POV – Tobias

[Day 251… Several hours of fighting later.]

I don’t remember what wave we’re on. Probably around thirty, we’re now fighting a combination of steel, stone, and iron golems…

I’m glad that I hadn’t attempted to do this alone… Seriously, I don’t have enough experience fighting multiple enemies… and apparently golems (because they aren’t living beings) can completely ignore my ability (The Unnoticed).

God-hunter has begun crying again, which apparently Stanley and Tracy can’t hear (or at least they haven’t mentioned it). I’ve have been simply dealing with it… Since there’s nothing I can do to stop God-hunter for the time being.

I began fighting when the number of iron golems reached the limit that Stanley and Tracy could easily handle. But, recently… Stanley and Tracy were slowing down their golem slaughtering speed from a combination of exhaustion and tougher golems. Meaning I’ve been forced to step up and fight to speed up the pace.

Fortunately, God-hunter is extraordinarily sharp and cuts through the golems like a hot knife through butter.

Meanwhile we realized that the waves wouldn’t be ending anytime soon and Stanley needed to rest. Stanley had become too exhausted to continue and was forced to begin resting. Meaning Tracy needed to protect him whilst he recovers.

 Which slowed down our pace even further... Running out of options, we attempted to simply leave the last golem alive to provide some resting time.

Then, we discovered there is a time limit on how long you can drag out the wave.

Apparently, around ten minutes after the previous wave begun the next wave spawns... regardless of whether you had actually finished the previous one.

What is even going on here? How long is this supposed to take? This seems too difficult, even for a Hell Difficulty temple… at least, it seems too difficult for the second zone of Hell Difficulty.

Is there some trick to it that I’m missing? Like a puzzle or something?

Owww… I was slightly too late in dodging an iron golem punch and was knocked to the floor…

Tobias, you moron… don’t go into mental tangents in a combat situation.

Rolling sideways to dodge another strike from a different golem I refocused on the battle.

Instantaneously, I decided I had enough… Simply attempting to dodge will no longer work.

Before, I had been simply defaulting to my strategy when fighting with Rin, which was trying to dodge every strike and counter-attacking when I had the opportunity… Which happens to be extremely efficient and effective on singular opponents. With twenty to thirty different golems surrounding me through, I simply can’t dodge every strike… nor find enough opportunities to effectively reduce their numbers.

Thus, I’m changing my strategy. Whilst avoiding any strike to my head, I’ll simply kill as many as possible. As long as my head isn’t completely destroyed, my inheritance manual should be able to recover from the rest of the injuries.

Standing back up, I charged forward and ignored the golem’s attacks and slashed at its body with God-hunter. Not bothering to watch it crumble, I charged toward the next golem.

Ignoring God-hunter’s crying. Ignoring the pain from the hits I was taking. Ignoring everything in a frenzy to fight and kill these damnable golems.

POV Swap – Stanley

What the hell? What kind of place is this?

I’m down to around 25% of the mana reserve that I had when I entered... and they're showing no sign of stopping.

Three hours! Three whole hours and they’re still coming… I’m exhausted, Tracy’s exhausted (which I didn’t think was possible), and Tobias seems to have gone crazy over there... he’s killing a lot more now though… and attracting more of the attention from the golems, which is allowing me to catch my breath.

Even if I wasn’t exhausted and running on fumes, this is quickly getting out of hand. Tracy’s daggers are starting to dull from constantly clashing against metal and the mana I have left will only last a few hundred more shots.

Golems don't provide enough mana to compensate for the amount of mana needed to kill them. Normally, I would use lower powered shots and target weak-points, like eyes or the mouth, which makes killing things with Scarlet far more efficient.

... But, that isn't the main problem. The main problem is the waves are taking larger and larger, yet we aren’t getting more time to deal with them… Always ten minutes… If we slow down our pace and we’ll end up in a vicious cycle of having to deal with multiple waves at once, eventually the waves will continuously build up and it won’t be pretty.

Narrator? Want to provide some help? Anything is fine… Really, we might actually die at this rate? Guess not… how unreliable… mumbling to myself, “Whelp, I give up… I have no idea what to do…”

[Stanley, having given up, was teleported to the exit of the temple in a flash of light…]

"What? Wait!" Stanley protested, but was ignored and a blinding light appeared taking Stanley away from the arena.

POV Swap – Tobias

Continuing onward for what felt like hours, I slashed golem after golem… Dodged various fatal strikes and ignored the pain and protests my body was shouting at me, until I was finally alone in the room.

God-hunter had actually stopped crying awhile ago. I was sort of in a frenzy before… so I don't exactly remember, but I think she gave up crying awhile ago.

Lying down on the floor to provide my body some much needed rest. Although I was used to being beaten up by Rin… This was a completely different experience, they didn’t targeted my vitals continuously and didn't pull their punches when I made a mistake… Actually, I suppose they didn’t pull their punches at all.

Still, they had become predictable after awhile… Punch forward, side kick. Retreat to let another golem punch. All their moves were identical, regardless of their body type.

Wait… Alone? Sitting upward, I looked about the arena… Where are Stanley and Tracy? They shouldn’t have abandoned me, at least not considering their character…

Did… Did I accidentally kill them? Is that why God-hunter stopped crying?

That seems… somewhat unlikely given the nature of their powers; I suppose it’s possible though… But, in that case, their bodies should still be here... and I don't see them.

