Chapter 10: So My Classmate is a Spider, So What?

So in today's update of "The Chronicles of Riku Shiratori, Reincarnated Basilisk Stuck in this Goddamn Labyrinth", a sudden, actually positive development has occurred for freaking once! The theory the oddly intelligent spider I encountered ages was a reincarnation was not only correct, but I also finally ran into her myself to boot! And immediately learned more than a few things that could maybe lend to narrowing down just who she is from my class. A bit at least. Skittish, quiet, doesn't seem good at talking to people. That knocks off like ninety percent of the girls from my class off the bat.

But also holy heck is she ravenous when it comes to food. Seems more like an effect of having to survive in this damn place than anything though. I mean I can relate, but again, Basilisk. Not like I'm want for an active food source when I can literally eat rocks and do just fine for a while. Still, kind of impressed to see Ms. Spider take one of those eels down to the bone in record time before we got moving to look for a suitable wall I could hole out.

"This should do nicely!" Still getting adjusted to using telepathy for talking, I sent the thought out once we came to a suitable looking wall. I could only hope the inner parts of this dang floor are cooler than the rest of it.

"H-How are you going to…"

"I've got Seismic Magic."

"EH?!" If I could smirk at seeing the spider-girl jump in surprise, I would.

"Just watch." With a wave of my hand (foot, whatever), an impression on the wall begins moving back before forming into an expanding tunnel headed further and further into the segment. I catch Ms. Spider looking around as I push further in until I make enough distance. And as usual for when I crack at making a next, start taking it from a tunnel into a progressively wider room. Not as cozy as my old nest lined in wolf pelts, but hey for now we just gotta make do. Once the entrance is closed off and I've got a fire started for light, now makes a good time to hopefully relax a bit.

A thing my newfound companion seems a bit unable to do even with the relative safety we should be in. At least it actually is cooler than outside in here, thank the gods.

"W-What in the… you can seriously do this with… that kind of magic?"

"Yeap. I kinda figured even if magic has particular spells it should just be easy enough to use it just to manipulate the respective element no problem. I started out with Earth Magic when I hatched, seems to be a Basilisk-species freebie."

"Y-You had magic from the start?!" She sounds quite shocked, and jealous, at that statement. My nod only seems to make it worse. "A-Are you kidding me?! I ran through all of that unable to… and he got it for free from day one? How is that fair!?"

"Uh… Ms. Spider? I can, uh, hear what you're thinking." She flinches at realizing that yes, she had sent that one flying towards me. "But why don't we dial back a bit and start from a bit earlier? You said your memories are pretty hazy, so what do you remember about your old life before… this."

"W-Well… aside from that flash of light… I can't say I remember a whole lot," She began, still shaky and stilted. Hopefully she can edge out of it. "B-But I do remember how people treated me. I was… quiet, didn't talk much. So… people didn't like me. There was one girl I remember… she really didn't like me. But… I didn't really care, honestly. I just… absorbed myself in books and games, especially this MMO Sensei made us play… that, was a thing she did, right?"

"Y-Yeah… Oka-sensei was big on making the class do stuff together. Tried… maybe a bit too hard to be "hip", y'know?"

So… if I was already almost sure who she could be, I'm starting to get a better idea. And that idea is not sitting well with me. She's not Shouko. I know Shouko. If it had been her, this meeting would be going far differently, that's without a doubt. But that… no way, could it seriously be her of all people? I need a bit more info to be sure… but it sounds to close to what I know to be anyone else. But some of it feels… off. Not being liked? If it is her the only person I know who didn't like her was Mirei… but… gotta keep digging.

"So, what else? Aside from that like… even if your name doesn't show up, you at least remember it, don't you?"

"Uh… I-I think? I try but… it's also fuzzy for some reason. I don't know why." A couple of her inner legs move to her head as it wiggles about, like she's trying to rub her temples. "I just remember the day before class and then that… that light. I mean, I do remember liking a lot of anime and manga. But… o-other things are… I'm sorry, it's all just really vague."

"It's fine. Maybe something just went weird when you were reborn. Still… give me a second, I think I can piece it together. Just, one more thing. The girl who you said disliked you especially, what do you remember about her?" If the description matches Mirei, then it couldn't be anyone else.

