For the first ti in her life, Maddy felt sothing close to peace. She finally understood her worth, her essence not as soone’s wife, not as a failure, but as herself. She looked at the glowing sac containing Arach and smiled before leaving the forr princess’s prison, now transford into her womb chamber.
She approached Sephiran, who stood focused at the entrance, eyes locked on the open cavern beyond.
"Sephiran, stay here. Watch over your brother. I need to go out and gather more ’supplies’ for the family. You’re stronger than any monster here, I believe in your strength. Just fight smart."
"I’ll be the best guard, Mama! You can count on !"
Maddy smiled, a quiet thought crossing her mind.
"It’s good Sephiran ages quickly. If he were still a baby, I wouldn’t be able to explore this cave and leave my unborn child behind..."
She placed her hand on his head and gently ruffled his hair.
"Thank you, my little prince... Mother loves you. Be safe."
Sephiran grabbed her hand tightly.
"Sephiran loves you too! Be safe as well and bring back food! We need a feast for this occasion!"
She laughed softly, warmth filling her chest.
"Yeah, I will. Bye."
She turned and walked toward the tunnel leading to Area 2. Her body felt different now. With Tremor Sense active, she could feel the faint scurrying of tiny legs and the subtle shifting of dirt far ahead. On the right side of her peripheral vision, the Map flickered into view.
"Lucy, I’m going to finish exploring Area 2. I used almost all my traits on Arach. I need to restock... gather new ones."
As she entered the familiar tunnels of the lower underground, a group of Mineral Worms and Man Eating Worms burst from the walls, sensing her presence. She just raised her hand, not even flinching at their surprise attack.
"Absolute Light Manipulation: Radiant Rain."
Tiny, needle sharp darts of pure, solidified light exploded from her palm. They moved like guided missiles, piercing through the thick stone armor of the Mineral Worms and the soft flesh of the Man Eaters. It was over in seconds.
"Ingest."
Her body absorbed the fallen monsters instantly, refilling her trait storage.
"This is almost too easy now."
[I will automatically store all duplicate traits, so you won’t be prompted every ti you consu sothing.]
"Yeah, that’s much more convenient for both of us. Thanks, Lucy."
She pushed forward, reaching the massive cavern where she had fought the Suzerain Spider. She noticed sothing strange: the cave was quiet. There were no Sword, Shield and Spear Spiders guarding the paths, no Spark and Spit Spiders lurking on the ceiling.
"Lucy, where are the specialized spiders? Did they all run away?"
[Response: No, Maddy. You killed the Progenitor—the Mother. She was the only one capable of giving birth to those weapon type spiders. She consud weapons to imprint those traits onto her children. Without her, the specialized colony has collapsed.]
Maddy walked into the center of the Suzerain’s old nest. The giant boss spider hadn’t respawned either.
"And her? Is she gone forever?"
[Response: Evolution takes ti. A Suzerain Spider is from a base spider that has survived for over a century. Monsters like that are limited; they don’t just ’pop’ back into existence. They have to grow and earn that power.]
Maddy nodded, her zoologist brain understanding the logic.
"Wow... I erased an entire evolutionary branch."
Suddenly, the air in the center of the room began to ripple. Thick, purple green smoke, pure mana—started to swirl and condense. It looked like a galaxy forming in the middle of the cave. Slowly, the mana solidified into physical matter. Legs grew, a thorax ford, and eight eyes flickered open.
Maddy whispered, fascinated.
"Wow... so that’s how they spawn."
[New Monsterpedia Entry: Subterranean Spider]
[Subterranean Spider (Base Form) — Habitat: Cave]
[A common cave dwelling spider species that lives in colonies. Possesses strong silk and thick chitin suited for underground survival.]
Before she could step closer, more mana flared along the walls. Multiple spiders ford simultaneously.
A colony.
They rushed her in coordinated waves. Their legs scraped against stone as they closed in from all sides. Maddy didn’t even slow down. She used Radiant Rain like a rapid fire machine gun, her fingers flickering as light bullets shredded the spiders before they could even get close.
Within seconds, the cavern floor was littered with spider remains.
"Ingest."
CHOMP!
Traits flickered across her vision, lines of text cascading rapidly.
The system automatically skipped every redundant trait she had obtained from their evolved forms, filtering them out before they could even distract her. Only the new, useful ones lingered.
[System Notice]
[You have ingested multiple objects containing traits.]
[Trait Acquired: Colony Instinct]
[Improves coordination with sa-species allies. Enhances efficiency in group defense and hunting.]
[Trait Acquired: Low Light Vision]
[Allows clear perception in dim environnts. Slightly reduces efficiency in bright conditions.]
[Trait Acquired: Vibration Sensitivity]
[Detects movent through surfaces and web strands. Provides early threat awareness.]
[Apply these traits to yourself, or store them?]
"Colony Instinct... interesting. Yeah, apply them to myself."
[Response: By your command... applying all ingested traits directly to your body.]
Initializing...
Poof!
[Done.]
[All duplicate traits have been stored for future offspring customization.]
A subtle pulse ran through her veins. Brief, almost weightless yet sothing inside her shifted.
"Good. No clutter."
She tilted her head thoughtfully.
"Lucy... if the Subterranean Spider was a base form and it was the one that spawned in this area, why are the Mineral Worms and the Man Eaters already in evolved forms? Do they need to battle, eat sothing, or whatever to evolve?"
[Correct. A natural path to evolution is growth through combat or consumption. However, the mana within this cave is abnormally dense and accumulates at an accelerated rate. Creatures that spawn here are often ford directly at their evolved stage.]
"Ooh... I get it now. So everything revolves around mana density. Then why haven’t I seen another Chira Worm? If those two sibling worms existed... shouldn’t there be another one like spawning sowhere deeper underground?"
[Response: A Chira Worm is a super rare spawn. As super rare spawns are natural occurrences, often resembling a "once-in-a-lifeti" encounter.]
"Super rare spawn? So there are rarity tiers in this monster world?"
[Monsters are naturally born from mana in the environnt. Common monsters appear more often because they require less mana. Rare monsters manifest slowly. For example, mana may generate one thousand standard worms before producing a single rare entity.]
"One in a thousand? So the cave has to saveup mana just to make sothing like ? I am a premium quality. High investnt organism. I feel expensive!"
[However, when a phenonon known as a Mana Distortion occurs, the probability of Chira Worm species manifesting increases significantly.]
"What? Mana Distortion?"
[Yes. A Mana Distortion is a temporary phenonon where excessive mana density destabilizes an area, creating a storm like field that drives natural mana into chaos. It rapidly generates monsters, often triggering higher evolutions or the formation of super rare species.]
"...That explains why I’ve never seen another one. The conditions probably don’t occur often enough."
She looked around at the warped air and lingering sparks of mana.
"This world’s biology is insane. Species aren’t just born—they’re forged under pressure. This is nothing like the world I lived in before..."
A land far from here, a group of humans clad in armor and cloaks looking almost like they were cosplaying, gathered before a massive quest board. Their eyes were drawn to several quests marked with an A rank.
A man in gleaming silver armor leaned forward and read aloud:
"Purge the Mana Distortion at the South Plain... Damn, why are there so many Mana Distortions near the Shellgrave?"
A woman in a witch’s hat replied,
"Maybe a demon lord spawned there. That’s why the mana’s gone crazy."
An angelic faced woman squealed with excitent.
"A DEMON LORD?! We have to go to the Shellgrave! I’ve always wanted to defeat a demon lord and make our party a true Heroes Party!"
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