Chapter 684: Echo Upon the Mirror's Surface, Roar From the Skyscrapers - Part 2

"In other words, 'Motherhood' is a state of mind...... It can only be established when both mother and child face each other."

"Yeah."

"It ain't enough for the child to just cry 'Ogyaa,' and it ain't enough for the mother to just force her love onto them either. Just as a mother faces her child with absolute sincerity, the child must also respond to the mother with absolute sincerity...... That is what it truly means to 'Ogyaa.' Ain't that right, Tsuchinoko-san!!"

"Sure is."

"Judging by your movements, I can tell you're completely used to moving around in a female avatar."

How did you figure that out.........?

"You don't strike me as a standard nekama, but...... I believe that even if my opponent is a nekama, as long as they sincerely display maternal babumi, it's more than enough for me to 'Ogyaa' at them."

"Is that so......"

Why am I being forced to listen to the life philosophy of a burly baby? The answer to the question of why it's only me is simply because the two lore nerds are completely absorbed in their research, leaving me as the only available conversational partner for Eternal Zero...... Eta-Zero. But in the first place, why is Eta-Zero gleefully explaining his fetishes to me...... Now that I think about it, I feel like I was forced to listen to his fetishes back in Saba-Gan too, and in SpellCre, we basically just communicated by punching each other's fetishes.........

"But actually, as long as you can 'Ogyaa' at them, does their age really not matter to you, Eta-Zero?"

"There's no nobility or inferiority, but there is a hierarchy. I wanna 'Ogyaa' at a female teacher...... I've felt that way ever since I was a brat."

"Ah, so that's why........."

I finally understood why Eta-Zero had been absolutely radiating with such intense energy, and I feel like this is definitely something I need to share with the lore nerds. Hey! Another mystery has been solved! Don't run away from the baby!!

......It'd be nice if I could just shout that without a care, but unfortunately, my heart is too kind, so as a sliver of mercy, I'll stop it here.

"Heyyy, did you guys figure anything out yetー?"

"Ah, while it's hard to call it the full picture, we've mostly grasped it."

Seriously? Here I was just thinking, "Is this monster trying to pick a fight with me?" Naturally, the area was swarming with monsters of types I had never seen before, but Lycaon's Scar effects seemed to apply without any issues. Even though we were mostly engrossed in idle chatter, Eta-Zero and I had still been fighting them quite intensely the whole time.

"We've got forty minutes left. Give me your theory in ten minutes tops."

"It won't even take five. You tackle this Ninth Layer by utilizing all the knowledge gained from the previous layers. That's how it's structured."

"Meaning?"

"There are several monsters here that look familiar. They're likely the ones described in the documents found in the layers prior to the Ninth."

......Well, well. That's annoying as shit, to put it mildly. We're supposed to gather the relevant information from that massive, mountainous pile of lore...... that place where practically the entirety of Library's sheer volume of information is sewn into the layer?

"And that is where this comes in handy."

".........What's that?"

"By updating the terminal available for purchase at Bouquet Puzzle Rank Three, you can access information from the other layers strictly while inside Behemoth. I suspect that once we completely conquer it, we'll be granted permission to use it outside the ship as well."

Bouquet Puzzle............ Ehー, ah! That thing! Ahー I remember now. The Behemoth version of the Amberjack Pass, yeah yeah yeah. Unlike Leviathan, we basically just treated this place like a normal dungeon while clearing it, so I completely forgot about that!! Rather than Leviathan, which was more like dangling a banana from the ceiling to observe a monkey's behavior, this place feels much more like a straightforward test, so the ship's currency is genuinely only used for shopping. Still, this method of utilizing it makes perfect sense.

"So, what's the conclusion you reached while reading the encyclopediacheat sheet?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

"Listen here you."

"Hahaha, but there are things becoming clear. The environment of this layer is oddly, far too perfectly arranged."

"Isn't that just because it's technically artificial?"

"As Eternal Zero-kun pointed out, this is an artificial natural environment, but...... how should I put it, the strength of the monsters here feels like it's been intentionally ranked into a strict hierarchy."

An intentionally ranked hierarchy of strength......... An artificial natural environment............

"Which means?"

