POV - Tobias

I’ve managed to track Sidney to a cave.

I don’t know what she’s thinking. This isn’t even in the direction of the village.

As I prepared to enter it, a shiver went down my spine. Something dangerous is in here.

Two dangerous encounters in one day?

How am I this unlucky? This is supposed to be Easy Difficulty!

Sidney, what have you gotten involved in?

If it’s dangerous for me, she’s certainly in even more danger. Damn it. Fine. I hope you appreciate this.

Rushing in the cave after her. Hopefully, if I do this quickly, I can avoid whatever is dangerous in here.

The passage had torches lining the walls, along with fancy looking structural supports. Reaching a door, I stopped.

The door seemed normal except, instead of paint, there was some kind of enchanted flame illusion swaying back and forth.

Considering I didn’t see another passageway or door, Sidney must have entered here.

Feeling the door, it wasn’t warm. Good enough for me.

Opening it, I saw Sidney slowly reaching toward a wristband.

“Stop!” Yelling after her, but she didn’t. She seemed to be affected by some kind of spell or illusion.

Damn it. Although I’m unsure what it is, every part of this room screams danger.

As she was within inches of touching the wristband, I realized I didn’t have a choice. Despite my hesitations, I rushed in after her.

I would definitely regret letting her die and, considering Rin dislikes her, I can’t exactly count on Rin being willing to save her if she dies.

Just before Sidney could touch the wristband, I grabbed ahold of her arm. Pulled it away, I sighed in relief.

Sidney seems to have woken up from whatever spell was affecting her.

Without waiting for her to reorient herself, I tossed her toward the exit.

Unfortunately, It seems I was too slow.

<Necklace of the prophesied one detected…>

<Protective Barrier created>

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

Sidney ended up being slamming into the barrier.

Before falling to the floor, clearly knocked out from the collision with the barrier.

Wincing from the thud, I suddenly felt bad. Although I was trying to save her, that probably hurt.

Glancing back around the room. The room had various illusionary flames surrounding the walls, a pedestal with writing in the center of the room held the wristband.

Slowly, the feeling of danger faded away. Still, I understood the predicament I was in.

The prophecy and mad craftsman again.

How is that even possible? This is Easy Difficulty! Why would he place something here?

Checking the wristband to be sure. The wristband seemed to be made of some leather material, but the inscription on the inside was clearly of a sleeping fox.

Definitely the mad craftsman’s work.

At this point, If it wasn’t so damn useful in preventing soul based attacks, I would have thrown the necklace away.

I’m, once again, trapped in an interplanetary defensive barrier with an item from the mad craftsman...

I can put up with this situation happening once, but multiple times?

Why does it matter? It worked out last time.

Finally awake? Still, I suppose that is true. Last time I obtained you.

However, that doesn’t exactly change how dangerous his equipment is. Especially considering I don’t have any knowledge on this wristband.

You have a potential test subject trapped inside here with you. That should provide some information about the artifact.

We aren’t using Sidney as a test subject. That would completely negate the entire point of coming in here to save her.

Suit yourself. I was merely providing a suggestion.

No, it’s fine. Simply put, leaving her alive is more valuable.

She was trapped under some kind of illusion or spell before. It’s possible she obtained some useful information regarding the wristband.

Also, in the worst case scenario, Sidney can head back to inform Rin that I’m dead.

After picking up the wristband, the barrier should dissipate. Meaning regardless of whether I live through the process, the barrier will disappear and Sidney should be freed.

For now, we wait for Sidney to wake up.

If she ever wakes up, you used too much strength when you threw her.

Err… right, I should probably check she’s still alive first.

POV Swap – Stanley

Stanley spent a period of time checking various talents. Most talents he considered were too expensive for him.

For awhile, Stanley was in a situation where he was paralyzed by the sheer amount of options. Anything he chose could theoretically have a better option or a more suitable choice.

Thus, to pass the time, Stanley began talking with Schrödinger.

Schrödinger informed Stanley about the past civilization that existed before he arrived. Specifically mentioning the various groups that existed along with their power struggles and his opinion on them.

More importantly, Stanley managed have a discussion about monsters and their various abilities.

This was extremely beneficial for two reasons.

First, learning about monsters means learning their strengths, limitations, and weaknesses.

Second, and more relevant to the current situation, learning about monster’s abilities provided ideas to choose from. From these various abilities, Stanley considered the various benefits and demerits of each and eventually chose two.

<Acquire talent ‘Gambler’s Defense’>

<Cost: 3 Decima Game Points>

<Confirmed…>

…

<Talent: Gambler’s Defense acquired.>

Gambler’s Defense, a toggleable talent that created a defense field surrounding the user. The defensive field reductions the speed, and thus power, of anything entering it.

It’s only cheap because the strength of the defensive field is entire dependent on luck. Gambler’s Defense is far more likely to provide a weak field than a stronger one.

For Stanley, however, luck isn’t exactly a problem. The Narrator can ensure the talent functions at optimal efficiency consistently.

The other choice Stanley made was…

<Acquire talent ‘Clone’>

<Cost: 6 Decima Game Points>

<Confirmed…>

…

<Talent: Clone acquired.>

‘Clone’ essentially creates a clone of Stanley with all his items to complete a task. After it accomplished its task, it will dissipate (along with the duplicated items).

More importantly, the clone exists indefinitely. There are only three circumstances where the clone will dissipate.

