Volume 19 Chapter (1-5)

Volume 19 Chapter

Training to suppress one's Divine Presence was important, but since Kousuke would not be going anywhere other than the Administration Floor for a while, he put it off for now.

Then he decided to check if he had obtained the new power, which was the main issue in the first place.

In the sanctuary, there was nothing specific that he was able to do, except meeting the World Record of this world.

He did learn to adapt his soul with his body, but this was not a useful power, as such things rarely happened in the first place…. or so he thought.

That would be confirmed when meeting with the Black Wolf.

And so, he visited the Black Wolf on the 81st Floor to re-confirm the discomfort he had felt before.

Not surprisingly, Nana was by his side and he had already started to play with the fluff.

***

"…Nn?"

"…. Nn?"

"How's it going?"

Shrein asked Kousuke, who tilted his head while petting the black wolf.

Shrein followed him because she wanted to check the Administration Floor of Amamiya Tower as well as her own Tower.

"I'm not certain. I sense that it hasn't changed since the last time I was here, and I feel like I'm missing something…?"

"Hmm… Peach's fortune-telling said there was a trigger in the sanctuary, right?"

"That's right."

Kousuke nods his head, since he didn't get anything specific.

"In the first place, when I was in the sanctuary, I was sleeping all the time… Hmm? Sleeping?"

Kousuke muttered quietly so Shrein wouldn't hear, and suddenly remembered that he wasn't just sleeping.

"No, wait, don't tell me…"

He was skeptical about it himself, thinking it was almost impossible, but he still tried out what he had been doing when he was still in bed in the sanctuary to the black wolf.

Then, sensing something unexpected, he immediately removed his hand from the black wolf.

"Hahaha… Seriously!"

What he sensed by touching the black wolf at that moment was an uncomfortable feeling between the soul and the body.

It was something that Kousuke had sensed in the Divine Realm.

However, he did not expect to feel it from another being.

However, what he was feeling was a similar discomfort to what he felt before, so there was no mistaking it.

"Hmmm, that said, I don't know what to do about this, none of us do."

Shrein saw Kousuke starting to mumble to himself, but she left him alone as usual and smothered the wolves gathered around him.

She knew from previous experience that it was better to leave Kousuke alone until he gave up than bother him.

When Kousuke was lying in the sanctuary, all he did was adjust his body to his altered soul.

However, what Kousuke felt from the black wolf now was that the soul was not matching the body, which had increased its skill level.

This means that the soul should be altered to match the body.

However, he had no idea what to do, even if he wanted to match the soul with the body.

Kousuke thought about this and suddenly wondered what evolution was about.

He then came up with the hypothesis that evolution involved the soul changing to match the skill level of the physical body.

"That's a good hypothesis, but I don't know how to make it evolve in the first place…"

Kousuke muttering to himself while petting the black wolf looked rather funny to an outside observer, but no one pointed that out.

The black wolf being stroked was feeling so comfortable that it was in a state that it didn't want Kousuke to stop.

Kousuke was thinking about this, and before he knew it, his eyes were closed.

When he opened his eyes to realize this, he suddenly felt something strange in his eyes.

"…Nn?"

It was the right eye that felt strange.

It was not the left eye that he always used to look at statuses.

He thought it was unexpected and tried to use Divine power like he did with his left eye.

He used it carefully so that it would not be like when he used <Left Eye of God> for the first time.

Then, as expected, something was displayed, similar to a status.

<Evolution Sprout>.

"What's this?"

The same text appeared on the status, but nothing more.

With only this display, he had no idea what it was.

He thought he might have set the Divine power too lightly for the first time, so he checked again with a little more intensity.

<Evolution Sprout

Missing Condition: Enlargement of Soul Vessel>

"Hmmm… I'm getting more and more confused, eh?"

There were more things he could understand, but there were also some things that came up that were even more confusing.

First, from the name <Evolution Sprout>, he thought it was a state of trying to evolve or fulfill the conditions for such a state.

That would mean that the next missing condition, a condition that was not sufficient to evolve, is indicated.

