Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Volume Chapter 17

When my eyes open, I’m floating in the ocean.

And also, I’m nothing but a head.

You might not know what that means, but honestly, I don’t know what’s going on, either.

I mean, seriously.

What’s up with this situation?

What happened?

I mean, how can I even be alive with only a head?

Everything from the neck down is gone.

Although I don’t think spiders really have necks.

Now all that’s left is to stick a pin through me and put me on display.

Ugh. Unreal.

Oh wait. I guess I’m probably still alive in this state because of that Immortality skill I got when I evolved.

I bet that demon lord blew my body away, and what’s left of me landed in the ocean.

Since all I’ve got is a head, does that mean my body was destroyed by the Demon Lord’s attack?

This is just a guess, but my theory is that while I was unconscious, my HP Auto-Recovery skill started putting me back together from the particles that were left over.

Even with the Immortality skill, I wasn’t exactly gonna have the ability to have conscious thoughts if my head was smashed to pieces.

In which case, if someone has Immortality but their head is destroyed with no way to put it back together, wouldn’t they still basically be dead?

Yikes!

Is it just me, or is being alive yet dead kind of scarier than death?

It’s literally a living hell.

Thank goodness for HP Auto-Recovery.

Without it, I might’ve been screwed.

Really, the fact that I’ve regained consciousness now is a miracle on a number of levels.

First of all, it’s actually pretty lucky that I got smashed to bits and thrown into the ocean by that attack.

If I had been left intact, she might’ve noticed that I wasn’t really dead, and if I hadn’t gotten thrown into the ocean, she might have even taken my remains home.

Alternatively, if my regeneration had started right there on the spot, she probably would’ve seen it.

And if she knew I couldn’t die, then she could really have come up with a fate worse than death for me.

Like sealing me in concrete and sinking me to the ocean floor, or having carnivorous monsters eat me every time I come back to life.

Although I guess I technically could have experienced the latter while I was floating in the ocean.

Oh, gross. What if I’ve actually been eaten by something and come out the other end already?

And I don’t even know the extent of how well Immortality works.

This isn’t exactly likely, but if I were split apart at a molecular level, I doubt I could come back from that.

I mean, clearly I can survive as just a head, which is pretty good, but I don’t want to get overconfident.

What if I got eaten and digested into molecules? Then I probably wouldn’t be able to regenerate.

Well, either way, I said I don’t want to get overconfident, but it’s not like being careful is going to change the outcome of Immortality much.

I mean, did you see that demon lord’s status?

Mother was already the kind of boss who’d show up only in an impossible game, but now there’s something several times worse?

And like, saying “several times” isn’t even an exaggeration.

Stats that average 90,000? What the hell?!

Get outta here!

Even power creep should have its limits!

And that’s only her stats. Once you factor in the skills, well, it’s beyond hopeless.

Like, maxed-out skills across the board? Who does that?

The worst part was those resistance skills.

Most of her attributes were all the way up to Nullification.

So she just doesn’t take damage, huh?

What am I supposed to do about that?

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Pretty sure there’s nothing I can do.

Hang on—why would a demon lord come to kill me anyway?

No, I guess I already know.

The Demon Lord’s species name was origin taratect.

That means she was the original taratect monster.

The zenith of all taratects, who even Mother would have to obey.

Just like my Parallel Mind told me in that emergency contact, she’s even stronger than Mother, the monster we thought was the strongest of all.

She must have gotten some kind of distress signal from Mother and come to eliminate me.

Well, I guess my victory was only a matter of time, so it makes sense that Mother would request backup.

Although it doesn’t explain why her “backup” was that…thing.

I mean, I don’t even get how that could exist.

What the hell is that?!

That’s gotta be against the rules!

Uuugh.

Seriously, what am I gonna do?

Just when I thought I’d finally escaped the Great Elroe Labyrinth, Mother’s attacks have kept me too busy to enjoy the outdoors.

I thought I had a faint glimmer of hope to conquer her somehow, but then an even worse monstrosity showed up.

What kind of crappy game is this?

No waaay.

Seriously, no waaay…

Argh. Ugh. Bleeegh.

Mm’kay! Guess I should start figuring out my next move.

Things might look pretty grim, but as long as I’m alive, I gotta keep hanging on until I breathe my last.

First, let’s assess my situation.

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My body is currently in the gory state of being nothing but a head.

If a monster or something attacked me right now, I’d be helpless. Or would I?

My max HP is lower than usual, probably because my body’s gone, but my MP hasn’t changed.

So if I was attacked, I could at least use magic to fight back.

