What?!? I've Been Reincarnated as a Arachne! (On hold)

Part 11

The Disciple and the Goblins

"Yo! Sis, I ain't moving away from here 'til you take me as your disciple!"
Ephy, a boy around 15 years old, was sitting in front of my store and spewing some nonsense.
Contrary to his baby face, his body looked quite well-trained, and the various scars hinted towards him being some sort of fighter.
Or rather, he's exactly the archetypal 'Adventurer' that one usually sees in fantasy worlds.

"Hey, listen, okay? You're being a bother, sitting over there. This is my shop, you know?"
"Yo! I ain't going anywhere! I've fallen in love with your skills! I want you to take me as your disciple!"
"And I'm telling you... You listening?!"
Aww man, this sucks.
Just why did this happen...
Ahhh... Umm.
Welcome back.
It is me, Arakura Shiori (25), an ex-earthling who has reincarnated as a half-human half-spider Arachne monster.
However, over here on this world, I'm called Shiori Arachne, the owner of the Arachne Tailor.
I'd been having a perfectly normal life as a tailor while hiding my true identity until now. Just why did this happen...
Everything started when I visited the adventurer's guild the other day on business.
The main material I use for my store is, of course, the 'Arachne Silk' I created myself, and I acquire the expensive monster materials by myself too, but for the other relatively cheap materials used to make dyes, such as Thorny Madder Grass, Pseudo-Bellflowers, or Bitterdemon Chestnuts, I usually put up gathering requests like I'm doing now.
It's not like I can use Crimson Dragon scales to dye the clothes that I make for the general public, obviously.
"Come on, why can't I take that?! It's just a simple gathering request!"
A young man... or to be more precise, a boy was shouting at the receptionist girl at the guild counter.
He's got a solid build, with a leather chestplate and a short sword.
"...Usually, you'll need to go deep inside forests with dense mana in order to find any Rainbow Morning Glories, you know? You're still E rank. It's too dangerous."
"They're just goblins, I won't even break a sweat!"
"It's true that sightings of goblins are still the most reported, but orcs have also been found there. That's why the recommended request difficulty is D for a party and C for a solo adventurer. You mostly work alone anyway, right? If you really need the request, then please find some high rank adventurers to take you along."
"Sure I know some D rank parties, like the 'Iron Hammers' and the 'Treasure Hunters'... but the problem is they haven't been showing up these days."
My. Those are some familiar names.
Both the Iron Hammers and the Treasure Hunters were parties who had accepted my gathering requests, if I remember correctly.
"Those guys were going to spend the whole week over there gathering! They said they got their hand on a pretty tasty request, so they fucking went over to Cherry's place for a party first before leaving! Bastards!"
The rest area inside the guild serves snacks and drinks with low alcoholic content.
And there, with his thundering voice, a bearded middle-aged man was telling the boy what he knew while sipping a mug of ale.
...The guy looked intimidating, but he's surprisingly kind.
"For real?... Hey, miss Emmy, can you introduce someone? I'm cutting it seriously close with my rent this month."
"That's quite difficult... The only person not busy is Baren, and just as you can see, he's about to fall down dead drunk."
Emmy the receptionist glanced over at the aforementioned bearded man.
"...Is there really nobody high rank who's free and willing to help me? Seriously?..."
"It'd be nice if there were... Somebody kind enough to bring along a useless kid on a gathering request..."
Miss Emmy, why did you just look at me when you said that?
I'll have you know, I'm here as a customer today.
It's true that I registered as an adventurer so that I can go gather in the dangerous zones that were closed off to the public... but my real job is being a tailor.
I only came here to ask about the progress on my gathering requests today, you know?
Heeeey, you listening, Emmyyyyy?
※
"Man, thanks a bunch. Of course I'll protect you, girlie, no problem! You must be barely D rank anyway... and a rear-line adventurer too, right? Just tag along. Don't worry, I heard that there's only g-goblins near the Forest of Glamour where we're going anyway."
In the end, due to Emmy's request, I took the boy – his name is Ephy – on the gathering request.
His destination, the Forest of Glamour, was the place where I once got lost in after going too deep.
