by Okina Baba
The excitement of reuniting with old friends went on for hours, and we ended up renewing our bonds until the sun went down.
This means that I’ve met most of the reincarnations now.
There are only two left who I haven’t seen yet, aside from the four who are apparently dead.
One of those two is a close friend of mine and Katia’s, Kyouya Sasajima.
When Ms. Oka told us about Sophia, she said:
“Her name is Sophia Keren. And in her previous life, she was Shouko Negishi. She is one of the reincarnations who has sided with the administrators.”
One of the reincarnations who has sided with the administrators.
Doesn’t that mean that there are other reincarnations besides Sophia who have done the same thing?
Thinking back, when I asked Ms. Oka about Kyouya, she blatantly dodged the question.
Does that mean he’s one of them?
Did she know about that and hide that information from us?
If so, it would explain a lot of things.
Unfortunately.
I haven’t talked to Katia about this yet.
I’m sure she reached the same conclusion long before I did.
And knowing Katia, she’s probably thought it through even further than I have.
About why Ms. Oka would have kept that from us.
Until now, I always believed that if Ms. Oka was keeping secrets, it must be for a good reason.
I didn’t think she would ever hide something from us, unless she had to.
There had to be some reason that she couldn’t tell us, for our own sakes.
But after hearing the other reincarnations’ side of things, now I’m not so sure.
What if I was wrong, and she was keeping this information from us not for our sakes but for hers?
Did she avoid telling us about Kyouya because it would be inconvenient for her if we knew?
I really want to trust her.
But more and more, I’m not sure if I can.
Would all this doubt clear away if I got to see Kyouya again?
Hey, Kyouya.
Where are you right now? What are you doing?
If we meet again, will it be as friends? Or as enemies?
All these questions go unanswered.
THE ADMINISTRATORS’ REINCARNATION ALLIES
“Hey.”
“Oh? Are you allowed to come over here?”
“As long as it’s not for too long.”
“I see. Well, what do you want?”
“How rude. I’m here to give you a message from your master, I’ll have you know.”
“…And what is that message?”
“‘You’ll be punished later.’”
“…What is this about?”
“Beats me. Shouldn’t you know better than I would?”
“There are too many possibilities to choose from!”
“Maybe it’s because you laid a hand on Ms. Oka?”
“That was justified self-defense.”
“Oh yeah? I dunno how justified it was, if you ask me. But if you’re gonna make excuses, tell it to your master, not me.”
“Master would never listen to my excuses.”
“True enough. Why don’t you just accept your punishment, then?”
“I don’t wanna!”
“Not sure if you have much of a choice.”
“La-la-la, I can’t heeear you!”
“Don’t be such a baby.”
“Oh, shut up, you. Anyway, make sure you don’t mess up taking down the elf village, got it?”
“How could that possibly fail?”
“I suppose you’re right, but still. Didn’t two particularly bothersome reincarnations just join that little group?”
“Yeah. Tagawa and Kushitani.”
“And they were adventurers, were they not? I’d imagine they’re somewhat strong.”
“Only somewhat, at best.”
“Well, I hope so, for your sake.”
“You saw for yourself, didn’t you, Sophia? Even the hero can’t come anywhere near our level.”
“I suppose. But remember what Master said? Stats aren’t everything.”
“Right, right. No matter how much higher your stats are, that doesn’t mean you can’t lose. I know, okay? I won’t let my guard down.”
“I hope not. I’m sure those elves are hiding something. You wouldn’t wanna die because some stupid thing caught you off guard, would you?”
“’Course not. Oh yeah, speaking of the hero, I heard he and his little party are in the elf village now.”
“Oh? I thought I made it quite clear to them last time that they can’t possibly beat me.”
“They probably just figured they still can’t give up, right? That would be so like Shun.”
“Hmmmm.”
“You don’t sound too interested.”
“That’s because I’m not.”
“Well, I’m pretty interested, personally.”
“What, because you were friends in our old lives?”
“Yeah. I can’t wait to see the look on Shun’s and Kanata’s faces when we meet again.”
“Well, don’t let that nonsense distract you from our main order of business, all right?”
“I know.”
“Good. I’m looking forward to it, then. I want to see you go on a real rampage.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
“Maybe I’ll even put in a serious effort for once.”
“Ooh, scary.”
“Either way, the elf village is going down whether we make an effort or not. Master is coming, after all.”
MATRICIDE
Things are going great right now!
Bwa-ha-ha!
Ever since I wiped out all those puppet spiders at once, I haven’t been able to stop smiling.
After that, I succeeded in destroying another one, too.
The Demon Lord found out very quickly about the six puppet spiders I killed and took countermeasures of her own.
She dispatched the last remaining puppet spider in the labyrinth to go on the defensive.
I drowned that one, too, of course.
The Demon Lord must have told it how the other ones went down, because it already had the Swim skill when I found it.