"Uhm… she was… I think the most popular girl in class? She always… seemed to have something against me. Others did too, I think… sometimes its muddled. Like… something is mixed up. But the girl… she was… y-yeah, I think I remember her. Wasn't it… Shinohaza… Shinohara! Y-Yeah, I think it was that Shinohara girl."

"No fucking way…" This is… are you kidding me right now?! Who else could she be if not… "You… are you Hiiro? Hiiro Wakaba?"

"T-That… y-yeah that's familiar… that… yeah, yeah that was my name. Hiiro Wakaba… that's who I was."

Eh? Eh?! EHHHHHHHH?! Are you freaking serious?! Hiiro?! Miss Mysterious, Miss Most Popular Girl in School? Miss-Nobody-Knows-What-She-Thinks-But-Damn-She's-Pretty?! That person is in front of me right now as this shy little spider?! WHAT?! This has gotta be a joke! The God running this whole damn mess must be messing with me! There's no way, there's just no freaking way this is actually the situation I'm in right now!

YOU HEAR ME?! What kind of joke do you think you're playing on me you damned God of Isekai nonsense?!

"U-Uhm… S-Shiratori? Is… is something wrong?"

"Ah… a lot, yes."

Dragged out of my mental screaming - of which hopefully none was heard - I hung my head, shaking it to clear my thoughts up. I need to calmly think this over, not freak out. Nobody actually knew what kind of person Wakaba really was aside from how quiet she was and that she was always reading books. Logically it really is entirely possible she didn't talk much because she's shy like this. Like hell I would have known, I didn't talk to her! But… gods something about this feels almost convenient. And I still want to know why her memories seem too vague whereas mine as crystal clear. Something about that comes off as fishy. Something has absolutely got to be going on with this reincarnation business.

"Sorry about the… obvious freakout," I said, clearing my throat… for no reason. This is all mental. "I'm just… surprised is all. For a few reasons. You seriously think most of the class disliked you?"

"I mean… that's what I remember." She seemed puzzled I was even implying that may not have been the case. "Was I… not?"

"Well… more like nobody knew what to think about you. Everyone's impression was you were just sorta the stoic beauty of the class… so instead everyone started making things up."

"E-Eh?!" I get the feeling if a spider could blush, Wakaba here was doing just that. "N-No way… I… I wasn't even that… that good looking. I just… I shut myself in my room all day and played games. I didn't… I wasn't…"

Alright, adding on low self-esteem to the issues apparently plaguing the class mystery. This has suddenly become trickier than planned.

"If it's any comfort it was nothing near as bad as my end," Hopefully this might work. "Like I said, the ol' Hitogoroshime nickname. Had it since middle school and all because of these unnerving eyes of mine. Apparently whoever reincarnated us has a sense of humor and decided to make it quite literal, what with making me a Basilisk and all that."

"I… I remember a bit of that," a surprising admittance. "Not much but… you had these… really pale blue eyes. You still have them… actually."

"Figures…" a sigh rattled past my fangs. Least I can still do that. "Anyway, now that we both know who the other is… how about we explain what happened to each other before we met up? I'm kinda curious, since you're a spider and I'm a lizard. Things must have gone pretty differently between the two of us."

"Y-Yeah… you could say that. So uh… s-should I start?"

"I'll go first," That seemed to relax her a bit, as her body went slack out of obvious relief. "As you can kinda guess, it started with me waking up in an egg. From there… well, let's just my newfound childhood is kind of rough…"

And for the next stretch of time, Wakaba and I exchanged the stories we had of our new lives. Me from my escape from the nest and near death at the hands of the Cockatrice, to the leadup to my evolution by fighting it again and taking one of its eyes, even my first run in with her she seemed unaware of at the time. Also of my discovery of the Kasanagara entrance and my plans to eventually leave the Labyrinth once I reached an evolutionary point where I could take on a human form, hence my venture down into the Middle Stratum to continue to get stronger.

