-----Demon Lord Ariel-----

"So what else do you feel like telling me?" I ask the Snake Reincarnation before me.

"Hmm, actually now that I think about it, I believe I covered most of the pertinent details regarding who I am and why I'm here. Was there really anything else that I needed to tell you?"

"How about the means by which I save Sariel?"

"Oh, that. Like I said, we're going to need some help from your granddaughter, the Spider Reincarnation. I'm not entirely sure where in the current timeline we're at since I don't know how long it takes for a Snake to hatch from its egg. I think she would've hatched from her egg as a Small Lesser Taratect in the Elroe Great Labyrinth three months after the 'incident' so..."

"Ah, that was nearly a year ago."

"Damn, that means she's had... fuck, weren't the years in this world something like 24 months or something?"

"Each year consits of ten months that are 41 days each with one extra day that belongs to no month in particular which is the day in which the previous year ends and the new one begins."

"Oh, right. 411-day years instead of 365.25-day years. Which means that she's been active for six to seven months by now. She should still be lost somewhere down in the Labyrinth then, most likely traversing the Lower Layer or maybe trekking through the Middle Layer in an attempt to get back to the Upper Layer then."

"Wait, you said she's either lost in the Lower Layer or Middle Layer? How the hell would she even survive either of those places? The Lower Layer's crawling with B-A Class Monsters and the Middle Layer's a fucking ocean of lava that causes passive heat damage to anything without Fire Resistances and Taratect's have a Racial Weakness to Fire damage."

"Well, she had a strategy of moving between a nest near the entrance tunnel between the Middle and Lower Layer's and would occasionally wander up to the Middle Layer to try and grind a bit of Fire Resistance before retreating back to the Lower Layer. Depending on where we are exactly in the timeline since there's no point of reference for the time she spent in the Labyrinth, she's either going to forced to stay in the Middle Layer after a pair of Earth Dragons collapse the tunnel and trap her in the Middle Layer or that's going to happen eventually. It's hard to say since, as I said, the story mostly follows her PoV and she had no way of tracking the passage of time down in the Labyrinth."

"Hmm, what was she even doing in the Lower Layer anyway?"

"I forget exactly what happened. I think she may have been chased by an army of Centipede's into a vertical shaft connecting the Upper and Lower Layers while she was still a Small Taratect and couldn't climb back up the shaft due to the Finjicote nest at the top. Not to mention running the fuck away from Earth Dragon Alaba, who inadvertently traumatized the shit out of her and ignited a strange sense of competitiveness within her."

"Ah, that'd do it. I guess she should hope not to run into any Anogratch's then or else she'll be in real trouble."

"She gets most of the experience for her evolution into a Small Poison Taratect after soloing an Anogratch troop led by three of the evolved forms of the weird Monkey's that came to kill her after she unwittingly killed a single member of the troop. She didn't level up Appraisal enough to see the Skills of her opponents and didn't know about [Revenge] until much later."

"Well shit. She must be quite tenacious to take on a troop of Anogratch led by, you said three Bagragratch?!"

"Yep. And she absolutely is rather tenacious. Again, I don't know if it's already happened or will happen soon, but I know she escapes the Labyrinth and settles in Karen County of Sariella within the second year following the 'incident'."

"I see. Is there anything else I should know?"

"Well..."

-----Kumoko-----

-----Middle Layer-----

Ah!!! I hate this fucking place!!! Also fuck that damned Snake for stealing [Ruler of Perseverance]!!!

*Minor Flashback*

Shortly after the cell phone dropped in out of nowhere and the person on the other end talked things out with the weird guy in the black armor, they went and introduced themselves as "Administrator D, Creator of the System, Worst Evil Goddess in the World, etc."

They also then went on to tell me that not only did everyone else from the classroom (minus D herself apparently) plus some rando who got caught in the fallout get reincarnated, but that Administrator S, one of D's subordinates, gave this rando a shit ton of advantages explicitly designed to fuck me over and that they're plotting against me for some unspecified reason.

They went as far as somehow getting to purchase various Skills before they even Reincarnated, including [Perseverance], which they somehow knew I was going to want because it gives [Heresy Nullification] and the [Ruler of Perseverance] Title gives access to the Evil Eye Skills. Oh, and the ability to use my MP bar as a secondary HP bar in case of emergencies.

*Back to the Present*

What I wouldn't give to have [Perseverance] and all of its benefits right now. If I had [Heresy Nullification], I could actually fucking use that damned [Detection] Skill and start getting into Magic! Also Evil Eye's sound incredibly useful for a Spider like me with eight eyes to use! What the hell's a damned two-eyed snake going to do with them?! They're wasted on them! GAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck you!!!!!

WWWWWWRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the worst part is I can't even go kill the fucker since "apparently" they're the "Champion of Administrator S" and I'm likely to get smited or something if I try to kill them (unless it's in "self defense")!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!

-----Demon Lord Ariel-----

"So yeah, your granddaughter likely hates my guts." The Snake concludes.

"Well then. That sounds like an incredibly awkward conflict born of deliberate misunderstandings perpetuated by Administrator D."

