Watching the military woman turned to leave, I stared at her. She had an aura of confidence and happiness after refusing me.

That’s annoying.

I needed the help of a healer… My mind raced with various options and choices, cause and effect, and anything else that might convince her to help.

Kidnapping her with force isn’t exactly a good option. There’s still approximately six months until the Decima game opens, and there’s no way to guarantee the healer would help if she was kidnapped. All she would need to do is not heal Kara while she’s dying and I’d be stuck.

Letting her leave isn’t a good option either. If she ends up leaving into the Hard Difficulty zone, I’ll be forced into another dead-end scenario.

The military woman didn’t seem interested enough to ask what I planned on compensating her for.

The only option left is to befriend her? That’s almost impossible with the current scenario, though.

Well, I’m sure I could do it. But damn would it be annoying.

“Wait...” I pinched my eyes realizing how annoying this was going to be. “Look, I think we started off wrong.”

“I doubt it.” The military woman shrugged and left the bar.

Chasing after her and following after her, I tried to remedy her first impression, “Look, I-I apologize for bothering you… and I understand you might want to be left alone. I just need a bit of your time to talk to you.”

“You’re not bothering me.” The military woman turned toward me as she walked with a grin, “On the contrary, I’m quite enjoying your company. You persistence means I’ll enjoy your expression even more when you eventually realize all your efforts were fruitless.”

Furrowing my brows, I quizzically stared at her. “Did… did I do something that caused you to have a personal vendetta against me?”

“Nope.” The military woman shrugged.

“…” I stared at the woman’s grin with confusion.

I cannot understand her personality at all? What are her goals and motivations?

“Can we just start over? I’m Tobias, an artificer with a shop down in the Normal Difficulty section.” I introduced myself with sincerity.

Technically, no lies were told. Although the actual situation was a little too complicated to explain.

“I left my name behind a long time ago.” The military woman smile disappeared and she shrugged. “You can call me whatever you want.”

“Fine, I’m calling you… Violet.” I called out the first name that came to mind.

I didn’t particularly care for names. I just needed something to call her. All I need to remember is the color purple and I’ll remember her name… or that she seems violent.

While I could analyze her to find out, I couldn’t care… No, I really should get into the habit of doing analyzing people. I’m too used to just assessing them through vision. The talent is pointless if I don’t use it properly.

I really should’ve done that back in the bar to identify her to begin with. I knew there was a some reason I didn’t bother asking for her information.

{‘Violet’ – Weak, despite that her ability to recover seems highly advanced.}

… is analyze broken? I thought it displayed their real name, can other names override that? Also, that description isn’t helpful in telling whether she can heal others or not.

“Violet, huh? If that’s what you want to call me, then fine.” The military woman’s annoying grin returned.

“So… you’re from the Hard Difficulty zone, Violet.” I trying to divert the topic, “What’s it like?”

“What do you think it’s like?” The military woman rolled her eyes, clearly seeing through my obvious attempt at changing the conversation topic.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged, “What was your experience of it?”

The military woman didn’t seem to care about the topic, “Wasn’t bad. Feels slightly too easy to be called Hard Difficulty, though.”

“Too easy, huh?” I rubbed my neck, “You might do well in Hell Difficulty then.”

Violet is rather strange. Everything I’ve heard about Hard Difficulty tends to involve lots of complaints about the difficulty.

The military woman laughed at the prospect. “I’d rather be a big fish in a small pond, than a dead fish on the shore.”

“Fair enough.” I shrugged, not particularly caring about her refusal.

Far as I could tell, there was no rumors or information about people leaving Hell Difficulty yet. People have basically assumed it was death sentence.

From experience I knew that Hell Difficulty wasn’t a smart choice for anyone who values their life. Only abnormal monsters and overconfident idiots would choose it, and I belong to the later.

“So, Violet… where are you heading?” I asked was we wondered down the streets of the Normal Difficulty district.

“Nowhere in particular.” The military woman replied.

Recognizing the location, I invited her back to my shop, “My shop is nearby if you want to check it out?”

“Do you always invite women back your place this quickly after you meet them?” The military woman snorted in amusement.

I rolled my eyes at her statement, “I have a girlfriend.”

“That makes it worse, you know?” The military woman pointed out with a logical tone.

Exhaling in annoyance, I decided against giving her the reaction she desired by refusing to continue the important topic at hand. I’d stalled for long enough. “So, Violet… is there a reason why you refuse to heal people?”

“Yep.” The military woman casually responded.

I waited for her to continue her sentence explaining what that reason was… however, Violet never continued on with an explanation.

After no explanation for several minutes, I decided to get to the topic at hand. “Fine. Let me ask you outright. What exactly needs to be done to receive your assistance?”

