But such a cheat transformation skill like this must have a fatal drawbackâŠâŠ
I took a closer at the âPredatorâ Skill under âActive Specialized Skillsâ at the bottom of the list of the Skill Window.
Details
[Physical-Type][Active]
Once the opponent has been bitten, the prey will be infected by poison which will cause the opponentâs movement speed to decrease.
â Effects
Health is recovered when you are hit (+5% per second, 3 seconds)
When bitten, opponents will be affected by Arachneâs poison and acquire a [Madness] Stack.
When âArachnophobiaâ is used to transform oneâs self into a monster, various Specialized Skills that could not be used in human form will be displayed.
My âPredatorâ skill was so powerful that it made it possible for me to defeat nearly all lower-level opponents with a single strike.
But what is the âMadness Stackâ acquired here?
Details
[Debuff] [Passive] [Dark Attribute]
The user will experience a sense of instability in himself. It will begin to settle and take hold of your mind in the form of a horrifying monster. Every power has a price.
Only acquired in a state of immersion by Arachne. During the Arachnephobia skill duration, you can obtain 1 Madness stack when using [Predator], [Reproduction], and [Witchcraft]. There is also a possibility of acquiring an extra stack if an enemy is killed.
The acquired stack will slowly disappear as the duration elapses, but the acquired Madness stack will not become lower than 1 stack in the transformed state. (Maximum 15 Seconds) (30 Seconds duration).
â Effects
Decreases health by -3 per second. (However, this effect does not reduce health to 0).
Attack +3%
At first, I thought this skill was to increase oneâs attack even though it had some drawbacks.
I shouldnât have thought of it that way.
I shouldnât have used this recklessly. I completely misunderstood the skill.
âWhy did I only realize it now.â
All the reasons for this situation was stack-type debuff called âMadnessâ that can be acquired in the Arachne state.
TL/N: Arachne = Spider
Shouldnât I have noticed the genuineness of this skill right from its ominous name?
Even so, there should be at least one or two skills that have such bad naming in this world. I just thought that the name was at least better than the âDance of Deathâ Iâve heard about.
In any case, this Madness skill could be considered as nothing special in a way, as it only slightly increases your attack unless all the stages were stacked up
Its true capabilities are shown when the stacks were in multiples of 5.
During the fifth stack, the attack range increases, but the movement speed decreases.
And when ten were stacked, a defense penetration effect was added.
You can completely ignore the opponentâs defense!
It was great. Of course, because of the effects, it was only natural that it had drawbacks, but at the same time, my defense would drop to almost half.
As a result, the effect of this skill was called âMadnessâ. In a way, it could be described as a âdouble-edged swordâ.
The higher the stack, the stronger my attacks become, but the disadvantages that come with it will also increase, so itâs difficult for me to see it as something good.
âBut I didnât expect the 15th effect to be like that⊠No one told me!â
Unfortunately, the stories of maintaining stacks and managing it seems to have been common only in online games.
[Madness stack has been acquired.] [Current Madness Stack: 15 (Max: 15)] [âAssimilationâ effect has been triggered.]
The pleasing notification sound came as soon as I reached the maximum level of madness.
The sound of a faint chime coming from afar.
And my consciousness darkened.
Yes. The fifteenth effect, the maximum of the Madness stack, was none other than the âFairytaleâ that caused me to become one in the form of this monster.
A Madness stack only lasts 30 seconds from the moment itâs acquired, so keeping it high isnât really a good technique.
If you hunt, drink water, and rest, all the stacks youâve acquired so far will disappear.
Besides, I was timid and kept the stack between only 5 and 9 because I thought I would die if I was caught by my shortcomings and wasnât strong enough.
It was probably my first time in this forest when I got the 15th stack.
TL/N: Taking the 15 steps was probably the first time I had ever been in this forest. (is the original line)
Still, I have no doubts that this was the cause of all this.
That notification sound was the last thing I heard before everything turned black.
Stack management?
It was funny now that Iâve gone through the effects.
Now, is that why there are red stains all around in this dark forest?
Because of this tragedy, I no longer had the desire to wield such a double-edged sword.
âItâs a big dealâŠitâs a really big deal.â
After sorting everything out, all I could do was close my eyes, and blame myself for causing this mess in a feeble voice.