However, he did not know what to do to expand the vessel of the soul, which was the condition for the next deficiency.

So, as before, he strengthened the Divine power in the right eye a little more.

<Evolution Sprout

Requirements: Enlargement of the Soul Vessel (Need to prepare a vessel to accept a more suitable soul).>

"Nope, I still don't understand that."

He was hoping to come up with specifics on what to do, but he was apparently still too optimistic.

Unfortunately, putting even more Divine power into his right eye did not change the display any further.

In the end, he only found out that there was something missing in order to evolve, and that it could not evolve until he prepared the missing requirement.

"Soul Vessel Expansion…"

He tilted his head and thought about it, but could not come up with anything.

"It doesn't seem to be going very well, does it?"

Shrein spoke to Kousuke, who had been thinking about it for a while.

"Well, I have no idea how to expand the vessel of the soul."

"Expanding the Soul Vessel? What's that?"

Kousuke explained what he had just seen to Shrein, who was suddenly taken aback by such a thing.

"I see. In other words, you are saying that the Soul Vessel will not evolve unless it is expanded."

"Well, that's what it says. Do you know what it is?"

"No, I don't understand."

"Yeah, right?"

They both tilted their heads, but in the end, they couldn't figure it out.

"I thought I would be able to use it because it's a new power, but the effect was kind of subtle."

"No, that's not true, you know? It's not normal to know when one is on the verge of evolving, right?"

"Is that so?"

Kousuke tilted his head at Shrein's advice.

"Your senses are definitely paralyzed. Is it because of your frequent meetings with the Goddesses?"

Kousuke looked away from Shrein, who gave him an exasperated stare.

He had a feeling that something was on her mind.

"Well, fine. What's more, what do you need to do to expand the soul vessel?"

Shrein, who originally had no intention of going deeper into the subject, deflected the topic herself.

Or rather, she decided to return to the main topic.

"Yes, well… I mean, it's so vague, I have no idea, you know?"

"Well, that's the way it is… Speaking of which, how were the other individuals?"

"As for the black wolves, they were the same."

"I was hoping that there would have been some differences."

He didn't just pick anyone to show his affections, obviously, he made sure to check everyone, one by one.

Not only the black wolves, but also the white wolf lineage.

But so far, it was only the black wolves that reacted to his right eye, and the white wolves did not respond at all.

All the black wolves that did react had the same display, so in the end he couldn't tell what he needed to do.

"It can't be helped. It was too much of a nuisance to try to figure it out with only the black wolves in the first place. Let's go look at the other dependents."

In the end, he concluded that it was too reckless to try to understand the black wolf alone, and decided to walk away from the 81st Floor this time.

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Chapter 2,

After checking all the dependents in Amamiya Tower, he confirmed that very few of them had an <Evolution Sprout>.

Still, that did not mean that there were no other dependents that had it aside from the black wolves, so he checked each one of them and discovered the following results:

It was not shown on every species.

Only individuals that had evolved at least once displayed the condition.

Only the expansion of the Soul Vessel had been confirmed so far.

Result 1, was mostly from the black wolves, but it was also displayed on some other dependents as well.

Result 2, on the other hand, only dependents that had evolved at least once showed the condition.

Since it did not seem to be displayed for species that evolved from the lower to the middle rank species, this <Evolution Sprout> may only be displayed among the middle ranks and higher rank species.

The reason was not clear. It was still unknown why only the expansion of the last Soul Vessel was displayed. It could be because Kousuke's right eye did not have enough ability to see the rest, or it could be that there was no other information there for him to look at.

In the end, no conclusion could be made as he was still uncertain.

After much deliberation, Kosuke decided to give up on the idea. After all, he would never be able to find an answer to his question about the soul, even if he did a normal search.

He checked with the members of the Tower, but no one could tell him.

Kosuke decided to give up and pulled out his trump card.

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[So then, can you tell me about it?]

[Why the sudden question…]

The person he decided to ask was Eris.

[I would love to answer you, but I don't know either.]

