Breaking through the eggshell.
Rebirth!
Ahhh, that was close.
No, seriously.
I nearly died for real that time.
I have an Undying skill, so I was planning to just play dead after going down casually, but she went and used Abyss Magic on me.
I panicked.
If I'd been even a little slower at cutting my connection to the original body, she would've taken out my Parallel Will and everything along with it.
When the Demon King hit me with Abyss Magic, I forcibly ripped my soul out of my body and escaped.
I'd never done anything like that before, and I didn't even know if it was possible, but using the same principle as deploying a Parallel Will, I sent everything I was into a new vessel.
Where I sent it was into the eggs I'd been producing through Skill Spawning as an experiment back in the Great Ello Dungeon.
Skill Spawning is a Skill that lets you produce eggs containing your followers, without needing to mate.
It was a Skill I'd gained after eating Mother, but I'd gone back to my home in the dungeon and been experimenting with it.
As a result, I was able to produce eggs by spending SP.
The eggs don't hatch right away, so I'd just left them alone, but I never expected they'd come in handy in a situation like this.
Abyss Magic is terrifying.
Even I would die if I took a proper hit from it.
Undying and resistances and whatnot are meaningless in the face of that spell.
After all, it's a magic of sub-administrator-class power.
A horrific spell that decomposes flesh and soul alike and shoves it all into the MA Domain.
The one and only means within the system that can actually kill me.
That was way too close.
Having someone besides me who can use Abyss Magic was completely outside my expectations, and that she'd pull it out to finish me off was even more unexpected.
Ugh, fights have been comparatively easy lately, but why is it that every time I face a real enemy, it always turns into a life-or-death struggle?
I should be strong enough by now to say I don't have any real opponents left, so why am I getting thrashed one-sidedly like this?
Well then.
In any case, I managed to barely survive, so let me check on the current situation.
First, Status check.
Pfft!?
I spit out a laugh when I see the numbers.
All stats: 3.
Three.
Nope, not a misread. Three.
The max values are still the same as before, with a "Decreasing" tag next to my Status.
Is this because I switched bodies, so the stats dropped temporarily?
Oh well. Can't be helped.
My current form is the size of a palm, after all.
The eggs produced by Skill Spawning were about the same size as a chicken egg.
The new body that hatched from one of those is tiny.
If I had my old stats at this size, it'd be a visual scam.
My Skills are still intact, but with these stats, there's no way I can put up a proper fight.
Looks like my best bet is to lie low until my Stats recover.
Oh, hello? Can you hear me?
{Yeah, I'm here.} The Demon King might head your way.
{I figured as much.} Yep.
Good luck!
{No way, no way!} Well, if you get into a pinch, just escape the same way I did.
{Will do.} End of coordination with the Mother representative.
Should I also suspend the soul attack on the Demon King for now?
No, wait—this time it was my fault for letting my guard down and allowing her to get close. If I stay alert and keep using Teleportation to stay on the move... but with my current Stats, can I even activate Teleportation?
Oh. Oh no.
So, everyone, please stop attacking for now and go into hiding!
<Sure thing!> "Yeah, I guess there's no other option."
Yep.
Executing the play-dead strategy.
Since Abyss Magic was the finishing blow, there won't be any Experience Points either.
Experience Points come from absorbing a portion of your defeated opponent's soul, but with Abyss Magic, even that gets reclaimed.
Since there are no Experience Points coming in, there's no worry of anyone figuring out I'm not actually dead.
Phew.
Nearly dying because of Abyss Magic, then surviving thanks to Abyss Magic—what a weird situation.
Still, what do I do from here?
With this body, I can't exactly go about my business as usual.
Actually, will my Stats really recover?
What if they don't?
And before that, what about food?
With these pathetic Stats, how am I supposed to hunt?
Ugh.
Things are looking pretty rough, huh?
What should I do?
While I'm fretting, I start hearing rustling noises from all around me.
Oh, right.
The eggs. I'd gone ahead and spawned about a thousand of them, hadn't I?
One after another, my babies crack through their shells and crawl out.
『Minimum Lesser Horo Neia LV1 Status HP: 3/3 (green) MP: 3/3 (blue) SP: 3/3 (yellow) : 3/3 (red) Average Attack: 3 Average Defense: 3 Average Magic: 3 Average Resistance: 3 Average Speed: 3 Skills 「Magic Power Perception LV1」「Magic Power Operation LV1」「Poison Fang LV1」「Spider Silk LV1」「Dark Vision LV7」「Poison Magic LV1」「Poison Resistance LV1」』
Hm?
What kind of species is this? I've never seen it before.
My species is still Zana Horowa, but what are these guys?
And to make things more interesting, these little ones casually came into the world with Poison Magic.
『Minimum Lesser Horo Neia: A new species created by Zana Horowa』
A new species, huh!
Is this D's doing? Is that her handiwork?
Whatever.
Each individual one of these is weak, but there are a lot of them, and they can be put to use.
Servant Domination seems to be working properly on them, so if I give them orders and have them hunt, I won't need to do anything myself, right?
Heh heh heh.
Alright.
Hey, my babies!
Go fetch some food for me!
999 baby spiders begin moving in unison, following my orders.
Ugh, that's creepy.
Getting freshly-born children to serve me—what kind of parent does that make me?
Terrible, isn't it?
Sadistic, even.
Ahahahaha.
Do your best, my children.