Chapter 15: Thank You, Snail-sensei
Wandering through the Lower Stratum relying on their
"I'm so hungry..." Shiro's stomach let out a loud, rumbling growl.
Shirazawa was similarly light-headed from hunger, his body feeling weak and hollowed out. However, finding suitable prey for the two of them was proving to be incredibly difficult. First, the target had to be a stray. The weaker species tended to huddle together for warmth, always appearing in swarms—even the common frogs were no exception. Finding a monster on its own was a monumental task.
*Thud!*
Just then, a dark shape suddenly fell right in front of them.
"This is..."
Looking closely, a monster that looked exactly like a pond snail lay on the ground, its body writhing unconsciously.
"Free food delivered right to our door! Wah-ka-ka! Thank you, Mother Nature, for the gift!"
Shiro looked delighted and couldn't wait to pounce on it. Shirazawa, on the other hand, felt his lip twitch. This monster was arguably the most carefree species in the entire labyrinth. There was no other reason for it: aside from tasting disgusting, its body possessed a rot attribute damage effect.
It was common knowledge that in any isekai world, the rot attribute was the most broken of them all—over a hundred times stronger than mere Poison. As a result, the Gastruch had almost no natural enemies in the labyrinth. Almost no monster could withstand the erosion of a rot attack, not even the venomous types. One only had to look at the surrounding rock walls covered in dense clusters of these "snails" to see how comfortably they lived.
*Munch, munch...*
Shiro excitedly bit into the snail monster, juices spraying everywhere...
Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat.
"Pfft—!"
A mouthful of sour, foul-smelling liquid erupted from her mouth as she threw up everything she had eaten the day before. Her health bar began to deplete at a rate visible to the naked eye...
Shirazawa felt like he could see Shiro's soul floating out of her body; it was a truly tragic sight. Fortunately, at the final moment, the system notification rang out.
[Proficiency reached. Skill
The resistance upgrade saved Shiro's life, and her HP began to recover slowly.
"Cough, cough..." Shiro coughed violently, wiping the liquid from her mouth with a look of pure indignation. "Ptui! That was disgusting!"
She couldn't understand why something so foul existed in this world. "It feels like summer sewage that's been sitting out for ages, mixed with rotten milk, stirred together, and then heated up."
Shiro frowned in revulsion. To be precise, the stuff was basically indistinguishable from someone else's vomit. *No way. Why should I be the only one to suffer like this?*
"Shirazawa-kun~"
Hearing her coquettish tone, Shirazawa's body instantly tensed up. He stared at her warily. Shiro licked her lips and flashed a bright grin. "You're hungry too, right? Why don't you try some? The taste is... actually not bad~"
"Heh, I refuse." Shirazawa shook his head dryly.
Shiro blinked, continuing her coaxing. "But why?"
"Dame. My resistance went up anyway, so I don't need to eat that stuff."
Shirazawa gave a cold refusal. There was no way he was putting that in his mouth. Because of his innate connection, his skill proficiency was shared with Shiro, meaning his Rot Resistance had already reached Lv3.
Lv3 was the magic number. Without these snails, Shiro would have died later on from the recoil of using
Lv3 was the critical turning point. Once reached, a Rot Attack was no longer fatal, and one could even slowly grind the resistance higher through the recoil of the skill.
So: Thank you, Frog-sensei. Thank you, Snail-sensei.
[LanLi: Apparently the author messed up, canonically Kumoko got Acid Resitance from the frog which levelled up to lvl 2. She then got Rot Resistance after eating the snail but the author mixed it up and placed the rot resistance in place of acid thus the thanking 'both' part.]
Now that the conditions were met, Shirazawa naturally wasn't going to touch those snails. This was called "cutting your losses." Rather than two people suffering together, it was better to let one person carry the burden.
*Achievement Unlocked: A World Where Only Shiro Gets Hurt!*
Seeing that Shirazawa wasn't falling for it, Shiro's eyes welled up with tears of accusation. "In-in-in..."
Shirazawa's poker face: "..."
He silently moved a bit further away.
"Uuu..." Shiro accused again. "In-in-in..."
Shirazawa was speechless. *It's just eating a snail. Is the fake crying really necessary?* He remained silent for a long time before finally sighing in defeat. "Fine, I'll eat just a little bit."
Shiro immediately stopped crying and handed over the remains of the snail corpse with a beaming smile. Shirazawa's mouth twitched violently as he took the corpse. Shiro's eyes were sparkling with anticipation.
Shirazawa: "..."
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and took a bite.
"Blargh—!"
His stomach flipped, and he threw up every last thing he had inside.
Shiro: "Hahahahaha!"
"Shiro..." Shirazawa looked at her resentfully. "Have mercy..."
"No way! Our principle is to never waste food," Shiro cheered him on with a giggle.
Shirazawa bitterly swallowed the food in his mouth. A real man never surrenders! He fought back the urge to gag and chewed with great difficulty. *So what if it's fermented garbage? Down the hatch, boys!*
[Proficiency reached. Skill
The system notification provided a small comfort to his traumatized soul. Shirazawa forced himself to stand up, secretly vowing that even if he starved to death, died out there, or jumped off this cliff, he would never eat another snail.
"Mm~"
"La-la-la~"
In a strangely cheerful atmosphere, they finally found a suitable hunting target.
Three purple "Tyrannosaurus-like" snake monsters appeared before them. In the next instant, a sharp glint flashed in the eyes of both Shiro and Shirazawa.
"Food... food... hehehe..."
The two locked eyes and charged at the dinosaurs simultaneously. A battle to shake heaven and earth had begun!
"ROAR—!"
The three snakes let out deafening roars. Unfortunately, faced with two spiders who were about to lose their sanity from hunger, their fate was sealed. Shirazawa was certain: at this moment, even if Earth Dragon Araba appeared, they would both charge in just to bite a chunk of meat off him.
*BAM! BAM!*
*RUMBLE!*
Boulders shattered and dust flew. The two spiders moved like lightning. Thread manipulation, snakey slithers, lunges, poison fangs... a seamless combo chain that resulted in an instant kill.
[Requirement met. Obtained Title:
[Based on Title effect, obtained skills:
[Proficiency reached.
...
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LanLi: Corrosion/Rot Resistance is the same thing. Am using the kumo desu ga wiki so Rot it is.