[What? Really?]

Kousuke, who had expected an immediate answer, was seriously surprised.

[Yes, that's right. As I told you before, I'm not all-knowing, you know?]

[Oh, well, I knew that, but I thought you'd understand since we're talking about the evolution at work in this world.]

[Oh, I see. But we Goddesses don't have complete control over evolution in the first place, so there's not much we can say pertaining to this question of yours.]

Talking about evolution deeply involves knowledge over souls.

For souls, the Goddesses do have control over them, but they cannot create new ones or alter them at will.

[What do you mean? What about the time Haku was created?]

[That was thanks to Asura's power.]

[Oh, so that's how it is. So, I have to ask her?]

[That's right.]

[I see. Then I'll ask Asura.]

[Ah…]

Eris paused for a moment just as Kousuke was about to cut off the communication. Kousuke, being curious, asked.

[Hmm? What's wrong?]

[No, no. Nothing. It's just that Asura-sama seems to be busy right now.]

[I see. Thank you. I'll ask her when she has time.]

Kousuke thanked Eris for her advice and this time, cut off the communication.

Eris, who had been cut off, considered what Kousuke had told her.

"He doesn't understand how significant it is to be able to see the contents related to evolution in the first place…. Well, it's Kousuke, after all."

Eris mumbled a comment so quiet that it did not even reach Spica, who happened to be standing beside her.

She simply watched Eris, who had finished communicating with Kousuke, and let out a big sigh while tilting her head.

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As he was taking care of some other minor things before calling, he was suddenly contacted by Asura.

He was quite surprised, this was the first time he had ever received contact from the other side.

[Eh? What?]

[Kukuku, you don't have to be that surprised, right?]

[Well, I didn't think you would be the one to contact me, so I said I was surprised.]

Strangely enough, even though it was his first time receiving a Divine Oracle, he immediately recognized the person who sent him the Divine Oracle.

Kousuke was told that this was how a Divine Oracle was supposed to work, and he had no choice but to accept it.

[When did you gain the ability to perform a Divine Oracle on me?]

[I've been able to do it for a while, but I didn't do anything special, you know?]

[Yeah, that's right.]

Currently, only Asura and Sylvia could do a Divine Oracle to Kousuke.

Peach was one step away, but unfortunately, even with the assistance of tools, it was not enough.

Sylvia, by the way, could do a Divine Oracle because she was Kousuke's miko, of course.

Sylvia lived with Kousuke on the Administration Floor most of the time, so there was no need for her to do Divine Oracles all the time.

Asura also didn't bother to use Divine Oracles, so she never had to use it until now.

Of course, besides not being bothered to perform one, Asura refrained from performing Divine Oracles because it could have an impact on the world if she were to 'appear on the stage' so easily.

This time, Eris told her that Kousuke had something to discuss with her, so she decided to perform a Divine Oracle instead.

[I heard from Eris about what you wanted to know.]

[Ah, really. So, did you figure anything out?]

[Hmmm. That's the tricky part.]

Kousuke tilted his head inwardly in response to Asura's cryptic answer.

[What do you mean?]

[I know some things about evolution, of course, but I have no idea exactly what your ability is.]

One of the abilities possessed by his left eye was to read and display status, and now the power of his right eye has become a unique ability.

Moreover, judging by what kind of ability it had, the World Record was definitely involved, making it an ability that was unknown even to Asura.

[I see… But there are things you can figure out, right?]

[Of course. But I don't know if they're the right answer.]

[That's fine. At this point, I haven't even begun to grasp what's going on.]

If there was something that he might help him understand, even if it was only a little, he wanted to hear about it.

[You do know that evolution can only happen if certain conditions are met, right?]

[Well, I have seen it happen all over the Towers.]

He mostly had observed it from his Dependents.

But he was unable to find the exact conditions for this.

It was mostly by chance.

[That's the right answer. There is no such thing as an absolute condition for evolution in the first place.]

[Isn't that impossible? Ah, I see. That's what you mean.]

