevere.

One... Two...

Activate!

AA.....aaaaa..aaaa!

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Oh, four skills leveled up all at once.

Nice, nice!

That's exactly what I wanted to see.

But... the pain doesn't seem to have lessened at all, huh?

Could my assumption have been wrong?

Whatever.

Even though the pain hasn't lessened, it's still within my tolerable range.

Let's go again.

AA...â.a.aa.a.a.a.

Again.

Again!

I repeated this trial dozens of times, spending over two hours. I could only maintain it for five seconds before resting for several minutes. But after all that, my brain started to adapt. Now, I can endure up to seven seconds at once.

I know it's not a huge improvement, but what do you expect from a spider?

Let's keep going.

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Phew.

It looks easy, but this thing takes forever to level up. I had to repeat it more than ten times just to level up once.

I didn't think much because even if I'm not using the skill, thinking too much still makes my brain hurt.

I figured I should take a short break.

During the downtime, I reviewed the information gathered from previous scans. I wanted to finish this study phase quickly so I could move on to other things.

What I focused on the most was the letters. As for pronunciation, I learned through a mysterious voice that transmitted it directly into my mind when using [Scan].

But reading it aloud myself is really hard.

There are some syllables that totally twist my tongue. They also sound pretty funny.

Still, for a spider like me to learn the human language to this level is already impressive.

But honestly, I don't even know why I want to learn it, considering my terrible communication skills. Maybe it's because I still have the desire to become human again, though I have no idea how.

Hopefully, I'll find a way after I evolve.

I stopped thinking nonsense and focused on reading books—not just one but two at once thanks to [Parallel Thinking].

Another hour passed, and my reading ability improved slightly.

My brain hurt less, so I decided to continue "torturing" myself—uh, I mean leveling up skills.

Back to that familiar rhythm.

And activate!

Oh...Aaaaa..aaa…aa.

I tried to endure it without turning the skill off.

I wanted to see how long I could last.

Five seconds... ten seconds... twenty seconds... one minute...

Still going!

I can still hold on.

One and a half minutes... two minutes...

Stop, stop!

That's too much.

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Phew.

Good thing it leveled up right on time.

My timing was perfect.

It seems that maintaining a skill for a long duration gives more proficiency, like it accumulates over time.

I think my guess is pretty accurate, but I'll need more testing.

Although my skills leveled up, I wasn't exactly thrilled—because I realized something. Even after leveling up, the pain didn't lessen.

Was my judgment wrong, or...

A thought struck me.

According to the system messages, even though [Pain Resistance] has leveled up quite a bit, [Scan] also advanced. Moreover, [Scan] is currently higher level, so maybe its effect still overwhelms the resistance.

As [Scan] levels up, the information flowing into my mind increases. It no longer just covers the objects around me—it's starting to reach things I haven't even encountered.

The data is also becoming more intricate.

For example, at level 1, it only gave me basic details like structure, composition, and how the components were linked. Now, it dives into atomic structures and complex bonds I can't even understand.

But that's not really an issue—if I ignore them, they won't affect me.

Now, I just need to raise my resistance skill to match [Scan].

Oh, another good thing is that the pain now comes solely from my body. My soul doesn't seem to be reacting at all.

My guess is that before, I didn't have physical pain resistance, so the soul-based one had to cover both, weakening its effectiveness.

With not enough strength to protect both, neither could be fully defended.

I'm not sure if skills work that way, but it's a pretty logical explanation, right?

And even though the pain is just in my brain now, it's still not to be underestimated—a spider's brain isn't on par with a human's.

It's a miracle I've held on this long.

I decided to rest for a bit.

Not sure how long passed, but I got hungry, so I went to eat.

Since I don't have any recovery skills, the pain still lingers because [Pain Resistance] isn't maxed yet.

I thought of another method—sleep.

Ahem... not because I'm lazy! Sleep does help with healing most conditions.

And right after I ate, I also got sleepy, probably from a day of hard study, so I went to bed.

...

Good morning.

Hmm, something feels different.

How long was I asleep?

Doesn't matter. What's important is—the pain's really gone now.

Earlier, my SP was pretty drained from all the skill use, but now it's fully recovered.

