Found the Portal: The Critical Eight Seconds

I heard that spider silk was afraid of fire.

I had no idea if that was true.

If it was, then today I could roast an Eight-faced Wolf Spider over an open flame.

I acted on the thought at once.

I summoned a Fireball.

Whoosh! The fireball shot out.

In an instant, it set the dozen or so strands of spider silk flying toward me ablaze.

The Eight-faced Wolf Spider sensed the flames catching on the ends of its silk. But it had no intelligence and had never seen fire before, so it naturally had no idea how to stop the flames from spreading.

With my mental energy bolstering it, the fire spread at incredible speed.

In almost the blink of an eye, it had reached the Eight-faced Wolf Spider.

But I was doomed to be disappointed.

The Eight-faced Wolf Spider's mandibles were so tough that they easily sliced through every strand of silk.

And that was how it could cut off the flames.

The Eight-faced Wolf Spider had learned that much.

From then on, it wouldn't fear my fire attacks.

It shot out another dozen strands of silk, trying to bind me.

But I repeated the same trick, attacking with fire.

And so, the two of us fell into a cycle.

The spider kept shooting out silk, trying to bind me.

I kept attacking with fire, blocking its strands.

The spider had no intelligence, so it could keep this up forever. But I was constantly thinking.

I knew I couldn't keep wearing it down like this.

With its strength at the peak of Origin Level, I could fight until I died and still never run out the spider's supply of silk.

It must have stored a huge amount inside its body.

If I could set all that silk ablaze,