"Yay! One step closer to becoming humanoid—just one more evolution and I'll have half a human body~"
Just awakened, Shiraori was too excited to pay attention to her surroundings and started celebrating wildly in her mind.
"This Appraisal skill is seriously amazing. I can easily find out the conditions for each evolution. Without it, who knows if I'd ever manage to get a human form in this life!"
After her internal celebration, Shiraori began checking her stats and newly acquired skills. When she saw the skill called "Undying," she knew her survival ability had greatly improved.
Just as she was about to continue her inner party, Mirei Shinohara's voice suddenly came through.
"Alright, now that you've evolved, let's not hang around here. We should go find stronger prey elsewhere. We've wasted enough time—it's almost been a year."
Mirei didn't ask about Shiraori's evolution—she could easily learn that with Appraisal. Besides, she knew she probably wouldn't get much detail even if she did ask.
In the past six months, she had come to understand Shiraori's taciturn personality on a whole new level—even beyond what she'd known in their previous life.
Shiraori didn't argue with her, and after tidying her thoughts, followed Mirei deeper into the lower levels.
However, before they got far, a sudden spatial distortion appeared just a few meters ahead of them.
With her Space Magic skill, Shiraori immediately recognized it as a spatial teleportation in progress—the arrival point being exactly where the distortion was forming.
"Wait, someone's coming."
After warning Mirei, Shiraori entered combat mode, ready for the arrival of this mysterious figure.
Mirei, who had only been curious about the distortion at first, also grew serious upon hearing Shiraori's words.
She hadn't evolved any space-related skills yet, so she couldn't sense the traces of Space Magic—what she saw was purely with the naked eye.
Soon, the twisted space split open, and from it stepped a man dressed in pitch-black armor, with black skin, black hair, and glowing crimson eyes that stood out vividly.
The moment they saw him, both Mirei and Shiraori felt a tremendous pressure descend upon them. Even without using Appraisal, they could tell that this man was not someone they could deal with.
Still, instinctively, they both used Appraisal on him.
[Name: Güliedistodiez]
[Race: Black Dragon]
[Power Level: Lower Deity]
[Status: One of the World Administrators]
[Skills: …]
[...]
Seeing the absurdly overpowered skills and terrifying stat values, both Shiraori and Mirei immediately gave up any thought of engaging in combat.
This was a god. Even if he was only a lower deity, that still made him one of the top beings in this world.
Shiraori knew her final evolution goal was to become a god, which meant that even after reaching that point, she'd be at most equal to this humanoid Black Dragon.
Mirei had similar thoughts. While she could draw on solar power to fight enemies above her level, the gap here was just too massive. Even knowing the opponent's weakness wouldn't make a difference.
At this point, all they could think about was how to escape from this god.
But just then, a smartphone suddenly dropped in front of the man. Immediately after, a very pleasant voice came through the phone.
Yes, a modern-day smartphone—and the screen even showed an incoming call.
Stunned by the sight, both Shiraori and Mirei froze in place, forgetting to take the chance to run.
...
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
Hearing the voice coming from the phone, the Black Dragon named Güliedistodiez was visibly startled. After all, the owner of that voice was someone he deeply feared.
Of course, it wasn't just fear—he also felt gratitude toward her.
If she hadn't agreed to his request to build a system on this nearly-destroyed planet, his beloved woman would have perished thousands of years ago due to a sacrificial ritual.
After composing himself, Güliedistodiez didn't bother picking up the phone, instead speaking directly to it:
"What do you want from me?"
"Nothing much. Just passing on a message—someone told me to let you know not to interfere with their matters, or you'll die a very miserable death~"
The person on the other end didn't elaborate and didn't wait for a reply. After speaking, the phone simply vanished from the ground.
Staring at the empty spot, a complex expression passed over Güliedistodiez's face.
As the last true dragon remaining in this world, he was the sovereign over all the lower dragon-type creatures. Anytime a dragon-type being died, he would sense it. That was why he had come—he had detected the death of the Earth Dragon.
But before he could even begin investigating, D had interrupted him.
And D's words were not something he could ignore. He took the warning very seriously.
So from any angle, he knew he had no choice but to give up.
With a heavy sigh, Güliedistodiez activated Space Magic and vanished from the Elroe Great Labyrinth.
...
Watching the man disappear, Shiraori and Mirei Shinohara stood in stunned silence.
They had originally hoped to maybe talk to him and ask about the smartphone—maybe he knew a way back to Earth.
But they hadn't expected him to be dismissed so casually by a voice on the phone.
Although they could hear both the man and the voice on the other end, neither of them understood the language, so they had no idea what was actually said.
Still, judging by the man's changing expression, it was obvious the person on the phone was far more powerful than he was.
Not that it mattered anymore—he was gone, and they had no way to follow using Space Magic.
And even if they could catch up, with their current strength, it would be nothing more than suicide.
In the end, more than disappointment over the unanswered questions about the smartphone, they felt relief—relief that they hadn't been killed by such a powerful being.
