POV – Unknown…

[Close to the edge of the universe]

Inside a dimly lit room, a dozen people were conversing.

“I was under the impression the Redeemer’s resistance had been accounted for… You said everything was going according to the plan.” An old man questioned.

A younger man spluttered, “IT WAS… I-I don’t know! It’s like someone intentionally altered the future.” His conjecture caused the majority of people in the room to frown.

One of the cloaked cultist interjected, “It doesn’t matter… fix it. The universe must be destroyed.” The young man turned a light shade of pale at his words.

Instead of waiting for his response, a female voice interrupted, “It isn’t that simple… The Redeemers have set up countermeasures through their counterfeit administrative codes to the system.” The women pointed out, “Something that never would have been possible if somebody had not thoughtlessly destroyed the majority of its functions…”

“ENOUGH…” The old man who spoke earlier interrupted, “We are not wasting valuable time repeating this argument! Since they are hiding in the area we cannot enter... We need a ‘volunteer’ to help destroy the cause of the interference…” The tone with which he spoke ‘volunteer’ implied that it wouldn’t be a volunteer at all.

At his words, nearly everyone turned pale and stepped backward.

Everyone in the room knew precisely what he meant by that.

After several minutes of silence, the young man that had spoken earlier stepped forward and whispered, “It was my mistake… I’ll do it.”

The young man had already decided it was for the best for him to offer himself. This way, he would at least die with honor… Whether he chose to volunteer or not, he likely would have been chosen anyway.

It was quiet for several minutes, before another women spoke up, “Are you sure? Even if you succeed…” The unspoken words hung in the air for several seconds…

Before someone else destroyed the moment by sarcastically speaking up, “Unless you plan on ‘volunteering’ yourself… the kid will do it.”

The women hastily refused. Afraid that if she waited even an additional second, her political enemies would attempt to unite to pressure her into becoming the ‘volunteer’.

With the outcome decided, everyone went separate ways as though the problem had already been settled. Not even a single doubt appeared in their minds that the cause of the interference would not die. Once they die, everything will continue as it should have.

POV Swap – Tobias

Slowly waking up and stepping out of my sleeping bag.

Wow… I just realized… This the first time in awhile I’ve woken up and not been miserably tired…

Briefly looking around the room, I discovered Rin was still asleep. Apparently, she changed her clothes before she went to bed as she is wearing something similar to pajamas.

They look cute too… No, wait... where did she get pajamas?

Ugh... I’m constantly feeling out of the loop these days.

WAH… I want new clothes… Mine are all dirty and bloody from the first zone! Actually… didn’t Rin give me a bag yesterday?

Maybe she got me some? Briefly looked through the small bag Rin packed for me.

Indeed! Inside the bag there are some new clothes!

They even looked like they would fit me. Apparently she also packed water, rations, and SOAP! Glorious soap…

Where did she find all this stuff?

Has Rin had this the entire time? I guess that would explain why Rin has always looked clean (and here I had thought it was to do with her save/load power).

Carrying the bag outside in an attempt to find somewhere to clean myself. I quickly discovered that inside the valley there was actually a small pond, I hadn’t noticed it yesterday (which... seems to be happening a lot these days).

Around thirty minutes later… I was giddily standing dressed in clean clothes. I was finally clean… I hadn’t realized how much it had been bother me. Now, though, I was finally clean and dressed in new clothes.

In the middle of cleaning, I discovered that the sleeping fox pendant was hanging around my neck.

Had Rin put it on me whilst I was sleeping? Probably... I meant to pick it up anyway, so I simply left it be.

I’m not worried about soul attacks, considering they shouldn't appear until the third zone.

But… since the System stated that wearing it should increase the strength of my soul. I’ll probably simply wear it 24/7. It's somewhat uncomfortable to wear… since I’m not used to wearing a necklace. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly in a position where I’m able to throw away an advantage for comfort.

Noticing Rin poke her head out of our new base... I stopped and looked toward her, she appeared to be searching for me.

Waving toward her, I started to head over.

Guess I should thank her for the clean clothes and ask what she plans to do next.

POV Swap – Rin

[A couple of minutes ago…]

When Rin awoke she was preparing to awaken Tobias up... but soon realized he wasn’t in his bed.

Where did that idiot go? Doesn’t he know that it dangerous for him to wonder about by himself? She had NOT gone through the trouble of saving him for him to die to some random monster.

Rin had only slept peacefully earlier because she had confidence in waking up if anything in the surrounds made even the slightly sound.

Rin realized she'd forgotten to account for his power.

Although Rin had become proficient enough at discovering hidden enemies that she could find him easily now while awake, discovering him while asleep was apparently another story.

Sighing, she began to hope he hadn’t wandered that far. She hasn’t even been able to confirmed if that pendant would save his life (yet).