Different from back then, this time, I have the skill [Minimap], [Hide Presence], and [Hide Magic] among others, so I no longer worry about getting lost, and animals and monsters don't get scared of me anymore.
Mwahaha, I shall not make that mistake again!
I wonder how Zell is doing these days.
Whoops, can't get distracted, I need to focus on Ephy right now.
He's too much of a risk to not keep my eyes on him.
Apparently, Emmy told him that "If we're just talking combat power, she's at least a hundred times more powerful than you" when introducing me to him, and he couldn't believe it to be anything other than a joke, so he kept trying to defend me and raising his sword at every single thing we encounter in the woods. However...
"Ephy, that's a squirrel."
"Y-Yeah, I know. Just in case. Wait, over here!"
"That's a forest lizard. There's nothing special about it. Tasty when roasted."
"W-What the hell, just a lizard?... Damn thing surprised me."
Ephy let out a held breath, wiped the sweat on his forehead, and relaxed his sword hand.
Hmm? You're not catching it? What a pity, it's really delicious... Then don't mind if I do.
After checking my surroundings, I found a tree branch lying on the ground that's big enough for my purpose.
Alright, this should be good enough as a handicap.
I lightly tapped the lizard, which was around 30 cm long, on its head.
*Bam!*
Ah, too much strength. The branch exploded, and the lizard's upper half turned into minced meat.
The lizard wouldn't even make a meal with just its lower half left. At best, only a snack.
I carefully used a small tree branch to scrape out the lizard's innards, undid my Arachne Silk scarf, used it to wrap the lizard, then put the whole thing inside my pack.
It's waterproof too, so I don't have to worry about blood leaking out in the pack.
Normally, though, I wouldn't bother with all this and just use my threads to package the prey directly.
"Uhh... Wha? What was that just now...?"
"Don't worry about it, you're just seeing things"
"Seeing things? But the lizard just disappeared..."
"I'm telling you, you're seeing things. More importantly, our destination is deeper, right?"
"Ah, yeah. Probably another 30 minutes if we follow the animal trail..."
"Right then, let's get the request over with quickly."
After changing the topic, even if the attempt was a bit too abrupt, I pulled Ephy's hand and headed deeper into the forest.
※
"We're hereeeee! Look, look, jackpot! The whole field is full of Rainbow Morning Glories!"
Just as Ephy estimated, we arrived at a small, sunny flower bed after around 30 minutes.
The ground was filled with colorful flowers, looking similar to the morning glories I knew, all blooming in full.
But it's already a little bit after noon now, yet they're still blooming. Why are they called Morning Glories, then?
"Awesome! Rainbow Morning Glories are high rank materials, yet here we have a whole field full of it! Come on, miss, go grab some too!"
Ephy dropped his sword and started picking every stalk of flower that he can see.
Hey, is it fine leaving your sword there? You're an adventurer, you know?
"No, I'll stand watch. We're still inside the forest anyway."
"I~diot. Rainbow Morning Glories are used in making monster repellants, you know? Goblins and the likes wouldn't even dare come close."
Hmmm, is that so?
Yet I'm detecting presences of monsters somewhere quite close by. Hmmm.
Wait, perhaps...
I positioned myself in Ephy's blind spot, quietly created a strand of thread from my finger, and used it to touch the flowers covering the whole ground.
And then, thanks to the effect of the skill Tactile ThreadSensor Web, details about the flower appeared in my mind.
——
Six-Shades Morning Glories
・A species related to the Rainbow Morning Glory.
Unlike Rainbow Morning Glories, Six-Shades Morning Glories can't repel monsters. Instead, their seeds are very tough, and cannot be dissolved by even a goblin's stomach acid.
The species mostly serves as food for herbivores or the omnivorous goblins. It makes use of the animals' feces in order to spread its seeds to faraway lands.
・Is a main material in concocting energy-boosting medicines and aphrodisiacs. It has been theorized that the goblins' unnatural reproductive power stemmed from the fact that this species of monster have a tendency to consume Six-Shades Morning Glories for fun.
——
Oh my.
The description I received wasn't fit for showing children under eighteen.
I knew they were different from Rainbow Morning Glories.
It's still a related species, so I guess we almost got it right.
...Which means that monsters aren't being repelled.