The headache didn’t take long to subside. And by the time it did, the memories from just before my reincarnation had come back vividly.
Before I knew it, an intense anger had overwritten the resignation that had been swirling inside me just moments ago.
“Why do I have to go through something like this?”
The words slipped out before I could stop myself, and I quickly covered my mouth, shrinking back.
Fortunately, I couldn’t sense any sign of Igor nearby. All I could hear were birds chirping and the rustling of trees swaying in the wind.
Relief that no immediate danger was closing in was quickly overtaken as my thoughts were once again consumed by anger.
What do you mean, “Just accept that you were unlucky this time and give up”?!
For seventeen years since I was born, I struggled desperately just to survive. I had almost resigned myself to it earlier, thinking it couldn’t be helped, but…
And then, to top it all off, “It’s unfortunate, but do your best in your next life”… what do you think a human life is?!
Anger and grief mixed together as I clenched my trembling fists.
…No, calm down. Nothing about the situation has changed. I need to reset…
There’s no time to get lost in thought. I needed to figure out how to escape before Igor finds me.
As soon as my magic recovers enough, I have to decide my next move…at least that much, and quickly.
But I haven’t rested that long… and my magic has recovered this much already?
The shock of regaining my memories had kept me from noticing, but the exhaustion and heaviness from being on the verge of running out of magic had completely disappeared.
Has my total amount of magic increased by this much…?
It was strange that I hadn’t noticed until now just how much magic I had. It was more than I had ever felt before.
My magic is… overflowing from my body!?
“Demitri!!”
“Damn it!!”
The area around me began to fill with heat-laden magic. To get out of there, I activated body enhancement with the intent of burning through all my remaining magical power and tried to sprint away.
“Huh?”
In the next instant, I stomped straight through the ground beneath me.
Before I could understand what was happening, a blinding flash stole my vision, and I was hit with the sudden, weightless sensation of falling.
Before I could make sense of it, a heavy impact struck my head, and I lost consciousness.
***
“Ugh…”
A dull pain throbbed in my head as my consciousness slowly returned. I opened my eyes, but all I could see was darkness.
This again…
The strange experience I had before my reincarnation crossed my mind, but this time I could clearly feel that I had a body. For some reason, that alone brought a sense of relief as I tried to look around.
Something’s wrapped around me… I can’t move?
Something stuck to my back was restricting my movement. It was too dark to see clearly, but it felt like I was lying on my back, my body fixed in place.
Left with no choice, I moved only my eyes, scanning my surroundings.
I had thought it was complete darkness, but I could make out faint, glowing spots scattered here and there.
What on earth happened?
Just before I lost consciousness, my vision had been swallowed by the intense light from Igor’s magic, and at the same time, I felt that sudden sensation of floating…
Did I fall into a hole when I started running at full speed with body enhancement to escape…? That’s unbelievably clumsy…
Maybe I was lucky to survive by the skin of my teeth, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel relieved.
Being stuck underground, unable to move and unable to see anything, hardly counts as an improvement.
Setting aside the head injury… did I survive the fall because of whatever’s wrapped around me so tightly I can’t move…?
In any case, I needed to understand my situation. I tried to check what was binding me, but it was still far too dark to see.
Panicking won’t help… I can see faint lights in the distance. Maybe my eyes will adjust to the darkness if I wait a bit.
Just as I prayed for that and was about to start self-healing to ease the pain in my head, a sudden thought crept into my mind.
Does Igor know I’m still alive?
I remembered Igor’s abnormal ability to sense magic, how he had pinpointed my location from several kilometers away from the campsite.
That monstrous detection range… maybe not underground, but…
Even if he hadn’t followed me down into the hole, there was a chance he had already sensed that I was still alive.
If he had already detected me, it was too late. But just in case, I began self-healing while carefully controlling my magic so none of it would leak outside my body.
***
By the time I finished a round of self-healing, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
Fortunately, I felt like I had more freedom of movement than when I first regained consciousness. Moving not just my eyes but my neck, I looked around again.
The faint glowing things I had noticed earlier appeared to be some kind of moss.
The faintly glowing moss you always see in caves in fiction made me forget my situation for a moment and lifted my spirits, if only slightly.
Unfortunately, there was no moss nearby, so I still couldn’t tell what was around me, but I could make out the moss a little farther away and its surroundings, faint though they were.
Looks like my luck really hasn’t improved…
Seeing something as thick as a child’s arm stretching in every direction around the moss and something human-sized tangled in it and hanging in midair, my brief excitement instantly crashed.
A spider’s web… and judging by the thickness of the threads and the size of the prey caught in it, it’s some kind of very large magical beast…
Imagining the unseen owner of the nest sent a chill down my spine.
I should have been more on guard. I need to get out of here before it comes back…!
The moment I activated body enhancement to forcibly tear the threads off my body, something changed.
The threads are hardening!?
Right after activating the enhancement, the threads wrapped around me suddenly hardened, as if it were a lie that my range of movement had been gradually improving just moments before.
I hurriedly canceled the enhancement.
Don’t tell me… they harden by absorbing magic!?
A horrifying possibility crossed my mind.
A giant spider far larger than any human.
Once you’re caught in the threads it spits, it’s over.
If you try to cast magic or activate body enhancement, the threads instantly harden, robbing you of your freedom. And what comes after that is…
I have to get out of here as fast as possible, but I don’t know how.
As I kept turning it over in my head without finding a way out, I suddenly remembered that there had been a moment when I regained a little freedom of movement.
When I woke up, I couldn’t move at all, but after the self-healing ended, I could move my neck…
I hadn’t paid it any particular attention at the time, but the restraint had definitely loosened.
Was it activating self-healing that helped? Unlikely… then was it controlling my magic leakage?
Thinking back, when I first regained consciousness, I hadn’t been controlling my magic leakage at all. On the other hand, when I was using self-healing, I had been controlling it out of concern for Igor’s ability to sense magic.
And just earlier, when I hastily activated body enhancement, my panic made my control sloppy, and magic leaked out of my body.
If the threads harden by absorbing magic, then cutting off the supply might make them soften again.
If the threads had already been hardened when I fell in here, I’d be dead.
This is just a guess, but after I fell and was caught in the web, it must have gradually hardened to the point of immobilizing me by absorbing the magic that was unconsciously leaking from my body.
If the threads hadn’t fully hardened before I hit the ground, I might have ended up as a stain on it…
After I regained consciousness and started self-healing, I had been controlling the magic leaking from my body.
As a result, the supply of magic to the threads was cut off, and the hardening began to loosen little by little, easing the restraint enough for me to move my neck.
It had just started to soften, and then I let my control slip and activated body enhancement, causing the threads to harden again.
I can’t say for certain that this guess is correct, but the circumstantial evidence suggests it isn’t far off.
If it’s only enough to move my neck slightly, how long will it take before I can move freely… will I make it before the owner of the web comes back…?
Too much has happened since last night. Thinking about things I can’t control will only make it worse.
“Whatever happens, happens…”
Muttering that, I abandoned my train of thought, closed my eyes, and began focusing on controlling my magic.
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