A sacrifice was normally required to create a Legendary Creation. The Trait had prepared a significant portion of that sacrifice for me, but I could offer more on top of it.
“I’ll add the 3,268 bonus points from the Trait, and evenly sacrifice half the life in my ecosystem.”
“Yes. In that case, 2,042 points—half of it—will be added to the Legendary Creation instead, while an additional 561 points will be consumed. Is that acceptable?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
As when I created Abhojuth, a horrifying vortex formed around the Fragment of an Old God.
That vortex seemed to draw in living things and living things alone, and it endlessly devoured a little more than half. The grasses in the freshwater region, the fish, reptiles, insects, frogs, jellies, gel, puddings. Excluding Abhojuth, it greedily and ravenously inhaled every life-form in the Dessert Legion.
WRITHE—! WRITHE—! WRITHE—!
The Fragment of an Old God swelled.
Wrapped over in gelatinous, glassy, ceramic-like flesh, the Fragment of an Old God kept bloating like foam and rose into the air. It was almost like a balloon, except round spheres kept budding across its surface like bubbles clinging to a balloon.
Sliiiide.
“Good heavens. How is that thing flying?”
I put a light gas inside it, and the other half is magic. It floats by filling its body with light <Wind>-aspect mana.
Tentacles for control grew out of that body, as though it were a mixture of bubbles, meat, and rock. Tentacles to form the hand signs needed for magic. And vicious tentacles that could touch and destroy other objects all on their own.
BULGE—!
Then it opened its eyes. Two in front. Two in the upper layer. Two in the lower layer. And two in the back. It had multiple crystalline eyeballs lodged between the bubbles, and as it stretched out its tentacles, thick yogurt-colored blood filled the flesh of its body.
【O great Creator of mine. Yogur-tosoth, which you have shaped, has descended into this world.】
The ecosystem. Inflow.
【It has flowed into this ecosystem.】
Magnificent. It had very high intelligence—high enough to instantly understand what its master meant.
「The world’s <Military> score has surpassed 926 points and risen to Level 4. You may now choose a new Trait.」
「The world’s <Mysticism> score has surpassed 926 points and risen to Level 4. You may now choose a new Trait.」
On top of that, Yogur-tosoth alone had doubled both my <Military> and <Mysticism> scores because of a single Ability. It was such a monster that it could raise the level of the entire ecosystem all by itself.
For the <Military> Trait, I chose 『Magic Combat』. It was a Trait that simply made creations better at fighting when they used magic.
“This time, there’s an interesting option.”
“An interesting option?”
『Acquire Yogur-tosoth Knowledge: Yogur-tosoth acquires 926 points worth of magical knowledge.』
『Water Mysticism Specialization: You become more adept at water-aspect mysticism.』
『Magic Revelation: You may consume <Divinity> to increase the speed at which your creations practice magic.』
Oh. So the <Mysticism> side had gained a Trait that directly strengthened Yogur-tosoth too.
“Yes. It’s not as good as strengthening an entire civilization, but it can raise the abilities of a powerful Legendary Creation even further.”
Then I’ll take that. It’s better than the other options.
【My Creator. I give thanks.】
「The world’s <Technology> score has surpassed 100 points and risen to Level 1. You may now choose a new Trait.」
“?”
“Ah. Magical knowledge. It must count as having gained technology, so it went over 100.”
“I see...”
If I remembered correctly, the <Technology> score measured both the level of technology reached and the combined number of those benefiting from it.
Not just scientific knowledge—magical knowledge could raise the Technology score too. Was Yogur-tosoth really the kind of thing that could raise a level through magical knowledge it possessed by itself? What the hell was this monster, really?
For the <Technology> Trait, I chose 『Magic Development』. It was exactly what it sounded like—a Trait that sped up the development of magic. This, too, was effectively for Yogur-tosoth alone.
Now then. Let’s take a look at this thing’s stats.
「Yogur-tosoth <Legendary Unique Creation>
Health LV.4: 1,379
Combat LV.3: 879
Dexterity LV.2: 340
Intelligence LV.3: 694
Charm LV.2: 279
Mind LV.3: 560
Authority LV.4: 1,205
Mana LV.3: 900
Individual Total LV.3: 6,236」
This thing was insane.
“There’s no higher evaluation I can give. You’re only preparing for the third collision, yet even its lowest stat, Charm, is already Level 2 with 279 points. Its highest stats, Health and Authority, are Level 4 and both over 1,000 points. Its overall ability score is Level 3 at 6,236. And on top of that, the magic it has mastered—including its Authority—is enormous. This is a colossal monster that could take on an entire civilization by itself even in the fourth collision.”
Angel. Don’t just praise it. Tell me its weaknesses too.
“Hm? Ah... if I had to name one, its energy consumption, I suppose. Its energy consumption is so severe that you’d need around <Life> Level 4 to sustain it. But your world’s life level is literally Level 6 right now, Lord Nonhuman, so that weakness is completely meaningless.”
I see. So even from the Angel’s perspective, it was like that.
Then was that thing the strongest? No world would be able to kill my Yogur-tosoth.
“10,779. That is the number of worlds that have any chance of hunting Yogur-tosoth with their world’s current capabilities.”
What? Why so many?
“No. That’s an incredibly small number... There are still over 250 million players left. Even those 10,779 worlds should only be thought of as having a ‘possibility.’
Of those 10,779, more than 9,000 would expend their entire civilization’s capacity just to hunt Yogur-tosoth, or end in mutual destruction, or fail even at that. There is not a single civilization capable of hunting Yogur-tosoth without losing more than 50% of its total strength.
In other words, every player currently participating in the game would see their total civilization score plummet to half or less just from dealing with Yogur-tosoth.”
“What if you judge by ecosystem rather than civilization?”