What Asura was trying to convey was that even if the conditions for evolution were met, some individuals would evolve, while others would not.

Asura knew that there were no two same individuals, even if they were of the same species.

If such a situation occurred, then there was one convenient word to describe it.

A mere coincidence.

[I'm just guessing from here.]

Following this unusual introduction, Asura continued.

[Don't you think Kousuke's power this time will make up for the difference?]

Hearing Asura's guess, Kousuke was silent for a good ten seconds.

[No, no, wait a minute…is that possible?]

If true, it would be a tremendous power.

After all, it could enable individuals who have not been able to evolve to do so.

[… I'm hoping that's the case.]

Kousuke's shoulders slumped in disappointment at that reply.

[So, do you know what the expansion of Soul Vessel means?]

Regardless of what the future holds, if he did not solve the problems he was facing now, he would not be able to know what would happen in the future.

He decided to solve the current problem for the time being.

[I'm not sure about that. Usually, the term 'Soul Vessel' refers to the physical body. I think what Kousuke is seeing is something else.]

In short, Asura didn't have a definite answer either.

[No, wait. Wait, if the Soul Vessel is the body, doesn't that mean something about changing the body?]

What Kousuke was referring to was not a change in physical size or nature, but rather a change in the inner workings of the body, or skill.

Since it was the skill that was involved in the evolutionary conditions, he shouldn't be wrong in his assumption.

[I know, but then again, how was that different from what Kousuke has been doing with your body so far?]

[….Ah]

Kousuke was stunned when he realized that Asura's suggestion was absolutely right.

He had just gotten a good hint from Asura, but he was still back at square one.

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Chapter 3, Tools to Leisurely Pass Time

In the end, he could not get a concrete answer from Asura.

If even Asura didn't know, there was probably no one else in the world who knew.

The only entity that might be able to give him an answer would be the World Record, but it would not be so easy to meet it.

[What is an <Evolution Sprout> anyway?]

[What do you mean?]

[If evolution occurs when the Soul Vessel is expanded, it would be more appropriate to call it <Evolution Condition>, wouldn't it?]

Asura's reply to Kousuke's words was a little delayed.

[…That's true. So, even if the Soul Vessel expands, it might not evolve?]

[That's also too vague. If it didn't evolve, then the term 'evolution' wouldn't be attached to it.]

They both pondered together, but ultimately, they could not come up with an answer.

[Kousuke's authority is new, so there's no way I can know what it does.]

[What do you mean?]

[I'm telling you that you have to discover your own power by yourself.]

Kousuke shook his head from side to side at Asura's simple answer.

[I don't even know where to start, as there is no precedent, so I honestly have no idea what to do.]

[I don't think that being will give you meaningless power, so you'll just have to keep working diligently.]

It was a long-winded talk.

However, it was not wrong to say that the answer was currently unknown, as Asura said.

[Is that so? I guess it's too much of a selfish thing to ask for a quick answer…]

[That may be an overstatement, but…You seemed to be in a hurry.]

Kousuke had no intention of being so, and his expression was as if he had been hit in the face with a lie.

[…I didn't mean it that way, but…]

[Oh, I knew you would say that. But to the people of this world, you look like someone who was in a rush to do something, you know?]

Kousuke thought that Asura's advice might be right.

To begin with, Kouhi and Mitsuki had conquered seven Towers in such a short period of time and it ended with him becoming a deity.

No matter how he looked at it, from another point of view, it could be said that he was just going too fast.

[I see. Well, for the time being, I'll just check it slowly.]

[Right… Well then, I'd better get going.]

[Thank you.]

He thanked Asura for talking to him.

[It's okay. I wanted to talk to you, too.]

With that, the Divine Oracle connection from Asura was severed.

Although little progress was made on the new authority, Kousuke felt that it was a good opportunity to review his past conduct in a different sense.

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In the end, he left his ability in a state of "wait-and-see".

Since there was no point in spending so much time on it, he decided to take his time and verify it.

There was a possibility that eventually he would find out something from a different angle, so he decided that there was no need to rush to verify it now.

