POV Swap – Tobias

Listing the various costs and benefits… I sighed.

Fine, I’ll just go leave her a note or something. That should solve both problems at once (Ah.. writing still doesn’t translate)… so maybe getting someone to give a message to her. That would both limit my interaction with her and warn her to about her upcoming death-flag.

Having prompted myself into action through guilt, I head toward Kara’s guild. The reception area inside the guild was exceptionally normal. It felt like an adventures guild lounge in an anime or novel with various people talking and chat around tables and a receptionist at a counter to receive people.

Walking over to the receptionist, I greeted them. “Hello, are you free to talk for a moment?”

The receptionist jumped in surprise upon hearing my voice but quickly acted professional and smiled, “Are you here to join the guild?”

“No, I was just hoping to pass along a message to Kara.” I explained stepping to the side, and glancing about the room.

“The guild leader, Kara?” The reception’s smile was stunned on her face and the receptionist quickly shook her head. “I apologize, she has already headed out to the frontier. She probably won’t be back for a long time now.”

“Ah…” Damn I’m already too late. I should’ve freaking come here sooner.

My expression turned to a frown. An idea surfaced in my head and I glanced back toward the receptionists. “Which zone is the frontier zone?”

The receptionist had a dazed expression and slowly and awkwardly answered my question. “Fourth Zone.”

The receptionist’s face and vocal tone implied this was common sense. The strangeness of her expression was similar to one you would get if you asked a random stranger the year with genuine curiosity. The stranger would probably answer you, but they’ll have some serious doubts about why you don’t already know that information or if you joking with them.

Kara’s in Hard Difficulty. That’s enough information to understand the situation. Piecing the together what she meant from context clues, I nodded.

“Thanks.” I nodded in appreciation.

That went about as well as I expected. If Kara has already entered the Fourth Zone of Hard Difficulty… that’s annoying but might not be the biggest deal.

I could find a messenger to handle it… but instead of finding a messenger, I’m more inclined toward heading there myself.

A genuine risk exists of the messenger dying in the process existed in the Fourth Zone, unlike if I asked for someone to hand a message to her in the Residential Zone. I don’t particularly trust a random person enough to deliver the message to her safely.

That means we’re going back to bootlegging teleportation arrays’ permissions. While it’s not a big deal to bypass security their, the residential zone was planned to be a last beacon of hope for by the Redeemers. I doubt the teleportation security is that weak.

Heading over to the pyramid with the teleportation arrays to the Hard Difficulty Zones, I entered and found guards checking people’s guild IDs.

It had basically slipped my mind at this point, guild IDs are still required as passport before passing through to the zones. Another measure to ensure those in power stay in power… I snorted and ignore them. For other people that might be a problem, but the guards wouldn’t be able to notice my existence without special help, I could simply bypassed them and the line.

Heading toward the fourth beacon, or the least popular of the utilized teleportation beacons. I began examining it. From what I could tell, this should lead to our destination.

Now… How do I get this to work?

Reaching down, I began studying the principles and security measure on the beacon,.

While I was studying the principles of the array, I looked up and saw a man show his guild ID to the guard and step onto the beacon. Interesting in see how the array changed when the teleportation function was activated, I stayed and watched with interest.

As the man teleported, a white light overtook my body and I teleported along with him.

Wha-

The white light soon disappeared and I found myself teleported to another location.

Falling deep into thought, I tried to assess the situation…

Why did the beacon activate? I couldn’t understand. I hadn’t done anything yet. There was no bypassing security measures or clever manipulation of the array’s principles… it just teleported me along with him.

Security measures cannot be so lax as to allow someone to teleport with another’s authorization? Or did my unnoticed ability make the array believe I was an object to be teleported along with him?

Hmmm… my unnoticed ability is likely the cause than anything else. It’s either that, or all the security measures on the array spontaneously failed all at once.

This is annoying.

