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

-----Middle Layer; Elroe Great Labyrinth-----

Then Kumoko turns to me. This could get tricky.

I could try using [Appraisal] on her, but she may have worked out the ability to use Ruler Authority to block it and I don't have [Wisdom] to bypass it. Which means she can probably see my information. In fact, I'm pretty sure I felt that tell-tale "tingling" sensation that's often associated with [Appraisal] during the "fight" with Rend, so she likely knows my capabilities.

If it came down to a fight between us, I'm pretty sure she'd win as things stand. She's got Abyss Magic, which is basically the only thing on the planet that poses a genuine threat to me at this point and there's no resistance against it due to it being partially "beyond the system" by design.

Even if that weren't the case, she's too fast for me to readily escape. Thankfully I've got access to the same trick Kumoko used to escape Ariel's Abyss Magic attack during the Sariella War, namely the whole "shunt soul from my current body into unhatched egg" trick. I've got several stashes of eggs scattered about the Upper Layer guarded by some of my stronger children in case of emergencies as a contingency, but I'd really rather not go through that.

Oh yeah, I tend to keep those kinds of Skills running as much as possible to max them out as soon as possible. I don't remember Kumoko's current status, but I'm pretty sure she also has [Thought Super-Acceleration] at a higher level than I do, so I don't have long to try and find a way to alleviate any possible grudges against me soon.

How do I do this? Do I just go for it? I activate [Fartalk] and direct it at her and hope to the Goddess that Kumoko/Wakaba's a fan of the classics.

"Moshi moshi Kumoko-chan. I'm not a bad Snake, you know!"

-----Kumoko(Information-In-Charge)-----

"Pft. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! Did that bastard snake seriously just make that reference?!"

Body-in-Charge then replies. "Hahahahaha. That was a good one."

The two Magic-In-Charge's are also snickering to themselves while we take a moment to process what just happened.

"Look at the way they're all coiled up! It's like they're expecting a fight to the death or something!" Body-in-Charge states while I refocus my attention on the Snake.

"Huh, they do seem rather wound up. It's like they're seriously concerned about dying or something." I reply.

"Well, we did unleash Abyss Magic a moment ago and they likely realize that [Immortality] won't save them from it." Magic-in-Charge-1 states.

"I wonder what we should do with them? D said that if we meet up with them, then we're supposed to work together or something, but they're also an existential threat to us or something? This is so annoying."

"*clears throat* You do know I can hear you, right?" Comes an unexpected voice.

""""FUCK!!!!""""

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

"Anyways, with that little icebreaker out of the way, can we take a moment to clear up some misunderstandings?" I ask the Kumoko's.

"What?" "Huh?" "The hell you talking about?" "Go to hell!" Four identical voices all scream out at once. Thankfully I'm able to understand all of them thanks to my various mental enhancement Skills.

"So long story short, I got dragged into the mess that led to you and the rest of your class getting killed and reincarnated hear. Whereas Administrator D is an incredibly lazy shithead, Administrator S decided to help me out and offered me additional compensation since this whole mess is at least 20% D's fault and she failed to do proper follow through." I begin, which causes Kumoko to send me the mental equivalent of a "nod of understanding".

"Anyways, part of that compensation involved giving me a bunch of 'Blessings' while D wasn't paying attention and letting me go through a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' format of picking various starting powers, skills, etc." I continue.

"Unfortunately, D noticed S giving me a shit ton of 'Blessings' and decided to punish me in several ways for being a greedly little shit, so she disable my ability to gain Skill Points, among other things. Part of the 'punishment' involved D informing you of my existence and gaslighting you into becoming my nemesis to try and fuck me over."

-----Kumoko(Information-In-Charge)-----

"Wow, unable to gain Skill Points?! That's gotta suck."

"For real though. Also, do we really believe that D deliberately misled us with the intention to screw over this snake bastard?" Body-in-Charge asks.

"I for one could absolutely buy that." "Same. That sounds exactly like something she would do." the two Magic-in-Charge's reply.

"Yep, that's definitely the sort of thing she'd pull to fuck with us."

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

So far, so good.

"Anyways, getting shafted by D aside, now that we've properly met we should introduce ourselves. I'm... I actually haven't come up with a name for my current self. Huh. Oh well, I guess I can just go full Metal Gear and go by 'Snake' or 'Big Boss' or something."

"Pft. Well then. I'm... well, I was Wakaba Hiro, but lately the nickname 'Kumoko' has been growing on us. Nice to meet you, Boss-san." Kumoko replies.

"Cool, so gonna eat that?" I ask while gesturing towards Rend's body. Thankfully the speed we've been communicating at telepathically means that only a couple of seconds have passed in the real world, so the lava hasn't fully flooded back in just yet.

""""MINE!!!"""" Kumoko shouts as she hops onto Rend's corpse and starts tearing into him. So far, so good.

"Oh hey, S-sensei. Yes, it seems that the Conjuration lessons have been going better than expected."

Oh yeah, that's one thing I've been focusing on. Conjuration allows for effects/attacks that register as "beyond the system" which bypasses Resistance Skills. This led me to try and augment or enhance my system-based Skills with Conjuration to try and at least somewhat bypass System limitations similar to how Abyss Magic works.

To make a long story short, I have been partially successful thus far. While I can't obviously do something as crazy as creating my own Abyss Magic equivalent, modifying the [Charming Evil Eye] to become capable of bypassing [Heresy Resistance] has been moderately successful.

It can't yet properly put someone under the "Charm" status effect, but it can act as something of an artifical charisma-booster for anyone who makes eye contact with me, which is super convenient in this case since I've done my best to maintain constant eye contact with Kumoko this whole time to passively boost her opinion of me.

Well, she's a bit busy tearing into Rend, but I'd consider this whole encounter to be a resounding success. I guess you could say that I'm a "Snake Charmer".

Yeah, no. That was terrible.