Yeah, Earth Dragons too.
"Even though it's just a young one, it has HP and defense in the triple digits! Its attack is higher than mine too!"
"We're both technically monsters, but we're not even in the sa league."
"If it spots , I'm dead, 100%!" she muttered to herself.
She was also a young monster, but the stats she saw from her Appraisal were worlds apart from that baby Earth Dragon's.
The only area where she had the upper hand was [Speed]!
With a Speed stat of 200, escaping the slow, heavy Earth Dragon would actually be pretty easy.
But if she tried to fight it head-on? She'd probably get flattened instantly.
"Uwaah... Why did I have to turn into a spider?" Kumoko felt tears welling up. "If only I'd reincarnated as a dragon too..."
Look how cool that Earth Dragon was, and its base stats were insane!
By "base stats," she ant the raw numbers before any kind of boosts or buffs.
A Level 1 Earth Dragon was a total stat monster. Even without special racial skills, it could probably steamroll most other monsters just with those base numbers alone.
And base stats were the most important thing in gas like this, period!
Because every single boost you got from equipnt, talents, skills, pets, whatever it all scaled off those base numbers.
This kind of design was usually put in place to stop ga numbers from exploding later on when all the different multipliers from gear, skills, and buffs started stacking up like crazy.
Having high base stats gave you a huge advantage right from the start.
"Triple-digit defense and resistance, plus that much HP... With my tiny 17 base attack, I'd probably be tickling it for a million years," she thought grimly.
"The only stat where I beat the Earth Dragon is [Speed]."
"Still, being fast is good. At least if it sees , I won't get caught and killed."
Kumoko could only try to comfort herself with that thought.
Having figured this much out, her curiosity got the better of her. She decided to watch the Earth Dragon fight.
Anyway, if it noticed her, she could zip away, and the Earth Dragon wouldn't be able to catch her. Watching how others fought might teach her sothing useful.
The Level 1 Earth Dragon was up against a Level 3 Mantis-type monster.
Kumoko felt a little impressed. "Wow,さすが (as expected of) an Earth Dragon, taking on a Level 3 monster right at Level 1."
Using her Appraisal, Kumoko checked the Mantis's stats.
Yep, except for Speed, it was weaker than the Earth Dragon in every other way too.
"Ahh... The Mantis's attack power is pretty high, though. If it hit , I probably couldn't take even one hit."
"But... that's an Earth Dragon! A base stat monster!"
"Even though the Mantis is higher level, attacking the Earth Dragon is probably like trying to polish tal it won't leave a scratch."
As a spider, Kumoko instinctively disliked mantises. In most gas, monster relationships often followed real-world predator-prey dynamics. That Mantis-type definitely looked like the kind of creature that eats spiders, so she found herself actually rooting for the Earth Dragon.
"Kekekeke!!"
The Mantis made so kind of weird, untranslatable noise.
Even though this was likely the first ti it had ever seen Elliot the Earth Dragon, it reacted like it had spotted its mortal enemy. The mont it laid eyes on Elliot, it went hostile.
Down in this cave, Mantis-types hunted almost everything. From tiny ants and worms to newly hatched snakes and rats, pretty much anything smaller than them ended up diced by their scythes. They were known for their extrely aggressive tempers and bloodlust.
Plus, Mantises had naturally high base attack stats. Most monsters couldn't block their attacks head-on.
Except, maybe, for an Earth Dragon. After all, Earth Dragons boasted so of the highest defense in this ga world. You could say they were the perfect counter to Mantises.
"It doesn't even need to attack first. Just entering the Mantis's awareness range makes it attack imdiately. This race sure is aggressive," Kumoko observed. She felt glad she'd picked [Appraisal]. It let her see details other monsters couldn't.
After using Appraisal, a detailed description of the Mantis race popped up on her interface.
"Attack power is 51 27... The 51 must be its base stat, and the 27 probably cos from its racial ability," Kumoko murmured.
