by Okina Baba
I understand everything around me.
Even information I wouldn’t normally be able to understand makes sense to a certain extent when I use this skill.
But even that in itself feels like a sea of information. Like I’ve stolen a glimpse at some cosmic truth.
And this is all just from the tiny space I’m currently aware of.
It feels like I’ve learned anew the vast scope and grandeur of the world around me.
Oh man, I even feel like I’m gonna cry for some reason. Although, I don’t know if spiders can actually cry.
Okay. Let’s turn Detection off for a minute.
Whew. That was crazy. I don’t even know where this feeling is coming from.
If I had to compare it to something, I’d say it was kinda like getting emotional from looking up at a starry sky. That sorta thing.
Ah, I wanted to stay immersed in those feelings for a little longer. I’d better get a move on, though.
So. Detection is a success.
Does that mean I should keep it active all the time from here on in?
Hmm. The thing is, I’m worried that it’s so high-performance that it might actually be inconvenient.
I mean, it’s so much input at once that it might distract me and make it harder focusing in battles or something.
But maybe I can just get used to it?
Sure, it’s overwhelming when I activate it right now, but I used to feel a little drunk from using Appraisal at first, too. If I got acclimated to that, I’m sure I could adapt to this easily enough.
So I think I’ll keep Detection active all the time, even if it might be a bit dangerous at first.
It’ll raise my other skill levels, too, so I think it’s for the best.
All right, then. Detection on.
Whoa. This really is crazy.
But I can’t get emotional again.
Guess I’ll start by checking out the skill I just acquired.
…Or maybe it’ll level up first…
What is this skill, exactly?
The description of Perseverance said something about a divinity field.
I think Perseverance expands that, too, doesn’t it? So this is on top of that?
Does that mean my divinity field or whatever is spreading out all over the place now?
At any rate, I’d better Appraise it.
You don’t say? Thanks a lot.
This is where you really get to strut your stuff, Appraisal! Double-Appraisal, puh-leeeze!
Hmm? I still don’t get it.
Well, I get that it’s an important part of the soul or whatever, but what happens when you expand that?
Hmm. So I still don’t know what it does.
More is usually better, but it doesn’t have any actual effects so far as I can tell…
Whoa, they really go up so fast!
I already maxed out Arithmetic Processing, huh?
And now it’s evolved into High-Speed Processing. Definitely sounds like an upgrade to me.
Anyway, I originally got Detection in the hopes of perceiving enemies, didn’t I?
But my natural ability to identify threats is high enough that I’ve managed pretty well without Detection so far.
I gotta say, combining that innate ability with the power of Detection will make my enemy-spotting skills pretty much perfect.
No one’s ever going to get the jump on me now! I’d like to see them try!
Okay, so next, I’d hoped Detection would give me Magic Power Perception.
If my predictions are correct, then if I combine this with the Magic Power Operation skill, I should be able to finally use magic. I think.
That means I’ll finally be able to bust out the skills I’ve been sitting on for so long, like Abyss Magic and Heretic Magic!
But…I don’t have any skill points! Dammit!
I don’t regret picking up Perseverance, but it still sucks that I’m out of skill points.
Aw, man, and I was hoping to use my next batch for Evil Eye!
What am I gonna do? I want them both! Aaargh!
I know this is kind of a dumb problem, but even so, which should I get first?!
Huh? For real? Detection’s maxed out already?
Huh? But it doesn’t evolve or add new skills or anything?
Aw, come on. What’s up with that?
After all the trouble I went through to get it to work…
I mean, it definitely paid off, but to be honest, I kinda wanted even more.
Even if I can’t get strong enough to defeat an earth dragon, I wanna at least be able to run away safely!
I really don’t get anything?
Hmm? What was that?
…Maybe I’m just imagining things?
Well anyway, no use whining about it.
The simplest solution is to keep getting stronger.
If I just keep working on that, I might at least reach the point where I can escape from exceptionally strong enemies. So I’ve decided: I’ll make a sincere effort to get stronger.
Step one is leveling up.
I’ll start actively hunting monsters from now on.
Step two is skills.
I seem to be able to level up skills just by moving around.
Like Appraisal, Detection, Foresight, and Thought Acceleration.
I did max out Detection, but using it trains other skills, too.
So I’ll keep it active until all those skills are maxed out.
At the same time, I should start working on other skills that I can level up as I move.
