In a relatively short timeframe, we arrived at the world tree. Proceeded to collect the easily collectable fruit and left without trouble.

The details of the encounter were trivial and insignificant.

It was nice to simply spend time with Rin without worrying about the future.

After deciding to stay behind, a weight had been lifted off my chest.

I simply didn’t need to worry about surviving the later Hell Difficulty zones or the problems that will occur when the protective system collapsed…

Monstrosities created by corroded mana would cause trouble when the zones collapse, but Rin and the others could handle it.

If they failed, Rin would reload and it wouldn’t be my problem anymore.

Some might consider my actions to be giving up, but I would help if they asked for it.

Personally, I felt it was more like understand my own limitations.

My presence would distract Rin and that would be fatal to her in a deadly battle.

Judging my own capabilities, the harm cause by my presence is greater than the benefit.

Since that’s the case, I’ll leave saving the universe to those who are capable and I’ll worry about saving myself. If I cannot even save myself, what qualifications do I have to save the universe?

The monster races should also have their own backhand to prevent or avoid the destruction of the universe, otherwise they would’ve attempted to leave similar to the intelligent races.

Suddenly, I paused my thoughts and stopped mid-walk.

This wasn’t a random pause for no reason, though. My sudden pause was caused by the fact that Rin had also stopped walking in front of me.

Standing still ahead of me, Rin looked around with a focused gaze and a serious expression.

There was something dangerous around?

Usually, Rin didn’t bother to stop walking for anything. Most monsters were simply killed by her in passing if they dared to attack us.

“What is it?” I whispered extremely quietly, trying to figure out the situation without disturbing her.

The forest was relatively quiet. I didn’t feel the presence of any danger, nor did I notice any monsters in the vicinity.

Rin’s wolf ears flicking toward me, she quietly placed a finger to her mouth. “Shh…”

Falling silent, I listened to her request and examined the surroundings carefully.

The woods relatively normal in my eyes. There was also nothing moving the nearby plants within a fifty meter radius.

While I didn’t find anything suspicious, I trusted her warning over my own instincts.

My instincts tended to only warn me when there was unavoidable danger to my life. If the danger was unlikely to affect me or the danger would only cause harm indirectly, sometimes my instincts would stay completely silent.

“Duke.” Rin spoke aloud, turned her gaze in a specific direction to the left.

Hearing her words and following her gaze, I finally noticed a man walking toward us from within the forest. He was still a distance away, but his figure could be easily made out.

The man wore a brown outfit with various fancy jewels entwined. His muscles were buff and his gaze cold and arrogant.

Analyze!

{Duke Malian – High strength, abnormal conditions seem to have little affect on him.}

So he is actually Duke…

“I expected a higher level of professionalism from kidnappers than abandoning people to survive in a low-level planet’s poisonous forest.” Duke carried a makeshift spear and stopped walking toward us from a distance. His eyes were cold and his spear was sharp and refined with a metallic tip.

“Go away.” Rin coldly stated, stepping forward and drawing her sword.

Duke coldly laughed and stepped forward. “I think not.”

There was tension in the air and they were clearly ready to fight. Neither side was going to compromise.

Although I should probably stay out of it…

“What exactly are you fighting over?” I interrupted them, staring between the both of them with confusion.

I could understand Duke’s confusion, as he thought he was kidnapped… but why was Rin choosing to go fight with him?

My words seemed to cause the tension in the air to stall.

Duke turned his gaze toward me. He was seemingly wondering when and how I had appeared here.

“Stay out of this.” Rin raising her sword and keeping a close eye on Duke.

“Assassin type?” Duke turned toward me with a dangerous gaze.

Despite my internal protests, I decided to back up and avoid getting involved as Rin requested. Analyze did reveal that Duke’s strength was higher than mine…

However, a sneak attack could easily help at a critical moment.

Even if conditions like petrification have little influence on him, using it at the right time can end the fight.

“You’re in a group with her?” Duke frowned and seemed to reconsider the situation.

“Well, I am.” I nodded in agreement.

Starting a battle with a known assassin on the sideline is simply throwing away your life. It would only take a moment of carelessness or injury to lose your life. By admitting I’m in a group with Rin, the odds of fighting against us change dramatically.

While I cannot do much to help Rin, this is the least I can do.

“Tobias.” Rin glared toward me with anger, non-verbally indicating for me to shut up.

She wasn’t happy with my decision to get involved.

“Then… die.” Duke coldly replied and disappeared.

Duke immediately reappeared directly in front of me and punched forward, not bothering to utilize the spear in his hand.

My instincts allowed me to swiftly dodge the attack.

In the process of dodging, I removed god-hunter from my bag and slashing toward him in a single smooth motion.

If it had been before undergoing that trial on Mt. Tai, I would’ve been completely unable to adapt to the sudden fighting monument. His punch seemed to carry forward past his fist in a wave similar to an energy projectile damaging the woodland behind me. It was only my training on Mt. Tai taught me to instinctively avoid such projectiles.

Rin resolutely supported my attack by launching her own. Her attack was done in perfect coordination of my own, completely blocking Duke’s only escape path.

With Rin’s attack being perfectly on point, dodging both attacks would only be possible by moving into a completely prone position.

Yet, moving completely prone in an actual battle is the same as suicide. It’s almost impossible to get back up with an enemy beside you.

Knowing he could only dodge a single attack without putting his life-and-death in our hands, Duke resolutely chose to take Rin’s attack and moved to reduce the damage as best of his ability.