For Wakaba, her story made it clear she had it far, far rougher than I did, by miles. As I was already aware of, she started as the absolute lowest of lows for a monster, a baby Taratect barely able to fend for herself. I learned of her thoughts on finally making a home for herself in the Upper Stratum, of her frustrations at losing it when humans burnt it down and pushed her further into the Stratum than before. If all the monsters she fought and ate, how she was mastering her spider abilities more and more with each passing down.

And I learned of what happened when she fell into that pit. Falling into the second lowest Stratum. Of spending days wounded and weak trying to fight her way back up. Of her encounter with a full-on Dragon above even the wyrms I myself had encountered up to now. An Earth Dragon named Araba, one Wakaba had decided to always remember, to keep in mind as something she feared and was driving her to grow stronger still. And along with that, of the one she called "Mother", a Taratect of massive proportions that had almost killed her from day one after she hatched.

She spent a good while ranting about some monkey monsters she had to fight in the Lower Stratum, which definitely sounded like a rough time… I probably would have just petrified them all personally speaking. Also her opinions about the various monsters as forms of food. Seems we share an opinion on everything tasting like complete garbage but doing what needs to be done to survive. And the only shared experience of good food as of late was those cat fishes. Apparently the worst thing she's had to eat was some small snail-like monster called a Gastruch… sounds nasty if it's defensive mechanism is to cause Rot damage of all attributes. Eesh, just try to imagine swallowing something only for it to dissolve you from inside out.

Rough way to go.

"Still, actual Dragons? You seriously came across them down there?" Of course despite all these exchanges, with how relevant that one was to my future desires for evolution, it kept my interest among other topics. "What were they like, if I can ask?"

"W-Well… I think they're… different," Wakaba said, tilting her head with a thoughtful hum. "Like… when I Appraised them, it was a bit… odd. They were all Earth Dragons but they had… unique names. Araba… looked kind of like a wolf, a bit. The other two were… totally different. One was fast and limber… the other was slow and bulky. So… I think Dragons in this world… are a bit different than what we would think…"

"Hmm… maybe evolving into a proper Dragon makes one more… unique, even if they're the same kind. If even just three examples are that different from each other. Which makes my situation… possibly problematic."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Well… you mentioned how you took that Pride Skill. I got one of those Deadly Sin Skills too. Greed. It lets me steal things like Skills, stat points, or even Skill points from things I kill."

"EH?! Th-That's… that's completely crazy!"

"Yeah, totally. But, thanks to it, it's also sped up making sure I can survive on this floor. Though… getting Heat Nullification took longer than I would have liked," Another aggravated sigh left me. "But because of it, I have two Wyrms Skills instead of just one. Earth and Fire. I don't really know what effect this has had on me, much less how I'll be able evolve from here. And if my theory about Dragon evolution happening when a Wyrm Skill reaches Level 10, then I've got no idea what having two of them means for me down the line."

"Ehh… maybe I won't get Greed myself then. I'm a spider… It… it may throw off what I'm trying to do."

"I can imagine. I mean heck, I swiped the ability to make webs off a spider I took down on the way here. Not incredibly useful for a lizard to use. But… it did make me ask some questions," Wakaba tilted her head before whirling around. Rather than thoughts yet again all I heard was chirping and some flailing about. Was she seriously talking with that split persona for a second here? "Uhm… are you curious about what it is I mean by that?"

"U-Uh… y-yes. I… I don't think I've really… thought about a lot of this…" Wakaba replied, slowly turning back around. "Like… w-what do you mean by questions?"

"Questions about why we were reincarnated and what's even going on in this world," I stated, Wakaba flinching. "It's… not really sat well with me, the more I thought about it. I can live with reincarnation, that was always something we've thought was possible as humans. But this… being thrown to a world that operates like an RPG? Something about it doesn't feel right. RPG systems just explain how a thing works in a game to make it easier for a player to get… but it's rarely something the characters in the game acknowledge as existing. So then why does this world have it? And hell, why would it allow me to get a Skill that completely bypasses the biology of what I am to use an ability I wouldn't ever normally be able to acquire?"