Wait a minute. If I can use magic, can’t I use Healing Magic to restore my body?

I don’t know if Healing Magic can bring back lost body parts, but HP Auto-Recovery seems to be able to do it, so it’s worth a shot, right?

I have no idea how long it’ll take me to recover completely, but until then all I can do is float around and hope that nothing attacks me.

Although I don’t know how long it took for my consciousness to recover like this, so it could take ages to rebuild my body with Auto-Recovery and Healing Magic for all I know.

Actually, I wonder how long it’s been since the Demon Lord blew me up?

I wasn’t conscious, so it’s possible that it’s been days or even longer.

Maybe the Demon Lord forgot all about me in that time and wandered off somewhere?

That’s probably just wishful thinking.

I can’t do anything until my body is repaired, but when it comes to her, even having my body back won’t make a bit of difference.

Honestly, I could challenge her a hundred times and still never win.

Even if I use Immortality to do a zombie attack, it won’t make a difference if she doesn’t take any damage in the first place.

I was starting to get to the point where I could beat Mother if I used a few curveballs, but that demon-lord thing? Running away is the only option I can think of.

Hmm? No, wait a sec. If I can defeat Mother, couldn’t I beat her with the same method?

Thinking about it, Mother is still strong enough that I’d have to run away from her in person.

If the Demon Lord and Mother are connected as master and servant, then maybe I can use that connection to send some Parallel Minds to attack the Demon Lord, too?

That…might actually work.

Although it still won’t be easy by any stretch of the imagination.

I mean, look at those stats.

She basically teleported over to me from out of the range of my perception with sheer speed.

Even if I run at top speed, she could catch up to me in a second.

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And by the time I notice her presence, it’ll be too late to teleport.

I’d have to just teleport around frequently so she can’t figure out where I am.

Although even then, I might not be able to outpace her.

Since she’s the size of a human, she can enter places that would be too narrow for Mother, too.

Maybe I’m better off just floating on the ocean like this?

I bet it’s safer than being on land.

Although it wouldn’t surprise me if that freaky Demon Lord can run on water or something.

Actually, she probably can.

With proper use of Dimensional Maneuvering, it’s possible to run on pretty much anything.

I could do it myself if I tried, and the Demon Lord’s got better stats and skills than I do, so she must be able to do it, too…

Ah-ha-ha.

There really is nowhere to run.

At any rate, I’m safe for now (or at least as safe as you can get when all you have is a head). And since I can currently savor the sweet freedom of being alive, the Demon Lord must not have noticed yet that I’m not actually dead.

Or maybe she has, but she can’t locate me.

Maybe I should just do nothing and play dead for the rest of my life.

But I don’t know what my Parallel Minds have been doing while I was unconscious, so it might be wishful thinking to assume she hasn’t noticed me, too.

Hrm.

Guess I should contact them.

Helloooo? This is the main body speaking. Anybody there?

Hmm? Body, is that you?

Oh, we connected. Nice.

So you really are alive. What kind of magic trick did you use?

Believe it or not, I evolved and got the Immortality skill.

What?!

So now I’ll never die!

Wow. Talk about a cheat code.

Yep. So basically, don’t worry about me.

What’s going on over there?

We’re still locked in battle with Mother.

Wow. So that means the Demon Lord probably does know I’m still alive.

Hmm? Demon Lord? Is that what that monstrosity was?

Yep.

And also the original taratect, apparently.

With stats that were all around 90,000 to boot.

Geez, what kind of impossible game is that?

Yeah. She actually smashed me into pieces with a single attack.

Without Immortality, I really would be dead.

But it took a while for my consciousness to come back like this, so who knows what’s gonna happen next time she finds me?

Yeah, that doesn’t sound good. Maybe we shouldn’t get in touch like this too often, then.

How come?

Whenever we make contact, it gets easier for Mother to detect your physical location.

Oh crap!

So we’ll interfere with the signal so that Mother can’t find you, and you just worry about running away. I’ll contact you when we beat Mother, okay?

Roger that.

Over and out.

Well, at least I know what’s what now.

My Parallel Minds are still in battle with Mother.

Which means, most likely, the Demon Lord already knows that I’m not dead.

I assumed she’d suspect that I’m alive, since my attack on Mother hasn’t stopped.

And yet, here I am, relatively safe.

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That can only mean the Demon Lord doesn’t know where I am right now.

So I guess it really is safest for me to keep floating around in the ocean.

Yep. Until my body gets better, I’m just gonna pretend to be an innocent piece of seaweed.