I think, therefore I am. I move, therefore I am. I am myself, because I am myself.

A little time has passed since the level increase.

Focusing my gaze with intent, yet the visual enhancement skill remains stubbornly low.

At level nine, raising the level is indeed laborious.

Other skills have improved significantly.

First, silence has reached level three.

Well done, spider girl—stealth has increased.

Thought acceleration and foresight have each reached level five.

Well done, spider girl—evasion has increased.

Fire resistance has finally risen to level three.

Thanks to endurance, the speed of acquisition should have improved, yet it still took considerable time.

How weak am I to fire.

Or is this weakness unchanged even after changing race?

Perhaps resistance to other elements has changed as well.

Can't test that kind of thing here, so I can't say for sure.

Well, originally there was hardly any defense stat to begin with, so even if resistance changed a little, it probably wouldn't have made much difference.

But now that defense has increased, it might be better to know about resistance traits too.

There could be other elements I'm weak to besides fire.

No way to check that though...

Lastly, parallel thought.

This evolved at level ten.

Called Parallel Will.

That's the interesting part.

As the name suggests, my will multiplies.

Previously, parallel thought meant vaguely thinking about multiple things at once with the same intent. This Parallel Will, however, fully separates the wills.

Like a simulated dual personality.

Both are still me, but each operates as an independent consciousness.

And still retains the ability to perform parallel thought as before.

Thought capacity has effectively doubled.

Extremely convenient.

As level increases, the number of parallel consciousnesses may also rise.

However, only one consciousness can control the body at a time.

Therefore, I assigned one consciousness to body operation, and the other to information management—scouting, analysis, and so on.

So, body duty is yours!

Information duty is yours!

This allows for internal dialogue.

Both are for me. Information sharing is complete.

No primary or secondary consciousness.

Both are me.

I am me because I am me.

Hmm, that doesn’t make sense.

This situation—I’m fine, but others might lose clarity in self-definition.

Confusion over which is the true self. Losing oneself.

Plausible.

Then again, perhaps it’s me who’s unusual for managing this well.

That seems unlikely.

While the information specialist was thinking, the body specialist had already slain the monster.

Good work, me.

Not that impressive, really.

I tried the newly added corrosion attack this time—this one’s useless.

No, the damage output is enormous.

Even at level one, it’s absurdly powerful.

It’s too much.

The monster turns to dust in a single hit.

Doesn’t that seem off?

Was corrosion meant to be like that?

Not just rotting, but disintegrating?

It’s not rotting—it’s weathering away.

The attribute governing the collapse of death—unbelievably strong.

Already overkill at level one.

What happens when the level increases?

The reason I said it’s unusable? Two reasons.

First: the monster’s corpse doesn’t remain.

Meaning: no food remains.

Using this would negate half of my reason for hunting monsters—the accumulation of experience points.

That is unacceptable.

Not acceptable in both senses.

Moreover, the other matter was, in fact, the greater issue.

This is affecting me too.

A sickle wrapped in corrosive attack.

The blade of the scythe was worn to ruin.

HP is decreasing.

Self-destruct attack?!

Thus, power is high, but recoil is significant.

Use only when absolutely necessary—high-stakes battles require it. Otherwise, better to conserve for weaker opponents.

Recovery speed slows during the middle tier phase.

Ah, this scythe should be enough to heal it, right?

Level-up should be imminent. Healing will occur then, but the scythe likely won’t be usable in the next battle.

Well, even without the scythe, I’ve got poison synthesis. As long as it’s not an eel-like opponent, the impact won’t be severe.

Truthfully, I’ve only recently started using the scythe, but poison synthesis remains the primary weapon at this tier.

Mobs here deal damage just from contact.

Using the scythe grants me skills like slashing enhancement, but I take damage passively in exchange.

And cutting with the scythe causes the contents to spill—difficult to consume afterward.

So, body specialist, let’s finish the next target with poison synthesis.

Understood, information specialist.

Wow, parallel cognition is truly convenient.

If I had two bodies, I could achieve a dream-like shadow clone.

But then both would be the true body—losing either would still hurt.

No, that’s not desirable.

If one remains, I survive—but that would mean experiencing death in a simulated form, wouldn’t it?

Hmm.

I don’t really want to experience that.

I’ve probably already lived through it once—just don’t remember, so it doesn’t count.

That’s why I’m counting on you, body specialist—please don’t do anything that leads to death.

No way.

Information specialist here—I won’t do that, not even if you ask.

Yeah, exactly.