The remaining time was spent relaxingly boring manner.

Due to the ongoing plan to reload, I didn’t feel particularly inclined to get involved in the challenges or improving my relationship the other people in this place.

It was mostly spent bickering with Kara about things that were entirely her fault. Whilst I managed to have the occasional pleasant discussion with Rin.

Besides occasional conversations, Rin mostly remained disengaged from our banter and took the attitude of an unrelated observer. It seemed as though Rin preferred to avoid getting involved unless we specifically included her in the conversation, or our squabbling became an annoyance to her.

When Kara finally left the archery range to participate in the next challenge mission, we were left alone.

“Time’s up, then?” I spoke in English to avoid the potential eavesdropping of others.

“Waiting longer can cause problems.” Rin stated, adjusting the bow in her hand and shooting another arrow toward the target.

I sighed, looking around the archery range for a final time. “Alright.”

Reloading was… risky.

To be honest, I’ve never confirmed that the time-shard allowed me to survive the backtracking of time. I might’ve been mistaken about the effects of the shard and simply vanish from existence, replaced by a younger version of myself.

I might also be mistaken in another manner... for example, the time-shard might be one-time use only. There are a million potential problems, but I will not let that stop me.

The only way to know for certain whether the time-shard can help me survive the backtracking of time is to test it, and the only way to test it is to take a risk.

I avoided telling Rin about my worries.

This was partially because I was 70-80% confident that the time-shard would work and partly because a younger version of myself would likely show up the time-shard failed… unlike the last time, where the time-shard or Gromrit’s barrier prevented the younger version of myself from existing.

Since the problem would be solved and a version of myself is likely to show up, there was little point in worrying her.

“Okay.” Rin stowed away the bow, grasp my hand and nodded.

A dizzy and nauseating sensation swelled within me before I could react, the sensation was familiar yet more intense than ever and sent me to my knees. It felt completely different than the previous time. During that situation, Rin and myself had appeared on the staircase without largely noticeable side-effects and only slight dizziness.

This time the nausea was completely terrible. It felt like I’d been on an upside-down spinning rollercoaster for hours.

I shut my eyes and covered them with my palms, blocking out the shifting surroundings.

The thought of throwing up appeared multiple times in my mind. I might’ve preferred if I had thrown up, the nausea might've disappeared at that point.

Sadly, I had no such luck. I had to deal with the sinking feeling in my stomach and the retching in my throat without the subsequent relief that came with throwing up.

When the increasingly nauseating sensations ended, I opened my eyes and examined the familiar surroundings.

Single wooden table in a kitchen area with a refrigerator. Stone tiles for a floor with two doors on either side.

The safe room in the tutorial.

I’d survived, apparently.

Rested against the stone-tile floor, I faced the ceiling and rest my palm against my overheated forehead. The nauseating sensation had merely stopped increasing. It still felt like I’d been thrown in a blender and spat out the other side.

My god, I never want to experience that again. That was a million times worse than I’d ever expected.

Staring absentmindedly at the ceiling and trying to calm my stomach, I quickly decided to stay put to calm my stomach and nausea before doing anything.

Does Rin also experience this nausea when reloading? I quickly denied the possibility.

Rin had never mentioned experiencing nausea as a byproduct of her ability. Additional, such an obvious defect and side-effect would’ve made it painful obvious when she was using it. I seriously doubted this debilitating nausea was something someone could simply ignore and continue fighting like normal with.

After closing my eyes to adjust, I ended up falling asleep on the spot. I felt significantly better when I’d awoken from my slumber on the stone floor. While the nauseating feeling hadn’t completely disappeared, I could at least move around without the nausea distracting my actions.

Standing up, I remember the last time I was here. Taking a moment to examine the mana in the surroundings, I quickly confirmed there was no danger from corrosive mana buildup. At the very least, the amount of corrosive mana in the environment was low enough to keep the environment stable.

Based on my own quick estimates, the amount of corrosive mana in the environment was only around 3-4%. It would take months at minimum to reach the situation of total collapse like last time.

With no immediate danger, I relaxed and began exploring the food in the fridge. There most recognizable food inside was the chocolate bars, the rest was a simple variety of snacks and food that were edible.

I had little need for food besides for enjoyment and entertainment purposes and none of the other foods had stuck out in my memory as particularly delicious. Thus, I ignored the more savory foods and reached only for the bars of chocolate and stuff them into my backpack’s pockets. At the same time, I check my supplies and was relieved that everything was in its normal position.

Whilst checking my supplies, though I noticed something strange about the time-shard. Notable that it was smaller than I remember it being. Before Rin had reload, the time-shard had been approximately the size of my thumb.

Now, the time-shard was barely the size of my pinky finger (in width). It didn’t seem to be getting smaller over time, though?

