Yeah, Earth Dragons too.
"Even though it's just a young one, it has HP and defense in the triple digits! Its attack is higher than mine too!"
"We're both technically monsters, but we're not even in the same league."
"If it spots me, I'm dead, 100%!" she muttered to herself.
She was also a young monster, but the stats she saw from her Appraisal were worlds apart from that baby Earth Dragon's.
The only area where she had the upper hand was [Speed]!
With a Speed stat of 200, escaping the slow, heavy Earth Dragon would actually be pretty easy.
But if she tried to fight it head-on? She'd probably get flattened instantly.
"Uwaah... Why did I have to turn into a spider?" Kumoko felt tears welling up. "If only I'd reincarnated as a dragon too..."
Look how cool that Earth Dragon was, and its base stats were insane!
By "base stats," she meant the raw numbers before any kind of boosts or buffs.
A Level 1 Earth Dragon was a total stat monster. Even without special racial skills, it could probably steamroll most other monsters just with those base numbers alone.
And base stats were the most important thing in games like this, period!
Because every single boost you got from equipment, talents, skills, pets, whatever it all scaled off those base numbers.
This kind of design was usually put in place to stop game numbers from exploding later on when all the different multipliers from gear, skills, and buffs started stacking up like crazy.
Having high base stats gave you a huge advantage right from the start.
"Triple-digit defense and resistance, plus that much HP... With my tiny 17 base attack, I'd probably be tickling it for a million years," she thought grimly.
"The only stat where I beat the Earth Dragon is [Speed]."
"Still, being fast is good. At least if it sees me, I won't get caught and killed."
Kumoko could only try to comfort herself with that thought.
Having figured this much out, her curiosity got the better of her. She decided to watch the Earth Dragon fight.
Anyway, if it noticed her, she could zip away, and the Earth Dragon wouldn't be able to catch her. Watching how others fought might teach her something useful.
The Level 1 Earth Dragon was up against a Level 3 Mantis-type monster.
Kumoko felt a little impressed. "Wow,さすが (as expected of) an Earth Dragon, taking on a Level 3 monster right at Level 1."
Using her Appraisal, Kumoko checked the Mantis's stats.
Yep, except for Speed, it was weaker than the Earth Dragon in every other way too.
"Ahh... The Mantis's attack power is pretty high, though. If it hit me, I probably couldn't take even one hit."
"But... that's an Earth Dragon! A base stat monster!"
"Even though the Mantis is higher level, attacking the Earth Dragon is probably like trying to polish metal it won't leave a scratch."
As a spider, Kumoko instinctively disliked mantises. In most games, monster relationships often followed real-world predator-prey dynamics. That Mantis-type definitely looked like the kind of creature that eats spiders, so she found herself actually rooting for the Earth Dragon.
"Kekekeke!!"
The Mantis made some kind of weird, untranslatable noise.
Even though this was likely the first time it had ever seen Elliot the Earth Dragon, it reacted like it had spotted its mortal enemy. The moment it laid eyes on Elliot, it went hostile.
Down in this cave, Mantis-types hunted almost everything. From tiny ants and worms to newly hatched snakes and rats, pretty much anything smaller than them ended up diced by their scythes. They were known for their extremely aggressive tempers and bloodlust.
Plus, Mantises had naturally high base attack stats. Most monsters couldn't block their attacks head-on.
Except, maybe, for an Earth Dragon. After all, Earth Dragons boasted some of the highest defense in this game world. You could say they were the perfect counter to Mantises.
"It doesn't even need to attack first. Just entering the Mantis's awareness range makes it attack immediately. This race sure is aggressive," Kumoko observed. She felt glad she'd picked [Appraisal]. It let her see details other monsters couldn't.
After using Appraisal, a detailed description of the Mantis race popped up on her interface.
"Attack power is 51+27... The 51 must be its base stat, and the +27 probably comes from its racial ability," Kumoko murmured.