"Th-Those are… good questions. And ones… ones I haven't thought about," Well I mean of course not. From everything you just told me just surviving was occupying way too much of your time to start slipping into the same existential dread I've been dealing with. "B-But… when you say it like that it… does make some sense. I've… I can't really think of an answer. Just… surviving is too important right now."

"I get it. I've got the same concern. As much as I want answers, it's not like I can get them while I'm here in this Labyrinth and unable to talk to people. I can get my answers once I'm out of here and see more of the world we're in. Until then, my main concern is getting stronger and evolving, as I said. But… that's just one part of a wider goal. I also want to find out if anyone else in our class besides us was reincarnated. Part of me thinks they were… wouldn't be that unusual to be honest. Unless somehow, for whatever reason, us and only us were killed in that flash of light. But I doubt it."

"Y-Yeah, that would make sense," In as much of a nervous habit as a spider could make visible, she started rubbing to of her arms together like she was trying to wring her hands. "I-I'm sorry just… I don't… normally talk for this long with someone so… I uh… don't know how to keep going…"

"It's fine. We should probably rest for a bit anyway. As long as the tunnel is sealed nothing'll be able to find us," I swished out the small fire with my fail, curling up on the spot. "Plus, you said you have Detection, yeah? If you've got that than anything dumb enough to come in here won't get far. Just sleep for a bit, we talk more after waking up."

"Ah… o-okay."

Hesitatingly so, Wakaba looked around again before laying down herself… as best a spider could do so anyway. It's easy enough to tell finding time to easily relax isn't something she's gotten to do in a while. And who can blame her? Getting thrown into one of the lowest levels of this dungeon and then being forced to work her way up while being crazy vulnerable? It'd be enough to drive a person nuts…

After the rest was over, it was silent for a while as Wakaba and I left the temporary nest and made out way back out into the Middle Stratum. She must have been going over everything from before. At the least in her own head she has someone to bounce it around with. As weird as they may sound. Y'know… speaking of Skills…

"Hey, Wakaba, that Pride Skill you got came with a Title, right?" I stopped our wandering as I brought it up, getting the best equivalence of a curious look a spider could give. "When I got Greed, I got a Title called "Ruler of Greed" and a couple extra Skills. You'd have gotten one two, if what I think about these Skills is on the mark."

"I-I did, yes. I got "Ruler of Pride", and it gave me Skills called [Hades] and [Abyss Magic]. I'm not sure what either do right now… since I only just got the ability to use magic. W-Why do you… ask?"

"Curiosity, mostly. I was thinking of getting Pride myself since it's passive bonuses seem handy. And if I'm right about what these Ruler titles do… give me a moment."

I've been holding off on it for quite a while but may as well get it done. System, I'm gonna purchase Pride. Mind confirming that one for me?

Skill Points Currently in possession: 26,900.
Skill [Pride] Unavailable.
Skill Points needed to purchase Skill [Dignity LV1], 100. Purchase Skill?

Wait, hold on. I was able to get Pride before. Why can't I get it now? Hmm… maybe it has more to do with the Titles than I thought. Well, the lower tier version should be fine then. Get it.

Skill [Dignity Lv1] Acquired.
Remaining Skill Points: 26,800.

"Turns out there may be more than I thought," I said, Wakaba flinching. "I couldn't actually get the Pride Skill, though I could get a Skill called Dignity. Maybe it's the Skill that comes before it. But anyway, when I got the Ruler of Greed title, I checked it out to see what the deal was. By the looks of it, having these titles seems to give us some kind of special System permissions, like we're moderators for a forum. I figured it might be while the Skills themselves aren't unique, the Titles associated with them are, but it seems even the Skills themselves are unique too."

"S-So… since I got Pride… I was the one who got the Title… so there can't be more than one Ruler?"

"Seems to be that way. There's obviously going to be Titles associated with the other Sin Skills, and if I had to guess, the Virtues as well. But then it begs the question of what the point of that is," I let out a hum, rolling the thoughts being processed through my head now.

"I-I actually have one of those Virtue Skills: Perseverance," Now that caught my interest. "It also has a Ruler title so… y-you're right about that. Th-The Skills I got from the Title are also why I can use Detection… I-I think it does Heresy damage so… being able to resist it helps."

