POV – Tobias

[Day 201]

Yesterday, I finally finished training with Rin… I already miss it.

Honestly, if I had chosen to, I probably could have ended our training earlier. I had learned enough to forcefully attack Rin at the cost of receiving a wound weeks ago.

Also, I could have easily ended training if I had decided to utilize my unperceivable active… however, as it reached the end of the training battling with Rin was satisfying.

It was actually extremely satisfying to finally be able to fight (somewhat) equally with Rin. I described her as being near unparalleled in close combat due to having many life-death experiences.

Granted, I’m still probably the weakest among the people in Hell difficulty. The difference is if any of them wanted to kill me, instead of being near helpless, I probably could escape.

I don’t exactly know why Rin decided to part from me… but, considering it's Rin she probably had some important reason.

Rin and I have this sort of unspoken deal. I don’t mention the various odd things she does, and in return, Rin uses the information she learned, from her time travel shenanigans, to benefit both of us. Examples of this are Rin detoxifying food, discovering that valley with the heritage, or several other odd things a typical person would have questioned.

I mean, considering, I already know how she obtained the information (via time travel shenanigans)… so most of the time, this arrangement works out fine.

Sometimes though, our silent agreement causes some trouble… As it means that I cannot inquire about her decisions.

I mean, Rin probably would be willing to tell me… But, that path leads to another rabbit hole full of troubles. Including, why I’m only curious about it this time...

It’s fine, I suppose… I have something that I have been wanting to check out anyway.

Before, when I pondering places to collect artifacts or relics, I only considered places that actually appeared in the novel.

There were plenty of temples and places that I considered creating. But, never actually made it into the final novel, for various reasons…

Still, I was wondering if any of those places actually exist… Of course, this only works on several assumptions… But, if they do exist… I would know where to find a few of them.

They wouldn't contain particularly useful items though… but, if they do exist that is important information.

The easiest one to find simply requires me to head in the direction of the setting sun until I reach a stream, then… I simply need to follow it upstream to reach the temple.

Now, unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how far away that might be.

I don’t really have anything else to do though…

I would choose one closer, but… I don’t want to consume time to carefully search over specific regions for something that might not exist.

This provides me with a general direction to head, meaning I might find other temples along the way. It also doesn't interfere too much with my previous plan of hunting monsters.

Still, I’m kind of impressed with my own growth. I might still be the weakest here (after all I’m a normal person). Now though, despite being a normal person I have the capabilities to survive in this Hell zone on my own without having to rely on Rin.

<Ability: The Unnoticed Active: become unperceivable for 0.5 seconds, Cooldown 24 hours, Passive: goes unnoticed unless specifically looked for by most living things. [Rank 8, 30%] >

<Basilisk’s Inheritance; Level 3, 76%– Basic stats strengthened, improved regenerative ability, sturdy translucent scales developed, Secondary ability added Petrifying Eyes & Basilisk’s blood>

<Petrifying Eyes; Permanently petrify a creature in sight turning them to stone. Cooldown: 3 days>

I mean, at least I consider my growth impressive… But, I don’t really have anyone normal to compare with… making it kind of problematic to judge accurately.

Still, I’m able to fight with Rin head-on. That should mean that I will be able to absolutely crush anyone in the other difficulty zone if they don’t use their own abilities.

Which, admittedly, doesn’t mean much. As anyone sane would certainly use their own abilities to maximum effect in a life and death fight.

Doesn’t exactly bode well for me though… As if I'm already in a fight, my ability has already failed. It becomes even harder considering the random nature of people’s abilities... It’s simply far safer to keep a distance from people that weren’t directly mentioned in my story (an extremely long distance).

POV Swap – Rin

Rin was currently walking along a meticulously planned route. Whilst training Tobias, she had spent the last several weeks planning in her head the optimal route. It should allow her to fight the majority of powerful monsters whilst simultaneously obtaining most useful items in the zone (in the least amount of time).

Still, Rin was pleased with Tobias progress. At least, she no longer needed to worry about him dying randomly with his current level of skill.

Rin’s original plan to take him with her to go hunting, but that plan was forced to change for several reasons.

First, for Tobias to grow further he needs to continue to experience new situations on his own. Otherwise, he might become overly dependent on others to solve difficulties he comes across.

Second, and far more importantly, Rin recalled that certain temples had requirement that meant they had to be completed alone to obtain the items she requires within them.

Thus, taking Tobias with her would be simply be wasting both of their time.

Also… Rin didn’t want Tobias to know that she wasn't serious when fighting him, as Rin was busy thinking about how to plan her route. Tobias seemed so ecstatic to be dodging her attacks. Especially, near the end of their training when he was able to consistently dodge her attacks…

Anyway… it’s simply better this way. When she meets Tobias later, Rin can simply state she has improved.

POV Swap – Tobias

[Day 204, several days later…]

Well, I found a stream… not exactly confident that it is the stream, that I'm  searching for. Let's see if it leads to a temple though...

In fact, even if it does that leads to another bunch of problems… But… I’ll worry about that if it actually exists.

[Day 207]

After following the river for three more days. I reached what remotely resembles a stone building.

I suppose, this means that it does exist… this particular temple shouldn’t be trapped. Still… caution happens to be worth way more than gold in Hell difficulty.

