Volume 18 Chapter 4, Evolution of the Black Wolf

Nana, who came to the Administration Floor, urged Kousuke to go to the 81st Floor.

According to Collete, the interpreter, the number of titleholders had increased.

To check the increased number of titles and to see if there were any new species, Kousuke followed after Nana. Though, those objectives seemed to be a mere guise after he started to play with wolves for the first time in a while….

He often got stuck in the Administration Floor, so he also needed a change of pace.

When he mentioned this to Collete, she asked, “Even though you keep changing what you do each day?” but Kousuke pretended not to hear her.

Collete accompanied Kousuke.

This also doubled as flirting with him under the guise of being his interpreter.

Kouhi was also with them, but Kouhi was not concerned about it.

One of them, be it Kouhi or Mitsuki, was always by Kousuke’s side, but they never seemed to mind if he was with other members of the group.

This was a very convenient arrangement for Kousuke. Though, he never asked about it because he was afraid that he might get a frightening response if he tried to pursue the matter further.

So, with those three plus Nana, they headed for the 81st Floor.

“…This feels really nostalgic”

A familiar scene was unfolding before them.”

What happened next was the usual sight of Kousuke being surrounded and attacked by the wolves of the 81st Floor.

The name of the attack was the tongue licking attack.

Kousuke’s whole body was being licked by the wolves.

Collete, who was watching this, was looking at the scenery with a slightly distant look.

Although she was already used to seeing this scene, it was definitely something out of the ordinary.

Incidentally, Nana did not join them, but watched from a distance.

Since she had already been pampered when they met at the Administration Floor, she seemed satisfied at the moment.

The other wolves, perhaps knowing this, were less reserved than usual.

As for Kousuke, he was not just being licked, but was also doing a Status check in the process.

It seemed that the greetings were over, and by the time he recovered from the attacks, all the individuals had been checked.

As Nana had informed them, the number of titleholders had increased.

The titles were all <~God’s~>, so it seemed that the Goddesses didn’t really hold back anymore.

As Kousuke did not seem to have any problem with receiving them, he decided to accept them gratefully.

He did not know what conditions had to be met for the title, but it would be very useful when hunting on the Floor, since a title with the name of a Goddess would obviously improve the Skills they used.

Unfortunately, none had evolved into a new species even with the addition of their titles.

However, there were two individuals who evolved into White Wolf Gods, as Kousuke had previously expected.

The only difference from Nana in terms of Skill composition was that instead of having <Blessing of the Moon Goddess>, it had the blessing of another Goddess.

The only other difference was the lack of the <Moonlight> Skill, but as for everything else, it was the same.

What was interesting to him was that there was no change at all to the black wolf that accompanied them.

There were a few that had the title with a Goddess’s name attached to them, but showed no evolution at all.

This confirmed that the prediction that a title with a Goddess’s name on it would allow them to evolve was incorrect.

“Hmmm… What do you think this means?”

Kousuke tilted his head in front of the black wolves, thinking about the situation.

“Aren’t they a species that doesn’t usually evolve?”

“Hmmm… No, maybe they are, but somehow I doubt that’s the case…?”

The feeling was too strong to be just his imagination, so he figured he couldn’t ignore it.

“Is that a feeling you have as a living god?”

“Is it? I don’t really know. Well, I certainly didn’t feel this way before.”

Staring at the black wolf with the title, he felt uncomfortable with the idea of it not evolving.

Kousuke tilted his head, unsure of this feeling for the first time.

Incidentally, the black wolf in front of him was also tilting its head, but it was simply imitating Kousuke.

The gesture was so cute that he couldn’t help but stroke its head.

The black wolf rubbed up against him happily.

Unfortunately, the fact that Kousuke stroked him on the head did not cause it to evolve.

Incidentally, just as with the Fairy Stone, he tried to channel some Divine Power into it, but no particular change occurred.

“As expected, it’s not that easy, is it?”

Kousuke tried everything and laughed bitterly because there was no change.

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The fact that the black wolf did not evolve was a concern, but there was nothing Kousuke could do about it as long as he was unsure how to go about it.

In front of the control panel of Amamiya Tower, he searched for anything that might help him evolve, but nothing seemed to ring a bell.

He was getting a fuzzy feeling, like he couldn’t recall something, and he was hoping he could do something about it, but there was nothing he could do about it at present.

“Black wolf… Black wolf… Black Wolf…. Wolf…. What was I thinking?”

Kousuke stopped thinking when he got to a point where he couldn’t quite understand his own thoughts.

While he was doing this, Sylvia approached him with a curious look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, no. I’m just…”

After he mentioned this matter, he told Sylvia about what he had just experienced.

Incidentally, Collete was not around at the moment.

She was working as the administrator of a Tower in the south.

Sylvia was listening to Kousuke’s story surprisingly seriously.

She doubted that Collete’s joking remark about his ‘sense of being a living god’ was really false.

It was not just a guess, but her sense as a Miko of Kousuke.

The moment she heard the story, she somehow felt it was part of Kousuke’s power as a living god, too.

“I see…”

Sylvia fell silent after she said that, and Kousuke conversely became flustered.

“No, I don’t think it’s something to dwell on that much, right?”

Kousuke tilted his head, and Sylvia told him about the sensation she was feeling.

“A Miko can feel such things…?”

“Of course she can. It’s more like it is part of a Miko’s role.”

To begin with, one of Kousuke’s powers as a living god was to confirm statuses, but he had no idea about anything else.

Summoning Goddesses and sending them back to the divine realm was one of the conditions for being a living god, but when it came to the authority of a God, it was more subtle.

It was not unusual for a deity to have only one power, but Sylvia had long felt that Kousuke did not fit that description.

Sensing Divine Power like that had become part of her role as a Miko.

“Hmmm. I see.”

“I also sense a power other than Statuses, but unfortunately, I don’t know what that is.”

“I see. I guess I don’t have a choice then, do I?”

“No. I have one thing that might give you a clue.”

Kousuke opened his eyes at Sylvia’s unexpected words.

“What? Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s Peach’s fortune-telling.”

At Sylvia’s answer, Kousuke widened his eyes again.

–

“Impossible. Impossible, impossible~. If you want fortune-telling, you should ask someone else, not me…”

Sylvia’s request for a fortune-telling session resulted in Peach’s evasive response.

It was understandable that she would say that.

Fortune-telling on a deity was not usually possible.

“No, that’s not true. Rather, Peach is the right person for the job.”

“What do you mean?”

Kousuke, who had been watching them, questioned.

“Peach is qualified to be Kousuke-sama’s Miko. That is why she is qualified to tell Kousuke-sama’s fortune.”

Under normal circumstances, there was no way that one could perform divination on a deity.

But if it was a Miko, then it was a different story.

“Miko? Can I really?”

Kousuke looked at Peach as he was hearing this for the first time.

“It seems so~… Haah. At any rate, I understand what Sylvia is trying to say. I’ll try to tell your fortune. But I can’t guarantee that it will be correct, alright?”

He thought that this was not something a person who was about to predict someone’s fortune would say, but Kousuke wisely kept quiet.

Kousuke felt that Peach would refuse if he said anything unnecessary at this point.

Reluctantly, Peach went back to her room to get her fortune-telling tools.

Then Peach’s fortune-telling began, and the result was, in a sense, a fortune-telling result.

In other words, the result was that they would soon know the answer to their question.