(L) Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? [WN]

[kari-no-sugata II]

Some thoughts on the latest chapter, now that the translation is out...

Spoiler for 288 – Guardian:

I wonder if D can make resurrection look easy because she controls the "death" attribute? If not, then I guess other high level gods might be expected to be able to do resurrection. From the description at least, it doesn't seem like it's because people are tied into the System that resurrection is possible but because the System can use D's power.

With regards to what happens to Shun from now on, I wonder how much Shiro will cause? And how much she'll pay attention to. I was expecting a fair bit but maybe things will quickly skip ahead to the elf village war.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Latest manga chapter is out.

The fight with the 3rd big monkey sounded pretty brutal in the WN - it sure looks the part here.

"I can fly" LOL.

[EvilSociopath323]

I've been re-reading chapter ONI19 and thought that maybe Shiro isn't actually escaping from D but together with D. I don't know if anybody pointed out this possibility. Shiro knows very well that she can't beat D and it's questionable if she'd actually think that she could escape. But D wants to escape from the maid so maybe she ordered Shiro to escape with her.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by EvilSociopath323

I've been re-reading chapter ONI19 and thought that maybe Shiro isn't actually escaping from D but together with D. I don't know if anybody pointed out this possibility. Shiro knows very well that she can't beat D and it's questionable if she'd actually think that she could escape. But D wants to escape from the maid so maybe she ordered Shiro to escape with her.

OMG! Shiro's eloping with D!! KYAA!

More seriously, I personally think that Shiro wouldn't have much chance of escaping D and I'm not sure how she could think so either. To the degree that I think it would be harmful to try. But anyway... I agree that there's probably more to this than meets the eye - it's very very suspicious that we don't get this from Shiro's POV. Which pretty much guarantees that the author is hiding something.

I'm not sure how D and Shiro being together would help against the "meido" though.

[Obstendro]

I miss the parallel will

[K2Grey]

Divine Protection of Heaven is a mystery that has been around since one of the first Shun chapters but hardly ever comes up, in fact it's only appears meaningfully in the its debut chapter, S6 and the recent 285. So I find it interesting that after so long it's finally gotten another mention.

The other long-standing mystery from the early Shun chapters is exactly what is up with Sue. It's obvious that even unprecedented natural genius isn't enough to explain her strength, yet she doesn't have n%I = W.

I saw speculation on on Reddit that Sue is to Sariel as Hyrinth is to Kuro, which is rather hard to believe given what we know of Sariel's personality. Although now that I think of it, if that was really the case, and Shun's skill was relevant, the name would be incredibly fitting. "Divine" and "Heaven" would obviously refer to Sariel, and it's actually pretty suspicious in hindsight how Shun has always had a bodyguard; first Sue, then Hyrinth.

I wonder, just how much Kuro there is in Hyrinth. When Hyrinth was talking to Shiro he seemed to basically be a Kuro avatar, but I can't imagine that when he was growing up or adventuring that his behavior and thoughts would have been so Kuro-ish. I think it might be like Ariel, where she normally behaves like Body-in-charge, but in certain circumstances, like in 252 she reverts to her original personality. So there might be a regular "Hyrinth" personality, but in some cases he behaves like Kuro.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Better image of LN5 cover:


It looks pretty likely to me that "Kumoko" is dealing with offerings there. There's things in a basket too and people who appear to be bringing her stuff...

[Breimn]

Yeah, it looks like food.
Wasnt she already killed by maou in vol 4 of LN ? I think you said something about her head floating in the sea.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Breimn

Yeah, it looks like food.
Wasnt she already killed by maou in vol 4 of LN ? I think you said something about her head floating in the sea.

Summary I wrote is here (after the PS):
https://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5972488
And here (2nd half):
https://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5973370

This sequence has changed significantly compared to the WN. In the WN, the Parallel Wills are attacking all the Queen Taratekts + Ariel at the same time. In the LN, they're all attacking just one ("Mother") and not Ariel until near the end. In LN4, Ariel does turn up to kill "Kumoko" but since Kumoko hasn't absorbed Mother at the time she doesn't know what Ariel is saying and Ariel simply blows her apart with a swing of the arm. Clearly Ariel wasn't aware that Kumoko had Immortality at the time. It's only later that Kumoko kills/absorbs Mother and one Parallel Will goes to attack Ariel (and becomes detached).