Thus, I carefully observed the inside of the temple through the doorway.

Rather than a temple, this place looks more like a boss room in a video game.

The room was mostly empty with a red carpet leading to the middle of the room. I would have thought it was a boss room, except for the fact that there was no boss.

Instead, in the center of the room lay a small dagger stabbed partly inside a stone.

Spotting no obvious traps I tensely stepped inside the room. Honestly, I’m not even thinking about taking the dagger. I left it out of the novel for a good reason.

Still, I need to see it closer to confirm it is actually the same as my story.

After stepping nearby to the stone, I simply stood near the dagger and gazed at it.

There was various writing written along the rock.

Stories, tales, warnings… mostly forgotten.

Not that I could read them… but, I knew what they were going to say.

They would warn me to leave this place. That attempting to use this dagger would only lead to my death.

They would explain the creation of this dagger and why it must never be used. They count the number of deaths it caused.

In an abandoned draft of my story, Rin would have come across this dagger.

She would have ignored the warnings. After all, this was Rin at a time when she still didn’t know she could die to spiritual attacks (attacks on the soul).

It would have taught her, and the readers, that she wasn’t invincible. Resulting in the loss of half of her soul in the process.

The reason I abandoned that draft because I realized that Rin shouldn’t be able to survive with only half of her soul… I didn’t want the soul to be consider simple enough that someone could be lacking half of it and still survive with the other half.

Thus, here we stand… alongside a dagger that can never be used.

Made by a madman, a master craftsman, someone that wanted to create a weapon that can use the abilities of its user and continue to grow more powerful alongside its user.

I suppose, in a way, he succeeded… And everyone at the time knew it.

The master craftsman succeeded. He even offered the weapon for free to anyone who could wield it.

If someone did manage to survive. The dagger would be have been bound to them and grow alongside them. Sadly, he never considered if anyone could survive the process of splitting a large portion of their soul (Spoiler: Nobody can).

Many tried... All of them failed.

Every single one that failed died... This piece alone earning the craftsman a name, the mad craftsman.

Still, at least this proves that some of my abandoned drafts and theories can be used to find items. Even, if this particular one is useless.

The dagger made with a black metal with various magical runes running along spine. It doesn’t even look that extraordinary, but I suppose that was part of the point. It was supposed to grow along its user.

Wait… is that a sleeping fox symbol on the bottom of the handle? It looks like the one on my necklace. Was my necklace made by the same madman who created this knife?

A shudder ran down my spine at that thought… If so... I’m lucky to even be alive wearing something from that madman. Then again… it did save my life.

A sudden feeling of danger appeared. It was coming from everywhere inside this building… all around me. I don’t know what is causing it, but at this point I’ve learned to trust my instincts.

I quickly rushed toward the exit… but, was blocked by a some sort of force field.

<Necklace of the prophesied one detected…>

<Protective Barrier created>

<The prophesied one will collect the knife before leaving…>

What? What! WHAT? Are you freaking crazy?! Which MORON gave that madman administrative access to the system?

Protective barrier is used in interplanetary defense! As in against monsters strong enough to destroy planets!

I DEFINITELY wrote that the system administrative codes were kept in the hands of the planetary leaders. NOBODY, I REPEAT, NOBODY should have had enough control to use it to create such a barrier! Even if it is a matter of planetary defense it would require like a council of several hundred people to approve, which should have almost never happened.

How? Who? Who is the idiot that gave the person known as the mad craftsman enough access to do something like this?

GAH! I repent… If I known it was the mad craftsman who made that heritage I never would have accepted it. I’m definitely NOT his damn prophesied one! Especially if it means dying to a his stupid knife…

I think I shouldn’t have come in here… Gah, okay… Damn… Think!

How do I get out of this situation? How do I survive this?

Right… Maybe, he forgot to put the barrier on the windows? First, double-check that there is really no way out of here.

[Several hours later]

Damn, stupid, crazy people… why are you insane enough to trap me here, but (somehow) sane enough seal off every single possible exit?

Even taking off my necklace does nothing to the barrier! Crap… I just finished training with Rin and, somehow, I find myself in a situation where I have no escape.

This is definitely fate coming to back to bite me. Here I was earlier bragging about how I could probably escape from anyone in Hell difficulty. Saying that I had the capabilities to survive nearly anything this area threw at me.

Damn it… I cannot count on Rin being willing to reload again, not when it might take her years to discover that I died here. Especially, after she explicitly trained me to survive.

No! I will not die here!

I can die, but not here.

Not to some madman… and especially not to some damn knife. I would rather starve to death.

Although, I won't be starving anytime soon. I still have a few weeks worth of food and water on me.

Actually… my necklace might be able to protect me from the spiritual attack of the knife that captures a portion of my soul?

No… presuming my necklace was made by the same madman who made the knife. That madman might have programmed it to allow the knife’s procedure through its defense.

WAIT! MY SOUL DEFENSE BOOK! Maybe, just maybe… if I could somehow learn from it… I could defend enough of my soul to survive the procedure.

But… I don’t know how to feel my soul.

I’ll figure it out then! It probably just involves some meditation or something.

First, I’ll read that entire book from start to finish. It is possible that something inside it could help me feel my soul…