Besides, there was no need to rush the evolution process at this point.

All the Towers were now out of the red, so there was no particular need to increase the number of battles.

As for Amamiya Tower, he did not have any particular goal in mind, as he did not expect it to grow any further.

In game terms, it was like trying to reach the 'Maxed Out' status, so there was no need for him to rush into it.

In the first place, the management of the Towers was all about earning Divine Power, so now that they were in the black, there was no need to rush into anything in particular.

Unless there was something new to add to the installations, but that was not the case.

When he was building golems, he was thinking of placing dependents on every floor, but now he decided not to do so, thinking that it would not make much sense.

He realised that once he had more dependents, he would need to manage them, so he decided to be cautious about adding more than he already had.

Except if there were more interesting summons in other Towers, but so far, there were none that struck a chord in Kousuke's heart.

Meanwhile, the other members were actively increasing the number of summoned creatures.

Some were increasing the number of types, while others were increasing the number of the current summons, so it depended on each individual's preferences.

Kousuke did not intend to comment on that in particular.

Rather, he would prefer that each of the dependents be nurtured in their own unique way.

It would be more enjoyable to see them in various ways, and furthermore, to see them evolve in ways different from those guided by Kousuke.

After his conversation with Asura, Kousuke was fully relaxed, thinking about these things.

There were many things he wanted to do, such as making tools, but after his earlier conversation with Asura, he had some thoughts, so he decided to relax, thinking that it would be good to consciously make time for this kind of thing.

However, for Kousuke, tool making itself had already become a hobby, so he didn't really feel like he was taking a break.

While he was lying on the sofa in the relaxation area, Collete came up to him.

"What's wrong? Something on your mind again?"

Kousuke chuckled at Collete's way of putting it.

He thought that Asura was right.

"I was thinking about something a while ago, but right now, I'm just taking a break."

Resting didn't mean there were any games or anything to play, so in the end there was nothing to do but lie on the couch.

"Oh, dear. Just in time, then. I'll take a rest too."

Collete said and came to sit on Kousuke's couch where he was lying down.

Seeing Collete, Kousuke muttered to himself.

"Maybe I should make some kind of tool to pass the time."

After all, his thoughts were directed towards working.

"Hey. Aren't you supposed to be resting right now?"

"No, I am. But my thoughts have been more towards managing the Towers, so making stuff for fun is a different story…"

Collete looked at him with a blank stare, but Kousuke said something that sounded like an excuse.

"I think they're both the same, but… Well, the same Kousuke as usual."

He tilted his head to the side, wondering if he had become that much of a workaholic, as Collete said, but he kept quiet because of Asura.

Instead, he started thinking seriously about making some amusement items, which he mumbled.

"Hmmm. Something for amusement… What do you think?

"Like playing with a ball?"

To Collete's words, Kousuke shook his head because he did not want to create something like that.

But this was partly due to Kousuke's lack of awareness.

In the first place, there were few things in this world that children could play with all their time.

Of course, the same would be true for adults.

Naturally, less time for play meant less demand for games, which led to little development of playthings.

Kousuke decided to create something to play with.

He asked Collete for more information, but since Collete had been in the elven village as a child, she was not that familiar with human children's games.

Most of the time, elven children play in the forests, so they did not take the trouble to prepare tools for their entertainment.

Kousuke tried asking other members of the group, but they all had childhoods that could not be described as typical.

In the end, the only one he could ask about what he wanted was Floria, who had grown up as royalty.

As royalty, their status meant they had time for fun.

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Chapter 4, Human Evolution

As for the new power, there was no way to confirm its current conditions, so they decided to work with the assumption that time would tell, as always.

He could also have asked Peach to read his fortune as he had done before, but Peach adamantly refused to do so.

He was concerned because it was a matter of evolution, but since there was no particular urgency, he decided that he would figure it out in time.

So Kousuke was now working hard to solve another problem, not related to his new power.

It was something to do with training to suppress his divine power as a living god.

