by Okina Baba
I might as well take her up on that.
You really think you can catch up with me when I can use Teleport?
Let the spider hunt begin!
I’m not afraid of some puny newborn lesser taratects!
In fact, they’ll probably die on their own even if I don’t do anything.
They’re ridiculously weak, just like I used to be.
Way too weak!
So weak that…I almost feel kinda bad.
I don’t know how many of them are born in a single round of egg laying, but how many could possibly survive long enough to evolve? One or two? Maybe even none at all?
That means my odds of survival were probably less than 1 percent, and somehow I still made it.
That said, since I got a reincarnation bonus in the form of the Skanda skill, I don’t think it’s really the same.
Wow. Thinking about how hard I struggled back then is making me sorta sad. It’s enough to make me feel a bit of sympathy for my little brothers and sisters or whatever.
But oh well, that’s survival of the fittest for you. Better shake it off and get slaughtering.
Huh? Cruel?
Come on, I don’t have any other choice.
As I dispose of the small lesser taratects in huge swaths, some adult taratects hear the commotion and come running.
I finish them off with equal ease.
Sure, an adult taratect gets a big jump in stats, but that’s nothing to me now.
Only a greater class or above can compete with me at this point.
Even then, a greater wouldn’t beat me unless some kind of miracle occurred.
Sure, I was shocked when I first saw a greater taratect in the Lower Stratum, but now the only thing that’s shocking is how much stronger I am than them, if I do say so myself.
Continuing the massacre as I reflect on these thoughts, my Detection warns me of something rapidly approaching.
It’s moving at a very high speed and seems to be about the size of a human.
No doubt about it. It’s the puppet spider.
The second I sense this, I flee in the opposite direction while whipping up a Teleport rune.
Then I teleport away before it can catch up to me.
The scenery around me warps, and now I’m outside, where Mother almost killed me.
If I just stay in the labyrinth, I’ll probably run out of places to hide eventually. I might as well take this chance to expand my range outside a little, which has the added bonus of increasing my number of potential teleport spots.
I wander around outside for a while as I wait for things to cool down in the labyrinth.
Then, after a day or so, I teleport back into the Upper Stratum and get back to spider hunting.
Rinse and repeat.
After several days of this routine, my spider hunt is coming along nicely. I’ve bagged one arch and six greaters and racked up countless other, lesser kills in the process.
I’m particularly proud that I was able to beat even one arch.
I might talk big, but archs are still a pretty powerful enemy.
I can manage a single one well enough, but if there’re two or more, my chances of winning drop like a stone.
I don’t know how many other archs there are altogether, but being able to take even one out of the equation is a pretty big deal.
Also, judging by the way the puppet spider keeps coming after me, I’m pretty sure there’s only one.
It seems to be the same individual every time, and I’m sure Mother wouldn’t hold back in this situation, so that makes me think that it’s probably the only one she has.
Of course, even that could be one of Mother’s tricks. It’s possible that a second one will appear when I least expect it or something.
If that happens, well, I guess I’ll just accept defeat.
I mean, I don’t think she’d be able to make a second one appear with such perfect timing, nor do I think a second one exists in the first place.
But even with just the one, all I can do right now is run away from it.
Sure, my levels have gone up a few times during my spider hunt, but that’s not enough to close the huge gap between our stats.
Maybe if I beat Mother, it’ll give up on trying to chase me around, but I probably shouldn’t bank on that.
If anything, it might get extra vengeful if I beat her, and it’d come after me twice as hard.
If that happens, I’ll have to deal with it somehow, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.
For the time being, I guess I just have to keep avoiding Mother and the puppet spider and keep reducing the rest of her ranks.
So that’s the latest in the labyrinth. Meanwhile, outside, I’ve arrived at the ocean.
I’m traveling next to it right now, though I’ve yet to come across any human villages or anything.
I’m guessing I’ll find some kind of port or fishing village eventually if I keep traveling along the beach, but I’m not sure what to do if that happens.
I guess I’ll probably just avoid it and keep moving.
Also, I still can’t get in contact with my Parallel Minds.
But I can still feel the connection, so I don’t think they’ve been done in or anything.
I just have to believe that they’re hard at work over there.
If they can defeat Mother, my situation will improve considerably.
Until then, I just have to keep whittling away at her forces and make sure I don’t get killed.
If I keep buying time like this, I’m sure I’ll beat Mother eventually.
For now, everything’s going according to plan.
Yep, things are looking up.
Even if worse comes to worst, I still have my insurance in the form of Immortality.
I was careless.
At the time, I thought I was staying on guard, but now I think I should’ve been more vigilant.
Back then, I had no idea.
When D mentioned defeating “her,” I just assumed that was referring to Mother.