So at the end of LN4 meets Sophia for first time, same as in the WN. However, what's different is that Kumoko has already absorbed Mother so should know the language and should be better aware that Ariel is after her. I'm guessing that in LN5, with all the tributes Kumoko will forget about Ariel, who'll then turn up similarly to the WN (except it'll be their 2nd meeting). It'd then make much more sense that Ariel uses such aggressive techniques (such as Abyss Magic) since she'd know that Kumoko has Immortality. Or putting it another way, I'm guessing that LN5 will follow the WN more closely than LN4 except that some things already happened in LN4.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by K2Grey

Divine Protection of Heaven is a mystery that has been around since one of the first Shun chapters but hardly ever comes up, in fact it's only appears meaningfully in the its debut chapter, S6 and the recent 285. So I find it interesting that after so long it's finally gotten another mention.

Well, it's not like Shun would have been able to understand it by himself and until recently Shun hasn't been in the sorts of situations where it would make an obvious difference.

The other long-standing mystery from the early Shun chapters is exactly what is up with Sue. It's obvious that even unprecedented natural genius isn't enough to explain her strength, yet she doesn't have n%I = W.

I think some people are forgetting status values of people like Ronant and Mera, who also don't have the reincarnator benefits. There was also the chapter that compared Mera's growth to Sophia's and it was specifically pointed out that Sophia benefited from starting the training when young. Although it hasn't been properly explained, it's clear that within the System that the earlier you start training the better - it seems that during growth to adulthood that the System multiplies your existing status values rather than simply adding a fixed amount. Since Sophia could start real training from year 1 (something a normal baby wouldn't be able to do), she benefited especially strongly.

So, how does this explain Sue? Basically, she tried to keep up with Shun's training since she was a child, meaning that she pushed herself far harder and for far longer than a normal human would. Maybe she is particularly gifted on top of that but I'd say that the underlying reason is that she trained very hard since a child.

I saw speculation on on Reddit that Sue is to Sariel as Hyrinth is to Kuro, which is rather hard to believe given what we know of Sariel's personality. Although now that I think of it, if that was really the case, and Shun's skill was relevant, the name would be incredibly fitting. "Divine" and "Heaven" would obviously refer to Sariel, and it's actually pretty suspicious in hindsight how Shun has always had a bodyguard; first Sue, then Hyrinth.

There's absolutely no hint I can see that Sue has any "special" knowledge - I think we've seen enough to say that if such a thing was going to show up it would have done so already. I agree on the personality side too - although we don't know Sariel's current situation for certain, unless she's completely changed she wouldn't be like Sue at all.

It's also worth remembering that Shun's special skill was created by D.

I wonder, just how much Kuro there is in Hyrinth. When Hyrinth was talking to Shiro he seemed to basically be a Kuro avatar, but I can't imagine that when he was growing up or adventuring that his behavior and thoughts would have been so Kuro-ish. I think it might be like Ariel, where she normally behaves like Body-in-charge, but in certain circumstances, like in 252 she reverts to her original personality. So there might be a regular "Hyrinth" personality, but in some cases he behaves like Kuro.

That's pretty much what I've said before - Hyrinth speaks like Kuro (though not identically) and clearly has Kuro's current knowledge (or some of it).

[K2Grey]

I didn't get the impression that Shun or anyone around him trained especially hard, at least not until the Yuugo attack, but it's been a long time since I read the early Shun chapters so maybe Shun himself was slacking off while Katia and Sue were training intensely. Still, even a super badass like Basgas was clearly <1000 in stats and the only two humans we saw until recently who were >1000 were Ronant and (presumably) Reigar. Both of them were clearly exceptional so there might not be others like them just lurking around, and if they were they'd probably be old men and not teenagers.

The best counterexample might be Aurel, who somehow has >2000 magic stats while being pretty young. I don't think she even started training when young, it sounded like she was at, or at least approaching marriageable age when Ronant found her and she was lazy up until then.

That's a wicked looking sword Oka is holding on the LN5 cover.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by K2Grey

I didn't get the impression that Shun or anyone around him trained especially hard, at least not until the Yuugo attack, but it's been a long time since I read the early Shun chapters so maybe Shun himself was slacking off while Katia and Sue were training intensely. Still, even a super badass like Basgas was clearly <1000 in stats and the only two humans we saw until recently who were >1000 were Ronant and (presumably) Reigar. Both of them were clearly exceptional so there might not be others like them just lurking around, and if they were they'd probably be old men and not teenagers.

