The Rise from Max Level 1: How I, the Lowest Level, Became the Strongest in Another World

This time, after walking for so long, I was feeling thirsty.

I haven’t seen a single drop of water in this ravine so far, though, which doesn’t put me in the best position, truthfully. I was sure there was probably some around near where the mushrooms were, but I doubted that was enough to keep myself alive. I’d just have to wait for it to rain or something. For now, my only real option was to make do with my parched throat.

As I walked a little further along, I came across a cave hidden within the rock walls. It was fairly dark inside, but there were patches of light here and there. For a second there, I wondered if there were any people living in here, but realized it was just mushrooms galore. The mushrooms growing in the cave emitted some sort of light from them. I was a bit disappointed by the thought that there wasn’t anyone else here, but continued forward through the cave anyway.

If the cave was deep enough, there could have been an exit towards the end of it. Then again, trying to go in that far might prove pointless, and leave me with less means to fight since I couldn’t use “Meteorite” inside.

As I mulled over this possibility, my ears perked up when I noticed a sound coming from further within. Was that the sound of running water?

I could barely hear it. Going deeper into the cave might chance me upon some water flowing underground, if I was lucky.

Well, that decided it. I had to check it out for myself. Oh, but if I found any sketchy monsters over there, I was getting the hell out of dodge.

That said, I walked deeper inside.

I’d been walking for quite some time within the cave. I hadn’t seen anything of consequence along the way, but the sound of water was definitely getting stronger. I’d thought as much, but there was definitely a pretty good chance that there was water flowing underground here somewhere.

I walked forward a bit more, but something stopped me in my tracks.

“Huh?” I muttered without thinking.

It was…a cat.

It looked completely worn out – was it dead, maybe? Ah, nope, I saw it breathe a bit. It didn’t look like it had any notable injuries though, so how’d it get like this?

Hm, what was I supposed to do now? As someone who loved cats, I really wanted to save it, but since I could barely even take care of myself, that was kind of iffy… But still…

While I was debating my options, the cat opened its eyes, shakily pushing itself up onto its feet.

Oh, it could stand? Well, maybe it was better to say that it was “finally” standing, instead.

“Meow! Mew!” the cat strained to cry out as it stared at something behind me and to my upper right.

That was a pretty desperate cry. What the hell…?

I turned around to look behind me, but didn’t see anything at first. After looking a bit harder, I saw…something in the distance. And, oh.

A spider. It was a spider, a green spider. It was bigger than most normal ones out there, but it was definitely and absolutely, a spider.

The cat mewled more, staring straight at the thing. Should I have been scared? Maybe “Identify” would enlighten me.

“Absorb Spider (M), 1yrs, Lv 30/35. A spider that spews out a distinctive thread.”

Distinctive? Was that supposed to help me somehow?

Just as I was inwardly complaining about how useless that description was, the spider caught me off-guard and shot its thread straight at me, hitting me dead center.

Craaaap. It got me with its crazy, special thread or whatever. Okay, so now what was it going to do?

Nothing happened at first, but after a bit, I felt like I was losing my strength little by little. Hang on, was this thread some way to drain an enemy of its HP or something? Damn! I had to rip it off of me!

I tried tearing it off, but it stayed completely solid. Hacking at it didn’t do a single thing either.

Damn it all! What would get rid of it?

I’d just have to get rid of the source.

I tried to smash it down, but it skittered away way too quickly. It was far faster than I was.

Ah, I got it now. It was the type of monster to catch hold of its foe, drain them down to nothing, and use its speed to run away out of reach. What a pain in the ass.

I was going to use that skill I’d just received: “Thundershock”. You couldn’t outrun electricity no matter how fast you were.

“Thundershock!”

The bolt of electricity shot from my hand, striking the spider and stopping it dead. I ran up towards it as fast as I could – I had to kill it before it got away again! I’d gotten much faster after taking down the boar earlier.

As it shook off its numbness from the electricity, it tried to escape further away, but I was a heck of a lot faster in getting close to it. My foot slammed down as hard as possible onto the damned thing. It seemed like speed was all it had going for it and I killed it with ease.