Sylvia was sitting in front of Kousuke with a serious look on her face.

She wasn't angry.

She was checking to see if Kousuke's divinity was being properly restrained.

The training to control Kousuke's divine power did not start yesterday or today, but had been conducted under Sylvia's supervision for some time.

Of course, Sylvia could not be with him 24/7, so whenever she found time, she watched the results of his training.

There was a reason, of course, why Kousuke was training in this way.

But there was only one reason.

If he didn't, he would be confined to the Administration Floor.

Kousuke had no intention to live only by managing towers.

Until now, he had been in a semi-reclusive state because he had to do things one after another and had to deal with them.

However, from now on, once he had settled down from managing the Tower, he wanted to go around the world and see various places.

The reason he conquered the Tower in the first place was to get a base, not to stay cooped up there.

That was why he had the desire to visit various places, but he could not travel so casually when he kept leaking divine power.

If he was unable to suppress his divine power, he would be subjected to the preaching of the priests wherever he went.

As one would expect, Kousuke would not want that to happen, so he had been practicing diligently for some time.

"It's much improved from when I saw it before, but it is still not to the point where it's completely suppressed."

Sylvia said apologetically, feeling Kousuke's gaze on her.

"No. There is no need for Sylvia to make such a face. It's simply my lack of training. I mean, I've come to understand that it's not good for some reason."

Sylvia blinked at Kousuke's response.

"Have you been able to feel more of your own divine power?"

"More clearly than before. I mean, I can tell from my previous experience in the sanctuary."

The experience during his treatment in the sanctuary had helped him in an unexpected way.

Before that experience, he had been able to sense Divine Power, but he had not been able to understand the divine influence of an actual god.

However, after that experience, he was able to understand what Divine Power was all about.

Once he got a sense of it, he was capable of controlling it with less difficulty than before.

So, he somehow knew that even in the current situation, he was still not good enough.

"By the way, how does it feel?"

"It's hard to put into words… It's about the same as looking at a cloudless night sky, searching for the moon, and then looking for one of the stars."

Anyone could find the moon if they were told it was the moon, but it would be difficult to immediately identify what star it was.

On the contrary, it would be easy to find them if you were an expert.

That's what Sylvia was trying to say.

"Hmmm. I see…"

Kousuke groaned.

The training was for deceiving priests in the first place, but if expert priests could distinguish the difference, it would be completely meaningless.

Kousuke felt that he still needed more training to be able to go outside the Tower freely.

He was not in a rush because he did not have to go outside currently

Eventually, he intended to be able to completely conceal the divinity, which would mean that it wasn't good enough yet.

"We're definitely making more progress than we have in the past."

Before, it was hard to tell if things were going well.

Compared to that, things were a far cry from where they were now.

"I see. Well, I think I've got the hang of it for now, so I think I'm almost there… I guess…?"

"I think so, too."

Sylvia nodded at Kousuke's optimism.

In fact, the situation had improved that much.

Kousuke was relieved to see a glimmer of hope in a training program that until now had been so uncertain.

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"By the way…"

Kousuke turned to Sylvia a little awkwardly.

Sylvia tilted her head at the unusual look on Kousuke's face.

"What's wrong?"

"No, well, um… I was wondering if you could lend me a hand. I've been considering doing something, but I thought of trying it on humans…"

Sylvia, who had no idea about what he was referring to all of a sudden, tilted her head for a few moments.

"Oh, you mean your new power?"

"Yeah. Well, that's right, but…"

As for Kousuke, he was somewhat uncomfortable because it seemed like an experiment on the human body.

But then again, there was a debate whether it would be better to use summoned beasts, but that was different.

Sylvia nodded without hesitation, as if she had somehow read Kousuke's thoughts.

"No problem. Please check it out."

Saying that, she immediately extended her right hand.

Kousuke hesitated for a moment, but Sylvia forcefully took his hand.

Sylvia felt that it was too late for that, but she also felt happy because she knew that Kousuke was worried about her, for him to be acting like this.

But she also understood that she was a priestess and that she was only useful at times like this.