But that didn’t make much of a difference.
I blocked it off, filled the room with water, used Short-Range Teleport to get out of the room, and waited.
And then, what do you know!
The small room caved in, and there you have it! One puppet spider, buried alive!
I figured the same trick probably wouldn’t work twice. This time I made a hasty exit so it would try to destroy the room and escape.
Once I wasn’t in the room anymore, there was no need for it to wait around in the water.
It would naturally try to escape by breaking through the walls or ceiling of the room.
But what it didn’t know was that I’d already done some deconstruction work in the room to make sure it would collapse easily.
There you have it, a lovely little room where rocks and dirt would fall everywhere if you so much as poked the walls.
It was an easy job with a little Earth Magic tampering.
Then I just had to teleport the buried puppet spider away, dirt and all.
Right into the magma of the Middle Stratum, of course.
Man, it wasn’t easy. On top of the large amount of weight to teleport, there was also the puppet spider’s magic resistance to deal with, meaning my MP shot waaay down.
But since the puppet spider was damaged by the cave-in on top of being encased in earth, I was able to finish the spell before it crawled out.
Ding! One magma-fied puppet spider, coming right up.
Just to be safe, I went to the Middle Stratum myself to make sure the stupid doll was dead, and guess what? It had somehow made it out of the magma alive!
I guess all the earth I teleported along with it actually ended up protecting i
t a little.
Still, its whole body was charred, the thread inside had burned away, and the mannequin shell had carbonized around it.
It probably would’ve died if I’d left it alone, but of course I had to finish it off myself to get those tasty experience points.
That’s seven puppet spiders I’ve defeated now.
There are four left, but I’m starting to get the hang of beating them.
The Demon Lord seems to have caught on to this, too, though. She’s got the last four traveling together now.
Taking on four of them at once definitely won’t be easy, so I’m avoiding them for the time being.
But since they’re working in a group now, that means their search range has narrowed considerably.
I’ve been avoiding them pretty easily and expanding my range outside while I’m at it.
The Demon Lord is still hot on my trail, but as long as I keep tabs on her and run away with Teleport, she’s not going to catch me unless something goes terribly wrong.
I keep exploring outside to expand my Teleport options, then popping back into the Great Elroe Labyrinth to do some spider hunting whenever the Demon Lord gets too close.
I can’t do anything about the insane powerhouse that is the Demon Lord herself, but it’s her forces that are getting whittled away right now, not mine.
Teleport is so convenient it’s a little scary.
In fact, Spatial Magic and Dimensional Magic in general are pretty broken.
It’s only thanks to them that I can keep hoodwinking the Demon Lord like this.
Not to mention I used them to defeat the puppet spiders, too.
Meanwhile, Mother is running pretty low on soldiers.
She doesn’t have a single arch or greater taratect left to her name.
There are still a few regular adult taratects left, but those don’t even count as a threat anymore.
The Demon Lord seems to have given up on stationing puppet spiders in the labyrinth, meaning I’ve been able to rampage as much as I please.
As a result, Mother is the only real fighting force the Demon Lord has left in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
And even Mother is on thin ice.
I use Professor Wisdom’s marking feature to Appraise her from a distance.
Status: HP: 6,488/6,488 (MAX 24,557) (green) +0 (details)
SP: 6,134/6,134 (MAX 23,097) (yellow) (details)
Average Offensive Ability: 6,456 (MAX 24,439) (details)
Average Magical Ability: 5,872 (MAX 21977) (details)
Average Speed Ability: 6,433 (MAX 24,400) (details)
MP: 5,911/5,911 (MAX 22,301) (blue) +0 (details)
: 6,134/6,134 (MAX 23,991) (red) +0 (details)
Average Defensive Ability: 6,447 (MAX 24,286) (details)
Average Resistance Ability: 5,869 (MAX 21,946) (details)
>
I’ll leave out the skills and all, but her stats have gone way down.
It’s all thanks to my Parallel Minds’ hard work.
Sure, her stats are still all around 6,000, but compared to the original numbers, that’s a huge step down.
They’re almost at a quarter of their original values by now.
I mean, 70 percent off? That’s like a store-closing-sale-level value right there!
That giant beast has lower stats than the puppet spiders by now.
I, on the other hand, have been leveling up like crazy with all the fighting I’ve been doing.
I’m now level 24.
That was really fast, considering how recently I evolved.
It’s probably because I’ve been beating super-strong monsters all over the place, like arch taratects, greater taratects, and of course those puppet spiders.
And in the ocean, I beat a bunch of water wyrms and even water dragons. It’s only natural that my EXP has gone up a ton.
If anything, it’s surprising that this impressive killing spree didn’t get me any higher than 24.
It’s probably because it takes longer to level up after so many evolutions.