Even though I thought I had regained my composure, I sighed.
Stack or whatever, I shouldnât have used all of those as if it was just a game! This isnât just for fun, this isnât a game!
âUghâŠ..â
Wait a minute.
The moment I thought âthis is not a gameâ, I doubted my thoughts.
I had become a monster, there was a Hero, and there was a notification window that resembles the concept of an RPG, which was definitely something sort of a game.
However, to my surprise, this really wasnât a virtual reality game that would come out a few years later or a grand delusion of someone who was hooked on games.
This was a so-called âworldâ, different from Earth.
âIf you just use skills, you become stronger. But on the other hand, I should have known that I shouldnât be so easily swayed by skills.â
But the reality was that, in this world, it was a common repertoire.
An ordinary middle school student living on earth died of an accident and woke up to find a world of fantasy?
Whatâs more, thereâs a skill system that feels legitimate enough to be cliche?!
Thatâs what the recent development felt like.
ââŠâŠâ
Those who liked such works would be envious of me, at least once saying that Iâd live a dream-like life of charming magic, deceptive abilities, and later on, money, power, and love.
But to be honest, if I could show my life to anyone and convey my feelings to all the people in the universe that had once felt hopeful, I would definitely recommend that they consider it again.
Well, of course, there could be some fun things to do.
If you retain the memories of your past life, youâd be praised as a prodigy or a genius ever since you were born, and that part is quite interesting.
But alsoâŠ..
âDonât reincarnate to another world.â
My heart doesnât change much in this sentence.
No matter how much fun Iâll have while living, the only thing Iâll end up with is 1. Killed the Hero, and 2. Having eaten him too.
The protagonist of this stressful case has come to give advice to his fictional junior that didnât even exist.
âUgh.â
When I opened my eyes at first, I was extremely hungry. However, now that I am able to judge the situation clearly, I didnât care about hunger anymore.
The situation was quite hopeless.
I was doing well 10 minutes ago, but it worsened after that.
The reason was that after finding the body of the Hero, even more bodies have been discovered one after the otherâŠ..
âI was so busy earlier that I didnât notice, there are more corpses here than I thought.â
There was an open space inside the grim forest filled with darkened plants that seemed like they were tarred over with a dull shade of blue.
This is presumably the place in which I, as a spider monster, used as a nest. It happened to have a wide stone implanted inside that seemed quite suitable for a human to sit, so I sat down and looked in the direction of the Hero again.
Come to think of it, I was filling my stomach with the roe deer in a hurry and when I grabbed the Heroâs body, I suddenly came to my senses.
At the time, I was surprised as I didnât know why I had woken up, but now my brain was starting to be more active to a certain extent.
Status.â
I focused my gaze on a mental accessory the Hero wore on his wrist and used the skill like the first time.
And as if it was natural, a semi-transparent âwindowâ appeared in front of me.
[Touch of the Illuminated Saint (Rare)]
A pure golden ornament blessed by a priest. It is said that the sincere prayers are contained in each engraved angelâs wings. Emerald-colored purification fossils are embedded to repel harm from oneâs self.
âEffects
Strength +12
Removes 1 status abnormality of the person in contact (once per hour)
âThatâs it.â
Status abnormality release item!
Just before I came to my senses, I put my hand on the dead arm, so it seemed that I had also received the effect of the ornament.
Limiting the status of the person in contact with more than one question-and-answer dance, would be quite rare, wouldnât it?
âAs expected, youâre a Hero, so such expensive equipmentâŠ.. Hero⊠Hah, damn HeroâŠâŠâŠ.â
Looking at such rare equipment, I realized once again how much I had harmed such a high-ranking human.
âI donât want to believe it.â
I didnât know how to relieve this feeling of helplessness, so I used my status skill and checked the status of our beloved Hero once again.
Hello! Translator here.
The first few chapters of Dungeon Gourmet will be mostly world-building and explanations of the situation, but the pace does pick up once our mc leaves the forest.
For now, chapters will be released once they are ready, but we may start to follow through with an actual release schedule once our lives calm down. (Yes, there are two people working on this project.) The next chapter will be updated sometime this week, so please look forward to it.
Oh yeah, and weâre doing this purely for the money and our own entertainment so if you want faster releases, please