The safest bet is probably the five sense-enhancement skills.
If I squint my eyes or sniff around a bit or whatever as I walk, they’ll probably go up in no time.
I have a few skills that seem close to the max, so I’ll start with those.
And there’s one other thing.
I don’t want to do this while I walk. I want to stop somewhere and devote my full attention to it.
That would be practicing Magic Power Operation.
Thinking about it, it’s definitely possible for me to get skills without paying skill points if I just build enough proficiency.
In which case, I should save my skill points for Evil Eye, since I have no idea how I’d go about increasing proficiency for that, and try to practice Magic Power Operation on my own.
Thanks to Mr. Detection, I can perceive magic now.
If I concentrate on it enough, I can grasp the flow of magic power.
As long as I can figure out a way to manipulate that somehow (or at least try to for long enough), I should be able to acquire the skill by naturally accumulating proficiency. I hope.
Once I accomplish that, I can finally start practicing magic.
All that being said, I have to remember that my main goal is still to get through the Middle Stratum and return to the Upper Stratum.
Leveling up and improving skills and stuff are just things I’m doing al
ong the way.
So I shouldn’t actually stop moving just to work on that stuff.
Whatever I do, it has to be something I can do on the go.
I’m not putting down roots in the Middle Stratum. I’m just passing through.
I can’t forget that.
Nice, nice. Thanks to my Ruler of Pride title, my mental skills are leveling up really quickly.
Just gotta keep it up.
Since I have the Ruler of Perseverance title, too, my resistance skills should also improve relatively easily, but most of them aren’t the kind of thing I can level up on the move.
Technically, I’m sure I could gain proficiency in a lot of them with self-inflicted attacks: Deadly Poison Resistance and Paralysis Resistance with Poison Synthesis, and Cutting Resistance, Impact Resistance, Destruction Resistance, Rot Resistance, and Shock Resistance (which I’m sure also exists) using Utility Thread. But I should probably save that until I’ve settled down somewhere for a while.
The Middle Stratum, where my recovery is slow and there’s no decent place to rest, is no place for that sort of thing.
I’d like to raise my stat-enhancement skills as quickly as possible, but that’s something else better done when I can stop someplace.
They’ll probably level up in battle, but other than that, I’d have to do muscle training and the like if I want to level them up on my own.
If I have the time and strength to do that, I’d be better off using it to keep moving.
For the time being, better to focus on those five sense skills that I can raise passively.
Vision Enhancement is at level 9, almost the max, so I’ll start with that.
It’s been a while since I evolved and started making my way through the Middle Stratum.
I’ve been wiping out every monster I lay eyes on, so my level’s skyrocketed.
No one would believe how quickly my stats grow now.
The description really wasn’t kidding when it said I have “high battle capabilities.”
On average, they rise about twenty points apiece each time.
Even if you take into account the growth rate enhancement from Pride and the individual stat-raising skills, the rate at which my stats are increasing is still wild.
If I keep improving like this, my low stats will be a total thing of the past.
Besides my level and stats, my skills have also been progressing quite a bit.
That said, I’ve been trying to focus my eyes on various things, but my Vision Enhancement skill still hasn’t budged.
I guess raising a level-9 skill is bound to take some time.
I’ve been killing it on my other skills, though!
First of all, Silence is level 3 now. Ninja power up!
Thought Acceleration and Foresight both reached level 5, so my evasiveness gets a power up, too!
Even Fire Resistance finally made progress, putting it at level 3.
In theory, Perseverance should be making it easier to gain proficiency for resistance skills, but it still feels like it’s taken ages.
Just how weak am I to fire anyway? Actually, is that still the case, since I’m a different species now?
I wonder if my other resistances besides fire have changed…
But I have no way of finding out, so there’s no point speculating.
Anyway, since I’m not exactly a defensive tank to begin with, my resistances changing a little probably wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Still, since my defense is starting to improve, it might be good to know my resistances well.
After all, it’s possible I have other weaknesses besides fire. Not that I have any way of finding that out…
Last but certainly not least is Parallel Thinking.
This one reached level 10 and evolved.
Its new form is called Parallel Minds!
Now this is a super-convenient skill.
As the name implies, it’s basically like I have multiple minds now.
With Parallel Thought, it was like I was using one brain to think about several different things at the same time, but with Parallel Minds, it’s like my brain actually split into segments. Almost like split personalities.