"Good to know. I've got a lot of Skill Points left to spend, I should probably start using them on useful Skills to help me out physically and with Resistances," I hummed again. There was a lot to go over with everything now. "Something called the MA System, Ruler authorities we can't access right now… ah, right! There was another odd Skill I had that I couldn't Appraise. It's some weird symbols and letters, it's like… n% I = W… saying it out loud is weird."

"I-I have that Skill too!" Wakaba gasped. "I couldn't Appraise it either, it was… strange. Do you… do you think it has something to do with us being r-reincarnated?"

"That was my assumption. Which just adds in more questions about all of this. If someone did reincarnate us on purpose, then whoever did it may have given us this Skill… and doesn't want us to know what it does."

"That… yeah that sounds strange," Wakaba sighed herself. "Actually, you've got Appraisal at level 10 too, right?"

"Yeah. Ruler of Greed maxed it out for me actually… felt annoying but I dealt with it. Why?"

"It uh… it didn't evolve?" I shook my head. "Weird… I-I mean, Skills normally evolve, right? So why wouldn't… Appraisal change into something new after reaching its level cap? Like, it's just… uh… S-Shirtaori do… do you hear radio static?"

"Uh… no."

Wakaba went silent and froze for a few seconds. I don't know what was going on, but as her head started flicking back and forth, clearly something was going on with her that was doing something in her head. And I don't think it was the added personality from her Skills.

"Wakaba?"

"I… I just… I just got a new Skill," She said, getting a flinch of surprise from me. "It's… I know I heard something weird. An… an Upper Administrator… then all of a sudden this Skill… Wisdom… w-what? That… that isn't right. Is… is someone listening to me think? That's… something… something's wrong here!"

"Hey, hey! Wakaba, calm down a bit. If you start freaking out it won't do you or me any good. What the heck is Wisdom? Start from there."

"It uh… it integrated Appraisal… and gave me a new Title and Skills. I don't… I don't know why it did though! I just… I thought about it and suddenly the Divine Voice went off and… this isn't right. This isn't right at all!" Seems like she's hitting that same wall I did with all of this… that none of this feels right, that it's completely abnormal and wrong. "It's… an Administrator? That means… that means someone is managing all of this, right? Are… do you think I got this Skill because of the person who reincarnated us?"

"That…" I paused myself. She had a point. If not who sent us here, then who else could it be? Something or someone had to be managing this entire system. The more I considered it, the more twisted sense it made. Of course, none of this was natural. Of course, someone was in control of it. "What did the System voice say?"

"It… it said "Upper Administrator D has accepted the request. Now constructing Skill [Wisdom.] Construction completed." Is… is what it said."

Someone was listening. Someone. Was. Listening. That one time it seemed like something snapped at me for yelling at it wasn't just a coincidence or me thinking on it so hard I induced something. And if the System used "upper" it would have to mean there's more than on Administrator overseeing this System. And what would they oversee by the distribution of Skills, and hell maybe even souls?!

It's the only logical answer.

But then… why? What reason does this Administrator D have to be running all of this?

Why would they step in and create an entirely new Skill just because they can?

All it confirms… for me and for Wakaba, is that something about this world is wrong. This System, these Skills, were all made by these Administrators… and if this D made her Skill, who's to say they didn't make mine? [Relentless Determination], a Skill too odd sounding and too unique to be natural. A Skill I can't even Appraise correctly with no real name as well? Of course that's not normal. None of this is normal. It means all we've been doing this whole time is dancing to their tune while they watched… while they watched like a gamer on the other side of a monitor.

"This… this puts things into a new perspective… but… well, what can we do about it?" Huh? What… are you just going to blow this off?! "I mean, c-c'mon! We're a spider and a lizard. Even if… if there are these administrators, it isn't like we can realistically… do anything about it!"

"I-I mean… you're not wrong but, like… is this something to really just blow past like we didn't just realize how utterly fucked this situation is?" This is what you would find if you looked up the term "Mood Whiplash". A picture of this spider and that phrase.

"W-Well yeah but… I m-mean… what could we even do? If its just us versus some godlike freaks, well… w-we can't do anything! So just like… screw them! I should just keep living my life as I please!"