"I have three hypotheses. Annihilate all the monsters, alter the ecosystem, or acquire a clear-item hidden by one of the monsters......... I think the first possibility is low, but I can't completely rule it out."

"Hmm......"

Annihilating all the monsters does seem unlikely; I highly doubt that's something that could be finished in an hour. Then the third option? For example...... a clear-item mixed in among the eggs a bird-type monster is incubating. No, if that were the case, the information from the lower layers would be useless. If so, then......

"......The second one, then?"

"I share that sentiment, Sunraku-kun. My guess is...... we need to defeat the strongest monster and take our place at the apex of the ecosystem, perhaps?"

He just said exactly what I was thinking. I shot Bansai-shi a marbled glare mixed with both annoyance and genuine respect.

"Could I hear your reasoning?"

"As I mentioned, the environment has a clearly defined hierarchy. If we were to rank their strength, it forms an almost suspiciously perfect staircase structure...... The fact that there are no two monsters sharing the exact same level of strength suggests it was intentionally designed that way."

It seems the monster info they meticulously looked up in the lower layers is categorized by danger level, and that six-legged rhino-looking thing Eta-Zero and I fought desperately to kill earlier was apparently the third most dangerous monster around here. Well, it went down pretty fast considering that.

"Among the monsters whose HP has been adjusted so they can be defeated within an hour, we must locate and defeat the one with the highest danger level...... I see, that's certainly a valid premise for a final exam. That would mean our actions in the other layers also have an impact......"

"Sorry to interrupt the lore-crafting, but that's five minutes. So basically, we just need to find the one that looks the strongest, right?"

"Exactly. Furthermore, the monster group designated with the highest danger level inside this Behemoth shares a certain distinct characteristic."

"Characteristic?"

......

............

..................

The most prominent characteristic of Behemoth is, undoubtedly, the creation of life.

Not just Second Humanity, but the countless monsters born from experiments conducted continuously over 3,000 years—even rounding down the numbers—have resulted in Behemoth itself forming an entirely self-contained environment.

Fundamentally, they're bred artificially, and the adults are supposedly preserved in cold sleep utilizing applied Inventoria technology. To put it mildly, it's a complete space opera dystopia.

Well, none of that really matters right now. Eta-Zero confidently declared that he can still "Ogyaa" even if "Ivory" is a mad scientist, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

The problem is the creations of "Ivory", specifically the monsters designated as "Danger LevelLevel 10" among Behemoth's creations.

They are the products of experiments meant to artificially replicate the traits of certain monsters, failures birthed under the completely psychotic concept of combining "their" characteristics.

"According to this, it was created as an infinite livestock organism combining the proliferation traits of the Inexhaustible Goldunine with the duplication traits of Lycaon the Night Raider."

"That apron-wearing fairy is out of her goddamn mind......"

"Even so, I believe there's motherhood in her."

You better pop that delusional bubble of hope right now. If you go trying to act spoiled with her and wake up transformed into a grotesque monster, don't say I didn't warn you.

"It says it's Failure Number 1, the 'Inexhaustible Womb Mother Goose'."

"I wonder if it'll die easily if I slice its stomach open."

"The Golden Goose, huh. Quite the stylish joke you've got there, Sunraku-kun."

Just what kind of horrific fusion accident between Wimp and Lycaon results in a goose that spews eggs out of its ass like a jackpotting pachinko machine, goddammit!!!

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Author's Afterword

・Inexhaustible Womb Mother Goose

Despite carrying such an imposing lore background, it's not actually a special existence on the level of a Unique Monster. It merely performs "behaviors that resemble them," so in terms of its actual nature, it's closer to something like Bryreinyego.

Functionally, it just devours all the mana in its surroundings, converts it into energy at high speeds, and continuously undergoes parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). Furthermore, because it's so overly specialized in production, its HP is pitifully low. That being said, if it were unleashed on the surface, it would trigger environmental collapse at an explosive rate, so its threat level is on par with a Raid Monster.

In the first place, this creature possesses no ideology, no philosophy, and no pride, so it can never become a Unique Monster. And "Ivory" realizes that too.

By the way, its eggs are extremely delicious. They are currently sold in packs of twelve on the Tenth Layer of Behemoth.