"Absolutely. Fucking conflict-loving sadist. She'd make for a good Entity from Worm with how much she loves driving others into conflict." The snake mutters. I have no idea what they're referring to and I'm not sure I even want to know, so I'm not going to ask.

"Okay then, so it sounds like we need to find her and sort out this misunderstanding."

"Not yet. She's most likely not going to be in the mood to listen to either of us and I'm probably going to have to fight her to get through to her, preferably a demonstration of overwhelming force on my part and then refusing to kill her should help her understand that my intentions are noble and that D's fucking with her."

"Okay, so we need to get you trained up then. I don't suppose you have any plans for that?"

"Sure I do. Come at me with everything you've got, minus Abyss Magic though but that should be obvious."

"...What?"

"What? Is something wrong?"

"You're telling me you want me to come at you full force with everything I've got short of Abyss Magic. You're going to die."

"Nah, I've got [Immortality], remember? If I want to survive Kumoko, then I need to play to my strengths. My strengths are being too damn tough to kill, which means I need to grind out my Resistances. So stop lollygagging and show me the might of a True Demon Lord!"

-----???/Our MC-----

"You're absolutely insane, but if that's what you want... so be it." Ariel says right before I black out from pain.

I already feel like I should be dead or something, but somehow I'm not. Oh yeah, I don't have any sort of health regen going for me. [Immortality] only prevents you from dying, it doesn't heal you from your injuries.

Deciding to bite the bullet, I dip into my limited supply of Skill Points and buy [HP Auto-Recovery Lvl.1] and the Level One versions of all Evil Eye Skills so that they can start passively leveling up from [Ruler of Instinct].

Already I can feel [HP Auto-Recovery Lvl.1] kicking in and healing me... incredibly slowly. Still, even with how cheap they all were, each Evil Eye only costing 100 Skill Points, there's so fucking many of them that it was still rather expensive.

I spent a total of 2,000 of my 50,000 Skill Points on [HP Auto-Recovery] and all 19 of the Evil Eye Skills I didn't already own. I thought that some of them would be more expensive than others, but I guess since I purchased [Ruler of Perseverance] with Blessings, then I get the lowest possible cost on all Evil Eye Skills as a hidden benefit? Hard to say.

"Huh, guess you're still alive after all. That's good."

"I told you, I'm immortal. Also-" And there's the pain spike.

That's not nearly as helpful as it sounds. This is going to take a while and is going to suck regardless. Then I feel the pain fading away and sensation returning to my body. The fuck?

"I used Healing Magic on you. You can train your [HP Auto-Recovery] after you at least reach Level One in all of the Resistance Skills that I can help you access." Ariel says with a sadistic grin. Oh hell no, this was a terrible idea!

Things instantly get very hot all of a sudden as I experience the sensation of being burned alive.

"I hate my life." That thought I keep to myself as I'm healed up once again after being burned alive for a minute or two until I gained [Fire Resistance Lvl.1]. Then comes the drowning.

And so the cycle continues. Seemingly lacking Ice Magic, the Demon Lord decides to move onto Tempest Magic, the highest form of Wind Magic, and traps me in an eviscerating cyclone of razor sharp wind blades.

Well, at least it's a good way to train Dragon Scales. Oh, here comes the Earth Magic. Then the Lightning Magic. Then the Light Magic, followed by the Dark Magic. Then comes the Poison and Heavy (Gravity) Magic. Suffice to say that with the exception of Ice Magic, I've gained Level One resistance to basically all magics. Yay.

Throughout it all, I've also been trying to stay awake and not black out from the pain, which was rewarded with gaining a level of Faint Resistance as well as a level of Pain Mitigation, so things sucked slightly less than before.

"Well, that covers all of the magic resistances I can impart onto you with the exception of Heresy Magic, unless you're willing to turn that off so that we can help you train your Fear Resistance."

Letting out a massive sigh, or as close to one as I can manage with this body, I disable [Heresy Nullification] and immediately freeze up from total pants-shitting terror.

And notably isn't really helping all that much! Though Ariel stops blasting me with Fear upon noticing me gaining the Skill.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll manage. So I guess with most of the magic resistances taken care of, I guess it's time for the physical resistances. Also, keep hitting me with Fear while we do this. I'm pretty sure Kumoko's got the [Fearbringer] Title and I want to be ready to counter it with [Fear Nullification]."

"You do know that's a Heresy effect and that [Heresy Nullification] should counter that, right?"

"I like being prepared. If say she somehow gains [Envy], she could disable [Heresy Nullification] and then I'd be up shit creek."

"Good point. Alright then, prepare yourself for the beating of a lifetime." Ariel says as the physical resistance portion of the grind begins.

...Isn't that the precursor to [Diligence] from the CYOA? Well, I guess it makes sense. I am being rather diligent in gaining Resistances through my own "efforts" (read: masochistic hellish domination from the Demon Lord).

After a few minutes of being horribly brutalized by the Demon Lord in order to get the various physical resistance skills up to Level One, she takes a moment to consider me.

"Well, now I guess we can start working on your regeneration if you want."

I flash her a challenging stare. "Do your worst."

I won't let myself fall behind. I won't let myself fail! I will survive this world! I will Ascend!