Hello, I’m having an emergency, please send some help. Hmm, my location? I’m at the drug alley in the devil’s ladder.

The area’s out of your jurisdiction? So, this is what law enforcers are like down here, huh?

Humph, cowards.

This stalker has been following me for over an hour now! He’s not even trying to hide it with this god-awful smell he’s emitting, it’s literally toxic!!

Remind me why am I letting him follow me again...? Ah, right. This guy should still have something of use to me.

Now I don’t actually know what that thing is, but since it’s my own super intuition that’s informing me of it, I’ll gladly endure.

My intuition was never wrong before, y’know? Not only does it let me avoid detours and dead ends, but it also leads me to the best destination with the least effort. I’d be a lost chick without it.

Something’s bugging me though. That same intuition is telling me that I should already know what use this guy has for me, but my mind goes blank as soon as I get closer to the answer...

There’s a problem with my mental processes, something’s interfering with my memory. Now that discovery alone is worthy enough for me to let this guy chase me around like this.

However, this brings another unknown into the equation. Since the problem is in my brain or whatever, what does it have to do with the wyrm that’s chasing me?

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [HP Auto-Recovery LV 5] has become [HP Auto-Recovery LV 6].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Running LV8] has become [Running LV 9].}

 

Ugh, stupid notifications, you’re disturbing my thoughts!

I don’t care about stupid skill levels—hold up! That’s it, I think finally figured it out!

These are level-up notifications, right? I’m not plundering anything right now so why are my skills gaining levels...?

Dammit, the reason’s right at the tip of my tongue, but my thoughts get disturbed at the last moment.

Well, when in doubt, just smash it!

I give sage the golden order while activating my Spiritual Cognition to observe my own soul.

Manager-san, pump the remaining skill points into Soul Seeker.

{Action: Consume all skill points to use ruler’s privilege: Boost. Confirm?}

Go ahead.

As soon as I gave her the green light, the image that was projected into my eyes was shattered into a million pieces.

My soul, which just looked shiny golden, turned dark grey except for a shining sphere in the center.

Holy hell, what happened in here?! No time to think, the skill boost won’t last much with my low amount of skill points.

I promptly increased my attention to trigger the highest tier of Thought Acceleration causing my perception of time to decrease by 10 times.

Doing a quick but thorough inspection of my soul, I swiftly find the source of this mess.

A murky black snake that is seemingly condensed from soul power is attacking the core of my soul while emitting that same grey substance that is contaminating my soul.

Instantly activating Soul Purification, I set the target to that snake. Soul Seeker’s boost affects all of my soul-related abilities whether it’s inside or outside the boundaries of the system, so the ability takes effect without any delay.

The snake tries to resist and frantically attacks my soul core, but its struggle is all for naught in front of the divine purifying light released by the mighty Soul Grimoire residing inside my soul core. I can see its color slowly but surely changing into a lighter tone over time.

A few seconds in normal time later, the snake’s murky black color finally turns white, and the Soul Grimoire sucks it in, sealing it inside its pages.

The only remaining task is to purify the incredible amounts of pollution that snake spread throughout the outer layer of my soul, but Sage will probably do that without needing my help.

 

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

 

Damn, that was freaking close! What the heck was that thing anyways...?

{Answer: The soul embodiment of the skill [Greed].}

...It’s another fucking hidden effect, isn’t it?! It’s just a prank, right, D?!!

You just can’t trust anyone with anything nowadays, man.

Manager-san, why did that thing appear in my soul when you already stopped the hidden effect of Greed?

Also, I thought my soul was very strong, so how did that snake contaminate so easily as if ink is spreading in water?

{Answer: Title [Ruler of Greed] had its hidden mental effect countered, leading to the host getting backlashed.}

{Skill [Greed] is unique inside the W system boundaries, and it can also break through said boundaries and interact with the MA Field. Previous factors allowed skill [Greed] to condense a pseudo-core and invade host’s soul but was finally blocked by entity [Soul Grimoire].}

Okay, I get that, but why were my thoughts affected? There was some sort of illusion cast on my soul as well, right?

{Answer: Unknown. Presumed outsider interference.}

Ahhh... Really now? That explains why even Sage didn’t realize something was wrong with me.

I can assume that D went as far as to interfere with my soul directly now, but that would be very odd.

Although she loves the entertainment that watching others’ suffering gets her, she’s more of a spectator than a troublemaker.

It might just be her trying out some novel way to have fun, but I can’t deny the possibility of there being some other administrator fucking with me.

Güliedistodiez is an administrator and has some kind of authority over dragons, so there could be an unmentioned administrator with authority over underwater creatures or something along those lines.

It was mentioned that water dragons sunk all ships trying to cross the ocean, but it was never mentioned what else actually is under the ocean’s deep waters other than water dragons.

Oi, it’s like I thought that I willingly entered this world’s power whirlpool by acquiring Greed, but you’re telling me that I’m nothing but a clown? There’s no way there would be other gods with a similar personality to D, right?

Absolutely not! This great Tomoko-sama is the smartest and cutest loli (Goddess)! It’s impossible for anyone to endure the guilt of throwing such a treasure into a grinder except for the abominable woman!

...Should be, yeah. I hope.

Anyways! Give me the report of the battle results, Manager-san.