The encounter had served as a stark reminder to both of them: their current strength was nowhere near enough.
Though they were now nearly unmatched in the labyrinth, against truly powerful individuals, they were helpless.
This lit a fire under them, pushing them to pursue even greater strength.
Without lingering, Shiraori and Mirei resumed their journey, seeking even stronger enemies.
...
Another two months quickly passed, and it had now been a full year since they had reincarnated into this world.
After diligently hunting and devouring a large number of monsters, Shiraori finally reached the threshold for another evolution.
From Immortal Taratect, she evolved into Jorōgumo.
Feeling her brand new body, Shiraori beamed with joy.
Although only her upper half had become human while her lower half remained spider, it was still enough to fill her with excitement.
"Shira, congrats on becoming half-human, half-spider! I didn't think your human form would look exactly like your past life—except the hair and eye color."
Watching Shiraori flex her new human arms, Mirei's eyes shone with envy.
After a full year of Autonomous Evolution, her strength had grown drastically, but her physical appearance remained almost unchanged—still the same as when she was first born.
There was nothing in the Appraisal results that told her when she might take on human form, so Mirei could only patiently wait for that day to come.
Still, even though her body hadn't changed much over the past year, she had gained the ability to speak—a major milestone.
Which meant she no longer had to communicate telepathically with Shiraori; she could now speak aloud.
And with Shiraori now having evolved a human upper body, starting today, they could finally have normal conversations.
Unfortunately, they still didn't know the language of this world. Once they left the labyrinth, learning the local language would be essential.
Upon hearing Mirei's comment, Shiraori bent her upper body, using the spider eyes on her lower half to look at her own face.
Seeing that familiar face reflected back, her excitement rose several levels.
"This is amazing! I thought I might look different in this life, but it turns out I look just like before. Now I don't have to worry about Eriri not recognizing me!"
She felt so happy she wanted to dance—if Mirei weren't there, she just might have.
At that moment, Mirei's voice rang out again.
"Okay, stop flaunting your body. Hurry up and get some clothes on. You don't want people seeing everything, do you?"
Seeing Shiraori's bare upper half, Mirei sighed and shook her head.
Though Shiraori was indeed beautiful, and her upper body figure was excellent, Mirei had no particular thoughts about it.
Her affection was solely for Eriri. Just because she loved Eriri didn't mean she was attracted to women in general—it just so happened that the one she loved was female.
At Mirei's words, Shiraori quickly covered her chest with her arms and then used her silk to weave a bra-like garment to cover herself.
Once she had taken care of her clothing, Mirei spoke up again:
"Now that you're one step away from your final evolution, the labyrinth doesn't really help you anymore. Don't you think it's time we left?"
Shiraori nodded.
She had long known the method for her final evolution into a god—Appraisal had spelled it out in detail.
All she needed to do was locate a certain ancient ruin and find the 'UFO' hidden inside. Then, at the moment the UFO's most powerful bomb was about to detonate, she would swallow the bomb whole.
By absorbing the explosive energy, she would complete her evolution into a god.
The location of the ancient ruin was also clearly marked in the appraisal information.
It was just a matter of heading in the right direction—finding it would only take time.
There were other methods of achieving the evolution, but they involved gradually accumulating massive amounts of energy. In comparison, the bomb-swallowing method was much easier—and faster.
If all went smoothly, Shiraori was confident she could evolve into a god within six months.
Once she became a god, she would go to the human world in her full human form and search for Eriri—then watch her grow from a baby.
From beginning to end, both Shiraori and Mirei firmly believed that Eriri would be reborn into the human world.
Just imagining the life she'd have after finding Eriri made Shiraori break into a goofy giggle.
...
Having made their decision, Shiraori and Mirei didn't linger in the lower levels of the labyrinth. They began making their way back to the upper layer.
After a year of exploration, they were already familiar with the labyrinth's three-tiered structure. Even without relying on Appraisal for guidance, they easily made their way back up.
The monsters in the upper layer were now like ants to them—any one of their attacks could wipe them out.
In fact, just the overwhelming aura they gave off was enough to make most monsters steer clear.
However, not long after reaching the upper layer, the two were suddenly blocked by a massive monster.
"Is that… Mom?"
Staring at the enormous spider that had just appeared—one she hadn't seen in a year—Shiraori was stunned.
Standing before them was none other than her mother in this life: the Queen Taratect.
Once a Queen Taratect's offspring reached a certain level of evolution, they came under her mental control. In the original story, Shiraori had discovered this and attacked her mother's soul to avoid being controlled, which triggered a pursuit.
That eventually led to her being hunted by Demon Lord Ariel—but the core issue had been a language barrier.
Now, however, Shiraori possessed the passive skill that granted immunity to all negative effects. As a result, she wasn't affected by the Queen Taratect's control at all.
This meant that, at least for now, there had been no fundamental conflict between them.
Whether that would remain true depended entirely on how the Queen Taratect chose to respond next.
—
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