I crawled out of my cocoon, did a few light stretches, then headed to the library again. I didn't rush to level up more skills just yet—I spent a bit of time reading instead.

Right now I'm reading "One Hundred and Seven Wonders of Werest."

Though they call them wonders, they're more like joke stories. I couldn't stop rolling on the floor laughing.

Wow, I really am childish.

Well, I wasn't considered an adult before anyway.

Thanks to support skills, I read super fast. Just ten minutes per book. Still, I enjoy them properly, not skimming.

If life could just go on like this, that'd be nice.

Now that I can recognize letters and pronunciations, reading is much easier, but I don't forget to use [Appraisal] on each book.

The goal is to level it up.

Come to think of it, [Appraisal] hasn't leveled up in a long time, while the other skills keep progressing.

I need it to level up quickly so I can check my stats and skills. That way, I'll feel more confident causing trouble later.

I set the book down and prepared to resume skill training.

One... two... Activate!

Aaaaaa..aaaa...

Hang in there, me.

Keep going... keep going...

Two minutes passed, but no level-up message yet, so I stopped to rest.

It's getting harder to level up now.

I rested for five minutes, then tried again.

One minute... two minutes... three minutes...

Stop.

Still no level-up.

This is tough.

Suddenly, I had another idea.

What if I just raised [Pain Resistance] higher than [Scan]? Then wouldn't I be able to keep it on pain-free?

Now that I have resistance, banging into a wall hurts less than using [Scan].

Whichever's more efficient, I'll go with it.

So I changed tactics. I went back to slamming myself against the hard wall repeatedly.

Sure enough, the pain was much milder, so I kept doing it.

After a few hundred slams, the skill finally leveled up, and a large dent was left in the wall.

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That should be good enough, right?

I tried activating [Scan]—the pain had lessened, though not completely. Still not good enough, so I continued slamming the wall.

Nearly two more hours later, I stopped. That part of the wall was now completely destroyed. My body was a bit sore, but there were no serious injuries—success!

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Nice.

I took a break and ate.

Oh no, I totally forgot to monitor my food supply.

After carefully calculating, I realized I still had enough for 20 meals—if I ate in moderation.

Yeah, like that's happening, haha.

I laughed to myself while eating.

Afterward, I read for another hour before returning to skill leveling.

That's how life is now.

One... two...

Aaaaaaa...aa..aaa?

Huh??

Why does this feel different than expected?

Oh, it's because the pain decreased—I wasn't used to it.

So I've succeeded?

The pain didn't vanish completely, but it dropped so much I'm now nearly relaxed.

All that effort paid off.

I stopped spacing out and focused on maintaining the skill.

One minute… two minutes…

Five minutes passed, and I was still going strong.

During this, I wasn't idle—I reviewed the information [Scan] was gathering to see if anything useful came up.

If it could give me details about creatures in this place, that would be perfect.

Ten minutes passed.

I never thought I could last this long.

I bet the proficiency points stacked up a lot by now, but no level-up yet? That means the required points are insane.

Twenty minutes.

This is my limit!

Still nothing?

How stubborn!

Once didn't work? Try again.

Another twenty minutes passed.

...

And another.

...

Another.

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There it is!

That was brutal.

But the upside to this slow leveling is that I had time to write down useful information in the meantime.

For instance, I found some notes about unknown creatures I haven't encountered yet, and wrote them down just in case.

Honestly, aside from the initial pain, this skill is incredibly convenient—it lets me sit still while collecting data.

How can something this convenient exist?

But hey, it's mine now—no complaints.

Still, I won't abandon [Appraisal] for [Scan] completely. They have key differences—[Scan] gives lots of external info, but [Appraisal] can show hidden traits or skills/stats of living beings.

So to me, both are equally important.

I kept thinking idly while recording all the data I had collected.

…

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Ah…

The notification snapped me out of it.

How long have I been like this?

Hmmm…

If I recall, I've been maintaining [Scan] for over three days, and it finally leveled up. I think I didn't even sleep. I kept food beside me, eating whenever I felt hungry.

I looked just like a student cramming for exams.

It wasn't easy.

Even if the pain is no longer an issue, three straight days built up a toll. My head now feels like it's being pounded with hammers.

I should stop here.

I decided to eat a good meal, then take a long nap to make up for everything.

See you later.