"Wakaba…"

"E-Even if it's some God or Administrator, t-they can watch all they want! I'm going to keep…"

"Wakaba!"

"My life will burn bright! Just watch me Administrator!"

"WAKABA YOU'RE ON FIRE!"

"I know I am!"

"AS IN YOU ARE ACTUALLY BURNING! You let out a thread and it lit up!"

Seeming to finally realize her abdomen had indeed begun to burn during her decision to rant towards the heavens instead of process the revelation before the both of us, now did my classmate decide to start freaking out as she saw the flame starting to edge across her body. She started flailing around in a panic, likely parsing it out with her other personality if I had to guess… only to douse herself in a glob of poison. It certainly put the fire out, but Wakaba also then collapsed to the ground in a heap of spasms.

"Did… did you paralyze yourself? By putting the fire out with poison?" I felt… well I'm not sure what I felt right now, but it sure as hell wasn't admiration for the split second thinking.

"W-Well… i-it was kind of a mess… I-I needed to do something quick and… I f-forgot my Weak Poison had… paralysis on it…"

Oh my gods she's a moron…

"P-Please stop looking at me like… like I did something… o-okay I did do something stupid but…"

"Morooooonnnn…"

"P-Please stop! It feels s-so judgmental with how your eyes look! I feel attacked! Attacked!"

"You should. The fire isn't even out."

Turning on Appraisal so I can see her meters as she proceeds to freak out again. By the time the paralysis wore off, her HP was already dropping like a rock… not helped at all when her next decision was an all too large glob of poison that did more damage even if it put the fire out. Not to mention about half of her MP was gone while her HP was at a sliver of green. Must have been that Perseverance Skill kicking in.

"Yeah… you're a moron," I shook my head and sighed as I got a depressed whine in response. "Look, I've got an idea. Rather than just have this talk and then split up to do who knows what, if we're stuck in this dungeon together, how about we stick together? Two… well, three heads are better than one after all. And we might be able to offset the areas we're weak in. This terrain obviously doesn't help you out… and, well, I can manipulate that. Plus I'm pretty well built for direct combat. And if you've got that Detection Skill…"

"I-It got integrated with Wisdom like Appraisal."

"Probably even better. And besides, we both want to get stronger, right?" I got an affirming nod. "Then let's stick together to make the fights from here on easier. And once we're strong enough to leave this Labyrinth, let's find out what the deal with those administrators is. Sound good to you?"

"E-Eh? T-Together? But I… I mean… in our old lives… I was…"

"That was then, this is now. We need to survive, don't we? Besides, seeing that you zone out like that, suddenly I'm feeling responsible for my old classmate. I can't let you kill yourself by being a ditz. Besides, I want to know more about what you've learned since being reborn. I've just been powering my way through things for a while now. How about it?"

"W-Well…" Wakaba paused for a moment. Again I could only assume she was talking the idea over with her Parallel Mind before making a decision. After what had to be about a minute, she let out a sigh, then held out one of her scythes. "I-I'm not sure how well I'll do in a Duo b-but… I-I think it would be a good idea too… l-let's work together from now on…"

"Good to know. Nice to meet you for real, Hiiro Wakaba."

"Y-You too… Shiratori Riku."

With the closest thing a spider and a lizard could give to a handshake, that sealed it. This wasn't just us trying to survive on our own in this damned labyrinth. Now the goal was clear: Get stronger, evolve, and escape this labyrinth to see the world outside, and learn more about the Administrators. Why we were reincarnated, what the System actually is… and who knows what else as we went along?

So I'm a Basilisk, and my Classmate is a Spider… So what?

A/N

Well I've gotta give a big thanks to everyone who's read this fic up to this point. Honestly I'm still surprised by how big it got in such a short time, by comparison to some of my other stories on this site. Either way, seeing all the feedback and honest enjoyment has been great. From this point on I absolutely hope I can deliver something good even if the plot starts following along with the canon story a fair bit more... but hey, I'll see what happens as I go, it'll be fun. So until the next chapter, when a new arc of the story begins!