It seemed like most low-level monsters didn't have many skill points early on, so skills weren't really a factor yet. And definitely no equipment or pets. So that extra attack boost had to be from a racial ability.
Generally speaking, every monster race had its own special abilities. Some races had incredibly powerful ones. For example, pure-blooded Elves had [Magic Affinity], giving them huge boosts to MP and Magic Power, plus making it super easy for them to learn magic. Giant races had [Natural Strength], granting a massive 50% boost to their strength right from the start, which increased even more as they leveled up. Later on, a Giant's attack power could become terrifyingly high, enough to shatter a mountain with one punch.
That Mantis... if she guessed right, its racial ability was probably related to its scythe-like arms. It likely not only gave it extra attack power based on its base stat but also added some kind of armor penetration effect. Meaning, if its attack power was higher than the target's defense, it would deal bonus damage.
This kind of penetration effect was deadly against low-defense monsters, because usually, monsters with low defense didn't have much HP either.
Seeing this, Kumoko felt a fresh wave of envy. Even this random Mantis had a cooler racial ability than her.
Okay, technically, she had a racial talent too: [Thread Weaving].
As for its effect... Ugh. She didn't even want to think about it. It was just depressing. If she could have chosen a talent that boosted her base stats, who would pick something fancy but kinda useless like thread?
Clang!
The Mantis's scythes flashed with a sharp, cold light. Its decent speed allowed it to close the distance to Elliot in an instant. Then, it slashed down hard!
The Earth Dragon's base speed was a pitiful 9 points, lower than almost any other race. Naturally, it couldn't dodge the hit.
The sound of metal hitting rock rang out as the Mantis's scythe struck home.
"Critical Hit!" Kumoko mentally shouted.
She clearly saw a flashy blood-splatter effect where the scythe landed. That was the visual cue for a critical hit, usually added to games to make combat feel more impactful.
But at low levels, the base critical hit rate was usually extremely low. You might only get one crit out of hundreds of attacks. She didn't know if this Earth Dragon just had terrible luck or if the Mantis was incredibly lucky, but it scored a critical hit on its very first strike.
However, what happened next left Kumoko absolutely shocked.
No number popped out!
Kumoko rubbed her eyes, thinking she must have seen wrong.
It wasn't just her; the Mantis monster also seemed to freeze for a second. Its tiny brain seemed unable to process what just happened, sensing that something was very wrong.
Because, yes, no damage number had appeared at all.
What did that mean?
Simply put, the damage the Mantis dealt to the Earth Dragon...
Was zero!
….
"How is that possible?!"
Kumoko was completely floored.
She had been thinking of this world as basically a game world. That meant everything should follow game rules and systems.
Normally, in any game, as long as an attack wasn't a complete "miss," even if your attack power was just 1 and the enemy's defense was trillions, you'd still deal at least 1 point of damage.
It was the standard "damage floor" mechanic in games. As long as your attack connects, it should deal a minimum amount of damage. That minimum might be 1% of your base attack, or maybe 0.01%.
But no matter what, some damage number, at least a '1', should pop up. A critical hit should deal at least '2'.
Theoretically, if you had a monster with trillions of defense but only a thousand or two HP, and it had no health regeneration or other protection, even a tiny ant could eventually bite it to death, one point of damage at a time.
By that logic...
Even though the Mantis's attack wasn't strong enough to get through the Earth Dragon's defense, the damage floor mechanic should have guaranteed at least some points of damage, especially since it was a critical hit!
Faced with this bizarre outcome, Kumoko stared wide-eyed, her thoughts grinding to a halt. She knew the Earth Dragon's basic racial traits didn't involve nullifying damage, so the zero damage wasn't because of some innate ability.
In an instant...
An incredible thought struck Kumoko.
Skills!
That was it! For something this weird to happen, breaking the basic rules of damage calculation, it had to be the effect of a skill.
But the problem was, in this game world, low-level monsters normally didn't have skills.
If this Earth Dragon did have a skill... then there was only one possible explanation...
The other party was a [Reincarnated Person], just like her!