Glancing about to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, I noticed a gate had opened up.

Except, nothing had come out of it… Is that the exit then?

Cautiously stepping forward under the gate, I gazed over the room. If this is the exit, it should have an artifact. Considering how annoying this place was… If it isn’t the notebook, the artifact should still be relatively powerful.

I relaxed slightly as I spotted some artifacts on podiums. There shouldn’t be many traps here… Unless, the people who made this place are evil... There are probably traps aren’t there?

Gah, I’ll burn that bridge if I get to it. For now, I need to focus on obtaining the artifacts… Although, there it seems there are some empty podiums as well… Did Stanley and Tracy already pass through here? Possibly…

Noticing a notebook, which is likely the one I’m searching for, I approach its podium. I reached for only to run into a magical force field. A quick search and I discovered a place to plant my palm, similar to the one on the heritage.

… I hope it doesn’t involve a needle this time. Sighing to myself… I placed my left-hand palm on podium. A system message soon appeared.

<Current number of Artifact Points: 50>

<Acquire ‘Notebook Lost in Time”?>

<Cost: 25 Artifact Points>

<Confirm / Deny >

Artifact points? That’s different and I have fifty of them... Does it have something to do with the number of waves? Does that mean you theoretically you could choose to do more? Ehh… I’m barely holding it together as it is. I don’t think I could handle any more.

For now, I decided to deny… I’d like to at least know what the other artifacts are called before making a decision.

After searching through the remaining fifteen artifacts, only two others caught my attention.

<Acquire ‘Recharging Canteen of Spiritual Recovery’?>

<Cost: 50 Artifact Points>

It would be a bet about how effective it… but, it might be able to restore my missing memories… Even if it only has limited effect on my memory, items that heal the soul are extraordinarily rare.

It could be extremely useful, especially considering spiritual attacks are Rin weakness… and if it recharges it might end up being useful in the next zone where water relatively rare.

The other artifact that caught my eye would be…

<Acquire ‘Water Pistol’?>

<Cost: 30 Artifact Points>

Don’t let the name deceive you... This isn't a water pistol that squirts out a tiny bit of water. Instead, it seems to be similar to Stanley's gun, Scarlet, in that it shoots out mana bullets (presumably of the water element).  Meaning it could compensate for my ranged weakness, which could be useful considering my current range is limited to melee.

In fact, if I knew for sure that I could do more waves, I might simply acquire this. Then, I could (likely) survive more waves to obtain more Artifact Points…

Well… I have no idea if I can actually go through more waves, so it’s not something I’m going to choose lightly.

Honestly, I’m currently extremely tempted to acquire the Canteen of Spiritual Recovery. I personally have a burning hatred for the gaps in my memories… before, I was simply attempting to ignore my memory loss because there was simply nothing I could do about it…

The water pistol might be useful… but, I can find another way to compensate my weakness in ranged attacks. So, compared to the Notebook and Canteen its use is relatively limited.

The notebook is probably completely unique though. Comparatively, I might be able another item to recover my soul’s damage… But, there isn’t any guarantee that the notebook will work like I believe it should…

GAH, I don’t know. Maybe, I should flip a coin or something… Actually, I don’t have any coins…

The main problem I’m having is that all these items are mutually exclusive… if I get one, I cannot get any of the others (due to not having enough points).

Sure, there are other items in this temple that I could acquire with those points, but… none of them really stood out as particularly useful.

Well, someone valued the Canteen at fifty Artifact Points… and the currency will (probably) become useless afterward, it might be best to simply acquire the most expense one. I also really like the possibility of recovering my memories if possible…

The notebook would be extremely useful in acquiring new information, and would be a requirement if I was (or planned to become) hostile with Rin. Truthful though, I’m not hostile with Rin… nor do I ever plan to become hostile with her. Meaning its use is rather limited...

In fact, I’m extraordinarily grateful toward Rin, she has already saved my life at least once. While, I might not consider myself to be a particularly compassionate person, but I am someone who repays their debts.

… and it’s possible that obtaining the ‘Recharging Canteen of Spiritual Recovery’ could allow me to that, at least partially.

If Rin gets spiritually injured and I choose the ‘Notebook Lost in Time’, I would end up being extremely regretful that I hadn't chosen the Canteen…

But, even if Rin doesn’t get spiritually injured… even if I choose the Canteen, I wouldn’t have any regrets… I suppose that makes this choice simple.

<Acquire ‘Recharging Canteen of Spiritual Recovery’?>

<Cost: 50 Artifact Points>

<Confirm / Deny>

After confirming the purchase, the force field disappeared and another system message popped up.

<Item: ‘Recharging Canteen of Spiritual Recovery’ Acquired: This constantly refilling Canteen contains spiritually healing water.

Although its recovery effect isn’t particularly powerful, it can heal even severe damage to the soul with continuous use.

Refills enough water to return to being full once per day>

Well, that… isn’t exactly ideal, but I suppose slowly repairing my soul is better than never repairing it. I was hoping for a quick recovery effect in the short run, with a longer time recharge... but, well it's fine.

Now, I need to figure out a way to leave this temple… I’m extremely hungry from all that fighting and need to replenish the calories that my body consumed for recovering… I should also kill something to feed God-hunter… even if she stopped crying, she’s probably still hungry.