Published: September 9, 2025
Correction of typos made on 1/27.
This is Satou. Celebrations are always pleasant, but I’d rather avoid something as flashy as a parade. Arisa and the others, who love extravagance, would probably be thrilled though…
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“To celebrate the defeat of the Floor Master, let’s have a toast!”
“““Cheers!”””
At Ivy Manor, I led yet another toast today.
We’re scheduled to return to Labyrinth City Selbira in three days.
Apparently, no one has ever defeated a Floor Master on the very day they set out to hunt one. Considering the travel time back and forth and the time needed to take down the Floor Master, this schedule makes sense.
That said, after defeating the lord of the layer and returning to Ivy Manor, it still took half a day before the victory celebration began.
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After collecting the loot, I secured relatively undamaged squid meat and tentacles and returned to Ivy Manor.
Although I’m curious about what’s happening on the surface, I figured I should settle matters at home first.
I summoned only Arisa to my laboratory in Ivy Manor.
Resolutely, I shared information about keywords like the immortal king (undead king) Zen, the dog-headed demon king, reincarnators, demon kings, unique skills, fragments of a god, and added my own insights.
“That’s apparently how it is.”
“I suspected you were hiding something…”
She fell silent with a serious expression, so I lifted her onto my lap and tried to comfort her by letting her bury her face in my chest. But she quickly responded, “Of course, I knew,” leaving me unsure where to place my hand when patting her head.
“Because I was explained about those things when I was reincarnated or asked by the god.”
“Can I hear the details?”
Arisa placed a finger under her lip and teasingly said, “If you give me a sweet kiss, I’ll tell you everything.” I “ordered” her to speak.
“Ugh, you’re mean.”
“Just talk.”
Honestly, it’s hard to tell how serious Arisa really is sometimes.
“Well, I can’t tell you everything I heard, okay? The god put some restrictions on what I can say,” she prefaced before starting to talk.
There wasn’t much new information.
— When reincarnating, one accepts fragments of a god, and for each fragment accepted, they gain one unique skill.
I had more or less guessed that.
— A soul’s aptitude is required to accept a fragment of a god.
Most candidates for reincarnation fail to accept even one fragment and have their souls extinguished. Those who can accept two or more are rare.
Arisa said that when accepting the fragments, she somehow sensed “I can still go on” or “I can’t anymore.”
— Not everyone who reincarnates with fragments of a god becomes a demon king.
In fact, becoming a demon king is rare. Some have become demon kings with just one fragment, but generally, those with three or more fragments become demon kings.
…Doesn’t that mean I, with four fragments, am in more danger than Arisa with two?
— The number of times unique skills can be used is limited by the soul’s limiter.
It’s possible to exceed the number of uses, but if you overuse unique skills beyond your limit, your soul wears down and can no longer contain the fragments of a god.
When this happens, the soul vessel breaks and disappears or transforms into a demon king.
The dog-headed demon king’s words about “becoming a demon king out of despair” probably refer to reincarnators who, in desperation and recklessness, exceed their limits using unique skills and consequently transform into demon kings.
Lastly, I asked about the god.
“So, what’s the name of the god who reincarnated Arisa?”
“Well, I was just told ‘God,’ but at the time I thought, ‘Oh, so it’s God,’ and accepted it easily. In stories, you never hear anyone asking for a god’s actual name when they’re reincarnated by a god, right?”
“Can you tell what the god looks like?”
“The god appeared as a formless soul without a body, so I don’t know. Whether male or female, old or young, handsome or ugly — I don’t even know if it looks human.”