It's been a little while since I leveled up.
I've been focusing my gaze and concentrating as hard as I can, but the Vision Enhancement Skill just won't go up.
As expected, once you hit Level 9, raising your level is tough.
The other Skills have gone up quite a bit, though!
First, Silence hit Level 3.
Good job, Spider, your Stealth just got a boost!
Also, Thought Acceleration and Foresight each reached Level 5.
Good job, Spider, your evasion just got a boost!
Fire Resistance also went up by 1 and finally made it to Level 3.
Thanks to Endurance, my acquisition speed should be faster, but it still felt like it took forever.
How weak to fire am I?
And even after changing my race, I'm still weak to fire?
Maybe resistances to elements other than fire have changed, though.
I can't test that, so there's no way to know.
Well, my base Defense was practically nonexistent to begin with, so even if resistances changed a bit, it probably wouldn't make much difference.
But now that my Defense has increased, it might be worth knowing what my resistances are.
There could be elements other than fire that I'm weak to.
There's no way to find out, though…
And finally, Parallel Thinking.
This reached Level 10 and evolved.
It's now called Parallel Will.
This one's interesting.
True to its name, my will splits into multiple.
With Parallel Thinking, it was like I was sort of half-consciously juggling multiple thoughts with the same will, but with Parallel Will, the wills completely separate.
Like a pseudo split personality.
Both are still me, but each can think independently as its own will.
And it retains all the Parallel Thinking capabilities from before.
It's basically like my cognitive ability just doubled.
Super convenient.
As my level goes up, the number of parallel wills might increase too.
However, only one of the wills can control the body at a time.
So I decided to have one handle the body and the other manage information from Appraisal, Detection, and the like.
Alright then, Body Duty—take it away!
Roger that, Information Duty!
That's how it works. I can hold conversations with myself now.
Both exist for my sake, and information sharing works perfectly.
Neither will is the "main" or the "sub."
Both are me.
I am me because I am me!
…Yeah, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
I'm handling this fine, but for some people, this could seriously mess up their sense of self.
They might not know which one is the "real" them and lose sight of themselves entirely.
Seems pretty likely, honestly.
Though maybe I'm the unusual one for being able to use this so effortlessly.
Nah, that can't be right.
—That's what Information Duty was thinking while Body Duty was out killing Monsters.
Good job, me.
Eh, I'm not that great.
This time I tried out the new Corrosion Attack I got, and—yeah, no, this thing's unusable.
The offensive power itself is incredible, though.
It's only Level 1, yet it's absurdly strong.
Like, way too strong.
Because the Monsters get reduced to dust in a single hit?
Does that seem normal to you?
Is that what Corrosion means?
Shouldn't it be more like… rotting or something?
It goes way past rotting—it's straight-up weathering.
The attribute that governs the decay of death is way too broken.
It's already causing overkill at Level 1.
What's going to happen if this levels up?
Anyway, the reasons it's unusable—there are two.
First, the Monster's corpse doesn't survive.
Which means no food.
One of the two pillars of my Monster hunting—gaining Experience Points and eating—is eliminated if I use this.
Can't have that.
Unacceptable on a double level.
And the second reason is actually the bigger problem.
It damages me too.
I look at the scythe coated in Corrosion.
The blade is completely tattered.
My HP has dropped too.
This is a self-destruct attack!?
So in short: incredible power, but incredible recoil too.
I'll use it if I'm in a desperate battle where I have to give it everything, but for regular trash fights, it's probably best to avoid it.
Especially while I'm in the Middle Layer, since my auto-recovery is slower here too.
Ugh, how long will it take for this scythe to repair itself?
I'm probably close to leveling up, and it'll heal then, but if it does, I won't be able to use the scythe in my next fight.
Well, even without the scythe, I have Poison Synthesis, so unless I'm facing something as tough as the giant eel, it shouldn't matter that much.
Honestly, even though I've started using the scythe recently, my main weapon in the Middle Layer has been Poison Synthesis.
Because just touching the Monsters in the Middle Layer deals damage.
Using the scythe lets me level up Skills like Slash Enhancement, but I take damage little by little, which is annoying.
Plus, when I cut things with the scythe, the insides spill out and make them hard to eat.
So, Body Duty—next prey, let's take them down with Poison Synthesis.
Got it, loud and clear, Information Duty.
Man, Parallel Will really is incredibly useful.
If I had two bodies, I could pull off a dream Shadow Clone technique.
Oh, but then both would be the real deal, so if either one goes down, it hurts.
Ugh, no thanks.
If one of them survives, I'd still live, but wouldn't that be like experiencing death in a pseudo way?
Hmm.
Don't really want to experience that.
I probably have experienced it once already, but since I have no memory of it, it doesn't count.
So with that in mind, Body Duty—whatever you do, don't do anything that'll get us killed?
No way, no way.
Information Duty, seriously, even I wouldn't do that.
Right.