{Report: Skill [Greed] is now under full control of the host. Entity [Soul Grimoire] has sealed the embodiment of skill [Greed] and is currently actively cooperating with skill [Sage] to analyze its workings. Host’s origin is expected to obtain the devouring affinity after analysis completion.}

Hoooh. So although my soul was nearly fucked up, I got extremely rich rewards in return?

This feels like one of those novel scenes where some strong dude pops up and tells you that you’ve passed his trial...

So, I’m actually the main character?! Awesome—no, I can’t say it like that.

Cough, it’s the least I would expect from myself, humph. Hehe~.

I guess I should focus my attention on the real world now, don’t wanna get jumped by that stalker.

Luckily, my thoughts are much quicker with Thought Acceleration, and I can easily multi-task using the Parallel Minds skill.

I didn’t encounter any of those rebelling consciousness problems when I got it, Manager-san swallowed all the parallel minds as soon as they popped up after all!

She even got an extra processing power of about 10 Tomoko out of that. A terrifying number considering how great a single Tomoko already is, wahaha~!

Back to reality, I can finally understand why intuition reacted to this guy. Not only did he indirectly allow me to notice and fix a problem in my soul, but he’s also basically a certified stat skills grinder!

I can’t begin to fathom what kind of magic was used to tamper with my soul. It went as far as to make me forget the normal way of gaining skill proficiency, using the skill.

Ruler of Greed grants corrections to stat-enhancing abilities, like HP Auto-Recovery which I’m counting on to combat the wyrm’s poison.

All four stamina skills are gaining proficiency as well, I’m consuming a large amount of stamina while running away after all. This also brings us to the last skill that’s being used right now, Running.

I don’t think I need to say anything about it, right?

Who’d have expected that being chased by a stalker pufferfish would be this beneficial?!

 

{Condition satisfied. Skill [Instantaneous LV 10] has evolved into skill [Instant Body LV 1].}

{Condition satisfied. Skill [Persistent LV 10] has evolved into skill [Endurance LV 1].}

 

Woaaah, it’s raining skills!

First time I’ve seen such a gentlemanly pufferfish! Well, I’ll probably gain some more levels on SP recovery speed, evolve Running into Acceleration, and then call off this chase.

Unfortunately, HP Auto-Recovery won’t be getting much proficiency, this guy’s poison damage has decreased a lot after I got some Deadly Poison Resistance skill levels off of him.

Okay, gotta plan this fight during these last couple of minutes.

First off, our speeds are the same if you consider the difference in the Swimming skill levels. His consumable resources are higher than mine, so it’s a no for a war of attribution.

His offensive stats should be focused on his poison and spikes, but he doesn’t have Expel to launch spikes at me.

The long-distance advantage became mine as soon as his poison stopped damaging me, but he’s better at close distances with higher defensive stats.

Soooo, I think I will experience what’s it like to be an attack helicopter firsthand.

 

{Condition satisfied. Skill [SP Lessened Consumption LV 10] has evolved into skill [SP Minimized Consumption LV 1].}

{Condition satisfied. Skill [Running LV 10] has evolved into skill [Acceleration LV 1].}

 

All righty! You have been disrespectfully stalking this goddess for a while now, Mr Toxic Stalker. For your sins, I shall hit you with divine punishment!

Whoosh.

Caught you! Manager-san, open fire!

Thump x15.

*Whistle* I can only launch one spike at a time, but she can simultaneously and accurately shoot 15 at the same time!

See? Having an extra 10 Tomoko units of brain power would make anyone an unparalleled genius, hehehe~.

His HP bar just got absolutely demolished! Being pierced with 15 spikes would do that even if you have ridiculous defense stats.

Annnd, that’s a wrap.

Huh? He’s not dead yet, you say? Ah, that’s not a problem.

This guy shares the same stupid weakness that water wyrms always have, his Poison Resistance is stupidly low!

I’m still unable to comprehend how a monster that fully depends on poison for a living can have such a low resistance to it.

Sigh, I know I know. Don’t apply logic to a fantasy world, I got it.

Hey, this guy’s secretly turning on those two skills the previous wyrm used. So he’s going for a surprise attack in a dying struggle, huh.

Too bad I have both Future Sight and a ridiculous intuition, it’s impossible for such despicable tactics to work against me!

I always use those despicable tactics, you say? Well, it’s only despicable when it’s used against me, it’s perfectly fine for me to use them.

I’m a hypocrite? Never said I was the good guy in this story, muhaha~!

Back to the fight, the wyrm finally activated both skills and started rushing at me. So, I did what anyone would do in this situation, I launched two more spikes at him and ran behind a coral cluster.

Doesn’t feel good to have your strategies used against you, isn’t it? That’s what you get for making this goddess feel uncomfortable, creep!

 

{Acquired skill [Water Resistance LV 1].}

{Experience has reached the required level. Individual laethoul ramae has increased from LV 2 to LV 3}

{All basic attributes have increased.}

{Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Presence Perception LV 2] has become [Presence Perception LV 3].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Evasion LV 7] has become [Evasion LV 8].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [SP Recovery Speed LV 8] has become [SP Recovery Speed LV 9].}

{Skill points acquired.}

 

I wonder what you’ll taste like. Pufferfish tasted good in my previous life, as long as you prepare them using the correct method anyways.

Hopefully, you follow the same rules. I’ll really cry if you are the same as other poisonous monsters...