POV Tobias

[Day 30, Approximately two weeks later…]

I gave up on the idea of fighting Rin several days after we started… I mean it sounded like a great idea at the start, but that wasn’t fighting it was simply torture… It wasn’t that bad, until I ran out of rations… Apparently, when your body has to be constantly regenerating you need to eat an enormously amount of food…

That wouldn’t be much of a problem if Rin simply allow me to pause our sparring to go hunting… but, apparently that would defeat the purpose of training or something.

Rin said that if I want to hunt, I had to escape from her pursuit. I had to make the time to hunt food and eat it… That was when I realized our game wasn’t one of sparring.

It was one of survival. She was attempting to simulate a real fight to the best her abilities without killing me… Thus, if I wanted to obtain food I had to find avoid Rin’s tracking or beat her enough to prevent her pursuit…

I gave up entirely on fighting Rin and simply decided to focus on avoid her. I never did manage to find any edible monsters, so I did the next logical thing... stole some of Rin’s food.

I mean considering she knows detoxify meat to make it edible it was far easier to get it from her than from attempting to hunt…

I thought Rin would be angry, but she simply took that in stride and we changed our game of sparring to one of thievery and avoidance…

I would complain… but I happen to prefer this to simply being continuously beat up. I mean I still get beat up whenever she finds me, but at least it is not constantly now.

My current routine is to wake up at sunrise, set off to hunt for food whilst attempting to cover my track to prevent Rin’s pursuit. Admittedly, I might not be getting very good at fighting… but, I’m quickly becoming an expert at covering my trail and finding places to hide, which is might partly be Rin’s goal to begin with honestly…

It did become easier several days ago. When The Unnoticed reached [Rank 9]. Although Rin is still seems to easily ignore my ability for some annoying reason… But, it did become far easier to cover my trail when I didn’t have to worry much about whether random monsters are around. Also, the active of becoming unperceivable now lasts 0.3 seconds, enough time to possibly stab a monster or something in combat.

I would have liked to have gone to meet the new additions, Tracy and Duke. But… due to Rin’s training I’m not really in a situation where I’m able to do that…

They should have come out of the Hell difficulty’s tutorial zone by now though... Well, to be honest, I probably would have only gone to see Tracy… Duke is sort of a dangerous character and an entitled bastard…

Huh? I haven’t introduced them to you before?

Well, Tracy has the characteristics of a hero and is willing to risk her life to help out the weak. Her ability has an active of that is a combination of a blink/dash, with its cooldown dependent on distance traveled.

Meanwhile, her ability’s passive has three charges each with its own 15 minute cooldowns. Her passive triggers whenever she takes an attack that would cause her death. Instead of dying on a fatal attack Tracy instead teleports to the place she was 15 minutes ago and recovers from all damage (that occurred in the last 15 minutes).

Her passive, as you might guess, makes it very difficult to kill her...

In my story, due to her kind nature, Tracy ended up grouping together with Stanley. They work together to find various relics and artifacts.

Duke though… Well, he is sort of angry (understatement of the century) that he was taken here against his will. Duke was extremely rich person from a highly technological universe… He might be under the impression that he was kidnapped and this is some sort of plot to steal all his riches or something…

Even if you do somehow manage to convince him it is not some elaborate plot. Duke still originated from a rich family and used to people doing whatever he tells them… Thus, he will still act entitled and order you around to do things for him.

Duke, originally from an extremely technological universe, invested a sizeable portion of his wealth in, his only hobby and interest, strengthening his muscles. That combined with the ability he obtained from the Redeemer’s process enhanced his strength and provided immunity to most status effects… Well, the fact Duke managed to kill the adult basilisk in the earlier zone should speak for itself…

Combining his entitled personality with an extremely high level of power… Well, it isn’t exactly an optimal combination…

Due to that, and the fact Duke has an ability allowing him to ignore my trump card (petrification), means that Duke managed to earned the only existing spot on my avoid at all costs list (at least for the time being).

Anyways, according to the plot, Duke will set himself up as king of the village (or something) and hang out there for the majority of his time in this zone.

Previously, Duke was supposed to come in conflict with Rin over this… but, I guess I prevented that from happening.

Since Duke never bothered to explore he shouldn’t even find out that temples exist during this zone.

Then again… the butterfly effect has demonstrated its effects several times already, so it is possible Duke won’t do any of that.

POV Swap – Rin

Rin was impressed with the speed that Tobias has been progressing. It appears that Tobias learns at an astounding pace when pain enters the equation... Something to keep in mind for the future.

He had clearly learnt to predict most of her attacks after only a few days. If Tobias had kept learning at that pace he could have learned how to properly dodge and counterattack against her attacks after about half a year.

Shame that we hadn’t run out of rations… Otherwise, I would have kept battling for much longer. Unfortunate that Tobias seems to require more food in order to continuously regenerate from wounds.

After realizing that Tobias couldn’t keep regenerating from our battles without obtaining more food I had to change our training strategy.