“Nothing.” The military woman had a massive grin, “As I already said, I won’t help you.”

“That’s merely because the price isn’t high enough. What do you want in exchange? Artifacts? Help? Information?” I spoke in rapid succession attempting to gauge a price from her mouth.

If I opened up with an offer, I’d either drastically overestimate or underestimate her ideal price. I’d rather her name her price first, then begin negotiations from there.

“How about your girlfriend’s life?” The military woman had seemed to be enjoying the negotiation process.

“What?” I furrowed my brow and stared at her with a strange expression.

What Rin have to do with anything? Rin hadn’t even left the Hell Difficulty zone in this timeline. Violet definitely didn’t know her.

“Kill you girlfriend and I’ll help you.” The military woman shrugged.

“Yeah, that’s not possible.” I laughed at her idea of a joke. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to kill Rin and I had no desire to. “Name an actual price.”

The military woman replied whilst stretching out her arms, “Life for a life. I don’t see the problem.”

I narrowed my eyes toward the military woman. It appears I misjudged her. She’s completely insane.

“That’s is literally impossible. My girlfriends a prophet, she’s the very reason I know I need your help.” I calmly stated, “It would literally be impossible for me to kill her. If I ever decided to implement the idea, she would know immediately and react accordingly.”

While this isn’t an entirely accurate description of Rin’s ability, it should be enough to dispel her suspicion.

“You mean to say Kara is your girlfriend?” The military woman raised an eyebrow, clearly doubting my statement.

I suppose Kara’s name would be the first person people think of when they think of a prophet. She is the head of a guild and famous for her prophecy.

“No, someone else.” I rolled my eyes at the thought. “I’m not a pervert. Kara’s only like… 11 to 12 years old?”

Then again, Rin’s body is only like… 14 or 15 years old? So it's probably not much better at this point. Don’t blame me. She’s far older mentally speaking!

“So, who is this girlfriend of yours?” Asked the military woman.

“That’s none of you business.” I didn’t plan on answering that question. Having Rin put in danger because of this woman’s idiocy is a bad idea.

“Anyway, I’ve told you my price.” The military woman shrugged. “If you want my help, killing your girlfriend is all you have to do.”

“I see… you never had any intention of negotiating from the start.” I nodded as we walked down the street.

“You’re only figuring that out now?” The military woman chuckled.

“Good bye, then.” Releasing a breath of air to keep myself calm, I stormed off and left her alone.

I will not give her the satisfaction of getting angry in front of her.

Approximately six months, I have approximately six months to figure out a way to either get another healer’s help or creating an artifact that can heal people.

If I truly cannot solve the problem, I can try kidnapping Violet by petrifying her.

I’d need Violet to prove she can actually heal people before kidnapping her. That’s easy enough, though. I can simply ask for proof of her ability before I decide whether to complete her task.

Returning back to my shop, I shut the door behind me. Soon as that was done, my eyes turned cold and anger boiled up within me. As my eyes stared at the far wall in the room, it began to turn to stone.

The petrified stone crawled outward from that spot on inanimate wall. Realizing I would accidentally cause serious damage the shop if this continued, I forcing my eyes shut.

Even if Violet had no idea who Rin was, she still tried to cause her death. Whilst I’d gotten better at controlling my petrifying gaze, to the extent I usually didn’t think about it, this level of anger is more difficult to control.

If not for my distaste of harming people and the help I needed healing Kara, I might lost control earlier and petrified her immediately.

I would’ve done something I’d regret had I stuck around.

Breathing deeply, I tried to calm myself with closed eyes.

Someone who desires people to be hurt or killed… That’s who Violet is. I can recognize that now.

Violet told me beforehand, yet I hadn’t believed it.

Someone who desires suffering and pain. Whether that pain is from other emotional or physical distress. If that weren't true, she never would’ve proposed the condition of killing my girlfriend in light of helping me.

In all likelihood, even if I did as she asked, Violet would've only enjoy seeing the suffering and pain on my face. Then refused to help me anyway to watch the distress of pain of betrayal.

Someone like that receiving a healing ability…

She was right. It truly is ironic.

Trying to communicate or politely request assistance from someone like that is impossible.

Only force is the right option.

Having someone with a healing ability on standby might increase my chances of finding the principles behind the creation of a healing artifact as well. I’ve never tried creating or embedding an ability into an artifact, but it might be possible.

I definitely wouldn’t be able to create a permanent artifact, but I might be able to create a temporary one. An artifact that would last for a single usage. At the very least, if I managed it, that would negate the chance of her refusing to heal Kara at the time it’s necessary.

There can be no room for error and with her personality, there’s too high a probability she will refuse to help at a critical time.