C200: THE GUARDIAN’S VISIT

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“Yaaay! It’s an elder spirit!”
“A superior spirit!!!”

The earth spirits living with us give Arachne, our surprise visitor, a warm welcome.

“Oh my, it’s rare to see spirits like you materialize.
How adorable.”

Arachne is also happy to see the earth spirits gathering around her like puppies.

“…Ah! If you look closely, she’s a spider!”
“Spiders make webs and dirty the house!”
“She’s a pest! Let’s pinch and crush her!!!”

They’re in charge of keeping our house tidy, so they began to intensely gang up on Arachne who they deemed a pest.
Though to be more precise, only her lower half is a spider while her upper half is a woman.

“Ahh! Ow, ow, ow! Please, stop!!!”

An elder spirit is being beaten up by a bunch of tiny spirits.

“…Huh?! Wait a minute!”
“Spiders catch and eat other pests!”
“She’s a useful insect! We must show our respect!!!”

The spirits quickly change their opinion of Arachne and begin worshipping her.

“W-What’s going on?”

I could ask you the same question.

“Aren’t spirits supposed to respect an elder spirit like you? They sure treat you pretty sloppily.”
“Elder spirits are pretty sloppy themselves if you ask me.
We’re the amalgamation of all the sacred elements but without being considered a god,” explains the elder spirit herself.
“That’s why there are a lot of different types of elder spirits starting from their very origins.
In some cases, a former human can be deified after their death, and conversely, there are cases where former gods fall, then there are also cases where ordinary spirits such as these girls somehow rise in rank.”

They seem to be in quite the gray zone of things.

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Arachne was freaked out by Sensei and Veil earlier, but maybe other elder spirits can rival The World’s Two Greatest Calamities?

“They don’t have strict materialization limits like the gods so they can appear on earth rather easily,” whispers Veil into my ear.

She said she was going to take a nap, but she ended up coming back here.

“They might even be more troublesome than the gods if they zero in on you, in a way.”
“Oh, forget about all that.
I’ve finally arrived at the place where that fabulous fabric is being produced! Come on, show me! Show me the production site of this fabric!!!” says Spiderwoman excitedly.
“I’d turn her into cinders with my dragon breath, but in their case, once they dematerialize themselves, their spirit form doesn’t incur any damage.
In short, they can revive themselves over and over.”

I’m sure it’ll be fine.
It’s not something we can forcibly hide now, so we can only agree to her request especially since she’s already here.

Thus, we show Arachne the way.

The adamantine silkworms, the makers of adamantine silk are diligently spewing thread in their room as usual.
Then comes Arachne.

The spider and the silkworms had their fated encounter.

“Hiss! Hiiiiiiiiss!!!”
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

They look like they’re threatening each other somehow.

“The adamantine silkworms are making sounds?!”

Actually, do silkworms even make sounds?
Then again, they’ve already evolved beyond their species’ limit, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised…

“Hiss! Hiiiiiiss! Hisshiiiiiiiiss!!!”
“Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

But why are they threatening each other?

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Didn’t she want to visit this place?!

“I realized the moment we made eye contact that I, the guardian of all threads, mustn’t allow myself to be defeated by a thread made by these worms!!!”

I feel strangely sympathetic to her words.
It’s like not needing two species at the top, I guess?

“Hey, you!”
“Yes?”

Are you talking to me?

“You’re the owner of these bugs, aren’t you?”
“I suppose you could say I am… But aren’t you also a bug in a broader sense?”
“What about my thread? It’s severalfold more beautiful than the thread these worms spew!!!” she says as she produces thread from her spider rear.
“Look! Doesn’t it look as moist and shiny as water? Isn’t it more amazing than their thread?!”
“Uh, but weren’t you praising the adamantine silk we make from their thread just a while ago?”
“The moment I saw them, I just knew I couldn’t lose! I have an abundant supply too! I can even bless Batemy and make her butt produce thread!!!”

Just give it up, please.
The person who doesn’t want that the most is Batemy herself.

“…”

It was probably because they were watching Arachne do whatever she pleases that the adamantine silkworms spew their threads all at once.
Well, they were doing it even before we came here, but now they’re spewing it all out with intense vigor.

Moreover, the threads that several silkworms spew are multicolored…

“Red and blue? Yellow and green? Orange, light blue, yellow-green…even the finer shades of it!”

The adamantine silkworms are sending a provocative sign to Arachne, asking, “Are you capable of such detailed color coding?”
However, their provocations don’t stop there.

One of the silkworms spewed thread, but before the thread could leave its mouth, another silkworm took the other end and stretched it.

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And stretched.
And streeetched.
And streeeeetched…

“It’s stretching!”

It keeps stretching like rubber!
Stop! If you stretch it that far…
No! Don’t let go! Don’t ever let go! If you do…
AHHHHH!!!

Snap!

The other silkworm mercilessly let go!
It landed a perfectly clean hit to the silkworm’s face!!!

Wait, so in short…

Was that a demonstration to say that they can also produce elastic silk thread?!

“Can you do this?”
“Can you do this, huh?”

…Were the silkworm’s way of provoking Arachne.
A huge crack forms in the guardian’s pride.

“Hmph! I can also do something amazing! My thread is spider silk, which means I can also spew a sticky thread to trap my prey!” she says as she pulls a long strand of thread out of her butt and hands it to me.

…

Yep, it’s sticky.
I can’t get it off.

…I can’t get it off at all!!!

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Hey, how do I get this off?
Peel off my skin?!
Stop scaring me like that!

“Heh-he-he.
So? Can you guys make sticky thread like this? You can’t, can you? Hah, it’s impossible for silkworms like you.”

The adamantine silkworms’ reaction to Arachne’s triumphant expression was rather weak.
Actually, it was cold.

If I were to read what they’re trying to say from their expressions, it would be something like this:

“What’s the use of that?”
“How is that of any use to weaving, sewing, or making clothes?”

“UGHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The guardian snaps.

“Hey! I’ll supply my thread to your farm too! Let Batemy make some clothes with it!”
“Whaaa?”
“A thread’s true value is only revealed when it’s converted into clothing! Let’s make it clear which thread is better!”

I feel like just the adamantine silkworms’ thread is already too much for us to handle.
Oh well.
Anyway, we ended up with another legendary fiber.

Currently, the goblins are in charge of spinning and weaving the thread into fabric.

Any fabric they’ve woven is automatically given to Batemy, but I let them handle our newly acquired thread from Arachne this time.

“This is what we got after experimenting with all sorts of things…” says Gobukichi with a sample in his hand.
“We found that in weaving the adamantine silk as the warp and Arachne’s tread as the weft drastically increased the strength and also made it much more sacred.
It’s enough to effortlessly dispel even the most advanced spells.”
“…!”

Our equipment standards have risen again.
As if we aren’t having enough trouble with how strong they are already…