Anyway, with all that leveling up, my stats are now as good or better than Mother’s current stats.
My magic attack and defense are more than 19,000.
Before you know it, I’ll break the 20,000 range.
In fact, my MP is already there.
The next-highest stat is speed at 13,000.
There’s another one that broke 10,000 and outclasses the puppet spiders now.
Now if one chases me, I can run away on foot!
Oh, but my SP is a little low at 4,500. I’d probably lose if it came down to a battle of endurance.
I guess Teleport is still the better option.
My HP is 7,500.
Physical attack and physical defense are at 5,000.
These physical stats and my SP are a little lower than Mother’s, but all my other stats are higher than hers.
My magic-related stats in particular are almost three times higher than hers.
Honestly, with my current stats, I think I could even beat a puppet spider in a one-on-one, no-traps-allowed, totally fair fight.
Hey, doesn’t that mean I can beat Mother, since her stats are lower than a puppet spider’s?
Yeah! Let’s go fight her right now!
Mother, I’m about to surpass you once and for all!
She’s currently located in the Bottom Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
I’ve never been there, so I’ll have to walk.
The giant pit where I had my epic showdown with Araba contains a shaft that leads down to the Bottom Stratum.
I climb down that hole until I finally reach the deepest part of the whole dungeon, the Bottom Stratum.
Unlike the other stratums, the Bottom Stratum is just one big space.
There are no paths, only a big dome-shaped area.
The ceiling is probably hundreds of feet high.
It’s so big that you can’t even see the end of it with the naked eye.
I could probably see it with Clairvoyance, but I’m not going to do that right now.
Mother is standing calmly right before my eyes.
Seeing her up close and in person, I’m again reminded of how huge she is.
The first time I saw her was right after I was born.
At the time, all I could do in the face of her majestic appearance was tremble in fear.
To be honest, I’m afraid even now.
Her size alone makes her very intimidating.
Now that’s a genuine giant monster.
Each of her eight enormous eyes looks as big as my whole body.
She is the absolute largest monster I’ve ever seen.
She could squash me just by stepping on me with those huge legs.
Yep. That’s a monstrosity, all right.
If she wasn’t in a weakened state, there’s no way I ever would have challenged this thing to a fight.
Even now, I’m starting to think I might’ve jumped the gun a bit.
Her eight eyes glare right through me.
Eek?! Scaryyyy!
Come on, me! Don’t wimp out!
I’m the one with the higher stats now!
There’s no way I can lose!
Mother takes one heavy step forward, then raises a huge front leg.
No fancy moves here. You couldn’t call this anything more than a stomp.
However, this is the super-giant Mother’s stomping we’re talking about.
The sheer force of her physical mass is coming down straight toward me.
Sure, her stats are lower.
But it’s not like she weighs any less because of it.
I can’t even imagine how many tons she weighs, but I know one thing: If she tramples on me with all her weight, it’s not going to end well for me.
However, my speed is more than double hers now.
I can dodge this without a problem.
Or so I thought.
; By the time I notice what’s happening, it’s already too late.
My legs won’t move.
Not because I’m frozen out of fear or anything.
They’re just stuck to the ground, totally immobilized.
As if my feet are attached to the floor somehow.
Startled, I look down.
Then I see it.
I’m not standing on the ground at all.
What I thought was the ground was actually thread, stretched all over a portion of the floor.
A spider’s thread, the exact same color and texture as the ground.
None of my skills can change the color or texture of my thread.
However, Mother has a higher skill for that than I do.
Divine Thread Weaving.
The highest class of thread-related skills.
The most powerful skill a spider can have.
She covered the entire surface of the floor with thread woven into a cloth-like shape, then used the Concealment skill to disguise the fact that it was thread.
And as soon as I stepped on it, its adhesiveness activated.
It captured my legs, just like that.
Honestly, it’s no different from birdlime.
Such a simple trap, and I fell for it completely.
I can’t believe I was so careless.
I should have known by now.
No matter how much stronger an enemy is, there are plenty of ways to beat them if you catch them in a trap.
That’s how I’ve consistently beaten strong opponents until now.
But this time, I’m the one caught in the trap.
And although my opponent is in a weakened state, by all rights she’s originally much stronger than I am.
No matter how much lower her stats are, her skills are still going strong.
I shouldn’t have taken my enemy so lightly.
She’s the reigning queen of spiders, who specialize in traps.
Her huge leg swings down toward me with a roaring sound.
I just barely manage to dodge it by cutting off my caught legs.
I don’t know if fighting thread with thread is the best idea, but I used Cutting Thread to slice through my own legs and escape the trap.
However, while I avoided Mother’s attack, my self-injury reduced my HP by a lot.
I quickly use Healing Magic on the middle joints where I cut off my legs.
Since I can’t land on the floor, I use Dimensional Maneuvering to run through the air and put some distance between Mother and myself.