The blade tore through his back, a cutting through his left-lower back and causing severe damage to his back muscles. Whether it was good instinct or fear of the unknown, Duke resolutely avoided my own attack with God-hunter that would only hit the arm and chose to take Rin’s blade.

I backed up and activating my ability to go unnoticed, retreating from the battle.

There was no possibility of a severely injured Duke causing Rin trouble when she could beat him before.

Thus, my best option was remove myself from the battle.

The potential threat of an assassin on the sidelines required constant attention. That by itself has a greater effect on the battle than my personal threat and attacks toward him.

Don’t look at our perfect coordination for that attack, it’s not that simple to injury anyone in Hell Difficulty. Duke had moved into a risky position to try to kill me in a single strike. It was only with that bad position and Rin’s perfect timing that he was injured.

An assassin on the sidelines is extremely deadly in any battle. Duke had been attempting to directly prevent that situation by targeting me, but now his attempt has failed.

The sudden disappearance and reappearance at the start of battle was similar to teleportation.

It only took a second to realize that Duke’s shoes were identical to my own. I don’t know how Duke collected the shoes of teleportation, but their appearance explained the sudden teleportation.

The two were engaged in constantly attacks.

Duke had taken to utilize his makeshift spear to keep her at a distance.

Judging by the situation… Rin was the weaker party in this confrontation despite Duke’s heavy injury.

Although Rin was dodging all his attacks, Duke had far greater physical strength and plenty of experience in combat. Rin was barely able to launch any attacks herself.

This stalemate caused to me to be extremely surprised.

The injury on Duke’s back slowed him down dramatically, yet he could still battle Rin to a stalemate with an advantage on his side. I’d thought that Rin would be at an advantage in this battle due to defeating him before.

Rin’s combat knowledge and capabilities were clearly above Duke… but Duke had the complete advantage in physical attributes. Rin simply hadn’t had enough to recover her physique.

Despite my surprise, I reacted immediately.

I waited for an opportunity while slowly taking control of the nearby tree’s roots.

Since Duke had attacked us, there could be no reconciliation.

Only when you were in a position of absolute power were you qualified to spare an opponent. There could be no hesitation in live combat or it would result in death.

Additionally, the risk of leaving an enemy in Hell Difficulty alive was too high. If he had launched a sneak attack on us with teleportation instead of arrogantly walking up to us, we might’ve died.

An enemy like Duke needed to be dealt with permanently.

Trying to give the perfect timing for Rin to attack, I quickly launched my petrifying gaze and utilized the roots to block his escape path.

My petrifying gaze only caused him to temporarily stiffen, and Duke quickly reacted to the change by dodging. At that time, I utilized the nearby tree roots to completely block his foot movements.

Even if he could easily tear through the roots, Duke was still caught off guard by the sudden roots entangling his feet and in a close battle with a combat genius like Rin such a opportunity was deadly.  

Moved forward, Rin immediately ended the battle by cutting through his throat.

The usage of plants to restrict his movements reminded me of the person who utilized plants to harass me in the Decima game. It could be said that I’d learned from personal experience the correct method of dealing with physical powerful people from that interaction.

…and that method had worked to great effect.

The sudden ambush had resulted in fatal injury.

Throat pouring blood, Duke collapsed to the ground with his eyes wide in shock.

His dying expression was one of astonishment, it was as if Duke couldn’t believe that Rin dared to kill him… which probably wasn’t far from the truth.

Duke had been completely convinced Rin kidnapped him and he was a noble in his universe. His background wasn’t weak. Unless someone was completely desperate and wanted to die with him, nobody in his universe would dare to kill him.

A kidnapper would only dare to ask for benefits. Killing him was completely off the table. Doing so would be against their own interests and this was his capital to be arrogant.

Unfortunately, Duke had miscalculated.

It is true that, under normal circumstances, Rin would choose to leave him alive. She might even attempt to have him realize the misunderstanding.

After all, Duke’s ability to reduce the influence of abnormal conditions to a minimum completely prevented the conventional ways of avoiding combat (like poisoning and mental attacks).

It was particularly useful in dealing with monsters in later stages. Even if only to use him as cannon fodder in the later zone… Duke is extremely valuable.

Additionally, Duke wasn’t easy to kill.

Duke was a master of combat in his own right and could only be in a relatively fair battle.

…but Duke attempted to kill me.

Rin always been particularly bloodthirsty toward those who attack me.

To be honest, I felt sad about his death.

It was a complete waste for him to die in this fashion.

Whilst his character was bad and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him, his life was particular valuable due to his ability to avoid abnormal conditions.

Unfortunately, Duke’s arrogance lead to him overestimating his value and underestimating his own strength.

The last time Duke was defeated by Rin, he must’ve gone off exploring in the forest and found the boots of teleportation.

Duke likely planned to use the artifact as a hole card to win against Rin, but ended up wasting it in an attempt to kill me. He likely felt confident in his ability to deal with Rin on her own, or felt capable of escaping upon dealing with me.

My own capability to dodge his sudden ambush and counteract likely never crossed his mind.

A severe injury to his back was the result.

My survival and his sudden injury completely prevented him from escaping the battle.

Daring to turn around and run whilst an assassin is around is simply asking to death… His back injury was also slowing him down enough that Rin could easily outperform him in an endurance race.

All that meant escaping was impossible for him.

His only choice was to deal with Rin while remaining alert for my sneak attack.

Duke probably would’ve never considered that I would have the ability to temporarily petrify him and harass him with the tree roots at his feet and that lead to his death.