Although I went to study the teleportation array, I wasn’t actually ready to actually leave yet. I hadn’t even double-checked that array was the correct array for teleporting to the Forth Zone. I basically only had some basic supplies and weapons I carried with me whether I went out.

Shaking my head, I searching the surrounding area. This appeared to be a swamp? While the area I’d landed in was a little nugget of civilization beyond a small-wooden wall, there were wet marshes.

Before anything else I should confirm some information. Jumping over the small-wooden wall, I entered into the buddings sparks of civilization and found someone to inquire from.

“Excuse me.” I tried stopping him. “Can you tell me some basic information about this place?”

“Screw off. Go ask your own guild.” The man kept walking, never bothering to stop or turn around because of my words.

“Right…. This might be more difficult than I thought.” I mumbled to myself.

I carefully watched people nearby, looking for an opportunity to acquire information. Most were in groups of five to ten people. When someone left their group, I finally had an opportunity.

“Excuse me. “ I stopped the passing person, a woman with black hair and average appearance this time. “Do you have any idea where the King’s Prophet guild is set up?”

Surprised by my interception, she stopped and stared at me with a strange expression. Gestured toward the west, the woman stated. “That direction.”

“Thank you.” I nodded appreciation, and was ready to walk off.

“Hold on! How are you here?” The woman interrupted me before I could leave. “This is the frontier?”

This is the frontier! Good, at least I knew I’m in the right place.

I turned back toward her while breathing a sigh of relief. Thinking back on her question with a puzzlement, “Why cannot I be here?”

“You’re Tobias. The blacksmith? The one who can create artifacts?” The woman specified her inquiry, her eyes portraying her confusion. “Aren’t you from the Normal Difficulty? No… even if you’re from Hard Difficulty, you haven’t entered the zones in a year. How can you teleport to the Frontier?”

Ah, I got recognized… Probably a former customer. This has to be a first. I don’t actually know how to respond to getting recognized and I didn’t particularly want to lie to her.

Analyze.

{Jody Seraph – Weak, she appears to have abnormal recollection…}

Sorting through the knowledge… I kept my face emotionless and thought about the situation. Recollection? Is her ability to do with memory or information?

A momentary envy appeared in my mind. The ability to recall information would be extremely useful in creating artifacts and remembering the knowledge needed for it. If I didn’t need to take notes and mentions of the patterns, it would so much easier to create artifacts.

Quietly crushing the budding envy with reality, I didn’t have the luxury to regret having my unnoticed ability. I wouldn’t have survived without it.

“Uh, right… Why am I here? Well, I was trying to study a teleportation array to understand the principles behind it and… uh, it activated?” I scratched my neck. “So here I am.”

There wasn’t any reason to complicate the situation. Anyway, everything I said was technically the truth. I just neglected that I planned to come here regardless.

“Without you having to pass the previous zones?” Jody seemed surprised by the information before examining my clothing. “Did you join King’s Prophet? Why are you looking for them?”

“No.” I dismissed her with the wave of the hand, “Just have a message for their leader.”

“Okay… I’ll escort you.” Jody patted her chest, her performance giving off the vibe ‘I’ll keep you safe’.

A slight laughter built up in my throat from that thought. I definitely did not need of an escort. Maybe a guide as I get easily lost, but not an escort.

“Aren’t you busy? What about your guild?” I inquired with curiosity.

Jody reassured with another pat on her chest. “They'll be fine. The walk is relatively short.”

Instinctively rolled my eyes at her comment, gesturing forward with a slight bow and replied, “Do lead the way then, fair maiden.”

Technically speaking, what I said translated more directly to ‘pretty girl’… but ‘fair maiden’ sounds better in English and is a more accurate translation.

Jody giggled at my sudden formality, “Of course!”

As we walked, I took the opportunity to ask her several questions about this place. There wasn’t really much to talk about on that front. The situation is exactly as it seems, a gigantic swamp with various creatures within it. The more alarming being giant leeching, a species similar to mosquito, and other disgusting critters.

