[Day 220: Four days after Tobias obtained God-hunter…]

POV Swap – Hansoo

It took Hansoo around a week of travel to reach his destination, a small temple. It stood above a stream, which continued onward for miles.

Hansoo strode forward at a steady pace toward the temple.

For Hansoo, this item is should be one of the easiest in this zone to obtain. 

The weapon isn’t particularly far away, doesn’t have extremely dangerous traps protecting it, and doesn’t contain random puzzles.

Out of the weapons that are able to harm monstrosities, this is by far the easiest to obtain.

Of course, this dagger has its own dangers. Compared with the benefits though, it is far better than anything else he could obtain.

Entering the temple Hansoo quickly discovered a problem. The dagger was gone…

Gazing around the temple… It was clear, someone had been living in this temple for a while.

It seems that they took the dagger with them when they left…

Nobody should have discovered this temple.

Frowning at this new development, Hansoo quickly considered how to react to this change.

If he left now, Hansoo would barely have enough time to acquire another weapon that could harm the monstrosity needed to hunt…

Going after whoever took the dagger has too many unknown variables and would be utterly pointless. Items inside temples are owner-less.

Now that the dagger is already gone, there are many problems with his current strategy, and he will have to re-plan everything... How annoying.

Beginning to reformulate plans in his head, Hansoo set off in another direction leaving the empty temple behind.

[Day 240, Around twenty days later…]

I’m so tired…

I finally found this temple. Well, it wasn’t actually that tough to find... but it took awhile.

Preparing enough food to restock my rations took at least a week. Traveling took another week. Discovering, that initially, I found wrong mountain took another few days. Then, I had to continue onward to find the correct one...

Altogether, the journey took almost a month and, unlike when I was training with Rin, every moment was boring. The journey seemed to take forever.

God-hunter… is the only thing that has kept me somewhat entertained during this journey, but it's also been exhausting to deal with…

It didn’t occur to me before, but… God-hunter launches a spiritual attack to feed on anything that touches it… that means God-hunter is far more dangerous and useful than I initially thought.

After all, that means that simply striking anything with God-hunter, causes both physical damage and spiritual damage to the being.

God-hunter has also mellowed out slightly and stopped attacking me whilst I hold it... Although, God-hunter still attacks anything else.

If I were to describe a slight problem with God-hunter… it’s that God-hunter’s is still crying are annoyingly.

Essentially, if I don’t feed it something every five to six hours it psychically cries into my head.

Nothing seems to be able to stop the crying noise... Regardless of my actual distance away from the dagger I can still hear it, at least as far as I was willing to test.

Covering my ears is utterly pointless as well... along with really everything else I've tried.

This has resulted in being awoken every night, around 4 am by God-hunter.

Then, after I'm forced awake, I have to go kill some random monster.

If I don’t kill something, the crying doesn’t stop… I haven’t had a single good night sleep since I obtained God-hunter.

I feel like a single parent with a constantly crying baby… I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired in my life...

All this results in me, standing here...

In front of a deadly temple, carved into the rock a mountain that is probably also poisonous or deadly in some way…

On a planet, which makes Hell itself seem like a holiday resort.

…slowly dying of sleep deprivation.

I, physically, cannot express how done I am with this situation.

*Sigh...* Whatever, let’s just get this over with.

Stepping forward I walked into dark cave shaped into a temple, it didn’t seem dangerous. At least, that’s what my instincts tell me.

*Click* Crap… A barrage of arrows shot out of a hidden hole in the cave wall.

I dodged the few I was able… But, I still pelted in the chest by the majority of the arrows.

That didn’t hurt? Gazing downward at my chest I quickly discovered that the arrows had harmless bounced off me.

Oh… Right, my transparent scales. I had completely forgotten about them, since they've never actually helped in combat before.

Most monsters in Hell difficulty simply dig right through them… In fact, beside now, I cannot actually remember a time they were useful.

Then again, I probably did lose a sizeable portion of my memories… so, take that fact with a grain of salt.

Anyway, I’m kind of surprised, normally only my inheritance’s regeneration is useful. I’m not about to start complaining about my scales finally doing something though.

They aren’t particularly weak. It's everything else in Hell difficulty that's exceptionally strong.

Strong to the point that Basilisk’s Scales are effectively useless… I suppose, in a way, that makes Basilisk’s scales weak…

Hell Difficulty isn’t going to get any easier, either… So, unless Basilisk’s Scales improve their durability at an exponential rate (as the inheritance level increases), they will probably always be useless.

I’ve gotten lost in another mental tangent again… Focus, potentially deadly temple ahead.

Refocusing on the dark tunnel, it seems more like a mining shaft with various unlit torching lining the walls.

Taking out the magic equivalent to lighter from my bag, I grabbed a torch from off the wall and lit it.

No, I don’t have a clue the technical details of the magical lighter. Inject mana and spits out blue colored flames. That’s the extent of my knowledge about how it.

I found this magical lighter whilst training with Rin, it saves a lot of hassle to make fire. Especially, since I cannot directly use magic anymore… (Hello, mental tangent. Nice, seeing you again.)

With a source of light, the cave shaft’s traps were readily visible.

Wow, someone has really trapped this place up. Almost every step has a different trigger mechanism. It’s actually quite impressive.

It's as if someone was challenged to put as many different traps in one corridor as possible. From a casual glance I can tell they’ve included mechanical, magical, and poisonous traps.

Though, considering there is no feeling of danger from any of them… Quantity over quality was probably the name of game for this place.

Gradually, I made my way through the traps. It didn’t take long before I reached the entrance to a lit open room.