Does preventing time from affecting the person holding it use a certain amount of energy from the time-shard?

That isn’t good… that meant the time-shard would eventually run out of energy and disappear.

Judging by the current size, the time-shard is very likely to disappear completely if Rin reloads another time. When you combine that fact with the danger felt last time I dropped the time-shard… problems are bound to occur should the time-shard disappear.

Problems that I would prefer to avoid.

Taking out a chocolate bar and absentmindedly chewing on it, I opened the door to the exit into the forest. I quietly planned out my next move whilst looking out into the forest.

I wasn’t in a rush to exit the tutorial zone and I told Rin as much.

There were various hidden artifacts throughout the tutorial zone and dangerous beasts guarding useful treasures.

Based on my understanding, the basilisk was only a moderately powerful monster in the Hell Difficulty’s tutorial.

This 'tutorial' might be a hellscape with dangers at every turn. Especially, when moving outside of the immediate vicinity of the starting room.

However... despite those dangers, this place has various treasures that are almost impossible to find anywhere else. I never considered acquiring those treasures before, my own weakness and inexperience holding me back.

Both times I found myself back in the tutorial, I was more worried about surviving than accumulating treasures. This time, I warned Rin in advance that I planned on staying in the tutorial for a while.

Even finding a treasure similar to Rin’s sword would be a massive advantage.

Rin’s black sword was found in the tutorial zone and should be made out of the perratite alloy. That would be the alloy mentioned in my crafting books that is extremely durable, temperate resistant, and repels magic from affecting the blade.

A sword like that basically can accompanied Rin throughout her adventures without worrying about it breaking or having to find an upgrade. Such a valuable weapon is extremely useful and difficult to find, it would be a waste to skip the opportunity to find a good weapon.

Ahem… Excuse me?

My daughter coughed, her gentle voice resounded through my mind. I quickly switched gears upon remembering that she was here.

Not that I need another weapon, God-hunter! That was simply an example of a treasure from the tutorial. You’re a far superior weapon to anything I would find here.

You sure know how to make a girl feel special, Dad.

My daughter’s tone was unemotional and bland, clearly displaying her unimpressed nature with my flattery.

Anyway! In the tutorial zone, there should also be defensive treasure and useful trinkets. Although those type of treasures are likely to be scarce in comparison to weapons.

I doubt many of those treasures will be near the safe room. Anything valuable should at least a full day’s worth of walking in a single direction. I never explored too far in any particular direction beforehand, but the immediate surroundings do not have any obvious temples.

Staring off into the distance, I set my eyes upon the basilisk’s mountain in the North-East. I’d explored further in that direction and it was relatively safe. The main danger is obviously the basilisk on the mountain.

Obviously, the eastward direction has that pond with clams… or was that west? I thought carefully to myself whilst stroking my chin, trying to remember the specifics details without anything coming to mind.

After failing to remember the basic information about the other directions beside the obvious Basilisk Mountain to the North-East, my only remaining choice was to physically explore the surroundings.

Deciding to follow the wall and my instincts, I heading head to my right. While there were no obvious directions to a treasure, I had a vague feeling this was the direction I should head.

Anyway, all directions were the same. I only needed to head in a single direction for about a day’s worth of time to reach uncharted territory.

I walked along the wall to the east, eventually ended up in an extremely dense forest region with sharp inclines and declines. There were plants and foliage everywhere, slowing down the journey considerable.

Unlike the usually forest with trees more sparsely placed throughout the area, there were trees every several meters and in-between those trees were dense amount of foliage. Walking through this type of terrain without a machete or sharp weapon would be impossible.

The change in terrain also meant I noticed a lack of monster patterns lining the trees, which marked their own territory. The territories of each monster can easily be noticed in the regular forest, with a sparse populations of foliage and easily navigable terrain. I couldn't tell whether the markings had gotten more subtle, the monsters in this place didn't mark their territory, or whether there were less monsters in this territory.

If I had a weaker physique, I would have to utilize a rope to traverse all the hills and inclines in this area. In addition to the foliage that slowed down the journey, there was also the addition of the random accents and descents in the terrain. These random alterations of the terrain might not cause a problem to a larger monster, but to a regular-sized human like myself the hilly terrain made traversing this place plenty difficult.

Fortunately, it didn’t particularly matter.

While it took longer to traverse the forest terrain because of these inclinations and foliage, my unnoticed ability and physical strength meant the difficult to navigate terrain did little besides slow down my movements.

In fact, I preferred having such difficult terrain. I would’ve remembered traversing such terrain in the past. With no memory of encountering this difficult to navigate forest terrain, this was clearly new territory with the potential to have useful artifacts and treasures.