The best counterexample might be Aurel, who somehow has >2000 magic stats while being pretty young. I don't think she even started training when young, it sounded like she was at, or at least approaching marriageable age when Ronant found her and she was lazy up until then.

Well, Shun didn't train that hard and didn't spend skill points for a long time but he certainly put in a lot of effort very early on, particularly with magic. Compared to Sophia he might as well have been on a holiday but he was still abnormal for a human. During his official Appraisal as a child his stats were like this:
　ＨＰ：３５／３５（Green）
　ＭＰ：３４８／３４８（Blue）
　ＳＰ：３５／３５（Yellow）
　　　：３５／３５（Red）
　Average Offensive Ability：２０（Details）
　Average Defensive Ability：２０（Details）
　Average Magic Ability：３１４（Details）
　Average Resistance Ability：２９９（Details）
　Average Speed Ability：２０（Details）

In magic, that's better than Kumoko was as LV1 Zoe Ere. His physical abilities were apparently well above normal for his age and his magic abilities were completely outside the standard. Sue had roughly the same values. Shun does believe that Sue was gifted with magic. That's quite possibly true but either way, training since very young would have had a big benefit.

It would be interesting to know if Shun's "Divine Protection of Heaven" had any effect on Sue. It can't be discounted at the moment, but it's really hard to know what's really possible.

That's a wicked looking sword Oka is holding on the LN5 cover.

It's her bow actually. It can be seen more clearly in the LN4 pic of her.

[testeottilio]

Originally Posted by K2Grey

I didn't get the impression that Shun or anyone around him trained especially hard, at least not until the Yuugo attack, but it's been a long time since I read the early Shun chapters so maybe Shun himself was slacking off while Katia and Sue were training intensely. Still, even a super badass like Basgas was clearly <1000 in stats and the only two humans we saw until recently who were >1000 were Ronant and (presumably) Reigar. Both of them were clearly exceptional so there might not be others like them just lurking around, and if they were they'd probably be old men and not teenagers.

The best counterexample might be Aurel, who somehow has >2000 magic stats while being pretty young. I don't think she even started training when young, it sounded like she was at, or at least approaching marriageable age when Ronant found her and she was lazy up until then.

That's a wicked looking sword Oka is holding on the LN5 cover.

Shun trained hard by human standards, while Kumoko trained daily in life-and-death situations, when the SHun underwent evaluation, he had trained for years while a Kumoko arrived in a year.

[Asuka']

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

Better image of LN5 cover:


It looks pretty likely to me that "Kumoko" is dealing with offerings there. There's things in a basket too and people who appear to be bringing her stuff...

Who are these elves ?
On the left i could get a gist that potimas double (coz of its wicked eyes), is the one at the right is sensei ?

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Asuka'

Who are these elves ?
On the left i could get a gist that potimas double (coz of its wicked eyes), is the one at the right is sensei ?

Potimas and Oka-chan sensei are almost the only named elves. They're certainly the only significant ones.

Anyway, this is Oka-chan from LN4:

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

So that's clearly Oka-chan on the right on the LN5 cover.

[Asuka']

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

Potimas and Oka-chan sensei are almost the only named elves. They're certainly the only significant ones.

Anyway, this is Oka-chan from LN4:

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

So that's clearly Oka-chan on the right on the LN5 cover.

So that means my quess was right.

[Tcol]

Yayy! The reveal of kumoko's human form is close.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Tcol

Yayy! The reveal of kumoko's human form is close.

I dunno what we'll get in LN5. Should get Arachne form at least and previous forms have been illustrated but whether we'll get a clear view of her in Arachne form is another matter. On the side stories, if they get as far as the Shun maxing Taboo then maybe we'll see the scene when Shiro teleports near him... but who knows.


PS Hi-res image of the LN5 cover:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....1rxfJdAnaL.jpg

PPS some fan-art inspired by the tie-up with "slime datta ken":
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=60282264

[Breimn]

I wonder if author will skip arachne to directly God.

[Xacual]

Originally Posted by Breimn

I wonder if author will skip arachne to directly God.

If anything, I bet the author will expand out the time as an arachne.