Poking her head outside, she gazed around the valley and quickly spotted Tobias waving his hands at her. Good… at least he is smart enough to not wander off by himself.

After Tobias expressed his appreciation for the change of clothes. Rin realized he had finally decided to clean himself off and changed out of his old clothes. Turns out it was a good decision to pack some of the extra clothes from the house Tobias had been staying in.

Tobias soon asked what the plan was... but, Rin hadn’t actually thought that far.

She had been so focused on whether Tobias could be saved that she had neglected to think about what to do afterward.

Previously… she simply wandered around and fought strong monsters to eat. After all, Rin hadn’t needed to worry about food because of Fenrir’s Stomach allowed her to eat almost anything, and if she ate powerful monsters she can improve her basic stats.

Rin lived for about a year like that, until the beacon to the next zone appeared.

With how weak Tobias currently is, taking him around to go hunting would be somewhat inconvenient... Especially for the stronger monsters who'd see right through his power.

Unfortunately, Rin also wasn’t willing to leave Tobias for a long period of time, as unlike Stanley (who Rin was beginning to doubt could die even if the universe was somehow destroyed around him) Tobias somehow seemed prone to dying without her direct interference.

That left limited choices… She could give up on hunting powerful monsters and simply hunt for artifacts. Or… start training Tobias so she doesn’t have to worry about him…

That might work... Depending on how quickly he learns, she might simply train him enough so she can take him with her to hunt monsters.

Liking the idea of training more than abandoning him to go hunting, she decided to try that before considering other options…

Though, Rin deciding to wait to begin training until it was confirmed that the pendant actually works. Delaying, she answered Tobias question by simply responding that she needs some time to consider what to do next.

Since she has some free time, Rin decided to simply collect some extra food to save rations.

After living in this planet for about year, Rin had long since learned to how to mix various common plants and herbs to dissolve or nullify the majority of the poisons in the foods.

Although the poisons weren't deadly for her to eat they still tasted bitter. She'd learned through trial and error how to make them less poisonous.

POV Swap - Tobias

Hmmm... Considering Rin seems to be lacking a clear plan of action, it's possible she hasn't come from that far in the future…

Is it some sort of butterfly effect from coming here resulted in Rin finding this heritage site?

Well, it really doesn’t matter. At least she seems to have to become relatively friendly again…

Speaking of the heritage. I realized that when I start thinking about the topic of soul defense... it is like a book appears in my mind.

I don't really know how else to explain it… Not that it's actually helpful toward anything.

How do I explain it… it is like… I guess it’s like giving a kindergartner a book about basic quantum physics. Even with the word ‘basic’ in the name it is still quantum physics.

I don’t understand what most of the vocabulary means… And the parts I understand aren’t actually helpful because I don’t understand the other parts.

I cannot even find my soul... how am I supposed to learn to defend it? How about explaining how to access my soul instead of telling me to ‘condense a semipermeable liquid filtration layer around it to prevent unwanted foreign material from decreasing the purity of your soul, thus indirectly harming its strength’.

Seriously… Who wrote this crap anyway? Gah… and that's one of the sentences I can somewhat understand. But… can you really not simply explaining how to do it? I'd prefer that to simply assuming I would already know how…

Could I get a soul defense for idiots instead? Or maybe one for preschoolers?

*sigh* I guess it will give me something to do whenever I’m bored. Who knows, maybe if I look through it for long enough it might make sense? (I doubt it though…)

Huh? Am I glowing?

Did I manage to trigger something from the soul defense book from my thoughts? Who am I kidding…

This is Hell difficulty, glowing randomly probably means I’m about to die… Ummm… Try running away? Works for me!

Rushing toward our new base of operations I stepped inside and closed door. Unfortunately, that seemed to do nothing as the glow began to increase in brightness by the second. Damn… I was hoping the magic resistant material would protect me.

Shit… Think… Ummm… Magic? Nope… had to give that up for the basilisk manual… Uhhh… Willpower? That might work... at least, it seems to work for protagonists sometimes… Not like I have many other options.

STOP GLOWING…. STOP GLOWING! Damn, whelp... this isn’t working.

Prayer? Guess it cannot hurt at this point… Dear idiots in the afterlife. If I die, I hereby promise to make your afterlives a living hell.

IT WORKED! I’ve stopped glowing! HAHA! Guess prayer is actually useful sometimes… I wasn’t actually expecting that to do anything. Here I was wanting to get one last insult off before I died.

Although… it possible I was freaking out over a simple glowing spell…

*Imaginary Cough* If that's the case, I’m gonna need everyone to pretend the last few minutes of me freaking out never happened.

NEVER HAPPENED! Got it? I definitely didn’t freak out over some weird glowing light.