Both of them are me, but each is a separate body of consciousness with its own set of thoughts.
And that’s on top of what Parallel Thinking already allowed me to do.
It’s functionally doubled my cognitive ability. Super-convenient.
This skill is like a partial realization of the wish kids often make, the same one adults do when they’re really pressed for time: “I wish there was another me…”
You know, so one “me” can work and study and stuff while the other plays.
Though since they’re both equally me, whenever one wants to slack off and play, the other’s gonna get mad.
Still, that means I can divide the work I was gonna do alone between two of me, so it’s still way better.
As the skill level rises, it’s possible I’ll be able to make more, too.
However, only one of them can control my body at any given time.
That’s why I’ve decided one half will be in charge of my body while the other half processes information from Appraisal and Detection and so on.
By delegating like this, I can reduce the amount of work each half has to do, so each can concentrate on its responsibilities that much more.
You know how, when you’re fighting, your vision gets a whole lot narrower? People who’ve done martial arts know what I mean, right?
Personally, I think that’s a consequence of extreme tension and concentration.
However, now that I have a separate mind for processing information, I no longer have to deal with it.
That way, I can focus on picking up information and leave the hard work to the body brain.
I’m counting on ya, body brain!
You got it, information brain!
See? Now I can even have conversations with myself.
And since they’re both me, we’ve got data sharing on lock.
There’s no main unit or subunit in this setup. Both of them are me. I’m me, therefore I’m me!
Yeah, I know. It makes no sense.
Like, I’m getting by all right, but I bet some people would start questioning their definition of the self if they did something like this.
You know, like losing track of which is the real them and going crazy or whatever.
I can totally see that happening. If anything, maybe that makes me super-special for being able to handle it normally? Okay, probably not.
Wow. While my information brain was thinking about all that stuff, my body brain beat a monster.
Good job, me.
No biggie, me!
This time, I tried out my new Rot Attack, but I can’t really use it.
I mean, it wasn’t useless. The attack power itself was amazing.
Like, way too strong for level 1.
It was excessive. I mean, it turned the monster to dust in a single hit! Isn’t that freaky?
Is that really what “rot” means? It’s not, like, corrosion or whatever?
This goes past food going bad, straight into disintegration territory. No way do I want to mess with an attribute that “regulates the decay of death.”
It’s already overkill at level 1.
What in the world happens when it levels up more?
Anyway, there are two reasons why I can’t use it.
First, it doesn’t leave behind any remains. In other words, no food.
Sure, I can still gain experience like this, but it totally renders half my motivation for hunting monsters moot.
It doesn’t feed the beast. Literally and figuratively.
The other problem is even worse.
>
I take damage from it, too.
Take a look at the scythe-leg I used for the Rot Attack. The blade is falling to pieces! And I’ve lost HP…
This attack is like a suicide bomb!
So while its power is really high, so’s the backlash.
If I ever get into a situation where I’d be in big trouble if I don’t go all out, maybe I’ll use it, but beyond that, it doesn’t make much sense to waste it on small-fry.
Especially while I’m in the Middle Stratum, where my automatic recovery is slower.
Ugh, I wonder when this scythe will heal?
I’ll probably level up soon, so I’m sure it’ll fix itself then, but in the meantime, I won’t be able to use this leg in my next battle.
I do still have Poison Synthesis, at least, so it’s no big deal as long as I don’t run into some big game like the eel.
I only started using my scythe-arms recently anyway. My main weapon in the Middle Stratum remains Poison Synthesis.
After all, just making contact with Middle Stratum monsters injures me.
If I use my scythes, I can raise skills like Cutting Enhancement, but that still means taking damage.
Besides, when I cut monsters with the scythes, their insides fall out, making them harder to eat.
So, body brain, make sure you use Poison Synthesis for the next prey, all right?
Yep, roger that, information brain.
Man, Parallel Minds sure is convenient.
If I had two bodies to go with it, I could even have a shadow clone! Now that’s the dream.
Oh, but since they’d both be my main body, it’d hurt if either got destroyed.
Aw, man, that sucks.
As long as one was left, I’d still survive, but wouldn’t that mean I’d basically experience death?
Hmm. That’s not something I really want to try.
Actually, I guess I technically have experienced it once already, but as I have no memory of it, that doesn’t count.
So don’t do anything that’s gonna get us killed, okay, body brain?
Come on, information brain. You know I wouldn’t do that!
You’re right, you’re right.