One, the task is finished.

Two, the task becomes impossible in the clone’s perception.

Three, the clone dies.

Beside these circumstances, the clone cannot be dispelled.

There are several downsides to this talent.

First, the task cannot be changed after creation.

Second, another clone cannot be created until the current one dissipates.

Third, the clone cannot be dissipated unless one of the three dissipating criteria above are met. This effectively means even if the task is no longer relevant and Stanley needs another clone, he cannot dispel it without physically finding his clone and killing it.

The clone is not an exact duplicate of Stanley. It’s essentially a machine, a complicated machine with an AI running it. However, it is still a machine.

For testing purposes, Stanley creating a clone with the task, {Activate Gambler’s Defense and stand still for ten minutes}.

When the clone in front of Stanley, it immediately activated Gambler’s Defense.

Spending some time testing various theories, Stanley learned how it worked. If something entered defensive field the moving at a normal speed, the field wouldn’t affect it.

However, when something entered beyond a certain speed, the field would reduce its speed and, thus power, by an amount.

Shooting a bullet at the clone. The bullet flew toward the clones head, until it began to slowed and fell to the floor harmlessly. The speed was reduced to an amount that it couldn't continue moving forward with gravity affecting it.

Satisfied with the test, Stanley activated Gambler’s Defense himself.

Attempting to shoot in a random direction, the bullet only managed to fly several feet before falling to the floor.

Since the same slowing effect occurred when he attacked from inside the field he would need to deploy it strategically.

For the time being, Stanley decided to simply leave the field active.

Gambler’s Defense doesn’t influence his normal movement and can be left on indefinitely as a permanent defensive measure, at least until he needed to attack something.

Remembering the doppelgangers around the area, Stanley deciding to ask Schrödinger about it when he returned.

At the moment, Schrödinger was apparently updating the system with various packages.

The system reset and lack of AI oversight had caused several glitches and problems to occur. Thus, while Stanley was deciding on his power, Schrödinger was busy fixing the problems that had occurred and restoring the features broke.

POV Swap – Tobias

Good news, everyone!

Sidney is still breathing.

Yeah, barely. Were you trying to murder her?

Ignoring God-hunter, I continued.

The bad news is she is constantly bleeding from the back of her head and probably has a mild concussion.

She… probably won’t be waking up anytime soon.

This probably isn't the best time to be practicing this, but I’m going to attempt to use healing magic to prevent further bleeding.

Willed my mana to heal it, I imagined her broken skin healing.

Immediately, I spotted Sidney’s head wound healing.

There were no bright light, nor any fancy effects. The wound just suddenly disappeared.

Checking my mana, I frowned.

That spell alone had wasted 40% of my mana, that’s more than 4,000 defensive wards. I knew it would be expensive, due to my lack of proper mana control and inexperience casting spells… but that’s utterly insane.

The effect wasn’t even that prominent, nor useful. I only stopped the bleeding, not the potential concussion. Sidney hasn’t even woken up.

Too wasteful. The vast majority of that mana was probably wasted.

If I was able to practiced with a small mana pool, I would’ve learned how to avoid such wastage.

Even still, 40% for a minor effect? I would probably have to kill around 60 monsters similar to the Terrabus that I had petrified earlier to recover that much.

Considering that it is unrealistic to find such dangerous monsters on a regular basis, meaning I would probably have to kill a couple thousand regular monsters here to recover it.

That is a massive waste.

I’m going to completely avoid casting spells from now on. Wards are the way to go.

Considering she hadn’t woken up, it seems the plan of having Sidney inform Rin has failed.

Hmmm, well… Rin should track me down if I take too long.

If she finds me dead, she should reload. The only problem is the potentially lost information in the process.

I would have liked to inform her that this place was related to the mad craftsman. Unfortunately, we can’t read each other’s writing.

Sound cannot pass through the barrier. Thus, even if I waited until Rin was outside, it would be pointless.

Staring at the leather wristband, I sighed to myself.

At this point, I somewhat hope this prophecy is real (and about me). As that might allow me to collect this item safely.

I don’t know what else to say beyond that. Let’s just get this over and done with.

Either I die and no longer have to think about it, or I live and no longer have to worry about it. Whether I live or die, it will no longer be my problem.

Picking up the wristband… nothing happened? That was rather anticlimactic.

Checking the door, the barrier was still there.

Do I have to put it on?

When I placed it around my left wrist, the illusionary flames on the walls of the room suddenly went out.

Okay, that's creepy.

Checking the barrier, it had disappeared.

With the exit open, I felt able to relax.

Well, you seem to be alive? That’s good news.

Yea, that is definitely good news. Perhaps this item was made before the mad craftsman went completely insane?

It was in Easy Difficulty.

True, they probably wouldn’t put anything too dangerous here. Well, even so, I don’t want to continue wearing it until I know its effect.

I’ll come back here with Rin. She’ll be able to understand the writing. If it has a decent effect, I’ll put it back on.

Attempting to slide it off, I immediately discover a problem. Although the wristband slid on easily, it wouldn’t slide back off my wrist. Instead it stayed firmly attached to my skin.

Cursed equipment? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. What is this an RPG?

Since I couldn't take it off my wrist, I stopped trying.

If the inability to take it off is this wristband's worst characteristic, I can live with that.

Picking up the unconscious Sidney, I began heading back toward Rin.