“Among the players still remaining, you’re the only one without a civilization, Lord Nonhuman... Of course.”
I see.
Still, the fact that there were forces capable of killing it... worried me a little. Legendary Creations were immortal, so even if they were destroyed, they could be made again—but reviving one would require enormous resources all over again.
I couldn’t just throw Yogur-tosoth in the moment the dimensional gate opened anyway. Maybe I should probe the enemy first and deal with them slowly.
「Nonhuman’s World
Life LV.6: 1,482
Military LV.4: 1,722
Industry LV.3: 505
Technology LV.1: 112
Culture LV.0: 0
Politics LV.0: 0
Mysticism LV.4: 1,539
Faith LV.3: 871
Total LV.4: 6,231」
“The world’s total score is lower than Yogur-tosoth’s own stats.”
“Individual stats and world stats don’t correspond one-to-one, but you also fed more than half the world’s life-forms to Yogur-tosoth. And honestly, expecting your total score to be high when Culture and Politics are both at zero feels like an appalling lack of conscience.”
“Even so, looking at it overall, I’d say my world’s combined capabilities still seem absurdly high in its current state.”
“That part is true.”
I almost felt sorry for my next opponent.
∞
The terrain Player Aeung had received at the start was a desert. Since Aeung’s own body was made of pure elements, Aeung had actually thought it was a good environment.
But Aeung had also assumed, on a purely rational basis, that in a structure where half the players were eliminated every round until only one remained out of a billion, the odds of personally winning were extremely low.
“Angel. You said an Alliance with conditions was possible too, not just unconditional surrender, right?”
“That is correct.”
Since the Angel assigned to Aeung—an Angel with a beautiful elemental body—had answered that way, Aeung’s strategy had been decided from very early on.
The moment the first World Collision began, Aeung immediately proposed an <Alliance>. Before the dimensional gate had fully opened, before the first invaders had even harmed Aeung’s civilization.
“Hey. Why waste energy fighting right from the first match? Let’s cooperate perfectly, you and I. Then in the next match, instead of fighting each other, we’ll start with twice the mass and a huge advantage thanks to our cooperation.”
Fortunately, the other side had been willing to talk.
“So you’re saying we do that until the end of the game?”
“Of course not. We cooperate, but within the world we keep fighting our covert struggle to suppress each other’s species. But even if one of us wins the battle for control inside the world, we don’t ‘erase’ the loser. The loser just becomes the other’s subordinate. And even if you become a subordinate, you can always rebuild your strength and rebel later.”
“Hm...”
“And when we meet the second opponent, we ask for cooperation right away too. Unless that second opponent is an exceptionally good player, they’ll probably be in terrible shape after fighting their last opponent, right?
So in practice it’ll be a three-way war—maybe even a four-way war, if they also have subordinates or allies—but they’ll still be weaker than us, since we’ve been cooperating from the beginning. Even if they refuse, we should be able to crush them easily.”
“You’re making that offer without even knowing what state I’m in?”
“I’m making it precisely because I don’t know what state you’re in. That’s what makes it trustworthy.”
In short, Aeung had chosen a cooperation strategy.
Cooperate instead of fight. Win through administration and political infighting as part of the same world.
That was because Aeung had far more confidence in politics and intrigue than in direct combat.
“Fine. I accept your proposal.”
Unlike Aeung, who had created pure elemental life-forms, the other player’s species was a rat-like people that needed very little water.
They had both been startled when they saw each other’s species, but that only made the alliance easier. They immediately realized their species did not want the same things.
Aeung’s species occupied regions rich in mana and elements, honing mysticism there, while the other player’s rat species built cities in the valleys, gathered desert rainwater, planted crops, and developed technology.
The second match. The opponent rejected their offer of cooperation, but collapsed helplessly before the perfectly paired elemental-and-rat alliance. They accepted the surrender and made that player a slave.
Now Aeung’s world held three gods, two major species, and one slave species. The rat player was skilled enough at politics that Aeung still couldn’t easily seize dominance in the struggle for leadership, but there was no telling whether that balance would survive after the third collision began.
Aeung believed no player would reject the optimal strategy called cooperation, and continued offering it, utterly convinced that their approach—ruling an ever-growing world together—was the best possible path.
Even if Aeung lost, survival would still be possible in the long run so long as life continued on as the enemy’s retainer, subordinate, or at worst, slave.
Aeung was that confident in politics, scheming, and intrigue.
There had been a startling little incident before the third collision when an unexpected patch had suddenly handed out <Faith> points and an opportunity to create a Unique Creation.
But that was all. Aeung made a creation in Aeung’s world that gave advantages to both Culture and Mysticism through powerful mana and charm, while the allied player made a powerful war commander.
Then the third World Collision began. Aeung and the allied god naturally requested a conversation with the opposing player, Nonhuman...
「The opposing player has rejected <Conversation>.」
“Well. Looks like this one has a rather violent temperament.”
“No kidding.”
Aeung’s world had a total score of over 6,000. That number only existed because of complete collaboration with the rat species, but that same complete collaboration had enabled perfect specialization, leaving them with no weaknesses whatsoever in any field.
And so the elemental species and the rat species entered the opposing world. Their vanguard, flawless in every respect—physical, magical, ranged, close-quarters, individual, group—passed into the enemy’s world and then saw it.
In the sky.
Floating.
That thing.
That unknown mass of bubbles whose individual stats, when measured with divine power, surpassed even the total score of the world Aeung’s two species had built through cooperation.
The instant Aeung and the allied god saw it, they began frantically sending requests for <Conversation>, <Alliance>, <Negotiation>, and <Surrender>.
「You have been blocked by Player ‘Nonhuman.’」
Everything went black before Aeung’s eyes.
The allied god didn’t look any different.