Chương 65: Chapter 17 A Small Bone, A Great Lesson(Part 2)

The terrain below was wide and difficult to traverse, but flying allowed us to cover a tremendous distance. We were currently on the Fourteenth Layer. The exit gate leading to the Fifteenth Layer was ahead. Together with Hyodo, we defeated a respectable number of monsters while collecting weapons, boxes, medicine, and even more weapons from their remains. Overall, things were progressing surprisingly smoothly. 『Oh? Looks like you'll get to see something interesting. 』 『Something interesting? 』 『Over there.

』 I followed the direction indicated by the Sage. From high in the air, I could see something far away. Around ten monsters were facing a massive, irregular sphere more than fifteen meters in diameter. On one side were artillery-type monsters. On the other was a gigantic silver sphere, like a ball made of liquid mercury that constantly changed its shape. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. One of the artillery-types fired a beam. The sphere transformed instantly.

It spread outward like a net, not bothering to dodge the attack. Instead, it wrapped around the artillery-type, sliced it apart, and then drifted away somewhere.

"Did it eat it?"

"No. If it was feeding, it wouldn't have left so many pieces behind."

"Then a territorial dispute?"

"If that's the case, then this entire area belongs to that thing." Various theories spread among the group as they watched. Until now, we had never witnessed monsters fighting each other. They did not always appear alone. But they had always attacked humans. If monsters could fight and eliminate each other, then perhaps their numbers would naturally decrease. I turned to the Sage. 『Sage, what exactly is happening there? 』 『Hmm? A performance test. 』 『A performance test? 』 『It's rare to see one this high up.

Things are created simply because someone creates them. The creator doesn't think about what happens afterward. But the things that are created are different. They want to know why they exist. 』 The Sage's voice remained calm. 『The Witch says it all the time, doesn't she? What will you become? Soths creates endlessly. Things that destroy. Things that save. Things that help. Things that deceive. Everything. The highest and lowest. The incomplete and the uncertain.

Even now, countless things are being created somewhere. The things born from such a parent seek a meaning they can accept. If they have a cannon for an arm, they want to fire it. If they have the ability to observe, they want to investigate. But inside the Gate, even monsters have limits. That's why they attack the Cleaners. From their perspective, humans are the most interesting test material. Something created by neither Soths nor the Gate. Something new. Something they have never seen or experienced before.

A variable that cannot be handled by fixed patterns. 』 What a nuisance. If Soths was going to create things, why couldn't they create more things that helped people? Although... I didn't even know what "helpful" meant to them. Perhaps in this world where everything fought like a poison-filled cage, anything without weapons would simply be destroyed. I wanted to spend an hour lecturing Soths about production lines and teaching them the importance of caring for what they created.

Human civilization was already struggling with mass consumption, and those things just kept producing endlessly! They were... They had given us resources. Weapons. Classes. Possibilities. I hated admitting it. But there had been some form of goodwill. Even if the outcome had been disastrous.