If they weren’t from completely different universes, I would assume this room was intentionally designed to look like a Roman coliseum.

It even has a magically made blue sky, sun included.

But, this… doesn’t exactly seem like the place to find the notebook I was searching for.

Gazing around I found some writing on a tablet by the entrance.

Unfortunately, my ability to read the native language here is… sub-optimal, or also known as nonexistent.

If the notebook isn’t here, completing whatever challenge they set should still have some type of artifact.

The main problem with that plan is… I have no idea what the challenge is.

It’s probably written on that stone tablet… Suppose it’s the thought that counts, even if it’s unhelpful (due to lacking the ability to read their language).

Based on the fact this place seems to be a Roman coliseum. The challenge is probably related to fight challenge, possibly a specific monster.

Also… I’m slightly delaying. My instinct is screaming that danger is inside here, almost certain death kind of dangerous.

Which, considering that this level of danger doesn’t actually come up often, is extremely alarming.

I’m debating simply leaving.

If the notebook was definitely here, it might be worth the risk of confronting whatever is in there… But, if it isn’t…

I don’t have enough information to know if it is worth the risk.

Now, your probably wondering, ‘How could a notebook be worth fighting something that dangerous?’

I’m glad you asked! As you probably already know a normal notebook wouldn’t be worth specifically searching for.

This notebook (if it exists) is part of a concept I briefly considered, before abandoning. Unlike God-hunter, I gave up on the concept because it would have been too complicated to implement into the story.

The concept of the notebook was that it would never lose its writing. Simple, right?

Is that useful? Well, under normal circumstances I suppose it isn’t. However! If a time traveler, such as Rin exists, then (if it exists and works properly) it should keep anything written in the timeline they traveled from.

Imagine how useful that could be! I’d be able to learn from Rin's aborted timelines.

Even if it isn’t the same as keeping my full memories, I'd still have a chance to obtain future knowledge. Making it extraordinarily useful.

It would also mean I wouldn’t be entirely at Rin’s mercy.

That, in an emergency, I could potentially escape Rin’s pursuit if she turned hostile toward me.... Although, that would only be if she didn’t go back further than when I first acquired the notebook.

I seriously doubt that particular situation would ever occur... but that isn’t the point!

The point is that I could store information across timelines that could potentially save my life.

Imagine, if I had the notebook and I entered this coliseum and wrote down the details of the encounter.

If Rin happened to reload back to before I entered the coliseum, I would have a detailed description of what to expect in this coliseum and make an informed decision based on that information.

A priceless source of information. Information from an aborted future.

Currently, I don’t even know when Rin has reloaded to accomplish something.

If I have a reasonable chance of acquiring it I would definitely do so… But, considering the level of danger, I’m not about to lose my life over attempting to obtain it. At least, if I have a choice, I won't bet my life to obtain it.

That would defeat the entire purpose of obtaining it to begin with.

Instead of doing something reckless, such as rushing in to an area I believe has a potentially life-threatening hazard, I’ll simply go ask someone for help.

If I can receive anyone’s help my odds of survival, and obtaining the notebook, rise dramatically.

The people closest to my current location should be Stanley and Tracy.

They should both be traveling together. I’ll only need to convince Stanley to acquire Tracy’s help as well. Hopeful, they won’t take that long to find.

If everything has gone the same as my story, Stanley should have already acquired his magically engineered gun and along with several other artifacts along with Tracy.

Stanley isn’t exactly subtle, especially if he ends up fighting. That along with the amount of noise Stanley’s gun makes, means I should find them rather quickly.

POV Swap – Stanley

As it gradually became morning Stanley and Tracy were awakening. They had spent the previous night resting on a small hill that could see for miles in nearly all directions. Tracy had taken to sleeping on a small tree nearby, whilst Stanley had been resting in a small sleeping bag on the ground.

Stanley had just awoken when he hear the narrator's voice.

[Stanley decided to head westward, toward the tallest mountain in the area.]

Narrator… You know... I haven't decided to do that. I have been wanting toward that lake, in the far distance, for around a month now.

You know what I was going to do? Bathe. Rest. Eat.

Can't we simply leave traveling for later? For after I’ve relaxed for a bit?

[As Stanley began to mutter to himself in an incoherent manner, before realizing the futility of arguing with himself.]

[Had any psychiatrists seen Stanley at this moment they likely would have deemed Stanley insane.]

[If those figurative psychiatrists had read Stanley’s mind, they likely would have been shocked by the sheer magnitude of his stupidity and insanity.]

[This is because they would discover that Stanley seems to honestly believe that someone was narrating his life. That someone was choosing his every decision. In fact, anyone who could have read Stanley’s mind would soon realize that Stanley was completely and utterly insane.]

[Sadly, Stanley himself was blissfully unaware of the continual loss of his sanity that was occurring with each passing day.]

Wow, all that simply to insult me... Really narrator? Is that a part of your job description, or do you just enjoy messing with me?

Whatever, westward huh? This had better be important….

Sending a glance toward Tracy, Stanley informed her that they should begin heading westward soon.

Stanley had been traveling together with Tracy ever since she arrived in this zone.

Tracy stood up and seemingly teleported down from a large tree branch, her (seemingly) physics defying brown-hair swaying slightly.

Tracy could be described as a fairly attractive 26 year-old girl. Staring with her dark brown eyes to the west for a moment. Tracy beckoning Stanley to follow and jumped off the small hill they had previously set up camp.

They headed off in the westward direction, Tracy blurring into and out of existence as she rapidly disappeared into the distance using her ability.

Stanley lazily set off in the same direction; Tracy always seemed to be that energetic... She'll probably be back in a few minutes.