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「That’s true. But to your extent? Impossible.」

Well, catching up to me is likely unfeasible.
With magic power detection being dependent on the mastery of the fundamentals, the time one spends practicing makes a significant difference.
Continued spell research and regular use of sorcery certainly can contribute to one’s mastery of detection.
However, that won’t be the most efficient way to practice.

「Come to think of it, Cielmer can sense magic power as well, right?」
「She’s at least capable of discerning the strength of a spell.」
『Also, I can finally distinguish Ain’s magic power these days!』
「So that feat she displayed at the end of the mock fight with Friere wasn’t a fluke after all.」
「It wasn’t a fluke, yes, but even I didn’t expect her to catch that spear of flame.」
「It wouldn’t have been a problem even if it connected, right?」
「I believe so.」

After all, Ciel was able to grasp the spear because of the barrier. If she had caught it barehanded, the heat would’ve likely been damaging.
That aside, Ciel suddenly asserting herself nearly made me break into a chuckle.

「Glacio Lentzo was rendered useless as well.」
「Anyhow, it seems like you should at least be capable of destroying a small island if you want to overcome me.」
「It depends on the island’s size, but something powerful enough to destroy a town just might do the trick.」
「It certainly might.」

My magic power will likely run dry if I’m continuously hit by those spears of ice for several hours straight, so saying it was ‘rendered useless’ is a bit too much. Still, that’s not very realistic.
Also, I do want to have an accurate measurement of my barrier’s toughness, but I can’t think of anyone who can break my barrier. Mother should be capable of that, but then there’s the problem of where to do the testing.

Inside the den is a possible candidate, but this is a place that can shut out Mother’s magic power. If I bring her here, it might affect her surveillance of Central, and I feel hesitant to bring her here just for testing.
In short, whether or not a spell powerful enough to destroy a town is actually necessary to destroy my barrier will remain forever in the dark.

「I’m satisfied now, so let’s continue on.」
「Alright.」

Moving our feet after being halted by Carol’s strength test, we headed for the next stratum.

◇◇◇

After reaching the 30th stratum, the monsters further increased in power.
To be more specific, A-rank monsters start appearing.
In exchange, the encounter rate has decreased.

As for why, I have an answer in mind.

While it might be that there are simply fewer monsters roaming around in general, we’ve also started seeing some large white clumps here and there.
At the same time, there are also some thin, stringy objects stuck to the floor, ceiling, and walls.

I’ll stop dancing around the topic.

There are spiderwebs dangling everywhere, with some holding monsters captive.
That’s why there are only a few of them.
Even if the monsters that evaded capture attacked us, Carol’s ice spears would simply take their lives. Just now, a winged serpent crumbled away.

「Well, I suppose this is as far as I go.」

Carol stopped right in front of the stairs leading to the next stratum.
Part of the reason for that is likely because we’re currently at the 35th stratum, the last stratum Carol said she could reach without any issues.
But another reason might be the increased number of webs.

It should be safe to assume that going down here will lead directly to the Artificial Divine Messenger.
I could search for it through detection, but for some reason my detection can’t go beyond the current den stratum I’m on.
The same applies for simple magic power detection.

「What are you going to do now?」
「I’ll retreat while I still have plenty of magic power to spare. I’d rather not get dragged into the crossfire.
Besides, I’ve gained plenty on the way here.」
「In that case, take care on your way back.」
「Of course. While I don’t believe that you two will lose, be careful.
Also…」

Carol was about to say something, but shook her head and simply said, ‘It’s nothing’.
It’s definitely not nothing, but if she doesn’t want to continue, there’s no need to force it out of her.
After seeing Carol off, I switched out with Ciel.

「We’re already here, so we can’t just turn back, can we?」
『I won’t force you, but it would be better if we continued on.
And we did come here out of our own free will, after all.』
「That’s true, but I didn’t imagine it to be a spider.」
『Me too.』
「Still, it can’t be helped. Let’s continue on.」

Steeling herself, Ciel moved onward.
It’s the 36th stratum. Even if this den is only 50 strata deep, there’s still a long way to go. Even here, there are already A-rank monsters appearing.
It’s our first time here, but it’s easy to tell with one glance that the situation is largely different from the norm.

There are webs laid around the stratum and countless clumps of spider silk.
There are webs that are sticky and those that are just plain tough; it would be best to avoid contact with any of them.

Using detection, I can tell that there’s only one thing moving in this stratum.
There are other things moving, to be precise, but writhing would be the more appropriate description for their movements. Those writhing clumps are definitely struggling monsters and people.
At any rate… I ‘saw’ it. It’s not like I can physically see it, but it’s disgusting.

Not only have I ‘seen’ its form, but I can also ‘see’ even the smallest hairs on its body.
This is likely the only day I will ever regret having such a highly precise detection ability.

『Around that corner is a wide hall, and it’s just waiting there. A surprise attack would be difficult.』
「We’ve stepped on some webs on the way here, after all.」

While I was guiding Ciel, there were webs we couldn’t avoid stepping on.
Those webs were neither traps nor did they stick to her feet, so their role is likely to detect trespassers.
Considering the case of the golden wolf, it should also have roughly the same level of intelligence.

Ciel took several deep breaths before jumping into the hall.

And it was there. With eight thick and hairy legs, three pairs of glowing red eyes, sharp crushing jaws, and golden hair all over.
In front of us was a spider monster larger than Ciel.
The moment it entered my sights, all I could see was red.

Just for a few seconds, my mind came to a complete halt.
I was completely taken by disgust.
I expanded my barrier outward to keep that thing away from me.

It’s not as if we had a concrete plan.
But I just thought that we might act differently this time.
However, that wasn’t the case.

Regardless of its size, a spider is still a spider.
The instant we saw its form, both Ciel and I reacted as we always do. It was a reflex that was cultivated by our past experiences.
Ciel’s sorcery zoomed towards the golden spider to cut it to shreds, but it wasn’t powerful enough to do so.
After all, she used a spell that might not even work against B-rank monsters.

All this happened in a few seconds. However, that was enough of an opening for the spider to take advantage of.

The spider pointed the end of its abdomen towards us and shot out its web.
When I regained consciousness, it was already too late. We were trapped inside a cocoon of spider silk.

Ain today, seeing the finest details of our little (big) spider friend: “What a terrible day to have the gift of near omniscient sight.” Our girls literally blacked out and went on autopilot, poor girls.

Back to the first part, it was a bit funny how nonchalant Carol was like “Yeah, a stronger nuke might just do it”, completely desensitized to Ain’s barrier. Meanwhile, Ain is like “Man, I’d be nice to know exactly how big of whacking I can take”. Then on the second part, we jumped into trauma zone. Ain’s on full ‘Stay Away’ mode and Ciel is ‘Kill on Sight’. And this time, it backfired, both of them acted *exactly* as they always did and that didn’t account for the spider actually surviving. And so we move on to the next chapter~!

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!