Rin only had around year, which is when the next zone beacon lights up, to train Tobias into a halfway decent survivor and fighter. Preferably, it won’t take that much time as she had things she needed to obtain in this zone.

All of this leading to our current circumstance, where Rin pursues Tobias and casually fights him when I find him…

Of course, despite the fact that Tobias has become, somewhat, skilled at covering his trail. He hasn’t quite thought everything through. Mainly, he completely forgot to cover his scent, which making ridiculously easy to track him.

Rin couldn’t really fault Tobias for that. Even if Tobias realized she obtained an inheritance manual he wouldn’t know the exact details. Simply put, Tobias lacks the knowledge that I can track him via his scent.

Still to encourage his growth Rin has been slowing down when he has done a decent job of disguising his trail… Whilst Rin can still follow Tobias’ tracks she has been attempting to ignore his scent and will simply use his tracks to follow him.

If Rin becomes unable to track him with normal methods, then she will swap over to following his scent.

POV Swap - Tobias

[Day 90… Sixty days later]

Until a few days ago, the past sixty days have gone rather quickly and uneventfully… At least, nothing particularly special happened.

I slowly improved at covering my tracks. I even learned from observing Rin on how to solve the poisons in most meat.

I suppose the fact Rin knows how to detoxify the food proves Rin traveled quite far back in time. In the story, she learned how to solve the poison in the food around the time she went to the third zone.

I’m not really sure what to think of that… I appreciate that Rin decided I was valuable enough to her to travel back to save me… But, I think I would be more appreciative if I didn’t end up beaten up everyday…

It wasn’t that bad, but… since a few days ago, she has been finding me in a couple hours.

I simply don’t understand. If anything my proficiency at covered up my tracks has improved… Have I been making a mistake? I don’t think so… Covering my tracks is already instinct by now… How is she suddenly finding me faster?

Before a few days ago, Rin would only show up near the end of the day and beat me up for about an hour.

Then, together, we would head back to the base for a good night sleep.

Our daily routine would then begin anew the next day. I would awaken early morning and head off into the wilderness. Where I would hunt whatever monsters I came across. Quickly eat… then find a place to hide away for the rest of the day.

Recently, though, Rin has been discovering me around noon... and once Rin locates me, it becomes near impossible to escape. Even if I had managed to escape Rin... It would probably only take her around an hour, or so, before she finds me again.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry… All my work to learning how to cover my trails and discovering miraculous hiding places... and the only result of all that is I taught Rin how to locate me faster.

Still, if I escape, an hour provides me enough time to find and prepare food to eat… That means that if I can learn to escape from Rin I, theoretically, should have enough time to collect enough food to fuel my regeneration.

I did initially want to learn to be able protect Rin. Although, I have realized how silly that an idea that is now… Until I learn to take care of myself properly, the only person in Hell difficulty who needs protection is me. I suppose that means it is finally time to learn how to actually fight properly…

Attempting to help Rin in a dangerous situation with my currently inadequate fighting skills would only result in causing her trouble…

Seeing as I can no longer continue to hide from her pursuits. It is around time I stood up and fought her. I’ve gotten (somewhat) used to the pain anyway…

[Day 200… About hundred and ten days later...]

POV Swap - 3^rd person

Two people were fighting in the middle of a small valley.

A young girl was constantly swiping a pitch black metallic sword toward an adolescent male.

None of her strikes struck though as the dark-haired male skillfully dodged every strike. The adolescent boy seemed intent on dodging every strike whilst taking advantage of the terrain of the small valley. Whenever the terrain rarely granted the adolescent boy the opportunity he attempted to counterattack.

Despite this, and the fact he was avoiding every strike, the male was clearly in a passive position in this conflict. Forced to dodge constantly and he was clearly avoiding a direct confrontation with the young girl.

The dullness of his weapon, a short knife, alone proved he didn’t stand a chance on winning this fight. It was doubtful that he could cause serious damage to the young girl with such a dull weapon, even if she decided to stand still and let the man attack her.

Several hours blurred by as the scene continue. At times, their weapons clashed. At other times, the young girl would manage to strike the man… yet, mere seconds later, any wound the adolescent male received seemed to miraculously disappear.

This scene continued onward. Until the adolescent male managed to strike a superficial wound on the young girl, although he had received a abdominal wound in exchange for it. Afterward, they both stopped.

The young girl smiled and spoke for the first time since the battle began, “This means training is finally over, Tobias.”

Tobias, the adolescent male, responded, “Thank you, for everything, Rin… I… Well… Thank you…”

The two simply stood quietly and stared at each other for several minutes…

Then Rin declared, “I have something I need to do…” both were quiet for a few moments before Rin softly added, “Alone…”

Tobias simply nodded before saying, “Good luck…”

The duo then silently headed off in different directions.

Both of them had their own objectives and goals to complete… their own separate paths to follow.

They both knew that this moment wouldn’t be the final time they saw each other… But, neither had any idea when, or where, they might meet again.