I never even imagined that it was someone else entirely, and that she was already hot on my trail.
THE DARK SECRETS OF THE OTHER WORLD
“Thank you for everything.”
We bow our heads to Basgath.
After leaving the Great Elroe Labyrinth, we stayed overnight at Basgath’s base.
And now, early in the morning, we’re leaving for the elf village.
This is where we part ways with Basgath.
“Don’t mention it.”
Basgath nods.
“Are yeh sure I can take all the earth dragon parts, though? They’ll sell for a fortune, y’know.”
“Of course. We can’t afford to bring anything that would slow us down anyway. Think of it as our thanks for all your help.”
“Well, all right, then,” the guide says with a grin.
“Mr. Basgath. Would you perhaps—?”
“I’m just a simple guide, boy.” Basgath responds before I can even finish speaking.
He seems to know what I was about to say.
Basgath is a seasoned warrior.
That became very clear in our time in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Moreover, he has incredibly good judgment thanks to his abundance of experience.
To be honest, I wanted him to come with us.
But Basgath promptly declined.
“A guide’s job is just that—to guide people. Besides, I’ve already retired. There’s no need for an old man like me to stick my nose where it don’t belong anymore.”
He chuckles a little.
But then his face grows serious again.
“Boy. This is just a gut feelin’, but I think something big’s gonna happen soon. I got no proof, o’course. But that fear’s been hangin’ over me for the past few years now. This mess yer caught up in now might be a harbinger of things to come.”
That makes sense.
It’s not just what’s happening with Hugo.
The Hero title being passed on to someone new.
There’s been a lot going on with the world lately.
“I just hope that guidin’ yeh all here has made the world even a little bit better. Then I’ll feel like I’ve done my part and then some.”
Basgath holds out his hand.
“We’ll do our very best to make sure that happens.”
I grasp his hand tightly for a firm handshake.
“My job is just navigatin’ the labyrinth. But I think yer job is much bigger, boy. Good luck.”
These words encourage me a great deal.
After parting ways with Basgath, we continue on our journey to the elf village.
Riding on Fei’s back, it’ll take about two days.
We’ve arrived at a town on the edge of a region called Sariella.
Before we enter, Fei turns back into human form and dons a loose cloak to cover her wings.
This is on top of wrapping them around her body, too.
Otherwise, her wings would draw attention.
This might be a fantasy world, but there aren’t any races like beastfolk or anything.
Which means there’s no humanoid species that has wings.
I’ve imagined that if anyone were to catch sight of her wings under her cloak, they’d probably be either curious or suspicious.
But apparently, the situation is more serious than I thought.
“The people of Sariella all worship the Goddess. And in the legends, the Goddess has white wings. Who knows what they would do if they saw Fei’s wings?”
Ahh.
According to Ms. Oka, in the worst-case scenario, they might even attack her for falsely impersonating the Goddess.
It’s more likely that they would do the opposite—namely, try to worship her—but our teacher doesn’t want to take any chances.
Since people in this region fervently believe in the Goddess, they have a unique way of thinking.
Because of that, their relationship with the Followers of the Word of God is rocky, to the point where they’ve waged war on one another in the past.
I myself don’t subscribe to the Word of God religion, but they’ve been in charge of the hero for generations.
If they found out that I’m the new hero, I might get dragged into unnecessary conflict.
So it’s best if we avoid standing out as much as possible.
I hate to put Fei through that kind of discomfort, but it’s our only option while we’re in this region.
Because knowing what I know, I can’t help but feel that all of this world’s religions are extremely shady.
“This world was essentially created as part of a game among gods.”
This was the day before we left for the elf village.
With that introduction, Ms. Oka launched into an explanation.
“First of all, since we’re bringing Hyrince and Anna to the elf village, I would like to tell them about our true nature. Is that all right with you, Shun and Katia?”
What she meant was that she was planning to tell them that we’re all reincarnations.
I nodded right away, but Katia seemed less convinced.
“May I ask whether that is connected to the elf village?”
“Yes. I’ll do my best to explain why.”
Ms. Oka nodded firmly.
After thinking for a moment, Katia nodded as well.
“Shun, Katia, Fei, and I are all reincarnations. We were born with memories of our lives in another world.”
At first, Hyrince and Anna just looked confused.
Fortunately, though, the concept of reincarnation does exist in this world, so they accepted it with more explanation.
“I guess that does explain a few things,” Hyrince said at last.
“But…Ms. Oka, was it? What does that have to do with what we were discussing before?”
“It’s related to the elves’ predictions and my desires,” Ms. Oka responded.
