It’s another wonderful day in the underwater devil’s ladder ravine.

Unfortunately, one particular area doesn’t seem to share this sentiment. Specifically, the drug alley.

The residents over there have recently welcomed a new member. They had thought that the new guy would be similar to them, but he turned out to be a living terror that could easily annihilate them.

At first, only a few murders were reported, but that number suddenly escalated out of hand for an unknown reason. You can even find whole areas with all of their residents slaughtered in cold blood if you look around right now.

However, some good news has recently spread throughout this area. It is rumored that the guest serial killer has gotten bored and has actually decided to leave soon. (Source: a lucky massacre survivor heard that cold-blooded murderer muttering about leaving due to the food tasting bad.)

While this is great news for the drug alley, the shroom factory expressed their outrage and fear at such a rumor. Their area is adjacent to the drug alley after all, so it’s very likely that the serial killer will be a threat to their own survival in the future.

 

 

Blarghh.

God damn, this is awful! I think I’m starting to understand Kumoko-chan’s troubles in the labyrinth...

But I must endure, this future goddess-sama isn’t a wimp! I’ll leave right after the stupid skills are maxed out, never will I come back to this cursed spot ever again.

The things I do for strength... Maybe my real cheat was Steel Will all along?

So, what am I actually complaining about? The answer to that question is directly related to what I’ve been doing the past few days.

Ever since my exploration trip was halted due to the ever-increasing strength of the monsters in the boneyards, I’ve made some checklists for every biome I passed through and decided to work on them without delay.

The first beginner’s biome was the drug trip one with its migraine-inducing color spectrum. My plan for this one was simple, really.

I won’t be able to gain experience from the monsters in here except for the rare wyrm passing by, but this biome has something that is crucial to obtain for my future endeavors.

What can I find in such a weak power level area, you ask? Skills! There are three very important skills that I can plunder from the monsters in here. My experience gain restriction doesn’t apply to Greed after all.

Monsters over here have three skills that are absolutely crucial to increase both my safety and strength. Poison Attack derivatives, Poison Resistance, and Camouflage.

If I plunder any of those, I’d be getting the first stage of said skill at the first level. Now, why would I want to plunder something I already have?

Well, that’s because if I re-plunder a skill, the newly plundered one would be transformed into proficiency value for said skill. It works according to the famous principle that increasing the quantity eventually causes an increase in quality.

Hundreds of level 1 proficiency values added together can eventually push all those three skills to the maximum level of their respective evolutions. Deadly Poison Attack/Resistance and Concealment are assisted by and have a role in increasing three different stat fields.

They are the offensive ability value, resistance ability value, and the hidden stealth ability value (I presume such a hidden value exists due to logical reasoning).

Another reason is that all monsters are basically guaranteed to have some levels in Deadly Poison Resistance and perception skills by the time you reach the boneyards. They did spend years scavenging for corpses to eat after all, along with the fact that they don’t actually care about the food’s state.

There’s also the fact that there are a lot of sea dragon carcasses in there, meaning that they regularly fight such a monster that has been loaded with Deadly Poison Attack for more than two evolution stages.

Anyways, the plan went great! I was able to get Poison Spike up to level 9 by the end of the first day, a remarkable achievement if you ask me. But then I discovered the downside to this strategy...

Using simple logical reasoning, you can deduct how horrible this method turned out to be.

I’m still a mortal, so I need to eat. Since I need to eat, then I’d have to eat what I hunted. Most monsters in this biome fall under the poisonous category, so they taste like shit.

In conclusion, I’ll either have to endure this shitty taste that remains in my mouth for a while after eating, or I’ll have to turn off my taste buds and endure a period of time without the joys of eating food...

Both options are fucking horrible!! Sigh...This might be retribution for all the massacres I’ve committed since my reincarnation.

In the end, I decided to go for the lesser evil and temporarily turn off my taste buds, but I went on an unstoppable killing spree instead of going about it slowly. Gotta get it over with as soon as possible after all.

If I can’t enjoy food for any reason, then I’ll happily ignore all morality and consequences for the sole sake of destroying all that stands in my way. Food is JUSTICE!

So, I stopped giving a fuck about disturbing the ecosystem due to overhunting and began shooting spikes at every monster I see.

I also made full use of Exhaustion Nullification during this time period, as I didn’t rest for a single moment in between the hunts.

Luckily, Greed doesn’t have restrictions on the number of skill steals per day, watching the daily increase in skill levels is very motivating after all. If I keep at it at the same rate, I’ll be done here in a week!