Of course, Sylvia was aware that Kousuke had no intention of making her do anything that might go out of hand, so she had no intention of making such a statement.

Instead, she decided to show it by her actions.

"So, how was it?"

Kousuke tried the new power as if he had given up, but the results were half good and half bad.

The first good thing was that Sylvia also had <Evolution Sprout>.

This showed that it could be used in the same way as the status display, and not just on summoned beasts.

And the bad thing was that, although the <Evolution Sprout> was the same, the explanation that followed was similar.

In other words, the message of the expansion of the Soul Vessel was the same.

It was good to know that even he could verify this on humans as well, but other than that, there was no progress at all.

"Yeah, well, it won't be that easy, I guess…. Sylvia?"

But after hearing Kousuke's explanation, Sylvia somehow seemed to have a happy expression on her face.

When Kousuke called her name, Sylvia looked flabbergasted.

"No, I'm sorry. However, does that mean I can evolve too?"

"Well, that's the complicated part. I've never seen a human evolve before. Besides, we don't know if black wolves can really evolve."

At Kousuke's words, Sylvia's expression turned slightly disappointed.

Sylvia was going through some ups and downs, and even Kousuke noticed.

"Sylvia, is something wrong?"

"Oh, no. I didn't think I could evolve… And as for human evolution, I heard that it has happened in the past."

"What? Really?"

"Yes. I don't know if humans evolved as they were, or if they were the offspring or descendants of stronger ones, but there used to be a species called High Humans."

High Humans were mentioned in a lot of old literature.

After all, some of the most famous heroic tales involved such High Humans.

"I see, High Humans. What about other races?"

"I don't know about other races. But the High Elves are the most famous."

As for the High Elves, they existed in the South Tower.

"Oh, I see. Would you say the High Elves are an evolution too? Oh, but there have been stories of High Elves becoming Elves, haven't there?"

"Well, I don't know. I haven't really been familiar with that part of the world, either."

Sylvia wasn't very knowledgeable about the other races, either.

Since there were various races on the Administration Floor to begin with, it would be quicker to ask them directly.

Kousuke thought that he should check with everyone immediately.

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Chapter 5, Various Superior Races

The idea that humans could evolve to become High Humans was more of a myth.

Of course, there were very few people who seriously believed this.

However, there were various traces of the existence of High Humans in this world.

The most definitive information about the existence of the High Humans could be found in the documents that had been passed down from generation to generation in the temples.

In that area, it was a more reliable source of information than nations that had risen and fallen repeatedly.

When a new nation emerged, it usually claimed legitimacy by using myths of the past.

It was common practice for people to create myths on their own.

In that regard, temples and the churches that control them tend to have a high degree of credibility.

After all, the very reason churches continued to exist was for mythology itself.

If a church were to create new mythology that favored the church, it would naturally be punished by the Goddesses.

Goddesses did not allow the church, let alone the state, to commit such injustice, so it was naturally them weeded out.

However, it was also recorded in history that the church was often punished by the deities, as corruption occurs in the world of man. Especially for such a large organization.

Therefore, there remained some stories about High Humans that seemed to be true, but still, there were no stories about the certain existence of High Humans since the age of mythology.

The existence of High Humans was only from myths.

Some heroes mentioned in myths and later stories were said to be High Humans, but these were mere speculations.

For some reason, the Goddesses remained tight-lipped about this as well, so there was no way to confirm it.

In actuality, there were actually High Humans.

However, the Goddesses didn't bother to inform Humans about it.

High Human children would not necessarily become High Humans, so there was no need to tell them in the first place.

Regarding High Humans, their identity, as mentioned before, were mostly made through inference, which most of the time, were always accurate.

When it comes to other species, though, the credibility of such myths falls drastically.

The only race that was said to have the most accurate myths were the Dwarves, who had crossed paths with the Humans for a much longer period of time.

Meanwhile, High Elves were not considered myths. Their existence has been confirmed and remained unquestioned.

This was because there was nothing to deny their existence, since their existence had been confirmed since the beginning of time.