“First, as I’ve already told Shun, the elves have been looking after the reincarnations for some time. The reason is a combination of what the elves have predicted and what I implored them to do. Naturally, my desire is to make sure all the reincarnations are safe. As you all know, this world is very dangerous, full of monsters and even hostile demons. The world we came from was peaceful, so none of us are accustomed to fighting. That’s what makes it so difficult for reincarnations to get by in this world. I’ve been protecting them by taking them to live in safety in the elf village.”
That couldn’t have been as easy as she made it sound.
Searching the world for reincarnations, without a single clue to go on.
And as she said herself, this world is a dangerous one.
When I was still just a child, Ms. Oka was bustling all over the world, gathering the reincarnations.
I was sure that journey was harder than I could imagine.
If anything, our teacher’s excellent magical ability is proof of that.
“However, the elves’ plan was slightly different. They want to make sure that certain powerful beings cannot use the reincarnations for their own ends. These beings are called administrators, but you could also call them gods.”
That put things on a much larger scale all of a sudden, but I guessed that it had to do with her statement about this world being a “game among gods.”
“This may seem sudden, but let me ask you all a question. What do you think ‘status’ is?”
“It represents our strength, right?”
“That’s correct. But why do you think such a thing exists?”
“Well, because the Word of God made it that way.”
Hyrince answered Ms. Oka’s questions naturally.
But Katia and I realized the meaning behind her words.
People who were born in this world would probably never question it.
Not status, or the “Word of God,” or any of it.
It’s just something that’s existed for them since the moment they were born.
But we reincarnations know of a world where this “status” doesn’t exist.
To us, having stats and such does seem strange.
“That’s right. ‘Status’ was indeed created by a god. Now, do you know why that god created it?”
For that, Hyrince didn’t have an answer.
“In the world we came from, we didn’t hear any ‘Word of God.’ There were no levels, stats, or skills, either. If you worked hard, you could certainly increase your abilities, but not in any form that was visible as a numeric value. For us reincarnations, having levels, stats, skills, and so on is very unusual indeed.”
Hyrince seemed surprised at Ms. Oka’s words.
He’d always taken their existence for granted, so it never seemed “unusual” to him.
“By all rights, levels, skills, and stats are not necessary for a world to exist. The world we came from functioned perfectly without them, so it’s plain to see that much.”
Right. On Earth, we lived without those things just fine.
I was starting to get a faint inkling of why Ms. Oka brought up this subject.
Basically, these “administrators” created levels, stats, skills, and the like for a particular purpose.
That was probably what she was getting at.
“Ms. Oka, what was the gods’ goal in creating all this? To get people to fight?”
Clearly, Katia had come to a similar conclusion.
In fact, she’d gotten a step further than I had.
To make people fight…
That hadn’t occurred to me.
But now that she mentioned it, I realized that all the skills in this world were battle related.
As if to encourage people to fight.
“That’s right. In this world, the more you fight, the more your levels, stats, and skills improve. And if you lose a fight, you die. The more battles there are, the more deaths there are.”
That mad
e sense.
Lots of battles meant lots of casualties.
But I couldn’t figure out why she was explaining something so obvious.
“And when a living thing dies, the power it’s built up until then is collected…by the administrators.”
Now that information was shocking.
Rationally, from what she’d said so far, it made sense that this would be the reason the administrators created levels, stats, and so on.
However, the whole thing was so absurd that I could scarcely believe it.
“The administrators force people to fight in order to gain more power for themselves. That is why humans and demons are pitted against each other. And why they have designated representatives in the form of the hero and the Demon Lord. To be honest, when I heard that Shun had become the hero, my vision went dark.”
When she turned the subject toward me, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.
The hero was a representative of humans, chosen by the administrators?
And a part of their plan to force humans and demons to fight?
“Ms. Oka, how credible is all this information?”
It made sense that Katia would ask that question.
Her story was consistent, but given its almost fairy-tale-like nature, it was possible that it was exaggerated or even made up entirely.
“It has been passed down among the elves since ancient times.”
“Does that mean it’s true, though?”
I couldn’t blame Katia for sounding increasingly alarmed and annoyed, either.
Just because the elves had believed it for a long time didn’t necessarily mean that it was true.
“Frankly, I don’t know for sure whether all of this is true, either. However, I can confirm that the beings called ‘administrators’ are real. I’ve seen one of their subordinates with my own eyes. Besides, the elves believe this quite seriously, to the extent that they’ll endanger themselves to secure the reincarnations.”
If Ms. Oka saw one of the administrators’ subordinates, then I was sure administrators actually existed.
But what did this story have to do with the elves’ desire to secure the reincarnations?
Before I could ask, Ms. Oka was already explaining.
“We reincarnations have powerful skills and a large amount of skill points from birth. If used well, they can become very strong indeed. Like us, for example.”