It seed like most low-level monsters didn't have many skill points early on, so skills weren't really a factor yet. And definitely no equipnt or pets. So that extra attack boost had to be from a racial ability.
Generally speaking, every monster race had its own special abilities. So races had incredibly powerful ones. For example, pure-blooded Elves had [Magic Affinity], giving them huge boosts to MP and Magic Power, plus making it super easy for them to learn magic. Giant races had [Natural Strength], granting a massive 50% boost to their strength right from the start, which increased even more as they leveled up. Later on, a Giant's attack power could beco terrifyingly high, enough to shatter a mountain with one punch.
That Mantis... if she guessed right, its racial ability was probably related to its scythe-like arms. It likely not only gave it extra attack power based on its base stat but also added so kind of armor penetration effect. aning, if its attack power was higher than the target's defense, it would deal bonus damage.
This kind of penetration effect was deadly against low-defense monsters, because usually, monsters with low defense didn't have much HP either.
Seeing this, Kumoko felt a fresh wave of envy. Even this random Mantis had a cooler racial ability than her.
Okay, technically, she had a racial talent too: [Thread Weaving].
As for its effect... Ugh. She didn't even want to think about it. It was just depressing. If she could have chosen a talent that boosted her base stats, who would pick sothing fancy but kinda useless like thread?
Clang!
The Mantis's scythes flashed with a sharp, cold light. Its decent speed allowed it to close the distance to Elliot in an instant. Then, it slashed down hard!
The Earth Dragon's base speed was a pitiful 9 points, lower than almost any other race. Naturally, it couldn't dodge the hit.
The sound of tal hitting rock rang out as the Mantis's scythe struck ho.
"Critical Hit!" Kumoko ntally shouted.
She clearly saw a flashy blood-splatter effect where the scythe landed. That was the visual cue for a critical hit, usually added to gas to make combat feel more impactful.
But at low levels, the base critical hit rate was usually extrely low. You might only get one crit out of hundreds of attacks. She didn't know if this Earth Dragon just had terrible luck or if the Mantis was incredibly lucky, but it scored a critical hit on its very first strike.
However, what happened next left Kumoko absolutely shocked.
No number popped out!
Kumoko rubbed her eyes, thinking she must have seen wrong.
It wasn't just her; the Mantis monster also seed to freeze for a second. Its tiny brain seed unable to process what just happened, sensing that sothing was very wrong.
Because, yes, no damage number had appeared at all.
What did that an?
Simply put, the damage the Mantis dealt to the Earth Dragon...
Was zero!
....
"How is that possible?!"
Kumoko was completely floored.
She had been thinking of this world as basically a ga world. That ant everything should follow ga rules and systems.
Normally, in any ga, as long as an attack wasn't a complete "miss," even if your attack power was just 1 and the enemy's defense was trillions, you'd still deal at least 1 point of damage.
It was the standard "damage floor" chanic in gas. As long as your attack connects, it should deal a minimum amount of damage. That minimum might be 1% of your base attack, or maybe 0.01%.
But no matter what, so damage number, at least a '1', should pop up. A critical hit should deal at least '2'.
Theoretically, if you had a monster with trillions of defense but only a thousand or two HP, and it had no health regeneration or other protection, even a tiny ant could eventually bite it to death, one point of damage at a ti.
By that logic...
Even though the Mantis's attack wasn't strong enough to get through the Earth Dragon's defense, the damage floor chanic should have guaranteed at least so points of damage, especially since it was a critical hit!
Faced with this bizarre outco, Kumoko stared wide-eyed, her thoughts grinding to a halt. She knew the Earth Dragon's basic racial traits didn't involve nullifying damage, so the zero damage wasn't because of so innate ability.
In an instant...
An incredible thought struck Kumoko.
Skills!
That was it! For sothing this weird to happen, breaking the basic rules of damage calculation, it had to be the effect of a skill.
But the problem was, in this ga world, low-level monsters normally didn't have skills.
If this Earth Dragon did have a skill... then there was only one possible explanation...
The other party was a [Reincarnated Person], just like her!
....
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