Summary of second half of LN4 (just the "Kumoko" chapters):
One thing I forgot to mention from the first half is that Kumko first started to notice the Kim Domination skill during her fight with Fire Dragon Rendo - probably referring to "116 - Spider vs Fire Dragon ④" when she has the thought:
Quote:
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...? Hate? Huh? Although I thought that the Earth Dragon is scary, I never really hated it. Huh? Where does this feeling come from?
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Also, all her Parallel Wills are focused on "Mother" and at some point contact between them is blocked somehow (probably Divine Dragon Barrier).
After Kumoko evolves to Zana Horowa she leaves the labyrinth again and finds the sea/ocean. She tries to swim (similar to WN) but is too buoyant. Some sharks attack her but she kills them. The blood draws more sharks and the sea around her becomes red. There's a colour image from LN4 with Kumoko imaging her vs sharks as some kind of B-movie - this is that scene.
Anyway, around this time the connection between Kumoko and the Parallel Wills is restored and one comes to warn Kumoko to run away ASAP because there's someone even more dangerous than Mother involved. Unfortunately, it's too late and was actually a trap - Ariel deliberately allowed the communication so that she could locate Kumoko (via Kin Domination link through Mother). Ariel arrives so fast it's pretty much like she teleported. Of course, Kumoko can't understand what Ariel is saying at this point (not eaten Mother yet so doesn't understand the language) and Kumoko isn't able to run away (she was preparing teleport but didn't have time to complete it - not that it would have worked). Ariel splatters Kumoko with a mere swing of the arm. Game over...
Except, Kumoko has Immortality. The Parallel Wills feel that the main body was beaten but the connection didn't die. They don't know why they didn't die but decide that the main body must have done something so keep on attacking Mother's soul.
Sometime later, Kumoko regains her consciousness. She's floating on the wide open sea. And, she has just her head! (LOL!!) She decides it's too dangerous to teleport anywhere (since Ariel might have prepared something) so just continues to float for many days like seaweed. After killing enough Water Drakes and a Water Dragon she recovers enough that her whole body is back (she didn't get full body recover on level up).
She then begins gorilla-style attacks on Mother and the spiders in the labyrinth while keeping a close eye on Ariel (who she marked with Wisdom). She kills all the Arch Taratekts and most/all of the Greaters. Her biggest worry is the Puppet Taratekts since they have better status values than her (except in magic). She's even more worried when it turns out there's 10 of them (though only some are in the labyrinth). She lures a bunch of them into a small chamber, seals the chamber with Earth Magic, then floods the chamber with sea water (she used her Item Box type feature from Space Magic). Naturally, the puppets can't swim and also float to the top. Kumoko took the Swim skill (despite the cost) which puts her in a better position and also she can't drown due to Immortality. She fires magic at them to weaken them at the same time and also to distract them - if they'd kept calm and ignored her they could probably have destroyed the walls but Kumoko used herself as bait to prevent this. So she basically drowned them! (Nasty plan Kumoko...)
Eventually she feels safe to go attack Mother - she'd seen through Wisdom that Mother's status values had dropped a lot, into the mid-thousands. Kumoko has way better status values at this stage, so teleports to Mother, who is at the bottom layer. However, it's a trap. Mother still has better skills - like God Weaving Thread and Divine Dragon Barrier. So Kumoko's normal situation has been reversed - despite her better status values she loses in skills and fell into a trap. Eg the ground is covered in sticky threads - Kumoko has to cut off her own legs to escape. The Divine Dragon Barrier weakens her best skills (magic) a lot. It's looking pretty hopeless but then the Parallel Wills return.
Since the Parallel Wills had been eating Mother's soul that allows them to bring Mother's status values and skills to Kumoko when they return. So Kumoko gets a huge power-up to save the day and Mother is killed pretty easily. This completely breaks the Kin Domination link. However, one of the Parallel Wills is missing - one had gone to attack Ariel and doesn't return.
So in the end Kumoko leaves the labyrinth again, but since Ariel is out there she wants to keep a low profile. This is when she comes across Sophia for the first time, like in the WN.
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Phew. Pretty interesting! Was nice to see the real effects of Immortality skill and some other stuff. And as usual Kumoko is a mix of brutal efficiency and air-headedness. Though there were one or two times I wondered "would she really fight like this?"
Looking ahead to LN5, based on what's already happened in previous LNs, I don't think much else has to change. The only real differences are that Kumoko has already eaten Mother and already knows just how crazy Ariel's stats are - but the Kin Domination link is gone. The "Remnants of the Nightmare" still clearly exist on the S stories. Ronant will clearly have his 2nd meeting with Kumoko. And Sophia's starting situation isn't any different. I'd guess that Kumoko will accidentally forget about Ariel after tracking Sophia and getting the "tributes" (sweet food!!).