What had teleported in before the corpse of the Arctalatect was a spider-type Monster.
Compared to the massive Arctalatect, it was a considerably small spider Monster.
Overall it was black, but a white pattern adorned its back.
The pattern resembled a skull, making it deeply unsettling.
Of its eight legs, the front two were larger than the rest, shaped like scythes.
And its eight red eyes glared down at us.
That gaze made my body involuntarily shrink.
I could feel the subordinates who had been at the front wavering.
Even though I had given orders to be ready for anything.
This couldn't be helped.
If something like that suddenly appeared, it would be unreasonable to expect anyone not to be shaken.
The Monster presided over the scene like a sovereign king.
Merely looking at it head-on was enough to make me tremble with fear.
The reports had been accurate.
I didn't even need to use Appraisal—at a single glance, I understood.
That was not something we could deal with.
"H-hhhaahh?!"
Turning at the strange groaning sound, I saw Lord Ronant with his eyes wide open and his body shaking.
Could it be that even a powerhouse of his caliber had been broken by fear?
The pressure that Monster exuded was no ordinary thing.
It likely possessed some kind of intimidation Skill, but even so, I hadn't imagined that someone as capable as Lord Ronant would fail to resist.
"Lord Ronant?"
"What… what in the world. Impossible. Impossible. What is this? What is this?!"
"Lord Ronant!?"
"Ah… ah. My apologies."
"What happened?"
"That Monster—its natural state is perpetually activating an outrageous number of Skills simultaneously. Impossible."
Lord Ronant could presumably see the power of the Skills that Monster had active, powers invisible to me.
He was muttering under his breath, and it was hard to call his mental state stable.
He didn't seem to have snapped from fear exactly, but the situation was deteriorating.
Because the spider Monster, which had been composed just moments ago, was now radiating open fury.
This was bad.
The opponent was completely serious.
And the soldiers who had been struck by that rage were involuntarily raising their weapons.
No good.
If things reached this point, there was no hope of establishing friendliness.
A sudden wave of discomfort washed over me.
Could this be… Appraisal?
From whom?
Could it be that Monster had Appraised us!?
That was absurd!
I had never heard of a Monster capable of using Appraisal.
To confirm, I activated my Appraisal Stone.
And the result left me dumbfounded.
Stats beyond anything imaginable.
A massive number of Skills.
There was no way we could win against this.
"Wha—!?"
It seemed Lord Ronant had activated his Appraisal at roughly the same time as me.
A cry of astonishment escaped his lips.
"The pinnacle of sorcery!?"
Lord Ronant had zeroed in on one of the Skills possessed by this Monster—Ede Seine.
That Skill was something I had never heard of or seen before.
No—it wasn't just that one.
Ede Seine possessed multiple Skills I had never encountered before.
Even among the ones I recognized, many were higher-tier versions.
But my shock didn't end there.
While I was still scanning through the Skills one by one, the Appraisal results suddenly vanished, and a message appeared: "Appraisal has been obstructed."
Appraisal obstruction?
I had never heard that was even possible.
"W-wait! Show me more, let me see more!"
"Lord Ronant! Pull yourself together!"
I shouted at the seemingly deranged Lord Ronant.
At the same time, I screamed: "Retreat! There's no chance of winning! Withdraw immediately!"
But that cry came far too late.
The eight soldiers at the very front collapsed.
I didn't know what had happened.
Ede Seine hadn't appeared to do anything.
It had simply stood there, watching us.
And that alone had been enough to fell eight soldiers without any warning.
What Skill was that?
Since I hadn't been able to confirm every one of its Skills, I didn't know which ability had caused it.
But regardless of whether I understood, events were already in motion.
Ede Seine then began an eerie action.
It was peeling off its own skin.
Even the soldiers were shaken by the bizarre sight.
One soldier, who had watched his comrades fall and could no longer endure his fear, charged at Ede Seine with his blade.
But his sword never reached the Monster. A wall of earth that erupted from the ground bent his body at a right angle.
Wait.
Among the Skills I had confirmed, there had been no earth magic.
There was an unknown magic called Abyss Magic, but all other magic types had been checked off the list.
Earth magic had not been among them.
"What!? It's constructing magic from scratch without using any Skills?!"
Lord Ronant shouted.
Was that even possible?
No—if the greatest mage of the Human race was displaying this much agitation, then clearly it wasn't something a normal person could do.
This was no time to hold anything back.
If I didn't use every card in my hand, we wouldn't survive this crisis.
If I used everything and we still made it out, that alone would count as lucky.
Summoning.
My Summoning Skill was Level 4.
Meaning I could summon four Monsters to this location.
I had no choice but to use those four to buy time for the soldiers to escape.
Against that monstrosity, I had no idea how much time they could buy.
The summoned Monsters appeared.
The bird-type Kirequok.
The turtle-type Rock Turtle.
The tiger-type Feberut.
The water dragon Suiten.
Under normal circumstances, these were powerful Monsters too valuable to throw away as expendable pawns.
Sorry about this.
Now go!
I sent the summoned Monsters charging forward and simultaneously called out to the soldiers once more to retreat.