I wonder how those monsters in the mushroom biome taste, hmm. A monster usually tastes more delicious the higher its level is except for those poisonous bastards; Their taste degrades instead.

Indulging in imaginary fantasies about a paradise filled with tons of delicious food has become a sacred daily routine for me.

And interrupting such a sacred ritual is nothing short of heresy that deserves the death punishment.

Some arrogant fellas don’t seem to understand such basic rules though...

My daydream was interrupted by a danger alert coming from my super intuition, I couldn’t locate its source even with Future Sight though...

This isn’t good. If Future sight can’t capture the enemy, then the level of their Concealment skill should be fairly high. Judging by the information I have about monsters; My excessive killing might have provoked the overlord of this area.

Swimming in the direction of the danger through nothing but pure intuition, I put Sage and all the integrated mental skills on overdrive trying to find the enemy.

To think a monster would even have the ability to hide from my Spatial Awareness... Looks like I have to invest a bit in detection skills.

My HP bar in the corner of my vision starts decreasing all of a sudden. Hey, what the fuck is going on!!

Sage, give full body analysis. Now!

{Answer: Host’s body is affected by a lethal poison. It is estimated that the attacker has the [Deadly Poison Attack] skill with a minimum level of 6.}

Why can’t I detect the source?!

{Answer: Attacker’s [Concealment] skill estimated to be at least level 5.}

{Possible solution: Obtain skill [Presence Perception] and temporarily boost its effect by consuming skill points.}

You can fucking do that?!!

{Answer: Ability to consume skill points for temporary skill effectiveness boost is unique to the host. Requirements: Skills [Greed][Conquest][Sage], title [Ruler of Greed]. Classified as ruling class privilege. Note: Canceled requirement: Consumes a part of the user’s divinity field, Reason: host’s unique soul’s constant expansion.}

Fuck, I’m awesome! Go ahead, buy the skill from the shop and boost it right away!

 

{Number of skill points currently in possession: 787. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Presence Perception LV 1]: 200. Acquire skill?}

Yes yes!

{[Presence Perception LV 1] acquired. Remaining skill points: 587.}

 

The moment I acquired the skill, it felt as if I had an extra sense. I don’t know how to describe it, but I could faintly feel the presence of living beings in a small radius around me.

Not even a second later, that radius was increased hundreds of times, and that faint feeling became more and more solid.

Then I saw it. It was hiding behind a coral cluster right at the edge of my sphere.

I can’t really describe it as it has the Concealment skill on, changing the color of its scales and blending into the surroundings, but I could make out the silhouette of a small pufferfish. That thing’s body was smaller than even mine.

You could even describe it as cute, that is if you ignore the localized dead zone that it’s passively creating around itself just by standing there.

This guy’s spikes are releasing the excess poison that it can’t store in its body by secreting them from the tips. It’d normally be fine if you just avoid the huge moving poison sphere, but the pufferfish went above that.

Since the Concealment skill works on the user’s body and can even affect things like appraisal results and the user’s aura, why wouldn’t it work on whatever you create as well, right?

...I can’t begin to imagine how a fucking fish found out about a loophole in a skill. He’s not only using Concealment on the poison, but he’s also added in the Odorless skill.

Holy hell, a freaking pufferfish is making me feel as if I’m a complete failure of an assassin right now.

Manager-san, use Appraisal, please!

 

 

This guy’s a wyrm?! The anime did show a pufferfish water wyrm in one of the episodes, but it certainly wasn’t this strong. No... what’s more important is that it wasn’t nearly as resourceful, this is on a whole other level!

He doesn’t have any visible weaknesses I could take advantage of. I’d normally flee and come back for him later, but my intuition’s telling me that I have some use for this guy.

Arghh, I don’t know. I’ll just swim around with him on my tail for a bit, I’m sure I’ll figure it out sooner or later.

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Deadly Poison Resistance LV 4] has become [Deadly Poison Resistance LV 5].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Presence Perception LV 1] has become [Presence Perception LV 2].}

 

Worst case scenario, I’ll lead him to the mushroom biome and let the eels deal with him. That’s only the worst worst case though, I really don’t wanna miss out on the experience I’d get from him, any amount of experience I can gain is a precious resource for me right now.

All right then, Toxic Stalker-san. Let’s start a long game of hide and seek where the roles are reversed!

I’ll let you live for now. Just wait until I’ve squeezed out every benefit I can get from you!