No way.
There's no way, Mother.
Is there actually any creature that could beat that thing?
If you could take that down, you could unconditionally call yourself a hero.
Man...
There really is always someone above, huh?
Someone absurdly, incomprehensibly far above, though.
This encounter with the Mother must have been divine providence.
It was a reminder not to get cocky, right. Yeah.
In reality, whether it's the Earth Dragon or the Mother, I don't feel like I could put up any kind of fight against either of them in my current state.
Meeting them would be a death flag on the spot.
Even fleeing before a fight starts would be difficult.
<Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill <Detection LV9> has become <Detection LV10>> Huh?
Seriously?
Detection, you've already hit the cap?
Hmm?
But there's no additional skill or Evolution or anything?
Aww.
That's a little disappointing, isn't it?
You made me suffer through so much, after all.
The returns were huge, sure, but if I'm being greedy, I'd want a little something more.
Even if beating that Mother is out of reach, I'd at least like to get strong enough to escape from something like that.
Is there really nothing at all?
<Th—...ther...> Huh?
What was that just now?
...Must've been my imagination.
Well, I guess there's no point in wanting what I can't have.
But getting stronger is still the simplest and most straightforward solution.
If I keep getting stronger without getting complacent, maybe I'll be able to escape from something of that caliber someday.
Once that's decided, I need to put in the work to get stronger.
First, leveling up.
From now on, I'll actively hunt monsters.
After Evolving, I've only taken down two Sea Dragons.
With Pride boosting my Experience Points gain, I should only need a little more to level up.
It seems like when you Evolve and your level resets, the Experience Points needed for the next level up reset to some degree as well.
Leveling up after Evolving is faster than before.
Faster, but still slower than level 1 right after an Evolution.
So while the required Experience Points do reset somewhat, they don't reset completely—that's how I see it.
Based on my experience so far, the next level up will probably come from defeating the next monster.
Honestly, it wouldn't have been strange to level up when I took down the second Sea Dragon.
If I can defeat something on the level of a strong catfish-type monster, I might jump up two levels or more at once.
Well, for now, leveling up will have to wait until I find a monster.
Next, Skills.
Raising Skill levels is practically something I've been doing continuously while traveling.
Appraisal's been like that, Detection too, and same goes for Foresight and Thought Acceleration.
Detection hit the cap, but plenty of skills level up alongside it.
I'll keep Detection running constantly until every skill it's attached to maxes out.
In parallel, I'll start working on other skills that I can raise while moving.
The safest bet is the five senses enhancement group.
For these, I just need to focus my eyes while moving, or walk around sniffing the air a bit, and the proficiency goes up.
Some skills are probably close to maxing out soon, so I'll start with those.
And one more thing.
This one I won't do while traveling—I'll find somewhere to settle down properly and take my time with it.
That's practicing Magic Power Operation.
Come to think of it, if you just build up enough Proficiency, you can acquire a Skill without spending any Skill Points.
So for that, instead of spending points on Evil Eye, which I have no idea how to raise Proficiency for, I'll try handling Magic Power Operation on my own.
Thanks to Detection, Magic Power Perception isn't a problem.
If I focus my awareness there, I can grasp the flow of magic power.
After that, if I can somehow learn to manipulate that magic power—or at least put in the effort to try—Proficiency should build up and I should be able to earn the Skill.
Once I have the Skill, I can move on to the magic practice I've been dreaming of.
But I can't forget that my objective is to pass through this Middle Layer and return to the Upper Layer.
Raising Skills and levels is just something I do along the way.
So it's not something worth stopping my journey for.
It's only worth doing if I can manage it while traveling.
The Middle Layer is a place to pass through, not somewhere to set up camp.
I can't lose sight of that.
<Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill <Thought Acceleration LV3> has become <Thought Acceleration LV4>> <Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill <Foresight LV3> has become <Foresight LV4>> Nice, nice.
Thanks to the Lord of Pride Title, mental-type skills are leveling up faster.
I'll keep raising them as much as I can.
Similarly, thanks to the Lord of Endurance Title, resistance-type skills should be leveling up better too, but those aren't something you can raise proactively.
Well, I could raise Paralysis Resistance and Poison Resistance through self-inflicting with Poison Synthesis, and Slash Resistance, Impact Resistance, Destruction Resistance, Corrosion Resistance, and probably Shock Resistance through self-inflicting with Universal Thread, but that's something I should do after settling down somewhere.
Recovery takes forever, and I can't even get proper rest—this isn't the kind of thing you do in the Middle Layer.
As for Status enhancement-type skills, I'd really like to raise them sooner rather than later, but these too I want to raise properly after settling down.
It'd be great if they leveled up during combat, but raising them outside of that would mean doing exercise and training.
If I had that kind of time and energy to spare, it'd be better to push forward even a little.
For now, I'll focus on raising the skills I can level during travel—the sensory ones.
Especially Vision Enhancement, which is close to maxing out at level 9. I'll prioritize that.