Such was the description of higher races by Humans.

While playing with Nana and Wanri, Kousuke was listening to Sylvia and Floria's stories.

It was not that he was not focusing on the story, but on the contrary, he wanted the girls to talk about it casually.

They were surrounded by the wolves of the 47th Floor, but there were more than just Sylvia and Floria around.

Shrein, Peach, and Collete were doing the same, and even Haku, was enjoying their time, playing with the wolves.

Haku was not interested in what Sylvia and the others were talking about. Rather, she was more focused on playing with the wolves.

It was rare for all of them to be together. Though, they lacked Kouhi, who was the only one left on the Administration Floor.

"Speaking of which, I was wondering what they say about Elves being considered fallen High Elves?"

Kousuke asked Collete, who was an elf.

Incidentally, the reason he could ask such a thing so openly was because he heard it first from Collete.

"Hmmm. It's a bit of a stretch to say they've fallen, but I think they're referred to in a similar way, aren't they?"

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Compared to High Elves, Elves are said to have a less intimate connection with the spirits."

Shrein wondered if it was an unusual pattern to affirm their roots in a negative light.

"It's rather rare for you to belittle yourself."

"I don't think it's belittling, though. Because it is said that instead of being less intimate with the spirits, it's more about us having a stronger material connection with the world tree, and being able to take care of it more deeply."

As long as the World Tree existed in this world, even if it was a different World Tree, they had no choice but to have a material connection with it.

In this regard, one could say that Elves were more connected to the World Tree than High Elves.

Among the Elves, there was a sense of pride saying that the High Elves were the ones with the spiritual connection, and the Elves were the ones with the material connection.

"I see what you mean."

"What about Vampires, aren't they similar?"

Shrein tilted her head at Kousuke's question.

"I don't know. In our case, it is said that we are the ancestors of all vampires."

"Heh. How so?"

"Because our race is called the True Ancestor or the Ancestral Founder."

Incidentally, the existence of both the True Ancestral Vampire and the Ancestral Vampire were denied by the Church.

Of course, this was supposed to be the case based on history.

Whether they actually existed was not confirmed by the alleged oral history of vampires.

It was even said that they were not as powerful as what the legends foretold…

Next, Kousuke's gaze turned to Peach.

Peach also shook her head in response to his gaze.

"I know what you are going to say, but I don't know if there is a higher existence of Succubi either~."

"Really?"

"That's right~. In the first place, Succubi themselves are said to be a form that evolved from another existence."

Succubi were said to have evolved from existence such as lewd demons or lewd dreams.

Furthermore, the existence of a higher existence was not handed down in the Succubus clan.

In fact, it was said that the Succubus clan was not strong in battle, despite the presence of a strong person like Peach.

There was a reason for this: the Succubus Clan was originally restrained from sharing details of their fighting abilities because of their work in the shadows.

However, if there was a higher being of Succubi, it would have been passed down within the clan, but Peach had never heard of such a story.

"I see."

Kousuke nodded and listened to Peach's story.

The reason they were talking about this in the first place was that after finding out that Sylvia also had <Evolution Sprout>, they checked all the members of the group.

The results showed that all of them had <Evolution Sprout>.

From there, they started talking about what would happen if they evolved and what they would turn into after.

He also checked Nana and Wanri, but they did not have <Evolution Sprout>.

He didn't know if this was because they were the peak of their class, or simply because they didn't meet the requirements.

Rather, it was surprising that all the members had <Evolution Sprout>.

Well, to begin with, they did not even know if <Evolution Sprout> was actually related to evolution.

The question of what would happen if evolution were to take place led them to the present discussion, but eventually, they could not figure out a concrete approach to the problem.

If it were that easy to figure out, there would have been people evolving by now.

Unfortunately, there were no concrete stories of the species left behind.

He thought that if he knew something concrete, he would know something about this <Evolution Sprout>, but unfortunately, it seems that this was not the case.

Kousuke could only think that it was worth talking to everyone just to understand about each race.