Soon, we approached a wooden building that was roughly built. Judging by the lack of buildings in the surroundings and the shoddy construction… it’s safe to say it was constructed by them after arriving.

Gestured for us to enter, Jody stated. “Here’s King’s Prophet building.”

With a nod, I followed her into the building. The interior was pleasantly warm, and comfortable. The building was only a medium size, but contained various necessary and supplies lain about. It was far better living environment than the tents seen as they’d been walking.

“What are you doing here? Get out!” Unfriendly eyes turned to us and questioned our existence. There were at least ten people in the building and each was as unfriendly as the last.

I’d already expected this much, though. Although in the residential zone the guilds were friendly and open to outsiders, this wasn’t the residential zone. Everyone was always competing against one another, and everyone is in a guild.

In the residential zone, being friendly to newcomer is necessary because all guilds need fresh blood and newbies.

In comparison, the frontier was a place where the elite gathered. There is no fresh blood or undecided teammates here. If you aren’t already a part of their guild, it already amazing to not have open hostility.

Unlike the residential zone, it’s rare to find someone you’re unfamiliar with. There simply isn’t that many people on the frontier and every powerful person need to be paid close attention to.

“I’m Tobias.” I stated calmly ignoring the obvious hostility in their eyes. “I have a message for your guild leader.”

“Do you think this is a place anyone can come and go?” A roughly-shaped man stood up and his released murderous intent. “Get out.”

“Shut up.” Jody stepped ahead of me, blocking line of sight between us. “We’re here to see your leader, not trash like you.”

Looking at Jody in surprise, I realized misjudged her character as someone innocuous and harmless. Instead she seemed like a tough and stubborn rock.

Jody even had the idea of stepping in front to protect me from his murderous intent. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. His murderous intent is basically no different than a kitten in my eyes. The passive murderous intent Gromrit tended to emit was greater than that.

Strength-wise, maybe this guy could hurt me if he threw everything he had at me… but even that damage would only be on the level of a scratch.

Regardless of whether Jody’s assistance was necessary, it was still touching. She definitely didn’t have to assist me.

“Enough.” Another person interrupted, they glared at us with unfriendly eyes. “Regardless of why you’re here, it’s pointless. Leave! Our leader obviously isn’t here at the moment.”

Jody clearly planned on retorting and she opened her mouth.

“Let’s go.” I indicated for Jody to let it go before she could antagonize them further. “I’m only trying to help Kara. Not cause trouble.”

Jody stared at the group before snorted. “We don’t need to help these trash anyway.”

A wave of powerlessness flowed through me as I realized Jody was extremely good at causing trouble. I only planned on waiting for Kara to return. While I appreciated her thoughts of protecting me, I really wasn’t trying to antagonize Kara’s guild.

“Help? From you useless sag-paper like yourselves?” Someone in the guild snorted. “Don’t kid yourselves.”

“Idiot gypsies.” Jody muttered as we left the building.

I nearly fainted upon hearing Jody’s murmur. It’s like she was intentionally trying to antagonize them. The only relief was that none of the guild members inside seemed to have heard her.

Rubbing my hands through my hair, I felt overwhelmed. “That went far worse than I expected.”

While I had expected them to be hostile, I hadn’t expected people to be that hostile. They were from Kara’s guild. It doesn’t make sense for them to particularly hostile.

Yet they were hostile from the moment we walked in… Wait.

With the unnoticed ability, they shouldn’t have even noticed my presence upon walking in. Meaning the hostility was actually directed toward Jody from the begin and I was merely caught up in it.

“What guild did you say you were from again?” I careful inquired staring at her with a doubtful impression.

Jody puffing out her chest and showcased the sigil of crossed swords on her chest. “Proud member of Demon Slayers!”

Hearing her proud declaration, I nearly vomited.

No wonder they were hostile. The Demon Slayers are famous for being a league of troublemakers. It’s rumored joining the guild requires having antagonized at least twenty different people. When I said I had a message for their guild leader, they probably thought we were trying to antagonize them.